Harry Saunders

RT @RyanFedasiuk: This deep-dive by @DominoTheoryMag is the most comprehensive backgrounder I’ve seen on U.S.-China cooperation to curb the…

BREAKING: Former Xinjiang police officer (2014–2023) confirms that detentions and forced labor continue today. From 2023, officials detained Uyghurs who avoided forced labor or allegedly disobeyed state orders. 🧵 Zhang, the former police officer, says that under Ma Xingrui, Chen Quanguo's successor, visible repression campaigns were replaced with hidden coercion. Village committees have unilateral authority to order residents to accept labor transfers. Refusal triggers up to 15 days in detention. From 2023, authorities employed rolling, pre-emptive short-term detentions as calculated intimidation, designed to enforce total submission. Zhang observed how Uyghur culture is now nearly extinct: the village he worked in has been largely emptied of working-age adults — many are in prison or shipped away for forced labor. Speaking Uyghur is prohibited in schools. Mosques are closed or guarded 24/7. Zhang estimates a quarter of the adult population in his village was interned in re-education camps between 2017–2019, excluding those sent to prisons. Under Ma Xingrui, Chen Quanguo's successor, visible repression campaigns were replaced with hidden coercion. In 2019, Zhang worked at the Hotan County re-education headquarters where detainee records were falsified and the true scale hidden even from higher-level authorities. HOW COERCION WORKS: Village committees have unilateral authority to order residents to accept labor transfers. Refusal triggers mandatory night school, unpaid communal labor, or up to 15 days in detention facilities. My report in Foreign Policy outlines the details (link is below in the first comment)

BREAKING: Former U.S. admiral accuses Taiwanese political leaders of moving too slowly on reform. “You’re fiddling while Rome burns,” he said. @JoshuaMWilkes dominotheory.com/taipei-is-fidd…

More problematic than fake AI citations is what you don't cite: multitudes of other sources, incl. peer-reviewed academic work by numerous scholars, a large body of witness testimony, etc. From 2021-2024 I alone published 8 peer-reviewed academic articles on Xinjiang, alongside numerous articles and books published by other scholars with extensive regional expertise, alongside pertinent qualitative and quantitative data published by the state itself. The article doesn't cite any Western academic work on Xinjiang published after 2021, and fails to state the correct official Chinese term for the re-education camps established in 2018 (not 2019). No effort was made to include or analyze more up-to-date sources. Why do the authors, who otherwise claim support the causes of the oppressed, take the side of the colonizers rather than the colonized? Why are the voices of the colonized (Uyghurs, Kazakhs, etc.) erased and ignored? This is perhaps the most egregious aspect of this decidedly sub-par piece of work. @vijayprashad

This article is essentially bad-faith hogwash, and writing a full list of factual errors and misrepresentations would take a good day (which is better devoted to victims). I'm going to pick at the few that stood out after a quick skim. (1/7)

Cheng is asked whether she now shares Xi Jinping's vision for reunification. "This is something we will do little by little, a road we will walk step by step," Cheng says.

LIVE: Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun speaks after meeting with Xi Jinping, youtube.com/live/-DUaB7DyW…

Taiwan is looking to import more migrant workers due to declining demographics, while finalizing a labor agreement with India to help fill a projected deficit of 400,000 workers by 2030 @imtienyikrislih dominotheory.com/taiwan-and-ind…

BREAKING: Taiwan's main opposition the KMT said on Monday that its chairwoman, Cheng Li-wun, has accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party’s Central Committee to lead a party delegation to China.

From initial denials, through later partial acknowledgment and “legalization,” to rapid downsizing and eventual formal closure, the Chinese government’s handling of the re-education camps in Xinjiang suggests a series of unintended shifts. buff.ly/f4HcZqt

Did Western scrutiny of China's crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang make a difference to Xi Jinping and his cadres in Beijing? @redharryng reports. dominotheory.com/why-the-xinjia…

Taiwan’s ruling DPP is pushing laws to curb “false info,” hate speech, and pro-unification posts online — critics warn it could chill free speech and revive martial-law echoes, while the gov’t cites national security vs. China. ✍️ @redharryng @imtienyikrislih 🔗👇

UPDATED EXERCISE MAP: China's Maritime Safety Administration issued two additional warning zones around Taiwan for drills taking place on December 30th as part of Exercise Justice Mission 2025. These two zones are visualized on our map as Zone 6 & Zone 7. H/T to @JosephWen___ & @DominoTheoryMag who identified these zones first!

KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun responded to China’s military drills around Taiwan. The target of her comments wasn't China. “The current administration's erroneous cross-strait policy is the real reason Taiwan is being pushed toward dangerous conflict.” 1/ 🧵

Chinese state media has published a clip comparing all prior joint exercise zones around Taiwan with the slogan "tighter and tighter 越勒越緊." Yellow is the 2022 Pelosi visit exercises. Red is the Joint Sword-2024A exercise. Teal is today's Justice Mission 2025 exercise.

Taiwan's government has devolved into a three-way game of rock-paper-scissors. The legislature wants to impeach the president. The executive won't sign the legislature's bills. The judiciary is running on 1/3 steam. How did we get here? ✍️@redharryng Link 👇

Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun spoke at a university in Taipei, addressing hot-button issues on democracy, the defense budget and the identity of Republic of China and her party, the KMT ✍️ @imtienyikrislih @JoshuaMWilkes 👇

Taiwan is experiencing a governance crisis. If not resolved, it could weaken the island’s security. dominotheory.com/taiwan-constit…

Taiwan’s Constitutional Court effectively reactivated itself on Friday and ruled that amendments passed by the KMT that had paralyzed the court were unconstitutional ✍️ @imtienyikrislih @JoshuaMWilkes @redharryng 👇

In a world where everyone’s got an opinion on Taiwan, here's a review on J. Michael Cole’s @JMichaelCole1 “The Taiwan Tinderbox,” a must-read on the island’s precarious perch in the U.S.-China face-off. ✍️ @redharryng