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Category: East Asia
North Korea issues high-denomination money voucher, photo evidence shows
North Korea’s Central Bank has printed a 50,000 won (U.S. $8.30) money voucher worth 10 times its highest currency denomination, photo evidence obtained exclusively by RFA has revealed. North Korean paper currency is available in denominations ranging from the practically worthless 5 won ($0.00083) note to the 5,000 won note, worth less than $1. People generally use a mixture of foreign currencies like dollars and Chinese yuan in conjunction with the North Korean won to pay for goods and services. RFA received photos of the new voucher from the J.M. Missionary Union, a Seoul-based organization with knowledge of the situation. The note bears the name of the Central Bank of the DPRK with an issue date of “Juche 111,” the current year in the North Korean calendar that starts in 1912, the birth year of national founder Kim Il Sung. The background shows Mt. Paektu, a mountain on the Sino-Korean border that is sacred in Korean culture. RFA was unable to confirm how many 50,000 won notes have been printed or whether they are in circulation. The organization said the voucher was issued earlier this year and is in use in Pyongyang. South Korean sources who requested anonymity due to the country’s presidential transition period told RFA’s Korean Service that North Korea issued a high-denomination money coupon earlier this year but could not confirm that it was a 50,000 won voucher. They said that the high denomination vouchers were for transactions between businesses. South Korea’s Ministry of Unification could not confirm whether North Korea has issued money vouchers worth more than 5,000 won ($0.83), which the Central Bank of the DPRK did in the second half of last year. “Issues related to the issuance of the [5,000 won] money coupons have been identified through messages to North Korean escapees … but the purpose of their issuance and distribution have not been specifically identified,” the ministry told RFA. A photo provided exclusively to RFA by the J.M. Missionary Union in Seoul shows the reverse of a new 50,000 won money voucher produced by North Korea’s central bank. Photo: J.M. Missionary Union During a South Korean National Assembly audit last year, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Seoul’s spy agency, confirmed that the 5,000 won vouchers were in circulation. The NIS said in their report that the vouchers were issued because North Korea lacks the paper and ink necessary to print money due to the suspension of imports at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Imports resumed on a limited basis at the beginning of this year, but trade volume has not yet reached normal levels. The issuance of money vouchers also may indicate that North Korea is attempting to avoid inflation by not printing actual currency, the Bank of Korea, South Korea’s central bank, said in a report last month, which did not mention vouchers in the 50,000 won denomination. The report said cashflow in the North was disrupted due to the economic slump and the vouchers are a means to increase the money supply, possibly for use in transactions between companies, while North Korean authorities can keep the companies’ cash in reserve. “Money should circulate. From the authorities’ point of view, they circulate money, but it’s not coming back to them,” Lim Song, an economist that focuses on North Korea at the Economic Research Institute of the Bank of Korea, told RFA. “The central bank has to print money to circulate money, but that will cause inflation, so instead of paper bills, they are circulating money coupons which they can convert when the economic situation gets better,” he said. Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Lack of engine could sink Thai purchase of Chinese submarine
Thailand’s long-planned purchase of three Chinese submarines, which a former top Bangkok diplomat described as “an insult to the Thai-U.S. treaty relationship,” could run into trouble, officials and analysts said. In April 2017, the Thai government approved the Royal Navy’s plan to buy three Yuan-class submarines from China valued at 36 billion baht (U.S. $1.05 billion). Because of budget constraints, the purchase of one submarine – now valued at 13.5 billion baht ($403 million) – got the green light but the other two were shelved. The Chinese state-owned submarine developer – China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co. (CSOC) – could not obtain the diesel engine from Germany to fit into the sub because of the European Union arms embargo imposed on China, according to a German official. The engine is manufactured by Germany’s Motor and Turbine Union (MTU). “The export [of the engine] was refused because of its use for a Chinese Military/Defense industry item,” said Philipp Doert, the German defense attaché to Thailand, told the Bangkok Post. “China did not ask/coordinate with Germany before signing the Thai-China contract, offering German MTU engines as part of their product.” The EU imposed its arms embargo on China in 1989 after the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Thai-China relations ‘not affected’ Earlier this week, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha said that if China could not fulfill the agreement, the submarine deal could be canceled. “What do we do with a submarine with no engines? Why should we purchase it?” Prayuth, who serves as the nation’s defense minister, told local media. Previously, Vice Adm. Pokkrong Monthatphalin, the Royal Thai Navy spokesman, said talks were to be held later this month with CSOC to discuss the engine issue. Local media reported that CSOC had offered an alternative engine – an offer rejected by the government, which paid its first installment of 700 million baht (U.S. $20.9 million) in 2017. The submarine’s delivery is scheduled for 2024. Despite his concerns, Prayuth told Thai reporters that any cancellation would not affect Thai-Chinese relations, according to the Bangkok Post. A Chinese navy submarine leaves Qingdao Port, Shandong province, in a file photo. Credit: Reuters Trust issues An analyst, meanwhile, said Bangkok’s growing military ties with China have led to trust issues with the United States. “Thailand and the U.S. are treaty allies. Thailand was designated by the U.S. as a Non-NATO ally,” Kasit Piromya, a Thai former foreign minister, told BenarNews. “The fact that Thailand commissioned the Chinese submarines is an insult to the Thai-U.S. treaty relationship,” he said, adding that the issue “must be reset and redressed.” Earlier this year, the Thai Royal Air Force expressed interest in purchasing F-35 stealth fighter jets from the U.S. But the U.S. would be reluctant to sell their state-of-the-art aircraft to Bangkok because of the Thai military’s close links with its Chinese counterpart, said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. In addition, the relationship between Thailand and the U.S. has been up and down in recent years. “The Thai military establishment does not like criticism of its role in Thai politics by the U.S. and Western allies, while China avoids political judgment and offers military hardware at friendship’s cost,” Kasit said. “The result is Thailand and the U.S. have been failing to hold heart-to-heart talks as allies and strategic partners,” he said. Southeast Asian countries, especially those with competing claims in the South China Sea, are joining the submarine club to deal with new security challenges. Vietnam bought six Kilo-class submarines from Russia, both Indonesia and the Philippines are discussing purchasing submarines from France. Singapore and Malaysia operate four and two subs, respectively. China by far has the largest fleet in Asia, with an estimated 76 submarines. The Yuan-class is a diesel-electric submarine designed to operate in shallow coastal waters, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.
Concerns grow over sale of UK’s largest semiconductor plant to Chinese company
Concerns are growing over plans by a state-backed Chinese company to acquire the U.K.’s largest semiconductor plant for U.S. $82 million, amid reports that the British government has “quietly” approved the sale despite ordering a review a year ago. “This is about the United Kingdom’s biggest producer of microchips and semiconductors. It is about national resilience,” crossbench peer Lord Alton told the U.K.’s upper house on Thursday. “It’s about whether or not we wish to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the People’s Republic of China, which has been accused of genocide by Elizabeth Truss, our foreign secretary.” “Why aren’t we giving consideration [to] the remarks of Ciaran Martin, the former head of the National Cybersecurity Centre, that there are ‘very real concerns about the buyout’, and that it poses a greater threat than allowing Huawei to build the United Kingdom’s 5G network.” The question followed an April 1 report by the news website Politico, which cited sources as saying that ministers have decided not to intervene in the takeover of Newport Wafer Fab following a review by the government’s national security adviser, Stephen Lovegrove. “Lovegrove concluded there were not enough security concerns to block it,” the report cited two government officials as saying. Both the British government and Nexperia, the potential buyer, denied that the acquisition had been approved, however. The U.K.’s National Security and Investment (NSI) Act, which took effect on Jan. 4, 2022, empowers cabinet ministers to review and block foreign acquisitions that may damage national security. According to official guidelines on the government’s website, an acquisition is likely to fall within the scope of the act if the investor “is involved in the ownership, creation, supply or exploitation of intellectual property of … computer processing units, architectural, logical or physical designs for such units, the instruction set architecture for such units, code, written in a low-level language, that can control how such units operate, or integrated circuits with the purpose of providing memory. The House of Commons foreign affairs committee said on April 5 that it had sent letters to different government departments on many occasions regarding the deal, and had concluded that the review hadn’t been implemented according to the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. CCP backing Nexperia is ultimately owned by Wingtech, a Shanghai-listed company reportedly backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), while Newport Wafer Fab (NWF) specializes in the fabrication of high-end silicon semiconductor chips and in manufacturing silicon chips for power conversion, and the industry in south Wales has received “significant financial support” from the government, the Committee said in its report. According to Chinese investment screening specialists Datenna, Wingtech is heavily backed by the CCP. Wingtech Chair Zang Xuezheng assumed the role of Nexperia CEO in March 2020, the report said. “Given the importance of semiconductors to the U.K.’s national security, we identified the acquisition of the U.K.’s largest semiconductor manufacturer by a company backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a cause for concern; even more so in the context of global semiconductor shortages,” the report said. “We argued that it is crucial that the Government gets the new investment screening regime right from the beginning.” Ruling Conservative Party MP Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said the government should act under national security powers to review sensitive and strategic foreign investments in the U.K. He said the deal had left many wondering why national security-related infrastructure was being handed over to overseas companies with clear links to the Chinese government. He warned against acting only for short-term economic interests, rather than for future economic stability. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is “determined” to get control over access to key technologies amid a global semiconductor shortage. He warned against “appeasing” China, which was trying to block Western countries’ access to microchips and other sought-after electronic components. No.10 Downing Street declined to comment. The CCP-backed Global Times newspaper has hit out at Tugendhat for being “anti-China,” while he and eight other individuals are barred from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau. “Their properties in China will be frozen, and Chinese citizens and institutions will be prohibited from doing business with them,” the paper reported on March 26. Similar sanctions have also been imposed on Duncan Smith, it said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Public anger grows in China over ‘Cultural Revolution-style’ disease prevention
Public criticism is growing in China of the authorities’ Cultural Revolution-style anti-COVID-19 campaigns after a doctor committed suicide over a hospital outbreak and officials killed pets whose owners tested positive for the virus. While most criticism or negative news about the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s zero-COVID policy is swiftly removed by internet censors, reports have surfaced in recent days that Shi Jun, head of neurosurgery at the Jidong County People’s Hospital in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, committed suicide after being arrested and interrogated by police in connection with a COVID-19 outbreak at his hospital. The outbreak was started by a woman who used her mother’s PCR test result to gain admission to the hospital for brain surgery, but who passed the virus on to other patients, causing an outbreak that led to a county-wide lockdown and billions of yuan in economic losses, according to local media reports. Shi was arrested and interrogated by police over seven days for hours at a time, forcing him to wear handcuffs and leg irons when he went for a medical checkup, and threatening him with a heavy sentence if he didn’t “confess.” He managed to take his own life while in detention by breaking his toothbrush and using it to stab an artery in his thigh, according to social media posts, many of which were quickly deleted. A fellow Jidong county doctor surnamed Chen told RFA the Shi had died in the course of the investigation into the outbreak. “Yes, it’s true, he really is dead,” Chen said. “It’s been more than a week now, I think.” “I don’t know the details, because I don’t work at the same place, but I heard it was because of a mistake or negligence at work, giving rise to an outbreak of COVID-19,” he said. An employee who answered the phone at the Jidong County People’s Hospital refused to comment on the case when contacted by RFA on Thursday. “I don’t know about this; we’re not in the same department … we didn’t know each other that well, there are hundreds of people who work here, and we had very little contact,” the employee said. “What media organization are you from?” “You can call management [and ask them],” the employee said. Shi was among thousands of doctors who volunteered to work on the front line of the early pandemic in the central city of Wuhan in February 2020, working at the Yingcheng Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital for 39 days. He was lauded by state media as a hero of the pandemic, with his wife and children appearing on TV, and his family named as “the most beautiful family” of Heilongjiang by the CCP-backed Jixi Women’s Federation, as part of CCP leader Xi Jinping’s insistence on positive news stories about the pandemic. An employee who answered the phone at the Jixi Women’s Federation declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Thursday. “We don’t know much about this,” the employee said. “If you want to ask about the most beautiful family, the person in charge of that department isn’t here … You can always call again later.” An employee who answered the phone at the Yingcheng Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital also declined to comment. “I haven’t been contact with him … I didn’t work with him, OK?” the employee said, before hanging up the phone. Calls to the Jidong county police department, the county health bureau and the Jidong county government rang unanswered during office hours on Thursday. Public anger over China’s “campaign-style” approach to managing COVID-19 appears to be breaking through onto social media despite official attempts to erase it. Genuine hardship Shanghai resident Ji Xiaolong, who has been under COVID-19 lockdown alongside 26 million others for several days now, has been warned off speaking out in public after he published a petition to the authorities in Beijing, hitting out at the zero-COVID policy. “I hope my petition will be placed on Xi Jinping’s desk,” Ji told RFA on Thursday, adding that he has been taking two or three phone calls a minute from people across China since he posted it. “[They call from] all over the country; there are also overseas Chinese, ordinary people who have escaped from Shanghai,” he said. “[I’ve had] thousands of phone calls, text messages, WeChat, voice notes and Weibo comments.” Ji also hit out an online censorship, saying that much of the information posted to social media is genuine, and not “rumors,” as claimed by the government. “The Shanghai government debunks a [so-called] rumor every two minutes,” he said. “Are there really so many rumors? These rumors are often later confirmed, so they’re not necessarily rumors.” Ji said the restrictions have caused genuine hardship in his residential community. “There are people in our community who need to go to the hospital on a regular basis,” Ji said. “I saw [one of them] begging [officials] in our WeChat group. There is a neighborhood committee for our community, but they need to report [trips for medical attention] to higher ups, one level after another, and several days have gone by.” “There are others who are unwilling to beg, because of their dignity, so they endure the pain instead; they definitely exist too.” ‘They’re like the Red Guards’ U.S.-based commentator Chen Pokong said there’s a joke circulating in Shanghai that the government doesn’t care if you die, as long as you don’t die of COVID-19. “This is the government’s position,” Chen said. “Hospitals and emergency rooms are closed, and critically ill patients can’t get treatment or assistance.” “Many critically ill patients are dying or starving to death, of jumping off buildings,” he said. Ji said epidemic prevention officials were jokingly referred to by residents as “condoms,” because of their protective suits. “They’re like the Red Guards [community enforcers during the Cultural Revolution],” he said. “We all have to stay inside, but they can walk around openly wherever they like.” “Judging from their age and mental outlook, they are also excellent Communist…
Tibetan exile leader set to visit Washington in April
Tibetan exile leader Penpa Tsering will visit Washington D.C. from April 25 to 29 at the invitation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Tsering confirmed to RFA in an interview on Tuesday. The Washington visit will be followed by visits to Canada and Germany, the Sikyong, or elected head of Tibet’s India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), added. “We have received an official invitation from the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who has been a strong supporter and advocate for Tibet,” Tsering told RFA. “We will also be meeting with the State Department’s special coordinator for Tibetan issues Uzra Zeya and with many other government and non-governmental officials.” “Over the last decades, and especially under the leadership and authoritarian policies of Chinese president Xi Jinping, we have seen Tibetans face more and more religious and cultural repression aimed at wiping out the Tibetan identity,” Tsering said. A CTA report detailing what Tsering called the “urgent issues” surrounding Tibet’s environment and language and human rights situation, and prepared for submission to Xi Jinping, is being temporarily held back for “a number of reasons,” the Sikyong said. “One of these of course is the ongoing concern over Russia and Ukraine,” he said. CTA departments and a Permanent Strategy Committee established by the Sikyong are now working together to push again for a resumption of a Sino-Tibetan dialogue on Tibet’s status under Chinese rule, Tsering said. Nine rounds of talks were previously held between envoys of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and high-level Chinese officials beginning in 2002, but stalled in 2010 and were never resumed. Divisions persist in the Tibetan exile community—about 150,000 people living in 40 countries—over how best to advance the rights of the 6.3 million Tibetans living in China, with some calling for a restoration of the independence lost when Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950. Penpa Tsering, a former speaker of Tibet’s exile parliament in Dharamsala, won a closely fought April 11, 2021 election to become Sikyong held in Tibetan communities worldwide. The fifth elected CTA leader, Tsering replaced Lobsang Sangay, a Harvard-trained scholar of law, who had served two consecutive five-year terms as Sikyong, an office filled since 2011 by popular vote. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Prominent Uyghur journalist said to be serving 15 years for ‘political crimes’
A prominent Uyghur journalist who went missing in November 2017 is serving 15 years in prison in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region for “political crimes,” his son and authorities in the region told RFA. Qurban Mamut, the former editor-in-chief of the popular Uyghur journal Xinjiang Civilization, disappeared several months after he and his wife returned home after visiting their son, Bahram Sintash, at his home in Virginia in 2017, RFA previously reported. Chinese authorities had kept Mamut’s imprisonment and sentence a secret since they arrested him, said his son, a police officer and a Chinese court official in Xinjiang. Mamut’s arrest coincided with a Chinese government crackdown on Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang. In some case, authorities have not disclosed sentencing terms from the families of the jailed Uyghurs. Mamut, who is now 71, retired in 2011 after working for decades as the journal’s editor-in-chief, Sintash said. His son tried to obtain information about his father’s disappearance by discussing his case with reporters across the globe and providing testimony to U.S. lawmakers, but he was unable to learn what exactly had happened to him. “None of these efforts helped me to get any information on my father,” Sintash told RFA in February when he learned from his older sister that Mamut was alive but serving 15 years in prison. When RFA contacted Chinese officials at the Cultural Affairs Bureau in Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi), Xinjiang’s capital, where Mamut had worked as an editor, they declined to provide information on his situation. A police officer in Urumqi told RFA that he was aware that Mamut had been sentenced but said he could confirm the length of prison term only after he received approval. “I can tell you about his situation after I get approval from my bureau chiefs,” he said. Previous RFA reports on jailed Uyghur intellectuals, businessmen and other socially prominent people have indicated that since 2017 Chinese authorities have returned Uyghurs to their ancestral towns in Xinjiang and detained them there in internment camps or sentenced them to prison in those jurisdictions. RFA contacted police in Kuchar (Kuche) county, Aksu (Akesu) prefecture, where Mamut is from and where his nephews now reside. One officer in the county’s seventh district confirmed that the editor was in prison. “Qurban Mamut was sentenced to 15 years in prison for political crimes,” the police in Kucha told RFA in a phone call. “We received the [official] document on his sentence almost two years ago.” A Chinese court official in Urumqi also confirmed that Mamut was serving a 15-year term but said he didn’t know in which detention center. “I heard it was for 15 years,” he said. “I don’t know what prison he is in since I took this position recently.” Sintash expressed deep concern about his father’s health now that he is confined to a “hospital prison” where detainees receive medical treatment while they are handcuffed to their beds and under increased supervision. “I don’t know what hospital prison is or what kind of place it is … but after hearing the news I am more concerned about my father,” he said. “When his 15-year prison term ends, he will be in his 80s if he comes out from the Chinese prison live.” Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
China: No plans to build military base in Solomon Islands
China is denying that it will build a military base in the Solomon Islands after agreeing with the South Pacific nation to a security pact that is raising concerns in the region and beyond. Last week, the two sides quietly signed a Framework Agreement on bilateral security cooperation, saying it is “conducive to stability and security of the Solomon Islands, and will promote common interests of other countries in the region.” A framework agreement is not the final deal but confirms both countries’ intentions with details to be agreed in the future. A draft agreement leaked online last week would allow Beijing to set up bases and deploy troops in the Solomon Islands, which lies about 1,700 km (1,050 miles) from the northeastern coast of Australia. The draft agreement and Framework Agreement are separate documents. It remains unclear how the two documents differ but, in a statement released Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy in Honiara categorically denied that a military base would be developed in the Solomons. “This is utterly misinformation deliberately spread with [a] political motive,” an embassy spokesperson said in the statement, responding to a question about whether China would build a military base in the islands. China-Solomon Islands security cooperation is “no different from the cooperation of Solomon Islands with other countries,” the spokesperson added. In recent years, China has been developing closer ties with the Pacific islands, wooing them with infrastructure loans and economic assistance, as well as military exchanges. The Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019 – a move to please Beijing which seeks to diminish the international diplomatic recognition of the government in Taiwan. Concerns over pact The draft agreement, meanwhile, has provoked fears in the South Pacific region’s traditional powers, Australia and New Zealand. Last week, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that Wellington sees the pact as “gravely concerning.” The U.S., which has been promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, also expressed concerns about China’s moves in the Solomons. Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. as saying earlier this week that he was “undoubtedly concerned” about the China-Solomon Islands security pact. “There is still a path ahead. But anytime that a secret security arrangement makes its way into the light of day, it is a concern,” Paparo told the Australian network in Washington. The U.S. admiral also warned that “there’s the potential of conflict within our region within a couple of years because of the incredible unpredictability of events.” The security agreement with China “will allow the Solomon Islands government to invite China to send police and even military personnel to protect Chinese community and businesses in Solomon Islands during riots and social unrests,” said a researcher specializing in the Pacific region at the Australian National University (ANU), who requested anonymity because of personal concerns. “This is different from China establishing a military base in Solomon Islands but may pave the way for China to do so,” he told RFA. ‘Diversification’ of partnerships Beijing doesn’t hide its ambition to set up military bases in the South Pacific. In 2018, media reports about China’s plan to build a base in Vanuatu prompted a stern warning from then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. A possible presence of Chinese law enforcement personnel so close to the homeland has rattled decision makers in Canberra. Australia is the biggest aid donor to the Solomon Islands and, in 2017, it signed a bilateral security treaty with Honiara, its first with a Pacific nation. “From traditional powers’ perspective, they think such security agreement is not necessary because existing regional mechanisms can meet the demands of Pacific islands like the Solomon Islands,” the ANU researcher said. “But the incumbent Solomon Islands government said they need to diversify the country’s external security partnerships, especially with China, which lends strong support to the government during and after the riot in November 2021,” he said. Rioting broke out in Honiara, the nation’s capital, in late November over the government’s decision to diplomatically recognize China over Taiwan. Last week, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare told lawmakers that to achieve the nation’s security needs, “it is clear that we need to diversify the country’s relationship with other countries” but existing security arrangements with Australia would remain. His policy of “diversification” was evident in November when the PM asked Australia – and after that China – to send police forces to help him quell the riots that rocked Honiara. The Chinese Embassy, for its part, warned against what it called “Cold War and colonial mentality,” saying the Pacific island nations are “all sovereign and independent.” “The region should not be considered a ‘backyard’ of other countries,” it said in its statement issued on Tuesday.
Hong Kong police arrest six for ‘sedition’ over courtroom protests, support
Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested six people including a former labor leader on suspicion of “sedition” under a colonial-era law, as the city’s security chief — who is widely seen as Beijing’s preferred candidate — resigned to run for chief executive. Police said they had arrested four men and two women aged 32 to 67 on suspicion of “conducting acts with seditious intent.” Media reports said one of those arrested was Leo Tang, a former vice president of the now-disbanded Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU). The arrests were in connection with “nuisances” allegedly caused by the six as they attended court hearings between December 2021 and January 2022. Police said their actions had “severely affected jurisdictional dignity and court operations.” Police also searched the homes of the arrestees and seized various items in connection with the case. This arrests mark the first time that someone sitting in the public gallery of a Hong Kong court has been arrested for “actions with seditious intent,” a charge that carries a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment. The police statement said the six are accused of “incitement to hatred, contempt or betrayal of Hong Kong’s judiciary.” Previously, judges have responded to shouting and clapping from the public gallery by ignoring it or by ordering those responsible to leave the court. Any behavior in court that could distract judges from hearing evidence or making a judgement could be regarded as “an obstacle to the work of the court,” Hong Kong chief justice Andrew Cheung said in January. He said at the time that such incidents should be handled on a case-by-case basis by the judge concerned. Courtroom protests and vocal support for defendants has become increasingly common as Hong Kong continues with a citywide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. In January 2018, supporters at the trial of pro-independence politician Edward Leung were ordered to leave the courtroom and to view the remainder of the trial via a video screen in the lobby. The arrests came as chief secretary John Lee — second-in-command to chief executive Carrie Lam — resigned from his post and announced he will run in an “election” for the city’s top job that is tightly controlled by Beijing. The successful candidate will be chosen on May 8 by a 1,500-strong Election Committee whose members have been hand-picked by Beijing. The arrests came after two U.K. Supreme Court judges resigned from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (CFA) last month, citing a recent crackdown on dissent under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing. Non-permanent CFA judges Lord Reed and Lord Hodge had sat on the court “for many years” under an agreement governing the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule, but Lam’s administration had “departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression,” Reed said in a statement. The national security law ushered in a citywide crackdown on public dissent and criticism of the authorities that has seen several senior journalists, pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai and 47 former lawmakers and democracy activists charged with offenses from “collusion with a foreign power” to “subversion.” Extracts from Lai’s prison letters published by the Index on Censorship in late March 2022 quoted Lai as saying that “the muted anger of the Hong Kong people is not going away.” “This barbaric suppression [and] intimidation works,” Lai wrote. “Hong Kong people are all quieted down. But the muted anger they have is not going away. Even those emigrating will have it forever. Many people are emigrating or planning to.” “The more barbaric [the] treatment of Hong Kong people, [the] greater is their anger, and power of their potential resistance; [the] greater is the distrust of Beijing, of Hong Kong, [the] stricter is their rule to control,” Lai wrote. “The vicious circle of suppression-anger-and-distrust eventually will turn Hong Kong into a prison, a cage, like Xinjiang.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Shanghai transports tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases, close contacts out of town
The mass, out-of-town relocation of thousands of people from Shanghai who have tested positive for COVID-19 is sparking a social media backlash from neighboring regions in China, according to local residents and social media posts. With more than 10,000 people testing positive for the virus in the city so far, and isolation and quarantine facilities in the city overflowing, the authorities have started packing thousands of local people onto mass transportation and sending them to isolation camps in neighboring provinces and cities. Social media user @DeliciousFishSkinCrispy called the policy “shameless,” saying that some 30,000 Shanghai residents are being sent to the eastern province of Zhejiang alone. Others complained of a lack of containment measures during the trip to the isolation facility, saying the lax restrictions on those known to have been exposed to the virus would likely spread it to the surrounding areas. User @RadishTuan1971 posted a video of an isolation convoy heading to Zhejiang’s provincial capital, Hangzhou. “The neighborhood committee told us they wouldn’t be providing any protective clothing, and that large numbers of close contacts were being sent to Hangzhou,” the user commented, adding that he was worried about testing positive after being put on a bus with a group of potentially infected people despite quarantining at home for four days. He called on the government to issue personal protective equipment (PPE) to people ordered to leave town for isolation facilities. Shanghai reported a cumulative total of 13,354 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, but officials vowed to stick to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s zero-COVID policy, despite skyrocketing numbers. “We will stick unswervingly to the overall dynamic zero-COVID policy without hesitation, step up mass testing, quarantine and treatment, and realize the goal of zero-COVID in the shortest possible timeframe,” a health official told a news conference. Local media reported that around 10,000 people have been sent to Hangzhou, the same number to Ningbo, 6,000 sent in total to Shaoxing and Jinhua, and 4,000 in total to Huzhou and Taizhou. A health worker conducts a swab test for COVID-19 at a residential compound during the second stage of a pandemic lockdown in Shanghai’s Jing’ an district, April 6, 2022. Credit: AFP Treatment gap But local residents also reported a huge divide between the treatment meted out to the poorest and most vulnerable people during the current outbreak, and those living in affluent neighborhoods. A resident of Hongqiao Emgrand Garden in Shanghai’s Changning district who gave only the surname Jiang said her residential community was well-supplied, despite reports of food shortages in other parts of the city. “The volunteers were delivering rapid antigen test kits door to door yesterday,” Jiang said. “Nobody in the community is allowed out, not to walk the dog, not to hang out down in the courtyard; we all have to stay home.” “[However], it is being managed very well, and everyone is behaving very responsibly,” she said. “They even called us to say that proper fresh vegetables were being delivered, as well as steak and shrimp balls to every household yesterday evening.” Yet residents of the less affluent districts of Juquan, Xinyuan, Gucun township and Baoshan faced food shortages during their lockdown, while those in isolation facilities hadn’t received any government food supplies for nearly two weeks, according to social media reports. Instead, food supplies are dumped outside in the courtyard to leave people to fight for food in chaotic scenes that some people likened to the Hunger Games. He Anquan (L) and Wang Lijin (R) take part in a hunger strike opposite the Chinese Consulate in New York, April 6, 2022. Credit: He Anquan’s Twitter feed Strike in solidarity In New York, Chinese dissidents who formed the Shanghai National Party in exile staged a three-day hunger strike outside the Chinese consulate from April 4. Dissident He Anquan told reporters from a tent across the street from the consulate on Tuesday that he hadn’t eaten for 24 hours, and was struggling to keep warm with the temperature at a chilly nine degrees Celsius. “Of course it’s cold, but it’s still above freezing point,” He, who is refusing food but taking water, told RFA. “As a Shanghainese, this is all I can do to express my feelings of solidarity and concern to the 25 million Shanghai residents who live, work and were born in Shanghai,” he said. Since the citywide lockdown began, patients have died due to lack of timely medical treatment and children have been sent to separate isolation facilities from their parents, while food prices have skyrocketed. Some residents have committed suicide by jumping off their buildings, He told RFA. “The Chinese government’s lockdown policy in Shanghai amounts to a massacre, because it has resulted in the death of Shanghai citizens without medical treatment, or suicide due to emotional breakdown, all kinds of tragedies,” he said. “These things are already happening.” Opposition to policy Fellow Shanghai National Party activist Wang Lijin said he was joining He’s hunger strike. “[CCP leader] Xi Jinping wants to achieve national unity during these citywide lockdowns,” Wang said. “We are very opposed to his cruelty to the people of Shanghai.” “We came to oppose Xi Jinping’s shutdown of the city.” There are signs of growing dissent over Xi’s preference for a zero-COVID policy within China, however. A recent analysis that appeared on the encyclopedia site Zhihu argued that only the strictest lockdowns were of any use whatsoever in curbing the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant of COVID-19. “The omicron variant spreads 5.82 times faster than the previous variants,” the article said. ““The likelihood of bringing it under control is only around 51 percent, unless the strictest possible containment and control measures are applied immediately, as soon as the first case appears [in a city].” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Young Uyghur-Australian to run for seat in Australia’s Parliament
A young Uyghur-Australian chiropractor is running for a seat in Australia’s Parliament in part to address China’s threats to the continent and to Uyghurs in Xinjiang and elsewhere in the world. Intezar Elham, 28, told RFA that she decided in October 2021 to run in the country’s May 2022 election after she was invited to become a candidate by the newly formed Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance, a small party that promotes human rights in China. On her website, Elham says she is the first and youngest Uyghur-Australian Muslim to run for parliament. Elham said she wanted to serve as a voice for Uyghurs in Australian politics. She attended a demonstration on March 30 in front of the Chinese consulate in Adelaide in southern Australia. In a speech there, Elham noted that Australians are now waking up to the reality that Uyghurs have faced for decades. She also described her determination to run for office because of what she said is the ruling Liberal Party’s failure to be tough on China. “But even if we don’t win — our goal is bigger than that,” she said at the gathering. “My goal is to shift the national conversation and debate on major issues like the threat the Chinese government poses to this country and the world.” Elham spoke of her admiration for late Australian Sen. Kimberley Kitching, an Australian Labor Party MP, lawyer and trade unionist who died of a heart attack on March 10. Kitching was “a staunch advocate for Uyghurs cause in Parliament and around the world, standing up to China having founded the Inter-Parliamentary Group on China and was the main politician pushing for an Australian Magnitsky Act,” Elham said, referring to an act passed by Australian Parliament in December 2021 to create a legal framework for sanctions. “Kimberley’s legacy is a world where countries like this one stand up for those who need us, and for that she has the thanks of Uyghurs here and around the world,” she said. Elham, who goes by the nickname Inty, says on her website that she never saw herself entering politics. “But because my grandparents fled the brutality of the authoritarian Chinese government, I cannot sit by and watch the Chinese Communist Party corrupt Australia and our democracy,” she said. “We can see this influence for example, in the imposing Chinese consulate in Joslin built without consultation with the community and spying on us,” she said, referring to the consulate, which opened in March 2021 in an area containing a large number of Uyghurs and near a Uyghur language school. “We must stand up.” Dilzat, a Uyghur intellectual who lives in Adelaide and supports Elham’s campaign, said Uyghurs around the world are pleased that the aspiring politician who was born and raised in Australia is fighting on behalf of Uyghurs in China. “What she made public to the media and the world there at the demonstration in front of the consulate was her political platform, what she’s fighting against, who is standing behind her,” he said. “This event was a formal opening ceremony of sorts.” Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
