Ukrainian Woman Weds Chicago Fiancé Ahead Of Return Home

CHICAGO — 

When Russia invaded her home country of Ukraine, Maria decided she had to get there and help defend it — even if it meant leaving her fiancé behind in Chicago days after getting married.

Maria and her fiancé, David, married Saturday before about 20 people in the backyard of an Oak Park home — the venue offered last minute after Maria asked for advice in a neighborhood Facebook group. The couple met last year and got engaged in October.

On Monday, she plans to fly to Poland, then make her way to the Ukrainian border, ultimately aiming to volunteer to fight for her home country.

“People are running out of there and she is running in,” said a friend at the wedding, Pamela Chinchilla of Lombard.

Seven guests at the wedding brought medical supplies, masks and other items for Maria to take to Ukraine. People hugged each other, and Maria at one point spoke with family members in Odesa.

Maria, who asked that her last name not be published because she fears for her family’s safety in Ukraine and the U.S., said she lived with her parents in Kyiv until 1991 when the family moved to Poland.

For Maria, a previous marriage ended in divorce. She met her ex-husband while studying music in Austria and more than 20 years ago they moved to his hometown of Chicago — which has the second-largest Ukrainian-born population among U.S. cities.

Since the war began, she used messages and calls through Facebook to keep in touch with her parents, who have been sheltering in a parking garage during attacks on Ukraine’s largest port city of Odesa. But she said she has been unable to reach cousins in Kyiv in recent days.

Pamela Chinchilla looks through donations before Maria and David get married at a home, March 5, 2022, in Oak Park, Ill.

Three days into the invasion, Maria made up her mind to return to Ukraine, determined to find some way to be useful. She said she doesn’t have medical or military training but worries that a Russian takeover of Ukraine will embolden the country to threaten more places around the world.

“I have to go,” Maria, 44, said. “I can’t do protests or fundraising or wave flags. We’ve done this since 2015, Ukrainians, and I just can’t do it anymore.”

Her fiancé refused to stay behind despite Maria’s resistance to him accompanying her. But since David first needs to apply for a passport, she plans to leave Monday and wait in Poland before crossing the border.

“He knows how stubborn I am and knew he’d have no chance to convince me otherwise,” Maria said.

David, 42, said he feels a responsibility to do what he can to keep her safe.

“Because complacency and compliance are pretty much the same thing,” he said. “And you can only turn a blind eye to people being bullied for so long. And if it happens to them, it might be you next.”

He also asked that his last name not be published to avoid endangering Maria’s family.

Ukraine’s forces are outnumbered and outgunned, but their resistance did prevent a swift Russian victory. Ukrainian leaders called on citizens to join in guerrilla war this week as Russian forces gained ground on the coast and took over one major port city.

Associated Press reporters at the border checkpoint in Medyka in southeastern Poland found Ukrainians lining up to return from other countries in Europe in recent days in response to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call for volunteers to come assist the country’s military.

The White House has since urged Americans not to travel to Ukraine, but Maria and David said that didn’t change their plans.

Newlywed Maria toasts with friends during her wedding ceremony at a home, March 5, 2022, in Oak Park, Ill.

The couple had planned to be married at a courthouse on March 5, a nod to Maria’s grandmother’s birthday.

After deciding they would try to reach Ukraine, they accepted the offer to hold a backyard celebration. They also asked people to purchase items needed by Ukrainian troops through an Amazon list that includes rain ponchos, medical supplies and boots rather than wedding gifts.

Maria said she’s not certain what she will have to do after arriving at the Polish border with Ukraine; friends who live near border crossings have told her it’s taking days to get through. Her parents also questioned her decision to volunteer, she said, because they don’t want to be worried about her safety on top of their own.

“If the army doesn’t take us, we’ll be as close as possible,” Maria said Wednesday. “There’s always a need for volunteers. I’m pretty strong, I’m not afraid of blood, I’m good under pressure.”

Natalia Blauvelt, a Chicago immigration attorney who has assisted dozens of clients trying to help family leave Ukraine and Russia in recent weeks, said she hasn’t heard of others seeking to get into Ukraine in order to join the country’s defense.

But she advised that anyone considering it contact the Ukrainian Embassy in the U.S. and speak with an immigration attorney to talk through plans for returning to the U.S.

Pereira: face-to-face Holy Week would return this 2022 - Other Cities - Colombia

After two years of pause in the processions and activities of the Holy Week on Pereirathis year all the celebrations will be held again, as revealed by the mayor of the city, Carlos Maya.

“As a result of the progress in the vaccination process and social, economic and productive recovery in the city of Pereira, we have decided to reactivate Holy Week as an alternative to encounter God and also to promote tourism and generate more employment,” said Maya.

The live processions and other liturgical celebrations that take place in the city are recognized in the country and have become one of the tourist attractions of Pereira.

“The pandemic took away many things from us, including loved ones, some customs and moments to share with others such as Easter. This process, added to the elimination of the mask in public spaces thanks to the vaccination process, will guarantee that normalization of the social, economic and productive life of all Pereirans,” said the president.

Hence, the Mayor’s Office of Pereira announced that it will join efforts to celebrate the religious acts of the Holy Week between April 10 and 16.

For his part, the Bishop of the Diocese of Pereira, Monsignor Rigoberto Corredor, confirmed that the events will return to face-to-face events. However, “it will be ensured that biosecurity care is maintained in closed sites.”

Corredor pointed out that the lyrical balconies and 14 concerts will return in various parishes in the city. In addition, it was learned that the bishop will be directing all the celebrations of the Holy Week.

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The evolution of the covid allows sporting events to return to 100% capacity

The good evolution of the sixth wave of covid in Spain allows a return to 100% capacity for sporting events from March 4. The worst data is deaths, this Wednesday 444

The Minister of Health Carolina Darías, during the press conference after the meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, this Wednesday at the Palacio de la Moncloa, in Madrid. EFE/Rodrigo Jimenez

The Interterritorial Health Council has known the date to recover 100% the capacity of sporting events, outdoors and indoors, maintaining the use of a mask, without eating or drinking during these events.

It was announced by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, at the usual press conference after the Health Councils, in which the councilors of the autonomous communities participate.

The minister has verified the good evolution of the pandemic.

The accumulated incidence and the pressure on hospitals continue to fall

Today’s data on the evolution of the covid encrypts 37,108 cases, completing a total of 10,744,394.

Of all these cases since the coronavirus broke out almost two years ago, almost 4.5 million have been in the sixth wave, which began its development at the beginning of last December, Darias pointed out.

The accumulated incidence, number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants, has continued to drop today, and stands at 1,060, more than 80 points less than yesterday.

At the head of the incidence is Galicia (1,682), with six places below a thousand: Andalusia (473), the lowest figure; Canary Islands (531); Melilla (683); Madrid (788); Castile-La Mancha (795) and Ceuta (836).

By age groups, the highest incidence is found in the age group between 12 and 19 years (1,564), and the lowest between 60 and 69 (630).

covid in hospitals

The wide drop in pressure in hospitals due to covid continues.

Today’s data counts 10,898 patients on the ward for SARS-CoV-2 (yesterday, 11,438). They are 8.7 percent of the total and 540 less.

In the ucis 1,372 patients are encrypted this Wednesday (yesterday, 1,459). They are 14.7 percent of the total covid patients in intensive care units and 87 less.

Patients admitted for coronavirus in 24 hours in health centers are still much less than those who are discharged. Today compared to 1,058 admissions, 1,639 discharges.

PCR positivity continues to fall as well. Today it figures 25.1 percent (yesterday, 26.8%).

Deaths

Deaths from covid continue to be the worst data of the sixth wave. Today there are 444 deaths, which places the official global death toll since the pandemic began at 97,350.

The minister has offered lethality data comparing different waves of the virus.

The sixth wave, with almost 4.5 million infections so far, has registered 6,589 deaths, with a fatality rate of 0.15 percent, which contrasts with the third wave, between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, which with 1 .4 million cases represented 24,321 deaths and a lethality of 1.68%.

According to these data from the minister, the fifth wave, which affected groups of young people more, had 1.2 million cases and 5,600 deaths.

Vaccines

Carolina Darias has also given data on vaccination and has reiterated that “vaccines work.”

• 91 percent of those over 12 years of age are vaccinated with the full schedule.

• 92 percent of those over 60 years of age have the booster dose of immunization, a third dose also having 78% of those over 40 years of age.

• 56.5% of children between 5 and 11 years old have received the first dose of the anticovid vaccine.

The minister has made an appeal not to slow down the vaccination of children under 12 years of age.

Futsal fans in a match in early February 2022/EFE/Natalia Aguilar

The engagement ring: Belinda could be forced to return the 3 million dollar jewel to Nodal

Belinda’s engagement ring, which Christian Nodal gave her, is the new focus of the couple’s breakup. With an estimated value of $3 million, many wonder if the singer will be obligated to return the piece of jewelry, given that she is not getting married.

One of the first to talk about the subject was the presenter Galilea Montijo, who advised the artist not to return the ring. “I have always said, the rings do not return, the stones stay, the men leave,” she said on her television show.

However, it may not be as easy for Belinda as deciding if she wants to keep the ring or not, as there are laws that determine what happens when an engagement is broken off.

According to the Who portal, Mexican law establishes what is called a conditional gift, which is a present that is given to someone, but is subject to conditions. If those conditions are not met, the person giving the gift is in a position to ask for it back.

Article 230 of the Federal Penal Code reads: “Antennuptial donations will be without effect if the marriage ceases to take place.”

So far the two celebrities have not declared what will happen to the jewel. Many celebrities have chosen to return their rings or sell them, because they do not want to have that memory of a failed relationship.

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The so-called “curse” of Belinda’s engagement ring

Belinda’s engagement ring is a giant 12-carat emerald-cut diamond set in a ring surrounded by 250 smaller stones, created by Angel City Jewelers, which set the value of the piece at three million dollars.

Nodal gave that ring to Belinda in May 2021, at the exclusive Salvaje restaurant in Barcelona, ​​Spain, which he fully rented for the occasion, for a value of 25 thousand euros. Unfortunately, the love ended in February 2022, and neither party has said why.

Much has been said about this separation, and the most superstitious have the theory that emerald-cut rings attract bad luck. They assure that the celebrities who have received jewelry in this way do not manage to get married or end their relationship on bad terms.

They cite as examples the ring from Alex Rodríguez to Jennifer López, an emerald cut with a value of 1.8 million dollars; Mariah Carey’s with James Packer, valued at $8 million; and the Kim Kardashian with Kanye West, which was robbed and the couple ended up in divorce.

Do you think Belinda should return Nodal’s engagement ring?

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30 Years On, China Observer Schell Sees Return to Past

WASHINGTON — 

Working with the famous Chinese dissident Harry Wu, long-term China observer Orville Schell first encountered forced labor in China three decades ago. Pretending to be a businessman interested in items for export to America, Wu and reporters from the CBS News show 60 Minutes shot hidden camera footage of prisoners forced to make the products.

More recently, China has repeatedly denied the current use of Uyghur forced labor; evidence continues to point to the contrary.

Last month, Schell brought the issue to the fore again when The Wire China published an article, Changeless China?, based on an edited version of Schell’s diary from that investigation with Wu.

VOA Mandarin spoke with Schell about what’s happening today in China. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What you did with CBS in 1991 is so impressive and unthinkable.

A: You couldn’t do it today. You wouldn’t even get off the plane. It’s unthinkable. You can understand why the Communist Party under (President Xi Jinping) increased control, because they’re aware that if they don’t control everybody in China and foreigners outside China as well, they will start doing things like this. They are becoming more savvy, and the logic of their savviness is more control.

Q: China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. What do you think of it being described as “genocide”?

A: I don’t particularly like the use of the word “genocide.” I don’t think it describes what’s actually happening. Genocide does so irrevocably (go) back to the Holocaust in Europe during the ’30s and ’40s.

I think what’s going on in Xinjiang is quite different, not less pernicious in a way. But it has less to do with actually killing people, as the Germans did in the labor camps, and more to do with something that is very uniquely Chinese Communist, namely trying to change the thinking, religion, the cultural habits of the Uyghurs, the Muslims, the other minority in China.

That is a new kind of technocracy, which we are not familiar with. It’s very uniquely Chinese. It needs a new name. I think it’s very dangerous, and (it) certainly violates many fundamental principles of individual rights that liberal democratic countries cherish, but it is not a cutout of Holocaust and genocidal experiences we’ve seen in Rwanda, Armenia and Europe.

Q: Do you think China’s Xinjiang policy is effective?

A: Will this kind of techno autocratic “thought reform” and detention sort of experience work? I don’t know the answer to that. It probably will work in the short run. Whether it’ll work in the long run is another question.

Because if you believe as I do, human beings fundamentally would like to have lives as free as possible within a reasonable social contract. Then you have to assume what’s going on in Xinjiang is really making people unhappy. Everybody is scared.

And that is the power of the Chinese Communist Party – people are scared. They don’t want to talk out, they don’t want to get in trouble. But history shows that governments that rule by fear rather than by assent tend to be short-lived and not tremendously durable.

Q: It’s difficult for the outside world to get the full picture in Xinjiang, especially on forced labor.

A: It’s doubly difficult because what the Chinese Communist Party is doing is not transparent.

I think some camps are closing down, I think there are people who were released last year.

I think the Chinese Communist Party does listen to what foreigners say, what the foreign media says, foreign governments say. But on the other hand, I think they’re very reluctant to let go of these tools of control.

This is what the Communist Party knows how to do. If there is a problem, control is always the answer.

Q: Do you think what’s going on in today’s China is inevitable? How much does it have to do with the current leadership’s own mindset?

A: I think it certainly has a lot to do with the character and logical nature of Xi Jinping. He was a child of the Cultural Revolution, and we now get a return to the past.

He never went abroad, doesn’t speak a foreign language, does not feel comfortable with foreign companies. He is not a cosmopolitan person. He is very insecure, very insular, he’s very “tu.” (“unsophisticated” in Mandarin Chinese)

So he didn’t want to become absorbed into the global order. He wanted to go above it. Xi Jinping just happened to come at a time China did have acquired sufficiency and power.

Q: Are you optimistic at all looking at where China is going now?

I feel, having watched (China) for a long, long time – I first started studying (it) in the late 1950s – I feel (Xi’s failure to adapt to change) is one of the greatest tragedies in modern history.

China, just as it gained the power and wealth, and the influence, the ability to be respected by the world, instead of joining the world order, and enjoying this immense success that Chinese people have accomplished, it is now making everybody feel uncomfortable, it’s antagonizing one country after another, and it’s rallying all of the states in Asia into a very serious tension, and possible military clashes toward a war. That is one of the great tragedies of any country in the past century, particularly in Asia.

From Sunday cycle paths return in Valle del Cauca - Cali - Colombia

Starting this Sunday, the spaces for cycle paths will return in Cali and Valle del Cauca that had not been able to be fully developed due to the advance of the fourth peak of the pandemic.

Vallecaucanos can enjoy various health, recreation and sports alternatives.

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With a proposal of sports, physical activity and entertainment for the whole family, the ‘Ciclovida’ will return to Cali starting this weekend.

In total there will be about 38 kilometers of route in which Caleños and visitors will be able to carry out activities such as going for a walk, jogging, riding a bicycle and rollerblades, and all kinds of movements outdoors.

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In addition to this, the Department of Sports and Recreation is scheduled to hold special aerorumba, functional and cardio box classes.

“The invitation to all Caleños is to attend the ‘Ciclovida’ this weekend, a family space where you can share with children, parents, friends and the whole family. This is one of the most important free programs that the Mayor’s Office of Cali has, so that we all continue adding kilometers of life”, said Carlos Diago, Secretary of Sports and Recreation of the city.

The Ciclovida will be held in different parts of the city.

The Ciclovida will be held in different parts of the city.

The Ciclovida will be held in different parts of the city.

The central section that the ‘Ciclovida’ will have includes the Suroriental highway, 9th street and El Ingenio. To this route will be added the route of the Pascual Guerrero stadium, one of the initiatives of the Secretary of Sport starting this year.

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“’Ciclovida’ is a biosecure space, where everyone can carry out recreational and sports activities to improve their mental and physical health. The recommendation is to use the personal biosafety kit and arrive with all the energy”, the official pointed out.

The ‘Ciclovida’ also has sections in the following sectors: Terrón Colorado, Brisas/Guaduales, Torres de Comfandi, Petecuy, Las Américas, Corredor Verde Station, Sol de Oriente, Ciudad de Cali, San Carlos/La Fortaleza and Bochalema.

The Invincible Valley Cycleway returns

This Sunday, between 6 and 11:30 am, the Valle Invencible Cycleway will return to the Cali – Palmira line.

From 6 am you can enjoy the 38 kilometers of the Valle Invencible Cycleway.

It will be a circuit of 38 kilometers in length with a wide range of sports, recreation and entertainment.

“As Governor Clara Luz Roldán announced, we started with our bike lane with different activations at each of the stations, but with the special recommendation that we must continue to take care of ourselves with all biosafety protocols, attend with face masks and use alcohol, always seeking care and generating citizen culture”, explained the manager of Invervalle, Carlos Felipe López López.

CALI

Barranquilla: return to face-to-face classes Monday, January 31 - Barranquilla - Colombia

Motivated to return, to recover learning and to reconnect with colleagues. This is how the educational community is in the return to face-to-face classes 2022, which will take place this Monday in Barranquilla.

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As reported by the District, during the same week that children and young people return to classrooms, expansion works will be delivered to three District Educational Institutions (IED).

Being able to reach all schools so that our students, teachers, teaching directors and principals have decent places

He added that this is part of the action plan of the district administration for the return to attendance, which in addition to educational infrastructure, includes programs and strategies educational quality.

“We are working to continue giving good news in terms of educational infrastructure and to be able to reach all schools so that our students, teachers, teaching directors and principals have decent places to teach and learn,” said Mayor Jaime Pumarejo.

Since 2021 they are in intervention 160 locations Of the 154 official schools (some schools have more than one campus), improvement works were also completed in 28 and work began in 14 schools, according to official figures.

“We are going to be here ready to work hand in hand, continue listening and continue collaborating so that this is a return to hope, to life, to postponed dreams,” said the district president.

With respect to vaccination against covid-19 in childhood, the city is in first place in the range of children between 3 and 11 years old, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

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The learning plan

Thinking about educational quality, the Secretary of Education, Bibiana Rincón, stressed that joint work has been carried out with FDI to achieve the learning recovery in this new stage.

In this sense, three fundamental pillars were designed: students with strengthened socio-emotional skills; teachers and schools with inclusive, innovative, student-centered pedagogical practices; and families and community with an active role in education.

The foregoing, according to the official report, will be developed through an action plan that also points to the gap closure, improving the learning of all children and adolescents so that they have the same opportunities to achieve complete educational trajectories.

Among the programs implemented by the District is ‘Soy Bilingüe’, which will reach 121 official schools in 2022, teaching English as a foreign language from transition, as an innovative method at the national level.

BARRANQUILLA

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Rural schools in Sucre, without guarantees to return to classes due to covid - Other Cities - Colombia

For the Association of Educators of Sucre -Ades-, the Educational Institutions of the 26 municipalities of Sucre They do not have biosafety guarantees for the health of teachers, students and managers in relation to covid-19.

This was expressed by the president of the association, Ubaldo Corrales, who, accompanied by other officials of the entity, toured the towns and were able to see first-hand what they are facing.

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“What we verified is that in the vast majority of Educational Institutions there is not even water, the sanitary units are not in the best conditions and in some establishments these modules, in relation to the number of students they have, are not enough to house them” , He said.

Biosecurity is not possible

Who is going to provide masks, liquid soap, disposable towels, everything that is needed to maintain minimal biosecurity

He pointed out that it is also necessary to draw the attention of local leaders, mayors and governors, because the Ministry of Health no longer talks about biosafety elements.

“Who is going to provide masks, liquid soap, disposable towels, everything that is needed to maintain biosecurity at a minimum,” he said.

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He specified that they are going to return to the Educational Institutions requesting the rectors and directors, that where the conditions are not met, they pronounce themselves in writing to the Secretary of Education, with a copy to the Attorney General’s Office, the Comptroller’s Office and control entities in general.

“We have to save responsibilities, because things could be presented to regret,” said the president of the Ades, “he said.

we have to go back

… they must review the context of the school and in that sense see if there are, or not, the conditions for the return when it is in a fourth peak of the pandemic

The president of the Ubaldo Corrales Teachers’ Association stated that beyond any situation the idea is to return to the classrooms in Educational Institutions.

“From educational establishments, direct councils, parent associations, teachers and directors themselves must review the context of the school and in that sense see if there are, or not, the conditions for the return when it is in a fourth peak of the pandemic,” he noted.

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He requested that anomalies be notified through a statement so that a commission from the Secretaries and the Ministry reviews the education entities and checks their status.

No water in Sucre schools

There are schools that have a tank for
sink of 20 liters of water, with 800 students

There must be sinks, liquid soap, minimal things and here most of the establishments in the rural areas of Sucre and Sincelejo do not have those conditions.

The president of the union expressed that it is not about making objections at this time, but about having the minimum conditions, because an Educational Institution without water cannot guarantee hand washing, disinfection of sanitary units, when the student will be 100 percent in face-to-face classes.

“There must be sinks, liquid soap, minimal things and here most of the establishments in the rural areas of Sucre and Sincelejo do not have those conditions. We are not asking to demolish and build a new school, we only ask for adaptations”, he pointed out.

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He explained that there are schools that have a sink tank of 20 liters of water, with 800 students.

“At what time will the curricular work be given? These are situations that occur at a time of a fourth peak of the covid-19 pandemic”, he indicated.
He asked parents to review the environment where their children are studying.

Francis Xavier Barrios
Special for WEATHER
sincelejo

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Ozuna's performance in the Dominican league is exciting for his return to the MLB | Sports Social Networks

On his way back to the Major Leagues, Marcell Ozuna has just left an indelible mark of his talent and power in the Professional Baseball League of the Dominican Republic (Lidom), in which he charged the Gigantes del Cibao to victory on Saturday the title of champions.

Ozuna also won the Most Valuable Player award in the final of the tournament in the Dominican Republic, a country that will host the Caribbean Baseball Series between January 28 and February 3.

China's Worldwide Dragnet Forces Fugitives to Return Home

WASHINGTON — 

“China’s long arm is everywhere in its own society, and it’s now coming abroad,” said Li Gang, a former real estate developer in China’s central city of Wuhan.

Involved in planning disputes with local authorities, Li told VOA Mandarin that the Wuhan officials accused him of corruption and threatened him with prison.

The disputes, starting in 2002, lasted five years, and in 2009, Li moved to an undisclosed location in the United States with his family. In 2017, Chinese authorities formally charged him with corruption and inciting subversion of state power, a move that required him to return to China to stand trial.

Li refused. And once the charges had been filed, men claiming to be from the FBI showed up at his home. Li told VOA Mandarin in a 2020 interview that FBI officials had told him they had done no such thing.

Li is one target of Sky Net, Beijing’s global crackdown on Chinese officials suspected of corruption, financiers suspected of wrong dealings and citizens suspected of money laundering. Beijing launched Sky Net in 2015, and according to China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the number of “voluntarily returned” people has increased annually, from 1,023 in 2015 to 1,229 in 2020.

A new report says Sky Net uses methods outside the international legal framework to identify and repatriate individuals targeted by Chinese authorities.

The report, titled Involuntary Returns: China’s Covert Operation to Force ‘Fugitives’ Overseas Back Home, was published Tuesday by Safeguard Defenders, a Madrid-based group focused on promoting human rights in Asia. Last year, the nongovernmental organization spoke out against China’s airing of forced confessions on TV.

‘Involuntary returns’

China claims that from 2014-21, more than 10,000 “fugitives” have “voluntarily returned” to China from 120 countries, according to the Safeguard Defenders report. In its Sky Net campaign, Beijing almost never uses formal legal procedures, such as requesting extradition.

“Instead, these involuntary returns (IR) account for the vast majority of Sky Net’s track record: in 2018, IR stood for some 64% of the claimed successful returns, while extradition — the appropriate judicial channel for such returns — represented but 1%,” the report said. As used in the report, the term “involuntary returns” refers to people who have been forced through nontraditional means to come back to China.

And although Sky Net’s official targets are businesspeople and officials suspected of economic crimes, the report said it found many cases of Beijing using extrajudicial tactics to repatriate dissidents and human rights defenders.

China’s tactics are like those used by the U.S. During the 1980s, U.S. officials “developed an alternative approach to circumvent the proper diplomatic channels” to accomplish renditions, according to the Human Rights Policy Lab at the University of North Carolina School of Law. After the 9/11 attacks, the practice transformed “into what is now referred to as the extraordinary rendition program,” which has drawn international condemnation.

Russia also operates a rendition program.

Preferred strategies

China favors three tactics: threatening family in China, targeting victims outside China by using threatening agents in the target’s country, and kidnapping the people it wants repatriated, according to Safeguard Defenders, whose report examined 62 cases of attempts, successful and unsuccessful, to engineer involuntary returns.

Chen Yen-Ting, an author of the report, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview on Monday that these tactics might be carried out separately or together to pressure the targeted individual. “In some cases, the Chinese government sends agents to the host country and at the same time puts pressure on the targeted individual’s family in China,” he said.

The report cited the case of Xie Weidong, a onetime Supreme Court judge who resigned in 2000 and ended up in Canada in 2014, the year the Huanggang Municipal Public Security Bureau charged him with accepting a bribe of 1.4 million yuan ($221,000) to settle a 1999 civil case in favor of a particular company, according to a 2019 article by Canada’s National Post.

Xie claimed Beijing targeted him “when he failed to abide by government interventions in cases he heard. Then after leaving China he spoke out about problems in its legal system,” according to an Interpol ruling dismissing China’s request. The Post reported that Interpol found China’s request for Xie’s arrest was politically motivated.

To persuade Xie to return to China voluntarily, Chinese police detained his sister and then his son, according to the Safeguard Defenders report. Chinese authorities also contacted his ex-wife and his former business partner, hoping to use them as leverage.

Li Jinjin, a New York-based lawyer who represents some targets of the Sky Net operation, told VOA Mandarin on Monday that the Chinese government often freezes the property in China of the target’s family members.

In other cases, Li said, Beijing will send its police or hire agents to visit an overseas target. Using promises or threats, their goal is to force the target to return to China.

In 2020, this tactic backfired when the U.S. Justice Department charged eight people with conspiring to act as illegal agents for the Chinese government and force U.S. residents to return to Beijing. These people were “allegedly acting at the direction and under the control of PRC (People’s Republic of China) government officials, conducted surveillance of and engaged in a campaign to harass, stalk, and coerce certain residents of the United States to return to the PRC,” the Justice Department said.

Safeguard Defenders expect China will intensify its Sky Net efforts in 2022 if the Western governments fail to act against Beijing, Chen told VOA Mandarin. “It will be a significant obstacle to legitimate judicial cooperation to counter cross-border crime,” he said.

The Chinese government has hailed Sky Net’s success. The Xinhua News Agency, a state-controlled news outlet, published on Saturday a piece saying that the operation was recovering people and stolen goods, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The legal net is vast, you can escape the country, but you can’t escape the law,” Xinhua said.

Li Gang decided to talk to the media to counter reports on Beijing-controlled outlets. “I used to be very fearful of the Chinese government’s retaliation, so I refused all media interviews before,” Li said told VOA Mandarin in 2020.

“But now I realize the more fearful I am, the more power they have on me,” he said. “So that’s why I decide to stand out and tell my story.”