REWRITING ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY: THE ANTI-IMPERIAL STRUGGLES OF TAIWANESE AND HONG KONG DIASPORAS

22 May 2024 Chee-Hann Wu 

Written by Alex Yong Kang Chow. 

Image credit: The 70’s Biweekly and People’s Theatre by Mr. Mok Chiu-yu Augustine, Dr. Jessica Wai Yee Yeung and Hong Kong Baptist University Library / License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED.

Wendy Cheng’s book, Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism, highlights the intricate and often fraught connections between the exiled diaspora, Asian Americans, Leftist politics, and the geopolitical forces shaping the lives of individuals in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. This work prompts an exploration of how Taiwanese Americans and the Hong Kong diaspora navigate and struggle with the cognitive and ideological complexities faced by Asian Americans and anti-imperial activists, who often conflate imperialism, colonialism, and nationalism within the contexts of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC), and the United States. 

During the Cold War, Hong Kongers in the US intersected with Taiwanese students who opposed the Kuomintang (KMT) regime, albeit for different political reasons. While the pro-independence Taiwanese students criticised the KMT regime for white terror, political censorship, and a one-party dictatorship, the nationalistic Hong Kong students also criticised the KMT for its hypocrisy in framing itself as a promoter of democracy against the authoritarian Chinese Communist regime. 

Since the late 1980s, Hong Kongers and Taiwanese have embarked on parallel paths in their quests for democratisation and decolonisation. When Taiwan transitioned into an independent nation-state, Hong Kong moved from a British colony to a special administrative region under the PRC regime. The youth of the two regions came together during significant historical events such as the 2014 Occupy movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

Since 2019, the Taiwanese have undertaken new efforts to reaffirm their sovereignty, defend their territory against the People’s Liberation Army, and secure their critical economic role in semiconductor production. Concurrently, many Hong Kongers have faced exile, finding themselves in unfamiliar environments that resonate with the diaspora experiences depicted in Cheng’s book. This shared history underscores these communities’ ongoing struggles and solidarity as they confront the overlapping and often confusing narratives of imperialism, colonialism, and nationalism. 

Activism and Left-leaning Politics  

As Cheng outlined in the introduction, the objective of Island X is to expose historical processes and reveal alternative possibilities. “By exposing the process—history in motion—by revealing what might have been, and by centring those who dreamed otherwise, who were erased, ignored, or relegated to the margins and footnotes of history, we restore more capacious genealogies and broader horizons of aspiration and struggle” (9). 

In chapter two, Cheng uncovered three figures who struggled to address left-leaning politics and aimed to bridge the left-right divide within the movement. For example, Lin Shiaw-shin, a Baodiao activist from a bensheng family, maintained and acted on “broadly left, non-identitarian alliances” (66) to support Taiwan’s democratic movement. Despite many of these alliances falling short of their more radical or revolutionary goals, Lin’s efforts were significant.  

Kao Cheng-yan, who later became a computer science professor at National Taiwan University, took a left-leaning, pro-Taiwan independence stance that eventually led to the founding of the Green Party. This party identifies as internationalist, supports Taiwan’s independence, and focuses on environmental politics (67-72). 

Dissatisfied with the goals and operations of World United Formosans for Independence, Cary Hung co-founded the Taiwan Revolution Party, which advocated for a mass-based, working-class revolution (73-76). 

Similarly, in the 1970s, a distinct faction of anti-imperial anarchists emerged in Hong Kong, navigating a complex political landscape influenced by global and local dynamics. This group, often in tension with other political factions, sought to challenge the British colonial and PRC regimes. 

For example, Augustine Mok, a young activist and founder of the 70s Biweekly, an influential magazine among left-leaning circles in Hong Kong during the 1970s, criticised the PRC regime and proposed an internationalist path that exemplified his anarchist beliefs.  

When the anti-imperial Baodiao movement emerged in the U.S., Mok participated in rallies in Hong Kong, advocating for an anti-imperial stance that the island belonged to no one—neither the PRC, ROC, nor Japan. This position contrasted with many other nationalist Baodiao activists or students in Hong Kong.  

Similar to the ideological split between pro-PRC and pro-ROC factions before the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976, anti-colonial activists in Hong Kong also divided into pro-PRC and anti-PRC clusters. Youth on both sides criticised the British colonial regime, but they debated whether the PRC regime was a liberator or another form of authoritarianism under Mao’s leadership. 

Despite the political crackdown against the 1967 riot instigated by Chinese Communist activists under the influence of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, young activists in Hong Kong found room for resistance. They navigated a highly censored environment yet managed to create spaces for political expression and activism. 

However, the student activists at the time were also aware that their phones installed in the student union on campus were wiretapped by the political branch of the British colonial police. This situation underscored the constant surveillance and repression they faced, similar to their Taiwanese counterparts, as they sought to push boundaries and advocate for change. 

The legacy of these anti-imperial anarchists, particularly those like Augustine Mok, underscores the complexity and diversity of political activism in Hong Kong. Their efforts to foster critical discourse and challenge dominant narratives continue to resonate in contemporary discussions on democracy, sovereignty, and resistance in the region. 

Cold War Geopolitics and Positioning Diaspora Identity: Historical Context and Challenges 

One of the challenges facing Taiwanese Americans is positioning the group within Asian American studies, which often focus on left-leaning, working-class subjects, and resistance narratives: “Within Asian American studies in particular, a scholarly field born of leftist social movements that has tended to privilege working-class subjects and narratives of resistance, these characteristics may render diasporic Taiwanese communities difficult, unappealing, or uninteresting as objects of inquiry” (14). 

In the 1960s and 70s, the romanticisation of PRC socialism within US leftist circles was not uncommon, leading to assumptions about pro-Taiwan political stances as “conservative or retrograde” (15). Furthermore, as racialised non-US nationals campaigning against their government—a US ally—”Taiwanese student migrants were neither fully legible to nor protected by dominant rights-based moral and political” (8). 

Because of the impact of Cold War geopolitics on global comprehension of Taiwan’s existence, the fact that the United States served as both geopolitical “benefactor and protector” of Taiwan may confuse, if not irk, many pro-PRC factions in the US. Additionally, the left-leaning, anti-imperial US activists who criticised the US regime as imperialist over Latin America, Vietnam, and the Middle East may also find this situation confusing or frustrating. 

How could an independent-seeking country that sought US support be progressive, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperial enough? How could an authoritarian regime governed by the KMT be a faithful, democratic ally for those left-leaning US activists? 

Similarly, since 2019, the Hong Kong diaspora has found the assumptions underlying some Western leftists’ ideological simplifications funny, if not ridiculous. How can a capitalist-driven city and secessionist movement not be seen as an imperial puppet against a Chinese socialist regime? How can diaspora Hong Kongers, who mostly lobby Western governments against the PRC regime, counteract an imperial US regime? 

Rather than exaggerating or dismissing these questions emerging from a Western-leftist perspective, countering the inward-looking leftist knowledge production that fails to grapple with the Chinese questions may be productive. This can be done by disseminating the thoughts, theories, and praxis of pro-Taiwan-independence Taiwanese Americans or pro-Hong Kong-independence Hong Kong leftists, as Cheng’s book has done. 

Urging or educating the dogmatic Western left to adopt an anti-PRC stance is an uphill battle. Many Western leftists sympathetic to the PRC do not read Chinese, lack access to nuanced anti-PRC Chinese thoughts in English translation, or have limited lived experience in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This challenge extends even to second or third-generation Asian Americans who might share heritage with the diaspora. 

Colonisation, colonialism, and internal settler colonisers do not just describe the imperial process of European-American expansion but are also applicable and have an Asian origin, demonstrated by the PRC and KMT regimes born out of the 20th-century revolutionary period. Recent studies have attempted to reconstruct Chinese intellectuals’ struggles to navigate a third path beyond KMT and CCP domination. 

Tracing the creation of myths, misconceptions, and knowledge production about Chinese politics in the US requires more collective effort. This effort must bridge the revolutionary continuity and discontinuity before and after the 1949 KMT-CCP civil war that shattered the fate of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. 

One invisible historical connection is that Hong Kong was removed from the United Nations’ non-self-governing territories list upon the PRC’s entrance into the UN. The PRC replaced the ROC to serve on the permanent seat of the UN Security Council. As a result, Hong Kongers’ international rights of self-determination within the UN mechanism were deprived because the US administration decided to side with Maoist China over Chiang’s ROC due to Cold War calculations against the Soviet Union. 

The Unique Contribution of Cheng’s Book: Rewriting Asian American History 

The most substantial contribution of Cheng’s book is to enrich the diversity and complexity of Asian Americans in scholarly knowledge production. It aims to 1) rethink and rewrite the diverse history of Asian Americans; 2) delink Asian Americans from the PRC regime; 3) respect the similarities and differences among and between Asian Americans and Asians that may stand at odds with each other; and finally, 4) reconnect Taiwanese Americans to Asian American history. 

Cheng’s book, likely one of its kind, explores the possible reconcilability and irreconcilability of intersectional politics among Asians, Asian Americans, Leftist politics, geopolitics, and democratic aspirations at the Cold War historical juncture. 

Rewriting the history of Asian Americans by tracing and reconstructing the sociological and intellectual development of anti-PRC and anti-KMT Taiwanese Americans provides an excellent example for other scholarly, literary, and intellectual endeavours. This approach extends the mapping to other broadly speaking Sinophone populations, such as Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and exiled mainland Chinese. This broader framework fosters a more nuanced understanding of the complex and multifaceted identities within the Asian American community and will hopefully encourage more productive work that enriches our definition of Asia American history. 

Alex Yong Kang Chow is pursuing a PhD in Geography at UC Berkeley, studying decolonial praxis in Hong Kong, with a focus on capitalism, nationalism, and colonialism. He graduated with a BA from the University of Hong Kong and an MSc from the London School of Economics. Alex was the former Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Federation of Students during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. He co-founded Flow magazine and is a board member of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, dedicated to advocating for human rights and democracy. 

This article was published as part of a special issue on ‘Student Migrants, Campus Spies and Island X‘.

 

ISLAND X: AN INTERNATIONALIST EXAMINATION OF TAIWANESE AMERICAN HISTORY DURING THE COLD WAR

20 May 2024 Chee-Hann Wu 

Written by Wen Liu.

Image credit: 07.02 副總統出席「陳文成博士紀念晚會」 – 50068877552.jpg by 總統府 / Flickr, license: CC BY 2.0 DEED.

Wendy Cheng’s Island X is a new classic study on Taiwanese American lives that bridges between Taiwan Studies and Asian American Studies. In this essay, I want to highlight three major contributions that the book has made, including 1) The importance of understanding Taiwan through the US-China-Taiwan as well as an internationalist stance, 2) the need for Asian American Studies to incorporate diasporic perspectives and geopolitical analysis, and 3) situating Taiwan as a critical epistemological site in Asian American Studies. 

An Internationalist Perspective 

Since the end of the martial law period, more and more archives have been open to the public. More books have discussed the Cold War period in Taiwan through the triangulated relations between the US, China, and Taiwan. For instance, Hsian-ting Lin’s Accidental State: Chiang Kai-shek, the United States, and the Making of Taiwan uses the US’s recently declassified archives to describe the dictator’s internal turmoil in making modern Taiwan in contested geopolitical time. Chen Tsui-lien’s Revisiting the Political History of Post-WarTaiwan: The Triangulated Tug-of-War between the United States, the Kuomintang Government, and Taiwanese Civil Society also took the comparative approach. All these books on Taiwanese history—along with Wendy’s Island X—disputed the myth that the possibility of a modern democratic Taiwan was neither made magically through one leader’s hand (e.g., the common depiction of Chiang Ching-kuo as “the Father of Democracy” rather than an authoritarian leader who executed many tangwai movement leaders) nor simply through the Cold War US imperialist influences that manipulated Taiwan as its subaltern proxy state (as often articulated by Anglophone or American Studies). Instead, it is a result of the triangulation of forces between the US, the Kuomintang (KMT), the tangwai movement in Taiwanese civil society, and the diasporic Taiwanese students’ movement, which is the central focus of this book. 

The death of Chen Wen-chen is particularly illuminating in the book. Professor Cheng argues that far from being neutral or benevolent, the instances of Taiwanese students spied on by other Taiwanese on US campuses illustrate the role of US educational institutions as critical sites of Cold War battles. We often understood his death as a critical event that drove the US to take seriously the issues of authoritarian surveillance since Chen was a US citizen, and the Taiwanese American communities took the chance to challenge the KMT surveillance on US campuses. This event not only pushes policy changes in the US but also adds additional pressure on the already heated democratization demands from the Taiwan side.  

Chen Wen-chen’s case—along with many other historical examples and live narratives in the book—complicates the political biography of Taiwanese student activism in the US at the time. Usually, the overseas Taiwanese movement is often portrayed as singularly pro-independence and, thus, conservative and anti-Communist. The book shows a much more complicated picture. For instance, as Wendy writes, while in Pittsburgh, Chen Wen-chen became particularly interested in the ideas of the left pro-independence group, Taiwan Era, which took a Marxist-Leninist line and elaborated more profoundly and in a more explicitly internationalist stance, along with an earlier diasporic left publication headquartered in Toronto, Taiwan Revolution. These diasporic groups are not without their internal intellectual and ideological debates, reflecting the US activist political spectrum in the 1970s and 1980s. 

An Asian Americanist Perspective 

This brings me to my second point; another significant intervention of the book is how it takes on an Asian Americanist approach that also centres on Taiwanese history and voice. One of the reasons that Taiwan and Taiwanese Americans are often erased from Asian American Studies or history is that the field of Asian American Studies emerged in the 1960s at the peak of internationalists’ left politics. Up to today, it continues to skew toward a specific working-class and left politics that is more concerned with US hegemony and the critiques of racial politics domestically. Yet under what Wendy calls the “infrastructure of surveillance,” Taiwanese immigrants were often framed as the “good” and “middle class” immigrants who are also ideologically seen as blinded pro-US. The lack of differentiation between the nation-state, the KMT party, the US influences, and the civil society in Taiwan results in the fact that Taiwan is merely understood as KMT’s “Republic of China” in the Cold War binary framework. It misses the opportunity to see how this group of Taiwanese immigrants calls the present nation-state, the ROC, in question and organizes creatively to achieve human rights and democratization.  

Moreover, the centrality of race in Asian American Studies is often eager to create racial politics against assimilation yet neglects how racial politics can also be produced globally, out of the US. In fact, both Japan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been the hegemonic forces in East Asia to create different ideologies of racial superiority or racial victimhood to counter US influences. By focusing on the US empire and the US only, the field misses the opportunities to engage with the complexity of inter-Asia dynamics on how ethnonationalist forces are forged. And how the Taiwanese subject is, in fact, caught between white assimilationism, Chinese ethnonationalism, and Han settler-colonialism, where some of the key players in the book attempt to rearticulate a new kind of national imagination.  

Taiwan as a Critical Epistemological Site in Asian American Studies 

Lastly, the book argues how Taiwan can serve as a critical epistemological position in Asian American Studies. As Shu-mei Shih stated provocatively in the 2018 North American Taiwan Studies Association conference, “Taiwan Studies is American Studies,” the book shows how American Studies is also a part of Taiwan Studies. By examining Taiwanese American politics in relation to global politics, multiple state regimes, and Cold War conditions, we can see a fuller picture of how political changes occurred during this period. It is never just the influences of Western abstract liberalism of human rights of democracy, nor one great leader who gave authoritarian rule, but the complex debates and struggles over difficult material conditions across the transpacific that allowed movements to happen. As Wendy states in the concluding chapter, while Taiwanese Americans are often essentialized as the “model minorities,” the state-centric logics observe the historical conditions and hierarchies of power that “deny Taiwanese Americans our full historical subjectivity and complex subjecthood.” 

Island X is a timely book articulating how Taiwanese American identity is deeply historically grounded and influenced by multiple transnational forces. The book opens doors for scholars to pursue this understudied subject. In the so-called “Golden Era” for Taiwan Studies, we need an interdisciplinary approach that expands the usual horizons of researching Taiwan through the superpower struggles between the US and China but focuses on the untold lives and stories that complicate the existing narratives.    

Wen Liu is an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She is the author of Feeling Asian American: Racial Flexibility between Assimilation and Oppression (University of Illinois Press, 2024), which investigates Asian American identity formation via its flexible racial status and the psychic narrative of racial injury. 

This article was published as part of a special issue on ‘Student Migrants, Campus Spies and Island X‘.

CHINA’S INFRASTRUCTURE WARFARE AGAINST KINMEN

onstruction in the background. (Murphy, 2022) 

Image depicting anti-landing spikes to deter a Chinese amphibious invasion in the foreground and the Kinmen-Lieyu Bridge under construction in the background. (Murphy, 2022) 

7 June 2024 Chee-Hann Wu 

Written by Ian Murphy.

Image credit: author.

Geopolitical adversaries have increasingly focused on targeting critical infrastructure like energy, transportation, and communication networks to weaken a nation’s military capabilities. This form of hybrid warfare, known as infrastructure warfare, has garnered significant attention in recent years. However, its application to the China-Taiwan conflict, particularly concerning Kinmen County, remains under-examined. China’s development of the China-Kinmen water pipeline and the proposed Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge project raise concerns about its use of infrastructure as a tool of political coercion. While often overshadowed by broader cross-Strait tensions, this approach poses a significant threat to Taiwan’s security and autonomy.  

Defining Infrastructure Warfare 

Traditionally, infrastructure warfare targets critical infrastructure to weaken a nation’s military capability, readiness, and force projection. However, China’s approach in Kinmen utilizes infrastructure not just for a military advantage but also as a tool for cognitive warfare, subtly manipulating perceptions and dependencies to achieve political goals. The challenge with applying this definition of infrastructure warfare to China’s hybrid warfare strategy against Taiwan is that it does not fully account for non-military gains or motives. Instead, we should think of infrastructure warfare as a part of China’s cognitive warfare strategy.  

Cognitive warfare is a distinct form of conflict that targets the minds of populations rather than physical infrastructure that aims to manipulate perceptions, disrupt decision-making, and erode social cohesion. It represents a shift from traditional kinetic warfare, focusing instead on psychological and informational operations to achieve strategic objectives. Disinformation campaigns, social media manipulation, and economic pressure are common tools of cognitive warfare, exploiting vulnerabilities in human cognition. This approach is often employed alongside traditional military force, which allows actors to achieve their goals without overt escalation or direct confrontation.  

The Chinese Communist Party’s cognitive warfare strategy is part of a larger hybrid warfare model that aims to achieve state objectives more ambiguously, with its approach in Kinmen exemplifying this strategic shift. While its infrastructure projects in the region offer tangible benefits like improved water supply, they also serve a deeper purpose – to subtly shape perceptions and foster a sense of dependence on the mainland. This gradual integration into China’s economic and social sphere aims to create a favourable environment for eventual reunification, push pro-unification narratives, and influence the population not to fight in a wartime scenario.  

In the case of Kinmen County, China is not using infrastructure warfare to undermine Taiwan’s military readiness or force projection in the Taiwan Strait. Instead, they are using infrastructure investment to bring Kinmen closer to China, push pro-unification narratives, and influence the population not to fight.  

Kinmen is Becoming Dependent on China for Social Services 

China’s carrot-and-stick approach to Kinmen is a strategy that combines incentives (carrots) with punitive measures or threats (sticks) to influence to island’s political and economic ties to mainland China. Punitive measures have included the maintenance of a significant military presence near Kinmen, while China leverages its economic influence by restricting trade and tourism from Kinmen and Matsu by leveraging customs, military exercises, the control of maritime and air transportation routes, and even by conducting sand dredging operations around the islands. 

After the lifting of martial law in Taiwan in the 1990s, Taiwan’s “Three Mini Links” (小三通) opened limited exchanges to create limited transportation, trade, and postal links between mainland China and Kinmen and Matsu. While these links were opened in 2001 with the aim of facilitating economic and cultural exchanges, the program opened Kinmen’s residents to an ever-intensifying Chinese cognitive warfare strategy and the promotion of China’s economic model as a competitor to Taiwan.  

The most successful case study of China’s infrastructure warfare strategy is the establishment of the China-Kinmen water pipeline in 2018, which now supplies over 70% of the island’s water usage. This infrastructure project addresses Kinmen’s historical water scarcity and also highlights the concerning trend of China’s potential to weaponize critical infrastructure against Taiwan. Prior to the pipeline’s establishment, Kinmen relied heavily on unsustainable groundwater extraction and limited rainfall, resulting in environmental degradation and inadequate water supply. The pipeline, while a practical policy solution, inadvertently created a strategic vulnerability.  

Chart depicting changes in Kinmen’s freshwater usage from 2012 (101) to 2022 (111). Since the completion of the China-Kinmen water pipeline in 2018, Kinmen’s reliance on water from China has increased to 70.9% (green), while its use of groundwater has dropped significantly to 16.7% (red).  

With Kinmen’s water supply now predominantly controlled by China, the potential for political manipulation and disruption is evident. China’s increasing assertiveness towards Taiwan, coupled with warnings from the Mainland Affairs Council, has raised alarms about the weaponization of newly built critical infrastructure. Taiwan has learned from this and is beginning to carefully assess future cross-Strait infrastructure projects, such as the proposed Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge, through a lens of strategic defence. For existing infrastructure like the water pipeline, Taiwan must now play defence by focusing on building resilience against potential disruptions. To prepare for disruptions, Taiwan will need to develop alternative water sources, enhance freshwater storage capacity, rehabilitation and reduction of salinification in existing reservoirs, and implement emergency response plans in Kinmen.  

Map published by Kinmen County Waterworks that depicts the China-Kinmen water pipeline that was built in 2018. 

China has also capitalized on the political fractures caused by the Kinmen-Lieyu bridge project by promoting its own bridge project to link Kinmen and neighbouring Xiamen City. The Kinmen-Lieyu bridge project was a Taiwanese infrastructure project that now links Kinmen’s main island with the smaller Lieyu Island. Lieyu Island was previously only connected to Kinmen through a ferry, which had limited capacity and availability. Taiwanese politicians promoted the bridge project to improve the lives of Lieyu residents by providing access to essential services, healthcare, economic opportunities, and boosting tourism. However, the bridge faced criticism for going over time, over budget, and for failing to bring access to needed social services due to limited social services within Kinmen County itself, with residents needing to go to Taiwan’s main island for adequate access to healthcare and job opportunities.  

The Chinese Communist Party has historically leveraged the development of cities like Shanghai and Xiamen as propaganda tools to showcase economic development and modernization, promote the Chinese Dream, and legitimize the CCP’s economic governance model that emphasizes the economic benefits of working with the CCP while discounting narratives of political control and national security concerns. So, when Taiwan’s bridge project failed to deliver the needed social services to Kinmen, Chinese media pushed narratives that preyed on Kinmen’s discontent with Taiwan’s governing model and investment in favour of a CCP economic and unification narrative.  

A chematic map of the planned route of the Ximen-Kinmen Bridge with a translation of the four scenarios provided by Chinese media (大公報, 2020) 

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, responsible for evaluating proposals involving mainland China, has rejected the Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge Project as a legitimate development under the Three Mini Links program due to concerns over the bridge’s potential negative impact on Taiwan’s national security, noting that the policies of the Chinese Communist Party have shifted from mild to doctrine focused on maximizing intimidation and suppression of Kinmen and Matsu, with the Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge acting as a stepping stone towards integrating Kinmen into Fujian Province.  

Countering China’s Infrastructure Warfare 

The first challenge in countering China’s infrastructure warfare against Taiwan is understanding the strategy. By framing infrastructure warfare as part of a hybrid warfare model in service to cognitive warfare, we can see how infrastructure will be used against Taiwan in an invasion scenario. So far, the China-Kinmen water pipeline and the proposed Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge project have been used to offer economic incentives, promote CCP governance, and sow distrust in the Taiwan government. In wartime, this incentive structure will become punitive if Kinmen resist Chinese claims.  

China could potentially defeat Taiwan through a blockade by employing a combination of military and economic strategies aimed at isolating and weakening the island. Under such a blockade of Taiwan’s main island, Taiwan will be unable to continue flights and maritime transport to Kinmen. This strategy of anti-access area denial, combined with infrastructure integration, means that Kinmen’s only means of survival is found through an umbilical cord with China. With a new Taiwanese Presidential administration in power, the government will have to reexamine its current Kinmen defence strategy. Taiwan knows that it is unable to match China’s military and infrastructure modernization dollar-for-dollar, so it will need to find areas of comparative advantage to overcome its hybrid warfare strategy. 

Ian Murphy has a background in national security and international business. He earned an MA in National Security Studies at American Military University and received a Taiwan Scholarship to study at National Taiwan Normal University, where he completed an MBA with instruction in Chinese. Ian currently works as a China Subject Matter Expert at SecuriFense Inc., where he helps organizations understand developments in China’s economy and foreign policy.

His recently published article TAIDE: TAIWAN’S COMMITMENT TO INNOVATION, SECURITY, AND GLOBAL TECH LEADERSHIP can be read here.

 

ANC Plans A Government Of National Unity With IFP, EFF, DA, NFP And PA

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 

South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC) says it will form a government of national unity (GNU) with all parties advancing South Africa, reported IOL.

Addressing journalists following a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa said:

We have agreed that we will invite political parties to form a government of national unity as the best option to move our country forward.

The modalities of the government of national unity will take into account the conditions prevailing at this moment in our country’s history.

The purpose of this government of national unity must be first and foremost to tackle the pressing issues that South Africans want to be addressed.

According to Ramaphosa, the pressing issues included job creation and inclusive economic growth, the high cost of living, service delivery, crime and corruption.

He said the ANC has heard the concerns of the people of South Africa, adding that the party remained a pivotal partner in the country’s search for a way forward.

Ramaphosa said the ANC had already engaged Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the Democratic Alliance (DA), National Freedom Party (NFP), and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).

He revealed that the NEC mandated its negotiating task team to proceed to engage parties on their proposal. He said:

They will also reach out to a broader range of parties to enrich the process and promote inclusiveness.

We have agreed as this NEC that it is both necessary and strategic that we act in a manner that seeks to unite the broadest range of social forces and isolate those that seek to cause chaos, instability and division.

As the ANC, we will be reaching out to formations across society to build a shared programme for social and economic change.

The ANC lost its Parliamentary majority for the first time in its 30 years of rule after the end of apartheid in 1994.

The ANC got 40.18% support, with the DA on 21.81% votes, the former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) got 14.58%, and EFF got 9.52% votes.

With South Africa’s proportional representation system, the ANC has to combine with one or more other parties to attain more than 50% of the vote to form a government.

More: Pindula News

Kangana Ranaut slapped at Chandigarh airport for ‘comments on Indian farmers’ protests’

The newly-elected MP raised concerns over 'rising terrorism' in India's Punjab.

Images Staff
Updated 07 Jun, 2024

Indian actor Kangana Ranaut, who was just elected as a member of parliament on a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) ticket, was slapped by a security guard at Chandigarh airport on Thursday, Dawn reported.

Ranaut was travelling to New Delhi days after her Lok Sabha election win from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi constituency. After the security check, Ranaut went to the boarding gate where she was slapped by the security guard.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable, identified as Kulwinder Kaur, has been suspended and an FIR registered against her, reports said. A complaint has also been submitted by the CISF to the local police.

According to NDTV, Kaur was offended by an old remark the Queen actor made about the farmers’ protest. The publication quoted the CISF constable — who reportedly comes from a family of farmers — as having said, “She gave a statement… that farmers are sitting there for INR 100. Will she go and sit there? My mother was sitting there and protesting when she gave this statement”.






Kaur also accused Ranaut of “disrespecting farmers”.

In a social media post, the actor had tweeted about an elderly woman seen at one of the protests and said she was “available for INR 100” — she was forced to delete the tweet after public outrage, NDTV reported.

After the incident, Ranaut took to her Instagram account to detail what had happened. “I am safe, I am perfectly fine. The incident happened at the security check-in. The woman guard waited for me to cross. She then came and hit me and started throwing expletives. I asked [her] why she hit me. She said, ‘I support farmers protest’. I am safe but my concern is terrorism is rising in Punjab. How do we handle that?”




The farmers’ movement in India’s Punjab has been active since the Modi regime approved three controversial agricultural bills in 2020.

Ranaut has repeatedly spoken out against the movement, and in October 2021, the Karnataka Police filed a FIR against the actor for her calling farmers protesting the Indian government’s new agriculture laws “terrorists”, The Business Standard reported.

After the 2021 farmers protests, led by Sikh farmers from the wheat and rice-growing state of Punjab in India’s north, singer Rihanna shared a CNN article and questioned why people weren’t talking about it.

In a deleted tweet from 2021, Ranaut lashed out at Rihanna. “No one is talking about it because they are not farmers; they are terrorists who are trying to divide India, so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like USA…” Ranaut said, adding: “Sit down you fool, we are not selling our nation like you dummies.”

After Thursday’s incident, military officer Gaurav Arya said on X (formerly Twitter) that Kaur “will be punished” and alleged that the occurrence was “planned all along” as a way for the CISF to enter politics. Ranaut took to her Instagram to voice her agreement.

“She strategically waited for me to cross her and in a signature Khalistani style quietly came behind and hit my face without saying a word when I asked why she did that, she looked away and started to speak into the phone cameras focused on her, hogging sudden public attention”.






Ranaut highlighted that the farming laws were repealed and didn’t concern anyone, claiming that Kaur’s move was “her way of joining [the] Khalistani bandwagon which is getting major political seats in Punjab”.

Khalistan refers to a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno-religious sovereign state called Khalistan in Punjab.

In a truly bizarre comparison, Ranaut also came after supporters of Palestine in her posts about the incident. “All eyes on Rafah gang, this can happen to you or your children as well… When you celebrate a terror attack on someone be ready for the day it comes back to you as well.”






In a since deleted Instagram story, the actor also called out the Bollywood fraternity for remaining silent about what happened to her. According to India Today, Ranaut said, “Dear film industry you all are either celebrating or are totally mum on the airport attack on me. Remember if tomorrow if you walking disarmingly on some street of your country or anywhere else in the world and some Israeli / Palestinian hits you or your children just because you tried to bring eyes to Rafah or stood up for Israeli hostage… then you will see I will be fighting for your rights of free speech, if someday you wonder why I am where I am remember you are not me.”

Devoleena Bhattacharjee, who played a second iteration of Gopi Bahu in the viral Indian drama Saath Nibhana Saathiya, was one of the few celebrities who spoke out about the incident. In a series of tweets, Bhattacharjee said, “It is not just a slap. It’s a matter of Indian security. It can be more dangerous than one can think of. Nothing less than a security threat, should be dealt like one.”






She added that the incident was “deeply troubling” and “such actions represent a severe breach of public trust and security protocols”.






Looks like things are going to get even more dramatic in the Indian political arena.

RUSSIA

THE RETURN OF DIPLOMACY?

Multipolarity, Sovereign Equality & the Rejection of Universalism

06.06.2024
Glenn Diesen

VALDAI CLUB
© Sputnik/Vitaly Ankov


Last autumn, President Putin outlined Russia’s six tenets of international relations. These can be summarised as developing an interconnected world that accommodates civilizational diversity, equal representation, and a balance of interest. The tenets represent a repudiation of the post-Cold War liberal hegemonic order based on alliances and universalism, in which the dominant state sets the framework and conditions for development.

Hegemonic systems proclaim to represent universal values to justify a system of sovereign inequality in which they demand the prerogative to rule over other peoples. While universalism is denounced for legitimising hegemony, it is also seen to undermine domestic stability as development must take into consideration distinctive civilisational characteristics.

These ideas have deep roots in Russian conservatism, which emphasises both the domestic and international necessity to reject universalism. Putin has previously presented his vision of Eurasian integration as a multipolar initiative that must accommodate civilizational distinctiveness:

“I want to stress that Eurasian integration will also be built on the principle of diversity. This is a union where everyone maintains their identity, their distinctive character and their political independence… We expect that it will become our common input into maintaining diversity and stable global development”.

Xi Jinping famously stated that the Soviet Union collapsed due to the “pursuit of historical nihilism, confusion of thought”, which was exacerbated by Russia developing along the Western model. Putin’s ideas of an interconnected world that preserves civilisational distinctiveness is shared China, which recognises that its rapid modernisation must be built on solid foundations of China’s 5000-year history. Xi launched China’s Global Civilisation Initiative that rejected universalism to the extent it legitimised sovereign inequality and a hierarchical ordering of superior civilisations versus inferior civilisations. In a speech about the Global Civilization Initiative, Xi argued:

“A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden… We advocate the respect for the diversity of civilizations. Countries need to uphold the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness among civilizations, and let cultural exchanges transcend estrangement, mutual learning transcend clashes, and coexistence transcend feelings of superiority."

Domestic Development

Conservatism recognises that disruptive socio-economic development must be anchored in the stability of the past. Each civilisation has a unique history and thus also a distinct path to development. The stability of the increasingly universal modern rests on the maintenance of the distinctive premodern.

Russian conservatism has subsequently advocated for rejecting a uniform and universal path to development. One of Putin’s favourite conservative thinkers, Nikolai Berdyaev, opined that “the conservative principle is not by itself opposed to development, it merely demands that development be organic, that the future does not destroy the past but continue to develop it”. Conservatism “unites the future with the past” and this link must not be severed."

Nikolai Danilevsky similarly warned against “the cultural domination of one cultural-historical type” as it would “deprive humanity of one of the necessary conditions for success and perfection – the element of diversity”. Dostoyevsky also cautioned that Russia’s obsession with the West’s path to development obstructed Russia from pursuing its organic path. Great powers benefit the world when they contribute something unique to the world, “be it only a single ray of light, because they have remained themselves, proud and steady, arrogantly independent" (Dostoyevsky 1986: 260).

Universalism also introduces stagnation and decay as it eliminates the competition and meritocracy of ideas. In ancient Greece, there was a reluctance to integrate the city-states and centralise power as universalism threatened the Hellenic idea of diversity of philosophy, wisdom, and leadership. Competition between city-states was the source of new ideas and vitality that elevated Greek civilisation that experimented with various forms of government. The US political system was influenced by the Greek city-states as power was decentralised down to the state level to limit the power at the federal level.

The International System

The modern world order, established at Westphalia in 1648, rejected universalism and accommodated cultural distinctiveness as the condition for a multipolar system of sovereign states. Claims by the Holy Roman Emperor to represent a universal monarchy based on Catholicism was the hegemonic to rule over all peoples. The principle of sovereign equality was cemented by accommodating cultural and religious distinctiveness, which implied their distinctive paths to development.

Seemingly benign intentions of universal values uniting humankind can also eviscerate sovereignty. Socrates announced he was a citizen of the world as an expression of a shared humanity and an appeal to the universality of mankind as opposed to confrontational tribalism. Yet, Alexander the Great appealed to the same sentiment of a “brotherhood of man” and “the unity of mankind” as he expanded his empire. Universalism presents a reasonable counterweight to moral and cultural relativism as some values are superior to others, although it must be balanced by internal differences and sovereignty.

The idealist internationalism of the French Revolution and Bolshevik Revolution purported to elevate universal human freedoms, although in the process undermined the principle of sovereignty. What began as genuine universalist causes eventually became subservient to national causes. Liberal hegemony followed the same path as universal values were linked to an entity of power pursuing hegemony. Liberalism carries with it the dual legacy of pacification and imperialism because it repudiates sovereign equality. The hierarchical ordering of states under a universal liberal banner legitmises an international system of sovereign inequality based on progress.

Under the liberal imperialism of the British, it was accepted that sovereignty was conditioned on a uniform approach to development. Sovereignty was the prerogative of civilised European states as underdeveloped barbarians were not deemed capable of the responsibility. Civilised states had both the right and responsibility to civilise barbaric peoples. The international system thus distinguished between Rudyard Kipling’s civilised “garden” and the barbaric “jungle”.

While there is a contradiction between hegemony and liberalism, many British liberals considered hegemony to be a requirement for advancing its universal ideals. The international system thus had to accommodate two sets of rules as a requirement when operating in the garden or the jungle. Case in point, John Stuart Mill argued:

“Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion”.

The arguments for liberal empire of the 19th century shared striking similarities with the arguments for liberal hegemony after the Cold War. The so-called rules-based international order has largely been based on sovereign inequality as the civilised versus barbarian divide has been replaced by the liberal democracies versus authoritarian divide. Robert Cooper, the British diplomat and advisor to Tony Blair, argued for a “new liberal imperialism” as “Among ourselves, we keep the law but when we are operating in the jungle, we must also use the laws of the jungle”.

While democracy and human rights were initially ideals to augment sovereignty and constrain power, they are instead cited to enable the use of force. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell similarly used the language of Kipling to infer the need for sovereign inequality and nation-building as the “gardener” had a moral obligation to cultivate the jungle:

Europe is a garden. We have built a garden… The rest of the world—and you know this very well, Federica—is not exactly a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden.... The gardeners have to go to the jungle. Europeans have to be much more engaged with the rest of the world. Otherwise, the rest of the world will invade us.

Russia’s rejection of unipolarity and universalism

In the 1990s, Russia’s post-communist distinctive communitarian identities should have been strengthened. Instead, Russia embarked on a universalist path to development in which it was weakened and could seemingly share the fate of the Soviet Union.

Based on a universal path to development, diplomacy was replaced with socialisation. The relationship between the West and Russia was conceptualised as that between a subject and an object or between a teacher and a student. Hegemony was portrayed as benevolent as the dominant West would selflessly take on the responsibility to civilise Russia toward universal values.

Traditional diplomacy and an equal partnership were rejected as NATO and the EU envisioned a pedagogic relationship in which Russia would be “socialised” by rewarding “good behaviour” and punishing “bad behaviour”. Cooperation entailed unilateral concessions by the student, while any concessions to Russia was depicted as “appeasement” and a betrayal of universal values.

While unipolarity was sustained by universalism and sovereign inequality, the multipolar world order will be built on principles like civilisational distinctiveness and diversity, equal representation and sovereign equality, and a balance of interest.

Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Alarming signs for press freedom under Pakistan’s new authorities

RSF urges Pakistan’s new federal and provincial authorities to adopt urgent measures to address the signs of an alarming deterioration in press freedom.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges Pakistan’s new federal and provincial authorities to adopt urgent measures to address the signs of an alarming deterioration in press freedom since they took office three months ago.

What with murders of journalists, an enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, censorship and social media blocking, everything points to a very disturbing decline in press freedom in the first three months since the new federal and provincial governments took over at the start of March following elections in February.

“The many press freedom violations reveal a climate of violence and a determination to censor that has little in common with the undertakings given by the political parties in their elections campaign manifestos, and the message of support for journalists by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The strategy of suppressing critical voices is becoming ever more visible, amid claims that the results of the election were tainted by fraud and continuing army interference in politics. Pakistan remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media personnel, and the level of impunity for murders of journalists is appalling. RSF reiterates its call to Pakistan’s new leaders at the national and provincial level to adopt urgent measures to restore press freedom.
Célia Mercier
Head of RSF’s South Asia desk

Murders of journalists

Kamran Dawar, a freelance journalist in the northwestern district of North Waziristan who ran a YouTube channel and a Facebook TV news channel called Waziristan TV, was murdered on 21 May, just weeks after telling colleagues he feared for his safety.

Nasrullah Gadani, a reporter for the Awami Awaz newspaper in the southern province of Sindh who criticised the feudal system in his region, was riddled with bullets by gunmen on a motorcycle the same day, and died of his injuries three days later.

Abduction by intelligence agents

Ali Ahmed Farhad Shah, a freelance journalist and poet who is very critical of the army and who comes from Azad Kashmir, the Pakistani part of the northeastern Jammu and Kashmir region, was abducted from his home in the capital, Islamabad, on 15 May. After his wife filed a legal petition, the Azad Kashmir police finally revealed that they were holding Shah because he had shared “provocative material” on Facebook during protests in the region – in which he did not participate because he was in Islamabad. An anti-terrorism court in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir’s capital, rejected a request for his release on bail on 4 June.

Arbitrary detentions, press clubs harassed

Sher Afgan, a journalist with the Bol News TV channel who is the president of the press club in Dera Ghazi Khan, a city in Punjab province, and Ghulam Mustafa, a reporter for the Daily Ausaf newspaper and president of the Anjuman-e-Sahafyan (Union of Journalists), were detained on 7 May for objecting to a police raid on the press club during a press conference by supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

On 18 May, police surrounded the press club in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern province of Balochistan, to prevent a Baloch group from holding a press conference about enforced disappearances.

Trumped-up charges against journalists forced to flee abroad

An absurd case against two journalists who have had to flee to the United States was revived by an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad at the end of May. The two journalists – YouTuber Wajahat Saeed Khan and Shaheen Sehbai, the former editor of The News International newspaper – have been subjected to trumped-up charges of conspiring to “weaken the army” and “increase terrorism” since June 2023.

New censorship measures

On 3 May, the federal government announced the creation of a National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to monitor online content.

The controversial Punjab Defamation Act of 2024 was passed by the Punjab provincial government on 20 May. Under this new law, proof of harm is not needed to bring defamation actions, impose fines on media and journalists, and block their accounts.

On 21 May, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) banned TV news channels from broadcasting information about “ongoing court cases” until a final verdict is announced. Nonetheless, in response to petitions by a journalists’ organisation, the Islamabad High Court and High Court of Sindh said in rulings issued in early June that journalists were free to cover court cases.

X blocked since February

Access to the social media platform X (the former Twitter) has been intermittently blocked on “national security” grounds since the general elections in early February. The aim has been to stifle any protests since the elections, which were marked by allegations of fraud.

Published on 07.06.2024 

 WELL OF COURSE THEY WOULD

AI to check cheating as record 13.42M Chinese students sit for college test

Locally known as ‘gaokao,’ college entrance test in China largest globally

Riyaz ul Khaliq |07.06.2024 -



ISTANBUL

Authorities are using artificial intelligence (AI) to check for cheating as a record 13.42 million students on Friday sat for the college entrance test across China, state media reported.

Known locally as “gaokao,” the test results determine students’ university admissions which eventually shape their future.

China’s Education Ministry said the number is a “record high” since matriculation resumed in 1977.

This year, 510,000 more students appeared in the test compared to last year, when around 12.91 million students sat for the largest exam in the world.

Authorities in the southern Guangdong province have put in place AI to check students for exam cheating.

Students in the province have to pass through two checks using detectors and a security machine gate.

The measures are designed to detect electronic devices.

Authorities installed intelligent inspection systems to monitor exam venues in the province, as well as radio signal shielding equipment to prevent cheating.

They also imposed measures to halt noise from traffic and construction sites to avoid disturbance to the students.

In the capital Beijing, at least 105 examination centers have been set up for prospective students, while at least seven provinces made changes to the examination pattern.

Prospective students write answers in three major subjects, including Chinese, mathematics, and foreign language, and they also have a choice between physics and history.

They are also required to choose among the subjects of ideology and politics, geography, chemistry, and biology.

There are special arrangements for around 11,000 students with special needs, including the creation of Braille exam papers.

Zelensky makes mild Israel criticism as Saudi Arabia 'boycotts' Ukraine conference

Ukraine's President Zelensky has been viewed as a supporter of Israel throughout the Gaza war, although there has been a change in his discourse.

The New Arab Staff
03 June, 2024


Zelensky has appealed to Israel for military support throughout the war [Getty]

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has made a veiled criticism of Israel's war on Gaza, calling on Israel to respect humanitarian law as the death toll rises to more than 36,479 Palestinians killed.

Zelensky has been a vocal supporter of Israel during his presidency and since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has repeatedly called on it to provide it with material support and reminded Tel Aviv of Moscow's 'alliance' with Iran.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore this weekend, Zelensky appeared to change his discourse on Israel's war on Gaza.

"Ukraine said that if Hamas terrorists attacked civilians on the first day of their attack on Israel, then Israel has the right to defend itself," Zelensky said, according to The Kyiv Independent.

"And after that, when Israel was in Gaza and there was a humanitarian crisis, Ukraine said: Firstly, we are ready to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.

"Secondly, we must respect international law. Thirdly, Ukraine recognises two states, both Israel and Palestine and will do everything it can to convince Israel to stop, to end this conflict and prevent the suffering of civilians."

Zelensky also said Ukraine was ready to support Gaza with humanitarian aid and stressed Kyiv's recognition of Palestine as a state.

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The comments appear to mark a change in the Ukrainian president's public posturing about the war on Gaza, where hospitals, homes, and refugee camps have been bombed.

Zelemsky has compared Hamas's 7 October attacks in southern Israel to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and referred to Hamas as "terrorists".

Since the 2022 invasion, the Ukrainian president has repeatedly called on Israel to end its "neutrality" regarding the Ukraine war and firmly back it against Russia.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shared close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and taken a less critical line on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine than Western countries.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will stay away from a peace conference for Ukraine in Switzerland due to the absence of Russian delegates, Moscow media has claimed.

The Swiss government had invited 160 delegates to a conference on Ukraine in Burgenstock but Russian officials were not included, leading Riyadh to step back, according to TASS.

Zelensky was reportedly due to visit Saudi Arabia earlier this month to shore up Riyadh's support but this has been cancelled, according to the same report. The New Arab could not verify the claims.

Saudi Arabia has played a role in negotiations in the Ukraine war, having good relations with both sides. In August 2023 it held a summit for Ukraine hoping to find common ground and played a role in a hostage exchange between Kyiv and Moscow.

MIOGYNISTIC FEMICIDE ATTEMPT

Danish PM Mette Frederiksen 'hit' by man in Copenhagen

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was on Friday "hit" by a man on a Copenhagen square, with EU leaders quickly condemning the incident

SHE WAS PUSHED NOT HIT

"A man came by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the side," the two women told the newspaper.

WAS PUSHING NOT SINISTER ENOUGH FOR THE HEADLINE

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
08 June, 2024

Mette Frederiksen was attacked in a Copenhagen square on Friday evening [Getty]

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was on Friday "hit" by a man on a Copenhagen square, her office said, with EU chiefs quickly condemning the attack.

The Danish prime minister's office said in a statement to AFP that Frederiksen was "shocked by the incident", but did not provide further details.

"Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was hit by a man Friday evening on Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was subsequently arrested," the statement said.

The incident comes on the heels of a spate of attacks on politicians from across the political spectrum at work or on the campaign trail in Germany ahead of this week's EU elections.

On May 15, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot four times at close range as he greeted supporters after a government meeting in the central town of Handlova.

Fico, who survived the assassination attempt, was taken to a hospital in a nearby city after the shooting, where he underwent two lengthy surgeries.

Two witnesses, Marie Adrian and Anna Ravn, told newspaper BT that they had seen Frederiksen arrive at the square while they were sitting by a nearby fountain just before 6:00 pm (1600 GMT)

"A man came by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the side," the two women told the newspaper.

They said that while it was a "strong push" Frederiksen did not hit the ground.

According to the witnesses, the prime minister then continued to sit down at a nearby cafe.

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'Despicable act'

They described the man as tall and slim and said he had tried to hurry away but had not gotten far before being grabbed and pushed to the ground by men in suits.

EU chief Charles Michel and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Friday slammed the attack on Frederiksen.

Metsola urged the Danish head of government to "keep strong", while adding in a post to X that "violence has no place in politics."

Michel in turn said he was "outraged by the assault".

"I strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression," the European Council president said in a separate post to X.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also condemned what she called a "despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe", in a statement to social media.

Copenhagen police confirmed that an incident involving the prime minister had occurred but did not provide further details.

"We have one person arrested in the case, which we are now investigating. At this time, we have no further comments or remarks on the case," police said in a statement on X.

"I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her," Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke said in a post to social media.

"Something like this must not happen in our beautiful, safe and free country," he said.

Zanzibar commemorates abolition of slavery for first time

Issued on: 07/06/2024

 

Video by: Bastien RENOUIL

On Thursday, for the first time, Zanzibar, commemorated the abolition of slavery. The island is part of Tanzania and was a key stopping off point for Arab slavers across east Africa. At one point domestic slavery is thought to have expanded to the point that two thirds of the population were slaves. France 24’s Bastien Renouil attended the day of remembrance.