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Month: August 2022

English Football League reviewing files linking Cambodian diplomat to soccer club

Editor09 mins

Evidence linking Cambodian diplomat Wang Yaohui to Birmingham City Football Club is now in the possession of the English Football League, RFA has learned. The EFL last month successfully applied to Singapore’s Supreme Court to access records in a case brought against one of Wang’s companies, according to sources familiar with the court’s ruling who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak about it publicly. The application was made as part of an ongoing investigation by the league into allegations that Wang secretly controls a substantial portion of Birmingham City’s shares, in contravention of EFL regulations. One of the defendants in the Singapore court case is a company registered in the city state, Gold Star Aviation Pte Ltd. Corporate records show that Gold Star Aviation’s sole shareholder is a British Virgin Islands company called Dragon Villa Ltd, which also controls 12.81 percent of Birmingham City’s shares. Among the court files obtained by the EFL is a sworn affidavit given by one of Wang’s most trusted lieutenants, Jenny Shao, who is also a defendant in the case and has enjoyed power of attorney over Wang’s affairs for more than a decade. In the affidavit, which RFA has seen, Shao states that, “Gold Star’s sole shareholder is Dragon Villa Ltd (“DVL”) and DVL is beneficially owned by Mr Wang.” As an EFL member playing in the league’s highest division, Birmingham City is obligated to disclose the identity of any individual controlling more than 10 percent of its shares. While Dragon Villa features in the club’s ownership statement, Wang does not. The disclosure describes Dragon Villa instead as being “controlled” by an individual named Lei Sutong, who is a director or shareholder at multiple Wang-linked companies. The discrepancy between Shao and Birmingham City’s descriptions of Dragon Villa’s ownership could have serious repercussions for the club, including potential misconduct charges or point deductions. A club spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, but RFA understands that Birmingham City’s management is standing by its existing ownership disclosure. Birmingham City’s assurances do not seem to have satisfied the league, which confirmed in a statement to RFA that its investigation is ongoing.  “As a result of our ongoing investigations into the ultimate beneficial ownership of Birmingham City Football Club, we are not in a position to comment,” an EFL spokesperson told RFA via email, commenting anonymously in line with the league’s policies. Wang Yaohui’s first Cambodian diplomatic passport bearing his Khmer name Wan Sokha. The passport was granted to him in 2015 in recognition of his role as an advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen. The league launched its probe into Wang’s ties to the club in early June, following an RFA investigation, which found the Chinese-born Cambodian diplomat and advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen controlled a large but undeclared stake in the club through a series of proxies and shell companies. Birmingham City is one of England’s most storied soccer teams and currently competes in the nation’s second-highest tier, just below the elite Premier League. That the EFL now holds the Singapore court files may explain why a putative takeover of the club has stalled in recent weeks. Long beset by financial troubles and with its stadium in need of serious repairs, many Birmingham City fans are hankering for new ownership. They may have thought their prayers had been answered when a bid was submitted last month by former club director Paul Richardson and retired professional soccer player Maxi Lopez. Before any transfer of ownership can take place at a soccer club playing in one of the EFL’s three divisions, the league must approve the sale. In order to do so, it requires information from both the buyer and the seller about what the club’s ownership structure will be after the sale. Writing in The Athletic last week, soccer journalist Matt Slater reported the EFL’s chief executive Trevor Birch as saying the league hadn’t received enough information “to even consider” Richardson and Lopez’s bid. While the EFL has not elaborated on exactly what information it is yet to receive, Slater suggested the data deficit lies with the club’s current owners. “The Athletic understands that Richardson and Lopez have submitted as much information as they can at this stage,” he wrote. “But the club and their current owners have not yet provided full answers to the league’s standard set of takeover questions.” An RFA analysis last month calculated that Wang and a close relative named Vong Pech control more than half of Birmingham City’s shares between them. While Vong’s name does appear in the club’s official ownership disclosures, as well as stock exchange filings by its Hong Kong-listed parent company, Wang’s does not. Birmingham City’s owners are now in a bind. It appears that the EFL will not allow them to sell until they offer some more transparency about who exactly the owners are. But if they do, they risk sanctions from both the league and the authorities in Hong Kong.

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China arrests Taiwanese man for ‘separatism’ as Pelosi departs democratic island

Editor014 mins

As U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan Wednesday after a stopover that angered China, authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang announced the arrest of a Taiwanese man under its national security law, accusing him of engaging in “separatist” activities and supporting formal independence for the democratic island. Yang Chih-yuen was arrested by state security police in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city, state broadcaster CCTV cited a police statement as saying, accusing Yang of having founded the pro-independence Taiwan National Party, with the aim of “promoting Taiwan to join the United Nations as a sovereign and independent country.” “For some time, a very small number of ‘Taiwan independence’ die-hards have colluded with external forces, tried to split the country … [and] tried their best to incite cross-strait confrontation,” the report said. “State security police will make resolute use of legal weapons like the Anti-Secession Law and the National Security Law to severely punish ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists … [who] reject unification,” it said. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly said that Taiwan must be “unified” with China, and refused to rule out the use of military force to annex the island. Taiwan has never been ruled by the CCP,  nor formed part of the 72-year-old People’s Republic of China. But Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen, who was re-elected in a 2020 landslide after vowing to stand up to China on the issue, has repeatedly said that Taiwan’s 23 million population have no wish to give up their sovereignty, a view that is borne out by repeated opinion polls. Beijing has a track record in making political arrests as a form of diplomatic statement, in what has been termed “hostage diplomacy,” and Yang’s arrest appears to be a way for China to register its displeasure with Pelosi’s trip, during which she reaffirmed U.S. support for Taiwan’s “flourishing democracy.” Taiwanese democracy activist Lee Ming-cheh, who served a five-year sentence in China for “incitement to subvert state power,” said during a meeting with Pelosi that the Chinese government shouldn’t use “national security” as an excuse to jail political prisoners. Lee, who may not have read the news of Yang’s arrest at the time of speaking, called for an end to “residential surveillance at a designated location,” which enables the authorities to deny visits from lawyers or family members for six months where the person has been accused of a “national security” offense. A man watches a CCTV news broadcast about joint military operations near Taiwan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command, at a shopping center in Beijing, China, August 3, 2022. Credit: Reuters ‘Unnecessary’ China reaction Pelosi said during her meeting with Tsai on Wednesday that Taiwan, which made a transition to full democracy in the 1990s from authoritarian rule under the Kuomintang (KMT), that the island had “created a flourishing democracy” out of its challenging history. “Now more than ever, America’s solidarity with Taiwan is crucial,” Pelosi said. “America’s determination to preserve democracy here in #Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.” China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stepped up military exercises in the vicinity of Taiwan ahead of and during Pelosi’s trip, a move that both Pelosi and Tsai termed “unnecessary.” “Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down. We will… continue to hold the line of defense for democracy,” Tsai said during the meeting. “Military drills are unnecessary responses. Taiwan has always been open to constructive dialogue,” she said. Tsai also presented Pelosi with a Taiwanese honor: the Order of Propitious Clouds. Pelosi said she wasn’t sure why Beijing “made a big fuss” over her Taipei trip, though she speculated it may have been because she was the House speaker, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported. The military drills could also be the result of “certain insecurities on the part of the president of China as to his own political situation that he’s rattling the saber,” the agency quoted her as saying. Pelosi said in an official statement that her trip in no way represented a shift in U.S. policy on Taiwan, which involves not offering the island formal diplomatic recognition while pledging to help it defend itself from the CCP. “Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances,” the statement said. “The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo.” But it added: “America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.” Pro-China supporters tear a U.S. flag during a protest against U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan outside the Consulate General of the United States in Hong Kong, China, August 3, 2022. Credit: Reuters Important regional message Lo Chih-cheng, a member of the foreign affairs and defense committee at Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, said the meaning of Pelosi’s trip was largely symbolic. Coming as it did under pressure of Chinese threats and warnings, Pelosi’s trip sent an important message to the entire Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific region that “the United States and democracies will not yield to Chinese threats and pressure,” Lo told RFA. Taiwanese military analyst Chieh Chung said the PLA exercises had made deep incursions into Taiwan’s territorial waters during Pelosi’s visit. The exercises are taking place east of the central line of the Taiwan Strait, further diluting the tacit understanding of the median line formed by the military on both sides of the strait since 1999, Chieh told RFA. Soong Kuo-cheng, a researcher in international relations at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said China’s response had made the international community more aware of the island’s importance of Taiwan, and placed it in the international spotlight. “The CCP displayed a highly violent and irrational reaction to this visit by Pelosi, which has woken the rest of the world up to Taiwan’s…

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Hong Kong to pursue Canada-based political activists under national security law

Editor08 mins

Authorities in Hong Kong said on Wednesday they will pursue three Canada-based activists who recently announced they would set up a Hong Kong parliament-in-exile under a draconian national security law that applies anywhere in the world. The city’s security bureau said it “severely condemns Yuan Gong-yi, Ho Leung-mau and Leung Chung-hang and others for forming a so-called ‘Hong Kong Parliament’ overseas.” It said the activists are now suspects under Article 22 of the law, which bans “subversion of state power.” Forty-seven former opposition lawmakers and democracy activists are currently behind bars awaiting trial on the same charge for their involvement in a 2020 democratic primary election aimed at maximizing the number of opposition seats in LegCo. Soon after the primary, the government postponed the LegCo elections and rewrote the rules to force candidates to undergo vetting by a committee overseen by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and national security police, effectively barring any pro-democracy candidates from running. “The Security Bureau appeals to the public to dissociate themselves from individuals contravening the Hong Kong National Security Law, and the illegal activities those individuals organized, so as to avoid bearing any unnecessary legal risks,” a spokesman said in a statement. Yuan, Ho and Leung are part of a group that announced the parliament-in-exile plan in Canada on July 27, along with plans to hold the first election under universal suffrage in late 2023. Leung, who is also known by the English names Baggio and Sixtus, was expelled along with five other newly elected Legislative Council (LegCo) members after China’s National People’s Congress ruled their oaths of allegiance invalid in 2016. Ho is a journalist and political talk-show host, while Yuen is a current affairs commentator. Security guards block pro-independence legislator-elect Baggio Leung from retaking his oath inside the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, China, Nov. 2, 2016. Credit: Reuters Wider immigration eligibility The announcement came after the British government said it would broaden eligibility for Hongkongers seeking to flee the current crackdown on dissent and settle in the U.K., allowing younger people more likely to be targeted for taking part in the 2019 protest movement to apply under the British National Overseas (BNO) visa scheme. “The U.K. has a historic and moral commitment the people of Hong Kong,” home secretary Priti Patel said via her official Twitter account on Aug. 1. “That’s why I am extending our BN(O) route to allow young people born after the handover of Hong Kong with at least one BN(O) parent to live, work, study and build their lives in the U.K.,” the tweet said. The changes will take effect in November 2022, and are expected to benefit around 10,000 younger Hongkongers. Ngan Hei-yin, 19, is currently seeking political asylum in the U.K., a far more difficult route to settlement that risks deportation if the claim is denied. He told RFA that he will be eligible for the BNO route instead, and won’t need to wait for his asylum application to be approved. But he said many who do apply for asylum wouldn’t meet the financial requirements of the visa, so could still be excluded for that reason. “Some people applying for political asylum are receiving government subsidies and don’t have much in the way of assets,” Ngan said. “So there would need to be some supporting measures to help them, if they are going to apply for the BNO route.” “I hope the government will provide them with support, and also support to make it easier for young Hongkongers to integrate and develop in the U.K.,” he said. Red tape in Taiwan The BNO route requires applicants to show that they can meet their own living expenses for at least six months, but few younger applicants would be able to do this. Authorities on the democratic island of Taiwan have adopted measures that will allow Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to apply for citizenship five years after seeking asylum in the country, the island’s official Central News Agency (CNA) reported on July 30. Under the scheme, Hongkongers who entered Taiwan under the government-run ‘Hong Kong Humanitarian Aid Project’ since June 2020 can obtain Taiwan citizenship after a five-year stay, the agency cited sources as saying. Taiwan’s safe-haven scheme has been criticized by Hongkongers on the ground as opaque and mired in bureaucratic dead-ends, with departments failing to act together to ensure the scheme works for individual applicants. Some applications from former government employees have been denied amid growing fear of CCP infiltration of the island. Some 11,000 Hong Kongers got residence permits in Taiwan last year, according to Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency, and 1,600 were granted permanent residency. By contrast, the U.K. approved 97,000 applications under the BNO route last year. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Tibetan festival allowed by China to resume after 20-year ban

Editor04 mins

A Tibetan community festival, banned for 20 years after the arrest of a popular religious leader, has been allowed by Chinese authorities to resume with no  explanation given for the sudden lifting of control, Tibetan sources say. The annual event held in Nyagchuka (in Chinese, Yajiang) county in Sichuan’s Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, formerly a part of historic Tibet, features horse races and picnics, a Tibetan living exile told RFA, citing local sources. “But since 2002, the year when Tulku Tenzin Delek was arrested on a charge of bombing a public square, the Chinese authorities had barred Tibetans in the region from celebrating the annual event,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We don’t know why the authorities have suddenly allowed the festival to be held again,” the source said. Authorities had hoisted Chinese flags around the festival grounds before allowing the event to be held, though, he added. “In earlier years, when Tulku Tenzin Delek was there, people were forbidden to indulge in alcohol, smoking or taking drugs at the picnic, but this year everything was allowed,” the source said. The annual festival was a major gathering in the region even before the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, the source said. “But it became even grander after Tulku Tenzin Delek lived there. During the picnic, religious teachings were given and plays were performed on the life of the Tibetan yogi and poet Milarepa.” “There was so much respect for Tulku Tenzin Delek.” Mysterious death in prison Tulku Tenzin Delek, 65, died under mysterious circumstances on July 12, 2015, 13 years into a 22-year sentence following what rights groups and supporters called a wrongful conviction on a charge of bombing a public square in Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu in April 2002. Widely respected among Tibetans for his efforts to protect Tibetan culture and the environment, he was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. An assistant, Lobsang Dondrub, was executed almost immediately, prompting an outcry from rights activists who questioned the fairness of the trial. Chinese authorities now remove all references to Tulku Tenzin Delek from official histories of the region and in January seized a life-size statue of the religious leader that was being taken into Tibet, arresting those involved in the statue’s manufacture and transport, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Formerly an independent country, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago. Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibetan areas of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, sources say. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Two children killed as Myanmar military fires on boat taking them home from school

Editor03 mins

Two children were killed and three other people injured when junta troops opened fire on a boat carrying schoolchildren near Toe Ma Wa village in Paletwa township. Residents said two of the injured were also schoolchildren. They were all students from Toemawa Middle School in Paletwa’s Remawa village who take the boat along the Kalatan river every day. About 10 students boarded the boat at 3 p.m. on Tuesday after lessons had ended. The Kalatan River is the only way to commute between Toemawa and Remawa villages. The boat came under fire between Reemawa and the student’s home village. “They were studying in Toemawa and this happened on their way back from school,” a local resident told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.  “They were shot by junta troops deployed between Toemawa and Remawa villages. More than 10 students were on the motor boat.” Fifth-grade students Nay Min Tun and Aung Than Myint, both 12, were killed. The injured were identified as female student Khin Si, male student Aung Lin Win and Padu, a general worker at the school. Aung Than Myint was shot in the head and Nay Min Tun was shot in his abdomen and shoulder. Residents told RFA that since Tuesday morning, the Arakan Army (AA) and Military Council troops have been fighting near Namada village. Troops from the Ka La Ya 289 battalion fired heavy artillery during Tuesday’s fighting. Calls seeking comment made by RFA to Thant Zin, the Military Council-appointed Social Affairs Minister in Chin State went unanswered. Junta troops and the AA have fought twice since July 18. Some border police forces and 14 junta troops were killed. A police chief was snatched by the AA along with weapons and ammunition.

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U.S. House Speaker meets Taiwan’s president and praises the island’s resilience

Editor010 mins

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen presented U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a special award on Wednesday, calling her “one of Taiwan’s most devoted friends” who helped strengthen Taiwan-U.S. relations. Tsai met Pelosi in the morning after the U.S. House Speaker visited the Legislative Yuan, or Taiwan’s parliament. Pelosi praised the island for its success in battling the COVID pandemic and called Taiwan “one of the freest societies in the world.” “Taiwan has been an island of resilience,” Pelosi said in a brief speech during her meeting with President Tsai. “America’s determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad,” the U.S. House Speaker stated, adding that her visit made it unequivocally clear that the U.S. “will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan.”  In response, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan “will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy.” “Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said, referring to the latest developments across the Taiwan Strait. Locations of Chinese live-fire military drills around Taiwan on Aug. 4-7. CREDIT: Xinhua As Pelosi touched down on Tuesday evening in Taipei, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced unprecedented live-fire drills at six locations around Taiwan, some overlapping the island’s sovereign territorial waters as defined in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. On the same day, 21 Chinese military aircraft, including 10 J-16 fighter jets and two reconnaissance airplanes, flew into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). ‘Unprecedented military drills’ The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command is to “conduct a series of joint military operations around the Taiwan Island from the evening of Aug. 2,” said Sr. Col. Shi Yi, the Command’s spokesperson. Naval and air joint drills will be carried out in the northern, southwestern and southeastern waters and airspace off Taiwan, while long-range combat fire live shooting will be conducted in the Taiwan Strait and conventional missile firepower test-launched in the waters off Eastern Taiwan, according to Shi Yi. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday condemned what it calls “the reckless behavior by Communist China of conducting live fire drills in waters and skies close to Taiwan, some of which are in the neighboring waters.” The drills will essentially seal off Taiwan’s airspace and violate its territorial waters, the ministry said.  The Ministry’s spokesperson Sun Li-Fang said China “threatens international aviation routes, challenges the international order, damages the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and destroys regional security.” Activities around Taiwan’s territory are closely monitored, the Defense Ministry said, vowing “appropriate responses when needed.” China dismissed Taiwan’s criticism of the military drills. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday Chinese military actions were legitimate and meant as a deterrent to Taiwan. Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications is coordinating with Japan and the Philippines to plan alternative cargo flight routes for goods as the Chinese planned drills amount to an air blockade, the official Central News Agency (CNA) reported. Washington officials said China’s announced military drills were an “overreaction.” “There’s no reason … for Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with longstanding U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait now or beyond her travel,” national security council spokesman John Kirby said. Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine colonel turned political analyst, said prior to Nancy Pelosi’s visit he did not expect China to launch attacks on the U.S. or Pelosi herself. But, he said, they could lash out at Taiwan. “The Chinese Communists are now willing to apply serious pressure–including possible military force–against America’s friends and partners, and dare the United States to respond,” he told RFA. “That’s what I think we are most likely to see and most likely directed against Taiwan. In other words, making the Americans have to take the ‘first shot’ against the PRC,” added Newsham. “Taiwan’s government needs to do what is necessary to ensure Taiwan can defend itself,” said the analyst.  “It needs to increase defense spending, show its military some respect and improve terms of service, re-institute national service, create an effective reserve defense force and create an effective civil defense scheme.” Taiwanese fighter jets at Taipei Songshan Airport on the last day of Han Kuang military exercise, July 29, 2022.. CREDIT: Taiwan Defense Ministry A new crisis? Beijing considers Taiwan “an inalienable part of China” that must be reunited with the mainland at all costs. Analysts say, however, despite the noisy saber-rattling by Beijing, a new crisis may not happen as “nobody wants war.” “While China has said Pelosi’s visit would challenge its “red line” for Sino-U.S. relations, it’s unlikely that Beijing will do something risky in the Taiwan Strait during her visit,” said Baohui Zhang, Professor of Political Science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. “Beijing has no interest in triggering scenarios that may lead to miscalculations by all sides and inadvertent military conflicts,” Zhang said, adding: “As a rising power, war is the last thing China wants now.” During the most recent virtual meeting between Xi and Biden, the two leaders both confirmed the need for bilateral efforts to contain and manage crises. In Zhang’s opinion, Pelosi’s visit will have little practical implications for U.S.-China relations, as its trajectory of strategic rivalry has already been set. The Taipei-based China Times cited leaked diplomatic cables from Taiwan’s representative office in Washington DC, saying they showed both the White House and the Pentagon sought to discourage the House Speaker from visiting Taiwan. “The Biden administration is not in favor of the visit and China knows that,” said Baohui Zhang. “So the visit is largely a symbolic event showing rising Congressional support for Taiwan. It will not redefine U.S.-China relations.” Nancy Pelosi is set to meet with Taiwanese human rights and democracy activists before flying out on Wednesday afternoon to continue her Indo-Pacific tour.    

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Residents confront police and authorities over neglected Ho Chi Minh City homes

Editor06 mins

Angry residents of an apartment building in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh city have been ordered to take down banners accusing the owners of neglecting the building’s upkeep while profiting from years of management fees. Residents of the Khang Gia apartment block in the city’s Tan Phu district are concerned about the structural quality of the building and its fire resistance. They have petitioned authorities to make improvements for eight years but say nothing has been done. Frustrated at the authorities’ inaction, many residents hung banners from their balconies saying “Our petitions have been binned,” “Return our maintenance fees,” “Eight years of inaction on fixing our problems,” and “Give residents the title deeds to their apartments.” Rather than answering their complaints or discussing them with residents, the Secretary of the Party Committee of Tan Quy ward came to the apartment, backed by police and militia, and ordered residents to take the banners down. “Tenants hung banners with words that do not offend the government and are not intended as incitement,” said Nguyen Manh Hung, who heads the management board at the apartment block. “But when residents hung them up many local officials came with police and militia as well as ward and district civil officers. They tried to storm the apartments that put up banners. When I asked what they were going to do, they said they would order the residents to take the banners down.” Hung said the government should have worked with the apartment block’s investors to solve the problems but instead sent a mob to try to get the banners removed. He said that when officials ordered residents to take down the banners, they were asked when they would address the issues. He said the officers remained silent and left. RFA called the People’s Committee of Tan Quy ward and Tan Phu district to verify the information provided by Nguyen Manh Hung, but none of the calls was answered. According to documents written by the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City and the People’s Committee of Tan Phu district, Khang Gia Real Estate Development and Investment Company was given permission to build and rent out a 232 apartment block. The company built almost twice as many apartments, which residents say has made the building structurally unstable. The local government said it had decided to forcibly dismantle 72 apartments and commercial units but nothing has happened in the eight years since it made the pledge. Hung said about 1,500 residents have said they feel insecure due to the illegal construction on the ground floor and mezzanine levels. He added that the extra apartments and commercial units have no fire prevention facilities and therefore pose a threat to the entire building. The maintenance fee, which is 2% of the building’s valuation, has been kept by the Khang Gia company, rather than handed over to the apartment’s management board to fix elevators, fill in cracks and perform other repairs. “Local authorities must investigate the investor’s appropriation of the maintenance fund,” Hung said. “However, they have not done that for years. Now the investor has disappeared after being probed for wrongdoings in other projects. I don’t know why they didn’t investigate. Maybe they have covered-up the case for some reason but doing nothing is not in line with the law.” The Lao Dong Online news site wrote in December 2020 that Khang Gia Company general director and legal representative Trinh Minh Thanh had gone into hiding. It said he was wanted for the crime of “financial fraud” for taking millions of Vietnamese dong from people for apartments they did not receive. The company office is no longer at its registered business address. RFA called Khang Gia Real Estate’s hotline, listed on its website, but the person who answered denied working for the company and said it was a wrong number.

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Thai Myanmar Pipeline

Junta troops kill 5 in raid on school run by Myanmar shadow government

Editor011 mins

Junta troops killed five people and detained more than 110 others during a raid on a village school run by Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) in embattled Sagaing region, residents and state media said Tuesday. News of the Monday raid on the school in Myinmu township’s Let Pa Kyin village, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Mandalay, came amid reports that the military razed more than 500 buildings in four days of arson attacks on the village of Tin Tein Yan in Sagaing’s nearby Ye-U township. A resident of Let Pa Kyin who escaped the raid on Let Pa Kyin told RFA Burmese that more than 50 troops arrived at the village in a convoy of five military helicopters. “[The helicopters] brought the soldiers in group after group. It took about an hour and a half,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns. “Some soldiers were dropped around the village and some in the school compound. The children were scared and ran away. Though the older ones escaped, the young ones didn’t.” At least 113 civilians were arrested in the raid, including teachers and students, villagers said. A second resident, who also declined to be named, said the raid began at around 10 a.m. on Monday when classes at the NUG-sponsored school were in session and villagers were engaged in their daily routines. “If the army had approached the village from the ground, [anti-junta forces] in the area could have given a warning and the villagers would have been able to run and avoid the soldiers. But in the case of an air raid, there is no way to know in advance,” he said, adding that those who escaped had only a moment’s notice. “We’re at their mercy. We can’t say anything [about our status] for sure. The situation is totally unsafe. We can’t do anything except worry.” The resident said he could only “pray for the release of those arrested.” Let Pa Kyin village is home to about 250 houses and more than 1,000 residents. Sources said that during the raid, many villagers were forced to flee to nearby areas for safety. A report in the junta’s Myanma Alin newspaper on Tuesday said that the military was carrying out arrests of anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries who had gathered in Let Pa Kyin village. After a brief clash, it said, the military “seized five bodies,” as well as homemade weapons and ammunition from a PDF camp it captured about 500 meters (one-third of a mile) northwest of the village. A total of 113 people — 49 men and 73 women — were detained in the village and are “being questioned as needed,” the report added. Status unclear A local PDF member who asked to remain anonymous told RFA that his group had prepared to hold a meeting at a location in Let Pa Kyin village on Monday but was delayed and was therefore able to escape the arrests. A fighter with the Myinmu Township PDF said the group had yet to confirm the Myanma Alin report of five dead in the raid. “I don’t know about the death of five PDF members,” he said, adding that his group will fight back against military raids targeting Myinmu township “by any means necessary,” regardless of whether troops use helicopters or other superior weaponry. Residents told RFA that junta troops were still stationed in Let Pa Kyin as of Tuesday and that the status of the village remains unclear. When contacted by RFA, junta Minister of Social Affairs for Sagaing Region Aye Hlaing said he was “unaware” of the reports of the raid on Let Pa Kyin. A resident of Myinmu township said villagers are less safe than ever as the military ramps up its use of helicopters to conduct raids in the area. “Look at all the incidents that have taken place. Villages have been burned. They shoot at anything they see from their helicopters and the people are suffering,” he said. “In Let Pa Kyin, two boys who were herding their goats died, as did a woman working at a betel nut farm. Another worker was wounded. They were not PDF fighters. The soldiers are now committing their war crimes from the air as they cannot move freely on the ground [due to the opposition].” Residents told RFA that Monday’s attack followed one on July 27, when troops in four helicopters raided Myinmu’s Mu Mandalay village. They said that the military had cut off internet access to the area amid the raids, forcing more than 5,000 villagers to flee their homes. More than 500 homes and ships were torched in Tin Tein Yan, Ye-U township, Sagaing region after military forces raided the village. Credit: DPY PDF Buildings razed Reports of the raid on Let Pa Kyin came as residents of Sagaing’s nearby Ye-U township told RFA that the military had destroyed more than 500 buildings between July 28 and July 31 in arson attacks on the village of Tin Tein Yan, located around 170 kilometers (105 miles) northwest of Mandalay. The buildings destroyed in the fires included the area’s Thegon Gyi Monastery, around 250 shops in the local market — including an office run by the MPT telecom company — 312 homes, five rice mills and two cooking oil plants, they said, while several cars and motorcycles were also burned. “Altogether, around two-thirds of the village has been razed to the ground — it’s like a wasteland,” said one resident of Tin Tein Yan, who asked to remain anonymous. “Some villagers are now cleaning up the mess. They have to make arrangements to build temporary shelters. Apart from those who are cleaning up, the rest of the villagers don’t dare return.” Residents said the raids were carried out by a column of nearly 100 soldiers from the No. 701 Light Infantry Battalion, headquartered in Yangon region’s Hmawbi township. They said that prior to entering the village on July 27, the…

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Woman accused of defrauding thousands of people extradited to Laos

Editor09 mins

A Lao national who allegedly defrauded millions of dollars from thousands of people and traveled to neighboring Thailand with the money in late June faces prosecution back home after being extradited by Thai authorities on July 31, Lao police officials said. Phonethip Xaypanya, a 30-year-old woman who goes by the nickname Jay Thip, which in Lao means “elder sister Thip,” is accused of absconding with more than U.S. $16.4 million, including 20 billion Lao kip (U.S. $1.3 million), 400 million Thai baht (U.S. $11 million), and U.S. $4 million, according to the Lao Ministry of Public Security. She allegedly accumulated some of the money by promising her victims high rates of return on their cash deposits. Thai police said they arrested Jay Thip and her husband, Anousith Phoutthavong, 34, on July 29 at a hotel in Pathum Thany province, Thailand, for overstaying their visas. They were returned to Laos two days later. Immigration police records indicate that the couple left Laos by land on June 29 via the First Lao-Thai Friendship bridge. By the end of June, more than 5,000 people who said they were victims of her scheme filed complaints with Lao police. Officials say they expect many more defrauded citizens to come forward. Jay Thip denies that she defrauded people.  “We, the Public Security Ministry, have received a lot of complaints from the public, [and] we’re going to forward this information to the investigation department,” a ministry official told RFA Monday. “She hasn’t been formally charged with any crime yet.” The official went on to say that the ministry could not disclose much information yet about the arrest.  “The woman was just handed over to us yesterday, so we’re going to deal with her according to the law,” he said. A criminal lawyer said that if Jay Thip is found guilty, she would face at least 10 years in prison and be ordered to pay back the money.  “First and foremost, the police will be investigating and interrogating her to find out how much money she stole when she defrauded people,” said the attorney, who declined to be named. “The police may have to sell all of her assets and property, like cars and homes to pay back her customers.” An official with the Lao Prosecutor’s Office agreed, but said that tracking down her wealth could prove difficult. “The question is, where is all the money?” he said. “It might be kept abroad, but how can we bring it back, or it may have been converted to gold and diamonds that are hidden somewhere else.” Jay Thip claims to have many businesses, including a shop that sells gold and diamond jewelry, and she posts photos of the expensive merchandise daily online. Her most lucrative business is an investment scheme that accepts cash deposits of at least 50 million kip ($3.27) from customers and promises a monthly interest rate of 30% in return.  She also posts stories on her Facebook page saying that she often wins the lottery and has photos showing off her luxury goods in an effort to build trust with current and prospective investors. Jay Thip denied to Thai reporters that she was in possession of 400 million baht at the time of her arrest.  “To electronically transfer that lump sum across the border, people have to have a lot of documents and proof,” she said. “Now, to answer the question of why I came to Thailand, my husband and I came here to deal with the problems that have occurred and why they’ve occurred. And another reason is that over there [in Laos], I fear for my safety.” Call for justice Meanwhile, Laotians who say they fell prey to Jay Thip’s scheme are clamoring for retribution. “I want my money back, but the problem is that in Laos legal procedures are not open to the public,” said a person who declined to be identified. “I just want her to be responsible for the debt. Is she going to pay back or not? I want to see the police enforcing the law to the fullest extent.” “The legal action against her should be transparent, not opaque, because this lady has a lot of powerful connections,” he said. “She can get away with it quickly and easily.” A businessman who invested 900 million kip (U.S. $65,400) said at first that Jay Thip paid him the interest regularly.  “But later, I received nothing,” he told RFA. “I lost 900 million kip ($59,000). I’d never thought that Jay Thip would do this to us because she had been very open with us.”  Another person who fell for the scheme doubted the victims would be paid back.  “[S]cams like this have happened before,” the person said. “When your money is gone, it’s gone.”  “Even her own friends who have known her since childhood were also cheated,” the businessman said. “I want my money back, and I want the police to do their job right.” Illegal investment schemes are nothing new in the largely impoverished country where corruption runs rampant and law enforcement can be lax. In 2017, for example, an agricultural company running a pyramid scheme in Laos defaulted on millions of U.S. dollars owed to its stakeholders, raising questions as to why the government failed to adequately regulate the market and inform investors about potential pitfalls. Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Uyghur poet and educator said to be serving 13-year prison term in Xinjiang

Editor08 mins

A prominent Uyghur poet and associate professor at a teacher’s college was detained in 2017 as a “threat to social stability” and sentenced to 13 years in prison on a “separatism” charge, a local police officer and Uyghur source told RFA. Ablet Abdureshid Berqi is serving time in Tumshuq Prison, a detention facility located in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a state-owned economic and paramilitary organization in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).  Since its founding in 1954, the XPCC, which is also known as Bingtuan, has built and administered several urban centers in Xinjiang, mainly to resettle Han Chinese from other parts of the country as part of a campaign of Sinicization. The Bingtuan also operates prisons and publicly traded companies.  An RFA investigation confirmed that Berqi, which is a pseudonym, was arrested two years ago amid a purge of Uyghur intellectuals, educators and cultural leaders — one of a set of Chinese government policies that have been determined by the United States and the parliaments of some Western countries as constituting genocide. The abuses also include forced labor at factories and farms, forced birth control and the detention of up to 1.8 million Uyghurs in a network of internment camps. A Chinese official at the Xinjiang Education Institute, a university for teacher education in the XUAR’s capital Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) where Berqi worked, told RFA that he was not authorized to disclose information about Berqi and suggested the reporter contact the school administration office.  “I don’t know this person,” the official said. “I haven’t heard of this person. We have more than 1,000 employees at the school. Let me give you a phone number. You ask the school administration office.” Other officials at the institute refused to provide information about Berqi, however. Later, officials at the directorate of school education told RFA that the institute did not employ an instructor named Berqi. RFA also contacted a police officer in the poet’s hometown of Sampul village in southern Xinjiang’s Hotan (Hetian) prefecture, who confirmed that he was serving a 13-year term in Tumshuq Prison. “He is in prison now,” the police officer said. “The reasons were threats to social stability and going abroad. He was detained in 2017, and after three months he was sentenced to prison for 13 years and is now serving his term in Tumshuq Prison.” The officer also pointed to “mistakes he made while teaching at school,” including articles Berqi wrote and lectures he gave. Berqi’s parents live in the village’s Aydingkol hamlet, the officer said.  A top target In an article published in the 2000s, Berqi said he used a pseudonym because his real name was the same as the XUAR chairman, Ablet Abdureshid, which led to a number of misunderstandings, particularly after the poet’s writings were published in newspapers and magazines.  He also said the pseudonym, which means “flourishing” in the Uyghur language, reflected the greater success he hoped to achieve in his creative career. Berqi wrote his doctoral dissertation on Abduhalik Uyghur, a prominent Uyghur revolutionary poet in the early 20th century who was killed by Sheng Shicai, a Chinese militarist who ruled Xinjiang from 1933 to 1944.  Berqi also studied at Haifa University in Israel between 2014 and 2016, said Nimrod Baranovitch, a lecturer in Chinese culture and society at the university, who met the poet in Urumqi a decade earlier and later applied for a postdoctoral fellowship for him. “[W]e kept in contact for many years, and then we decided we should try to bring him over to study and research here,” Baranovitch told RFA. “We had tried that once in the past, but it didn’t work. And then we tried it again, and it worked.” Two years ago, authorities charged Berqi with “separatism” and sentenced him to 13 years in prison because of articles he wrote on economic awareness and development in the XUAR, which were published in the CCP-controlled Xinjiang Civilization magazine, according to information from an RFA listener. The last official mention of his name was on Jan. 5, 2017, in a notice issued by the Xinjiang Education Institute’s publicity department. It said that the research topics officially approved by the Chinese government included a project by Berqi relating to the stability of Xinjiang. At the end of 2017, Berqi’s name was on a list of Uyghur intellectuals who had been imprisoned, but due to the Chinese government’s tight control over information, it was only five years later, in July 2022, RFA learned about his sentencing. Husenjan, one of the Berqi’s colleagues who now resides abroad, said he received was told by sources in Urumqi that Berqi had been sentenced to prison but did not know the length of his term. “I recently received official news that he was, in fact, detained, but I wasn’t able to get information on whether or how long he was sentenced to prison,” he said. As a writer and intellectual, Berqi would have been a top target for authorities amid the ongoing repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Husenjan said. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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