- Turkish opposition emerges as key ally of Uyghur activists on US China policy
- Law firm registers for South African gun seller fighting US export controls
- China commission urges bigger government role in setting global technology standards
Turkish opposition emerges as key ally of Uyghur activists on US China policy
Turkey’s main opposition party has joined forces with US Uyghur activists in pressuring both Washington and Ankara to take a tougher stance against China over its ill-treatment of the ethnically Turkic Muslim minority.
The Washington office of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has emerged as a leading critic of what it deems to be President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s inadequate response to reports of mass detention and forced labor in China’s western province of Xinjiang, lobbying records show. The party’s US representative, Yurter Ozcan, recently wrote a report on the matter that caused a stir in Turkey.
“We are going to make sure that the voices of Uyghur Turks are heard in Turkey,” Ozcan told Foreign Lobby Report, “and also during our meetings in the US.”
Read the full story here.
New lobbying filings
Israel: New York lawyer David Abrams‘ Zionist Advocacy Center has renewed its registration as a foreign agent for the International Legal Forum, an Israeli government-funded organization based in Jerusalem that seeks to fight back against perceived anti-Semitism around the world. Abrams provides “assistance in submitting reports regarding terrorist connection to financial services firms and prosecuting authorities; as well as to investigate various anti-Israel and
anti-Semitic activity in or concerning the United States.”
South Africa : Arizona law firm Farhang & Medcoff has registered as a foreign agent of a South African firearms distributor that is challenging the State Department’s denial of several export license applications for the company. The firm is providing “legal assistance” including “advocating on behalf of Dave Sheer Guns in activities before the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Commerce, and other agencies, as needed, in export license requests,
reconsideration and appeals of export license denials, agency reliability determinations, and related administrative and legal proceedings.” The legal contract dates to October 2019 but was only recently filed with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Firm partner Matthew Goldstein is the only registered foreign agent on the account. The US Ninth Circuit rejected claims that the company had been unfairly blacklisted in October.
Domestic: The American Jewish Committee spent $34,000 in the third quarter lobbying on issues including the fight against Hezbollah and antisemitism
In other news
The bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission released its annual report to Congress today. The report notably urges the creation of an interagency committee to help private companies and US allies and partners defend their priorities at international organizations that set technology standards — or risk losing ground to an increasingly assertive China. “This trend threatens US influence on the evolution of technology,” the report said, “particularly in competition with a country that seeks to promote standards as a matter of coordinated industrial policy and heavily subsidizes corporate research and development.”