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Category: East Asia
Leaked documents show China’s careful coordination of Uyghur repression
Classified speeches given by high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials describe Uyghurs and other Muslims as an “enemy class” whose traditions must be wiped away for China to survive, startling new evidence of the coordinated brutality authorities have deployed to force restive minority groups to assimilate. The speeches are part of a trove of documents known as the Xinjiang Police Files, leaked records allegedly from internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) that were released in May by German researcher Adrian Zenz, an expert on the region. The files contain information about more than 20,000 detained Uyghurs. The internal-party speeches, labeled “classified documents,” show that Chinese government officials carefully planned what the United States and the parliaments of some western countries have said is genocide and crimes against humanity. Among the documents is a May 2017 speech by Chen Quanguo, Chinese Communist Party secretary of the XUAR from August 2016 to December 2021, who said the Chinese government’s crackdown in Xinjiang was not an act of stamping out criminals but rather an “extinction war” aimed at the Uyghur population. He called the Uyghurs an “enemy class.” Chen described a “strike hard” campaign strategy of governing Xinjiang that was directed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping and included the imprisonment of Uyghurs. According to the files, Chen’s instructions in his speech were based on directives received from China’s central government. Rights groups have issued reams of credible, well-documented reports about the detention of an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the XUAR, along with widespread surveillance, discrimination, restrictions on culture and freedom of religion that the groups face, and severe rights abuses, including torture, sexual assaults, and forced labor. Chen also said that those sentenced to fewer than five years in prison should be mobilized for “learning law” and “bilingual learning,” and be released only after they reached a satisfactory study level no matter how many years it took. The former official said Uyghurs deemed untrustworthy or harmful by the Chinese government had to be educated to the extent that they were committed to “completely freeing themselves from such ideas once they return to society.” But those whose outlooks could not likely be changed — “unauthorized imams” and “two-faced people” — should be detained or imprisoned indefinitely because they have the ability to guide the Uyghur community. The Chinese Communist Party uses the term “two-faced” to describe people — usually officials or party members — who are either corrupt or ideologically disloyal to the party. Authorities in Xinjiang interrogate a Uyghur in a ‘re-education’ camp in an undated photo from the leaked ‘Xinjiang Police Files,’ published by German researcher Adrian Zenz on May 24, 2022. Credit: Adrian Zenz/Xinjiang Police Files ‘Poisoned by terrorism, violence and extremism’ The “harmful” people Chen Quanguo mentioned in his speech refers to Uyghurs the Chinese government considers to be “poisoned by terrorism, violence and extremism” or during contacts with foreigners. Chen said such people needed to be “treated” in what he called a “people’s war.” Information in the Xinjiang Police Files and other research reports and leaked documents suggest that what Chen referred to as poison included Uyghur traditions and Islamic activities. Speeches by Chen and Zhao Kezhi, the former Chinese minister of public security, indicated that there were millions of “poisoned” Uyghurs. Adrian Zenz, who received the Xinjiang Police Files from an unnamed source, said Chinese authorities have detained Uyghurs not for crimes, but for their social connections. “[M]any of more than 2,800 people we have seen in the Xinjiang Police Files were detained because of their social networks, not because of any crime they committed,” he said. Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, a political analyst based in the U.S. and vice chairman of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress, said the large-scale arbitrary detention of Uyghurs by the Chinese government and what Chen describes as a “people’s war” are tantamount to publicly declaring the entire Uyghur people is the “enemy of the Chinese state.” Another focal point of Chen’s speech was the extension of government control over Uyghur families. In his view, police could visit and monitor only a limited number of households under what authorities called the “10 Families, One Ring” policy, creating a loophole in the surveillance of those who did not live in the vicinity of a police station. In late 2017, Xinjiang authorities assigned cadres to visit and stay in the homes of Uyghurs, where they ate with the residents and in some cases slept in their beds, in what was a test-run of the “Pair Up and Becoming Family” program. Under the program, public servants were assigned to families and had to live with them in their houses for a few days every couple of months to monitor them. Chen summed up the situation at the time: “In the past, in some villages, our officials were afraid of being killed when entering their families to become relatives. Now the officials who enter the families are greeted by everyone at the dinner table.” Children play near a screen showing images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kashgar, in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, June 1, 2019. Credit: AFP. ‘Eliminating budding risk’ As far as Uyghur children were concerned, Chen said 1 million minors being educated in “bilingual” kindergartens had learned the “national language” very well. In just a few months it was possible for the children to sing the national anthem in Chinese and to love the “great motherland,” Beijing and Tiananmen Square, Chen said. “Only in this way can we make the next generation hopeful for long-term stability, follow the party and be grateful to the party,” Chen said, without mentioning where the parents of the Uyghur children were or what they thought. The Chinese state educating such a large number of Uyghur children would be devastating to Uyghur society, Kokbore said. The Chinese government’s education methods are driven by the notion of “eliminating budding risk,” so that the scale of the training continues until…
In North Korea, a sack of flour separates haves from have-nots
A loaf of bread has become a status symbol in North Korea as prices for flour have increased so sharply that only the wealthiest citizens can afford it, sources in the country told RFA. Throughout Korean history, white rice has reigned supreme as the basic staple that signified wealth, and poorer people would mix their rice or replace it completely with cheaper grains like millet. In the case of North Korea, it is still true that only the very wealthy can expect all their meals to contain white rice or have the luxury of eating sweetened rice cakes, called ddeok, as a treat. Most North Koreans subsist primarily on corn and other coarse grains. But now flour has become so scarce that it costs more than rice, and North Koreans are starting to equate eating bread, or batter-fried foods like savory jijim pancakes, as a sign of wealth, a resident of Kimjongsuk county in the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “These days, it’s the most prosperous household that can buy imported flour from the marketplace and make foods like bread and jijim,” said the source. “Before the pandemic it was the families who could make ddeok or who ate bowls of white rice, who were considered prosperous, because they had to ship the rice from places like Hwanghae province in the country’s grain producing region. But now imported flour is several times more expensive than rice,” she said. Cheap Russian and Chinese flour was once readily available in large quantities, but imports stopped when North Korea sealed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020 and suspended all trade. The border has remained closed for the entire pandemic, save for a brief reopening earlier this year that quickly ended only weeks later with a resurgence of the virus in China. Flour’s price has been intimately tied to the ability to import. Flour in Kimjongsuk county cost 4,000-4,600 won per kilogram (U.S. $0.25-0.29 per pound) in December 2019. During the pandemic the price went as high as 30,000 won per kilogram, then fell to 10,000 when China and North Korea briefly restarted maritime and rail freight. But now that the border is closed again, prices have increased to about 18,000 won. According to the Osaka-based AsiaPress news outlet that focuses on North Korea, the current price of rice in the country is about 6,600 won per kilogram, up from about 4,200 won at the end of 2019. “Ordinary residents cannot even dare to buy flour, because it’s even pricier than rice. When the price of flour is more than two or three times that of rice, as it is now, bread and mandu dumplings suddenly become food that only the high-ranking officials and fabulously wealthy can afford to eat. So foods made with flour are now a symbol of wealth,” said the Kimjongsuk source. Flour had been a cheap ingredient to make snacks and fried dishes less central to the North Korean diet, said a resident of Unsan county, South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang. “Flour … has become a deluxe ingredient that people use to show off when guests come over,” she told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Last week, for my son’s birthday, I invited his elementary school teacher to my house. I wanted to show respect and sincerity, so I bought some imported flour, which is now costlier than the rice that goes into making ddeok, so I served bread, mandu and jijim,” she said. Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Vietnam orders media to promote its ocean strategy
The Vietnamese government has launched a national campaign to promote its maritime policies as the ruling party pledges to explore “all available legal tools” to defend its interests amid China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. A government order stipulates that by 2025, all domestic media outlets are required to have a dedicated section on Vietnam’s sea and ocean strategy, and their entire editorial staff must have the necessary knowledge and understanding of both the international and domestic laws on the sea. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese authorities have banned all tourist activities on two islets adjacent to the strategic Cam Ranh Bay that is undergoing intensive development into an advanced naval base, home to its submarines. Vietnam has the largest submersible fleet in Southeast Asia with six Kilo-class subs, bought from Russia at a cost of U.S.$1.8 billion. Tour guides and witnesses told RFA that since April, the two islands of Binh Ba and Binh Hung in Cam Ranh Bay, Khanh Hoa province, have become off-limits to foreign visitors. Vietnamese nationals still have limited access to the scenic islets, just a stone’s throw from the docked frigates. “Eventually, even Vietnamese tourists will not be allowed on Ba Binh,” said Binh, a tour operator who wanted to be known only by his first name. “So, my advice is to visit it while you can,” he said. Russian Udaloy-class destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov at Cam Ranh port on June 25, 2022. CREDIT: Sputnik Modern naval base Cam Ranh Bay is a well known deep-water port in central Vietnam, only 300 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City. It was used by the French, and subsequently, the U.S. Navy until the end of the Vietnam war. In 1979 the Soviet Union signed a 25-year lease of Cam Ranh with the Vietnamese and spent a large sum of money to develop it into a major base for the Soviet Pacific Fleet. But Russia withdrew from the base in 2002, citing increased rent and changing priorities. Hanoi has since announced a so-called “three nos” policy – no alliances, no foreign bases on its territory and no alignment with a second country against a third – that means foreign navies will not be allowed to set up bases in Cam Ranh. However, a logistics faciliy has been established to offer repair and maintenance services to foreign vessels, including Russian and U.S. warships. Moscow is still maintaining a listening station in Cam Ranh Bay and has also indicated that it is considering a comeback, according to Russian media. Three warships of the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet led by the Udaloy-class anti-submarine destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov visited Cam Ranh between June 25 and 28. With 50 ships and 23 submarines, the Pacific Fleet is Russia’s second largest naval fleet after the Black Sea Fleet which is currently involved in the war in Ukraine. U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea A Russian presence may be seen as a counterweight for competing China-U.S. rivalry in the South China Sea, where Beijing claims “historical rights” over almost 80 per cent, analysts said. With China apparently gaining a foothold in the region, at the Ream naval base in Cambodia, Cam Ranh may become even more important strategically to other regional players. On June 19 Vietnam protested against China’s drills near the Paracel islands, claimed by both countries but occupied entirely by China. Hanoi and five other claimants in the South China Sea are still struggling to agree on a Code of Conduct in the contested sea, where the U.S. and allies have been challenging China’s excessive territorial claims with their freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs). Vietnamese experts are calling for a more active application of legal documents to assert the country’s sovereignty in the South China Sea, especially as 2022 is the 40th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 10th anniversary of Vietnam’s own Law of the Sea. Tran Cong Truc, former head of Vietnam’s Border Committee, said that UNCLOS “paved a clear legal corridor for countries to defend their lawful rights,” and needed to be “properly utilized.” A series of special events are being held to commemorate the anniversaries, as well as to highlight the importance of this “legal corridor.” “UNCLOS and Vietnam’s Law of the Sea are the two main legal tools for the fight for our rights,” Sr. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, former vice minister of defense, was quoted by the People’s Army newspaper as saying. “Vietnam should only consider military actions as the last resort after exhausting all other options,” he said.
10 injured as Cambodia cracks down on NagaWorld protest
At least ten people were injured Monday when security forces in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh violently dispersed a strike, ramping up a crackdown on workers involved in a six-month-old labor dispute with the NagaWorld Casino. Strikers told RFA Khmer that “hundreds” of security personnel were deployed to set up roadblocks and otherwise stymie the peaceful protest by around 150 mostly female NagaWorld workers near the downtown casino. They said authorities beat them when they wouldn’t board a bus sent to ferry them away from the area, leaving 10 people in need of medical attention. A worker named Chan Srey Roth said a security officer hit her in the head with a walkie talkie and repeatedly insulted her during the incident, while other officers “grabbed male workers by the hair and smashed their heads” against the side of the police vehicle. “They are members of the national security forces, whose duty is to protect the people, not to use violence against them – particularly against women,” she said. “We raised our hands, begging them not to beat us, but they did so anyway, ordering us to disperse. When we interlocked our hands, they tried to break our chain and dragged us off, one by one, to brutally beat us. One of them hit me in the face with a walkie talkie and kicked me, while cursing at me.” Another worker, Phat Channa, said authorities are increasingly turning to violence to break up gatherings by her group as protesters refuse to board the buses police have used to relocate them to Prek Pnov district, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. “They beat me unconscious. I was shocked because they didn’t bother to consider that we are women – they just dragged us away and beat us like dogs,” she said. “We have experienced a lot of injustice. We are only demanding the right to work, but they beat us like beasts.” Other protesters told RFA that authorities prevented civil society representatives and United Nations human rights officials from monitoring Monday’s protest and threatened to confiscate the phones and cameras of anyone seen documenting the incident, unless they deleted their photos and video. A statement issued by the Phnom Penh government claimed that Monday’s protest was “an ugly event that was planned in advance by a handful of people seeking to make the authorities look bad.” “They disrupted social and public order, leading to violence that left a number of authorities injured and resulted in the loss of five walkie talkies and one watch.” Government Human Rights Committee spokesperson Kata Un accused the strikers of holding an illegal rally and called the response by authorities “an educational measure.” “In the case of illegal acts, the authorities have the right to use whatever measures are necessary to stop, disperse, or suppress the perpetrators,” he said. “So far, the Phnom Penh authorities have not taken any repressive measures. What the authorities are doing is educating people to avoid restricted areas and to instead hold protests in Freedom Park [in the Phnom Penh suburbs].” Six-month dispute Thousands of NagaWorld workers walked off their jobs in mid-December, demanding higher wages and the reinstatement of eight jailed union leaders, three other jailed workers and 365 others they say were unjustly fired from the hotel and casino owned by a Hong Kong-based company believed to have connections to family members of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The strikers began holding regular protest rallies in front of the casino, drawing the attention of NGOs and U.N. agencies who have urged Cambodia’s government to stop persecuting them and help resolve their dispute in accordance with labor laws. Cambodian authorities allege that the strikes by NagaWorld workers are part of a “foreign plot to topple the government,” although they have provided no evidence to back up their claim. An increasingly tough response by security personnel led to pushing and shoving during a strike outside the casino’s offices on May 11 that one worker claimed caused her to miscarry her pregnancy two weeks later. Am Sam Ath, chief of General Affairs for Cambodian rights group LICADO, told RFA that authorities have made the NagaWorld dispute worse by leveling allegations against the workers and cracking down on their protests. “We don’t want to see a labor dispute between NagaWorld and its workers turn into a dispute between the authorities and the workers,” he said. “What we want to see is a peaceful settlement to the issue, and these incidents of violence don’t benefit anyone.” Am Sam Ath urged the Ministry of Labor, as well as other relevant state institutions, to remain neutral and end their accusations against the NagaWorld workers and called for a resolution of the dispute in accordance with the law and international labor practices. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Tibetan convention calls on governments to help resolve Tibet issue with China
Participants at an international meeting on Tibet called on governments to do more to advance the rights of Tibetans who face repression at the hands of the Chinese government. More than 100 participants from 26 countries attended the 8th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet on June 22-23 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the resumption of the Sino-Tibet dialogue and other key objectives. The meeting was organized by the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile based in Dharamsala, India, which sent 10 representatives to the meeting. Attendees agreed to collaborate more fully on matters related to Tibet. They also declared that the International Network of Parliamentarians on Tibet would be revived and to work to establish groups of lawmakers focused on Tibetan issues in countries where they do not yet exist. “Substantively what the parliamentarians are willing to do now is a step up from the past,” said Michael van Walt van Praag, the executive president of Kreddha, a nonprofit organization dedicated to resolving intrastate conflicts and promoting peace. “[T]his is bringing home very clearly how important it is to defend the values of freedom, self-determination but also to uphold international law and to stop large countries from invading their small neighbors,” he said. The Central Tibetan Administration, the formal name of the Tibetan government-in-exile, and the Dalai Lama have adopted an approach called the Middle Way, which accepts Tibet’s present status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedom, including strengthened language rights, for Tibetans living under Beijing’s rule. “Despite having a thousand years of history of being an independent country, we are sincere and committed to the Middle Way policy to resolve the conflict between Tibet and China through a mutually beneficial way,” Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, speaker of the 17th Tibetan Parliament in Exile, said in introductory remarks. The participants also called on parliaments to take coordinated actions to reach a resolution to the Sino-Tibetan conflict through talks and negotiations between the parties, without preconditions. “Tibetans can find a resolution in discussions with China somewhere in the middle between Tibet’s independence and integration with the PRC (People’s Republic of China),” said van Walt. ‘Dangerous assault’ on human rights The participants said China should allow Tibetan Buddhists to appoint the next Dalai Lama and other senior Lamas, which Chinese authorities have said would be a violation of religious freedom. The question of who will replace the current 86-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, has become more pressing. Senior Buddhist monks have traditionally identified successors based on spiritual signs and visions, but the Chinese government in 2011 declared that only Beijing can appoint his successor. “Politically we are not seeking independence for Tibet,” said the Dalai Lama in a video message to the delegates. “I have made this clear over the years. What most concerns us is the importance of preserving and safeguarding our culture and language.” In their declaration, the participants also asked governments to prohibit corporations from benefiting from forced labor and the exploitation of the natural environment of the Tibetan plateau. U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who spoke at the meeting, said that China has “waged a dangerous assault on human rights in Tibet” for decades. “The Chinese government has clearly shown that it has no regard for Tibetan autonomy or identity or faith,” she said. “This aggression has not only accelerated in recent years, with new actions to impose mandatory political education, cruelly restrict religious freedom, expand its mass surveillance regime and further close off Tibet to global visitors.” Pelosi also said that U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), would introduce bipartisan legislation to update the Tibet China Conflict Act, which would clearly state the history of Tibet and encourage a peaceful resolution to the ultimate status of Tibet. During the CECC hearing on Tibet on June 23, McGovern said that the U.S. and the world community were not doing enough to help resolve the Tibet issue. “Tibet’s true representatives are His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile as recognized by the Tibetan people, so any solution and way forward has to be what Tibetans want and cannot be imposed by anyone who is not part of Tibetan community,” he said. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Mekong dams must release less water in dry season to preserve habitats, experts say
Abnormally high-water levels in the Mekong River at the end of May indicate that dams on the river must release less water during the dry season to protect the ecosystem, experts said at an online panel Monday. Rain levels during the dry season this year have increased, experts told an online seminar about the unseasonably wet 2022 dry season, hosted by the Washington-based Stimson Center. But they singled out dams, particularly in China and Laos, as adding to the problem of flooding along the lower half of the river, threatening the ecosystems there. The Mekong region is home to numerous species of plants and animals that rely on its annual changes from dry season to wet season and back again, the panelists said. Disruption of the cycle is harmful to many of the species, and in turn the riparian communities that depend on them. “I think our data shows that very clearly the river level there is much higher during the dry season than normal … and China’s dams actually can be part of the solution,” Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia program director of the Stimson Center and co-lead of its Mekong Dam Monitor Project, told the panel on Monday. “They wield a lot of power over the downstream, particularly those two largest dams,” he said. “We found that they can they alone can raise the river level by 50 percent … for total dry season flow. That’s power,” he said, adding that the dams could also help to restore natural flow in times of need. The Mekong River Commission, an intergovernmental body that helps to coordinate management of the river, reported that May 2022 was the second wettest May since it began collecting data. Total flow in May was 22.8 billion cubic meters, about 150% higher than the average flow of 9 billion cubic meters. The Mekong Dam Monitor’s data suggested that about 6 billion cubic meters from the flow came from dam releases upstream, mostly in China. An example of how the increased flow could affect species is the Mekong Flooded Forest, said Ian Baird, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The World Wildlife Fund said the flooded forest is “a spectacular 27,000 km² complex of freshwater ecosystems including wetlands, sandy and rocky riverine habitats in northern-central Cambodia, bordering the South of Laos.” Baird said that the forest’s most striking feature, trees that jut upward from the floodwaters, relies on drier periods when the trees are not submerged. “Right now what we can see is that, the bushes that are in the lowest part of the river have been heavily impacted. The Blodgett trees have [exhibited] medium impacts,” he said. “So, I mean, things are already bad, but it’s important to understand that they could get a lot worse than they are now. And really the way to mitigate this is to release less water in the dry season,” Baird said. But he said that decisions about upstream releases are mostly beyond Cambodia’s control. “This is all water coming from above Cambodia, you know, but there is a lot that China and Laos could do, especially China, I think, that that could reduce the impact.” The Mekong River ecosystem could be lost if nothing is done, Chea Seila, project manager of the Wonders of the Mekong, a research group that receives funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. She brought up the world record 300-kilogram giant freshwater stingray that was recently caught, tagged by her team and released in Stung Treng. “The discovery of this [world record breaking] fish indicates the special opportunity that we have in Cambodia and also to protect the species, and also the core habitat,” she said. Eyler of the Stimson Center said that although existing dams could help keep the river’s flow closer to expected averages, building more could create new problems. “I would not recommend building more dams to counter this effect, which is a discourse that we’re hearing coming out of the Mekong River Commission, that there’s an investment solution to this, there’s an infrastructure solution to this,” he said. “I think that’s a very expensive, dangerous and risky proposition, particularly when there are solutions at hand,” Eyler said.
Chinese company faces hefty bill to quarantine 300 North Korean workers
A clothing company in China must pay U.S. $1,500 to quarantine each of its 300 North Korean workers after some of them tested positive for COVID-19, sources in China told RFA. Some Chinese employees at the factory in Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River from North Korea, also tested positive for the virus. All of them went into quarantine last week, but the high cost of isolating foreign workers means the company will have to shell out $450,000 to quarantine the North Koreans. “The news that the Chinese president of the company that hired the 300 North Koreans must pay for their treatment is disturbing to the other companies that use North Korean labor,” a Chinese citizen of Korean descent, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Korean Service. “The Chinese government has decided that the quarantine cost for foreigners is 10,000 yuan (about $1,500) per person. The head of the company may incur an irrecoverable debt from the quarantine costs alone,” the source said. North Korea sends workers overseas to places like China and Russia to earn desperately needed foreign cash. The workers must give the lion’s share of their salaries to their government, but what they get to keep is far more than what they could earn in a similar job at home. Most of the North Korean workers in the factory are female, according to the source. “The quarantine command in Dandong … rushed all the workers to the hospital facility on a large bus,” the source said. The clothing company is not the first to have to quarantine its North Korean workers, according to the source. “In May, there were 20 North Koreans who worked for another company in Dandong and were placed in quarantine when they showed symptoms of COVID-19. In that case, they were quarantined in the company’s dormitory because there was no room in the hospital due to the outbreak spreading through Dandong,” he said. The company with the 300 North Koreans originally produced clothes, but switched to making COVID-19 protective clothing, he said. “The 300 North Korean workers wore the protective clothing [that they made] while they worked, but they still failed to prevent their own infection,” said the source. A North Korean source living in the port of Donggang, within the city limits of Dandong, told RFA that owners of companies who hire North Korean workers are getting nervous after hearing about the 300 quarantined North Koreans. “North Korean workers who are known to be infected with COVID-19 were transferred to the quarantine facility by several large buses,” the second source said on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Most Dandong residents go to a hospital in Shenyang or Dalian when they get COVID-19, so it is likely the North Koreans are there,” he said. Dandong is a three-hour drive from Shenyang and a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Dalian. Confirming their whereabouts could be difficult, however. “Although the Dandong city government has lifted the COVID-19 lockdown, it has not yet guaranteed complete autonomous movement. There is therefore no way to know exactly where the North Korean workers have gone unless you’re somehow involved,” he said. According to RFA sources, about 30,000 North Korean workers are believed to be in the Dandong area. North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019. But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions. Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Interview: ‘They’ve broken their word, as I’m afraid they do regularly’
Veteran British politician Chris Patten served as the last governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997, overseeing the final years of British rule over the colony and helping arrange for its transfer to China in 1997. He was vilified by the Chinese Communist Party for introducing democratic reforms in the city, many of which have been rolled back by Beijing in recent years in a crackdown in response to protests demanding more freedoms. Patten, 78, who holds the title Baron Patten of Barnes and serves as chancellor of the University of Oxford, spoke the Amelia Loi of RFA Cantonese about the changes in Hong Kong as the July 1 25th anniversary of the handover approaches. RFA: How do you assess the changes in Hong Kong in the 25 years since the handover? Patten: Hong Kong when we left was like a Rolls Royce. The economy was doing very well. It was stable and the system of government worked very well. The civil service was terrific. All you really needed to do as the Chinese Communist regime was to turn on the ignition and off it would pop. Hong Kong was an exceptionally successful community ––the eighth largest trading community in the world and we never had the sort of demonstrations which have affected Hong Kong in the last few years. I had very much hoped it would continue as long as possible and the Chinese had promised that it would continue for 50 years. They’ve broken their word, as I’m afraid they do regularly. They break their word. They break international treaties whenever it suits them. And I think that’s happening again this time. RFA: What do you say to those who say Britain should not have trusted China and returned Hong Kong? Patten: We had no choice but to hand Hong Kong over because all the New Territories where there seven large cities were held on a 99-year lease. And we would have been in breach of international law if we’d tried to hold onto them. So we had no choice and it’s sad but true. We could have held onto the part of Hong Kong which was held under a grant but it would have been impossible to hold onto the island. What would you have done for water? You would have to be bringing in water in container ships I suppose, but it would have been absolutely impossible and unreasonable. I don’t think we had any alternative but to do that. RFA: What do think of voices calling for Hong Kong independence? Patten: I have never been an advocate of independence of Hong Kong because I was part of a diplomatic effort to ensure Hong Kong could return to China, retaining its way of life for 50 years after 1997. The fact that the independence movement has grown in Hong Kong is an indication of how badly China has behaved and how little people actually trust China today. It’s an extraordinary thing that so few people are actually proud of Hong Kong being part of China now. There’s a great sense of Hong Kong citizenship, and there’s a great sense that people are Hong Kongers but only a small number think of themselves as Chinese. RFA: Would a different leadership of the Chinese Communist Party make a difference for Hong Kong? Patten: It would help Hong Kong and China if the leadership in China…was a little more like that of Jiang Zemin or Hu Jintao. What of course Deng Xiaoping had hoped for is that they wouldn’t again have a return to sort of Maoism, which is what’s happened, and wouldn’t again have a return to personality cults, which is again what’s happened. I think that’s all particularly sad, but I am not sure if there is anything we can do at the moment.
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.
