From Hong Kong to Taiwan: Investigating Social Movements and Controversies

In the past week, BBC Chinese and above news content has attracted the attention of readers. If you missed them, we’ll take you through them all.

On the 34th anniversary of the “June 4th” incident in 1989, no candlelight rally was held in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park for the fourth consecutive year. Since daytime, a large number of police forces have been stationed in Causeway Bay, and anti-terrorism special forces have also dispatched patrols.

In 2019, the “anti-extradition” movement in Hong Kong was officially classified as a “color revolution”, and the “National Security Law” marked Hong Kong’s “second return”. BBC Chinese interviewed front-line personnel in various fields such as education, media, and civil servants. They all said that they felt the earth-shaking changes, and pointed out that the government is transforming Hong Kong culturally.

In addition, after the “anti-revision” movement in Hong Kong began in 2019, a large number of young people were arrested and imprisoned for related protests. BBC Chinese interviewed two “anti-revision” movement demonstrators who were released from prison, as well as a support network that helps people imprisoned for social movement cases.

Thousands of people were evacuated downstream of a key Ukrainian dam in Russian-occupied territory this week after it was blown up. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of being the culprit for blowing up the dam.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 80 towns and villages could be submerged after the Nova Kakhovka dam was destroyed, which he blamed on Russia. The roiling waters are pouring into the Dnieper and are said to have posed a fatal flood risk to the city of Kherson.

Russia denies destroying the dam it controls and blames Ukrainian shelling for it.

Kiev and Moscow have blamed each other for the dam breach, claims by the warring parties have not been confirmed by the BBC.

Women who are sexually assaulted on public transport across East Asia face another risk: the predator secretly filming the groping and selling the footage online. After more than a year of investigation, the BBC International Channel investigation team “BBC Eye” used undercover methods to expose the behind-the-scenes men who profited from sexual violence.

In one of the largest corruption cases in the snooker world, Chinese players Liang Wenbo and Li Xing were involved in match-fixing and were banned for life by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).

The other eight Chinese players involved in the case admitted to misconduct in relevant investigations and were sentenced to suspensions ranging from 20 months to 5 years.

Among the 10 people involved, the highest ranked in the world is the 11th former British Championship champion Zhao Xintong. He was suspended for 1 year and 8 months, and the 2021 Masters champion Yan Bingtao was suspended for 5 years.

The charges in the case include match-fixing, match-fixing, instigating other players to cheat and betting.

This week, a tsunami of “sexual harassment” allegations hit Taiwanese politics.

Relevant real-name allegations first appeared within the Democratic Progressive Party, and then a senior media person accused the KMT of sexual harassment on behalf of the Democratic Party. The issue of sexual harassment became an unexpected storm shortly after the start of Taiwan’s presidential election.

But the controversy has also spread to the academic and literary circles. In recent days, many people have been accused, including Wang Dan, a Chinese “June 4th” pro-democracy activist who is a visiting assistant professor at Tsinghua University in Taiwan, and Bei Ling, an exiled writer who visited Taiwan. Both have denied the allegations.

Other cases include an associate professor at Taiwan National Chung Cheng University, a professor at National Taiwan University Hospital, Ke Wenzhe Qian Wendan, Chairman of the People’s Party, a scholar at a KMT think tank, a documentary director, and a former local newspaper executive, etc. The issue of sexual harassment in Taiwan continues to rage.

Most of these accused persons deny the relevant allegations and say they are willing to clarify through judicial channels. BBC Chinese was unable to independently verify the allegations.