Category: East Asia
‘Spying’ trial of Australian national, state TV anchor Cheng Lei held in secret
Australian national and Chinese state TV anchor Cheng Lei stood trial behind closed doors at a Beijing court on Thursday for alleged breaches of the national security law. Cheng was detained on suspicion of “spying” in August 2020, and has been held incommunicado for more than 18 months since. She stood trial at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday, amid tight security, but accompanied by a lawyer, according to an Australian diplomat at the scene. Australian ambassador to China Graham Fletcher said he was denied permission to sit in the public gallery for the trial, on the grounds that the case “involved state secrets.” The refusal came despite a public request from Australian foreign minister Marise Payne, who called on Beijing to allow diplomats to observe the trial and observe basic standards of fairness, procedural justice and humane treatment. Fletcher told reporters he was concerned about the outcome for Cheng. Beijing-based criminal lawyer Zhang Dongshuo said the harshness of Cheng’s sentence — Chinese courts rarely acquit defendants outright — would likely depend on how sensitive the “secrets” involved were deemed to be. “If it is a question of more than one instance, for example, sentencing would be very different if there were more than 10 or less than 10 instances,” Zhang said. “Whether it involved the highest-level of classified information, what they call ‘top secret,’ or a lower level [also affects the outcome].” He said Cheng’s Australian passport is unlikely to help her much. “Nationality and identity are generally not considered in sentencing, but in some special cases, it could be affected by matters of national defense, foreign affairs and other matters, and special consideration may be given by the court,” Zhang said. Currently, sentencing for those found guilty of “illegally providing state secrets overseas” ranges between five and 10 years’ imprisonment, but lighter sentences have also been given, he said. If Cheng was seen as “cooperative,” for example, if she “confessed” to the charges and pleaded guilty, she could be released soon after the trial. “This possibility certainly exists,” Zhang said. “If the number and level of state secrets in Cheng Lei’s case aren’t high, then she could receive a fairly light sentence with time already served deducted.” But he said there was no guarantee, in the absence of further information about the charges faced by Cheng. Feng Chongyi, a professor of political science at the University of Technology Sydney, said the existence of any “confession” was the most important factor, however. “This is very important,” Feng said. “This is the scary part of the Chinese criminal law. It requires the person to plead guilty, and it depends on your attitude in making a confession.” “Cheng Lei is a mother of two children. That would make it easier to negotiate with the Chinese authorities and to reach a compromise,” he said. Bloomberg employee Meanwhile, little has been heard of Bloomberg News employee Haze Fan, who was taken away by state security police in December 2020 on suspicion of “endangering national security.” Chinese authorities have only said that investigation into her case is still ongoing. Both Fan and Cheng had been friends, helping to collect donations of medical supplies to aid front-line medical workers in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, according to information publicly available on Facebook. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for Fan’s immediate and unconditional release, saying the allegations against her have no credibility. Cheng, 47, was born in Hunan and moved to Australia with her parents as a child. She once worked as an anchor on China Global Television News (CGTN), the international arm of CCTV. She was detained in August 2020 and formally arrested in February 2021. Cheng’s detention came amid increasingly strained ties between Beijing and Canberra, which is taking steps to limit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s propaganda outreach in the country, and which has barred Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from bidding for 5G mobile contracts. Risks of reporting While foreign journalists have long faced challenging conditions under CCP rule, now they are also dealing with growing hostility and intimidation, including online stalking, smear campaigns, hacking and visa denials, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said in its annual report in February 2022. More than 60 percent of respondents had been obstructed by police or officials last year, while almost all journalists who went to Xinjiang were visible followed throughout their trips, while more than a quarter said their sources had been detained, harassed or questioned more than once following interviews. There is also a growing legal threat for journalists working in China, with the authorities encouraging a spate of lawsuits or the threat of legal action against foreign journalists, typically filed by sources long after they have explicitly agreed to be interviewed, the report said. It said “state-backed attacks” including online trolling of foreign journalists is also on the increase. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Women in China’s Leadership
Women in China’s Leadership Staggering data about the status of women in leadership roles in China has been released as the Women in China’s Leadership report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Women make up almost half of China’s 1.4 billion population. Of the approximately 92 million CCP members, there are about 28 million women or roughly 30% of the CCP’s total. Women have limited representation and voice across the top echelons of China’s political system. Historically, female representatives have rarely constituted more than 10% of the roughly 300-member CCP Central Committee. Only six women have ever served in the 25-member Politburo, and three of those were wives of other top leaders. No woman has ever served on the Politburo Standing Committee or held any of the top three positions in China’s political system: CCP General Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and State President. Female representation in key government roles such as ministries and provincial governorships is also extremely low. The percentage of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) service members who are female is not publicly available, but China Military Online, an official publication of the PLA, estimated in 2015 that approximately 5% or less are women. Currently, no women hold senior command or political commissar positions. The highest rank a woman in the PLA has ever achieved is Lieutenant General, with one woman promoted to Lieutenant General in 1993 and a second in 2010. Other Key Findings of the report are: According to United Nations data from 2021, China’s population comprises approximately 703.8 million females and 740.4 million males. Although they represent roughly 48.7% of the population, women occupy less than 8% of senior leadership positions. The absence of diversity is noteworthy given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership’s stated commitment to equal opportunity. The absence of women in Party leadership parallels low female representation within the group of Chinese nationals holding leadership positions in international organizations. Of the 31 Chinese nationals serving in top leadership positions in key international organizations, only 4 are women Table 1: Female Representation in Chinese Communist Party Leadership Table: Female Representation in Government Leadership Table 3. Female Representation in Military Leadership Credits : https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/Women_in_Chinas_Leadership.pdf
Solomons ready to sign security pact, denies pressure for China base
The Solomon Islands prime minister has told lawmakers that a controversial security agreement with China is “ready for signing” without revealing the details, saying only that his government had not been pressured to let China build a naval base in the country. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare made the remarks to Parliament late Tuesday, according to multiple news reports. Neighboring powers have expressed concern over the pact that China has defended as normal cooperation with Pacific island nation. “We are not pressured in any way by our new friends and there is no intention whatsoever to ask China to build a military base in the Solomon Islands,” Sogavare was quoted as saying. A draft agreement leaked online last week would allow Beijing to set up bases and deploy troops in the Solomon Islands, which lies about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from the northeastern coast of Australia. The document provoked fears in the region’s traditional powers, Australia and New Zealand, with the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying that her country sees the pact as “gravely concerning.” It is unclear whether the leaked draft differs from the final agreement. Sogavare told Parliament that in order to achieve the nation’s security needs, “it is clear that we need to diversify the country’s relationship with other countries” but existing security arrangements with Australia would remain. His policy of “diversification” was evident last November when Sogavare asked Australia, and after that China, to send police forces to help him quell violent riots that rocked the capital, Honiara. Alexander Vuving, a professor with the Hawaii-based Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, said Sogavare’s strategy is not unusual for leaders of small Pacific island states who are “willing to play the major powers off against each other, thus bloating their states’ values to the major powers.” A Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said on Tuesday that “normal law enforcement and security cooperation between China and Solomon Islands … is consistent with international law and customary international practice.” “We hope relevant countries will earnestly respect Solomon Islands’ sovereignty and its independent decisions instead of deciding what others should and should not do in a condescending manner,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said. A file photo showing sailors stand on deck of the guided-missile destroyer Taiyuan of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy as during commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the navy near Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province, April 23, 2019. Credit: AP China’s growing presence in the Pacific Beijing doesn’t hide its ambition to set up military bases in the region. Some Chinese analysts, such as Qi Huaigao, an associate professor at Fudan University, suggested that in order to compete with the United States in the Western Pacific, China needs to have bases in Solomon Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu for commercial and military supply purposes. In 2018, media reports about China’s plan to build a base in Vanuatu prompted a stern warning from the then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. David Capie, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, told RFA earlier this week that China “wants to be able to operate its rapidly growing navy out in the wider Pacific, complicating U.S. plans in the event of a future conflict.” “A base in the Pacific would let People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels operate far away from their home ports for longer and in the future might also be used for intelligence gathering and surveillance,” he said. It would greatly boost China’s capabilities in intelligence-collecting which is alleged to have often been done by marine research vessels. Data provided by the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic show that China’s spacecraft-tracking ship Yuanwang-5 is currently operating in the Western Pacific, not far from the Solomon Islands. Yuanwang-class ships are “multi-purpose signals and technical intelligence gathering platforms,” said Paul Buchanan, director of the Auckland, New Zealand-based 36th Parallel Assessments risk consultancy. The Yuanwang-5’s presence is normal but “it would not be surprising if it makes a port visit to Honiara as part of the deployment in order to register the seriousness of China’s intent in the region,” Buchanan said.
Top British judges quit Hong Kong final appeal court, citing national security law
Two U.K. Supreme Court judges resigned from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (CFA) on Wednesday, citing a recent crackdown on dissent under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing. Non-permanent CFA judges Lord Reed and Lord Hodge had sat on the court “for many years” under an agreement governing the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule, Reed said in a statement. “I have been closely monitoring and assessing developments in Hong Kong, in discussion with the government,” Reed wrote. “However, since the introduction of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020, this position has become increasingly finely balanced.” “The judges of the Supreme Court cannot continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression, to which the Justices of the Supreme Court are deeply committed,” the statement said. U.K. foreign secretary Liz Truss said the government supported the decision. “The Foreign Secretary supports the withdrawal of serving UK judges from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, following discussions with the Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor and the President of the Supreme Court,” said in a brief statement, which was signed by Truss and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab. Ruling Conservative Party rights activist Benedict Rogers, who heads the U.K.-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, said the move was the correct one. “Today’s news reflects the sad reality that the national security law has torn apart the human rights and constitutional safeguards which made Hong Kong meaningfully autonomous,” Rogers said. “The British judges’ ongoing presence was providing a veneer of legitimacy for a fundamentally compromised system, and the British government is right to have taken steps to recall them,” he said. The Law Society of Hong Kong, which represents solicitors in the city, called on the judges to reverse their decision. “Unfair and unfounded accusations … against the judicial system of Hong Kong have no place in the discussion about rule of law,” president C.M. Chan said in a letter to news editors. “I sincerely appeal to the U.K. judges to reverse course.” Hong Kong Chief Justice Andrew Cheung noted the resignations “with regret.” Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen in Yuen Long after attacking anti-extradition bill demonstrators at a train station in Hong Kong, July 22, 2019. Credit: Reuters Documentary on attacks The resignations came as internet service providers in Hong Kong appeared to have blocked a 30-minute documentary by Vice News on YouTube detailing the involvement of triad criminal gangs in bloody attacks on passengers at the Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019, amid a mass protest movement sparked by plans to allow the extradition of alleged criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China. The documentary explored in depth the attacks by men wielding sticks and wearing white clothing. “For many, the violence was shocking and symbolized the death of Hong Kong’s democracy,” the platform said in its introduction to the video on YouTube. “It is tragic how a Hong Kong citizen like me had to use a VPN in order to watch this,” YouTube user Dayton Ling commented under the video. “It saddens me that Hong Kong has gone from a first class financial centre to a third world police state.” Several other users commented that the journalist interviewed for the film is currently behind bars, awaiting trial under the national security law. Hong Kong’s national security police recently wrote to Benedict Rogers ordering him to take down the group’s website, which was highly critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s rights record in Hong Kong. The U.K., along with Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United States have suspended their extradition agreements with Hong Kong. However, extradition agreements remain active between Hong Kong and the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Sri Lanka, putting anyone traveling to those countries at potential risk of arrest if they are targeted by the law. The national security law ushered in a citywide crackdown on public dissent and criticism of the authorities that has seen several senior journalists, pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai and 47 former lawmakers and democracy activists charged with offenses from “collusion with a foreign power” to “subversion.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Philippines lodges new diplomatic protest against China over close encounter at sea
The Philippines lodged a new diplomatic protest against China after a Chinese coast guard ship maneuvered dangerously close to a Filipino vessel in the disputed Scarborough Shoal in early March, a senior official said Tuesday. China’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, insisted that it was within its rights when its ship allegedly engaged in what the Philippine Coast Guard described as a “close distance maneuvering” in South China Sea waters. “It’s done, we’ve filed a diplomatic protest regarding that,” National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told reporters on Samar Island in the central Philippines, where he was attending a government event. Similar incidents could occur over contending claims in Scarborough Shoal, he warned. Esperon heads the national taskforce for the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine name for territory claimed by Manila in the South China Sea. On Sunday, the Philippine Coast Guard reported that a China Coast Guard ship had sailed within 21 meters (69 feet) of the BRP Malabrigo during a routine patrol on March 2. That was the fourth time since May 2021 that Chinese Coast Guard ships had made that type of maneuver against Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said. “It can always happen that vessels of the different countries, especially from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and other claimant countries and China, will get into close encounters simply because we have conflicting claims,” Esperon said. “There may be counter-claims but we, as a nation, will stand by our established sovereign rights and sovereignty over the area.” He said Manila had been increasing its presence in the region through the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Esperon also said there were fresh reports about other claimants to the potentially mineral rich sea region improving facilities on islands they occupy. “That’s the situation there, just be aware of it. And Vietnam has 21 positions, we have nine stations, [while] China has seven strong positions,” he said. Manila, which claims nine islands in the South China Sea, the biggest of which is the 92-acre Pag-asa Island (known internationally as Thitu Island), has been improving its facilities in the region in recent years “in the same manner that Vietnam is doing a lot of improvement” to theirs, Esperon said. The national security adviser said the government would continue to assert its claims through “diplomatic channels and through the international community.” “Can we afford to go to war? Not now or not in this instance. … [I]n general we want peaceful settlements of the conflicts in the area,” he said. ‘Earnestly respect China’s sovereignty’ Manila issued the protest a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin insisted that China had sovereign rights over the shoal. “China has sovereignty over Huangyan Dao and its adjacent waters as well as sovereign rights and jurisdiction over relevant waters,” Wang said, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal. “We hope that Philippine ships will earnestly respect China’s sovereignty and rights and interests, abide by China’s domestic law and international law, and avoid interfering with the patrol and law enforcement of the China Coast Guard in the above-mentioned waters,” he said during a media briefing on Monday. Also known as Bajo de Masinloc, Scarborough Shoal lies 120 nautical miles west of Luzon Island – well within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). For years, the shoal has been a traditional fishing ground for Filipinos but since 2012 it has been under virtual control by China, which has maintained a constant coast guard presence. After a tense standoff, Manila said the United States brokered a deal for both sides to pull out of the shoal but China reneged on it. In 2016, an international court ruled in favor of the Philippines in a South China Sea territorial dispute. Instead of moving to enforce the internationally accepted deal, President Rodrigo Duterte moved to appease Chinese leader Xi Jinping in exchange for cordial ties and billions in Chinese investments. Apart from China and the Philippines, other claimants to South China Sea territories are Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. Indonesia is locked in a separate dispute with China which claims parts of the sea that is within Jakarta’s EEZ. ‘Shared responsibility’ Also on Tuesday, Malaysia Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said that the South China Sea “is ultimately a region of shared responsibility, a region which we in ASEAN are collectively responsible for,” referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “Issues around the South China Sea have always made headlines. As much as strongly worded statements are likely to grab attention, we must strive to ensure that cooler heads prevail,” Hussein said during the Putrajaya Forum, a security conference organized by the Malaysian Institute of Defense and Security and the Malaysian Defense Ministry. “Though we are in the business of defense and security, de-escalating a high-stakes situation is a task in itself. A task that we must all put above all else lest we risk compromising the peace and stability in the region,” he said. Hussein told those at the conference that tensions between nations must be diffused “through all available means. “Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the issue, through established international laws and conventions, all parties must work together to increase efforts to build, maintain and enhance mutual trust and confidence so that we can maintain peace, security and stability in the South China Sea.” Nisha David in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Uyghur woman who escaped forced abortion said to have died in prison
A Uyghur woman who escaped from a hospital in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region to avoid a forced abortion in 2014 has died in prison, a Uyghur who lives in exile and a village police officer said. Authorities ordered Zeynebhan Memtimin to terminate her pregnancy, but she fled the hospital in Keriye (in Chinese Yutian) county in Hotan (Hetian) prefecture where the procedure was to take place. In 2014, a Uyghur from the county who was then living in exile told RFA that authorities took Zeynebhan from Arish village to a hospital for a forced abortion. RFA later determined through interviews with sources in Xinjiang that Zeynebhan had escaped from the hospital to save her unborn child. When the child turned three in 2017, authorities detained Zeynebhan in an internment camp along with her husband, Metqurban Abdulla, who had helped her escape from the hospital, on charges of “disturbing the social order” and “religious extremism” for avoiding the abortion, the Uyghur in exile told RFA last week. Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison, the source said. The Uyghur source said that contacts in the region and a former neighbor confirmed last week that Zeynebhan died in 2020. The woman’s funeral was conducted under heavy supervision by Chinese officials, who did not disclose the reason for her death to her family and didn’t provide any information on her detained husband, the Uyghur source said. Chinese authorities in Keriye county contacted by RFA declined to comment on the matter. A police officer in Arish village confirmed to RFA that Zeynebhan and Metqurban had been sentenced to 10 years, but he didn’t provide any information on what happened to their four children after they had been incarcerated. “They were sentenced to 10 years in prison and were serving their terms in Keriye Prison,” he told RFA. He also said that Zeynebhan was 40 years old when she died in prison from an illness caused by having multiple births, and that she had been jailed for violating family planning policies. “Since she had multiple births, it’s natural that she died from illness,” he said. RFA’s Uyghur Service reported in 2014 that Metqurban agreed to pay a fine for Zeynebhan to have a fourth child in violation of China’s family planning policy for ethnic minorities, which limited families to two children. But instead, authorities tried to force her to terminate the pregnancy. At that time, the Uyghur Service aired a series of eight reports on authorities forcing women in Keriye county’s Lenger, Arish and Siyek villages to have abortions. Of the 70% of Uyghurs in Arish village who were arrested and detained in 2017 for allegedly engaging in illegal religious activities about 10% were being held because they violated family planning policies, according to the Uyghur source in exile. Uyghur activists say Chinese authorities in Xinjiang often arrest Uyghurs accused of violating family planning policies as a pretext for meeting their arrest quotas. The Chinese government implemented population control measures for Uyghurs, including forced sterilizations and abortions as part of the crackdown that began in 2017. Muslim Uyghur and other Turkic minority women who have been detained in Xinjiang’s vast network of internment camps but later released have reported being raped, tortured and forced to undergo sterilization surgery. Such population control measures, among other repressive policies in Xinjiang, were cited by some Western parliaments and the United States as evidence that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
China imposes total information controls around China Eastern crash site
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moving to delete rumor, speculation and opinion about the China Eastern crash from the country’s tightly controlled internet, while even state-approved journalists have reported problems gaining access to the crash site. Since officials announced on March 22 that all 132 people aboard flight MU5735, a Boeing 737 China Eastern en route between Kunming and Guangzhou that crashed in a mountainous part of Guangxi outside Wuzhou, had died, any information about the investigation into the cause of the crash has been tightly restricted by the authorities. Chinese journalist Du Qiang recently complained on the social media platform WeChat that he and a colleague, Chen Weixi, were denied access to the crash site by police after flying there on the same day, only managing to take a few photos from a distance before being ordered to leave. Du wrote that the roads leading to the crash site were blocked by three police checkpoints, and that fellow journalists working for Japanese broadcaster NHK met with similar treatment. He wrote that official journalists working for state broadcaster CCTV and Xinhua news agency had once been in the habit of visiting disaster sites in the hope of netting some prized photos or footage of the area, but that this now seems impossible. His WeChat post, which also called for better press arrangements, including wider access to official news conferences, garnered huge numbers of views and comments, but has since been deleted. “Could the leaders of China Eastern Airlines and relevant departments come better prepared so that more questions can be raised?” Du’s post said, also calling for more interviews with rescue teams or grieving relatives. “Is it possible to seek the opinions of family members and let those who are willing to meet with the media?” A photographer who gave only the nickname Xiao Gao told RFA he had also tried to get to the site around the same time. “I have never come across such tight controls at a disaster site as I did this time around,” Xiao Gao said. “We tried to interview people in nearby villages … but there were obstacles at every turn.” Hebei-based journalist Huang Tao said the authorities are keen to ensure that they control every aspect of media and social media reporting of the crash. “This must be to prevent information from leaking out,” Huang said. “There is probably a lot of evidence at the scene indicating something that they don’t want reporters to find out about.” Deleting ‘rumors’ China’s powerful Cyberspace Administration said on March 26 that it has deleted more than 279,000 posts containing “illegal content” relating to the crash, including 167,000 rumors and 1,295 hashtags. It said it had also shut down 2,713 social media accounts. Among the “rumors” deleted from social media included claims that China Eastern had already sustained losses of tens of billions of dollars, and had slashed maintenance costs in a bid to improve its financial situation. But Huang said he believes much of what the authorities say is “rumor” is authentic information. “You can tell which reports are true by looking at what they are deleting,” Huang said. “[So] the reports that the airline didn’t maintain [the aircraft] properly to save money … may be true; it’s looking more and more likely that it has to do with maintenance.” An aircraft maintenance engineer surnamed Chen said the fact that parts of the aircraft’s tail were found some 10 kilometers from the crash site suggests that there may have been problems with this part. “[If] the torque was too large, it could have gotten sheared off, which wouldn’t be surprising,” Chen said. “The crash is going to be either due to human error or a mechanical failure.” Both black boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, have been recovered and taken to Beijing for decoding, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official Zhu Tao told journalists on March 27. The investigation is seeking answers to questions about why the Boeing 737 descended 6,000 meters in the space of just one minute, before burying itself 20 meters deep in a mountainside as it began its descent to Guangzhou. Deliberate media controls U.S.-based economist He Qinglian said the media controls are likely top-down and deliberate. “They won’t let them report from the crash site — that’s the CCP’s dead hand controlling the media,” He said. “It’s to make sure that nobody starts making interpretations that aren’t in line with the official narrative.” Meanwhile, the authorities have yet to publish a list of the passengers and crew who were aboard the doomed flight, with Hong Kong media reports saying the families of victims are being closely watched around the clock by Chinese officials. An online appeal from the families of victims complained that they, too, are being kept in the dark by officials. “Due to the pandemic, there is almost no way for family members [of victims] to communicate with other family members,” the appeal, which was no longer visible on Toutiao by Tuesday, said. However, authorities did respond to some of the relatives’ requests by taking them up to the crash site in separate groups, to view the scene and to make offerings for their loved ones at a temporary shrine in the area. One family member wrote: “Even if they don’t find anyone, I am hoping to go home with some soil from the crash site [in lieu of remains].” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
China Russia and bad omens
Any hope that Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping may have had for a quiet 2022 to ease the path to his anointment in autumn to an unprecedented third term as party chairman and state president vanished early in the face of a coronavirus outbreak, real estate and energy problems hurting the economy, and his Russian ally Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. China’s worst COVID-19 surge since the 2020 Wuhan outbreak has prompted lockdowns of tens of millions of people, hitting consumer spending and supply chains. China’s awkward stance on the war on Ukraine–proclaiming neutrality, but sticking to Moscow’s line and censoring reports on the conflict, while its diplomats and state media spread anti-U.S. conspiracy theories–has won Xi few friends in the wealthy democratic West, and Beijing faces the risk of being hit by secondary versions of the crippling economic sanctions imposed on Russia if it steps up material support for Putin.
China warns Nepal about ‘outside interference’ following US grant
China warned Nepal this month against what it called interference from outside forces following Nepal’s ratification of a U.S. development grant, while China-tied projects in the country continue to stall, media sources say. The warning came during Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s March 25-27 visit to Nepal, and only a month after Nepal’s parliament ratified a $500 million no-strings-attached U.S. grant to build electric power lines and improve roads in the impoverished Himalayan country. Signed by Washington and Kathmandu in 2017, the agreement called the Millenium Challenge Corporation Nepal Compact (MCC-Nepal) was finally ratified by Nepal on Feb. 27 after numerous delays in the country’s parliament. In talks in Kathmandu last week, Wang Yi said that “external interference” in Nepal’s affairs might now threaten the “core interests” of both China and Nepal, according to a March 28 report by the India-based ANI online news service. “China supports Nepal in pursuing ‘independent domestic and foreign policies,’” ANI said, quoting Wang. Regional experts speaking to RFA in interviews this week said Wang Yi’s statements in Nepal reflect Beijing’s growing concern that Kathmandu may no longer rely exclusively on China for supporting its development. Beijing wants to convince Nepalese politicians that China is still a friend to Nepal, said Aadil Brar, a China specialist at the Delhi, India-based online newspaper The Print. “And there is now a certain concern within China that Nepal might be moving closer to the U.S., and so I think that was the primary goal in terms of [Wang Yi’s] three-day visit,” he said. “If we look at the kind of support China offers, it’s mostly in terms of infrastructure projects that are being built in Nepal. But Nepalese politicians usually like to have grants instead of loans, because that helps them make sure they are not going to be dependent on China.” No progress on BRI projects Nepal is seen by China as a partner in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to boost global trade through infrastructure development, but no agreements on BRI projects or the terms of their loans were signed during Wang Yi’s visit, sources in the country say. “We have seen many politicians and experts here in Nepal who do not approve of China’s Belt and Road Initiative project and consider it threatening to Nepal,” said Sangpo Lama, vice president of HURON, the Human Rights Organization of Nepal. “China’s principle is to give money for BRI projects in Nepal in the form of loans, and not as grants,” Sangpo Lama said. Beijing has been apprehensive ever since Nepal ratified the MCC-Nepal agreement with the United States, said Santosh Sharma, a faculty member at Nepal’s Tribhuvan University and co-founder of the Nepal Institute for Policy Research. “Nepal needs international grants and support to build infrastructure in the country, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the MCC grant from the U.S. both serve that purpose. However, by signing the MCC agreement, Nepal has shown just how significant the American grant is,” Sharma said. Wang Yi’s claims of concern for Nepal’s “sovereignty and independence from external forces” only mask Beijing’s greater worry over U.S. influence in Nepal, added Parshuram Kaphle, a special correspondent on foreign and strategic affairs at Nepal’s Naya Patrika newspaper. “However, neither China nor the U.S. will be able to create a bond with Nepal like India has,” Kaphle said. “There is a natural bond between Nepal and India. And geopolitically India will also play a huge role in Nepal’s future.” Though BRI projects in Nepal have so far failed to launch, Nepal’s government has cited promises of millions of dollars of Chinese investment in restricting the activities of an estimated 20,000 Tibetan refugees living in the country, leaving many uncertain of their status and vulnerable to abuses of their rights, rights groups say. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.