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Category: East Asia
INTERVIEW: ‘North Korea could have 300 nuclear warheads within 10 years’
Ankit Panda, an expert on North Korea’s nuclear program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was interviewed by Radio Free Asia regarding Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions and how its capabilities might be improved through North Korea’s support of Russia in its war with Ukraine. Panda, a Stanton senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at Carnegie, also said that North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, very likely can be used to attack an American city, and that Pyongyang might have as many as 300 warheads within the next 10 years. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. RFA: If North Korea were to launch an ICBM at the U.S. right now, do you think the U.S. would be vulnerable? Ankit Panda: That’s a good question. First of all, would North Korea launch an ICBM? Probably not — it would be essentially suicidal. There’s no reason for North Korea to attack the United States unprovoked. But the technical question that you asked, “Can North Korea essentially detonate a nuclear warhead over an American city?” — the answer to that question in my view is very probably yes, and that’s a carefully chosen phrase, “very probably yes.” The North Koreans, the reliability that they have is probably a lot lower than what the United States has, but it’s probably sufficient for the purposes that Kim Jong Un seeks which is to deter the United States. The only question that Kim has to ask himself is, “In a serious crisis or a war between the United States and North Korea, would an American president be worried that if the war got out of control, American cities could be vulnerable to nuclear attack?” And I think the answer there is absolutely. RFA: But can’t the United States intercept North Korean ICBMs with its missile defense system? Panda: The U.S. has a very limited homeland missile defense capability. We have a total of 44 interceptors that are capable of destroying incoming ICBMs. These interceptors are actually deployed in Alaska. There’s 40 of them in Alaska and four of them in California at Vandenberg Air Force Base. These are designed to deal with North Korean ICBM threats. But it gets a little complicated here because it’s not that there’s 44 interceptors, which means the U.S. can defend against 44 North Korean ICBMs. Probably the U.S. would look to use 3 to 4 interceptors against one incoming ICBM reentry vehicle. And so then if you’re in North Korea, you have a solution to this problem, right? You build more ICBMs. And so that is where the North Koreans have gone. I would argue that that is a chance that would be very difficult for an American president to take — this idea that the North Koreans could launch ICBMs and our interceptors might not actually work. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Workers’ Party General Secretary Kim Jong-un after signing the ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement’ at the Kumsusan State Guest House in Pyongyang in June 2024.(Yonhap News) So we know from Ukrainian intelligence that there has been change in the KN-23s. … They used to be very inaccurate when they were first used. And it turns out there was a report in December 2024 that the precision has improved significantly, and that is a very, very important milestone for the North Koreans because — especially if they do want to deploy tactical nuclear weapons — precision of the missile system matters quite a bit because the yield of the weapon is a lot lower, the yield being the explosive power. And so if you’re trying to leverage those types of tactical nuclear weapons for maximal military utility–let’s say you want to hit an airfield in South Korea that has F-35s that you can’t deal with once they take off, so you have to destroy them before they take off. You really need to make sure that the the yield of the weapon and the precision of the missile match essentially in terms of the mission that you’re trying to accomplish. And so I really think that we shouldn’t underrate the ways in which North Korea’s missile transfers to Russia are very directly augmenting Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambitions and strategy. RFA: When we talk about North Korean involvement in Ukraine, experts and officials say that North Korea is getting from Russia food or other kinds of support, but regarding missile technology, what does Pyongyang need that Moscow can give? Panda: The area where I think the Russians can really help them is with guidance computers, cruise missile maneuvering, cruise missile control and potentially even countermeasures, other types of ways in which to just improve the reliability of North Korea’s manufacturing standards for missile systems. So all of that, I think will will happen is probably happening in some form space launch technologies, too. I think the Russians will be very, very eager to to help the North Koreans out. That has been the most public facing component of technical cooperation. RFA: As North Korea and Russia grow closer, is there a possibility that Russia will recognize North Korea as an official nuclear state? Panda: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has pretty explicitly said that Russia no longer views North Korea as a nonproliferation concern. Essentially, you know, since the early 1990s, the major powers China, Russia, the United States and Japan, South Korea, the European Union, the whole world has seen North Korea as a nonproliferation problem. They’re the only country to have signed the Nonproliferation Treaty, left that treaty and built nuclear weapons. So it matters how you deal with North Korea for that reason. But it also matters in a big way that the North Koreans are really presenting unacceptable nuclear risks, in my opinion, to the United States and its allies, and so that demands a focus on risk reduction. President Donald Trump and North Korean General Secretary Kim Jong Un meet in Singapore on June 12, 2018.(Yonhap News)…
Thailand considers building a wall on its border with Cambodia
BANGKOK – Thailand is considering building a wall on part of its border with Cambodia to tackle illegal crossings, particularly by gangsters involved in online scam centers and drug smugglers, a government spokesman said on Monday. There was no immediate comment from Cambodia on the proposal but the neighbors have a long-standing and bitter dispute over part of their 817 kilometer (507 miles) land border, and another dispute over their maritime border that has stymied the exploitation of offshore gas reserves. “The prime minister directed the cabinet and relevant agencies to further study the idea of erecting a wall between Thailand and Cambodia to prevent illegal crossings and travels of call-center gangsters as well as the drugs and contraband trades,” Thai government spokesman Jirayu Huangsab told reporters. Thailand, at China’s urging, has been cracking down on call centers over its border in eastern Myanmar, which researchers say are responsible for extensive financial fraud around the world and for trafficking in people to work in the centers. Cambodia is also home to call-center operations, including in its western border town of Poipet and the southern seaside town of Sihanoukville. Jirayu mentioned the possibility of putting up a wall in the area opposite Poipet. He said Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra floated the idea of a wall amid reports that scammers from Myanmar were migrating to Poipet, and Thailand planned to discuss the idea with Cambodian authorities. “The foreign ministry and the defense ministry shall coordinate with other relevant agencies and talk with Cambodia on how to make it, if we would, and what the result will be – will it solve problems?” Chinese pressure on its Southeast Asian neighbors to tackle the scam centers has also led to Cambodian action. Over the weekend, Cambodia repatriated 119 Thai nationals following raids in Poi Pet. RELATED STORIES EXPLAINED: What are scam parks? Residents: Scam center workers smuggled into Cambodia via the Mekong River Hun Sen, Cambodia’s powerful former prime minister, complained that Cambodia was not getting the credit it deserved for its action against the scam centers. “Countries on the border with Thailand, including Cambodia, have also tried to suppress the same thing,” Hun Sen said in a post on Facebook on Saturday. “Sadly, Thailand’s success is considered by some journalists and politicians as a failure of neighboring Cambodia,” he said. “The crime story is not over, it continues to be scandalous, which requires intergovernmental cooperation to be done effectively.” Edited by Mike Firn We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
North Korean tour guides know about soldiers dispatched to Ukraine war, tourist says
A French travel blogger who was among the first group of Western tourists to visit North Korea in five years told Ij Reportika that his tour guides knew that the country’s soldiers were fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine — something the government has kept largely a secret from the public. Pierre-emile Biot, 30, said the Jan. 20-25 trip showcased North Korea’s culture, its close ties with Russia and its “surprisingly really good” locally-produced beer. The visitors were only allowed to stay within the Rason Special Economic Zone in the country’s far northeastern corner, near the border with China and Russia. Foreign tourism to North Korea had completely shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It reopened last year, but only to visitors from Russia. Biot had always wanted to visit the reclusive state and thought it was only a matter of time until it would open up further. Last month, there were rumblings that the country would accept tourists from anywhere except South Korea and the United States on guided tours. Biot, who had been monitoring several travel agencies, was able to book a four-night five-day trip departing from China. ‘Quite welcoming’ To enter North Korea, Biot and his tour group of about a dozen, including other Europeans, traveled overland from Yanji in China’s Jilin province. He said the entry process getting into North Korea was easy, although authorities conducted sanitary inspections due to concerns about COVID-19. “It was quite welcoming, a lot more than I expected, and it went actually pretty smoothly,” Biot told RFA Korean from Hong Kong in a video call after the conclusion of his trip. “It think they are still a bit scare of COVID,” he said. “They didn’t check like vaccines or anything, but they did check our temperature. They had us pay for a disinfection of our bags also.” The tour was tightly controlled by two guides and two guides-in-training. None of the visitors had any freedom to roam around on their own, even outside their hotel at night. Pierre-Emile Biot stands beside a photo, Feb. 20, 2025, from the Summit between North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the Russia-Korea Friendship Pavilion in Rason, North Korea.(Courtesy of Pierre-Emile Biot) Biot said that the tour guides tended to avoid questions about politics, but some did say that they knew that North Korean troops were sent to support Russia in its war with Ukraine. Since November, about 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia — although neither Moscow or Pyongyang have publicly confirmed this, and North Korean state media also has kept mum. “Apparently yes, they know about it, but they don’t know to what extent,” he said. “So they know about the relations with Russia getting better and better.” Good beer, ‘Great Leader’ When asked about the food the tour group was served, Biot praised the domestically produced beer. “Actually the beer was surprisingly really good,” said Biot. “Well, at every single meal we would have, we had no table water, but we had table beer like local beer too. I think all of us had at least like five beers per day.” Another part of the trip included a visit to statues of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s predecessors, his grandfather Kim Il Sung and his father Kim Jong Il. The tourists were told to buy flowers to lay in front of the statues in a show of respect. “We all had to bow, which was really important because we were the first tourist group” to visit in some time, Biot said. Throughout the trip, Biot could sense the immense respect that the North Korean people had for their leaders, he said. The guides often used the expression, “Our great leader made the decision …” and they spoke often about Kim Jong Un’s achievements. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Brother of ex-World Uyghur Congress president serving 20-year sentence in Xinjiang
The older brother of former World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa is serving a 20-year sentence in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang for “inciting terrorism,” local police and security officers at a school where he taught said.
Uyghurs in Thai prison ‘heartbroken’ to learn friends deported
Follow the story on Investigative Journalism Reportika Thailand’s Court Weighs Petition to Free Detained Uyghurs Thailand Faces Backlash Over Plans to Deport 48 Uyghurs to China BANGKOK – Four ethnic Uyghurs held in a Thai prison cried when they learned that 40 of their friends had been deported to China after being held for more than a decade in a Thai immigration lock-up, a friend of the men said on Friday after visiting them. Thailand deported the 40 Uyghurs to China on Thursday, ignoring warnings from the U.S., the U.N. and human rights groups that they risked torture when they were returned to the northeastern region of Xinjiang, which they fled more than 10 years ago. “When they learned that their 40 friends had been sent to China, they were heartbroken,” a 37-year-old friend of the detained Uyghurs, who asked to be identified as just Marzeryya, told us. “They cried, something they had never done before, because they are so worried about their friends,” she said. There are five Uyghurs in Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison where they were sent after trying to escape. Marzeryya said she met four of them on Friday. It was not clear why the five were not also sent back to China on Thursday. Thailand has defended its deportation of the 40, saying it had received an “official request” from China and sent them back after assurances from the “highest level” of the Chinese government on their safety. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, in her first public comment on the deportations that threatens to create a rift with old ally the U.S., rejected any suggestion Thailand had sent the men back in exchange for some commercial reward from China, adding they had volunteered to go. “This is about people, not goods. People are not merchandise. We definitely did not trade them,” she told reporters. “I confirm that they returned voluntarily. Otherwise, there would have been dragging. There was no dragging, they walked up normally,” she said, referring to their transfer from Bangkok’s main immigration detention center to a flight back to China. Mostly Muslim Uyghurs in China’s vast Xinjiang region have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps. China denies that but U.N. experts said on Jan. 21 the Uyghurs in Thailand would likely face torture if forced back to China and they urged Thailand not to deport them. Trucked at night to airport The 40 were taken in the dead of night in trucks with windows blocked with sheets of black plastic, escorted by police cars and under a media blackout, to Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport for the flight home. Marzeryya rejected the suggestion that they had gone back voluntarily. “Why would they want to return to China when they fled from there because they had no freedom and couldn’t practice their religion? That’s why they’d never want to go back,” she said. Marzeryya said none of the five in prison wanted to go to China. “They don’t want to return. They begged us to pray that they would be relocated to a third country,” she said. Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the People’s Empowerment Foundation, also visited four of the imprisoned Uyghurs on Friday. “They confirmed that they don’t want to go to China, they want to go to a third country,” Chalida told BenarNews. “They said they had already escaped from China, so why would they want to go back? This contradicts what the Thai government has said.” Another three ethnic Uyghurs are still being held at the Bangkok immigration detention center. They have Kyrgyzstan passports and so were not sent to China, Chalida said. The 48 Uyghurs were part of a cohort of more than 350 Uyghur men, women and children, who left China in the hope of finding resettlement abroad and were stopped and detained in Thailand in 2014. Turkey accepted 172 of them while Thailand sent 109 of them back to China in 2015, triggering a storm of international criticism . Several of them have died of illness over the years. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative ReportsDaily ReportsInterviews Surveys Reportika
EXPLAINED: Thailand’s repatriation of 40 Uyghur refugees to China
Thailand’s decision to deport 40 Uyghurs back to China after languishing in a Bangkok detention center for over a decade raises concerns about their fate — and questions about what they were doing there in the first place. What is known about the Uyghurs sent back to China from Thailand? The men originally came from the Xinjiang region of northwestern China where 12 million Uyghurs live under Beijing’s harsh rule. Many have been subjected to human rights abuses and detained in concentration camps that Beijing says are vocational training centers. In 2014, the men were part of a larger group of Uyghurs who tried to escape Xinjiang through Thailand, but were caught. Ever since, they have been held at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, a prison-like facility. After more than 10 years, on Thursday 40 Uyghur men were taken in trucks to Don Mueang International Airport to be deported to Xinjiang. Police officers patrol in the old city in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region, May 3, 2021.(Thomas Peter/Reuters) Why are Uyghurs trying to escape from China? Uyghur Muslims chafe under what they view as Chinese colonialism in their ancient homeland and resent curbs on their religion and culture under China’s drive to Sinicize ethnic minorities. While tensions have simmered for decades, a major turning point in the Uyghurs’ relations with the Communist government in Beijing was deadly unrest in July 2009 in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi. A Uyghur protest against racism and mistreatment spiraled into three days of communal violence between Uyghurs and Han Chinese that left at least 200 people dead and 1,700 injured. Beijing responded with severe and escalating repression, including mass surveillance, a “strike hard” crackdown since 2014 – the year the 40 deported Uyghurs were arrested in Thailand. The campaign featured arrests, separation of children from their parents, and destruction of mosques and other key elements of Uyghurs’ distinct cultural and religious identity. In 2017, Chinese authorities began detaining Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims en masse in what Beijing called “re-education” camps and prisons set up to eradicate religious extremism. Millions underwent political indoctrination and some were subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and the sterilization of women. Many Western nations condemned well-documented acts of repression under the crackdown as genocide or crimes against humanity. Some states imposed sanctions to block the import of products made in Xinjiang with forced labor. RELATED STORIES Thailand deports 40 Uyghurs to China despite fears of torture Visiting Xinjiang, Xi Jinping doubles down on hard-line policies against Uyghurs China pushes the ‘Sinicization of religion’ in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs What is the likely fate of the repatriated Uyghurs, based on past examples? The United States, United Nations and human rights group fear that the men will be tortured and subjected to forced labor as punishment for attempting to flee. Thailand said that it agreed to the deportation only after receiving assurances from Beijing that they would be unharmed. But what little is known about previous batches of Uyghurs forcibly repatriated to China appears to justify the fears expressed by critics of Thursday’s rendition. In December 2009, Cambodia deported 20 Uyghur asylum-seekers back to China. Last December, in the first word about them in 15 years, a relative of one of the detainees in Turkey revealed to Radio Free Asia the fate of some of the 20. Ayshemgul Omer, who had maintained contact with fellow relatives of the deported detainees, told RFA Uyghur they were sent to prison after a secret trial a year after their return. Four individuals were sentenced to life imprisonment, four others were given 20 years, and eight others received 16- or 17-year jail sentences, she said. Omer said her seriously ill relative serving a 20-year sentence still had to perform labor in prison, while one woman, who was later released, had a miscarriage in detention due to torture that included electric shocks and being left nearly naked in a cold jail cell. The main immigration detention center in Bangkok on Feb. 26, 2025.(Jerry Harmer/AP) What leverage does China hold over countries like Thailand to enforce its demands? Although Thailand is a long-standing treaty ally of the United States, like most Southeast Asian nations it has become increasingly reliant on Chinese trade and investment, and has close diplomatic and security ties with Beijing. The mostly authoritarian governments in the region share policy alignment and political preference with Beijing. Thailand, whose post-pandemic economic performance has lagged behind many of its ASEAN competitors, largely depends for growth on China. China is the largest source of tourists and has been a top foreign investor in Thailand, while Chinese are the largest foreign purchasers of Thai real estate. Neighbor states Cambodia and Laos have largely staked their economic and political futures on close official relations with China, receiving major infrastructure investment under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. Cambodia hosts a Chinese-funded naval base at Ream that the People’s Liberation Army Navy visits, and has blocked even ASEAN statements on the South China Sea at the behest of Beijing. Edited by Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Myanmar insurgents strike in junta-dominated central area: NUG
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Pro-democracy fighters and allied ethnic minority insurgents have captured a string of military positions in central Myanmar, the latest setbacks for the junta that has lost control of about half the country, a parallel government in exile said on Thursday. The allied insurgent forces captured seven military camps in the Bago region, on the old main road between the former capital, Yangon, and Myanmar’s second-biggest city, Mandalay, the National Unity Government, or NUG, said in a statement. The NUG, set up by supporters of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said eight junta soldiers were killed in the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday by fighters from a pro-democracy People’s Defence Force, or PDF, and ethnic Karen fighters. One PDF member was also killed, the NUG said and it warned civilians that more attacks were coming. “The People’s Defense Forces will be stepping up military operations, so the public is advised not to visit military council units or checkpoints,” it said. The loss of territory in such a central area will be a set-back for the military which is also under major pressure in Rakhine state, in the west where ethnic Rakhine insurgents are closing in on a major hub for Chinese port and energy investments on the coast. The military, which seized power in a 2021 coup, has been pushed back in most parts of the country since late 2023 and is struggling to recruit soldiers to fill the ranks of the army. The junta has not released any information on the fighting in Bago. RFA tried to telephone junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment but he did not answer. In the Sagaing region, to the north of Bago, pro-democracy fighters captured a broadcasting station for the military-owned MRTV on Wednesday, the NUG said, adding that 11 junta soldiers were killed in that attack. It did not release information on its casualties in that attack. The Ministry of Defense said it responded to the Sagaing attacks with airstrikes and artillery support. Political analyst Than Soe Naing said while the attacks in junta-dominated heartland areas this dry season were significant, it would take bigger battles and more time “to dismantle the junta.” Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff. . We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Myanmar military bombs insurgents attacking key Chinese investment area
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese Myanmar’s military bombed insurgents attacking the cornerstone of China’s investment in the country on Wednesday, killing some civilians, residents said, as the rebels pressed on with an offensive on the west coast township of Kyaukpyu. The Arakan Army, or AA, is one of Myanmar’s most powerful insurgent groups and has nearly achieved its objective of defeating the forces of the junta that seized power in 2021 across the whole of Rakhine state. “This morning, the Arakan Army launched heavy weapons at the Dhanyawadi navy base, and there was also shooting,” resident Nay Soe Khaing told Radio Free Asia, referring to the main navy base in Kyaukpyu. “The military returned fire with a fighter jet and there were civilians killed when the plane dropped a bomb,” he said. More than 1,000 civilians had fled the area, Nay Soe Khaing and other residents said, adding that civilian casualties were hard to pin down because communications were mostly severed. RFA tried to telephone the AA spokesperson, Khaing Thu Kha, and junta spokesperson Hla Thein for information on the situation but neither responded by the time of publication. The AA, which draws its support from the state’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority, has captured 14 of Rakhine state’s 17 townships, defeating the military in battle after battle since late 2023 in a stunning advance. Kyaukpyu, one of the insurgents’ last big targets in the state, is on a natural harbor in the northwestern corner of Ramree Island, about 250 miles northwest of the commercial capital Yangon. Besides its natural deep-sea harbor, the area has access to abundant oil, natural gas, and marine resources. China plans a deep-sea port in the Kyaukpyu special economic zone, or SEZ, as a hub for its Belt and Road development strategy. Oil and natural gas are already flowing from Kyaukpyu terminals to southern China’s Yunnan province, giving China an alternative route for its oil imports in case of conflict in the South China Sea. The AA launched their push on Kyaukpyu on Feb. 20 and the military has responded with attacks from the air and from naval vessels at sea. RELATED STORIES Arakan Army closing in on capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state Myanmar adopts law for foreign firms to provide armed security EXPLAINED: What is Myanmar’s Arakan Army? Heavy battles expected Another resident said major fighting was expected. “The Arakan Army is surrounding all the military camps,” said Tun Kyi. “After they surround them, we know the battles are going to really intensify. So we can say the battle to capture Kyaukpyu has started.” China has not commented on the latest fighting but it has tried to mediate in Myanmar’s conflict. On Friday, the junta and Chinese-owned CITIC Group discussed development in the Kyaukpyu economic zone and the company’s deep sea port, according to the Ministry of Information. But Kyaukpyu resident Htein Kyi, who closely monitors development plans, said it was unrealistic to even think about the various business contracts given the security situation. “With all the trouble and instability, it’s simply impossible to implement such large-scale projects,” he said. The AA already controls nine of the 11 Chinese development projects in Rakhine state, the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar said in a report in January. While Chinese projects have faced disruption and delays in various parts of Myanmar, anti-junta forces have generally not set out to destroy facilities. On the contrary, some groups have promised to protect Chinese investments and personnel. Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
UN abruptly cancels Uyghur scholar’s speech at Paris language forum
The United Nations on Monday abruptly cancelled a speech by a prominent exiled Uyghur scholar and linguist barely 24 hours before he was to address a Paris conference on language technologies, he told Radio Free Asia. In an email to Norway-based researcher Abduweli Ayup shown to RFA Uyghur, organizers provided no reason for rescinding the invitation to speak at the Language Technologies for All, or LT4ALL, conference, under the umbrella of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. But Ayup said the reason was likely because he questioned an earlier presenter about protections for the Uyghur language in China, where some 12 million Uyghurs live in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. He and other Uyghur activists say Beijing is trying to eradicate their mother tongue. They say it is but one aspect of Chinese efforts to “Sinicize” Uyghurs — a Turkic people who are distinct from Han Chinese — through a process of cultural assimilation. On Feb. 12, the LT4ALL organizing committee sent Ayup a letter inviting him to serve as a chair/rapporteur for an afternoon session scheduled for Feb. 25 entitled “Education, Inclusion, Innovation” at U.N. Headquarters in Paris, France. He accepted and was added to the program. But on Monday, Feb. 24, organizers sent him an email saying they had been “unable to secure approval” to include his presentation in the program, and that they were “informed at the last minute, and this decision is beyond our control.” “We had hoped to find a better solution, but unfortunately, we have no other option at this time,” the letter said. “As a result, we will not be able to include your presentation in the published file or program.” ‘Threatened and disgusted’ Afterwards, in posts to the social media platform X, Ayup called the decision “disgusting.” He suggested it was made in response to his questioning a day earlier of a presenter, who he described as “a Chinese language activist … [that] is a gov official [who] works for [state media outlet] Hunan TV.” RELATED STORIES Uyghur intellectual died while in custody of Chinese authorities Two Siblings of Norway-based Uyghur Activist Sentenced to Jail in China’s Xinjiang Rights Groups Blast Uyghur Activist’s Expulsion From UN Forum in New York Ayup said the presenter had discussed a language museum in China during his session, after which Ayup asked him whether it contained information about the Uyghur language and whether Uyghur language activists are safe in China. “After those two questions, I was questioned by the Chinese delegation,” he said. “I felt threatened, I felt disgusted and disappointed. I believe my presentation was cancelled because of the questions I had asked from the Chinese speaker.” Ayup did not provide evidence in support of his claims. But he noted that the panel he was listening to included a representative of iFLYTEK — a partially state-owned Chinese information technology company that the U.S. sanctioned in October 2019 for its alleged role in mass surveillance and human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Ayup elaborated further in a post to X, accusing UNESCO of having “welcomed the criminal [and] kicked human rights defenders out” of the conference. “iFLYTEK is the company [that] helped [the] Chinese regime to arrest over [1] million Uyghurs,” he wrote in the post. Family suffering Ayup is the founder of Uyghur Hjelp, a Norway-based Uyghur advocacy and aid organization which maintains a list of detained Uyghur intellectuals. In May 2021, RFA learned that Chinese authorities had sentenced Ayup’s brother and sister to several years in jail in Xinjiang, allegedly for failing to demonstrate loyalty to authorities as expected. Sources with knowledge of the situation, however, said that they were arrested because of his activities in exile. UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, Jan. 17, 2025.(Bertrand Guay/AFP) The confirmation of the sentence came on the heels of an RFA report confirming that Ayup’s niece, Mihray Erkin, had died at the Yanbulaq internment camp while being investigated by state security police in Kashgar prefecture. Ayup’s case is not the first time the U.N. has blocked a Uyghur activist from speaking at an event it organized. In April 2017, Dolkun Isa, a founder of the exile World Uyghur Congress and member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, was forced from a forum at U.N. premises in New York by security guards without explanation. Isa’s removal prompted a coalition of human rights groups and organizations representing minority peoples around the world to condemn the act, calling it an expression of “domination” by an unnamed U.N. member state — an apparent reference to China. Attempts by RFA to contact UNESCO for comment on its decision to rescind Ayup’s invitation to the LT4ALL conference went unanswered by the time of publication. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Taiwan detains China-linked cargo ship over severed undersea cable
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwan’s coastguard detained a cargo ship and its Chinese crew after an undersea cable in the Taiwan Strait was damaged on Tuesday, saying it cannot rule out the possibility it was a deliberate “gray zone” act. Gray zone activities are covert, ambiguous, and low-intensity tactics used to achieve strategic goals without provoking open warfare, something Taiwan has frequently said China was employing around the self-ruled island. Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration, or CGA, said that it received a report about the damaged cable from its telecommunication service on Tuesday morning and dispatched personnel to detain the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58, registered in Togo, which dropped anchor near the cable off the southwestern coast of Taiwan around the time it was disconnected. “The suspected Togo-flagged cargo ship, Hong Tai, was found to be a Chinese-invested convenience-flag vessel with all eight crew members being Chinese nationals,” said CGA. The Hong Tai remained stationary near the damaged Taiwan-Penghu No.3 submarine cable from Saturday to Tuesday, prompting Taiwan’s coast guard to monitor and attempt radio contact, which went unanswered, according to CGA. The vessel was later escorted to Anping Port, though initial boarding efforts failed due to rough seas, the coastguard said, adding that the case was being treated as a national security matter. “Authorities are not ruling out the possibility of a Chinese gray-zone operation,” the agency said. Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, told a briefing on Tuesday that he was not aware of the situation, though adding that it was not a “diplomatic issue.” He did not elaborate. Taiwan has reported five cases of sea cable malfunctions this year, compared with three each in 2024 and 2023. In 2023, for instance, two undersea cables connecting the Matsu islands were cut, disconnecting the internet. At that time, Taiwan authorities said that two Chinese vessels caused the disruption, but that there was no evidence Beijing deliberately tampered with the cables. RELATED STORIES Taiwan severs academic ties with Chinese universities, citing propaganda links China condemns US for tweak to Taiwan reference; Washington calls it ‘routine’ update Taiwanese army officer’s failed defection to China ends in 13-year sentence Taiwan has repeatedly accused China of employing gray zone tactics to destabilize the region without direct military conflict, citing Chinese military incursions, cyberattacks, economic coercion, election interference and undersea cable damage. Beijing regards Taiwan as its territory while the democratic island has been self-governing since it effectively separated from mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War. Taipei has condemned Beijing’s trade restrictions on the island’s exports and suspected disinformation campaigns ahead of elections, warning of growing threats to regional security. China, however, denies these accusations, asserting that its military activities are routine operations and that economic measures are based on regulatory concerns. Beijing insists Taiwan is a domestic issue and warns against foreign interference, maintaining that its actions are lawful and necessary to safeguard national sovereignty. Edited by Taejun Kang. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
