South Asia Archives - Page 25 of 94 - Investigative Journalism Reportika

Religious leader faces new charge in case that brought 5-year sentence

Editor10 months ago06 mins

Investigators in southern Vietnam charged the 92-year-old leader of a Buddhist community with incest on Friday after gathering evidence – including blood samples – from members of the church, state media reported. Le Tung Van of the the Peng Lei House Buddhist Church in Long An province has previously been at the center of allegations of incest, fraud and abusing freedoms. In 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison for “abusing democratic freedoms.” The provincial Security Investigation Agency said it launched the new case after receiving reports of Van’s alleged incestuous behavior, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The new charge also comes a week after two of his defense lawyers were stripped of their membership in the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association – a decision they warned could precede new action against Van. An attorney who spoke anonymously to Radio Free Asia for security reasons said Van hasn’t been required to serve the 2022 prison sentence due to his old age and frail health. The attorney added that the new charges announced on Friday were “vague” and appeared to use old evidence. Police forcibly collected DNA samples from members residing in the Peng Lei Buddhist House Church at least three times in 2021 and 2022, including one occasion where they obtained blood samples in the name of COVID-19 testing. Days after the church was searched in January 2022, authorities announced the “abusing democratic freedoms” charge against Van. He was accused of taking advantage of religion and philanthropy for their own personal benefit, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Van was also charged with incest and fraud, but these charges were later dropped. The complaint was reportedly made by the government-recognized Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, the state-backed religious entity, and a member of the Sangha’s board of directors, according to the commission. Vietnam maintains strict laws on religious activity that require groups to be supervised by government-controlled management boards. The Peng Lei Buddhist House Church is an independent Buddhist community. Defense lawyers seek asylum Van was indicted in June 2022 after authorities accused him of directing other defendants to create videos and write an article that insulted Duc Hoa District Police and the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, according to the commission. The five-year sentence was issued the following month. Van has appealed his conviction and sentencing, and he’s been under house arrest since then. Authorities have continued to investigate the incest allegations. In October 2022, one of Van’s defense attorneys, Dang Dinh Manh, criticized the way that blood samples were taken from Van and his family members. Samples should adhere to criminal procedural regulations and medical standards and the consent of the individuals or their legal guardians should be obtained, he said. Van’s lawyers have also criticized authorities for preventing them from meeting with Van and other accused church members. Last year, Dang Dinh Manh and two other defense attorneys for the church – Nguyen Van Mieng and Dao Kim Lan – sought political asylum in the United States after they received a police summons related to accusations of “abusing democratic freedoms” during their legal defense of Van and the church. Last week, the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association announced its decision to revoke the membership of Dang Dinh Manh and Nguyen Van Mieng for not paying fees. Both lawyers told RFA last week that the decision could pave the way for authorities to take new action in their investigation of the members of Peng Lei Buddhist House Church. RFA’s attempts to contact Long An Police at the provided phone number went unanswered on Friday. Additionally, RFA was unable to reach anyone from the Peng Lei Buddhist House Church to verify Friday’s state media reports. Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Matt Reed.

Report: China is exporting digital control methods

Editor10 months ago06 mins

China’s government has turned the country’s tech companies like Huawei and ZTE into its “proxies” and uses their dominant market share in developing countries around the Indo-Pacific region to export its authoritarian model of the internet, according to a new report. In countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal and Thailand, the dominance of the Chinese companies in building digital infrastructure has meant Beijing’s controlled version of the internet is expanding, leading to a fragmentation with the West’s open web, it says. The report is titled The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific and was released Wednesday by Article 19, a London-based internet-freedom advocacy organization. The group says the cut-price internet infrastructure being offered by companies beholden to the Chinese Communist Party “has benefited” countries that otherwise would be stuck with outdated infrastructure. But that assistance comes with a catch, it says. “China has packaged its model as the prevailing best practice, often masked as support for innovation centers, exchanges or broader digital diplomacy initiatives, especially on issues relating to cybersecurity,” the report says, adding that the result is further “digital repression.” “This is intended to tip the scales in global adoption to influence more states to employ Chinese norms, accelerating internet fragmentation.” Cambodia’s ‘Great Firewall’ The report points to Cambodia, where it says “China is present at virtually every layer of the digital ecosystem,” which it says has been marked by a “shift towards China-style digital authoritarianism.” Firms like Huawei and ZTE have played “a leading role” in laying out infrastructure, it says, to the point where Cambodian telecoms companies only offer the two companies’ internet routers. Hip-hop artist Kea Sokun listens to one of his songs online at a cafe in Phnom Penh, Cambodia January 29, 2022. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) Huawei is also Cambodia’s only authorized cloud service provider and is responsible for much of the country’s 5G network, it notes, as well as its terrestrial and submarine internet lines and data centers. But it says China’s influence extends beyond infrastructure. “Alongside infrastructure-level cooperation, the shadow influence of China’s internet governance model has loomed large over Cambodia’s embrace of digital authoritarianism,” the report says, terming China’s influence on internet norms a form of “digital diplomacy.” In some areas, that has improved network engineering, the report says, but it also includes provision of “the technical knowhow for Cambodia to better emulate China’s digital authoritarian model.” The report blames such digital diplomacy for Cambodia’s National Internet Gateway, a system akin to China’s “Great Firewall” that allows the government to monitor and control all internet traffic. Phnom Penh has not said who is building the system, “but experts in Cambodian civil society believe it is Huawei or ZTE,” the report says. China alternatives The report recommends Western governments seek to work further with Taiwan and its technology sector to develop the self-ruling island further as a “counterweight” to China’s digital influence. A technician stands at the entrance to a Huawei 5G data server center at the Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital in Guangzhou, in southern China’s Guangdong province on Sept. 26, 2021. (Ng Han Guan/AP) Taiwanese companies could help export infrastructure more friendly to the open web, it says, and countries like the United States could provide “greater financial resources” to civil society groups in the affected countries to push back against digital authoritarianism. But it warns against casting too wide of a net in searching for alternatives to Chinese-built infrastructure and internet norms. Specifically, “while greater regional cooperation is necessary,” it says, “uncritically embracing countries with their own records of digital dictatorship, such as Vietnam, will ultimately be counterproductive.” Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Myanmar junta releases thousands of prisoners in New Year amnesty

Editor10 months ago05 mins

Myanmar prisons nationwide released over 3,000 prisoners on Wednesday, according to junta-controlled media. Since the country’s 2021 coup, thousands of civilians have been arrested for donating to groups opposing the junta, protesting and speaking out against the military regime’s leaders. According to the junta’s media statement, reduced sentences were given “for the peace of mind of the people” and “social leniency” during the Burmese New Year Commemoration. Prisoners were released under the condition that if they commit another crime, they will serve the remainder of their previous sentence as well as the sentence for their most recent crime, in accordance with the country’s Criminal Procedure Law, military-supported channels like MRTV continued. Prisoners’ family members have been waiting in front of Yangon region’s infamous Insein Prison since early on Wednesday morning, residents said. Family members waiting in front of Insein Prison in Yangon region on April 17, 2024. (RFA) The mother of a political prisoner waiting by Insein Prison on Wednesday said she hopes to see her son, who has been in prison for three years for defamation. “The people in the prison said that prisoners like my son with a prison term of less than three years would be released, while prisoners with a long sentence would get a reduced prison term,” she said, declining to be named for security reasons. “That’s why I am waiting for my son. He was arrested and jailed when [junta forces] found revolutionary messages on his phone while checking the [ward’s] guest list that night,” she continued, referencing a housing registration system that has intensified since the junta took power. However, like previous amnesties, which have been criticized as a false show of humanity from the junta in the past, only a small number of political prisoners will likely be released, said Thaik Tun Oo, a member of Political Prisoner Network-Myanmar. “Even if there are political prisoners among the released, there will be a few well-known figures, a few political prisoners and there will be a lot of other people with criminal charges, just like the [junta] has done throughout the post-coup period,” he said “As far as we have found out, we have even heard that there are no political prisoners released in some prisons. I think they may have difficulty releasing political prisoners after the recent military defeats,” he said, referring to military victories since last October by the Three Brotherhood Alliance and the Karen National Liberation Army. In addition to the more than 3,303 prisoners, eight foreign prisoners who were jailed locally were released and deported, according to the military’s announcement. Prior to Wednesday’s amnesty, the junta administration also released 9,652 prisoners on Jan. 4, 2024 for Burmese Independence Day, but few political prisoners were among them, according to advocates for those jailed under the military regime. According to the statements released by the junta, only 15 pardons were granted and a total of 95,000 prisoners have been released in more than three years since the coup. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

China axes hundreds of TV dramas depicting family tensions

Editor10 months ago08 mins

China’s internet censors have deleted hundreds of online TV dramas for portraying the negative aspects of family life amid an attempt by the ruling Communist Party to get more people to start families and rescue plummeting birth rates. Censors at video platforms Douyin and Kuaishou deleted more than 700 videos of TV micro-dramas portraying in-fighting between in-laws because of the “extreme emotions” they evoked, the government’s “Rumor-refuting platform” on Weibo reported. “Many micro-dramas on this theme deliberately amplify and exaggerate conflicts between husband and wife, conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and intergenerational conflicts through eye-catching stereotypes and abnormal and bizarre relationships,” the post said. The move comes as President Xi Jinping tries to promote marriage and family life as a way of boosting flagging birth rates. The number of Chinese couples tying the knot for the first time has plummeted by nearly 56% over the past nine years, with such marriages numbering less than 11 million in 2022. A November 2023 poll on the social media platform Weibo found that while most of the 44,000 respondents said 25 to 28 are the best ages to marry, nearly 60% said they were delaying marriage due to work pressures, education or the need to buy property. The logo of Chinese video sharing company Kuaishou is seen at its company in Hangzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on February 5, 2021. (AFP) Birth rates have fallen from 17.86 million in 2016 to just 9.02 million in 2023, despite a change in policy allowing couples to have up to three children in 2021. In October, Xi called on women to focus on raising families, and the National People’s Congress this month started looking at ways to boost birth rates and kick-start the shrinking population, including flexible working policies, coverage for fertility treatment and extended maternity leave. Changing priorities But young women in today’s China are increasingly choosing not to marry or have kids, citing huge inequalities and patriarchal attitudes that still run through family life, not to mention the sheer economic cost of raising a family. A recent study of Mandarin pop songs aimed at a female audience focused far less on romantic love and more on personal freedom and economic independence. It appears the authorities want to avoid having women put off taking the plunge into family life by clamping down on mother-in-law gags and other depictions of family tensions. A screen shows a military parade at a booth of Chinese video-streaming startup Kuaishou, at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, September 4, 2020. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters) “Douyin and Kuaishou have recently removed from the shelves a number of illegal micro-short dramas that deliberately choreographed “mother-in-law and daughter-in-law battles” to exaggerate extreme emotions.” The deleted shows “promoted unhealthy and non-mainstream views on family, marriage and love, and deliberately amplified and exaggerated conflicts between husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, etc,” the Weibo “rumor-refuting” post said. The censored titles included shows called “My Husband is a Mommy’s Boy,” “In the Doghouse with Mother-in-law,” and “Rich Lady Strikes Back,” and were removed to promote the “healthy development” of the online video market, it said, adding that Kuaishou had deleted more than 700 such shows. China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has also issued new rules requiring platforms to apply for a license to distribute online TV shows, starting June 1. ‘Positive energy’ Current affairs commentator Chang Guantao said many online TV producers like to use social injustice as a talking point to get more viewers, which he said was “embarrassing” to the government, which wants anything posted on China’s tightly controlled internet to exude “positive energy” for the future of the country. “More and more micro-dramas are vying with each other to directly address society’s sore points, and those marginalized by government policy,” Chang said. “This is likely something that news regulators and public opinion control agencies don’t want to see, so they have to regulate and control them, and limit their development in various ways,” he said. The logo of Chinese video-streaming startup Kuaishou is seen in Beijing, China May 10, 2017. (Stringer/Reuters) Current affairs commentator Bi Xin said micro-dramas have been much more lightly regulated than regular TV shows — until now. “It doesn’t cost too much to make a micro-drama, around 300,000 yuan (US$41,000), but they have a wider reach,” Bi said. “The authorities need to suppress and manage them by forcing them to get licensed, because their content isn’t always in line with the main theme [of government propaganda].” The news website Caixin quoted micro-drama producers as saying that there will now be a classification and hierarchical review system for the shows, which will be divided according to their production budget. Higher budget shows will be directly regulated by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, while lower budget productions will be managed by the same authorities at the provincial level. The lowest-budget shows will be left to video-sharing platforms to censor, the report said. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Water festival attacks kill 3 during Myanmar coup leader’s holiday

Editor10 months ago04 mins

Missile attacks on two universities in a holiday town in Myanmar killed three and injured eight, residents told Radio Free Asia on Monday. During coup leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s Thingyn – or water festival – visit to Mandalay division’s Pyinoolwin city on Sunday, an unknown group fired more than 15 missiles at two military universities. The blasts, which hit the Defense Services Academy and Defense Services Technology Academy, also damaged a department of a nearby hospital and Aung Myay Zaya monastery. The missiles injured five civilians when they landed on Pyinoolwin Hospital’s orthopedics department, said one Pyinoolwin resident, declining to be named for security reasons. “The two monks who died were people who wore robes during the Thingyn period. They died when the explosion happened near them,” he said, describing civilians who temporarily become monks to observe Myanmar’s new year water festival. “The last man who died on the spot was in Ward No. 8. Another three people were injured in this neighborhood alone.” Following the attack, tourists who came for the holiday and some permanent residents fled the city, he added. From 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday evening, about 40 shots and explosions could be heard, said one Pyinoolwin resident who was near the site of the attack. “After the sound of the missiles, Defense Services Academy and Defense Services Technology Academy troops cut the power. The military and social aid vehicles were busy,” he said, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. “I knew they fell in the area of the Defense Services Academy.” Staff at Pyinoolwin Hospital are preparing to move patients to Mandalay Hospital, while junta soldiers are conducting security checks around the city, residents said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet, but residents told RFA that they were likely carried out from a hill behind the university campuses. The junta has not issued any statements about the attacks. RFA called Mandalay division’s junta spokesperson Thein Htay for more information on the attacks, but he did not respond. Residents told RFA they believe the attack was carried out because of Min Aung Hlaing’s visit. On Sunday, a bomb exploded near a pavilion in Mandalay city, injuring 12 people. Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Mike Firn.

Biden: US will defend Philippines if vessels are attacked

Editor10 months ago010 mins

U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that American military support for the Philippines was “ironclad,” and any attacks against its vessels in the South China Sea would invoke a 1951 treaty that compels each country to come to the other’s aid in the event of a conflict. The comments came ahead of an unprecedented summit between Biden and his Japanese and Philippine counterparts at the White House. A senior U.S. official said the talks were arranged because of the recent flare-up in tensions between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea. “I want to be clear, the United States’ defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad,” Biden said at the opening of the meeting. “Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty.” The U.S. has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines and a military alliance with Japan, both of which were inked in 1951. Chinese coast guard vessels fire water cannons towards a Philippine resupply vessel, the Unaizah, on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal) in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024. (Adrian Portugal/Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that increased trilateral cooperation between the Pacific nations was borne from their shared democratic values and evidenced by joint military drills in the South China Sea last weekend. “It is a partnership born not out of convenience nor of expediency,” Marcos said, “but as a natural progression of a deepening cooperation amongst our three countries, linked by a profound respect for democracy, good governance and the rule of law.” Water cannon attacks Chinese coast guard vessels have in recent weeks fired water cannons at Philippine boats attempting to supply a deliberately sunken warship that serves as a Philippine naval outpost at the Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal), with Beijing also warning Manila against trying to access it. The shoal lies in South China Sea waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila holds sovereign rights. But Beijing claims most of the sea as its historic territory and says Manila must ask permission from Chinese authorities to access the area. People protest against the Marcos administration’s 2023 decision to grant the United States greater access to military bases in the Philippines, as they demonstrate in a park near the White House in Washington, where the leaders of the U.S., Philippines, and Japan were holding a summit, April 11, 2024. (BenarNews) Earlier on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning accused Manila of “violating China’s sovereignty” for decades due to the half-sunken BRP Sierra Madre, which was grounded at the shoal in 1999 to maintain Manila’s sovereignty but now needs repairs. Speaking at a daily press briefing, Mao said Chinese authorities were “willing to allow” Philippine vessels to freely access the increasingly dilapidated outpost – but only to “tow” it away, and not repair it. She said Manila needed to inform Beijing of any such plans before accessing the area, and then “China will monitor the whole process.” “If the Philippines sends a large amount of construction materials to the warship and attempts to build fixed facilities and a permanent outpost, China will not accept it and will resolutely stop it in accordance with law and regulations to uphold China’s sovereignty,” Mao said. She added that China’s recent “activities” in the South China Sea, such as the water-cannoning of Philippine vessels, “are in full compliance with international law” and “there’s nothing wrong about them.” ‘Crystal clear’ A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity prior to the summit, told reporters that Biden had been “crystal clear” about American military support for Manila, and said the flare-ups with China in the South China Sea were an impetus for Thursday’s summit. USS Mobile, JS Akebono, HMAS Warramunga, BRP Antonio Luna and BRP Valentine Diaz sail in formation during a multilateral maritime cooperative exercise between Australia, the United States, Japan and the Philippines within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, April 7, 2024. (POIS Leo Baumgartner/Royal Australian Navy) “It is one of the reasons for the meeting because we are very concerned about what we’ve been seeing,” the official said. “He has repeated many times that the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the South China Sea, including Philippine vessels that may be underway there, including its coast guard vessels,” the official said. Another U.S. official added that Philippine and Japanese coast guard officers would be welcomed aboard U.S. Coast Guard ships during a maritime exercise later this year “to further train and synchronize our work together” in case of a future attack that sparks a conflict. Philippine activists protesting outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila on April 11, 2024, warned that a Washington summit between the leaders of the Philippines, United States and Japan could provoke an angry response from China over the South China Sea and threaten regional stability. (Gerard Carreon/BenarNews) The two officials also said the United States would help fund a major infrastructure project in the Philippines known as the Luzon corridor, as part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which is the U.S. answer to China’s high-spending Belt and Road Initiative. The Luzon corridor, they said, would help connect Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas in the Philippines, with investments in infrastructure “including ports, rail, clean energy, semiconductor supply chains and other forms of connectivity in the Philippines.” “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Marcos,” one of the officials said, “ready to support and work with the Philippines at every turn.” U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit of the three nations’ leaders at the White House, in Washington, April 11, 2024. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) In his final remarks before talks opened behind closed-doors Thursday, Biden said the newfound cooperation between the United States, Japan and the Philippines would be a boon…

In China, drones, social media monitor foreign journalists: report

Editor10 months ago09 mins

Chinese authorities use drones to monitor and follow foreign journalists as they report from the country, as well as detaining, harassing and threatening them with non-renewal of their work permits if they report on topics deemed sensitive by the government, according to a new report on journalists’ working conditions. Four out of five members who responded to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China annual working conditions survey said they had experienced “interference, harassment or violence” while trying to do their jobs in China during the past year, the FCCC report found. Local governments are increasingly using technology to keep track of foreign media workers, the report found. “During a trip to Poyang Lake, where we were reporting on the status of the Yangtze River dolphin, we were followed by multiple cars with plainclothes individuals inside,” the report quoted a journalist with a European media organization as saying. “At one point, the plainclothes individuals appeared to use a drone when a blocked sandy road prevented them from getting closer by car,” they said. A cameraman from Hong Kong Cable TV is restrained from photographing the crowd waiting to buy tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, July 25, 2008, in Beijing, China. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP) Another European journalist reported similar high-tech surveillance when on a reporting trip to two provinces affected by extreme weather events linked to climate change. “We were followed by multiple carloads of plain clothes officers,” the report quoted them as saying. “Drones were sent out to follow and observe us when we got out of our vehicle to film/collect interviews. When we moved on foot to a spot, the drones would follow us.” Respondents also told the FCCC they had reason to believe the authorities had “possibly or definitely” compromised their WeChat (81%), their phone (72%), and/or placed audio recording bugs in their office or homes, the report found. ‘Endless cat-and-mouse game’ Another journalist with a European newspaper described reporting in China as “an endless cat-and-mouse game.” “Whatever strategy you try, the Chinese surveillance and security system adapts and closes the gap,” the report quoted them as saying. “Whatever strategies you use, the space for reporting keeps getting smaller and smaller.” A foreign reporter of many years’ experience in China who gave only the surname Lok for fear of reprisals told RFA Cantonese that she expects her communications apps to be monitored at all times. “I was talking about an issue with a friend here [in mainland China] … and may have mentioned it on WeChat,” Lok said. “Later, he was called in by the police to ‘drink tea’” – a euphemism for being called in for questioning. Journalists crowd a National People’s Congress press conference a day before the opening of the annual session of China’s parliament, in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on March 4, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP) “It turned out that the problem wasn’t him, but the conversation he had with me,” she said. “We have to be careful, because a lot of trouble has come from talking to people on WeChat.” A second Hong Kong journalist who gave only the surname Wong for fear of reprisals said it used to be easier for journalists to evade official surveillance than it is now. “The Chinese government’s digital surveillance methods are comprehensive,” Wong said. “You could describe them as a dragnet, in which every move the target makes is visible to them.” Online surveillance Huang Chao-nien, an assistant professor at the National Development Institute of Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, agreed, adding that the government has used online surveillance to target journalists for years. The government has long used an internet development model that intervenes in the market to control tech companies … forcing them to cooperate with the government in carrying out political surveillance and controls on public speech, he said. More than half of the journalists who took part in the FCCC annual survey said they had been “obstructed” at least once by police or other officials, while 45% encountered obstruction by unidentified persons, the report said. Some had been warned not to join the club as it was deemed an “illegal organization,” while others were threatened with non-renewal of their visas and work permits if they didn’t toe the line, the report said. Areas deemed particularly sensitive by Chinese officials were even harder to work in, it said, adding that 85% of journalists who tried to report from the far western region of Xinjiang in 2023 experienced problems. “In Xinjiang we were followed the entire time,” the report quoted a European journalist as saying. “It was particularly unpleasant in Hotan, where we counted about half a dozen plainclothes following us by car or on foot.” “In Korla, we at some point had six cars following us. When we did a U-turn and then a detour over an abandoned construction site and dust road, they all faithfully followed us,” the journalist said. Chinese policemen manhandle a photographer, center, as he photographs a news event near the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, in Beijing Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014. (Andy Wong/AP) And the definition of “sensitive” areas appears to be expanding. “An increasing number of journalists encountered issues in regions bordering Russia (79%), Southeast Asian nations (43%) or in ethnically diverse regions like Inner Mongolia (68%),” the report said. More than 80% said potential sources and interviewees had declined to be interviewed because they didn’t have prior permission from their superiors to speak to foreign media. Fear of reprisals is even being felt among experts, pundits and commentators, the report said. “Academic sources, think tank employees and analysts either decline interviews, request anonymity, or don’t respond at all,” it quoted respondents as saying. Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

China gives monks a list of things they can’t do after the Dalai Lama’s death

Editor10 months ago010 mins

In the event of the Dalai Lama’s death, Buddhist monks are banned from displaying photos of the Tibetan spiritual leader and other “illegal religious activities and rituals,” according to a training manual Chinese authorities have distributed to monasteries in Gansu province in China’s northwest, a source inside Tibet and exiled former political prisoner Golok Jigme said. The manual, which lists 10 rules that Buddhist clergy should follow, also forbids disrupting the process of recognizing the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, said the source from inside Tibet who requested anonymity for safety reasons. Tibetans believe they should determine his successor in accordance with their Buddhist belief in reincarnation, while the Chinese government seeks to control the centuries-old selection method. The 14th Dalai Lama, 88, fled Tibet amid a failed 1959 national uprising against China’s rule and has lived in exile in Dharamsala, India, ever since. He is the longest-serving Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader in Tibet’s history. The manual, which was seen by Radio Free Asia and was issued to monks in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the historical Amdo region of Tibet, is the latest effort by Beijing to crack down on the religious freedom of the Tibetan people, experts and rights groups say. A screenshot of the page in a Chinese government-issued training manual listing 10 rules for Tibetan Buddhist monks to follow in the event of the Dalai Lama’s death. (Citizen journalist) It is part of Beijing’s systematic attempts to make Tibetan Buddhists more loyal to the Chinese Communist Party and its political agenda rather than to their religious doctrine, said Bhuchung Tsering, head of the research and monitoring unit of International Campaign for Tibet in Washington. “This goes against all tenets of universally accepted freedom of religion of the Tibetan people that China purports to uphold,” he told RFA. China has imposed various measures to force Tibetan monasteries to conduct political re-education and has strictly prohibited monks and ordinary Tibetans from having contact with the Dalai Lama or Tibetans in exile, whom Beijing sees as separatists. The Chinese government has intensified its suppression of Tibetan Buddhism in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in other Tibetan-populated areas in China in recent years. “The latest government campaigns against the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhists’ religious practices in Gansu province represent another attempt by the Chinese government to interfere in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation process,” said Nury Turkel, a commissioner on the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF. Turkel called on the U.S. government to sanction Chinese officials who violate religious freedom. ‘Separatist ideology’ The manual also says monks are forbidden to engage in activities that undermine national unity, hurt social stability in the name of religion or require cooperation with separatist groups outside the country, the source said. It says no illegal organizations or institutions will be allowed to enter monasteries and that the education system for monks cannot harbor elements of “separatist ideology.” He Moubou (C), secretary of China’s State Party Committee, visits Tibetan monks in Machu County, Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in China’s Gansu province, March 19, 2024. (Citizen journalist) The rules also prohibit the promotion of “separatist ideas” and the dissemination of “separatist propaganda” via radio, internet and television or by other means, and forbids deception in the form of open or covert fraud, the source from inside Tibet said. “While the Chinese government implements various political education and activities targeting Tibetans, the primary focus seems to be eradicating Tibetan identity through the dismantling of Tibetan religion and culture,” said Golog Jigme, who was imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities in 2008 for co-producing a documentary on the injustices faced by Tibetans under Chinese rule. He now lives in Switzerland and works as a human rights activist. There are 10 Tibetan autonomous prefectures in Chinese provinces bordering Tibet, including ones in Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and Yunnan, where many ethnic Tibetans live. Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province, where authorities distributed the manuals, is home to about 415,000 Tibetans speaking the Amdo dialect. The province has about 200 large and small monasteries under its administration. During a visit to two counties in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in March, He Moubao, secretary of China’s State Party Committee emphasized the need for Tibetans to Sinicize religion and to implement the Chinese Communist Party’s policy on religious work. Monks should be guided in this regard to maintain national unity and social stability, he said. A Tibetan Buddhist monk holds two Chinese government textbooks on religious policies and laws and regulations given to monks at a monastery near Xiahe in China’s Gansu province, May 8, 2008. (Ng Han Guan/AP) “Communist China egregiously violates the religious freedom in Tibet by Sinicising Tibetan Buddhism to fulfill its political and ideological goals and agenda,” said former USCIRF Chair Tenzin Dorjee. “To say that no one can lawfully practice Buddhism after His Holiness the Dalai Lama passes away is an indication of imposing more religious repressions in Tibet later,” he told RFA. China, which annexed Tibet in 1951, rules the western autonomous region with a heavy hand and says only Beijing can select the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, as stated in Chinese law. Tibetans, however, believe the Dalai Lama chooses the body into which he will be reincarnated, a process that has occurred 13 times since 1391, when the first Dalai Lama was born. At his home in Dharamsala earlier this month, the Dalai Lama, whose given name is Tenzin Gyatso, told a gathering of hundreds of Tibetans during a long-life prayer offering to him that he was in good health and was “determined to live for more than 100 years.” He has said on several occasions that his successor would come from a free country without Chinese interference. Translated and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Arakan Army’s gains enough to enable self-rule in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

Editor10 months ago014 mins

The Arakan Army, or AA, is continuing their sweep across Rakhine, furthering the military gains of the ethnic Three Brotherhood Alliance, of which it is a member, in Shan state. While the capture of nine towns, with a tenth in southern Chin state, is another humiliating defeat for the Burmese military, it also sets the scene for a very messy political discussion moving forward. Myanmar’s military continues to be on their back feet. The Kachin Independence Army continues to make gains, recently securing control over a major trade route with China, after seizing the last of the military camps along the Bhamo-Myitkyina highway. The once staunchly pro-junta border guards forces in Kayin state are now hedging their bets and putting some distance between themselves and Naypyidaw. Meanwhile, the junta’s announced counter-offensive out of Lashio against the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army – the other two members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance – in northern Shan State has not materialized. But it’s in Rakhine where the military has been handed its most significant territorial defeats. The AA has captured six of Rakhine’s 17 townships and several smaller towns since launching an offensive on Nov. 13, 2023, with ongoing offensives against several others. As of early April, the AA had captured some 170 junta camps and posts, as well as several larger bases, battalion headquarters, and training facilities. Arakan Army soldiers stand with an artillery piece after capturing the Ta Ron Aing base in Chin state from junta forces, Dec. 4, 2023. (AA Info Desk) The capital of Sittwe is surrounded, and many civil servants have been withdrawn. The Chinese special economic zone in Kyaukphyu is on the verge of falling, prompting the United League of Arakan, the AA’s political wing, to publicly pledge to protect all foreign direct investment that benefits Rakhine and “ensure the smooth continuation of their operations.” At present, China’s US$8 billion investment, which includes their oil and gas pipelines and a proposed deepwater port with rail and road links, can only be accessed by sea. As a recent International Institute for Strategic Studies report concluded: “But no matter the final outcome, the AA’s sweeping gains are already enough to enable self-rule over a large portion of the Rakhine homeland and to reshape the wider balance of power in Myanmar.” Little leverage over AA in Rakhine On April 1, 2024, China’s special representative to Myanmar, Deng Xijun, met with junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw to try to broker a ceasefire. While the Chinese-brokered ceasefire between the Three Brotherhood Alliance and the military regime is tenuously holding in northern Shan state, the AA refuses to be bound by it in Rakhine. China has less leverage over the AA, which has shown no interest in halting their offensive. The AA has stated their intention to capture the entire state, not just their traditional heartland in the north, though it’s not clear that they have the manpower and resources to do so. Over-reach could spread their forces too thin. The AA is in the midst of an offensive in Ann township, which is not just the headquarters of the military’s Western Command, but the key junction on the road to Magwe region. The loss of Ann would make overland resupply to northern and central Rakhine extremely difficult. Overland supply could only come in through the highway from Bago region’s Pyay township in the south. The military has responded in typical fashion, with more indiscriminate air and long-range artillery strikes against unarmed civilians. In a two-day period in early April, six civilians were killed and 16 were wounded. RFA Burmese reported that some 79 Rohingya civilians have been killed and 127 more have been wounded in the past four months. The junta has commenced implementation of its national plan to conscript some 5,000 people a month, including amongst ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine, despite the assassination of local administrators. People who appear to be Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state undergo weapons training by junta military personnel on March 10, 2024. (Image from citizen journalist video) This is a perverse irony after the military waged an ethnic cleansing campaign that drove 1 million ethnic Rohingya, whom they refer to as “illegal Bengalis,” into Bangladesh, and kept many others in concentration camps. Poorly armed and trained conscripts have limited military utility, indicating the military’s desperation for manpower. Role of Rohingya conscripts But the Rohingya conscripts play a much more important role in fomenting political strife within the opposition camp. The Buddhist-dominated Arakan Army has a tense relationship with the Rohingya population. It has tenuously accepted the shadow National Unity Government’s position that the Rohingya are legal citizens and that they should be returned to the country from Bangladesh in an orderly fashion. There have been a number of reports that the military is reaching out to the Arakan Resistance Solidarity Army, or ARSA, whose misguided raids on border posts and police stations in 2017 were the casus belli for the military’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Since being driven into Bangladesh, ARSA’s primary activities have been to secure control over the refugee camps and eliminate rivals within the Rohingya community; they have not participated in the armed rebellion. That the military believes that they can recruit ARSA as a proxy against the AA seems preposterous. The AA is neither willing to share any political power in Rakhine nor countenance the presence of any other armed actors. So there is a perverse logic to the military’s overtures to ARSA, which is searching for relevance. With mounting battlefield losses, the best that the military can do is to strike up ethnic and sectarian tensions. This should come as no surprise: stoking communal tensions has always been a key party of their strategy. An airstrike by Myanmar junta forces destroyed houses in Minbya township’s Myit Nar village in Rakhine state on April 3, 2024. (Arakan Princess Media) Indeed, the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which was established following…

Sri Lankans present rare Buddha relics to the Dalai Lama

Editor10 months ago07 mins

A delegation of Sri Lankan Buddhists on Thursday presented relics of the Buddha to the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India, in a gesture that was celebrated by hundreds of Tibetans who lined the streets with silk scarves and flowers. The relics – fragments of the Buddha’s bones and teeth – have immense historical and spiritual significance, connecting Buddhist worshippers to the legacy of Buddha, a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived during the 6th and 5th centuries BCE and whose teachings formed the key tenets of Buddhism. Tibetans along the streets paid their respects as the relics made their way to the Dalai Lama’s residence. The leader of the Sri Lankan delegation, Waskaduwe Mahindawansa Maha Nayaka Thero, said the relics were presented to the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader on behalf of the entire Sangha community in Sri Lanka as a token of their “immeasurable gratitude and admiration” for his role in “accomplishing more for Buddhism than anyone in history.” “This marks a special momentous occasion for the entire Buddhist community in the world because we were able to gift the holy, authentic, sacred relics of the Buddha as a token of appreciation for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s kindness, wisdom and compassion towards the entire humankind,” he said. The Buddhist community reveres the Dalai Lama as a living Bodhisattva – a being who is on the way to becoming enlightened – making him the only eligible person in the world to whom to give the authentic and holy relics, he added. Maha Nayaka Thero is head of Amarapura Sambuddha Sasanodaya Maha Nikaya, a sect of Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced in Sri Lanka and other parts of Southeast Asia. ‘The world needs peace’ The Dalai Lama waited outside the gate to his home to receive the relics and welcome the Sri Lankans, as monks chanted prayers and staged a formal welcome, and artists performed Tibetan songs and dances. “On a practical level, the world needs peace, and that’s the core of the Buddha’s message,” the Dalai Lama said. “However, I’m prepared not to mention Buddhism as such, but to emphasize secular ethics and universal values, crucial among which is compassion,” he said. “The important thing is to have a warm heart.” The relics of the Buddha are carried up to the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, India, April 4, 2024. (Tenzin Woser/RFA) The delegation, including Damenda Porage, founder-president of the Sri Lankan-Tibetan Buddhist Brotherhood, said it was a long-held wish to offer the relics to the Dalai Lama as a gift. Six years of planning The event was the culmination of six years of planning and preparation, with the assistance of the 7th Ling Rinpoche, the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama’s tutor, accelerating the fulfillment of the presentation of the relics, the delegation said. The items presented to the Dalai Lama are part of 21 authentic relics that have been preserved for several generations at the Sri Lankan Buddhist temple of RajaGuru Sri Subuthi Waskaduwa Maha Viharaya in Waskaduwa, near the capital Colombo. “These sacred relics, discovered during the British reign in India in the Piprahwa excavations, hold profound significance for millions of Buddhists worldwide,” the Sri Lankan Buddhist leader said. After the Buddha’s passing, the relics were divided and enshrined in stupas in eight kingdoms, including the ancient city of Kapilavastu, which was known as the capital of the Shakya kingdom where the Buddha spent the first 30 years of his life. These relics were later discovered at an excavation at Piprahwa, a modern-day archaeological site in Uttar Pradesh, India, or what was earlier known as Kaplivastu, during the British reign in India. In 1898, British official William Peppe presented them to the Sri Lankan monk, Waskaduwe Sri Subhuti Mahanayake Thero, who took the Kapilavastu Buddha relics to Sri Lanka. Additional reporting by Tenzin Woser for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Category: South Asia