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At least several hundred people are in prison in Tunisia solely for writing checks they were later unable to pay, Human Rights Watch said in a report published today. The practice amounts to imprisonment for debt, which violates international human rights law, and which destroys families and businesses.
In the 41-page report, “‘No Way Out’: Debt Imprisonment in Tunisia,” Human Rights Watch documents the consequences of Tunisia’s archaic legislation on checks with insufficient funds. The law, in addition to sending insolvent people to prison, or to live in hiding or exile, fuels a cycle of indebtedness and reduces entire households to lives of hardship. In the context of Tunisia’s current economic crisis, the authorities should urgently replace the legal provisions that allow for debt imprisonment with legislation that distinguishes between willful refusal and genuine inability to pay.
“Imprisonment for unpaid debt is an anachronism and is both cruel and counterproductive to ensuring that creditors recover their due,” said;Salsabil Chellali, Tunisia director at Human Rights Watch. “When debtors remain free, they have the possibility of earning income to gradually repay their debts, while supporting their own households.”
On May 22, the Prime Minister’s Office announced in a;statement;that the Council of Ministers had approved a bill to amend legal provisions on unpaid checks, which suggests reduced prison sentences and financial penalties, and provides for alternatives to prison, among other measures, the statement says. The;bill;has been submitted to the Assembly of People’s Representatives for debate.
Human Rights Watch documented the cases of 12 people prosecuted for unpaid checks, including people imprisoned and others living in hiding or in exile.
Although originally conceived as a means of payment, checks in Tunisia are in practice widely used as a means of obtaining credit, especially in the commercial sector where they enable entrepreneurs to secure commercial goods or services in exchange for a check they provide that is to be cashed later, at an agreed-upon date.
Given the difficulties faced by micro, small, and medium-sized businesses in accessing bank financing due to the lack of collateral or the bank’s financing conditions, many in the commercial sector rely on this practice, known as the “guarantee check.”
When people who have issued “guarantee” checks are unable to later pay them, they risk imprisonment, as an unpaid check is considered a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison under Tunisia’s;Commercial Code. While according to the;government, 496 people were imprisoned for unpaid checks as of May 2024, a business association that focuses on this issue, the National Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises,estimated;that this number is closer to 7,200 people, and that the authorities are seeking thousands more for unpaid checks. Such prison sentences are cumulative.
Those imprisoned often face stigma, and the lack of income while they are in prison or trying to escape prosecution can affect the enjoyment of their human rights, including access to basic services such as health care, housing, or education.;Debt-induced economic woes may be compounded by the shortcomings of Tunisia’s;public services;and;social security;system.
The post Tunisia: Many Face Prison Over Debts, Says HRW first appeared on The South Caucasus News.
By John Lee and Lavina Lee
The United States, Australia, and other allies have spent decades downplaying the prospect of conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), offering Beijing incentives and concessions to assuage its ambitions, and managing their differences with China by seeking to deescalate tensions when they arose. In more recent times, when there is an emerging consensus that the decades-long approach to China has failed, policymakers have elevated deterrence as the urgent priority.
This report makes the following key points. First, the case for urgency in the context of deterring Chinese force against Taiwan is clear.
Second, deterrence of China is necessarily a dynamic and constant activity rather than a static one. Proponents of the latter approach have largely based it on deterrence by denial, which seeks to convince China that it cannot achieve its military objectives by force. In contrast, a dynamic deterrence approach seeks to arrest and turn back China’s creeping assertiveness and coercion. Rather than metaphorically gathering the sum of one’s forces at the gates of the castle to persuade the adversary that the final battle is unwinnable, it is better to condition China to recalculate the strategic usefulness of its constant coercion and aggressive probing.
Third, if China keeps prevailing in the gray zone, always controlling the pace and nature of escalation, deterring Beijing from taking the final step over the red line becomes more difficult.;Gray zonerefers to Chinese moves to achieve its political objectives, including through confrontational or military means, without triggering a military response from its adversary. Just as China seeks to condition the US and its allies to accept and internalize Chinese aggression, they need to condition China to internalize the reality that it will bear increasing costs if it continues its coercion of Taiwan and will suffer unacceptable costs should it cross that red line.
In this sense, the authors believe that treating deterrence as a static rather than as a dynamic or constant activity weakens a deterrence-by-denial approach as the US and its allies lose ground tactically and psychologically. This denial approach also increases the chances that Beijing will conclude that the US and its allies lack the requisite resolve and stomach for a fight should China ever cross the red line of launching a direct military attack against Taiwan.
Fourth, given Xi Jinping’s centralization of power and decision-making when it comes to forming objectives and strategy in the Chinese system, efforts to deter China should focus on ways to specifically deter Xi, that is, to change his personal calculations. He has demonstrated that other leaders can put him under pressure and that he will change direction quickly and decisively when he feels sufficient pressure.
Fifth, the US and its allies need to impose costs on the PRC to change Chinese calculations when it comes to coercion and aggression in the gray zone and, more broadly, to condition Beijing to expect a cost when it engages in coercive or aggressive activities. These costs should be nonmilitary to avoid overly dangerous kinetic escalation.
Sixth, the US and its allies need to get to the point where China, and other regional countries, expect ongoing cost imposition retaliations from them. Just as China benefits from a situation in which other countries have normalized and internalized Chinese coercion and aggression, other countries need to accept US and allied cost imposition retaliation as a fait accompli and part of the strategic and tactical architecture in the region.
Finally, costs should maximize the political pressure on Xi to compel him to reassess and recalculate. Each tit-for-tat cost that the US and its allies impose on China should incrementally increase damage to Xi’s political and economic objectives and plans. At the same time, they should send clear signals to Xi that in the event of an invasion of Taiwan, the US and its allies will consider extreme measures that could lead to immense social and political instability for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
About the authors:
Source: This article was published by the Hudson Institute
The post Deterring China: Imposing Nonmilitary Costs To Preserve Peace In The Taiwan Strait – Analysis first appeared on The South Caucasus News.
By Jocelyn Chey
On 5 February 2024 Australian citizen Yang Hengjun was handed a suspended death sentence by a Chinese court for alleged espionage. The sentence was a setback for China–Australia relations, which have otherwise stabilised and even somewhat improved in 2024.
Commentators have speculated that the sentence was a deliberate affront to Australia, either by security agencies or by the central government. But death with reprieve is becoming more common in China following;international condemnation;of the high rate of death sentences. It is most likely that domestic politics and the Chinese legal system determined the outcome in Yang’s case. If it was intended as a rebuff to Canberra’s somewhat tentative stabilisation of diplomatic relations, it had the opposite effect, as it;greatly shocked;the Australian public.
The verdict of the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court was issued in public and witnessed by representatives of the Australian Embassy, but little information on Yang’s alleged crime or the reasons for the court decision has been revealed. His 2021 trial was held behind closed doors since it allegedly involved security matters and Australian Ambassador Graham Fletcher was denied access to the proceedings.
Yang Hengjun had worked for more than 10 years for the Chinese Ministry of State Security, including in Hong Kong and Washington. He may well have been engaged in spying for China in some form, but he may also have exaggerated his role. It is not known whether he continued to work for China after moving to Australia or whether he was a spy for another country.
He did publish a series of Chinese-language novels concerning a double agent that might have drawn on his personal experience. Former foreign minister Marise Payne;stated in 2021;that Yang was not working for Australian intelligence, a rare public denial of such cases. The Chinese court that found him guilty of espionage apparently did not link him to Australian intelligence. Yang himself consistently pleaded not guilty.
Yang’s doctoral thesis at the University of Technology Sydney discussed what his supervisor, Feng Chongyi,;has called;‘the complicated information warfare between the internet and the CCP regime’. He later engaged in cross-border trade between China and the United States. Having moved to New York and become a widely followed pro-democracy blogger, he took up;daigou;exporting — a widespread practice that is sometimes illegal and sometimes exploits legal loopholes in the Chinese tariff regime.
All these activities may have led to Yang’s detention by Chinese authorities during a visit to China in 2019, but it was espionage that led to his trial and death sentence.
According to Amnesty International, China issues;thousands of death sentences;every year, more than the combined total for the rest of the world. Public opinion surveys in China confirm widespread support for the practice, while international human rights organisations and many foreign governments condemn it. Capital punishment applies in cases ranging from murder to corruption and drug trafficking. Most are serious violent and non-political offences, but political crimes such as endangerment of public security and espionage can also invoke the death penalty.
China’s 2023 revised Counter-Espionage Law reflects growing concern over national security in a period of growing international tension, competition and hostility. As talk grows of;decoupling between China and the United States, the activities of the China-based offices of US firms have come under suspicion.;Management consulting firm Bain, the Mintz Group and Capvision have all been raided and have had their staff detained.;The new law stresses the need for vigilance but is vague about the exact scope of risks.;At the street level, foreigners feel that they are often viewed with suspicion.
Weasel words about state secrets, foreign threats and national security are not exclusive to China but are more dangerous when trotted out by a government agency and not open to debate or reason by an outside arbiter.
This is the case with the Chinese legal system, since the judiciary is not independent of the government and police, judges and magistrates are;all employed by the state;in a one-party system.;The Chinese Communist Party’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, in its national and subsidiary layers, ultimately controls the legal system and its personnel.;Defence lawyers exist but have limited roles compared with their counterparts in the West. Branches of the Communist Party ensure that government directives and national priorities are observed. This is particularly the case when national security is concerned.
The West is of course spying on China. At the same time, concerns are growing over Chinese espionage in Europe, the United States and even Australia. Revelations and press reports stoke mistrust on both sides which in turn affects life and death decisions for those caught up in this murky world.
Yang Hengjun’s sentence for espionage was suspended and may be commuted in the future. That moderation probably owes a good deal to hard work by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and departmental officials, and to the improvement in bilateral relations.
The post Espionage Death Sentence The Latest Challenge To China–Australia Relations – Analysis first appeared on The South Caucasus News.
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