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Year: 2023

Myanmar military burns houses, captures villagers in Sagaing region

Editor03 mins

A woman was burned to death in her home when junta troops raided her village in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region, residents told RFA Thursday. The 60-year-old was unable to flee when soldiers torched around 700 houses in Sagaing township’s Thar Zin village on Tuesday, they said. Troops captured residents of Thar Zin and nearby villages in a series of raids this week, although it was unclear whether they were being used as human shields or suspected of aiding anti-junta militia. “Some 25 people were arrested in Thar Zin village, and more were arrested in other villages,” said a local who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons. “So far, about 40 people have been arrested and all were taken along with the military column. No one has been released.” The local said nearly three quarters of Thar Zin’s buildings had been burned down, leaving more than 3,000 people homeless. After Tuesday’s raid on Thar Zin, residents said troops torched 10 houses in Aing Dan Ma village the following day and burned homes in Pauk Ma on Thursday. The burned shells of homes in Thar Zin village seen in an aerial photograph taken on June 15, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist On June 6, junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA that junta troops do not set fire to civilians’ homes. RFA called the junta’s Sagaing region spokesperson, Aye Hlaing, Thursday but nobody answered. More than 53,800 homes have been burned down by junta troops and affiliated militias since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, according to independent research group Data for Myanmar. A total of 765,200 people have been forced to flee their homes in Sagaing region due to fighting and arson attacks since the coup, according to a United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) report on Tuesday. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Chinese police target prominent rights lawyers with harassment, travel bans

Editor08 mins

Police in China are keeping up their harassment of prominent rights lawyers, putting pressure on recently evicted Wang Quanzhang and his family, slapping a travel ban on Li Heping and his family, while denying rights attorney Xie Yang a phone call with his sick father. A police officer from the Beijing suburb of Changping pushed his way into the Wang family home on Wednesday, refusing to show ID and demanding to read the couple’s lease agreement, according to a video clip posted by Wang’s wife Li Wenzu on Twitter. “Comrade Policeman, please would you leave – this is our home,” Li tells the officer, who is identified as Wang Kaiguo in her tweet. “You can’t just go into people’s residences,” Li tells the officer in a heated discussion. “You didn’t produce any identification.” “I’m wearing a police uniform, so I can come in here,” he says. Police were claiming to have received a tip-off that the home had been illegally rented, according to the couple. ‘Stability Maintenance’ The renewed harassment is the latest in a slew of “stability maintenance” actions by Beijing police and other Chinese officials, who have targeted the families of prominent rights attorneys and other activists who were previously jailed in a 2015 crackdown on rights lawyers and public interest law firms. In a video of an earlier conversation on June 12, Wang calls on a police officer via an entryphone to show some evidence backing up the claim that his family is living in the apartment illegally. He later tweeted a photo of the lease agreement with the landlord. Screen shot of the policeman identified as Wang Kaiguo by Wang’s wife Li Wenzu. Tweeter/ @709liwenzu “Police and corporate security personnel in Shunyi tracked us down to our new residence and reported us to the local police station,” Wang said. “They continued to follow us as we were apartment-hunting, and they accused us of ‘trespassing.’” “It’s not just us — a lot of Christian families across the country have been evicted and persecuted,” he said. “It’s very hard to live a stable life.” Wang’s family was forced to leave their last apartment in Beijing’s Shunyi district after the authorities cut off their utilities. “The content of the contract is true, legal, and valid, and should be protected by law,” Wang said via Twitter. “I hereby declare that I will not unilaterally terminate this contract within its validity period.” “We moved into this rented accommodation legally, yet police said they had been told that we moved in illegally,” Li Wenzu also tweeted on Tuesday. Can’t leave country Meanwhile, the family of Li Heping is now banned from leaving China, after their landlord smashed a window at their rented apartment in a bid to get them to leave last month, Radio Free Asia has learned. Police at Chengdu’s international airport prevented the family from boarding a flight to Thailand last week, as Li and his wife Wang Qiaoling are considered to be “a danger to national security,” Wang Qiaoling said. “He told us, ‘You aren’t allowed to leave the country … I’m going to read this notice out to you — Li Heping and Wang Qiaoling aren’t allowed to leave the country due to factors endangering national security.’” she said. And a court in the central city of Changsha recently denied detained rights lawyer Xie Yang a video meeting with his ailing 90-year-old father, who is terminally ill with COVID-19. “The lawyer asked angrily whether the judges of the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court were raised by their parents,” the China Rights Lawyers Twitter account said of the June 7 hearing. Xie’s U.S.-based ex-wife Chen Guiqiu told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview that her father-in-law Xie Huicheng had been in hospital with a high fever for days at the time of the request. “Xie Yang is a very filial son, and the old man really wanted to see him before he dies,” Chen said. “The court just came up with various excuses to refuse.” Xie is currently being held in the Changsha No. 1 Detention Center, awaiting trial for “incitement to subvert state power,” and recently told his visiting attorney that he has been tortured while in detention. Chen said the court’s decision not to allow him to video call his dying father could be a form of retaliation, or a way to silence Xie. U.S.-based rights lawyer Wu Shaoping said that while there was no good legal reason to deny such a request, the ruling Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate arbiter of its citizens’ rights, not the law. “There was no reason to reject a humanitarian request of this kind,” Wu said. “They use [such requests] as a way of controlling suspects [to elicit a ‘confession’].” Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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Junta cracks down on residents of Myanmar’s Kale township

Editor03 mins

A junta slipknot is tightening in Sagaing region’s Kale township, as troops guard every intersection, conducting door-to-door searches and arresting people suspected of being involved in pro-democracy politics, locals told RFA Burmese Wednesday. Five people were arrested between June 1 and June 14, said residents who didn’t want to be identified for fear of reprisals. At night troops go from home to home, checking household registration lists, they said. They also stop motorcycles and question riders and passengers. As a result of the searches they arrested Pau Suan Khual, Su Su Win, Thiri Lin, Mary San and Naing Htwe. “The junta council troops conduct casual checks in Kale city every day, targeting young people who are on motorbikes and checking  their phones,” said a Kale resident who declined to be named.  “People are arrested if they are suspected of being involved in politics.” The five people, believed to be in their twenties, were taken to the Military Regional Command Headquarters interrogation center in Kale township. Residents said police and soldiers also threaten passers-by and demand money from them. RFA called Sagaing region junta spokesperson Aye Hlaing Wednesday but nobody answered. One man died during interrogation after being arrested on May 19.  Salai Ram Lian Pan, 29, was detained at a junta checkpoint as he tried to ride his motorbike across the township. On June 7, junta authorities told the family to pick up his dead body. The National League for Democracy, a party ostensibly dissolved by the government this year even though it won a landslide victory in elections before the Feb. 2021 coup, said Tuesday that 3,818 civilians, including 93 NLD members have been killed since the military takeover. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Three weeks of fighting in eastern Myanmar leaves nearly 3 dozen civilians dead

Editor07 mins

Three weeks of fierce fighting between junta troops and ethnic Karenni forces in eastern Myanmar has killed at least 35 civilians, including three children, a domestic human rights group and local residents said.  Karenni militias have been battling the military for decades in their campaign for greater autonomy in Kayah and Shan states, but the conflict has worsened in recent months as the Burmese army targets People’s Defense Force fighters who have taken up arms against the military since the 2021 coup. The two sides have been engaged in armed conflict in Moebye – also known as Mongpai – township in southern Shan state since May 25. Among those who died were more than 20 men and 10 ten women, as well as three minors aged eight, 13 and 18, according to Karenni Human Rights Group. Banyar, executive director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, said that the victims were killed by heavy artillery or because they caught fire as they were trapped in the middle of the fighting.  “They were either killed in the town of Moebye, hit by heavy artillery or shot to death, Banyar, the group’s executive director, told Radio Free Asia on Monday. “Some of them were arrested before being killed. Some were shot at. Some were killed as heavy artillery shelling hit them.” The organization collected 12 dead bodies and buried them during the first week of June, though some corpses still cannot be collected on account of security issues, Banyar said. The latest round of civilian deaths comes as the military steps up attacks on its adversaries in the southern Shan and Kayah state townships of Moebye, Pinlaung and Pekon.  Junta forces have conducted airstrikes and heavy artillery assaults on areas where fighters from the Progressive Karenni People’s Force, or PKPF – a local offshoot of the anti-regime People’s Defense Forces – are believed to be, killing civilians in the process.   Relief workers have had difficulties helping the injured and collecting dead bodies because junta troops are everywhere in Moebye, arresting and killing locals, said aid worker Nwe Oo said. “I’ve heard that there are injured people in Si Kar and Done Tu Htan wards in town, but because we haven’t had a chance to go in, we haven’t been able to bring them out,” she said. “We have to be very vigilant as the fighting has been intense and complicated.”  A civilian who sustained injuries during shelling by Myanmar soldiers is treated in Moebye township, southeastern Myanmar’s Kayah state, Jul. 26, 2022. Credit: Mobye PDF Rescue Team Artillery fire To make matters worse, junta forces have blocked some roads in Moebye and have kept open a main road for pedestrian use, she said.  A Moebye resident, who declined to be named for safety reasons, said military troops fired heavy artillery into residential areas. “We heard gunshot exchanges and artillery fire non-stop last night,” he said, estimating that about 450 junta soldiers have been stationed in high-rise buildings, schools and residential homes. The resident said three members of a friend’s family were killed on the spot with heavy artillery as they hid in a bomb shelter.  “Because telephone communication has not been reliable, there is no way we will be able to leave the town,” he said. The junta has not yet issued any statements about the situation in Moebye. RFA could not reach Khun Thein Maung, Shan state’s economic minister and junta spokesman, for comment.  A PKPF official told RFA there have been casualties on both sides in the fighting, and some civilians are still caught up in it. There have been many casualties among members of the People’s Defense Forces and the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, an armed insurgent group formed after the 2021 military coup, and among junta troops who have been firing heavy artillery non-stop, the official said.   “Some civilians have been trapped in town,” he said. “Some people have taken refuge in the monastery because they thought they would be safe there. We heard that some of them managed to sneak out of town, but we don’t know how exactly they escaped.” More than 50 civilians, including 13 children under the age of 18, died in Moebye between February 2021, when the military seized power from the elected government, and this June 12, according to PKPF figures.  Moebye has a population of about 30,000 people. Some residents remain in about three of the township’s 10 wards, while the rest have fled the fighting. Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar policeman killed in Naypyidaw grenade attack

Editor02 mins

A policeman was killed in a grenade attack on a police station in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, residents of Lewe township told RFA Tuesday. Several more officers were injured in Monday night’s attack, which took place despite tight security outside the building. “There are barbed wire fences on the road,” said a Lewe resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. “Now the place is closed and people haven’t come out since 8pm.” Unknown attackers also threw a grenade at a security gate outside the Myanmar International Convention Center-2 (MICC-2) in Naypyitaw’s Za Bu Thi Ri township on Monday night, locals told RFA. They said there were some injuries but RFA was unable to confirm the details. The junta said it was working to catch those responsible for the grenade attack on Lewe Police Station, but did not mention the death of a policeman. It said nothing about the reported attack on the convention center. RFA called junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun Tuesday but nobody answered. Security has been tight in Naypyidaw following a May 3 grenade attack on a security checkpoint in Oke Ta Ra Thi Ri  township. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Myanmar’s junta met jailed NLD chief Suu Kyi twice to discuss peace

Editor011 mins

Myanmar’s junta has met at least twice with Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed head of the deposed National League for Democracy, to enlist her help in peace negotiations with the armed resistance, only to be rebuffed by the former state counselor, Radio Free Asia has learned. Suu Kyi was visited on May 27 and June 4 in Naypyidaw Prison by three military officers – Lieutenant Gen. So Htut, the junta’s home affairs minister, Lieutenant Gen. Yar Pyae, who has led the military’s negotiation teams for peace talks with ethnic rebel groups, and retired Lieutenant Gen. Khin Zaw Oo, a source in the capital with close connections to the facility told RFA Burmese on Monday. “As much as we can confirm, the generals met her two times,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.  “We heard that the generals urged her to help the junta in its peacemaking process amid the current political situation and help stop the violence,” he said. “We’ve heard that [Aung San Suu Kyi] did not respond.” The junta has been embroiled in a protracted conflict with Myanmar’s increasingly formidable armed resistance groups and ethnic armed organizations since the military detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other top leaders of the NLD in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat. Junta courts found the 78-year-old Suu Kyi guilty of corruption charges and the violation of election and state secrets laws in December 2022. She faces a total of 33 years in jail for 19 cases, and is being held in solitary confinement in Naypyidaw. Suu Kyi’s supporters say the charges were politically motivated. The source in Naypyidaw told RFA that while the three generals may have met with Suu Kyi in prison more than twice, they hadn’t been able to confirm the visits. The junta has not made any official announcement about the meetings and RFA has been unable to independently confirm that they took place. Sources close to Suu Kyi’s legal team, including within the NLD, said that they were unaware of the meetings. Attempts by RFA to contact Naing Win, the junta’s deputy director general of the Department of Prisons, went unanswered Monday. Sources told RFA that Ottama Thara, the Buddhist abbot of Thabarwa Sanctuary in Thanlyin township, a port city located across the Bago River from the commercial capital Yangon, met with senior NLD party patron Thura Tin Oo on June 8 and advised that Suu Kyi should “retire from politics and participate in peacemaking efforts.” The monk, who reportedly met several times with top military leaders in Naypyidaw before the meeting with Thura Tin Oo, said that the junta generals hope that by doing so, Suu Kyi can facilitate an end to the country’s political deadlock. Suu Kyi ‘vital’ to Myanmar politics RFA spoke with NLD Central Working Committee member Kyaw Htwe, who said the party had heard that the generals met with Suu Kyi in prison, but couldn’t confirm the visit. “In Myanmar’s political world, the role of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is vital,” he said, using an honorific to refer to the veteran politician and party chief. “There will never be practical political change without her. Meeting with her and holding discussions is very important.” Kyaw Htwe said that the military had violated Myanmar’s constitution by seizing power and is “entirely responsible” for the country’s current problems. “Only after all political prisoners, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, are freed will the path to a resolution be implemented,” he said. Myanmar’s detained civilian leader San Suu Kyi, presides at a meeting in Naypyidaw with then military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and chairman of the Karen National Union Gen. Saw Mutu Say Poe to commemorate the third anniversary of signing of Myanmar’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement on Oct. 15, 2018. Credit: Myanmar State Counselor Office via AFP Nay Phone Latt, the spokesman for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, said he had been unable to confirm the generals’ visits to Suu Kyi, adding that “it is too early for us to comment.” RFA contacted Thein Tun Oo, the head of the Thayninga Institute of Strategic Studies, a pro-military think tank founded by retired military officers in Naypyidaw, who said he was “surprised to hear that the generals visited her in prison.” “Some may think the generals met her as the [armed resistance] has become stronger,” he said. “But in my opinion, it’s almost impossible that the generals actually went to meet her … That may be the reason why it has not been publicly announced.” Violence ‘cannot be left unaddressed’ Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, told RFA that enlisting Suu Kyi to lead a peacemaking process between the junta and the armed resistance would “contradict her position and her beliefs.” “I believe that she will never accept such an offer from the junta because the violence … happening in Myanmar is the direct consequence of the military junta’s seizure of power,” he said. “Their offer to restrict her from the political arena and only allow her to participate in the peacemaking process may sound appealing, but it is complete nonsense as they did not discuss the political problems or the violence happening in the country.” Than Soe Naing said he could only envision Suu Kyi accepting such an offer “if the junta admits wrongdoing with the coup and reinstates the results of the 2020 election,” which saw the NLD secure victory in a landslide. The junta has since accused the NLD of election fraud, but has yet to provide evidence of its claims. “Additionally, the violence and crimes that the junta has committed against the people during the two years of the coup has to be discussed – it cannot be left unaddressed,” he said. “That’s why I believe that the junta’s offer, despite its sugar-coated words, is very cowardly and cunning. I don’t think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will accept such an offer.” Since…

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More than 5,000 people flee villages in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region

Editor04 mins

More than 5,000 people have fled their homes in Myanmar’s southernmost Tanintharyi region, locals told RFA Monday. The mass exodus follows the capture of 30 residents of villages in Thayetchaung township during junta raids between Thursday and Sunday. Locals said at least six villages are empty after residents fled in heavy rains. One woman, who didn’t wish to be named for safety reasons, told RFA a convoy of around 100 soldiers entered Ka Net Thi Ri village on Thursday, only to be ambushed by members of a local People’s Defense Force. A junta ship arrived by sea and reinforcements opened fire with heavy artillery. The local defense force surrounded the village, leading junta troops to seize residents to use as human shields, the woman said. “The first day the junta column arrived, they arrested about 30 people camped at the monastery at the top of the village,” she said. “The next day, they used the people as human shields and moved them to the safety of Hpa Yar Koe Su mountain. The captured include the elderly and children. Those who can escape have fled.” Another resident of a nearby village, who also requested anonymity, told RFA locals fled to other villagers or left in boats. “They brought nothing when they fled … in  heavy rain”,” she said.  “They need clothes and accommodation urgently. Food is provided by our village. A member of the Thayetchaung People’s Defense Force said junta troops have only one escape route, which the PDF has blocked. “The battle may take a long time. It is still very difficult for them to get out by the way we have blocked,” said the man, who declined to be named.  “We prepared as much as possible in advance.” The Thayetchaung People’s Defense Force was aware of the possibility of junta attacks as early as June 8, warning civilians to travel along the local roads only between 6am and 9pm  The junta has not released a statement on the current fighting and calls to the local junta spokesperson, Yin Htwe, went unanswered Monday. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Witty folk rant on the dark side of the news goes missing from China’s internet

Editor09 mins

A song by veteran Chinese folk-rock act Slap referring to numerous darker news events has disappeared from Chinese social media amid an ongoing crackdown on public performances and growing controls on cultural content. Slap, a prominent part of the festival circuit in recent year, released “Red Boy’s 18 Wins” in January 2023, with lyrics detailing the exploits of a fictitious hero – Red Boy – and a series of challenges he encounters. It refers to a woman found chained by the neck, the breakout by employees at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory during the COVID-19 restrictions, the death of high-schooler Hu Xinyu and attacks on women eating at a restaurant  in the northern city of Tangshan. “A mother of eight children with a chain around her neck,” the lyrics read. “Vicious scum who burned his wife is sentenced to death.” “Don’t tell me Tangshan is just like Gotham City, which at least had Batman,” the song says, picking up on several scandals of the three-year “zero-COVID” policy, where “everyone is obsessed with negative and positive [tests].” Huge following among youth The band has generally operated on the fringes of mainstream culture in mainland China, and has a huge following among young people today due to their songs’ criticism of the political system, and of society as a whole. Delivered in the style of a Chinese folk opera ballad, the 14-minute banned song has a laid-back accompaniment from a regular rock band, with Red Boy generally understood to represent the Chinese Communist Party. The lyrics and saga-like quality of the track, which is still available on YouTube, recall a classic of Chinese literature as Red Boy goes to war against Sun Wukong the Monkey King from “Journey to the West,” yet their gritty and often horrific content is drawn straight from recent headlines. A screenshot from surveillance video shows four women being attacked by a group of men at a late-night barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, China, in the early hours of June 10, 2022. Credit: RFA “We’re lucky to be born in the New Era,” it concludes in a reference to the political ideology of President Xi Jinping, after commenting that “everyone’s got Stockholm Syndrome.” “Hard work will win out in the end,” says the last line, referencing a 1980s TV theme tune from the now-democratic island of Taiwan, which was under the authoritarian rule of the Kuomintang and its hereditary leader Chiang Ching-kuo at the time the song was released. It was unclear whether the band has been caught up in a recent clampdown on public performances by government officials across China. A May 26 Weibo post from the band listed several June gigs in different cities, with the comment: “Let’s wait and see.” ‘Boldy crossed’ lines Akio Yaita, Taipei bureau chief for Japan’s Sankei Shimbun and an expert on China, paid tribute to the band in a recent Facebook post, saying it had “boldly crossed into restricted areas,” and became hugely popular online as a result. “A lot of people online commented that they feared for the safety of the band,” he wrote. “This is the first time I heard of them … Founded in Baoding, Hebei in 1998, they have five members and … use very down-to-earth language to comment on the topics of the day.” While the band may have flown under the radar until now, “Red Boys 18 Wins” had overstepped a red line, he said. “I think there will be a ban on performances coming soon, and maybe someone will go to jail,” Yaita wrote. People with suitcases and bags leave a Foxconn compound in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan province on Oct. 29, 2022, in this photo taken from video footage and released by Hangpai Xingyang. Credit: Hangpai Xingyang via AP Taiwan-based Chinese feminist author Shangguan Luan told Radio Free Asia, who has seen the band perform live in the southwestern city of Chengdu, said they are well-known for their stinging social criticism. “They have been doing songs with the same kind of social criticism in them for years,” she said. “Every time they do a gig, they’ll have a song summarizing recent events, based on a familiar tune.” “They go for the hot topics – it’s kind of a tradition for them – integrating all of the news from the past few months or the past year,” she said. “Bands in China have always been somewhat underground, and many have been banned over the years,” Shangguan Luan said. “Basically, all the bands I like have been banned, so they can’t perform in mainstream venues.” One of few channels Ren Ruiting, who fled to the United States with her family following the banning of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, said Slap’s songs could actually be the first place that many young Chinese people encounter such biting commentary on current events. “They’re very critical and very gutsy,” Ren said. “There aren’t that many channels through which the younger generation can learn the truth, because they don’t read books any more.” “But they love music and talk shows, so it’s a good way to get them to think [differently],” she said. Blogger YYQ described the band’s lead singer Zhao Yuepeng, who pens the songs, as “an observer who uses postmodernism to deconstruct reality.” “Rock music that isn’t critical is itself in need of criticism,” the blogger wrote in a recent post on the band. “Borrowing the narrative structure of traditional folk … it offers open-minded and insolent accusations and humble words, without shame,” the post said.  “The deliberate structures and rhythms enhance the weight of what is being said, but also give a sense of absurdity.” Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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The 1989 Tiananmen massacre – as seen by a new generation of watchful eyes

Editor012 mins

On the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre last weekend, a group of protesters gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square to pay their respects to the victims of the military crackdown by the Chinese army on peaceful pro-democracy protests.  These protesters were of a similar age to the students they commemorated.  After decades of political brainwashing under the Chinese Communist Party, which bans any public discussion of the 1989 events, many observers had started to believe that China’s young people had lost touch with the kind of political fervor that gave rise to the student movements of the 1980s.  Then, the “white paper” protests came, spreading across China in late 2022 in the wake of a fatal fire in Urumqi and after three years of COVID-19 lockdowns, quarantine camps and compulsory daily testing.  The result was to light up the pro-democracy movement in the diaspora, with young people once more taking to the streets of cities around the world to demand better for China, and to remember those who had gone before them.   Wang Han, 26, currently studying at the University of Southern California  Wang told us in a recent interview that the Tiananmen massacre occupies a similar place in his mind to the three years of stringent lockdowns and travel bans of the zero-COVID policy under President Xi Jinping. Wang, who described himself as deeply involved in the “white paper” movement, said the two are similar because they were the products of the same authoritarian government. “It’s what I’ve been saying to so many people,” he said. “I think everyone needs to stand together in the face of totalitarian tyranny.” “Everyone needs to stand together in the face of totalitarian tyranny,” says Wang Han. Credit: Screenshot from Wang Han video  Wang’s politics have evolved since Xi took power in 2012, and amended the constitution in 2018 to allow himself to rule indefinitely. Before Xi consolidated power in his own hands, Wang had allowed himself to hope that China might one day relinquish its authoritarian government peacefully, the way Taiwan did in the 1990s, to become a fully functioning democracy. “Under Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, I didn’t support the Chinese Communist Party, but at that time I naively believed that this country would get better, a bit like Taiwan, with everyone moving forward step by step until finally, (Taiwan’s) Democratic Progressive Party was in power,” he said. “But when Xi Jinping amended the constitution in 2018, that really shocked me,” Wang said. “Then there was the pandemic emerging in Wuhan, and social movements started to inspire me even more.” Since then, Wang has dropped the belief that China will follow Taiwan’s path to democratization. “The Communist Party has done a more complete job of destroying grassroots social organizations in China, and it is more totalitarian” than the authoritarian Kuomintang government that once ruled Taiwan, he said. “I don’t think it is going to evolve away from tyranny through normal demands for reform,” Wang said. “That will only happen through a more determined kind of resistance.” Looking back, Wang sees scant signs of any political evolution at all in the past 73 years of Communist Party rule in China. “It doesn’t matter how different the ideas of Xi Jinping and Deng Xiaoping are,” he said. “The Communist Party and Marxism are totalitarian systems, and the totalitarian consciousness is deeply ingrained in them, and in their ideas.”   Xiao Yajie, 23, mainland Chinese who grew up in Hong Kong Xiao, who is working in Los Angeles, grew up hearing about the Tiananmen massacre in Hong Kong, which still had the freedom to hold annual candlelight gatherings every June 4, in Victoria Park. But smaller events were also taking place in the city’s schools, away from the eye of the international media. “Hong Kong’s political direction was still very liberal, and every school would hold June 4 commemorative activities,” she said. “During those years that I was studying in Hong Kong, our school would have spontaneous activities every year, and everyone would go to the auditorium to mourn the students.” “We would have candlelight evenings all through my elementary and high school years,” Xiao said.  Xiao Yajie takes part in a rally for the Los Angeles “white paper” movement. Credit: Provided by Xiao Yajie  Back then, Xiao didn’t give it much thought — until 2016, when her parents ran into some tourists from mainland China at a vigil in Victoria Park who denied the massacre had ever happened. “My parents told me about this, and I realized how much people in mainland China had been deceived,” she said. “This left a deep impression on me.” When the 2019 protest movement kicked off in Hong Kong, in response to plans to allow extradition of alleged criminal suspects to mainland China, Xiao went back to take part, getting tear gassed by the Hong Kong police, and watching supporters of the Chinese Communist Party throw things at protesters on the street. Xiao continues to take part in local activism, including during the “white paper” movement, which she found inspiring. “This is a democratic movement that is better than the 1989 movement because this group of brave people stood up under huge political pressure [not to],” she said. “Although some of the people who launched the white paper movement may not even have known about June 4, it carried forward what the university students left undone [in 1989],” Xiao said. “That yearning for freedom and democracy from the past — it’s actually in our bones.” Ji Xin, a U.S.-based student from Shanghai in his early 20s Ji was among the few young people to find out what happened on the night of June 3-4 when the People’s Liberation Army entered Beijing in columns of tanks, firing machine guns at unarmed civilians on the streets and putting a bloody end to weeks of student-led protests on Tiananmen Square. He first heard adults talking about it when he was just eight years old. “I was playing…

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Blinken to travel to China next week: Reports

Editor02 mins

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing next week, Reuters and the Associated Press reported Friday, as the United States seeks to shore up strained ties with China. Both Reuters and AP said Blinken would be in Beijing on June 18, next Sunday, citing anonymous American officials. AP said he would meet with Foreign Minister Qin Gang and possibly President Xi Jinping. State Department officials would not confirm the reported plans. In February, Blinken abruptly canceled a trip to Beijing just hours before he was set to depart Washington after officials said a Chinese spy balloon was found floating over the United States. China insisted it was a weather balloon that strayed off course. Since then, an unofficial trip by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to New York and Los Angeles in March has further inflamed ties. Relations between the world’s two major powers have been tense since August, when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan to the protests of Beijing, which regards the democratic island as a renegade province and has vowed to reunite it with the mainland. There has also been an uptick in near-miss accidents between the two countries’ militaries in the past two weeks in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, with the Pentagon accusing China’s navy and air force of dangerous maneuvering in front of American vessels.

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