Authorities from both sides dispatched rescue boats after a Chinese fishing vessel capsized in the early hours of Thursday, Taiwan’s coast guard said in a statement.

Two people were found dead, two were rescued, and two were still missing, it said.

Taiwan dispatched coast guard boats to join the rescue after Chinese authorities asked them for help, according to a senior Taiwan official who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

China’s coast guard last month began regular patrols around the Kinmen islands, which are close to China’s coast, after two Chinese nationals died trying to flee Taiwan’s coast guard after their boat entered prohibited waters.

The Chinese fishing boat capsized around 1.07 nautical miles west of Taiwan’s Dongding Island, Taiwan’s coast guard said. Taiwan’s armed forces stationed on the island were also involved in the rescue, it added without elaborating.

Taiwan dispatched four coast guard boats and their Chinese counterparts sent in six boats for the rescue, it said.

Taiwan’s top China policy-making body urged China last week not to change the “status quo” around waters there by sending coast guard boats into restricted areas, saying tension should be “controllable.” –Rappler.com

Officials said that 14 people had been discharged from the hospital, and that the initial indications were that a gas leak had caused the blast.

Last year, President Xi Jinping ordered a safety overhaul across China, calling on all regions to rectify safety risks and “hidden dangers” after 31 people died in a gas explosion at a barbecue restaurant.

The explosion on Wednesday at a fried chicken shop, in the town of Yanjiao in China’s northern province of Hebei, caused a massive orange fireball. The force ripped off the fronts of several buildings, crumpled cars on surrounding streets and left large pieces of debris on fire.

On-site rescue work has ended, cleanup at the scene is still ongoing and an investigation has begun, officials said in a statement. – Rappler.com

The blast happened at about 8 am in the county of Sanhe, state broadcaster CCTV News said, roughly 80 km (50 miles) from the center of Beijing, the capital, where key annual parliament sessions had just concluded.

Videos on social media platform Weibo showed a large orange fireball over the site, followed by billows of grey smoke, and scenes of the destroyed frontage of buildings, mangled cars, with glass shards in the streets, and some objects still ablaze.

A suspected gas leak triggered the accident in a shop selling fried chicken in the town of Yanjiao, city emergency officials said in a statement, drawing rescuers, firefighters, health and other officials to the scene.

“I was at home when I heard a loud blast, I initially thought it might be a gunshot,” said Zhao Li, a middle-aged woman who lives about a kilometer from the blast site.

“The loud explosion was accompanied by a crash of glass and clouds of smoke,” said Zhao, adding that police sealed off the street to the site.

The fire had been brought under control, fire officials said in an earlier statement, adding that 36 vehicles and 154 people had been dispatched to the site and were carrying out rescue work.

China’s latest deadly gas explosion at an eatery comes after the government issued detailed guidelines last year on the use of gas appliances and cookers to avert safety risks.

Social media posters on Weibo said the explosion occurred near a cultural centre in the town. Construction of a metro line was taking place nearby, Chinese weekly the Economic Observer posted on its social media account.

City emergency authorities sent an investigation team, according to social media posts.

Regional supplier Taida Gas suspended service in several surrounding areas, as a precaution to prevent secondary injuries, it said in a statement.

“Our company … will resume supply after ensuring safety,” it added in the statement, although it said it did not service the area where the shop is located. – Rappler.com

The suspended sentence from a Beijing court on espionage charges does not entail immediate execution for Yang, Ambassador Xiao Qian said at the Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Monday.

If Yang complies with the terms of his imprisonment and committed no further crimes “theoretically there is a chance he will not be executed,” Xiao said.

His comments mark the first time a Chinese official has noted that Yang might not be executed.

Xiao also downplayed worries over Yang’s health on Monday and said that although it was “not perfect,” it was not as grave as described by his family.

A pro-democracy blogger and spy novelist, Yang is an Australian citizen born in China who was working in New York before his arrest at the Guangzhou airport in 2019.

A Beijing court last month handed him a suspended death sentence on espionage charges, shocking his family and supporters, after five years in detention in Beijing and three years after his closed-door trial.

Yang opted not to appeal the decision, his family said, so as not to delay urgently needed medical care for a serious kidney condition. Yang remains in prison.

Details of the case have not been officially released.

Yang has said he never worked as a spy for a foreign country, and in letters to his family from jail has denied any wrongdoing.

Yang worked for China’s Ministry of State Security for a decade starting in 1989, including in Hong Kong and Washington, before quitting and moving to Australia.

A suspended death sentence in China gives the accused a two-year reprieve from being executed, after which the sentence is automatically converted to life imprisonment.

Yang’s family has said he is a political prisoner and “the absurdity of the 30-year-old espionage accusations that have been dredged up against him speaks to the prosecution’s failure to extract any kind of confession”. – Rappler.com

“Regardless of whether you’re extremely successful or just ordinary, women still make the biggest sacrifices at home,” the 28-year-old feminist said at a cafe in the northwestern city of Xian.

“Many who got married in previous generations, especially women, sacrificed themselves and their career development, and didn’t get the happy life they were promised. Living my own life well is difficult enough nowadays,” she told Reuters.

President Xi Jinping last year stressed the need to “cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing” as China’s population fell for a second consecutive year and new births reached historic lows.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang also vowed to “work towards a birth-friendly society” and boost childcare services in this year’s government work report.

The Communist Party views the nuclear family as the bedrock of social stability, with unmarried mothers stigmatized and largely denied benefits. But a growing number of educated women, facing unprecedented insecurity amid record youth unemployment and an economic downturn, are espousing “singleism” instead.

China’s single population aged over 15 hit a record 239 million in 2021, according to official data. Marriage registrations rebounded slightly last year due to a pandemic backlog, after reaching historic lows in 2022. A 2021 Communist Youth League survey of some 2,900 unmarried urban young people found that 44% of women do not plan to marry.

Marriage, however, is still regarded as a milestone of adulthood in China and the proportion of adults who never marry remains low. But in an other sign of its declining popularity, many Chinese are delaying tying the knot, with the average age of first marriage rising to 28.67 in 2020 from 24.89 in 2010, according to census data.

In Shanghai, this figure reached 30.6 for men and 29.2 for women last year, according to city statistics.

“Feminist activism is basically not allowed (in China), but refusing marriage and childbirth can be said to be … a form of non-violent disobedience towards the patriarchal state,” said Lü Pin, a Chinese feminist activist based in the United States.

No apologies

After decades of improving women’s education levels, workforce participation, and social mobility, Chinese authorities now face a dilemma as the same group of women have become increasingly resistant to their propaganda.

Long-term single lifestyles are gradually becoming more widespread in China, giving rise to online communities of mostly single women who seek solidarity from like-minded people.

Posts with the hashtags “No marriage, no children” from female influencers often in their thirties or forties on Xiaohongshu, China’s Instagram, regularly gain thousands of likes.

One anti-marriage forum on Douban, another social media platform, has 9,200 members, while another dedicated to “singleism” has 3,600 members who discuss collective retirement plans, among other topics.

Liao Yueyi, a 24-year-old unemployed graduate in the southern city of Nanning, recently declared to her mother that she “wakes up from nightmares about having children”.

“No marriage or kids is a decision I’ve made after deep consideration. I don’t owe anyone an apology, my parents have accepted it,” she posted on WeChat.

Instead she has decided to “lie flat” – a Chinese expression that means doing just enough to get by – and save money for future travels.

“I think it’s okay to date or cohabit, but children are a huge asset investment with minimal returns,” she said, adding that she has discussed renting a house with some female friends when they all retire.

Many of the women interviewed cited a desire for self-exploration, disillusionment with patriarchal Chinese family dynamics and a lack of “enlightened” male partners as the main factors behind their decision to stay single and childless.

Gender equality also plays a role: all the women said it was difficult to find a man who valued their autonomy and believed in equal division of household labor.

“There’s an oversupply of highly educated women and not enough highly educated men,” said Xiaoling Shu, professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis. Decades of the one-child policy have led to 32.3 million more men than women in 2022, according to official data.

“College-educated women become stronger believers in advocating for their rights and status in society,” Shu said. “Well-educated women in search of supportive life partners find fewer suitable men who also endorse women’s rights.”

While not all the women interviewed identified as feminist or viewed themselves as deliberately defying the government, their actions reflect a broader trend of Chinese female empowerment expressed through personal choices.

And even though some analysts believe that the number of people who remain single for life will not grow exponentially in the future, delayed marriages and falling fertility are likely to pose a threat to China’s demographic goals.

“In the long run, women’s enthusiasm for marriage and childbirth will only continue to decrease,” said feminist Lü.

“I believe this is the most important long-term crisis that China will face.” – Rappler.com

Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has complained in recent years that China has been using so-called grey-zone warfare, which wields irregular tactics to exhaust a foe without resorting to open combat.

In a report sent to parliament, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, the ministry said Beijing has launched “multi-front saturated grey-zone” tactics to harass Taiwan, including increased patrols of ships and planes.

China has attempted to “increase burdens of our naval and air forces and to obscure the existence of the median line in the strait”, the report said, referring to an unofficial border between the two sides, which China’s forces have began regularly crossing in recent years.

It added China has also incorporated research and militia vessels in a move to “disguise military activities with civilians”.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

To counter the Chinese threats, the ministry said it was working on measures to “preserve” its troops in the event of a war by boosting the resilience of its infrastructure and running drills to ensure Taiwan forces survive in a prolonged conflict. It also said it was drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine and the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The ministry said it is stockpiling weapons and fuel to endure a prolonged war with China.

Philippines, US to hold military drills in islands facing South China Sea, Taiwan

In a conflict, China will try to speedily seize Taiwan and prevent external intervention, the ministry added. To complicate that, the island is working to diversify its command systems and incorporate more mobile and long-range weapons, as well as artificial intelligence, while boosting “connections” with democratic allies, including the United States. The report did not elaborate on what those steps entailed.

China said this week it would boost its defense spending by 7.2% this year, fueling a military budget that has more than doubled under President Xi Jinping’s 11 years in office as Beijing hardens its stance on Taiwan.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of parliament, Taiwan Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng said Taipei would not join an arms race with Beijing because it was an “indisputable fact” that China’s military is more powerful than Taiwan’s.

“The only thing we can do is to boost every aspect of our training,” he said.

Taiwan Defense Ministry this week said it would this year increase the number of missile drills and begin night-time exercises for pilots.

Beijing last month begun regular coast guard patrols around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, which hug the Chinese coast, after two Chinese fishermen died trying to flee Taiwan’s coast guard.

China says it aims to ‘contain’ foreign interference over Taiwan this year

– Rappler.com

The collision resulted in “minor structural damage” on a Philippine Coast Guard ship, while a separate cannon incident injured at least four Filipinos aboard a military-contracted vessel.

Play Video

Watch the 1 pm press conference live on Rappler. – Rappler.com

Australia is hosting the ASEAN summit in Melbourne, which marks the 50th anniversary of its ties to ASEAN even as differences remained across the 10-member bloc on China’s plans to extend diplomatic and military presence in the region.

“Australia commits to working with you to make sure the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, equality, and independence are upheld,” Albanese said in his speech at the three-day summit which will conclude later on Wednesday.

“To ensure our region is secure, resilient, open, inclusive, and prosperous,” he said.

Albanese said both Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN) must work together to turn their natural connection into a more practical cooperation on marine sustainability and security.

The comments come as the Philippines on Tuesday summoned China’s deputy chief of mission in Manila to protest at what it called “aggressive actions” by Chinese naval forces against a resupply mission for Filipino troops stationed on a South China Sea shoal.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion worth of ship-borne commerce each year, and is a major source of tension with the Philippines.

Both countries have been locked in a territorial dispute despite a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration which found that China’s claims had no legal basis. Beijing rejects that ruling.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, during a press conference with Albanese on Monday, said there was a growing “China-phobia” in the West. In an interview published on Tuesday in the Sydney Morning Herald, Anwar claimed the risk of conflict in the South China Sea had been exaggerated.

The summit is expected to release a joint declaration later on Wednesday that would outline ASEAN’s position on the Israel-Gaza war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, media reported. – Rappler.com

Kerry K. Gershaneck defines political warfare as, “The strategic utilization of all available resources and tactics by a nation, except direct military engagement, in order to attain its desired national goals. These activities encompass both overt and covert actions.” 

In this type of “war,” the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department takes the lead in Beijing’s efforts to exert influence abroad. Its work is complemented by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, which is tasked to assimilate with local government units of other countries through bilateral engagements.  

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Political warfare covers a broad spectrum of activities, which can be discerned through six vectors:  

• the conduct of economic and psychological warfare and coercion; 
• the shaping of global opinion favorable to China; 
• the  use of economic ties as entry points for its political influence; 
• the forging of subnational engagement to circumvent opposition at the national level; 
• the export of CCP-defined repression, censorship, and surveillance into other markets; and, 
• the fueling of corruption among political elites of developing countries.  

The overt aspect of this “war” is the coercive tactics employed by China’s coast guard and militia in the WPS. This is complemented covertly by CCP-directed propaganda and disinformation being spewed by its various “talking heads” in Chinese and domestic media. In addition, Beijing has increasingly curried the favor of some local officials leading to policy debates over stronger strategic partnership with foreign powers.

Attempts to establish foothold in strategic areas such as in the Fuga Island in Cagayan, the Grande and Chiquita Islands in Subic Bay, the Sangley International Airport project in Cavite, and the entry of China Telecom as a partner of DITO in the telecommunications sector likewise offer an articulation of the gamut of Chinese political warfare.

While there are assurances from technical experts, its compromising presence in military camps, and the potential invocation of the CCP’s National Intelligence Law, still raises the  potential risks of  espionage and data privacy breach. These economic engagements emerged using the Belt and Road Initiative as pretext, which unfortunately include “elements of control, enforcement, and military power […] crucial to China’s overall development.”

What do to?

Political warfare likewise employs the export of surveillance technology, which could be leveraged to create ‘police states’ among democratic societies. The defunct Safe Philippines-CCTV Project is an example. It was originally conceived to be a collaboration between the China International Telecommunications and Construction Corp (CITCC) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The project intended to reduce crime by 15% and improve police response time by 24% in the cities of Manila and Davao.  

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How, then, do we act on this insidious type of security challenges? Foremost, the national government should exercise “adult supervision” over these seemingly harmless economic and socio-cultural engagements surfacing in various sectors of society and at varying levels of the bureaucracy. Perhaps, the following legal interventions could be considered:

First, enact a Foreign Interference Act to protect our domestic politics and electoral process and sanction those who accept funds or other forms of support, particularly if the intent of such transaction harms the country’s national interests and political stability. This should be complemented by the amendment of the antiquated Anti-Espionage Law or Commonwealth Act No. 616 of 1941 while taking into consideration new technologies that can be used to collect intelligence inimical to our national security interests.

Second, review the Foreign Agent Registration Act of 1979 or Batasan Pambansa Bilang 39 (BP 39) and implement it once legal guard rails are provided – measures to help create a legal framework that protects against abuses of power. 

Third, reexamine the composition and mandate of the Inter-Agency Investment Promotion Coordination Committee of the Department of Trade and Industry, which was created through Section 4 of the amended Foreign Investment Act (Republic Act 11647) or FIA. The other option is to create a separate Foreign Investment Registration Office to implement Section 24 of the Public Service Act (Republic Act 11659) or PSA.  

Fourth, establish a monitoring mechanism to track the acquisition of real estate properties near military camps or coastal areas that have strategic or sensitive value with respect to our concerns in the WPS. This initiative can mitigate security risks posed by foreign powers or their Filipino representatives following such acquisition.

Fifth, designate a senior official as a counter-political warfare coordinator assigned to craft the national strategy and develop an appropriate training program at various levels of the government. 

This “war” is a battle for real estate – the entire Philippine archipelago, which the CCP considers as a ‘key terrain feature’ essential to its regional ambition. No less than former President Donald Trump has described the country as a “prime piece of real estate from [a] military standpoint.”

The CCP has conveniently distracted us with its use of hard power at sea, a narrative that has been predominantly spotlighted by mainstream media overshadowing its sharp power maneuvers. While simultaneously, the CCP weaponizes its diplomatic, propaganda, and economic tools of statecraft in attempts to influence our political, economic, and public sphere and subtly compromise us from within. – Rappler.com

Rommel Ong is affiliated with the Ateneo School of Government. Jules Arceo is with the Far Eastern University while Karen Garcia is affiliated with the Ateneo Policy Center of the Ateneo School of Government. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ateneo de Manila University.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this:  The YouTube video was posted by a Philippine-based channel known for pushing anti-Chinese rhetoric. As of writing, the video has 9,938 views and 297 likes.

The title of the video bears the claim: “Gumawa ang Chinese lab ng mutant COVID-19 strain na may 100 percent kill rate” (A Chinese lab created a mutant COVID-19 strain with a 100% kill rate).

The bottom line: Chinese scientists did conduct a study using a coronavirus related to the one that causes COVID-19, but it is not a “mutant COVID-19 strain.” The researchers also clarified that the study did not mean that the virus is dangerous to humans.

On January 21, 2024, a group of Chinese researchers, most of whom are affiliated with the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, published a paper about their study on the effects of a pangolin coronavirus strain on “humanized (hACE2) mice” to better understand the nature of coronaviruses and the potential of developing vaccines against them.

Did not ‘create’ a COVID-19 strain: The Chinese lab did not create any “new” or “mutant” COVID-19 strain. Instead, they used a different coronavirus dubbed GX_P2V, a virus found in pangolins.

GX_P2V is a SARS-CoV-2-related pangolin coronavirus first collected in 2018 from Malayan pangolins. The keyword here is “related,” as GX_P2V is only related to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. It is not the same COVID-19 strain nor is it descended from SARS-CoV-2. 

The pangolin virus is important to scientists since its study provides crucial information on the pathogenesis of coronaviruses that may be used to protect the public against future coronavirus-induced pandemics.

“100% kill rate” claim in context: The mice used in the study are hACE2 mice, dubbed “humanized mice” because they are engineered to produce human ACE2 receptors, which are the entry points used by viruses to enter cells.

In the January 2024 study, 12 hACE2 mice were used: four were used as controls, four were inoculated with an inactivated version of the virus, and four were infected with GX_P2V. All four of the GX_P2V-infected mice died. 

The researchers theorized that the virus was lethal to the hACE2 mice because the mice had been engineered to produce large quantities of human ACE2, making them susceptible to brain infections. 

“It is very likely that the high pathogenicity of GX_P2V C7 in our hACE2 mice is due to the strong expression of hACE2 in the mouse brain. Under normal circumstances, both human and mouse brains exhibit low expression of ACE2,” the researchers wrote. 

The researchers reiterate in their paper that, due to their use of mice with abnormally high ACE2, their findings “have no correlation with human infections.” The scientists also noted that their findings were inconsistent with previous studies, in particular a 2023 study where groups of hACE2 mice were infected with the pangolin coronavirus, but the infected mice survived and “presented no obvious clinical symptoms.” 

Debunked by other sources: Since January, similar claims of Chinese scientists genetically engineering a deadly COVID-19 strain have been circulating on social media. These have been debunked by several fact-checking organizations, such as VERIFYThis, FactCheck.org, and Poynter. – Miguel Batallones/Rappler.com

Miguel Batallones is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.