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Category: East Asia
Musk’s Twitter acquisition prompts renewed fear of Chinese influence, infiltration
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has sparked fears that the platform may now be more vulnerable to Beijing’s influence, amid an ongoing overseas influence and infowar campaign by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Musk’s recent U.S.$44 billion acquisition of the social media platform was questioned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos soon after it was finalized, with Bezos tweeting on April 26: “Interesting. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?” The tweet came in response to an earlier one from New York Times reporter Mike Forsythe, who noted that China was the second-biggest market for Musk’s Tesla electric cars in 2021, with the company relying heavily on Chinese battery-makers to make electric vehicles. “After 2009, when China banned Twitter, the government there had almost no leverage over the platform,” Forsythe tweeted on April 25, adding: “That may have just changed.” The same question was posed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Foreign Press Center in Washington on May 3. While Blinken declined to comment on private companies, he responded in more general terms: “Free speech, including free media, including platforms of one kind or another, are incredibly important to to the Biden administration,” he said. Blinken also accused Beijing of waging “hybrid warfare” against the democratic island of Taiwan, “including disinformation, including cyber attacks.” “These are designed to basically distort the information environment and democratic processes,” Blinken said. “So we’ve partnered with Taiwanese authorities on civil society organizations, to support independent fact based journalism, to try to build societal resilience to disinformation, and other forms of foreign interference.” Blinken also indirectly touched on more detailed concerns expressed on Twitter in recent days that Musk might consider making it easier for Beijing to identify who is posting on Twitter, or tolerate CCP-sponsored propaganda accounts, which have previously been deleted in large numbers from the platform. “We’ve been deeply concerned about what we’re seeing from [China], in terms of its misuse of technology to try to do things like increased surveillance, harassment, intimidation, censorship, of citizens, journalists, activists, and others,” Blinken said. “These very same leaders in Beijing are using the free and open media that we ensure that are protected in democratic systems to spread propaganda to spread disinformation.” A Tesla model 3 is seen during the 19th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai, April 19, 2021. Credit: AFP. Tesla needs Beijing’s goodwill He also warned that Beijing is keen to extend its censorship and propaganda efforts internationally. “It also appears that they are further using these systems to stalk, harass and threaten critics who are outside [their] territory,” Blinken said. “We condemn and we’ve taken action against these efforts and will continue to defend the principles of free press an open secure, reliable, interoperable internet and the benefits that flow from it.” Taiwan Association for Strategic Simulation deputy secretary Ho Cheng-hui said Tesla is heavily dependent on Beijing’s goodwill to maintain current operations. “There is their megafactory in Shanghai, and all of his supply chain, like batteries, comes from China,” Ho told RFA. “The Chinese government has always been very good at controlling companies … and has always placed strong controls on big capital and on freedom of speech.” Musk’s acquisition of Twitter will make it much easier for China to wield influence there and affect freedom of speech internationally, and that includes exerting influence over foreign companies, he said. “The Chinese government will never relent, even in part, on controlling freedom of speech, especially where it wants to protect itself or prevent speech that isn’t in its interest,” Ho said. “I can’t see them letting an opportunity to interfere with a platform like that go.” After the takeover, Musk took to Twitter to invite his “worst critics” to stay on the platform and keep the tradition of free speech alive there. But he added that speech could only be free “I want even my worst critics to stay on Twitter, because that’s what free speech is all about,” Musk said after acquiring Twitter. However, he also tweeted, “By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.” Foreign companies, including Cambridge University Press, have previously used the notion of compliance with laws and regulations to justify implementing Beijing’s censorship demands. Love-hate relationship? Musk tweeted on April 26: “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.” Taiwan strategic analyst Shih Chien-yu said Musk appears to have a love-hate relationship with the CCP. “Musk is a global entrepreneur who has tried to have restrictions and rules in different countries changed to create ways of operating and values that are conducive to the ongoing development of his business,” Shih told RFA. “Twitter is part of his business [empire] now.” But he said it was hard to predict how far Musk would be willing to use Twitter as leverage with Beijing. “We also don’t know how far Musk’s control of Twitter is going to result in enabling or breaking free speech,” Shih said. Tesla’s financial report released in February 2022 showed that its annual revenue from the Chinese market was worth U.S.$13.844 billion for the whole of 2021, compared with U.S.$6.662 billion for the whole of 2020, a year-on-year growth rate of 107.8 percent. Reuters reported on May 3 that authorities in Shanghai had helped Tesla transport more than 6,000 workers and carry out necessary disinfection work to reopen its factory last month amid the city’s lockdown, according to a letter that Tesla sent to local officials. Tesla reopened its factory in Shanghai on April 19 after a 22-day hiatus amid widespread coverage from state media. The letter lauded a company run by the Lingang Group had arranged for 6,000 Tesla workers to be bused in to the factory and disinfected the whole premises to enable production to start up again, Reuters said. The letter also mentioned plans for further expansion of the Shanghai facility, the agency said. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin…
Testing Chinese patience
Millions of residents of Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities face not only extensive long-term lockdowns under China’s zero-Covid policy, but also an exhausting regimen of testing in response to the spread of the omicron variant. The Chinese capital used the May Day holiday to test millions of people, adding to the stress of securing daily necessities under tight controls on movement.
China amphibious assault ship held live-fire drills in South China Sea
China’s largest Type 075-class amphibious assault ship Hainan has conducted combat training and live fire drills in the South China Sea, Chinese media reported. The exercise took place on April 22 but news about it only emerged this week on an online Chinese military network. The Hainan is the second- largest type of vessel in the Chinese Navy, after its two aircraft carriers. The latest photos show People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) personnel carrying out coordinated training, supply maneuvres and ammunition firing at an unspecified location in the South China Sea. Helicopters were seen rehearsing taking off and landing on the ship’s dock. The drills were said to aim at “consolidating the basic skills of officers and soldiers, optimizing the ship deployment and command process, and effectively improving the comprehensive combat capability.” The Hainan, named after the Chinese island in the South China Sea, is China’s first Type 075 amphibious assault ship, commissioned into service only a year ago. It was built in Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai and listed under the Southern Theater Command which is responsible for the South China Sea. It has a total displacement of 40,000 tons. The Hainan’s deck layout is similar to that of China’s Liaoning and Shandong aircraft carriers. As tall as a 15-storey building, it can carry a number of helicopters, amphibious hovercrafts, tanks and armored vehicles. The vessel is equipped with weapon systems including missiles and ship guns but its main task is transporting helicopters and amphibious vehicles to conduct amphibious operations. Type 075 vessels A day before the Hainan’s exercise, on April 21, the PLAN also announced the commissioning of its second Type 075 amphibious assault ship, the Guangxi. The Chinese Navy only officially started development work on the Type 075 in 2011 but has already launched three ships, two of which are fully operational and the third is on sea trials. A total of eight vessels are said to be on order for the PLAN, reported the Naval News portal. Chinese state media said the Type 075 “will play vital roles in possible operations on the island of Taiwan, as well as islands and reefs in the South China Sea.” Experts said that the commissioning of the three ships will place China in the second rank in terms of global amphibious capabilities, second only to the United States. A U.S. Defense Department report released last November said China has the biggest maritime force on the globe with 355 vessels. The number is projected to increase to 420 ships within the next four years and 460 by 2030. The state media report about the live-fire drill with the Hainan emerged days after a Chinese navy flotilla led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier was spotted sailing from the East China Sea towards the Pacific Ocean. Both the Japanese and Taiwanese militaries said they were monitoring the flotilla.
Little to celebrate on Press Freedom Day amid worsening media crackdown in Myanmar
There was little to celebrate on World Press Freedom Day in Myanmar, where the junta has jailed 135 journalists since it seized power last year and reporters routinely face harassment, arrest and even death for doing their jobs, members of the media and watchdog groups said Tuesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that in the 15 months since its Feb. 1, 2021, coup, the junta had “obliterated” a decade of moderate press reforms in Myanmar, prompting it to name the country the world’s fifth worst abuser of the media freedom in its annual global index. Speaking to RFA’s Myanmar Service on Tuesday, Han Zaw of the Detained Journalists’ Information said his group had documented the arrest of 135 journalists in Myanmar since the coup, adding that nearly half of them remain in detention. “Eighty-three of them — 13 women and 70 men — have been released so far, some on amnesty, some after completing their sentences and some after serving a short-term detention,” he said. “More than 80 journalists have been charged. There are currently 51 detained journalists — 13 women and 38 men.” Myanmar is recognized by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists as the world’s worst jailer of journalists after China. Since the coup, authorities have arrested and sentenced outspoken members of the press on vaguely worded criminal charges that include “publishing false information” and “defamation,” as well as on charges of “terrorism.” Freelance journalist Soe Yar Zar Tun was detained on Feb. 28, 2021, while covering anti-coup protests and is being held in Yangon’s Insein Prison facing a trial for violating the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law. His brother, Zar Ni Tun, told RFA that the junta has no right to arrest members of the media for reporting the news. “It’s completely hypocritical,” he said. “They have harassed and arrested and tortured people in the past and are still doing it.” An editor from the Shwe Phi Myay News Agency, which is based in Shan state, said that in addition to the threat of arrest, journalists are now regularly in danger of losing their lives while doing their jobs. “We know that once a person is arrested, it is very difficult for them to be released. At worst, they could be arrested, tortured or even killed,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “It’s not just the army in this area. There are many ethnic armed groups too. And so, we could get arrested and detained at any time and face a life-threatening situation.” Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi raises his hands as he is escorted by police upon arrival at the Myaynigone police station in Sanchaung township in Yangon, Feb. 26, 2021. Credit: AP Photo Risking death Veteran journalist Myint Kyaw said journalists in the country now find themselves in the worst situation they have faced since the military coup. “We had the case of the first journalist to be killed while covering an armed conflict last January,” he said, referring website editor Pu Tuidim, who was abducted by junta troops while reporting on military clashes with armed ethnic soldiers in Chin state and later shot dead by his captors. “Armed conflicts have escalated in cities as well as in rural areas. Journalists will be killed even more, as there are now death threats to journalists and their family members. And so there might be more bad news for us.” According to RSF, Pu Tidim was the third journalist to be killed in less than a month in Myanmar. His murder followed the Dec. 25, 2021, death of Federal News Journal editor Sai Win Aung from gunfire during a clash between the military and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries in Kaiyn state. Freelance photographer Soe Naing became the first journalist to die at the junta’s hands under torture on Dec. 14, four days after being arrested while covering a protest in Yangon. Journalists are also increasingly facing death threats for reporting news that portrays the junta in a bad light. Last week, the pro-junta Thway Thauk, or “Blood Comrades,” militia called for the deaths of reporters and editors working for news outlets in Myanmar including The Irrawaddy, Mizzima, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and The Irrawaddy Times — as well as their family members. Observers say groups like the Thway Thauk have been emboldened by the military regime’s open disdain for the media, which was again demonstrated — days ahead of World Press Freedom Day — by junta deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, when he accused several news outlets of being “destructive elements” in Myanmar during an April 27 press conference in the capital Naypyidaw. When asked by RFA for comment on the number of reporters currently detained or in prison, Zaw Min Tun responded that the junta had “not arrested anyone for working in the media.” “They were arrested for inciting people and for having contacts with terrorist organizations,” he said. “All media outlets, with the exception of those that have been declared illegal, are working freely here,” he added. In this image made from video taken on Feb. 27, 2021, Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw is arrested by police in Yangon, Myanmar. Credit: AP Photo Plummeting index rank Global media watchdog RSF disagreed with that assessment Tuesday when it dropped Myanmar to 175th out of 180 countries in its 2022 World Press Freedom Index from 140th a year earlier. The group said that in the 15 months since seizing power, the junta had “obliterated” a decade’s worth of modest media reforms that began when the country’s last military regime disbanded in 2011. The new ranking put Myanmar behind only North Korea, Eritrea, Iran and Turkmenistan as the worst place in the world to be a journalist. RSF said that after seizing power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021, the junta immediately banned a number of outspoken media outlets, leaving a handful to continue the work…
Factory in China tests North Korean workers for COVID after 20 show symptoms
Around 800 North Korean workers in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong spent their May Day holiday getting tested for COVID-19 after about 20 of their coworkers began showing symptoms for the disease and were quarantined, sources in China told RFA. The North Korean women are employed by a clothing company in the city’s Zhenan district. They are among the 80,000 to 100,000 North Koreans dispatched to China’s three northeastern provinces to earn foreign currency for their cash-strapped government. Dandong has been locked down as part of China’s zero-COVID policy since last week. Workers would typically have off for May Day, an annual celebration of the fight for labor rights and an important holiday in communist countries. But workers were instead called into the factory for testing, a source in the city told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The factory where the 800 women work is an important one in the battle against COVID-19, as it produces protective medical gowns, the source said. On April 27, about 20 suspected cases of COVID-19 were detected among North Korean workers at the company and the factory closed, the source said. The COVID-19 Pulmonary Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Command in Dandong diagnosed the suspected symptoms as laryngitis instead of COVID-19. “The 20 or so North Koreans who appear to have symptoms of COVID-19 are currently being treated in isolation inside the factory,” the source said. “It is absurd to say that it is laryngitis when there are hundreds of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Dandong and the municipal government and disease control authorities are blocking roads and alleys and restricting the movement of people.” COVID-19 has swept through companies employing North Korean workers before, but it was always kept a secret, the source said. “Perhaps if it was confirmed that North Korean workers had COVID-19 there would be considerable ramifications if it became known to the public. I know that the North Korean consulate in Dandong and the Chinese government are fabricating information to cover it up,” he said. “Even though it is a holiday for workers around the world, the North Korean workers are locked up in their company and taking nucleic acid tests.” A health official from Zhenan district told RFA’s Mandarin Service on Tuesday said that there were confirmed coronavirus cases in the factory, but she could not say whether it was North Korean or Chinese workers who were infected. She said that information would not be released. RFA Mandarin attempted to contact the factory but received no response. Another source in Dandong told RFA’s Korean Service that because the company is making protective gear, the factory had to continue operations on the holiday. “They don’t have time to enjoy the day because they are too busy producing COVID-19 protective suits and isolation gowns,” he said on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “They are working while wearing what they make.” “There was a recent scare after North Korean women working in restaurants, hostess bars and public baths had a few suspected cases,” he said. The source spoke of another case where four young North Korean women working at a hotel in Dandong were suspected cases. “I heard from an acquaintance who works with them that they were immediately placed into quarantine because they were showing symptoms,” the second source said. “As COVID-19 spreads here in Dandong, production rates at companies with North Korean workers fell dramatically. Companies that bought materials in advance, before things got so bad, are still forcing the North Koreans to come to work, even with the lockdown,” he said. Millions of residents of major Chinese cities are facing rigid lockdowns and strict testing regimens as the country tries to stop the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 under the Communist Party’s zero-COVID policy. RFA reported last week that Dandong, which lies across the Sino-Korean border from North Korea’s Sinuiju, started shutting down on April 25 and stopped all rail freight on May 1, just months after it resumed after an almost two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019. But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions. Translated by Claire Lee and RFA’s Mandarin Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Hong Kong falls to a new low in global press freedom index as Jimmy Lai stands trial
Hong Kong has plummeted to 148th on a global press freedom index, as authorities in the city took the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper to court for “fraud.” Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the city’s fall down the index by 68 places was the biggest of the year, and comes amid an ongoing crackdown on the pro-democracy media under a draconian national security law imposed by Beijing from July 1, 2020. “It is the biggest downfall of the year, but it is fully deserved due to the consistent attacks on freedom of the press and the slow disappearance of the rule of law in Hong Kong,” Agence France-Presse quoted RSF’s East Asia bureau chief Cedric Alviani as saying. “In the past year we have seen a drastic, drastic move against journalists,” he added. The national security law was initially used to target the government’s political opponents, but later turned its power onto independent media organizations, forcing the closure of Jimmy Lai’s Apple Daily, parent company Next Media and Stand News. “Once a bastion of press freedom, [Hong Kong] has seen an unprecedented setback since 2020 when Beijing adopted a National Security Law aimed at silencing independent voices,” RSF’s entry on Hong Kong reads. “Since the 1997 handover to China, most media have fallen under the control of the government or pro-China groups,” it said. “In 2021, two major independent news outlets, Apple Daily and Stand News, were forcefully shut down while numerous smaller-scale media outlets ceased operations, citing legal risks.” It said the Hong Kong government now takes orders directly from the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing, and openly supports its propaganda effort. “Public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), previously renowned for its fearless investigations, has been placed under a pro-government management which does not hesitate to censor the programmes it dislikes,” RSF said. Despite promises of freedom of speech, press and publication made under the terms of the handover to Chinese rule, the national security law could be used to target any journalist reporting on Hong Kong from anywhere in the world, it warned. Jailed media mogul As the RSF index was published on World Press Freedom Day, Lai — who is currently serving time in jail for taking part in peaceful protests and awaiting trial under the national security law for “collusion with a foreign power” — and former Next Media administrative director Wong Wai-keung were in court facing two charges of “fraud” linked to the use of the Next Media headquarters by a consultancy firm. Lai stands accused of violating the terms of the building’s lease and concealing the breach from the landlord, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, over two decades. Lai, 74, appeared in court on the first day of the trial wearing headphones, leaning back with his eyes closed, appearing in good spirits as he blew a kiss to his wife. Lai’s legal team led by Caoilfhionn Gallagher at Doughty Street Chambers filed an urgent appeal at the United Nations over “legal harassment” against him in April, saying he has been jailed simply for exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly and the right to peaceful protest. His lawyers say he has been repeatedly targeted by the Hong Kong authorities with a “barrage” of legal cases, including four separate criminal prosecutions arising from his attendance at and participation in various protests in Hong Kong between 2019-2020, including most recently in relation to his participation in a vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing, for which he received a 13-month prison sentence. He is currently serving concurrent prison sentences in relation to all four protest cases, while awaiting trial for “collusion with foreign powers” and “sedition” in relation to editorials published in Apple Daily. New host of press award Meanwhile, a U.S. university has said it will take over the hosting of the Human Rights Press Awards after the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) withdrew from the event, citing legal risks under the national security law. The awards will now be run by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. “Recognizing exceptional reporting on human-rights issues is more important today than ever before, due to the many – and growing – threats to press freedom around the world,” dean Battinto Batts said in a statement on the school’s website. A former reporter for Stand News, who gave only the pseudonym Miss Chan, said she had been notified she would win an award this year. She said the relocation of the awards overseas didn’t necessary help journalists in Hong Kong, however. “If the awards are able to go ahead overseas, I think Hong Kong journalists will be more worried about whether to participate in the competition or serve as judges, because they may be accused of colluding with foreign forces or incitement and so on,” Chan said. “The situation in Hong Kong is changing too fast and it may be getting worse, so I don’t know if I still have the guts to take part,” she said. A former winner who gave only the pseudonym Mr. Cheung said the relocation was better than nothing. “Naturally, something is better than nothing, and there is some encouragement in that,” Cheung said. “But the Human Rights Press Award can no longer exist in Hong Kong before of the huge retrograde steps being made there regarding human rights.” “Hong Kong journalists used to know they could report on human rights issues in Hong Kong, China or elsewhere in the region,” he said. “Now there’s no room [for that].” Former Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) journalist professor To Yiu-ming said the awards had served as a bellwether for press freedom in the city. “[They] served as a benchmark for the freeom of the press in Hong Kong, and also as a bulwark protecting some press freedoms,” To told RFA. “Their disintegration is also the disintegration of another pillar of Hong Kong’s [former]…
Shanghai-based Ji Xiaolong joins ranks of COVID-19 dissidents in China
Shanghai-based rights activist Ji Xiaolong, who was recently released on bail by police, vowed on Tuesday to keep speaking out against rights abuses in the city, much of which remains under tight restrictions amid renewed rounds of mass testing. Ji, who was incommunicado for two days after tweeting “The police are here looking for me” on Saturday. He told RFA late on Monday that he had been taken to the local police station for questioning. Police clad in full PPE started knocking on the door of his apartment in Yanlord Riverside City, Pudong New District at 3.00 p.m. on April 30, before breaking down the door and grabbing him and his wife. They gave no indication of their identity or purpose, but seized one of his laptops and two cell phones, as well as some letters he had exchanged with his wife in prison, Ji said. They were “disinfected” and subjected to PCR tests before being taken to Meiyuan New Village police station and interrogated separately. “I felt that something was up, because there were 10 of them this time, including two or three regular police officers from the local police station, some state security police from Pudong and also from the Shanghai municipal police department,” Ji said. “There were maybe four or five high-ranking officers.” Repeated calls to the Meiyuan New Village police station rang unanswered on Monday. Ji, who has already served a three-and-a-half year jail term for writing political graffiti in a Shanghai public toilet, has been a vocal critic of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s zero-COVID policy of stringent lockdowns, mass isolation and quarantine facilities and wave upon wave of PCR testing that has sparked public anger over the “total chaos” of their implementation. People in Shanghai have repeatedly complained of shortages of food and essential supplies and lack of access to life-saving medical treatment for those sick with something other than COVID-19, during the lockdown. Policemen wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) stand on a street during a Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown in the Jing’an district in Shanghai, May 3, 2022. Credit: AFP Out on bond Ji was detained alongside his wife, who was released after a few hours, while he was released the following day on payment of a 1,000 yuan bond. “They confiscated by ID card, my passport and my cell phone, which has my Alipay account,” Ji said. “I can’t get a new SIM card because they took my ID,” Ji said. “So now I can’t go anywhere because you have to scan the [COVID-19] health code app to go anywhere.” “I can’t go to the mall, I can’t ride the subway, and I can’t take the bus,” he said. His questioning came after he posted a petition to several social media platforms calling on the central government in Beijing and the municipal authorities in Shanghai to suspend the “zero-COVID” policy, and compensate Chinese citizens and businesses for the economic losses it incurred. Ji had also posted a number of video clips and posts about Shanghai under lockdown. During the interview, police confronted him with various comments he had made to overseas media organizations including RFA, the Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty TV, as well as the petition he started, some video clips he reposted and some social media posts he made. Ji said he had admitted to giving the interviews, and told them he had taken steps to verify the video clips before forwarding them. His bail notice says he is currently under suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the government. He said none of his interrogators had identified themselves to him, nor had they signed a transcript of the interview. “I firmly believe that I am innocent,” Ji said. “I won’t sit idly by and watch the people of Shanghai suffer, and I will continue [to speak out].” An undated photo of award-winning citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who was sentenced in December 2020 to four years’ imprisonment by the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court after she reported from the front lines of the covid lockdown in Wuhan. Credit: Zhang Zhan. Citizen journalists in jail Ji isn’t the first to be targeted by the authorities anxious to prevent news from the front line of the zero-COVID policy reaching the internet. Award-winning citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, whose family has said she is close to death in Shanghai Women’s Prison, was sentenced in December 2020 to four years’ imprisonment by the Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court, which found her guilty of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” after she reported from the front lines of the lockdown in Wuhan. Meanwhile, private businessman Fang Bin has been incommunicado for more than two years after he reported as a citizen journalist from the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan. He is believed to be in Wuhan’s Jiang’an Detention Center pending a trial at the Jiang’an District People’s Court, according to an unconfirmed account shared with RFA in recent months. U.S.-based constitutional scholar Wang Tiancheng said more pandemic dissidents will likely follow in Zhang, Fang and Ji’s footsteps. “The situation will get worse and worse, and more people will be arrested for different reasons … some for criticizing the government, or accused by the authorities of spreading rumors when they were just telling the truth,” Wang told RFA. Six districts and five towns in Pudong were declared COVID-free by the Shanghai authorities on Sunday, but stringent lockdown conditions remain across nine other districts of the city. Ji was initially jailed for scribbling “Down with the Communist Party!” in a Shanghai public toilet as well as some satirical graffiti taking aim at CCP leader Xi Jinping’s removal of the two-term limit for China’s highest-ranking leaders. He was detained in July 2018 after calling on rights activists and democracy campaigners to respond to Xi’s call for a “toilet revolution” by penning political slogans on the walls of toilets in universities and hospitals that could be seen by thousands. Ji was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment…
Japan, Taiwan militaries on alert as China flotilla heads to Pacific
The Japanese and Taiwanese militaries have been put on alert after a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy flotilla led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier was spotted sailing from the East China Sea towards the Pacific Ocean. Japan Self-Defense Forces’ Joint Staff Office released a statement on Monday saying that the Liaoning, accompanied by seven destroyers and supply vessels, had left the East China Sea and passed through waters between Japan’s Okinawa and Miyako islands before entering the West Pacific. The Japanese defense ministry dispatched the Izumo light aircraft carrier, as well as P-1 maritime patrol aircraft and P-3C anti-submarine aircraft to monitor the activities of the Chinese ships, the statement said. Meanwhile on Tuesday, Taiwanese military spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters that Taiwan’s military closely monitors Chinese military maneuvers in waters and airspace surrounding Taiwan, and would take “appropriate response measures.” According to the Japanese statement, among seven warships in the Liaoning carrier group were the Type 055 large guided missile destroyer Nanchang, the Type 052D guided missile destroyer Chengdu, and the Type 901 comprehensive supply ship Hulunhu. With a total of eight vessels, this is the largest Liaoning carrier group in recent voyages, said the state-run Chinese newspaper Global Times. The newspaper said it is likely that the Liaoning and other ships are to take part in a “routine PLA Navy far-sea exercise.” It quoted an anonymous military analyst as predicting that the Chinese ships “could go further east into the Pacific Ocean, or they could transit through the Bashi channel south of the island of Taiwan and conduct exercises in the South China Sea.” Combat training In one of the photos released by the Japanese military, the Liaoning – China’s first aircraft carrier – was seen carrying a number of J-15 fighter jets as well as Z-8 and Z-9 helicopters. This is the first time this year the Liaoning carrier group passed the so-called First Island Chain that includes Taiwan and Japan to enter the Pacific Ocean. Last December, the aircraft carrier and five other vessels conducted drills in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the West Pacific for 21 days in order to boost its combat capability. Chinese naval movements in the close proximity of Taiwan have always been closely watched by the Taiwanese military, the island’s ministry of defense said. The ministry’s spokesman Sun Li-fang said Taiwan “has response plans based on possible actions by China.” The Liaoning regularly patrols the Taiwan Strait and may be deployed in the event of armed conflict with the self-governing island. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province that shall be united with the mainland. “It’s no secret that the Taiwanese Navy is totally overmatched by the PLA Navy,” said Gordon Arthur, a military analyst and Asia-Pacific editor of Shepherd, a defense news portal. “Last year, for example, China commissioned some combined 170,000 tonnage of new warships – this is more than the combined Taiwan’s fleet, and reflects Chinese additions in just one year.” “Taiwan cannot hope to compete with this, so it has been concentrating on vessels that will give it some asymmetric advantages,” Arthur said, adding that examples include the homemade Tuo Chiang-class corvette and the Indigenous Defense Submarine. Yet it’s still some years till the island’s Navy is fully capable to counter any blockade or invasion attempt by China, experts said.
At bilateral meet, Japanese, Thai PMs urge end to war in Ukraine
Japan and Thailand urged an end to the war in Ukraine and discussed working with the international community to provide humanitarian assistance, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said after he met with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, in Bangkok on Monday. The two countries also signed a defense deal as they reaffirmed their bilateral relationship during Kishida’s trip to Thailand, which coincides with the 135th anniversary of diplomatic relations and ten years of the strategic partnership between the two countries. Kishida arrived in Thailand Sunday evening for a two-day trip after visiting Vietnam, a staunch Russian ally, which nevertheless announced a humanitarian aid package worth U.S. $500,000 to Ukraine during the Japanese leader’s trip. “Concerning the situation in Ukraine, Thailand and Japan reaffirmed the principles of territorial integrity, international law, and the United Nations Charter. Both sides expressed concern over the escalation of tension in the situation and urged all relevant parties to cease all hostilities and violence and exercise utmost restraint,” Prayuth said in the statement. Japan condemned Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and joined a slew of Western nations in imposing sanctions on Moscow. Thailand, meanwhile, abstained from a United Nations resolution vote to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council for alleged human rights abuses in the war in Ukraine. It did however support a strongly worded U.N. resolution that “deplored” the aggression by Russia against Ukraine. Kishida said Japan admired Thailand for supporting the latter resolution. “I agree with Prime Minister Prayuth to denounce the violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity, unilateral use of force in any region, and disapproval of the use of weapons of mass destruction or the threat to use it,” the Japanese PM said. Prayuth also said he had proposed a “new approach towards ending confrontation which calls for the need to change the narrative of the Ukraine situation from conflict to humanitarian consideration for those who are affected by the Ukraine situation.” He said he had a similar approach “to resolve the situation in Myanmar and attached importance to humanitarian assistance for the people of Myanmar.” He did not give details about the so-called approach. Thailand shares a 2,400-kilometer (1,500-mile) long border with Myanmar. It has not outright condemned the coup in Myanmar or the actions of its security forces, which toppled the elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021. Before arriving in Bangkok, the Japanese PM visited Hanoi where he spent fewer than 24 hours. He was received by all three of Vietnam’s top leaders, including the prime minister, the president, and the chairman of the national assembly. Speaking about Vietnam’s commitment of humanitarian aid for Ukraine, a Vietnamese analyst, Le Dang Doanh, said that Kishida’s visit helped Russian ally Vietnam “adjust its stance towards the Ukrainian war.” South China Sea At a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh and the other Vietnamese leaders, Kishida also discussed the issue of the disputed South China Sea, and the need for a free and open Indo-Pacific. Vietnam shares interest with Japan in safeguarding maritime security in the South China Sea, where China holds expansive claims and has been militarizing reclaimed islands. China is involved in maritime disputes with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, where Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have claims. In Bangkok Monday, Kishida said that Japan along with Thailand hoped to “achieve the goal of [a] free and open Indo-Pacific and will closely cooperate to handle the matters of the South China Sea and North Korea and nuclear weapon and ballistic missile tests.” Defense deal Meanwhile the new defense equipment deal announced by Kishida and Prayuth would help facilitate the transfer of hardware and technology from Japan to Thailand, but the leaders provided no details. The deal “would support the strengthening of defense cooperation between the two countries and incentivize Japanese investment in the Thai defense industry, which is one of the targeted industries,” Prayuth said in a joint press conference held at the Government House in Bangkok on Monday evening. “The signing of our defense equipment and technology transfer agreement is a major step forward in expanding bilateral defense cooperation,” Kishida said. The two countries will later decide on the specific types of equipment for transfer. Apart from the defense deal, the two leaders also witnessed the signing of agreements to deepen financial cooperation between Japan and Thailand. Additionally, Japan gave Thailand COVID-19 emergency support worth 50 billion yen (U.S. $384 million) in loans and 500 million yen in grants aid, according to a joint statement. The two leaders discussed improvements in agricultural supply chains and agreed to continue working together on the Mekong sub-region, “particularly in promoting connectivity, human resource development, and sustainable development,” the statement said. Japan is Thailand’s biggest foreign investor, followed by the United States and Singapore. According to the Thai commerce ministry, Japanese investors represented 28.6 percent of the overall foreign investment in Thailand, worth more than 82.5 billion baht (U.S. $ 2.39 billion), in 2021. Japan’s investments, especially in the automotive industry, have been vital to Thailand’s economic growth in the last several decades.
Philippines vote: Marcos seen as pro-China; Robredo will likely test Beijing ties
China would likely enjoy friendly ties with the Philippines if Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wins next week’s presidential election, while his main challenger, Vice President Leni Robredo, has vowed to seek help in protecting Philippine waters in the South China Sea, American analysts said. They say Marcos Jr. closely hews to the stance of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who chose to ignore the 2016 Hague tribunal ruling that threw out China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea as Beijing promised rivers of money for infrastructure development. “Marcos is the most pro-Beijing of all candidates,” said Greg Poling, a Southeast Asia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based policy research organization. “He is the most pro-Chinese in a system where most people are anti-Chinese. He avoids the press and debates, and what we have are these off-the-cuff remarks that are pro-Chinese. He is a friend of the Chinese embassy,” said Poling, director of CSIS’s Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. He was referring to anti-Chinese government sentiment among much of the Philippine population who see their fishermen’s livelihoods being threatened and lives being endangered by alleged harassment on the part of Chinese navy and coast guard ships. Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the country’s late dictator deposed by a people power revolt in 1986, has consistently led opinion polls ahead of the May 9 general elections to replace Duterte, who is limited by the constitution to a single six-year term. The latest survey conducted by independent pollster Pulse Asia from April 16-21 showed Marcos Jr. in the lead with 56 percent support, and Robredo in second place with 23 percent. The eight other candidates competing, including boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, are already out of contention, according to experts. Marcos Jr. is running alongside Sara Duterte-Carpio, Duterte’s daughter, in what they tout as a continuity ticket that would safeguard the outgoing leader’s legacy. Pundits say that a Robredo government would take a tougher stance on Beijing over the sea dispute, and put an immediate stop to the Duterte government’s deadly war on drugs, which has killed thousands and battered the country’s international image. ‘Not a man of strong opinions’ Poling said that Marcos Jr. does not appear to “have many political beliefs” when it comes to the South China Sea, while Robredo has said she would enforce a 2016 arbitral ruling invalidating China’s claims to almost the entire, mineral-rich South China Sea. Robredo has stressed repeatedly that the West Philippine Sea, or that part of the South China Sea that falls within the country’s exclusive economic zone, belongs to the Philippines, and that she “will fight for that.” And she has put forward an idea never even entertained by the Duterte administration: that the ruling could be used to create a coalition of nations to pressure China. Poling said Robredo may not be ideologically pro-American or a “cheerleader for the alliance,” but she appears to be a nationalist who could tap allies for help in the territorial row that has dragged on for years. “She is pragmatic about the South China Sea. [She believes] China is a threat and violates the rule of law in the South China Sea,” Poling said, adding that there was reason to believe that her victory could strengthen the Philippine-U.S. alliance. Manila is Washington’s biggest ally in Southeast Asia, where an increasingly assertive China is encroaching on other claimant nations’ exclusive economic zones in the disputed South China Sea. Duterte tested the U.S.-Philippines relationship, threatening to drop one of many bilateral security agreements and vowing never to set foot in the United States while president. Marcos Jr. has said he would not rock the boat if he won, and would largely continue with Duterte’s policies. But, unlike the outgoing leader, he does not appear to have animosity towards Washington, analysts point out. “The impression you get of him is that he does and says things not of his own initiative but based on what people around him say. He is not a man of strong opinions,” said Vicente Rafael, a professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington. Both candidates have little foreign policy experience, though in this election that area does not carry enough weight to swing votes, analysts said. Domestically, the Philippine economy is just recovering after being in one of the world’s longest lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Foreign policy “is not a big deal in these elections,” according to Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institute. “The biggest issue is recovering from the pandemic.” Yeo said that relations with the U.S. are unlikely to get worse under Marcos Jr., because “the Philippine military is very supportive of the alliance with the U.S. and so is the foreign policy establishment.” “Marcos Jr. would have to calibrate his policies carefully, because he has to rely on the military and defense and foreign policy establishment for military and foreign policy. He will have to play some politics to keep them satisfied,” Yeo said. On Robredo, the Brookings fellow said that it is clear she would support the alliance with the U.S., which supports the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the seas. “She won’t bend to the will of China, like Duterte who gave up on the Hague ruling. She won’t do that,” he said. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.
