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Month: April 2024

Vietnam should ask Cambodia to delay canal project: experts

Editor09 mins

Participants at a Vietnamese-sponsored consultation have suggested that Hanoi should ask Phnom Penh to delay a proposed  canal project for further discussions, amid Vietnamese worries about the project’s environmental and economic impact. Construction of the 180 km (112 mile) Funan Techo canal, connecting the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, with the Gulf of Thailand, is planned to begin later this year and to be completed within four years. The proposed canal will include a section of the Mekong River, raising concern in Vietnam about the impact downstream, especially in Vietnam’s rice-growing Mekong Delta. The canal could “reduce the flow of the river by up to 50% by the time it comes to Vietnam,” said Le Anh Tuan, a prominent Vietnamese scientist.  Vietnam needs more time for consultation in order to protect the river’s delta, home to 17.4 million people, Tuan told the meeting in the town delta of Can Tho. Another expert, Dang Thanh Lam from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Vietnam must ask for an environment impact report from Cambodia. The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh also called for more information, saying that the Cambodian people as well as people in neighboring countries “would benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water and agricultural sustainability.” “We urge authorities to coordinate closely with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to provide additional project details and to participate fully in any appropriate environmental impact studies to help the MRC and member countries fully understand, assess, and prepare for any possible impacts of the project,” an embassy spokesperson said. Ly Van Bon, the owner of the Bay Bon fish pond located on the Mekong river which was affected by sediment, shows redtail catfish inside his fish pond in Mekong’s regional capital Can Tho, Vietnam, May 25, 2022. (Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha) For its part, Cambodia said it had secured endorsement for the project from the MRC chairman – Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith. Sisoulith has just visited Phnom Penh and, during a meeting with Cambodian Senate leader and former prime minister Hun Sen, he was asked to show his support for the canal.  “In response, the Laotian president, without hesitation, announced his support,” Cambodia’s Fresh News media outlet, which is supportive of the government, reported. No obligation  Laos and Cambodia are both long-term allies of Vietnam but both have in recent years leaned more towards China. Vietnam has repeatedly expressed concerns about the possible environmental and economic impacts of the project. This month, a Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson urged Cambodia to provide information and an impact assessment on the water resources and ecological balance of the delta region. In response, a senior Cambodian official said that Phnom Penh was not obliged to do so. Cambodia’s Minister Delegate attached to the Prime Minister in charge of ASEAN affairs, So Naro, told the Khmer Times that Cambodia was not legally required to submit any document to Vietnam  regarding the studies and construction of the Funan Techo canal. Cambodia had submitted “all documents of the studies on the canal related to the impacts on the environment and the water resources” to the MRC, So Naro said. The MRC is an intergovernmental organisation in charge of the sustainable management of the Mekong basin. “The Vietnamese authorities can request access to those files,” So Naro said. Cambodia has insisted that the canal  would not disrupt the flow of the Mekong.  The projected Funan Techo canal (in blue). (Google Maps/ RFA) Officially known as the Tonle Bassac Navigation Road and Logistics System Project, the Funan Techo canal will be developed by a Chinese company at a cost of US$1.7 billion. It will mean that more trade can flow directly to Cambodian  ports, bypassing Vietnam. The Cambodian government said it would cut the transport costs and reduce dependence on Vietnamese ports. It also said that the project will bring great social and economic benefits to 1.6 million Cambodians living along the canal. Security questions Besides the environment and economic impacts, analysts say Vietnam is also worried about the security implications of the canal. There have been suggestions that the canal could allow Chinese navy ships to travel upstream from the Gulf of Thailand and the Chinese-developed Ream naval base on the Cambodian coast close to the border with Vietnam.  Cambodia has rejected such speculation with Hun Sen insisting that Cambodia and Vietnam “are good neighbors and have good cooperation in all fields.” But Vietnam has been in dispute with China over some island chains in the South China Sea and it eyes China’s involvement in the region with suspicion. Vietnam shares a long land border with Cambodia. Between 1977-1978 there was fighting between Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese troops during the so-called southwest border war, which led to a Vietnamese invasion and the establishment of a pro-Hanoi government in Cambodia. The situation on Vietnam’s western border should get more attention because of “threats of untraditional security challenges, mostly over the Mekong delta,” said Nguyen The Phuong, a Vietnamese political scientist at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “A loss of the Mekong’s ability to sustain large scale food production will have tremendous impact on Vietnam’s security in the south,” Phuong said. “From my point of view, the western front is becoming more critical day by day but Vietnam is too distracted by maritime issues at the eastern front, or the South China Sea.” Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

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Young Laotians held at Myanmar casino fearful of fighting nearby

Editor05 mins

A group of 14 young Laotians who are being held at a Chinese-run casino in Myanmar said they are frightened by the recent fighting in nearby Myawaddy and are calling for new efforts to free them. The young Laotians were trafficked to work as scammers at a place called “Casino Kosai” in an isolated development near Myawaddy.  Karen Nation Union, or KNU, and allied anti-junta guerrilla armies took control of the important trade town earlier this month during intense fighting with Myanmar’s military.  Some of the young Laotians recently overheard junta soldiers saying the casino could be a target for bombing later this week, four of the young Laotians told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. “I would like to call on the soldiers of KNU to rescue us from this place as soon as possible because the fighting is moving closer and closer to us,” one of the young Laotians, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA. “Right now, we’re hearing a lot of loud shots toward us,” he said. “We’re afraid that we’ll get shot by stray bullets.” Earlier this month, two teenage girls were allowed to leave the casino after a 40,000 yuan (US$5,500) fee was paid to gain their freedom. They arrived home in Luang Namtha province in northern Laos on April 8.  The Chinese-owned ‘Casino Kosai’ in Myawaddy, Myanmar, near the Thai border. (Citizen journalist) The remaining 14 youths and their parents are hoping that officials at the Lao Embassy in Yangon can negotiate their release.  “The only hope I have right now is that the higher-up authorities of all sides are stepping up their efforts because we the parents have been trying and failing to rescue our children for more than two years now,” a mother of one of the Laotians told RFA. ‘Emotionally affected by it’ Many of the young Laotians originally sought jobs in one of the casinos in the Golden Triangle, the border region Laos shares with Thailand and Myanmar.  But instead they ended up trafficked and held captive at the casino, which is about 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of the Golden Triangle and 640 kms (400 miles) from their homes in northern Laos.  For more than a year, their parents have sent pleading messages to government officials in Laos and Myanmar. With the recent fighting nearby, they have become even more concerned, several parents told RFA. “I can’t eat and I can’t sleep right now because I worry about the safety of my daughter,” another mother said. “I heard about the situation over there getting worse, and I’m emotionally affected by it. I’m always thinking about my daughter.” A Lao embassy official told RFA on Tuesday that they are still gathering information on the 14 Laotians and will send a request to junta authorities soon. “We’re trying our best to rescue these Laotians,” he told RFA on Tuesday. Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

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Tibetans say compensation for Chinese land grab is too low

Editor05 mins

Tibetan families whose pasture land was sold to Chinese businessmen without their knowledge or consent say that compensation belatedly offered to them – 3,000 yuan, or about US$415 each – is far too low, sources familiar with the situation told Radio Free Asia. Four Tibetans who had been arrested April 10 for protesting the land grab in Markham county in Chamdo, or Changdu in Chinese, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, were released, but said they had been beaten while in detention, a source told RFA Tibetan on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “The four of them were released on April 16 but they were beaten and tortured during detention, and one of them even has a swollen cheek,” the source said. Since the protest, about 10 policemen have been deployed to patrol the area day and night, where they closely monitor all activities of the people, sources said.  Chinese police argue with Tibetans who were protesting Chinese authorities’ illegal seizure of pasture land owned by Tibetans in Markham County in Tibet Autonomous Region, China, April 10, 2024. (Citizen journalist) It’s the latest example of land taken by Chinese authorities in Tibet and in Tibetan-populated areas of nearby Chinese provinces for mining, farming or other use. Local officials routinely use force to subdue those who complain or protest. Earlier this month, about 25 families were shocked when a Chinese businessman came to clear their land. They were told their land had been sold without their knowledge or any compensation. After they protested, Chinese officials agreed to pay each family 3,000 yuan, or about US$415, each. The resident said that the affected families must accept the compensation without protest, and it cannot be negotiated because the amount has been decided by higher authorities. Chinese police argue with Tibetans who were protesting Chinese authorities’ illegal seizure of pasture land owned by Tibetans in Markham County in Tibet Autonomous Region, China, April 10, 2024. (Citizen journalist) Other residents said that those who do not comply with the government’s instructions on the matter could face imprisonment. Authorities conveyed the details of the compensation plan at a meeting on April 16, requiring at least one representative of each of the affected families to attend. “The people were unhappy about the compensation and rejected the low figure,” said the first source, who explained that the pasture land is being dug out to clear all remaining grass. Attendees were not allowed to bring their phones to the meeting, where authorities warned the families that it was forbidden to leak any information outside the country and reprimanded them for committing the “crime” of spreading news about the land grab and protesting it. “They were told that internal problems can only be solved internally,” a second resident said on condition of anonymity to speak freely.  “But if this information had not been widely reported, there wouldn’t have been any talk of compensation, let alone the release of the four young men who were arrested and detained.” Additional reporting by Dolma Lhamo and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan

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Uyghur butcher served 7 years in jail for urging friends not to drink alcohol or smoke

Editor05 mins

A Uyghur butcher serving a seven-year prison sentence in southern Xinjiang for advising friends not to drink alcohol or smoke at a gathering has been released alive and returned to his family, sources with knowledge of the situation said. It marks the first time that one of the roughly 100 jailed Uyghur residents from Xaneriq village had been released alive, said an Uyghur from the area who now lives abroad, but who did not give his name for fear of retribution. Authorities freed Mahmudjan Muqeddem, 46, who hails from the Tawaqchi community of Xaneriq village, on April 11, he said. The village lies in Kashgar Yengisheher county in Kashgar prefecture.  Police officers salute at the outer entrance of the Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, April 23, 2021. A police officer from the Yenitam community in Xaneriq confirmed that Muqeddem, a butcher and farmer, had served seven years in a prison in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and was released on April 11.  The officer’s colleagues told him that Muqeddem was arrested on suspicion of religious radicalization for advising his friends not to drink or smoke at an event prior to 2016. Initially, he was “educated” in a camp for two years, but in 2019, he was sentenced and transferred to prison, they said.  “The reason for arrest is that he stopped others from smoking and drinking,” said the officer. “He is not a religious figure.” Extremist behaviors Abstaining from alcohol is one of 75 different activities and behaviors identified by the Chinese government as a sign of potential religious extremism. It is listed in brochures distributed in some parts of Xinjiang to educate the public on how to identify extreme religious activities. It is also a cause for jailing Uyghurs, who as Muslims abstain from drinking alcohol, as part of a larger effort by Beijing to eradicate Uyghur culture and religion.  A person stands in a tower on the perimeter of the Number 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, April 23, 2021. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) Xaneriq village consists of 23 smaller communities with a total population of 31,000 people, averaging around 1,400 people in each community.  About 800 people live in Tawaqchi community, of which more than 100 were in prison, with some serving indefinite sentences in internment camps, the Uyghur expatriate said. Since 2017, six others imprisoned were released dead, he said, though RFA could not independently confirm this. Muqeddem’s release has offered some hope to others from the village’s Tawaqchi community worried out the fate of their imprisoned relatives, the expat said.  But because the butcher was considered to have committed one of the mildest “crimes” among those arrested, his release also caused concern about the fate of those serving sentences for more serious offenses, he added. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Injured sent to Thai border hospital following Myanmar clash

Editor04 mins

A Thai border hospital received nearly 40 injured people for treatment after a battle in neighboring Myanmar, according to Thai officials on Monday. At least 38 were admitted in total, Thai public health minister Cholnan Srikaew said during a press conference at Mae Sot General Hospital on Monday.  Mae Sot is a Thai city that shares a border with Myanmar to the west. It is notable as a trade hub and for its substantial population of Burmese migrants and refugees. “We treat them according to their conditions, mostly involving surgery,” he said. “There were 22 people admitted on Saturday. Another 16 gradually came on Sunday.” Cholnan declined to disclose how many junta troops and rebel soldiers were included among the injured. “We do not discriminate which group they are,” he said, adding that foreign nationals would be referred to relevant security agencies following their treatment. The armed branch of the Karen National Union, called the Karen National Liberation Army, and its allies captured junta Infantry Battalion 275 in Myawaddy, a Burmese town that shares a border with Thailand’s Mae Sot, on April 10.  After rebel forces intercepted a junta convoy and injured over 100 soldiers on its way to recapture Myawaddy on Thursday, Mi-35 helicopters bombed the town in retaliation on Saturday around 3 a.m.  Gunfire between junta troops and rebel forces and airstrikes could be heard late into late Sunday morning, Thai soldiers and Mae Sot residents told Radio Free Asia.   Since the rebel capture of Battalion 275, about 200 junta troops have been stranded at a customs compound near the border’s Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2, roughly 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Mae Sot. RFA could not confirm if these troops were among those admitted to Mae Sot’s hospital.  Following Saturday and Sunday’s battles, about 3,000 people were evacuated and several hundred refugees were taken to Rujira ranch a few kilometers north of Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2, according to Thai officials.  The evacuees were predominantly Myanmar, said Thai soldiers, in addition to some Thai nationals working in Myanmar. Thai authorities provided refugees with food and medical services. As of Monday, about 2,000 displaced people have returned since fighting calmed in Myawaddy, the Bangkok Post reported on Monday, adding that Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 1, which is used for immigration, remains open.  The newspaper cited a Thai military officer as saying that negotiations between the junta and the Karen rebel force and its allies have begun.  Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesperson at The Karen National Union, told RFA that it is reviewing the military and public welfare situation since fighting has calmed. Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

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Lao coffee growers feel pinch of worker shortage, high inflation

Editor07 mins

As the coffee bean harvesting season begins, plantation owners in southern Laos face a shortage of laborers because of low wages and high inflation in the small, landlocked Southeast Asia country, said people who work in the industry. Workers on plantations in Champassak province’s Paksong district are shunning jobs that pay just US$10-13 a day, based on the weight of coffee beans they pick, and instead heading for better paying work in neighboring Thailand. Others have sought jobs on cassava farms, where the pay is slightly better, a coffee farm worker told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.  Coffee growers in the district usually need 400-600 workers to harvest the beans, a plantation owner in the district said. Coffee beans are the main cash crop for many small-scale farmers in Laos and the country’s third-largest agricultural export product. Lao coffee is exported to more than 26 countries in Asia, Europe and North America, according to the International Trade Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. Most coffee farms in Laos are located in Champassak, Sekong and Salavan provinces on the Bolaven Plateau, known as the country’s coffee heartland. Sitting atop an ancient volcano, the plateau’s nutrient-rich soil and cool climate are conducive to growing coffee trees. Other coffee-growing areas are in Houaphanh and Xieng Khouang provinces in the north. A view of a coffee plantation in Paksong district of southern Laos’ Champasak province in September 2018. (RFA) But the country’s current high inflation rate, which stood at nearly 25% in March, is driving laborers to jobs that pay better wages, people involved in the industry said.  “Many laborers like to seek higher-paid jobs in Thailand as they get paid low working in the country,” the coffee plantation employee said. Like others in this report, he insisted on not being identified for fear of getting in trouble. “Therefore, we are facing a shortage of labor now, and inflation is the main factor causing this problem.”  Desperate for workers The coffee farm owner in Paksong said the labor shortage in the industry is nothing new and that inflation has been a key factor.  “If they work for us, they earn around US$100-150 per month, but they can earn around US$350 per month if they work in Thailand,” he said. To cope with the current labor shortage, some coffee farm owners have raised wages to attract more laborers, which means higher fixed costs. The coffee farm owner said he has had to double wages to US$15-20 a day to get workers to pick the beans.  “If we do not provide this rate, they will not work for us,” he said. “Some laborers just come to work for the coffee harvesting season, but go back to Thailand once [it] ends.” A woman works in the rain on a coffee plantation on the Bolaven plateau in southern Laos, Sept. 2, 2003. (Karl Malakunas/AFP) The labor shortage in Laos’ coffee industry began in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Champassak province official with knowledge of the situation, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.  There were over 218,00 confirmed cases of the highly contagious respiratory infection in Laos, and nearly 760 recorded deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, which stopped collecting data in March 2023. A coffee growers association has contacted the provincial Department of Labor and Social Welfare for help in finding seasonal laborers for the past three years, the official said.  “We tried to help coffee farm operators in the province to find laborers to meet their needs, but very few people are interested in working in this kind of job,” he said. Thongphat Vongmany, deputy minister of agriculture and forestry, said in February that Laos’ agricultural exports totaled US$1.44 billion in 2023, but he did not give a separate breakdown for coffee exports. Agriculture Minister Phet Phomphiphak, however, told the country’s National Assembly in December 2023 that Laos’ coffee exports during the first nine months of 2023 totaled US$64 million. Translated by Phouvong for RFA Laos. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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Blinken to visit China amid claims about Russia support

Editor010 mins

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China on Wednesday, according to a senior State Department official, in a trip that comes as he and others in Washington accuse Beijing of “fueling” Russia’s war in Ukraine by helping to resupply its military. Blinken will travel to Shanghai and Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of time. The official said he could not yet confirm that Blinken would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit. The trip will attempt to build on recent diplomatic outreach to Beijing, the official explained, but would also necessitate “clearly and directly communicating [American] concerns on bilateral, regional and global issues” where China and the United States differ on policy. Among other issues, Blinken will raise “deep concerns” about alleged Chinese business support for Russia’s defense industrial base, the crisis in the Middle East and also in Myanmar, the issue of Taiwan and China’s recent “provocations” in the South China Sea, he said. But the official played down the likelihood of results, with many of the differences between Washington and Beijing now deep-seated. “I want to make clear that we are realistic and clear-eyed about the prospects of breakthroughs on any of these issues,” he said.  He also demurred when asked if Blinken would meet Xi on Friday, as is rumored. But he said more scheduling details will be released later. “It’s safe for you to expect that he’ll spend considerable time with his counterpart … Foreign Minister Wang Yi,” he said. “We are confident our Chinese hosts will arrange a productive and constructive visit.” ‘Fueling’ the Ukraine war American officials have since last week accused Chinese businesses of keeping Russia’s war effort afloat by exporting technology needed to rebuild the country’s defense industrial base that supplies its military. Speaking to reporters on Friday on the Italian island of Capri ahead of the Group of 7 foreign ministers’ meeting, Blinken said U.S. intelligence had “not seen the direct supply of weapons” from China to Russia but instead a “supply of inputs” required by Russia’s defense industry. The support was “allowing Russia to continue the aggression against Ukraine,” he said, by allowing Moscow to rebuild its defense capacity, to which “so much damage has been done to by the Ukrainians.” “When it comes to weapons, what we’ve seen, of course, is North Korea and Iran primarily providing things to Russia,” Blinken said. “When it comes to Russia’s defense industrial base, the primary contributor in this moment to that is China,” he explained. “We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, [and] other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade.”   Beijing was attempting, Blinken said, to secretly aid Russia’s war in Ukraine while openly courting improved relations with Europe. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Xi in Beijing on Tuesday, and Xi is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris next month.   “If China purports, on the one hand, to want good relations with Europe,” he said, “it can’t, on the other hand, be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.” The G-7 group, which also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, also released a statement on Friday calling on China “to press Russia to stop its military aggression.”  The seven foreign ministers also expressed their concern “about transfers to Russia from business in China of dual-use materials and components for weapons and equipment for military production.” In an email to Radio Free Asia, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, did not deny Blinken’s claims.  But he said China “is not a party to or involved in the Ukraine crisis” and that the country’s position on the war is “fair and objective.” “We actively promote peace talks and have not provided weapons to either side of the conflict,” Liu said. “At the same time, China and Russia have every right to normal economic and trade cooperation, which should not be interfered with or restricted.” Not the only tension Blinken’s trip will come amid a slew of other squabbles between the world’s two major powers bubbling since last year’s Xi-Biden talks. In a speech at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday, FBI Director Christopher Wray repeated claims he made to Congress earlier this year that Chinese hackers were targeting key U.S. infrastructure and waiting to “wreak havoc” in case of a conflict. On April 11, Biden notably warned Beijing that the United States would come to the aid of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea if they were attacked by China, calling the commitment “ironclad.” On the economic front, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who herself visited Beijing this month, has slammed Beijing for what she says is over-subsidization of green technology, with cheap Chinese exports crippling development of competing industries worldwide. Xi also expressed concerns to Biden during a phone call on April 2 about a bill that would allow the U.S. president to ban the popular social media app TikTok, which U.S. officials have called a national security threat, if its Chinese parent company does not divest. China, meanwhile, on Friday forced Apple to scrub social media apps WhatsApp and Threads, both owned by Facebook parent company Meta, from its App Store, citing “national security concerns.” Blinken will be joined on his trip by Liz Allen, the under secretary for public diplomacy and public Affairs; Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific; Todd Robinson, the undersecretary for narcotics and law enforcement; and Nathaniel Fick, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy.

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Religious leader faces new charge in case that brought 5-year sentence

Editor06 mins

Investigators in southern Vietnam charged the 92-year-old leader of a Buddhist community with incest on Friday after gathering evidence – including blood samples – from members of the church, state media reported. Le Tung Van of the the Peng Lei House Buddhist Church in Long An province has previously been at the center of allegations of incest, fraud and abusing freedoms. In 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison for “abusing democratic freedoms.”  The provincial Security Investigation Agency said it launched the new case after receiving reports of Van’s alleged incestuous behavior, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The new charge also comes a week after two of his defense lawyers were stripped of their membership in the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association – a decision they warned could precede new action against Van. An attorney who spoke anonymously to Radio Free Asia for security reasons said Van hasn’t been required to serve the 2022 prison sentence due to his old age and frail health. The attorney added that the new charges announced on Friday were “vague” and appeared to use old evidence. Police forcibly collected DNA samples from members residing in the Peng Lei Buddhist House Church at least three times in 2021 and 2022, including one occasion where they obtained blood samples in the name of COVID-19 testing. Days after the church was searched in January 2022, authorities announced the “abusing democratic freedoms” charge against Van. He was accused of taking advantage of religion and philanthropy for their own personal benefit, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Van was also charged with incest and fraud, but these charges were later dropped.   The complaint was reportedly made by the government-recognized Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, the state-backed religious entity, and a member of the Sangha’s board of directors, according to the commission. Vietnam maintains strict laws on religious activity that require groups to be supervised by government-controlled management boards. The Peng Lei Buddhist House Church is an independent Buddhist community. Defense lawyers seek asylum Van was indicted in June 2022 after authorities accused him of directing other defendants to create videos and write an article that insulted Duc Hoa District Police and the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, according to the commission. The five-year sentence was issued the following month. Van has appealed his conviction and sentencing, and he’s been under house arrest since then. Authorities have continued to investigate the incest allegations. In October 2022, one of Van’s defense attorneys, Dang Dinh Manh, criticized the way that blood samples were taken from Van and his family members.  Samples should adhere to criminal procedural regulations and medical standards and the consent of the individuals or their legal guardians should be obtained, he said. Van’s lawyers have also criticized authorities for preventing them from meeting with Van and other accused church members. Last year, Dang Dinh Manh and two other defense attorneys for the church – Nguyen Van Mieng and Dao Kim Lan – sought political asylum in the United States after they received a police summons related to accusations of “abusing democratic freedoms” during their legal defense of Van and the church. Last week, the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association announced its decision to revoke the membership of Dang Dinh Manh and Nguyen Van Mieng for not paying fees.  Both lawyers told RFA last week that the decision could pave the way for authorities to take new action in their investigation of the members of Peng Lei Buddhist House Church.  RFA’s attempts to contact Long An Police at the provided phone number went unanswered on Friday.  Additionally, RFA was unable to reach anyone from the Peng Lei Buddhist House Church to verify Friday’s state media reports. Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Matt Reed.

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Chinese navy is operating out of Cambodia’s Ream base: US think tank

Editor08 mins

Cambodia appears to have given the Chinese navy extended and exclusive access to its naval base in Ream despite official claims that they only arrived for training purposes, a U.S. think tank said. Radio Free Asia first reported on the arrival of two Chinese corvettes last December, the first foreign warships allowed to dock at the new Chinese-built pier at Ream, Sihanoukville province. The ships left the pier on January 15, 2024, only to return several days later, said the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. in a new report. AMTI analyzed commercial satellite imagery that shows the Chinese vessels “have now maintained a consistent presence for over four months.” “It appears that they’ve been based there, just as the leaked 2019 MOU [memorandum of understanding] suggested they would be,” said Greg Poling, AMTI’s director, referring to the reported controversial agreement between Cambodia and China in 2019 giving Beijing exclusive rights to part of the Ream naval base.  “This isn’t just a visit or an exercise,” Poling told RFA. “Despite the Hun Sen and Hun Manet governments’ denials, the PLAN [People’s Liberation Army Navy] is operating out of Ream.” Training Cambodian navy The AMTI report said that no other ships, including Cambodian vessels, have been seen docking at the new pier, “which was completed last year to enable larger warships to dock in Ream’s shallow waters.” This indicates “a visible sign of privileged access for China’s military,” it said, adding that the degree of China’s access to Ream in the future will confirm whether Ream has become a Chinese naval base. Former Cambodian defense minister Tea Banh visits a Chinese warship at Ream naval base, Dec. 3, 2023.  (Facebook: Tea Seiha) Cambodia is preparing for the upcoming annual joint exercise Golden Dragon with the Chinese military, part of which will be conducted at sea, RFA has learned. Naval commanders held a meeting in Phnom Penh on April 18 to discuss the exercise. It is unclear whether the Chinese vessels currently at Ream would take part in Golden Dragon 2024. In last year’s iteration, the two navies conducted their first-ever joint naval drills in the waters off Sihanoukville, but with a landing ship dispatched from China. RFA has contacted Rear Adm. Mey Dina, Ream naval base’s commander, for more clarification but has not received any reply. When the two Chinese ships arrived in Ream in December 2023, Cambodia’s minister of defense Tea Seiha said on Facebook that it was “for training our Cambodian Navy crew.” In the following days there was indeed a training course for Cambodian navy staff at Ream, attended by Chinese officers. However, there were no further reports on any activity of the Chinese ships in either Cambodian or Chinese media. “We don’t know what the Chinese have been up to [at Ream] because China builds and operates it itself,” said a Cambodian analyst who wished to stay anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic. “What appears to be evident is that Beijing has begun to station semi-permanent warships there as a means of solidifying its military footprint across Southeast Asia,” said Paul Chambers, a political scientist at the Center of ASEAN Community Studies at Naresuan University in Thailand.  “A Chinese foothold in Cambodia offers support to other nearby Chinese military platforms in the South China Sea, Myanmar, Laos, and southern Asia,” Chambers told RFA. ‘Serious concerns’ There has been no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. The U.S. State Department last December said it had “serious concerns” about China’s plans for exclusive control over portions of Ream Naval Base, a claim that Cambodia has repeatedly denied. Top officials in Phnom Penh have maintained that allowing a foreign military to be based in Cambodia would be in contradiction to the country’s constitution. Sailors stand guard at the Cambodian Ream Naval Base in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, July 26, 2019. (Reuters/Samrang Pring) Cambodian analyst, Chhan Paul, wrote in the pro-government newspaper Khmer Times that any allegation of a Chinese military base is a “deliberate attempt to malign Cambodia.” “Cambodia never claims that it won’t allow warships from China to dock at the Ream naval base. Cambodia openly welcomes warships from other friendly countries to dock at the base,” the independent analyst wrote, “Therefore, the mere sighting of a Chinese warship cannot be interpreted to mean anything out of the ordinary.” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi is to visit Cambodia from April 21 to 23 to further consolidate bilateral relations in “wide-ranging areas,” according to a press release from the Cambodian foreign ministry. Wang Yi is scheduled to call on King Norodom Sihamoni and meet with Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father Hun Sen, who is now the president of the country’s Senate. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Interfaith conference seeks to raise awareness about Uyghur genocide

Editor07 mins

The hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs subjected by China to detention, forced labor and cultural erasure underscores the urgency for global action, panelists said at a two-day interfaith conference on disrupting Uyghur genocide organized by The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity that wrapped up Thursday. Survivors, experts, religious leaders and activists participated in panels to discuss the situation of the Uyghurs and called on governments to promote pro-Uyghur policies and to pressure businesses that profit from Uyghur forced labor, said a notice about the conference on the foundation’s website. An estimated 1.8 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic ethnic groups have passed through “re-education” camps in Xinjiang, in China’s far northwest, as part of a larger effort by Beijing to wipe out the Uyghurs along with their culture, language and religion. Some of the detainees have been subjected to torture, rape and psychological abuse. These actions and policies, the United States and other Western governments say, amount to genocide and crimes and against humanity against the 11 million Uyghur people. China denies the human rights abuses and says the camps were vocational training centers and have since been closed. Restrictions placed on Uyghurs are to counter religious extremism and terrorism, according to Beijing. Western diplomats have raised the Uyghur genocide issue “directly and forcefully” with Chinese officials, Ellen Germain, special envoy for Holocaust issues at the U.S. State Department and a panel speaker, told Radio Free Asia. Additionally, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of 2021 and the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018, require the U.S. government, State Department and Department of Homeland Security, among others, to take action that will impose consequences on those who commit genocide or other atrocities, she said.  “We recognize that it’s never enough for those who are suffering,” Germain said. ‘We are not afraid’ The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, named for the Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, writer and human rights activist who died in 2016, has thrown its support behind raising awareness of the Uyghur genocide through protests, op-eds, funding and events such as conferences. Elie Wiesel poses with his wife Marion and son Elisha in New York, Oct. 14, 1986. (Richard Drew/AP) In 2023, the foundation awarded grants amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars to three Uyghur groups dedicated to Uyghur rights advocacy and education amid ongoing repression against the ethnic group by Chinese authorities. “We’re not afraid of the Chinese Communist Party because they are in the wrong, and what they are doing is intolerable,” said his son, Elisha Wiesel, the foundation’s chairman.  “And if we can help to get the world to see that, to get the American public in particular to see that, that’s part of our role, and we need to do it in serving my father’s memory,” he said.  Forced sterilizations of detained Uyghur women, the destruction of thousands of mosques throughout Xinjiang, and the assignment of Han Chinese civil servants to stay in the homes of Uyghur families are other ways the Chinese government has sought to wipe out the Uyghurs and their culture.  “That is a genocidal activity to suppress the birth rate of a people, to change their buildings and remove their character, to forcibly remove their traditions by inserting people into the family life to prevent certain traditions from being followed,” Wiesel said.  Two major challenges The foundation faces two major challenges in trying to raise awareness about the Uyghur genocide, Wiesel said. The first is the Chinese government’s “information blackout policy,” making it nearly impossible for Uyghur families living in Xinjiang to communicate with relatives overseas or for the press to get first-hand information on what’s happening there.  “If the Western free press doesn’t have access to the atrocity, it can’t report it,” Wiesel said. “And then, it’s almost as though it doesn’t happen.” The second is that it is difficult to get celebrities to draw attention to the genocide because China is a major market for U.S. and Western movies and goods, such as sneakers.  “So, all of a sudden [China] has dollars and cents to impact celebrities, which makes it much harder now that their bottom line is at stake,” Wiesel said. “It’s much harder to activate them.” Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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