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Category: East Asia
Uyghur high school principal from Xinjiang’s Ghulja city said to be detained
A Uyghur educator and high school principal in Ghulja in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region who went missing nearly a year ago is being detained in the city, municipal education officials told RFA. Dilmurat Abdurehim has been missing since the Eid al-Fitr Muslim religious holiday on May 13, 2021, that marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan. He left his home in the city’s Dongmehelle area but never returned, said the source who requested anonymity for security reasons. Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) is the third-largest city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) after Urumqi (Wulumuqi) and Korla (Kuerle) and the seat of the Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture. Abdurehim’s family members did not give any information to their friends and neighbors about the principal’s disappearance, the source said. Nevertheless, friends and neighbors began to suspect he had been abducted by police, who warned his family not to disclose his whereabouts, the source added. Abdurehim graduated with a degree in history from Xinjiang University in 1990. He began teaching at Ghulja’s No. 7 high school and later became a principal at the Nos. 3, 8 and 9 high schools, the source with knowledge of the matter said. A staff member at the No. 3 High School told RFA that Abdurehim had worked at the school but moved to another school years ago. The official also said he was aware that Abdurehim was in custody. An official at No. 8 High School, where Abdurehim had his longest tenure, said the educator had been detained while he was working at the No. 9 High School. He did not mention the reason for Abdurehim’s arrest and suggested that RFA contact officials at the No. 9 High School for more information. “I don’t know how long has it been since he was detained,” he said. “I don’t know the reason behind his arrest since he was not detained while he was in our school.” After calls to No. 9 High School went unanswered, RFA again contacted the No. 8 High School and asked whether Abdurehim was being held in a prison or an internment camp. The official said the information was a “state secret” and that the school was not authorized to comment. Authorities have targeted teachers and intellectuals in Xinjiang as part of an effort to weaken Uyghur culture and identity, Abdureshid Niyaz, an independent Uyghur researcher based in Turkey, told RFA in a 2021 report. More than 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017. Beijing has said that the camps are vocational training centers and has denied widespread and documented allegations that it has violated the human rights of Muslims living in in the region. The United States and the legislatures of some Western countries have said Chinese policies toward the Uyghurs constitute a genocide and crime against humanity. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Philippines’ Duterte intends to skip ASEAN summit in Washington
Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte announced his intention to skip the U.S.-ASEAN summit in Washington next month, telling Filipinos he doesn’t want to take a stance that could go against his successor who will be elected the same week. Previously, Duterte had repeatedly said he would not travel to the United States, a country which he has not visited as president and with which he’s had a stormy relationship because of Washington’s criticism of his administration’s deadly war on drugs. As he prepares to leave office in June, Duterte faces an International Criminal Court investigation over the drug war, which has left thousands of Filipinos dead. “If it is a working conference, there might be some agreements or commitments that will be made and I might take a stand that will not be acceptable to the next administration,” he said, without elaborating. In his weekly televised speech to the nation late Tuesday, Duterte cited the May 9 General Election as the main reason for declining the invitation to attend the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations scheduled for May 12-13. “By that time, the elections will be over and we will find out who the next president will be,” Duterte said, according to transcripts released Wednesday. “So I told them it would not look good if I attend and there will be a new president.” Duterte’s six-year term will end when his successor takes office on June 30. Duterte also cited “personal reasons” for declining President Biden’s invitation, adding that U.S. officials had wanted him to attend but he refused “as a matter of principle.” During the meeting with Southeast Asian leaders in the U.S. capital, Biden is expected to seek to strengthen relationships with ASEAN members to counter China’s perceived aggression and military expansionism in the contested South China Sea. Missed meetings This is not the first time that Duterte will be missing an ASEAN-related meeting. Last year, he cited “pressing domestic concerns in light of the surge of COVID-19 cases” as an excuse to not attend an emergency summit of ASEAN leaders who met in Jakarta to discuss the post-coup crisis in Myanmar. As president, Duterte pivoted the Philippines’ foreign policy closer to China and away from the United States, the country’s staunchest military ally for the past seven decades. He has traveled to China six times as president and called leader Xi Jinping a close friend while insisting that Manila cannot go to war with Beijing. Duterte also banked on Chinese money to fund his infrastructure projects, and of late, he has profusely thanked Beijing for sending COVID-19 vaccines ahead of other nations. In 2020, Duterte vowed to skip a U.S.-ASEAN summit – which was later postponed indefinitely because of the global pandemic – after the U.S. Embassy refused to issue a visa to Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, the former police chief who implemented his administration’s brutal war on drugs. He also threatened to scrap an agreement that allowed American troops to hold large-scale joint military exercises here, but later reversed his stand. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Three Chinese nationals die in suicide bomb attack on Karachi Confucius Institute
Four people, including three Chinese nationals, have died in a suicide bomb attack on a Confucius Institute in Pakistan thought to be linked to Beijing’s Belt and Road projects in the country. Tuesday‘s attack near the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi in southern Pakistan left four people dead, including the director, Huang Guiping, and teachers Ding Mupeng and Chen Sai. Another Chinese national, Wang Yuqing, was injured alongside several local people. CCTV footage of the blast showed a person in a burqa walking towards a van, which then exploded, covering the surrounding area in thick smoke. News photos from the aftermath of the blast showed the Confucius Institute building with shattered windows. Pakistani military personnel and police cordoned off the area, with news photos showing the remains of a charred, white Toyota van near the gate of the Confucius Institute on the Karachi University campus. The van, according to local media reports, had been carrying several teachers to the Institute when it was attacked, escorted by several motorcycles. The injured Chinese national was rushed to a local hospital for treatment, along with several injured security personnel and other staff. The Chinese Consulate General in Karachi confirmed that the three deceased were staff of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi. Rangers stand guard nearby the blast site a day after a suicide attack on a van near the Confucius institute which is the cultural programme that China operates at universities around the world at the Karachi University in Karachi, April 27, 2022. Credit: AFP. Security alert raised It said the “terrorist attack” took place at around 2.20 p.m. local time on April 26, and that the consulate has activated its emergency plan, raising the security alert level for all Chinese institutions, projects and personnel in Pakistan. A consulate employee who answered the phone declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Wednesday. “This isn’t my responsibility,” the staff member said. “I don’t know the specific details of the situation.” “It’s not that I don’t want to answer your query; I really don’t know. You need to contact the embassy,” the staff member said. Repeated calls to the Chinese embassy rang unanswered during office hours on Wednesday. “First of all, from a political point of view, Chinese people are a very big target and an influential target that can make the Pakistani government pay a high level of attention,” a Chinese national living in Pakistan told RFA. “The Chinese government will also always pay a high level of attention to security issues,” said the person, who asked to remain anonymous. “So these are some of the reasons for this terrorist attack against the Chinese.” The separatist group the Baloch Liberation Army, which has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Confucius Institute, said more deadly attacks on Chinese targets could follow. Mining and energy projects The group is one of several fighting for independence in Pakistan’s biggest province, where Chinese companies are involved in lucrative mining and energy projects under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative. “Hundreds of highly trained male and female members of the Baloch Liberation Army’s Majeed Brigade are ready to carry out deadly attacks in any part of Balochistan and Pakistan,” spokesman Jeeyand Baloch said in a statement on Wednesday reported by Agence France-Presse. He called on China to halt its “exploitation projects” in Balochistan and its “occupying of the Pakistani state.” The group named the bomber as Shaari Baloch, a 30-year-old mother of two who had been studying for a master’s degree. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Pakistan to take steps to guarantee the safety of all Chinese citizens and interests in the country and to launch a full investigation into the blast, warning Chinese nationals not to go out unless necessary, and to take “the strictest precautions.” The Prime Minister’s Office issued a message of condolence, and vowed to eliminate terrorists, while Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif paid a visit to the Chinese embassy to express condolences, condemnation, and to promise a full investigation. Taiwan strategic analyst Shih Chien-yu said the Karachi Confucius Institute was a relatively easy target for terrorist attacks. “Confucius Institutes are particularly vulnerable and don’t have very strong security,” Shih told RFA. “A lot of the infrastructure and engineering projects along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor employ various private security guards and even the Pakistani army [for protection], so it’s not easy to carry out an attack.” “Confucius Institutes are relatively vulnerable … so it’s not surprising it was the target of a suicide attack,” he said. Debt and resentment Shih said the attack came amid growing resentment over the presence of Chinese companies involved in Belt and Road projects. “People in Balochistan, the ethnic groups in the upper and lower reaches, have always felt that they are a neglected and bullied minority … who have received no benefits from the construction projects of the Belt and Road.” The attacks are a fresh blow for Belt and Road in Pakistan, following a Bloomberg report in 2021 that the planned flagship port and airport development at Gwadar, the last stop in the China-Pakistan Corridor and terminus for dozens of planned roads, railways and pipelines, was semi-moribund. Many infrastructure projects in Pakistan are still heavily indebted to China, while incoming Chinese investment has been falling year-on-year. In October, Pakistan was forced to borrow U.S.$6 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to meet its immediate needs. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Residents in last-minute scramble to get out of Beijing amid lockdown fears
Residents fled Beijing on Wednesday amid rising COVID-19 cases and growing fears of an imminent citywide lockdown, according to social media reports and local residents. Photos and video uploaded to social media showed traffic jams and people wheeling suitcases on the city streets on Tuesday night. “They’re scared. Taking their luggage and leaving,” says one man on a video clip showing cars queuing up in the street, at a standstill. “They can’t leave because the police have sealed off the road,” a woman’s voice adds. The apparent mass movement of people out of the city comes despite an official ban on any non-essential travel out of the city, as residential compounds in Chaoyang, Xicheng and Haidian districts were ordered into lockdown after locally transmitted cases were confirmed there. A Beijing resident who gave only his surname Ye said police have blocked main thoroughfares leading out of the city towards neighboring Hebei province. “I live in Baishun, Xicheng district, and we’re under lockdown right now,” Ye said. “I’m only allowed into the garden of my bungalow, but I can’t go out.” “It seems infections in Beijing are on the rise, and now I have to apply to buy supplies,” he said. “It’s been four days now.” “They delivered some vegetables to each household, as well as ten pounds of rice and a small barrel of cooking oil,” Ye said. The lockdown in Xicheng extends across Baishun, Dabaishun and Xiaobaishun alleys as well as Shaanxi Lane and Shitou alleys, residents said, all of which now have large numbers of white-clad disease-prevention personnel patrolling around in full PPE, residents told RFA. Local resident Zhang Hong said most of those who are trying to leave the city are in middle- or high-income groups with good access to information, and may have been tipped off about future lockdowns by friends or relatives in official jobs. “A lot of people have left because of issues with the government’s restrictions … now that a lot of them, both big and small, have seen the light of day,” Zhang said. “Shanghai is one example, where we saw people jumping off buildings due to starvation,” Zhang said. “So some rich people are leaving without waiting for the government’s decision [on whether to lock down more of the city].” Online comments suggested Beijing residents could be denied access to accommodation outside the city, however, because they can be identified by the COVID-19 Health Code app on their phones, which is needed to access key services and public transportation. The city is currently undergoing three waves of mass, compulsory testing from April 26-30, according to official announcements. Employees of Chinese online shopping platform Meituan prepare deliveries in Shanghai, in a file photo. Credit: Reuters Group-buying schemes The news website Caixin reported that the online shopping and food delivery platform Meituan had shut down group-buying schemes, which have been widely used by residents of Shanghai to get food and other essential supplies in the face of a ban on individual delivery riders or shopping in person. A link to the group-buying function was removed from the homepage of the app and the service shut down from April 26, according to an announcement posted in the app. One comment said similar group-buying functions on other delivery apps had also been shut down. “Just when I need you, you’re not there,” wrote social media user @duoyun_kuanyin. Others said local neighborhood committees who control access to residential communities were well-placed to make money from delivery operations. “They won’t let [these platforms] operate … but the neighborhood committee’s own trucks will get through,” @Lenin’s_little_brain_axe commented. The Beijing Municipal Health Commission announced 31 newly confirmed, locally transmitted cases, and three asymptomatic infections on Wednesday. Testing halted Meanwhile, in Shanghai and other affluent eastern cities, the test and trace service has ground to a halt under the sheer weight of data being processed about infections, as the authorities restarted mass testing in several parts of the city from April 26. “The app in Shanghai is frozen, because there are so many volunteers on the front line,” one testing volunteer from Suzhou told RFA. “We’re like front-line troops, and yet the system they gave us to work with seems to be crumbling.” “Why is this happening?” A Shanghai resident surnamed Li said lockdowns are currently seen as the politically correct thing to do. “They are trying everything they can think of, but to be brutally frank, they really haven’t a clue,” Li said. “Who really knows what to do?” “They built all of those makeshift hospitals in Shanghai, the biggest of which had capacity for 40,000 people, but now the policy has changed again.” “It used to be that you had to go to a makeshift hospital for 14 days’ quarantine, but now they are letting people out after just a week, to make room for infected people to come in,” Li said. “It used to be that nobody who tested positive was taken there.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
China musters troops to track US warship transit of Taiwan Strait
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.
Uyghurs keep focus on Xinjiang report, access as UN rights chief preps for China tour
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.
Kim Jong Un hints he might use nukes as more than deterrent
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…
Beijing’s zero-COVID policy snags Lao exports to China via new railway
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.
Henan court jails dissident for nearly three years after Jiang Tianyong visit
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.
US vows to respond to any Chinese military base in Solomons
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…
