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Category: East Asia

Myanmar political crisis takes center stage on day 1 of US-ASEAN Summit

Editor011 mins

The ongoing upheaval in Myanmar took center stage on the first day of a U.S.-ASEAN Summit in Washington, as fellow bloc member Malaysia slammed the junta for refusing to engage with the country’s shadow government. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders held a lunch meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to kick off two days of top-level meetings, which President Joe Biden hopes will bolster Washington’s ties with the bloc and increase its influence in the region. Eight of ASEAN’s leaders made the trip to the U.S. for the summit, which marks the first time the White House extended an invitation to the group of nations in more than four decades. The Philippines declined to attend as it wraps up a presidential election this week, while Myanmar’s junta chief, Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was barred from the summit amid a brutal crackdown on opponents of his military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup that rights groups say has claimed the lives of at least 1,835 civilians. U.S. State Department officials instead met with the foreign minister of the National Unity Government, Myanmar’s shadow government of deposed leaders and other junta critics working to take back control of the country. The lunch event on Capitol Hill was closed to the press, but the situation in Myanmar was front and center on Thursday, after Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah called out junta officials in a series of tweets for failing to honor their commitment to end violence in the country. Specifically, he referred to the military regime’s refusal to allow the United Nations special envoy to the country, Noeleen Heyzer, to attend an ASEAN meeting last week to coordinate humanitarian aid to Myanmar. “We regret that the [junta] has not allowed the U.N. Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar to participate in the processes,” Saifuddin tweeted. “We should not allow [the junta to be] dictating who to be invited for related meetings.” Saifuddin said he made clear at an informal meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers on Wednesday that Malaysia fully supports Prak Sokhonn, the special envoy of ASEAN Chair Cambodia, “in fulfilling his mandate on [the] 5-Point Consensus” — an agreement formed by the bloc in April 2021 that requires the junta to meet with all of Myanmar’s stakeholders to find a solution to the political crisis. He said he called on the ASEAN envoy to “engage all stakeholders, including [shadow National Unity Government] NUG and [National Unity Consultative Council] NUCC representatives,” both of which are recognized by the junta as “terrorist groups.” Saifuddin’s comments came a day after he told the RFA-affiliated BenarNews agency that he welcomed the idea of engaging informally with the NUG and NUCC via video conference calls and other means if the junta prohibits such meetings in-person. The Malaysian foreign minister said he plans to meet with NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung in Washington on Saturday to solicit her opinion on how the people of Myanmar can move on. As ASEAN leaders lunched with lawmakers on Thursday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held a meeting with Zin Mar Aung and other NUG representatives in Washington during which she underscored the Biden administration’s support for the people of Myanmar during the crackdown and for those working to restore the country to democracy, according to a statement by spokesperson Ned Price. “Noting the many Southeast Asian leaders in Washington for the U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit, the deputy secretary highlighted that the United States would continue to work closely with ASEAN and other partners in pressing for a just and peaceful resolution to the crisis in Burma,” Price said, using the former name of Myanmar. “They also condemned the escalating regime violence that has led to a humanitarian crisis and called for unhindered humanitarian access to assist all those in need in Burma.” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen attends a meeting with ASEAN leaders and US business representatives as part of the US-ASEAN Special Summit, in Washington, May 12, 2022. Credit: Reuters Other events Following Thursday’s working lunch, ASEAN leaders met with Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, as well as other leaders of the business community, to discuss economic cooperation. In the evening, they joined Biden for dinner at the White House to discuss ASEAN’s future and how the U.S. can play a part, according to media reports, which quoted senior administration officials as saying that each leader would be given time to meet with the president one-on-one. On Friday, leaders will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a working lunch to discuss issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the global climate, and maritime security, before meeting with Biden for a second time. While some ASEAN leaders have been more outspoken in their condemnation of the junta, others —including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is also the bloc’s chair — have done little to hold it to account for the situation in Myanmar. In January, Hun Sen became the first foreign leader to visit Myanmar since the military coup — a trip widely viewed as conferring legitimacy on the junta. Hun Sen is no stranger to global condemnation, however. The Cambodian strongman brooks no criticism at home and has jailed his opponents on what observers say are politically motivated charges in a bid to bar them from mounting a challenge his nearly 40-year rule. This week’s summit marks Hun Sen’s fourth visit to the U.S., following trips to attend his son’s graduation from West Point in 1999, the 2016 U.S.-ASEAN Summit with President Barack Obama at the Sunnylands Retreat in California, and a meeting at the United Nations in New York in 2018. Thursday’s dinner with Biden will be his first visit to the White House. Prior to Thursday’s dinner, during a photo session with leaders on the South Lawn, Biden committed to spending U.S. $150 million on COVID-19 prevention, security, and infrastructure in…

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Cardinal Zen arrest sparks international outcry from governments, overseas activists

Editor09 mins

Britain on Thursday hit out at the arrest by Hong Kong’s national security police of five pro-democracy figures including 90-year-old retired bishop Cardinal Joseph Zen, amid calls for Magnitsky-style sanctions on officials responsible for the ongoing crackdown on public dissent. “The Hong Kong authorities’ decision to target leading pro-democracy figures, including Cardinal Zen, Margaret Ng, Hui Po-keung and Denise Ho, under the national security law is unacceptable,” minister for Europe and North America told the House of Commons on Thursday. “We continue to make clear to mainland China and to Hong Kong authorities our strong opposition to the national security law, which is being used to curtail freedom, punish dissent and shrink the space for opposition, free press and civil society,” he said. Former ruling Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith called on the government to sanction Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, chief executive-elect and former security chief John Lee, as well as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official in charge of implementing a draconian national security law in Hong Kong Luo Huining and former police chief Chris Tang, among others. “Not one of those people has been sanctioned by the U.K. government,” Duncan Smith said. “It is time to step up and make our position very clear.” Cleverly said the government was willing to listen to calls for “not just words but actions.” Meanwhile, the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong said it was “extremely concerned” over Zen’s arrest. “The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong is extremely concerned about the condition and safety of Cardinal Joseph Zen and we are offering our special prayers for him,” it said in a statement on its website. “We urge the Hong Kong Police and the judicial authorities to handle Cardinal Zen’s case in accordance with justice.” In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the recent arrests of Cardinal Zen, former pro-democracy lawmaker and barrister Margaret Ng, scholar Hui Po-keung and Cantopop star Denise Ho showed that the Hong Kong authorities “will pursue all means necessary to stifle dissent and undercut protected rights and freedoms.” Zen, Ng, Hui and Ho served as trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped thousands of arrested Hong Kong democracy protesters access funds for medical aid, legal advice, psychological counseling, and emergency financial relief, he said. “We call for the immediate release of those who remain in custody and continue to stand with people in Hong Kong,” Price said in a May 11 statement. In addition to the above four, jailed former pro-democracy lawmaker Cyd Ho, another trustee currently on remand awaiting trial on a separate charge, was also arrested on the same charge of “conspiracy to collude with foreign powers” on Thursday. Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly has called the arrests “deeply troubling.” Denise Ho holds a Canadian passport. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was following the arrests with “great concern,” while Human Rights Watch called it a “shocking new low for Hong Kong.” The Vatican has said it is following the case closely. National Security ‘offenses’ China hit back at the international outcry over the arrests on Thursday, saying that international criticism was “slandering and smearing legitimate law enforcement action by the Hong Kong police against the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund.” “Rights and freedoms cannot be used as a shield for illegal activities in Hong Kong,” the foreign ministry’s Hong Kong office said in a statement. “We urge external forces trying to intervene to cease this clumsy political performance immediately,” it said, adding that the arrestees are suspected of offenses under the national security law “of a serious nature.” Zen and the other arrestees were released on bail late on Wednesday. More than 180 Hongkongers have been arrested to date under the law, including dozens of former opposition politicians and democracy activists, and several senior media figures including Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai. Cardinal Zen, 90, has long been an outspoken supporter of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and a critic of the CCP’s suppression of religious freedom. U.S.-based democracy campaigner Samuel Chu said the fact that Zen was arrested shortly after the selection of one-horse candidate and former security chief John Lee showed that Beijing is celebrating its new-found control over every aspect of life in Hong Kong. Chu described the national security law — which applies to actions and speech anywhere in the world — as an “evil law” that is now the paramount political principle in Hong Kong. “It doesn’t matter who is the chief executive or who is in charge of the different government departments,” Chu said. “As long as there is a national security law, they will arrest whoever they want, and no one in the world is safe.” Taiwan human rights activist Shih Yi-hsiang said the law is in violation of international human rights covenants. “All of our brothers and sisters in Hong Kong who have been arrested … are innocent,” Shih told RFA. “Who is to blame? The CCP regime … and the puppet chief executive John Lee.” Rwei-ren Wu, an associate researcher at the Institute of Taiwan History of the Academia Sinica, called on President Tsai Ing-wen to expedite a clear path to political asylum for Hongkongers fleeing political oppression in their home city. Chiu Chui-cheng, spokesman for Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, condemned “any evil action that suppresses human rights and freedoms in the name of national security.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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North Korean labor managers in China demand more money as job market tightens

Editor08 mins

North Korean job placement officials in China are demanding more money and perks like free cell phones from Chinese companies for the use of North Korean workers, a consequence of the tight labor market that has grown out of the COVID-19 pandemic, sources in China told RFA. Pyongyang dispatches legions of workers to both Russia and China to work in factories and on construction sites to earn foreign cash for the state. The workers give the lion’s share of their salaries to their North Korean handlers, who forward it to the central government. But demand for workers is rising as China’s economy struggles under a new wave of lockdowns, giving officials at the North Korean human resources companies new negotiating leverage with their Chinese business partners. While the North Koreans say the extra cash will improve the lives of the foreign workers they supervise, Chinese business owners suspect the placement officials are using the money for other purposes. A common tactic is to request more money to improve the workers’ squalid living conditions, a Chinese citizen of Korean descent, from Yanji, in the northeastern province of Jilin, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “On the outskirts of Yanji, about 300 North Korean workers … are employed by a clothing processing company. According to the original contract, the monthly salary per worker is 2,000 yuan (U.S. $297), but the North Korean handler is asking for more money in addition to that,” the source said. “The North Korean handlers demand things like electronic devices like cell phones and laptops, which they will use. Even if the company president buys them the devices, they will still ask for more money under the pretext of feeding the workers meat and providing them with snacks,” he said. Since the border with North Korea remains closed, the labor managers hold all the cards and the company owners have very little leverage, according to the source. “It is impossible to dispatch more manpower from North Korea because of the coronavirus crisis. It’s like the North Korean manpower managers are strangling the Chinese company owner, who is in a hurry to get the factory operating,” he said. “Even with the Chinese company’s proposal to give an average of an additional 30 yuan ($4.46) per worker per day to account for the additional working hours, the North Korean officials argue that it is not enough,” the source said. In some disputes, the North Korean consulate has had to step in to mediate between the labor managers and business owners, another Chinese citizen of Korean descent in the border city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River from North Korea’s Sinuiju, told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The consulate sent a warning to a North Korean human resource company in a contract with a poultry processing company, urging them to ‘abide by the law and order of the host county,’ but to no avail,” the second source said. “The Chinese company offered an additional 15 yuan [$2.23] per hour per person for night work, but the North Korean official said that was not enough and they got into a huge argument,” he said. The Chinese business owner argued that he would be unable to offer more than the agreed 2,000 yuan per worker per month as stipulated in the contract unless there was additional night work, the second source said. “However, the North Korean officials are raising the issue, saying that fresh vegetables that were brought in daily before the coronavirus crisis have decreased to once a week during the pandemic, and the workers are suffering,” he said. “The officials say that the reason they are arguing over wages is to feed the workers better, but in reality, it is because they don’t have enough funds after they pay off the state,” the second source said, adding that most of the human resource companies operate a cafeteria exclusively for their workers, and they are usually adequately fed. “It is true however that after paying off the government and the consulate, as well as their food and living expenses, they don’t have enough to pay the workers their cut, as well as their food and living expenses,” he said. The U.N. Security Council reported that 50,000 out of 100,000 North Korean overseas workers were dispatched to China. The Chinese government claims to have repatriated more than half of the workers, but did not disclose specific figures. According to RFA sources, about 30,000 North Korean workers are believed to be in the Dandong area. North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019. But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions. Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Authorities warn Uyghurs not to talk about ‘re-education’ with UN team

Editor010 mins

The Chinese government has issued a new directive that forbids Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region from discussing the network of internment camps or accepting calls from international phone numbers ahead of an expected visit by the United Nations human rights chief, a police office in the region told RFA. The officer, who works in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) and declined to give his name, told RFA that police received special government notices on how to prepare for the visit this month by Michelle Bachelet, the U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights. The policeman said he was a Chinese Communist Party member and was playing a leading role in disseminating the notices during political study sessions and enforcing their mandates. “The political study sessions are being held on Wednesdays, and prefectural and autonomous regional notices are being studied as they arrive,” he said. The dates of Bachelet’s visit to China and Xinjiang have yet to be announced. Uyghur rights groups have pressed her to visit the region and release an overdue report on well-documented allegations of torture, forced labor and other severe rights abuses against the local population. An advance delegation from Bachelet’s office arrived in late April in Guangzhou in southern China’s Guangdong Province, where they are still being held in quarantine as required by COVID-19 protocols before heading to Xinjiang, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Wednesday. Officials issued a notice prohibiting Uyghurs from speaking about “re-education” or internment camps, but added that if the topic arose, they should only mention positive aspects of re-education, namely that it is a pathway to living a good and normal life, the Kashgar officer said. Uyghurs have been told not to speak spontaneously when the U.N. team arrives and asks questions, he said. “We were told not to speak about re-education and the current situation, and that we should speak positively about life here,” the police officer said. The policeman made the comments when RFA contacted him last week about reports that residential committees had paid Uyghurs to perform a dance in front of the Kashgar Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar on the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. In the past, officials in Xinjiang have issued notices warning citizens there not to disclose so-called “state secrets,” including one directive requiring Uyghurs to not disclose any information about the camps. In a previous RFA report, authorities in Xinjiang said Chinese officials had warned Uyghurs not to divulge “state secrets” during Bachelet’s visit, not to accept calls from unknown phone numbers, and not to answer questions from the U.N. human rights team without approval from the government. Another government notice on the U.N. rights chief’s visit to Xinjiang that appeared recently on the Chinese video-focused social networking service Douyin, known in English as TikTok, was about setting up mobiles phones to not accept international calls. One video provided step-by-step instructions on how users could adjust their cell phone settings to reject calls from abroad. ‘Slanderous lies’ Zumrat Dawut, a former Uyghur internment camp detainee who has said she was forcibly sterilized by government officials, said Chinese authorities are concerned about possible cooperation between the Uyghurs inside Xinjiang and those living abroad in revealing evidence about the internment camps during Bachelet’s visit. “Before the U.N. team goes, they are worried that the people will tell the real information about the situation on the ground,” she said. “That’s why they are emphasizing these restrictions.” Authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities accused of harboring “strong religious” and “politically incorrect” views in a vast network of internment camps in Xinjiang since 2017 and have jailed or detained hundreds of Uyghur academics and other influential members of the ethnic group in recent years. The U.S. and the parliaments of several Western governments have declared that China’s mistreatment of the Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity. China rejects the accusations as “slanderous lies” and asserts that the re-education centers are part of efforts to combat terrorism and extremism by providing vocational training. On Tuesday, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government hosted a teleconference on religious freedom that was livestreamed to more than 60 countries and international organizations, China News Service reported. “Today, the situation of religious belief and freedom in Xinjiang is incomparable to any historical period,” Abdureqip Tumulniyaz, president of the state-controlled Islamic Association of the XUAR and of the Xinjiang Islamic Institute, said at the conference, which was attended by XUAR officials, religious leaders and Muslim residents. A report by state-run Global Times on Tuesday said: “Happily dancing crowds to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Fitr, clean and solemn mosques with Muslims waiting for prayer time, students in the Xinjiang Islamic Institute reading doctrine out loud … these were the scenarios displayed during an online meeting held by the government of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Tuesday to show the situation of religious freedom in the region.” China in 2019 organized two visits to internment camps in the XUAR — one for a small group of foreign journalists, and another for diplomats from non-Western countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Thailand. A U.S. diplomat dismissed those trips as “Potemkin tours” and an Albanian scholar who was taken on one of the tours later said he agreed with reports about the camps. “This official narrative was very shocking to us, and we could see it put into practice when we visited the mass detention centers … that our Chinese friends call vocational training institutes, but which we saw to be a kind of hell,” Olsi Jazexhi, a university lecturer with a doctoral degree in nationalism studies, told RFA after visiting the region in August 2019. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Hong Kong police arrest Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen over protester assistance fund

Editor013 mins

National security police in Hong Kong have arrested four people including Cardinal Joseph Zen and pop star Denise Ho on suspicion of “collusion with foreign powers” after they acted as trustees for a legal defense fund for democracy protesters. Hui Po-keung, another trustee of the now-disbanded 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped arrested protesters pay for their legal and medical bills, was arrested at Hong Kong’s international airport on Tuesday. Zen, a 90-year-old retired Catholic bishop who has long been an outspoken defender of human rights, democracy and civil liberties, Cantopop singer Denise Ho and barrister Margaret Ng were also arrested on the same charge. Some reports said former pro-democracy lawmaker Cyd Ho, who is currently on remand awaiting trial in a different case, and who was also a trustee, would also likely face the same charge. The national security police confirmed they had arrested two men and two women aged 45 to 90, on suspicion of “conspiracy to collude with foreign powers.” Zen was released after several hours of questioning, the Hong Kong Free Press said via its Twitter account. The Vatican said in a statement reported by the Catholic News Agency that it was following the case closely. “The Holy See has learned with concern the news of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following the development of the situation with extreme attention,” the Holy See press office said. The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund was set up on June 15, 2019, at the height of the anti-extradition movement that broadened to include demands for fully democratic elections and greater official accountability. Its aim was to provide humanitarian relief in the form of funding for medical, psychological, legal and other necessary assistance to those injured or arrested during the police crackdown on the protest movement. The fund disbanded in August 2021 because it no longer had access to a bank account because the Alliance for Democracy that had processed its funding had been suspended. Both groups were later ordered to provide information to national security police on their sources of funding and their donors, under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. Cardinal Joseph Zen attends the Episcopal Ordination of the Most Reverend Stephen Chow in Hong Kong’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 4, 2021. Credit: AFP. ‘Brutal crackdown’ The law criminalized calls on the international community for sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials, overseas lobbying or fundraising on behalf of the pro-democracy movement, and criticism of the authorities deemed to incite public anger or “hatred” against the government. The U.K.-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said four trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund had been arrested, naming Ng, Denise Ho, Cardinal Zen and Hui. “We condemn the arrests of these activists whose supposed crime was funding legal aid for pro-democracy protesters back in 2019,” the group’s chief executive Benedict Rogers said in a statement on the group’s website. “Today’s arrests signal beyond a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” the statement said. “We urge the international community to shine a light on this brutal crackdown and call for the immediate release of these activists.” The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) also hit out at the arrests, which came days after pro-Beijing security hardliner John Lee was anointed leader of Hong Kong in a one-candidate election that analysts said erased most significant differences between the once free city and the Communist Party-run mainland. “These arrests mark a new and deeply worrying phase in the crackdown upon what remains of Hong Kong’s civil society,” it said in a statement. “John Lee, Hong Kong’s new chief executive, is posing a direct challenge to the international community and the autonomy promised to Hong Kong under international law,” IPAC said, calling for the immediate release of those arrested. “Mere words are no longer enough,” it said. “We also call upon our governments to impose targeted sanctions on John Lee, and others involved in these persecutions.” New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also called for the immediate release of those arrested, and for the charges against them to be dropped, China researcher Maya Wang said via her Twitter account. Meanwhile, a U.S.-based rights group went ahead with the 2022 Human Rights Press Awards after they were canceled by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), citing legal risks under the national security law. “On #WorldPressFreedomDay, we declare that the freedom of the press will NOT be canceled,” Campaign for Hong Kong founder and president Simon Chu said via Twitter. “Help recognize journalists who told the truth courageously and those who can no longer report freely.” Hong Kong Cantopop singer, actress and LGBT activist Denise Ho posing for a photograph with protesters during a #MeToo rally calling on the Hong Kong police to answer accusations of sexual violence against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, August 28, 2019. Credit: AFP Xi is a ‘pathetic coward’ A petition calling on FCC president Keith Richburg to have a more public conversation about the controversial decision had garnered some 170 signatures its organizers said were journalists, including many former winners of the awards. (Disclosure: Richburg is a member of RFA’s board of directors). “More than 170 journalists signed the petition, 25 are reportedly this years’ awardees & over 20 of us are the former winners of the Awards. We emailed the FCC on 29 April, 3 May and today,” a Twitter account called @lettertofcc said on May 10. “I think we need to at least acknowledge that there are still journalists in Hong Kong who stick to their day-to-day reporting, and say that we stand with them, that we take note of them and their work, and thank them for that,” Yuen Chan, a senior lecturer on London’s City University journalism program, told RFA. She said simply saying that press freedom was dead was too pessimistic an approach for people who are still working as journalists in the…

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China deletes WHO chief’s criticism of zero-COVID policy from social media platforms

Editor011 mins

Ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censors rushed to delete comments by the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) criticizing its zero-COVID policy as unsustainable from social media platforms in China on Wednesday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on China to change its approach, saying CCP leader Xi Jinping’s favored policy “will not be sustainable” in the face of new fast-spreading variants of the virus. Tedros’ comments were deleted from Weibo and ignored by China’s tightly controlled state media. But foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian hit back at a news conference on Wednesday. “We hope the relevant individual can view Chinese COVID policy objectively and rationally and know the facts, instead of making irresponsible remarks,” Zhao said. CCP commentator Hu Xijin said Tedros should “respect China.” “When he speaks specifically about China, he should think whether his words will have a positive effect on promoting solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 in China,” Hu, a former editor-in-chief of the CCP-backed Global Times, said via his Twitter account. Keyword searches on Weibo for “Tedros” in Chinese, as well as the equivalent abbreviation to WHO yielded no results on Wednesday, while users were unable to share an article about his comments from an official U.N. account, Agence France-Presse reported. Prior to their deletion, Tedros’ comments had drawn a number of positive responses, with people wanting to know if the government would listen. The censorship came as the majority of Shanghai’s 26 million residents remained under a grueling lockdown, walled into their apartment buildings and homes with steel fencing, with major transportation routes and services shut down, as many still struggled to access food, essential supplies and urgently needed medical treatment. China insists that its zero-COVID strategy is the only way to prevent a massive death toll from COVID, as has been seen in other countries. Researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University published a paper in the scientific journal Nature on Tuesday saying that allowing the omicron variant to tear through the population would likely result in 1.6 million deaths and the collapse of rural healthcare systems. A worker disinfects the queue area of a swab test collection site for Covid-19 coronavirus in Beijing, May 11, 2022. Credit: AFP. Distancing from China But critics say the policy is the result of Xi wanting to boost his domestic image as a leader who can succeed by doing things differently from liberal democracies ahead of the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year. Lee Lung-teng, a high-ranking health minister in Taiwan’s government during the 2003 SARS epidemic, said Tedros appeared to be distancing himself from his previously cozy relationship with Beijing. “He had been helping them clean up their image and acting as if they were doing it right, but maybe he is coming under pressure from someone else, who could be threatening to withdraw their support for him if he continues to be so biased in favor of China,” Lee told RFA. “Maybe he can’t bear [not to speak out] any longer.” “Everywhere else is gradually opening up, so isn’t it a bit strange that they are still talking about zero-COVID … when a situation with no infections would be impossible,” he said. Ren Ruihong, former head of the medical assistance department at the Chinese Red Cross, said Xi is keen to tout his “victory” over the COVID-19 pandemic when he seeks an unprecedented third term in office at the 20th party congress. “The 20th CCP National Congress is happening soon,” Ren said. “International focus is on whether or not Xi Jinping can get another term in office.” “If he abandons the zero-COVID policy now, it will be tantamount to abandoning his own political platform … basically everyone understands that it’s a political necessity [for Xi].” A Shanghai resident surnamed Ma agreed, saying the city’s officials seem to be constantly changing how they implement the zero-COVID directives from higher up. “The decrees are changing daily, sometimes twice a day,” Ma said. “Different instructions are coming from different leaders.” “Nobody can figure out the rules. There aren’t any,” she said. “First they said we have to do a PCR test every five days, then it was seven.” “We were supposed to be out of lockdown by May 1, but now it’s mid-May and we’re still not out of it; nobody knows when it will end now,” Ma said. Losing patience in Shanghai Shanghai residents are increasingly unwilling to toe the line on mass testing amid a string of false positives reported on social media. “People aren’t scared of the virus at all now, but the rule of law has been completely destroyed,” Ma said. “The law is what the officials say it is.” “There’s no humanity, even if you’re sick or elderly: I think it’s worse than during the Cultural Revolution,” she said. In one video clip uploaded to social media, residents of Beicai township in Shanghai’s Pudong New District yell at officials for trying to get them to go to a makeshift “hospital” that was actually rows of tents. “Is this a place to house human beings?” one person shouts. “These tents would blow over in a strong wind.” Social media reports said private taxis are currently charging 3,000 yuan per pickup; 12,000 for airport transfers, after the city’s subway network was shut down. People also posted video showing officials in full PPE removing food from a large refrigerator in an apartment they had allegedly come to “disinfect.” Many social media accounts have been shut down permanently during the Shanghai lockdown. Retired Shanghai teacher Gu Guoping said several of his accounts have been shut down after he criticized the government. “My WeChat account has been blocked by the internet police and Tencent six or seven times, even after I changed my phone number,” Gu told RFA. “This means that I have been cut of from various sources of information, and I have very limited access to information that is local to Shanghai,” he said. The shutdowns came as the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration repeated calls for social media content users…

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Uyghur secretary of Marxism Institute at Xinjiang University confirmed detained

Editor05 mins

About 20 Uyghur teachers from a university in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region have been arrested, including the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of the school’s Marxism Institute, a Uyghur source in the town of Ghulja and local authorities told RFA. Six of the educators from Ili Pedagogical University in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) are being held in detention, including Abdullah Ismail of the Marxism Institute. He was abducted in 2018 and charged with being “two-faced,” the sources said. The CCP uses the term to describe an official or party member who is either corrupt or ideologically disloyal to the party. The source in Ghulja, who has knowledge of the situation, sent RFA the names and phone numbers of two people who had worked closely with the school on Abdullah Ismail’s case. When RFA called one of them, a staff member in the school’s Education Department, reluctantly acknowledged that she knew him but refrained from commenting on his situation. Parhat Kadir, Abdullah Ismail’s former high school classmate who now lives in the Netherlands and is the former chairman of the Dutch East Turkistan Uyghur Union, said Ismail was well-liked in high school, where he was a top student and a skilled soccer player. “Abdullah was my classmate from first to 10th grade,” he told RFA. “He was an honest and hardworking kid.” Abdullah Ismail, who was born in 1962 in Ghulja’s Suidong township, was admitted to the Literature Department of the Ili Pedagogical University in 1981, Kadir said. After he graduated four years later, he began teaching at the school. As secretary of the Marxism Institute, Ismail published research papers on Marxist theory in a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Ili Gazette, the source said. Ismail later was included on the list of suspicious persons in the school in 2017 when China stepped up its crackdown on Uyghurs by detaining them in “re-education” camps, and had been interrogated intermittently, the source from Ghulja said. He was charged with several criminal charges, though the source did not name them. The preliminary questioning was conducted by the School Discipline Commission, according to the source who provided the phone number of a disciplinary officer in charge of the investigation that year. The disciplinary officer confirmed that Ismail had been a member of school administration and was abducted in 2018. He also said he met the teacher four or five years ago and had sent material he collected during his investigation to the relevant authorities. “It was in 2017 that I was asked to collect and give his material to the school disciplinary committee,” he told RFA. “He was charged with being a two-faced person. “He was a member of school administration before being CCP secretary of the Marxism Institute at Ili Pedagogical University,” the disciplinary officer said. “He was the secretary when he was arrested. Nobody knows or nobody told us how many years he was sentenced to [following arrest] in 2018.” Behtiyar Nasir, deputy inspector general of the World Uyghur Congress, said he attended Ili Pedagogical University in the late 1980s when Ismail was a teacher there. He said Ismail had received a doctorate in philosophy from a university in Beijing. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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US warship sails through Taiwan Strait after China drills

Editor010 mins

A U.S. warship has sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the second such transit in two weeks and only two days after a large Chinese military live-fire exercise, signaling increased tension in the strait. The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said that its Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on May 10 (Tuesday) through international waters in accordance with international law.” “The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” it said, adding that the transit “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” Exactly two weeks ago on April 26, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson, also from the 7th Fleet, made a similar transit. On both occasions, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “sent troops to track and monitor the U.S. warship’s passage,” according to a statement from the PLA Eastern Theater Command. Snr. Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson for the command, said China “firmly opposes” what he called “provocative acts” by the U.S. that sent “wrong signals” to Taiwan. The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense, meanwhile, said Wednesday that the Taiwanese military closely monitored movements at sea and in the air around Taiwan as the U.S. warship sailed northwards in the strait and “the situation was normal.” Prior to that it warned that on the same day as the U.S. ship’s transit, a Z-10 attack helicopter and two Ka-28 anti-submarine warfare helicopters of the PLA entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The Z-10 attack helicopter crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait, apparently a step up from the PLA incursions that occur almost daily at present. This was only the second time this year a Chinese aircraft has crossed the median line, with the first occurring on Jan. 31. Imminent attack on Taiwan? Over the weekend, the PLA conducted three days of live-fire drills around Taiwan with the participation of “naval, air and conventional missile forces,” according to its website. The Liaoning carrier group, led by the PLA first aircraft carrier, has been operating in the area and conducted training with live munitions in the Philippine Sea, east of Taiwan and south of Japan from May 3 to at least May 9. A J-15 jet fighter takes off from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills over the weekend. (Japan Ministry of Defense) The threat of a military action against Taiwan between now and 2030 is “acute,” U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said during a hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “It’s our view that (China is) working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention,” she said without elaborating further. Haines and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Scott Berrier said that events in the Ukrainian war and how Beijing construes them could impact China’s timeline and approach to Taiwan but they believe that China prefers to avoid a military conflict over the island if possible. Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine colonel turned political analyst, said that by his own estimate a PLA attack on Taiwan could happen “anytime from 2023 onwards.” “It much depends on the United States.  If America is distracted by domestic turmoil, is having financial troubles, and is focused on a war in Ukraine, I think Beijing just might make its move,” Newsham told RFA. “China has indeed been building a military force and capability designed to attack and subjugate Taiwan.  They have probably had the capability to move an assault force across the Strait since at least 10 years ago,” the analyst added. “We are in a dangerous time. “ China considers Taiwan a province of China and has repeatedly said that the democratic island of 23 million people will eventually be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. ‘One-China’ Policy On Tuesday, China reacted angrily after the U.S State Department updated its page on U.S.-Taiwan relations on May 5 and removed wordings such as “Taiwan is part of China” and “The United States does not support Taiwan independence.”   China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian speaks during a news conference in Beijing, China March 18, 2022. (Reuters) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing that the U.S. modification of the fact sheet “is a trick to obscure and hollow out the one-China principle.” “Such political manipulation of the Taiwan question and the attempt to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait will hurt the U.S. itself,” Zhao warned. “There is only one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” the spokesman said. “The U.S. has made solemn commitments on the Taiwan question and the one-China principle in the three China-U.S. joint communiqués,” he said, adding that Washington should abide by them. The U.S. State Department responded that “there’s been no change in our policy.” “All we have done is update a fact sheet, and that’s something that we routinely do with our relationships around the world,” spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing on Tuesday, pointing out that the fact sheet has not been updated for several years. “When it comes to Taiwan, our policy remains guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques and Six Assurances, as that very fact sheet notes,” Price said. The spokesman reconfirmed “our rock-solid, unofficial relationship with Taiwan,” and said the U.S. calls upon China to “behave responsibly and to not manufacture pretenses to increase pressure on Taiwan.” Under the U.S. policy, Washington has formal diplomatic relations with Beijing but retains a “robust unofficial relationship” with Taipei and is committed by law to make available to the island the means to defend itself.

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Struggling businesses ready to welcome tourists again as Laos reopens

Editor07 mins

Laos fully reopened its borders to foreign visitors Monday after more than two years of coronavirus restrictions, a move applauded by business owners who rely on tourism to the landlocked Southeast Asian nation. Laos’ economy is likely to still feel the effects of the pandemic, however, as China, a major economic partner, is keeping its borders closed after a resurgence of the virus in many of the country’s major cities. The Lao Prime Minister’s Office issued a notice May 7 indicating that it would lift nearly all restrictions, including reopening all international border checkpoints and entertainment venues in the country. Everyone aged 12 and over who is not vaccinated, including Lao citizens, have to show negative COVID-19 tests within 48 hours of their departure for Laos. But they do not need to submit to tests following their arrival, and vaccinated people do not have to be tested at all, the notice said. “As the notice indicated, we’re now wide open,” an official of the Information Culture and Tourism Department of the Lao capital Vientiane told RFA’s Lao service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “All the Lao-Thai friendship bridges are open and everybody is free to enter or exit Laos and can travel all over the country,” the official said. A Thai immigration officer at a bridge between Laos’ Savannakhet province and Thailand’s Mukdahan province told RFA on Monday that traffic has already picked up. “They’re required to have only their passport and a proof of vaccination,” the Thai officer said. “Many Thais and Laotians have crossed the bridge today.” That is welcome news to many Laotians who have struggled to keep businesses afloat without the benefit of tourism. “We’re happy because we’ve been struggling for more than two years,” a restaurant owner in Vang Vieng, a popular tourist town in Vientiane province, told RFA. “We all hope that the tourists come to our town and our country soon, so that we can have some badly needed income.” That sentiment was shared by a hotel employee in Vientiane. “I’m happy that we have the opportunity to receive more foreign tourists,” the source said. “The country is completely open like before the pandemic, and I am happy to return to my job and see all the night clubs and karaoke bars open again.” Laos relies heavily on its tourism industry: the 4.8 million foreign visitors it welcomed in 2019 accounted for 5.9% of its gross national product (GNP). Tourism fell off a cliff in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Only 886,400 visitors arrived in Laos that year, the latest data from the World Tourism Organization, generating just 1.2% of GNP. Tourism from Thailand is especially important to Laos, accounting for more than 2 million of the 2019 visits. But more than 1 million Chinese also visited Laos that year, and until China relaxes its border restrictions, tourism is unlikely to reach pre-pandemic levels. Exports to China will also remain limited, further delaying a full economic recovery. “We’ve been open since yesterday, but the Chinese side hasn’t opened yet because China hasn’t lifted their COVID-19 restrictions,” a Lao border official stationed at Boten, the main crossing point between China and Laos in Luang Namtha province, told RFA on Tuesday. “They are only allowing a maximum of 300 trucks a day into their country.” Trucks from Laos must wait more than a week to get into China, a Lao trucker said. “They’re not open. It’s getting more difficult to get into China and it takes at least seven days to cross the border,” he told RFA. An official at Luang Namtha’s Public Works and Transport Department told RFA that the Chinese authorities are overly strict. “When are they going to open their border? The answer is ‘I don’t know,’ because the number of COVID-19 cases in China is still on the rise, several thousand a day,” the source said. In the most recent outbreak, newly confirmed daily cases in China peaked in late April at more than 30,000. But major cities across the country remain under strict lockdowns as part of the country’s zero-COVID policy. The number of active COVID-19 cases in Laos is in decline, with only 110 new cases on Monday. About 67 percent of the country’s population of 7.2 million are fully vaccinated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country confirmed 208,535 cases and 749 deaths, according to statistics from the health ministry. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Chinese border police ‘clipping’ passports of citizens as they arrive back home

Editor09 mins

Border police in Guangzhou have stepped up controls on incoming Chinese citizens, questioning them about their overseas activities and confiscating passports, amid ongoing controls on people leaving the country. Passengers arriving in Guangzhou aboard China Southern flight CZ3082 from Bangkok on Sunday morning were all questioned individually by immigration officials at the airport, according to a social media post from one of the passengers. Border guards wanted to know what they had been doing in the countries they were returning from, why they were coming back to China, and whether they planned to leave the country again, the post said. Some passengers had their passport corners clipped, invalidating them for further travel, the post said. The report came days after the National Immigration Administration held a news conference announcing “strict reviews” of travel documents and visas, and calling on Chinese nationals not to leave the country unless absolutely necessary. Spokesman Chen Jie said immigration authorities were “continuing to maintain the highest level of prevention and control,” resulting in “low levels” of outbound passengers at border crossings and airports. A Chinese national surnamed Zhang said border guards often use passport-clipping as a way to prevent people from leaving the country, and anyone hoping to leave must first get an exit permit, signed by their local police station. “My passport was clipped two or three years ago now,” Zhang said. “There has been a strict requirement for exit permits for two years, and basically the border guards don’t want people to leave on Chinese passports.” Students blocked from travel Reports continue to surface on social media of people leaving China for foreign study having their passports clipped as they tried to board a plane, and also from people who had been denied passports when they applied for them. “There have been a lot of posts saying that people are being rejected when they apply for passports, or when they try to renew them,” a current affairs commentator surnamed Lu told RFA. “It shows that the Chinese government is trying to reduce the number of Chinese people leaving the country,” he said. “They are worried that if they do, they’ll find out what the situation is in the rest of the world.” An employee at an overseas study consultancy surnamed Huang said the government has suspended permission for minors in primary and secondary school to study abroad. “The government has said that nobody should leave the country unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Huang told RFA. “Parents aren’t allowed to send their children overseas too young either.” “Before, parents could send their kids to secondary school in Thailand or the U.K., but they’ve stopped allowing that now,” she said. “They’re only allowed to go overseas at university level.” “What does this have to do with the pandemic? They just don’t want so many people leaving,” Huang said. She said the government is concerned that children will be inculcated with “Western values” overseas. “Then, they’ll be less easy to control after they get back,” Huang said. “The more they know, the more ideas they get; they don’t need them to know much, just be a simple worker. Too many ideas and they raise objections to every suggestion: how is that manageable?” Huang said she expects the restrictions to stay in place even after zero-COVID controls have lifted. ‘Illegal entry and exit’ The immigration authorities said a crackdown on “illegal entry and exit” was under way. “The police have … strengthened full-time and all-region patrols, controls and investigations, closely cooperating with law enforcement in neighboring countries to crack down hard on illegal entry and exit activities,” the agency’s Chen said at the April 27 news conference. “People are coming in and out through illegal channels,” Chen said. “Border guards at land, sea and air checkpoints … are taking measures appropriate to local conditions and circumstances.” But Chen didn’t explain which “illegal channels” were being used. Police in the central province of Hunan in April confirmed to RFA that that residents had been ordered to hand over their passports to police, promising to return them “when the pandemic is over,” amid a massive surge in people looking for ways to leave China or obtain overseas immigration status. A March 31 notice from the Baisha police department in the central province of Hunan posted to social media ordered employers to hand over the passports of all employees and family members to police, “to be returned after the pandemic.” An officer told RFA that the order would be rolled out nationwide. China’s zero-COVID policy of mass compulsory testing, stringent lockdowns and digital health codes has sparked an emigration wave fueled by “shocked” middle-classes fed up with food shortages, confinement at home, and amid broader safety concerns. The number of keyword searches on social media platform WeChat and search engine Baidu for “criteria for emigrating to Canada” has skyrocketed by nearly 3,000 percent in the past month, with most queries clustered in cities and provinces under tough, zero-COVID restrictions, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Beijing. Immigration consultancies have seen a huge spike in emigration inquiries in recent weeks, with clients looking to apply for overseas passports or green cards, while holding onto their Chinese passports, they said in April. 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