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Category: East Asia

China musters troops to track US warship transit of Taiwan Strait

Editor05 mins

China’s People’s Liberation Army dispatched troops to shadow the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Sampson when it transited the Taiwan Strait this week, a passage described by a Chinese think-tank as “humiliating” for the PLA. The U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement that its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Tuesday “through international waters in accordance with international law.” The transit “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement said, adding that the U.S. military “flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows.” China responded quickly. A spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday said the U.S. has been “frequently carrying out provocative acts to send wrong signals to ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces, deliberately undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” The spokesperson, Snr. Col. Shi Yi, said the U.S. Navy “hyped it [the Taiwan Strait transit] up publicly” and in response, “the PLA Eastern Theatre Command sent troops to track and monitor the U.S. warship’s passage, and remained alert in the whole course.” ‘Not threatening but humiliating’ China considers Taiwan a province of China and has repeatedly said that the democratic island of 23 million people will eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. The U.S. considers the waterway between the island and China’s mainland international waters and has been patrolling the Taiwan Strait as part of its Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy. U.S. warships conducted 12 such transits last year and four since the beginning of 2022, according to Collin Koh, a regional military analyst. Elsewhere in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy has also been conducting regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs). Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday described the USS Sampson’s northward journey through the strait as “normal” and said the Taiwanese military “used joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to monitor movements at sea and in the air around Taiwan.” The South China Sea Probe Initiative (SCSPI), a Beijing-based think-tank, however, said on Twitter: “The U.S. military operation around China has been over politicized.” “We don’t know the meaning of this kind of publicity and hyping. For the PLAN (PLA Navy), this is not much threatening, but a bit humiliating,” it said. The SCSPI offered no policy recommendations, but noted that the PLAN “also maintained full surveillance based on international practice.” Tuesday’s passage was the first known Taiwan Strait transit for the USS Sampson, which has been forward-deployed to the 7th Fleet’s area of operations and is now taking part in a carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The strike group conducted joint exercises with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) in the Sea of Japan on Apr. 13 and 14.    

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Uyghurs keep focus on Xinjiang report, access as UN rights chief preps for China tour

Editor09 mins

With an advance team for the United Nations human right’s chief’s visit to China next month in the country to prepare for her long-awaited tour, Uyghur activists and other rights groups are pressing for a meaningful investigation of atrocities in Xinjiang and the release of delayed U.N. report on the region. The five-person delegation invited by the Chinese government was quarantining in Guangzhou before moving on to Xinjiang, U.N. human rights spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told the South China Morning Post this week. Once out of quarantine, they are “due to visit the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region,” Throssell told the Hong Kong daily. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news conference that an Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights preparatory team had arrived in China to prepare for an inspection tour by Michelle Bachelet. “What I want to tell you is that the goal of the high commissioner’s visit is to promote exchange and cooperation,” Wang said. “We are opposed to political manipulation by exploiting the matter.”  After years of negotiations with Beijing about her visit, Bachelet, a former Chilean president, announced that she had “recently reached an agreement with the government of China for a visit” in May, including to Xinjiang, where China is accused of having incarcerated 1.8 million Uyghur in mass detention camps. China angrily rejects all such claims as politically motivated attacks on its security and development policies in the vast western region. Beijing is calling for a “friendly” visit by the U.N. rights official, the kind that rights experts fear would help China whitewash the situation. The advance team will be expected to ensure “meaningful access” and try to “gain a clear understanding of the human rights situation in the country and engage in discussions on relevant issues with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior government officials and civil society,” Throssell told the Post, Doubts about access Bachelet first announced that her office sought an unfettered access to Xinjiang in September 2018, shortly after she took over her current role. But the trip has been delayed over questions about her freedom of movement through the region. She would be the first human rights commissioner to visit China since 2005.  The Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU), a Washington, D.C.-based Uyghur rights organization, welcomed the news that Bachelet’s team had arrived in Guangzhou, but doubted that she would be given unimpeded access because China had refused a visit unless the trip was “friendly” in nature. CFU said the Chinese government has given no sign that Bachelet will be allowed unimpeded access. “While I welcome news that the high commissioner’s visit is seemingly moving forward, I am concerned that this is another tactic to delay the release of her report on Uyghur genocide until her term expires,” CFU Executive Director Rushan Abbas said in a statement issued Monday. “Her visit is contingent on COVID restrictions, and she may spend weeks in quarantine moving from city to city, hampering her ability to investigate,” Abbas said. The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and other European-based Uyghur organizations will hold a protest in front of the United Nations compound Geneva on May 13 to demand the immediate release of an overdue human rights report on abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, the Germany-based activist group said Tuesday. ‘Extreme suffering’ WUC is teaming up with Tibetan and other international rights groups to call on Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner of human rights, to issue the report and to consult Uyghur groups in exile and former internment camp detainees ahead of her planned trip to China. Activists will stage a two-hour protest outside Palais Wilson, which is the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “We have been waiting for the release of the high commissioner’s report since September. Why has it been delayed?” WUC President Dolkun Isa said in a statement. “We are calling on Ms. Bachelet to consult with Uyghur representatives in exile beforehand, and listen to the voices of those who have experienced extreme suffering as a result of China’s policies.” WUC and other rights groups have expressed concern that the Chinese government will restrict access to places or otherwise set an itinerary designed to hide evidence of human rights abuses. Rights groups have said that Bachelet must have unfettered access to location she wants to visit for her trip to be seen as credible. That includes to China’s vast network of internment camps, where millions of mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities have been arbitrarily detained and allegedly subject to torture, rape and other abuses. About 200 organizations, including WUC, called on Bachelet in March to release the report and brief members and observers of the U.N. Human Rights Council on its contents as a matter of urgency. On April 19, nearly 60 rights groups issued a set of preconditions that had to be met in order for Bachelet’s visit to be seen as credible and independent. The statement came a day after four Uyghur internment camp survivors began a weeklong protest outside U.N. offices in Geneva. The group is calling on Bachelet to meet them before her visit and to publish her report on the situation.

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Kim Jong Un hints he might use nukes as more than deterrent

Editor011 mins

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday vowed to boost his nuclear weapons program and said the weapons could be used “in any situations of warfare” as he observed a massive military parade that showed off Pyongyang’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), state media reported. Kim Jong Un emphasized the need to strengthen the North Korea’s military capabilities, with an emphasis on nuclear development, in a speech before the parade that analysts in Seoul and Washington said were troubling. “In particular, the nuclear forces, the symbol of our national strength and the core of our military power, should be strengthened in terms of both quality and scale, so that they can perform nuclear combat capabilities in any situations of warfare, according to purposes and missions of different operations and by various means,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported him as saying. The event commemorated the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA), which under the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, waged guerilla attacks against the Japanese army in and around the Korean peninsula. The elder Kim is Kim Jong Un’s grandfather. Pyongyang has been actively testing short and long-range missiles to display its military power, with a more conservative administration about to take over the government in South Korea and talks with the U.S. over denuclearization stalled. Officials in Washington and Seoul have said that activity at North Korea’s nuclear testing site may indicate that Pyongyang is preparing to resume tests there. Kim said in the speech that the purpose of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal is to deter attacks, but also suggested that the weapons could be used for other purposes. “Our nukes can never be confined to the single mission of war deterrent even at a time when a situation we are not desirous of at all is created on this land,” Kim said. “If any forces try to violate the fundamental interests of our state, our nuclear forces will have to decisively accomplish its unexpected second mission.” The parade included the country’s largest known ICBM, the Hwasong-17, which Pyongyang claims to have successfully tested last month. South Korean officials have said that the Hwasong-17 exploded prematurely during the test and North Korea tested a less-advanced missile a few days later, claiming it was the Hwasong-17. State media made a point of showing Kim shaking hands with military officials as the Hwasong-17 rolled by them. People at a train station in Seoul, South Korea watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea’s military parade, Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Photo: AP De-escalation urged Officials in South Korea urged the North to stop raising tensions on the peninsula. “The South Korean government, above all else, urges North Korea to immediately stop any actions that cause tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the region,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Choi Young-sam said. The presidential transition committee for South Korean President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, who will assume office on May 10, said in a statement that close cooperation with the U.S. was necessary to deter North Korean threats. South Korean analysts said that Kim’s words signified a significant shift regarding North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. “North Korea’s supreme leader has explicitly stated that [nuclear weapons] are no longer a means of self-defense, but they are now for attack,” Kwak Gil Sup of Kookmin University in Seoul told RFA’s Korean Service. This increases the likelihood that North Korea would attempt to use nuclear weapons to resolve crises, Cho Han Bum of the Seoul-based Korea Institute of National Unification told RFA.  “By significantly expanding the scope of the use of nuclear weapons, it is possible to use nuclear weapons in such attempts as regime crises, internal crises and regime changes,” said Cho. Analysts in the U.S. meanwhile expressed doubts that the Hwasong-17 in the parade was real, but agreed that Kim Jong Un’s comments about his nuclear ambitions were troubling. “What we see in the parade may only be a mockup, [and] may not be a real missile, either,” David Maxwell, a former Army officer and now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told RFA. “I think it’s safe to say that Kim Jong Un is trying to show us advanced military capabilities, which on the one hand support his political warfare strategy and blackmail diplomacy to raise tensions to make threats. And they use these provocations to gain political and economic concessions,” Maxwell said. Bruce W. Bennett, a counterproliferation expert at the RAND Corporation, told RFA that Kim Jong Un’s comments about nuclear weapons were “worrisome.” “He’s trying to be scary and make it look like he’s capable. And then he says, ‘Hey, guys, bother me, and I’ll use nuclear weapons.’ You know, it’s a threat,” he said. “And especially given that he’s facing internal instability, [it] does make us wonder where things are going on the peninsula.” People at a train station in Seoul, South Korea watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea’s military parade, Tuesday, April 26, 2022. Photo: AP The General Political Bureau of the People’s Army used the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the KPRA’s founding to issue a directive to soldiers that they have the responsibility of “protecting the system as the military of the supreme leader,” a military source in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. But the source said that there was discontent brewing among the troops. “The soldiers and even military officials criticize their leaders for designating them as a ‘spearhead’ for protection of the [current political system], without treating them accordingly. … [The order] emphasizes protecting the system but does not say anything about improving the military supply situation, so many soldiers scoff at the directive,” the military source said. In North Pyongan province, in the northwest, another military source told RFA the directive included instructions to boost troop morale. “The [recent] test…

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Beijing’s zero-COVID policy snags Lao exports to China via new railway

Editor09 mins

Costly and time-consuming customs-clearing procedures put in place as part of China’s zero-COVID-19 restrictions are making it difficult for Lao traders to export products via the new Laos-China Railway, Lao officials and people involved in cross-border trade said. Lao authorities have been negotiating with their Chinese counterparts and officials with the rail company for months in an effort to send more Lao goods by train to China, but to little avail, said a Lao transportation official, who declined to be named so he could speak freely to the media. The U.S. $6 billion high-speed railway has been in operation for four months. Chinese goods and produce are shipped to Laos daily, while Lao goods are rarely transported to China, and fresh produce is not carried at all. The Chinese government’s ongoing enforcement of its zero-COVID policy for containing the highly contagious virus through intensive testing and tracing and lockdowns has meant that all imported goods must be fully checked and limits on the kinds of fruits and vegetables that are allowed in, the Lao official said. “The Chinese government does not allow sending fresh products and is still enforcing zero-COVID-19 procedures,” he said. Another complicating factor is that the train is not ready to carry fresh agricultural products, though it is transporting Chinese machinery, electrical equipment and housewares from China to Laos, the official told RFA on Monday. “Most Lao produce, including bananas and watermelons, haven’t been transported by train to China yet because these agricultural products are perishable, and the train containers are too hot for them,” the official said. Only some dried agricultural products from Laos, such as rubber, cassava and soil from Laos, can be exported by land to China via the railway, he said. A manager of the Vientiane office of a Chinese company that offers shipping services to businesses via the new railway told RFA that the COVID restrictions in China take too much money and time to process for most shippers. “They are very strict about the shipping of fresh products, fruit and produce,” he said. “The import and export of goods and tax document declaration is pretty hard as strict measures to cope COVID-19 are still imposed.” RFA could not reach the Chinese Embassy in Vientiane for comment. But state-run China Radio International reported on April 12 that China continued to enforce the zero-COVID policy to prevent all means of the virus from entering the country, including through the import of produce. A freight train from China traveling along the Laos-China Railway stops at Vang Vieng station in Vientiane province, Laos, Dec. 4, 2021. Credit: RFA Rotten fruit A businesswoman in southern Laos who exports white charcoal to China, South Korea and Japan said she’d like to use the railway but the Chinese have made the process too difficult. As of now, she sends goods to her customers in other countries via ships that leave from a Vietnamese port. A truck driver in northern Laos, who provides shipping services to China, said it was still more convenient and faster to ship produce to China via truck, even though that process has also slowed. “Sending fruits via Laos-China railway is not easy or fast,” he said. “The process takes very long, and the fruits can go rotten if it is not sent to China on time.” It used to take truck drivers two to three days to reach China by road, but COVID-19 protocols at the border have led to huge traffic jams and added as much as three days to the journey, he said. “When we reach Laos-China border, there will be trucks from China to take fruits or produce from our trucks … because we cannot drive to the cities in China,” the driver said. “These days, it is very hard to drive to China, and the COVID-19 control is very strict, and I do not understand why,” he said. “There will be officials in white plastic suits who will drive the trucks of fruit and produce from us into mainland China.” Phithoun Sri-inngarm, director of Nongkhai province’s customs office, told RFA that the Laos-China Railway transports goods from China to Laos and Thailand, but not vice versa. “In the past four months, transporting goods from Thailand to China through Laos is still very little when compared to goods shipped from China to Thailand through Laos,” he said. “The main reason is the difficult process on the Chinese side.” On March 27, the first shipment of Thai fruit — 40 tons of durians in two containers and 20 tons of coconuts in one container — was transported from Rayong province, Thailand, via the Laos-China Railway to Chongqing municipality, according to a Thai media report that cited Somkiat Mansiripibul, the manager of Kaocharoen Train Transport Co., Ltd. In January, the first shipment of 1,000 tonnes of Thai rice was delivered to China via the Laos-China railway, Thai media reported. As of March 3, the Laos-China Railway had carried more than 1.7 million passengers — 1.6 million of whom travelled on the section of railway in China — and 1.1 million tons of goods, according to the Lao News Agency. Officials have expected the railway to cut the cost of transport through Laos by 30%-40% compared to travel by road, giving a boost to trade and investment in the impoverished, landlocked country. The railway has operated 350 international train journeys carrying over 250,000 tons of freight since the start of 2022, Lao News Agency reported. Translated by RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Henan court jails dissident for nearly three years after Jiang Tianyong visit

Editor09 mins

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan have handed down a two-year, 11-month jail term to dissident Xing Wangli, after he visited a prominent rights attorney. Xing was sentenced by the Xi County District People’s Court, which found him guilty of “defamation,” following a trial by video link to the Xi County Detention Center earlier this month. His attorney received the sentencing decision on April 25. The case against Xing rested on an open letter he wrote laying responsibility for serious head injuries he received in the detention center at the door of three local government officials. The letter, dated March 5, 2021 and titled “To netizens and people from all walks of life,” accused local officials of attacking and retaliating against him for standing up for his family’s rights and interests. It accuses local officials and law enforcement of covering up after his son suffered massive injuries in a traffic accident at the age of 5, requiring treatment in intensive care and details a self-immolation attempt by his wife Xu Jincui on Tiananmen Square, after which Xu was jailed for three years and Wang sent to labor camp for one year. “During my detention in the Xi County Detention Center, I was subjected to inhuman treatment, hunger strike, shackles, handcuffs, and physical and mental torture,” the letter reads. Xi’s mother-in-law He Zeying and his mother Xing Jiaying were jailed for three years for “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” it said. “While I was detained in the Xixian Detention Center, the deputy county magistrate of Xi county, Li Xuechao, came up with a plan and the county party secretary Jin Ping nodded along, so police chief Liu Yang arranged for the detention center to carry it out,” the letter said. “I was beaten with blunt instruments, and was later diagnosed by Xinyang Central Hospital with comminuted fracture of the brain, contusion of the lower lobes of both lungs, and bilateral pleural effusion,” it said. “I was illegally detained, sent to illegal re-education through labor, and sentenced to jail for a total of nine years and nine months,” the letter said. ‘Rotten apples’ Xing’s wife, mother-in-law and mother and other family members have served a total of 26 years behind bars, it said, calling on CCP leader Xi Jinping to “investigate these rotten apples.” The letter said some of the retaliation was linked to Xing’s refusal to stay quiet about the deaths of two petitioners in suspicious circumstances. The court decided that the letter had been commissioned by Xing’s son Xing Jian, while the officials named in it took the witness stand to say it wasn’t true. It accuses Xing of instructing his son to post the letter “containing fabricated claims” to WeChat groups, after which it garnered more than 12,000 page views. It said Xing’s “defamation of public officials” had violated the officials rights and affected their mental health. Xing Jian, now living in New Zealand, said the trial was entirely biased in favor of the officials. “The witnesses they found were all public officials, and they all had a relationship to the [case],” he said, adding that what his father posted was in the public interest. “Government officials are public figures, and they need to be supervised under the law and by the public,” Xing Jian said. “Yet, if a member of the public questions, criticizes, or makes accusations against them, they put them in jail.” Canada-based dissident artist Hua Yong said Xing Wangli and his family had tried to take on the government and lost. “This kind of thing happens so often in China,” Hua said. “The lower rungs of government are willing to kill [to prevent criticism].” “If attempts to call them out get a lot of public attention, they may get out of the starting gate, but if there is no-one paying attention, they will be attacked in retaliation … it’s all a power game,” he said. Xing Wang Li’s son Xing Jian. Credit: Xing Jian. Tortured by cellmates Xing’s sentence was just one month below the maximum of three years for “defamation,” and commentators have said this is likely because he tried to visit prominent rights attorney Jiang Tianyong, who is under house arrest at his Henan home after serving a jail term during a nationwide crackdown on rights lawyers. Xing was originally detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” in May 2021 after he tried to visit Jiang, who remains under house arrest, in April 2021. He was formally arrested in June 2021, but for “defamation,” and indicted by the county prosecutor in January 2022. While defamation cases in China have previously been private prosecution cases, new guidelines issued in 2013 paved the way for it to be brought as a criminal charge against people accused of “spreading disinformation or false accusations online can constitute criminal acts. If a post deemed to contain disinformation or false accusations accrues more than 5,000 views or 500 reposts, then it is considered a “serious circumstance,” according to the U.S.-based rights group, the Duihua Foundation. Jiang was “released” from prison in February 2019 at the end of a two-year jail term for “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge often used to imprison peaceful critics of the government. He was allowed to return to his parents’ home in Luoyang, but remains under close surveillance and heavy restrictions. Jiang’s U.S.-based wife Jin Bianling has repeatedly expressed concern for her husband’s health after he was tortured by cellmates during his time in detention. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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US vows to respond to any Chinese military base in Solomons

Editor012 mins

The United States voiced concerns Tuesday over a “complete lack of transparency” surrounding a new security deal between the Solomon Islands and China and vowed to respond to any attempt to establish a Chinese military base in the island nation. A draft copy of the security pact leaked onto social media in late March but neither party has made public the deal, reportedly signed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Solomon Islands counterpart Jeremiah Manele. The deal has drawn expressions of deep concern from U.S. allies Australia and New Zealand that it could enable China to extend its military reach in the Pacific. It also prompted a hasty visit to the Pacific by two top U.S. diplomats. U.S. National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink led a U.S. delegation to Honiara late last week where they held a 90-minute “constructive and candid meeting” with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. Kritenbrink told journalists at a teleconference on Tuesday that the lack of transparency of the security agreement was “our fundamental concern.” “I think it’s clear that only a handful of people in a very small circle have seen this agreement, and the prime minister himself has been quoted publicly as saying he would only share the details with China’s permission, which I think is a source of concern as well,” the U.S senior diplomat said. “Of course we have respect for the Solomon Islands’ sovereignty, but we also wanted to let them know that if steps were taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation, then we would have significant concerns and we would very naturally respond to those concerns,” Kritenbrink said. A file photo showing Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China Oct. 9, 2019. Credit: Reuters. ‘Red line’ The assistant secretary of state declined to elaborate on possible responses to security implications caused by the new agreement but said that Prime Minister Sogavare gave the U.S. three specific assurances that “there would be no military base, no long-term presence, no power-projection capability.” In Washington, during a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney called the agreement “alarming.”  In response, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he shared the senator’s concern. He reiterated the assurances the U.S. delegation had gotten from Sogavare, adding: “We will be watching that very, very closely in the weeks and months ahead.” Sogavare’s words have done little to calm Solomon Islands’ neighbors. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that a military base would be a “red line” for Canberra. The Solomons occupies a remote but strategic location in the western Pacific, about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the northeastern coast of Australia. Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), said: “I think now that the security agreement has been officially signed, there is little the U.S. or Australia can do to reverse it. The key question now is how fast will China move to establish a permanent presence, leading to a base, in the Solomon Islands.” “Australia and the U.S. can try to use diplomacy to convince the Sogavare government to not allow this base to be established quickly, or to constrain its size and function, but there is little chance that these efforts will succeed, as it’s clear that Sogavare has aligned with China,” Davis said. “They can also try to contain Chinese influence in the region further by ‘stepping up’ the ‘Pacific Step Up’ and making it more effective,” he said, referring to the Biden administration’s push to increase U.S. engagement in the region. He added: “This has greater chance of success given the regional concern about the agreement signed between Solomon Islands and China.” Norah Huang, associate research fellow at Prospect Foundation, a Taiwanese think tank, described the deal as “opportunism” by the Solomons prime minister. She said the best response might be “candid talks with the governing parties in private to walk it back or at least neutralize the deal.” “But Australia, the U.S. and New Zealand should be careful not to reward those who play opportunism,” Huang said. A file photo showing Australian Navy officers from the HMAS Canberra arriving at the Tanjung Priok port, as part of the military exercise Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2021, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Oct. 25, 2021. Credit: Reuters. Regional efforts Japan became the latest regional power to send a representative to the Solomon Islands to express concern over the security pact. According to Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Solomons prime minister repeated assurances to Japanese officials on Tuesday that he had no intention of allowing China to build military bases in his country, Reuters reported. Davis at ASPI said the China-Solomons deal could presage a move by Beijing to extend its reach in the South Pacific. “I think the greatest risk is that China would choose to extend its influence into Papua New Guinea, where it already has substantial investment, and is openly talking about a ‘fishing facility’ at Daru Island, which could ultimately be the basis for a port that could support Chinese Coast Guard vessels,” he said. “The U.S. and Australia, as well as New Zealand, will now need to adjust their defense policies with the prospect of a forward Chinese military presence in the Southwest Pacific that certainly dramatically increases the military threat to the Australian eastern seaboard, but also severs the sea lane of communication between Australia and the United States,” the defense analyst said. ‘Too little, too late’ There have been calls in Australia’s political and defense circles to “prepare for war,” and Davis said there should be some review of Australian defense force posture, and greater investment into air, sea, and space capabilities across…

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Tibetan exile leader arrives in Washington for talks

Editor09 mins

Tibetan exile leader Penpa Tsering has met with senior State Department official Uzra Zeya for discussions on the status of the Himalayan region in the first of a series of talks this week with U.S. Congressional and government representatives. Tsering – the Sikyong or elected head of Tibet’s India-based exile government the Central Tibetan Administration – will be in Washington until April 29 at the invitation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and will be following his talks there with visits next week to Canada and Germany. Monday’s meeting with Uzra Zeya, Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, was followed by a lunch hosted at the State Department and attended by seven foreign ambassadors, including ambassadors from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Special Coordinator Zeya has been active in supporting Tibet’s struggle for greater freedoms under China’s rule ever since her appointment to the role last year, Tsering said in remarks following their discussions. “She had her first virtual meeting with the Representative of the Office of Tibet in Washington D.C., and has met with other groups such as the International Campaign for Tibet and the Tibet Fund, and has also been interviewed by various Tibetan media outlets such as Radio Free Asia,” Tsering said. Former State Department special representatives were never so visible or spoke so openly in raising concerns over Tibetan issues, Tsering said. Discussions on how to resume talks between China and Tibet’s exile government will continue “and cannot be resolved in one day,” the Sikyong said, reiterating the CTA’s support for a “Middle Way” approach that accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China but urges greater freedoms for Tibetan language, religious, and cultural rights. “We urge the Tibetans inside Tibet not to lose hope, as we in exile will continue to do our best to advocate for Tibet,” Tsering added. Nine rounds of talks were previously held between envoys of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and high-level Chinese officials beginning in 2002, but stalled in 2010 and were never resumed. Also meeting with Zeya on Monday, Zeegyab Rinpoche — abbot of the South India branch of Tibet’s Tashilhunpo monastery, seat of Tibet’s missing Panchen Lama — said that he and Tsering urged Zeya in their talks to “take a stronger stand and strengthen efforts to resolve the Tibetan issue and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet.” The U.S. must now also implement the Tibet Policy and Support Act, U.S. legislation pushing for U.S. access to Panchen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who vanished into Chinese custody as a young boy in 1995 after being recognized by the Dalai Lama as the previous Panchen Lama’s successor, Zeegyab Rinpoche said. Following the Panchen Lama’s disappearance, the Chinese government quickly put forward its own candidate, Gyaincain Norbu, calling him the “real” Panchen Lama. Norbu remains widely unpopular among Tibetans, who consider him a puppet of Beijing. A significant religious figure April 25 marked the 33rd birthday of the missing Panchen Lama, and was celebrated by Tibetan exile communities around the world. It was also observed this year by a large gathering in Ladakh, a northwestern Indian territory that shares many Buddhist traditions with Tibet. Commenting on Monday’s observance, Thiksey Rinpoche — a former member of the Indian parliament’s upper house — called the Panchen Lama “a very significant religious figure not just for Tibetans but for Buddhists everywhere.” “Tibet and Ladakh share similar religious and cultural traditions, and any problems faced by Tibetans are also problems faced by all Himalayan communities,” Thiksey Rinpoche said. “The [well-being of] the Panchen Lama remains a critical issue,” agreed Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, a member of India’s parliament. “It is also obvious that the Chinese government will object if the Dalai Lama himself is reincarnated in India, and as an Indian I feel we must be concerned about this.” “This is not just a concern for Tibetans alone. The Indian government must address this issue too,” Namgyal said. In a statement Monday, the U.S. State Department urged authorities in the People’s Republic of China to account for the missing Panchen Lama’s whereabouts and well-being, “and to allow him to fully exercise his human rights and fundamental freedoms, in line with the PRC’s international commitments.” “The United States supports Tibetans’ religious freedom and their unique religious, cultural, and linguistic identity, including Tibetans’ right to select, educate, and venerate their own leaders, like the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, according to their own beliefs and without government interference,” the State Department said. Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers later fled into exile in India and other countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against China’s rule. Tibetans living in Tibet frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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China’s smaller cities also under lockdown as COVID-19 prevention drive hits Beijing

Editor010 mins

As a grueling lockdown in Shanghai continues to make world headlines, as many as 30 million people have been under similar measures for weeks under the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s zero-COVID policy elsewhere in China. A recent video posted by the Yitiao short video content producer featured interviews with residents of the southwestern border town of Ruili, which has been locked down on and off for weeks, prompting an estimated 200,000 people to leave town. The city is an important trading center for the China-Myanmar border, but has been locked down nine times, making a total of 160 days, since the pandemic began, in line with the official narrative that the biggest threat of COVID-19 transmission comes from outside China. As people flocked to stores and supermarkets fearing an imminent lockdown in Beijing, parts of which are already under lockdown or similar restrictions, residents of port and border cities have been living under some degree of restriction for months, they told RFA. A Ruili hotel employee surnamed Yang confirmed the report. “It’s true that the economy here is no good,” Yang said. “The city is often locked down because of the pandemic, and most of the traders have gone to other nearby cities like Longchuan, Pingjiang and Tengchong.” Yang said he would like to leave too, but is currently on a seven-day mandatory quarantine at home, and will need a negative PCR test before he can leave. A second Ruili resident said the border with Myanmar remains closed, with low occupancy rates in hotels. Asked about locals, the resident replied simply: “Everyone’s gone.” In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, the border trading town of Suifenhe, on the Binsui railway close to the Russian border, is also locked down, a resident told RFA. According to Yitiao, Suifenhe was placed under lockdown in April 2020 after some cases were found to have been imported from Russia, and has been under lockdown since Jan. 25, 2022, with all delivery services, pharmacies and hospital clinics closed for business. A staff member sprays disinfectant at a cinema as the city starts to reopen after a Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak in Shenyang, in China’s northeastern Liaoning province, April 25, 2022. Credit: AFP Dozens of cities An employee who answered the phone at a restaurant in the town confirmed the report. “We’re closed. We’re not doing business. Since about March or April,” the employee said, adding that he expected the lockdown to lift soon, and businesses to open again. Residents of Dongxing in the southwestern region of Guangxi on the border with Vietnam have also reportedly been under similar restrictions since Feb. 23, 2022, which were only lifted on April 23. Media reports show dozens of smaller towns and cities are currently under partial or total lockdown due to rising COVID-19 cases, including Baotou in Inner Mongolia, Hangzhou, home to the headquarters of Alibaba, and Tangshan in the northern province of Hebei. A Caixin media report also listed Changchun, Handan, Quanzhou and many cities in Jilin, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and Shaanxi as locked down, with more than 30 million people affected. U.S.-based current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan said hard and soft lockdowns are being used interchangeably by local governments. “The boundary between the CCP’s notion of locked-down and semi-locked down cities, or between hard and soft city closures, is getting more and more blurred,” Tang said. Most seem to share a few features in common, however: residents are required to stay home unless they need medical treatment or are getting tested in one of the compulsory mass-testing operations. Schools are closed, businesses shut down, and roadblocks are put in place to minimize non-essential traffic on the roads. While Shanghai’s lockdown has been a major focus for Chinese state media and social media, much less is being written on any platform about the smaller cities. Block-and-delete operations Meanwhile, those in other cities are finding it harder and harder to read or watch content coming out of Shanghai, as government censors step up their block-and-delete operations. A directive issued by the CCP’s powerful propaganda department to media editors dated April 22 orders editors and censors to remove any reference to a hard-hitting short video featuring an audio montage of the voices of people during the Shanghai lockdown. “Will all channels please completely remove any copies of “April Voices” or screenshots from it, as well as any images deriving from it,” the directive, posted to the China Digital Times website and attributed to the Beijing Cyberspace Administration, said. A similar message was also attributed by CDT, which curates leaked propaganda directives under its Ministry of Truth section, to the Guangdong Cyberspace Administration. According to Tang Jingyuan said there has been little online complaint or protest regarding lockdowns outside Shanghai, which is home to a highly privileged and well-connected population. “Firstly, smaller and medium-sized cities don’t get much public attention anyway, and secondly, local governments may wield stronger control over content like that, so it’s hard for discontent to spread.” He said the factional battle lines within CCP ranks have found public expression in Shanghai. “There is both a public and a hidden struggle going on between their two models,” Tang said. “These very strong political factors have led to a high degree of non-cooperation throughout Shanghai, even publicly, which is pretty rare.” Authorities in Beijing reported 70 new cases of symptomatic COVID-19 during the past four days, and announced they would expand mass PCR testing across most of the city. Supermarkets were scrambling to restock after Monday‘s panic-buying, but residents said basic foodstuffs were still in short supply. In Shanghai, authorities continued to send residents who tested negative outside of the city, mostly to Hangzhou, sparking fear among local people. And media reports said Meng Qinggong, the deputy chief designer of China’s homegrown CR929 aircraft, died of a heart attack at his home on Sunday after attempts to save him were unsuccessful. Meng died after a long wait for an ambulance, which was hampered by current lockdown restrictions and couldn’t reach him in time, the reports said….

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Uyghur internment camp survivors rally outside UN office in Geneva

Editor010 mins

Uyghur survivors of China’s internment camps began a weeklong rally outside the United Nations compound in Geneva on Monday, seeking a meeting with the U.N. human rights chief and urging her to issue an overdue report detailing rights abuses in Xinjiang. Qelbinur Sidiq, Gulbahar Jelilova, Gulbahar Haitiwaji and Omir Bekali have requested a meeting with Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. She announced last month that she had reached agreement with the Chinese government for a visit in May, including the turbulent western China region. The Uyghur women want Bachelet to release the human rights report before she visits China. They offered to accompany the former Chilean president on the trip. “I’d be happy to take them to the camps and prisons in Urumqi,” Gulbahar Jelilova said, referring to Xinjiang’s capital. “If we don’t accompany them, China will play a lot of games not to show them the reality. That’s why we’re requesting to go on this trip.” Gulbahar Jelilova said she could show the U.N. team a location where Uyghurs were executed and a hospital that removed organs from dead prisoners. Jelilova said she was detained on accusations of “aiding terrorism” while on a business trip to Urumqi and put into three different camps over a period of 15 months beginning in May 2017. She returned to Kazakhstan in September 2018, as a direct result of appeals from her two children in Kazakhstan, who sought diplomatic assistance from the Kazakh government. Jelilova has since alleged since that she witnessed a number of atrocities inside the camps, including the torture and the deaths of innocent people. Bachelet’s office has been under pressure from rights activists to issue an overdue report on rights violations by Chinese authorities targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and others have been held in a vast network of internment camps operated by the Chinese government under the pretext of preventing religious extremism and terrorism among the mostly Muslim groups. “We hope she discloses the truth to the world after her return,” said Qelbinur Sidiq, 52, who is also known as Kalbinur Sidik. The Xinjiang regional government has published statements discrediting Sidiq and other former Uyghur female detainees, who have testified about the abuse they endured or witnessed in internment camps in Xinjiang. “We’re all fully aware that China is a very crafty and deceptive country extremely skillful at choreographing fake people and fake stages,” said Gulbahar Haitiwaji. “What worries me most is that it’s really not useful but damaging if Michelle Bachelet does not see the real genocide and real repression, but only meets with the people and fake stages set up by China,” she told RFA. Haitiwaji was arrested in January 2017, around the time authorities began to detain Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities en masse, accusing them of “religious extremism” and other allegedly phony charges. She later wrote about her brutal living conditions in prison after she was released and returned to her family France in August 2019. “If she fails to see the real genocide and real repression in our homeland but report something not truthful, then Michelle Bachelet will become complicit with China’s genocide against Uyghurs,” Haitiwaji said. A ‘first solid step’ Omir Bekali, a Uyghur of Kazakh decent who said he was tortured by authorities during the nine months he spent in three camps on allegations of terrorist activities, said the demonstration outside U.N. headquarters was “one of the first solid steps we have taken to end the ongoing genocide of our people and to free them sooner.” “We decided to launch this campaign with the hope of getting more attention from international institutions and media,” he said. “We’re hoping to expand it later to include the European Union. We also hope that camp survivors in the U.S. hold the same rally in front of the U.N. [in New York].” The United States government and the parliaments of some Western nations have declared that the Chinese government’s abuses in Xinjiang constitute genocide and crimes against humanity. Monday’s action comes on the heels of tweet by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on April 20 that Bachelet to release the report on Xinjiang, which the human rights chief previously said would be finished in September 2021. Bachelet first announced that her office sought an unfettered access to the Uyghur region in September 2018, shortly after she stepped into her current role. But the trip has been delayed over questions about her freedom of movement through the region. International rights groups have said that Bachelet’s visit to Xinjiang must be independent and unhindered to be credible. Also on Monday, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its annual report, recommending that 15 countries, including China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam, be designated by the State Department as “countries of particular concern” because their governments engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations” of religious freedom. The commission is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity created in 1998 to monitor and report on religious freedom abroad and make recommendation to the U.S. administration and Congress. The report noted that the U.S. government had implemented USCIRF recommendations, including the use of targeted sanctions on religious freedom violators and genocide determinations for atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese government against Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims. “Throughout the past year, the U.S. government continued to condemn abuses of religious freedom and hold perpetrators accountable through targeted sanctions and other tools at its disposal,” said USCIRF vice chair Nury Turkel in a statement. “Moving forward, the United States should take additional steps to support freedom of religion or belief around the world. USCIRF’s 2022 Annual Report makes recommendations on how Congress and the Executive Branch can further advance this universal, fundamental human right.” Translated by Alim Seytoff for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Malaysia contacts Myanmar’s shadow govt as ASEAN fails to implement 5-point consensus

Editor08 mins

Malaysia’s top diplomat has revealed he’s had contact with the Burmese shadow government, the first ASEAN country to acknowledge such an interaction, as activists lambasted the bloc on the anniversary of its failed five-point plan to restore democracy in Myanmar. Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah was responding Sunday to an open letter from a Southeast Asian parliamentarians’ group to the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In it, they urged the bloc to “immediately and publicly meet with the NUG” – Myanmar’s parallel, civilian National Unity Government. “I have informally met [through virtual conference] the NUG Myanmar foreign minister and the NUCC chairman before the last ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat. Let’s meet and discuss,” Saifuddin said via Twitter, referring to a ministerial retreat that took place in a hybrid format in mid-February after being postponed from an earlier scheduled date amid reports of differences among member-states. Myanmar’s National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) includes representatives of the NUG, civil society groups, ethnic armed organizations, and civil disobedience groups. In the tweet, Saifuddin tagged the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), the group that sent the open letter on Sunday, the anniversary of the day when Southeast Asian leaders and the Burmese junta chief, agreed during an emergency summit to a so-called Five-Point Consensus for action on post-coup Myanmar. Last October, Malaysia’s outspoken foreign minister had said he would open talks with the NUG if the Burmese junta kept stonewalling in cooperating with ASEAN’s conflict resolution efforts. RFA contacted the foreign ministry of Cambodia, this year’s ASEAN chair, for comment but did not immediately hear back. Meanwhile, Bo Hla Tint, the NUG’s special representative to ASEAN, questioned the Southeast Asian bloc’s seriousness in solving the Myanmar crisis. “They have failed to implement, during the past year, the basic point of the ASEAN Common Agreements – to end the violence. And then, they failed to comply with the second point – systematic distribution of humanitarian aid,” he told RFA. “I’d say the ASEAN leadership does not take seriously the policy or framework set down by the ASEAN leadership itself, if the leaders do not take any effective action [against the junta].” This aerial photo taken by a drone shows Bin village in Mingin, a township in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, after villagers say it was set ablaze by the Burmese military, Feb. 3, 2022. Credit: Reuters ‘A five-point failure’ In Malaysia, two analysts praised Saifuddin for breaking from ASEAN and initiating separate action. “Malaysia takes lead on call to review ASEAN’s approach to Myanmar (after a year of failed ASEAN five-point consensus), acknowledging informal meetings with NUG Myanmar,” Bridget Welsh, a political analyst with the University of Nottingham Malaysia, tweeted. Another analyst, Aizat Khairi, a senior lecturer at Universiti Kuala Lumpur, agreed. “Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah’s reaction to the APHR open letter is something refreshing,” he told BenarNews. The five-point agreement reached between ASEAN’s leaders and Burmese military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on April 24 last year included an end to violence, the provision of humanitarian assistance, an ASEAN envoy’s appointment, all-party dialogue, and mediation by the envoy. ASEAN has not succeeded in implementing any of these points, said Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think-tank. “I think there is no doubt every part of [the consensus] has failed, and with Cambodia as the chair and the junta increasingly backed by China, there is no way the consensus will succeed, or that ASEAN will do anything at all serious about Myanmar,” Kurlantzick told BenarNews. “Suspend Myanmar from ASEAN until a return to democratic rule. … But ASEAN won’t do that.” He was referring to Beijing’s support for Naypyidaw at international forums, including at the United Nations, since Min Aung Hlaing toppled the elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021.   Under ASEAN’s long-standing policy that its 10 members take all decisions collectively through consensus, if one member-state opposes a proposed move, it is shelved. And not every ASEAN member is on board with stricter action against Myanmar other than barring junta representatives from attending top ASEAN meetings, analysts have noted. A “five-point failure” is what the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), a group of independent international experts, calls ASEAN’s consensus. “The junta has not held to a single point of the five-point consensus. The agreement has failed and a change of course from ASEAN is needed,” SAC-M member Marzuki Darusman said in a statement issued Friday. In fact, since joining the consensus, Min Aung Hlaing has escalated the military’s attack on the people of Myanmar, and continued to target and detain political opponents, SAC-M said. Nearly 1,800 people, mostly pro-democracy protesters, have been killed by Burmese security forces, since the coup. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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