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Category: Middle East

Play it loud: The return of Hanoi’s loudspeakers speaks volumes

Editor010 mins

Authorities in Hanoi announced recently that the once-ubiquitous loudspeakers, a staple of government news and propaganda, relics of the past and left to disrepair in the early 2000s, would be reinstalled. The late July announcement caught everyone by surprise and has been met with derision. But it speaks volumes about the Communist regime, its insecurities, and the pathways to power. A simpler time For a government which has touted a high-tech future for Vietnam under its “National Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” the Orwellian monotone does not seem to be a sophisticated way of communication. Why a media anachronism in a time when people have alternative sources of information across multiple platforms on their smartphones? On the simplest level, it’s just that, an attempt by the Party to harken back to a time when the state easily monopolized the information environment. According to international watchdogs, Vietnam has one of the most repressive media environments in the world. Reporters Without Borders ranks it 174. The Committee to Protect Journalists documented 23 arrested journalists in 2021. Freedom House rated its internet freedom at 22 out of 100 – just above worst-ranked Iran, Myanmar and Cuba. Yet despite the concerted efforts to police and censor the internet, the media landscape is more open than one would expect. Vietnam’s internet is not behind a firewall, and there are 76 million Facebook users in Vietnam. Authorities can only focus on the key nodes and influencers. The Vietnamese government’s cyber security law, adopted in 2019, potentially compels data localization from the big tech companies, though policy disputes between the Ministry of Public Security and the economic ministries have meant that it’s not been fully implemented. Nonetheless, according to data reported by Vietnamese authorities, foreign social media firms complied with around 90 percent of government requests to take down media across social media platforms. Hanoi is demanding and getting more corporate compliance in dealing with “malicious content.” And yet, for many in the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP), the media landscape is still too permissive. A pervasive sense of insecurity The re-installation of the loudspeakers also reflects a deep insecurity on the part of the government. And it has much to be insecure about. The VCP’s claim to legitimacy is based on two things: nationalism and economic performance. Recently both have been in called into question due to endemic corruption that has reached the highest levels of government. Despite unflinching Chinese pressure and excessive maritime claims against Vietnam’s national sovereignty, the Coast Guard is mired in corruption. The commander and his predecessor were both sentenced to 17 years in prison for using state assets to protect oil smugglers. The party expelled two other major generals, and disciplined five other major generals and two lieutenant generals. The government will have a very attentive public to respond to the next time the Coast Guard is caught flat-footed against Chinese incursions. Corruption undermines combat readiness. Two other corruption scandals, both involving the until-then stellar COVID-19 response by the previous government, have hit the senior-most leadership and called into question the prime minister’s management.  A scandal over repatriation flights for Vietnamese nationals brought down a deputy foreign minister and a former deputy head of immigration at the Ministry of Public Security, among others.  The Viet A testing scandal felled two members of the elite VCP Central Committee, a former minister of health, and senior members of the vaunted Vietnam People’s Army. To date, the party has investigated over 21 people. Corruption is endemic in Vietnam. And yet these corruption scandals seem all the more concerning than those over the past five to six years when senior officials weaponized police and the prosecutorial service to take down political rivals and their patronage networks. The VCP knows it has a legitimacy crisis. The government recently acknowledged that in 2021 there were 3,725 corruption investigations and criminal proceedings, three times the number in 2020. For an economy stuck between central planning and the market, with soft property rights, where the state controls key inputs such as land and capital, not to mention permits and licenses, there is no shortage of opportunities for graft. But where corruption was once seen as the cost of doing business, it is now viewed as predatory and hindering economic growth. A loudspeaker stands on the roof of a gateway in the suburbs of Hanoi on May 18, 2011. (AFP) Pathways to power But the decision to reinstall the loudspeakers also says something about the pathways to power in Vietnamese politics. The decision was a local one, made by the Hanoi Party Committee. The Hanoi Party chief is a key position and is often held by a member of the elite Politburo, and always a member of the Central Committee. The Hanoi Party Committee has been in turmoil, following the Viet A corruption scandal that saw its chief, Chu Ngoc Anh, expelled from the party and put on trial. The new Party chief is trying to curry favor, while his new deputy is clearly being groomed for greater things. For ambitious Party cadres, keeping clean right now is necessary, but insufficient. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong continues to make counter-corruption his highest priority. But advancement will require those added flourishes, such as loudspeakers extolling the good works of the Party. Someone, somewhere, actually thought that this was a good idea. While loudspeakers blaring state media, party edicts, and propaganda may not be heard over the cacophony of Hanoi’s congested streets, they will be heard in the corridors of power. Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or RFA.

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China ends live-fire missile testing near Taiwan early amid protests from Japan, US

Editor09 mins

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) appeared to have ended live-fire missile tests around Taiwan after just a few hours, amid international criticism and disappointment on domestic social media on Friday. The missile tests were part of an intensive round of PLA military exercises around Taiwan scheduled from Aug. 4-7, and their conclusion was viewed by online Little Pink nationalist commentators as disappointing. The drills and incursions by Chinese ships and planes into Taiwan’s waters are continuing, however. “Does this mean they won’t fire any more over the next couple of days?” wrote @Fengyun_is_back, while others quipped that the army is done “frying fish,” a slang reference to saber-rattling directed at Taiwan. “Did they only have so many missiles, and did they fire them all at once?” one user commented. Current affairs commentator Zhao Qing said he was surprised that the PLA had announced an end to missile tests, in a move that appeared hasty. “It lasted just two hours and 22 minutes from the launch of the PLA’s first missile,” Zhao said. “I was really surprised by how short that was. I thought the live-fire missile launches would go on for 10 hours or more.” “That was really unexpected. Five more missiles missed [their targets] and landed in Japanese waters, and they stopped the exercise after Japan protested,” Zhao said. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said five of the PLA’s ballistic missiles landed in Japan’s territorial waters from between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. local time on Aug. 4. The Rocket Force under the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducts conventional missile tests into the waters off the eastern coast of Taiwan, from an undisclosed location in this August 4, 2022 handout released on August 5, 2022. Credit: Eastern Theatre Command/Handout via Reuters Some blockades lifted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday condemned the missile launches, calling it “a serious issue that affects our national security and the safety of our citizens.” “China’s actions … have had a serious impact on the peace and stability of our region and the international community,” he told reporters after having breakfast with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I told her that we have called on [China] to immediately cancel the military exercises.” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded that China and Japan have never formally delimited the maritime area in question, so the missiles couldn’t be said to have landed in Japanese waters. Meanwhile, blockades have apparently been lifted in at least three of the six maritime areas used for military exercises, Zhao said. “Only the Chinese coastal waters to the west of Taiwan remain blocked,” he said, citing a shipping tracker. “The eastern side of the island is open to shipping, with military exercises completed on that side.” “The shipping tracker website shows no information about any military warnings, and the ships are sailing there as normal,” Zhao said. A current affairs commentator surnamed Li said the abrupt end to the missile firings suggested something had gone wrong. “Their exercise plan was likely made a long time beforehand,” Li said. “The exercise was announced as three days in length, but it only took three hours.” “There must be external factors in play [possibly because] the exercise was exposing them, because U.S. military intelligence collection capabilities are very strong,” he said. “For example [they may now know about] their launch technology, performance and technical parameters of those missiles, meaning they would be making fools of themselves by firing them,” Li said. ‘Major escalation’ Reports have also emerged of a personnel change on the first day of the military exercises around Taiwan. A report on a government website in the eastern city of Ningbo said a local official had met with Wang Zhongcai, deputy commander and naval commander of the PLA’s Eastern Theater. That post had previously been reported in the state-backed news site The Paper as being held by Mei Wen. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Phnom Penh on Friday that China’s launch of missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone represented a “major escalation” of the situation. He said the situation had led to a “vigorous communication” during East Asia Summit meetings in the Cambodian capital. “[I said that] they should not use the visit as a pretext for war, escalation, for provocative actions, that there is no possible justification for what they’ve done,” Blinken said, adding that he had also called for an end to the military action in and around the Taiwan Strait. A military scholar who gave only the surname Li said the five missiles that landed in Japanese waters had exposed weaknesses in the PLA’s missile launch technology. “Their missile technology is relatively outdated, as it relies on a U.S.-made civilian GPS positioning technology for guidance,” Li said. “The Dongfang-15 was … developed for use against the former Soviet Union, with very similar technology to that of the U.S. at the time,” he said. “[Their] more recently developed missiles could have been even more inaccurate.” Yang Haiying, a professor at Shizuoka University in Japan, said the Japanese government has lodged a strong protest with China and canceled a planned meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers. “This year was supposed to see celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of relations between China and Japan, but those five missiles have made it impossible to celebrate,” Yang told RFA. “There is no way of knowing now if the missiles’ targeting was intentional or not,” he said.  Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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‘We never expected that after all that, there would be such a cruel outcome’

Editor04 mins

The daughter of an outspoken Chinese poet who called on ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping to step down has hit out at an “unjust and cruel” prison sentence handed down to her father. Zhang Yiran, currently living in the United States, made a short video outlining the details of her father’s case. “Hi everyone. I’m Zhang Yiran, Lu Yang’s daughter,” she said. “My father was sentenced to the cruel punishment of six years’ imprisonment for posting a video to social media calling on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to step down.” “He was taken away by police on May 1, 2020, and tried in secret on Sept. 15, 2020 by the Liaocheng Intermediate People’s Court on charges of ‘incitement to subvert state power’,” Zhang said, adding that he was then held for a further two years and three months at the Liaocheng Detention Center, while his family waited and waited for news of the outcome. In China’s criminal justice system, sentencing is usually announced within six weeks of a trial’s conclusion. “Recently, on July 26, 2022, he was sentenced in secret to six years’ imprisonment and three years’ deprivation of political rights,” Zhang said. “The sentence was communicated verbally to my mother by the court, which refused to give her the court judgment, saying they contained state secrets.” They also told her at that time that Lu had said he wanted to appeal, she said. “This is an unfair, unjust and cruel sentence, and I, my mother, and my grandmother, who is bed-bound with illness and in her nineties, waited and suffered for two years to hear it,” Zhang said. “We never expected that after all that, there would be such a cruel outcome.” She said her mother had hired a lawyer from the Haiyang Law Firm in Shandong to prepare the case for appeal at the Shandong Provincial High Court. “I urge all people of conscience to support my father, and call on the Chinese authorities to undo this injustice and give him back his rights,” Zhang said. Zhang Guiqi, 49, who is widely known by his penname Lu Yang, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which came after he posted a video of himself calling on Xi to step down, and calling for “an end to the CCP dictatorship.” Lu Yang was among a group of rights activists who went to the Shandong Jianzhu University in January 2017 to support a former professor there, Deng Xiangchao, who was targeted by Maoist protesters after he retweeted a post satirizing late supreme leader Mao Zedong. The Shandong authorities terminated Deng’s teaching contract after the incident, while Maoist flash mobs attacked Deng’s supporters at the scene, including Yang. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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North Korean authorities try to stop rise in street prostitution in cities

Editor08 mins

North Korean authorities are scrambling to deter a rapid rise in prostitution in the country’s major cities as a dire economy pushes more women into the sex trade, sources inside the country said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered authorities to act to prevent prostitution from spreading in the reclusive and impoverished nation, a resident of the northeastern city of Chongjin in North Hamgyong province told RFA on Monday. The Ministry of Social Security and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, which is the country’s main youth organization under the direct control of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, are moving in cities such as Chongjin and Hamhung to stop young women from selling themselves. “The crackdown began when a central official in Pyongyang submitted a proposal after he saw some women propositioning men on the street for prostitution at night,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.   “Kim Jong Un signed onto the proposal of the official and ordered the Social Security Department and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League to take action,” he said. Though illegal, prostitution is generally tolerated in North Korea, with occasional crackdowns by local authorities looking to extract bribes from those they catch.  But North Korea’s economic paralysis due to the authoritarian regime’s extreme measures to battle the COVID-19 virus and the effects of ongoing international economic sanctions have left ordinary citizens under extreme financial distress. The Ministry of Social Security and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League are jointly conducting intensive crackdowns on prostitution and providing ideological education for young people to ensure they adhere to socialist mores, the Chongjin resident said. The two organizations have mobilized day and night patrols to surveil places where the crime occurs, such as train stations and parks. Additionally, the Socialist Patriotic Youth League is increasing its ideological education for young people in an effort to deter them from selling their bodies for money, the resident said. On July 30, district-level organizations divided league members into groups and gathered them together for lectures, he said.  “Kim Jong Un’s message to reject decadent reactionary thought and culture and not get involved in antisocialism was delivered,” the source said. Also on July 30, the Socialist Patriotic Youth League held a meeting in Chingjin’s Sunam district to publicly criticize several young female prostitutes.  “The meeting was a form of public shaming, with each of the eight women on the stage revealing their names, ages, home addresses, and their jobs, and forcing them to criticize themselves. “More than half of the women caught in several intensive crackdowns are reportedly from other regions. It seems that women, whose lives have become difficult due to lockdown measures and movement control for three years, have been forced to engage in prostitution for themselves and their families,” he said.  Doing anything for money A resident of the city of Hamhung in the eastern province of South Hamgyong told RFA on Monday that local officials from the Ministry of Social Security and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League were searching train stations, parks and streets for suspected prostitutes. “About 30 women were arrested on the first day of the crackdown around Hamhung Station, held jointly by the Ministry of Social Security and the Youth League last week,” said the source who declined to be named for safety reasons. Most of the women were in their 20s, but several were teenagers who were recent high school graduates, she said. Many women have become prostitutes due to financial hardship, and more and more of them are begging men to pay for sex as they wait for the train at Hamhung Station at night, the woman said. Some men arrange to use the services of prostitutes under the pretext of staying overnight while waiting for a train, she added. Prostitutes in Hamhung usually are paid 80,000-50,000 won (U.S. $11.40-$21.40) for their services, though some women at the train station get as little as 30,000 won (U.S. $4.30), she said.  “Even during daylight, I often see women roaming around crowded places like train stations for prostitution,” the second source said. “Most of the women who go into prostitution are people in need, but there are cases where this is not the case,” the resident said.  “As our society gradually transforms into a society where anything is possible with money, the interest in earning money is growing,” she added. “I am worried that there is a growing tendency among residents who do not hesitate to do anything for money.” In August 2020, RFA reported that more than 50 female students of two prominent Pyongyang performing arts colleges were sent to a labor camp for their alleged involvement in a prostitution ring that catered to the capital city’s elites. Many of the young women were driven into prostitution by poverty brought on by endless demands from their highly selective schools for fees, North Korean sources said. Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung for RFA Korean. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. 

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China arrests Taiwanese man for ‘separatism’ as Pelosi departs democratic island

Editor014 mins

As U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan Wednesday after a stopover that angered China, authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang announced the arrest of a Taiwanese man under its national security law, accusing him of engaging in “separatist” activities and supporting formal independence for the democratic island. Yang Chih-yuen was arrested by state security police in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city, state broadcaster CCTV cited a police statement as saying, accusing Yang of having founded the pro-independence Taiwan National Party, with the aim of “promoting Taiwan to join the United Nations as a sovereign and independent country.” “For some time, a very small number of ‘Taiwan independence’ die-hards have colluded with external forces, tried to split the country … [and] tried their best to incite cross-strait confrontation,” the report said. “State security police will make resolute use of legal weapons like the Anti-Secession Law and the National Security Law to severely punish ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists … [who] reject unification,” it said. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly said that Taiwan must be “unified” with China, and refused to rule out the use of military force to annex the island. Taiwan has never been ruled by the CCP,  nor formed part of the 72-year-old People’s Republic of China. But Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen, who was re-elected in a 2020 landslide after vowing to stand up to China on the issue, has repeatedly said that Taiwan’s 23 million population have no wish to give up their sovereignty, a view that is borne out by repeated opinion polls. Beijing has a track record in making political arrests as a form of diplomatic statement, in what has been termed “hostage diplomacy,” and Yang’s arrest appears to be a way for China to register its displeasure with Pelosi’s trip, during which she reaffirmed U.S. support for Taiwan’s “flourishing democracy.” Taiwanese democracy activist Lee Ming-cheh, who served a five-year sentence in China for “incitement to subvert state power,” said during a meeting with Pelosi that the Chinese government shouldn’t use “national security” as an excuse to jail political prisoners. Lee, who may not have read the news of Yang’s arrest at the time of speaking, called for an end to “residential surveillance at a designated location,” which enables the authorities to deny visits from lawyers or family members for six months where the person has been accused of a “national security” offense. A man watches a CCTV news broadcast about joint military operations near Taiwan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command, at a shopping center in Beijing, China, August 3, 2022. Credit: Reuters ‘Unnecessary’ China reaction Pelosi said during her meeting with Tsai on Wednesday that Taiwan, which made a transition to full democracy in the 1990s from authoritarian rule under the Kuomintang (KMT), that the island had “created a flourishing democracy” out of its challenging history. “Now more than ever, America’s solidarity with Taiwan is crucial,” Pelosi said. “America’s determination to preserve democracy here in #Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.” China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stepped up military exercises in the vicinity of Taiwan ahead of and during Pelosi’s trip, a move that both Pelosi and Tsai termed “unnecessary.” “Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down. We will… continue to hold the line of defense for democracy,” Tsai said during the meeting. “Military drills are unnecessary responses. Taiwan has always been open to constructive dialogue,” she said. Tsai also presented Pelosi with a Taiwanese honor: the Order of Propitious Clouds. Pelosi said she wasn’t sure why Beijing “made a big fuss” over her Taipei trip, though she speculated it may have been because she was the House speaker, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported. The military drills could also be the result of “certain insecurities on the part of the president of China as to his own political situation that he’s rattling the saber,” the agency quoted her as saying. Pelosi said in an official statement that her trip in no way represented a shift in U.S. policy on Taiwan, which involves not offering the island formal diplomatic recognition while pledging to help it defend itself from the CCP. “Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances,” the statement said. “The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo.” But it added: “America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.” Pro-China supporters tear a U.S. flag during a protest against U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan outside the Consulate General of the United States in Hong Kong, China, August 3, 2022. Credit: Reuters Important regional message Lo Chih-cheng, a member of the foreign affairs and defense committee at Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, said the meaning of Pelosi’s trip was largely symbolic. Coming as it did under pressure of Chinese threats and warnings, Pelosi’s trip sent an important message to the entire Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific region that “the United States and democracies will not yield to Chinese threats and pressure,” Lo told RFA. Taiwanese military analyst Chieh Chung said the PLA exercises had made deep incursions into Taiwan’s territorial waters during Pelosi’s visit. The exercises are taking place east of the central line of the Taiwan Strait, further diluting the tacit understanding of the median line formed by the military on both sides of the strait since 1999, Chieh told RFA. Soong Kuo-cheng, a researcher in international relations at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said China’s response had made the international community more aware of the island’s importance of Taiwan, and placed it in the international spotlight. “The CCP displayed a highly violent and irrational reaction to this visit by Pelosi, which has woken the rest of the world up to Taiwan’s…

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U.S. House Speaker meets Taiwan’s president and praises the island’s resilience

Editor010 mins

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen presented U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a special award on Wednesday, calling her “one of Taiwan’s most devoted friends” who helped strengthen Taiwan-U.S. relations. Tsai met Pelosi in the morning after the U.S. House Speaker visited the Legislative Yuan, or Taiwan’s parliament. Pelosi praised the island for its success in battling the COVID pandemic and called Taiwan “one of the freest societies in the world.” “Taiwan has been an island of resilience,” Pelosi said in a brief speech during her meeting with President Tsai. “America’s determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad,” the U.S. House Speaker stated, adding that her visit made it unequivocally clear that the U.S. “will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan.”  In response, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan “will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy.” “Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said, referring to the latest developments across the Taiwan Strait. Locations of Chinese live-fire military drills around Taiwan on Aug. 4-7. CREDIT: Xinhua As Pelosi touched down on Tuesday evening in Taipei, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced unprecedented live-fire drills at six locations around Taiwan, some overlapping the island’s sovereign territorial waters as defined in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. On the same day, 21 Chinese military aircraft, including 10 J-16 fighter jets and two reconnaissance airplanes, flew into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). ‘Unprecedented military drills’ The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command is to “conduct a series of joint military operations around the Taiwan Island from the evening of Aug. 2,” said Sr. Col. Shi Yi, the Command’s spokesperson. Naval and air joint drills will be carried out in the northern, southwestern and southeastern waters and airspace off Taiwan, while long-range combat fire live shooting will be conducted in the Taiwan Strait and conventional missile firepower test-launched in the waters off Eastern Taiwan, according to Shi Yi. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday condemned what it calls “the reckless behavior by Communist China of conducting live fire drills in waters and skies close to Taiwan, some of which are in the neighboring waters.” The drills will essentially seal off Taiwan’s airspace and violate its territorial waters, the ministry said.  The Ministry’s spokesperson Sun Li-Fang said China “threatens international aviation routes, challenges the international order, damages the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and destroys regional security.” Activities around Taiwan’s territory are closely monitored, the Defense Ministry said, vowing “appropriate responses when needed.” China dismissed Taiwan’s criticism of the military drills. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday Chinese military actions were legitimate and meant as a deterrent to Taiwan. Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications is coordinating with Japan and the Philippines to plan alternative cargo flight routes for goods as the Chinese planned drills amount to an air blockade, the official Central News Agency (CNA) reported. Washington officials said China’s announced military drills were an “overreaction.” “There’s no reason … for Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with longstanding U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait now or beyond her travel,” national security council spokesman John Kirby said. Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine colonel turned political analyst, said prior to Nancy Pelosi’s visit he did not expect China to launch attacks on the U.S. or Pelosi herself. But, he said, they could lash out at Taiwan. “The Chinese Communists are now willing to apply serious pressure–including possible military force–against America’s friends and partners, and dare the United States to respond,” he told RFA. “That’s what I think we are most likely to see and most likely directed against Taiwan. In other words, making the Americans have to take the ‘first shot’ against the PRC,” added Newsham. “Taiwan’s government needs to do what is necessary to ensure Taiwan can defend itself,” said the analyst.  “It needs to increase defense spending, show its military some respect and improve terms of service, re-institute national service, create an effective reserve defense force and create an effective civil defense scheme.” Taiwanese fighter jets at Taipei Songshan Airport on the last day of Han Kuang military exercise, July 29, 2022.. CREDIT: Taiwan Defense Ministry A new crisis? Beijing considers Taiwan “an inalienable part of China” that must be reunited with the mainland at all costs. Analysts say, however, despite the noisy saber-rattling by Beijing, a new crisis may not happen as “nobody wants war.” “While China has said Pelosi’s visit would challenge its “red line” for Sino-U.S. relations, it’s unlikely that Beijing will do something risky in the Taiwan Strait during her visit,” said Baohui Zhang, Professor of Political Science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. “Beijing has no interest in triggering scenarios that may lead to miscalculations by all sides and inadvertent military conflicts,” Zhang said, adding: “As a rising power, war is the last thing China wants now.” During the most recent virtual meeting between Xi and Biden, the two leaders both confirmed the need for bilateral efforts to contain and manage crises. In Zhang’s opinion, Pelosi’s visit will have little practical implications for U.S.-China relations, as its trajectory of strategic rivalry has already been set. The Taipei-based China Times cited leaked diplomatic cables from Taiwan’s representative office in Washington DC, saying they showed both the White House and the Pentagon sought to discourage the House Speaker from visiting Taiwan. “The Biden administration is not in favor of the visit and China knows that,” said Baohui Zhang. “So the visit is largely a symbolic event showing rising Congressional support for Taiwan. It will not redefine U.S.-China relations.” Nancy Pelosi is set to meet with Taiwanese human rights and democracy activists before flying out on Wednesday afternoon to continue her Indo-Pacific tour.    

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Thai Myanmar Pipeline

Junta troops kill 5 in raid on school run by Myanmar shadow government

Editor011 mins

Junta troops killed five people and detained more than 110 others during a raid on a village school run by Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) in embattled Sagaing region, residents and state media said Tuesday. News of the Monday raid on the school in Myinmu township’s Let Pa Kyin village, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Mandalay, came amid reports that the military razed more than 500 buildings in four days of arson attacks on the village of Tin Tein Yan in Sagaing’s nearby Ye-U township. A resident of Let Pa Kyin who escaped the raid on Let Pa Kyin told RFA Burmese that more than 50 troops arrived at the village in a convoy of five military helicopters. “[The helicopters] brought the soldiers in group after group. It took about an hour and a half,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns. “Some soldiers were dropped around the village and some in the school compound. The children were scared and ran away. Though the older ones escaped, the young ones didn’t.” At least 113 civilians were arrested in the raid, including teachers and students, villagers said. A second resident, who also declined to be named, said the raid began at around 10 a.m. on Monday when classes at the NUG-sponsored school were in session and villagers were engaged in their daily routines. “If the army had approached the village from the ground, [anti-junta forces] in the area could have given a warning and the villagers would have been able to run and avoid the soldiers. But in the case of an air raid, there is no way to know in advance,” he said, adding that those who escaped had only a moment’s notice. “We’re at their mercy. We can’t say anything [about our status] for sure. The situation is totally unsafe. We can’t do anything except worry.” The resident said he could only “pray for the release of those arrested.” Let Pa Kyin village is home to about 250 houses and more than 1,000 residents. Sources said that during the raid, many villagers were forced to flee to nearby areas for safety. A report in the junta’s Myanma Alin newspaper on Tuesday said that the military was carrying out arrests of anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries who had gathered in Let Pa Kyin village. After a brief clash, it said, the military “seized five bodies,” as well as homemade weapons and ammunition from a PDF camp it captured about 500 meters (one-third of a mile) northwest of the village. A total of 113 people — 49 men and 73 women — were detained in the village and are “being questioned as needed,” the report added. Status unclear A local PDF member who asked to remain anonymous told RFA that his group had prepared to hold a meeting at a location in Let Pa Kyin village on Monday but was delayed and was therefore able to escape the arrests. A fighter with the Myinmu Township PDF said the group had yet to confirm the Myanma Alin report of five dead in the raid. “I don’t know about the death of five PDF members,” he said, adding that his group will fight back against military raids targeting Myinmu township “by any means necessary,” regardless of whether troops use helicopters or other superior weaponry. Residents told RFA that junta troops were still stationed in Let Pa Kyin as of Tuesday and that the status of the village remains unclear. When contacted by RFA, junta Minister of Social Affairs for Sagaing Region Aye Hlaing said he was “unaware” of the reports of the raid on Let Pa Kyin. A resident of Myinmu township said villagers are less safe than ever as the military ramps up its use of helicopters to conduct raids in the area. “Look at all the incidents that have taken place. Villages have been burned. They shoot at anything they see from their helicopters and the people are suffering,” he said. “In Let Pa Kyin, two boys who were herding their goats died, as did a woman working at a betel nut farm. Another worker was wounded. They were not PDF fighters. The soldiers are now committing their war crimes from the air as they cannot move freely on the ground [due to the opposition].” Residents told RFA that Monday’s attack followed one on July 27, when troops in four helicopters raided Myinmu’s Mu Mandalay village. They said that the military had cut off internet access to the area amid the raids, forcing more than 5,000 villagers to flee their homes. More than 500 homes and ships were torched in Tin Tein Yan, Ye-U township, Sagaing region after military forces raided the village. Credit: DPY PDF Buildings razed Reports of the raid on Let Pa Kyin came as residents of Sagaing’s nearby Ye-U township told RFA that the military had destroyed more than 500 buildings between July 28 and July 31 in arson attacks on the village of Tin Tein Yan, located around 170 kilometers (105 miles) northwest of Mandalay. The buildings destroyed in the fires included the area’s Thegon Gyi Monastery, around 250 shops in the local market — including an office run by the MPT telecom company — 312 homes, five rice mills and two cooking oil plants, they said, while several cars and motorcycles were also burned. “Altogether, around two-thirds of the village has been razed to the ground — it’s like a wasteland,” said one resident of Tin Tein Yan, who asked to remain anonymous. “Some villagers are now cleaning up the mess. They have to make arrangements to build temporary shelters. Apart from those who are cleaning up, the rest of the villagers don’t dare return.” Residents said the raids were carried out by a column of nearly 100 soldiers from the No. 701 Light Infantry Battalion, headquartered in Yangon region’s Hmawbi township. They said that prior to entering the village on July 27, the…

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Woman accused of defrauding thousands of people extradited to Laos

Editor09 mins

A Lao national who allegedly defrauded millions of dollars from thousands of people and traveled to neighboring Thailand with the money in late June faces prosecution back home after being extradited by Thai authorities on July 31, Lao police officials said. Phonethip Xaypanya, a 30-year-old woman who goes by the nickname Jay Thip, which in Lao means “elder sister Thip,” is accused of absconding with more than U.S. $16.4 million, including 20 billion Lao kip (U.S. $1.3 million), 400 million Thai baht (U.S. $11 million), and U.S. $4 million, according to the Lao Ministry of Public Security. She allegedly accumulated some of the money by promising her victims high rates of return on their cash deposits. Thai police said they arrested Jay Thip and her husband, Anousith Phoutthavong, 34, on July 29 at a hotel in Pathum Thany province, Thailand, for overstaying their visas. They were returned to Laos two days later. Immigration police records indicate that the couple left Laos by land on June 29 via the First Lao-Thai Friendship bridge. By the end of June, more than 5,000 people who said they were victims of her scheme filed complaints with Lao police. Officials say they expect many more defrauded citizens to come forward. Jay Thip denies that she defrauded people.  “We, the Public Security Ministry, have received a lot of complaints from the public, [and] we’re going to forward this information to the investigation department,” a ministry official told RFA Monday. “She hasn’t been formally charged with any crime yet.” The official went on to say that the ministry could not disclose much information yet about the arrest.  “The woman was just handed over to us yesterday, so we’re going to deal with her according to the law,” he said. A criminal lawyer said that if Jay Thip is found guilty, she would face at least 10 years in prison and be ordered to pay back the money.  “First and foremost, the police will be investigating and interrogating her to find out how much money she stole when she defrauded people,” said the attorney, who declined to be named. “The police may have to sell all of her assets and property, like cars and homes to pay back her customers.” An official with the Lao Prosecutor’s Office agreed, but said that tracking down her wealth could prove difficult. “The question is, where is all the money?” he said. “It might be kept abroad, but how can we bring it back, or it may have been converted to gold and diamonds that are hidden somewhere else.” Jay Thip claims to have many businesses, including a shop that sells gold and diamond jewelry, and she posts photos of the expensive merchandise daily online. Her most lucrative business is an investment scheme that accepts cash deposits of at least 50 million kip ($3.27) from customers and promises a monthly interest rate of 30% in return.  She also posts stories on her Facebook page saying that she often wins the lottery and has photos showing off her luxury goods in an effort to build trust with current and prospective investors. Jay Thip denied to Thai reporters that she was in possession of 400 million baht at the time of her arrest.  “To electronically transfer that lump sum across the border, people have to have a lot of documents and proof,” she said. “Now, to answer the question of why I came to Thailand, my husband and I came here to deal with the problems that have occurred and why they’ve occurred. And another reason is that over there [in Laos], I fear for my safety.” Call for justice Meanwhile, Laotians who say they fell prey to Jay Thip’s scheme are clamoring for retribution. “I want my money back, but the problem is that in Laos legal procedures are not open to the public,” said a person who declined to be identified. “I just want her to be responsible for the debt. Is she going to pay back or not? I want to see the police enforcing the law to the fullest extent.” “The legal action against her should be transparent, not opaque, because this lady has a lot of powerful connections,” he said. “She can get away with it quickly and easily.” A businessman who invested 900 million kip (U.S. $65,400) said at first that Jay Thip paid him the interest regularly.  “But later, I received nothing,” he told RFA. “I lost 900 million kip ($59,000). I’d never thought that Jay Thip would do this to us because she had been very open with us.”  Another person who fell for the scheme doubted the victims would be paid back.  “[S]cams like this have happened before,” the person said. “When your money is gone, it’s gone.”  “Even her own friends who have known her since childhood were also cheated,” the businessman said. “I want my money back, and I want the police to do their job right.” Illegal investment schemes are nothing new in the largely impoverished country where corruption runs rampant and law enforcement can be lax. In 2017, for example, an agricultural company running a pyramid scheme in Laos defaulted on millions of U.S. dollars owed to its stakeholders, raising questions as to why the government failed to adequately regulate the market and inform investors about potential pitfalls. Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Uyghur poet and educator said to be serving 13-year prison term in Xinjiang

Editor08 mins

A prominent Uyghur poet and associate professor at a teacher’s college was detained in 2017 as a “threat to social stability” and sentenced to 13 years in prison on a “separatism” charge, a local police officer and Uyghur source told RFA. Ablet Abdureshid Berqi is serving time in Tumshuq Prison, a detention facility located in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a state-owned economic and paramilitary organization in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).  Since its founding in 1954, the XPCC, which is also known as Bingtuan, has built and administered several urban centers in Xinjiang, mainly to resettle Han Chinese from other parts of the country as part of a campaign of Sinicization. The Bingtuan also operates prisons and publicly traded companies.  An RFA investigation confirmed that Berqi, which is a pseudonym, was arrested two years ago amid a purge of Uyghur intellectuals, educators and cultural leaders — one of a set of Chinese government policies that have been determined by the United States and the parliaments of some Western countries as constituting genocide. The abuses also include forced labor at factories and farms, forced birth control and the detention of up to 1.8 million Uyghurs in a network of internment camps. A Chinese official at the Xinjiang Education Institute, a university for teacher education in the XUAR’s capital Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) where Berqi worked, told RFA that he was not authorized to disclose information about Berqi and suggested the reporter contact the school administration office.  “I don’t know this person,” the official said. “I haven’t heard of this person. We have more than 1,000 employees at the school. Let me give you a phone number. You ask the school administration office.” Other officials at the institute refused to provide information about Berqi, however. Later, officials at the directorate of school education told RFA that the institute did not employ an instructor named Berqi. RFA also contacted a police officer in the poet’s hometown of Sampul village in southern Xinjiang’s Hotan (Hetian) prefecture, who confirmed that he was serving a 13-year term in Tumshuq Prison. “He is in prison now,” the police officer said. “The reasons were threats to social stability and going abroad. He was detained in 2017, and after three months he was sentenced to prison for 13 years and is now serving his term in Tumshuq Prison.” The officer also pointed to “mistakes he made while teaching at school,” including articles Berqi wrote and lectures he gave. Berqi’s parents live in the village’s Aydingkol hamlet, the officer said.  A top target In an article published in the 2000s, Berqi said he used a pseudonym because his real name was the same as the XUAR chairman, Ablet Abdureshid, which led to a number of misunderstandings, particularly after the poet’s writings were published in newspapers and magazines.  He also said the pseudonym, which means “flourishing” in the Uyghur language, reflected the greater success he hoped to achieve in his creative career. Berqi wrote his doctoral dissertation on Abduhalik Uyghur, a prominent Uyghur revolutionary poet in the early 20th century who was killed by Sheng Shicai, a Chinese militarist who ruled Xinjiang from 1933 to 1944.  Berqi also studied at Haifa University in Israel between 2014 and 2016, said Nimrod Baranovitch, a lecturer in Chinese culture and society at the university, who met the poet in Urumqi a decade earlier and later applied for a postdoctoral fellowship for him. “[W]e kept in contact for many years, and then we decided we should try to bring him over to study and research here,” Baranovitch told RFA. “We had tried that once in the past, but it didn’t work. And then we tried it again, and it worked.” Two years ago, authorities charged Berqi with “separatism” and sentenced him to 13 years in prison because of articles he wrote on economic awareness and development in the XUAR, which were published in the CCP-controlled Xinjiang Civilization magazine, according to information from an RFA listener. The last official mention of his name was on Jan. 5, 2017, in a notice issued by the Xinjiang Education Institute’s publicity department. It said that the research topics officially approved by the Chinese government included a project by Berqi relating to the stability of Xinjiang. At the end of 2017, Berqi’s name was on a list of Uyghur intellectuals who had been imprisoned, but due to the Chinese government’s tight control over information, it was only five years later, in July 2022, RFA learned about his sentencing. Husenjan, one of the Berqi’s colleagues who now resides abroad, said he received was told by sources in Urumqi that Berqi had been sentenced to prison but did not know the length of his term. “I recently received official news that he was, in fact, detained, but I wasn’t able to get information on whether or how long he was sentenced to prison,” he said. As a writer and intellectual, Berqi would have been a top target for authorities amid the ongoing repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Husenjan said. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Russia backs China on Taiwan as sanctions, incursions expected during Pelosi visit

Editor08 mins

Russia on Tuesday backed Beijing’s disapproval of an expected visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the democratic island of Taiwan, calling it a “provocation,” as China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) engaged in live-fire military exercises across the Taiwan Strait. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing that Moscow opposes Taiwanese independence “in any form.” Her comments came as the official media of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made no mention of escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait after Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned President Joe Biden not to “play with fire” ahead of Pelosi’s planned arrival on Tuesday evening. Neither the People’s Liberation Army Daily nor the CCP’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, made any mention of the story, with the People’s Daily leading with agricultural developments in Fujian. However, the English-language Global Times ran a top story titled “Tension escalates hours ahead of Pelosi’s potential Taiwan visit as PLA remains fully prepared for any crisis.” It said any visit by Pelosi would be “a serious provocation and violation to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity which would be met with severe countermeasures from the Chinese military.” The article largely repeated comments also made on Tuesday by Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. It also cited a maritime safety warning to shipping reporting live-fire military exercises off Weifang in the Bohai Sea on Aug. 3, while “military training in parts of the South China Sea” was reported by the Guangdong maritime authorities. The paper’s former editor Hu Xijin tweeted on Tuesday: “Based on what I know, in response to Pelosi’s possible visit to Taiwan, Beijing has formulated a series of countermeasures, including military actions.” Hu also tweeted on Monday: “If she dares to stop in Taiwan, it will be the moment to ignite the powder keg of the situation in the Taiwan Straits.” Tacit understanding? Current affairs commentator Johnny Lau said he expects there is more likely to be a tacit understanding between Beijing and Washington enabling Xi to step up the appearance of military threat to boost his support at home. “Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is highly beneficial to Xi Jinping, who is taking the opportunity ensure that top military and political figures must unite around him ahead of the 20th CCP national congress [later this year],” Lau said. “The mainland could have the PLA’s planes cross over the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and neither the U.S. nor Taiwan will attack them,” he said. “Both sides know where the lines are drawn, and whoever fires the first shot will be responsible [for starting a war],” he said. “Everyone is flexing their muscle in what is both a political show and a military gesture aimed at certain circles,” Lau said. Wu Qiang, an independent researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, said China could also announce sanctions on members of the Congressional delegation, including Pelosi, including banning them from entering China. “If the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs imposes sanctions after Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, it would be no more than the sanctions imposed on other U.S. politicians in recent years,” Wu said. “They could ban them from entering China or Hong Kong, freeze their assets there, and ban companies from doing business with their families,” Wu said. Diplomacy failures He said Beijing has little other recourse short of military action. “Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan marks an unprecedented change in Sino-U.S. relations, which is of course due to the failure of Chinese diplomacy [in recent years],” he said. China has also suspended imports from 35 Taiwanese exporters of biscuits and pastries since Monday. Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported on Tuesday that China has listed 2,066 foodstuffs as being subject to “import suspension.” Wu said such trade sanctions would likely continue as international support for the democratic island, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China, grows. He said China could also try to restrict international maritime access to the Taiwan Strait. “They could declare that the Taiwan Strait is China’s territorial waters, and its airspace part of China’s airspace, and say that foreign vessels [or aircraft] must get approval from China to enter them,” Wu said. International relations scholar Zhong Shan agreed. “China will definitely react in some way, maybe by including Taiwan in its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) … with military aircraft flying over or around the island,” Zhong said. “It’s fairly easy for the foreign ministry to whip up populist sentiment, but it’s not so easy to suppress it again,” he said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Investigative Journalism Reportika © March 2022 by Ij-Reportika is licensed under CC BY 4.0