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Category: East Asia
Taiwanese rights activist home from China after five-year ‘subversion’ jail term
Taiwanese rights activist and NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh has arrived home on the democratic island following his release at the end of a five-year jail term for “subversion” in China. “After being improperly detained by China for more than 1,852 days, Lee Ming-cheh arrived at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport at around 10 a.m. today, April 15, 2022,” a coalition of rights groups that has campaigned for Lee’s release said in a statement. “Due to disease prevention regulations, neither the [coalition] nor family members were able to meet him at the airport,” it said, adding that a news conference would likely be held when Lee has completed his quarantine period. Lee was shown in local live TV footage arriving off a Xiamen Air flight to Taipei and being escorted to a car by two people in full personal protective gear. “When I finally returned to Taiwan, I saw Ching-yu, who was looking tired and wan but very excited, through the window,” Lee said in a joint statement issued with his wife, Lee Ching-yu. “I am still very tired and the world seems quite unfamiliar, although my current isolation is completely different from the isolation I experienced in China,” he said. “Now I am embraced by love, not besieged by terror.” The statement continued: “Our family’s suffering is over, but there are still countless people whose human rights are being violated in China. May they one day have their day of liberation, too.” “We know that freedom comes from oneself, just as the people of Taiwan traded blood and tears under martial law for freedom, democracy and human rights,” the letter said. “May the Chinese people know and learn from this.” Taiwan’s government said Lee’s incarceration was “unacceptable.” “Lee Ming-cheh … was tried by a Chinese court for ‘subversion of state power’ and imprisoned for five years, which is unacceptable to the people of Taiwan,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng told reporters on Friday. He called on the Chinese government to protect the rights of Taiwanese nationals in China. ‘Vilifying China’ Lee is a course director at Taiwan’s Wenshan Community College, and had volunteered with various NGOs for many years, the Free Lee Ming-cheh Coalition said in a statement posted on the Covenants Watch rights group’s Facebook page. “The Free Lee Ming-cheh Coalition has always believed that Lee Ming-cheh is innocent,” it said. “He has only ever concerned himself with commenting on human rights in China, civil society and other similar issues online.” “The treatment he received after being imprisoned was hardly in line with international human rights standards,” the group said. “Apart from being forced to eat bad food, to live in unheated quarters, and wear discarded clothes … Lee’s right to communicate was also restricted,” it said. “We will continue to monitor Ming-cheh’s physical and mental health following his return to Taiwan,” it said. His release comes after he was held for most of his sentence at Chishan Prison in the central Chinese province of Hunan, where authorities repeatedly refused to allow his wife to visit him. Lee was also barred from speaking to his wife on the phone, or from writing letters home, Amnesty International’s Taiwan branch has said. Lee applied to visit her husband at the prison 16 times during the past two years, but was refused every time, although the family members of other prisoners had visiting rights at the time, it said. A lifelong activist with Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is vilified by Beijing for refusing to accept its claim on the island, Lee was sentenced by Hunan’s Yueyang Intermediate People’s Court to five years in jail for “attempting to subvert state power” in November 2017. He was accused of setting up social media chat groups to “vilify China.” Cross-strait tensions According to statistics from Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), Lee Ming-cheh is among 149 Taiwan nationals to have gone missing in China since Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016. While the Chinese authorities had assisted in providing some information on 82 missing Taiwanese, some information on the remaining 67 had been withheld or was insufficient to draw any conclusion. Eeling Chiu, secretary general of Amnesty International’s Taiwan branch, warned that what happened to Lee could happen to citizens of any country, citing the case of Swedish national and Hong Kong-based publisher Gui Minhai, who remains behind bars in China after being arrested in Thailand for alleged “crimes” committed in Hong Kong. Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was handed back to the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang (KMT) government as part of Tokyo’s post-war reparation deal. The KMT made its capital there after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists that led to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. While the Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as an “inalienable” part of its territory, Taiwan has never been ruled by the current regime in Beijing, nor has it ever formed part of the People’s Republic of China. The Republic of China has remained a sovereign and independent state since 1911, now ruling just four islands: Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The island began a transition to democracy following the death of KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek’s son, President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996. Taiwan’s national security agency has repeatedly warned of growing attempts to flood Taiwan with propaganda and disinformation, and to infiltrate its polity using Beijing-backed media and political groups. Lawmakers say the country is doing all it can to guard against growing attempts at political infiltration and influence by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department in Taiwan. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Owners facing COVID-19 isolation in Shanghai scramble to save pets from ‘disposal’
Residents of Shanghai are banding together to save each other’s pets from being killed as the COVID-19 lockdown in the city drags on, RFA has learned. More than 1,000 listings have been made to an online document listing people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the past few weeks, and are looking for people to take care of their pets while they are in compulsory isolation facilities. “I basically have tested positive … but they haven’t notified me when I will be sent to isolation,” a woman surnamed Wang from Shanghai’s Putuo district wrote on the page on April 12. “I have a five-month-old kitty at home.” Wang was told by her neighborhood committee that her cat would need to be “disposed of,” she told RFA. “I wanted to see if … I could get it sent to a friend’s house, but I don’t know if the neighborhood committee will accept this or not, or whether they will agree to have the cat stay in my home,” she said. “They told me that, strictly speaking, the cat should be disposed of, and that I shouldn’t tell anyone about this,” Wang said. “[They told me] if I can move the cat away, or give it to a friend, before I get sent to isolation, it would be safer [for the cat],” she said. Wang said she was at her wits’ end to know what to do. The mutual assistance page for pet owners suggests she is far from alone. “I’m worried that [will also test] positive, and my pet’s life will be in danger,” another Shanghai resident wrote. “The neighborhood committee won’t allow the cat to leave, should I want to hand it over to a friend.” “If I go into isolation, I fear the consequences of leaving my pet at home will be unimaginable. Please help!” they said. Another wrote: “My family members are all … contacts [of an infected person], and they could all test positive. I’m afraid our dog will be disposed of by the neighborhood committee.” “Please take my dog to a foster home, with dog food, litter tray and toys.” Seeking foster homes The majority of posts were labeled as being from Pudong New District, with hundreds of distraught pet owners requesting help. A volunteer from Shanghai surnamed Lin said she helped to arrange foster homes for three cats. “They are very anxious to send their cats and dogs [to a foster home], but some neighborhood committees won’t help them with that, so they have to figure out what to do by themselves,” Lin said. “Sometimes, volunteers from their community can come to their door [and take the pet] and send it to me,” she said. “It’s very hard for them to send their pets away, because they’re not allowed out themselves.” She said there had been a surge in requests for pet foster homes after a video surfaced on social media showing a corgi being beaten to death by neighborhood committee members with a shovel, amid loud screams from the animal and shocked comments from the person shooting the video. Once pets have been successfully removed from the residential community, then logistics personnel must be hired to deliver them to the foster home, Lin said, which is very expensive. Some pet owners have sent their pets to pet hospitals, but places are hard to secure. An employee who answered the phone at the Sanlin branch of the Shanghai Hanghou Pet Clinic chain said most of the pet hospitals are now full. “We are all full, right now; the hospital is overcrowded,” the employee said. “There have been a couple of cases in Shanghai of pets being killed, this is true.” Shenzhen shelters Meanwhile, authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen have set up two pet shelters, where pets of people sent into isolation are housed for free. There are places available for up to 300 pets, and the facility is the first of its kind in China. Peter Li, head of China affairs at the Humane Society International, said the humane disposal of pets isn’t official policy in Shanghai. “The few cases we have seen in Shanghai are the result of grassroots government workers not following Shanghai government policy,” Li told RFA. “This failure, in addition to incompetence and lack of empathy, may also be due to the fact that they are handling situations they have never experienced before, resulting in huge psychological pressure.” Li, whose organization is also working to save pets beleaguered by war in Ukraine, called on Chinese officials to formulate policies for pets in the event of an emergency or disaster. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Rebel soldiers push back Myanmar forces from strategic town in Kayin state
Karen rebels used heavy artillery to beat back a push by Myanmar junta forces to take Kayin state’s “peace town” of Lay Kay Kaw late Thursday and early Friday, with reports of heavy casualties among regime soldiers. Lay Kay Kaw was established as symbol of peace in 2017 through a partnership between Japan’s Nippon Foundation, the Myanmar government and the rebel group Karen National Union (KNU) to house ethnic Karen refugees who were returning home after decades of fighting between the military and armed ethnic groups. But in recent months, Lay Kay Kaw has been the site of fierce fighting among the junta troops and their opponents. More than 10,000 villagers have been displaced since clashes first broke out in the area on Dec. 15, 2021, as the sides pushed for advantage. Myo Thura Ko Ko, a spokesman for the Cobra Column, which is affiliated with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), an ethnic armed group, said Myanmar soldiers shelled the area before the assault. “They used a variety of heavy weapons, and the shells fell like rain in the area,” he told RFA. Fighting between the two sides began at about 3:30 a.m., with Myanmar soldiers retreating with heavy casualties after failing to capture a targeted hill, Myo Thura Ko Ko said. The number of soldiers wounded or killed is not known, however. “We were close to the fighting zone, only about 100 yards away, so we saw the enemy being injured or killed,” he said. “But it was hard to estimate the exact number of casualties because of the darkness.” KNLA and Cobra Column troops successfully defended the hills where they were stationed, and there were no casualties on their side, Myo Thura Ko Ko said. While clearing the area Friday morning, rebel soldiers found an intact rocket-propelled grenade, two mobile phones and some military equipment left by Myanmar forces, he said. Padoh Saw Tawney, the KNU’s foreign affairs officer, said junta forces attacked the rebels in the hills where the KNLA joint forces are based because they are in a strategic area near Lay Kay Kaw. “Their main goal is to get control of the area,” he said. “They are desperate for territorial control, and they have tried a couple of times. They also tried it last night and didn’t succeed, but they will do it again.” Myanmar soldiers launched air strikes on KNLA and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) fighters in Lay Kay Kaw on April 10, suffering a loss of about 20 soldiers and a captured captain, according to the KNU. The air strikes damaged about 30 houses and a school in the town, residents told RFA in an earlier report. Some officers and soldiers were injured during an ambush while clearing the town’s sixth ward, said a statement issued by the junta on Apr. 13. It said necessary security measures would be taken to ensure stability and peace in Lay Kay Kaw because the Karen rebels had violated nationwide cease-fire agreements. Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun could not be reached for comment on the fighting. Civilians displaced by clashes are now sheltering along the banks of Thaungyin River near Myanmar’s border with Thailand. They said they were forced to flee to the Thai side as the fighting intensified but returned after it subsided because they were pushed back by Thai authorities. Myet Hman, who is now living in the P’lotapho refugee camp near the river because of the fighting near Lay Kay Kaw, told RFA that he wanted the armed conflict to end as soon as possible so he and other locals could return to their homes. “It would be better for us if the two sides killed each other and quickly found a resolution,” he said. “That would be good. But now, armed men from this side or that side come into the village, stop for a while, and then engage in clashes. Meanwhile we villagers have had to flee our homes because of their fighting.” Almost everything left in deserted houses in Lay Kay Kaw has been looted, he added. Reported by RFA Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
North Koreans pay for sons to spend military service in cushy capital posts
Military officials in North Korea are taking bribes from the parents of new recruits, promising to assign their children to units in Pyongyang, where they can spend their service in relative comfort, sources in the country told RFA. Still technically at war with wealthier South Korea, North Korea makes every male serve about seven years in the armed forces, according to South Korean intelligence. The life of a soldier in the North Korean military is typically one of toil and sweat. The government routinely mobilizes soldiers to exploit their free labor, requiring them to work on farms, factories and construction sites, all while maintaining a modicum of battle readiness. But certain military assignments can park a soldier behind a desk in Pyongyang, the country’s capital and home of the privileged and elite. Parents are eager to ensure their sons can spend seven years living in what they would consider luxury, rather than doing hard labor in the rural areas. “Parents who receive bribe requests give money to the officials to ensure the safety of their children, but the amount they are asking is too large for most to afford,” a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “A resident in the Sunam district of Chongjin city asked an official of the military mobilization office, a longtime acquaintance, to send his son, to a comfortable and safe unit, but the official requested at least U.S. $300,” he said. The average monthly salary for North Koreans working in government-assigned jobs is around $4, the Seoul-based Korea Joongang Daily reported in 2018. Paying the exorbitant bribe can even be a point of pride. “A resident of Chongam district paid a bribe of $500 … to send his son to a military police unit in Pyongyang. The resident proudly boasts that the son has completed his training as a new recruit at the unit in Pyongyang, which is off limits to ordinary folks, and he started his military life in Pyongyang,” the source said. “North Korea has a declining birth rate, so most families these days have only one child, two at most. So people try to protect their kids from danger by any means necessary. The officials in the military mobilization office can use the psychology of these parents to their advantage,” he said. But some residents complain that officials are using the new recruits as bait to get bribes, the source said. The sons of parents who cannot pay the bribe are sent off to more difficult military postings, as happened to one family in the northwestern province of North Pyongan. “A resident of Tongrim town asked the military mobilization office to have his son sent to a safe and comfortable unit, but the family was unable to pay the $300 bribe, so the son was shipped off to the front line area unit of the 1st Corps,” a resident of the province’s Tongrim county told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Our neighborhood is a village with cooperative farms, so most of the new recruits are the children of poor farmers. This is why most of the new recruits have no power or money, and they get sent to the front line units in the rugged mountains of Kangwon province, so there is great concern for parents sending their children to the military,” he said. The parents who cannot afford the bribe can do nothing but watch as their sons are sent to do hard labor in Kangwon, in the east, along the border with South Korea, the second source said. “The authorities are aware that bribery is going on, but I don’t know whether there is a way to stop it, or whether they are condoning it. I have never seen any official from the military mobilization office get punished for accepting bribes,” he said. “In this country, children of powerful and wealthy families can serve in comfortable assignments in the military, but it gets taken for granted that everyone with no money or power will have a difficult military life.” Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Tibetan language advocate barred from hotels in Tibet
UPDATED at 12:15 A.M. ET on 2022-04-15 A Tibetan activist traveling to promote language rights in Tibetan areas of western China has been denied shelter, RFA has learned, after authorities ordered hotel operators in the region to turn him away. Tashi Wangchuk, a former political prisoner aged around 35, had been traveling in China’s Qinghai province since April 6, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service in an exclusive interview. “On his way from Yulshul to Siling, he had stopped by various Tibetan schools in Golog, Rebgong and Malho to advocate for the use of Tibetan language in Tibetan schools,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “But he was denied accommodation and dismissed from hotels in Rebgong [In Chinese, Tongren] and Malho [Huangnan]. We don’t have any information about his present whereabouts, and it’s dangerous to talk about this,” he added. A resident of Qinghai’s Yulshul (Yushu) municipality, Wangchuk was released on Jan. 28, 2021, after completing a prison term for “inciting separatism” and is now subject to near-constant monitoring by authorities. While traveling, Wangchuk had posted photos and videos of his visits to Tibetan schools in Darlag (Dali) county in the Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and in Rebgong, where Chinese authorities have clamped down on the use of the Tibetan language in teaching, RFA’s source said. “However, only 30 minutes after checking into a hotel in Rebgong on April 7, the hotel told him to leave after they were instructed by county police not to let him stay, and his attempts to find a hotel on April 8 and 9 also failed after police told the hotels not to give him accommodation.” When Wangchuk went to a police station in the Malho prefecture to complain, he was denied entry to the station and told no one there could talk to him, the source said. “And later he even went to Rebgong county’s Commission for Discipline Inspection to file an appeal, but it was closed.” “After April 10, all the details that he posted on his Weibo social media account were deleted by the Chinese authorities, so it’s difficult to learn anything now about his well-being,” he added. Also speaking to RFA, Pema Gyal — a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch — said that former political prisoners in Tibet are kept on Chinese government black lists and often have trouble finding jobs or accommodation in hotels. “We are, of course, very concerned about Tashi Wangchuk at the moment,” Gyal said. While China claims to uphold the rights of all minorities to access a bilingual education, Tibetan-language schools have been forced to shut down, and school-age children in Tibet regularly receive instruction only in Mandarin Chinese. Similar policies have been deployed against ethnic Mongolians in China’s Inner Mongolia and Muslim Uyghurs in northwestern China’s region of Xinjiang. Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago. Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses in the monasteries and towns deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say. Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Tashi Wangchuk is missing, but RFA was only able to confirm that his whereabouts were not immediately known and that there is concern about his personal security. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
North Korea on high alert ahead of late founding father’s birth holiday
North Korea has declared a five-day military-wide special security period as the people prepare to celebrate the life of the country’s late founder, sources in the country told RFA. Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, was born on April 15, a major holiday now known as the “Day of the Sun.” His son and successor, Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), was born on Feb. 16, the “Day of the Shining Star.” The two holidays solidify the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family, which has now ruled North Korea for three generations. Friday marks what would have been Kim Il Sung’s 110th birthday, and authorities have commanded the military to be on high alert. “The special security period starts at 17:00 on April 14 and ends at 17:00 on the 19th. Units were ordered to create a special security plan for approval by their commanders by 17:00 on April 13,” a military source from the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA’s Korean Service Wednesday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The General Staff Department has instructed that emergency mobilization units be in a full-combat readiness posture and on standby,” he said. Additionally, the department told soldiers stationed at the country’s borders, the coast guard, and the air force to be ready at a moment’s notice. “They need to be able to respond immediately without missing even minor threats that could occur during the special security period,” the source said. Soldiers in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, meanwhile, also must guard against even the slightest problem during the five-day period, a military source there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “They must also strengthen security in areas that glorify Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, like their statues, public portraits, public displays of their artwork, propaganda boards and related historic sites,” said the source. Officials and soldiers are resentful at having to do extra work on a holiday, when they are used to getting time off. “They are saying they wish there were no holidays at all, because they have been mobilized for difficult guard duty and will not be able to properly rest,” he said. Forced loyalty Retired and disabled soldiers, meanwhile, were upset about having to take an oath of allegiance to Kim Jong Un ahead of the holiday as a requirement to receive their annual special holiday food allotment celebration of the day, a resident of the Sino-Korean border city of Sinuiju told RFA Tuesday. “Yesterday in Sinuiju, because of the Day of the Sun, 15 days’ worth of grain and basic foodstuffs, such as 500 grams [1.1lbs] of sugar and a bottle of soybean oil, were provided to war veterans and honorable soldiers,” she said, on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. Honorable soldiers are soldiers disabled from injuries they sustained while on duty. RFA reported last week that the state was unable to properly care for honorable soldiers as promised due to worsening economic conditions. The Sinuiju resident estimated that the city is home to between 100 and 300 disabled and able-bodied vets. She explained that the gift of 15-days’ food assistance was not provided by the state, but by local authorities. Since central government did not provide funding to the local government for this event, so the veterans realize the “gift from Kim Jong Un” was nothing of the sort, she said. “Even though they said it has been supplied as a special consideration from Kim Jong Un, it is actually a part of the emergency goods imported by the provincial trade bureau, using local funds” she said. “They had to attend a special hour-long event at the cultural center, where authorities would present them with their ‘gift from Kim Jong Un’ on the condition that they pledged their allegiance to him. The disabled veterans complained,” she said. About 200 veterans, including some who had seen action during the 1950-1953 Korean War, attended a similar ceremony in South Pyongan province, north of Pyongyang, a resident there who declined to be named told RFA. “The special holiday supplies … included rice, 500 grams [1.1 lbs] of sugar, and a bottle of soybean oil imported from China via freight train,” she said. “The county party official emphasized that the food was provided on the occasion of the Day of the Sun as ‘the noble will of the Highest Dignity to cherish and love the veterans and honorary soldiers who were loyal to the party and the leader,’ and forced them to repay them with loyalty,” the South Pyongan resident said, using an honorific term for Kim Jong Un. The veterans were angry at being made to swear an oath to Kim Jong Un when his so-called gift was imported from China and was not actually from himself or the central government which he leads, she said. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Japan PM set to visit SE Asia in late April
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is planning a visit to Southeast Asia later this month to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region, according to news reports and a government official. Kyodo, a Japanese news agency, said Kishida’s trip would take place during the so-called Golden Week holidays and includes stops in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The report cited unnamed diplomatic sources. Golden Week 2022 runs from April 29 to May 5. It starts with Showa Day and ends on Children’s Day, with a five-day consecutive holiday between May 1–5. It also reported that Kishida may consider a visit to Europe during the holiday period. A previously proposed meeting between ministers of defense and foreign affairs from Japan and India in mid- to late-April may therefore have been postponed as usually foreign ministers accompany the prime minister on his foreign trips. RFA has approached the Japanese Foreign Ministry for confirmation. In Jakarta, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah on Thursday confirmed to BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news agency, that Kishida would visit Indonesia “at the end of April.” He said the exact date would be announced later. Kyodo reported that in Southeast Asia, the Japanese prime minister is expected to “underscore cooperation toward realizing the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific amid China’s rise.” Thailand and Indonesia are this year’s chairs of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) and the Group of 20 respectively. Vietnam meanwhile shares interest with Japan in safeguarding maritime security in the South China Sea where China holds expansive claims and has been militarizing reclaimed islands. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel on the destroyers JS Suzutsuki (L) and JS Inazuma (R) after arriving as part of an Indo-Pacific tour at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, in a file photo. Credit: Reuters Free and open Indo-Pacific “China is the principal geopolitical threat, be it for India, Japan or Southeast Asian countries,” said Pratnashree Basu, associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank. “Pooling resources and strengthening capacities is therefore an ongoing process for almost all countries in the Indo-Pacific in order to be in positions of stronger pushback in the face of China’s aggression,” she said. Japan last year joined a growing list of countries that are challenging China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. Tokyo sent a diplomatic note to the United Nations rejecting China’s baseline claims and denouncing what it described as efforts to limit the freedom of navigation and overflight. Japan is not a South China Sea claimant, but Tokyo has deepened security ties with several Southeast Asia nations with claims or interests there. The Japanese Navy and Coastguard have conducted joint exercises with Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor at the Department of Politics and International Studies, International Christian University in Tokyo, said that Japan prioritizes maintaining stability and a rules-based approach to governing the South China Sea as its sea lanes are critical arteries for the Japanese economy. Tokyo has also been playing an important role in supporting the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. Leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, including Japan, the U.S., Australia and India are meeting in person later in May in Tokyo for a summit. The Quad is widely seen as countering China’s weight in the region. Kishida visited India and Cambodia in March, his first bilateral trips since taking office in October 2021. Cambodia is the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Emigration inquiries spike in China amid grueling COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions
As a citywide lockdown continued in Shanghai and around 100 cities imposed more limited COVID-19 curbs, immigration consultancies said they are receiving a record number of inquiries from people hoping to get out of China for good. Keyword searches relating to emigration spiked more than 100-fold in recent days, according to publicly available data from the Baidu search engine for the week from March 28 to April 3. Canada, the United States and Australia were the top three countries shown in such searches, with searches for immigration to Canada showing a 28-fold increase compared with the previous week. “The number of immigration consultations has skyrocketed in the past few days,” an employee who answered the phone at the Beijing-based immigration consultancy Qiaowai told RFA on Wednesday. “We are very busy every day, and waiting times are relatively long, because we don’t have enough consultants.” “This is likely the case for every other company [in the sector],” the employee said. “There are more coming from Shanghai because the pandemic is pretty bad in Shanghai right now.” An employee who answered the phone at the Immigration 11 agency gave a similar response. “There are quite a lot of people inquiring,” the employee said. “I need to hurry up [with this call].” “Is it the pandemic? We’ve had a lot of people consulting us from Shanghai in Guangdong, and also a lot from Beijing,” the employee said. Senior journalist Chen Hongtao said the figures could be an indication that high-ranking officials in the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families are voting with their feet. “Anyone who has the option to leave may be thinking about how to get out,” Chen said. “Those who work for the regime don’t believe [propaganda], and they have access to a lot more information [than regular people].” “Most middle and working-class people don’t have the wherewithal to get hold of comprehensive information,” he said. “They’re the ones who believe what the little pinks [pro-CCP commentators] tell them.” A woman who identified herself by the pseudonym Zhang Li said she and her friends are in the process of trying to leave China. “I don’t think this is weird at all,” Zhang said. “It’s normal … because the pandemic disease control measures aren’t based on scientific decisions.” “I know a woman, a medical student, who is currently submitting her application to emigrate to the U.S.,” she said. “She plans to study [English] first, then become a nurse.” However, it looks likely that the majority of people will have trouble leaving, in the absence of political clout or existing immigration channels. An employee who answered the phone at the Shanghai police department’s exit and entry administration said the office, which issues passports and exit permits, is currently closed. “You can’t apply for passports, and entry-exit offices are all closed around here because of the pandemic,” the employee said. “There are some cases where on-site review of materials is happening for emergency circumstances, for example, to visit the critically ill overseas, or to go and study overseas,” they said. Meanwhile, residents of Shanghai said they are still struggling to source enough food and other daily necessities, with strict stay-at-home orders still in place across the city. “I went to the neighborhood committee to order food,” a resident surnamed Xu told RFA. “It’s been 20 days, and I still haven’t gotten the rice I ordered. I am out of oil and soy sauce for cooking at home, and I haven’t been able to buy more.” “I have to try to get food sent from online… we have been locked down here since March 8,” she said. A resident of Baoshan district surnamed Zheng said people who test positive are now being “sealed” inside their own apartments or buildings, as isolation and quarantine facilities are full. “If you test positive, the entire building will be sealed off with barbed wire, and nobody will be allowed in or out,” Zheng told RFA. “The disease control people set up a hut outside to guard it.” “Last week, they would take you away in a vehicle immediately if you tested positive,” he said. “That’s not the way they’re doing it now.” A resident of Xuhui district surnamed Liu said the supplies delivered to people’s homes during the lockdown were nowhere near enough to last the entire length of lockdown. “In the first stage, some people had no food,” she said. “In the second stage, Pudong was closed for four days, and then Puxi was closed for another four days, but I didn’t expect the city to be locked down forever.” “They government sent a batch of groceries, but … the food they have distributed was far from enough,” Liu said. A resident surnamed Zhao gave a similar account. “We have been locked down for more than a month, and we had food for four days,” he said. “There’s not enough for such a long time… all the stores are closed.” The Shanghai municipal health commission reported a total of 27,719 newly confirmed cases on Thursday, with rapidly constructed and converted field hospitals and quarantine facilities unable to meet demand for beds. “You can’t get into the Fangcang cabin hospitals, and a lot of people can’t even get an ambulance if they call 120,” Zheng said. “We have no idea how many people have died of COVID-19.” However, reports have also emerged of people being forcibly dragged from their homes to isolation facilities, even with a negative PCR test. One audio recording features a young couple who have tested negative arguing with enforcement personnel. “Our tests were negative,” one person says, while a police officer answers: “The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says you are positive.” “No way,” the person replies. “I have a negative test result. If I go to the cabin hospital I will wind up positive.” The ongoing lockdown comes after CCP leader Xi Jinping urged local governments on Wednesday to stick to his zero-COVID policy, with a slew of reports and commentaries in state media defending the…
Interview: ‘Do you realize there is also a price to pay for silence?’
Wang Jixian is Chinese national living in Odessa who turned citizen journalist when the war in Ukraine began, posting first-hand accounts of the conflict. But his outspoken YouTube videos cursing out Russian troops were out of step with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s official stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and have been deleted or blocked from social media platforms in China by government censors, while Wang’s personal social media accounts have been shut down. Wang, an artificial intelligence expert by day, has also been the target of online abuse from Little Pinks, an online army of troll-commentators who enforce the CCP line on China’s tightly controlled internet. He spoke to RFA’s Mandarin Service about what motivates him to keep posting. I’m a programmer by profession. I have to go to work every day … I don’t even have advertisements [on my YouTube channel]. I’m not an influencer, and I’m not doing this for the money. I make my videos to show people what is going on in my region, which is the Russian-speaking world, where there is even more censorship, information blockage and brainwashing going on than in the regions you criticize. My idea is to use logic and reasoning to awaken people’s consciences. I’m not looking to get more traffic, or more subscribers. They started out by deleting one or two of my videos … then they started doing it by stealth. It got to the point where, one day, every single social media account under my name — not just WeChat — had been shut down. The whole lot of them. All of them had been set up personally by me in China, using my national ID card, and they were all deleted simultaneously, on Baidu, on Douyin, different companies. So how were they able to delete them all at the same time? And that’s not all. They even deleted my face. They deleted videos in which the only thing I said was that I was still OK. Anything with my face in it. Then they said I was spreading rumors. I read out parts of the Chinese Communist Party charter and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. How are those things rumors? And what reason did they have for deleting the accounts of people who reposted my posts? I didn’t just read [about freedom of speech], but also freedom of the person, of religious belief, freedom of speech, all of that is written in the constitution. As a Chinese citizen, I want the protections that are enshrined in the constitution. The constitution itself states that breaching the constitution is the worst kind of law-breaking, because it carries the highest legal authority. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to have done wrong. What did I say to oppose the party, or the government? I’m an incredibly patriotic person. My point in reading out those sections of the CCP charter was to urge people to be a passable CCP member before they start saying I’m opposing anyone. I was telling them that they should look to within party ranks. The day [my social media accounts were deleted], I remember it very clearly … it took me a very long time to get in contact with my family. My dad is a pretty tough person, and he told me he was fine. But the last time I spoke to them I noticed that their hair was a lot greyer than the last time I spoke with them. [Now that my WeChat account has gone], I have to rely on friends … to find ways to send them my videos, so they can still see them. I’m just an ordinary person. I’m not a member of any party or political faction. My beliefs just tell me that I shouldn’t do anything evil. I don’t see anything wrong with that. They didn’t report [the Ukrainian perspective]. This is something that mainstream media from all over the world managed to do. They sent their own journalists to the front line to report. What other country’s media just translated what the Russian media was saying, word for word about the Bucha massacre. Haven’t we had reports from the United Nations, from Ukraine, or any other country’s media? Why has none of it made it into Chinese? But even if [people in China] can’t see what’s going on, they should be able to figure it out for themselves. Just look at a map of the world. This is Ukraine. There’s a bunch of tanks — have they got Ukrainian license plates? Do the guys driving them have visas? You send these young Russian men to war, telling them that it’s just a military exercise taking place over the border in Ukraine and in the capital … that the people of Ukraine will welcome them with wreaths of flowers. Later on, you tell them that everyone they are killing is a Nazi, that they deserve to die. What Nazis? Who decided this? What did these people do for you to call them Nazis? It’s all lies. Some internet users in China have tried to threaten me, saying, “You do realize you’ll have to pay a price for speaking like this, don’t you?” I told them, “Of course I realize that. But I have a question for you, too. Do you realize that there will also be a price to pay for your silence today? Do you not think you’ve already paid too high a price for that silence?” There’s a price to pay for courage, but no price to pay for silence? I want to wake people up a bit. I ask them what or who they think my speech is opposing. I don’t really understand what news I’m supposed to be breaking. I just talk about daily life here, how much groceries costs, the price of seafood or beef. I think I report a lot less actual news than the media does. I’m just trying to get people to see…
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.
