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Did Taiwanese ships fly the Chinese flag while passing through the Red Sea?

Editor1 year ago09 mins

A video and photograph of a cargo vessel have been shared in Chinese-language social media posts that claim they show vessels from the Evergreen Group – Taiwan’s shipping and transportation conglomerate – flying a Chinese flag while passing through the Red Sea in July. But the claim is false. Evergreen vessels have not passed through the Red Sea since December 2023. A video of a cargo ship was posted on Chinese social media Bilibili on Aug. 17. “A cargo ship belonging to China’s Taiwan-based Evergreen Group passed through the Red Sea flying the five-star red flag without incident. Previously, the Houthis have repeatedly attacked passing ships in the Red Sea, but ships flying the Chinese and Russian flags have usually been able to pass through safely,” the video’s caption reads. The 12-second video shows multiple scenes, including China’s national flag, the Five-star Red Flag, and a cargo ship with an “EVERGREEN” sign on it. Separately, a photo of what appears to be Evergeen’s cargo vessel was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Aug. 18, alongside a caption that reads: “The Evergreen Hotel refused to fly the Chinese flag, but Evergreen Marine flew the Chinese flag when it passed through the waters under the jurisdiction of the Houthis in the Red Sea.” A number of influencers posted photos of Evergreen ships purportedly flying China’s flag (Screenshots/X, Weibo and Bilibili) The claim began to circulate online after Chinese social media users criticized a decision by a branch of the Taiwanese Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Paris to refuse to fly China’s national flag during the Olympics. Some users further criticized the Evergreen Group, the hotel’s parent company, for what they said was double standards after several of its ships passed through the Red Sea in July while flying the Chinese flag for protection. Evergreen Group is a Taiwan conglomerate with businesses in shipping, transport and associated services such as energy development, air transport, hotels and resorts. Taiwan has been self-governing since it effectively separated from mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese civil war, but China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that should be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. However, the claim about the Evergreen vessels flying the flag is false. Vessels in question Reverse image searches found the two vessels seen in the Bilibili video and the photo on X are Evergeen’s EVER ALP and EVER BUILD. A comparison of the EVER ALP and the EVER BUILD with the respective Chinese influencers’ content. (Photo/AFCL) According to the ship tracking service Marine Traffic, both vessels are under the jurisdiction of Panama. Since the internationally recognized United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that a ship must sail under the flag of the state to which it is registered, those ships should fly Panama’s flag. Information on the EVER ALP and EVER BUILD. (Screenshot/Marine Traffic) According to a contingency plan issued by Evergreen in December 2023, all of its cargo vessels originally scheduled to pass through the Red Sea between Asia, Europe and the eastern United States would be rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope due to the threat of attacks on merchant ships. Since the release of the contingency plan by Evergreen, the EVER ALP has not passed through the Red Sea, while the EVER BUILD has only sailed between northeast China and Thailand, nowhere near the Red Sea. Records from the ship tracking service Marine Traffic also show that neither the EVER ALP nor the EVER BUILD has sailed through the Red Sea since the group issued its contingency plan. The respective routes of both vessels recorded on Marine Traffic show that they have not entered through the Red Sea in the last 9 months. (Screenshots/Marine Traffic) A representative of Evergreen told AFCL that it had not changed its company-wide shipping reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, and the company required its vessels to follow the international and industry practice of flying the flags of the country under whose jurisdiction they sail. Hoisting a different country’s flags A former Taiwanese Coast Guard official told AFCL that, in practice, there are cases when a ship might fly a different country’s flags. It is common for ships to fly another country’s flag alongside their own registered state flag to show goodwill when passing through that country’s territorial waters, the official said. In disputed waters, ships from one country involved in the dispute might fly the flag of the other country to reduce the risk of interference from the rival state’s authorities or militias. Lastly, ships from smaller or less powerful nations often fly the flag of a more powerful country when passing through pirate-infested waters to create a deterrent, the official explained, adding that Taiwan did not legally permit ships under its jurisdiction to engage in the second or third scenarios. Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang. Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.

Top White House official in Beijing for talks with foreign minister

Editor1 year ago04 mins

U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan arrived in China on Tuesday on a three-day trip that includes talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and comes after complaints from China’s neighbors about what they see as its territorial intrusions. Sullivan and Wang “will hold a new round of China-U.S. strategic communication,” according to China’s foreign ministry, exchanging views on bilateral relations, “sensitive issues” and “major international and regional hotspots.” A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters on Friday that Sullivan and Wang would discuss a range of topics including areas of disagreement, such as Taiwan, Ukraine and the Middle East. RELATED STORIES Top White House official to visit China Philippines, China clash near disputed shoal in South China Sea Philippines joins US-led allies in multilateral maneuvers in South China Sea The visit comes amid protests by U.S. allies Japan and the Philippines about what they say are Chinese incursions. Japan said a Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance plane entered Japanese airspace for two minutes on Monday, which Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi described as “utterly unacceptable.” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Tuesday China was trying to verify the report, adding that its military had “no intention of intruding” into any country’s airspace. Meanwhile, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said on Tuesday that China was “the biggest disrupter” of peace in Southeast Asia. His comments came after a clash on Sunday between Philippine and Chinese vessels near a disputed reef in the South China Sea. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is welcomed by Director General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Yang Tao (C) and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns (L) upon arriving at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing on Aug. 27, 2024. (Ng Han Guan/POOL/AFP) Sullivan was greeted at Beijing’s Capital Airport by the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s North American and Oceanian department head Yang Tao, and U.S. ambassador Nicholas Burns. His trip is the first official visit to China and the first by a national security adviser since Susan Rice went to Beijing under the Obama administration in 2016. Sullivan and Wang have met in Washington, Vienna, Malta and Bangkok over the past 18 months. Edited by Mike Firn.

Cambodia announces fundraising effort for ‘border infrastructure’

Editor1 year ago04 mins

Cambodians are being asked to pay for infrastructure projects in a remote border area where an economic cooperation agreement with Vietnam and Laos has recently sparked criticism and protests from opposition activists. The projects would be aimed at developing four provinces in northeastern Cambodia that are part of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Triangle Development Area, or CLV. Prime Minister Hun Manet’s Cabinet announced the creation of a Foundation for Border Infrastructure Development on Monday in a statement that included the names of six banks where people could send money. It was unclear what infrastructure projects would be funded by the foundation. The provinces – Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri – are thinly populated. Money raised under the initiative would help the government “in the spirit of national unity, peace, sovereignty and territorial integrity, [to] promote stronger and more sustainable border development,” Hun Manet said. “Cambodians of all backgrounds, both inside and outside the country” are encouraged to contribute, the prime minister said. Several high-profile Cambodian businessmen have already posted messages on social media that showed their donation to the foundation. The 1999 CLV agreement between the three countries was aimed at encouraging economic development and trade between the four northeastern provinces and neighboring provinces across the border. But some activists recently began expressing concerns that the CLV could cause Cambodia to lose territory or control of its natural resources to Vietnam. Overseas Cambodians held protests in South Korea, Japan, France, Canada and Australia on Aug. 11. Planned demonstrations in Cambodia on Aug. 18 were never held after the government deployed security forces and arrested more than 30 people. The fundraising effort appears to be aimed at harnessing some of the nationalistic sentiment sparked by CLV critics, according to Oum Sam An, a former lawmaker for the former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. “This is demagogic politics to deceive the people,” he told Radio Free Asia. “He is trying to show that his family is patriotic and didn’t cede any land to Vietnam.” RFA was unable to reach a government spokesperson for comment on the new foundation. Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

A far cry from sweet and sour: Hong Kongers bring their food to the UK

Editor1 year ago015 mins

Hong Kongers fleeing a political crackdown in their home city are the biggest wave of migrants to settle in Britain since the Windrush generation arrived from the Caribbean — and they’re bringing their food with them. While previous generations of Chinese immigrants would gravitate towards Chinatowns in London and Manchester to make and sell dim sum or roast Cantonese duck to local diners, this cohort is bringing an updated menu of Hong Kong food that offers fellow migrants a nostalgic taste of home. Instead of being concentrated in inner city areas like their forerunners, the nearly 200,000 holders of the British National Overseas passport are making use of a lifeboat visa program to fan out across the country, from Sutton in Surrey, to Brick Lane and Canary Wharf in East London, to affordable neighborhoods in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. They’re even growing their own vegetables in their backyards instead of relying on the fresh foods available through chains of Asian foods wholesalers. A shop in the U.K. sells Hong Kong-style milk tea. (Cynthia Hung Jones/RFA) The Hong Kong food stall with the longest line of waiting diners at a weekend food market in the Canary Wharf financial district in early June 2024 offers salt beef tripe, brisket and tendon braised Hong Kong style, attracting a mixed crowd of expectant customers. For some, it’s the taste of home, and for others raised on typical fare from earlier British Hong Kong takeaways, it’s a far cry from sweet and sour chicken balls. “Food has always been an important part of the way that immigrant communities construct their identities,” says Hong Kong columnist Carpier Leung. “I have high hopes for the influence that this wave of immigration can have on Hong Kong cuisine.” The new wave is already breaking on British shores. Over the past two years, more supermarkets have started selling packages of dim sum like har gau shrimp dumplings and char siu pork buns, while Hong Kong-style egg tarts and the city’s signature mix of strong black tea with evaporated milk have started popping up in trendy cafes in areas where Hong Kongers have congregated. You can buy street snacks like egg waffles and French toast, Hong Kong diner (or cha chaan teng) style, in Sutton and Manchester these days. Dreams of Mong Kok Nicole, who founded the Hong Kong nostalgia restaurant HOKO in Brick Lane, said she was drawn to the area because its grittiness and trendiness reminded her of Kowloon’s Mong Kok district. That was home to the “fishball revolution” of 2016 when disgruntled young people — some of them supporters of the city’s independence movement — ripped up paving bricks from the area’s narrow shopping streets and hurled them at police. Founder Nicole outside her Hong Kong nostalgia restaurant HOKO in London’s Brick Lane. (Cynthia Hung Jones/RFA) The first thing you see when you walk into HOKO is a row of evaporated milk tins used by cha chaan teng, with their distinctive red-and-white packaging. The next is the diner-style layout with high-backed, partitioned seating of the kind where low-paid office workers would rub shoulders with blue-collar workers in search of an affordable breakfast or set lunch deal. The tables are stacked with orange melamine chopsticks, with menus in glass cases, throwbacks to Nicole’s memories of these eateries that date back to the 1960s and ‘70s in her home city. Cantopop by Justin Lo is blaring from the speaker system, while posters of Hong Kong bands bedeck the walls. “We sell Hong Kong food that tells a story,” she says, listing milk tea, French toast, pork chop, Swiss chicken wings and borscht, all staples of cha chaan teng — food that arrived in a global free port from somewhere else, only to acquire a peculiarly Hong Kong twist, making it quite unlike the original. “Swiss chicken wings” was the result of a miscommunication between English-speaking tourists and Hong Kong chefs, who heard “Swiss” when the customer said “sweet,” according to HOKO’s menu. Milk tea was brought in during British colonial times and persisted long after British tea-drinkers had forgotten all about evaporated milk. Nicole thinks the latest generation of migrants from Hong Kong is “braver, and truer to ourselves and to Hong Kong cuisine.” Telling the difference Another Hong Kong eatery in east London, Aquila, has directly imported some of its ingredients from Hong Kong to ensure its dishes remain authentic. “We have to insist on that authenticity so that British people will be able to tell the difference between Hong Kong and China [when it comes to food],” says co-founder Lucas. The founders and manager of Hong Kong restaurant Aquila in London’s Leytonstone pose for a photo under the flags of British Hong Kong and the Republic of China (Taiwan) in June 2024. (Cynthia Hung Jones/RFA) The first thing you see when you walk into this joint is a political statement — the flags of British Hong Kong and the Republic of China, currently located in democratic Taiwan, alongside photos from the 2019 protest movement against the loss of Hong Kong’s promised freedoms that would land a person in hot water back home, under two national security laws. But the founders don’t worry much about annoying China, which took back control of Hong Kong in 1997 and still insists on a territorial claim on Taiwan. “I’m running a British business — what is there to be afraid of?” says Lucas. “My grandfather’s business was ruined by the Chinese Communist Party, and my family has been anti-communist ever since.” “I hope that customers will ask why these things are on display, so I can tell them the story of Hong Kong,” he adds. Chicken hotpot Not all food translates easily, however. Hong Kongers have developed a passion in recent years for a local form of chicken hotpot. But Hong Kong migrant and entrepreneur Sam says he doesn’t think the dish has taken off with British diners, who prefer their chicken boneless and not floating around in scalding hot…

Bicycle built for who?

Editor1 year ago01 mins

To Lam made his first foreign trip as general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party to China, where President Xi Jinping gushed about the two countries’ “shared future.” But the goals of the neighboring nations with similar political systems don’t always align, including on matters of sovereignty in the South China Sea, where China’s sweeping territorial claims have earned rebukes from Hanoi and sparked widespread public protests in Vietnam. While both leaders are pedaling forward, they appear to be headed in opposite directions.

Rebels seize junta oil field in central Myanmar

Editor1 year ago05 mins

Insurgents in central Myanmar seized a junta oil field, rebel groups told Radio Free Asia on Thursday, the fourth such oil facility captured in recent fighting that has seen the military lose significant amounts of territory. Myanmar has produced oil in the Irrawaddy River valley since the 19th century but its offshore gas fields are a much more important source of revenue for the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup. Pro-democracy insurgent members of milita’s known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, in the Magway region seized the Thagyitaung-Sabal oil field in Pakokku township on Tuesday following a pre-dawn assault on about 50 soldiers defending it, a PDF spokesman told RFA. “We’ve been holding the field and have soldiers cutting off the ground route,” said Pauk township’s PDF information officer Ko Sit. “Six junta soldiers were killed and two were arrested during the fighting,” he said. He gave no information on casualties among PDF fighters. PDF fighters seized weapons and ammunition, and about six million kyat (US$1,000) in cash, he said. The military responded with airstrikes and sent reinforcements to a police station in nearby Pauk township, Ko Sit said, adding that fighting continued into Wednesday as junta forces tried to regain control of the field. RFA tried to contact Magway region’s junta spokesperson Myo Myint for comment but he did not return calls. The oil field, operated by the junta-owned conglomerate Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, produced 119 barrels of crude oil and 2.5 million cubic feet (71,000 cubic meters) of natural gas per day in 2018, according to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy. Thagyitaung-Sabal oil field run by the junta’s Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise on June 7, 2023. (People’s Spring-Facebook) Resource-rich parts of Myanmar have seen heavy fighting this year as rebel groups try to capture them. Kachin state in northern Myanmar has jade and rare earth mines while parts of Shan state in the northeast has rich ruby mines. PDF groups captured Myaing township’s Kyauk Khwet oil field on March 2 and Pauk township’s Letpanto oil field on April 19. On Aug. 15, PDF forces occupied the Pu Htoe Lon oil field in Gangaw township. RFA was not immediately able to contact the MOGE for comment about the latest loss of an oil field. The U.S. Treasury Department has described the MOGE as “the largest single source of foreign revenue for Burma’s military regime, providing hundreds of millions of dollars each year.” Last October, it announced sanctions against MOGE, banning companies from providing it with financial services. Magway region has no privately owned oil fields, after the junta ordered their closure in June last year. Although it gave no reason, owners and workers said the junta was worried that profits were being used to fund PDFs. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

Uyghurs sentenced to cumulative 4.4 million years in prison: study

Editor1 year ago010 mins

All told, Uyghurs imprisoned by China in the far-western region of Xinjiang have been sentenced to a cumulative 4.4 million years, a report by Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program says. And the true tally is probably far higher, researchers said. The figure highlights the scale and severity of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the mostly Muslim Uyghurs since 2017, when thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities were herded into re-education camps and prisons. The 25-page report, “Uyghur Race as the Enemy: China’s Legalized Authoritarian Oppression & Mass Imprisonment,” frames the massive incarceration not only as a crime against humanity and genocide, but also as a form of “dangerous lawfare” designed to erode the Uyghurs’ future prospects for dignity, prosperity and freedom. The study drew on information from the Xinjiang Victims Database, which has data on nearly 62,700 Uyghurs detained in Xinjiang, based on leaked Chinese police documents and other records. Researchers also studied records from the Xinjiang High People’s Procuratorate from 2017 to 2021. It does not include numbers from years since then, after the court stopped publishing data, meaning the true number is much higher. They found 13,114 cases that included a prison sentence, with an average term of 8.8 years, and multiplied the figure by 500,000, which they called a “conservative” figure based on the 540,000 individuals prosecuted by court from 2017 to 2021, to get 4.4 million years. “This is happening on a scale that the world has not seen,” said Uyghur human rights lawyer and advocate Rayhan Asat, principal author of the report. “And if China is allowed to fulfill the 4.4 million years of a cumulative imprisonment it has sentenced the Uyghur people to, it will mean a total ethnic incapacitation for the Uyghur people.” RELATED STORIES UN rights chief calls on China to protect human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang Rights groups blast UN for inaction on China’s repression in Xinjiang Call for debate on rights violations in Xinjiang rejected by UN Human Rights Council UN human rights chief issues damning report on Chinese abuses in Xinjiang This data is crucial for understanding the profound human rights violations and the long-term impacts on the Uyghur community. ‘Legalized human rights abuse’ The Chinese government uses “legalized authoritarianism” to extend the reach of the authoritarian state by weaponizing its legal system against people critical of state policies, the report said. In the case of Xinjiang, Beijing has recognized the Uyghur identity as an enemy and has used laws such as Article 120 of the Criminal Law governing terrorist crimes, the Counter-Terrorism Law, and the Xinjiang Implementing Measures for the Counter-Terrorism Law “to legitimize human rights abuses,” it said. “The involvement of laws as a means of carrying [out] human rights abuses sufficiently characterizes Uyghur incarceration as a legalized human rights abuse,” it said. The study also noted that while the Chinese authorities make public criminal records in other parts of the country, records from almost 90% of cases in Xinjiang are not public. Asat told Radio Free Asia that she wanted to contextualize the consequences of China’s actions for the entire Uyghur population given that the mass incarceration of Uyghurs without due process and with disproportionately harsh imprisonment is already horrific in isolation. She has publicly campaigned on behalf of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China, including her brother Ekpar Asat, who has been held in detention in Xinjiang since 2016. “With a cumulative imprisonment of 4.4 million years — a conservative estimate — it’s nearly impossible for the population to carry on their culture and community — our culture and community,” she said. Human toll The analysis comes before the second anniversary on Aug. 31 of a report by former U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet who visited Xinjiang in May 2022 and said China’s mass detentions of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the region may constitute crimes against humanity. Her successor, Volker Türk, this March urged China to carry out recommendations from his office to protect human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and across the country, but Beijing ignored his call. “[In] the context of mass imprisonment, it gives an idea of just how much, human capital is lost to the Uyghur community, the Uyghur population in China as a result of what is arguably a political and arbitrary, punitive, ethnically-based system of mass imprisonment,” said David J. Simon, director of the university’s Genocide Studies Program. “The one other thing I will add about that figure is that the authors of the report have stressed to me that it is a conservative estimate — that the real number, the number of years that Uyghur political prisoners may actually be facing under these laws, could actually be substantially higher,” he told RFA. The report makes several recommendations to address the issue. It says Türk, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, and U.N. member states must trigger all accountability mechanisms to pressure China to free innocent detainees and to use diplomatic tools to collectively push for the release of all imprisoned Uyghurs. It also recommends that individual states declare they are not willing to do business with China and to impose targeted sanctions like those already imposed by the United States, Britain, the European Union and Canada. The report also recommends that the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission and the OHCHR jointly condemn Beijing’s actions and establish a Commission of Inquiry in China to investigate atrocity crimes. “It’s been nearly a decade after China rolled out its extensive atrocity campaigns against the Uyghurs, and the world’s attention is slowly waning due to other crises emerging,” Asat said. “But the horrors in the Uyghur region have not ceased.” With additional reporting by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Myanmar rebels capture last junta base in township on China border

Editor1 year ago06 mins

One of Myanmar’s most powerful insurgent armies has taken full control of a strategically important township in Kachin state on the border with China, its information officer told Radio Free Asia. The Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, together with People’s Defense Forces loyal to the shadow National Unity Government, defeated junta forces to capture their last remaining battalion base in Momauk township in northern Myanmar on Monday, Col. Naw Bu said. “We were able to completely seize Infantry Battalion 437,” he said. “The military council launched airstrikes but now we can say we have taken control of the whole of Momauk township.” There were casualties on both sides, Naw Bu said, but he declined to give details. RFA telephoned the junta’s Kachin state spokesman and social affairs minister Moe Min Thei to ask about Momauk but he did not answer. The KIA, fighting for self-determination against the forces of the junta that toppled a democratically elected government in 2021, launched an initial attack on Momauk on May 7, then began their final push, along with their allies, on July 24. Momauk is about 130 kilometers (870 miles) south of the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina, and only about 14 kilometers (9 miles) east of the town of Bhamo where the junta’s Operations and Command Headquarters 21 is based, Naw Bu said. Junta forces had withdrawn towards Bhamo, which is on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, he said. The KIA and its allies have captured more than 20 junta camps in the township since late July and about 200 junta camps in the whole of Kachin state since the beginning of the year, he said. RELATED STORIES China fires into Myanmar after junta airstrike on border, group says Fighting flares near state capital in north Myanmar Northern Myanmar residents caught up in fighting, dozens hurt Residents flee fighting Junta airstrikes, artillery attacks and arson led to the destruction of more than 100 homes in Momauk and more than 3,000 people had fled, many to the safety of areas under KIA control, residents said. One displaced resident sheltering near the Chinese border said he was afraid of more fighting. “The town is being cleared up but I haven’t gone back,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “I would like to check my home if I could but I’m still worried that there will be more fighting,” he said, referring to Bhamo and Mansi towns where junta forces are based. “There are so many difficulties when we flee and shelter with relatives”. The KIA is one of several insurgent forces to make significant gains against junta forces since late last year. An alliance of three rebel factions has pushed junta forces out of major towns in Shan state, to the southeast of Kachin state, while the military has lost ground to ethnic minority insurgents in Rakhine state in the west, and in Kayah and Kayin states in the east, as well as in parts of the deep south. The junta has responded with airstrikes including on the KIA headquarters at Lai Zar on Aug. 15. That attack unsettled neighboring China, which fired warning shots at junta jets, according to the KIA. The United Nations says about 3 million people have been forced from their homes by the fighting in Myanmar, many since clashes surged at the beginning of the year. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

China digs up the past to shore up official version of history

Editor1 year ago015 mins

China is working on major archaeological projects with its neighbors in Central Asia in a bid to dig up fresh finds to shore up its official historical narrative and extend its regional soft power, experts told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews. Since President Xi Jinping launched his “Belt and Road” global influence and supply chain initiative in 2013, the country has invested heavily in high-profile excavations along the ancient Silk Road trading routes that once linked China to the Middle East via Central Asia. The Chinese Communist Party relies on strongly stated historical narratives to boost China’s image at home and abroad, and Xi believes archaeology can help with that, experts said. Last month, Chinese historians and archaeologists claimed that a 7th century Chinese empress ordered the construction of an ancient Buddhist temple in Xinjiang, home to 11 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs, emphasizing the idea of the region as a “melting pot” going back centuries. Yet the whole idea of the Silk Road was invented in the 19th century as a colorful metaphor to describe ancient patterns of trade and communication between China, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, according to Sören Stark of the Center for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Related stories Ancient Buddhist temple in Xinjiang stirs controversy Chinese research in Xinjiang mummies seen as promoting revisionist history “The whole notion of the Silk Road is … a construct, right, in which we are operating,” he told RFA Mandarin in an interview earlier this month. “There wasn’t such a thing like the Silk Road — there never was. It’s a 19th century construct.” “There were corridors, there was a network of communication between China, Rome, India, the Near East, northeastern Europe, the Tigris,” he said. “It’s just a little bit heightened right now because there’s obviously a lot of government funding from the Chinese side into the sphere of Central Asian archaeology.” 70 digs China has carried out more than 70 archaeological collaborations in Central Asian countries in a bid to “study the ancient Silk Road exchanges between China and Central Asia,” the nationalistic Global Times newspaper reported in June. One joint dig in Uzbekistan recently unearthed an ancient settlement dating back to the 8th century BC near the Surkhandarya river. A researcher checks the ceramics discovered at the archaeological site of Shuomen ancient port in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, Oct. 11, 2022. The archaeological site of Shuomen ancient port was discovered at the end of 2021, with ruins of ancient buildings, shipwrecks, and porcelain pieces unearthed in the following archaeological excavations. According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the discovery is important to studies of the ancient Maritime Silk Road. (Weng Xinyang/Xinhua via Getty Images) “Chinese and Uzbek experts have made a total of three discoveries in the Central Asian country from April to June,” the paper reported on June 23, citing an investigation into the ancient Kushan Empire, along with ruins and cliff paintings in the Fergana valley. The projects are being touted as part of the Belt and Road initiative, with the paper quoting cultural scholar Fang Gang as saying that “the story of the ancient Silk Road is transforming into today’s Belt and Road Initiative to strengthen the ties between China and Central Asian countries.” The point, according to archeologist Wang Jianxin at Xi’an’s Northwest University, is to “challenge Western-centered interpretations of ancient Silk Road culture while also enhancing the world’s understanding of China’s contribution to ancient Silk Road civilization,” the paper said. But archaeologists said nationalistic agendas and archaeology make uneasy bedfellows, although China isn’t the only country to look to the past to boost its legitimacy in the present. “My concern is that as with any country or any government that supports archaeological excavations (in contrast to excavations supported by academic institutions or private funds) that there is a nationalistic agenda,” Silk Road scholar Judith Lerner told RFA Mandarin in a written reply. The aim is often “to prove that we were there first, that people speaking a particular language can be traced by that language back to the country supporting the excavations, that is, China,” she said. ‘Add Chinese voices’ For example, the idea of China as a historically peaceful influence in the region has been widely propagated by Northwest University’s Wang Jianxin, who has used findings from the Uzbekistan digs around the Kushan Empire and Yuezhi sites as evidence that the two peoples lived peacefully side by side near the Surkhandarya river. Wang has said his mission is to “add Chinese voices” to the archaeological work currently being done in Central Asia. “We just really don’t know,” Lerner said. “And I think we really have to look at things more culturally and sociologically.” Stark said Chinese teams typically look for evidence from the point of view of the official history of China, to see if it supports it or disproves it. “Essentially they come equipped with their national … Chinese-language, historical sources and what they tell about the history, what they tell about the history of the Western regions,” Stark told RFA Mandarin in an interview earlier this month. “That’s their guide in what they are doing … they always come from a Chinese perspective on things.” Visitors look at a 3,000-year-old mummified body of a child found along the Silk Road in China’s far western region of Xinjiang at an exhibition in Beijing, Jan. 16, 2003. (China Photos via Getty Images) “They’re not fundamentally questioning actually whether this whole narrative in these sources is problematic,” he said. For example, the people known in China as the Yuezhi who allegedly lived in harmony with the proto-Chinese Kunshan Empire may not have been called that when they were alive, Stark said, adding that they could have been a tribe of Central Asian nomads, giving them more links to the Turkic peoples of Xinjiang than to modern Han Chinese. “The tombs that the Chinese team has excavated are very consistent with the burial…

China boosts port surveillance as mpox virus spreads globally

Editor1 year ago011 mins

China has stepped up emergency pandemic drills across the country and announced tighter surveillance of incoming travelers amid warnings that a more lethal and transmissible strain of the mpox virus is spreading internationally. From Aug. 15, anyone arriving in China from countries and regions where mpox cases have been confirmed, or with symptoms like fever, headache, back or muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes or a rash is now required to declare their condition to customs authorities on entry, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday. sThe move comes after the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern, sounding the alarm over its potential for further international transmission, with several African countries, Sweden and Pakistan all reporting confirmed cases of the deadly virus. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mpox is spread through “close contact,” including sexual contact, and by touching contaminated surfaces. But The Lancet medical journal cited animal studies in March 2023 as showing that transmission through the air is also possible with some variants of the virus. Data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited by Xinhua showed that during the past week alone, more than 2,000 new mpox cases have been reported in African countries, with 38,465 mpox cases and 1,456 deaths across the continent since January 2022. Worries about another lockdown Authorities across China recently began emergency pandemic preparedness drills, resulting in photos of personnel clad from head to toe in white personal profective equipment, or PPE, and widespread concern on social media as people wondered if lockdowns were in the cards once more. Local authorities rolled out emergency drills to prepare for “pneumonia of unknown cause” in Henan’s Zhengzhou city, Zhangye in the western province of Gansu, southwestern Sichuan and the megacities of Beijing and Chongqing. Workers take part in an emergency pandemic drill in Beijing’s Shijingshan district, Aug. 7, 2024. (Beijing Municipal Health Commission) Similar drills happened ahead of the World Military Games in Wuhan in 2019, while COVID-19 was also initially described as “atypical pneumonia” when it tore through the central city of Wuhan in December 2019 before being named by the WHO as a global pandemic. According to a post on X by citizen journalist “Mr. Li is not your teacher,” the drills form part of a nationwide disease control and prevention action plan. The financial news service Yicai.com said the drills will be rolled out across 10 provinces by the end of August. Photos from emergency infectious disease drills in Chongqing on July 4 included a photo of two people in full-body PPE collecting samples from two chickens, although there was no mention of avian influenza in the official report. Some online comments referred to “post-traumatic stress syndrome” caused by the three years of lockdowns, compulsory quarantine and mass-testing of ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy, which ended amid nationwide protests in late 2022. “This is so we can be on a war footing again, right? I think if this happens again, the Chinese Communist Party will bring about its own downfall,” said one comment, while another said: “We don’t want to go through that again.” The first comment also alluded to a renewed wave of COVID-19 infections in China, adding: “It’s still out there, and it’s peaked again recently, but it’s too hot to mention.” More behind the scenes? Lin Xiaoxu, a former virology researcher at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center said there could be more going on in China currently than meets the eye, citing the government’s track record in trying to cover up public health emergencies. “Generally speaking, the government still conceals a lot of health information, especially during public health crises,” Lin said. “I don’t think they’re doing these so-called emergency drills for no reason.” Chinese social media users seem to be thinking along similar lines. A recent wave of COVID-19 infections in the southern province of Guangdong was listed among “hot topics” on Weibo on Thursday, claiming that the latest strain of the coronavirus was causing more severe symptoms in younger people. Clicking on the search term refers readers to a video on the official account of the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper and N Video, in which reporters visit Guangzhou Xinshi Hospital to investigate the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, quoting an expert as saying that the latest wave of the disease is hitting younger people with more pain and fever than previous variants. Guangzhou’s Yangcheng Evening News and the Luzhong Morning News both reported a sharp spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in July, with “more obvious symptoms” in young people. Workers take part in an emergency pandemic drill in Beijing’s Shijingshan district, Aug. 7, 2024. (Beijing Municipal Health Commission) Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Japan, Europe and the United States are all currently seeing a wave of COVID-19 infections, and that cases in China appear to be following the same pattern. “China is getting this too, but I don’t see any pattern suggesting any essential mutations that would make it different from what is happening overseas,” Huang told RFA Mandarin in an interview on Thursday. Young people hit He said the latest strains of COVID-19 have hit younger people harder everywhere, not just in China, likely due to impaired immunity caused by repeated infections. “The number of young people infected is increasing, so I think that a large proportion of Chinese population has impaired immunity, with a lot of people who’ve been repeatedly infected, but the Chinese government basically doesn’t report it much,” Huang said. He said a return to citywide lockdowns could happen if the Chinese authorities find the current wave is getting out of control. “Given that the whole economy and the unemployment situation are very bad right now, the government could use a public health crisis as an excuse to impose more stringent social controls, as a way of clamping down…

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