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Category: South Asia

Hundreds killed, thousands forced to flee since coup in Myanmar Tanintharyi region

Editor07 mins

At least 214 civilians have been killed and 89 injured in southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region in the 18 months since the country’s military seized power in a coup, according to local research group Southern Monitor. The group said in a statement on Thursday that since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, at least 17,415 people in Tanintharyi – the home region of junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s parents – were forced to flee their homes, while 93 homes were destroyed in arson attacks over the same period. The dead included those killed by junta troops as well as victims of retribution attacks by the armed opposition for their alleged role as informants for the military regime, it said. Southern Monitor’s information officer told RFA Burmese that the number of civilian deaths in Tanintharyi has risen sharply since the beginning of 2022, with the months of April and June being the deadliest. “Violent incidents in Tanintharyi region have increased significantly in 2022. People died in an increasing number of battles as well as in bombings and landmine incidents,” said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Another worrying trend is the killing of civilians. It can be said that killings by both sides have increased quite a bit.” He said most of the assassinations and civilian deaths occurred in Tanintharyi’s townships of Launglon and Yebyu. At least 93 houses were razed in Tanintharyi since the coup, according to Southern Monitor – 33 in Palaw township, 30 in Thayetchaung township, 18 in Tanintharyi township, six in Dawei township, three in Yebyu township, two in Launglon township, and one in Myeik township. A spokesman for the anti-junta Democracy Action Strike Committee (Dawei) told RFA that most of the fires were started by the junta troops and pro-military Pyu Saw Htee militia fighters raiding villages. “A military column would come and a battle with PDFs would occur. When [the military] couldn’t proceed any further, they’d set fire to a nearby house,” said the spokesman, who also declined to be named, citing security concerns. In Launglon, they just set fire to the houses, even though there were no clashes. One of the houses burnt down was owned by a former Dawei District Protest Committee member. At the time of the incident, he was a member of the committee. There were also cases when the Pyu Saw Htee and the military came together and just burned down a house for no reason.” According to the Dawei Political Prisoners Network, as of April 29, there were 221 political prisoners in detention in Tanintharyi, two of whom have been sentenced to death by the junta. Military crackdown Residents of the region told RFA that the armed resistance in Tanintharyi started in earnest in August 2021 in response to the military’s violent crackdowns on civilians. A spokesman for the Palaw Township People’s Defense Force said most of the fighting in Tanintharyi region, up until recently, had been caused by military clearance operations. He claimed that the armed resistance was not responsible for starting any clashes. “The fighting we have here began when they entered the area,” said the spokesman, who also asked to remain anonymous. “We’re not in a position to attack them yet because we are still in a state of preparation. The PDF has not launched any offensives, except one.” According to the list compiled by Southern Monitor, from June 2021 to July 2022, there were 133 battles and at least 141 attacks using landmines. Most of the attacks took place in the townships of Dawei, Launglon, Thayetchaung, Palaw and Tanintharyi. Attempts by RFA to reach junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the violence in Tanintharyi went unanswered Thursday. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced Wednesday that the number of people displaced by violence in Myanmar had ballooned to 866,000 from 346,000 prior to the coup. It said most of the refugees are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, but the junta has yet to announce any plans to address the problem. Written by Joshua Lipes.

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USS Ronald Reagan strike group monitoring China’s military exercises off Taiwan

Editor011 mins

The U.S. is keeping a close watch on China’s military drills around Taiwan and may take further action, with the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group remaining on station to monitor the situation, the U.S. National Security Spokesman John Kirby said late Thursday. On Friday, day two of the three-day military exercise held in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) dispatched “multiple” military aircraft and warships to the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. Some of the aircraft and vessels crossed the median line dividing the Taiwan Strait, the ministry added, calling the PLA drills “highly provocative” and vowing to “respond appropriately.” Before that, the defense ministry said the Chinese military also flew four drones over Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen on Thursday night. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said China firing missiles near busy international air and sea routes around Taiwan on Thursday was “an irresponsible act” and called on Beijing “to act with reason and exercise restraint.”  An F/A-18E Super Hornet prepares to launch on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea, Aug. 4, 2022. CREDIT: U.S. Navy U.S “will take further steps” China has decided to sanction U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family for her stopover in Taiwan earlier this week, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. Pelosi is the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. “They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there,” news agencies quoted the U.S. House Speaker as saying on Friday in Tokyo, the final leg of her Asia tour. The U.S. National Security Spokesperson John Kirby said at a press briefing on Thursday that the Biden administration condemns China’s actions. “China has chosen to overreact and use the speaker’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait,” he said, adding: “We also expect that these actions will continue and that the Chinese will continue to react in coming days.” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has directed the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group to “remain on station in the general area to monitor the situation,” Kirby said. The carrier strike group is currently in the Philippines Sea and two big deck amphibious ships, USS Tripoli and USS America, are on their way to the east of Taiwan, the U.S. Naval Institute reported. Besides conducting “standard” air and maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait in the next few weeks, the U.S. “will take further steps to demonstrate our commitment to the security of our allies in the region” including Japan, the National Security spokesperson said. Washington, however, postponed a long-planned test of an Air Force Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing.  The U.S. military seems to have expanded aerial ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) operations around Taiwan on Friday, a Beijing-based think-tank that has been tracking regional military movements said. The South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI) said it has spotted at least seven U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, supported by six military aerial refueling aircraft KC-135 in the area. An MH-60R anti-submarine Seahawk helicopter was also seen flying close to the southwest of Taiwan before moving north towards Japan’s Okinawa island, according to data provided by the flight tracking website Flightradar 24. A map showing where Chinese missiles are believed to have landed in Taiwan’s waters and Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone. CREDIT: Japanese Defense Ministry Japan’s concerns On Friday morning, about 10 Chinese navy ships and 20 military aircraft “briefly crossed” the median line – the tacit maritime border between Taiwan and China’s mainland – Reuters quoted an anonymous source close to the matter as saying. China’s state media meanwhile said that the PLA “has sent an aircraft carrier group featuring at least one nuclear-powered submarine to the ongoing drills” around Taiwan for its first carrier deterrence exercise. The Global Times quoted Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the Naval Research Academy which is affiliated with the PLA, who said on Thursday at least one nuclear-powered submarine has been deployed. Zhang did not name the aircraft carrier. China has two carriers in operation – the Liaoning and the Shandong. The third aircraft carrier, Fujian, is near completion.  Taiwanese media reported that the two operating aircraft carriers have left their home ports of Qingdao in Shandong province, and Sanya in Hainan province, but this information cannot be independently verified. On Thursday Japan said it had lodged a diplomatic protest after five ballistic missiles fired by China appear to have landed inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which stretches 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the outer limits of Japan’s territorial seas. “To have five Chinese missiles fall within Japan’s EEZ like this is a first,” Japanese defense minister Nobuo Kishi told reporters. Japan’s Ministry of Defense provided a detailed report of the Chinese missile launches and a map showing the missiles’ projected routes. It appears that four missiles, launched from mainland China, flew over Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. “This is the second time that Chinese missiles flew over Taiwan’s main island, the previous time was in 1996,” said Shen Ming-Shih, acting deputy chief executive officer at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a government think-tank. That time, Chinese missile tests and live-fire exercises led to the U.S. intervention in the so-called Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.  This time, an American involvement is yet to be seen but on Wednesday the U.S., together with six other developed countries, including Japan and the European Union, released a G7 Foreign Ministers’ Statement on the situation in the Taiwan Strait. The G7 countries expressed their concerns over “threatening actions” by China which risk “increasing tensions and destabilizing the region.” China responded by canceling a pre-scheduled meeting on Thursday afternoon between its foreign minister Wang Yi and his Japanese…

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Families of Myanmar’s death row inmates live in fear of execution

Editor012 mins

The families of 77 political activists sentenced to death by Myanmar’s military junta say they live in fear that their loved ones will be executed without warning after the military regime hanged four prominent prisoners of conscience. Frustration with the junta boiled over last week after it put to death veteran democracy activist Ko Jimmy and former opposition lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw, as well as activists Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, despite a direct appeal from Hun Sen to Min Aung Hlaing. The executions prompted protests in Myanmar and condemnation abroad. On Thursday, the daughter of a 56-year-old former junta soldier sentenced to death for allegedly helping pro-democracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries told RFA Burmese that she can’t bear to think that her father might be executed at any point without her knowing. “As a family member, there is no way I could accept that my father might die all of a sudden,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They gave him the death sentence, but did he deserve it? He had no involvement [in the anti-junta protests]. I think it is completely unfair that he was given the death penalty just for planning to get involved.” She claimed that her father was arrested by the military without having committed any crime and was sentenced to death by a military court without having the opportunity to defend himself legally. She urged the junta to let her father serve out a life sentence in prison, noting that he is a veteran soldier who spent many years in the military. Prior to last week, only three people had been executed in Myanmar in the past 50 years: student leader Salai Tin Maung Oo, who helped organize protests over the government’s refusal to grant a state funeral to former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant in 1974; Capt. Ohn Kyaw Myint, who was found guilty of an assassination plot on the life of dictator Gen. Ne Win; and Zimbo, a North Korean agent who bombed the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon in an attempted assassination of the visiting South Korean President Chin Doo-hwan in 1983. In the more than 30 years between Myanmar’s 1988 democratic uprising and the military coup of Feb. 1, 2021, death sentences have been ordered, but no judicial executions were carried out. Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has said at least 77 people are currently sentenced to death in Myanmar. From left: Activists Ko Jimmy, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw were executed by the Myanmar junta in late July. Credit: RFA Legality of execution Legal experts have noted that only the country’s democratically elected head of state has the right to order an execution under existing laws. Aung Thein, a High Court lawyer from Yangon, said coup leader Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing considers himself Myanmar’s head of state and that carrying out the death penalty is his right. “[The junta hasn’t] disposed of the 2008 [military-drafted] Constitution. It has only been suspended,” he said. “Since they have said they are operating according to the 2008 Constitution, [Min Aung Hlaing] believes the responsibility of head of state falls to him. That’s why he might be under the impression that he can order executions.” A lawyer from Yangon, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said that the hanging of a person considered a political challenger to the military appears more like “revenge” than anything legally justifiable. “Things have gone from political repression to military repression,” the lawyer said. “When a rivalry becomes intense, the execution of the opposition by a rival organization can be seen more as revenge than legal action.” Junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said the four activists executed last week were “perpetrators of terrorism” and were “judged according to the law.” He told a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw a few days after the executions that ideally the junta would have killed the four more than once. Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), said the unlawful arrest and execution of the opposition under unjust laws is the same thing as “murder in prison.” He expressed concern that last week’s executions would lead to more “official” killings in the country’s prisons. “For a military regime which sees the people as the enemy and kills them wherever they like, executing people in prison is not very unusual. In fact, this is not the death penalty. This is murder in prison, as it is based on unjust laws and unsubstantiated cases and verdicts. After these executions, we worry that the junta may continue, using it as a precedent.” A mother whose son was recently sentenced to death in Yangon’s Insein prison told RFA she can only pray that no other family members of those on death row be forced to experience such a tragedy. “It’s not good in my heart. I don’t know how to describe it,” she said. “There is anxiety because I’m afraid [another execution] will happen. Nobody wants that to happen. I’m praying that it won’t. … I pray for the speedy release of these young kids.” ASEAN criticism The current rotating chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, told a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Phnom Penh on Wednesday that if political prisoners continue to be executed in Myanmar, he would be forced to “reconsider ASEAN’s role” in mediating the country’s political crisis. Under an agreement Min Aung Hlaing made with ASEAN in April 2021 during an emergency meeting on the situation in Myanmar, known as the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), the bloc’s member nations called for an end to violence, constructive dialogue among all parties, and the mediation of such talks by a special ASEAN envoy. The 5PC also calls for the provision of ASEAN-coordinated humanitarian assistance and a visit to Myanmar by an ASEAN delegation to meet with all parties. Even Min…

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China warns Tibetans not to post birthday wishes online for exiled abbot

Editor05 mins

The Chinese government has ramped up restrictions ahead of the birthday of a preeminent Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, calling on local leaders in two Tibetan regions to prevent people from posting his photo or well wishes online, sources with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. Authorities have threatened to arrest Tibetans in the Ngaba and Dzoge regions who defy the order by posting messages on Aug. 8, the 80th birthday of the 11th Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche (honorific) Lobsang Tenzin Jigme Yeshe Gyamtso Rinpoche. Rinpoche is the chief abbot in exile of the Kirti Monastery, one of the most important and influential monasteries in Tibet. “The government has warned of such activity by Tibetans, and individuals will be arrested and severely punished if found defying it,” said a Tibetan source inside Tibet who declined to be identified so as to speak freely.  Chinese authorities restricted monks from the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge county and the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba county, both in Sichuan province’s Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, from celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday in 2021. The areas are heavily populated with ethnic Tibetans. Monks were not allowed to leave their monasteries, and gatherings were not permitted during that time.  “Last year Tibetans inside Tibet anticipated restrictions and scrutiny from the Chinese government on celebrating the 80th birthday of the Kriti Rinpoche, so they held back,” said a Tibetan who lives in exile. “But this year, Tibetans living in exile and inside Tibet are looking forward to celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday and offering tenshug,” the source said, referring to a long-life prayer offering made to spiritual teachers. “But we are seeing restrictions and scrutiny in Ngaba and Dzoge.”  The Kirti Monastery has been the site of the majority of self-immolations by monks who oppose China’s repressive policies in Tibet. “In one post circulating among some online Tibetan chat groups, members have been warned not to talk about the Kirti Rinpoche or his birthday and to be careful,” the source in exile said.  Restrictions are greater in the Ngaba region now also because of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party later this year, said the Tibetan in exile. Rinpoche was born in Thewo Takmoe Gang in the Amdo region of Tibet on the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. When he was a child, leading lamas recognized him as the reincarnation of 10th Kirti Rinpoche, and he was placed at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in 1946. Rinpoche went with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile to Dharamsala, India, in 1959, following the invasion of Tibet by China a decade earlier. He undertook advanced studies in Buddhist religion and philosophy in India, and took higher vows of Buddhist monkhood from the Dalai Lama in 1962.  From the late 1980s onwards, Rinpoche held various positions in the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government in exile.  Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Hong Kong toes party line on Taiwan as Chinese diplomat threatens ‘re-education’

Editor010 mins

Senior officials in Hong Kong’s new administration have been lining up to show their loyalty to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by condemning U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, as U.K. lawmakers were reportedly planning their own Taiwan trip. “The Hong Kong … government has unwavering determination in and a clear stance against any advocacy of ‘Taiwan independence’, and fully supports the central government’s resolute determination in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Hong Kong chief executive John Lee said in a statement on the government’s website. He said Pelosi’s visit had gambled with the well-being of Taiwan’s 23 million nationals, calling it “extremely selfish.” A government spokesman echoed the phrasing used by Chinese officials all over the world. “Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan constitutes gross interference in China’s internal affairs, seriously undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity [and] greatly threatens the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesman said. The statements were rapidly followed by similar statements from the city’s justice secretary Paul Lam, who said it was the “sacred duty” of all Chinese nationals to ensure Taiwan — which has never been ruled by the CCP nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China — to “unify” with China. Lee’s second-in-command Chan Kwok-ki called Pelosi’s visit “wanton,” and vowed to lead the administration “to fully support and facilitate the country in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely handle Taiwan-related matters.” Chiang Min-yen, a Taiwanese citizen who was a student in Hong Kong during the 2014 Umbrella movement, said the statements from the government marked a new low in relations between Hong Kong and Taiwan, which has been a vocal critic on an ongoing crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong under the national security law. “The Hong Kong government has to go a step further and make a positive effort [through these statements] to show loyalty to Beijing,” Chiang told RFA. “This is actually a very dangerous sign, because it shows that Xi Jinping’s wolf warrior diplomacy directly affects and extends to Hong Kong’s handling of foreign relations, including those with Taiwan.” “[This] will actually damage Hong Kong’s reputation as an international financial center … something that Beijing is very afraid of.” Former Uyghur student leader Wuer Kaixi, shown in this May 2019 photos, said “China today is not only not worried about going against the values shared by the rest of the world, but is proud of it and normalizes bullying, which is incredible.” Credit: AP Global offensive Chinese officials and pro-CCP commentators have launched a global media offensive around Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, claiming that the island is an “inseparable” part of Chinese territory. The Chinese ambassador to France, Liu Shaye, warned that the CCP may need to impose “re-education” on the island following “unification,” suggesting that China is already planning to export its repressive form of ideological brainwashing beyond its borders. In an interview with France’s BFM TV, Lu blamed the lack of receptiveness to China’s insistence on “unification” among Taiwan’s 23 million people on “extreme propaganda” by its ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Kazakh citizen journalist Mirbek Serambek, who is currently in exile in France, told RFA that “re-education” likely refers to the mass internment camps used to “re-educate” Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. That policy is part of a CCP assimilation program in Xinjiang that has been branded genocide by some Western governments and legal experts. “It shows that the Chinese government’s re-education policy is unlikely to change for the time being, and that it was likely on strict orders from [CCP leader] Xi Jinping,” he said. “Xi Jinping will take a more radical approach following the Pelosi incident, both internally and externally.” “The Chinese government may set up re-education centers in or near Hong Kong over the next few years,” Serambek said. “It will keep on oppressing other groups if Western countries don’t step up sanctions.” Wuer Kaixi, the Uyghur former student leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square, said Liu is in the mold of a “wolf warrior” diplomat, and is reacting against Washington’s new-found determination not to appease China over Taiwan. “China today is not only not worried about going against the values shared by the rest of the world, but is proud of it and normalizes bullying, which is incredible,” Wuer told RFA. “It’s gotten to the point where … one of its ambassadors has spoken with pride of this domineering approach.” Zheng Zeguang, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, warned Britain not to “play with fire” with the U.S. amid reports British MPs plan to visit Taiwan, adding that “those who play with fire will set themselves on fire,” in file photo. Credit: Screengrab from the official website of the Chinese Embassy in the UK UK MPs to visit Taiwan An employee who answered the phone at the Chinese embassy in France declined to comment on Thursday. “I can’t answer you because I can’t get a hold of my superiors; you need to go through the proper channels,” the employee said. The embassy press office asked for questions to be emailed, but no reply had been received by the time of writing. Meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador to the U.K. warned members of parliament not to visit Taiwan, following a media report that there are plans in the pipeline for such a trip. “We call on the U.K. side to abide by its own commitments and not to underestimate the extreme sensitivity of the Taiwan issue or follow in the U.S.’ footsteps and play with fire,” Zheng Zeguang told reporters. “Remember: those who play with fire get burnt,” he said. The Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee had originally planned to visit Taiwan in February this year, but the trip was postponed because a member of the delegation tested positive for COVID-19. In a report published on Aug. 3, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) quoted sources as saying that the delegation is expected to travel this fall Translated and edited…

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Taiwan warns citizens to be cautious of going to China after activist arrest

Editor010 mins

Authorities in Taiwan on Thursday warned the democratic island’s 23 million citizens not to travel to China unless absolutely necessary, after police in China’s Zhejiang announced the arrest of a Taiwanese national for “separatism.” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which handles ties with China “urged Taiwanese citizens to assess the risks of visiting China,” following the arrest of Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuan on charges of “separatism,” the Central News Agency (CNA) reported. Yang, a 32-year-old pro-democracy campaigner and vice chairman of the independence-leaning Taiwanese National Party, was taken into custody by state security police in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city on Aug. 3 on charges relating to his activities in support of Taiwanese independence, state broadcaster CCTV reported. “Taiwanese nationals should exercise caution when traveling to China given the potential risks to their personal freedom and security,” CNA quoted the MAC as saying. The MAC has called on China to stick to a cross-straits anti-crime agreement, but has yet to receive notification of his arrest through official channels, CNA said. “Yang’s arrest has been viewed in some quarters as retaliation for U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recently concluded trip to Taiwan,” the agency reported. Seeing Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a threat to China’s sovereignty claims, Beijing has taken a number of countermeasures, including banning the import of certain food from Taiwan and scheduling live-fire drills in six maritime areas in the vicinity of the island from Aug. 4-7, it said. Tourists look on as a Chinese military helicopter flies past Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest points to Taiwan, in Fujian province on August 4, 2022. Credit: AFP ‘Irrational actions’ by the PRC It said at least two Taiwanese nationals, retired National Taiwan Normal University academic Shih Cheng-ping and independent scholar Cheng Yu-chin are currently also imprisoned in China on national security and espionage charges. Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) condemned Yang’s arrest as “a serious human rights violation.” “China, which claims to be a great power, has repeatedly abused its judicial system to detain Taiwanese people on the grounds of national security,” the party said in a statement widely reported in local media. “The CCP has resorted to a series of irrational actions in the past couple of days to exert extreme pressure on Taiwan via malicious bullying behavior, in a bid to sow fear among the Taiwanese people and force Taiwan to submit,” the DDP said. “Today they have stooped to using the personal freedom of a Taiwanese national for political blackmail … meaning that Taiwanese people in China could be arrested at any time as part of this red terror campaign,” it said. The Taiwan National Party was set up in July 2011 by former national policy adviser to the president Huang Hua, independence activist Kao Kin-lang, scholars Liu Chong-yee, Yang Chih-yuan and others. Exiled Chinese dissident Guo Baosheng, who is acquainted with Yang, said he was shocked by the news of his arrest. “I was shocked because he hated the CCP and swore that he would never go back to China unless it was China free,” Guo told RFA. Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuen, who was arrested by state security police in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city on Aug 3, 2022. Credit: Yang Chih-yuen Ammunition in dispute over Pelosi Gao said the last contact he had with Yang was in May this year, adding that Yang had been less politically active since losing his bid for a New Taipei legislature seat in 2020. “He probably thought there was no risk and just went on over there,” Guo said. “Also, I am guessing some spy agents tricked him [to go there] by pretending to be [fellow activists] persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).” “He likes to befriend these dissidents,” he added. Guo said Yang could have been arrested a while ago, but Beijing is now using his case as ammunition in the row over Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, which has also prompted live-fire military exercises by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the firing of missiles across the island. Another friend of Yang’s, Wang Yikai, said on his personal Facebook page that he knew that Yang had recently signed up for a Go tournament in Wenzhou. Aside from the military response, several government websites in Taiwan were attacked during Pelosi’s visit, with cybersecurity research institutes saying the attacks were likely launched by Chinese hackers. Beijing has slapped import bans on thousands of Taiwanese food products, while its Taiwan Affairs Office has sanctioned four Taiwanese companies labeled by Beijing as “pro-independence diehards.” Chen Kuide, executive chairman of the Princeton China Society, said all of these reactions were predictable. “For Pelosi to make this visit in such a formal and high-profile way has angered the CCP and caused a great loss of face,” Chen told RFA. “All of these things are being done to save face for the country and to restore the [Chinese] public’s good impression of their country,” he said. “They’ll do it for a while, and do it like they mean it, but really starting something with the U.S. military wouldn’t be a good idea, although possible.” Little Pinks a diversion A Shanghai resident surnamed Liu said that Pelosi’s visit had mobilized strong nationalistic sentiment among CCP supporters online, known as Little Pinks, with many calling for Pelosi’s plane to be shot down. But he said much of the online hype was a distraction technique designed to whip up populist support ahead of the 20th party congress later in the year. “Without such hot topics to divert public attention from domestic social conflicts, how can [CCP leader Xi Jinping] smoothly achieve another term at the 20th National Congress?” Liu said. Another Shanghai resident surnamed Wang agreed. “Most people know they wouldn’t start a war, but they were enjoying the excitement,” Wang said. “In the end, [China] softened its stance, and got a lot of online ridicule for that.” “Now, the topic has been banned from the internet.” MAC spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng said: “The people of…

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China fires ballistic missiles into the sea off Taiwan

Editor014 mins

Unprecedented Chinese live-fire maritime drills got underway on Thursday with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launching ballistic missiles into the waters around Taiwan, the Taiwanese defense ministry said. The Chinese military “launched a number of Dongfeng ballistic missiles into the waters surrounding northeastern and southwestern Taiwan at about 13:56 p.m.,” the ministry said without specifying the range. Matsu, Wuqiu, Dongyin and some other outlying islands have been put on heightened alert after the PLA fired long-range rockets in the surrounding areas, the ministry added. Before the launch, the PLA threatened to fire missiles over Taiwan and enter the island’s territorial waters for the first time, in a scenario that analysts describe as ‘The Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis.’ Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest point from Taiwan, on August 4, 2022, ahead of massive military drills off Taiwan. CREDIT: AFP China’s ‘irrational action’ Chinese international state broadcaster CGTN said “military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills around Taiwan island” have begun. The PLA “conducted long-range live-fire shooting training in the Taiwan Straits on Thursday at around 1:00 p.m. and carried out precision strikes on specific areas in the eastern part of the Taiwan Straits,” CGTN added. The state-supported Global Times said the Chinese military “conducted long-range artillery live-fire shooting drills in the Taiwan Straits, striking targets on the eastern side of the Straits and achieving the expected outcome.” Taiwan’s defense ministry said it has activated relevant defense systems, and strengthened combat readiness.  “The Ministry of National Defense condemned this irrational action that undermines regional peace,” it said in a statement. The maritime drills at six locations around Taiwan, that started on Thursday and last until Sunday, are set to be larger in scale than those in 1996 during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, and also unprecedented in many ways. For the first time, Chinese troops are expected to enter the 12-nautical-mile (22 kilometers) waters around Taiwan which, according to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, serve as the island’s sovereign territorial waters.   Conventional missiles are expected to be test-launched from naval vessels that are sailing to the east of Taiwan and from the mainland, according to the PLA Eastern Theater Command.  Chinese analysts, quoted by state media, said the missiles “would fly over the island.”  “We need to recognize that we are in a major militarized crisis, and start calling it by its name: the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis,” said Christopher Twomey, a China military expert at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School who spoke to RFA in a personal capacity. “What will get the most attention are missile tests, particularly if they land close to Taiwanese claimed waters or fly over Taiwanese territory,” he said. Newspapers in Beijing on Wednesday, reporting Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and showing maps of locations where the PLA will conduct military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills. CREDIT: Reuters High level of attention In the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis (1995-1996), a series of missile tests was conducted by the PLA in the waters surrounding Taiwan and the PLA live ammunition exercises led to intervention by the U.S., which staged the biggest display of American military might in Asia since the Vietnam War. “The six areas in which the PLA will execute its live-fire drills until Sunday clearly delineate a military encirclement of Taiwan. To me, it looks like a prelude or preparations for a future scenario that is not primarily focused on amphibious assault, but on blockade,” said Nadège Rolland, a senior fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), a U.S. private think-tank. “If this is the case, it will not only choke Taiwan, but also directly impact Japan’s security, and the region’s civilian transit as several Asian airlines have already canceled their flights over the broader area,” said Rolland, who previously served as a senior advisor on Asian and Chinese strategic issues at the French Ministry of Defense. “The exercises will generate a high level of attention from both Taiwan’s military and that of the United States. Both will want to ensure that the exercises are not a cover for an even more offensive action, but also will want to learn about Chinese capabilities and operational practices,” Christopher Twomey said. The maritime drills that see PLA troops entering an area within 12 nautical miles of Taiwan were announced on Tuesday evening when Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi landed in Taipei for a brief but highly symbolic visit. Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the democratic island in the last 25 years. Beijing has repeatedly condemned the visit as a “grave violation” of China’s sovereignty and integrity, and threatened the “strongest countermeasures.” ‘Irresponsible drills’ Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement that by announcing air-naval live-fire drills around the island, Chinese leaders “made it self-evidently apparent that they seek a cross-strait resolution by force instead of peaceful means.” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in a media interview on Wednesday called the drills “irresponsible” and they would “make the chance of an incident real.” “The actors involved are certainly the same as for the three crises in 1954, 1958 and 1995-96, but the geostrategic context is very different,” said NBR’s Nadège Rolland. “In each of the three previous crises, the U.S. intervened militarily and the military tensions between the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the ROC [Republic of China] were prolonged but diffused after a rapid initial escalation,” said Rolland, referring to China and Taiwan by their official names. “It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will get involved this time,” she said, noting that if the survival of Taiwan and Japan is at stake, “it will be impossible for the U.S. not to intervene at a minimum to safeguard the freedom of the sea lanes on which transit the majority of international commerce.” On Thursday morning, the U.S. Air Force dispatched an RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft to observe the drills but the USS Ronald…

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China may fire missiles over Taiwan as part of live-fire drills

Editor07 mins

Unprecedented Chinese live-fire maritime drills got underway on Thursday with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) threatening to fire missiles over Taiwan and enter the island’s territorial waters for the first time in a scenario that analysts describe as “the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis.” Chinese international state broadcaster CGTN said “military exercises and training activities, including live-fire drills around Taiwan island” have begun. Conventional missiles are expected to be test-launched from naval vessels that are sailing to the east of Taiwan and from the mainland, according to the PLA Eastern Theater Command. Chinese analysts, quoted by state media, said the missiles “would fly over the island.”  Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it is closely monitoring the situation, strengthening military alerts, and “will respond appropriately.” The ministry said that unidentified aircraft, probably drones, were spotted over Taiwan’s Kinmen islands on Wednesday night. During the day, 22 Chinese military aircraft also crossed the median line dividing the Taiwan Strait, it said.  On Thursday morning, the U.S. Air Force dispatched a RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft to observe the drills but the USS Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, seems to have moved north towards Japan, according to a Beijing-based think-tank that has been tracking regional military movements. “USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are underway in the Philippine Sea continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet spokesperson was quoted by Reuters as saying. The maritime drills that see PLA troops entering an area within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers)  of Taiwan were announced on Tuesday evening when Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi landed in Taipei for a brief but highly symbolic visit. Beijiing has repeatedly condemned the visit as a “grave violation” of China’s sovereignty and integrity, and threatened “strongest countermeasures.” Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the democratic island in 25 years. Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement that by announcing air-naval live-fire drills around the island, Chinese leaders “made it self-evidently apparent that they seek a cross-strait resolution by force instead of peaceful means.” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, in a media interview on Wednesday, called the drills “irresponsible” and said they would “make the chance of an incident real.” Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest point from Taiwan, on August 4, 2022, ahead of massive military drills off Taiwan. CREDIT: AFP Joint military exercises The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command already conducted a number of military exercises around Taiwan after the U.S. House Speaker’s arrival. The joint naval-air exercises, which started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, were carried out in the north, southwest and southeast waters and airspace off Taiwan, according to the PLA Daily. Maj. Gen. Gu Zhong, deputy chief of staff of the PLA Eastern Theater Command was quoted by the newspaper as saying the Chinese troops conducted “targeted training exercises of joint blockade, strikes on land and maritime targets, airspace control operations as well as the live firing of precision-guided munitions.” “This round of joint military operations is a necessary response to the dangerous move made by the U.S. and Taiwan authorities on the Taiwan question,” Gu was quoted as saying. The maritime drills, that started on Thursday and last until Sunday, have attracted the most attention, not least because they are set to be larger in scale than those in 1996 during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis but also unprecedented in many ways. For the first time, Chinese troops are expected to enter the 12-nautical-mile waters around Taiwan which, according to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, serve as the island’s sovereign territorial waters.   “We need to recognize that we are in a major militarized crisis, and start calling it by its name: the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis,” said Christopher Twomey, a China military expert. “What will get the most attention are missile tests, particularly if they land close to Taiwanese claimed waters or fly over Taiwanese territory,” he told RFA. In the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis (1995-1996), a series of missile tests were conducted by the PLA in the waters surrounding Taiwan. The PLA live ammunition exercises led to the U.S. intervening by staging the biggest display of American military might in Asia since the Vietnam War.

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Vietnamese garment manufacturers struggle to comply with U.S. ban on Xinjiang cotton

Editor05 mins

Vietnam’s heavy reliance on cotton imports from China could lead it to fall foul of a U.S. ban on cotton produced by forced labor in Xinjiang province. Vietnamese manufacturers say it is hard to prove where the fabric in their garments comes from. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) came into force on June 21, after being signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden last December. The move has reportedly led fashion chains such as Japan’s United Arrows to stop selling clothes made from Xinjiang cotton. According to the Business and Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC) countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, the world’s second and third largest garment exporters, still depend heavily on imports of Chinese fabric and yarn, particularly high-end materials. “As a result, campaign groups and some Western politicians have accused manufacturers of “cotton laundering” in places such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, for serving as intermediaries in cotton garment production,” the center said. Last month the Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association asked its members to be careful where they sourced their raw materials to avoid falling foul of the new U.S. regulations. Last year Bangladesh’s garment exports to the U.S. earned it $7.18 billion. Vietnam’s garment exports to America brought in more than double that, at $15.4 billion, according to the U.S. Office of Textiles and Apparel. The BHRRC said that one Chinese garment manufacturer who owns a factory in Vietnam said proving the origin of fabrics and threads involved a lengthy due-diligence process. “It is hard to distinguish the cotton products entering Vietnam from different sources because they may have been mixed together while being transported at sea. Suppliers may do this so they can deceptively label Xinjiang cotton as coming from elsewhere, to circumvent the US law,” the manufacturer told the center. RFA spoke with the director of an apparel firm in Vietnam’s northern Nam Dinh province. “My company is producing apparel products for a China-based company which uses materials from its country and exports to the U.S.,” he said. “Due to the UFLPA it has ordered less from us. It seems that our Chinese partner cannot sell its products so it has stopped ordering [so much] from us.” The Vietnam Cotton and Spinning Association referred RFA to comments given by Vice President Do Pham Ngoc Tu to China’s Global Times. He told the newspaper that Vietnamese garment manufacturers will have to ‘wean themselves off’ raw materials produced in Xinjiang if they want to continue exporting to the U.S. One fifth of the world’s cotton comes from Xinjiang, making it hard for manufacturers to find adequate supplies from countries that do not use forced labor. Ignoring the ban would mean falling foul of the world’s biggest garment importer. The U.S. ships all but 5% of its apparel from overseas.

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

Editor010 mins

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

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