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hong kong — A Chinese American writer living in Germany is delighted that a dance-drama adaptation of one of her novels is set to be performed on stage in China this month. Yet she can't help noticing that the homeland she left 35 years ago seems to have mixed feelings about her and her work. Many of Yan Geling's achievements that were documented across the Chinese internet over the past 10 to 15 years on digital news outlets and social media platforms seem to be gone or difficult to find, she told VOA Mandarin this week. The Flowers of War was published first as a novella in 2007 and then expanded into a novel in 2011. It depicts a group of young women in 1937 taking shelter in a church and attempting to resist the Japanese occupation in Nanking. She approved the book's adaptation for a dance-drama, which was written by Feng Shuangbai. The theatrical show is directed by Lang Kun. Their two names appear on the Chinese internet and are credited in conjunction with the upcoming Chengdu performance, but Yan’s name is not included. Yan said she first noticed about two years ago that large swaths of information about her life and her work were no longer accessible on the Chinese internet. This followed her online WeChat criticism of Chinese authorities' pandemic response and a broadcast interview in which she questioned Xi Jinping's leadership. During a high-profile 2022 incident, a mentally disturbed woman was photographed unlawfully detained and chained in a semiderelict building in Xuzhou city. She said that before 2022, much information about her and her work could be found on the Chinese internet on popular platforms such as Baidu Baike, the Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia. "Since I criticized Xi Jinping, it is as if I don't exist," Yan told VOA by phone this week from Berlin. "I'm completely removed from all search engines, and my name no longer exists. I think this whole thing is ridiculous." VOA reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment. The embassy declined to comment, saying it was not "aware of the specifics." The dance-drama is scheduled to be performed June 21 in Chengdu city at the CDHT CPAA Grand Theater, according to the city's culture office. The play was first performed in China in March 2023 in Yangzhou city, according to the culture office of Yangzhou. Hengqing Henry Li, a U.S.-based independent economist who was a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement in China, told VOA Mandarin that he noticed about 10 years ago that basic and nonpolitical information previously available about him on the Chinese internet was no longer there. For example, 10 years ago, he could find and read news accounts about a scientific paper he wrote as a high school student that won a top prize in Beijing. In recent years, he hasn't been able to find those news articles. "I just disappeared from the Chinese ordinary people's world," Li said. The New York Times reported this week that a recent review of content published and posted on the Chinese internet from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s showed much material previously available was gone. Searching the popular site Baidu Baike recently for information posted during that time frame about well-known tycoons Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, and Pony Ma, chief executive officer of Tencent, turned up little compared with searches in recent years. Previously, information about the early career work of Xi in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, before he became China's top leader, was available on Baidu Baike, but the paper said that was not the case now. Frank Tian Xie, a professor of business at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, told VOA it's likely that the Cyberspace Administration of China has asked and instructed internet service providers in China to erase and reduce access to information about Xi that is related to and was posted before he rose to top power in the nation. This indicates that the authorities' online internet supervision has been tightened, Xie said. "Some information was acceptable to Xi before he came to power, but now the Chinese Communist Party doesn't want people to see it again. The CCP authorities are now unwilling to admit and accept some of the practices and statements they made in the past. Some domestic and foreign policies might not have been a problem before, but now they feel embarrassed about them," he said. Two other examples of inconsistent national policy that authorities apparently are seeking to minimize public access to, Xie said, are related to childbirth and elder care. China now encourages childbirth, contrary to years ago when it promoted a one-child policy. China for decades touted its state-sponsored elder care services, but now encourages children to care for their elderly parents and family members. Xie said that if citizens had historical data, they could easily find inconsistencies in Chinese national policies. Yan said her livelihood has been harmed by her lower profile on the internet because it makes it more difficult to collect royalties for original writing and creative work. Yet she said she has no regrets about sharing her views publicly to, she hopes, help inform citizens. Working and writing without censorship is an important principle, she said. "I have to say it," Yan told VOA. "Otherwise, I feel that, in the last stage of my life, I will regret not saying what I wanted and feel ashamed." Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

BEIJING — Chinese police say a suspect is in custody in a stabbing attack on four instructors from Iowa's Cornell College who were teaching at a Chinese university in the northeast city of Jilin. Jilin city police said a 55-year old man surnamed Cui was walking in a public park when he had bumped into a foreigner. He then stabbed the foreigner and three other foreigners who were with him, and a Chinese person who approached in an attempt to intervene. The victims included four instructors from Cornell College teaching at Beihua University in northeastern China, officials at the U.S. school and the State Department said. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that the injured were rushed to a hospital for treatment, and that none was in critical condition Cornell College President Jonathan Brand said in a statement that the instructors were attacked while at the park with a faculty member from Beihua, which is in an outlying part of Jilin, an industrial city about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Beijing. Monday was a public holiday in China. The State Department said in a statement it was aware of reports of a stabbing and was monitoring the situation. The attack happened as both Beijing and Washington are seeking to expand people-to-people exchanges to help bolster relations amid tensions over trade and such international issues as Taiwan, the South China Sea and the war in Ukraine. An Iowa state lawmaker posted a statement on Instagram saying his brother, David Zabner, had been wounded during a stabbing attack in Jilin. Rep. Adam Zabner described his brother as a doctoral student at Tufts University who was in China under the Cornell-Beihua relationship. "I spoke to David a few minutes ago, he is recovering from his injuries and doing well," Adam Zabner wrote, adding that his brother was grateful for the care he received at a hospital. News of the incident was suppressed in China, where the government maintains control on information about anything considered sensitive. News media outlets had not reported it. Some social media accounts posted foreign media reports about the attack, but a hashtag about it was blocked on a popular portal and photos and video of the incident were quickly taken down. Cornell spokesperson Jen Visser said in an email that the college was still gathering information about what happened. Visser said the private college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, partners with Beihua University. A college news release from 2018, when the program started, says Beihua provides funding for Cornell professors to travel to China to teach a portion of courses in computer science, mathematics and physics over a two-week period. According to a 2020 post on Beihua's website, the Chinese university uses American teaching methods and resources to give engineering students an international perspective and English-language ability. About one-third of the core courses in the program use U.S. textbooks and are taught by American professors, according to the post. Students can apply to study for two years of their four-year education at Cornell College and receive degrees from both institutions. Chinese President Xi Jinping has unveiled a plan to invite 50,000 young Americans to China in the next five years, though Chinese diplomats say a travel advisory by the U.S. State Department has discouraged Americans from visiting China. Citing arbitrary detentions as well as exit bans that could prevent Americans from leaving the country, the State Department has issued a Level 3 travel advisory — the second-highest warning level — for mainland China. It urges Americans to "reconsider travel" to China. Some American universities have suspended their China programs due to the travel advisory. Lin, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said China has taken effective measures to protect the safety of foreigners. "We believe that the isolated incident will not disrupt normal cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries," he said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Sydney — Bird flu continues to spread in the Australian state of Victoria, where more than 500,000 chickens have been euthanized.  Strict quarantine zones restricting the movement of birds and equipment have also been put in place.  Australian health authorities say bird flu spreads mainly among wild water birds. The highly pathogenic H7N3 strain of avian influenza has been found on four farms, while another virus, H7N9, has been detected at a fifth property over the past seven weeks in Victoria state.  The Australian farms have been put into lockdown.  At least 580,000 birds have been destroyed as part of sweeping biosecurity controls. Japan and the United States have temporarily banned imports of poultry from Victoria as a precaution. In Australia, some supermarkets are restricting the number of eggs that consumers can buy because of disruptions to the supply chain. Avian influenza is a viral disease found across the world. It spreads between birds or when contaminated animal feed and equipment is moved between areas. Danyel Cucinotta is the vice president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, an industry group.  She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.  Tuesday that the virus can spread quickly. “There is very little we can do and no matter how good your biosecurity is you cannot stop wild fowl coming in. This is a particular flight path for migratory birds.  There is housing orders at the moment, which means all birds get locked up.  This is about protecting our birds and protecting the food supply chain,” she said. The strains of bird flu identified in the states of Victoria and Western Australia can infect people, but experts insist that cases are rare. The virus can also infect cows.  The United States’ Department of Agriculture has said that avian flu has infected dairy cows in more than 80 herds across several states since late March. At least three U.S. dairy workers have tested positive for bird flu after exposure to infected cattle.  All three patients are recovering.   The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the infections do not change its assessment that bird flu is a low risk to the general community and that it has not seen evidence of human-to-human transmission. Last month, health authorities in Mexico confirmed a fatal case of human infection with an avian flu virus that had been reported in poultry.

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwanese photographer Lin Jai-hang never thought a seemingly routine business trip to China would turn into a 12-hour detention at a Chinese police station. Lin, who has published several books documenting the lives of gay men, said he was supposed to promote his works at a book fair in China’s Nanjing City on May 31. But less than half an hour after he began to set up his booth, seven or eight strangers came up to start taking photos of his books and soon they called the police to take Lin away.   “The police first went back to my hotel room for another round of search and took me and a staff from the book fair to the police station,” Lin told VOA in a phone interview, adding that the police told him he would be detained for 24 hours for “spreading obscene images.” “They took away my phone, put me in handcuffs, performed a strip search on me, and collected my fingerprints and blood samples,” he said.  During the questioning, the police asked Lin a series of personal questions, including his sexual orientation, details about his family, why he photographed gay men, and why he decided to join the book fair. “The police then sent me back to a room and I was detained for several hours with other people,” Lin recalled. He was eventually released around midnight, but the police confiscated most of his works. “They told me that I was detained because the subjects of my works aren’t appropriate for public display,” he told VOA, adding that the police took away anything related to LGBTQ topics.   Lin isn’t the only Taiwanese briefly detained in China in recent weeks. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees cross-strait relations, revealed on June 6 that a Taiwanese citizen was taken away by Chinese police and detained for several days while traveling with a tour group in the southern province of Fujian. The council’s spokesperson Liang Wen-jie said this is the first time a member of a Taiwanese tour group was detained in China and the individual, whose identity remains undisclosed, was released a few days after his tour group returned to Taiwan. Chiu Chui-cheng, the head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, urged Taiwanese people to be aware of their safety and carefully assess the potential risks if they plan to travel to China, Hong Kong, or Macau.   The Chinese government hasn’t publicly commented on the two cases and VOA has reached out to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which manages cross-strait relations, for comment. Increased security risks The detentions come as China passed a series of laws aimed at safeguarding national security since last year. Last July, China revised its anti-espionage law that gives authorities more power to punish what they view as threats to national security. In March, China’s rubber-stamp parliament vowed to adopt several security-related laws in 2024.  Some analysts say the detention of the two Taiwanese reflects China’s growing concern about Taiwan potentially pursuing independence under President Lai Ching-te’s leadership and Beijing’s attempt to stop this trend. “Beijing’s efforts to enact a series of new laws related to national security show that they believe it’s necessary to roll out more forceful measures to safeguard their core interests,” said Hung Chin-fu, a political scientist at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.    Against this backdrop, other experts say Taiwanese people will face greater risks when traveling to China. “With the counter-espionage law and the national security law, there has been an expansion in the range of activities that could bring in law enforcement action in [China,]” Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA in a written response. In his view, citizens from countries or places that have higher tension with China may face higher risks of being targeted by Chinese law enforcement. “See the earlier detentions of Australians [and] Canadians,” Chong said, adding that this means Taiwanese people will also face greater risks in China as tensions between Beijing and Taipei continue to rise. Hung in Taiwan thinks this trend will create a chilling effect in Taiwan and deter some Taiwanese from traveling to China. “Since there is almost no guarantee of personal safety, any Taiwanese person thinking about traveling to China needs to carefully assess whether it’s worth taking the risks or not,” Hung said. Some Taiwanese activists say the two recent cases reflect the lack of transparency to know where the red lines are,” said Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese activist sentenced to five years in prison on subversion charges in 2017 by a Chinese court. Taiwanese photographer Lin said the experience has convinced him that the risks of traveling to China are simply too high for artists like him, who focus on subjects considered inappropriate by the Chinese authorities. “I don’t think I will consider traveling to China anytime soon because I’m worried I could be targeted if they arrest me under a different crime,” he told VOA, adding that his experience makes him believe that China is an unfriendly place to LGBTQ artists like him. As China prepares to hold the annual Straits Forum in the coastal city of Xiamen on June 15, Hung thinks both sides of the Taiwan Strait are unlikely to reduce the increasingly heightened tension through the meeting. “While China will try to continue influencing some Taiwanese people who favor deepening cross-strait exchanges, the effect of their influence campaign will be limited because the overall trend of cross-strait relations is still deteriorating,” he told VOA. “A new Cold War is forming between the Chinese government and the Taiwanese government under the leadership of the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party,” Hung said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Sydney — China's Li Qiang will arrive in Australia Saturday, the first visit by a Chinese premier since 2017, in a sign of improving ties, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday. During the four-day visit Li will visit the city of Adelaide city, the capital Canberra, and Australia's mining state Western Australia.  Both leaders will meet with Australian and Chinese business leaders at a roundtable in Western Australia, Albanese said at a media briefing in Canberra. China is Australia's largest trading partner, with Australian resources and energy exports dominating trade flow. Australia is the biggest supplier of iron ore to China and China has been an investor in Australian mining projects, though some recent Chinese investment in critical minerals has been blocked by Australia on national interest grounds. Albanese said foreign investment has a role to play in Australia and is considered on a case-by-case basis. "Chinese engagement, including with the resources sector, has been important for growth," he said. China imposed trade restrictions on a raft of Australian agricultural and mineral products during a diplomatic dispute in 2020, which has now largely eased. Albanese said he would like to see the remaining Chinese trade impediments on lobsters and seafood removed. In his meeting with Li next week in Canberra, Albanese will raise the case of Australian writer Yang Hengjun who was given a suspended death sentence on espionage charges in February, as well as an incident last month where a Chinese military jet dropped flares near an Australian defense helicopter, which Albanese said "was dangerous and should never had happened." "Welcoming the Chinese premier to our shores is an opportunity for Australia to advance our interests by demonstrating our national values, our people's qualities and our economy's strengths," he said.  "Australia continues to pursue a stable and direct relationship with China, with dialog at its core."

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.