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Category: Africa

The status of BRI projects in AFRICA

Editor031 mins

Download the report: Link Africa’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) began in 2013 when China first unveiled its ambitious global infrastructure project. Recognizing the potential for enhanced connectivity, economic growth, and development, several African countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Egypt, joined the BRI. Africa saw the initiative as a means to address its infrastructure deficit, promote trade and investment, and strengthen its ties with China. Here are the year-on-year trade statistics and balance of payment of Africa with China from 2017 to 2022: Year Africa’s Imports from China Africa’s Export to China Balance of Payment 2017 199.3 billion USD 95.7 billion USD -103.6 billion USD 2018 232.2 billion USD 106.7 billion USD -125.5 billion USD 2019 265.3 billion USD 117.7 billion USD -147.6 billion USD 2020 298.4 billion USD 128.7 billion USD -169.7 billion USD 2021 331.5 billion USD 140 billion USD -191.5 billion USD 2022 364.6 billion USD 151.3 billion USD -213.3 billion USD Trade statistics of Africa with China from 2017 to 2022 List of some of the projects that have suffered cost overruns: Country Project Benin Cotonou Port Expansion Project Botswana Kazungula Bridge Project Cambodia Phnom Penh Railway Project Cameroon Kribi Deep Seaport Project Cameroon N’Djamena-Doba Railway Project Chad N’Djamena-Doba Railway Project Djibouti Djibouti International Airport Expansion Project Djibouti Doraleh Multipurpose Port Project Ghana Tema-Aflao Railway Project Kenya Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway Kenya Lamu Port and Lamu-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor Liberia Buchanan Port Rehabilitation Project Malawi Nacala Logistics Corridor Project Mauritius Port Louis Waterfront Project Morocco Tanger-Med II Port Expansion Project Mozambique Nacala Logistics Corridor Project Nigeria Lagos-Kano Railway Rwanda Bugesera International Airport Project Senegal Diamniadio International Airport Project Sierra Leone Lungi International Airport Expansion Project Tanzania Dodoma City Water Supply Project Tanzania Tanzania-Zambia Railway Project Tunisia Enfidha International Airport Expansion Project Uganda Karuma Hydropower Project Zambia Lusaka Water Supply Project Zambia Victoria Falls Airport Expansion Project Zimbabwe Victoria Falls Airport Expansion Project Here are some of the problems that have plagued the BRI Projects in Africa over the years. The first bar shows the finished projects out of the 31 projects in Africa that make up the sample size. Only 19.35% of the initiatives from Africa in previous years were finished. As the last bar in the bar graph indicates, 9.68% of the projects were abandoned because of budget constraints and local opposition. In the report below, the precise causes are being looked into. The most common issues encountered by BRI projects in Africa were environmental damage (74.19%), which includes the destruction of local ecosystems triggering climate change and the displacement of local communities as a result of skewed and shoddy environmental impact assessments (EIA), and cost overruns (77.42%), which have multiplied the projects’ costs. Delays in project execution (58.06%) brought on by Chinese companies’ reluctance to move the project forward, corruption cases (64.52%) encompassing the stakeholders involved, and low-quality building materials (35.48%) were also major factors in the BRI’s dismal performance in Africa. Examples of projects in Africa that have been linked to corruption allegations involving Chinese companies: Country Project Name Chinese Company Angola Soyo Refinery China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) Botswana Gaborone International Airport China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Congo Inga III Hydropower Project Zhongjian International (Group) Corporation Egypt New Administrative Capital China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) Ethiopia Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Salini Impregilo Ghana Tema Oil Refinery Expansion Sinopec Kenya Standard Gauge Railway China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Liberia Mount Coffee Hydropower Project China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) Malawi Bingu International Conference Center China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) Mauritius Phoenix International Airport China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Mozambique Nacala Port Expansion China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Namibia Walvis Bay Port Expansion China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Nigeria Ajaokuta Steel Mill China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) Rwanda Kigali International Airport China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Senegal Diamniadio International Airport China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Sierra Leone Lungi International Airport China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) South Africa Gautrain Rapid Rail System China Railway Group Limited (CRG) Tanzania Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) Uganda Karuma Hydropower Project China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) Zambia Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Project China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) Zimbabwe Victoria Falls Airport Expansion China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) BRI projects under the scanner in corruption cases Analysis of the flagship projects Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, Ethiopia and Djibouti Environment Damage, Delayed, Cost Overrun, Corruption, Poor Quality Completed The Addis Ababa-Djibouti (AAD) Railway Modernization Project is Africa’s first cross-border electrified railway. The railway line is a 753 km electrified single-track standard gauge route between Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa and the Port of Djibouti, with 45 stops in total. The new standard gauge route runs parallel to and replaces an abandoned 1 m gauge railway built more than a century ago. The EDR, a joint venture of the two state-owned firms ERC and SDCF, owns the railway line. The project was built by Chinese state-owned corporations China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) under the BRI, which is operating the railway for a period of six years following construction completion. The freight route began in October 2015, while passenger service was formally inaugurated in October 2016. On January 1, 2018, it became officially commercially operating. The project has faced issues with delays and construction quality, which have resulted in the railway being temporarily shut down several times for repairs due to failures. The project has also been detrimental to the environment and the indigenous communities. Bagamoyo Port Project, Tanzania Halted, Poor Quality Tanzania’s Bagamoyo Port Project set a new course in China-Tanzania ties. The deal for the Bagamoyo port project was inked in 2013 after numerous African organizations dubbed it a “killer Chinese loan” and asked that Tanzania’s previous President, Jakaya Kikwete, refuse the offer. Regardless, the offer was accepted. However, in January 2016, President John Magufuli declared the project’s halt. Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone Project, Tanzania Environment Damage, Cost Overrun, Corruption, Halted The Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone Project…

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Malaysia’s Mahathir says Russia may take nuclear option

Editor06 mins

The world is facing the grim prospect of a nuclear war as the Ukrainian conflict drags on, a former Asian leader has warned. “I don’t think you can make Russia surrender,” said former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad about the ongoing Ukraine war on Friday – the second day of the Future of Asia conference hosted by the Nikkei news group in Tokyo. “They will fight to the end, and in desperation they may resort to the use of nuclear weapons,” said the former statesman who will be 98 in July, adding that not only Ukraine and Russia, but “the whole world will suffer.” Mahathir served as Malaysia’s prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and again from 2018 to 2020.  “Nuclear war is the worst kind of war because of the extent of destruction it causes,” he said, reflecting on the end of World War II when two atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. A summit of Group of Seven (G7) of the world’s most developed nations was held in Hiroshima last week. “It seems that G7 countries went to Hiroshima trying to persuade the Global South that they should support the West’s efforts in the Ukraine war,” Mahathir said.  The Global South is a term generally used for less developed countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, as opposed to more prosperous nations in the Global North including North America, Europe, and Australia, as well as several rich Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and Singapore.  “We should not get involved in wars,” the former leader said before criticizing what he called “the mindset of some countries.” “Global North thinks that war is a solution to conflicts between nations,” Mahathir said. “Russia and the West were partners in the war against Germany,” he said, “but immediately after the war the West decided that their new enemy is Russia so they set up NATO.” ‘World government’ The rivalry between the world’s two superpowers China and the U.S. once again was highlighted at the Future of Asia event, in its 28th year this year. Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Thursday that his country “welcomes the G7’s announcement that they are prepared to build a stable and constructive relationship with China.” Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong went further adding: “Any attempt either to contain China’s rise or to limit America’s presence in the region will have few takers. Nobody wants to see a new cold war.” Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (right) at a Q&A session at the Future of Asia conference, May 26, 2023. Credit: RFA/Screenshot from livestream For his part, Mahathir Mohamad urged Asian countries that they “should not take sides to support either the U.S. or China.” “We should support the world that includes the U.S., China and the rest.” “We should free ourselves from the influences by the West both in the economic and political fields,” said the former leader, known for his anti-Western rhetoric. In his opinion, the United Nations as an organization needs to be restructured in order to lead global efforts in dealing with common world problems such as climate change, pandemics and consequences of wars. “We should think of a common approach to deal with world problems, through a kind of world government,” he said. Future of Asia, held by Japan’s Nikkei annually since 1995, is “an international gathering where political, economic, and academic leaders from the Asia-Pacific region offer their opinions frankly and freely on regional issues and the role of Asia in the world.” This year’s theme is ‘Leveraging Asia’s power to confront global challenges.’ Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech Thursday saying Tokyo is “focused on co-creating the future” with its Asian partners. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Trafficked teens tell of torture at scam ‘casino’ on Myanmar’s chaotic border

Editor026 mins

It was a clear day when Kham set out from his home in northwestern Laos for what he thought was a chance to make money in the gilded gambling towns of the Golden Triangle, the border region his country shares with Thailand and Myanmar. On that day – a Friday, as he recalled – the teenager had gotten a Facebook note from a stranger: a young woman asking what he was doing and if he wanted to make some cash. He agreed to meet that afternoon. She picked up Kham, 16, along with a friend, and off they went, their parents none the wiser. “I thought to myself I’d work for a month or two then I’d go home,” Kham later said. (RFA has changed the real names of the victims in this story to protect them from possible reprisals.) But instead of a job, Kham ended up trafficked and held captive in a nondescript building on the Burmese-Thai border, some 200 miles south of the Golden Triangle and 400 miles from his home – isolated from the outside world, tortured and forced into a particular kind of labor: to work as a cyber-scammer.  Barbed wire fences are seen outside a shuttered Great Wall Park compound where Cambodian authorities said they had recovered evidence of human trafficking, kidnapping and torture during raids on suspected cybercrime compounds in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in Sept. 2022. Credit: Reuters In recent years, secret sites like the one where Kham was detained have proliferated throughout the region as the COVID-19 pandemic forced criminal networks to shift their strategies for making money. One popular scheme today involves scammers starting fake romantic online relationships that eventually lead to stealing as-large-as-possible sums of money from targets.  The scammers said that if they fail to do so, they are tortured. Teen victims from Luang Namtha province in Laos who were trafficked to a place they called the “Casino Kosai,” in an isolated development near the city of Myawaddy on Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand, have described their ordeal to RFA.  Chillingly, dozens of teenagers and young people from Luang Namtha are still believed to be trapped at the site, along with victims from other parts of Asia. The case is but the tip of the iceberg in the vast networks of human trafficking that claim over 150,000 victims a year in Southeast Asia.  Yet it encapsulates how greed and political chaos mix to allow crime to operate unchecked, with teenagers like Kham paying the price. This fake Facebook ad for the Sands International is for a receptionist. It lists job benefits of 31,000 baht salary, free accommodation and two days off per month. Qualifications are passport holder, Thai citizen, 20-35 years old and the ability to work in Cambodia. Credit: RFA screenshot The promise of cash Typically, it starts with the lure of a job. In the case of Lao teenagers RFA spoke to, the bait can be as simple as a message over Facebook or a messaging app.  Other scams have involved more elaborate cons, with postings for seemingly legitimate jobs that have ensnared everyone from professionals to laborers to ambitious youths. What they have in common is the promise of high pay in glitzy, if sketchy, casino towns around Southeast Asia – many built with the backing of Chinese criminal syndicates that operate in poorly policed borderlands difficult to reach.  Before 2020, “a lot of these places were involved in two things: gambling, where groups of Thais and Chinese were going for a weekend casino holiday, or online betting,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch.  “Then, all of a sudden COVID hits, and these syndicates [that ran the casinos] decided to change their business model. What they came up with was scamming.”  A motorbike drives past a closed casino in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in Feb. 2020. As travel restrictions bit during the pandemic, syndicates that ran the casinos shifted their focus from gambling to scams, says Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. Credit: Reuters Today, gambling towns like Sihanoukville, in Cambodia, and the outskirts of Tonpheung, on the Laos side of the Golden Triangle, have become notorious for trapping people looking for work into trafficking.  But besides these places, there are also numerous unregulated developments where scamming “casinos” operate with little outside scrutiny, including on the Thai-Burmese border. Keo, 18, had a legitimate job at a casino in Laos when he was contacted via WhatsApp by a man who said he could make much more – 13 million kip ($766) a month, plus bonuses – by working in Thailand. He could leave whenever he wanted, the person claimed. “I thought about the new job offer for two days, then I said yes on the third day because the offer would pay more salary, plus commission and I can go home anytime,” Keo said.  He quit his job by lying to his boss, saying he was going to visit his family. A few days later, a black Toyota Vigo pick-up truck fetched him, along with two friends, and they took a boat across the Mekong to Thailand.  Scams By that time, Keo realized he was being trafficked – the two men who escorted him and his friends were armed. “While on the boat, one of us … suggested that we return to Laos, but we were afraid to ask,” as the men carried guns and knives. He dared not jump. “Later, one of us suggested we call our parents – but the men said, ‘On the boat, we don’t use the telephone.’ We dared not call our parents because we were afraid of being harmed,” he said. “So, we kept quiet until we reached the Thai side.” Both Keo and Kham told RFA that they were eventually trafficked to Myawaddy Township, an area some 300 miles south of the Golden Triangle.  Kham only remembered parts of the journey, when he was made to walk for miles.  Keo told RFA Laos he was transported by a…

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Impacts of Chinese DWF on the African region

Editor012 mins

China is consistently ranked at number 1 in the global list of 152 countries practicing Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Being an industrialized nation, China has been forcing its way into other poorer countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), forcing the local fishermen out of jobs and disrupting the local marine ecosystem. The worst hit is taken by countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).  According to our report, about 20% of the global IUU catch comes from just six western African countries – Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. There have been multiple incidents of Chinese incursions and conflicts with the local African fishermen. Mauritania is suffering from Chinese incursions and aggressive fishing vessels since 2018. In 2020, three Mauritanian artisanal fishermen died when their boat was struck by a large Chinese Trawler. Despite being a smaller EEZ, it has been reported that the Chinese have spent over 2 million hours fishing. In Senegal and Liberia, Chinese industrialized trawlers have been denied permission in 2019 which naturally decreased Chinese activities in the region. However, the incursions of the trawlers and conflicts with local fishermen have come to light. In Cameroon, a sea area up to 3nm from the coast is reserved for artisanal and local fishermen. However, the local fishermen have accused Chinese trawlers of taking away all the catch including fingerlings and other fishes like ‘Awacha’, Mossubu, Trong Kanda, Crab, or Njenga, popular in Cameroon. The Western Sahara region has seen a massive gain in fishing activity in the past three years. Most prominent fishing regions in the West of Africa (Mid-Atlantic Ocean) are depleting due to disproportionate fishing activity. Thus, China is veering its DWF to the North-West of Africa. In 2022, China fished for over a million hours in the Western Sahara EEZ. The European Union also has its fishing fleet in Western Sahara competing for fish with its Chinese counterparts. In the competition, the loser is always the local communities of Western Sahara.  In 2021, many Chinese trawlers were arrested after the Minister of Fisheries in Gabon declared a crackdown on Illegal Fishing by the Trawlers. Despite this, the presence of Chinese Trawlers at the land boundary of Gabon was seen all around the year 2022. In Ghana, a group of fishers called “Saiko” have become a source of transshipment and selling bycatch caught by Chinese trawlers to the local markets. In addition to illegal fishing, Chinese vessels are also engaged in smuggling fentanyl from China to Africa and wildlife products for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from Africa to China. Eastern Africa In the Eastern African region, the activity of Chinese DWF vessels has been on the rise since 2016. It has been reported that these vessels often use flags of the countries they are fishing in to hide their identity. Moreover, the People’s Liberation Army Navy is also seen escorting the fishing vessels near the choke point of the Horn of Africa in the name of providing protection from pirates. Unlike the countries in western Africa, the government of Somalia has signed agreements with Chinese fishing companies to allow Chinese long liners and trawlers in Somali waters. The island nations in East Africa like Seychelles, Mauritius, and Reunion have been permeated by Chinese long liners and squid jiggers. According to tracking data produced by OceanMind, between 2019 and 2021, 132 Chinese-flagged vessels operated in Madagascar’s EEZ, targeting the country’s inshore and offshore fisheries. Chinese investments in the country have seen a sharp rise since 2017. It was only after protests from local people that the government declared the Chinese trawling illegal, forcing them to move to Senegal. Southern Africa South Africa is rich in marine life which attracts a large number of squid jiggers in the area. In April 2020, six Chinese trawlers were detected entering the South African EEZ after being ordered out of Namibian waters. These trawlers were then detained and issued with fines by the South African authorities as they failed to produce the required permission. Issues faced due to the Chinese DWF in African waters The continuous foray of Chinese DWF vessels has caused a ton of issues in African countries ranging from environmental degradation to unemployment of local people. One of those issues is the corruption of governments. Local government officials award excessive fishing permits or take bribes from the Chinese to allow them to continue illegal fishing in the area. They avoid making arrests as they are afraid the Chinese would retract the development aid in retaliation. While the officials are busy making money, the local fishermen are struggling to make ends meet. There have been numerous protests by the locals against the livelihood crisis and environmental damage caused by the Chinese DWF vessels in Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Gambia, and Togo.  Because of heavy overfishing in the region, the African people are left with nothing to eat. 100 million people of Africa depend on the protein from small pelagic fishes like Sardinella that are fished by 330,000 local fishermen. As Chinese trawlers catch nothing less than 75% of the fish in the area, the local population is suffering from numerous deficiencies of essential minerals. On top of that, many of the African fishers who are working onboard some of these trawlers have accused their Chinese managers of racial abuse. They’ve stated that they have been mistreated, abused, and even threatened to be pushed overboard. Many fishers have died onboard due to the mistreatment by the authorities. Another concerning issue is that the Chinese vessels often use or rather misuse the flag of the countries they are fishing in. It was reported that Chinese vessels Yu Feng 1, 3, and 4 changed from Chinese flag to Ghanaian flag as soon as they entered Ghana’s territory. They fish under the host country’s flag as it protects them from local laws and getting caught by the AIS (Automatic Identification System) as well. The dubious practices by Chinese DWF have long affected the marine environment across the globe, polluting air,…

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Asia Fact Check Lab: Did NATO donate HIV-infected blood to Ukraine?

Editor012 mins

During the past two weeks, a conspiracy theory alleging that NATO members had donated HIV and hepatitis-infected blood to Ukraine was originally posted and spread on Weibo by “Guyan Muchan,” an influential account with more than 6 million followers.  Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) tracked down and confirmed the pro-Putin Telegram channel Breaking Mash as the disinformation’s source. Further inquiries by the Ukraine-based fact-checking organization StopFake caused the Ukrainian government to release a formal statement debunking the disinformation.  On Nov. 3, Guyan Muchan, a widely followed Weibo user, published a post claiming to reveal a tainted blood scandal involving NATO and Ukraine. The statement reads: “Ukraine asked NATO to provide more than 60,000 liters of blood for wounded soldiers in the Odessa, Nikolaev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Zaporozhye regions. NATO member countries provided Ukraine with canned blood. However, Ukrainian medical staff found HIV and hepatitis B and C viruses in the blood after random examinations. Kiev has written to NATO requesting an independent assessment of the donor blood and asking that blood “not be collected on the African continent.” In the first group, 6.3% of the samples had HIV, 7.4% had hepatitis B and 3.2% had hepatitis C.  In the second group: 5.9%, 6.8% and 3.1%, respectively. The information is obtained by leaked files after the Ukrainian government office computers were hacked.” The post contained three images. The first was a picture of a statement that hackers allegedly had obtained confidential documents from Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal’s email. The second was an alleged letter from Ukraine’s Minister of Health to Shmyhal. The third was the English translation of the letter. Each image’s background contained the word “mash” as a watermark, which AFCL used to trace the post back to its original source.   Guyan Muchan is one of China’s “patriotic” influencers who in recent years rose to fame by pandering to domestic nationalist sentiment. Her post claiming the use of tainted blood was liked by hundreds of people, with other influential social media figures reposting it to millions more. This “news” swiftly spread on a number of Chinese language websites, including the popular internet news portal 163.com.  What is the claim’s source? AFCL was unable to find any reports about the claim from credible English media outlets. A few English websites with poor news credibility did repost it, including the pro-Russia website info.news and the gun-lover community forum snipershide.com. A slew of unreliable Twitter accounts have also posted the claim in English. Chief among them is ZOKA, a user with more than 105,000 followers. Marcus Kolga, director at DisinfoWatch, a fact-checking project under the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Canada, told AFCL that ZOKA is a “well-known pro-Kremlin account.” AFCL also found the Russian version of the claim being spread on many websites, forums and social media platforms. After comparing both the publishing time and watermark, AFCL traced the claim back to a post on the Telegram channel “Breaking Mash,” first published at 1 a.m. on Nov. 3. The original post has since gained over 1a million views. Breaking Mash is the official Telegram channel of the Russian-language website Mash.ru. The website’s content is full of lies and is highly aligned with Moscow’s propaganda, according to Christine Eliashevsky-Chraibi, a media veteran and translator at Euromaidan Press. Mash senior staff are suspected of being close to the Russian government, with company executive Stepan Kovalchuk’s uncles, Kirill and Yuri Kovalchuk, marked as “elites close to Putin” by the United States.S. In sum, both the claim’s original Russian source along with the English websites and social media accounts that spread the claim all suffer from low credibility.  Is the claim true? AFCL deems the Guyan Muchan post to be false. It came from a pro-Russia Telegram channel with low credibility. The Ukraine Ministry of Health refuted the claim in a statement offering more details about blood donation in Ukraine. The claim alleges that the “scoop” was leaked from the hacked email of Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal. But no credible media outlets reported on the leaked emails.The statements the claim relies on use questionable language that normally would not be appropriate for official documents. For example, the claim alleges that the mMinister of hHealth demanded that NATO’s donor blood “not be collected on the African continent.” The possibility of such racist language appearing in a formal government document is unlikely. Eliashevsky-Chraibi said the alleged government letter is “very suspicious” as there’s “no date, no signature, no stamp” and it was “not formal procedure.”  Through the Ukraine based fact-checking organization StopFake, AFCL checked with the Ukrainian government regarding the veracity of this claim. On Nov. 7, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health published a statement on its official website refuting the claim. Ukraine has never requested blood donations from any organization outside of the country, and all donor blood needed for the battlefield comes from within Ukraine and meets European standards, according to the ministry’s statement. Whenever there is an urgent need at a blood center, people respond quickly to requests for donations, negating the need for any supplies from outside of the country. The statement adds that Ukraine does not have a “random sampling” system of donor blood. Instead, it tests all donations to ensure they are safe and reliable.  The alleged letter from Ukraine’s Minister of Health is a forgery, the statement says.  The allegation about blood donated to Ukraine originated on the Russian telegram channel Breaking Mash [left] and then was picked up by a pro-Kremlin account on Twitter [center] and a few hours later by an account on Weibo [right] with 6.44 million fans. Credit: Asia Fact Check Lab screenshots Background Information In late October, the Kyiv Post, a leading English newspaper in Ukraine, published a report that Russia’s Wagner private military company had recruited Russian prisoners suffering from severe infectious diseases, in particular HIV and hepatitis C. This news bears some similarities with the claim made on the Breaking Mash Telegram channel, including the mention of HIV, hepatitis and the war, but…

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Biden steps up engagement with ASEAN amid China rivalry and global conflict

Editor012 mins

UPDATED AT 06:15 p.m. ET OF 11-12-2022 U.S. President Joe Biden offered rare praise for Cambodia’s authoritarian premier as he encouraged diplomatic support for ending the war in Ukraine and bringing peace to Myanmar at a summit with Southeast Asian leaders on Saturday. Although the control of U.S. Congress lies in the balance back in Washington, Biden signaled commitment to the region by attending an annual gathering of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. His appearance in Phnom Penh, a day after attending a climate change conference in Egypt, serves as a prelude to the first face-to-face meeting of his presidency with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which will take place in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday. The U.S. and China vie for influence in Southeast Asia. Although Cambodia has faced some stiff criticism from the U.S. over its suppression of democracy, Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed the president saying the meeting showed the Biden administration’s commitment to “ASEAN centrality and a rule-based regional architecture to maintain peace and stability in the region.” “We support the engagement of the U.S in our ASEAN community building process as truly important, especially in the context of bolstering ASEAN’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, promoting regional resilience as well as addressing many pressing issues such as climate change, food and energy security,” he said, adding that ASEAN planned to extend relations with the U.S. to a comprehensive strategic partnership. That will put the U.S. on level-pegging with China, which already has that status. Cambodia is hosting the summit as it holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc. Indonesia takes the chair after this week’s summits. Biden stressed the importance of the partnership, saying the U.S administration would build on the past year’s U.S. $250 million in new initiatives with ASEAN by requesting a further $850 million for the next 12 months. He said it would pay for more Southeast Asian projects such as an integrated electric vehicle ecosystem and clean energy infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions. “Together we will tackle the biggest issues of our time from climate to health security, defend against significant threats to rule-based order, and to threats to the rule of law, and to build an Indo-Pacific that’s free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure,” Biden said.  The linchpin of the U.S. push in Southeast Asia is the Indo-Pacific Economic Partnership (IPEF) that is intended to intensify America’s economic engagement in the region. ASEAN is America’s fourth-largest trading partner. Whether the members of ASEAN will be impressed by what the U.S. has to offer is another matter. “I don’t think ASEAN states are much sold on IPEF. It contains parts that are anathema to them and yet isn’t really a trade deal, and does little to actually further regional economic integration. It’s a fairly weak package overall,” said Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. “China is already by far the region’s dominant economy and trade partner and the U.S. isn’t going to materially change that. Southeast Asian states are stuck with China as their dominant economic partner. “For some Southeast Asian states [there is] a desire to build closer strategic ties with the U.S, but the U.S. is not going to now replace China as the region’s dominant trade partner.” CAPTION: U.S. President Joe Biden meets with 2022 ASEAN Chair and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen at the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 12, 2022. CREDIT: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque In a comment that would have raised some eyebrows among critics of the Cambodian government’s human rights record, Biden on Saturday thanked Hun Sen – for critical remarks about the war in Ukraine and for co-sponsoring U.N resolutions.  Earlier this week, Hun Sen met with the Ukrainian foreign minister. He’s also expressed concern about recent attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian casualties. Russian President Vladimir Putin has skipped the ASEAN summit and sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in his place. However, Biden did call for transparency over Chinese military activities at Ream Naval base on Cambodia’s southern coast, and urged Hun Sen “to reopen civic and political space ahead of 2023 elections,” and release Theary Seng, an imprisoned U.S.-Cambodian lawyer and activist. The other conflict that Biden mentioned in his public comments to ASEAN leaders was Myanmar, whose military leader was not invited to the summit. Biden said he looked forward to the return of democracy there. Human rights groups have assailed the Southeast Asian bloc for its failure to put more pressure on Myanmar to end the civil war that followed a February 2021 military coup against an elected government. On Friday, ASEAN leaders took a marginally tougher stand, calling for measurable progress toward the goals of its Five Point Consensus that include restoring democracy and delivering humanitarian aid. On Saturday Antonio Guterres voiced his support for the plan, saying “the systematic violation of human rights are absolutely unacceptable and causing enormous suffering to the Myanmarese people.” Cambodia, which has jailed opposition politicians and environmentalists, was not spared criticism by the U.N. secretary general. “My appeal in a country like Cambodia is for the public space to be open and for human rights defenders and climate activists to be protected,” he said. Biden attends the East Asia Summit on Sunday, also hosted by Cambodia, where he plans once again to discuss ways to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine and limit the global impact of the war in terms of fuel and grain shortages that are fueling global inflation.    The U.S. president is also holding talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol expected to focus on North Korea’s recent barrage of missiles fired into the seas off the Korean peninsula — including one that passed over Japan. North Korea is also reported to be planning a nuclear test. Biden then heads to the Indonesian island of Bali to attend the Group of 20 leaders’ summit. Ahead of the G20, on…

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Report criticizes ASEAN, international response to Myanmar humanitarian crisis

Editor09 mins

A new report by lawmakers from Southeast Asia and other regions criticizes what they describe as a timid response to the post-coup crisis in Myanmar by countries and international blocs that claim to support democracy. The Final Report by the International Parliamentary Inquiry, or IPI, into the Global Response to the Crisis in Myanmar, which was released in Bangkok on Wednesday, specifically took aim at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ahead of the regional bloc’s summit later this month. “The struggle of the Myanmar people for democracy is also the struggle of all people who love democracy and justice everywhere,” the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, or APHR, said in the report, according to BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. ASEAN’s five-point consensus reached with Myanmar junta leader Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in April 2021 has been “an utter failure,” Charles Santiago, a Malaysian lawmaker and chairman of the APHR, said in a news release announcing the 52-page report. Myanmar is one of the 10 members of ASEAN. “Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has shown an absolute contempt for the agreement he signed and for ASEAN’s member states, and the regional group has been unable to adopt a stance to put pressure on the junta,” Santiago said in a press release accompanying the statement. “Meanwhile, most of the international community has hidden behind ASEAN in order to avoid doing anything meaningful. It is past time that ASEAN ditches the five-point consensus and urgently rethinks its approach to the crisis in Myanmar,” he said. The consensus called for an immediate end to violence; a dialogue among all concerned parties; mediation of the dialogue process by an ASEAN special envoy; provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels; and a visit to Myanmar by the bloc’s special envoy to meet all concerned parties. “A common theme often repeated by our witnesses has been that, in the face of such a horrible tragedy, the countries and international institutions that claim to support democracy in Myanmar have reacted with a timidity that puts in serious doubt their alleged commitment to the country,” the report said. In its recommendations, the report called for ASEAN to negotiate a new agreement with Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government, or NUG, making sure the new accord has enforcement mechanisms. As recently as last week, ASEAN leaders announced they would continue efforts to implement the 18-month-old consensus. The ministers “reaffirmed the importance and relevance” of the consensus, “and underscored the need to further strengthen its implementation through concrete, practical and time-bound actions,” Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said in a statement after the Oct. 27 meeting. Cambodia, which chairs ASEAN this year, will host the summit in Phnom Penh from Nov. 10 to 13. While some ASEAN members, including Malaysia, have sought to hold the Burmese junta accountable, members such as Cambodia and Thailand are among the nations who “have persisted as junta enablers,” the report said. And because ASEAN makes its decisions consensually, some analysts don’t foresee much progress being made at the summit in Phnom Penh. Against Myanmar participation Meanwhile, Malaysia’s outgoing top diplomat has put forward a proposal to prohibit the Myanmar junta from all ASEAN ministerial-level meetings. “All ASEAN ministerial meetings should not have Myanmar political representation. That is Malaysia’s position,” caretaker Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday. “We know two more countries share this view, and we are very hopeful it will be considered at the leaders’ summit next week.” Saifuddin is a caretaker minister because Malaysian leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob dissolved parliament when he announced a general election, which will be held later this month. The first ASEAN foreign minister to publicly meet with the NUG’s foreign minister, Saifuddin is seen as one of the shadow government’s biggest allies. IPI said that throughout its hearings while compiling the report “participants, even those that also expressed a level of criticism toward the NUG, overwhelmingly called for the international community to recognize it as the legitimate government of Myanmar and engage with it instead of the junta.” The IPI held six public hearings along with several private hearings and received dozens of written submissions. Malaysia’s Santiago and Indonesian House member Chriesty Barends traveled to the Thai-Myanmar border in August to gather information. The IPI investigation team included officials from African countries, the Americas and Europe. Heidi Hautala, vice president of the European Parliament, served a chairwoman, and United States Rep. Ilhan Omar served as a member. Thai MP Nitipon Piwmow served on the team as well. The report blamed the international community for encouraging “a sense of impunity within the Myanmar military,” the news release said. It pointed to an October airstrike at a Kachin music festival that killed at least 60 civilians. “Myanmar is suffering a tragedy words cannot describe. The global community should urgently step up the delivery of humanitarian assistance and it should work with local civil society organizations that know the terrain well, have ample experience and are trusted by the population,” Barends said. “Millions of Myanmar citizens suffering the most grievous hardships cannot wait for long. International actors should leave politics aside and help the Myanmar people immediately.” BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

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