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Category: Middle East

California church shooter in Taiwan ‘peaceful reunification’ group linked to Beijing

Editor09 mins

California church killer David Chou has close ties to a Taiwan ‘peaceful reunification’ group linked to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, a body that has been designated a representative of a foreign government by the U.S. government, according to a report on its founding ceremony. Chou, who opened fire on a Taiwanese lunch banquet at the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Irvine, CA on May 15, killing one person and injuring five others before being restrained, was pictured at the setting up of the Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification on April 2, 2019, holding up a banner calling for the “eradication of pro-independence demons,” according to an April 3, 2019 report on the Chinese LVNews website. The group — whose president Gu Yawen warned the people of Taiwan that ‘peaceful unification is the only way to avoid war’ in his inaugural speech — is a local branch of the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU) under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s United Front Work Department. “The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organ tasked with co-opting and neutralizing threats to the party’s rule and spreading its influence and propaganda overseas,” the State Department said in a statement in 2020. “The CCP regards this party apparatus as a ‘magic weapon’ to advance Beijing’s policies.” In the same statement, the State Department designated NACPU a foreign mission of China. “The UFWD … uses front organizations like the NACPU to advance [Beijing]’s propaganda and malign influence,” then Secretary of State Mike Pence said. Taiwan has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China, but its nationals are regarded as Chinese citizens under another administration by Beijing. The majority of Taiwan’s 23 million people say they have no wish to give up their country’s sovereignty or lose their democratic way of life under Chinese rule, but CCP leader Xi Jinping has said “unification” is inevitable, and has refused to rule out the use of military force to annex the democratic island. David Chou holds up a banner calling for the ‘eradication of pro-independence demons,’ at the Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, April 2, 2019. Credit: LVNews ‘Politically motivated hate’ Orange County police said Chou’s actions were fueled by “politically motivated hate.” Sheriff-Coroner Don Barnes said Chou — who reports said was born in Taiwan to parents from China — had left a note in his car showing he didn’t agree that “Taiwan is a country independent of China,” and had expressed dissatisfaction with political tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Chou, 68, of Las Vegas, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after he entered Geneva Presbyterian Church and fired multiple rounds, striking six victims, Orange County police said. “At the time of the shooting, members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, which has had a space at the church since 2009, were having a lunch banquet to welcome a pastor who had recently returned from Taiwan,” it said. Five victims sustained gunshot wounds and were taken to local hospitals for treatment, while the deceased was identified as Dr. John Cheng, 52, pronounced dead at the scene after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds when he intervened and tackled the suspect, enabling others to rush in and hogtie Chou to prevent further carnage. “There is no doubt that Dr. Cheng’s actions that day saved the lives of many other church members. He is a hero and will be remembered by this community as such,” Barnes told journalists, adding that Chou appeared to have superglued the church doors shut and had deposited spare ammunition and Molotov cocktails around the building ahead of time. The five injured victims, four men and a woman aged 66-92, were taken to a local hospital, where they are being treated, police said. The banquet had been in honor of pastor Chang Hsuan-hsin, who had returned to the church after a two-year absence, local pastor Hwang Chun-sheng told RFA. “Our pastor and elder hadn’t been back to California for more than two years, so most of the older members of the church wanted to go to church for that day’s service,” Hwang said. “[Dr. Cheng] decided he would bring his mother to church [for the occasion]. ‘Violence is never the answer’ Chien Ta, a former member of a NACPU branch in the U.S., said more violence could occur over the status of Taiwan, which is a sovereign country formally ruled by the 1911 Republic of China founded by Sun Yat-sen whose government fled to the island after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists in China. “If we don’t deal with this kind of nationalistic hatred, we will definitely see more intense conflicts on the issue of unification or independence in future,” Chien warned. Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, who has insisted that any dialogue must be on a government-to-government basis, expressed her condolences to Cheng’s family via social media. “I want to convey my sincere condolences on the death of Dr. John Cheng & my hopes for a prompt recovery for those injured in the shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in California,” Tsai tweeted. “Violence is never the answer.” Taiwanese lawmaker for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Lin Ching-yee said via Facebook that the shooting was driven by a “genocidal” ideology, calling for greater awareness of the possibility of politically motivated killings of Taiwanese overseas, in addition to the threat of Chinese invasion. Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang said Tsai had asked Taiwan’s top representative to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim to visit California soon and support the victims’ families. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Shanghai to ease lockdown if cases keep falling, but mass health checks to remain

Editor09 mins

Authorities in Shanghai on Monday announced the easing over the next six weeks of a grueling lockdown that has seen the city’s 26 million residents mostly confined to their homes, with many deprived of urgent medical care or essential supplies. Restrictions on movements around the city — which are tracked and regulated through a series of “grid management” checks and roadblocks using the Health Code app — will remain at least until next week, when the city will move towards “normalization,” should COVID-19 cases continue to fall, officials said on Monday. Full reopening may take place in June. On Monday, taxis and private cars were allowed back on the road in districts that have already attained zero-COVID status, including Jinshan and Fengxian, while airlines began operating a limited number of domestic flights, with some train services also scheduled to resume. Some supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies reopened on Monday, with some hair salons and fresh produce markets also allowed to open for business, while metro and bus services are slated to make a comeback from May 22. However, residents have been warned that more intense monitoring via the app will take the place of restrictions, along with more frequent PCR tests at thousands of testing stations across the city, as many venues will require a recent negative COVID-19 for entry. Jiading district resident surnamed Zheng said his residential compound remains under lockdown, despite the announcements. “We can’t leave the compound; we’re only allowed to move around inside it,” Zheng told RFA. “It will remain closed for another week or so.” “Restrictions and controls are particularly strict in Yangpu district, because they are still finding large numbers of positive results every time they do PCR testing,” he said. A photo of a 93-year-old woman in Shanghai who was given up for dead and sent to a funeral home from the city’s Zhoupu Hospital and sent back to the nursing home after being found alive, posted by the woman’s grandson. Credit: Zhuge (her grandson). Instant noodles Commenting on a viral video in which Qingpu district residents throw instant noodles at members of the local ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) neighborhood committee after discovering them in a secret cake-eating session, Zheng said he understood people’s frustration. “You can’t eat instant noodles every day for two months,” he said. “People who have come to Shanghai from elsewhere have had it particularly tough.” “The neighborhood committees keep a lot of the good stuff back for themselves … they distributed pork chops with maggots in them the other day … and we’ve not had a handout of fruit in two months,” Zheng said. Meanwhile, the relatives of a 93-year-old woman in Shanghai who was given up for dead and sent to a funeral home from Zhoupu Hospital said she had been sent back to the nursing home after being found alive. The woman’s grandson, who gave only the surname Zhuge, posted a photo of his grandmother from the nursing home after her return. Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping said the incident was “terrifying.” “This kind of large-scale lockdown, with makeshift hospitals, is a kind of humanitarian disaster,” Zhang said. “The disease and control prevention measures in Shanghai are a bit like the [political turmoil of the] Cultural Revolution, and seem more like disease prevention in the Middle Ages, treating people like livestock,” he said. Alive in a body bag Earlier this month, authorities in Shanghai announced punishments for five officials in the city’s Putuo district after an elderly man was found alive in a body bag en route between a care home and a morgue. Putuo civil affairs bureau chief Zhang Jiandong, section chief Liu Yinghua and social development director Wu Youcheng had been fired pending a ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) disciplinary case against them, while a doctor surnamed Tian was struck off for signing the man’s death certificate and placed under police investigation. Zhang said part of the problem is the suppression of any kind of criticism of government policy during the lockdown, which was the result of orders from the CCP Central Committee and leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. “Shanghai’s disease control measures were totally chaotic, but you can’t express your opinion,” he said. “If you do, officials will say that you are wavering on the zero-clearing policy.” Lu Jun, founder of the Beijing Yirenping Center, a non-profit health organization, said the zero-COVID policy has given rise to many human rights violations. “These actions have caused extremely serious consequences and had a huge impact, and violated the legitimate rights and interests of the people,” Lu told RFA. “But civil rights protection in China has never been an easy task, and the cost of doing it is very high,” he said. Lu said a number of rights lawyers had formed an advisory group to help people sue the government for violations of their rights as a result of COVID-19. The COVID-19 Claims Legal Advisory Group calls on families of victims to collect as much evidence as possible it send it to the group, which helps file compensation claims with the government. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Conflict seen escalating in Myanmar on anniversary of PDF

Editor09 mins

One year after Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) established the prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF), hundreds of anti-junta groups are active throughout the country and violent conflict is escalating with no end in sight, an analyst said Wednesday. May 6 marked the anniversary of the PDF, a paramilitary group formed to protect Myanmar’s civilians after junta security forces violently repressed peaceful protests of the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup. Comprised of members from all walks of life, the PDF counts deposed members of parliament, artists, celebrities, students, farmers, and defected soldiers among its ranks. In a statement detailing the growth of the group over the past year, the NUG Ministry of Defense said the PDF has since expanded to 257 units based in 250 townships across Myanmar and maintains links to more than 400 local guerrilla groups. Around U.S. $30 million was spent on arms training and military equipment for the PDF since its formation, the NUG said, adding that it plans to increase related expenditures to ensure the group is amply supplied going forward. But while the PDF has developed into a formidable fighting force, Min Zaw Oo, executive director of the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS), told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the country is less stable than it was in the aftermath of the coup. “The security situation in the country has deteriorated significantly,” he said. “There’s a lot of insecurity among the people and armed conflict is on the rise.” Min Zaw Oo said that the military is increasingly spread thin, fighting insurgents on a multitude of fronts, including in areas technically under its control. “The junta had to stretch its forces when armed insurgencies erupted in areas where there were none in the past,” he noted. “These areas are currently controlled by the junta, but there are also rebel forces there. Such rebel pockets exist in nearly every city.” He warned that, with more armed groups operating in Myanmar than ever before in the country’s 70 years of independence, violent conflict is likely to become worse before it gets better. In the more than 15 months since the military coup, security forces have killed at least 1,835 civilians and arrested more than 10,600 others, mostly during anti-junta protests, according to Thailand-based NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The junta has sought to justify its putsch with unsubstantiated claims that the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) won the country’s most recent election through voter fraud. In addition to suppressing the opposition in urban areas, the junta has launched offensives against PDF forces located in the Myanmar’s remote border regions, where armed ethnic groups administer wide swathes of territory. ISP-Myanmar and Data for Myanmar – two groups monitoring conflict in the country – say at least 615 civilians have been killed in clashes between the military and the PDF, while as many as 811,000 have been displaced and more than 11,400 homes have been destroyed in fires started during the fighting. PDF members mark the one-year anniversary of the paramilitary group, May 6, 2022. Credit: NUG Ministry of Defense Growing insecurity NUG Defense Minister Ye Mon said during his address marking the anniversary of the PDF that the group had grown substantially stronger over the past year and suggested that it would soon remove the junta from power. “Our comrades have gained a decent amount of experience and military skills within the year, and I believe that they have become more skillful in guerrilla warfare and can attack the enemy more effectively,” he said. “It has become obvious that the morale of the enemy is down. At such a moment, we need to intensify our attacks and bring the enemy to its knees in front of the people.” Ye Mon said that with the help of armed ethnic groups, the PDF is now in control of nearly half of Myanmar and predicted further gains soon. But junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun dismissed the claims as inaccurate in a recent interview with RFA. He also blamed the country’s growing insecurity on the NUG and the PDF, which the junta has labeled “terrorist organizations.” “We were first on the path to a negotiated solution but they, the current armed insurgents, have chosen to resort to this path of violence,” Zaw Min Tun said. He said PDF units that pursue armed violence will be “cracked down on until the country is stable.” Despite calls at home and abroad for inclusive talks to end conflict in Myanmar, the junta has said it will not negotiate with the NUG or the PDF. Meanwhile, civilians caught in the middle of the fighting say they want to be left out of the conflict. Nadi Aung, a woman from war-torn Sagaing region’s Myaung township, called on both the military and the PDF to prevent further casualties among unarmed villagers amid the escalating fighting. “As a citizen, I want to ask both sides to fight bravely and with honor,” she said. There are armed groups and unarmed groups operating everywhere. We want an end to the taking hostage of unarmed civilians. We want an end to the looting, killings and burnings.” Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Deaths and arrests rise in Myanmar’s heartland

Editor011 mins

Junta security forces have killed at least 155 civilians and arrested 683 others in Myanmar’s Magway region — the heartland of the majority Bamar people — since the military seized power 15 months ago, according to reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Local sources said that troops had destroyed more than 2,100 houses by arson in Magway over the same period — making it second only to Sagaing in regions hit hardest by the attacks since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup. In the first week of April alone, at least 20 villages were razed in Magway’s Pauk township, where the armed opposition has gained a foothold in recent months. Sources told RFA that nearly all the incidents occurred in the Magway townships of Magway, Pakokku, Seik Phyu, Gangaw, Saetottara and Myaing — all pockets of strong resistance to military rule. Much of the reporting on abuses by junta troops to date has focused on Myanmar’s remote border regions, where armed ethnic groups seeking independence have battled the country’s military for decades and established a patchwork of self-administered territories. The new statistics from Magway, where the population is more than 95% Bamar, suggest that not even members of the Myanmar’s majority ethnic group in the country’s central region are immune to attacks by the military. Daw Aye, a 56-year-old woman from a village in southern Pauk township, told RFA that her home was destroyed in two fires set by the military and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militiamen on April 10 and 24. “My house was a decent building with a separate stable for the animals … and now it’s all gone,” she said, adding that her destroyed property was valued at around 20 million kyats (U.S. $10,800). “I don’t know if I’ll ever live in that kind of house again. We have no place to live even if we could go back to the village. We no longer sleep peacefully at night. We cannot eat our meals in peace. We must always be alert.” Residents of Gangaw township’s Taungbet village said troops and Pyu Saw Htee fighters set two fires that destroyed 36 houses there after accusing them of providing haven to anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries, which the military regime has labeled a terrorist group. More than 800 people were forced to flee the village in the attacks, they said, adding that at least 695 houses in 17 Gangaw villages have been destroyed by arson since the coup. Lay Lay Win, a resident of Pauk’s Htan Pauk Kone village, told RFA that her husband Than Tun Oo was arrested on Feb. 21 while he worked on the tract’s water tower by a 30-man column of junta troops from the military’s Pakokku-based 101st Brigade, who brutally murdered him the same day. “My husband was said to be tortured and stabbed. He was hit in the face with rifle butts and was vomiting blood before he died,” she said. “We only learned of his fate when some of the young men who were arrested that day and later released told us what had happened.” Lay Lay Win, who has two young children and is pregnant with her third child, said that Than Tun Oo was targeted after informants told the military he was assisting the local PDF. She said the military did not inform her of her husband’s death or return his body to their family. Gangaw township, which borders Myanmar’s restive Chin state, was one of the first centers of armed opposition to junta rule. Fighting between the local PDF and the military has been frequent there since early 2022, as it has been in the nearby townships of Saw and Htee Lin. Residents of the area told RFA that every time the two sides clash, the military raids nearby villages, targeting them with arson attacks and even air strikes. Refugees on the rise Meanwhile, the number of refugees forced to flee their homes amid the fighting in Magway has risen in recent months, according to residents. In Htee Lin township alone, some 1,400 people have been displaced since the coup. Kyaw Aye, a resident of the township’s Kyin village, told RFA he and his family had to flee their home four times on April 17, the day of the Burmese New Year, due to repeated air strikes. “On New Year’s Day, we heard gunshots near the village. Our whole family huddled together at home because we were scared and we had to flee in the evening as a plane flew over the village and fired randomly,” he said. “We’ve been on the run again and again — once four times in one day [on New Year’s Day],” he said. “We’re now taking refuge in a nearby village after spending two nights in the jungle.” Kyaw Aye said he was among 70 people, including children and the elderly, who fled his village during the most recent military attack and were forced to find shelter in the jungle. When asked about the arrests and killings in Magway, junta deputy minister of information, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, attributed them to PDF groups moving between the region and Chin state. “In the northern part of Magway region, there have been some fake reports that the army was burning villages. But when we captured some PDF members, they said that the army didn’t do it,” he said. “We captured a nurse and a health worker, and their statements were already released to newsmen. This group is making up stories about what is really happening.” History of resistance Despite the army raids, Boh Cross, the leader of the Myaing Township PDF, told RFA that the armed opposition is gaining significant territory in northern Magway. “The situation is much better than before,” he said, adding that there are now eight PDF units in Myaing township alone, with a strength of more than 10,000 fighters. “Our organizations … are all working together.” Pauk Kyaing, a resident of Pauk township, told RFA that Magway region has long…

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Police sent to Beijing university campus amid growing public anger over zero-COVID

Editor010 mins

Police were deployed to the campus of Beijing International Studies University at the weekend, as authorities in Shanghai step up forcible, mass isolation of residents in the wake of a top-down directive from ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping. A post on the BISU leaders’ message board said restrictions on people entering and leaving the school campus and the fencing off of living areas to prevent the spread of COVID-19 had been implemented with no consultation, and before any official announcement had been made. It said workers sent in to implement the restrictions and carry out disinfection work weren’t wearing masks, and that the measures had done little to stem the spread of the virus. “Please could the leaders take charge on behalf of ordinary people,” the post said, adding that people were bound to gather in public spaces if they were prevented from moving around freely. A video clip apparently shot at the BISU campus over the weekend showed rows of uniformed police officers standing ready, while a law enforcement officer gave a warning by megaphone. “This is your first warning,” the officer says. “We hope you will cooperate with the school CCP committee … and disperse immediately.” “If you are still here after the third warning, then the police will take lawful action to clear the area,” the officer says. After an official tells them to use official channels to pursue complaints, one person shouts: “You’re crazy! What channels do I have?” The BISU website posted a call for the university to obey CCP leader Xi Jinping’s call on colleges and universities to take part in his zero-COVID policy, which has led to grueling lockdowns enforced by steel barriers, forcible transfers to isolation facilities and ongoing mass testing in major cities including Shanghai, affecting tens of millions of people. The BISU party committee said it viewed disease control and prevention as “the political priority for the present,” and would “resolutely implement” the policy, without need for local centers for disease control and prevention (CDCs) to get involved. City lockdown In Beijing’s Chaoyang district, residents of the Jiayuan residential compound were placed under lockdown by officials, who welded them into their apartment buildings with steel barriers. Beijing resident Wang Qiaoling said dozens of families were confined to their homes by the move. “These are 28-story high-rise apartment buildings, usually with three households to a floor, and sometimes four, so multiply 28 by three … it’s really scary,” Wang said. “Are any of them patients needing dialysis? Any who need to attend hospital or get out to buy medicines on a regular basis?” Shanghai’s lockdown has resulted in an unknown number of seriously ill patients dying due to lack of access to hospitals, which are insisting on negative PCR results, a test that can take up to 48 hours to return a result. “Is this what they mean by serving the people?” Wang said. “I bet the person giving this order didn’t have any family members in that block.” “We had the Wuhan lockdown of 2020, and they’re still locking cities down. Not just lockdowns, either, but welding people’s buildings shut.” Beijing-based current affairs commentator Ji Feng said Chaoyang is one of the most densely populated districts in Beijing. While most people in the city are currently going about their lives in a normal manner, the targeted lockdown in Chaoyang show how far local officials are willing to go to please those higher up. “It’s overkill at each level of the hierarchy,” Ji said. “If something gets said at the highest level, then every level below that overdoes the response, for fear of [spoiling their service record].” “If nothing bad happens, there are no bad consequences for overdoing things … in China, no questions get asked by leaders or those lower down about the process; only the result,” he said. ‘Many are resisting’ Since Xi’s speech reiterating his commitment to the zero-COVID policy, authorities in Shanghai have also stepped up lockdown measures, emptying entire residential buildings and taking residents away to isolation centers if only one person tests positive for COVID-19. “Please don’t go out,” a residential official is heard saying in one video posted to social media. “The entire building will be taken away if even a single person tests positive.” Other videos showed enforcement personnel in PPE white suits forcing their way in to people’s homes, spraying disinfectant all over their belongings, and separating a woman from her child. In one video, a resident refuses to leave with officials or to hand over the keys to her apartment. A Shanghai resident surnamed Chen said people are trying to resist. “Many people are resisting,” Chen told RFA. “I told them that it didn’t matter which leader came up with this idea; that it was totally unreasonable.” Signs of widespread dissent are also emerging online, only to be rapidly silenced. Chinese constitutional expert Tong Zhiwei had his Weibo account shut down after he wrote a post arguing that the forcible removal of residents to isolation centers, as well as the requisitioning of their homes for isolation purposes, is illegal in the absence of emergency legislation. “These agencies have no right to use coercive means to force residents to be quarantined in makeshift hospitals,” Tong wrote. “Public authorities at all levels and of all types in Shanghai have the responsibility and obligation to immediately stop the use of coercive means to send any residents other than patients, pathogen carriers, and suspected patients to isolation facilities.” He said the forcible requisitioning of people’s homes is also illegal. “Officials in Shanghai forcing residents to hand over their house keys, then sending people into their homes for ‘disinfection’, is trespassing illegally in citizens’ homes,” Tong wrote, adding, “this practice has already been implemented in some areas.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Russian arms sales to Southeast Asia have tanked, report finds

Editor011 mins

Russia’s arms sales to Southeast Asia have plummeted due to international sanctions imposed since the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 and the ongoing war will likely lead to a further decline, creating market opportunities for countries like China, a new report says. An article in the bulletin ISEAS Perspective published by the ISEAS –Yusof Ishak Institute, a Singapore-based research institution, has found that Russia’s defense industry has been hit hard, with export values reduced from $1.2 billion in 2014 to just $89 million in 2021. Cumulatively Russia has been on top of the list of arms suppliers to Southeast Asia over the last two decades but the sales are likely to fall further and regional countries will look to divert their weapons contracts to other countries, the report says. Data provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) show that in 2021 alone, Russia has already slipped behind the United States and China. According to the article’s author, academic Ian Storey, the biggest reason behind the fall is sanctions and export controls that the U.S. and Europe imposed on Russia’s defense industry since its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Those restrictions haven’t necessarily prevented Southeast Asian nations from buying Russian arms, but there is less on offer as Russian manufacturers face difficulties in conducting financial transactions and accessing technologies and critical components. It’s also ended defense industry ties between Russia and Ukraine. “The conflict brought to an abrupt end longstanding and extensive cooperation between Ukrainian and Russian defense companies, especially in the production of engines for surface ships, helicopters and aircraft,” Storey said. Military visitors of Vietnam observe a Russian T-90MS tank during the International Military Technical Forum Army-2020 in Alabino, outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 23, 2020. (AP Photo) Another factor is a pause in the military modernization program in Vietnam, Russia’s biggest customer in Southeast Asia. Hanoi began the program in the late 1990s and in the period 1995-2021, it bought $7.4 billion worth of weapons and military equipment from Russia. That accounted for more than 80 percent of Vietnam’s total arms imports. “Vietnam has put the military modernization program on hold because of concerns over Moscow’s ability to fulfill orders but also due to an anti-corruption drive,” Nguyen The Phuong, lecturer at the Faculty of International Relations, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance, wrote in July 2021 research paper. Hanoi will still have to rely on Moscow to maintain and operate its Russian-made arsenal of six Kilo-class submarines, 36 Sukhoi Su-30MK2 aircraft, four Gepard 3.9 class frigates and two Bastion mobile coastal defense missile systems, but experts say it has already been on the look-out for alternative supply sources including Israel, Belarus, the U.S. and the Netherlands. Downward trends In the light of the Ukraine war, the new report says will be difficult for Russia’s defense manufacturers to revive their sales due to “the imposition of tighter sanctions and export controls by a number of countries, the reputational damage caused by the poor performance of Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine, and its need to replenish battlefield losses.” Storey pointed out that the current sanctions on Russian banks, and their exclusion from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) international payment network, “will make it harder for the country’s defense industry to conduct financial transactions with overseas clients.” Export controls imposed on Russia will also restrict Russian manufacturers’ access to advanced technologies critical in modern military hardware and components that Russia doesn’t possess. “As a consequence, foreign buyers may decide to switch to more reliable sources of military hardware.” People walk past the headquarters of Russian Agricultural Bank in downtown Moscow, Russia, on July 30, 2014. It was one of the Russian banks hit by Western sanctions. (AP Photo) Furthermore, losses suffered by Russian forces in Ukraine this year may have seriously damaged Moscow’s reputation as a military equipment powerhouse. “The problems facing Russia’s defense-industrial sector will create market opportunities in Southeast Asia for other countries, including China,” the report says. According to SIPRI data, China’s arms exports to Southeast Asia in 2021 totaled $284 million, up from $53 million in 2020. So far, China has refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and as the war drags on Moscow’s dependence on Beijing may deepen. In return, “China will seek increased access to Russia’s most sensitive military technology and even pressure Moscow to reduce military sales to Vietnam,” Storey said. A medium range surface-to-air missile weapon system is displayed during the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai city, south China’s Guangdong province, on Nov. 6, 2018. (AP Photo) Ukraine’s arms sales That would be a blow for Russian exporters but also for Vietnam, which has competing claims against China in the South China Sea. The situation in Ukraine also disrupted the Ukrainian arms supply to Hanoi which totaled $200 million during 2000-2021. Ukraine was part of the Soviet and then Russian defense industries even after proclaiming independence. It has been a major supplier of aircraft and spare parts, as well as armored vehicles and munitions. During 2009-2014, up until the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine was among world’s 10 largest arms exporters, according to SIPRI. In 2012, it was in fact the fourth-largest arms exporter. Kyiv sold $1.3 billion worth of conventional arms that year. Ukraine’s state-owned exporter Ukrspecexport had contracts with nearly 80 countries. In its heyday, the company ran 100 arms-producing plants and factories, and employed tens of thousands of workers. Besides Vietnam, in Southeast Asia Thailand and Myanmar were also big customers that spent $479 million and $111 million on Ukrainian weapons respectively during 2000-2021. In 2011, Bangkok ordered 49 T-84 Oplot battle tanks and 236 BTR-3E armored vehicles from Ukraine. However the delayed deliveries of the Oplots due to the Crimea crisis forced Thailand to buy VT-4 main battle tanks from China instead. Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos and Indonesia also bought weapons from Ukraine, though in much lesser quantities. A Bangladesh military officer, Brig (Rtd)…

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Junta forces kill 20 civilians in one day in Myanmar’s Sagaing region

Editor09 mins

A joint force of military troops and pro-junta militiamen killed 20 civilians earlier this week in Myanmar’s war-torn Sagaing region, according to sources, who said soldiers forced some of the victims to serve as human shields and executed several others as they lay face down in the dirt. The victims, who included men in their 70s and one young woman, were all killed on May 2 and included three people from Seikhun village and six from Nyaungbin Thar village; both in Shwebo township, nine from Butalin township’s Otpo village, one from Khin-Oo township’s Innpat village, and one from Ayardaw township’s Malae Thar village, sources told RFA’s Myanmar Service. A resident of Otpo village, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, said the victims were all civilians who had been hiding from the soldiers in an unoccupied Buddhist convent. “We heard the army was coming from Butalin … and the villagers fled in fear. Many went to the convent to take shelter and that’s when they met the soldiers head-on,” the resident said. “The detainees were told to lie on their bellies on the ground and were shot in the head. A child was ordered to go away from the site before they killed the victims.” The convent’s nuns, who might have served as a deterrent to the troops, had earlier fled the area after receiving reports of the advancing column, the source said. Troops also set fire to several vehicles in and around Otpo village, he said. On the same day, three villagers were killed, and six others were injured when troops engaged in a firefight with anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries near Seikhun and Zeebyugone villages and shelled the area, other sources told RFA. A resident of Seikhun, who also declined to be named, said the troops had come to the village from the seat of Shwebo township, around 7 miles to the north, “to clear the area.” “The soldiers entered the village, where there are monasteries. The people hiding in the monastery compounds were used as human shields,” he said. “But before entering the village, they opened fire with heavy weapons from all sides. Three people died and six others were injured because of the shelling.” Of the three dead, one 25-year-old man was “burned to death” by the troops, while the other two “died of gunshot wounds,” the source said. Residents told RFA that troops had come to Seikhun last year and destroyed village looms “because people didn’t pay their electricity bills.” A resident of Nyaungbin Thar said six villagers were shot dead on May 2 after the military raided the tract for the second time in a week. “They burned Kyar village earlier, stopped for a while in Panyan village, and then returned to Nyaungbin Thar. The local paramilitaries detonated a few landmines and held them off, so the troops withdrew and began shelling the area. Two villagers were wounded,” they said. “After that, the soldiers moved towards Khin-Oo, where they killed five villagers. One man was killed inside a house where he was captured. The troops brought along Pyu Saw Htee from [nearby] Khun Daung Gyi village.” In addition to the killings in Shwebo and Butalin townships on May 2, sources said that at least one man died when troops set fire to more than 300 houses in Khin-Oo’s Innpat village and a blind man perished in another arson attack on Ayardaw’s Malae Thar village that day. The aftermath of a May 2, 2022 military arson attack on Ayardaw township’s Malae Thar village. Credit: Citizen journalist ‘Completely inhuman’ Graphic photos obtained by RFA of the aftermath of the incidents showed several victims lying crumpled on the ground in their own viscera. In some cases, the subjects of the images were unrecognizable because of the trauma inflicted on their bodies. Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the reported killings went unanswered. Previously, the deputy minister has rejected reports of troops killing civilians as “baseless accusations,” and blamed such incidents on the PDF, which the junta has labeled a terrorist group. The military cut off internet access to most townships in Sagaing region beginning in March this year when it launched a scorched earth campaign in the area. RFA has received frequent reports of arrests, looting, rape, torture, arson, and murder in the region. Aung Kyaw, a former Member of Parliament for the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) in Butalin township, said the military is targeting innocent civilians because it is unable to defeat the PDF. “The PDF groups have planted landmines in the area and when [the army] suffers casualties, they kill anyone they encounter as an act of revenge,” he said. “The military has become a band of terrorists, violating every law. They are completely inhuman.” Aung Kyaw said there are now daily protests in Sagaing against military persecution. According to Data for Myanmar, which monitors troop arson attacks, a total of 11,417 homes have been destroyed by fire across the country since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup. Sagaing saw the most arson attacks of any other state or region in Myanmar, with more than 7,500 homes burned. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said security forces have killed 1,822 civilians since the coup and arrested some 10,535 others, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Tibetan political prisoner in poor health said to be released from jail

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Chinese authorities have released Tibetan political prisoner Norzin Wangmo, who was arrested in 2020 and sentenced to three years in prison for sharing information about Tibetans who self-immolated in protest of China’s repressive policies, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA on Thursday. “Norzin Wangmo was unexpectedly released on May 2 from a prison in Kyegudo, where she was serving a three-year term,” said the Tibetan, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “Because of severe torture and ill treatment in prison, she can barely stand up on her feet. “She is currently being treated at her home because she is not allowed to visit hospitals for treatment,” said the source. “She is still closely monitored by the Chinese government.” Wangmo from Kham Kyegudo in Yushul (in Chinese, Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province was accused of sharing information about Tenzin Sherab who self-immolated in the prefecture’s Chumarleb, (Qumalai) county in May 2013. The woman, who is married and has young three children, was sentenced in May 2020 after a secret trial. Her family was not allowed to visit her while she was in prison despite frequent requests to do so. Due to strict restrictions and harsh policies in Tibet imposed by Chinese government, Wangmo’s case did not reach the Tibetan exile community until 20 months after her arrest. “Before her arrest, she had been interrogated for about 20 hours by local police,” said another Tibetan who lives in exile and has knowledge of the matter. “Her hands and feet were both shackled, and her family was allowed to see her only for a few minutes before she was taken into the prison,” the source said. “The clothes and other goods that her family brought for her were also returned.” Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Interview: ‘There was no overall logic to anything’

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A Belgian national of Taiwanese descent has described living through the bureaucratic hell of the Shanghai lockdown, which left the city’s 26 million people confined to homes or makeshift hospitals for weeks on end with scant access to food, basic supplies and live-saving medical treatment for some. The woman, who gave only the surname Chang, told RFA her experiences after arriving back in the city where she currently works just as the lockdowns under the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s zero-COVID policy were beginning: “The Shanghai I was seeing on [Chinese state] TV was quiet, with large numbers of volunteers, no shortage of supplies. The weather was good and everyone was full of confidence. There were no visible problems, so I wondered why my residential community was different from the rest. The Shanghai authorities put out a lot of information. We would check every morning how many people in our compound were infected. The city government would publish figures every few hours, and everyone in our [WeChat] friends circle would also communicate with each other, so we found out what was going on in other districts, too, if they were doing PCR testing. Gradually, we discovered that nobody could find anything to eat. One person said they had a single potato left in their home. Initially, we thought the lockdown would be for four days, so that’s what we had prepared ourselves for, mentally, psychologically. That is totally different from being locked down for a month. I really experienced that feeling of the days and nights merging into one. We had no way of knowing that they would keep postponing lifting the lockdown, again and again. We couldn’t trust our leaders … and we had no idea when it would end. My father is in hospital right now in Taiwan. If he had been in Shanghai, he wouldn’t have been able to go to hospital at all. Because to get into a Shanghai hospital, regardless of how seriously ill you are, no matter if it’s an emergency, you have to get a negative PCR test first. There are so many PCR tests getting done in Shanghai right now that you need to wait 12-48 hours for the result to come back. All I can say is, I’m glad my family wasn’t in Shanghai too. [Errors with names and results of PCR tests] were also happening to people around me. Someone would get their PCR test result on their mobile phone, then somebody would call them up and tell them that the result was wrong. So if you had gotten a negative result, you could be told by your neighborhood committee that it was actually positive, and that they had decided to haul you off to a makeshift hospital [for isolation]. Some people were hauled off to makeshift hospitals after waiting so long for a test result that they were already negative again. Just imagine what that’s like if there’s an error with your test result. You don’t know whom to turn to, to sort it out. Nobody knew what would happen from one day to the next. The people in charge didn’t know either. It felt like PCR testing was the only thing confirming my existing. And yet, I didn’t see the CDC taking any other [anti-COVID] measures apart from testing. Everyone was telling each other not to go get a PCR test if they had tested positive on a rapid antigen test [at home]. People were willing to cooperate. If they didn’t test, then they’d be recorded as not having it. The more people they tested, the more people would be found to have it. And all the time we were forced to buy [food and supplies] in groups, or putting pressure on the delivery guys [to bring food]. They had to cheat the system too, because they had to have a negative PCR to be allowed to work. The absurdities of that kind were unbelievable. I really don’t understand a country that can advance and progress so fast in space, military, weapons, and various areas of scientific research … and yet, two years in, in April 2022, they still don’t seem to have any understanding of this virus, and they don’t seem to have any vaccines against it. [The official rhetoric was all about] keeping their eyes on the prize of zero-COVID, tackling important nodes, taking faster and more effective action and measures, and winning the air-defense war against the pandemic as soon as possible. But they could have been talking about the war on pornography or corruption. There wasn’t much in [the Shanghai disease control and prevention] report about the actual virus. This was the official guidance. On April 26, it was all about keeping up the spirit of zero-COVID, on April 27, it was about fully implementing CCP general secretary Xi Jinping’s instructions. I couldn’t see any difference between the statements … they could equally well have been about fighting pornography or corruption. They were all the same. [Even after lockdown lifted, I heard about someone who] tried to leave the residential compound, where they checked all his papers, and he had everything, so he got as far as the highway, where there was a police roadblock, and the highway police wouldn’t let him through. They said he didn’t have a pass. He said he did, with his name on it. They said it should have his license plate on it, too, and that he should go back to his residential committee to ask for it. So he got off the highway, by which time all the roads back to his residential compound were blocked, and he couldn’t get back there. It took him five minutes to get to the highway, but an hour or two to get back to his compound. When he got there, the police in the compound told him they were only allowed to let people leave, but they weren’t allowed to let anyone back in again. It was the same everywhere. Everyone was…

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