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Category: East Asia
Hong Kong police arrest four over ‘seditious’ Facebook page, radio hosts denounced
Hong Kong police arrested four people for “seditious” social media posts in connection with a Facebook page titled “Civil servant secrets,” after the page was denounced by a newspaper backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for “inciting civil servants” and “smearing government policies and operations.” Two were accused of being the administrators of the group, which stopped posting on the day of the arrests, but later started up at a different address calling itself “Civil servant secrets 2.0.” The last visible post on the original page showed a police officer leaving his firearm unattended as he took a nap on some chairs. Another two were members of the Fire Services Department, and were suspected of having posted to the group, the CCP-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper reported. All four were released on bail on Wednesday, the Hong Kong Free Press cited police as saying. Political denunciations in CCP-backed media are increasingly being used to target civil society groups, journalists and NGOs in Hong Kong. The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given organization has done something that could be in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020. The merged Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao website also denounced outspoken political commentator and talk-show host Poon Siu-to, political scientist Simon Shen, veteran journalist Chip Tsao and four colleagues at Commercial Radio for In an Aug. 8 report on a complaint lodged by a pro-CCP group with the city’s Communications Authority about Commercial Radio, the paper reported that the group had complained that the station is “spreading poison” and “betraying Hong Kong.” “Some show hosts have used the platform to publish anti-China speeches betraying Hong Kong and misleading its people,” the report cited the complaint as saying. “They include Poon Siu-to, Simon Shen, Chip Tsao, Jacky Fung, Jan Lamb, Michelle Lo, Ken Yuen and others from Commercial Radio,” the report said. “The group strongly urged the Communications Authority to strictly supervize the media and not allow the station to arbitrarily invite guests who spread anti-government messages and hate speech against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments,” it said. “These hosts have often made false remarks in the program, which they infiltrated with their extreme political stance and distorted values, turning it into a platform for their personal political propaganda … only making negative comments or overly politicized comments and distorted logic … when it comes to governance or China-related topics,” it quoted the complaint as saying. The group called on the authority to take action to silence their “hostile words and deeds,” and prevent them from using the station to spread “poison,” the report said. Tsang Chi-ho, who once hosted the banned satirical news show Headliner for government broadcaster RTHK, said the pro-Beijing press is now casting its net wider than ever. “This encompasses a very broad spectrum,” Tsang told RFA. “Leaving aside the political commentators, Poon Siu-to, Chip Tsao and others, they have even included Jan Lamb who is known as a comedian.” “Nobody thought they would be put in the same category, but now it seems they are,” he said. “It sends the message that anyone who talks about serious political issues will be targeted, even if you just make light-hearted, satirical comments,” Tsang said. Tsang, who was himself denounced many times by the pro-CCP media in Hong Kong before his show was shelved in 2020 for “insulting the police,” said political satire, once a ubiquitous part of Hong Kong’s media offering, appears now to be a thing of the past. He said anyone with a public platform is now vulnerable to similar denunciations, with scant support from a fast-disappearing civil society, an increasingly muzzled media, and a Legislative Council that has been purged of any political opposition. He said the denunciations appear timed to coincide with the forthcoming mid-term review of Commercial Radio’s broadcasting license. “They only approved the renewal of the license for 12 years … with a mid-term review in 2022, so perhaps they are … putting pressure on Commercial Radio to make adjustments to the style and attitude of their programming,” Tsang said. Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA) chairman Ronson Chan also expressed surprise at the list of names in the article. “If they’re even going to rectify Jacky Lam, then we have a huge problem,” Chan told RFA. “If Jacky Lam, an iconic personality on Commercial Radio, gets rectified, or silenced, or changes his approach in any way, this will naturally mean people lose confidence in the station.” He said people denounced by pro-CCP media are likely to face investigation by police under the national security law imposed on the city by Beijing from July 1, 2020. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
China fears losing international support for its claims on Taiwan: analysts
China increasingly fears losing international support for its claim that the democratic island of Taiwan and China are part of a “one China” that was split apart during the civil war and is awaiting “unification,” analysts told RFA. The Chinese government on Wednesday released a white paper on Taiwan, reiterating its stance and not withdrawing its ongoing military threat against the island, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China. When the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) regime of Chiang Kai-shek fled there after losing the civil war to Mao Zedong’s Soviet-backed communists, it took over what had been a dependency of Japan since 1895, when Taiwan’s inhabitants proclaimed a short-lived Republic of Formosa after being ceded to Japan by the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Nonetheless, Beijing forces countries to choose between diplomatic recognition of Beijing or Taipei, and has repeatedly threatened to annex the island, should it seek formal statehood as Taiwan. “The white paper … was … released amid the escalating cross-Straits tensions and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s military drills against Taiwan secessionists and foreign interference,” China’s nationalistic tabloid the Global Times reported. It said the white paper’s release is “a warning to Taiwan authorities as well as external forces,” citing “analysts.” “We are one China, and Taiwan is a part of China,” it quoted the white paper as saying. “Taiwan has never been a state; its status as a part of China is unalterable,” the paper said, adding that Beijing is “committed to the historic mission of … complete reunification.” The current Taiwan government still uses the name of the KMT’s 1911 Republic of China, and operates as a sovereign state despite a lack of international diplomatic recognition or participation in global bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO). The recent visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island on Aug. 2-3 was viewed by Beijing as a “serious provocation,” and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a series of military exercises that encroached into waters that were previously regarded as Taiwan’s. This week, Beijing reacted strongly to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, in which they appeared to qualify their support for the “one China” policy, which Beijing demands as a prerequisite for diplomatic ties. Children pose for photos at the 68-nautical-mile scenic spot, the closest point in mainland China to the island of Taiwan, in Pingtan in southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Aug. 5, 2022. Credit: AP No change in policy Blinken, Wong and Hayashi condemned China’s launch of ballistic missiles — five of which Japan has said landed in its waters — which they said had raised tensions and destabilized the region. In a joint statement, they called on China to cease its military exercises around Taiwan immediately. “There is no change in the respective one China policies, where applicable, and basic positions on Taiwan of Australia, Japan, or the United States,” the statement concluded. Asked to confirm whether the addition of the words “where applicable” was new for Washington, a State Department spokesperson on Tuesday replied: “I’d just refer you back to the statement.” President Joe Biden has previously said China is ‘flirting with danger’ with its ongoing threat to annex Taiwan, saying the U.S. is committed to defending the island in the event of a Chinese invasion, a statement U.S. officials later framed as an interpretation of the existing terms of the Taiwan Relations Act requiring Washington to ensure the island has the means to defend itself. Chinese foreign minister Wang Wenbin hit out at the joint statement from Washington, Canberra and Tokyo, saying countries shouldn’t add clauses that contextualize their support for the one China policy. “Certain countries have unilaterally added preconditions and provisos to the one-China policy in an attempt to distort, fudge and hollow out their one-China commitment,” Wang told journalists on Tuesday. “This is illegal, null and void … [and] also a challenge to the post-WWII world order.” “Attempts to challenge the one-China principle, international rule of law and the international order are bound to be rejected by the international community and get nowhere,” Wang said. Ding Shufan, an honorary professor at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said that, in fact, U.S. policy in Taiwan has always been conditional on the relatively peaceful status quo that has been seen since over recent decades. “It’s possible that [the three countries] were somewhat deliberate in adding this,” Ding said. “[It means] that if the situation in the Taiwan Strait gets out of control, [their support for] the one China policy could change.” Chung Chi-tung, an assistant researcher at the National Defense Security Research Institute, said the military exercises were a form of protest over the deterioration in the U.S.-China relationship begun under the Trump administration, which eventually removed a ban on high-ranking visits to Taiwan by U.S. officials that wasn’t reinstated under President Joe Biden. “Everyone has been looking at the military situation, but they have ignored the fact that the most important thing it shows about China is how worried it is by this setback in relations with the U.S., and by the internationalization of the Taiwan Strait issue,” Chung told RFA. Counterproductive stance He said Beijing has been explicit about this right from the start, mentioning the “hollowing out” of international support for the one China policy. “China wants to put a stop to the internationalization of the Taiwan Strait issue that was caused by Pelosi’s visit,” Chung said. “This is counterproductive, because the focus of global attention is the U.S.’ one China policy, which is in conflict with China’s [formulation of] the principle.” Chung said no other countries made any comment at all during the Taiwan Strait missile crisis of 1995 and 1996, but this time even Southeast Asian nations and members of ASEAN have criticized China’s actions and taken Washington’s side. Chang Meng-jen, convenor of the diplomacy and international…
Taiwan hits out at fake news about Chinese warship
One of the most widely used photos of the recent drills by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) around Taiwan turned out to be the latest “fake news” in China’s disinformation campaign against the democratic island, a Taiwanese fact-checking organization has claimed. The photo, distributed by Chinese state news agency Xinhua, depicts a PLA soldier observing military drills in the waters near Taiwan through a pair of binoculars. In the background, a Taiwanese warship without a hull number is clearly visible. Next to it is a chimney, later identified as the smokestack of the Ho Ping Power Plant in Hualien County on the east coast of Taiwan. The Xinhua photo shows many irregularities. CREDIT: Taiwan FactCheck Center The Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC), a Taipei-based independent organization, conducted a thorough examination of Xinhua’s photo and published the findings on its website on Tuesday. It said there are too many irregularities, calling the proportions of objects in the photo “unreasonable” and saying there were obvious signs of manipulation such as the lack of a hull number on the alleged Taiwanese warship and its outline, which TFC said was “too clean.” Another photo released by Xinhua in the same batch clearly shows hull number 935 of the Lan Yang, a Taiwanese Navy Chi Yang-class frigate. Experts and analysts consulted by TFC concluded that the photo is a composite of different images. Xinhua said the photo was taken on Aug. 5, 2022, the second day of the unprecedented four-day drills conducted by the PLA Eastern Theater Command. The photo led to widespread speculation on Chinese internet forums that a PLA Navy (PLAN) destroyer had come closer than 12 kilometers (6.5 nautical miles) from the coast of Hualien, well within Taiwan’s territorial waters. A state’s territorial waters are defined by maritime boundaries 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) from its coast. Several Chinese and Taiwanese media outlets reported that PLAN destroyer Nanjing, where the soldier’s photo was taken, was only 11.78 kilometers from the coast of Hualien and the Ho Ping Power Station on Friday morning. The hull number of Taiwanese warship visible on the right, is not present in the image on the left. CREDIT: Taiwan FactCheck Center ‘Hybrid warfare’ The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense dismissed the news, describing it as “disinformation.” “No PLAN vessel has entered our territorial waters since August 4 when the PLA drill started,” the Ministry said on Twitter. China has stepped up its disinformation campaign and cyberattacks as part of “hybrid warfare” against Taiwan. Hybrid warfare is a combination of conventional military actions on the ground and hacks, or disinformation campaigns, designed to attack public morale and sow confusion. Maj. Gen. Chen Yu-lin, deputy director of the Political and War Bureau of Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said earlier this week that the current wave of “cognitive operations” started even before the military drills were announced as a response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit. Pelosi is the most senior U.S. official to visit the island in 25 years. Her visit was condemned by Beijing as a “serious violation of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Chen Hui-min, TFC’s editor-in-chief, told RFA his organization had detected a 30-40% increase in fake reports online since Pelosi’s visit. “The biggest difference [from the past] is that it seems to be spreading from English-language Twitter,” Chen said. The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it had been hit by 170 million cyber attacks per minute during the height of the tension last week. China considers Taiwan a Chinese province that must be reunified with the mainland at all costs. Meanwhile only two percent of 23.5 million Taiwanese people identified themselves as Chinese, down from 25 percent three decades ago, according to a new study by Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.
North Korea launches drive to shame children who neglect war veteran parents
Authorities in North Korea are working to identify citizens who neglect their Korean War veteran parents, sometimes stripping those who aren’t living up to their familial obligations of their posts within the ruling party, sources inside the country said. As of the beginning of August, authorities began a project to determine where the children of the 1950-53 Korean War veterans live, a resident of South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA on Sunday. RFA reported in July that a number of elderly veterans had been found to be malnourished and suffering COVID-19 symptoms such as high fevers and coughing. Party officials who neglect their war veteran parents are being accused of filial impiety and removed from their positions, the woman said. But some North Koreans say the government’s campaign is an exercise in blame shifting, accusing the war veterans’ children of providing insufficient support when the government itself should be doing more. The project came about after the 8th National Conference of War Veterans in Pyongyang on July 27, which commemorated the armistice that ended the fighting. The Workers’ Party of North Korea issued a directive to take care of war veterans and to treat them well in society. During their investigation, authorities found a few county residents failing to carry out their obligations by living apart from their parents who are elderly war veterans, the woman said. They lost their jobs as a result. “Four people were caught, including one [party] secretary in the lathe work department at the Chuncheon River Machinery Factory and three cell secretaries in the textile factory,” the source said. “Their positions were taken away the next day.” Cell secretaries are among North Korea’s elite society, typically overseeing five to 30 party members in their cell, the main unit that links the party to the masses, according to a 2021 report by NK News. The four workers have been given a second chance to fulfill their family duties, however. “Six months of revolutionary measures were given,” said the source, referring to a punishment by authorities to make offenders learn the revolutionary ideology propagated by North Korea’s regime. After a stint working as laborers — considered a disgrace in North Korea — and after they move their veteran parents into their homes, the shamed North Koreans will be allowed to resume their previous positions, the woman said. North Korean authorities decided not to dismiss them from their positions because their veteran parents might complain that such a punishment would be too harsh, the woman said. People of national merit Though North Korean veterans are classified as people of national merit and are eligible for government provisions for food and living expenses, they still suffer from a lack of societal support, said a resident of North Pyongan province. The party committee in Chongju, one of the province’s main cities, also began a similar investigation at the beginning of August through the heads of neighborhood-watch units to determine whether there are adult children not serving or caring for their war veteran parents, he told RFA on Sunday. Five farmers who live with their elderly veteran parents at the Osong village cooperative farm were found to be “examples of poor filial piety” because they could not provide them with three meals each day due to financial hardship, said the source, who also declined to be named so as to speak freely. The farmers also locked in their elderly veteran parents who were suffering from dementia, so they could do their work, he said. “The farmers were called to the county party base and wrote self-critical confessions that they were undutiful to their veteran parents,” the source said. “They were released after receiving ideological education that they should serve their veteran parents whom the party cherishes.” But other residents aware of the situation have asked, “Who doesn’t want to serve a warm meal to their parents?” said the man. They then criticized the authorities for not taking responsibility for the lives of veterans and providing for them, instead placing the full burden on their children who have their own problems making ends meet. “They complain that they are making the poor and elderly war veterans the burdens of their children rather than of the state,” he said. Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee for RFA Korean. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
China-led rare earth mining in Myanmar fuels rights abuses, pollution: report
China’s outsourcing of rare earth mining to Myanmar has prompted a rapid expansion of the industry there, fuelling human rights abuses, damaging the environment and propping up pro-juna militias, according to a new report published Tuesday by rights group Global Witness. The report, entitled “Myanmar’s Poisoned Mountains,” used satellite imagery to determine that what amounted to a “handful” of rare earth mines in Myanmar’s Kachin state in 2016 had ballooned to more than 2,700 mining collection pools at almost 300 separate locations, covering an area the size of Singapore, by March 2022 — slightly more than a year after the military seized power in a coup. Global Witness found that China had outsourced much of its industry across the border to a remote corner of Kachin state, which it said is now the world’s largest source of the minerals used in green energy technologies, smartphones and home electronics. “Our investigation reveals that China has effectively offshored this toxic industry to Myanmar over the past few years, with terrible consequences for local communities and the environment,” Global Witness CEO Mike Davis said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. The local warlord in charge of the mining territory, Zakhung Ting Ying, has become the “central broker” of Myanmar’s rare earth industry, the report said, along with other leaders of militias loyal to the military regime, making backroom deals with Chinese companies that are illegal under the country’s laws. It said that his militia’s links to the junta mean “there is a high risk” that revenues from rare earth mining are being used to fund the military’s human rights abuses and crushing of dissent. Rights groups say security forces have killed at least 2,167 civilians and arrested more than 15,000 others since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. “Rare earth mining is the latest natural resource heist by Myanmar’s military, which has funded itself for decades by looting the country’s rich natural resources, including the multi-billion-dollar jade, gemstone and timber industries,” Davis said. “Since the 2021 coup, the regime has relied on natural resources to sustain its illegal power grab and with demand for rare earths booming, the military will no doubt be spotting an opportunity to fill its coffers and fund its abuses,” he added. A rare earth mining operation in Kachin state, Myanmar, March 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Global Witness noted that the processes used to extract heavy rare earth minerals have polluted local ecosystems, destroyed livelihoods and poisoned drinking water. It said multiple health issues reported near the rare earth mines in China have also been reported by residents living close to the mines in Myanmar. Meanwhile, civil society groups and community members — including indigenous people — who speak out against the illegal industry or refuse to give up their land to make way for new mines face threats from the militias who run the area, the report said. Supply chain at risk Global Witness said that its findings come amid a huge increase in demand for the minerals as production of green energy technologies ramps up. Sales of processed rare earth minerals for magnet productions are expected to triple by 2035. The group warned of a high risk that the minerals are finding their way into the supply chains of major household name companies that use heavy rare earths in their products including Tesla, Volkswagen, General Motors, Siemens and Mitsubishi Electric. Davis said the report’s findings demonstrate the need for the international community to broaden sanctions against the junta to include rare earth minerals. “The disturbing reality is that the cash that is fuelling the environmental and human rights abuses caused by Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry ultimately stems from the global push to scale up renewables,” he said. “As the climate crisis accelerates and demand for these low-carbon technologies skyrocket, today’s findings must be a wake-up call that the green energy transition cannot come at the cost of communities in resource-rich countries, and must instead be equitable and sustainable, prioritizing the rights of those who are most impacted.” Rare earth ores [left] are burned down before being transported from Kachin state to China. At right, sacks of rare earth ores await transport to China. Credit: Global Witness via AP Global Witness called on companies to stop mining heavy rare earths in Myanmar and ensure that minerals from the country do not enter the global supply chain. It also urged governments to impose import restrictions for rare earths produced in Myanmar, impose sanctions on armed actors illegally profiting from the industry, and introduce stronger policies to reduce the harms associated with extracting the minerals. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that about 240,000 tons of rare earth minerals were mined globally in 2020, with China accounting for 140,000 tons, followed by the United States with 38,000 tons and Myanmar with 30,000 tons. Though China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth minerals, it buys the ore from neighboring Myanmar, exploiting its cheaper labor. Myanmar exported more than 140,000 tons of rare earth deposits to China, worth more than U.S. $1 billion between May 2017 and October 2021, according to China’s State Taxation Administration. In this early 2022 image from video, a creek in Myanmar’s Kachin state is lined with trash, pipes and other construction materials from a former rare earth mining site. Local villagers have said water from the creek is no longer usable for drinking or growing crops and that their skin itches after being exposed to water near rare earth mining sites. Credit: Global Witness via AP
COVID-19 infections rise in Xinjiang, said to be spread by Chinese tourists
Authorities in Xinjiang are implementing new lockdowns in response to a coronavirus outbreak thought to have originated with Chinese tourists who visited the western region’s Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, local officials said. After Chinese media reported that the number of COVID-19 infections in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region had begun to rise, authorities in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) and other urban areas ordered residents to quarantine, the sources said. The number of infected people in Xinjiang rose to 274 from July 31 to the end of the first week of August, according to an Aug. 7 report on Tengritagh (Tianshan), the official website of the Xinjiang government. The new variant of the virus was first detected in the Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture, where Ghulja is located, and spread widely from there. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, authorities have divided Xinjiang into 45 high-risk areas, 34 medium-risk areas and nine low-risk areas, and implemented quarantine measures at different levels, the report said. Those areas include the cities of Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi), Ghulja (Yining), Aksu (Akesu), Kumul (Hami), Chochek (Tacheng), Bortala (Bole), and Kashgar (Kashi). Chinese government officials told reporters at a press conference in Urumqi on Aug. 8 that there were 34 infected people in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, which is in the northern part of Xinjiang, but they did not say how and where they caught the highly contagious respiratory virus. A community official said that the new infections were thought to have been brought by Chinese tourists from Gansu province, and the first viral outbreak in Ghulja was found in Uchon Dungan village. A Chinese government official in Samyuzi village told RFA that quarantine measures have been implemented in his village, and that residents are prohibited from going outside. A security official in Ghulja’s Mazar village said the epidemic in Ghulja was first detected in Mai village, also known as the Uchon Dungan village, and that the virus was spread by Chinese tourists from Gansu province. The official, who declined to give his name for safety reasons, also said that he and others now were busy with quarantine-related work and that there were five infected residents in the village, who ate in one of the same restaurants where the Chinese tourists ate. “They are being treated now,” he said. “They got infected while they were eating with some Chinese tourists from China proper. They got the virus from those tourists. The ones who got infected were [ethnic] Hui and Dungan [Chinese Muslims].” “The government checked all the people who went to eat in that restaurant and also where those Chinese tourists went while they were traveling here,” he said. “We heard that the Chinese tourists came from Gansu province.” The village security officer also said there were two infected people in Borichi hamlet of Yengitam village, who ate in the same restaurant where the Chinese tourists dined. He told RFA that he learned about the local COVID-19 infections from other community officials on the Chinese instant-messaging platform WeChat, but that he did not know where or how the infected people were being handled because information was not passed on to lower-level officials like him. “They also went to the same restaurant with those Chinese tourists,” he said. Two of the infected residents of Uchon Dungan village had been renovating their houses and bought some construction materials in Chinese provinces, he added. Uchon Dungan village residents have not been allowed outside for several days and are performing COVID-19 tests at home, the village security official said. When COVID-19 first sprang up in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, Uyghur and Kazakh residents in Xinjiang were increasingly being confined to “re-education” camps. They have since been subjected to lockdowns during local coronavirus outbreaks. At that time, residents said that authorities were testing unknown drugs on them, according to an earlier RFA report. Ghulja city was also locked down due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases in late 2021. Desperate residents short of food were forced to complain to authorities despite official warnings to keep quiet, sources told RFA at the time. In late January, Chinese government health officials issued a statement about new COVID-19 infections in Qorghas (Huocheng) county, located between Ghulja and the border to Kazakhstan, in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, and said a lockdown had been implemented as a measure to curb the spread of virus. Officials wearing protective face masks stand on a street during the coronavirus pandemic in Lhasa, capital of western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, 2020. Credit: RFA COVID cases in Tibet Meanwhile, neighboring Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) reported four COVID-19 infections on Aug. 7, the first sign of the virus in the region since a single case was found at the start of the pandemic in January 2020. Asymptomatic infections were detected in four travelers between the ages of 47 and 61 from Ngari prefecture, according to local Chinese health authorities. Also on Aug. 7, 18 people tested positive for the coronavirus in Tibet’s capital Lhasa — the youngest being 3 years old and the oldest 76 — though only two people in the group were symptomatic, the TAR government’s report said. They all had traveled from Shigatse to Lhasa by train earlier this month. The members of the group and people who had contact with them are in quarantine for observation. “COVID has spread to Lhasa now, and there are 18 [people] who have tested positive for it,” said a Tibetan source who declined to be identified. “There has been a lot of commotion in the city since yesterday as the number of COVID cases rises. Stores are crowded with panicked shoppers trying to buy essential goods and facemasks.” The source said he believed the actual number of infections in the area to be higher than what Chinese health officials reported. “[T]he number is likely to rise in the coming days,” he said. After the cases emerged, officials in Shigatse, Tibet’s second-largest city with a population of about 800,000 people,…
Taiwan grapples with the potential impact of ‘normalized’ war-games on its doorstep
Prolonged military exercises around the democratic island of Taiwan by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could mean a longer-term impact on the island’s trade and economic development, especially if Beijing decides to normalize blockading the island, analysts told RFA. Some cited recent activity as suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is shifting from a policy of seeking peaceful “unification” to an emphasis on military force to put pressure on the island, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China. They said there are growing concerns that China will normalize military exercises, ignore the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and use ongoing military exercises to blockade the island and prepare the PLA for invasion. Tso Chen-Dong, political science professor at National Taiwan University, said military action was unlikely to occur immediately, however. “They need to take into account how they would actually do this, and they will only get behind the idea if it’s doable,” Tso told RFA. “Otherwise, it’s not very useful just to look at the numbers of troops on paper.” “The main thing is that they want to use this opportunity to put further pressure on the relationship with Taiwan,” he said. According to Wang Chi-sheng of Taiwan-based think tank the Association of Chinese Elite Leadership, China’s People’s Liberation Army has already been doing this by repeated incursions over the median line and into Taiwan’s territorial waters near the islands of Kinmen and Matsu, which are visible from China’s southeastern province of Fujian. “Flying over the median line of the Taiwan Strait is an attempt to erase that line by means of a fait accompli,” Wang told RFA. “Chinese ships have also started moving into [Taiwan’s] restricted waters around Kinmen and Matsu, which they haven’t done up until now.” “The focus is on normalization,” he said, adding that Beijing’s future intentions will only likely become clear after the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year. He said Beijing will likely continue to insist on “unification” with Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China, under the same system it currently applies to Hong Kong, where a citywide crackdown on dissent is under way. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi gestures next to Legislative Yuan Vice President Tsai Chi-chang as she leaves the parliament in Taipei, Taiwan August 3, 2022. Credit: Reuters Repeated incursions Taiwan government legal expert Shen Shih-wei agreed, saying that the positioning of the military exercises following Pelosi’s visit made repeated incursions across the median line. “This has a very significant impact on the compression of our airspace for training purposes, and on international flight routes,” Shen told reporters. “This kind of targeted deterrence [contravenes a United Nations charter], which stipulates that no country should use force to threaten the territorial integrity or political independence of another country,” he said. “We believe that the CCP is very clear about these norms, and we hope that it will abide by them.” Vincent Wang, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Adelphi University, said Taiwan’s democratic way of life is walking a tightrope, as far as the CCP is concerned. “This is why China had such a big reaction to Pelosi’s visit,” he said. “China doesn’t want the world to see a high-ranking U.S. politician visiting a democratic society [run by people it considers Chinese] yet is independent of China,” Wang said. “The visit was a public show of support for Chinese democracy [as China sees it],” he said. The visit doesn’t appear to have deterred other foreign politicians from visiting Taiwan. Britain’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee said it will send a delegation to the island by the end of the year. “If American dignitaries can visit Taiwan one after the other, this will provide moral support for people from other democratic countries who want to make similar visits,” Wang said. He said recent economic sanctions imposed on more than 100 Taiwanese food companies would have a short-term impact on trade with China, which accounts for 30 percent of exports in that sector, but later recover. A Navy Force helicopter under the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) takes part in military exercises in the waters around Taiwan, at an undisclosed location August 8, 2022 in this handout picture released on August 9, 2022. Credit: Eastern Theater Command/Handout via Reuters Blockade concerns Meanwhile, Frank Xie of the Aiken School of Business at the university of South Carolina, said the CCP’s lifting of a fishing moratorium in the area could mean it starts blockading the island. “Such a blockade would have a huge impact on international shipping and air traffic, further amplifying the global supply chain crisis,” Xie said. “Taiwan, including its chip industry, would bear the brunt of the impact.” Xie said the military exercises have had a small impact on international trade, mainly in the field of transportation, including flight delays and cargo ship detours to avoid military exercise areas. But a longer-running blockade would be hugely damaging to Taiwan, both because of the increased risk of miscalculations, and the economic impact from increased transportation costs, Xie said. A Taiwanese businesswoman surnamed Lee who has run a plastics business in mainland China for many years, says many Taiwanese businesses in mainland China are currently thinking about relocating. “Of course they’re nervous, because most of the Taiwanese businesses are in coastal areas, which is where the military exercises are,” Lee said. “But there’s very little they can do.” “If they were to relocate to Taiwan, that would be easier said than done … because it’s hard to find cheap labor,” she said. “But many countries in Southeast Asia aren’t very stable.” William Yu, an economist at UCLA Anderson Forecast, said Taiwan’s economy is still in a robust state despite the rising tensions with China, however. “There will be no impact on Taiwan’s economy in the short term,” Yu…
Hong Kong to roll out Chinese-style COVID-19 traffic light system for new arrivals
Authorities in Hong Kong are rolling out a “traffic-lights” COVID-19 system already in use in mainland China this week, sparking concerns that the system could be used to target critics of the government. From Friday, anyone arriving in the city will be required to stay in a designated quarantine hotel for three days, before being allowed to leave with an amber code for a further four days while taking “multiple” COVID-19 tests, the government announced on Aug. 8. A red code will be applied to any confirmed cases in Hong Kong. People given an amber code will be required to stay away from restaurants, bars, pubs, game centers, bathrooms, fitness rooms, beauty salons and karaoke parlors, but will be allowed to take transport, go to work, and shop for groceries. “We need to balance between people’s livelihood and the competitiveness of Hong Kong to give the community maximum momentum and economic vitality,” chief executive John Lee told journalists. The move will end an onerous three-week quarantine requirement in designated hotels that needed to be booked months in advance. A rule banning flights if they brought in passengers infected with COVID-19 was scrapped last month. Lee said the measures only apply to people arriving in Hong Kong from Taiwan and the rest of the world. “At this stage, there is no plan to extend the amber code to local close contacts in Hong Kong, because … PCR tests are able to accurately identify those risks,” he said. Tourists go through pre-departure procedures at the Sanya Phoenix airport as stranded holidaymakers prepare to leave the COVID-hit resort city of Sanya on Hainan Island, China, on August 9, 2022. Credit: AFP Political tool Lee said the Hong Kong authorities are currently in discussions with mainland Chinese officials over opening the border with the rest of China. “The government will not let its guard down in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic,” a spokesman said. “We will continue to adjust anti-epidemic measures … to safeguard the wellbeing of citizens while reducing the disruption to normal social activities, with a view to achieving the greatest effect with the lowest cost.” Chinese current affairs commentator Si Ling said the Health Code traffic lights have already been deployed by authorities in mainland China to control the movements of protesters and critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “Actually, the Chinese government can discriminate against political dissidents or people the government doesn’t like with amber codes, especially in the run-up to the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year,” Si told RFA. “Red codes can be used to put people under strict surveillance.” “The health codes have become a political tool that is deployed by the government to conduct mass surveillance, and to greatly limit their freedom of speech and political participation,” he said. Si said he wouldn’t be surprised to see it used similarly in Hong Kong. “China doesn’t want Hong Kong to become a base for making various kinds of noise, including contentious voices from overseas, ahead of the 20th National Congress,” he said. “But it needs to use public health as an excuse … to clamp down politically and monitor people’s actions.” The U.S. State Department recently updated its travel advice for mainland China and Hong Kong to warn people to “reconsider travel.” “The zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 by [Chinese] and Hong Kong … governments severely impacts travel and access to public services,” the advisory read at 1100 GMT on Tuesday. “Even after completing quarantine on-arrival, travelers … may face additional quarantines and mandatory testing as well as movement and access restrictions, including access to medical services and public transportation,” it said. A delivery courier places food near a barricade at an entrance to a residential compound, amid lockdown measures to curb theCOVID-19 outbreak in Sanya, Hainan province, China August 8, 2022. Credit: China Daily via Reuters Hainan outbreak It warned that children who test positive in Hong Kong or mainland China could be separated from their parents and kept in isolation until they meet local hospital discharge requirements. Hong Kong’s new rules were announced as tens of thousands of tourists were left stranded in the island province of Hainan — a popular beach holiday destination — after local authorities ordered a local lockdown following a spike in COVID-19 cases. Hainan has reported more than 1,800 domestically transmitted infections already in August, locking down millions of residents in a bid to contain the outbreak, Reuters reported. About 178,000 tourists were stranded in Hainan, including around 57,000 in Sanya, it cited state media as saying. An online video clip from the resort city of Sanya showed hundreds of people chanting “We want to go home! We want to go home!” despite promises that special lodging and transportation would be provided during the lockdown. “Nobody here has tested positive!” they shouted. Tourists are already required to complete five PCR tests across seven days, so would only have been allowed into the airport for departure if all of them came out negative. State broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that all departing flights have been grounded in Sanya, while train ticket sales have also been suspended for services leaving the city, although inbound trains are still arriving. The Global Times said the moves came amid “a sudden outbreak” of the BA5 omicron variant of COVID-19, which is believed to have been triggered by contact with overseas fishermen. “The current epidemiological investigation shows that most of the infections are related to fishing ports, fishing boats, fishermen and fishing markets … with the number of infections … on a rapid rise due to the variant’s hidden and strong transmission characteristics,” the paper said. Sanya had reported 23 confirmed cases and 11 asymptomatic cases by noon on Aug. 8. The paper said outbreaks had also been reported in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where a spike in cases had spilled over into neighboring cities from Yiwu, home to a major small commodity market. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
U.S. and Taiwan say China is planning invasion, not holding military drills
U.S. defense policy makers do not think China could take over Taiwan militarily in the next two years but Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said China is trying to “salami slice their way into a new status quo” in the region instead. China is continuing its military pressure on Taiwan with more air and naval drills off the back of the major four-day exercise conducted in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island. On Tuesday, the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “continued to organize practical joint exercises in the sea and airspace around Taiwan Island, focusing on joint blockades and joint resupply logistics,” the Ministry of Defense in Beijing said in a statement. The PLA carried out anti-submarine and sea assault drills in waters around Taiwan on Monday, sending 13 warships, and 39 aircraft, around half of which crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Beijing also announced a new series of military drills in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea that will continue until next month. “Clearly the PRC is trying to coerce Taiwan, clearly they’re trying to coerce the international community, and all I’ll say is we’re not going to take the bait and it’s not going to work,” Kahl told a press conference at the Pentagon on Monday, referring to China by its official name the People’s Republic of China. “What we’ll do instead is to continue to fly, to sail and to operate wherever international law allows us to do so, and that includes in the Taiwan Strait,” the undersecretary said, adding that he thinks “there’s a lot of confidence in that U.S. commitment.” That means the U.S. military is set to continue transiting the Taiwan Strait, which it considers international waters, as well as conducting freedom of navigation operations in the South China and East China Seas. President Joe Biden on Monday said he was “not worried” about China’s military exercises around Taiwan but was “concerned that they’re moving as much as they are.” “But I don’t think they’re going to do anything more [than] they are,” he told reporters at the Delaware Air National Guard Base The Eastern Theater Command of China’s PLA conducts a long-range live-fire drill into the Taiwan Strait, from an undisclosed location, Aug. 4, 2022. CREDIT: PLA Eastern Theater Command Handout via REUTERS U.S. keeping watch Kahl also explained the reason behind the Pentagon’s initial hesitance about Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week. President Biden told reporters ten days before the trip that U.S. military officials believed “it’s not a good idea, for now.” “We’re at a moment of profound international tension… I think there was a sense that… the world didn’t require another instance of rising tensions but it is what it is and the speaker had every right to go and when she made the final decision we were fully supportive,” he said. Beijing reacted angrily to the visit, threatening the “strongest countermeasures” and announcing unprecedented military drills around Taiwan. For the first time, the PLA reportedly fired missiles over Taiwan’s main island, some of which landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from its shores. The U.S. military responded by deploying warships and aircraft in the area. U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and its strike group has been in northern Philippine Sea after being ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “remain on station in the general area to monitor the situation.” A big deck amphibious assault ship, the USS Tripoli, is also currently in the Philippine Sea, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. Maps showing the USS Howard O. Lorenzen’s position and path. CREDIT: Marine Traffic Data provided by the ship tracking website Marine Traffic show that the missile-tracking vessel USNS Howard O. Lorenzen has been operating in the waters east of Taiwan for several days. Equipped with a sophisticated radar system, “its purpose is to track airborne missiles,” said Gordon Arthur, a military analyst and Asia-Pacific editor of Shephard Media, a defense news portal. “Given its proximity to Taiwan, I’d say that’s exactly what it’s been doing,” Arthur told RFA. Visiting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi waves to journalists during her arrival at the Parliament in Taipei on August 3, 2022. CREDIT: AFP ‘Prepare for invasion’ “China’s reaction was completely unnecessary,” said U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl, blaming Beijing for “manufacturing” the current crisis across the Taiwan Strait. “We continue to have a One China policy and we continue to object to any unilateral change in the status quo, whether that be from the PRC or from Taiwan,” he emphasized. Taipei said China used Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a pretext for pursuing bigger ambitions. Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu called a press briefing on Tuesday morning to lay out his government’s position on China’s latest military exercises. “China has used the drills in its military play-book to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Wu said. “China’s real intention behind these military exercises is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the entire region,” the minister said, warning that Beijing’s behavior towards Taiwan is “merely a pretext” and “its ambitions and impact is extending far beyond Taiwan.”
North Korean soldiers sent to collective farms to relieve manpower crunch
North Korean authorities are dispatching veterans and soldiers about to demobilize to collective farms to make up for labor shortages, raising fears among the military ranks that they will be stuck doing hard jobs in rural areas for the rest of their lives, sources inside the country said. The Ministry of Defense, formerly known as the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, has organized a command group to dispatch veterans and select soldiers scheduled to be discharged this year and in 2023, a military-related source in North Pyongan province told RFA. The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea issued a directive for the project to send veterans to collective farms in rural areas throughout the country, he said. “The intensive deployment of veterans to collective farms is occurring because the aging rural workforce is getting older, and young people are leaving the countryside to engage in other livelihoods,” he said. “This is causing setbacks in farming.” The General Political Bureau instructed the veterans to be sent to the farming collectives this year to join the Korean Workers’ Party, the country’s sole ruling party, by mid-November, said the source who declined to be named so as to speak freely. The soldiers about to be discharged hope they won’t be included on the deployment list, fearing that if they are sent to rural areas, they will have to farm for the rest of their lives, he said. “The soldiers who are about to be discharged this year can’t sleep at night because of their anxiety that they might be included on the list for this year’s group mobilization into the countryside,” he said. North Korean authorities also have extended the directive to other groups. The children of parents who work in city factories and in business enterprises are also being selected to supplement the planned rural manpower, the source said. North Korea has approximately 1.14 million active troops, including 950,000 in the army, 120,000 in the air force, 60,000 in the navy, 10,000 soldiers in strategic missile forces, and an estimated 200,000 internal security forces as of 2021, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. Military service is mandatory for North Koreans, with seven to eight years for men, and five years for women, according to the Korean National Intelligence Service in 2021. Morale is low The General Political Bureau held a meeting for each military unit and instructed the soldiers that they should recommend colleagues leaving the service for collective farm work, said a military-related source in North Hamgyong province. “The soldiers sent to the countryside were told to be ideologically well equipped so that they could play a key role in strengthening rural farming,” he said. “However, the morale of the veterans who are caught in the deployment list has fallen so badly, so what is the use of ideological selection?” Soldiers scheduled for discharge in 2023 have no way of avoiding deployment to the countryside, he said. “Of course, the morale of the units is low, and the atmosphere is chaotic,” the source, who declined to be named so as to speak freely, told RFA. “Some soldiers are blatantly negligent in their duties, saying that if they are discharged from the military in the future, they will be forced to advance into rural groups anyway,” he added. “Then they will join the Korean Workers’ Party regardless of how much effort is put into their military service time.” North Korea grants party membership as a carrot to discharged soldiers who are going to be assigned to undesirable rural areas. The soon-to-be-discharged soldiers are fearful of being sent to the countryside to work in hard jobs at farms, coal mines and construction sites, the source said. Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
