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Month: June 2023

Rudd foresees ‘seamless’ AUKUS defense industry

Editor08 mins

The long-term goal of the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is a “seamless” defense and technology industry across the three countries, Canberra’s new ambassador in Washington, Kevin Rudd, said on Tuesday. In his first public remarks since assuming the role, the former Australian prime minister said one of his first tasks would be to help shepherd legislation through Congress to enable the March 13 deal for the United States to sell nuclear submarines to Australia. “Our critical tasks during the course of 2023 is to work with our friends in the administration and the United States Congress to support the passage of the key elements of the enabling legislation,” Rudd said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  “This is not just a piece of admin detail,” he added. “You’re looking at four or five pieces of legislation, and each with attendant congressional committee oversight. This is a complex process.” Beijing has criticized the AUKUS pact and Australia’s purchase of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States, saying the countries were going down “a wrong and dangerous path.”  But Canberra says the nuclear submarines, which can travel three times as fast as conventional submarines and stay at sea for much longer without refueling, are essential to protect vital sea lanes. Unfinished business Negotiations leading to the March 13 deal were at times messy, with Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island and chairman of the Senate Armed Services, initially opposing the sale of submarines to Australia amid massive backlogs across U.S. shipbuilding yards. In the end, the United States agreed to sell up to five older-generation nuclear submarines to Canberra in the coming years while the Australian, U.S. and U.K. governments develop Australia’s capacity to build its own submarines by the 2040s. But Rudd told the CSIS event that was only the first step. He said the bigger question for AUKUS would be integration. “How do we move towards the creation, soon, of a seamless Australia-U.S.-U.K. defense, science and technology industry?” he asked, adding that success in integration of the industries “could be even more revolutionary than the submarine project in itself.” It would provide, he added, the ability to turn plans, such as submarine deals, into reality “not 15 years, but five years, four years and three years, to remain competitive and therefore deterrent.” U.S.-China relations Rudd, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and again in 2013, said his instructions from Canberra now were to “work like hell to build guardrails in the relationship between the U.S. and China,” over Taiwan and the South China Sea to avoid “war by accident.” But he also said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong wanted Australia to work with the United States to “enhance deterrence”  to “cause the Central Military Commission in China to think twice” about any military action. Rudd said Chinese President Xi Jinping made clear his main strategy was to use “the gravitational pull of the Chinese economy” as leverage, which he said was only interrupted by COVID. “Even though growth has now slowed in China, Chinese strategy is fairly clear, which is to make China the indispensable market that it had begun to become,” Rudd said. “It’s directed to countries around the world in the Global South, and in Europe, and beyond.” Rudd said the U.S. policy of “derisking” its supply chains away from China – without completely “decoupling” the economies – was a natural reaction to that geopolitical strategy, even if Australia, as an island nation reliant on trade, still preferred free-trade policies.  Wong, the Australian foreign minister, used in a speech in Washington in December to call on the United States, which pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017, to return to a focus on trade as it seeks to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. Rudd said Australia still wanted the United States to return to the trade pact – reworked as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership under Japan’s leadership – but was realistic about domestic pressures on U.S. administrations. “We understand what’s happened in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. We understand the rise of industrial policy in this country,” Rudd said. “Our job is to work within the grain of U.S. strategic policy settings and to maximize openness.” “Look, this is an old relationship,” he said. “We’ve been knocking around with each other for the last 100 years or more, and in any relationship, there are going to be times when you agree or disagree, but you decide to make the relationship work.” Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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Vietnam court sentences music teacher to 8 years in prison

Editor04 mins

A court in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province has sentenced music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc to eight years in prison and four years of probation for allegedly “conducting anti-state propaganda,” his wife and one of his lawyers told RFA Tuesday. The 60-year-old instructor at Dak Lak Pedagogical College in Vietnam’s Central Highland, frequently posted on Facebook about educational issues, human rights violations, corrupt officials and social injustice. Police arrested him on Sept. 8 last year, and charged him with “making, storing, spreading or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” which carries a maximum 12-year prison term. Even though Phuoc didn’t receive the maximum sentence, lawyer Le Van Luan said the court should have been more lenient towards his client. “With the circumstances of the case, that sentence is too heavy compared to what Mr. Phuoc did,” he said. Phuoc’s case has drawn international attention, including from Human Rights Watch, who’s deputy Asia director Phil Robertson described the sentence as “outrageous and unacceptable.” “What it reveals is the Vietnamese government’s total intolerance for ordinary citizens pointing out corruption, speaking out against injustice, and calling for accountability by local officials,” he said on hearing the verdict.  “Those were precisely the things that Dang Dang Phuoc did in Dak Lak, and now the government claims such whistle-blowing actions are propaganda against the state.” During the past decade, Phuoc has campaigned against corruption and advocated for better protections for civil and political rights. He has signed several pro-democracy petitions and called for changes to Vietnam’s constitution, which grants the Communist Party a monopoly on power. “This unjust prison sentence reveals General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s anti-corruption campaign is a sham game that is really more about holding on to power, and marginalizing political rivals, but does not care to address the Communist Party of Vietnam’s widespread malfeasance in its ranks,” said Robertson, comparing Trong with China’s authoritarian leader Xi Jinping. Police kept a close watch on Phuoc’s wife Le Thi Ha ahead of the trial, warning her she would lose her job if she talked about the case on social media. She was allowed to attend the trial, along with Phuoc’s four lawyers. Ha told RFA her husband plans to appeal the verdict. Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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China pressures Australian press club to cancel Tibetan exile leader’s speech

Editor04 mins

China is under fire for attempting to prevent the leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile from giving a speech at the Australian National Press Club in Canberra, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Chinese Embassy representatives met with press club chief Maurice Reily last week and voiced their opposition to Penpa Tsering’s scheduled appearance on June 20, requesting that his invitation be revoked. China has controlled Tibet since it invaded the region in 1949, and rejects any notion of a Tibetan government-in-exile, particularly the legitimacy of the Dalai Lama, who lives in Dharamsala, India. Beijing has also stepped up efforts to erode Tibetan culture, language and religion.  Speeches given at the National Press Club are broadcast on Australian TV and attended by prominent members of the press, so Beijing may be worried about the wider exposure Penpa Tsering would get.. “China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to Australia, in disregard of China’s position and concern, allowing him to use the NPC platform to engage in separatist activities,” the newspaper quoted a letter from the embassy to Reily as saying. “The Chinese side urges the Australian side to see through the nature of the Dalai clique, respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and take concrete actions to remove the negative effects so as to prevent the disruption of the sound development of China-Australia relations and media co-operation.” Free Speech Despite Beijing’s pressure, Reilly told local media that there were no plans to cancel the appearance, and tickets remain on sale on the website of the press club.  He said he told the Chinese Embassy officials that the press club was “an institution for free speech, free media and public debate.” The National Press Club is a stage where everyone is allowed to share their views, Kyinzom Dhongdue, a human rights activist and a former member of the Tibetan parliament in exile, told Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan Service. “We all know how China has worked to build its influence and dependence through trade and economic ties with Australia,” she said. “In the last decade we have seen Australia’s top educational institution cancel a talk by the Dalai Lama, apparently due to pressure from China. But this time, putting pressure on the National Press Club is unimaginable because the National Press Club stands for Freedom of Speech.” Karma Singey, the representative for the Dalai Lama in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, said Australia would not cave to Chinese influence. “Australia is a democratic country so we are confident that Australia will not let the Chinese government expand its influence and undermine Australian institutions,” he said. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Tiananmen commemorations in Hong Kong stifled, but other cities keep memory alive

Editor02 mins

Hong Kong police searched and detained scores of people on Sunday, including four arrested for “seditious” intent, as authorities tightened security for the 34th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Restrictions in Hong Kong have stifled what were once the largest vigils marking the anniversary of the bloody crackdown by Chinese troops on pro-democracy demonstrators, leaving cities like Taipei, London, New York and Berlin to keep the memory of June 4 alive. Near Victoria Park, the previous site of yearly vigils, hundreds of police conducted stop and search operations, and deployed armored vehicles and police vans. And in Victoria Park itself, pro-China groups held a carnival featuring games, music and products from across China. In Beijing, Tiananmen Square was thronged with tourists taking pictures under the watchful eye of police and other personnel but with no obvious sign of stepped-up security. In democratically governed Taiwan, the last remaining part of the Chinese-speaking world where the anniversary can be marked freely, hundreds attended a memorial at Taipei’s Liberty Square where a “Pillar of Shame” statue was displayed. – Reuters

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Beijing seeks ‘dialogue over confrontation’, defense chief says

Editor012 mins

China’s defense minister said at a major regional security forum on Sunday that Beijing seeks dialogue over confrontation, hours after a Chinese warship was accused of nearly hitting a U.S. destroyer in the Taiwan Strait. General Li Shangfu said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that China’s leader Xi Jinping proposed a set of so-called Global Security Initiatives (GSI) which features “dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero sum.” In an apparent reference to the U.S., Li accused “some country” of taking a “selective approach to rules and international laws,” and “forcing its own rules on others.”  “It practices exceptionalism and double standards and only serves the interests and follows the rules of a small number of countries.” The minister said it “even attempts to constrain others with a convention itself has not acceded to,” pointing to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982 that the United States, while recognizing it, is not a party of. The U.S. and China have been at loggerheads over a number of issues, among them China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea and the U.S. ‘s freedom of navigation operations (FONOP) to uphold its principle of a free and open Indo-Pacific. China has repeatedly accused the U.S. of “navigation hegemony” in the South China Sea. The U.S. military meanwhile said that a Chinese warship on Saturday came close to hitting an American destroyer when the latter was sailing through the Taiwan Strait during a joint Canada-U.S. mission. Near-collision The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that its guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a “routine” transit through international waters in the Taiwan Strait. During the transit a Chinese Navy destroyer “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of Chung-Hoon,” it said, adding that the Chinese ship “overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards (140 meters).” “Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 knots to avoid a collision.” The Indo-Pacific Command said that China’s actions violated the maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters “where aircraft and ships of all nations may fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.” China’s Ministry of National Defense claimed the Chinese ship handled the situation “lawfully and professionally” but analysts said they found the event “disturbing” and “probably the worst such reported close maritime encounter in the South China Sea since October 2018,” when a Chinese warship approached the USS Decatur within just 45 yards (41 meters). “China is getting reckless while trying to enforce sovereignty in the Taiwan Strait,” said Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “Beijing is just trying to force everyone to accept the idea that Taiwan Straits are somehow China’s de facto territorial waters,” the military analyst told RFA. The Canadian Navy’s HMCS Montreal conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait with U.S. Navy  destroyer USS Chung-Hoon, June 3, 2023. Credit: Canadian Armed Forces Minister Li Shangfu told the audience at the Shangri-La Dialogue that the U.S. ships are in the region “for provocation.” “What is key now is that we must prevent attempts to use freedom of navigation … as a pretext to exercise hegemony of navigation,” he said. Taiwanese military analysts said that the Saturday transit was a routine operation but the Chinese Navy’s reaction indicated a more resolute stance. “As President Xi Jinping had instructed, senior officials and military leaders should take a tough stance against challenges rather than showing a soft behavior that can be seen as weak,” said Shen Ming-shih, Acting Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “That’s what the Chinese Defense Minister demonstrated in his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue,” Shen said. Military expert Richard Bitzinger said the reason behind this approach may be that “the Chinese are worried that they have a narrow and closing window to exert themselves before the economy tanks and demographics catch up with them.” Using risks as weapons The Chinese minister of defense in his speech lambasted the U.S.’s Cold War mentality. He accused Washington of “expanding military bases, re-enforcing military presence and intensifying arms race in the region” – those actions that reflect its “desire to make enem[ies], stoke confrontation, fuel the fire and fish in troubled waters.” Li also accused the U.S. of “wilfully interfering in the internal affairs of others,” referring to the issue of Taiwan which he said was “core of China’s core interests.” The U.S. and China should seek common ground “grow bilateral ties and deepen cooperation,” he said. “International affairs should not be handled through confrontation,” the minister said, insisting that China is always “seeking consensus, promoting reconciliation and negotiations.” Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu delivers his speech on the last day of the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, June 4, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Vincent Thian A day earlier, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he was “deeply concerned” that Beijing has been unwilling to engage with Washington and refused to hold direct bilateral talks. “The Chinese minister’s speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue and the dangerous action of its warships in the Taiwan Strait are part of the strategy that I’d call ‘riskfare’, which plays on the concerns of the U.S. and other countries for risks,” said Alexandre Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. “The U.S. emphasizes communication, but China emphasizes risks and is using risk as a weapon in its struggle with the U.S.,” he said. “Washington shows it’s concerned about risks in its competition with Beijing. Beijing sees it and weaponizes this U.S. concern.” The U.S.’s willingness to reopen communications with China is genuine and some analysts believe that, despite the absence of direct contacts between the U.S. and Chinese delegations in Singapore, there are hopes for closer interactions. Baohui Zhang, director of the Centre for Asian…

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Comedy and autocracy are made for each other

Editor07 mins

Last month, Beijing police launched a criminal investigation into stand-up comedian Li Haoshi – who goes by the stage name House – after he sparked public ire with a joke that some said likened feral dogs to People’s Liberation Army soldiers “capable of winning battles,” prompting a nationwide wave of cancellations of other artists, particularly acts from overseas. In a recent commentary for RFA Mandarin, U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao says totalitarian regimes are the ultimate source of comedy material, and explains why the ruling Chinese Communist Party views comedy as an existential threat: Tyranny is a major manufacturer of jokes, because autocracy itself is a joke. Those who hold power without winning an election need to rewrite history and whitewash reality, so as to maintain a perfect image of glory and greatness. In 1966, the People’s Daily reported on Mao Zedong’s swim in the Yangtze River. It claimed the 73-year-old Mao had broken the world record, even after making deductions for the effects of the flowing river. More recently, the Red Guards are back, the White Guards [COVID-19 enforcers] are here, and we have ongoing agricultural management and the conversion of forests to farmland. Stand-up comedy company Xiaoguo Comedy’s FaceBook page. Credit: RFA screenshot from FaceBook When the population is 800 million, people are limited to one child per couple. When it reaches 1.4 billion, we can have three. What’s that all about? A diplomat who mouths off to the French media “doesn’t represent the official view.” There’s a real-name registration system for kitchen knives, and police are willing to travel to Thailand to kidnap a guy for publishing some gossipy books about Xi Jinping, whose portrait now hangs in temples and churches across the land. Winnie the Pooh is banned, and Chairman Xi carried a 200-pound of wheat without even shifting to his other shoulder. Anyone not laughing by this point? Jokes dissolve tyranny. Comedy and autocracy are made for each other. Despotism has to hold itself up as pompous, serious, truthful, powerful, and inviolable.  And gods, emperors, wealth, ‘truth’, traditions and customs, science, traditional customs, are all grist for the mill of satire, for ridicule and spoofs. Stand-up has been described as “the art of offense,” but under a totalitarian regime, it is deadly. Comrade George Orwell, who saw the underpants of the totalitarian system many years ago, said that every joke is a tiny revolution. Late Chinese dissident and 2010 Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo once wrote: “The political jokes people tell each other in private represent the conscience of the silent majority, and show us just how rotten are the foundations of post-totalitarian rule among the general public.” When we’ve all seen the emperor swaggering down the street stark naked, a burst of laughter is even more subversive than a child telling the truth. A joke that doesn’t pick quarrels or stir up trouble is hardly a joke at all. That’s why the censorship of jokes is never-ending under authoritarian regimes. Notice of show cancellations are placed by the locked doors at the show venue of stand-up comedy company Xiaoguo Culture Media Co that has closed its business in Beijing, China May 19, 2023. Tingshu Wang/Reuters Stand-up comedy, sketches, comic duos and other kinds of comedy have almost totally lost their ability to offer political or social criticism under the Chinese Communist Party, because even social comment can become political. So most comedians avoid them altogether, and limit their material to marriage, family, men and women or celebrities. And they are increasingly punching down, targeting those weaker than themselves, with the poor, farming communities, manual laborers and the disabled the most common targets. Ugly people, ethnic minorities, women, the elderly and black people are also discriminated against. There are even sketches and comic duos who stick to the Communist Party’s “main theme tune” and flatter the government, high-ranking officials, celebrities and the rich and powerful. Under a dictatorship, the consequences of complaining about those in power are serious. The Thought Police are ever watchful and are highly capable of winning battles. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. The views expressed here are Teng’s own and do not reflect the position of Radio Free Asia.

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US Defense Secretary ‘deeply concerned’ about China’s unwillingness to engage

Editor012 mins

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has urged China’s military leaders to engage after his call to meet with the Chinese counterpart was rebuffed, saying open lines of communication are “essential.”  In his key address to the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore on Saturday, Austin said that he is “deeply concerned that the PRC has been unwilling to engage more seriously on better mechanisms for crisis management between our two militaries.” The defense secretary referred to China by its official name the People’s Republic of China. “For responsible defense leaders, the right time to talk is anytime, the right time to talk is everytime and the right time to talk is now,” he said, adding that “dialogue is not a reward. It is a necessity.” “And the more that we talk, the more that we can avoid the misunderstandings and miscalculations that could lead to crisis or conflict.” Secretary Austin and Chinese Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu, who has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018, shared a brief handshake before an official dinner on Friday but did not speak to each other nor is a bilateral meeting between them anticipated. “A cordial handshake over dinner is no substitute for a substantive engagement,” Austin said. China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu, attends the ministerial roundtable session during the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue, June 3, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Vincent Thian The U.S. defense chief slammed China which, he said, “continues to conduct an alarming number of risky intercepts of U.S. and allied aircraft flying lawfully in international airspace.” Just last week, the U.S. military accused a Chinese J-16 fighter jet of performing an “unnecessarily aggressive” maneuver during the intercept of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. “We do not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will not flinch in the face of bullying or coercion,” Austin said. The obvious rift between the two powers has “become the new reality,” said Huong Le Thu, a non-resident fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Regional countries have to accept it whether “they like it or not,” she told RFA. “But they can contribute to managing the tensions by lowering the heat through facilitating and encouraging dialogues between the U.S. and China,” the analyst added. Shared vision  Carlito Galvez Jr., Senior Undersecretary and Officer-in-Charge at the Philippine Defense Department, said Manila believes that “the international law is the greatest equalizer among states.” The Philippines won a legal case against China’s claims in the South China Sea at a U.N. tribunal in 2016 but Beijing has so far refused to accept the ruling. The two countries have recently been embroiled in a new spat over their sovereignty in some of the islands in the Spratly archipelago. “As the old adage goes, good fences make good neighbors,” Galvez said.  “It is only when neighbors have clear boundaries and respect for set boundaries that relations remain genuinely amicable,” the acting defense secretary said. Indonesia’s Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said it is “imperative for us to overcome our geopolitical rivalries, our territorial disputes through dialogues, negotiations and win-win solutions.” “Compromise is the only way that communities and societies can prosper,” he said, warning that the rivalry between superpowers “has turned into a Cold War” and in any war, “the danger of a catastrophe is always near.” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is attending the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue for the third time this year. Credit: Reuters/Caroline Chia U.S. Defense Secretary Austin, however, insisted that his country “does not seek a new Cold War.” “Competition must never spill over into conflict. And the region should never be split into hostile blocs,” he said. Austin said Washington is not creating nor willing to create a new NATO in the Indo-Pacific as China has repeatedly alleged. Yet the U.S. wishes to build “nimble coalitions to advance our shared vision” in order to make the Indo-Pacific “more stable and more resilient,” Austin said. Washington lists Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand as its “staunch allies” in the region and sees India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore as “valued partners.” Speaking about self-ruled Taiwan, Austin said his country “remains deeply committed to preserving the status quo there, consistent with our longstanding one-China policy, and with fulfilling our well-established obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act.” “Conflict is neither imminent nor inevitable. Deterrence is strong today, and it’s our job to keep it that way,” the secretary stated. Beijing considers Taiwan a Chinese province and resolutely protests against any involvement by “external forces” in the island’s politics.  China Defense Minister Li Shangfu, left, listens to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese deliver a keynote address during the opening dinner for the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, June 2, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Vincent Thian Lt. Gen. Jing Jianfeng, deputy chief of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, hit back at Lloyd Austin’s speech about Taiwan, saying it was “completely wrong.” “There’s only one China in the world, and Taiwan is a sacred and inalienable part of Chinese territory,” Jing said, adding that “it is the common aspiration and sacred responsibility of all Chinese people, including our Taiwan compatriots, to complete the reunification of the motherland.” China’s counterattack  A researcher at People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences, Senior Col. Zhao Xiaozhuo, said that it is the U.S. who has been trying to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. “The Taiwan Strait was pretty stable in the last ten years or so but the U.S. wants to destroy this stability,” Zhao told reporters at the Shangri-La Dialogue.  “That way they can sell weapons to Taiwan and make a lot of money,” he said. Chinese participants at the security forum in Singapore have taken a proactive approach to counter criticism from the U.S. and its allies. Senior Col. Zhao said that Washington needs to change what he calls “erroneous actions” in the way it interacts with others. “When it comes to dialogue you have to take care of…

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Have US comics faced punishment for jokes about the army like in China?

Editor013 mins

In brief In the face of criticism that China’s government was overreacting by launching a criminal investigation into comedian Li Haoshi for telling a joke about the Chinese military, a pro-government Chinese blogger has defended Beijing’s actions. The blogger, who calls herself Guyan Muchan, compared the case to that of an American stand-up comedian who joked about a U.S. military veteran. Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) found Guyan Muchan’s comparison misleading. The U.S. comedian she mentioned aroused controversy, criticism and public discussion by joking about U.S. military personnel. But unlike Li and the production company that employs him, that U.S. comedian was not fined and did not face criminal investigation. In depth After receiving a public complaint, the Beijing municipal culture and tourism authority announced on May 17  that jokes told at performances by Li Haoshi on the afternoon and evening of May 13 had caused “negative social influence” by “seriously insulting the PLA,” or People’s Liberation Army. A separate investigation into Li’s employer, the Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Company, cited violations of Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Performances. The bureau confiscated from the company 1.32 million yuan ($187,000) of “illegal” income made from the performances, and fined it 13.35 million yuan ($1.89 million).  On May 17, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau also announced that it had launched a case against Li to determine if his actions constituted a criminally liable offense.  What did Li actually say?  The following excerpt of Li’s joke is based on a recording circulated on the Internet.  “We picked up two wild dogs from a mountain near our home. I wouldn’t say rescue, because on that mountain those two were really at the top of the food chain and didn’t need our help at all. The first time I saw them it didn’t even really feel like watching two dogs, but was more like a scene from some animal film set, with two cannonball-like dogs chasing a squirrel. Now normally when you see dogs, you think ‘cute’, ‘cuddly’ and all that; but when I saw these two, the only eight characters that came to my mind were ‘Zuo feng guo ying, neng da sheng zhang’ (‘Maintain exemplary conduct, fight to win.’) Classic. People are in awe when I walk those two dogs through Shanghai.” The phrase, ‘maintain exemplary conduct, fight to win’, is a quote from a speech given by Chinese President Xi Jinping to deputies of the PLA in March 2013, in which he told the army to “listen to the Party’s command.”  In this undated screenshot, stand-up comic Li Haoshi performs. His employer, a Chinese comedy agency, suspended Li after he sparked public ire with a joke which some said likened feral dogs to soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army. Credit: Screenshot from Tencent Video Talk show The authorities who took up Li’s case didn’t specify the legal justification. But Article 32 of China’s Law on the Status and Protection of Rights and Interests of Military Personnel explicitly states that no organization or individual shall defame, insult or slander the honor of military personnel. Article 65 further decrees that if military personnel are intentionally defamed, insulted or slandered through mass media, relevant government departments can order the offensive content to be corrected.   Xiaoguo Culture Media rushed out an apology admitting that the joke was an “inappropriate comparison” and terminated Li’s work agreement. Comedy performances by the company were also suspended across many parts of China. What did Guyan Muchan claim about such cases in the U.S.?  Even as voices in China and abroad criticized China’s government for overreacting to Li’s joke, influential public supporters defended the government’s handling of the situation.  Guyan Muchan, a pro-Beijing Weibo blogger with nearly 7 million followers, stated in posts on Twitter and the popular Chinese social media site Weibo on May 17 that even in the U.S. there exists a red line that military personnel cannot be insulted.  Guyan Muchan cited a controversy resulting from a 2018 Saturday Night Live (SNL) episode in which cast member Pete Davidson mocked Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw – a former U.S. Navy SEAL who lost his right eye while serving in Afghanistan – as resembling “a hitman in a porno movie.”  Guyan Muchan’s post sparked discussion amongst Chinese netizens, with one user commenting that “people who praise American freedom never mention America’s red line.”  AFCL identified another case in which a U.S. stand-up comedian stoked controversy with a joke about the U.S military. The comedian, Bill Burr, was performing in Reno, in the western U.S. state of Nevada, when he said that calling catapult officers on aircraft carriers heroes was a bit of a stretch, given that they often are doing nothing more than “warrior one” yoga poses. Are the situations faced by Davidson or Burr comparable to that of Li?  AFCL found that although both Davidson or Burr faced criticism and stirred controversy for joking about the U.S. military, neither encountered the kind of punishment faced by Li.  Davidson’s joke prompted some netizens to boycott SNL. Democrat and Republican officials condemned the remarks as inappropriate and the then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer publicly called for SNL producer Lorne Michaels to be fired.  Stand-up comedian Bill Burr [right] joked in 2018 that calling U.S. Navy catapult officers [left] on aircraft carriers heroes is a bit of a stretch, given that they often are doing nothing more than “warrior one” yoga poses. Credit: Associated Press [right]; AFP But Davidson was not fired and did not face any legal consequences, and in fact the controversy had an uplifting ending. Rep. Crenshaw himself appeared in an SNL skit one week later. In the skit, Crenshaw was given an opportunity to mock pictures of Davidson before delivering a short monologue about the importance of forgiveness and the need for solidarity amongst American civilians and veterans. In that monologue, Crenshaw called Davidson’s father – a New York firefighter who died in the first wave of responders to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist…

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Public hearing in American Samoa underscores opposition to marine sanctuary plan

Editor010 mins

A public hearing in American Samoa about U.S. plans to expand a Pacific marine sanctuary has failed to assuage fears of tuna cannery job losses and further economic decline in the territory, according to workers, business owners and political leaders. After a decade of lobbying by the Hawaii-based Pacific Remote Islands Coalition, the U.S. government earlier this year said it could double the size of the protected area around uninhabited U.S. islands in the Pacific Ocean, making more ocean area off-limits to fishing fleets. But the proposal has been greeted with dismay in American Samoa, where residents fear a heavy blow to the economically crucial tuna industry. Dozens of placard-wielding employees of the StarKist cannery in American Samoa protested outside a recent hearing held in Pago Pago by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees protected marine and coastal areas. “I have seven children between the ages of two and 17, they are all in school, and I have been supporting my family working for StarKist Samoa,” Tanielu Malae, the sole breadwinner for his family, said at the May 25 hearing. “Do the people in Hawaii that made this proposal know what it is like for people like us that did not have proper education if we lose our jobs.” Employees of the StarKist cannery in American Samoa are fearful about losing their jobs if the marine sanctuary plan goes ahead. Credit: Joyetter Feagaimaali’i/BenarNews American Samoa’s Lieutenant Governor, Talauega Eleasalo Ale, who said he was at the hearing as a resident rather than representing the territory’s government, made an emotional appeal to “brothers and sisters” in Hawaii.  “What you are doing is unnecessary and it is painful and mean because you are not gaining anything extra by this proposition, but you are hurting us and cannery workers in this room that live off this land and rely on the fish that is coming from those islands,” he said. “If you really believe that we are your brothers and sisters you have to let this go.”  American Samoa’s governor and other politicians have voiced their opposition to the sanctuary expansion and criticized lack of consultation with the territory. ‘Fight against biodiversity loss’ The total area of the expanded sanctuary would be 2 million square kilometers (770,000 square miles), larger than the Gulf of Mexico, compared with about 1.3 million square kilometers (495,000 square miles) now.  It encompasses waters around several islands, atolls and reefs that the oceanic administration says are “home to some of the most diverse and remarkable tropical marine life on the planet.”  The tropical waters are also ideal for skipjack tuna which travel the equator in search of schools of small fish to feed on. Tuna fishing provides about 5,000 jobs in American Samoa – where the South Korean-owned StarKist tuna cannery is the territory’s largest business – but the industry has been in decline. The American Samoan islands, located to the south of the marine sanctuary, are home to less than 50,000 people after suffering a shrinking population for at least the past decade.  “There are roughly 5,000 indirect and direct jobs that will be impacted,” said Taotasi Archie Soliai, Director of Marine Wildlife Resources in the territory. “Think about that number,” he said at last week’s hearing. “These are underserved marginalized stricken disenfranchised minorities and indigenous communities that will continue to suffer because of these types of Federal policies driven by people who do not care.”  This October 2018 photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows birds at Johnston Atoll within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/AP Advocates of marine sanctuaries say they are crucial for the survival of endangered species and the health of the oceans.  The Pacific Remote Islands Coalition, which includes activists, scientists and nonprofit organizations, said that expanding the Pacific marine sanctuary will “meaningfully protect” the interconnected land, reef, sea and deep ocean environments.  The coalition also wants to rename the sanctuary “through a culturally appropriate process that honors the cultural, historic, and ancestral significance of the region.” “Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history. Intact natural ecosystems such as the Pacific remote islands are more resilient to the effects of climate change and can help in the fight against biodiversity loss,” the group said in its 250-page submission to the U.S. government. Questionable benefits for tuna stocks For tuna, which have large ranges, it’s unclear if protected areas can produce an increase in their numbers.  Research published in January in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science predicted “weak to non-existent” benefits for skipjack and bigeye tuna numbers from marine protected areas. The study’s modeling was based on Kiribati’s Phoenix Islands Protected Area and hypothetical sanctuaries making up about one third of the western and central Pacific Ocean. Businessman Vince Haleck, who owns three long-line fishing vessels, told the Pago Pago hearing that an expanded marine sanctuary is meaningless without proper policing of American Samoa’s own waters to prevent unregulated fishing by China-flagged vessels. “Literally thousands of vessels, my boats, our boats see them all the time, catching our fish and selling it to us,” he said. Despite talk of U.S. Coast Guard assistance, “nothing has happened,” he said. “The Chinese will continue to fish in our waters, and we can’t seem to have the political will from Washington to be able to address this issue.”  Haleck said a possible consequence of the expanded sanctuary is that purse seiner vessels, which trail vast nets to scoop fish from the ocean, will find it more economic to take their catch to Mexico than American Samoa. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also held public hearings last month in Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.

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North Korea forces exhausted soldier-laborers to keep daily diary

Editor07 mins

North Korea is forcing exhausted soldiers assigned to a high-profile state construction project to keep a daily diary to prove their loyalty. But many complain that after working 14-hour days with no weekends, they are too drained to think about what to write, a resident and a soldier in the country told Radio Free Asia. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2021 unveiled an ambitious plan to address a housing shortage in the capital Pyongyang by building 10,000 new homes in the city by the end of the year, and a total of 50,000 by the end of 2025. Soldiers with orders to provide free labor for the project, called “stormtroopers,” live in squalid conditions with inadequate food rations and they are under pressure to meet tight deadlines. On Feb. 25, Kim Jong Un and his young daughter Ju Ae attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new street in Pyongyang’s Sopho district. During the ceremony, Kim presented a diary book to a contingent of young stormtroopers who were building houses in the city.  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attend a ceremony for the construction of a new street, in Sopho District, Pyongyang, in this photo released on February 26, 2023, by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Credit: KCNA via Reuters Diaries with the title “Days of My Youth” were later distributed to every soldier, and from then on, they were made to fill it with a new entry each day, a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “These stormtroopers … work 14 hours per day and they have no rest days except for major national holidays,” he said. “There are frequent accidents where workers fall because they were falling asleep on the job, but now on top of all this [authorities] are telling them to write daily journal entries.” Forcing loyalty Their entries will be checked once per week, according to the resident. “If you skip even one day, or write an entry insincerely, you will be singled out in front of everyone and humiliated during life review sessions on Saturday,” he said. The review sessions are not just a facet of the military.  Every North Korean citizen must attend such sessions in companies, organizations, or neighborhood watch units, and review how they can be more loyal. Citizens are made not only to criticize themselves, but also to report instances of deficient loyalty among their peers.  For the stormtroopers, the diary assignment is yet another way that the government is forcing them to prove their loyalty.  “How can they expect struggling young people who go to bed hungry every day to be in the mood to write a diary every day?” the resident said. The diary also serves as a reminder of the project’s deadline, he said. “At the bottom of each diary page it says ‘There are ______ days left to report loyalty to the Mother Party,’ implicitly urging the completion of the construction before Oct. 10,” which is Party Foundation Day. A former stormtrooper who worked in Pyongyang, but was sent home to the northwestern city of Sinuiju after being injured in an accident, told RFA that the diary is also used in punishments.  “A member of the stormtrooper platoon I was in deserted because he was starving and he hid at a relative’s house in the city,” she said. “He was captured after ten days. The brigade commander forced him to write self-criticism letters to fill in the blank pages in his diary.” People who have heard about the plight of the stormtroopers are unhappy that the government gave the diaries as gifts to the soldiers, but monitors what they write and punishes them for it, the soldier said. Shortly after a major holiday in April, the party committee at North Korea’s top university received a letter penned by a citizen that strongly criticized diary censorship,” she said. “The writer of the letter faked his name, so the judicial authorities couldn’t investigate any further.” Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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