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Category: Australia

Japanese VTuber, a virtual anime pop idol and show host , sets Taiwan alight

Editor012 mins

In May 2022, a Japanese-style anime girl started appearing in advertisements shown on Taiwan’s MRT subway network. Green-eyed, pink-haired with buns and bangs, Momosuze Nene, sprints away from the viewer’s gaze, heading towards “millions of subscribers” on her YouTube channel. Fans of Nene can sign on to a special website to learn more about her, while the ads hope to spread the word among her growing fanbase in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia and the U.S., as well as her native Japan. And there’s one thing that helps this dirndl-miniskirted YouTuber stand out from her crowd of competitors for the time being: she’s not real. Part of a growing phenomenon of virtual YouTubers (VTubers), Nene is “a girl from another world” who nevertheless plays video games like her contemporaries, commenting and laughing as the game progresses, and chatting in real time with viewers leaving messages at a rate of several a second in the chat window. She also sings and dances, chats with viewers and reads out their messages. While her shows are in Japanese, her anime persona and upbeat attitude have made her a hit far outside of Japan. And her expansion is being funded by fans like tattooed Taipei resident Chiu Wei-chun, 31. “The advertising agency has no faith in us,” Chiu said. “They said the average fan would likely donate between 30,000 and 50,000 Taiwan dollars.” An advertisement of the Taoling Yinyin Million Support Project was drawn by a number of fans. On the day of the fan meeting on May 23, the artist Sipu (Internet nickname) took a photo with the character he drew. Credit: Yang Zilei Pop idol approach When he went to the bank to pay in his donation in person, the bank teller said taking money on behalf of a virtual character was a first. “In my 25 years as a teller, I’ve never heard of such a request,” Chiu quoted her as saying. Many VTubers are the creation of two Japanese companies — Hololive and Rainbow Club — and tend towards a pop idol approach, although virtual hosts are also found in other genres of video, including technology videos. With an energy similar to that of an actor playing a cartoon character at a theme park, and motion-capture technology similar to that used to generate Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, these VTubers are actually played by human actors behind the scenes. Many VTubers draw heavily from anime, and come in all shapes and sizes, from vampire nurses to mafia bosses to demons and pirate captains, as well as the ubiquitous sexy anime girl. They can do pretty much anything a real, live YouTuber can do, including singing, playing games, making art and chatting with their audience in real time. Others talk about their favorite comics or play on variety shows, or go to uninhabited islands as a survival stunt. The idea of a virtual pop idol isn’t a new one in Japan. Miku Hatsune is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media, represented in live performance by the image of a 15-year-old teenage girl with long, turquoise twintails. The act has opened for Lady Gaga and performed at Coachella, will soon be getting her own animated series. The outbreak of COVID-19 has accelerated the development of the industry in Japan, and it has quickly caught on in neighboring Taiwan. Chiu Wei-chun is one of the main planners of the fan board. He saw the influx of fan sponsorships from overseas, and members from Malaysia, Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan and other places responded to the project, and he felt the huge influence brought by VTuber even more. Credit: Yang Zilei From white-collar dads to high-schoolers It’s the potential for personal interaction with VTubers that makes them so popular, and they make liberal use of fan sponsorship to take their programming to the next level via the graded, color-coded SuperChat donation function on YouTube. The highest donations buy fans stickier messages, increasing the likelihood that the host will see the message and interact with the viewer in some way. The fan base includes white-collar dads to high-schoolers, with some people willing to pay out half their monthly salary on their favorite virtual idol. Chiu’s first encounter with Nene was in September 2020, since then he has been a dedicated fan. The biotech production line manager estimates that he spends a good chunk of his monthly disposable income on sponsoring Nene, and wonders aloud if he needs to rein it in somewhat. “I’m going to be marrying my girlfriend next year, so I need to save a bit more,” he says. “But I will still need to invest some money in Nene, naturally.” He said he’s drawn to the character for her childish innocence and relaxed attitude. “Kind of like a daughter; maybe I’m practicing how to spoil my own daughter,” Chiu said. According to YouTube’s Super Chat sponsorship rankings for the whole of 2021, only one of the top 10 is a real person. VTubers are mostly female, and mostly broadcast in Japanese, English, Chinese, Indian languages or Korean from a number of countries. In April, the singer bought a theme light box for Vox’s birthday at Taipei MRT Zhongshan Station, and she showed us the light box picture. In addition to expressing their feelings in the live broadcast appeal, Vox also used this picture as a live broadcast schedule. It is a common way of interaction for VTuber to refer to the secondary creation of fans. Credit: Yang Zilei ‘Different voices, different genders’ The most popular VTuber in the world today is the English-language VTuber Gawr Gura from Hololive, with more than four million subscribers. Otaku culture expert Liang Shih-you, says VTubers are popular because they’re so much fun. “VTubers let you play a completely different self from the get-go, different voices, different genders, anything, so it creates a multitude of possibilities,” Liang said, citing the example of VTuber Uncle Fox, who looks like…

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Drew Pavlou

China intimidated by new age political activist Drew Pavlou

Editor05 mins

China is a mighty country with robust economy and the largest population. It is the second largest economy of the world after the USA. Some experts term China as the next super power. But recently, China got intimidated by a new age Australian political activist and former university senator from the University of Queensland Drew Pavlou. Pavlou is also known for organizing protests in support of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests and against Chinese government policies on Uyghurs and Tibetans.

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Execution of democracy icons shows Myanmar junta is desperate to exert control

Editor011 mins

Why would Myanmar’s junta risk fueling more anger at home and outrage abroad through its execution on Monday of four activists, including two icons of the democracy movement? The answer might be found in its failing fortunes on the battlefield amid a deepening civil war. Myanmar state media announced Monday the execution of Ko Jimmy, a veteran activist since the 1988 uprising against military rule, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a popular rap artist turned politician. Two other lesser-known activists were also put to death. The four had been arrested for their anti-junta activism and violating the counter-terrorism law.  In January, the four were accused of helping carry out “terror acts” and sentenced to death, despite the fact that Myanmar had not carried out a judicial execution in over 30 years.  Many had thought that that the death sentences were a ploy. The junta, it was assumed, would not risk the diplomatic backlash and popular protest that are likely to ensue. This was a card to be played diplomatically at the right time in a bid to gain international legitimacy – possibly by commuting the death sentences to win credit. Besides, if the junta has had any success since its February 2021 coup, it’s been on the diplomatic front. Why would it jeopardize the fact that no government has cut off ties? Considering that some 50 people that had died in military custody since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military had ample time and opportunity to kill the four. So why now? There can only be one answer.  In the past, the Myanmar military, led by Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has been able to do what it wants because the population has been terrified of them. Credit: AFP The junta is losing on the battlefield. And thus they need to show that they are in total control. They have to show that they are not afraid of international or domestic repercussions from this act; that they are strong enough to withstand that pressure. Myanmar’s military is spread dangerously thin. They are fighting a multifront war across the country. They are fighting well-trained and well-armed ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) such as the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army, both of whom are allied with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG).  The NUG itself has some 275 People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) spread throughout the country. Though they have limited resources and armaments, they have succeeded in capturing vast quantities of weaponry, and are now starting to manufacture their own armaments and ammunition. The NUG and affiliated EROs now claim to control roughly 50% of the country.  And things might get a lot worse for the military, which is on the verge of renewing hostilities against the Arakan Army, with which it has had a tenuous ceasefire since November 2020 after two years of bitter fighting in western Rakhine State. The AA has not joined the NUG, but has used the time since the coup to enhance its political and economic autonomy. For many in the military, this has gone too far and the AA needs to be put in its place.  But over 3,000 members of the army have defected to the NUG, despite the multitude of coercive instruments that it wields to deter them. The number of desertions is unknown. The military is estimated to have taken around 15% casualties, and recruitment is proving to be a challenge. Even the elite Defense Service Academy, once considered the most prestigious school in the country and avenue for upward social mobility, cannot fill their seats. The military has stepped up forced conscription and is using collective punishment to target family members of people who have joined the PDFs.  At the same time, the military‘s budget is severely constrained due to their economic mismanagement. The Myanmar currency, the kyat, has plunged, prompting junta authorities to impose more currency controls. There is a net loss of foreign investment, with little new coming in, except from China. Exports are down dramatically. The banking system is teetering. The World Bank just announced that an estimated 40% of the population is now living under the poverty line.   Street vendors wait for customers March 3, 2022, during one of the frequent power outages in Yangon, Myanmar. Economic mismanagement has hamstrung the military’s budget. Credit: AFP So what will be the impact of the executions? Since the coup, citizens across the country have protested military rule on a daily basis – resorting to wildcat demonstrations after the bloody crackdown on mass protests that initially greeted the coup. And now, notwithstanding the risk of deadly force, there is another compelling reason to protest the dictatorship. Historically, the military has been able to act with total impunity because the population has been terrified of them. They get away with things because, since 1962, they’ve been able to cow the population into submission.  The problem for them is that for the first time, the population of Myanmar refuses to be intimidated. After a taste of democracy and after enjoying a period of media freedom, diplomatic openness, engagement with the international world, and an open internet, the population refuses to accept the military’s usurpation of power.  In the international realm, the executions may galvanize stronger diplomatic action by foreign governments. It could move the needle and get some European states and Australia to take a tougher stance against the junta. Japan and South Korea, however, are unlikely to change course, though even Tokyo condemned the executions.  Meanwhile the NUG, which is seeking formal diplomatic recognition, is sure to use the executions to further delegitimize the military regime and bolster its own international standing.  So for a military that is losing on the battlefield and that has no legitimacy, and is desperate to prove that it is in charge, the executions were ultimately an act of weakness and desperation. The junta executed four men without knowing what their action may unleash in the coming months. …

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Interview: Former Trump China adviser Miles Yu wants NATO to go global

Editor09 mins

Historian Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the Trump administration, has called in a recent op-ed article for NATO to create a broader security alliance including the Indo-Pacific region, in a bid to stave off a Chinese invasion of democratic Taiwan. “There is an emerging international alliance, forged in the face of today’s greatest global threat to freedom and democracy,” Yu, who served as senior China policy and planning advisor to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, wrote in the Taipei Times on July 11, 2022. “That threat comes from the China-led, Beijing-Moscow axis of tyranny and aggression,” the article said. “And the new alliance to counter that axis may be called the North-Atlantic-Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization — NAIPTO.” Yu argued that NATO’s strength would be “augmented” by robust U.S. defense alliances covering Eurasia, as well as the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. “Such scale is necessary because NATO nations and major countries in the Indo-Pacific region face the same common threat. Common threats are the foundation for common defense,” Yu said. In a later interview with RFA’s Mandarin Service, Yu said the idea would solve several problems. “The first is to unify the U.S. global alliance system, which [is currently divided into] a European-style alliance that is multilateral, involving the joint defense of more than 30 countries,” Yu said. “In the Asia-Pacific region, the nature of the alliance is bilateral, that is, the United States has bilateral treaties with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, but there is no mutual defense system between Japan, South Korea and the Philippines,” he said. “My proposal … is to unify the global alliance system of the United States and turn it into a multilateral collective defense treaty,” he said. He said NATO members and countries in the Indo-Pacific are facing a common threat, particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine had brought Beijing and Moscow closer together. “China and Russia are basically on the same page,” Yu said. “Both China and Russia are singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to strategic statements and their understanding of the Russian-Ukrainian war.” “They are both in favor of making territorial claims against other countries based on civilization and language.” United States Naval Academy professor Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the Trump administration, poses for a photo during an RFA interview in Livermore, California, Oct. 16, 2021. Credit: RFA Common threat He said “ancestral” and “historical” claims on territory run counter to the current state of the world and internation law, and were effectively illegal. “The CCP and Russia have stood together and have recently acted together militarily,” Yu said, citing recent joint bomber cruises in the Sea of Japan, and joint warship exercises in the East China Sea. “Militarily, these moves are very meaningful; they mean that neighboring countries all face a common threat,” he said. He said European countries could perhaps be persuaded to contribute more funding for such an alliance, now that the EU appears to be following Washington’s lead in regarding China as its No. 1 strategic rival. “The United States cannot continue to keep up military spending on NATO as it did in the past,” Yu said. “This strategic shift shouldn’t require much persuasion for NATO’s European members, as they have a perception of the global threat from China that is more in line with that of the U.S. now.” Asked if that shift in perception would extend to helping defend Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and whose 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life, Yu said Ukraine may have changed thinking in Europe on Taiwan. “The people of Taiwan and the people of the world have learned a lot from recent developments, especially from the war in Ukraine,” Yu said. “What happened in Ukraine was something done by Russia, so, would the CCP do the same thing to Taiwan? Logically, philosophically, they would,” Yu said. “The CCP supports Russian aggression against Ukraine … because it senses that Russia has set a precedent, for which the next step would be Taiwan,” he said. “So European countries are going to have a keener sense of the need to protect Taiwan.” “If everyone unites to deal with the military threat from China and its economic coercive measures, the CCP won’t be so bold,” Yu said, citing China’s economic sanctions against Australia after the country started taking a more critical tone with Beijing. “The CCP got angry and imposed large-scale economic sanctions on Australia, stopped buying its coal, and stopped buying its wine,” Yu said. “But if Australia were to join this alliance, it could take joint action to deal with China’s unreasonable measures.” “The CCP would stand to lose a lot, because this would be collective action, and the likelihood of further outrageous actions would be greatly reduced,” he said. He added: “Many countries in the world, especially those in the Asia-Pacific region, are dependent on China’s economy, but China is also dependent on these countries for energy and markets. This is a two-way street.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Global heating, human development could drive future waves of disease in east Asia

Editor010 mins

Global heating is leading dozens of bat species to migrate to southern China and southeast Asian countries, amid growing concerns that the climate crisis could fuel more zoonotic disease and further deadly pandemics, experts told RFA. A 2021 University of Cambridge study found that climate change may already have played a role in the emergence of the current pandemic, after researchers tracked large-scale changes in vegetation patterns across southwestern Yunnan province and neighboring Myanmar and Laos. “Increases in temperature, sunlight, and atmospheric carbon dioxide – which affect the growth of plants and trees – have changed natural habitats from tropical shrubland to tropical savannah and deciduous woodland,” the study said. “This created a suitable environment for many bat species that predominantly live in forests.” It said the number of coronaviruses in a given area is closely linked to the number of different bat species present, with an additional 40 bat species moving into Yunnan during the past 100 years, bringing with them around 100 new coronaviruses. Genetic data suggests SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may also have come from this region, according to study first author Robert Beyer, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology. “Climate change over the last century has made the habitat in the southern Chinese Yunnan province suitable for more bat species,” Beyer said. “As climate change altered habitats, species left some areas and moved into others – taking their viruses with them,” he said. “This … most likely allowed for new interactions between animals and viruses, causing more harmful viruses to be transmitted or evolve,” said Beyer. The world’s bats carry around 3,000 different types of coronavirus, with each bat species harboring an average of 2.7 coronaviruses – most without showing symptoms. While most coronaviruses carried by bats can’t jump into humans, several coronaviruses known to infect humans are very likely to have originated in bats, the study said. The area of Yunnan covered by the study is also home to pangolins, which are a likely intermediary host for SARS-CoV-2, experts said. “The virus is likely to have jumped from bats to these animals, which were then sold at a wildlife market in Wuhan – where the initial human outbreak occurred,” a press release accompanying the study said. Another study published by researchers at Georgetown University in the journal Nature also warned that the climate crisis may increase the risk of cross-species transmission of viruses — and could even trigger the next pandemic, citing bats as a likely source species. Dobson’s horseshoe bat. Credit: India Biodiversity Portal Increased risk of disease Chen Chen-chih, associate professor of wildlife conservation at Taiwan’s Pingtung University of Science and Technology, said both studies showed similar findings, warning that migratory shifts could bring bats into closer contact with humans. He cited an outbreak of Hendra virus in Australia in 1994, which caused deaths in humans and horses, and originated in fruit bats. “When their habitats are destroyed or reduced, fruit bats will of course find another way to live,” Chen told RFA. “There are parks in the city, so the likelihood of finding food is very high, added to the fact that people in Australia don’t actively kill bats.” “So they find an urban environment that they can adapt to.” Li Lingling, professor of ecology and evolutionary Biology at National Taiwan University, said humans have already interfered with natural habitats. “Bats are nocturnal and do not [normally] come into contact with humans,” Li said. “When we increase opportunities for bats to come into contact with other animals, the risk of humans being exposed [viruses] also increases.” Chen agreed. “Many studies have found that when habitat of wild animals is stable and undisturbed, the pathogens they carry are less likely to spread,” he said. “When protected animal habitats are well managed and biodiversity taken care of, a single highly lethal pathogen is less likely to emerge,” he said. According to the Georgetown study, there are at least 10,000 viruses currently existent in wild mammals that could be transmitted to humans. Prediction models show that under different carbon emission scenarios, more than 300,000 first contacts between species will occur, some of them in the next 50 years, potentially resulting in more than 15,000 new cross-species virus transmissions. “The vast majority of prediction models believe that the virus will spread across species, particular cross-species transmission from wild animals will become more and more serious under climate change,” Chen said. “These pathogens may jump the species barrier, infect livestock animals, and then infect humans from there, or even directly from wild animals to humans,” he said. “All of these routes are possible [but] whether transmission happens or not depends on the frequency of contact, or the immune status of the potential host,” Chen said. Li said the overall risk had definitely increased, however. “There are some key factors in between, but the risk of disease is indeed increased,” Li said. A greater horseshoe bat. Credit: Marie Jullion/Wikimedia Commons Managing biodiversity Chen said the key lies in the management of biodiversity, particularly in tropical and subtropics regions of east and southeast Asia. “The more species there are, the more potential virus species there are, but when wild animals live in a natural habitat, there are few opportunities for contact, and therefore everyone can coexist peacefully,” he said. Li said areas of high population density and ongoing development are most at risk. “Humans invade nature, transform their environment, or make use of wild animals … and then the risk of coming into contact with viruses carried by wild animals is relatively high,” she said. “Once an epidemic occurs in a densely populated place, then of course there’s a much higher chance of it spreading,” Li said. Chen cited the hunting of wild animals for food, and the trading of different species in the same markets as high-risk behavior. Wild animals that are trapped alive and held in cages in close proximity have weakened immune systems, making transmission more likely among them…

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Myanmar junta chief calls for improved ties in talks with Russian defense ministry

Editor012 mins

Myanmar junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing held talks with officials from Russia’s Ministry of Defense in Moscow this week, according to media reports, raising fears the junta is seeking new weapons to turn the tide in its fight against the country’s armed opposition. The regime leader met with unspecified “Russian defense ministry officials” on July 11, a day after he arrived in Russia for a “private visit,” the junta said in a statement on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Reuters news agency quoted a Russian defense ministry statement as saying that Min Aung Hlaing had met with “top officials” from the ministry and “discussed ways to strengthen bilateral military cooperation.” The official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday that after being welcomed on his arrival by Deputy Minister for Defence of the Russian Federation Colonel General Alexander Vasilievich Fomin, Min Aung Hlaing also held meetings with the Russia-Myanmar Friendship Association, the Russia-ASEAN Economic Council, the Rosatom State Corporations of Russia, and Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos. Notably, no mention was made of a meeting between Min Aung Hlaing and his counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin, or even the country’s Minister of Defense, Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu. The trip marks the junta chief’s second visit to Russia in the more than 17 months since Myanmar’s military seized control of the country in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup. While Western nations were quick to impose sanctions on Myanmar over the coup, Russia has continued to supply Myanmar’s military with weapons and helicopters despite its continued and documented crackdown on civilians, killing at least 2,081 since coming to power. International media had reported that Myanmar purchased at least six SU-30 multi-role fighter jets from Russia before the military takeover, a transaction that was confirmed to RFA Burmese by Capt. Zay Thu Aung, a Myanmar air force officer who has since defected and joined the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement. Zay Thu Aung said at least two of the six jets have been stationed in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw since March this year and that a team of Russian pilots and technicians has been training Myanmar pilots and crews. “Six were purchased, but only two of them had been delivered by 2020. The rest won’t be delivered until this year,” he said. “It was agreed beforehand that Russian crews would be sent to train local officers on aircraft assembly and maintenance. Once the jets are ready, Russian test pilots will arrive to test the aircraft before handing them over. It was agreed to in advance.” Attempts by RFA Burmese to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the sale of the jets went unanswered Wednesday. Sukhoi Su-30 jet fighters perform during the MAKS 2021 air show in Zhukovsky, Russia, July 24, 2021. Credit: REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva Airstrikes on ethnic armies Thein Tun Oo, director of the Thayninga Strategic Studies Group, a Myanmar-based think tank run by former military officers, said he knew the military had been ordering SU-30 fighter jets “for some time.” “It’s been a long time since the SU-30s were ordered. The delivery has long been delayed,” he said. “We heard all kinds of news about the aircraft, such as that they were ‘being updated’ and made more ‘compatible for Myanmar.’ Anyway, it’s time they should be delivered. Taking into consideration the time of production of the aircraft and signing of the contracts, it’s the right time for delivery and I think it’s very possible that they will be here soon as we are hearing about them [from the military] now.” Thein Tun Oo noted that Myanmar and Russia have a history of military cooperation and said it is customary for experts from the country where the equipment was purchased to come and train local crews. Each two-engine SU-30 fighter jet, produced by Russia’s Sukhoi Aviation Corporation, costs about U.S. $30 million. Thein Tun Oo said the all-weather fighter can carry a wide array of weapons, including precision-guided missiles, rockets, and anti-ship missiles. The 70-ton SU-30 fighter jet can also fly across the 1,275-mile north-south expanse of Myanmar, if needed, without needing to refuel, owing to its large fuel capacity, according to weapons experts. Observers say Myanmar’s military regularly purchases Russian-made fighter jets and other powerful weapons to fight groups such as the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which are among the country’s most powerful and well-equipped ethnic armies. In June, the junta carried out airstrikes on KNU and Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO) coalition forces who had attacked a military camp in Ukrithta village, in Kayin state’s Myawaddy township. Days of fighting ended with heavy casualties on both sides. KNDO leader, General Saw Nedar Mya, told RFA that the military has yet to deploy sophisticated fighter jets like the SU-30 in airstrikes, opting instead to use older Russian-made MiG-29s. “They used jet fighters in the airstrikes on Ukrithta. They attacked us every day, for five days, day and night,” he said. “Since the military dictator is getting support from China and Russia, the West should be backing us. But even though [the junta is] buying all kinds of fighter jets and other weapons, their people lack a fighting spirit. Our people have conviction and are in high spirits.” Relations at ‘unprecedented level’ Australia-based military and security analyst Kyaw Zaw Han said relations between Moscow and the junta have reached “an unprecedented level” since the coup. He said the military’s use of sophisticated weapons, including fighter jets, in Myanmar’s civil war could lead to an increased death toll for the armed resistance. “The junta seems to have viewed Russia as a strategic partner from the beginning. This seems to be the case for both countries. And since the Feb 1 coup, the number of reciprocal visits has increased to an all-time high,” he said. “Russian-made weapons are increasingly being used in the civil war and they have had a huge impact … The use of these warplanes in the internal conflict has resulted…

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Dwindling freedoms, rolling lockdowns spark growing desire to ‘run’ from China

Editor013 mins

Linghu Changbing has been on the run from China for three years, using his Twitter account to post an account of a motorcycle trip in Mexico and further travels across the United States, to the envy of many in China. While Linghu, 22, gets roundly criticized by Little Pinks, online supporters of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for his life choices, he is living a freedom that many back home caught in endless rounds of COVID-19 restrictions can only dream about. His road-movie lifestyle puts Linghu at the cutting edge of a growing phenomenon among younger Chinese people with the wherewithal to leave the country, summarized by a Chinese character pronounced “run” that has come to symbolize cutting free from an increasingly onerous life under CCP rule in an online shorthand referencing the English word “run”. Shanghai white-collar worker Li Bing has been dreaming about emigrating to Japan with his girlfriend and two beloved cats for three years now. Li’s game-plan after graduating from university had been to get rich as fast as possible, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the Chinese government’s draconian zero-COVID policies has thrown several spanners in the works. Li, as a devoted servant to his two cats, was terrified at online video footage of “Dabai” COVID-19 enforcers in white PPE beating people’s pets to death after they were sent to quarantine camps. “One resident showed us through his camera lens those Dabai in PPE beating a pet to death,” Li said. “So my No. 1 nightmare is that my two cats could be disposed of [in that way].” An engineer by training, Li now works as a highly paid copywriter in the tech industry in Shanghai, which he once viewed as a new land of opportunity. But work has been hard-hit by the recent lockdowns, and the money isn’t coming in as frequently as it once did. “Since the pandemic … the interval between payments is getting longer and longer,” Li said. “The lockdown made me even more aware that I can’t afford to wait any longer, because I don’t know what I’m waiting for.” Workers and security guards in protective gear are seen at a cordoned-off entrance to a residential area under lockdown due to Covid-19 restrictions in Beijing, June 14, 2022. Credit: AFP Keyword searches for emigration soar Li, who recently secured a short-term business visa for Japan and wants to apply to study there too, is definitely not alone. Data from the social media app WeChat index showed a huge spike in searches using the keywords “emigration” or “overseas emigration” between March and May, suggesting that “run,” or running, is on many people’s minds. At its peaks, search queries for the keyword “emigration” hit 70 million several times during the Shanghai lockdown and 130 million immediately afterwards. The same keyword also showed peaks on Toutiao Index, Google Trends and 360 Trends between April and the end of June 2022, leading U.S.-based former internet censor Liu Lipeng to speculate that the most recent peak was triggered by a June 27 report in state media quoting Beijing municipal party chief Cai Qi as saying that current COVID-19 restrictions would be “normalized” over the next five years. WeChat’s owner Tencent said searches for “emigration” rose by 440 percent on April 3, 2022, the day CCP leader Xi Jinping told the nation to “strictly adhere to the zero-COVID policy.” A Japan-based immigration consultant who gave only the pseudonym “Mr. Y,” said he had witnessed a massive surge in queries to his business starting in April. “I’m also curious about what’s happened over the past month, and I think it’s amazing,” he said. “How can there be such a positive impact in little more than a month?” Mr. Y said he, like many others in the sector, has started taking to Twitter Spaces to provide listeners with free advice on immigrating to Japan. “I see seven or eight spaces about how to run, all of them with nearly 1,000 people in them,” he said. A Shanghai-based businessman surnamed Meng, who has a U.S. green card, found himself pressed into service as an informal immigration consultant during the Shanghai lockdown. “Only one person asked me about this … before lockdown,” said Meng, not his real name. “All the others came to ask me when we were locked down at home.” In a video clip sent to RFA, Peking University Communist Party Secretary Chen Baojian appeals to students to disperse after Hundreds of students protested in mid-May 2022 on the campus after a fence was put in place segregating them from the rest of the university. Credit: Screengrab of video. Steady erosion of freedom Australia-based writer Murong Xuecun said he had left after correctly predicting the steady erosion of individual freedom in China. “In the past few years … government has become more and more powerful, and the rights of ordinary people have dwindled,” he told RFA. “What kind of China will we see next?” “A more conservative, isolated and poorer China, and I think also a [more unpredictable and violent] China,” he said. “That’s what a lot of people worry about.” Many are aware that since Xi Jinping came to power, the government has made rapid advances in the direction of high-tech totalitarianism. A combination of a nationwide, integrated facial recognition network, a health code app that can prevent movement in public spaces under the guise of COVID-19 prevention, and the use of automated fare collection systems to track people on public transportation have combined to place severe limits on the personal privacy and freedoms of the average person in China. Meanwhile, the population is still struggling with the massive economic impact of rolling lockdowns, compulsory waves of mass COVID-19 testing and inflation that has characterized the pandemic in China. A wave of regulatory policies targeting the private sector, most notably private education and China’s tech giants, has has also taken its toll on the perception of the level prosperity and freedom that is realistically achievable for regular Chinese…

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China’s deep space radar may have military uses

Editor06 mins

China has started building what it calls “the world’s most far-reaching radar” in the country’s southwest – a facility that could also have a military purpose, an analyst warned. Chinese broadcaster CGTN said the new high-definition deep-space active observation facility code-named “China Fuyan,” or “Facetted Eye” for its resemblance to an insect’s eye, is being built in Chongqing Municipality. The radar system would help “better safeguard Earth” by boosting “the country’s defense capabilities against near-Earth asteroids as well as its sensing capability for the Earth-Moon system,” the state-run broadcaster said. The Fuyan will have distributed radars with over 20 large antennas, capable of carrying out high-definition observation of asteroids within 150 million kilometers of Earth, according to CGTN. “If the radar is designed to observe asteroids, it would generally possess the basic capabilities for space surveillance, meaning, the ability to distinguish objects detected in space, and hence track them,” said Collin Koh, Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “Where it comes to space, the lines between civilian and military applications can be blurred,” Koh said, adding that, given China’s predilection these days to go with civil-military fusion, “it’ll be of no surprise that the radar possesses both intended civilian and military applications.” Civil-military fusion The project is led by a team from the Beijing Institute of Technology (BTI), in cooperation with China’s National Astronomical Observatories under the China Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University and Peking University. A China’s Defense Universities Tracker released by the International Cyber Policy Center at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2019 listed the BTI as “one of the ‘Seven Sons of National Defence’,” and “a leading centre of military research and one of only fourteen institutions accredited to award doctorates in weapons science.” It is categorized as “very high risk” and “top secret,” with 34 designated defense research areas including missile technology, radar and weapon systems. Both Tsinghua University and Peking University are also listed in the Tracker as “very high risk” and “high risk”, respectively.  Long Teng, President of the Beijing Institute of Technology, was quoted by Chinese media as saying the Fuyan program will have three phases of construction and by the end of Phase 3 China will have “the world’s first deep-space radar with the capability to carry out 3D imaging and dynamic monitoring as well as active observation of celestial bodies throughout the inner solar system.” The first two radars are expected to become operational by September this year in Chongqing. Asian defense analyst Collin Koh said the project will add new weight to China-U.S. rivalry in space. “When we consider the current context, while there’s no overt clarion call for China to embark on a space militarization race with the West, especially the U.S., since it has a publicly-professed line of not engaging in one, it is nonetheless very much into the game,” he said. “And all the more so, given the broader military rivalry with the U.S., which has extended into cyber and space domains.” The U.S. established a Space Force in 2019, creating the first new branch of the armed services in 73 years. It resulted from what the Force said was “a widespread recognition that Space was a national security imperative.” China has been actively engaged in radar development projects. The commercial satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies released a satellite photo in February, believed to be of a new long-range, early-warning radar that can be used to detect ballistic missiles from thousands of miles away. The Large Phased Array Radar (LPAR) in Yiyuan County, Shandong Province, can cover Taiwan and all of Japan, according to U.S.-based Defense News. The paper said China also has other radar facilities enabling early warning coverage of the Korean Peninsula and India.

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China tells Southeast Asian states not to be pawns in big-power rivalries

Editor010 mins

The Chinese foreign minister urged ASEAN countries Monday against becoming pawns in rivalries between big powers, a day after his U.S. counterpart visited Bangkok as part of the Biden administration’s intense diplomacy to counter Beijing’s engagement in Southeast Asia. In a speech in Jakarta, Wang Yi appeared to position Beijing as being on the side of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a stance that critics have questioned over frequent Chinese incursions into Asian claimant states’ waters in the disputed South China Sea. “We should insulate this region from geopolitical calculations and the trap of the law of the jungle, from being used as chess pieces in major power rivalry, and from coercion by hegemony and bullying,” Wang said during his policy speech at the ASEAN Secretariat.  “The future of our region should be in our own hands.” Wang called on the region to reject attempts to divide it into “confrontational and exclusive groups,” an apparent reference to U.S.-led security initiatives such as the Quad and AUKUS. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, comprises the United States, Japan, Australia and India. AUKUS is a security pact under which the United States and Britain will help Canberra build nuclear-powered submarines. “We should uphold true regional cooperation that unites countries within the region and remain open to countries outside, and reject the kind of fake regional cooperation that keeps a certain country out and targets certain side,” Wang said. But, critics say, alleged incursions by Chinese vessels in the exclusive economic zones of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia in the South China Sea have threatened stability in Southeast Asia. China has never accepted a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that found Beijing’s expansive “historical claims” in the South China Sea to have no legal basis. And for the Biden administration, Southeast Asia is a top priority, it has stressed time and again. It sees the area as crucial, and analysts said Washington scored a win in its efforts to counter Beijing’s influence by getting most members of the ASEAN bloc to join the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity deal in May. Now, Wang is on a tour of the region to promote China’s Global Development Initiative, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). On Monday he described the former as a solution to “the global peace deficit and security dilemma.” BRI is an estimated $1 trillion-plus infrastructure initiative to build a network of railways, ports and bridges across 70 countries, which critics say has led many countries into a debt trap, a charge Beijing has hotly denied.  Wang’s visit to Jakarta followed the G7 summit in Germany late last month, where leaders announced that their governments together would raise $600 billion funds over five years to finance infrastructure in developing nations to counter the BRI. On Saturday, Blinken said that Washington was not asking others to choose between the United States and China, “but giving them a choice, when it comes to things like investment in infrastructure and development systems.” “What we want to make sure is that we’re engaged in a race to the top, that we do things to the highest standards, not a race to the bottom where we do things to the lowest standards.” While in Thailand, Blinken and his Thai counterpart, Don Pramudwinai, signed the U.S.-Thailand Communiqué on Strategic Alliance and Partnership on Sunday. “Our countries share the same goals – the free, open, interconnected, prosperous, resilient and secure Indo-Pacific. In recent years, we worked together even more closely toward that vision,” Blinken said. According to Agus Haryanto, an analyst at Jenderal Soedirman University in Purwokerto, China is concerned about U.S. reengagement with Southeast Asia after being perceived as lacking interest in the region during the years of the Trump administration (2017-2021). “The United States under President Biden is paying attention again to Southeast Asia, including a focus on democracy issues in Myanmar and strengthening cooperation with Thailand,” Agus told BenarNews.   China ‘supported Russia in the UN’ On Sunday, Blinken urged ASEAN members and China to push Myanmar’s junta to end violence against its people and move back toward democracy. More than 2,065 civilians have been killed in Myanmar since the military overthrew the democratic government in February 2021, according to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Blinken also accused China of supporting Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, despite Beijing’s professed neutrality. “We are concerned about the PRC’s alignment with Russia,” Blinken told reporters after a meeting with Wang in Bali, where they had attended the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting. “I don’t think that China is in fact engaging in a way that suggests neutrality. It’s supported Russia in the U.N. It continues to do so. It’s amplified Russian propaganda,” he said. Meanwhile on Monday, Wang met with Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and praised Jakarta for its initiative to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said. “The PRC once again appreciates Indonesia’s various efforts to seek a peaceful settlement to ongoing situation in Ukraine, including specifically mentioning the President’s visits to Kyiv and Moscow,” Retno said in a statement released by Jokowi’s office. Retno said Wang and Jokowi discussed “priority projects,” including the China-backed Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, the country’s first, and part of the BRI projects. In a statement following a meeting between with Indonesia’s most senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan on Saturday, Wang said Beijing and Jakarta agreed on building a community “with a shared future” and forging “a new pattern of bilateral cooperation” covering the political, economic, cultural and maritime sectors.  “Indonesia supports and stands ready to actively participate in the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, both put forward by President Xi Jinping,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “China is ready to work with Indonesia to continue taking the lead in solidarity and cooperation among regional and developing countries, and forge an exemplary model of mutual benefit, win-win results and common development, as well as a vanguard of South-South cooperation, so as…

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Hong Kong rights review marred by crackdown on civil society groups

Editor010 mins

A United Nations human rights council review of Hong Kong’s rights record has been hampered by a citywide crackdown on civil society groups, which would normally make submissions as part of the process, overseas rights groups have warned. “Since the enactment of the [national security law on July 1, 2020], nearly 100 civil society organizations operating in Hong Kong have been forced to disband or relocate facing similar threats posed by the law,” London-based Amnesty International said in its submission to the council. “The [law] created an unprecedented chilling effect among civil society groups.” It said the civil society landscape had changed drastically since the last review session. Of the 15 groups and networks that submitted information to the UN Human Rights Committee in 2020 in advance of the adoption of the list of issues prior to reporting, nearly half have either closed, left Hong Kong, or stopped all activities due to threats posed by the national security law, Amnesty said. It said local human rights groups that used to facilitate civil society groups’ participation in the UN human rightsmechanisms disbanded in 2020, with several of their leaders currently detained awaiting trial on nationalsecurity charges, and others forced into exile. It said groups had been deterred from submitting to the review for fear of being accused of “collusion with foreign powers” under national security law. The same issue was raised by the U.N. committee’s vice chair Christopher Arif Bulkan who asked Hong Kong officials at a hearing on July 8: “Can you provide assurances that the [civil society organizations] who participate here today, and over the next three days, are not in danger of prosecution or victimization under the national security law, for such engagement?” Bulkan asked. Apollonia Liu, deputy secretary for security, said the national security law and Basic Law contain in-built protections for human rights, and that the crackdown hadn’t affected the human rights landscape in the city. Freedoms dismantled She cited the willingness of protesters during the 2019 protest movement to fight back against police violence as evidence of a “terrorist” threat to Hong Kong. But the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the national security law has been used to dismantle Hong Kong’s freedoms, and not just for those who threw bricks and Molotov cocktails. “Basic civil and political rights long protected in Hong Kong—including freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly—are being erased,” it said in its submission to the review process. More than 50 groups across a cross section of Hong Kong’s civil society have disbanded since the imposition of the law, HRW said. “They included some of Hong Kong’s oldest civil society groups, such as the city’s second-largest labor union, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Union, and the Hong Kong Professional Teacher’s Union, as well as newer organizations that formed since the 2019 mass protests,” it said. Police have also demanded information from civil society groups … Some people were arrested for refusing to hand over data.” Amnesty also cited the charging of a group with “collusion with a foreign power” under the law; the Hong Kong Alliance, which ran the now-banned Tiananmen massacre candlelight vigils in Victoria Park on June 4 for 30 years. Several of its members, including barrister Chow Hang-tung, are currently behind bars awaiting trial on the same charge. Beijing-controlled newspapers also intimidated and shut down another major protest organizer, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), claiming that the group’s actions “bring chaos and disasters to the city,” and was “supported by foreign anti-China forces,” Amnesty said. Lifeboat visas CHRF’s convenor, Figo Chan, faces at least 14 counts of crimes involving his efforts to organize peaceful protests in 2020, and has been held in custody since May 2021 for “organizing unlawful assembly,” it said, adding that the CHRF disbanded in August 2021. Bulkan also took issue with the recent use of colonial-era sedition laws to prosecute the authors of a children’s book, supporters who clapped from the public gallery during a court hearing, and a pop star who criticized the government’s COVID-19 policies on social media. “These actions are acceptable in a democratic society, which is the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Bulkan told the council. “In a democratic society, individuals have the right to criticize the government, and the crime of sedition should not be used as an excuse to suppress dissenting voices.” The session of the committee of 18 international experts will continue on Tuesday, while a closing session will take place on July 22. The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch has warned that almost two million Hong Kongers lack a viable route out of the city as they are ineligible for the lifeboat visas currently on offer from the U.K., Canada and Australia. “Governments around the world must do more to support Hong Kongers who need to get out of the city,” the group’s chief executive Benedict Rogers said in a recent statement. “The need is greater now more than ever as John Lee, the former Security Secretary who was responsible for the 2019 crackdown and whose entire career has been in policing and locking people up, takes the reins in Hong Kong,” Rogers said. “There is now a genuine and well-founded fear that Hong Kong is becoming a police state.” The U.K.’s British National Overseas (BNO) visa scheme will covers around 5.4 million people when a rule change to include 18–24-year-olds takes effect in November, Hong Kong Watch said. Canada’s route is open to around 200,000 people, and Australia’s will benefit around 11,000 Hong Kongers already in the country, it said. The U.S. has only allowed 20,000 Hong Kongers to overstay existing visas, while the EU lacks any scheme at all, it said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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