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Category: East Asia
Hong Kong changes law, forcing owners to give up pets ‘believed’ to have COVID-19
Authorities in Hong Kong have changed the law to force people to hand over pets and other animals believed infected with COVID-19 for ‘humane dispatch,’ as police have been tasked with investigating activists who tried to save hamsters from a cull in January, the city’s top health official has said. “The government recently introduced amendments [including] clear provisions requiring the owner of an article (including an animal) to surrender the article upon a health officer’s direction,” the city’s secretary for food and health Sophia Chan said in a written response to a lawmakers’ question. The new rules took effect from March 31, 2022, and anyone failing to comply with an order to hand over their pets for “humane dispatch” could face a fine of up to H.K.$10,000 and six months’ imprisonment, she said. Chan said existing quarantine law “aims to regulate matters relating to quarantine and the prevention of disease among animals and birds, etc” but doesn’t specifically cover COVID-19. The rule change comes after Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) “strongly advised” members of the public to surrender imported hamsters bought from local pet shops for humane dispatch. The advice prompted widespread resistance, including spontaneous offers to take hamsters off people’s hands and keep them safe from the authorities. Chan said a total of 145 hamsters were handed over to the authorities by the end of March. She said the authorities had been removing animals from local pet shops for “humane dispatch,” and had banned imports of any small mammals for commercial purposes. “In response to some people stopping others from surrendering hamsters and taking over hamsters from members of the public intended for surrender to the [authorities], the AFCD … reported the case[s] to the police for follow up and handling,” Chan said. “Obstructing, or assisting to obstruct a health officer in the exercise of a power or performance of a function is a criminal offense, and offenders are liable on conviction to a fine of H.K.$5,000 and to imprisonment for two months,” she warned. ‘Going too far’ A pet owner who gave only the nickname Miss J said the rules were going too far. “I think it’s going too far to have us hand over our animals,” she said. “They already killed all of those hamsters with barely a second thought. It’s totally outrageous.” “They say that the articles will be destroyed, which means they are treating animals as inanimate objects,” Miss J said. Miss J, who has a Shiba Inu and a dachshund she regards as “family,” said she had only been walking her dogs outside once or twice a week to minimize the risk of catching COVID-19, but wasn’t sure if that was now possible. “We have done everything we could, and they have just backed us into a corner,” she said. A pet owner who gave only the nickname A Ting said she wouldn’t hand over her two rescued stray cats if her life depended on it. “This is unreasonable … You wouldn’t give up your own children,” she said. “People who have pets treat them as members of the family, and won’t give them up just because they’re sick.” “Quite frankly, the government has brought in so many restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but have they worked?” A Ting said. “If they come to my home for my two cats, it’ll be over my dead body,” she said. Meanwhile, on the democratic island of Taiwan, owners of dogs, cats or mink have been told to isolate their pets at home if they test positive for COVID-19. Pets belonging to people sick with COVID-19 should be cared for by friends or relatives, or handed over to disease control authorities for boarding until the person has recovered. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
‘Middle Way’ approach for Tibet not just about politics: Dalai Lama
A Middle Way approach to the question of Tibet’s status under Beijing’s rule does not concern politics alone and will benefit both the Tibetan and the Chinese people, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said in a rare political statement in India this month. “The Middle Way approach is not just a political and administrative approach,” the Dalai Lama said, speaking on April 7 at a traditional Shoton, or Yogurt, Festival held in Dharamsala, India, seat of Tibet’s exile government, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). “Instead, it is a practical approach and mutually beneficial to both Tibetans and Chinese, in which Tibetans can preserve their culture and religion and uphold their identity. We cannot resort to violence and banish the Chinese from our lands,” the Dalai Lama said. Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago. And in the debate over how best to advance the rights of Tibetans living under Beijing’s rule, some Tibetans have called for a restoration of the country’s former independence. The CTA and the Dalai Lama, however, have adopted a policy approach called the Middle Way, which accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedoms, including strengthened language rights, guaranteed for ethnic minorities under the provisions of China’s own constitution. “Despite the Chinese government’s continuous oppression of Tibetans inside Tibet, Tibetans have endured it all,” the exiled spiritual leader said. “So Tibetans in exile must work hard. China’s brutal policies will not last long, and will someday change.” The Tibetan struggle for greater freedoms has been a struggle lasting over generations, the Dalai Lama said. “So older Tibetans must nurture the younger generations of Tibetans, to whom we can pass on our Tibetan language, culture, and religious and traditional beliefs.” Nine rounds of talks on greater autonomy in Tibetan areas of China were held between envoys of the Dalai Lama and high-level Chinese officials beginning in 2002, but stalled in 2010 and were never resumed. Formerly Tibet’s traditional ruler, the Dalai Lama has made few political statements in public since handing his political responsibilities over to an elected exile leader, or Sikyong, in 2011 and now considers himself only Tibet’s spiritual leader. ‘Something achievable’ The Dalai Lama continues to work hard for the good of his people, though, said Marco Respinti, director-in-charge at Bitter Winter, an online magazine monitoring religious freedom in China. “And the good of the Tibetan people should be something achievable, not just some utopia,” Respinti said. “While the Chinese Communist government is literally waging a cultural genocide against the Tibetans, and the Uyghurs and the Mongols, the Dalai Lama has taken on himself the moral responsibility both to stop the horror and to get something concrete done. “The Middle Way approach tries to keep these two things together, envisioning a future of interactions and exchanges,” Respinti said. China’s Communist Party remains determined to destroy Tibet’s national and cultural identity though, and seeks only “total surrender to its totalitarian power,” Respinti said. “The Middle Way approach is the last noble chance that Tibetans can offer to the CCP, but the CCP has no intention of taking it.” Translated with additional reporting by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
To prevent escapes, North Korea confiscates passports of officials sent abroad
North Korea is now confiscating the passports of both managers and workers stationed abroad to prevent them from escaping, sources in China and Russia told RFA. Pyongyang dispatches legions of workers to both Russia and China to work in factories and on construction sites to earn foreign cash for the state. The workers give the lion’s share of their salaries to their North Korean handlers, who forward it to the central government, but the remainder is still more than the workers could ever hope to earn in their home country. It is standard procedure to confiscate the workers’ passports to make it harder for them to flee to a third country. But now even the workers’ managers have to turn their passports over to their local North Korean embassy or consulate, indicating that Pyongyang may fear that they too might try to escape. “In February of this year, the North Korean embassy and consulates in China recovered all passports from company officials and representatives in the region,” a Chinese citizen of Korean descent told RFA’s Korean Service April 9 on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “They retrieved the officials’ passports because during the pandemic, the companies are earning less. … It is a special measure that acknowledges the possibility that some officials may want to escape, especially as many are under heavy pressure to pay their assigned quota, despite the company’s reduced earnings,” he said. RFA reported last month that 20 workers and their manager, who were stationed in Shanghai, went missing in mid-February. Sources in that report said the group had left their dormitory to escape to a third country, but RFA was unable to confirm that they attempted to escape. “The presidents and trade representatives of North Korean companies do not have passports, so they cannot travel wherever they want to go,” he said. “They used to be allowed to keep their passports. “The order to collect their passports came directly from Pyongyang. The North Korean officials are resentful that their government trusts them enough to send them overseas to work hard for the country, but does not trust that they will not run away,” he said. In Vladivostok, the confiscation of passports means that North Koreans aren’t even allowed to take a single step outside of their workplace, a Russian citizen of Korean descent told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “After several incidents where North Korean workers dispatched here to Russia escaped, they confiscated everyone’s passports,” he said. “But even company officials and state security agents, who are supposed to monitor and prevent workers from escaping, have now had their passports collected. Workers who came to Russia through a one-year education or training visa, however, may have their passports in their hands for a short time while re-registering their residence every year,” the second source said. The new regulations have changed the balance of power between the workers and their watchers. “Russian company officials and the dispatched North Korean workers now scoff at the North Korean officials and state security agents who boldly lorded over the workers.” Meanwhile, a local source told RFA last month that the number of North Korean workers in the three northeastern Chinese provinces is estimated to be between 80,000 and 100,000 as of January this year, with the bulk of the workers in Dandong, just across the border from North Korea’s Sinuiju. The same source estimated there were 20,000 in and around Vladivostok in Russia. Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Banned Hong Kong statues to find new refuge in democratic Taiwan: rights activists
A bronze statue of late Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo that was removed from public display in Hong Kong amid a citywide crackdown on dissent could find a new home on the democratic island of Taiwan. The statue of a smoking, bespectacled, seated Liu, who died of late-stage liver cancer in 2017 while serving an 11-year jail term for “subversion,” was once on display in Hong Kong’s Times Square shopping plaza in Causeway Bay. It later reappeared in the Tin Hau branch of the children’s clothing chain Chickeeduck, which has been a vocal supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, particularly during the 2019 protests. The statue was in the keeping of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Patriotic Movements of China, a civil society organization that was forced to disband after being investigated under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. Now, it appears Liu’s effigy may have found a new home in Taiwan, a democratic country that has never been ruled by Beijing, and whose 23 million people have no wish to lose their democratic rights and freedoms, or the rule of law. “He has no other place to go, so we will keep him permanently in Taiwan,” Tzeng Chien-yuan, who chairs Taiwan’s New School for Democracy, told RFA. “We plan to set up a museum to tell the world about human rights issues in China under CCP rule.” Tzeng said the statue will be put on public display in Taiwan in the run-up to the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4. “We are coming at this from the perspective of universal values,” Tzeng told RFA. “Even if the vast majority of Taiwanese want independence, they still affirm Liu Xiaobo’s value, because they espouse universal values.” He said the Charter 08 document calling for sweeping political change in China that landed Liu in jail didn’t specifically mention Taiwan. But he said Liu had never subscribed to Beijing’s insistence on claiming the island as its territory, nor its threat to annex Taiwan by military force if necessary. “He said Taiwan’s future should be decided by its people,” Tzeng said. Pillar of shame statue The New School for Democracy will also play host to another banned Hong Kong monument — the “Pillar of Shame” marking the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. The statue was first unveiled at a now-banned candlelight vigil commemorating the victims at Victoria Park on June 4, 1997, weeks before the city was handed back to China, and was on display at the University of Hong Kong until last year, when it was dismantled and removed despite protests from its creator, Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt. Tzeng says he has no fears for his personal safety. “We have our national sovereignty and our national armed forces to protect us,” he said. “We’re not worried.” “The only concern is the shipment of the exhibits out of Hong Kong, and the safety of people there who are doing that.” Taiwanese rights activist Yang Sen-hong said the image of Liu Xiaobo is anathema to the CCP, but that at least he could become a “refugee” in Taiwan. “Liu Xiaobo has to be a refugee, even in statue form,” Yang said. “Naturally, Taiwan is willing to offer his statue a place of refuge.” “Taiwan is not China, nor Hong Kong: we are a single country on our own side,” he said. Shih Yi-hsiang of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights said Taiwanese rights activists are keen to support movements against oppression around the world, including Hong Kong and China. “Taiwan is involved in other action against oppression, not just in being concerned about the situation in Hong Kong,” Shih said. “I think we have an obligation to … show solidarity, whether it’s with Ukraine, Xinjiang or Tibet.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Taiwan issues ‘survival handbook’ to prep for possible Chinese invasion
Taiwan has issued for the first time a “survival handbook” to guide its citizens in the preparation for a possible Chinese invasion in the future. The 28-page National Defense Handbook is where the general public can find “an emergency response guideline in a military crisis or natural disaster,” said the defense ministry, which is responsible for compiling and releasing the material. The raging war in Ukraine has heightened concerns that China would seize the opportunity when the world’s focus is on Europe to wage an attack against the island. Survival guidelines “I was surprised to hear about the survival handbook,” said 35-year-old Cathy Hsieh, a bank clerk. “I’ve never thought we’d need something like that but it’s good that they [the government] have made such precaution,” she said. The handbook is drawn from similar publications issued in Japan and Sweden, and contains illustrated guidelines on how to find shelters in the case of bombing and what to do in emergencies such as fires, air raids or natural disasters. It even teaches people how to differentiate warning sirens. One guideline tells citizens to not open the fridge door too often during a power outage to keep the contents cold. The handbook provides a set of QR codes for citizens to scan using their mobile phones to access needed information as well as a list of emergency numbers. Yet some Taiwanese say the handbook, albeit a nice initiative, is impractical. “When all the hell breaks loose, I don’t think people would want to rely on QR codes and mobile networks which for sure won’t be working,” said George Cai, a 28-year-old resident of Taipei. He said there should be rehearsals on how to use the handbook. Lien Hsiang joint exercise On Tuesday, the Taiwanese military also held a large-scale exercise “to rehearse the rapid response to a simulated attack by Chinese warplanes.” F-16 fighters, Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDFs), Apache helicopters, and other aircraft were dispatched as part of an effort to “strengthen the protection of important assets and counter airstrikes.” “The exercise is an important part of training to counter an attack by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF),” said Col. Sun Li-fang, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense spokesman, at a press conference. A Chinese military expert was quoted by Chinese media as saying that both the drills and the handbook are “futile in resisting reunification.” Taiwanese people consider themselves citizens of an independent, democratic country but China claims the island is a breakaway province of China and vows to reunite it with the mainland, by force if necessary. The Lien Hsiang joint exercise has been held annually since 2016 and involves the air force, army and the navy. The air force however took the center stage as Taiwan is seeing almost daily incursions by Chinese aircraft into its air identification zone (ADIZ). Since the beginning of April, 25 Chinese military aircraft including 16 fighter jets, six spotter planes, and three helicopters have been tracked in Taiwan’s ADIZ, according to the Ministry of Defense. An ADIZ is not a country’s sovereign airspace, but the extended area around it, and is closely monitored in case of illegal encroachment.
Hong Kong resident held in southwest China for taking part in protests
Authorities in the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi have detained a resident of Hong Kong for taking part in the city’s pro-democracy protests, RFA has learned. The woman, whose birth name is Tan Qiyuan, but who is widely known by her nickname Nicole, was detained by police in Guangxi’s Liuzhou city in April 2021 when she took a trip to her hometown after many years of living in Hong Kong. Nicole has been incommunicado since April 2, 2021, when she messaged a cousin saying she was flying back to Liuzhou that afternoon. Nicole’s friend, who wanted to be identified only his nickname A Feng, said she was on the way to celebrate her mother’s birthday. He messaged her on April 2, but never got a reply. “I thought she might reply later. I waited and waited but she didn’t reply,” he said. “I started to think something wasn’t right, and she still hasn’t replied to this day and … her phone is switched off.” “She told me she’d be back in Hong Kong by the end of April at the earliest, or maybe in May … she wasn’t going to stay very long in mainland China,” he said. “She knew, and everybody else knew, that it was dangerous.” Activists said little is known of Nicole’s fate, as her family are likely being targeted by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s “stability maintenance” teams, which place people under surveillance and prevent them from contacting the outside world in politically sensitive cases. A fellow activist surnamed Duan in the southern city of Shenzhen, who has some knowledge of Nicole’s fate, said the authorities in China have ways to track people arriving across the border. “If you enter the CCP’s jurisdiction with your mobile phone, even if you switch it off, they can track you if you are deemed sensitive,” Duan said. “The CCP also intimidates the relatives and friends of the parties involved, meaning that many of them daren’t speak out,” he said. Hong Kong rights activist Liao Jianhao believes Nicole was detained for her role in recent mass protest movements in Hong Kong. “The whole case is likely about prosecuting her for taking part in the Occupy Central movement of 2014 and the anti-extradition movement of 2019,” he told RFA. Prior to her detention, Nicole was an active citizen journalist, using Twitter to post real-time news about the protests, and resident of Hong Kong, although she was born in Guangxi. Liao said she is currently being held in the Liuzhou Detention Center on charges of “incitement to subvert state power.” “One of her [alleged] crimes was hosting mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong,” he said. “She was also part of the press team and was involved in helping those injured [in clashes with police].” Liao said the authorities may have targeted Nicole in the hope of obtaining the names of mainland Chinese residents who supported the 2019 protest movement in Hong Kong. She had earlier taken part in demonstrations in support of the 47 former opposition lawmakers and pro-democracy activists arrested for “subversion” under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing from July 1, 2020. “I took part in a demonstration in Causeway Bay on Sept. 27, 2019, and Nicole gave me first aid when I was hit by a tear gas grenade,” Liao said. “I am very grateful to her.” He said it was illegal under Chinese law to detain someone for a crime committed outside mainland Chinese jurisdiction. “The location was Hong Kong, which has nothing to do with [the authorities] in Liuzhou,” Liao said. “Liuzhou shouldn’t be able to bring a case against Nicole under Chinese law, but everyone knows what kind of country China is.” He said the CCP regards the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement as an attempt by foreign powers to instigate a “color revolution” in the city. “They think it’s a political activity created by hostile factions aimed at overthrowing CCP rule, which is actually pretty absurd,” Liao said. Former Hong Kong University of Science and Technology student Zhu Rui, who was also born in mainland China, said the CCP won’t stop pursuing mainlanders who took part in the Hong Kong protests. “We are facing an unscrupulous and evil regime,” Zhu told RFA. “We have to keep telling ourselves to keep trying to damage the CCP regime for as long as we’re free, because once they catch us, we’ll just be prisoners or hostages.” “Nicole was merely expressing her demands for freedom, democracy and the rule of law peacefully like any other Hongkonger,” Zhu said. “These were freedoms we should have had, but which were taken from us by the CCP.” He said CCP leader Xi Jinping is imposing oppressive controls on Hong Kong along the lines of the oppression of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang. “They’re putting everyone they lay eyes on in jail,” Zhu said. Lydia Wong, a researcher at the Georgetown University Asian Law Center who specializes in Hong Kong, said the Chinese authorities are increasingly keen to pursue dissidents far beyond mainland China, citing the fact that Beijing made Hong Kong National Security Law applicable to anyone of any nationality, anywhere in the world. “You can commit these actions anywhere in the universe, but you can still be arrested wherever police in Hong Kong or mainland China are able to arrest people,” Wong told RFA. “It is entirely plausible that they will use their domestic judicial system to target certain people they think are participating in the anti-China movement in Hong Kong,” she said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
As Lao dam plans progress, farmers worry about compensation for lost land
Chinese developers are preparing to begin work on two major hydropower dams to be built on the Mekong River in Laos, projects government officials hope will bring the impoverished country closer to its goal of become the battery of Southeast Asia. But compensation and relocation packages for villagers affected by the massive infrastructure projects are still up in the air. The China-backed Pak Beng Dam will be built in the Pak Beng district of Oudomxay province in northern Laos, while the Pak Lay Dam will be built in the Pak Lay district of northern Laos’ Xayaburi province. They will be the newest hydropower projects among dozens of dams that Lao has constructed on the Mekong and its tributaries under its plan to sell around 20,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries by 2030. In November 2021, Thai power authorities agreed to purchase power generated by the two dams, both located 60-80 km (35-50 miles) from the Thai border, and by the Nam Gneum 3 Dam on Nam River. NGOs and local communities have warned that the Pak Beng and Pak Lay dams will harm the Mekong’s ecosystem and the livelihoods of people living along the river. The Pak Beng is expected to displace around 6,700 people living in 25 villages, and the Pak Lay Dam is expected to force the relocation of more than 1,000 residents from 20 villages, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers and questionable financial arrangements. A map shows the location of the impending Pak Beng Dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos’ Oudomxay province. Credit: Mekong River Commission Draft MOU on tariffs China Datang Overseas Investment, the developer of the Pak Beng Dam, has begun moving machinery to prepare the site and to set up workers’ camps in anticipation of a power purchase agreement (PPA) to be signed in May with Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), an official at the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines told RFA on April 8. “They have begun transporting machinery equipment in order to build [workers’] camps as they are looking for a buyer,” he said. “The main buyer is Thai, but the agreement has not yet been signed.” Thailand is preparing a draft a memorandum of understanding on tariffs for power generated by the Pak Beng Dam and the impending Luang Prabang Dam before construction officially gets underway, said the official who declined to give his name because he is not authorized to speak with the media. The U.S. $3 billion, 1,460-megawatt Luang Prabang Dam will be built by Thailand’s Xayaburi Power Company Ltd. and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam Power Corp. The project is being financed by the Luang Prabang Power Company Ltd., a consortium of the Thai and Vietnamese power companies and the Lao government. Most villagers fish the Mekong and grow rice and raise livestock along it. People who live near the Pak Beng project will lose their farmland and have to relocate to another area. “Regarding the relocation of and compensation for affected villagers, the dam developer has not given details yet about how they will proceed,” a Pak Beng district official told RFA on April 8. Villagers fear being shortchanged in the compensation they receive for their losses, as have other Laotians affected by hydropower dam projects. “They’ve marked where the houses will be relocated, and now it is quiet,” said one affected villager who requested anonymity. “We are worried. The impact is huge.” A resident of the district’s Homxay village said there is not much land available for farming in other parts of the district because most of it is in a mountainous area. ‘Nobody wants to relocate’ Meanwhile, China’s Sinohydro Corp. has begun to prepare for construction on the U.S. $2 billion Pak Lay Dam, an official at the Energy and Mines Department of Xayaburi province told RFA on April 1. “They’ve started, but the relocation of the families has not,” he said. “As soon as the power purchase agreement is signed, they [Sinohydro] will bring all the equipment and materials to the dam site.” The developer has been preparing to build an access road, a workers’ camp and a power source at the site since late 2021, said the official who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The preconstruction phase is moving ahead, but Lao and Sinohydro officials have not yet met with the residents, he said. A resident of Phaliap village in Pak Lay district confirmed that neither Lao government officials nor company representatives have formally spoken with villagers. “They haven’t talked to us yet,” he said. “Nobody wants to relocate, and nobody wants to lose their farms, rice fields and cassava plantations.” A resident of the district’s Nongkhai village, who expects to be displaced by the dam, expressed similar concern over the unsettled issues. “We’re worried about the relocation, resettlement and compensation,” he said, adding that he has heard that villagers will receive 30 million kip (U.S. $2,500) per hectare of land, which they believe is a low-ball figure. “We’re hoping that what they pay us is closer to what our land is worth or comparable to the market value,” he said. “As for the relocation, we don’t know yet where we’re going to move to.” A map shows the location of the impending Pak Lay Dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos’ Xayaburi province. Credit: Google Earth ‘Dam will worsen the impact’ The Love Chiang Khong Group, a Thai NGO, has said the dam will reduce the fish population and destroy the ecosystem of the Mekong in the area. “The river’s water level is fluctuating right now because of Chinese dams and the Xayaburi Dam,” said a representative of the organization, who did not want to be named so he could speak freely. The Thai-owned U.S. $4.5 billion Xayaburi Dam on the…
Only a few thousand tigers survive in Asia in 2022
With the lunar Year of the Tiger well under way, various assessments show that only a few thousand tigers at the most are surviving in South and East Asia. Tigers once ranged from Eastern Turkey and the Caspian Sea to the south of the Tibetan plateau eastward to Manchuria and the Sea of Okhotsk. According to The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), tigers were also found in northern Iran, Afghanistan, the Indus Valley of Pakistan, and the islands of Java and Bali. Today, the Swiss-based WWF says that rampant poaching and unchecked habitat destruction have shrunk the tigers’ range by more than 95 percent. At the beginning of the 20th century, wild tigers are said to have numbered some 100,000. The total number of wild tigers has declined to as few as 3,200, with more than half of them to be found in India. In India, it’s against the law to attempt to kill an endangered tiger except in self-defense or by the special permission granted by a wildlife protection act. Offenders face a minimum of three years in prison unless the tiger was deemed a man-eater by a court. Of the 13 “tiger-range” nations of the world, seven—Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam—are located in Southeast Asia. In 2010, the governments of 13 countries where tigers still roam met for the first time in St. Petersburg. There they committed themselves to a doubling of the population of wild tigers by 2022, the Lunar New Year of the Tiger. Debbie Banks with the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which also has offices in Washington, D.C., says criminal gangs capture wild tigers and sell their bones and pelts, which can be processed into luxury home décor items. The bones are also sometimes used for medicinal purposes despite a lack of scientific evidence that this remedy works as claimed. The largest markets for these items appear to be found in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Although the health claims associated with tiger body parts are dubious, the benefits of wild tigers to their surrounding environment are widely accepted by scientists. According to the WWF, wild tigers “play an important role in maintaining the harmony of the planet’s ecosystems.” Tigers prey on “herbivores,” such as cows, deer and sheep, which feed on forest vegetation. They thus help to preserve vegetation that can be consumed by humans. The WWF also notes that tigers are “incredibly adaptable” and “can survive in vastly diverse habitats … under extreme temperatures.” That characteristic gives some cause for optimism. The tenacity of tigers may be enough for the species to avoid extinction, if only humans stop killing them. Dan Southerland is RFA’s founding executive editor.
US human rights report cites China’s violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet
China’s abuses targeting Uyghurs, Hongkongers and Tibetans are among some of the worst human rights violations around the world, the U.S. Department of State said Tuesday. “The Chinese government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs among other minority groups, to erode fundamental freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong, and to carry out systematic repression in Tibet,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press briefing before the release of the department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The report, which the State Department is required to release each year by law, details the state of human rights and worker rights in 198 countries and territories. The administration of former President Donald Trump officially determined in January 2021 that abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions (XUAR) amounted to state-sponsored genocide and crimes against humanity. President Biden’s administration has agreed with the designation and has worked with its international allies on measures to hold the Chinese government to account. The 90 pages in the report that are dedicated to China focus on the XUAR and the arbitrary imprisonment of more than 1 million civilians in extrajudicial internment camps and the additional 2 million who are subjected to daytime-only “re-education” training. The report also cited evidence of forced labor, forced sterilizations of women, coerced abortions, more restrictive birth control policies, rape and torture, and draconian restrictions on freedoms of religion and expression. The report cited an Oct. 21, 2021, report by RFA that said more than 170 Uyghurs, including woman and minors, in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) were detained by national security authorities on China’s National Day holiday because they allegedly displaying resistance to the country during flag-raising activities. Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said the State Department’s report is important because it highlights the most urgent crises around the world. “The Uyghur genocide is one of them,” he told RFA. “This reports is important in the sense that it must be used as a reminder that international inaction in the face of Uyghur genocide will lead to the deterioration of human rights around the world.” “The international community must act,” he said. “The Uyghur people have suffered enough in the past five years.”Campaign for Uyghurs also welcomed the human rights report. “Uyghurs are really delighted to see this strong stance to call China out for its crimes of genocide, and standing firmly on the values that ought to be advocated by the United States precisely concerning liberty, respect and freedom for the principles of humanity,” said the organization’s executive director Rushan Abbas in a statement. The report also notes rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet and other parts of China, includingserious limits on free expression and the media. Journalists, lawyers, writers and bloggers have suffered from physical attacks and criminal prosecution. The U.S. supports human rights by meeting with advocates, journalists and others to document abuses and works with the Treasury Department to apply sanctions and visa restrictions on human rights abusers, Blinken said. It also collects, preserves and analyzes evidence of atrocities. In March, the U.S. government imposed new sanctions against Chinese officials over the repression of Uyghurs in China and elsewhere, prompting an angry response from Beijing and a pledge to respond with sanctions of its own. At the time, Blinken said the U.S. would restrict visas on unnamed individuals he said were involved in repressive acts by China against members of ethnic and religious minority groups inside and outside the country’s borders, including within the U.S. Blinken noted that even though the U.S. has its own human rights shortcomings, the country openly acknowledges them and tries to address them. “Respecting human rights is a fundamental part of upholding the international rules-based order which is crucial to America’s enduring security and prosperity,” he said. “Governments that violate human rights are almost always the same ones that flout other key parts of that order.”
As North Korea’s economy struggles, disabled soldiers suffer more than most
North Korean soldiers who were injured during their service are now unable to depend on the state to care for them due to worsening economic conditions, sources in the country told RFA. Officially known as “honorable soldiers,” many of the disabled rely on the government for basic support. For those who are incapable of working, a sudden drop-off in government-provided stipends and food rations can be devastating. “Everyone is having a difficult time because the prices of goods are ridiculously expensive and business has not yet recovered,” a resident of Paegam county in the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service April 6 on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The honorable soldiers are facing a miserable situation, especially as the nation’s benefits have been reduced due to economic difficulties,” she said. The source discussed the case of an honorable solder in her neighborhood who lost both of his legs and cannot work. “There is no woman who wants to marry him, so he is living with his mother, who is the only person who can care for him. Since last summer, though, her health has become worse since she is getting older,” the source said. “She normally has a vegetable business that she’s been doing for a long time, but she is no longer able, so their livelihood has been badly affected,” she said. Honorable soldiers are classified as grade 1-3 depending on the severity of their injuries. Soldiers who have lost multiple limbs or have become paralyzed and must rely on others for basic tasks are classified as special grade. These soldiers are supposed to get support from the government for the rest of their lives, the source said. “But I know that there is no other support except for a small amount of corn due to the poor economic situation of the country. The military provided firewood after his mother stopped her business, but now even that support has been cut off,” she said. The daily supply of corn from the government amounts to less than 500 grams (1.1 lbs.), hardly enough to live on, the source said. Meat and cooking oils are rarely ever provided in the government support ration. “I haven’t seen our honorable soldier in a while. His wheelchair is broken and he isn’t able to go outside,” the source said. “If you go to the market in Hyesan, there’s a place there that sells Chinese-made wheelchairs, but they cost 200,000 to 400,000 won (U.S. $33 to $66). With no money he cannot afford to get a new one,” she said. The source said she did not know how the soldier had lost both of his legs but many of the injuries to soldiers occur when they are assigned to construction duty. If an accident occurs, their injuries are officially recorded as having occurred while the soldier was on a military mission. The soldiers are often reluctant to reveal how they were injured, except to their closest family members, according to the source. Living conditions for honorable soldiers in the northwestern province of North Hamgyong is “appalling,” a resident of the province’s Orang county told RFA. “The honorable soldiers in Pyongyang and other large cities work at ‘Honorable Soldier Factories’ which operate at full capacity because they are important to the country, but out here in the small-town rural areas the factories for them aren’t running,” he said. “In our county, we have more than 70 honorable soldiers with relatively minor disabilities. Most of them work at the honorable soldier fishing gear factory, but it has been a long time since they shut down due to a lack of electricity and raw materials,” the second source said. The source said that when the factories shut down, the able-bodied were able to support themselves through other means. “The ordinary residents can survive by going out to sea to fish or going to the mountains to collect firewood to sell, but the honorable soldiers cannot do those things because they can’t move around freely. The lives of the honorable soldiers are far more miserable than those of the able-bodied,” he said. “Even now, the number of honorable soldiers continues to increase. They either have an injured limb or they lost an eye, or things like that. The authorities say that those soldiers are the precious treasures of the country and that they should be taken care of, but there’s no actual support.” Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
