July 2022 - Page 5 of 16 - Investigative Journalism Reportika

China angry at reported Pelosi Taiwan visit as plan questioned in US

China has once again lashed out at the reported plans by the U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan, warning Thursday of countermeasures even after President Joe Biden said the U.S. military thinks such visit is “not a good idea.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a news conference in Beijing that China holds a “stern position on firmly opposing” the visit. “If Speaker Pelosi visits Taiwan, it would seriously violate the one-China principle and harm China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the political foundation of China-US relations,” Wang said. “If the U.S. insists on going its own way, China will take strong measures to firmly respond and take countermeasures. We will walk the talk,” the spokesperson stressed. On Wednesday, when asked about Pelosi’s prospective trip, President Biden said “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now.” “But I don’t know what the status of it is,” he added. Pelosi’s office meanwhile declined to comment on Pelosi’s international travel in advance due to longstanding security protocols, according to the Associated Press. Britain’s Financial Times newspaper reported earlier this week that Pelosi is to make a trip to Taipei in August after failing to visit the island in April because she had COVID. If Pelosi makes the trip it would be the first time since 1997 that a U.S. House speaker visited the island, which is democratically ruled but claimed by China as its own territory. One-China policy Taipei has been quiet on talk about Pelosi’s visit with the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou insisting that her ministry has not received any information about a planned visit. Taiwan, however, “always welcomes visits by American congresspersons to the country,” she told reporters on Thursday. Meanwhile, the former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who has been visiting Taiwan since Monday said that China should not be allowed “to dictate the travel schedules of American officials.” Esper, who held office from 2019 to 2020 under former U.S. President Donald Trump, said that he believes that Washington’s one-China policy has “run its course” and should be “updated and modernized.” It is important that the U.S. government develops a fresh perspective regarding its cross-Taiwan Strait policy, Esper said at a press conference in Taipei. Beijing has long reacted strongly to any sign of support given to Taiwan but the U.S should not allow China to arbitrarily expand “the scope of activities translated as supporting Taiwan independence, and by that defining the scope of the U.S. one-China policy,” said Norah Huang, associate research fellow at the Prospect Foundation, a Taiwanese think-tank. “If applying over-generous self-restrictions as it has been the case, it also would encourage the Chinese government to play the nationalist card. This is not helpful for nurturing an understanding civil society which may grow as China develops,” she added.

Chinese pressure on UN rights chief prompts US call for release of Xinjiang report

Editor2 years ago08 mins

The U.S. called on the United Nations human rights chief on Wednesday release a report on conditions in Xinjiang “without delay,” after a report that China was working behind the scenes at the UN to bury the long-delayed document. On Tuesday, Reuters reported from Geneva that a letter authored by China expressing “grave concern” about the Xinjiang report was circulated among diplomatic missions. The note asked countries to sign it to show their support for China’s goal of convincing High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to halt its release, the news agency said. “Despite frequent assurances by the Office of the High Commissioner that the report would be released in short order, it remains unavailable,” said a U.S. State Department in Washington. “We call on the High Commissioner to release the report without delay. And we are highly concerned about any effort by Beijing to suppress the report’s release,” the spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. Bachelet, who visited Xinjiang in May, informed the Human Rights Council in September 2021 that her office was finalizing its assessment of information on allegations of rights violations. Three months later, a spokesperson said the report would be issued in a matter of weeks, but it was not released. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for UN Human Rights Office said it was still being finalized and that Bachelet had said it would be released before she leaves office ends in August or September. “The report is being finalized and final steps are being undertaken prior to public release,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to RFA Uyghur. The final steps include “sharing with the concerned Member State for its comments before publishing as per standard practice,” the spokesperson said. “Reports are shared for comments with the concerned Member State. The Office will reflect comments of a factual nature in the final version,” said the statement. The spokesman had no comment on the letter cited in the Reuters report. The letter and any related Chinese pressure campaign at the UN was unsurprising because Beijing is “hypersensitive to criticism,” said Sophie Richardson, China director of New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). “The Chinese government regularly tries to undermine or preempt or reject any criticism,” she told RFA. The letter emerged a month after nearly 50 United Nations member states on Wednesday issued a joint statement criticizing China’s atrocities against Uyghurs and calling on Bachelet to release the Xinjiang report. The UN report would cover a period in which Chinese authorities detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps since 2017, according to numerous investigative reports by researchers and think tanks. Xinjiang’s Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have reportedly been subjected to severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labor, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions in what the United States and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity. The Campaign for Uyghurs, part of a coalition of 230 organizations who have demanded that Bachelet resign from her post, urged the UN to resist Chinese pressure. “It is not the first time China is trying to drum up support for its genocide, nor will it be the last,” said CFU Executive Director Rushan Abbas. “The question is whether countries will succumb to China’s whims because of economic ties, and if Michelle Bachelet will once again be coaxed into listening to China’s demands,” she added. Bachelet’s China tightly orchestrated Xinjiang visit, about which she has disclosed little, has been criticized as a staged, Potemkin-style tour. In Beijing Wednesday, however, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the 70-year-old former Chilean president “experienced in person what a real Xinjiang is like: a region that enjoys security and stability and sustained robust development, and its people live a happy and fulfilling life.” He told a news conference that China’s stance enjoyed the support of developing countries. “The calculations of a small number of countries to use Xinjiang to engage in political manipulation, tarnish China’s reputation and contain and suppress China will not succeed,” Wang said. HRW’s Richardson said Bachelet was caught between demands from Uyghurs, rights groups and Western governments for accountability and a disclosure of facts in Xinjiang and Beijing’s pressure to silence its critics. “Whether she goes ahead and how accurate it is will tell us a lot about how seriously she takes her mandate and how willing she is to challenge some of the most powerful members of the U.N. system,” she told RFA. Written by Paul Eckert.

Unease downstream despite assurances that leaking Lao Nam Theun 1 is safe

Editor2 years ago08 mins

People living near a leaking dam in central Laos remained fearful Wednesday, five days after a video of the leak went viral, despite assurances from the government that it is structurally safe and will be fixed in weeks, sources in the country told RFA. Video of the apparent leak at the Nam Theun 1 Dam in the central province of Bolikhamxay was shared on Facebook on Saturday, a week before the fourth anniversary of the Southeast Asian country’s worst ever dam collapse that killed more than 70 people. Authorities told RFA on Monday that the video depicted only “seepage” that would have no effect on operations or safety at the hydroelectric dam on a Mekong River tributary. On Wednesday, however, the government put out a statement saying that the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines had found two small leaks during an inspection last month, and a second inspection on Sunday after the video circulated determined that the leaks were still the same size. “Our department inspected the dam on June 25, 2022 and found two leaks on the right side of the dam. However, the leaks are small and won’t have any impact on the structure of the dam,” Bouathep Malaykham, director of the ministry’s energy industry safety management department, said in the statement. “We immediately asked the dam developer to look for the source of the leaks and stop the leaks as soon as possible,” he said. “The developer is planning to fix the leaks in three weeks and our Ministry of Energy and Mines is closely monitoring the dam every day. Actually, we’re going to inspect the dam again on July 27, 2022,” Malaykham said The 650 MW Nam Theun 1 Dam is part of Laos’ controversial development strategy to build dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia” by exporting power to neighboring countries. Critics question rising debt levels and environmental damage as well as safety. The safety department head acknowledged that footage of the leaks on social media had caused understandable concern. But he rejected comparisons with the July 23, 2018 disaster, billions of cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over a collapsed saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project following heavy rains. It wiped out all or part of 19 villages, leaving 71 people dead and displacing 14,440 others. Malaykham’s statement reminded residents that the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy dam which collapsed in southern Laos four years ago was a soil dam, while the Nam Theun 1 Dam is a compact concrete dam. “For those who want to post news and pictures of the dam, please think twice, and make sure your information is correct. If not, it might create some misunderstanding among the public,” he said. But the 2018 disaster is still fresh in the minds of people who live downstream from Nam Theun 1, and they remain terrified even with the explanation, a teacher in the province’s Pakkading district said Wednesday. “The dam is leaking now, and sooner or later the leak is going to get worse and finally the dam is going to break,” the teacher told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.. “Actually, the water is leaking from a dirt wall, not from the concrete wall, so, it’ll get larger and larger soon,” the teacher added. Another resident of the district told RFA he was not assuaged by government assurances. “History will repeat itself. We experienced the worst dam collapse four years ago, and now this is happening again.” A survivor of the 2018 disaster said the developer has instituted a warning system in the years since it caused what has been described as Laos’ worst flooding in decades. “The Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam developer often issues alerts or warnings to us during the rainy season; but up to now, there has been no drills of an emergency or rescue plan at all,” the survivor told RFA Wednesday. The government recently ordered more inspections on hydroelectric dams, a dam developer in northern Laos’ Oudomxay province told RFA. “We already do inspections. We coordinate with the local authorities and residents about our dam condition,” the developer said. Dams also warn the public and the local authorities prior to releasing water, an employee of a dam developer in southern Laos’ Sekong province told RFA. The Nam Theun 1 hydropower project is 60 percent funded by Phonesack Group, 25 percent by EGAT and 15 percent by Electricite du Laos. When complete, its 650 MW of output will be sold to neighboring Thailand. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the landlocked country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Hong Kong journalists make YouTube tribute on 3rd anniversary of bloody mob attacks

Editor2 years ago09 mins

Hong Kong journalists targeted under a citywide crackdown on dissent for their reporting of the Yuen Long mob attacks of 2019 have marked the third anniversary of the attacks with a YouTube documentary. A group of independent journalists including Bao Choy, who was arrested in November 2020 over her investigative documentary for government broadcaster RTHK about the July 21, 2019 mob attacks on train passengers at Yuen Long MTR, published a 14-minute video to YouTube on Tuesday, ahead of Thursday’s anniversary. Bao’s Hong Kong Connection TV documentary titled “7.21 Who Owns the Truth?” showed clips from surveillance cameras at shops in Yuen Long and interviewed people who were identified in the footage. Its airing forced police to admit that they already had a presence in the town, but did nothing to prevent the attacks as baton-wielding men in white T-shirts began to gather in Yuen Long ahead of the bloody attack on passengers and passers-by. “On the third anniversary of the 721 Yuen Long attack, a group of independent journalists have made this special program about the unfinished investigation … summarizing clues collected by civil society over the past few years, and following up with a few who have been persevering in seeking the truth,” the video description reads. “We are not affiliated with any media organization and have no news platform, but we sincerely appreciate the willingness of multiple independent journalists to work together on this production,” it said. “We have made this to professional standards despite the lack of salaries or resources.” Post-crackdown freedoms The video also “pays tribute to the interviewees who dared to comment publicly and on the record,” despite an ongoing crackdown on public criticism of the government under a national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. “Some of them have been forced to leave [Hong Kong], while others have chosen to stay, but they all want to see the day when the truth is made public,” it said. The HKIJ channel where the video was published had garnered 3,540 subscribers by Wednesday afternoon, and 5,700 likes, with a number of supportive comments from Hongkongers. “You were the victims, but you bravely stood up and remembered the pain. I sincerely thank you and wish you all peace,” one comment read, while another said: “Neither forget nor forgive. Thank you to everyone who stood up.” “Thank you to every citizen who still dares to tell the truth, and every reporter who reports the truth, three years on,” another comment said. Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen in Yuen Long after attacking anti-extradition bill demonstrators at a train station, in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. Credit: Reuters Galileo The video includes interviews with three people who were in Yuen Long MTR three years ago, including Tuen Mun resident “Galileo” who was attacked while trying to rescue journalist Gwyneth Ho, and chef surnamed So who sustained heavy injuries from being beaten with rods, as well as a local businessman who supplied CCTV footage from his premises. “Galileo” and his wife tell the producers they gave high-definition video and detailed witness accounts to police, but that most of the attackers hadn’t been arrested to this day. Choy was arrested and fined for “road traffic violations” relating to vehicle registration searches used in her RTHK film. Thirty-nine minutes elapsed between the first emergency calls to the final arrival of police at the Yuen Long MTR station, where dozens of people were already injured, and many were in need of hospital treatment. At least eight media organizations, including the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association and the RTHK staff union expressed “extreme shock and outrage” at Choy’s arrest. Calvin So, a victim of Sunday’s Yuen Long attacks, shows his wounds at a hospital in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. Credit: Reuters Book fair censored The anniversary came as the Hong Kong Book Fair, once a vibrant showcase for independent publishers in the city, started displaying prominently a number of new titles about CCP leader Xi Jinping and the history of the ruling party, apparently specially produced for the Hong Kong market. Offerings from CCP-backed publishers were on prominent display at the fair on July 19, including titles expounding the success of the “one country, two systems” model under which Beijing took back control of Hong Kong in 1997. A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), which runs the book fair, denied that a higher level of censorship is being implemented at the fair under the national security law, which bans public criticism of the authorities. “We don’t engage in the prior vetting of books, nor will we take action to censor any books,” spokeswoman Clementine Cheung told reporters. “But if someone complains or thinks there is an issue with a book, we have a mechanism for checking on that.” “If there really is a problem with a book, it won’t be up to us to decide that,” she said. While independent publishers have been gradually disappearing from the book fair in Hong Kong, organizers set up a small but independent event titled the “Five Cities Book Fair 2022” in small venues in Taipei, London, Manchester, Vancouver and Toronto, showcasing titles that are now banned in Hong Kong, especially those about the political crackdown and the 2019 protest movement. “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” is displayed at a booth during the annual book fair in Hong Kong, Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Credit: AP Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

China moves to stave off crisis of confidence in banks amid mortgage strike, freezes

Editor2 years ago012 mins

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moving to dampen concerns about a banking crisis amid an ongoing mortgage repayments strike and widespread protests over frozen accounts at rural banks. Several cities in the central province of Henan set up task forces to address the issue of unfinished housing projects, the Global Times newspaper reported, following widespread concerns over the systemic risks posed by mortgage defaulters. Authorities in Henan’s Pingdingshan city were finding ways to kick start unfinished projects, while Gongyi city announced on July 14 that three stalled projects in the city had been “properly resolved,” the paper said. “The accelerated moves by local authorities come as mortgage defaults in some Chinese cities, including those in … Guangdong … Henan and Hunan provinces, have raised concerns at both home and abroad,” the paper said. “Risk management mechanisms are generally deemed strong enough to withstand the risk,” it said of the banking sector. Financial markets commentator Chai Xin said the mortgage repayments strikes stem in part from unfair clauses in the off-plan, or presold, sector of the property market. “Almost all of them contain overlord clauses, which don’t give buyers any legal protection, and allow banks to use your other assets [to secure the mortgage], should the mortgaged property lose value,” Chai told RFA. “This doesn’t really happen anywhere outside China.” Chai said the CCP is very worried that the mortgage repayment strike will have a knock-on effect on public confidence in the banking system. “The suspension of mortgage repayments isn’t going to have a huge impact on the banks’ huge assets,” he said. “But the thing the banks are most worried about right now is wavering public trust,” he said. “If public confidence in the banks is shaken, then they will have a big problem.” Plainclothes security officers stand on the road as people stage a protest at the entrance to a branch of China’s central bank in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan Province on July 10, 2022. Credit: AP ‘Manageable overall’ Chai said if the mortgage strike ends up prompting bankruptcies among property developers, that could also have a big impact on the banks. To date, 15 banks, including the five biggest banks in China, have issued announcements to the effect that the risks from the mortgage repayments strike are “controllable” or “manageable overall.” The move to reassure the public comes after thousands of people protested outside the Shaanxi branch of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) in the northern city of Xi’an on July 14, calling for an investigation into bank loans to property developers, some of whom have been transferring funds overseas. A manager in the personal loan department of the Shenzhen branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), who gave only the surname Li, said some developers have been taking the money needed to finish housing projects out of the country. “The developer will say, we can’t go on, this project can’t be completed, but that unfinished project is itself mortgaged, built with a loan borrowed from the bank,” Li said. “[They might take out a] loan of 400 million yuan, 100 million of which would be used for basic development project, and they keep selling off-plan [before completion],” she said. “[But] many developers have already transferred those funds overseas.” “If the housing developer fails to deliver the building on time, the building will be unfinished,” Li said. “In the loan agreement between the buyer and the bank, if there is a problem with property used as collateral, they can include your existing assets to recover the debt.” “But if this becomes very widespread, the banks won’t be able to withstand it,” she said. Call for patience Meanwhile, a CBIRC official called on depositors at four rural banks in the central province of Henan to “be patient” and wait for compensation. “Police have identified the main facts of the case and discovered … that Henan New Fortune Group manipulated five village banks in Henan and Anhui to illegally absorb public funds through internal and external collusion, use of third-party platforms and fund brokers, tamper with original business data, and cover up illegal behavior,” the official said. “The vast majority of ordinary customers of [these banks] have no knowledge or understanding of the suspected criminal behavior of New Fortune Group, and have not received additional high interest or subsidies … and their capital will be returned in batches,” the official said, adding that regular depositors with savings of less than 50,000 yuan would be refunded first. “This is a heavy workload because there are large numbers of people involved … so please wait patiently for follow-up announcements,” the official said. The official said CBIRC also “supports local governments to more effectively promote guaranteed property handovers by developers in a bid to address the mortgage repayments strike. “Banks should insist on finding out the truth of the situation … and on precise implementation of policy, and actively plan to solve the hard funding gap in a reasonable manner,” the official said in comments reported on the CBIRC official website. Since the protests began over the withdrawals freeze at the Henan rural banks, customers have also reported that their bank cards have been frozen or restricted by other banks in Beijing, Shandong, Hainan and other provinces and cities. One newspaper quoted a depositor in Shaanxi as saying that his ICBC savings card wouldn’t let him withdraw or transfer his money, only deposit it. The Securities Daily quoted several banks as saying that cards are generally restricted because of suspected money-laundering or other illegal activities, amid reports that Chinese banks have stepped up scrutiny of dormant accounts with no activity for three years or more in recent years. People protest outside a branch of the People’s Bank of China in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou on July 10, 2022. Credit: Anonymous source/AFP Liquidity fears Independent economist He Jiangbing said some dormant accounts are used for criminal activities, something that can happen anywhere…

Nearly 70 people hiding in a Sagaing monastery captured by Myanmar military

Editor2 years ago04 mins

Nearly 70 villagers have been arrested at a village in Saigaing region’s Yinmabin township. They were taking refuge in a monastery in Ban Bwe village. Junta forces moved in and arrested them at around 1 p.m. last Saturday, according to locals. The arrested include 10 children aged between three and eight and five people in their 70s and 80s. The older people had to pay a total of MMK 2.5 million, or U.S.$ 1,345, and were released the same day. The rest are still being held by the military, according to a local woman who declined to be named for safety reasons. Soldiers and members of a military-affiliated militia have been deployed in the village for the past six months. “There are about 100 soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee,” the woman told RFA. “The detainees were sheltering in the Pepin Tawya monastery in the southern part of Ban Bwe village. The military forces and its affiliate, the Pyu Saw Htee, ordered the people to return home but then they arrested about 70 of them and held them at the village school. We had heard about what happened at Mone Tai Pin village in the past, and we are worried that those arrested will be killed.” Last May, more than 30 villagers were arrested and tied up by the army at a school in Mone Tai Pin, also in Sagaing region, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting between junta forces and People’s Defense Forces (PDFs). The military killed 29 of them. The woman said she was trying to find out who had been detained in Ban Bwe. RFA and locals have identified 14 of the adults and all 10 children so far. Calls to the military council’s spokesman by RFA went unanswered on Wednesday. Ban Bwe village. CREDIT: Google Earth Nearly a thousand people from more than two hundred households lived in Ban Bwe, which is also known as Ywa Ma village. When junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee entered the village in January locals fled due to battles between the troops and local PDFs. Apart from those who were hiding in the monastery, some have moved to nearby cities and some are hiding in a forest near the village.

Junta, opposition activists hold dueling events to mark Martyrs’ Day in Myanmar

Editor2 years ago010 mins

Myanmar’s military regime and opposition forces held dueling events Tuesday to mark the country’s 75th Martyrs’ Day, with heavy security deployed in the commercial capital Yangon for an official ceremony as anti-junta activists marched and held protests in several cities and towns. The families of the nine assassinated national leaders honored on the holiday laid wreaths at an official ceremony held by the junta at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon. Noticeably absent from the event were the families of independence hero Gen. Aung San, whose daughter Aung San Suu Kyi was thrown in prison following the military’s Feb. 1, 2021 overthrow of her government, and his elder brother Ba Win. The military closed several of the main roads in the city for the early morning ceremony, which junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing did not attend. A resident of Yangon told RFA Burmese that the military set up checkpoints throughout the city ahead of the event. “Armed police were placed on pedestrian bridges and there were a lot of junta vehicles patrolling the streets. In addition, there were police and soldiers in front of City Hall, at many intersections and posted at various checkpoints,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There were soldiers and police in plain clothes too … [The authorities] checked everyone who approached the cordoned areas.” The military also tightened security and carried out inspections along various roads in Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay, where the opposition maintains a strong presence. Demonstrators march in Kachin state on Martyrs’ Day, July 19, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Despite the clampdown, people on the streets in many townships, including Yangon, commemorated Martyrs’ Day by honking their car horns and carrying wreaths honoring the nine leaders. Even political prisoners in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison marked the holiday by writing excerpts of speeches by the nine martyrs on their uniforms. Meanwhile, anti-junta activists staged protests and hung posters denouncing the military regime in the regions of Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway, and Tanintharyi, as well as in Kachin and Kayah states. A monk in Mandalay told RFA that activists held a march on Monday to commemorate Martyrs’ Day in anticipation of tight security in the city for the actual holiday. “We were able to lead a protest column … on the eve of Martyr’s Day,” said the monk, who also declined to be named. “Today, security was tight and we couldn’t undertake any activities … But we held a prayer ceremony this evening.” In Mon state, a member of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group in Thaton township told RFA that a ceremony was held honoring not only the Nine Martyrs, but all who had died in the struggle for democracy. “[They] are also martyrs who deserve to be remembered,” he said. “They fought and sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country and people, for the truth and for justice, so we also must salute them.” Martyrs’ Day activities were also observed in Sagaing region’s Budalin, Chaung-U, Kani, Khin-U, Yinmarbin, Salingyi, Tamu, and Shwebo townships; Magway region’s Pauk, Gangaw, and Tilin townships; Tanintharyi region’s Launglon and Thayetchaung townships; Bago region’s Bago and Letpadan townships; Kachin state’s Hpakant township; and Kayah state’s Phekon township. Vice-Senior Gen. Soe Win (front), vice-chairman of the junta, salutes with officials at the tomb of Myanmar’s independence hero Gen. Aung San during a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of his 1947 assassination, at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon, July 19, 2022. Credit: Myanmar Ministry of Information via AP Abandoned goals Nan Lin, a member ofUniversity Students’ Unions Alumni Force in Yangon, told RFA that the junta had abandoned the goals of the Martyrs, so it was not strange that the family members of Aung San and Ba Win did not attend Tuesday’s official ceremony. “The number one thing they wanted was independence and the formation of a federal union, followed by the flourishing of democracy and human rights in our country,” he said. “However, what the military has been doing is totally against the aspirations of the martyred leaders.” On July 19, 1947, nine of Myanmar’s independence leaders were gunned down by members of a rival political group while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon. The victims were Prime Minister Aung San, Minister of Information Ba Cho, Minister of Industry and Labor Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Trade Ba Win, Minister of Education Abdul Razak, and Myanmar’s unofficial Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Mya. The nine played key roles in Myanmar’s independence movement and, following the end of British rule less than six months later, the date of their assassination was designated a national holiday. Speaking to RFA in Yangon on Tuesday, youth protester Myat Min Khant said that Martyrs’ Day is now a day to commemorate all those who have sacrificed their lives for the nation. “There may have been nine martyrs in the past, but presently there are many more than nine,” he said. “There were martyrs in the urban clashes, in the street protests, and in the liberated areas [of Myanmar’s remote border regions]. We must recognize the brave warriors who died in battle [against the junta].” The military seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government last year, claiming voter fraud led to a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the country’s November 2020 election. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule. According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has killed at least 2,092 civilians and arrested nearly 15,000 since the takeover, mostly during peaceful anti-junta demonstrations. The group acknowledges that its list is incomplete and says the numbers are likely much higher. Translation by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Xi Jinping’s Xinjiang visit may signal new emphasis on the assimilation of Uyghurs

Editor2 years ago09 mins

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Xinjiang signals a new emphasis on the assimilation of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group the U.S. and other governments have said are victims of an ongoing genocide, analysts said. Xi made an unannounced visit to China’s far-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) on July 12-15, where he emphasized “social stability and lasting security as the overarching goal” of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies, according to a July 15 report by the official Xinhua News Agency. Xi’s visit to Xinjiang was his second in eight years to the region, where Chinese authorities have detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps since 2017. Locals have reportedly been subjected to severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labor, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions in what the United States and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity. Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and expert on the Xinjiang region, said Xi’s statements were “a very significant affirmation that Beijing’s policy was correct and that it should continue to be implemented. “It’s a statement of defiance and of pride,” Zenz told RFA. “Basically he is signaling that nobody can interfere into China’s ethnic policy in Xinjiang and that Beijing’s red lines are firmly upheld.” On Tuesday, Reuters reported that China has asked United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to bury a report into Xinjiang, which she visited in May. The letter authored by China expressed “grave concern” about the Xinjiang report and aims to halt its release, Reuters said from Geneva, where four sources told the news agency that China began circulating it among diplomatic missions from late June and asked countries to sign it to show their support. Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) inspects a local village in Turpan, northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Credit: Xinhua News Agency Xi ‘will eradicate the remaining few’ In a July 16 tweet thread, James Millward, a history professor at Georgetown University who specializes in Central Asia, noted Xi’s contention that “Chinese civilization is the root of the cultures of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang” in a speech after his trip to describe the relationship of non-Han Chinese people in the XUAR to zhonghua, or Chinese identity. “In Xi’s speech at the Third Xinjiang Forum in September 2020 (and in other speeches around that time) a different phrase was used,” Millward wrote. That phrase was: “All ethnic groups in Xinjiang are family members linked to Chinese bloodlines.” “I pointed out at the time that by evoking ‘blood’ and ‘family member’ this phrase indirectly implied a genetic relationship between the Central Asian peoples now ruled by the [Chinese Communist Party] and ‘zhonghua,’ i.e., Chinese people,” he wrote. Millward also notes that Xi’s comment about the necessity of educating and guiding officials and the masses “to correctly recognize Xinjiang history, especially history of ethnic development” indicates that China is now stressing that various ethnic groups “are all Chinese, developed from and as part of what Xi calls the ‘zhonghua’ (now ubiquitous as generic, ahistorical cultural term equivalent to the western-language term ‘China’).” Chinese analyst Ma Ju said Xi went to Xinjiang in preparation for the CCP’s 20th Congress in autumn, where Xi likely will be reappointed for a third term as party general secretary, and the People’s Congress convening next March. “Xi Jinping’s statements made after his visit to the region indicates that he will eradicate the remaining few and careful cultural figures after getting rid of the Uyghur elites,” Ma told RFA. “This is an eradication campaign. They will continue this eradication campaign just like getting rid of the civilization of other nations [non-Han peoples] in Chinese history.” Rahima Mahmut, U.K. director of the World Uyghur Congress, said events such as the staged dancing of Uyghurs for Xi’s visit was orchestrated for propaganda purposes. “This happens quite often,” she said. “It is the same not only for officials from the central government, but also for local officials. The Uyghur students and performers are forced to welcome such officials. The staged dancing of Uyghurs was meant to show the world that Uyghurs enjoy normal happy lives.” But Mahmut also said it was “frightening” to see photos and videos of the Chinese president with mostly elderly Uyghurs around him, and young men nowhere to be seen. “Where did the Uyghur young men go? The truth is most young Uyghur males have faced enforced disappearance. They are either in the camps or prisons. This is quite clear,” she said. Following Xi’s visit to the XUAR, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told RFA that the U.S. would continue to work “to promote accountability for the PRC [People’s Republic of China] government’s use of forced labor, as well as its ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.” Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Japan renews promise to help Philippines modernize its military

Editor2 years ago05 mins

During a visit to Manila, Japan’s vice minister for defense renewed Tokyo’s commitment to helping the Philippines modernize its military, as the Southeast Asian nation faces territorial threats, Filipino officials said Tuesday. Tsuyohito Iwamoto met with Jose Faustino, the Philippines’ acting defense secretary, at Camp Aguinaldo on Monday after talks with other key Philippine defense and military officials, according to the Philippine Department of National Defense. Beijing was not specifically mentioned, but the Philippines, along with other nations in the region, is locked in a bitter territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea. Japan, for its part, is locked in a separate dispute with China in the East China Sea, particularly over the Senkaku Islands. “The two officials discussed overall Philippines-Japan defense relations and regional security concerns,” the department said in a statement, adding that both officials “reaffirmed that respect for international law and a rules-based order is essential in maintaining peace and stability in the region, particularly in the South China Sea and East China Sea.” Arsenio Andolong, a spokesman for the department, said Iwamoto talked about Japan’s ongoing efforts to support the Philippines. “Japan has expressed its willingness to continue offering us equipment and some technologies. They want to help us with our requirements for our modernization,” Andolong said without giving more details because he was not authorized to do so. Over the past several years, Japan has donated trainer aircraft, spare parts for Huey helicopters and search-and-rescue equipment to the Filipino armed forces. Andolong said Faustino and Iwamoto also discussed defense relations as well as regional security concerns. During their meeting, Faustino and Iwamoto recalled the successful April two-plus-two Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting the countries held in Tokyo, Andolong said. Iwamoto described that meeting as a “manifestation of the two countries’ growing bilateral strategic partnership,” according to Andolong. At Camp Aguinaldo, Iwamoto also met with Armed Forces chief Gen. Andres Centino where they discussed “bilateral engagements anchored on existing defense cooperation agreements,” according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Centino thanked Japan for its involvement in the Air Surveillance Radar System Acquisition Project under the military’s modernization program. The 5.5 billion pesos ($98 million) contract, signed in August 2020, was awarded to the Japanese firm Mitsubishi Electric Corp. The defense department said the radar was to cover the Philippine Rise to the east of the nation, the southern region where Islamic State-linked militants operate, as well as the “the Southern portion of the West Philippine Sea,” Manila’s name for its claimed territories in the South China Sea. The radar is expected to help boost Manila’s airspace monitoring, aircraft control as well as help the air force perform its air defense mission. In particular, it will “help detect, identify and correlate any threats and intrusions within the Philippine economic zone and deliver radar images” to operating units, the department said. The system is expected to be delivered later this year, according to a Philippine media report. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Interview: Former Trump China adviser Miles Yu wants NATO to go global

Editor2 years ago2 years ago09 mins

Historian Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the Trump administration, has called in a recent op-ed article for NATO to create a broader security alliance including the Indo-Pacific region, in a bid to stave off a Chinese invasion of democratic Taiwan. “There is an emerging international alliance, forged in the face of today’s greatest global threat to freedom and democracy,” Yu, who served as senior China policy and planning advisor to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, wrote in the Taipei Times on July 11, 2022. “That threat comes from the China-led, Beijing-Moscow axis of tyranny and aggression,” the article said. “And the new alliance to counter that axis may be called the North-Atlantic-Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization — NAIPTO.” Yu argued that NATO’s strength would be “augmented” by robust U.S. defense alliances covering Eurasia, as well as the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. “Such scale is necessary because NATO nations and major countries in the Indo-Pacific region face the same common threat. Common threats are the foundation for common defense,” Yu said. In a later interview with RFA’s Mandarin Service, Yu said the idea would solve several problems. “The first is to unify the U.S. global alliance system, which [is currently divided into] a European-style alliance that is multilateral, involving the joint defense of more than 30 countries,” Yu said. “In the Asia-Pacific region, the nature of the alliance is bilateral, that is, the United States has bilateral treaties with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, but there is no mutual defense system between Japan, South Korea and the Philippines,” he said. “My proposal … is to unify the global alliance system of the United States and turn it into a multilateral collective defense treaty,” he said. He said NATO members and countries in the Indo-Pacific are facing a common threat, particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine had brought Beijing and Moscow closer together. “China and Russia are basically on the same page,” Yu said. “Both China and Russia are singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to strategic statements and their understanding of the Russian-Ukrainian war.” “They are both in favor of making territorial claims against other countries based on civilization and language.” United States Naval Academy professor Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the Trump administration, poses for a photo during an RFA interview in Livermore, California, Oct. 16, 2021. Credit: RFA Common threat He said “ancestral” and “historical” claims on territory run counter to the current state of the world and internation law, and were effectively illegal. “The CCP and Russia have stood together and have recently acted together militarily,” Yu said, citing recent joint bomber cruises in the Sea of Japan, and joint warship exercises in the East China Sea. “Militarily, these moves are very meaningful; they mean that neighboring countries all face a common threat,” he said. He said European countries could perhaps be persuaded to contribute more funding for such an alliance, now that the EU appears to be following Washington’s lead in regarding China as its No. 1 strategic rival. “The United States cannot continue to keep up military spending on NATO as it did in the past,” Yu said. “This strategic shift shouldn’t require much persuasion for NATO’s European members, as they have a perception of the global threat from China that is more in line with that of the U.S. now.” Asked if that shift in perception would extend to helping defend Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and whose 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life, Yu said Ukraine may have changed thinking in Europe on Taiwan. “The people of Taiwan and the people of the world have learned a lot from recent developments, especially from the war in Ukraine,” Yu said. “What happened in Ukraine was something done by Russia, so, would the CCP do the same thing to Taiwan? Logically, philosophically, they would,” Yu said. “The CCP supports Russian aggression against Ukraine … because it senses that Russia has set a precedent, for which the next step would be Taiwan,” he said. “So European countries are going to have a keener sense of the need to protect Taiwan.” “If everyone unites to deal with the military threat from China and its economic coercive measures, the CCP won’t be so bold,” Yu said, citing China’s economic sanctions against Australia after the country started taking a more critical tone with Beijing. “The CCP got angry and imposed large-scale economic sanctions on Australia, stopped buying its coal, and stopped buying its wine,” Yu said. “But if Australia were to join this alliance, it could take joint action to deal with China’s unreasonable measures.” “The CCP would stand to lose a lot, because this would be collective action, and the likelihood of further outrageous actions would be greatly reduced,” he said. He added: “Many countries in the world, especially those in the Asia-Pacific region, are dependent on China’s economy, but China is also dependent on these countries for energy and markets. This is a two-way street.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Month: July 2022