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China investigates US company for refusing to buy Xinjiang cotton
Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur. China has launched an investigation into PVH Corp., the U.S. parent company of fashion brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, for suspected discriminatory measures by refusing to purchase cotton and other products from its northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to 12 million Uyghurs. Analysts said the measure appears to be a retaliatory response by Beijing against companies complying with U.S. laws that ban the import of materials and products from Xinjiang suspected of using Uyghur forced labor. “China is attempting to retaliate against U.S. sanctions on Xinjiang region by imposing its own sanctions on companies that follow U.S. sanctions,” said Anders Corr, principal of the New York-based political risk firm Corr Analytics. “It’s a very bad idea.” “Beijing is trying to tell Calvin Klein not to follow U.S. law but to follow Chinese law,” he said. China’s Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that PVH Corp. must provide documentation and evidence within 30 days to show it did not engage in discriminatory practices over the past three years. “The U.S. PVH Group is suspected of violating normal market trading principles and unreasonably boycotting Xinjiang cotton and other products without factual basis, seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of relevant Chinese companies and endangering China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” the ministry said in a statement. Earlier this month, China adopted a resolution condemning a series of U.S. sanctions against the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and providing support for affected companies. RELATED STORIES China introduces resolution opposing US sanctions on Xinjiang Uyghur rights advocates applaud addition of Chinese companies to US blacklist Uyghur forced labor bill heads to Biden’s desk after unanimous House, Senate votes In response to the measure, Alison Rappaport, PVH’s vice president of external communications, said the company maintains strict compliance with relevant laws and regulations in the countries and regions where it operates. “We are in communication with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and will respond in accordance with the relevant regulations,” she said, without further comment. Genocide In 2021, the U.S. government declared that China’s repression of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, the sterilization of women, forced labor and cultural and religious erasure, amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. Legislatures in several Western countries passed similar declarations. To punish China and get it to change its policies, the United States and other countries have banned the import of products from Xinjiang produced by Uyghur labor. About 90% of China’s cotton is produced in Xinjiang, most of which is exported. Since June 2022, the U.S. government has blacklisted companies in China that make products linked to forced labor in Xinjiang under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA. The law also authorizes sanctions on foreign individuals and entities found responsible for human rights abuses in the northwestern region. More than 80 companies are now on the entity list. This May, the U.S. Homeland Security Department added 26 Chinese textile companies to the entity list under the act, restricting them from entering the U.S. market. Consequences Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said China is using the measure to lash back over criticism of its policies in Xinjiang. “This is very much a message to multinational corporations that they should not comply with sanctions and other kinds of bans placed on entities operating in Xinjiang,” he said. “It definitely is a countermeasure to what is being done outside of China.” Nevertheless, multinational companies that adhere to U.S. sanctions and exclude forced labor products from their supply chains could face repercussions in China, Szadziewski said. “If you do want to operate in China, you really have to operate by their rules and not by the rules of elsewhere,” he said. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Biden meets Vietnam’s president in New York
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam, met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, with the pair praising rapidly warming bilateral relations nearly half a century after the end of the Vietnam War. It marked the end of a whirlwind trip to New York for Lam, who in May became president – typically considered the second-most powerful office in Vietnam – and then ascended to the top role of general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam last month. Lam earlier met with U.S. business executives on Monday and delivered a concise – and mostly circumspect – inaugural speech as Vietnam’s president to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. He also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday and with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday. Meeting at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel three blocks from the U.N. Headquarters, Lam thanked Biden for sending condolences upon the passing of his predecessor as general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, who died aged 80 after 13 years in office. Vietnam’s President and ruling Communist Party Chief To Lam meets with U.S. President Joe Biden (not pictured) on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United National General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, U.S., Sept. 25, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) “Even during his lifetime, the late general secretary often spoke of you with fond memories and sincere appreciation,” Lam said to Biden in his remarks in front of reporters prior to the closed-door meeting. “His historic visit to the U.S. in 2015 followed by your visit to Vietnam in September last year were historic milestones,” he added, “and have significantly advanced the growth of the Vietnam-U.S. relations, resulting in the higher level of the relations that we enjoy today.” “We appreciate very much your fondness for Vietnam, and your historic contributions have been pivotal in elevating our bilateral relations.” ‘Unprecedented cooperation’ Reading from notes, Biden noted that he and Vietnam’s leadership elevated bilateral ties to the “highest level possible” during his trip to Hanoi last year, which commentators at the time said was driven by the countries’ mutual distrust of Beijing’s growing power. “Since then, we’ve been very proud of the progress we’ve made,” Biden said, pointing to U.S. investments in microchips and supply chains in Vietnam and the countries’ “unprecedented cooperation” on cybersecurity as areas where the relationship was blossoming. U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Vietnam’s President and ruling Communist Party Chief To Lam (not pictured) on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United National General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, U.S., Sept. 25, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) Neither leader directly mentioned China in their remarks, with the Vietnamese government seeking to carefully balance its growing ties with America with productive relations with its northern neighbor. However, Biden said Hanoi and Washington were united in efforts to build “a more open and secure Indian Ocean, committed to freedom of navigation and the rule of law” – an apparent gaffe meant to refer to the Indo-Pacific region, which U.S. officials use for the vast region stretching from India through the Pacific to America’s west coast. “We continue our path breaking work to heal the wounds of war,” he added. “There’s nothing beyond our capacity to work together.” A senior administration official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity after the talks said it was “an extremely warm meeting” and that the pair had also discussed “stability in the South China Sea.” Earlier on Wednesday, Lam met with Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, and discussed “the importance of multilateralism, the work of the U.N., international law including the Convention on the Law of the Sea,” according to a readout released by the United Nations. Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son also met with his Laotian and Cambodian counterparts, Saleumxay Kommasith and Sok Chenda Sophea, to affirm continuing cooperation in the wake of Cambodia’s recent decision to withdraw from a three-country development pact. US business leaders Lam was not only in New York for diplomatic meetings, though. His meeting with U.S. executives at a forum on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Monday was a productive one, according to Vietnamese state media, which reported that numerous cooperation deals were signed by Vietnamese and American businesses. Vietnam’s President To Lam addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, 24, 2024. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters) Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is now the president of global affairs for Facebook parent company Meta, told Lam during their talks that the company planned to manufacture its Metaverse virtual reality glasses in Vietnam, the reports said. A separate meeting with Nick Ammann, Apple’s vice president in charge of global government affairs, produced an agreement to create an Apple research and development center at the National Innovation Center in Hanoi, including scholarships for Vietnamese students to study artificial intelligence and “the internet of things.” Vietnamese tycoon Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao’s Vietjet Group also signed a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement with Maryland-based Honeywell Aerospace Technologies to provide avionics and aviation technical services for Vietjet’s aircraft fleet, the reports said. Deals on liquid natural gas and data center development were also signed during the forum, according to the state media reports. After five days in New York, Lam is scheduled to fly to Cuba on Wednesday night for meetings with his country’s old communist allies in Havana. He is scheduled to return to Vietnam on Friday. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
No limits to the lawlessness of Myanmar’s predatory military regime
Having illegally seized power and overthrown a democratically elected government, Myanmar’s military was never expected to hold itself up to the rule of law. But given their losses since a trio of rebel armies launched Operation 1027 nearly a year ago, the military has acted with an even greater degree of desperate and callous criminality. The U.N. The High Commissioner for Human Rights released a new report that recorded a 50% increase in civilian deaths from April 2023 to June 2024, year on year. In addition to the more than 2414 civilians killed, the report detailed the deaths of 1,326 people, including 88 children and 125 women who died in military custody since the February 2021 coup. Myat Thu Tun, a former reporter for the media outlet Democratic Voice of Burma, was one of seven people arrested and killed in Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U by Myanmar junta forces in early 2024. (RFA) The report documented executions, egregious sexual violence, and routine torture. Those who survived government custody described harrowing conditions in prisons and military detention facilities. Now there are leaked reports on pro-regime Telegram channels that the military government is preparing to execute five anti-regime activists as early as next week. That would follow the shocking executions of four, including Kyaw Min Yu (Ko Jimmy) and Phyo Zeya Thaw, in July 2022. There are at least 112 people who have been put on death row since the coup. And the regime wants to send a signal through the executions, both to domestic and foreign audiences, that it is still firmly in control, despite losses on the battlefield. War crimes are the strategy The world has become inured to the intentional bombing of civilians, the execution of POWs, and the mass arrests of citizens as a form of collective punishment. Over 27,000 people have been arrested since the coup. Junta troops torched more than 1,050 houses in retaliatory arson attacks in Sagaing, Magway and Mandalay regions in the first half of 2024 alone. Radio Free Asia has documented a stepped up aerial bombing campaign leading to increased civilian casualties. This should come as no surprise. The military’s counterinsurgency doctrine, known as the “Four Cuts” – stopping food, funds, information and recruitment to insurgents – is predicated on the intentional targeting of civilians as a deterrent for lending support to anti-regime forces. A man looks at homes destroyed after air and artillery strikes in Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp, in Laiza, Myanmar, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP) War crimes have always been the milirary’s strategy, and troops are indoctrinated and encouraged to commit them, including rape. The military is fighting across six distinct battle grounds, and has suffered losses in all of them. It has lost control over 60% of the towns in northern Shan state alone. Opposition forces now control key roads and riparian ports, making the movement and resupply of troops difficult. The only way that the military can retaliate is through aerial bombardment and long-range artillery strikes. If they can’t kill the opposition forces, they will kill the populations that support them. Preying on their own The military’s forces have committed such egregious human rights abuses that it’s hard to feel sorry for them. But their predatory behavior starts with plundering the income of their own troops. Despite their paltry salaries, troops are compelled to make monthly contributions to the sprawling military-owned conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL). The amount differs based on rank, but all must pay. At the end of the year, MEHL is supposed to pay troops a dividend. Yet nothing has been paid since the coup, a result of nationwide boycotts of military-produced products and services. The military insurance plan is even more egregious. Established in late 2012, by Min Aung Hlaing’s son, Aung Pyae Sone, by 2015 the Aung Myint Moh Insurance company had secured a monopoly on selling life insurance to the military, supplanting the state-owned Myanma Insurance. It has an unclear degree of military ownership through MEHL. Even the lowest ranked soldiers are pressured to buy a minimum two-year policy costing some 500,000 kyats – $238 at the official, artificially low exchange rate – in addition to a monthly premium of 8,400 kyats. Elizabeth Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). (Daniel Johnson/UN News) Amid recent battlefield losses, including a large number of the hastily trained five classes of conscripts since, the company has had to pay out more than it’s taking in. Its own capital reserves are thought to have flatlined in the overall poor economic climate and investment conditions. As one can expect from Min Aung Hlaing’s rapacious clan, the insurance company is cheating. The firm has labeled many dead soldiers as “missing in action”. In other cases, it has found loopholes in paperwork and nonpayment of monthly fees as justification for not honoring claims. The firm has pocketed the payments of the estimated 20,000 troops who have defected to the opposition. The junta is flat out stealing from the soldiers that they conscript just to line their own pockets. A well-armed extortion racket The abject criminality of the military is getting worse. Due to the military’s own economic incompetence, the economy has cratered. And with that has been a sharp decline in revenue needed to conduct the war. The opposition National Unity Government’s digital Spring Lottery has significantly cut into government sweepstakes income. The loss of territory on the battlefield has cut off revenue streams. Recent losses include four MOGE oil fields, coal, tin, lead and ruby mines. Intense fighting is underway in Hpakant in northern Kachin State for control of lucrative jadeite and rare earth mines. Take a moment to read more China’s frustration with the Myanmar junta’s incompetence is mounting As Myanmar junta falters, rival ethnic armies jostle in Shan state Caveat creditor: China offers a financial lifeline to Myanmar’s junta Debris and soot cover the floor of a middle school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in…
New Zealand pilot freed after 19 months in Papua rebel captivity
A New Zealand pilot held hostage for 19 months by separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region was freed on Saturday, Indonesian authorities said, bringing an end to a standoff that had drawn international attention. Phillip Mehrtens was abducted by the West Papua National Liberation Army, or TPNPB, in February last year. He was released following protracted negotiations facilitated by religious and tribal leaders in Nduga, a remote regency in Papua, said Bayu Suseno, spokesman for a joint military-police task force dealing with the separatist insurgency. “He was in good health when we retrieved him, and we immediately flew him to Timika,” Bayu said in a statement, referring to a major town in Central Papua province. He did not specify the exact conditions of his release. New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens is pictured in Timika after being retrieved by the Cartenz Peace Operation Task Force, following his release by separatist rebels, Sept. 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Damai Cartenz Indonesian police-military task force) Mehrtens was receiving the necessary evaluations to ensure he is both physically and mentally stable, Bayu added. Mehrtens, 38, had been working as a pilot for Indonesian airline Susi Air when his plane was seized shortly after landing in the region. The rebels, who are the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, have long fought for independence from Indonesian rule. When Mehrtens was taken captive, the TPNPB demanded Papua’s independence in exchange for his release. Video footage of Mehrtens surrounded by heavily armed rebels had circulated online over the past year. TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom had said in a video statement posted on YouTube Tuesday that the group would unconditionally release Mehrtens “on humanitarian grounds”. Sambom reiterated, however, that the group’s demand for Papuan independence remains unchanged. “Our struggle for an independent West Papua is non-negotiable,” he said. New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens is pictured in Timika after being retrieved by the Cartenz Peace Operation Task Force, following his release by separatist rebels, Sept. 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Damai Cartenz Indonesian police-military task force) When asked about Mehrtens’ release on Saturday, Sambom declined to comment, saying he had not been briefed on it. Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters welcomed the release. “We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Philip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to talk with his family,” he said in a statement. “This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.” The New Zealand government had worked closely with Indonesian authorities and other parties to secure Mehrtens’ freedom, Peters said. The separatist conflict in Papua, simmering since the 1960s, has left thousands dead and many more displaced. Though Indonesia has sought to integrate Papua through infrastructure development and increased autonomy, many Papuans remain deeply resentful of Jakarta’s control, which they view as exploitative, especially in the context of the region’s vast natural resources. New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report on Thursday detailing what it called entrenched racism and systemic discrimination against the indigenous ethnic Melanesian people in Papua. The report said the Indonesian government had responded to Papuans’ calls for independence with arbitrary arrests, torture, forced displacement and extrajudicial killings. International human rights organizations have repeatedly called on Indonesia to allow independent investigations into the human rights situation in Papua, but the government has restricted access to the region. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
China targets high-ranking officials who read banned books
Read RFA’s coverage of this story in Chinese China’s Communist Party is clamping down on the secret hobby of some high-ranking officials: reading banned books, a series of state media reports suggest. Officials from glitzy Shanghai to poverty-stricken Guizhou have been accused in recent months of “privately possessing and reading banned books and periodicals,” according to state media reports, which typically surface when the officials are probed by the party’s disciplinary arm. Senior officials have traditionally enjoyed privileged access to materials banned as potentially subversive for the wider population, via the “neibu,” or internal, publishing system, former Communist Party officials told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews. Now it appears that President Xi Jinping is coming for their personal libraries and private browsing habits in a bid to instill the same ideas in all party members regardless of rank. A man walks past posters about Chinese political books displayed at the Hong Kong Book Fair in Hong Kong, July 18, 2012. (Philippe Lopez/AFP) During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, any foreign book could be considered a “poisonous weed that promotes the bourgeois lifestyle.” Books banned since 2000 have typically been works about recent Chinese history or inside scoops on senior leaders, including memoirs from Mao Zedong’s personal physician, late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang and a book about the later years of Mao’s trusted premier Zhou Enlai. Overseas publications are often banned or tightly controlled in China, either online, or via a complex process of political vetting by the authorities, including a 2017 requirement that anyone selling foreign publications in China must have a special license. Wider knowledge makes better leaders Former Party School professor Cai Xia said officials were generally allowed to read whatever they liked until the turn of the century. The arrangement encouraged officials to broaden their perspective, making them better leaders. “Politics, like art, requires imagination,” Cai said. “Because experience shows that the more single-minded and closed-off the thinking of the Communist Party, especially the senior cadres, the narrower their vision and the poorer their thinking, and the harder it is for them to grasp the complex phenomena and situations that have emerged in China’s rapid development,” she told Radio Free Asia. Wider reading encourages deeper thought, which helps China “to move forward,” she said. Masks, goggles and books collected from the Occupy zone are seen on the table at guesthouse in Hong Kong Dec. 30, 2014. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Du Wen, former executive director of the Legal Advisory Office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region government, said the purge of readers of banned publications is worrying. “This phenomenon is so scary, because it sends the message that there is no independence in the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party,” Du said. “Even dialectical materialism and critical thinking have become evidence of guilt.” Nearly 20 officials have been accused of similar infractions, Du said, basing the number on his observation of media reports. Officials have been tight-lipped about the names of the books and periodicals these officials were reading, yet the accusations keep coming. Those targeted In November 2023, the party launched a probe into former Zhejiang provincial Vice Gov. Zhu Congjiu, accusing him of losing his way ideologically. In addition to making off-message comments in public, Zhu had “privately brought banned books into the country and read them over a long period of time,” according to media reports at the time. In June 2023, the Beijing branch of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection expelled former state assets supervisory official Zhang Guilin for “possessing and reading books and periodicals with serious political issues,” alongside a slew of other alleged offenses including “engaging in power-for-sex and money-for-sex transactions.” Many of those targeted have been in the state-controlled financial system, while some have been concentrated in the central province of Hunan and the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, according to political commentator Yu Jie. A vendor attends to a customer next to images and statues depicting late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong, at the secondhand books section of Panjiayuan antique market in Beijing, China, Aug. 3, 2024. (Florence Lo/Reuters) “Interestingly, a lot of officials in the political and legal system, national security and prison systems, which are responsible for maintaining stability and persecuting dissidents, are also keen on reading banned books,” Yu wrote in a recent commentary for RFA Mandarin, citing the case of former state security police political commissar Li Bin. In Hubei province, the commission went after one of their own in party secretary Wang Baoping, accusing him of “buying and reading books that distorted and attacked the 18th Party Congress.” “Monitoring what people are reading shows the authoritarian system’s determination and ability to maintain its power and to destroy any resources that could be subversive and any doubts about the legitimacy of the authorities’ rule,” Yu wrote in a Chinese-language commentary on May 28. “Xi Jinping’s … goal is to turn more than 80 million party members into marionettes or zombies, and follow him, like the Pied Piper, in a mighty procession that leads to hell,” he said. Categories Zhang Huiqing, a former editor at the People’s Publishing House, told RFA Mandarin that “gray” books were allowed to be published under the watchful eye of the party’s Central Propaganda Department, which also reviewed and vetted foreign-published books for translation into Chinese, for distribution as “neibu” reading material. Divided into categories A, B and C, where A was restricted to the smallest number of officials, “reactionary” books were those that could potentially cause people to challenge the party leadership, and they were once distributed in a highly controlled manner, Zhang said. Du Wen said that while he was an official in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region government, he had access to a slew of foreign news outlets not usually sold on the streets of Chinese cities, including Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Washington Post and newspapers published in democratic Taiwan. “These were all allowed because if you want to do research, you have to understand what’s going on overseas,”…
The Era of Proxy Wars: How Major Powers Wage Indirect Wars
The world is indeed experiencing a resurgence of proxy conflicts, where major powers exert influence indirectly through smaller, often less stable, nations. This is part of a broader geopolitical strategy, allowing these big powers to avoid direct confrontation while still advancing their global interests.
Myanmar rebels kill 12 women from pro-military village: report
Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. Rebel forces in central Myanmar ambushed a vehicle near a junta stronghold killing 12 women on their way to work in nearby fields, military-controlled media reported on Wednesday. No group claimed responsibility for the Tuesday attack in the Sagaing region but anti-junta activists there have set up groups, known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, that launch ambushes and raids on military posts in their campaign against the junta that seized power in 2021. The women were on their way to work near Kywei Pon village when attackers opened fire with guns and a rocket launcher, the Myanmar Alin newspaper reported. Three wounded women were being treated in hospital. Armed people in the women’s vehicle returned fire before soldiers arrived, said one Kywei Pon resident, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “Not long after the junta army arrived and took the injured away with emergency vehicles,” said the resident. There was no information about any casualties among the attackers. Many supporters of the junta, including members of militias that help the military, live in Kywei Pon so PDFs attack it often, the resident added. One PDF member in Sagaing, who also declined to be identified for saety reasons, told Radio Free Asia that anti-junta forces were not involved in the attack although he acknowledged he did not know details of the incident. The military was mounting security operations in response, the Myanmar Alin reported. Residents said the military fired artillery into Taung Kyar village nearby in the belief that PDF members were stationed there. There were no reports of casualties. Residents of other villages in the vicinity fled from their homes late on Tuesday in fear of more attacks by junta forces, residents said. Sagaing has seen some of Myanmar’s worst violence since the military took power three years ago, with clashes and airstrikes killing hundreds. Thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting. Seven of Sagaing’s PDFs, which are loosely organized under a civilian shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, are under investigation by the NUG for alleged human rights violations. RELATED STORIES Myanmar civilians trapped in monastery as clashes intensify Shortages in Myanmar lead to ‘socialist-era’ economy Myanmar’s civil war has displaced 3 million people: UN Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Civilians killed as Myanmar rebels attack junta forces in the north
Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. Thousands of people have fled from fighting between ethnic minority guerrillas and Myanmar junta troops that entered a fifth day on Thursday, and at least 10 civilians have been killed, residents told Radio Free Asia. The autonomy-seeking Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, and allied militias loyal to a shadow civilian administration, have made significant gains in Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin state since launching an offensive in March. The insurgents have forced junta troops in the resource-rich region on the border with China into dwindling areas of control, mirroring setbacks elsewhere in Myanmar for the military that seized power in a 2021 coup. A resident of Hpakant township, a major jade-producing region, said at least 10 civilians were killed in crossfire between insurgents and the military in Hseng Taung village since the anti-junta forces surrounded it and launched an attack on Sunday. “People died after being hit by both heavy and small weapons. There are a lot of wounded,” said the resident who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “Many, many houses have been destroyed. Bullets were raining down.” Junta airstikes also sparked major fires in the town, witnesses said. Most of those killed were men, he said, adding that a peace activist named Yup Zau Hkawng, who was wounded in shelling on Monday. By Thursday, the KIA-led attackers had seized and burned down the Hseng Taung police station, sources close to an anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF, allied with the KIA told RFA. RFA telephoned Kachin state’s junta spokesperson, Moe Min Thein, for comment but he did not respond by the time of publication and a telecommunications outage in the area made it difficult to check accounts of the fighting. About 60 soldiers were at the police station when the attack was launched, said another resident, who also asked to remain anonymous. “The Hseng Taung police station was captured but fighting has been going on after they set it on fire,” he said. “Some junta soldiers are dead, others were caught alive, and the rest were able to flee.” KIA fighters had sealed off all roads in and out of the village, said the KIA spokesman, Col. Naw Bu. Residents said about 10,000 people had fled from the village over the five days of fighting, many seeking refuge in Nam Hmaw, Hseng Awng and Hpakant towns. The KIA and allied forces control most roads in and out of Hpakant town and have captured all but five junta bases in the township, anti-junta forces say. RELATED STORIES Red Cross chief calls for greater aid access after visit to Myanmar Myanmar rebels capture last junta base in township on Chinese border China fires into Myanmar after junta airstrike on border, group says Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Floods swamp Myanmar’s capital, stranding thousands in typhoon’s aftermath
Floodwaters as high as five meters (15 feet) submerged parts of Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday, sweeping away houses and trapping thousands of residents, as the remains of Typhoon Yagi swept inland and dumped rain after battering Vietnam over the weekend. After torrential rains that started Monday, water levels rose to the roofs of hundreds homes in villages around the capital, where the military junta’s top officers live. Some people were stranded on their rooftops. “Floods have swept away some houses,” a resident of Tatkon township told Radio Free Asia. “We remain trapped in the village. We cannot go anywhere. We have called rescue teams, but no one has come.” In Vietnam, the number of people killed or missing from Typhoon Yagi and related natural disasters rose to 292 people, including 152 confirmed deaths, according to Vietnam’s Disaster and Dike Management Authority. The storm – the biggest this year to hit Southeast Asia – battered northern Vietnam and southeastern China on Saturday, causing landslides and a bridge collapse northwest of Hanoi that was captured in dramatic dashcam footage. Brimming rivers Heavy rainfall over the last several days has dumped water into already brimming rivers in Vietnam, Laos and elsewhere. In Laos, the Mekong River Commission issued a flood warning for Luang Prabang, a popular tourist destination that sits at the confluence of the Mekong River and a major tributary, the Nam Khan. More rain was forecast for Thursday in Luang Prabang and on Friday and Saturday in the capital, Vientiane. The Mekong River Commission on Wednesday warned of flooding in northeastern Cambodia as water makes its way downriver from overflowing dams in Laos. In Myanmar’s northern Shan state, towns have also been affected by rising waters that have left people without electricity or phone service. Further south in Kayin state, the Thaungyin River burst its banks in the important border town of Myawaddy on Tuesday, according to a rescue worker who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Several residential areas were quickly flooded, and people have since taken shelter at monasteries and schools, he said. About 5,000 have been affected by the flood. “The water level is rising faster and stronger than before in Myawaddy township,” the rescue worker said. “The flood has reached to rooftops in lowland areas.” More flooding is likely to take place in southern Myanmar’s delta region as water makes its way downriver on the Ayeyarwady river, according to meteorologist Win Naing. RFA wasn’t able to contact the junta’s Department of Disaster Management to ask about the status of rescue operations throughout the country. Hanoi evacuations Flooding in the streets of Hanoi prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents near the Red River on Wednesday. In Vietnam’s northern industrial zones, some factories have been forced to close and may not reopen for several weeks, according to Reuters, which cited business executives. Many factories in Quang Ninh and Hai Phong are without power and water, Bruno Jaspaert, CEO of industrial parks in Hai Phong, told Reuters. Several Samsung and Foxconn factories in Thai Nguyen and Bac Giang are also facing the risk of flooding due to rising floodwaters, according to Reuters. Flooding in some areas of northern Vietnam was also being affected by the release of water from a hydropower plant along China’s section of the Lo River, which is a tributary of the Red River. The Vietnamese government said it has asked Beijing to reduce the discharge. Translated by Aung Naing, Anna Vu and Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster. RFA Vietnamese and RFA Khmer contributed to this report. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Hong Kong turns away German activist as US warns of growing risks
Read coverage of this topic by RFA Mandarin, RFA Tibetan or RFA Cantonese. Authorities in Hong Kong have interrogated and denied entry to a German rights activist amid warnings from the United States of growing personal and business risks for those traveling to the city. Immigration officers turned away rights activist David Missal, deputy managing director & press officer for the Berlin-based Tibet Initiative Germany, after he arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on Sept. 7 from Beijing’s Daxing International Airport, according to a copy of an official “Refusal Notice” he shared to his X account on Sunday. “I was just refused entry to Hong Kong,” Missal, who is also the co-founder of a group called Freedom for Hong Kong, wrote in his X post. “After 13 sleepless hours under immigration examination in the middle of the night, I was told that I could not enter the city and was eventually allowed to take a plane to Vietnam.” Missal, who isn’t the first foreign rights activist to be denied entry to Hong Kong, described being “questioned several times and held in a room without any daylight,” adding that immigration officers also searched his luggage. “The police did not provide any reason for the entry refusal. In the end, I was accompanied by plainclothes police officers to the plane to Vietnam,” Missal wrote, adding that he had been allowed to enter mainland China for two weeks on a visa waiver program with no issues. “I hope Hong Kong will be free – one day,” he said. Eroding freedoms Ray Wong, who heads Freedom for Hong Kong, said the erosion of the city’s freedoms was clear to all, including foreign passport-holders. “That Hong Kong has become less free is something not only we, who come from Hong Kong, notice,” Wong said in a statement. “Foreigners are also not safe from the regime’s arbitrariness. The National Security Police has become an instrument of repression.” Tenzyn Zöchbauer, executive director of Tibet Initiative Germany, strongly condemned the treatment of Missal. “It is unacceptable that even private travelers with critical voices are denied entry,” Zöchbauer said. “These measures are not only an alarming sign of the ongoing loss of Hong Kong’s autonomy but also a clear violation of international human rights standards.” Missal told RFA Mandarin in a later interview from Vietnam that the move was an example of China’s “transnational repression.” “The Hong Kong government and a lot of authoritarian countries are doing this now; I think it’s very common,” he said. “It’s pretty scary.” A screenshot of a post on X by David Missal, deputy managing director & press officer for the Berlin-based Tibet Initiative Germany he says shows a plainclothes policeman following him in the Hong Kong airport, Sept. 8, 2024. (@DavidJRMissal via X) Yet Missal was allowed to enter China, spending time in Beijing and southwestern Sichuan province in a private capacity before boarding the plane to Hong Kong. This suggests the city’s officials are now even more zealous than their mainland Chinese counterparts when it comes to turning away “undesirables.” “I feel like Hong Kong is the same as mainland China now, or it may be more strict, which is a real shame,” Missal said, adding that he didn’t know if the incident would affect his ability to go back to mainland China in future. Personal details probed From Sept. 3, anyone traveling to Hong Kong will have their personal details sent to the city authorities before they board their flight, making it easier for officials to turn away foreign journalists, members of international organizations, and anyone else they see as “undesirable” before they travel. Missal’s denial of entry came as the U.S. government issued risk advisories to American citizens and businesses, warning them of “personal safety and legal risks” when traveling to Hong Kong or doing business there. Five government departments issued a statement to “highlight new and heightened risks” to U.S. companies operating in Hong Kong in the wake of the latest national security legislation, known as “Article 23.” “Hong Kong’s diminishing autonomy from the central government of the People’s Republic of China, creates new risks for businesses and individuals in Hong Kong that were previously limited to mainland China,” the departments said in a joint statement dated Sept. 6. A screenshot of a post on X by David Missal, Deputy managing director & press officer for the Berlin-based Tibet Initiative Germany that shows his denial for entry into Hong Kong, Sept. 8, 2024. (@DavidJRMissal via X) The warnings were aimed at individuals, businesses, academic institutions, media organizations, research service providers and investors operating in Hong Kong, it said. “The vaguely defined nature of the law and previous government statements and actions raise questions about risks associated with routine activities,” it said, in a reference to the “Article 23″ legislation passed in March. The U.S. State Department has warned Americans to “exercise increased caution when traveling to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws” since April 2024, when its advisory was updated following the implementation of Article 23. ‘I don’t think this ploy will succeed’ The Hong Kong government rejected the advisory as “misleading and untruthful,” accusing Washington of “trying to create panic.” The city’s second-in-command, Chief Secretary for the Administration Eric Chan said the U.S. advisory was an attempt to suppress China’s rise. “The National Security Law has been enacted for a long time and we can all see that we have never groundlessly arrested any business people,” Chan told reporters on Saturday. The warnings “involve an element of intimidation, to scare away business people hoping to invest in Hong Kong. I don’t think this ploy will succeed,” Chan said. Anouk Wear, U.S. Research and Policy Advisor for the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, welcomed the U.S. advisory, however. “This advisory … rightly highlights the new and increased risks of operating in Hong Kong,” Wear said in a statement, which called for further sanctions on Hong Kong officials…
