Smuggling of the deadly Synthetic opioid FENTANYL
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Three years on, whereabouts of Tibetan poet is a mystery
More than three years after the arrest of a popular Tibetan writer and poet in northwestern China, police have not provided any details about his whereabouts, his sentence or his well-being, despite repeated appeals by his family for information, two sources told Radio Free Asia. Gendun Lhundrub, a former monk at Rongwo Monastery in Rebgong county of Malho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Qinghai province, was detained on Dec. 2, 2020. Authorities did not cite any reasons for his arrest, which followed a long period when police monitored his activities for signs of dissent and opposition to Chinese policies, RFA learned at the time. Chinese authorities frequently detain Tibetan writers, artists and singers who promote Tibetan national identity and culture or who have criticized China’s rule of the western region. They scrutinize their writings for content considered as “endangering national security” or constituting an “act of separatism,” thereby deeming them threats to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Lhundrub’s relatives have made repeated requests to authorities in Rebgong county to find out where he is and whether he has been sentenced, said one source from inside Tibet. “However, they have not received any response to their queries,” said the source, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. Whenever the family wants to send items to Lundrub, officials at the Chinese government’s Rebgong county office tell them to leave the items with them, and they will forward them to Lundrub, he said. “His well-being is also unclear as no one has been allowed to meet him,” the source added. Additionally, officials have shared no details or documentation as proof of Lhundrub’s sentence, both sources said. Long list Lhundrub is among those on a long list of well-known Tibetan writers and poets arrested by authorities. In 2016, Tibetan language advocate Tashi Wangchuk was arrested and tortured. He was released in 2021 after being held for two years in pre-trial detention and serving part of a five-year prison sentence. Gendun Lhundru was born in 1974 in Rebgong in the traditional Amdo region of Tibet in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. He became a monk at a young age and enrolled in the Rebgong Dargye Monastery. He later studied at the Rebgong Rongpo Monastery, Labrang Tashi Kyil and Serta Labrang. Starting in 1994, he wrote poetry. In October 2022, he released an anthology of poems called “Khorwa,” and wrote on the website Waseng-drak that writers and artists require freedom to express their thoughts and emotions without restriction, RFA learned from sources that year. Lhundrub’s collection of poems, which include “Black Rosary,” “Melody of Life” and “White Book,” and his literary skills are highly regarded by Tibetans around the world. Written by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
’10 Don’ts’ for Chinese young people
Over the past year or so, young Chinese “refuseniks” have been swearing off marriage, children and mortgages – rejecting traditional milestones on the path to adulthood – amid apparent despair over their futures, the economic outlook and politics. But recent social media posts show that they’ve added several more “don’ts” to the list. They include not donating blood, not giving to charity, not playing the lottery, not investing money, including in property, and even not helping an elderly person — largely because they’re afraid they might get exploited or trapped. The list, dubbed the “10 Don’ts” of young people, has been circulating on social media. “This generation of young people have no hope, so they don’t bother working hard any more,” said a university graduate who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals. “They might as well just lie down in the hope of a stress-free life.” The attitude is particularly problematic for the ruling Communist Party as it tries to encourage people to use the internet to share “positive” content, particularly about the economy, rather than complaining about how hard their lives are. Young workers rest outside a shopping mall in Beijing, Jan. 17, 2024. (Ng Han Guan/AP) Author and political essayist Yu Jie said the refusal to marry and have kids is linked to young people’s disillusionment with the Chinese government and the way it manipulates them to believe they are the future of the nation, when actually they are merely its tools. “No young person today believes in the lies of Mao Zedong or his successor Xi Jinping,” Yu wrote in a commentary for RFA Mandarin. Motivated by fear Many Chinese don’t want to donate blood because they fear the data could be used to force them into donating organs for the elite, said a resident of the eastern province of Shandong who gave only the surname Lu for fear of reprisals. People worry that if they get into an accident, their organs will be taken without their consent if information about their blood type is available to the authorities, she said. “The reason they won’t donate to charity is that they can barely support themselves, and that they need donations themselves,” Lu said, summarizing some of the many comments on the topic that were no longer visible on Weibo on Tuesday. The resistance to investing in property is linked to overpricing and the fear of becoming a “mortgage slave,” current affairs commentator Tianluke told RFA Mandarin, using his pen-name “Pilgrim” for fear of reprisals. “The economic situation in China is very bad right now,” Tianluke said. “A lot of people have been laid off, and there are a lot of graduates who are unemployed.” And some people are afraid of helping an elderly person in trouble in case they get accused of causing the problem they’re trying to address. It’s a “manifestation of the collapse of trust … in Chinese society,” he said. A young couple walk by a construction site near office buildings in the Central Business District in Beijing on March 2, 2024. (Andy Wong/AP) Yu, the essayist who wrote a Dec. 29 column for RFA Mandarin, said the various “don’ts” are all about avoiding the various “traps” set by the Communist Party – meaning people getting caught up in a system that exploits them for the benefit of the privileged political and financial elite. “Things such as donating money to charity, donating blood, and helping the elderly are all good deeds that are taken for granted in civilized countries,” he wrote. “But in China, they are all taken advantage of.” “The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer,” Yu wrote. “That’s why young Chinese people warn each other to avoid these traps to avoid disaster.” ‘Kids have no future’ Meanwhile, censors have deleted an article that questions the value of hothousing children through the highly competitive education system — a defining behavior of the country’s middle class. The article, titled “Middle-class kids have no future,” was unavailable “due to violations of regulations” on Tuesday, though copies were still visible outside China’s Great Firewall of internet censorship. People tour by a deserted shopping mall in Beijing on Feb. 19, 2024. (Andy Wong/AP) The blog post tells the tale of a successful Shanghai parent whose son didn’t want to study any more, because he wasn’t naturally good at passing exams, and didn’t see the point. He started delivering food in the evenings instead, to earn some money. In a follow-up post in which he reports that the article has been taken down, the blogger argues that only gifted kids should compete for spots at top schools, because the rest are effectively only there as “cannon fodder” for the competitive system. “It’s the middle-class trap, isn’t it?” commented X user @passi0nateGirl under RFA’s X post about the article. “Nowadays, the middle class can wind up back in poverty due to sickness, unemployment, a property crash, badly performing stocks, or a company partner running away.” Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
China’s ‘little pinks’ go after drinks maker over ‘Japanese’ styling
Shares of Chinese soft drink maker Nongfu Spring have dropped after some consumers said they were boycotting their products due to a perceived lack of patriotism, and posted videos of themselves on social media dumping out their contents. Hong Kong-listed shares in Hangzhou-based Nongfu Spring slid 7.7% from HK$44.60 on Feb. 29 to HK$41.20 on March 5, as online nationalists launched a boycott at the start of the annual National People’s Congress, which ended Monday. Users shared photos of labels on some of the company’s spring water bottles, complaining that it depicted a Japanese temple. Others likened a Greek letter on the company’s bottled jasmine tea to the shape of Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where the Japanese war dead are remembered. Others targeted the company’s founder and China’s richest man Zhong Shanshan, calling him a profiteer, and pointing out that his son Zhong Shuzi is an American citizen, citing the company’s 2020 prospectus. Still others said the red bottle cap used on Nongfu Spring water bottles recalled the red sun emblem in the Japanese national flag. Zhong Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring, gestures during a speech at a press conference in Beijing, May 6, 2013. (CNS via/ AFP) Nongfu Spring responded on March 8, saying that the labels on its Oriental Leaf Green Tea bottles are based on a Chinese temple, and pointing to text on the label which mentions that the Japanese art of tea-drinking originated in China. “The content is not only authentic but also meticulously sourced, with the intention of highlighting the profound impact of Chinese tea and tea culture on a global scale, thereby showcasing a strong sense of national pride and confidence,” the company said in comments reported in the nationalistic Global Times newspaper. Targets of wrath The statement appears to have done little to mollify the “little pinks,” a nickname for zealously patriotic supporters of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. On Sunday, two branches of 7-Eleven in the eastern province of Jiangsu said they had pulled all Nongfu Spring products from the shelves, saying that they won’t sell products that “adulate Japan,” the paper reported. Nongfu Spring hasn’t been the only target of nationalists’ ire in recent days, either. They have also gone after Nobel literature laureate Mo Yan for hurting their feelings by “insulting the People’s Liberation Army, late Chairman Mao Zedong, and the Chinese people.” Mo’s work “Red Sorghum,” which was made into a 1987 film starring Gong Li, “vilified the Eighth Route Army” and “insulted revolutionary martyrs,” according to some comments, while others demanded compensation for hurt feelings and “reputational damage.” Chinese Literature Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, center, leaves following a panel discussion at the Beijing International Book Fair in Beijing, Aug. 23, 2017. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) Netizens also took aim at Beijing’s Tsinghua University for being the only top university that hasn’t been targeted for U.S. sanctions. China has laws banning insults to revolutionary heroes and martyrs, as well as to the national anthem, its soldiers and police force. You’re hurting my feelings Its lawmakers are also considering a law criminalizing “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people,” a stock phrase frequently used by Chinese officials and state media to criticize speech or actions by outsiders that Beijing disapproves of. Under a proposed amendment to the Public Security Administration Law, wearing the wrong T-shirt or complaining about China online could lead to a fine of up to 5,000 yuan (US$680) or 15 days in jail. The law doesn’t specify what kind of acts might do such a thing, but does warn that “denying the deeds” of revolutionary heroes and martyrs or defacing their public memorials would count. “Sometimes it’s directly organized by the government, and sometimes it’s not — it’s just people jumping on the bandwagon,” political commentator Ji Feng said. He said the hate campaign against Mo Yan recalled the public denunciations of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, and the Anti-Rightist Movement of the 1950s. If such denunciations continue, Ji warned that they will eventually target people who say nothing at all, and eventually move on to include those who don’t sing the praises of the Communist Party or its leaders loudly enough, “layer by layer.” Hard-wired U.S.-based political commentator Hu Ping said both Mo Yan and Nongfu Spring were once considered to be firmly inside the Chinese political establishment, and they are now next in line because public figures who supported democracy have long since been dealt with. “[Their targets] are getting more and more left-wing, because there’s nobody left on the other side of the political spectrum,” Hu said. “So they just find the most liberal-minded person and attack them, which we all think is pretty ridiculous.” Members of security look on after the opening session of the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2024. (Pedro Pardo/AFP) Independent political scholar Chen Daoyin said patriotism has become hard-wired into China’s legislation, administrative regulations and throughout law enforcement under the leadership of Xi Jinping. “Anyone deploying this kind of patriotic [attack] is protected by these structures, so internet censors wouldn’t dare to stop them, or they might get burned themselves,” Chen said. He said nationalistic witch hunts drive huge amounts of traffic on Chinese social media platforms, suggesting that the latest wave of “little pink” activity wasn’t driven by any government order. “It was a spontaneous thing, and purely driven by economic motives.” Mo, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012, has yet to respond publicly to the criticisms of his work. British-Chinese writer Ma Jian said totalitarian regimes lend themselves to such dramas in the absence of freely available information. “When a totalitarian country has eliminated true patriots, and anyone with a sense of morality or justice … then when the mob starts to bite there is nowhere they won’t go once they take the opportunity,” Ma said. “We will continue to see stories like this, and the most extreme kind of absurdities — it won’t just be…
Week-long battle in northern Myanmar displaces over 110,000
Week-long fighting between the junta and a northern ethnic army is responsible for mass displacement in Myanmar, locals told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. Junta troops entered Hsihseng city in western Shan state on March 3, where gunshots could still be heard as of Monday at noon, said one Hsisheng resident, asking for anonymity. “The battle is still going on. The junta based in Hsaik Hkawng village and Bang Yin city are shelling towards Hsihseng city,” he said. “On March 3, the junta troops returned to enter Hsihseng city, and the fighting has been going on ever since and hasn’t stopped yet.” The Pa’O National Liberation Army captured Hsihseng on Jan. 22, causing junta troops and the allied Pa-O National Army to retaliate with heavy weapons and airstrikes. The Pa-O National Liberation Army is an insurgent group composed of the Pa-O, an ethnic group native to northeast Myanmar’s Shan state. More than 100,000 people from six urban Hsihseng neighborhoods and 60 villages in Hsihseng township have fled to safety, as have the residents of 31 villages in neighboring Hopong township. Fighting also resumed in southern Shan state’s Pinlaung township on Saturday, forcing nearly 10,000 civilians from 17 villages to temporarily relocate. A Pinlaung resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA on Monday that fighting between the junta and Karenni Nationalities Defense Forces and allied Pa-O National Liberation Army resumed in the township after junta troops carried out an offensive. “The junta army carried out the offensive and confronted them there. It’s been three days since March 9,” he said. On Sunday and Monday, fighting grew more intense as the junta began using airstrikes and heavy weapons, he added. Heavy damage in southern Shan state The renewed conflict has killed nearly 50 civilians and injured 60 more from Jan. 22 to March 11, despite a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement signed by both the Pa-O National Liberation Army and junta officials in Hsihseng, Hopong and Loilen townships, according to the Pa-O Youth Organization. Roughly half of the dead were killed by airstrikes or heavy weapons, among them five children, according to the youth organization’s Monday statement. “The military council has increased the airstrikes and drone bombings in the Hsihseng city battles. In Hopong’s Mae Nel mountain ridge, the junta carried out an airstrike when the locals returned after fighting calmed on March 8,” said Nan, a spokeswoman of the Pa-O Youth Organization. “It killed a man on the spot in Kyauk Ka Char village, Hopong township. About 10 houses were damaged, although there was no fighting in that village.” In some areas, civilians are continuing to die from airstrikes, she added. Thirteen of the near 50 deaths occurred when people died after being arrested and interrogated by the junta. Eight people, including those internally displaced, died due to other causes. Four children were among the 60 injured. Airstrikes injured 36 people, artillery shells injured 18 and six were injured by landmines and other causes, according to the statement. The junta army fired over 1,500 explosives, and conducted over 400 attacks by air and drones, destroying nearly two hundred homes, as well as 15 religious buildings. RFA reached out to Shan state’s junta spokesperson Khun Thein Maung to confirm the organization’s statistics, but he did not answer calls. In early 2023, conflict killed more than 30 civilians and displaced more than 10,000 during fierce battles between the Karenni National Defense Forces, affiliated resistance groups, or People’s Defense Forces, and junta troops in Pinlaung township. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
Videos appear to show Myanmar military training Rohingyas
Videos have emerged on social media in recent days that appear to show junta personnel providing military training to ethnic Muslim Rohingyas at a site in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, amid reports of forced recruitment around the country. On Feb. 10, the junta imposed a military draft law – officially called the People’s Military Service Law – prompting civilians of fighting age to flee Myanmar’s cities. Many said they would rather leave the country or join anti-junta forces in remote border areas than serve in the military, which seized power in a 2021 coup d’etat. The junta has sought to downplay the announcement, claiming that conscription won’t go into effect until April, but RFA has received several reports indicating that forced recruitment is already under way. Two videos emerged on Facebook over the weekend showing junta troops training a group of people wearing full military uniforms in the use of firearms and around 30 armed people wearing fatigues inside of a military vehicle. They were posted to the site with a description that identifies the subjects as Rohingyas. A third video, posted on March 7, shows junta Rakhine State Security and Border Affairs Minister Co. Kyaw Thura visiting a warehouse where hundreds of people, believed to be Rohingyas, are seated in military attire. RFA was unable to independently verify the content of the videos. Reports suggest the junta has been forcibly recruiting Rohingyas in Rakhine in recent weeks, and residents told RFA Burmese that the video shows members of the ethnic group receiving training at a site in the north of the state, although they were unable to provide an exact location. They said that junta personnel have detained and enlisted around 700 Rohingyas for military training from the Rakhine townships of Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Kyaukphyu, as well as the capital Sittwe, since the Feb. 10 announcement, with the goal of forming a militia. In Kyaukphyu, the training has progressed to using firearms, said a resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “It is known that the current training phase involves firearms practice,” the resident said Monday. “Gunfire has been heard over the past two or three days, although the training regimen varies daily.” Many of the detainees are living at Kyaukphyu’s Kyauk Ta Lone camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, where on Feb. 29 junta authorities forcibly gathered 107 mostly ethnic-Rohingya Muslims between the ages of 18 and 35 at the camp’s food warehouse, after collecting their personal information. Former military captain Nyi Thuta, who now advises the armed resistance as part of the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement, questioned why the military regime is forcibly recruiting the Rohingya when it has refused to grant them citizenship. “These people are being coerced and manipulated in various ways into fighting to the death for the junta, which is facing defeat in [the civil] war,” he said. ‘No way to escape’ Some 1 million Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh since 2017, when they were driven out of Myanmar by a military clearance operation. Another 630,000 living within Myanmar are designated stateless by the United Nations, including those who languish in camps and are restricted from moving freely in Rakhine state. Rights campaigners say the junta is drafting Rohingya into military service to stoke ethnic tensions in Rakhine, while legal experts say the drive is unlawful, given that Myanmar has refused to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s ethnic groups and denied them citizenship for decades. People who appear to be Rohingya Muslims ride in the back of a military vehicle, March 9, 2024. (Image from citizen journalist video) Myanmar’s military is desperate for new recruits after suffering devastating losses on the battlefield to the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, in Rakhine state. Since November, when the AA ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the coup, the military has surrendered Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Myay Pon and Taung Pyo townships in the state, as well as Paletwa township in neighboring Chin state. On Feb. 28, the pro-junta New Light of Myanmar claimed that Rohingya had not been recruited for military service because they aren’t citizens. Attempts by RFA to reach Hla Thein, the junta’s attorney general and spokesperson for Rakhine state, went unanswered Monday. Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, condemned the coercion of members of his ethnic group into military service as a “war crime.” “They wield power and resort to coercion and arrests,” he said, adding that he believes the junta’s goal is to “obliterate the Rohingya community.” “I perceive this as part of a genocidal agenda.” Earlier this month, the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG – made up of former civilian leaders ousted in the coup – warned that Rohingya were being pressed into duty by the military “because there is no way to escape.” Kachin youth fleeing recruitment Meanwhile, residents of Kachin state said Monday that young people in the area are increasingly fleeing abroad or to areas controlled by the armed resistance to avoid military service. The draft law says males between the ages of 18 and 35 and females between 18 and 27 must serve in the military. A draft-eligible resident of Kachin’s Myitkyina township said that he and others like him “no longer feel safe” in Myanmar. “Since the conscription law was enacted, it has become quite difficult for us to realize our dreams,” he said. “It isn’t even safe to go out to a restaurant. We feel threatened daily.” People stand in line to get visas at the embassy of Thailand in Yangon on Feb. 16, 2024. (AFP) But even for those who have left the country, life can be difficult abroad. A young Kachin named Ma La Bang who recently relocated to Thailand said he doesn’t have a visa to stay in the country legally, and told RFA that people like him worry about being forced to return home. “Young people living…
The US need not appease the Communist Party to engage with Vietnam
The death last month of William Beecher, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who, among other scoops, revealed the Nixon administration’s secret bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, ought to make us remember two things: First: Washington has been guilty of criminality abroad, especially when it believes that noble-ish ends justify brutal means. And second, despite those who regard the U.S. government as perpetually conspiratorial, Washington is bad at keeping secrets. Obsessed with the idea that the Viet Cong’s persistence could be traced to allies or resources external to Vietnam—namely Cambodia and Laos—and that the will of the communist North, and thus its ally, the Soviet Union, could be overcome by displays of mass destruction, the Nixon and then Ford administrations resorted to great iniquities for the sake of the purported greater good. They also courted unsavory allies. The same logic led the U.S. to continue supporting the genocidal Khmer Rouge in Cambodia after – and because – it was overthrown by Vietnam, and because it was backed by Beijing, the budding U.S. Cold War partner at the time. Cambodians flee Khmer Rouge insurgents during artillery shelling of Phnom Penh, Jan. 28, 1974. (AP) There are signs of this old fixation in Washington on viewing events in Southeast Asia solely through Cold War politics in U.S. engagement with Vietnam. There are still some people in Vietnam who resent the United States for abandoning the South to the communists in 1975, although most people who think this way risked their lives and fled abroad in the late 1970s. Today, a younger generation, while not nostalgic for the corrupt and dictatorial Republic of Vietnam in Saigon, is becoming resentful that Washington appears to be doing its utmost to entrench the Communist Party of Vietnam’s (CPV) rule. On my last visit to Vietnam, in late 2022, I met up with prison-scarred pro-democracy activists who cannot quite stomach the fact that the laudatory “reconciliation” since the 1990s between the former enemies has been conducted to ensure maximum exposure for the communist regime. In 2015, for instance, the Obama administration broke protocol when it invited Nguyen Phu Trong, the CPV general secretary, on a state visit, a privilege usually only offered to heads of government or state. When President Joe Biden traveled to Hanoi in September to upgrade relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, he didn’t have to sign the improved partnership deal alongside Trong; he could have done so with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh or State President Vo Van Thuong. Blurring the lines But by signing it alongside the party boss Trong, Washington symbolically implied it bought into the communist propaganda that the CPV is the Vietnamese state. “The degree to which the U.S. is willing to blur the lines between the Vietnamese state and the CPV represents the most substantial recognition of the CPV-led regime by Washington thus far, marking a significant achievement for both the CPV and Trong,” wrote prominent Vietnamese academic Hoang Thi Ha in October. This is playing out even as quite a few senior CPV apparatchiks, including the general secretary, still think that Washington is plotting “peaceful evolution,” a communist euphemism for regime change that long predates the “color revolutions” modern-day autocrats fear. As one democracy campaigner told me, in fact, Washington is effectively engaged in supporting the political status quo in Vietnam and is making the lives of reformers much more difficult. They can, he said, no longer count on rhetorical support from the U.S.. In the past, when trying to convert others to their cause, they could have at least pointed at speeches made by American officials who condemned the Hanoi regime’s repression. Not anymore. Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Barack Obama speak to reporters after their meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., July 7, 2015. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Washington officials push back. “We question whether public lecturing is the best plan of action with countries that are seeking to work closely with us,” one told the Washington Post after Biden’s visit to Vietnam in September. However, that overlooks the impact this has on the Vietnamese people. Without “public lecturing,” many Vietnamese reckon that the U.S. is no longer interested in human rights in Vietnam. Worse, some think that Washington is praising the communist regime, influencing their own opinions on whether its monopoly of power is legitimate or beneficial. Writing about Biden’s meeting with Trong in the Washington Post’s opinion page last year, Max Boot noted that “when Biden glad-hands Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and now Nguyen Phu Trong…he is, at the very least, open to the charge of hypocrisy in a way Trump was not.” But Boot added: “Sometimes you have to make common cause with the lesser evil to safeguard the greater good. That’s what Biden is doing in Hanoi.” Party state The case made by the human rights activists isn’t that the U.S. should have no relations with Vietnam; it’s that Washington shouldn’t be conducting this engagement so openly and cordially through the CPV. There is also no reason to think that if Washington is friendly enough to the communist regime, Vietnam is going to become the next Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally that allows it to station troops on its soil. Vietnam will never be an “ally,” in any meaningful sense, of the United States. And with the CPV in charge, Hanoi will not engage in containment of China. Some 90 days after Biden upgraded relations, Trong met with President Xi Jinping and signed Vietnam up to China’s “Community with a Shared Future.” “[Washington is] in thrall to the idea that Vietnam can be part of an anti-China group. That idea is nonsense.” said analyst Bill Hayton. Those who truly seek an alliance with Vietnam to contain China should logically support regime change in Vietnam that produces a nationalist government in Hanoi that would be more receptive to the anti-Chinese voices of the masses…
Embattled Hong Kong women rights defenders deserve support and solidarity
On International Women’s Day, as we celebrate the rights of women around the world and shine a spotlight on inspiring women, the women of Hong Kong who have paid a high price for fighting for equal rights and for basic rights and freedoms under an increasingly intolerant government. Women human rights defenders face gender-based challenges and restrictions that drive them to use alternative strategies in their activism to achieve their goals and overcome obstacles. They have demonstrated immense bravery and perseverance in the Hong Kong that has emerged since the imposition in 2020 of the National Security Law. During the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, young women were prominent in protests, and many faced gender-based and sexual violence. In particular, a number of women reported sexual assault and harassment by the Hong Kong police when they were in detention or in other forms of custody. Few of these cases were prosecuted and the perpetrators have not been held accountable to this date. Many women from Hong Kong said that gender-based and sexual violence was a known phenomenon, particularly at the hands of the police. They added that they would not file a complaint, because the investigation would also be conducted by the police, who were unlikely to hold their own officers accountable. Riot police detain a woman as anti-government protesters gather at Sha Tin Mass Transit Railway station in Hong Kong, Sept. 25, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) The women acknowledge the violations that they faced were an unfortunate part of pro-democracy activism, and although they did what they could to avoid assault and protect themselves, it was still worth the risk when fighting for democracy and rights and freedom in Hong Kong. In 2023, I wrote a submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on behalf of Hong Kong Watch, about these issues. I provided statistics and case studies, and interviewed women human rights defenders about their own experiences of gender-based and sexual violence, as well as what they observed around them. It was chilling to learn that such violations against women were normalized and that there were so few tools for accountability. But it is nevertheless inspiring to see these strong women persevere. At the United Nations in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women did raise concerns about women’s rights in Hong Kong. The body urged the Hong Kong government to hold perpetrators accountable and strengthen the framework to protect women’s rights. They also warned the Hong Kong government against using national security and public order measures in a way that could violate women’s rights. A year on, the Hong Kong government has yet to implement these recommendations or show that they are taking women’s rights seriously. Chow Hang-tung At the top of the list of women deserving support on this day is Chow Hang-tung. The former vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Chow was charged with “inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly” for a Tiananmen Square Massacre vigil in 2021. Remanded in custody since September 2021, Chow, an activist and lawyer, faces a potential 10 years in jail if convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” in a trial that is expected to begin in late 2024. Having reviewed her circumstances, the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Chow was arbitrarily detained, should be released immediately, and that her treatment is in contravention of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Hong Kong is a signatory. Activist and barrister Chow Hang-tung arrives at the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong on June 8, 2023. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP) Chow faces a number of very serious violations to her rights and freedoms, some of which are related to her gender. One thing is clear: she deserves to be free and to exercise her rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Chow remains calm and poised and a source of hope for many of us who stand up to the Hong Kong government, as well as the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. She has not given up and shows no sign of doing so. This year, Chow was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Swedish MP Guri Melby. Her brave and principled peaceful activism against the Chinese Communist Party makes her a deserving candidate. Chow has made immense sacrifices for the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, as well as the people of China. Article 23 advances Many more women in Hong Kong languish behind bars, many of whom are political prisoners, in the jurisdiction that has the highest percentage of women prisoners in the world. This includes women who have been arrested and charged under the 2020 National Security Law and the sedition law. Also on the list are women who were former key personnel at Apple Daily, former members of the Legislative Council, former district councilors, and many others. International Women’s Day this year coincided with the publication and Legislative Council reading of the Safeguarding National Security Bill, under Article 23 of the Basic Law in Hong Kong. Lawmakers take part in reading the draft of the Safeguarding National Security Bill at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on March 8, 2024. (Li Zhihua/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images) This fast-tracked law is set to prohibit new types of offences, and has proposed provisions which are vague and will criminalise the peaceful exercise of human rights while dramatically undermining due process and fair trial rights in Hong Kong. The bill will contribute to institutional violations of human rights, including women’s rights, in Hong Kong, and it is something the world must condemn and stand up against. Many human rights defenders, including many women human rights activists, are taking action today to raise awareness and coordinate responses to this Bill. On International Women’s Day, the strong women of Hong Kong who have fought for equality and against…
Myanmar’s Arakan Army draws closer to region’s capital
An ethnic rebel army captured a city near the capital of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, locals told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. The Arakan Army continued its offensive through the state by claiming victory in Ponnagyun city, which sits just 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of capital city, Sittwe. The rebel army has captured six townships across Rakhine state and another in neighboring Chin state to the north since breaking a year-long ceasefire in November. Arakan Army soldiers captured Ponnagyun on Monday, the first city in Sittwe district. A Sittwe resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA that the nearby battle alarmed residents in the city, causing them to flee en masse before the army could advance toward the coastal capital. “Since the Arakan Army captured Ponnagyun, we don’t have electricity in Sittwe. Many people are fleeing because the fighting is getting closer to Sittwe,” he said, adding that about 300 people are fleeing daily. “Mainly elderly and young people are fleeing.” Most locals are heading to townships already captured by the Arakan Army, such as Pauktaw, Kyauktaw, Minbya and Mrauk-U, he said. Others are escaping to Yangon by air. Sittwe airport, Rakhine state on Nov. 20, 2023. (RFA) Rakhine state does not have a functional railway, and junta-imposed travel bans have made it difficult for people to escape by land and sea. Junta soldiers based in Sittwe have still enforced a curfew, residents said, adding that signs of military preparation are noticeable in the city and countryside as the Arakan Army approaches. Escalating Conflict Sittwe township is home to nearly 150,000 people, and residents say half of the township’s population has left. However, RFA has not yet been able to independently confirm the claim. Many residents forced to stay in Sittwe amidst war preparations simply can’t afford to leave, they explained. According to a statement by the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released on Wednesday, the escalating battles have displaced some 148,500 people since fighting began on Nov. 13. On Feb. 29, junta troops fired a shell into a crowded market in Sittwe, which killed 12 and critically injured 18 more. Residents are also feeling the junta’s grasping attempt for control on other cities in Arakan Army territory. In Rakhine state’s Minbya township, junta aerial attacks have damaged an elementary school and several houses. Troops dropped explosives on Ann Thar village late at night on Wednesday, residents said. An Ann Thar resident told RFA on Thursday that the only school in the village was completely destroyed. “A jet dropped four 200-pound bombs at around 11.40 p.m.,” he said. “The casualties are still unknown and the telecommunication has been cut off.” The village was attacked on Feb. 29, when another jet dropped explosives and damaged four homes, he added. RFA contacted Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein for more information on fighting in Sittwe district and Minbya township, but he did not answer the phone. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
Junta imposes martial law in rebel-controlled Shan state townships
Myanmar’s junta has declared martial law in three northern Shan state townships seized by ethnic rebels during an ongoing offensive, prompting concern from residents who fear the military is planning a push to retake the areas. The junta has declared martial law in more than 60 townships across the country, including in Sagaing, Magwe, Tanintharyi and Bago regions, as well as in Chin state. The designation has been used as a justification by the military to impose heavy punishments on residents on the basis of suspicion alone. Observers say the junta had refrained from declaring martial law in Namhsan, Mantong and Namtu townships in northern Shan state with the hope the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, would join a ceasefire agreement. The declaration, announced Monday, is an indication that negotiations have stalled, they said. The TNLA, the Arakan Army, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army together make up the ethnic Three Brotherhood Alliance, which in October launched an offensive known as Operation 1027 against the military in northern Shan state, which borders China. Less than two months after the start of Operation 1027, the TNLA captured Namsan, Mantong and Namtu, on Dec. 15, 22 and 28. Since then, the ethnic army’s top leadership has regularly conducted public meetings with what they say is an emphasis on a “community-based governance system” in the townships. In Namtu, municipal, healthcare and electricity services have been restored, according to residents, and inhabitants who fled earlier fighting have mostly returned home. While the TNLA remains the de facto leadership in the three townships, the junta’s imposition of martial law technically transfers their administrative and judicial oversight to the commander of the military’s Northeastern Command, based in the region’s largest town Lashio. Residents told RFA Burmese that the declaration of martial law came “just as the situation began to stabilize,” and said they now fear renewed clashes between the military and the TNLA. “We are now under TNLA governance, and the junta no longer exists here,” said a resident of Namtu who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. Now that martial law has been declared, it’s as if they could attack us whenever they want.” All three townships are within 160 kilometers (100 miles) of the Northeastern Command, the resident noted, which “adds to our unease.” “We may need to prepare trenches and bomb shelters once again,” she said. ‘Even less secure’ A resident of Namsan told RFA that while the situation in her township wasn’t safe before, “now it feels even less secure.” “The use of airplanes to drop bombs and the indiscriminate use of heavy weaponry add to our concerns,” she said. “While some people have not yet returned to their homes, others have just come back.” An official from the TNLA news and information department told RFA that the junta’s declaration of martial law in the three townships was no surprise. “That’s just what they do,” he said. “During the height of fighting, the junta declared martial law in [eight northern Shan state] townships … now, post-battle, announcing martial law in these three townships aligns with their strategic approach.” On Nov. 12, as Operation 1027 reached a crescendo, the junta declared martial law in the townships of Lashio, Kutkai, Kunlong, Hsenwi, Namhkam, Muse, and Chinshwehaw, as well as in Laukkai, in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone. A curfew remains in effect in the townships, with movement restricted between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am. The Three Brotherhood Alliance captured 16 cities in Shan state, including Muse and Chinshwehaw, as part of the offensive before agreeing to a ceasefire in China-brokered talks with junta representatives on Jan. 11. An ex-military official later said it was not sustainable and less than a week after the agreement, both sides were accused of violating it in a skirmish. Last week, the two sides met again in the Chinese city of Kunming for talks that focused on reopening parts of the border with China that had been shut down during the fighting and preserving the ceasefire. ‘It’s clear they’ve given up’ But a political commentator and former military officer told RFA that peace in northern Shan state remains tenuous. He said that while the junta had been holding out hope that the TNLA would join Myanmar’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, or NCA, the declaration of martial law in the townships under its control indicates that the military leadership no longer sees that as an option. “[The junta was] indecisive from the beginning, and even was vacillating [on how to deal with the TNLA],” he said. “Now, it’s clear that they’ve given up trying [to bring them into the NCA].” The NCA was introduced in 2015 to end years of fighting over minority rights and self-determination. Since then, some 10 ethnic groups have signed the agreement. Ta’ang National Liberation Army troops pose after capturing a Myanmar junta camp in Mantong on Dec. 23, 2023. (PSLF/TNLA News and Information Department) The junta’s declaration of martial law in Namhsan, Mantong and Namtu follows a Jan. 28 declaration in the Shan state townships of Mongmit and Mabein. The two townships had earlier been seized by the Kachin Independence Army. The latest declaration brings to 13 the number of townships under martial law in Shan state. Township captured The imposition of martial law on Namsan, Mantong and Namtu came amid reports on Tuesday that the Arakan Army, or AA, had captured Ponnagyun township in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where it continues to battle the military despite the Three Brotherhood Alliance ceasefire in Shan state. In a statement, the AA claimed that Ponnagyun is under its “complete control” after 13 days of fighting, from Feb. 21 to March 4, culminating in the capture of the military’s Light Infantry Division 550 base there on Monday. It said its fighters had seized “several bodies” of junta troops, including that of junta Tactical Commander Col. Myo Min Ko Ko, Light Infantry Battalion 208 Commander Col….
