ASEAN Archives - Page 63 of 132 - Investigative Journalism Reportika

Junta arrests 51 people for alleged dollar, gold speculation

Editor1 year ago07 mins

Myanmar’s junta has arrested 51 people for allegedly trying to cash in on the sudden spike in the price of gold and U.S. dollars, according to the regime-controlled central bank. In a statement released Friday, it said foreign exchange speculators in Yangon and Mandalay, foreign currency dealers, people transferring money and officials from three companies had been prosecuted. The Central Bank of Myanmar said its gold and currency market monitoring team took action in accordance with the anti-money laundering and foreign exchange management laws. Dollar and gold prices have been rising in the country since last Wednesday’s announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department that it was adding the junta-led Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB) to a sanctions blacklist in connection with the Myanmar military’s purchases of arms from foreign sellers “including sanctioned Russian entities.” The exchange rate on Wednesday was 2,890 Myanmar kyat to the dollar before the announcement, rising 7.3% to 3,100 kyat the following day. Last Friday, the central bank announced measures to control forex levels, including an order to conduct dollar transactions between the Authorized Dealer and business people through the Online Trading System. It set the exchange rate for online trading in a range of 2,920-2,922 kyat per dollar and said that U.S.$4.81 million was traded. A foreign currency dealer in Yangon who did not want to be named for security reasons told RFA that some of those who were arrested last week, especially some businessmen close to the junta, had been released, but small forex dealers were still under arrest. “How can I say this? Some were arrested, some were released by [paying] bribe money,” the dealer said. “But some could not afford it, and small dealers are still being held.” The price of gold also rose suddenly in the space of a day, up 6.6% to 32 million kyat (U.S.$1,528) for 16.331 grams of 24 karat gold. A gold shop owner in Yangon said that if the military junta wants to control the rise in gold prices, it will need to allow the forex trade to continue. “Everything is related. The world price of gold went up. Local gold traders also didn’t trade because the price wasn’t stable and they kept the gold for a while,” said the shop owner, who also requested anonymity. “ “The gold price can be controlled if the right to use foreign currency dollars is free. Currency flows between domestic and foreign [markets] and the money used for overseas exports should be properly verified.” One market watcher, who also declined to be named, told RFA that if the junta arrests traders and charges them with currency speculation, it still won’t be able to control the dollar market and will only cause difficulties for those who need dollars. “Some businesses will stop,” he said. “The ones who will face difficulties are those people who need to go abroad for medical treatment as soon as possible. It will also be difficult to buy money for people who are going to travel abroad with their families. The large market among the dealers will not disappear.” A lawyer, who also declined to be named for security reasons, said that if the junta could not control the value of the dollar soon, the price of basic food items could rise and the situation could worsen. “What will happen next will be speculation on the fuel prices. And next, if it comes to basic food, the country will be unstable and it could turn out very badly,” said the lawyer, adding that the U.S. government’s blacklist, which bans U.S. citizens and companies from doing business with Myanmar’s Ministry of Defense, has hurt the junta badly. Junta Deputy Information Minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, told state-controlled media that the U.S. move is aimed at triggering a political and economic crisis in Myanmar. RFA called the Central Bank of Myanmar’s Financial Management Department Director General, Aung Kyaw Than, but he did not answer. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

Local dealers decry influx of illegal Chinese traders to Myanmar jade town

Editor1 year ago08 mins

Burmese gemstone dealers are frustrated over the influx of Chinese jade traders who have set up shop in a northern mining town in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup, residents say. The traders are purchasing gems illegally at lower cost, making already tight margins razor thin for brokers in Hpakant township in Kachin state, driving some out of business out of business, they say. Myanmar’s Law for Gemstone Trading, enacted by the country’s parliament in 2019, limits foreign nationals seeking to buy stones to gem fairs in Mandalay and Naypyidaw. The illegal export and sale of jade is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but the junta has held few offenders accountable in Kachin – nestled between India to the west and China to the east – since coming to power. A resident of Hpakant told RFA that, in the past, only Myanmar nationals bought raw stones directly from township mines and then washed, cut, or transported them for resale in the country’s official gem fairs. “But these days, Chinese buyers use the WeChat messaging app and come to buy everything, including loose soil, directly from the mines,” said the resident who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns. “It’s only natural that the prices directly offered by major traders are better than local dealers in the sale of any goods, including rice, beans and other crops,” he said. “The price gap is hurting local dealers.” According to a report by international rights group Global Witness, from 2014-2017, the annual revenue from the legal sale of jade and other gemstones in Myanmar ranged from US$346 to $417 million, while the illegal jade market netted US$1.73 billion to $2.07 billion annually. Black market The situation presents a conundrum for Myanmar’s jade dealers, who rely heavily on demand from China’s domestic market for their gems. That demand has led to entrepreneurs seeking to eliminate the middleman by going straight to the source of the jade, to the point where approximately half of the people traveling to Hpakant to buy gemstones are Chinese, residents said. Aung Hein Min, a former lawmaker who was elected to represent Hpakant in Myanmar’s 2020 election, told RFA that it is critical for authorities to enforce the ban on the illegal purchasing of gemstones. Jade night market in Hpakant in Kachin state, in July 2020. Credit: Ye Aung Thu/AFP “The jade and gemstones purchased directly from jade-mining towns by Chinese nationals will not be transported via legal routes, they will arrive in China through the black market,” he said. “That’s why it doesn’t do any good for our country or our people.” However, junta Social Affairs Minister and Kachin state spokesman Win Ye Tun told RFA that foreigners are restricted from traveling to Hpakant, and that those caught skirting the ban are arrested and deported. He also noted that not all of the Chinese using WeChat in Hpakant are foreign nationals. “They may be [ethnic] Chinese Myanmar nationals,” he said. “We carefully inspect the situation and take action against them in accordance with the law, rather than criticizing baselessly … And it isn’t just Chinese – we do not accept any foreign nationals in those areas and we have always taken action accordingly.” Jade night market in Hpakant in Kachin state July 2020. Credit: Ye Aung Thu/AFP Win Ye Tun said that some Chinese nationals had been arrested and deported during the more than two years since the military coup, although he could not provide an exact number. He claimed that the junta has not granted any extensions or new permits for jade mining in Hpakant since the takeover. ‘Industry is hurting’ Meanwhile, traders in Hpakant told RFA that the domestic jade market has declined since the coup and that only bright, translucent jade is selling in China, adding to the pressure faced by local brokers. “If you buy stones for resale, you can only earn money for a day’s worth of meals and you won’t make a living to provide for your family,” one local trader said. “The gemstone industry is hurting. There is no longer demand for the opaque stones that used to sell and could earn us an income.” Complicating matters further, Myanmar’s military and a joint force of anti-junta Kachin Independence Army and paramilitary People’s Defense Force fighters have been locked in a standoff in Hpakant since early this year. Imports of food and fuel from Myanmar’s heartland are regularly blocked from entering the region by military checkpoints. But despite the conflict, jade traders said Chinese nationals are “freely entering and exiting” Hpakant and illegally shipping jade from the area back home. Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Getting rich during China’s boom – then fleeing as prospects darken

Editor1 year ago016 mins

As President Xi Jinping began a third term in office pledging “Chinese-style modernization” in October 2022, commentators expected him to steer China further in the direction of a state-dominated, planned economy. Xi’s ideology sounded an ominous note for the private sector, as well as for private individual wealth and influence. Meanwhile, three years of China’s zero-COVID policy sounded the death knell for many private companies, prompting an exodus of wealthy and middle-class Chinese who had previously benefited from the post-Mao economic boom. Meng Jun, a former vegetable salesman-turned-flight charter agent-turned-rubber factory boss who now lives in Florida, was one of them. “When the pandemic hit, I started to reflect on things, and to watch what was happening,” Meng Jun, who once headed up three companies turning out rubber goods in Guangxi, Chongqing and Beijing with a total turnover of 300 million yuan a year, told Radio Free Asia. “And I found that the actual problem was with the system as a whole, which made people bad,” he said. “I figured that if I carried on much longer, I’d get dragged down with some official, because, as someone who gave bribes, I would be implicated.” Meng in his heyday was a smooth operator, cashing in on relationships cultivated with local officials in his main stamping ground in the southeastern region of Guangxi. In 2000, officials in Guangxi’s Beihai city let him get his hands on an unfinished property, thanks to a total lack of transparency around government property deals, and a 200,000 yuan kickback to a local official. Meng Jun bought this unfinished government-owned building in Guangxi’s Beihai city in 2000 and then flipped it for a profit. Credit: Provided by Meng Jun “I moved very quickly, and made a million in less than six months,” Meng said. “I just packaged it up to some kind of rough standard and sold it on.” “There were so many unfinished buildings around at that time, more than a million square meters, all of them owned by [the local government].” ‘Total U-turn’ Former tech CEO Hu Liren knew as early as 2018 that it was time to leave. “Nobody wants to leave their home country,” Hu, who also lives in Florida, where he has become friends with Meng, told Radio Free Asia. “But I had no choice.” “Things had gotten so bad in China, and there was no way they were going to get better,” he said, in a reference to Xi Jinping’s renewed emphasis on state-owned assets and a planned economy. “In the four years since I left, there has been a total U-turn, exactly the way I thought there would be at the time.” It’s a far cry from the economic boom-time of the 1990s where both Hu and Meng made their fortunes. Back then, in 1994, China was putting out more than 2% of global economic output, while the number of private companies grew from zero in 1978 to 1.76 million by 2000. Hu Liren and his team when he was the CEO of an internet company in China in 2000. Credit: Provided by Hu Liren “It was great, very prosperous,” Meng said. “As long as you worked hard and gave it your all, you could make a lot of money.” “Everything was plain sailing, and it was possible to succeed at anything you did, and make money at it, too,” he said with a sigh. The private sector was booming so hard back then that the catchphrase “56789” was born, the first and last digits reminding people that it was contributing around 50% of government tax revenues, and was the source of around 90% of new jobs. ‘To get rich is glorious’ Deng’s golden era of market liberalization and breakneck economic growth spawned other catchphrases too, like “To get rich is glorious,” giving the go-ahead to an emerging generation of private entrepreneurs, freed from the political orthodoxies of Maoist China. Hu and Meng were among them. Born in the northeastern province of Jilin to working-class parents who were made redundant during the mass layoffs of the late 1980s, Meng started working various jobs straight out of high school in 1989. “I would sell vegetables and do other seasonal stuff with my friends, all across Jilin, Yanji, Changchun and Mudanjiang,” he said, referring to cities in northeastern China. His search for work took him to the southern island province of Hainan, where he eventually saved enough money to open up his own seafood restaurant in 1993. Meng Jun in 2010. Credit: Provided by Meng Jun “During that period from 1993 to 2000, I started my own seafood restaurant, and also got into chartered flights,” Meng said. “That was very profitable because at that time I had a monopoly.” “Then I started doing cross-border trade, because I knew Vietnam, which was really actually smuggling,” he said, adding that he raked in nearly 500 million yuan at that time. Raking it in Hu was born in Shanghai to a family of intellectuals and started working in a research institute focusing on television technology in the mid-1980s. When the institute was shut down in 1991, he found work at a foreign company. By the time the internet was changing the face of business in 1997, Hu was also raking in the money, working for a company owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Mei Ya Online. “I became the director and executive vice president of this Mei Ya Online, and I had equity in it.” he said. “The annual income at that time was 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.” Boosted by stellar connections with He Xingtong, grandson of Communist Party elder He Long, and invited to lecture to officials in Shanghai and Beijing, Hu went on to run an investment research and credit ratings company, as well as founding a green tech company making air-conditioning systems for factory shop floors. Hu Liren during his entrepreneurial era. Credit: Provided by Hu Liren “We were growing at a rate where we were doubling our profits annually,”…

Cambodia approves election law amendment aimed at preventing boycott of July 23 vote

Editor1 year ago05 mins

Cambodia’s National Assembly on Friday unanimously approved an amendment to the election law that prohibits those who don’t vote in next month’s elections from running for office in future elections. The change appears to be aimed at preventing a large-scale boycott of the July 23 vote by supporters of the main opposition Candlelight Party. A boycott would be a way of expressing public anger over the National Election Committee’s decision in May to ban the party from running in the election – essentially blocking the only major party that could challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party. The committee blamed the ban on inadequate paperwork, but opposition activists said it was politically motivated. They pointed out that they were allowed to compete in last year’s local commune elections with the same documentation. The ban, which was upheld by the Constitutional Council on May 25, means that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party won’t have any major challengers on the ballot next month. More than a dozen minor parties have also qualified for the ballot. Cambodian lawmakers welcome President Heng Samrin as he arrives for a session at the National Assembly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 23, 2023. Credit: Heng Sinith/Associated Press Not a surprise The result of Friday’s vote in the Assembly, which is made up only of members from the CPP, was not a surprise. All 111 parliamentarians who participated in the session voted to approve the amendment without objections. Anyone who doesn’t vote next month won’t be able to run as a candidate in next year’s Senate, district and commune elections, according to Minister of Interior Sar Kheng. They also won’t be able to run in the next general election scheduled for 2027, he said. The amendment also allows for the prosecution of individuals and parties who discourage people from voting, he said in a speech at the Assembly before the final vote. “The amendment will regulate those who want to run for offices. It won’t affect voters’ rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” he said. Hun Sen first proposed the change to the law earlier this month. Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, said earlier this month that Hun Sun is trying to pressure people to vote because he thinks a high voter percentage will bring legitimacy to the election. Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok said Friday’s amendment will affect opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has been living in exile in France since 2015, and many of his supporters, who also live outside of Cambodia and won’t be able to return to vote in person. “The amendment doesn’t serve the country’s interest,” he said. “It is being done according to one person’s wish.” Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Junta jet attack kills man in Myanmar’s Kayah state

Editor1 year ago04 mins

A junta plane attacked two villages in Myanmar’s eastern Kayah state Friday morning, killing a man and injuring two children, locals told RFA. The aircraft first strafed Li Khu Pa Yar village in Hpruso township around midnight Thursday before returning to drop bombs on Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw villages before dawn on Friday. “Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw village are not close so, when Li Khu Pa Yar was fired on from the air at midnight, people in Do Yaw village did not flee as they thought the shooting would not reach their village,” said a local who didn’t want to be named for security reasons. “But both Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw villages were bombed from the air at 4 p.m. Some people were sleeping so they didn’t flee.” The local said the man who died was in his forties but didn’t give the ages of the children. He said five houses in Do Yaw were destroyed by the bombing. Executive Director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, Banyar – who goes by a single name – confirmed the death and injuries and said the details are still being investigated. Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw are small villages with fewer than 50 houses in a state with a low population compared with the rest of Myanmar. Locals said the junta attacked by air because road transport is difficult in Hpruso township. Although the Karenni Defense Forces are active in Kayah state, residents told RFA they had no idea why the junta targeted their villages. Many have now taken refuge in the nearby jungle. RFA called Kaya state’s junta spokesperson Aung Win Oo Friday but nobody answered. According to a June 1 statement by the Progressive Karenni People’s Force there have been 699 battles in three townships in Kayah and neighboring Shan states since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup and the junta has carried out 463 airstrikes. The ethnic armed group said 462 people were killed in Kayah state due to fighting over that period and 15 died in airstrikes. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

‘I will never forget the pain of being beaten’

Editor1 year ago08 mins

She knew she was being sought by authorities for reporting on anti-junta protests. In the seven months since the military had carried out a coup d’etat in February 2021, Myanmar had descended into chaos, Her husband, a former journalist, had been detained for four days before being released. Fearing for her safety, Thuzar San decided to buy a bus ticket from Yangon for the Thai border town of Mae Sot, due to depart on Sept. 2, 2021. But two days before she was to leave, she was arrested by police while her taxi was stopped at a traffic light by plain clothes police officers. “We were asked to put our hands on our heads on the side of the road while they searched the car and then they handcuffed us, forced us to get into a truck at gunpoint, and blindfolded us,” she told Radio Free Asia. Thuzar was one of the locally-hired reporters at RFA Burmese Service’s Yangon office from 2013-2014. “There was another woman with us. When we arrived at the [interrogation] center, they said, ‘Let the lady exit first,’ so I asked if it was me they were talking about. All of a sudden, they slapped me in the face.” During that first night, Thuzar’s interrogators subjected her to brutal mental and physical abuse in a bid to learn what she knew about the junta opposition and other journalists who had covered the protests. “Four guys circled me and whipped me with a bundle of three [bamboo] canes bound together,” she said. “They asked me the names of the two young men I met during the protest. I was friends with them on Facebook, but I didn’t know much about them.” Her captors beat her five times with a bamboo sapling that evening and said the wounds on her thighs took “more than a year” to heal. “I will never forget the pain of being beaten with the bamboo sapling,” she said. Ruthlessly whipped Later, she was taken from her cell, blindfolded and led outside, where she was made to kneel on the pavement. Again, her captors beat her, demanding to know how she planned to travel to Thailand, which organizations she had ties to and which reporters planned to flee along with her. “Three guys circled me and whipped me with canes – it was so painful,” she said. “This time, they pierced my flesh with the [sharpened] tip of the bamboo sapling and it was agonizing.” Myanmar freelance journalist Thuzar San was tortured after being arrested. Credit: A Hla Lay Thuzar Facebook When Thuzar told the men that she had nothing to divulge about her fellow reporters, they threatened to videotape her forced confession as “evidence” that she was a junta informant and hold her daughter hostage. “They told me that they could make me talk and said, ‘We’ll bring in your daughter and beat her in front of you,” she said. “After that, I couldn’t stop crying. Finally, they sent me back to my cell.” Over the course of several days, Thuzar was interrogated by several people. On the ninth day of her detention, her captors took her fingerprints and sent a statement to the local police station, saying that she took part in anti-junta protests while covering the event as a reporter. To Insein Prison She was kept in police custody for nearly a month on charges of reporting fake news and inciting the public against the government. On Nov. 22, 2021, she was sentenced to two years in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison with hard labor. Thuzar described life at Insein Prison as a constant violation of her human rights. “I stayed in Female Ward No. 9, which was like a hall with closed circuit cameras installed in it,” she said. “We had to change our clothes and use the toilet there [in front of the cameras]. The prison officials regularly scolded us and used harsh words. Our rights were severely violated.” Thuzar was released as part of a general amnesty on Jan. 4, 2023, after spending 15 months in prison. As she was no longer safe in Myanmar, she fled to Thailand along with her family in March. While she feels unmoored as a refugee in a foreign country, Thuzar said she stays strong thinking about the sacrifices of those who have given their lives in opposition to junta rule. She vowed to return to Myanmar as soon as possible so that she can join together with those fighting for democracy and a better future in her home country. Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Myanmar junta arrests 50 social media users for ‘anti-regime’ posts

Editor1 year ago03 mins

Myanmar’s junta has arrested and prosecuted 50 people in the past seven days for allegedly posting anti-regime content on social media platforms, according to news releases by the military regime. The week-long crackdown began on June 14, according to junta announcements Tuesday and Wednesday, which said people had been prosecuted under anti terrorism laws for comments they made on Facebook, Telegram and TikTok. The arrests culminated in the detention of 30 people on Wednesday. Among those arrested, 12 were from Yangon region, with others from Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions, Shan and Kayin states. One Yangon city resident described the arrests as arbitrary. “The junta’s statements are just propaganda,” said the man who declined to be named for safety reasons. “They impose the sentences they like.” According to junta-controlled newspapers, those arrested will be prosecuted under Section 52 (a) of the Counter-Terrorism Act – which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. They also face prosecution under Section 124 (a) of the Penal Code – which carries a sentence of up to seven years for sedition – Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code – which carries a maximum three-year term for high treason – and Section 33 (a) of the Electronic Transactions Act – which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years for using technology for acts detrimental to the security of the state. According to figures exclusively compiled by RFA and based on junta statements, at least 1,050 people who posted or reshared posts deemed to be anti-regime were arrested between February 2022 and April 2023. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

High stakes in Vietnam’s Central Highlands

Editor1 year ago013 mins

On June 11, a group of Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central Highlands attacked the offices of two communes with small arms and molotov cocktails, killing four policemen, two commune officials, and three civilians. The attackers wounded two other policemen and burnt the commune offices. This prompted an immediate and massive government response. As of the time of writing, 74 people have been arrested, including, allegedly, one of the group’s masterminds. Two people turned themselves in, and the government has promised leniency for others who surrender. Montagnard villagers throw stones during a protest in Vietnam’s central highland province of Dak Lak in this screenshot from video taken on April 10, 2004. Credit: Dak Lak Provincial People Committee handout via Reuters So far, almost all of the information about the events has come from the government side, so there is clearly a bias in the reporting. The government has selectively leaked a lot of information and ensured that the story has gotten coverage in the state-controlled media. The Communist Party of Vietnam immediately dispatched deputy prime minister Tran Luu Quang and the deputy minister of public security Luong Tam Quang to signal government control, a sign of the government’s insecurity. Legitimate grievances Dak Lak and the Central Highlands are not new to unrest, though gun violence is very rare in Vietnam. But the region has not been beset by violence for a while, which begs some questions: Why now? What prompted this latest spate of unrest? There are a number of underlying issues for any unrest involving the Montagnards, a broad grouping for some 30 different tribes, in the Central Highlands. Beginning in the 1990s, the Vietnamese government began to encourage migration of ethnic Kinh Vietnamese to the region to establish coffee plantations and other agribusinesses. U.S. Special Forces personnel show Montagnard fighters the finer points of rifle handling and safety during a training session in July 1962. Credit: Horst Faas/Associated Press Today, Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world, exporting over 1 million metric tons in 2022, and almost all of it comes from the Central Highlands. But that put the Kinh population at odds with the Montagnards, who practiced swidden agriculture: burning forests, farming for a few years, and then moving on to new land. All of a sudden, with land titles going to the Vietnamese settlers, the Montagnards were unable to practice their traditional agriculture, its environmental degradation and inefficiency. Beyond the economic interests in encouraging Kinh settlement, the government had a political interest in settling the region. The Montagnards had close ties to both the French colonial government as well as the Americans. Persecuted minorities often seek protection from the majority population. During the Vietnam War, the United States relied on the Montagnards and the Hmong in neighboring Laos to interdict North Vietnamese troops and supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Hanoi has never forgiven them for this. But while the Montagnards often portray their struggle as being anti-communist, it’s important to note that the government of the pre-1975 Republic of Vietnam treated them terribly, too, believing that they were abetting North Vietnamese on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. South Vietnamese government officials shared the same mistrust and condescension as their rivals in Hanoi. Beyond politics, there is simply a lot of condescension by Kinh towards the poor tribes that constitute the Montagnards. For the Montagnards, this is simply a form of internal colonialism; indeed, some Montagnards do not even respect Vietnamese sovereignty. Montagnard hill tribesmen emerge from dense forest northeast of Ban Lung, in Cambodia’s northeastern province of Ratanakiri July 22, 2004. Credit: Adrees Latif/Reuters That animus and mistrust is further compounded in Hanoi by the fact that many of the Montagnards are Evangelical Christians. The Vietnam Fatherland Front, an arm of the Communist Party responsible for mass organizations and religions, only recognizes six religions, controlling their clergy and organization. Evangelical Christianity continues to go unrecognized, and, as such, the house churches are technically illegal. That many of the Montagnard congregations are supported by faith groups in the United States and elsewhere compounds Hanoi’s paranoia. Land and religious freedom remain at the heart of Montagnard grievances, but there are others. The Central Highlands remains a poor region of the country, lagging in human development indicators, educational opportunity, and public health. While Vietnam enjoyed over 8 percent economic growth in 2022 and was the darling of foreign investors, receiving over $22.4 billion in investment, that prosperity is nowhere to be seen in the Central Highlands. And while we should not be conspiratorial about this, we do need to consider that the unrest comes at a time when U.S.-Vietnamese relations are set to be upgraded to a “strategic partnership.” CPV General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has agreed in principle to visit Washington this summer, and President Biden is expected to travel to Vietnam in the fall. Not everyone in Vietnam’s conservative and xenophobic national security establishment and party echelons are happy with the deepened ties. A full-on crackdown is likely to prompt the U.S. Congress to scrutinize Vietnam’s already dismal human rights record, assault on independent journalists and environmental activists, and control over social media. The quick and effective government response has not been bad for the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security or its minister, To Lam, who immediately promoted the four officers posthumously and moved quickly to compensate their kin and the wounded officers. What do we know about the attacks? So far we know very little about the motivation for the attacks or the group’s organization or foreign ties, if any. Montagnard organizations in the United States have denied any involvement. Montagnards who fled Vietnam’s Central Highlands wait in Cambodia’s Senmonorom in Mondulkiri province, which borders Vietnam, May 15, 2001. Credit: Reuters A spokesman for the ministry of public security said the group had acted in “an organized manner, reckless, ruthless and without humanity.” Suspects, allegedly, had been “ordered to kill officers and local police on sight, taking their assets and weapons.” According…

Junta announces deaths of 5 people accused of attacking police station

Editor1 year ago03 mins

Junta authorities have announced the deaths of four men and a woman, arrested in connection with an attack on a police station in Myanmar’s central Bago region, a local People’s Defense Force militia group told RFA this week. They were among 34 locals arrested on suspicion of involvement in the April 27 attack on the police station in Waw township’s Nyaung Khar Shey village. On Monday, an official of the Waw township People Defense Force told RFA that families had been notified of the deaths of 53-year old Tin Myo Khaing; 52-year-old Win Zaw Htay; 45-year-old San Shey; 60-year-old Mya Thein; and 35-year-old Kyaw Myint Thein, all from villages in the township. They were told to hold funerals but did not receive the bodies. “Family members were called to see the body of Myint Thein from Kyon Par village last month,” said the official, who declined to be named for security reasons. “He was shot and caught as he tried to flee from the roof of his house … We don’t know when the other people arrested died and did not see their bodies.” The official added that two other men, San Shey and Kyaw Myint Thein, were shot before their arrests. RFA tried to contact the families but they didn’t want to talk because of safety concerns. Calls to the junta spokesperson for Bago region, Tin Oo, seeking information on the deaths went unanswered. People’s Defense Joint Forces attacked the police station in April, leading to a police roundup of locals over several days. They took in 20 people for questioning on April 27 and 28 and another 14 on May 1. Locals said they don’t know if those arrested will be charged or released and RFA has been unable to contact the local police. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

China’s president meets top US diplomat in Beijing

Editor1 year ago014 mins

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing late Monday afternoon in a climax of high-stakes diplomacy. Xi said he hoped the U.S. diplomat’s visit would stabilize ties, adding that state-to-state interactions should be based on mutual respect, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, who was present in the meeting, wrote in a tweet. Blinken had earlier met with China’s top foreign policy official Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Achieving a meeting with Xi, who is also China’s General Party Secretary, was widely perceived as the key measure of the success of Blinken’s visit as the two nations’ relations plumbed depths not seen since the countries diplomatically recognized each other in 1978. President Joe Biden said he hoped to see Xi in several months. Blinken is the first secretary of state to visit China in five years, amid China’s strict COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and strains over China’s claims on the self-governing island of Taiwan, Russia’s war in Ukraine, Beijing’s human rights record, assertive Chinese military moves in the South China Sea and technology trade. “This visit was basically a means of re-establishing the normal process of contacts between the U.S. and China that was supposed to follow the Bali Xi-Biden meeting but then got derailed by the spy balloon,” Andrew Small, a senior transatlantic fellow with the U.S. German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific Program told RFA. “It is intended to pave the way for other visits to China … and ultimately an expected visit from Xi Jinping for the APEC meeting in San Francisco.” The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit will be held in the Californian city on November 12 this year. Small described China-U.S. relations as essentially “frozen” prior to the trip, adding, “The US side anticipated that, assuming meetings with Wang Yi and Qin Gang proceeded according to plan, Blinken would see Xi Jinping, and it was understood to be important that various messages could be delivered directly to him.” ‘Candid, substantive, and constructive’ On Sunday Blinken began the two days of meetings with 7½ hours of direct talks and a dinner meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, discussing a host of topics and agreeing to work together on increasing the number of flights between the U.S. and China, a senior state department official said. Blinken invited Qin to continue the discussions in the U.S, and the spokesperson said the pair agreed to schedule a visit at a “mutually suitable time.” A senior official said, under the condition of anonymity, that the meeting between Blinken and Qin was not about reading talking points to one another, describing the exchange of views as a substantive conversation. The PRC readout on the meeting said, “China is committed to building a stable, predictable and constructive China-U.S. relationship,” which Bonnie Glazer, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program and nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, described in a tweet thread as “important.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken walks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Sunday, June 18, 2023. Credit: Leah Millis/Pool Photo via AP Blinken’s talks with Qin were “candid, substantive, and constructive,” said State department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “The Secretary emphasized the importance of diplomacy and maintaining open channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception and miscalculation,” Miller said in a written statement late Sunday. Blinken, the spokesperson added, “raised a number of issues of concern, as well as opportunities to explore cooperation on shared transnational issues with the PRC where our interests align.” Chinese state media described the talks as “candid, in-depth and constructive communication on the overall relationship between China and the United States and related important issues.” A report by China’s foreign ministry quoted Qin as saying that “Sino-US relations are at the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations. This does not conform to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, nor does it meet the common expectations of the international community.” ‘Crucial juncture’ On Monday morning, amid much suspense as to whether Xi would agree to meet him, Blinken met with China’s top foreign policy official Wang Yi to discuss re-forging diplomatic channels of communication between the powers. Observers in Beijing described the meeting as “frosty” but free of acrimony, unlike their last meeting, in Munich in March this year, when the two traded barbs in their first meeting since the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon on February 4. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (second from left without mask) meets with China’s Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi (second from right without mask) at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. Credit: Reuters/Leah Millis/Pool The Chinese readout described the meeting as coming at a “crucial juncture” in U.S.-China relations and that choices needed to be made between dialog or confrontation, cooperation or conflict, while blaming the downturn in relations on the “U.S. sides erroneous understanding of China.” Wang asked the U.S. to stop “hyping up the China threat,” lift its “illegal sanctions,” stop hindering China’s technological progress and said that on the subject of Taiwan, which he described as “core of China’s core interests,” there was “no room for compromise.” Little progress on key issues The two sides appeared to have made no progress on key issues such as Taiwan, trade, human rights and stemming the flow of chemicals used in the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. “Despite very low expectations for any breakthroughs made during Blinken’s visit to China, there is still hope that both sides can maintain their ‘bottom line’ in the relationship,” state tabloid Global Times said in an editorial on Monday. It added, “It is normal for any country to have low expectations after being continuously suppressed by the US.” Derek Grossman, a former daily intelligence briefer to the director of…

Category: ASEAN