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Month: March 2022

Philippines lodges new diplomatic protest against China over close encounter at sea

Editor09 mins

The Philippines lodged a new diplomatic protest against China after a Chinese coast guard ship maneuvered dangerously close to a Filipino vessel in the disputed Scarborough Shoal in early March, a senior official said Tuesday.  China’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, insisted that it was within its rights when its ship allegedly engaged in what the Philippine Coast Guard described as a “close distance maneuvering” in South China Sea waters. “It’s done, we’ve filed a diplomatic protest regarding that,” National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told reporters on Samar Island in the central Philippines, where he was attending a government event. Similar incidents could occur over contending claims in Scarborough Shoal, he warned. Esperon heads the national taskforce for the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine name for territory claimed by Manila in the South China Sea. On Sunday, the Philippine Coast Guard reported that a China Coast Guard ship had sailed within 21 meters (69 feet) of the BRP Malabrigo during a routine patrol on March 2. That was the fourth time since May 2021 that Chinese Coast Guard ships had made that type of maneuver against Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said. “It can always happen that vessels of the different countries, especially from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and other claimant countries and China, will get into close encounters simply because we have conflicting claims,” Esperon said. “There may be counter-claims but we, as a nation, will stand by our established sovereign rights and sovereignty over the area.” He said Manila had been increasing its presence in the region through the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Esperon also said there were fresh reports about other claimants to the potentially mineral rich sea region improving facilities on islands they occupy.  “That’s the situation there, just be aware of it. And Vietnam has 21 positions, we have nine stations, [while] China has seven strong positions,” he said. Manila, which claims nine islands in the South China Sea, the biggest of which is the 92-acre Pag-asa Island (known internationally as Thitu Island), has been improving its facilities in the region in recent years “in the same manner that Vietnam is doing a lot of improvement” to theirs, Esperon said. The national security adviser said the government would continue to assert its claims through “diplomatic channels and through the international community.” “Can we afford to go to war? Not now or not in this instance. … [I]n general we want peaceful settlements of the conflicts in the area,” he said. ‘Earnestly respect China’s sovereignty’ Manila issued the protest a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin insisted that China had sovereign rights over the shoal. “China has sovereignty over Huangyan Dao and its adjacent waters as well as sovereign rights and jurisdiction over relevant waters,” Wang said, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal. “We hope that Philippine ships will earnestly respect China’s sovereignty and rights and interests, abide by China’s domestic law and international law, and avoid interfering with the patrol and law enforcement of the China Coast Guard in the above-mentioned waters,” he said during a media briefing on Monday. Also known as Bajo de Masinloc, Scarborough Shoal lies 120 nautical miles west of Luzon Island – well within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). For years, the shoal has been a traditional fishing ground for Filipinos but since 2012 it has been under virtual control by China, which has maintained a constant coast guard presence. After a tense standoff, Manila said the United States brokered a deal for both sides to pull out of the shoal but China reneged on it. In 2016, an international court ruled in favor of the Philippines in a South China Sea territorial dispute. Instead of moving to enforce the internationally accepted deal, President Rodrigo Duterte moved to appease Chinese leader Xi Jinping in exchange for cordial ties and billions in Chinese investments. Apart from China and the Philippines, other claimants to South China Sea territories are Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. Indonesia is locked in a separate dispute with China which claims parts of the sea that is within Jakarta’s EEZ. ‘Shared responsibility’ Also on Tuesday, Malaysia Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said that the South China Sea “is ultimately a region of shared responsibility, a region which we in ASEAN are collectively responsible for,” referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “Issues around the South China Sea have always made headlines. As much as strongly worded statements are likely to grab attention, we must strive to ensure that cooler heads prevail,” Hussein said during the Putrajaya Forum, a security conference organized by the Malaysian Institute of Defense and Security and the Malaysian Defense Ministry. “Though we are in the business of defense and security, de-escalating a high-stakes situation is a task in itself. A task that we must all put above all else lest we risk compromising the peace and stability in the region,” he said. Hussein told those at the conference that tensions between nations must be diffused “through all available means. “Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the issue, through established international laws and conventions, all parties must work together to increase efforts to build, maintain and enhance mutual trust and confidence so that we can maintain peace, security and stability in the South China Sea.” Nisha David in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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China Russia and bad omens

Editor02 mins

Any hope that Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping may have had for a quiet 2022 to ease the path to his anointment in autumn to an unprecedented third term as party chairman and state president vanished early in the face of a coronavirus outbreak, real estate and energy problems hurting the economy, and his Russian ally Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. China’s worst COVID-19 surge since the 2020 Wuhan outbreak has prompted lockdowns of tens of millions of people, hitting consumer spending and supply chains. China’s awkward stance on the war on Ukraine–proclaiming neutrality, but sticking to Moscow’s line and censoring reports on the conflict, while its diplomats and state media spread anti-U.S. conspiracy theories–has won Xi few friends in the wealthy democratic West, and Beijing faces the risk of being hit by secondary versions of the crippling economic sanctions imposed on Russia if it steps up material support for Putin.

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China imposes total information controls around China Eastern crash site

Editor09 mins

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moving to delete rumor, speculation and opinion about the China Eastern crash from the country’s tightly controlled internet, while even state-approved journalists have reported problems gaining access to the crash site. Since officials announced on March 22 that all 132 people aboard flight MU5735, a Boeing 737 China Eastern en route between Kunming and Guangzhou that crashed in a mountainous part of Guangxi outside Wuzhou, had died, any information about the investigation into the cause of the crash has been tightly restricted by the authorities. Chinese journalist Du Qiang recently complained on the social media platform WeChat that he and a colleague, Chen Weixi, were denied access to the crash site by police after flying there on the same day, only managing to take a few photos from a distance before being ordered to leave. Du wrote that the roads leading to the crash site were blocked by three police checkpoints, and that fellow journalists working for Japanese broadcaster NHK met with similar treatment. He wrote that official journalists working for state broadcaster CCTV and Xinhua news agency had once been in the habit of visiting disaster sites in the hope of netting some prized photos or footage of the area, but that this now seems impossible. His WeChat post, which also called for better press arrangements, including wider access to official news conferences, garnered huge numbers of views and comments, but has since been deleted. “Could the leaders of China Eastern Airlines and relevant departments come better prepared so that more questions can be raised?” Du’s post said, also calling for more interviews with rescue teams or grieving relatives. “Is it possible to seek the opinions of family members and let those who are willing to meet with the media?” A photographer who gave only the nickname Xiao Gao told RFA he had also tried to get to the site around the same time. “I have never come across such tight controls at a disaster site as I did this time around,” Xiao Gao said. “We tried to interview people in nearby villages … but there were obstacles at every turn.” Hebei-based journalist Huang Tao said the authorities are keen to ensure that they control every aspect of media and social media reporting of the crash. “This must be to prevent information from leaking out,” Huang said. “There is probably a lot of evidence at the scene indicating something that they don’t want reporters to find out about.” Deleting ‘rumors’ China’s powerful Cyberspace Administration said on March 26 that it has deleted more than 279,000 posts containing “illegal content” relating to the crash, including 167,000 rumors and 1,295 hashtags. It said it had also shut down 2,713 social media accounts. Among the “rumors” deleted from social media included claims that China Eastern had already sustained losses of tens of billions of dollars, and had slashed maintenance costs in a bid to improve its financial situation. But Huang said he believes much of what the authorities say is “rumor” is authentic information. “You can tell which reports are true by looking at what they are deleting,” Huang said. “[So] the reports that the airline didn’t maintain [the aircraft] properly to save money … may be true; it’s looking more and more likely that it has to do with maintenance.” An aircraft maintenance engineer surnamed Chen said the fact that parts of the aircraft’s tail were found some 10 kilometers from the crash site suggests that there may have been problems with this part. “[If] the torque was too large, it could have gotten sheared off, which wouldn’t be surprising,” Chen said. “The crash is going to be either due to human error or a mechanical failure.” Both black boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, have been recovered and taken to Beijing for decoding, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official Zhu Tao told journalists on March 27. The investigation is seeking answers to questions about why the Boeing 737 descended 6,000 meters in the space of just one minute, before burying itself 20 meters deep in a mountainside as it began its descent to Guangzhou. Deliberate media controls U.S.-based economist He Qinglian said the media controls are likely top-down and deliberate. “They won’t let them report from the crash site — that’s the CCP’s dead hand controlling the media,” He said. “It’s to make sure that nobody starts making interpretations that aren’t in line with the official narrative.” Meanwhile, the authorities have yet to publish a list of the passengers and crew who were aboard the doomed flight, with Hong Kong media reports saying the families of victims are being closely watched around the clock by Chinese officials. An online appeal from the families of victims complained that they, too, are being kept in the dark by officials. “Due to the pandemic, there is almost no way for family members [of victims] to communicate with other family members,” the appeal, which was no longer visible on Toutiao by Tuesday, said. However, authorities did respond to some of the relatives’ requests by taking them up to the crash site in separate groups, to view the scene and to make offerings for their loved ones at a temporary shrine in the area. One family member wrote: “Even if they don’t find anyone, I am hoping to go home with some soil from the crash site [in lieu of remains].” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Shanghai lockdown leaves hundreds stranded, wipes ‘billions’ from economy

Editor010 mins

A Swissair flight from Zurich to Shanghai was canceled 20 minutes before departure on Tuesday, leaving more than 200 Chinese passengers stranded, as Shanghai’s COVID-19 lockdown begins to bite. Swissair flight LX188 was due to take off for Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport at 7.10 p.m. local time on Monday evening, but was canceled as passengers were waiting to board the plane at the gate, despite all having provided negative COVID-19 tests at check-in, disgruntled passengers told RFA. Some passengers shared photos of people holding up placards saying “I want to go home,” in the airport, demanding the authorities take measures to help them. In one video clip uploaded to social media, the passengers stood in a row chanting “We’re going home! We’re going back to China!” They included around 100 passengers who had transited through Zurich following a 10-hour flight from Brazil, as well as children, elderly and a pregnant woman, passengers told RFA. Zhejiang-based scholar Cai Yong said the group appeared to be angry with Swissair for canceling the flight, although it was the authorities at Pudong who had revoked its landing permission. “The stranded passengers have no problem with the Chinese government, just the airline,” Cai said. “They are addressing their demands to the wrong place.” “It would make more sense for them to get in touch with their local Chinese consulate, and convey their demands to the Chinese government [that way],” he said. Passengers posted to social media that some of their visas had expired, leaving them in Switzerland illegally. Most said they were forced to buy tickets on other flights at sky-high last-minute prices. Calls to the Chinese consulate in Zurich resulted in a statement saying officials there respected “all Swiss decisions.” The logos of Swissair (L) and China Airlines (R) are seen on the fins of long-haul airplanes on the opening day of the International Paris Airshow, June 15, 2015. Consulate trying to ‘pass the buck’ However, some help did arrive from the consulate on Tuesday morning, as consular officials delivered food, water and other necessities to Chinese nationals still stranded at the airport, and promised to negotiate with Swissair on their behalf. “This flight cancellation wasn’t done by the airline, which was forced into that decision,” Cai said. “The consulate is also trying to pass the buck.” “Don’t any of those people have critical thinking skills?” he said. Germany’s Lufthansa was also forced on Tuesday to cancel a flight to Shanghai from Frankfurt, while Air China also canceled CA842 from Vienna to Beijing, leaving more than 100 Chinese nationals stranded in the Austrian capital. Chinese scholar Wang Zheng said many people have taken by surprise at the strictness of Shanghai’s COVID-19 restrictions. “Many people have expressed surprise and incomprehension faced with Shanghai’s COVID-19 measures,” Wang told RFA, adding that the lockdown is largely ideological, and in keeping with ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s insistence on a zero-COVID policy. “One size fits all lockdowns are the latest trend in the new era,” Wang said in a reference to Xi’s personal brand of political ideology, “socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.” “Shanghai’s lockdown tells us that they are tightening restrictions to curb COVID-19, not loosening them,” he said. Meanwhile, the current lockdown in the Pudong financial district and an imminent lockdown across the river in the downtown area of Puxi have been extended until April 5, local residents told RFA. “This morning the residential community committee informed us that we’re no longer allowed to take a walk [in the compound] downstairs,” a resident of the Pudong No. 1 residential community surnamed Liu said. “The restrictions on the community have been extended now to April 5,” he said. Previously, the authorities said the lockdown would be lifted on April 1. Shoppers rummage through empty shelves in a supermarket before a lockdown as a measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus in Shanghai, March 29, 2022. Credit: AFP Heavy losses from zero-COVID The news came as a study found that while China’s zero-COVID measures have been largely effective at curbing the spread of the virus, the country’s economy has paid a heavy price in the form of an estimated U.S.$46 billion in losses a month, just over three percent of GDP. Economists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong used logistical tracking data linked to two million trucks to extrapolate the impact on economic activity. Co-author and CUHK economics professor Song Zheng said a strict lockdown in Shanghai alone could knock four percentage points off China’s GDP. Tsai Ming-fang, economist at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, said the lockdown had effectively wiped out the city’s electronics industry. “The Shanghai lockdown has led to the disappearance of the entire electronic logistics industry,” Tsai told RFA. “The port is also directly affected, and it is impossible for goods to be shipped.” “It’s also impossible for workers to commute to work normally. These are the points at which the economic impact is felt.” Reuters cited sources on Tuesday as saying that Tesla supplier Lingang had halted production for four days. “There will be some satellite factories under Tesla, and smaller partners under the satellite factories, which have a low tolerance for risk,” Tsai said. “Once production is halted, they won’t be able to keep going because they will have operational difficulties caused by cash-flow problems, or even go bankrupt,” he said. Current affairs commentator Si Ling said the lockdown in Shanghai casts doubt over whether the CCP under Xi is that committed to running a globalized economy that is connected to the rest of the world. “It does make you wonder how determined China is to pursue economic reform and an open economy,” Si told RFA, in a reference to economic policies initiated by late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979. “Shanghai was once a window on the world for that policy.” He said the status of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen as attractive entry points for foreign direct investment could now be in jeopardy. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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China warns Nepal about ‘outside interference’ following US grant

Editor07 mins

China warned Nepal this month against what it called interference from outside forces following Nepal’s ratification of a U.S. development grant, while China-tied projects in the country continue to stall, media sources say. The warning came during Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s March 25-27 visit to Nepal, and only a month after Nepal’s parliament ratified a $500 million no-strings-attached U.S. grant to build electric power lines and improve roads in the impoverished Himalayan country. Signed by Washington and Kathmandu in 2017, the agreement called the Millenium Challenge Corporation Nepal Compact (MCC-Nepal) was finally ratified by Nepal on Feb. 27 after numerous delays in the country’s parliament. In talks in Kathmandu last week, Wang Yi said that “external interference” in Nepal’s affairs might now threaten the “core interests” of both China and Nepal, according to a March 28 report by the India-based ANI online news service. “China supports Nepal in pursuing ‘independent domestic and foreign policies,’” ANI said, quoting Wang. Regional experts speaking to RFA in interviews this week said Wang Yi’s statements in Nepal reflect Beijing’s growing concern that Kathmandu may no longer rely exclusively on China for supporting its development. Beijing wants to convince Nepalese politicians that China is still a friend to Nepal, said Aadil Brar, a China specialist at the Delhi, India-based online newspaper The Print. “And there is now a certain concern within China that Nepal might be moving closer to the U.S., and so I think that was the primary goal in terms of [Wang Yi’s] three-day visit,” he said. “If we look at the kind of support China offers, it’s mostly in terms of infrastructure projects that are being built in Nepal. But Nepalese politicians usually like to have grants instead of loans, because that helps them make sure they are not going to be dependent on China.” No progress on BRI projects Nepal is seen by China as a partner in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to boost global trade through infrastructure development, but no agreements on BRI projects or the terms of their loans were signed during Wang Yi’s visit, sources in the country say. “We have seen many politicians and experts here in Nepal who do not approve of China’s Belt and Road Initiative project and consider it threatening to Nepal,” said Sangpo Lama, vice president of HURON, the Human Rights Organization of Nepal. “China’s principle is to give money for BRI projects in Nepal in the form of loans, and not as grants,” Sangpo Lama said. Beijing has been apprehensive ever since Nepal ratified the MCC-Nepal agreement with the United States, said Santosh Sharma, a faculty member at Nepal’s Tribhuvan University and co-founder of the Nepal Institute for Policy Research. “Nepal needs international grants and support to build infrastructure in the country, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the MCC grant from the U.S. both serve that purpose. However, by signing the MCC agreement, Nepal has shown just how significant the American grant is,” Sharma said. Wang Yi’s claims of concern for Nepal’s “sovereignty and independence from external forces” only mask Beijing’s greater worry over U.S. influence in Nepal, added Parshuram Kaphle, a special correspondent on foreign and strategic affairs at Nepal’s Naya Patrika newspaper. “However, neither China nor the U.S. will be able to create a bond with Nepal like India has,” Kaphle said. “There is a natural bond between Nepal and India. And geopolitically India will also play a huge role in Nepal’s future.” Though BRI projects in Nepal have so far failed to launch, Nepal’s government has cited promises of millions of dollars of Chinese investment in restricting the activities of an estimated 20,000 Tibetan refugees living in the country, leaving many uncertain of their status and vulnerable to abuses of their rights, rights groups say. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Investigative Journalism Reportika © March 2022 by Ij-Reportika is licensed under CC BY 4.0