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Church in village of Myanmar’s Catholic leader bombed in junta raid

Editor05 mins

Read RFA coverage of these topics in Burmese. Junta forces damaged a church in the home village of Myanmar’s most prominent Christian, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, one of several religious buildings destroyed in fighting between the military and pro-democracy forces, residents told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. Bo, Myanmar’s Roman Catholic leader, lives in the main city of Yangon and was not in Mon Hla village, in the central Sagaing region, when a junta drone bombed St. Michael’s Church on Wednesday night. “They’ve destroyed an entire side of the church, the whole right side,” said one woman in the village, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals. The church’s bell tower and nave were also damaged, she said. Opponents of the junta have accused the military of targeting Christian and Muslim places of worship, destroying hundreds of them in its campaign against insurgent forces and their suspected civilian supporters. Bo has in the past called for attacks on places of worship to end and in 2022, he called for dialogue after a raid by junta forces on his home village. The junta’s spokesman in the Sagaing region said he “didn’t know the details of the situation yet.” About a third of Mon Hla’s population are Roman Catholic, rare for a community in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar’s central heartlands. Its residents trace their origins back to Portuguese adventurers who arrived before British colonial rule. Residents said it was not clear why the military attacked the village as there was no fighting with anti-junta forces there at the time. Thirteen people were wounded in two previous attacks on the village in October, they said. There were no reports of casualties in the Wednesday night attack on Mon Hla. Many villagers fled from their homes the next day when drones reappeared in the sky, the woman said. “We had to flee yesterday. Then today, the drones retreated so we could return. Now, we’ve fled again,” she said. The Sagaing region has seen some of the worst of the violence that has swept Myanmar since the military overthrew an elected government in early 2021. Insurgents groups set up by pro-democracy activists are waging a guerrilla campaign in many parts of Sagaing, harassing junta forces with attacks on their posts and ambushes of their convoys. The military has responded with extensive airstrikes, artillery shelling and, increasingly, drone attacks. In Kanbalu township, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the north of Mon Hla, junta forces attacked two villages, Kyi Su and Kyauk Taing, torching about 400 homes including two Buddhist monasteries and two mosques, residents there told RFA. “Our people had to run from the bombs dropped by drones,” said one resident of Kyi Su. “But for those who ran, their homes were raided and burned.” “Two monasteries are in ashes and two of our Muslim mosques are unusable.” Residents said many of the destroyed homes were simple, thatch huts, put up to replace homes destroyed in earlier fighting. RELATED STORIES Mass killings on the rise in Myanmar for fourth straight year Myanmar junta forces kill dozens in attack on monasteries Aid workers arrested, killed amid junta crackdown in Myanmar Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Marshall Islands wins Human Rights Council seat with climate, nuclear justice agenda

Editor06 mins

Marshall Islands was elected on Wednesday to sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council, or HRC, from next year, with climate change and nuclear justice as its top priorities. Currently there are no Pacific island nations represented on the 47-member peak U.N. human rights body. Marshall Islands stood with the full backing of the Pacific Islands Forum, or PIF, and its 18 presidents and prime ministers. The HRC’s mission is to promote and protect human rights and oversee U.N. processes including investigative mechanisms and to advise the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Addressing the General Assembly in September, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine warned that “common multilateral progress is failing us in the hour of greatest need, perhaps most at risk are human rights.” She said accountability must apply to all nations “without exception or double standard.” “Our own unique legacy and complex challenges with nuclear testing impacts, with climate change, and other fundamental challenges, informs our perspective, that the voices of the most vulnerable must never be drowned out,” she said in New York on Sept. 25. Aerial view of a surge of unexpected waves swamping the island of Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands, pictured Jan. 21, 2024. (Jessica Dambruc /U.S. Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll/AFP) In 2011, Marshall Islands along with Palau issued a pioneering call at the General Assembly to urgently seek an advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice on industrialized nations’ obligations to reduce carbon emissions. While they were unsuccessful then, it laid the foundation for a resolution finally adopted in 2023, with the court due to begin public hearings this December. Heine has been highly critical of the wealthy nations who “break their pledges, as they double down on fossil fuels.” “This failure of leadership must stop. No new coal mines, no new gas fields, no new oil wells,” she told the General Assembly. When Marshall Islands takes up its council seat next year, it will be alongside Indonesia and France. Both have been in Heine’s sights over the human and self-determination rights of the indigenous people of the Papuan provinces and New Caledonia respectively. For years Indonesia has rebuffed a request from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for an independent fact-finding mission in Papua and ignored the Pacific Islands Forum’s calls since 2019 to allow it to go ahead. “We support ongoing Forum engagement with Indonesia and West Papua, to better understand stakeholders, and to ensure human rights,” she told the General Assembly. In May, deadly violence erupted in New Caledonia over a now abandoned French government proposal to dilute the Kanak vote, putting the success of any future independence referendum for the territory out of reach. Heine said she “looks forward to the upcoming high-level visit” by PIF leaders to New Caledonia. No dates have been agreed. President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands Hilda Heine addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., Sept. 25, 2024. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz) Countries elected to the council are expected to demonstrate their commitment to the U.N.’s human rights standards and mechanisms. An analysis of Marshall Islands votes during its only previous term with the council in 2021 by Geneva-based think tank Universal Rights Group found it joined the consensus or voted in favor of almost all resolutions. Exceptions include resolutions on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories where it “has generally voted against,” the report released ahead of the HRC election said. As part of its bid to join the council, Marshall Islands committed to reviewing U.N. instruments it has not yet signed, including protocols on civil and political rights, abolition of the death penalty, torture and rights of children. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Myanmar junta forces kill, mutilate villagers, insurgents say

Editor08 mins

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar junta soldiers massacred and mutilated at least 25 villagers in revenge for an insurgent attack and impaled some of the victims on stakes as a warning, anti-junta forces in the strife-torn central region of Sagaing told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. Various pro-democracy insurgent factions in Sagaing have been waging a sustained guerrilla campaign on the military this year, attacking junta positions and convoys in the arid, heartland region dominated by members of the majority Burman community. The bloody military campaign in Budalin township, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of the city of Mandalay, followed a Sept. 30 insurgent attack on a military position near Si Par village in which 30 junta troops were killed and 40 were captured, insurgents said.  A junta column of more than 100 soldiers started raiding villages in Budalin on Oct. 4, arresting scores of people as well as killing suspected rebels sympathizers over the next two weeks, Min Han Htet, a senior member of an insurgent faction called the Student Armed Forces, told RFA. “We’ve determined that they’ve killed no less than 25 people. The nature of the killings was very cruel,” he said.  “They decapitated them, they cut off their arms and legs. The corpses were planted on fences. Those are the types of scenes we’ve encountered.” RFA tried to contact the junta’s main spokesperson, Zaw Min Tun, to ask about the situation in Sagaing but he did not answer the telephone. The Office of the Chief of Army Staff denied in a statement on Monday that soldiers had killed six people in Si Par village.  Min Han Htet said seven people from Myauk Kyi village were killed, six from Si Par, six from Budalin town, two from Ta Yaw Taw village, one from Se Taw and several others who had yet to be accounted for. Details from areas being occupied by the military, including Saing Pyin Lay village, were difficult to ascertain, an aid group said. The soldiers responsible for the killings were under the authority of the Northwest Military Command, based in the town of Monywa, and included members of the 33rd Battalion, insurgent sources said. About 300 homes were burned in the security sweep by junta forces, who were backed up by numerous airstrikes, Min Han Htet said. Residents of the region estimated that more than 100,000 people had fled from their homes in the area. Internally displaced people in Budalin township, Sagaing region, on May 21, 2024. ( Citizen Photo) ‘March on’ Thet Oo, information officer for the Sagaing People’s Support Network, which tries to help victims of the conflict, said nearly 15,000 displaced people were in urgent need of help. “What they mainly need are things like rice, cooking oil and other provisions, as well as medicines to care for their health,” he said. “If they stay in their village during storms and rain, in the cool and wet seasons, they need shelters.” The United Nations says more than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting in Myanmar this year. The shadow civilian National Unity Government, or NUG, set up by pro-democracy politicians after the military overthrew a civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in early 2021, denounced the killing and mutilation of villagers and reiterated a call for the outside world to stop supplying arms to a military that murders its people. “What does the international community expect of a terrorist group that commits such cruel atrocities?” said the NUG’s Minister of Human Rights Aung Myo Min. “People are dying. This isn’t a time to meet and talk about hopes for peace. Their actions aren’t indicative of peace,” he said, referring to a recent call by the junta for talks, which the opposition dismissed as window-dressing for a foreign audience. The NUG said at least 23 people were killed in Budalin township between Oct. 11 and Oct. 20, in 17 raids by the military, which included airstrikes on five villages. Junta forces had also used scores of villagers as human shields, the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights said in a statement. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners rights group said 26 people, including six childrens, were killed in Sagaing, this month, up to Oct. 22. Eleven of them died after being detained, it said. Min Han Htet said his group would step up its fight. “Although the enemy tries to scare us, we urge everyone to march on, unafraid, with our students and other revolutionary forces in Sagaing,” he said. RELATED STORIES A new generation in Myanmar risks their lives for change No limits to lawlessness of Myanmar’s predatory regime Month of fighting leaves once-bustling Myanmar town eerily quiet  Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Chea Mony: Leader of Cambodia’s new opposition party

Editor011 mins

It was in his first job as a teacher 30 years ago that Chea Mony, who last month became head of Cambodia’s newest opposition party, got involved in activism. Together with another young math teacher, Rong Chhun — who later became a prominent labor activist — they formed a teachers’ union to combat what they viewed as injustices at the school. “We were called ‘democratic teachers,’” Chea Mony, 55, told Radio Free Asia in an interview.  “I did not like corruption. I did not like to see an exploitation of our schoolteachers’ hours,” he said. “I did not like to see the students having to cross a river to go to school, and when they did not have the money to pay the boat fares, they were not allowed to take the boats to school.” “Because of that, we organized a protest,” he said. Chea Mony went on to become a leader of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, or CITA, which he founded with Rong Chhun. It worked closely with the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, led by his brother Chea Vichea. Chea Mony greets supporters after arriving at Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia, Feb. 1, 2006. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) After Chea Vichea, a popular union labor organizer and outspoken critic of former Prime Minister Hun Sen, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2004, the workers’ union elected Chea Mony as president.  Now, he faces the greatest challenge of his life as president of the National Power Party, or NPP, formed in 2023 to oppose the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, led by Prime Minister Hun Manet, son of longtime ruler Hun Sen. Squashing opposition For years, the CPP has acted to suppress any political opposition.  In 2017, the country’s top court dissolved the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party. The subsequent opposition Candlelight Party was barred from participating in 2023 elections on a technicality.  Police have arrested activists and political opponents — including Sun Chanthy, the NPP’s previous chief, who was jailed on incitement charges. RELATED STORIES Police arrest 3 Cambodian opposition party members Labor leader remembered 20 years after his assassination Candlelight Party tries to win over Nation Power Party Government-aligned unions sue Chea Mony over ‘appeal’ for sanctions against Cambodia “I have many years of experience as a civil society leader, and my struggle is fighting for freedom, for the benefit of justice,” he said.  ”So, for me as the current leader of the National Power Party, I am not paying attention to [anything else] because my struggle is to focus on freedom and people, and it is not illegal [to do so].” The NPP contested in Cambodia’s 2024 senate elections and the 2024 provincial elections, but none of its candidates won seats. Humble roots Born in Kratie province, in eastern Cambodia, Chea Mony grew up in Kandal province, which surrounds Phnom Penh, with his four brothers and two sisters. His father was a former civil servant during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum period, also known as the First Kingdom of Cambodia from 1955 to 1970 when Prince Norodom Sihanouk ruled. His mother, a housewife, died of an illness when he was young. His father was killed in 1976 by the Khmer Rouge, the radical communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and killed an estimated 2 million people through overwork, starvation or executions. Cambodian Buddhist monks pray near trade union leader Chea Vichea’s coffin during his funeral in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 25, 2004. (Chor Sokunthea/Reuters) After he graduated with a degree in chemistry from the Royal University of Phnom Penh in 1993, he taught at Hun Sen Saang High School in Saang district of Kandal province until 2000, when he transferred to Boeung Trabek High School in Phnom Penh. That was where he met Rong Chhun, who became chairman of the teachers’ union they founded, CITA. “Rong Chhun and I have the same character,” Chea Mony said. “We do not like oppression, exploitation and violation of rights.” During the late 1990s and early 2000s, CITA and the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia engaged in many demonstrations to demand higher wages for teachers and factory workers, and to pressure the government to respect human rights. Though his nonviolent activism resulted in dozens of lawsuits, authorities never arrested him.  “We are the union leaders; we have to sue for justice [for the workers],” he said. “I’ve always [led] strikes [by] demanding that a labor court to resolve labor disputes,” he said. “It is better to take the labor case to an arbitration tribunal.” 2017 lawsuit One of the most significant lawsuits against Chea Mony was filed by 120 pro-government unions in late 2017.  They accused him of inciting the European Union and the United States to inflict economic sanctions against Cambodia after Chea Mony gave an interview to RFA about the impact of such sanctions on government and factory workers, if imposed.  Chea Mony (C) walks with Sam Rainsy (foreground R), head of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, during a march to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of union leader Chea Vichea, in Phnom Penh, Jan. 22, 2014. (Heng Sinith/AP) This occurred after Hun Sen repeatedly invited the international community to immediately impose sanctions on his regime. The court proceeded quickly, deciding to summon and charge Chea Mony, who instead fled abroad to escape harassment by the court.  The case was dropped after Cambodia’s Labor Ministry settled it outside the court, following intervention by the International Labor Organization and a request by major garment buyers that the government drop the charges against Chea Mony and other union leaders. Rong Chhun, also 55, who is now an adviser to the NPP, described Chea Mony as a liberal and strong-willed advocate for democracy and respect for human rights. “He is also a sharp advocate, strong in the face of adversity, when leading demonstrations and strikes,” he said….

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Myanmar rebels seize major border gate near China

Editor04 mins

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Allied insurgent forces in northern Myanmar have captured a main junta post  near the border with China, an officer of the anti-junta Kachin Independence Army told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday, the latest setback for the military in the resource-rich region. The Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, is based in Myanmar’s northernmost state and is one of the most powerful groups battling for autonomy. It has made significant progress over the past year, capturing  rare earth and jade mines as well as routes for border trade with China.  KIA information officer Naw Bu told RFA the latest junta position to fall was the Border Guard Post No. 1003, on the Waingmaw-Kan Paik Ti road, from where junta forces defend nearby towns. “Forces captured the camp that was providing security to Kan Paik Ti town. After that, they also captured the camp in between Border Guard Posts No. 5 and 6,” he said.  “Also along the Bhamo-Momauk road, junta soldiers have been fighting intensely for two days after coming up with armored cars.” Kachin state has long been one of Myanmar’s opium growing regions and Naw Bu said junta troops were stationed near hundreds of acres of poppy fields in the area. RFA tried to telephone Kachin state’s junta spokesperson, Moe Min Thein, for information about the situation but calls went unanswered.  A resident of the area who declined to be identified for security reasons said fighting was still going on near the poppy fields forcing about 1,000 villagers to flee to Kan Paik Ti town for safety. “As for Kan Paik Ti, there are still junta soldiers, militia members and border guards there. Residents are worried about fighting there,” the resident said. Last week, KIA and allied forces captured military positions near the border town of Pang War, to the northeast of Kan Paik Ti and a major rare earth mining center. In response to the fighting, China closed border gates under KIA control late on Friday, refusing to allow civilians fleeing the area to enter, and trapping about 1,000 people. Since July, KIA and allied forces have captured 12 towns, including Mabein, Chipwi and Lwegel, as well as 220 camps across Kachin and northern Shan states.  Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Over a dozen children missing after Myanmar boat accident

Editor04 mins

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.  A boat carrying 70 people off the coast of southern Myanmar overturned on Sunday night and eight people were confirmed dead and 17 were missing, including children heading back to school after a holiday, a rescue worker told Radio Free Asia.  The crowded ferry capsized when it encountered strong currents soon after setting off from the island village of Kyauk Kar, bound for Myeik town to the south in the Tanintharyi region, said a resident of the area who declined to be identified due to media restrictions imposed by military authorities. “We only managed to recover eight bodies last night. There are a lot still missing,” said the rescue worker who also declined to be identified.  “There are also survivors. We don’t know the exact list. Right now, it’s chaos.” Boat accidents are common in Myanmar, both on its many rivers and off its coasts. Hundreds of commuters, migrant workers and refugees have been involved in accidents this year. The resident said students heading back to school after the Thadingyut holiday, along with their parents and others displaced by recent conflict in the area, were among the victims of the accident that occurred as the ferry was passing through a channel known for treacherous currents. “From Kyauk Kar there’s … the opening of the ocean where the current is too strong,” one resident said.  “When the current was too rough, due to the boat’s position and because it was top heavy, it overturned.” The eight people found dead were identified as seven women between the ages of 16 and 60, and a three-month-old boy, residents said.  According to a rescue committee, 47 people survived while 17 children were unaccounted for. Residents and civil society organizations were searching for more victims. The military has not published any information about the accident, and calls by RFA to Tanintharyi region’s junta spokesperson, Thet Naing, went unanswered.  RELATED STORIES Scores killed by Asia’s most powerful storm of the year Eight missing after boat accident in Myanmar’s Yangon 16 Myanmar workers missing in Golden Triangle boat accident  Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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In rare appeal, Tibetan calls for company to stop digging up river

Editor09 mins

A Tibetan from Sichuan province has made a rare public appeal on Chinese social media, calling on authorities to take action against a company that he accuses of illegally extracting sand and gravel from a local riverbed, Tibetan sources with knowledge of the situation said. In a 5-minute video posted on WeChat on Oct. 15, Tsongon Tsering from Tsaruma village in Kyungchu county said Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering Co.’s digging has caused severe soil erosion and a drop in water levels in the Tsaruma River. Such public appeals are rare due to fear of reprisals from the government for speaking out against authorities or state-approved projects. Authorities have since shut down his account and blocked search terms related to his name on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform, said two sources from inside Tibet, who like others in this report, declined to be identified out of fear of retribution. Tsering’s case illustrates how authorities silence Tibetans who accuse Chinese companies of violating environmental regulations or harming the environment. In the video, Tsering says Tibetan residents had made repeated appeals before local authorities for action against the company for causing environmental harm, but to no avail. Tsongon Tsering, a Tibetan man from Tsaruma village in Kyungchu county in China’s Sichuan province, calls for authorities to take action against illegal sand and gravel mining taking place since May 2023 on the Tsaruma River. (Image from citizen video via WeChat)   “The Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering’s business office has been illegally extracting sand and stones from the river in Tsaru Ma Village during their road construction work,” he says in the video while holding up his ID card. “The large-scale and indiscriminate extraction of sand from the river has led to serious soil erosion in the surrounding area and is posing a threat to the foundations of residents’ homes,” he continues. Tsering’s video, which gained significant attention online, was also widely shared by other users on the platform but even those were taken down and all related content censored by Thursday, Oct. 17, the two sources said.  Sources from the region said they fear Tsering, who hails from Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, will face punishment for his public criticism of authorities. RELATED STORIES US coordinator highlights Tibet’s role as regional freshwater source Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans forced to relocate, report says EXPLAINED: The impact of climate change on the Tibetan plateau China’s climate change stance seen undermined by destructive policies in Tibet Tibet’s environment: Is it better or worse? Four other sources inside Tibet confirmed Tsering’s statement that the sand extraction from the local river has caused environmental harm and that locals had reported the issue to various government departments at the village and county levels. They also provided photos and videos as evidence of the damage, but no action had been taken, said the sources.  Tsering’s video, which had around 10,000 views in a day’s time, received more than 500 comments from netizens, the majority of whom expressed support for his appeal and called for environmental protection and for the Chinese state media and authorities to address the issue.  Tsering also tagged official Chinese media outlets in his post to draw their attention. Affects the Yellow and Yangtze In the video, Tsering explained that the Tsaruma River, where the extraction is taking place, is linked to the Yangtze and Yellow River systems, two of China’s most important. “The pollution of these river sources and the protection of local ecosystems and biodiversity are deeply interconnected issues,” he said. “Moreover, this directly affects the water resources of Asia and the conditions of the high-altitude frozen soil.” A sand mining operation is seen along the Tsaruma River in Kyungchu county in Sichuan province, China, in this image posted Oct. 15, 2024, by Tibetan resident Tsongon Tsering. (Image from citizen video via WeChat) On Oct. 17, a source told RFA that following Tsering’s online appeal, the Kyungchu County Development and Reform Office had promised a thorough investigation into the matter.  An official from the Ngaba Prefecture Ecological Protection Office said his office was aware of the issue and investigating it in collaboration with the Sichuan Provincial Ecological Environment Monitoring Office, Chinese state media reported.  The agencies would release their findings soon, he said. “Although environmental protection policies were introduced many years ago, implementation issues persist in our area,” said Tsering in the video.  Brushing it under the rug In it, he confirms that the county’s Ecological Environment Bureau responded to his complaint in April 2024, confirming that the construction company had extracted sand and stones from the river and that it had been fined. But Tsering said the response merely covers up for the relevant business enterprise and tried to brush the problem under the rug. “They have addressed minor issues while avoiding the major ones, and have not taken any action to restore the ecological environment or manage the soil erosion situation,” he said. “They have simply erected barriers around the endangered house foundations and considered the matter resolved.” Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering, registered in China in June 2012, is involved in various construction projects including road construction, urban development, hydropower projects and environmental protection works.  RFA Tibetan could not reach the company for comment.  Additional reporting by Dorjee Tso and Tashi Wangchuk for RFA Tibetan. Translated and edited by Tenzin Pema and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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PRC at 75: In China under Xi Jinping, people run or ‘lie flat’

Editor018 mins

Read this story in Mandarin. When Xi Jinping took his place as leader of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in 2012, some commentators expected he would be a weak president beset by factional strife in the wake of the jailing of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and cryptic official references to rumors of a coup in Beijing.  Yet Xi has evoked more comparisons with late supreme leader Mao Zedong than any other leader since Mao’s death in 1976, with his cult of personality, his abolition of presidential term limits and his intolerance of any kind of public criticism or protest, including in Hong Kong. Blamed by many outside China for his government’s handling of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, Xi seriously damaged his reputation among the Chinese people with three years of grueling lockdowns that saw some people welded into their own apartments and others carted off to mass quarantine camps in the middle of the night. While the zero-COVID years eventually ended in late 2022 amid nationwide protests known as the “white paper” movement, a mass exodus of people dubbed the “run” movement was already under way. Refugees and dissidents, private sector executives and middle-class families with children have been willing to trek through the Central American rainforest to get away from life in China, in the hope of gaining political asylum in the United States. “I left China for Ecuador and Colombia, then walked north through the rain forest,” one migrant — an author whose writings were banned under Xi — told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “I left on Aug. 8 and entered the United States on Oct. 21.” “I was limping from my second day in the rainforest, and I was robbed by bandits,” the person said. “I could have died.” A migrant from China, exhausted from the heat, rests on the shoulder of a fellow migrant from Nicaragua after walking into the U.S. at Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on June 5, 2024. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP) Another recent migrant — a writer — said they left because everything they wrote had been banned. “My articles were banned from newspapers and magazines, my name was not allowed to be mentioned, and I couldn’t take part in public events,” they said. “I realized if I stayed in China, my life would just be a huge disaster, so I fled in a hurry.” Xu Maoan, a former financial manager in a private company, said he used to make a good professional salary of 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) a month, but lost his job due to the COVID-19 restrictions.  He never succeeded in finding another, despite sending out hundreds of resumes, and recently joined many others making the trek through the rainforest to the U.S. border. “I didn’t find out about the white paper movement until I got to the United States,” Xu told RFA Mandarin. “All news of it was blocked in China.” Reversing course? But it wasn’t just the pandemic; Xu and many like him were growing increasingly concerned that Xi was reversing the investor-friendly policies of late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, with his confrontational attitude to Western trading partners and hair-trigger sensitivity to “national security,” an elastic term used to describe any activity that could threaten or undermine the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative. “I have personally experienced how the government drove away foreign investors and cracked down on the private sector, in the name of national security,” Xu said. “The government is in financial difficulty, so if they don’t like you, they raid you.” Chinese police conduct work during a raid of the Shanghai office of international consultancy Capvison in an undated photo. (Screenshot from CCTV via AP) “[Xi] quarreled with Europe and the United States, frightening foreign investors, who withdrew to Vietnam and India,” he said. “His values are the opposite [of Deng Xiaoping’s].” “The domestic economy has collapsed, but they just won’t admit it,” he said. “I was afraid we would be going back to the days of famine and forced labor of the Mao era, so I left in a hurry.” Xi’s abolition of presidential term limits in 2018 and the creation of what some fear is a Mao-style cult of personality around him is also driving concerns. “Xi has deified himself as the ‘core’ leader with his own personality cult, but he lacks Mao’s charisma,” Ma Chun-wei, assistant politics professor at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “He requires everyone to study Xi Jinping Thought throughout the party and the whole education system.” Oppression of Uyghurs, Tibetans Xi has also presided over the mass incarceration of Uyghurs in Xinjiang’s “re-education” camps, the surveillance and suppression of Tibetans and their culture, as well as the upgrading the Great Firewall of internet censorship and the installation of surveillance cameras in schools to monitor students and teachers alike. Under his tenure, private companies have been forced to set up Communist Party branches, and censorship is tighter than it has ever been, Ma said. Yet Xi is one of the most ridiculed leaders in recent Chinese history, according to exiled author Murong Xuecun. “He has had the most nicknames of any general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the past 70 years,” Murong told RFA in a recent interview. “Some people calculate that he has more than 200 nicknames.” Many of Xi’s nicknames are now banned from China’s internet, including Xi Baozi, Winnie the Pooh and Xitler, and their use has led to imprisonment in some cases. Pro-democracy activists tear a placard of Winnie the Pooh that represents President Xi Jinping during a protest in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP) “The key to all of this is the political system,” Murong said. “Xi rose to lead the Communist Party and have power over appointments, the military, the party, the police and national security agencies through a series of opaque and intergenerational processes.” “He commands everything, yet his power isn’t subject to…

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Real estate prices skyrocket as Yangon swells with Myanmar’s displaced

Editor06 mins

Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese Myanmar’s civil war is driving up housing demand in Yangon, causing rents to skyrocket as people displaced by conflict in remote border regions seek out the relative safety of the country’s largest city, according to real estate agents and residents. Myanmar’s military orchestrated a coup d’etat in February 2021, touching off widespread rebellion by ethnic armies and armed opposition groups. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire, and the United Nations’ refugee agency estimates that some 3.1 million people have been displaced by fighting. That’s caused Yangon’s population to swell from around 5.6 million to as many as 10 million people, leading to a shortage of housing and causing rents to nearly double since early 2023, a real estate agent in Yangon told RFA Burmese. “Now we estimate that Yangon’s total population has become 15-18% of the whole country [of around 56 million],” said the agent who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “People can’t find a place to rent, and many are living in overcrowded apartments,” he said. “Some apartments have been turned into dormitories to accommodate up to 30 people.” Real estate agents estimate that at present, there are just over 300,000 apartments in central Yangon. RELATED STORIES A new generation in Myanmar risks their lives for change No limits to lawlessness of Myanmar’s predatory regime Month of fighting leaves once-bustling Myanmar town eerily quiet  Another real estate agent said that the cost of rent “has been gradually rising since 2023,” from around 300,000 kyats (US$145) to 500,000 kyats (US$240) per month for a studio apartment. “Those who can’t pay move to the outskirts of the city,” he said. “The apartments in some areas downtown aren’t worth the increased rent.” A woman who fled fighting in Rakhine state’s Thandwe township to Yangon in April said her rent had increased from 300,000 kyats to 350,000 kyats (US$165) per month since then, while her younger sister now pays 500,000 kyats per month, up from 300,000 kyats in early 2023. Aside from Yangon and Ayeyarwady regions, five of Myanmar’s regions and seven of its states see regular armed conflict, prompting many residents to seek the relative stability of the country’s commercial hub. Mass relocation A resident of Yangon, who also declined to be named, told RFA that real estate agents are increasingly raising rents as the city becomes overcrowded. “As a result of the influx of people displaced by civil war, flooding, and other crises, apartment rental prices are rising,” she said. “Real estate agents are taking advantage of the situation, demanding higher prices and capitalizing on the desperate circumstances of those displaced persons.”   A neighborhood in Lanmadaw township, Yangon, on October 9, 2024. (RFA) As rents go up, the sale prices of property are also rising. In Yangon’s Dagon Myothit township, before the military coup, the price of a 10-foot (3-meter) wide home was just over 10 million kyats (US$4,765). Just over three years later, the same home now sells for 50 million kyats (US$23,820), real estate agents told RFA. The price of apartments in Yangon’s Sanchaung and Kamayut townships has risen to 100 million kyats (US$47,645) from 60 million kyats (US$28,585) a year earlier, they said, while rents in these areas have doubled to 600,000 kyats (US$285) from 300,000 kyats over the same period. Social Affairs Minister Htay Aung, the junta’s spokesperson for Yangon region, said on Oct. 8 that plans are underway to expand housing projects in the city due to the increasing number of displaced persons. “This is part of the trend of migration between rural and urban areas,” he said. “As Yangon city develops, we have plans to extend the [boundaries of the] city.” Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Rebel army advances on junta’s western headquarters in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

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Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese Heavy fighting is underway in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state between junta troops and ethnic rebels in the vicinity of the military’s western command center, trapping civilians in the crossfire, residents said Friday. The Arakan Army, or AA, battling for self-determination for the mostly Buddhist Rakhine people, has taken territory across Rakhine state and controls 10 of the state’s 17 townships, and one in neighboring Chin state since the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat. It would be the first rebel group to take over a state if it seizes all territory in military control there, as it has vowed to do. Clashes have intensified since the AA launched an offensive on Sept. 26 against military positions in Rakhine’s Ann township, capturing the military’s Taw Heing Taung and Me Taung strategic hills. The junta has since sent reinforcements to the area. The fighting is now located around five kilometers (three miles) from the junta’s Western Regional Military Command, according to residents who spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity, due to security concerns. “The AA has been firing heavy weapons both day and night at the western command, Light Infantry Battalion No. 373, and the artillery battalion in Ann township,” said one resident, adding that the military has responded with multiple airstrikes. “The fighting is escalating in downtown Ann now.” RELATED STORIES: Myanmar junta airstrike kills civilians sheltering in rebel territory Rebels battle for Myanmar junta’s western military headquarters Rebel army closes in on 2 townships in western Myanmar A resident of Ann said that inhabitants of the town have tried to escape the fighting, “but the junta won’t let them.” “People are living in constant fear, uncertain of what might happen next,” the resident said. “There is a severe shortage of food, medicine, and medical care, as hospitals and clinics are struggling to provide services.” According to the resident, the price of medicine at local markets is now “far beyond the reach of ordinary citizens,” while transportation has become extremely difficult as “gasoline prices have soared to more than 30,000 kyats (US$14) per liter.” Travel prohibited Another resident of Ann, who also declined to be named, said junta forces ended departures on Wednesday, when they stopped 15 vehicles carrying more than 100 people attempting to flee to nearby Pa Dan and Min Bu townships. “It remains unclear where the passengers have been taken,” he said. Weapons and ammunition seized by Arakan Army forces on Mae Taung hill in Ann township are seen Oct. 7, 2024. (AA Info Desk) Attempts by RFA to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha went unanswered Friday, as did efforts to reach the junta’s Rakhine state spokesperson Hla Thein. Fighting between the AA and junta forces in Rakhine state began around a year ago, when the AA ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the military coup. Residents of Rakhine state say that the junta has been conducting more aerial attacks on civilian areas in townships which were lost to the AA, as well as areas of intense fighting. Data compiled by RFA found that junta airstrikes killed 93 civilians and wounded 66 others in Rakhine’s Thandwe, Maungdaw, Pauktaw, Myaebon and Toungup townships in September alone. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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