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Category: East Asia
New prison to house criminals from Laos’ Chinese-run special economic zone
People convicted of crimes in the Chinese-run Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in northern Laos, a hotbed of human trafficking and smuggling, will soon serve their sentences in a new prison built by the zone as a gift to its host province. Lao authorities have complained that they cannot easily enter the zone, which operates largely beyond the reach of Lao laws, creating friction with locals. In a ceremony on June 16, the deputy of the zone’s board of directors, Cheng Yu Feng, gave control of the new facility to Bokeo province’s Department of Public Security. “It will be used within the zone. If there are any criminals [in the SEZ] they will be sent to this prison,” she told RFA’s Lao Service on Friday. An official from the security department, who requested not to be named, told RFA that the prison will be used as soon as the facilities are ready. “As of now, the building is not ready yet, and the relevant authorities are discussing how to transfer prisoners there, and how the security system will work,” the official said. The official was unable to comment on how many prisoners are in the zone or where they are being held. Nearby villagers told RFA that the prison is built about three kilometers (1.86 miles) away from the SEZ in Mouangkham village. “Most of the crimes in the zone, as I have observed, are those cases related to human trafficking,” a villager told RFA. “The criminals include Thai, Burmese and Lao citizens in the casino and some of them work as online scammers who chat with victims on social media platforms.” Most of the victims have been Lao nationals lured by middlemen to perform jobs as scammers trying to convince people to invest or buy shares in the Kings Romans Casino. When they couldn’t meet their sales quotas, they were detained against their will, and in some cases sold off to work in the sex industry. The new prison will replace a much smaller one within the zone, another villager told RFA. “There was a three-room prison before this bigger newly built prison,” the villager said. “The former one was located near the road to Bokeo International airport. The old prison also belongs to the zone.” A lawyer told RFA that the prison must be managed by the Ministry of Public Security under Lao laws. “Any Lao law breaker can only be punished by Lao police and officials,” the lawyer said. Lao citizens and foreigners who work in the SEZ also must be tried under Lao laws, the lawyer said. The Golden Triangle SEZ is run by Zhao Wei, chairman of the Dok Ngiew Kham Group, with Zhao’s firm holding 80 percent interest and the Lao government holding 20 percent. Located where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet, the Golden Triangle area got its name five decades ago for its central role in heroin production and trafficking. In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department declared Zhao Wei’s business network, centered on Kings Romans Casino, a “transnational criminal organization” and sanctioned Zhao and three other individuals and companies across Laos, Thailand and Hong Kong. Zhao’s business “exploits this region by engaging in drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, bribery and wildlife trafficking, much of which is facilitated through the Kings Romans Casino located within the [Golden Triangle] SEZ,” a Treasury statement said. The State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report said Laos had increased its efforts to combat trafficking, but fell short in victim identification and screening procedures, and failed to adequately investigate suspected perpetrators of sex trafficking. According to the information from the SEZ board, the new 900 square-meter prison was built in October 2021. It was originally scheduled to be completed in May. There are 30 rooms within the prison, six of which are offices for prison staff. RFA was not able to determine the prisoner capacity of the facility. The new facility was funded and constructed by a Chinese company with the total cost of around 11.37 billion kip (U.S. $764,000). Translated by Phouvong, Written in English by Eugene Whong.
China steps up anti-NATO rhetoric ahead of Madrid summit, citing ‘Cold War’ ethos
China is stepping up anti-NATO rhetoric ahead of the military alliance’s summit next week, calling it a “product of the Cold War” dominated by the United States, while an envoy of leader Xi Jinping is hoping to convince European leaders the country doesn’t back the Russian invasion of Ukraine, analysts said. “NATO is a product of the Cold War and the world’s biggest military alliance dominated by the U.S.,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told journalists in Beijing on June 23, three days ahead of the summit in Madrid. “It is a tool for the US to maintain its hegemony and influence Europe’s security landscape [which] is clearly against the trend of our times,” he said in comments reported in the English edition of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper, the People’s Daily. Wang cast doubt on NATO’s core purpose as a defensive organization, saying it had “willfully waged wars against sovereign countries that left a large number of civilians dead and tens of millions displaced.” “NATO has already disrupted stability in Europe. It should not try to do the same to the Asia-Pacific and the whole world,” Wang said. Wang’s comments came after Zhang Heqing, cultural counselor at the Chinese embassy in Pakistan, commented on a video of tens of thousands of people demonstrating in Brussels against the cost-of-living crisis on June 20, claiming it was a protest against NATO. “Tens of thousands of protesters marched in #Brussels chanting “Stop #NATO” on June 20, expressing anger at the rising living costs & condemning NATO countries’ rush to arm #Ukraine,” Zhang wrote, quote-tweeting the nationalistic Global Times newspaper. ‘Political warfare’ and ‘disinformation’ Teresa Fallon, director of Belgium’s Center for Russian, Europe and Asian Studies, said the march had had nothing to do with NATO. “The protests had nothing at all to do with NATO, but Beijing is using this form of political warfare or disinformation in the run-up to the NATO summit which takes place next week,” Fallon told RFA. “This type of clunky propaganda nevertheless may be believed by some people,” she said, adding that China shares its view of NATO with its ally Russia. The stepped-up rhetoric appears somewhat at odds with apparent attempts by the CCP under Xi Jinping to mollify European leaders, sending special envoy Wu Hongbo to meet with key figures ahead of the NATO summit. “Dispatching his special envoy to Europe for a three-week charm tour was just one of many acts of high-stakes damage control ahead of the 20th CCP Congress this autumn,” Atlantic Council president Frederick Kempe wrote in a commentary for CNBC ahead of the summit. “Xi’s economy is dangerously slowing, financing for his Belt and Road Initiative has tanked, his zero-Covid policy is flailing, and his continued support of Russian President Vladimir Putin hangs like a cloud over his claim of being the world’s premier national-sovereignty champion as Russia’s war on Ukraine grinds on,” Kempe wrote. “Xi’s taking no chances ahead of one of his party’s most important gatherings, a meeting designed to assure his continued rule and his place in history,” the article said, citing recent meetings between Wu and European business leaders as evidence of a more conciliatory approach by Xi. Fallon agreed. “I would say that there is a disillusionment across the board with China,” she said. “Beijing is attempting a diplomatic dance where they try to convince Europeans that they really aren’t supporting Russia.” “In reality, they are talking out of both sides of their mouth, trying to tell the Europeans one thing, while at the same time supporting Russia,” she said, adding that Beijing is the biggest customer for Russian energy, and those sales contribute to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war coffers. Problems at home Craig Singleton, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, said Beijing’s current foreign policy is largely driven by pressing problems at home. “Global public opinion of China sits at record lows and Chinese leader Xi Jinping refuses to leave the country to meet with other world leaders,” Singleton told RFA. “Making matters worse is that China’s economy, long in decline, is really now in freefall on account of Xi’s financial mismanagement.” “This most recent outreach to EU capitals is reflective of growing recognition in Beijing that its wolf-warrior tactics have undermined China’s economic position with Europe, one of China’s most important trading partners, and that China needs the European market and European consumers to help get itself out of its current economic mess,” he said. While Germany’s current government had sent a number of “mixed signals” about its views on China since taking office, Berlin would likely ultimately rethink its relationship with Beijing, as it has already done with Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, Singleton said. “China’s attempts to reset its relationship will be seen in Europe as insincere and likely leading to a continued erosion of the relationship,” he added. “Making matters worse is that European frustrations with China’s equivocations on Russia and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, [so] anger is growing against China from lots of European capitals, and there is no indication that China is rethinking its support for Russia’s invasion,” he said. Singleton said the growing willingness of European countries to enhance trade and investment ties with democratic Taiwan in recent months “will almost certainly irritate Beijing,” and lead it to lash out in ways that were inimical to its own foreign policy goals in Europe. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Former journalists for Hong Kong’s folded Apple Daily take reporting to social media
One year after the paper was forced to shut down and several senior editors arrested by national security police, former reporters at Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper are still writing the stories the paper might have run, and posting them to social media. Journalist Alvin Chan, who uses the hashtags #AppleDaily and #keeponreporting on his Facebook page, posted a report showing a small group of people gathered outside the now-empty headquarters of Jimmy Lai’s Next Digital media empire late on Thursday night. “A group of former Apple Daily reporters happened to show up at the same time outside the … empty Next Digital building tonight … and took photos,” Chan wrote. “Then, suddenly, several police vehicles arrived at the scene, sirens blaring, so they left, leaving other journalists there still reporting.” Chan isn’t the only former Apple Daily staffer reporting on news that would be considered in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. Former colleague Leung Ka Lai has started a Patreon page, and continues to post reports to her Facebook page, including interviews with leaders of the 2019 protest movement that prompted Beijing to tighten its grip on the former British colony. “I’m not reconciled to this, no,” Leung told RFA. “How can they just use such violent methods to eliminate a media organization?” “The Apple Daily shouldn’t be allowed to just disappear like this,” she said. “I figured there had to be some work I can keep on doing.” Employees, executive editor in chief Lam Man-Chung (L) and deputy chief editor Chan Pui-Man (C) cheer each other in the Apple Daily newspaper office after completing editing of the final edition in Hong Kong, June 23, 2021. Credit: AFP ‘The spirit of those times’ Leung has published around 40 reports on her page since the paper closed, most of them about the aftermath of the 2019 protest movement, many of them based on interviews with arrestees and protest leaders. “They say the protesters are a forgotten group, but their experiences are actually representative of the spirit of those times,” Leung said. “My specialty is doing in-depth profiles … I think it’s very important to write down what happened to them, and preserve their thoughts and experiences.” “It feels more like a record, like the role of a storyteller, writing down their stories,” she said. Leung said she is trying to put into practice the ethos of the protest movement, summarized as a quote from late martial arts legend Bruce Lee, “be water.” “To be a human being, you need principles, and lines beyond which you won’t go,” Leung said. “If the biggest lesson Hong Kong people took from 2019 was to be water, then this needs to be integrated into everyday life, not just be a slogan.” Chan has dedicated his page to reporting on the progress of thousands of cases from the 2019 protest movement through the Hong Kong judicial system. “I like being a reporter, so I think that by reporting on cases from the public gallery, I can offer something like a glimmer of light that lets each other know we exist,” Chan said. “I don’t know if you can call it a sense of mission; it’s more the method I have chosen to use,” he said. Sensitive topics bring personal risk Chan, who remains in Hong Kong, said he still needs to consider his personal risk under the national security law. “I need to think about the dangers and risks behind some reports, and won’t touch any of the more controversial or sensitive topics,” he said. “I hesitate and struggle over whether to report certain Hong Kong-related events in foreign countries,” he said. “It’s a tough, rugged and difficult road to travel, that of an independent journalist.” “It means more risks at a time when there is little room for 100 flowers to bloom,” Chan said, in a reference to the criminalization of public dissent under the national security law. “But it makes what we are doing as reporters more meaningful,” he said. “Journalists write the history of a particular time, so I want to preserve the truth for the next generation, including my own.” According to a June 22 report from the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), Hong Kong’s rating under three measures of civil and political rights has plummeted since the survey began in 2019. Hong Kong’s score for the “right to assembly and association” fell from 4.5 in 2019 to 3.1 in 2020, and then to 2.5 in 2021. The city’s rating for the “right to hold and express opinions” and “right to participate in politics” fell by 2.7 and 2.4 respectively in 2021, putting all three indicators in the “very poor” category. The draconian national security law imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Hong Kong from July 1, 2020 has sparked a crackdown on pro-democracy media organizations. After Lai’s Next Digital media empire was forced to close, the crackdown has also led to the closure of Stand News and Citizen News, as well as the “rectification” of iCable news and government broadcaster RTHK to bring them closer to Beijing’s official line. Hong Kong recently plummeted from 80th to 148th in the 2022 Reporters Without Border (RSF) press freedom index, with the closures of Apple Daily and Stand News cited as one of the main factors. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
China’s false claim on the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh
Before the inauguration of the much anticipated Padma Bridge in Bangladesh, Chinese embassy has made false claims that it is constructed under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through the Chinese funding.
Vietnam’s human rights record is poor but improving, HRMI says
Vietnam’s human rights situation has improved over the past year but remains poor, according to the annual report from Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), released on Wednesday. Progress is still needed in areas such as empowerment, the survey showed. The report measures 13 rights, consisting of five economic and social human rights and eight civil and political human rights. HRMI gave Vietnam a score of 5.3 out of 10 in the Safety before the State section, indicating that many Vietnamese are not safe from the risk of arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, and execution without trial. Vietnam ranked 3 (very bad) in the Empowerment section. The report said the low score shows that many people do not enjoy civil and political freedoms such as freedom of speech, assembly and association, and democratic rights. In an emailed interview with Radio Free Asia, HRMI head of strategy and communications Thalia Kehoe Rowden said gradual progress is being made in the one-party country: “It’s encouraging to see some small but steady improvements over the last few years in the rights to be free of forced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and detention, and extrajudicial execution,” she said. “However, these scores still all fall in the ‘bad’ or ‘fair’ ranges, so there is considerable room for improvement.” Kehoe Rowden said many people in Vietnam are not safe from state harm and cannot be considered free to express their views. “Vietnam’s Empowerment scores show no significant improvement over the last few years, and all three rights we measure in that category fall in the ‘very bad’ range. Many people in Vietnam do not enjoy their political freedoms and civil liberties,” she said. The good news, according to Kehoe Rowden, is that Vietnam’s scores on access to clean water and sanitation have steadily improved over the past decade, giving more people access to water and toilets in their homes. HRMI said there is not enough data from countries in East Asia and the Pacific to compare by region on civil and political rights, but compared to the other 39 countries surveyed by the organization, Vietnam is performing worse than the average for the right to be safe from the state. However, Vietnam still ranks higher than both the US (4.3 points) and China (2.8 points) in this regard. The report said that human rights campaigners, members of political and religious groups, journalists and trade unionists are at high risk of being deprived of their right to be safe from the state. Hanoi-based political dissident Nguyen Vu Binh, a former prisoner of conscience and former editor of Communist Journal, told RFA he believes the report to be accurate, taking into account: “the realities in Vietnam in criteria such as quality of life, safety from the state, and empowerment.” “Their report is detailed. In the past four to five years, the persecution of dissidents has greatly intensified. In some cases, environmental activists have also been arrested,” he said. Binh said high quality surveys like this serve to inform the international community about the lives and rights of the Vietnamese people and their treatment at the hands of Vietnamese authorities. HRMI was founded in 2016 by a group of economists, public policy and human rights researchers. The organization began conducting surveys in 13 countries in 2017 rising to 39 in the latest report for 2021. The organization says it aims to systematically measure all rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in every country in the world, giving governments a global measure and encouraging them to treat their people better.
A lack of smuggled oil is complicating North Korea’s efforts to catch smugglers
North Korea has been forced to cut the number of patrol boats it sends out to catch smugglers and illegal border crossings–due to a shortage of smuggled fuel, sources in the military told RFA. Pyongyang has long sought to prevent people from leaving the country. But its level of vigilance was heightened when North Korea and China closed their border during the start of the pandemic in 2020. According to reports, some of the patrol boats that monitor the seas for illegal movements or shipments were themselves relying on smuggled fuel from China, as international sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program have reduced the country’s legal supplies. Now China is stepping up sea patrols to prevent that smuggling, which in effect has made it harder for North Korea to operate its anti-smuggling patrols, a military official from Sinuiju, across the border from China’s Dandong, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The Chinese border guards are increasing the number of maritime patrol boats significantly and controlling maritime smuggling to block the spread of COVID-19 from North Korea,” he said. The result for the North Korean border guards is a reduction in available fuel supplies. “The North Korean border guards are facing a significant reduction of maritime patrol boats due to a complete halt in fuel smuggling and a lack of fuel to operate the patrol boats,” the source said. “North Korea is a poor country, and officials in the border guard are seeing the reality of how each country is dealing with the coronavirus issue. I don’t know what will happen if things go on like this at the sea border,” he said. Instead of going out once every one or two hours during the day, the North Korean boats now can go out only every three hours, according to the source. Patrol boats relied on smuggled fuel in part because the coronavirus lockdown has caused domestic supplies to dwindle. A border guard official told RFA that only one or two patrol boats per day were coming out of Sindo and Ryongchon counties, downstream from Sinuiju. These boats are supplied with fuel from the military’s reserves located in the town of Paekma, according to the second source. “Originally around four boats would patrol the area in the lower Yalu River where it empties into the West Sea at one to two-hour intervals to strengthen border security,” the source said, using the Korean name for the sea. “Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the fuel supply has decreased and freight train operations and maritime trade have been completely suspended since the end of April. With fuel imports cut off, it is difficult to operate even one or two patrol boats,” he said. Fuel shortages were common before the pandemic, even in the military, which usually is among the front of the line for resources. International nuclear sanctions passed in September 2017 limited North Korea’s oil imports to 4 million barrels of crude and 2 million barrels of refined petroleum products per year in response to Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test. When North Korea launched the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile in November that year, its refined petroleum allotment was further reduced to 500,000 barrels. Gasoline shortages and price fluctuations are not only affecting the military. RFA reported in March that North Korean merchants were making money by buying fuel coupons from areas of the country where gasoline was less expensive, then selling them for a markup in areas where gas was more expensive. According to another RFA report in April, the North Korean government began cracking down on black-market fuel sellers, confiscating their stockpiles. Private ownership of fuel supplies is technically illegal, but tolerated under normal circumstances. Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Residents trapped by floods in China’s Guangdong after heavy rains batter region
Residents of Guangdong’s Yingde city have been taking refuge from widespread flooding on upper floors and roofs, amid an ongoing shortage of relief supplies after heavy rainstorms battered the region. Photos posted to social media showed parts of Yingde under water up to the second floor of buildings, amid unconfirmed reports of deaths and building collapses. Government departments in Yingde, Guangdong province, were ordered on Thursday to maintain high vigilance against geological and natural disasters after the flood crest of the Beijiang River passed the city. “The flood crest of the Beijiang has passed the city, but it remains at a high level and the flow is still large, threatening the lives and property of local residents,” the Yingde government said in a statement reported by the English-language China Daily newspaper. Water in the Beijiang, a tributary of the Pearl River, began receding slowly after the flood crest passed at 2.00 p.m. local time on Wednesday, it said. The river, which runs through the city’s downtown area, was measured at nearly 10 meters above the danger line at its peak, the statement said. City authorities warned of possible landslides, mountain torrents, reservoir and river dike failures and building collapses as waters recede, the paper said. The floods came as parts of southern China faced the heaviest rainfall in more than 60 years, with large swathes of flooded areas suffering power outages, contaminated water supplies and relief supplies, with some people posted pleas for help on social media. Trapped by high water A resident of Yingde’s Xiniu township told RFA that they are currently trapped inside a two-story building with a roof dwelling alongside five other people. “The floodwaters are retreating now, but very slowly,” the person said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to last out until tomorrow now … when the waters should have gone down.” A resident of Yingde’s Wangbu township said she is currently trapped in a building with more than a dozen people, all elderly, women and children. “It’s been three or four days now, and nobody came yesterday,” the resident said. “They delivered a small piece of bread and bottle of water for residents this afternoon, and not until after 4.00 p.m.” “That was the only thing they delivered, so I didn’t eat anything until then, and only one meal isn’t enough,” she said. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.” While waters had begun to recede, she still couldn’t get out as they remained high. “I can’t go out now; I’ve been flooded all the way up to the second floor,” she said. “I can’t talk any more because my phone is nearly out of battery.” Repeated calls to helplines and contact numbers provided by the Yingde authorities went unconnected on Wednesday. Fears for the elderly Some people posted on social media saying that they had lost contact with elderly grandparents, while a 90-year-old man was stranded at home in need of oxygen. The flooding of Yingde came after authorities in upstream Shaoguan opened local floodgates on June 20, after days of heavy flooding there, inundated Yingde and other downstream areas. Shaoguan, one of the worst-hit cities in the current round of flooding, has seen record rainfall since late May. A video clip uploaded to social media showed a firetruck being washed away by a flash flood, although they were later rescued around one kilometer from where the video was shot. China’s ministry of water resources said that 99 rivers in the middle lower reaches of the Xi river in the Pearl river basin had water levels above the danger level between 12.00 noon on June 21 and noon on June 22. The Guangdong provincial flood control headquarters raised the emergency response level to the highest level on the evening of June 21, while authorities have evacuated more than 227,000 people within the province, with floods affecting nearly half a million people and causing economic losses of around 1.7 billion yuan. Flooding has also been reported in the southwestern region of Guangxi, Guizhou and other provinces, with five people killed and buildings destroyed by flash floods in Guangxi’s Liuzhou city on June 18. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Shanghai restaurants offer secret dining, ‘hire’ customers for the night
Restaurants in Shanghai are offering secret lights-out dining and fake recruitment drives in a bid to get around the city’s stringent COVID-19 restrictions, RFA has learned. Residents of the city told RFA that despite the official lifting of a citywide lockdown on June 1, the municipal authorities have yet to lift a ban on in-house dining. “They’re still not allowing people to eat in,” a Huangpu district resident surnamed Yang said. “I can only eat secretly in the upstairs area, as dining in isn’t generally allowed, only takeout.” “My brother did the same — a friend invited him out to eat, and they went upstairs to an area of the restaurant you couldn’t see,” he said. Photos and video uploaded to social media showed people sitting at restaurant tables filled with food, but eating the light of their mobile phones, to avoid alerting any enforcement personnel to their presence. Other posts said some restaurants had made diners fill out application forms to work there, claiming them as employees, who are allowed to eat together in restaurants. When their meal was over, the diners resigned from the payroll, the reports said, likening the process to an underground party. “Many restaurants have closed down because they haven’t been able to survive [lockdown], which has lasted for more than three months,” Yang said. “If you rent premises … it’s going to cost tens of thousands of yuan a month, so they haven’t been able to keep up with it.” Community volunteers stand at an entrance in a residential area under a Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai’s Huangpu district, June 22, 2022. Credit: AFP Testing burden Shanghai’s 26 million people are still being required to take a COVID-19 test several times a week, to be allowed to move around in public, residents said. “If you need to go out, to leave your residential compound to see the doctor, go to the supermarket, take the bus, etc., you need a negative PCR test result from the last 48 hours,” a Jing’an district resident surnamed Dai told RFA. Authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen announced similar requirements for anyone using public transportation in the city, including taxi or ride-sharing hires. Beijing-based current affairs commentator Hua Po said the impact of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s zero-COVID policy on the Chinese economy has been huge. “Beijing is carrying out mass PCR testing for all employees, and there is a lot of money involved,” Hua said. “The Beijing municipal government is in a very strong financial position, and it has that money to spend.” “But the situation is very different in other places,” he said. “Some local governments are very poor, and the people there are being forced to pay for the tests themselves.” Hua said the policy is more about political performance and official rankings than public health. “If officials fail to prevent or control COVID-19, they are severely punished, so party and government leaders are implementing these policies while trying to help out local governments and take on double the economic burden,” he said. Abuse of health code app A resident of the central province of Hubei who gave only the surname Lu said PCR testing is still mandatory in the provincial capital, Wuhan. “Things can’t go on like this … the economy is really bad and can’t take much more of this,” Lu told RFA. “Many companies, logistics and supply chains can’t carry on.” “Such frequent PCR testing is totally ridiculous … it would be better not to have any testing at all,” he said. Meanwhile, a resident of the central province of Henan said they are suing the government for using the “health code” COVID-19 app to restrict their movements during protests by depositors unable to withdraw their money from the Agricultural Bank. Xie Yanling, a resident of Dingzhuang village in Henan’s provincial capital Zhengzhou, told Caixin.com that she is suing the authorities for allegedly turning her traffic-light style health code amber despite her having submitted a negative PCR test result, on the day she was due to attend a court hearing relating to the demolition of her home. “It’s inexplicable,” a person familiar with the case told RFA. “The code had been green.” “I wish they would carry out the relevant policies in a normal manner, legally, and in the plain light of day,” the person said. Cai Fan, a retired associate professor of law at Wenzhou City University in Zhejiang, said health codes are being used for “stability maintenance” purposes in China. “This forced demolition involves the vested interests of the village committee and local government,” Cai said. “If they turn your health code amber for the hearing, you won’t be able to get in.” “Then, after a period of time, the government will level the land, put new buildings there, and you won’t be able to do anything about it,” Cai said. “It will be a fait accompli.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
‘After the Apple Daily shut down, I couldn’t write another word’
One year after the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper was forced to close amid an investigation by national security police, its former journalists are struggling to come to terms with the loss of the paper, an often sensationalist, sometimes hard-hitting daily founded by jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai. The paper’s closure came after hundreds of national security police descended on the headquarters of Next Digital in Tseung Kwan O on June 17, 2021, confiscating computers and journalistic materials police said were “evidence” of collusion with foreign forces under the national security law. Five executives were arrested, and the paper’s assets totaling around H.K.$18 million were frozen by the authorities. Chief editor Ryan Law and Next Digital CEO Cheung Kim-hung have since been charged with “collusion with foreign powers,” while three other executives have been released on bail without being charged. A former journalist who gave only the surname Leung said she still remembers the crowd of well-wishers who gathered outside the paper’s headquarters on the night that it closed, cheering and shouting encouragement. “The editors in charge came out to boost morale, with a strong sense that they were going to be martyrs,” Leung told RFA. “Everyone knew even then that the senior editors were in danger [of arrest and prosecution].” “I was hoping, as their employee, that they would leave Hong Kong that same night and go to a safe place, we also knew they were mentally prepared [for arrest],” she said. “As employees, we were sad that it had to end, but we felt it was an honorable defeat,” Leung said. Leung, a veteran newspaper reporter of 20 years’ experience who had only worked at the paper for a year when it closed, said she suffered insomnia and suffered emotionally due to the arrests of her bosses, friends and colleagues. “Some places contacted me with jobs after Apple Daily closed on June 23, but I looked at the materials for a long time, and couldn’t write a word,” she said. “My heart had died along with the Apple Daily.” Leung gave up on journalism after the paper’s demise, and moved to the democratic island of Taiwan with her family, where she was able to disconnect and heal for a while, slowly recovering from the pain of the paper’s demise. But while she longs to write to her former colleagues and friends back in Hong Kong, she hasn’t contacted them for fear that doing so would render them vulnerable to further charges from the authorities. “I have always wanted to write to them, and I want to tell them that a lot of people are still flying the flag, and I would like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to work at Apple Daily,” Leung said. “But I fear that they could have fresh charges imposed on them like collusion, if they receive [letters] with Taiwan stamps on them,” she said. A draconian national security law imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Hong Kong from July 1, 2020 has sparked a crackdown on pro-democracy media organizations. After Lai’s Next Digital media empire was forced to close, the crackdown has also led to the closure of Stand News and Citizen News, as well as the “rectification” of iCable news and government broadcaster RTHK to bring them closer to Beijing’s official line. Hong Kong recently plummeted from 80th to 148th in the 2022 Reporters Without Border (RSF) press freedom index, with the closures of Apple Daily and Stand News cited as one of the main factors. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Interview: Nury Turkel to ‘call China out’ for atrocities against Uyghurs, others
Uyghur-American lawyer Nury Turkel was unanimously elected chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan and independent federal government body. In a long career in advocacy, Turkel, who also serves as chairman of the board for the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington, he has played a major role in raising global awareness of the plight of the 12 million Uyghurs in the Chinese-controlled Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). China’s targeting of Uyghurs in XUAR in a crackdown on the minority group and its language, religion, and culture that intensified in 2017, has been declared a genocide by the United States and other western governments. The 50-year-old Turkel, who was born in Kashgar in a detention camp during China’s Cultural Revolution and in 2020 became the first Uyghur-American appointed to the USCIRF, was welcomed as “a tremendous asset to both USCIRF and the mission of protecting religious freedom,” in a statement by Campaign for Uyghurs Executive Director Rushan Abbas. He spoke with RFA Uyghur Director Alim Seytoff about his goals as 2022-23 USCIRF chair. RFA: As a Uyghur American who’s elected as the USCIRF Chair, what does this position mean to you? Turkel: It’s simply humbling to be elected by my fellow commissioners to lead the US government agency. But, on the other hand, I feel incredibly proud and privileged to be a citizen of this wonderful country that has given me so much– freedom and now a leadership role that is both substantive and symbolic. It is one of the great American stories for someone with my background—an immigrant and indirect victim of the Uyghur genocide. RFA: What are USCIRF plans to address China’s destruction of Uyghur Islam and genocide against Uyghurs? Turkel: As part of our legislative mandate, we will continue to monitor China’s atrocities against the Uyghurs and other vulnerable ethnic and religious groups, making sure that our government continues to call China out for the ongoing Uyghur genocide and advocate for a strong policy response to stop the atrocities committed against the Uyghurs and others in communist China. RFA: Will the USCIRF work with its counterparts in other democracies to address the Uyghur Genocide? Turkel: USCIRF has advocated for multilateral and bilateral responses to the Uyghur crisis in light of its complex and global nature. As a result, the U.S. has led the efforts to raise awareness and press China to end persecution, shut down the camps, and end the enslavement of the Uyghurs. RFA: Will the USCIRF reach out to the Muslim countries and ask them to raise China’s genocide against Uyghur Muslims? Turkel: We have [worked with] our State Department counterparts to engage with Muslim majority countries to speak out against China’s atrocities and join the US-led efforts to end the Uyghur genocide.
