Americans are talking past each other. Very simple explainer: When Republicans say "socialism," they mean "communism." When left-of-center people say "socialism," they mean "Social Democrat" policies like those in western and northern Europe.
Bethany Allen 貝書穎
@bethanyallen.bsky.social
China, AI, technology, and authoritarianism. Currently ASPI. Was Axios, Foreign Policy, Yale, Johns Hopkins-Nanjing. Author BEIJING RULES, Financial Times Best Books of 2023. Robert Lewis Watchdog Award, Batten Medal for Courage in Journalism finalist
China is framing the worship of ancient deity Mazu—which is practiced on both sides of the Taiwan Strait—as evidence that Taiwan and China are “one family."
Beijing Is Trying to Turn Taiwan’s Sea Goddess Into a Chinese Agent
China wants to use the ancient deity Mazu to push unification narratives.
foreignpolicy.com
Yet another example of system convergence between the US and China: The US Department of Homeland Security has issued rules dramatically limiting visa stays for foreign correspondents in the U.S. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Trump administration drastically cuts length of foreign journalist visas
Visas will be shortened to 240 days, down from five years, and Chinese journalists will be limited to 90 days
theguardian.com
NEW: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification ProPublica conducted a new analysis that shows the court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in largely unsigned orders with little to no explanation.
A Troubling Milestone: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification
ProPublica conducted a new analysis that shows the court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in largely unsigned orders with little to no explanation.
propublica.org
Scoop via my ASPI colleague @colvap.bsky.social: New job postings from DeepSeek show it plans to build an agentic model that can find vulnerabilities in code. The postings show DeepSeek's new strategy following Anthropic's release of Mythos. www.aspistrategist.org.au/deepseek-pla...
Job ads show DeepSeek aims for an AI agent with cybersecurity capabilities | The Strategist
New job postings from DeepSeek show the Chinese AI lab plans to build an agentic model that can find vulnerabilities in code. These details, buried in a hiring round, show DeepSeek’s new strategy foll...
aspistrategist.org.au
Good to see Chinese stand-up comedian Chizi, banned at home for refusing to stay inside the lines, plans on taking his act to Australia.
Banned by Beijing, this comedian is taking his act to Chinese speakers abroad
Chizi, one of China’s biggest stand-up comedians, has found a new stage after falling afoul of China's censors.
bbc.com
Reuters: Justice ministry says China has a right to target people overseas with new ethnic unity law – ‘The overseas provision targets illegal acts and uses rule-of-law methods to “guard against various unlawful acts involving ethnic affairs from outside the country”, he added.’
China says it has a right to target people overseas with new ethnic unity law
China has a right to target people outside of its borders who contravene its new law on ethnic unity, a senior official said on Wednesday, adding that this was in line with international practice, an...
reuters.com
also not lost on me that as democratic socialists are winning some elections, a new red scare targeting anarchists, antifascists, and their allies is digging in hard, and today handed down 30, 50, and 100 year prison sentences to activists and organizers
If you visit Tiananmen Square in Beijing and make the wrong hand sign or take a photo that the guards feel is too edgy, you can be arrested.
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 2mo agoNoticing a piece of the new “American flag blue” liner that was partially detached from the Reflecting Pool, David Hearn said he reached in to see what it felt like. Moments later, U.S. Park Police officers arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property. wapo.st/4xVNzcS
I would like for national media outlets to start treating the rise of Islamophobia in Texas as the five-alarm fire that it so obviously is.
Look what I found: After USAID's Food for Peace program was moved to the USDA last year, Food for Peace seems to have stripped food aid from all Muslim-majority countries. To this amazing chart from the Council on Foreign Relations, I added a column showing the % of the population that is Muslim:
And yet another thread from me debunking extremely compromised China influence research, this time from the National Association of Scholars, an ideologically hard-right organization.
Kudos to @bethanyallen.bsky.social for the public service. Serious researchers on "China influence" and "China human rights" should speak out against this kind of slop to protect the integrity of the space. Work like this makes all of us look bad to outsiders.
Bethany Allen 貝書穎@bethanyallen.bsky.social · 2mo agoI increasingly find that my primary role in the "China influence" space these days is to debunk a lot of very, very poor quality "China influence" research reports that have been coming out.
I increasingly find that my primary role in the "China influence" space these days is to debunk a lot of very, very poor quality "China influence" research reports that have been coming out.
The problem is that “I am often scared and angry about social change” does not inherently lend itself to interesting art. You can be as technically skilled as the greats, but art with nothing interesting to say is just a commodity.
The fundamentalist-modernist controversy never ended, and it sure looks like the Texas Senate race is gonna make what has often functioned as subtext between the Christian traditions just, like, context.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo agoPaxton: "He's a threat to our very way of life. I mean, he's a vegan who thinks God is nonbinary."
Bo French still narrowly ahead in the runnoff for Railroad Commission, a position he has vowed to use in his war against Islam.
Robert Downen@robertdownen.bsky.social · 2mo agoTonight Texas might get its first open Rhodesian candidate for statewide office.
Pleased to see that Anthropic's new policy paper on China cites my team's research as foundational evidence for the company's policy position. www.anthropic.com/research/202...
A Chinese military court issued suspended death sentences for corruption to Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, two former defense ministers, punctuating a broad purge of China’s armed forces that has ousted most of the high command. www.wsj.com/world/china/...
China Hands Suspended Death Sentences to Former Defense Ministers for Corruption
The pair were among dozens of senior military figures ousted in the most extensive purges since the Mao era.
wsj.com
The new U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy just casually slips in this little conspiracy theory here: justthenews.com/sites/defaul...
SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT 📢 We're pleased to announce that Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Defence, will speak at the 2026 ASPI Defence Conference in Canberra on 25 June. Tickets are limited, secure your place now. 🎫 Register: bit.ly/4tFfPhn
Big news on the transnational repression beat: RightsCon, the world's biggest digital human rights conference, has been CANCELED just days before it was set to begin in Lusaka, Zambia. The government of Zambia — which signed an agreement with China on April 24 — canceled it:
In our latest episode, author @bethanyallen.bsky.social joined us to discuss China's authoritarian economic statecraft and the China-Australia trade war. Allen reflects on changes to China's geopolitical strategy post-pandemic amidst Australia's push to investigate the origins of COVID-19. (1/2)
The Democratic Party headquarters in Abilene, Texas— my hometown—has been vandalized in a targeted attack, according to local news KTXS. The attack appeared to target the party's support for the LGBTQ community, as Pride flags and related items were destroyed or removed. ktxs.com/news/local/t...
Taylor County Democratic Party headquarters vandalized in targeted attack
The Taylor County Democratic Party headquarters in Abilene was broken into and vandalized overnight on Jan. 16.
ktxs.com
NEW from me: In MN, George Floyd-era faith networks have reignited after Renee Good's killing by ICE. They often partner w/others: last night, a church, brewery & bookstore hosted an event. If you showed up w/a whistle (to warn people of ICE), you got a free drink. religionnews.com/2026/01/11/i...
In Minneapolis, George Floyd-era faith networks reignite after Renee Good's killing by ICE
MINNEAPOLIS (RNS) — The faith-based networks, which developed organizing infrastructure and relationships during the Floyd era, are joined by newcomers as resistance efforts have intensified following...
religionnews.com