
Category: East Asia

Chinese rights lawyer Chang Weiping tried in secret as family members held by police
Detained rights lawyer Chang Weiping — whose lawyers say he has suffered torture in incommunicado detention — stood trial for subversion on Tuesday behind closed doors, as his wife was prevented from traveling to the court in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi. Chang’s trial on charges of “subversion of state power” began at 9.00 a.m. local time at the Feng County People’s Court, as his wife Chen Zijuan tweeted that she had been pulled over at a highway exit and prevented from taking the exit for the court. The sentence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a minimum jail term of 10 years. The trial lasted around 90 minutes, with sentencing to be announced at a later date, Chen said via her Twitter account. “Chang Weiping, I stand here today at the highway exit for Feng county,” Chen, clad in a green suit and holding a large bouquet of flowers, says in a short video recorded as police and COVID-19 enforcement officials mill around her. “I want to present these flowers to you. Today is your Good Friday; but also I think your day of glory,” she said. “I’m so sorry that I was unable to be there for you in person despite traveling more than 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) in the hope of seeing you with my own eyes.” “But they have been holding me here on this highway for more than 10 hours now,” Chen says. “I just heard from the lawyer that the trial is over already.” “But whatever the outcome, this has not been a fair trial. This trial wasn’t yours; instead it was the scene of their crime.” Chang Weiping in an undated photo. Credit: China Human Rights Lawyers Global response German ambassador to China Patricia Flor hit out at the treatment of Chen. “#ChangWeiping’s wife @zijuan_chen was held up at a roadblock when trying to enter Feng [county], where she wanted to attend the trial,” Flor said via her official Twitter account. “It is unacceptable that relatives are obstructed from supporting a defendant. #Justice needs #transparency.” The French embassy in Beijing also tweeted on Tuesday: “The French Embassy in Beijing stands with human rights lawyer CHANG Weiping and his family ahead of his closed trial on 26 July … and reiterates its support for human rights lawyers working for the rule of law in China.” The British government account @UKinChina called for the release of Chang and all prisoners of conscience in China. “#ChangWeiping, arrested in 2020 after raising issues of torture and #humanrights in China (including his own mistreatment) is today scheduled for trial behind closed doors,” the account tweeted. “The UK calls for the release of all those currently detained for promoting fundamental rights and freedoms.” Chen said she had been told she couldn’t visit Feng county because she had traveled from Dongguan in the southern province of Guangdong, which the authorities said contained medium- and high-risk areas for COVID-19. “After that, an ambulance came to take me away to an isolation facility,” she told RFA. “They are going too far,” she added. “I had no problem getting out of Xianyang Airport, and had called to inquire about the COVID-19 policy for [the area] but then they pulled me over in Feng county.” “They used COVID-19 policy as an excuse.” Chen, who was traveling with an older relative and an eight-year-old child, called a lawyer to get some food delivered to the car, but was prevented from receiving it by police at the scene. Two friends of Chang’s, Tian Qiuli and Long Kehai, were also prevented from traveling to the court buildings, and ordered to return to nearby Baoji city by local police. Tian’s hair was pulled by a police officer during an altercation, and they were later detained, Chen said. Luo Shengchun, the wife of fellow detained rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, slammed the authorities’ treatment of Chang’s family. “It’s been really heard on [Chen] Zijuan, her mother and child, who have to stay overnight,” Luo told RFA. “I don’t know if they even have food to eat.” Attendees targeted Chang’s detention came after he attended a dinner with prominent activists in Xiamen, including the founder of the New Citizens’ Movement, Xu Zhiyong, in early December 2019. He and several others who had attended that dinner were arrested in a nationwide operation. The rights group Safeguard Defenders said in an October 2021 report on “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL) that the authorities have detained more than 57,000 people under the system since its inception in 2013, detailing a system of grueling interrogations and torture used to elicit “confessions” from detainees, who can be held for up to six months without access to a lawyer. The report said Chang was tortured during six months of RSDL between October 2020 and April 2021. Chang, who was only allowed to meet with a lawyer after nearly a year in detention, was strapped immobile into a “tiger chair” torture device for six days straight, and deprived of food and sleep, his lawyer said in September. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Chinese strike drone flies near Taiwan as island stages military drills
The Chinese military flew a reconnaissance and strike drone near Taiwan for the first time just as the island staged its largest multi-force drills to boost self-defense capabilities. Japan’s Ministry of Defense Joint Staff issued a press release on Monday saying that a Chinese TB-001 reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was spotted flying between the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyakojima before heading towards Taiwan. The drone, nicknamed the “Twin-Tailed Scorpion,” then flew very close to the coast of Taiwan’s Hualien County, deep inside the island’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). An ADIZ is an area where foreign aircraft are tracked and identified before further entering into a country’s airspace. The Japanese defense ministry also provided the UAV’s flight path which did not intrude into Japan’s airspace. The ministry still scrambled fighter jets in response and continued to monitor the situation. This was also the first time that a TB-001 has flown solo from the East China Sea to the Pacific, the ministry noted. Chinese TB-001’s Monday flight path. CREDIT: Japanese Ministry of Defense Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has yet to say anything about the drone’s flight operation but on Monday it said China sent another reconnaissance aircraft, a Shaanxi Y-8, to Taiwan’s ADIZ. “The TB-001 could also carry weapon systems and conduct attack missions,” Jyh-Shyang Sheu, a military expert at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research told RFA. “We have seen the UCAVs playing a role in attacking aircraft in some armed conflicts in recent years. By sending the drone, China might also want the challenge the air defense capability of Taiwan, but these kinds of UCAV are normally easily detected by radar systems,” said Sheu, who added that Taiwan needs to make sure that its integrated air defense system works well. Chinese air sorties have become much more regular in recent months as tension rises in the Taiwan Strait. The TB-001 is China’s modern medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV that can also be armed for combat purposes. Designed by Tengden Technology, an UAV manufacturer based in Sichuan, it is believed to help greatly boost the Chinese military’s reconnaissance capabilities. A Taiwan Navy frigate fires a missile during the combined drill on Tuesday. CREDIT: Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense Tracking Taiwan’s exercise Japanese media quoted anonymous military sources as saying that China may have flown the drone to gather information about Taiwan’s annual large-scale military drills, as well as to “give a warning to Taiwan.” The annual Han Kuang military exercise entered Day Two on Tuesday, with President Tsai Ing-wen observing a joint naval combat readiness drill aboard a Kidd class destroyer. Some 20 different naval and coast guard vessels took part in the drill, believed to be the largest live-fire exercise ever staged with combined forces from all branches of the army. Tuesday’s drill also included port air defense and anti-mining exercises, and an anti-submarine operation. Elsewhere, thousands of army reservists are taking part in counterattack exercises in different locations, including some of Taiwan’s most strategic beaches. Larger and more active participation of civilians and reservists is seen as the highlight of this year’s exercise. In Miaoli County, about 100 km west of Taipei, reservists were seen building concrete barriers on the beach in sweltering heat to block an enemy landing. The Taiwanese defense ministry introduced a new, more demanding, reservist training program in March to improve the combat readiness of the island’s reserve forces in the face of threats from China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province.
North Korea heralds sacrifices of Korean War veterans as many still suffer
North Korea is trying to encourage its exhausted citizenry to struggle on by highlighting the sacrifices made during the 1950-53 Korean War, a lesson sources told RFA is undermined by a growing number of deaths among elderly veterans to malnutrition and illness. The country is set to celebrate the signing of the armistice that ended hostilities in the war on Wednesday, a holiday Pyongyang officially calls the “Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.” In preparation for the day, the government has ordered people to stay after work for propaganda lectures telling them to “follow the heroic spirit of the ‘War Generation,’ who defeated the armed invasion of the United States and other imperialists in the 1950s and defended the leader and the country with their lives,” said a resident of South Pyongan province, north of Pyongyang, speaking to RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons, in mid-July. “The workers ended their shift at 6 p.m. and gathered at each workplace meeting room. It began with a question and answer session about the spirit of the War Generation and how they struggled. We discussed what we should learn and emulate from them even after the years and generations have passed,” the source said. In a company-wide lecture, the workers learned about the War Generation’s revolutionary spirit, and how North Koreans overcame obstacles to construct a socialist society with “miraculous speed across 1,000 miles” during the post-war restoration period, the source said. “So, the workers were called to adopt that fighting spirit in the factory’s production plan,” the source said. “The workers have not been eating properly due to food shortages and are already exhausted from going to work in this heat wave.” The poor living conditions of the factory workers in South Pyongan are causing them to resent being made to stay after work for propaganda meetings. “They are complaining that they cannot live because of the heat wave, and the government is trying to increase its control over them,” the source said. Food scarcity is a constant problem in North Korea, but the closure of the border with China and suspension of trade since the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020 has made it worse. With no imports to bridge the gap between food supply and demand, prices have gone up and the people have had to do without. The propaganda lectures note that the heroes of the glorious past extend beyond the soldiers fighting in the war, a source in North Hamgyong province. “The factory gathered the miners for lectures on the spirit of the War Generation, and they talked about the 1950s, when miners carried out missions that cost them their lives,” the second source told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Now that the COVID-19 crisis has been resolved and the major task as part of the five-year plan [2021-2025] is to be carried out, the lectures were given to encourage the miners to accelerate production with the fighting spirit of the War Generation,” the source said. The lecture said they should devote themselves to the party and the leader without asking for any honor or remuneration just as their forebears did during the post-war period of restoration and construction, according to the second source. “The miners complain that they are exhausted from the hardships of the pandemic and the severe heat, but the authorities focus on lectures and learning sessions that bind the thoughts and spirits of the residents instead of rationing food,” she said. Though the second source said that the COVID-19 crisis has been resolved, reflecting the North Korean government’s declaration that it was set to “finally defuse” the crisis, the World Health Organization has cast doubt over the claim, saying instead that the situation could worsen. North Korea has officially reported a minimal loss of life during the recent outbreak that caused the country to declare a “maximum emergency,” but reports have surfaced saying that those who die of COVID-19 symptoms are quickly cremated before a cause can be determined. Sources told RFA that elderly veterans who served in the Korean War are among those who have died either from the coronavirus or malnutrition due to the lack of food, angering North Koreans who say the government uses the veterans for propaganda but does nothing when they starve or contract a deadly disease. The country is set to hold an 8th National Conference of War Veterans in Pyongyang to commemorate the armistice holiday on Wednesday, but sources told RFA that the number of participating veterans has sharply declined. In North Pyongan province’s Ryongchon county, about a third fewer veterans are participating in the conference this year, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “[We’ve seen] a decrease of nine out of the 28 participants in the 7th National Conference of War Veterans held last year,” the third source said. The third source said that three war veterans from the rural village of Sosok-ri were alive in the spring. In May, two had developed a high fever and shortness of breath, typical symptoms of COVID-19. They died without receiving adequate treatment, quarantined in their homes, she said. “In Jinhung village, an elderly veteran living with his son and daughter-in-law died of malnutrition in April. Since March, the family’s food has started to run out, so they have been eating dried radish stem and leaves mixed with corn powder as a meal,” she said. “In total, the number of veterans who died was nine in Ryongchon county, reducing the number of participants in the National Conference of War Veterans,” the third source said. “The residents are critical of the intention of holding the conference of war veterans when the elderly war veterans are dying for lack of food.” In Songchon county, South Pyongan, the number of veterans sent to Pyongyang fell by half compared with last year, a resident there told RFA. “Every year, elderly veterans die from malnutrition because they can’t…

Execution of democracy icons shows Myanmar junta is desperate to exert control
Why would Myanmar’s junta risk fueling more anger at home and outrage abroad through its execution on Monday of four activists, including two icons of the democracy movement? The answer might be found in its failing fortunes on the battlefield amid a deepening civil war. Myanmar state media announced Monday the execution of Ko Jimmy, a veteran activist since the 1988 uprising against military rule, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a popular rap artist turned politician. Two other lesser-known activists were also put to death. The four had been arrested for their anti-junta activism and violating the counter-terrorism law. In January, the four were accused of helping carry out “terror acts” and sentenced to death, despite the fact that Myanmar had not carried out a judicial execution in over 30 years. Many had thought that that the death sentences were a ploy. The junta, it was assumed, would not risk the diplomatic backlash and popular protest that are likely to ensue. This was a card to be played diplomatically at the right time in a bid to gain international legitimacy – possibly by commuting the death sentences to win credit. Besides, if the junta has had any success since its February 2021 coup, it’s been on the diplomatic front. Why would it jeopardize the fact that no government has cut off ties? Considering that some 50 people that had died in military custody since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military had ample time and opportunity to kill the four. So why now? There can only be one answer. In the past, the Myanmar military, led by Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has been able to do what it wants because the population has been terrified of them. Credit: AFP The junta is losing on the battlefield. And thus they need to show that they are in total control. They have to show that they are not afraid of international or domestic repercussions from this act; that they are strong enough to withstand that pressure. Myanmar’s military is spread dangerously thin. They are fighting a multifront war across the country. They are fighting well-trained and well-armed ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) such as the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army, both of whom are allied with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG). The NUG itself has some 275 People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) spread throughout the country. Though they have limited resources and armaments, they have succeeded in capturing vast quantities of weaponry, and are now starting to manufacture their own armaments and ammunition. The NUG and affiliated EROs now claim to control roughly 50% of the country. And things might get a lot worse for the military, which is on the verge of renewing hostilities against the Arakan Army, with which it has had a tenuous ceasefire since November 2020 after two years of bitter fighting in western Rakhine State. The AA has not joined the NUG, but has used the time since the coup to enhance its political and economic autonomy. For many in the military, this has gone too far and the AA needs to be put in its place. But over 3,000 members of the army have defected to the NUG, despite the multitude of coercive instruments that it wields to deter them. The number of desertions is unknown. The military is estimated to have taken around 15% casualties, and recruitment is proving to be a challenge. Even the elite Defense Service Academy, once considered the most prestigious school in the country and avenue for upward social mobility, cannot fill their seats. The military has stepped up forced conscription and is using collective punishment to target family members of people who have joined the PDFs. At the same time, the military‘s budget is severely constrained due to their economic mismanagement. The Myanmar currency, the kyat, has plunged, prompting junta authorities to impose more currency controls. There is a net loss of foreign investment, with little new coming in, except from China. Exports are down dramatically. The banking system is teetering. The World Bank just announced that an estimated 40% of the population is now living under the poverty line. Street vendors wait for customers March 3, 2022, during one of the frequent power outages in Yangon, Myanmar. Economic mismanagement has hamstrung the military’s budget. Credit: AFP So what will be the impact of the executions? Since the coup, citizens across the country have protested military rule on a daily basis – resorting to wildcat demonstrations after the bloody crackdown on mass protests that initially greeted the coup. And now, notwithstanding the risk of deadly force, there is another compelling reason to protest the dictatorship. Historically, the military has been able to act with total impunity because the population has been terrified of them. They get away with things because, since 1962, they’ve been able to cow the population into submission. The problem for them is that for the first time, the population of Myanmar refuses to be intimidated. After a taste of democracy and after enjoying a period of media freedom, diplomatic openness, engagement with the international world, and an open internet, the population refuses to accept the military’s usurpation of power. In the international realm, the executions may galvanize stronger diplomatic action by foreign governments. It could move the needle and get some European states and Australia to take a tougher stance against the junta. Japan and South Korea, however, are unlikely to change course, though even Tokyo condemned the executions. Meanwhile the NUG, which is seeking formal diplomatic recognition, is sure to use the executions to further delegitimize the military regime and bolster its own international standing. So for a military that is losing on the battlefield and that has no legitimacy, and is desperate to prove that it is in charge, the executions were ultimately an act of weakness and desperation. The junta executed four men without knowing what their action may unleash in the coming months. …
INTERVIEW: Lin Zhao: a short-tempered martyr who idolized then rejected Mao Zedong
Mao-era Chinese dissident Lin Zhao, whose birth name was Peng Lingzhao, was a writer and journalist who grew up near Nanjing, in the eastern province of Jiangsu. Initially a star student at the prestigious Peking University, Lin was branded a “rightist” and a “class enemy” in the 1950s for her criticism of then-supreme leader Mao Zedong’s Anti-Rightist Movement targeting intellectuals. She was executed by firing squad at Shanghai’s Longhua Airport in 1968 at the age of 36, and her family was ordered to pay five cents for the bullet that killed her. Her biographer Lian Xi, author of Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao’s China, spoke to RFA about her importance as a recent historical figure: RFA: Why was Lin such an important figure? Lian Xi: Lin Zhao really was an extraordinary person. We know that there were many, many victims of the Cultural Revolution, but there were no real political dissidents like Lin Zhao. There were some big-name intellectuals within [the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)] … peoplel like Deng Tuo and Wu Han in the early 1960s before the Cultural Revolution started … who tried to persuade Mao to give up authoritarian rule. There were also some political heretics outside the CCP during the Cultural Revolution, like Yu Luoke and Zhang Zhixin, but they never totally broke away from the ideology of the CCP. The only one who openly rejected CCP ideology as enslavement and tyranny was Lin Zhao. RFA: What impact did Lin Zhao’s parents’ political views have on her world view? Lian Xi: Lin Zhao herself said that some of her so-called progressive political thoughts came from her mother’s influence. Her father was different. He never put his patriotic enthusiasm into action on the streets. He hoped to help China move towards modernity by introducing Western democratic institutions. But I think the most profound influence on her political ideals came around the time she was applying to go to the Jinghai teacher training college as a high-schooler. RFA: We know that Lin Zhao broke with her father, dropping his surname Peng and saying that Mao Zedong was her father. What role did her personality play in her story? Lian Xi: I think personality played a very big part. She was a very emotional person, but also a person who was prone to irritability. She also saw herself as inseparable from her ideals. When she was in secondary school, she was influenced by radical ideological trends within the CCP, and became determined to use her blood and her life to build a society free from social injustice, persecution and oppression. RFA: In 1954, Lin won a place at Peking University with the top score out of the whole of Jiangsu province. She once aspired to be the best reporter in the Mao Zedong era. When do you think she started having doubts about Mao and about communism? Lian Xi: As you just said, Lin Zhao once called Mao her father. This kind of complex, this very deep feeling for Mao, was actually very real at the time, and it wasn’t only Lin [who did that]. Lin had a classmate at Peking University called Shen Zeyi, and he was a poet. He used to say that many of their classmates had so much admiration for Mao that they all referred to him as father. Her ideas took a long time to change. She hadn’t given up her belief in Mao or the CCP by the early 1950s, when she was repeatedly suppressed during the land reform movement. It was only when she was labeled a rightist in 1957 that she started to break with the CCP and with communist ideas. RFA: And she was tortured due to that uncompromising attitude, wasn’t she? Lian Xi: The earliest torture mostly took place in the No. 1 Detention Center in Shanghai. Lin Zhao called the No. 1 Detention Center a hell-hole. Because she pleaded not guilty … the prison guards tortured her to force a confession. They handcuffed her hands behind her back, not with one pair of handcuffs, but two: one pair on her upper arm and the other on her lower arm … At one point she wore handcuffs for six months because she was determined not to give in [and ‘confess’]. During that time, she was also piercing her fingers and writing poems in her own blood, all of which were addressed to Mao Zedong. RFA: How much did she write in this way? Lian Xi: There are about 200,000 words that we know about, which is quite a number. Because she was a reporter, she described prison life in great detail, one of which was how she managed to write in blood. In her “Letter to the Editorial Department of People’s Daily” … she says that this letter isn’t being written in blood but in pen and ink, but it’s sealed with the character Zhao in her own blood. When I went to the Hoover Institution to look at Lin Zhao’s original documents, you could see that her private seal was stamped on each page. Also, the official indictment says that Lin Zhao pierced her own flesh hundreds of thousands of times to write hundreds of thousands of words of extremely reactionary content in her own blood. RFA: Have you seen any of this writing with your own eyes? Lian Xi: They’re not around any more. But I interviewed the judge who retried Lin Zhao’s case, and specifically … asked him if had seen her writings in blood, and he said he had seen them. Then I asked him why he didn’t give her writings back to her family, and he said it would have been too harrowing for them. The other [witness] was Chen Weisi, the first reporter to write about Lin, and he saw some of her blood writings too at the time. RFA: I know that Hu Jie, who directed the documentary “Looking for Lin Zhao’s soul,”…

Taiwan’s aircraft and warships stage five-day live-fire exercise
The Taiwanese military kicked off a five-day annual live-fire exercise on Monday aimed at bolstering the island’s defense capabilities and combat readiness at a time when China and Taiwan’s allies have been facing off in the airspace and seas around the island. The Han Kuang drills will be taking place at a number of locations in Taiwan, with President Tsai Ing-wen observing a large-scale naval exercise from a warship off Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan on Tuesday, according to the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense. More than 20 military aircraft and warships will be taking part in the Yilan exercise, including some of Taiwan’s indigenous fighters and frigates. The two Chien Lung class submarines, manufactured in the Netherlands for Taiwan, will also be deployed. Taiwan is developing its own submarines with 2025 earmarked for the first one to enter service. ‘Inconvenient but necessary’ During the first day, Taiwanese fighter jets were dispatched to counter a simulated enemy air attack while local anti-air artillery units watched over the airspace. Military transport aircraft also evacuated fighter jet spare parts away from the combat zone as the focus was on “testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities.” The defense ministry said in a press release that during the week mobile military radar vehicles and warships will be deployed and forces on Taiwan’s outlying islands will also perform a variety of exercises including counter attacks to beach landings. Han Kuang, now in its 38th year, is Taiwan’s largest war games exercise involving all military branches and designed to test the army’s combat readiness in the event of a Chinese invasion. This year’s drills will also test the population’s preparedness and contribution, the military said. Most Taiwanese consider the island an independent, democratically-run country but Beijing calls it a province of China and has repeatedly vowed to reunite with the mainland, with force if needed. In recent months, Chinese aircraft have been crossing into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) almost daily and Chinese warships have patrolled the waters near Taiwan. An aircraft takes off during Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang drills. CREDIT: Taiwan Ministry of National Defense The Taiwanese people have been training to deal with imminent threats of war. A four-day air raid exercise simulating Chinese air attacks began on Monday with air raid sirens going off in the capital, Taipei and some other locations in northern Taiwan. It will move to central and southern parts of the island during the week. The 45th Wan An drill aims at boosting citizens’ awareness and preparedness. For half an hour, residents are required to evacuate stress and remain indoors to allow for an emergency response. MRT (mass rapid transport) underground stations are open but passengers will have to stay inside until the end of the drill. Suzy Tsang, an office worker who got stuck in the Taipei metro during the exercise, said she and her friends take part in the event every year. “It is quite inconvenient because you can’t move for 30 minutes but I think it is necessary,” she said. “Who knows when we will need it for real,” Tsang added.

Border closures, conflict threaten ‘shipadi’ fungus trade in remote northern Myanmar
Pandemic-related border closures and travel restrictions under military rule are taking their toll on the trade of “shipadis,” a rare fungus prized in China for its alleged healing properties, according to the ethnic Rawan who hunt it in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. The shipadi is a species of parasitic Cordyceps fungi whose spores infect caterpillars, causing them to crawl upwards before killing them. After the caterpillar dies, the fruit of the fungus grows out of its head in a bid to further spread its spores. While shipadi grow mainly in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, where they are known as “yartsa gunbu,” the Myanmar variant is found only on the ground, trees, and glaciers of northern Kachin state’s remote Puta-O region, near Myanmar’s borders with India and China. The ethnic Rawan who inhabit the region hunt for the fungus they call “Poe Say Nwe Pin” in May and June each year, when the weather warms and the ice has thawed. The highly-coveted golden-colored shipadi is mostly found on the glaciers of Phonrin Razi, Phangram Razi, and Madwe, and can appear as infrequently as once every four years. Aung Than, a local trader, told RFA Burmese that prior to the pandemic, merchants exported the majority of their shipadi to China, where they could expect healthy profits due to their use in traditional Chinese medicine as a treatment for kidney disease. However, China closed its borders soon after the coronavirus began to spread globally in early 2020, forcing shipadi traders to find a new market for their product. “In the past, when border crossing was easy, they bought shipadi from us,” he said. “But we cannot go there anymore and they can’t come to us either. It’s been more than two years now since I lost the market in China.” Aung Than said that since the pandemic, domestic demand had grown for shipadi, but traders could no longer expect to earn the profits they once had. A shipadi pokes out of the ground in Puta-O township. Credit: RFA Danger from conflict Other Rawan shipadi traders in Kachin state told RFA that the market had been further impacted by fighting between junta troops and ethnic Kachin rebels since the military seized control of Myanmar in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021. Daw Hla, the owner of an herbal store in Puta-O, said she regularly sold to customers from Myanmar’s big cities, including Yangon and Mandalay, prior to the coup. But an increase in clashes between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the military since the takeover had made it more dangerous to hunt shipadi and ship it out of the region, she said. “I used to send them to Yangon, Naypyidaw and other cities, as well as all over Kachin state. I’d send them as soon as I got the orders,” she said. “The transportation was OK and sales were good in the past. But this year, I don’t have much [shipadi] to sell. There’s little product to be had this year – it’s getting very rare.” Sources told RFA that the KIA had recently seized a military camp in Puta-O’s Tsum Pi Yang village, and that fighting along the main road from Puta-O to the Kachin state capital Myitkyina had become particularly fierce since the anniversary of the coup, making it extremely dangerous to travel in the area. A collection of shibadi gathered in Puta-O township. Credit: RFA A risky journey Residents of Puta-O township form groups of five or six each year to climb the mountains and search for shipadi, and can spend months away from home during the hunt. One resident named Lan Wan Ransan told RFA that hunting shipadi has always been risky, particularly during the rainy season when flash floods are common. Other times, he said, the snow and ice may not have thawed enough, making the trek into the mountains deadly and the search for shipadi nearly impossible. “There are many difficulties along the way,” he said. Normally, a single shipadi could fetch 2,000-3,000 kyats (U.S. $1-1.50), Lan Wan Ransan said, but the price has doubled this year, due to the added danger of the conflict. Most hunters will only find around 50 shipadis this year, he added, calling it a significant decrease from years past. In addition to shipadi, the Rawan also gather herbs in the mountains of Puta-O that are rarely found elsewhere, including the roots of the Khamtauk, Machit, Taushau, and Kyauk Letwar plants, as well as ice ginseng. However, none are as highly-prized as the caterpillar fungus from the glaciers of northern Kachin state, they say. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
China holds new naval drills as US carrier transits South China Sea
China has staged another military exercise off the back of a five-day large-scale drill near the Paracel islands–just as the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan docked in Singapore after spending over a week in the South China Sea. The U.S. carrier and its strike group were slated to visit Vietnam this month but the visit has been called off, said two Vietnamese sources with knowledge of the matter who wish to stay anonymous because they’re not authorised to speak to the media. “No reason was given,” said one of the sources, adding that the Vietnamese staff involved in the preparation for the port call were asked to be on stand-by for a couple days before the final decision last week. As “a matter of policy” the U.S. Pacific Fleet declined to comment on the purported port call. The USS Ronald Reagan is now at Changi Naval Base and its crew met with visiting Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro before taking some R&R. Del Toro’s office said the sailors have done “a fantastic job the past few months operating across the Indo-Pacific with Allies and partners reinforcing international norms and standards.” “Be safe, make good decisions, and enjoy your liberty!” it tweeted. The Ronald Reagan Strike Group began its first deployment in the South China Sea in 2022 on July 13 and was conducting exercises at the same time as another warship, the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold. China’s back-to-back military exercises While the U.S. ships were operating in the South China Sea, China announced a large military exercise on July 16 to July 20 in an area of 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles) east of Hainan island overlapping the Paracel archipelago. On July 20 the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) issued another navigation warning about a second military exercise also in the South China Sea but smaller and at a closer proximity to Hainan island. This drill started on the same Wednesday and finished Friday. China often holds military exercises at short notice as a response to U.S. naval activities in disputed areas of the South China and East China Seas. Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam hold territorial claims over parts of the sea including the Paracel and the Spratly islands but the Chinese claim is by far the most expansive.
Hungry North Koreans bristle as elites feast on expensive dog meat
While citizens in North Korea are nearly starving in the face of food price hikes and shortages, the country’s elite are feasting on one of the country’s most expensive delicacies: dog meat. Meat of any kind is a rarity in the North Korean diet these days, and dog meat costs twice as much as pork. A single bowl of dog meat stew, called dangogi-jang, can cost the same as two kilograms of rice. After a ban on imports at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in January 2020, and with harvests failing to yield enough food for the country’s needs, food shortages are widespread, a resident of Chongjin, in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Prices for food such as rice, corn and flour keep rising. Residents are frustrated as they suffer, … but high-ranking government officials and the wealthy class, for whom money is not an object, are busy looking for dog meat restaurants and taking care of themselves,” the source said. Dog meat is not common in the typical diet of either North or South Korea, but it is considered by some to be a summer delicacy with purported virility-enhancing and medicinal properties. This summer, while the bellies of average citizens in the country of 25 million people rumble, the most popular dog meat restaurants in Chongjin and elsewhere are still bustling with powerful military and ruling party clientele. “Since last summer, the Kyongsong Dangogi Restaurant has been operating out of a two-story traditional Korean building in Chongjin’s Pohang Square. As the hot days of summer begin, it is buzzing with people who have come for their fill of dog meat,” the source said. “Kyongsong is the second largest dog meat restaurant in the country next to the Pyongyang Dangogi Restaurant on Tongil Street in Pyongyang. I believe [former leader] Kim Jong Il gave the restaurant its name. He was treated to dog meat stew every time he came to North Hamgyong province, and stayed at a hotel within the Kyongsong restaurant that has a scenic view,” he said. The source was aware that outside of Korea, dog meat consumption is rare. “In foreign countries, people don’t eat dog meat, but in our country, dangogi-jang is known for its invigorating effect on the body in summer. There’s even a saying that if you were to spill some of the soup on your foot, it would be like medicine to heal the body,” he said. “Ordinary residents cannot even dare to eat a bowl of dangogi-jang, no matter how good it is for the body,” the source said. “It is the cheapest dish among the various other dog meat dishes like steak or braised ribs. The stew costs 12,000 won [U.S. $1.70] for a single bowl, about the price of two kilos [4.4 lbs] of rice.” Besides Kyongsong, there are several other restaurants in Chongjin that serve dog meat dishes, according to the source. This file photo shows a meal at the Pyongyang Dangogi Restaurant on Tongil Street in the North Korean capital. Photo: Yonhap “People in power, such as party officials, prosecutors, social security agents and state security agents do not like to stand out and be seen in public, so they prefer to go to privately run restaurants to eat dog meat rather than public ones,” he said. A source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan said he believed dangogi-jang helped to heal his sick mother. “Everyone knows that dog meat is good for your health in the summer. But most residents cannot afford to eat even a single bowl each year,” the second source said. “There are several restaurants serving dog meat in Uiju county. On July 16, the first of the three hottest days of summer, for the first time in five years, I visited a dog meat restaurant with my mother, who was suffering from a fever and was terribly weak,” he said. The second source said that there were many elites at the restaurant, including officials of the ruling Korean Workers’ party, agents of the Ministry of State Security and law enforcement officials. “It took a long time for my mother to eat her bowl of stew because her teeth are weak. So when other customers finished their meal and new customers replaced them, I recognized the faces of several well known Uiju county officials,” said the second source. “Ordinary residents are angry now because food prices are too high and there is no way to make money,” the source added. “I felt a sense of disappointment when I saw so many people in power who lined up to eat expensive dog meat … without a care about worrying how they would be able to earn a living.” Dog meat is available at restaurants in both North and South Korea, but the dog meat trade is of questionable legality in the South. A South Korean court ruled in 2018 that killing dogs for their meat was illegal, but the law did not specifically ban selling or eating the meat. Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
China angry at reported Pelosi Taiwan visit as plan questioned in US
China has once again lashed out at the reported plans by the U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan, warning Thursday of countermeasures even after President Joe Biden said the U.S. military thinks such visit is “not a good idea.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a news conference in Beijing that China holds a “stern position on firmly opposing” the visit. “If Speaker Pelosi visits Taiwan, it would seriously violate the one-China principle and harm China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the political foundation of China-US relations,” Wang said. “If the U.S. insists on going its own way, China will take strong measures to firmly respond and take countermeasures. We will walk the talk,” the spokesperson stressed. On Wednesday, when asked about Pelosi’s prospective trip, President Biden said “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now.” “But I don’t know what the status of it is,” he added. Pelosi’s office meanwhile declined to comment on Pelosi’s international travel in advance due to longstanding security protocols, according to the Associated Press. Britain’s Financial Times newspaper reported earlier this week that Pelosi is to make a trip to Taipei in August after failing to visit the island in April because she had COVID. If Pelosi makes the trip it would be the first time since 1997 that a U.S. House speaker visited the island, which is democratically ruled but claimed by China as its own territory. One-China policy Taipei has been quiet on talk about Pelosi’s visit with the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou insisting that her ministry has not received any information about a planned visit. Taiwan, however, “always welcomes visits by American congresspersons to the country,” she told reporters on Thursday. Meanwhile, the former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who has been visiting Taiwan since Monday said that China should not be allowed “to dictate the travel schedules of American officials.” Esper, who held office from 2019 to 2020 under former U.S. President Donald Trump, said that he believes that Washington’s one-China policy has “run its course” and should be “updated and modernized.” It is important that the U.S. government develops a fresh perspective regarding its cross-Taiwan Strait policy, Esper said at a press conference in Taipei. Beijing has long reacted strongly to any sign of support given to Taiwan but the U.S should not allow China to arbitrarily expand “the scope of activities translated as supporting Taiwan independence, and by that defining the scope of the U.S. one-China policy,” said Norah Huang, associate research fellow at the Prospect Foundation, a Taiwanese think-tank. “If applying over-generous self-restrictions as it has been the case, it also would encourage the Chinese government to play the nationalist card. This is not helpful for nurturing an understanding civil society which may grow as China develops,” she added.