Due to several attacks on the Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, failing economy and Power crisis China might bring its military forces in Pakistan to secure its investments or leave Pakistan.
Read the complete report and what Chinese Citizens are saying about this relation and why many Chinese are Panic Posting on Chinese social media here
Two attackers on Thursday injured an opposition candidate for a local council in Cambodia’s upcoming commune elections, an incident she and members of her party said is another example of intimidation and harassment that they have faced in the run-up to the June 5 vote. Sorn Chanthorn is running for a seat on the Tra Paing Prasat Commune council in the northwestern province of Oddar Meanchey, representing the opposition Candlelight Party. While she was driving to a campaign function, she said the attackers kicked her motorbike, causing her to crash. She believes the attackers wanted her to withdraw her candidacy. “I think it was a politically motivated case because I never had any problems like this in the past,” she said, adding that she would not file a complaint because she has no confidence that the police will help her. Tra Paing Prasat district Police Chief Ouch Mao said he hasn’t received any information about the incident. Nevertheless, he said that he doesn’t believe the attack was politically motivated. He said it was sad to hear that Sorn Chanthorn doesn’t have confidence in his department. “So far, I resolved complaints without any political discrimination,” he said. Candlelight Party officials have complained for weeks about incidents of violence and bullying by local officials representing Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). Election monitors have also been harassed, causing several to resign, they said. “The authorities don’t have any measures to prevent intimidation,” Thatch Setha, one of the Candlelight Party’s two vice presidents, told RFA’s Khmer Service Thursday. “They destroy our party’s signs and assault our supporters,” he said, adding that authorities do nothing to stop it. Every five years, voters in the nation of 16 million people elect councils to represent rural precincts know as communes and urban districts called sangkat. This year some 86,000 candidates from 17 political parties are competing for 11,622 seats in 1,652 precincts nationwide. While the councils hold relatively little power, the June 5 election will test the dominance of the CPP and the limits of political freedom for opponents five years into Hun Sen’s crackdown on civil society, media and the internet. CPP spokesman Sok Ey San dismissed the Candlelight Party’s complaints as exaggerations designed to muddy the election environment. He urged it to file complaints with the National Election Committee (NEC), set up to be an independent organization, but that has in the past been criticized for corruption and close ties to the CPP. “It is merely allegation,” Sok Ey San said. “No one dares to threaten [the Candlelight Party].” Kang Savang, an election monitor with the independent Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia NGO, told RFA he has not received any definitive reports of political intimidation, but he urged victims to report election violations to the NEC. “The victims should, however, not simply make verbal complaints. They should make notes and file complaints if it is important,” he said. Party violations Cambodia’s Minister of Interior Sar Kheng on Wednesday said the Candlelight Party violated its statute by appointing Son Chhay as a vice president earlier in the year. Son Chhay was banned from politics for his affiliation with the opposition Cambodia National People’s Party, which was dissolved by Cambodia’s Supreme Court in 2017, a move that allowed Hun Sen’s CPP to win all 125 parliamentary seats the following year. Son Chhay, who requested amnesty and joined the Candlelight Party in March, said he will work to clear up any of the ministry’s concerns. “It is a clerical issue,” he said. “I will prepare my biography and send it to the ministry.” Meanwhile, an appeals court rejected the bail request for Seam Pluk, the founder of a smaller opposition party called the Cambodia National Heart Party, citing concerns over flight risk. Authorities arrested Seam Pluk in late April on charges of forging documents for his party to compete in the local elections. Seam Pluk was on the run for about a week before his arrest. Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights said the decision gives the country’s political system a bad look. “He should have been released on bail because the international community is monitoring the election, especially our political environment,” said Am Sam Ath. Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee President Ros Sotha said Seam Pluk’s arrest violated election laws. He said that Seam Pluk did not provoke any social unrest. “[The government] should have asked him to make corrections and shouldn’t have arrested him. It is a violation his political rights. It is a concern,” he said. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said the United States would employ a threefold strategy of investing at home, aligning efforts allies and partners, and competing with China to counter Beijing’s drive to change the existing rules-based world order. “To succeed in this decisive decade, the Biden Administration’s strategy can be summed up in three words — invest, align, compete,” Blinken said. “The foundations of the international order are under serious and sustained challenge,” he told an audience at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., citing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine posing a “clear and present threat, and China as a long-term challenge. “Even as President Putin’s war continues, we remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order, and that’s posed by the People’s Republic of China,” he said. “China is the only country with the intent to reshape the international order and increasingly the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it, Blinken said. “Beijing’s vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world’s progress over the past 75 years” since the end of World War II, he said. IPEF & Quad Blinken’s speech came several days after President Joe Biden returned from his first visit to Asia since taking office in January 2021. Biden visited U.S. allies South Korea and later Japan, where he unveiled the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) which 13 other nations signed up to with hopes that it will lead to a free trade agreement in the future. Biden also attended a summit of the Quad, an Indo-Pacific security grouping of the Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. that is widely seen as countering China’s rising influence and assertiveness in the region. Blinken noted that cooperation with China is necessary for the global economy and solving issues such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic and said the U.S. was not looking for conflict or a new Cold War. “To the contrary, we are determined to avoid both,” he said, adding that the U.S. is not seeking to block China or any other nation from growing economically or advancing the interest of their people. “But we will defend and strengthen international law, agreements, principals and institutions that maintain peace and security, protect the rights of individuals and sovereign nations, and make it possible for all countries, including the United States and China, to coexist and cooperate,” said Blinken. Though China’s rise was possible because of the stability and opportunity that the international order provides, the country is now seeking to undermine those rules, he said. In his 40-minute talk, Blinken touched on hot-button issues like the South China Sea and China’s treatment of the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang, where Beijing’s heavy-handed policies have been branded genocide by the U.S. and other Western nations. “Under Xi Jinping, the ruling Chinese Communist Party have become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad,” he said. “We’ll continue to oppose Beijing’s aggressive and unlawful activities in the South and East China Seas,” he said, noting a 2016 international court ruling that found Beijing’s expansive claims in those waters “have no basis in international law.” Uyghur genocide Human rights was another “area of alignment we share with our allies and partners,” said Blinken, who raised Chinese crackdowns on Uyghurs, Tibetans and repression in Hong Kong. “The United States stands with countries and people around the world against the genocide and crimes against humanity happening in the Xinjiang region, where more than a million people have been placed in detention camps because of their ethnic and religious identity,” he said. A leading Uyghur-American official welcomed his remarks, which came as the top United Nations official for human rights was poised to visit Xinjiang, amid expectations that Beijing will so tightly manage the itinerary that the official, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, will not get an accurate view of conditions there. “I was encouraged to hear Secretary’s commitment to align with US allies and partners to respond and stop the ongoing Uyghur genocide and crimes against humanity in the Uyghur homeland,” said Nury Turkel, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “We stand together on Tibet, where the authorities continue to wage a brutal campaign against Tibetans and their culture, language, and religious traditions, and in Hong Kong, where the Chinese Communist Party has imposed harsh anti-democratic measures under the guise of national security,” Blinken added. “We’ll continue to raise these issues and call for change – not to stand against China, but to stand up for peace, security, and human dignity.” Additional reporting by Alim Seytoff in Munich, Germany.
The sale and usage of illegal narcotics by young people have increased significantly in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state in the nearly 16 months since a military coup toppled the elected government, residents and antidrug activists said. At least two of every five men in all 18 townships of the state of about 1.7 million people (as of the last national census in 2014) consume illicit drugs, mainly heroin from opium, the activists said. Myanmar’s opium production is mainly concentrated in Kachin and Shan states. There were 11 cases of drug trafficking in Kachin in March, and drugs worth 900 million kyats ($477,000) were seized, according to the most recent figures from the Myanmar Police Force’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control. Though technically illegal in Myanmar, opium cultivation for the manufacture of heroin has been tolerated and even taxed by corrupt officials in the Myanmar military, the Myanmar Police Force and rebel ethnic armies. A resident of Myitkyina district said the number of drug users in his village, which he did not want named for safety reasons, has doubled. “Following the coup, drugs became available more than ever in Myitkyina,” he said. “Cases have now more than doubled in our village.” A resident of the town of Mohnyin said that many young people lost their jobs after the February 2021 coup and turned to drugs to compensate. “If the situation in the country goes on like this, the future will be very bleak,” said the resident who declined to be named. “The situation worsens when there is no law.” In 2021, an estimated 30,200 hectares were under opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar, a 2% increase from 2020, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Higher increases in opium yields were observed in Kachin and eastern Shan states, at 17% and 12%, respectively, the UNODC’s 2021 “Myanmar Opium Survey” said. The situation in Myitkyina, the Kachin state capital, is particularly worrisome. “Drugs are now widespread in Kachin state because they are so easily available,” said an official with a Myitkyina-based civil society group who requested anonymity. “It will be very difficult to control. At present, there are few public activities unlike in the past because traveling from one place to another is difficult. People are worried they might get arrested on suspicion alone.” Youths under the age of 18 are now using drugs, and most of them are addicted to heroin, leading to an uptick in crime in Myitkyina, he said. In the past, community-based antidrug groups set up operations in all parts of the state to track down drug users and traffickers in villages and send them to detention centers or to rehabilitation facilities, according to the official. About 30 self-help antidrug training facilities run by Christian and private groups operate in Myitkyina, and each one is looking after nearly 100 addicts, he said. ‘More and more drugs’ A spokesman from an antidrug group based in Putao said that the town, previously classified as a white zone because there were no drug users, is now off the list. “Every village around here has more and more drugs,” he told RFA. “Drug use has risen in the past two or three months, and the crime rate is going up. Religious teachers and village elders are stepping in to take control of the situation now. We cannot even go to church in peace here. Someone has to stay behind to guard the houses.” About 1,000 drug addicts live in Putao, about half of them women, he added. Drug trafficking is also on the rise with dealers contacting various homes in the area for sales and others openly selling narcotics on the street. Win Ye Tun, a spokesman for the Kachin State Military Council, said the junta regime was working on drug prevention and rehabilitation. “We are trying to stop drug trafficking,” he said. “We make arrests and take action against them [users]. We also have another program to educate these people not to use drugs again. We have opened training camps and drug eradication camps. We did that all along. The government is always behind it.” Tan Raw, who runs an antidrug youth training school in Myitkyina, said the lives of most young people in Kachin have been ruined by the military coup and its bloody aftermath. “Right now, the authorities cannot think of this drug trafficking as an issue,” he said. “That makes it worse. As a consequence, crime rates are rising, too.“ “Most importantly, we have lost the country’s valuable human resources,” said Tan Raw. “Therefore, I think it would be very difficult for us to rebuild our country, even if the political [situation] stabilized.” Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
North Korea has begun promoting a vaccination campaign for soldiers working on a high-priority construction project in the capital Pyongyang, marking the first time the government has administered vaccines in large numbers, sources in the country told RFA. The country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, promised to build 50,000 new homes for the residents of Pyongyang by the end of 2025, and tens of thousands of soldiers have been mobilized to help with the project. “They play loud political propaganda messages as the soldiers get injected with the vaccines from China,” a city government official told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “They are calling it a ‘vaccination of love from the Highest Dignity,’” he said, using an honorific term for Kim Jong Un. Each brigade of soldiers has set up a field sanitation center. On the morning of May 18th, broadcast vehicles began documenting army doctors dressed in protective gear inoculating the soldiers, according to the source. “It was like it was a national political event. All of the officials of the construction command came out to the site, and the atmosphere was all serious,” he said. “The broadcasting car played loudspeaker messages saying, ‘The general secretary has decided to import COVID-19 vaccines in the midst of our nation’s difficult situation. It was repeatedly emphasizing that the vaccines were a gracious gift given to the people from Kim Jong Un,” he said. North Korea is in a state of “maximum emergency” after acknowledging this month that the virus had begun to spread among participants of a large-scale military parade in late April. Prior to that, Pyongyang had denied that anyone in the country had contracted COVID-19, even rejecting 3 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine last September, saying that other countries needed them more. ‘Long live Kim Jong Un’ Sources have told RFA that doses for elite members of society have made their way to Pyongyang in small amounts, and that a limited number of soldiers stationed at the Chinese border had also been inoculated. The soldiers in Pyongyang were relieved to learn they would be receiving the vaccine after they heard news that COVID-19 was spreading rapidly in the capital, the source said. “Some of the soldiers were seen raising their hands and giving praise to Kim Jong Un, shedding tears and shouting ‘Manse!,’” said the source, using a Korean phrase usually said during times of overwhelming emotion that directly translates into English as “10,000 years” but effectively means “long live Kim Jong Un” in this context. “The vaccination campaign conducted that day was only for the soldiers, even though others are helping with the 10,000 homes project. Members of the Korean Socialist Women’s League or local residents who ‘volunteered’ for construction were excluded,” he said. The original plan called for the completion of 10,000 homes in 2021, but the home-building project in the capital fell behind schedule. The government now hopes to meet the target sometime this year and construct an additional 10,000 by the end of the year. The rapid spread of the coronavirus could upend those plans. Over the past month the virus’s spread has forced the government to shut down entire cities, including the capital. But for now projects like the one in Pyongyang continue. Soldiers mobilized for construction in other parts of the country are also in the government’s vaccination plans, a resident of South Hamgyong province, north of Pyongyang, told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Last week I heard from a friend who works in the medical field that the soldiers who are working on the Ryonpho Greenhouse Farm in Hamju County have received COVID-19 vaccines,” she told RFA Tuesday. “The government is prioritizing soldiers working on national construction projects. “The greenhouse farm is a national construction project which Kim Jong Un ordered to be completed by Oct. 10… The general secretary attended a groundbreaking ceremony there on February 18th. The soldiers who are fighting the construction battle night and day were prioritized for vaccination against COVID-19 with vaccines imported from China,” she said, using militaristic language that North Korea uses to describe communal work projects and public campaigns. ‘Immortal Potion of Love.’ People are angry that the government is not rolling out the vaccine for them, however. “They are saying that the government’s behavior is ridiculous. They are only vaccinating soldiers, and they are using images of these soldiers, saying how thrilled they are that the Highest Dignity is giving them a special consideration, as propaganda,” said the second source. “A broadcast vehicle that appeared at the vaccination site loudly proclaimed the greatness of the general secretary, who prepared for them the ‘Immortal Potion of Love.’ People saw the scenes of the emotional soldiers, singing, weeping and shouting ‘Manse!’ but they looked on emotionless.” Though North Korea has acknowledged that the virus is spreading inside the country, it has only reported a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which 38 North, a site that provides analysis on the country and is run by the U.S.-based Stimson Center think tank, attributed to insufficient testing capabilities. Data published on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center showed North Korea with only one confirmed COVID-19 case and six deaths as of Thursday evening. The country is, however, keeping track of numbers of people who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19. About 3.1 million people have been hit by outbreaks of fever, 68 of whom have died, according to data based on the most recent reports from North Korean state media published by 38 North. Around 2.7 million are reported to have made recoveries, while 323,300 are undergoing treatment. Washington has offered to give vaccines to North Korea and China, U.S. President Joe Biden announced during a recent visit to Seoul. Neither country has responded to the offer. North Korea has also ignored a South Korean proposal to cooperate in efforts to combat the pandemic. Observers say Pyongyang is unlikely to accept humanitarian aid from the international community because it would be an admission…
A Uyghur athletic trainer who worked at a university in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region was arrested by Chinese authorities in 2017, said Uyghur sources with knowledge of the situation and officials in the region. Behtiyar Abduweli worked at Ili Pedagogical University, also known as Yili Normal University, in the city of Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining). He is the son of the late Abduweli Jarullayov, a Uyghur singer and playwright. Behtiyar Abduweli is one of more than 20 educators at the university that an earlier RFA report said have been detained. Not all of the names of the educators have been publicly released. A disciplinary committee officer at the university and a Uyghur who lives in Ghulja but did not want to be named for safety reasons said authorities detained the sports trainer in 2017. “I heard that Behtiyar was also taken. You know, the PE teacher Behtiyar,” said the Uyghur source. A Chinese government official in Ghulja confirmed that Abduweli was arrested five years ago because of his leading role in Uyghur society. Since 2017, Chinese authorities have targeted Uyghur intellectuals, businessmen, and cultural and religious figures, imprisoning many of them in a vast network of internment camps in what Beijing says is an effort to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities. The U.S. and the parliaments of other Western countries, however, have declared that such actions constitute a genocide and crimes against humanity. The university meshrep Uyghur educators at Ili Pedagogical University have long influenced Uyghur society through their academic research and teaching, as well as their adherence to Uyghur traditions and customs. More than 30 Uyghur teachers at the university organized a meshrep, a social gathering that celebrates Uyghur culture and traditions, in the 1990s and early 2000s. The events typically include poetry, music, dance and conversation, the Uyghur source said. The gatherings were organized by Abduweli and Abdullah Ismail, the Chinese Communist Party secretary of the school’s Marxism Institute who also is being detained. Their meshrep encouraged more Uyghurs in Ghulja to appreciate Uyghur customs but caused concern among Chinese officials who believed the gatherings were not in line with Chinese Communist Party policy. But the government did not explicitly ban the educators from holding the gatherings because there were no clear government rules or regulations prohibiting the meshrep. In 2017, as Chinese authorities ramped up their repression of Uyghurs, they officially declared that the meshrep is an indication of “religious extremism” and a “propaganda platform of ethnic separatism.” As a result, authorities began investigating the university teachers who participated in the gatherings, and Abduweli was the first to be detained, the Uyghur source said. An official from the Education Department at Ili Pedagogical University declined to comment on Abduweli’s arrest. A former Ghulja educator named Yasinjan, who now lives in Turkey, told RFA that Abduweli and Ismail, along with two other educators — Nijat Sopi and Dilmurat Awut — were all active members of the university meshrep. Abduweli criticized Chinese authorities for flooding the stadium where the members of the university meshrep played soccer matches in 1997, saying the action would affect the community’s social harmony, Yasinjan said. Abduweli’s outspokenness 25 years ago was defined in 2017 by Chinese authorities as “opposing the Chinese government” and “inciting ethnic tensions in the society,” he added. “Behtiyar Abduweli was the leading man in the meshrep gathering of the schoolteachers,” Yasinjan said. “He was the national-level referee in sports games. He was highly respected among his peers both in school and in Uyghur society.” Abduweli also ran a private canteen on campus and gave free food to some students with disabilities. Abdureshid Hamit, another detained educator from the university, also worked with Abduweli in the canteen, Yasinjan said. Another reason that authorities detained Abduweli was because he collected and saved his father’s writings, he added. Abdulweli’s “crimes” also included “encouraging other students who possess ethnic separatist ideas,” said the same Uyghur source who declined to be named. A staff member of the university’s Political Science Department initially tried to answer questions posed by RFA, but when he heard Abduweli’s name, he anxiously said that he did not know about his case. The staffer suggested contacting local law enforcement for details. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed Thursday that, after taking office, he would assert a 2016 arbitral ruling won by the Philippines against China over the South China Sea, a sensitive issue that his predecessor failed to address adequately. In a news conference with a select few reporters, Marcos stressed there was “no wiggle room” on the issue of sovereignty – his strongest public comments yet about the territorial dispute with the Philippines’ biggest Asian neighbor. “We will use it to continue to assert our territorial rights. It’s not a claim, it is already our territorial right and that is what the arbitral ruling can do to help us,” he said. “Our sovereignty is sacred and we will not compromise it in any way. We are a sovereign nation with a functioning government, so we do not need to be told by anyone how to run our country.” Manila, under his leadership, will not allow its sovereignty “to be trampled upon,” he added. The Philippines traditionally has been the United States’ biggest ally in Southeast Asia, though the alliance was tested under the leadership of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who ingratiated himself to China by setting aside the 2016 ruling in favor of bilateral economic cooperation. While Duterte changed his approach on the South China Sea issue toward the latter part of his six-year term, China has strengthened its presence in the disputed waterway and encroached on other claimant states’ exclusive economic zones. During his press conference Marcos promised to talk to China “with a firm voice” even as he acknowledged that the Philippines was at a disadvantage militarily against Beijing. Asked about the Philippine president-elect’s statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing’s “position on the South China Sea arbitration case is consistent, clear and unchanged. “China and the Philippines are friendly close neighbors. We have established a bilateral consultation mechanism on issues relating to the South China Sea and maintain communication and dialogue on maritime issues,” he told reporters on Thursday. “China stands ready to continue working with the Philippines through dialogue and consultation to properly handle differences and safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.” ASEAN role Continuing to pursue multilateral talks with China involving fellow members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as dealing with Beijing bilaterally, would be on top of his foreign policy agenda, Marcos said. “In fact, this is what I mentioned when I spoke to President Xi Jinping when he called me to congratulate me on winning the election. I immediately went and I said we have to continue to talk about this. This cannot be allowed to fester and to become more severe in terms of a problem between our two countries,” he said. Marcos was elected president in a landslide on May 9, receiving 31.6 million votes – more than twice his nearest rival, outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo. The 2016 landmark international tribunal ruling was a result of the arbitration case filed by the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III against China and came just days after Duterte succeeded him in office. China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. While Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesia’s EEZ as well. Analysts had predicted that Marcos would likely echo Duterte’s stance with regard to the South China Sea dispute. His campaign rallies did not focus on foreign policy but included generic talk about unifying a highly divided country. Meanwhile, Robredo, the opposition leader, had vowed to use the ruling to create a “coalition of nations” that would help the Philippines in the territorial dispute. US versus China Citing the competition between the United States and China, Marcos said the Philippines must have an independent foreign policy – similar to what Duterte originally espoused. Duterte, for his part, forged warmer ties with Beijing while criticizing the U.S. for interfering with his anti-drug campaign that has killed thousands of Filipinos. To strike this balance, Marcos said the country’s ties with ASEAN is of “critical importance.” “We are a small player amongst very large giants in terms of geopolitics, so we have to ply our own way. I do not subscribe to the old thinking of the Cold War where you are under the influence of the U.S., Soviet Union,” Marcos said. “I think we just find an independent foreign policy where we are friends with everyone. It’s the only way,” he said. Marcos, whose family has been welcoming of Beijing and has attended Chinese embassy events, said he would continue Manila’s “traditional relationship with the U.S.” His father, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, began forging ties with China’s late chairman, Mao Zedong, in 1975, while also being one of the staunchest U.S. allies in Southeast Asia. “We define that role very simply, it comes from our traditional relationship with the U.S., which has been very strong and very advantageous to both of us for the past 100 or so years,” the president-elect said. “That’s how we define that, and so we must maintain that balance. I don’t think we are the only country that’s having to do that.” BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Authorities in eastern China are turning down passport applications from Chinese Christians wanting to emigrate or just study overseas, RFA has learned. The families of several children raised Christian in the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu said they have recently been questioned about the purpose of their passport applications, which were later turned down after Entry-Exit Bureau officials discovered the family’s religious beliefs. An overseas education consultant said the cases had emerged in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city — known for a high proportion of Protestant Christians — as well as other locations in the region. “A bunch of students from Wenzhou with a church background had been planning to go and study at overseas universities, but the government has refused to give them passports,” a Christian surnamed Zhu from Jiangsu’s Xuzhou city told RFA. “The government is keeping up the pressure and these controls, even though the pandemic isn’t that serious right now,” he said. “We have come to another crossroads, after 40 years of reform and opening up.” China announced on May 10 it would place strict curbs on “non-essential” travel overseas by its nationals, amid a surge in immigration inquiries after weeks of grueling mass testing, lockdowns and forcible mass transportation to quarantine camps. A Christian surnamed Chen from the southern city of Guangzhou said he had also been turned down for a passport, with immigration officials saying there was “no need” to travel during the pandemic. However, they declined to define what they might regard as a “necessary” overseas trip. Hundreds of churchgoers wearing tee shirts vowing to “safeguard religious dignity” protest against the forced removal of crosses from churches in Wenzhou, Aug. 10, 2015. Credit: A church member. ‘Nobody can get or renew a passport’ And a Protestant pastor in the eastern province of Shandong, who gave only the religious name John, said Christians across the country are now being prevented from leaving China. “It’s not just students with Christian backgrounds but non-religious students as well,” John said. “Nobody can get or renew a passport.” But he added: “I think it’ll be hard for church leaders like me to go overseas in future.” Fellow Shandong Christian Shi Tao said he knew of people with similar experiences in recent weeks. “Someone I know was repeatedly questioned … [by border guards], who said that their political views could mean that they are prevented from leaving the country if they’re not careful,” Shi told RFA. “If they find out that you are considered a sensitive person or have had dealings with the police, they won’t let you leave,” he said. “They will [also] find reasons not to let you out if you have a religious background.” “In particular, they are highly likely to stop people from traveling overseas to attend a seminary.” A Zhejiang Christian who declined to be named said the apparent travel bans come amid an ongoing crackdown on Chinese Christians under ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping. “No gatherings are allowed, in the name of disease prevention, and the authorities will shut down any seminaries linked to house churches if they hear about them,” the person said. Clipping passports An overseas study agent surnamed Ma said controls on people leaving China are currently very tight. “Some richer families like to send their children to high school overseas, but the government has been discouraging that since the pandemic began,” Ma said. “You have to say you’re going for tourism, and not even say you’re going to visit relatives; they question everyone very closely.” In March, police in the central province of Hunan ordered local residents to hand over their passports to police, promising to return them “when the pandemic is over.” A March 31 notice from the Baisha police department in the central province of Hunan posted to social media ordered employers to hand over the passports of all employees and family members to police, “to be returned after the pandemic.” Local police confirmed the report to RFA, and said the measure is being rolled out nationwide. Meanwhile, people leaving China for foreign study are having their passports clipped as they arrive or try to leave the country, according to passport-holders, overseas study agencies and social media reports. China’s zero-COVID policy of mass compulsory testing, stringent lockdowns and digital health codes has sparked an emigration wave fueled by “shocked” middle-classes fed up with food shortages, confinement at home, and amid broader safety concerns. The number of keyword searches on social media platform WeChat and search engine Baidu for “criteria for emigrating to Canada” has skyrocketed by nearly 3,000 percent in the past month, with most queries clustered in cities and provinces under tough, zero-COVID restrictions, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Beijing. Immigration consultancies have seen a huge spike in emigration inquiries in recent weeks, with clients looking to apply for overseas passports or green cards, while holding onto their Chinese passports, they said in April. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Several months after ordering the destruction of Buddhist statues in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province and forcing Tibetan monks to watch, Chinese authorities are now forcing those monks to sign affidavits claiming responsibility for the demolition. It remains unclear what punishments the monks face if they refuse to falsely take the blame, but monks who were detained in early 2022 for revealing the destruction to the outside world face harassment and scrutiny even after their release, local sources said.
Wood carving is one of Myanmar’s iconic handicrafts, with detailed sculptures of Buddhas alongside decorated chairs and tables lining the stores of artists throughout the country. The wood-carving tradition dates back to the Pyu period, an arrangement of city-states that existed in Myanmar between the 2nd and 11th centuries, and has survived to the present day. Inside the workshops, the colors of the wood pieces create unique patterns in rooms jam-packed with masterpieces, often featuring images of candles, trees and stupas.
