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Category: South Asia

China pushes the ‘Sinicization of religion’ in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs

Editor024 mins

When Erkin Tuniyaz, chairman of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), visited the largest mosque in Urumqi before the Eid al-Fitr holy day marking the end of Ramadan, he used the opportunity to promote Beijing’s policy of assimilation of non-Chinese people in its far western resgions. “According to the arrangements and invitation of the autonomous region party committee, we must hold absolutely tight to the plan for Sinicizing the Islamic religion in Xinjiang and actively take the lead in fitting the Islamic religion into socialist society,” he said at the Noghay Mosque, as quoted in an April 30 article by Xinjiang Daily.   Though the 19th-century mosque is technically open, the complex is cordoned off with fences and barbed wire. In recent years, Chinese authorities removed the Arabic shahada, or testament of faith from above the entrance gate to the building — the largest mosque in Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) — also known as the Tatar Mosque. They also installed a security checkpoint next to the gate where Muslim worshippers must pass facial recognition scanners to verify their identities as uniformed guards look on. A few days before Erkin made his statement, XUAR Party Secretary Ma Xingrui commented on China’s political strategy in the region, reemphasizing the concepts of “the shared sense of belonging of the Chinese nation” and “ethnic fusion” in an April article in the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Ma proposed strengthening assimilative policies in the XUAR along with the further tightening of the CCP’s religious policy by Sinicizing Islam. Sinification policies and debates long predate the 1949 Communist Party seized of power, said a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, which defined it as “ the process by which all non-Han or non-Sinitic people who entered the Chinese realm, no matter whether as conquerors or conquered, eventually were inevitably assimilated as Chinese.” But under the decade-long rule of CCP chief Xi Jinping, coercive assimilation has picked up pace—not only in Xinjiang, but also in Tibet< Inner Mongolia and other areas populated by minorities. The drive to erase differences among the cultures is enforced in Xinjiang by a vast high-tech mass surveillance system, heavy-handed grassroots policing and mass internment camps that have target a significant number of the 12 million Uyghurs. The Sinicization of religion in the XUAR takes aim at the Islamic aspects of the Uyghur identity—a policy whose heavy-handed imposition that some Western governments say constitutes genocide under international law. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will travel to Urumqi and Kashgar (Kashi), during a May 23-28 visit to China, the first by a U.N. human rights chief since 2005. Her trip has raised questions about her freedom of movement through the region, with many Uyghur groups and rights experts warning her that Beijing will put on a staged tour and use it for propaganda against its critics. Xi first put forward the concept at the Communist Party’s 19th People’s Congress on Oct. 18, 2017. At the time, Chen Quanguo, then party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, was stepping up what’s become a well-documented campaign of oppression against the Uyghurs as part of a forced assimilation effort. Chen and his successor Ma Xingrui, who was appointed XUAR party secretary in late 2021, executed state policies concerning the “Sinicization of religion” and “creating awareness of the shared sense of belonging to the Chinese nation.” During a recent inspection of the XUAR, Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CCP and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, issued a special directive regarding the “resolute advancement of the Sinicization of Islam in Xinjiang.” The Chinese government has vigorously implemented its policy not only for Muslims in Xinjiang, but also for Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Protestants and others throughout the country, demanding that the religious groups adhere to and support the CCP’s rule and ideology. For Muslims, the policy means being forced to renounce their Islamic faith, according to testimony given by Uyghur survivors of detention camps in Xinjiang. Authorities have forced Uyghurs to eat pork, which is forbidden in Islam, have gathered and burned copies of the Quran, and have restricted the wearing of beards for men and of long clothing and headscarves for women. Uyghur names such as “Muhammad,” “Ayishe,” and “Muhajid” have been forbidden and, in cases where those names have been given to children, the authorities have implemented very strict policies to change them. Applying for passports and traveling abroad have been reasons for detention in camps, which means that Uyghurs have lost their right to go on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are expected to make at least once during their lifetime. While China’s legal guarantee of religious freedom are touted in propaganda, and said to be composed according to Western standards, “it exists simply on paper,” said Nury Turkel, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). “This is a means of deceiving people, of [China] trying to portray its own system as perfect.”   A banner reading ‘Love the Party, Love the Country’ in the Chinese and Uyghur languages hangs from a mosque near Kashgar Yengisheher county, Kashgar prefecture, in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, March 20, 2021. Credit: Associated Press ‘Eradication of Islam’ Chinese authorities have detained more than 1,000 imams and clerics for their association with religious teaching and community leadership since 2014, according to a May 2021 report titled “Islam Dispossessed: China’s Persecution of Uyghur Imams and Religious Figures” issued by the U.S.-based Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). “The Sinicization of Islam is the eradication of Islam,” Turghanjan Alawudun, vice chair of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a Uyghur religion scholar, said. In 2016, Chinese authorities began demolishing mosques and old cemeteries in the XUAR, with the destruction reaching a climax in 2018. Since about 2017, up to 16,000 mosques, or roughly 65%, of all mosques have…

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Cambodia’s commune campaign to test country’s electoral integrity

Editor011 mins

Cambodia will launch a two-week election campaign for local commune councils Saturday, a contest for grassroots bodies that won’t tip the scales of power in a country autocratic Prime Minister Hun Sen has ruled for nearly four decades, but also seen as a measure of electoral integrity. The limited power of commune councils––who vote on behalf of their constituents in the 2024 elections for the Cambodian Senate––hasn’t dampened anticipation ahead of the June 5 election in a country that has endured a five-year crackdown on civil liberties and other freedoms by Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). The CPP, the only party large enough to field candidates nationwide, is expected to win a landslide victory, enjoying the power of incumbency and patronage in what Hun Sun has effectively turned into a one-party state at the national level. “Commune elections in Cambodia have always been a low stakes affair for the ruling party because of how much control they have in rural areas at the local level,” said Sophal Ear, an author and policy analyst who teaches at Arizona State University. “And this next commune election is no different but even more extreme in how much control there is at the national level,” he added. But election watchers are looking at the contest between the CPP and 16 other parties for 11,622 seats in 1,652 rural and urban precincts to find out how much support the opposition Candlelight Party can win in the atmosphere and after months of harassment from the ruling party. “Civic and political space in Cambodia has receded and regressed due to what is effectively all-intrusive single-party rule,” said Vitit Muntarbhorn, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia. “The outlook for human rights and democracy in the country remains disconcerting on many fronts, especially in the lead up to the commune elections,” he told RFA. The Candlelight Party has risen from the ashes of the main opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), whose strong showing in previous communal elections in 2017 prompted Hun Sen have the party dissolved, paving the way for his CPP to win all 125 parliamentary seats in 2018. The Candlelight Party was founded in 1995 by Hun Sen’s political rival Sam Rainsy, who is now living in exile facing a raft of charges his supporters sat are designed to keep him out of politics. Candlelight, which merged with another party to form the CNRP in 2012 but is not subject to the opposition ban, is now the second largest political party in Cambodia and the largest opposition party. The party has been gaining steam over the past year. With its rise has come what Candlelight officials say are made up accusations that the party has used fake names for candidates and has put forward candidates in violation of Cambodian election laws. Several Candlelight Party activists have been jailed on allegations of submitting false documents to run in the communal elections. In February, authorities in the northwestern province of Battambang ordered the Candlelight Party to remove a sign from a citizen’s house, even though national officials pledged a free and fair campaign, without political and partisan discrimination. On April 9, Prak Seyha — a party youth leader for Phnom Penh’s Kambol district — was attacked and beaten by a mob. That same day, Choeun Sarim, a party candidate for Phnom Penh’s Chhbar Ampov district, was killed in traffic while traveling by motorbike from southern Cambodia’s Takeo province to the capital, Phnom Penh. His wife said he had been threatened and assaulted prior to his death, which she said was caused by a blow from behind. On April 11, Khorn Tun, a Candlelight Party activist and a commune candidate in Tabaung Khmom province’s Ponhea Krek district — was attacked by unidentified men who threw rocks at her home. Flags and marches The Candlelight Party has sent flags, about 3 million leaflets and party uniforms to its supporters around the country, the party’s vice president Thach Setha told RFA’s Khmer Service. The party plans to march through the streets of Phnom Penh with thousands of supporters on Saturday in an effort to drum up more support. “We urge all activists and supporters to participate in our march to express their support for the Candlelight Party and to show up for a chance,” he said. The ruling party has also been active in shipping out materials for the campaign, but will not hold massive rallies, CPP spokesman Sok Ey San told RFA. “Activists will visit voters’ houses to inform them about the party’s political platform,” he said, adding that the most active days will be the first and last days of the campaign period. The country’s third largest party, the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, a royalist party known as Funcinpec, plans to hold a rally with the party president and about 1,000 supporters in Kandal province in the south, the party’s spokesman Ngouen Raden told RFA. “In each province, working groups will meet voters at their houses,” he said. The National Election Commission (NEC) on Tuesday urged the parties to comply with measures intended to keep the campaigns peaceful and nonviolent. It also asked authorities at all levels to remain neutral and impartial, allowing all candidates access to public places. The NEC is working with authorities to coordinate marches planned by party supporters so that confrontation can be avoided, the commission’s spokesman, Hang Puthea, told RFA. “Until now, there are no negative issues reported yet. I have observed that each party has already prepared for the election campaign tomorrow at 6 a.m.,” he said. The Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) has deployed 20 monitors to follow campaigns in Phnom Penh and other areas, Kang Savan, a monitor for the NGO, told RFA. Despite the trappings of a healthy campaign, the contest fails to meet basic definitions of democracy, said Ear. “Managed democracy–if you even call it that–in Cambodia is about giving people little…

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Elderly and sick die of COVID-19 complications in North Korean capital

Editor09 mins

North Korean authorities are mobilizing medical students in the capital of Pyongyang to help in hospitals suddenly overwhelmed with cases of COVID-19, sources in the country told RFA. Even so, deaths continue to rise due to lack of proper care and from counterfeit medicines as treatment options remain limited in the impoverished and isolated country. After more than two years of denying any North Korean had contracted the coronavirus, the country finally announced its first cases and deaths last week, saying the Omicron variant had begun to spread among participants of a large-scale military parade in late April. The long-term denial means doctors in the capital’s many hospitals are not up to speed on how to treat coronavirus, a Pyongyang resident told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “As a result, some elderly people infected with Omicron and people with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes died because they did not receive proper treatment,” said the source. “In addition, there are a number of people who have died due to side effects from medicines they purchased on their own without proper prescriptions,” the source said. Pyongyang, with 2.9 million residents living relatively closely to one another, has been hit the hardest by the pandemic. “They declared an emergency and mobilized doctors from each hospital in the city, then they even began mobilizing med students,” a Pyongyang resident told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “All residents in the city are subject to intensive medical screenings. They must check their temperature and report any abnormal symptoms twice a day,” the source said. The demand for fever reducers and antibiotics has greatly increased. Many people travel from pharmacy to pharmacy in search of acetaminophen, ibuprofen and amoxicillin, said the source. Antibiotics have no effect on viral diseases like COVID-19. “Authorities began to release wartime emergency medicines and have placed uniformed military doctors at pharmacies to prevent stealing. So now it is possible to buy necessary medicines,” said the source. As home to most of the country’s privileged elites, Pyongyang has superior health care facilities than exist in the provinces. In the city of Hamhung, in the eastern province of South Hamgyong, people had been crowding hospitals weeks before the declared emergency, complaining of coronavirus symptoms, a medical source there told RFA. “There are provincial hospitals and city hospitals, as well as health institutions and facilities in provincial cities like Hamhung. However, in the case of county-level hospitals, there are only a few beds with poor medical equipment and facilities, and inexperienced doctors,” the second source said. “I am worried about whether they can cope with it. It will be of great help if the authorities receive aid from the U.N. or medicines made in South Korea, which are effective and safe,” the source said. About 2.2 million people have been hit by outbreaks of fever, 65 of whom have died, according to data based on reports from North Korean state media published by 38 North, a site that provides analysis on the country and is run by the U.S.-based think tank the Stimson Center. Around 1.5 million are reported to have made recoveries, while 754,800 are undergoing treatment. The country has only a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which 38 North attributed to insufficient testing capabilities. Data published on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center showed North Korea with only one confirmed COVID-19 case and six deaths as of Friday evening. Accurate reporting The numbers provided by state media are likely accurate, Ahn Kyungsoo, head of dprkhealth.org, a South Korea-based website that tracks North Korea’s healthcare situation. But Ahn said that not all “fever” cases are necessarily coronavirus. “In the middle of April is when seasons change in Korea. The North Korean authorities have released statistics since the end of April. There are inevitably a lot of people who develop fevers that time of the year due to the change of seasons…. And the main symptoms… are almost the same as those of cold patients who get ill in-between seasons,” he said. “The cumulative number of people with fever that the North Korean authorities are talking about is not an individual person with a confirmed case of COVID-19. Their definition of ‘cured’ does not mean the full recovery from COVID-19, but only that fever symptoms have disappeared. These are the people who have been released from quarantine,” he said, adding that test kits in North Korea are scarce, and tallies can only be kept by observing symptoms like fever, body aches, coughing and sore throats. Ahn said that even with a lot of help from the international community in the form of donated vaccines, North Koreans would still have trouble inoculating everyone because of a lack of cold storage and an inability to quickly transport vaccines to most parts of the country. “Also, it takes time for the vaccine to take effect after one is vaccinated. From the perspective of North Korea, it will take quite a while even if they get the vaccine tomorrow. So, I think getting as many oral treatments as possible would be more advantageous than the vaccine.” Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin J. Chung

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Vietnam ethnic minority activist jailed for 4 years for reporting abuse allegations

Editor05 mins

An ethnic Ede Montagnard minority activist was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday for submitting three reports about human rights violations in Vietnam to “reactionary forces” overseas, another activist who followed his trial said. A court in Cu Kuin district, Dak Lak province, sentenced Y Wo Nie on the charge of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, said activist Vo Ngoc Luc, who followed the trial developments as they were broadcast over a local loudspeaker. The article prohibits citizens from abusing “the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s interests and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.” Rights groups have criticized the statute as providing authorities widespread latitude to crack down on any criticism of the government. Nie participated in several online training courses held by “reactionary forces.” The classes included lessons on religious faith, Vietnam Civil Law, international human rights law, the Montagnard experience in Vietnam, and how to document human rights abuses, according to the online news outlet Congly, the mouthpiece of the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam. “Learning about human rights is very good — that’s what I told security officers whom I met this morning,” Luc said. “You cannot convict [people] for taking online courses on human rights.” Prosecutors failed to provide evidence to support a second accusation against Nie for “providing false information,” Luc said. “They were all general and ambiguous accusations,” he said. “Saying the sentence was too heavy is wrong,” Luc added. “I would say it was groundless. If we lived in a civilized world, then the court would declare his innocence, set him free right at the trial, and the investigation agency would apologize him.” In its indictment, the Cu Kuin People’s Procuracy said that in 2020 Nie collected distorting and false information and composed three reports on human rights violations and sent them to “reactionary forces overseas” via the WhatsApp instant messaging service. The indictment also said Nie met with the delegates from the U.S. Embassy and Consulate General in Vietnam when they visited the Gia Lai province in June 2020. The judges concluded that Nie’s acts had affected social safety and order, political security and government administrative agencies’ activities, undermining confidence in the regime and at home and abroad. When Nie was arrested in September 2020, Cu Kuin police officers said that they seized “many materials with false content and images slandering, insulting and defaming the prestige and dignity of the party, state, local authorities, the public security forces in Cu Kuin district and in Dak Lak province.” Prior to the September 2020 arrest, Nie received a nine-year jail term for “sabotaging the national unity policy.” In recent decades, many ethnic minority groups in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, including the Montagnards, have been persecuted for their religious beliefs and seen their land confiscated without adequate compensation. The crackdowns tend to ramp up on the groups when they try to fight back and report these human rights abuses, activists said. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Myanmar junta gets effective diplomatic downgrade as a result of military coup

Editor012 mins

Myanmar’s 15-month-old military junta is suffering a diplomatic downgrade as Western and some Southeast Asian neighbors are withholding ambassadorial appointments to the country and increasingly meeting with elected officials overthrown by the army early last year, diplomats said. The trend of posting a number two in missions comes as the junta has been shunned by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which held a summit last week with the U.S. in Washington, where Myanmar was represented by an empty chair symbolizing rejection of the February 2021 coup. The Australian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on May 16 that Australia has appointed a senior official to replace its ambassador in Myanmar, Andrea Faulkner, who completed her tenure last month. Britain likewise downgraded its ties with Myanmar from ambassadorial level to chargé d’affaires level in August 2021. The junta found that unacceptable and the British Ambassador, Pete Vowles, who went abroad on business, was barred from re-entering the country in February 2022. “The UK has a longstanding policy and practice of recognizing states, not governments,” Stephen Small, the embassy’s liaison officer, wrote in an emailed reply to RFA’s Myanmar Service. “We are engaging with the junta only where strictly necessary to deliver our political, development and humanitarian objectives and [for] the functioning of our embassy,” he added. “Changing the status of our head of mission ensures we can continue our role supporting the people of Myanmar without giving the military credibility by presenting our credentials to the Commander-in-Chief,” said Small. Vowles arrived in Myanmar in August 2021, seven months after the coup, and refused to hand over his credentials to the junta. In April the military regime told the embassy it would not accept him as ambassador any longer, the spokesman said. London did not recall Vowles, but decided to let him head the mission at a lower level and he is waiting for a new visa and entry permit for Myanmar, said Small. Police stand guard near the US embassy during a demonstration by protesters against the military coup in Yangon, Feb. 22, 2021. Credit: AFP Shunning an ‘unethical group’ Germany has likewise downgraded its representation in Myanmar, said embassy press officer Markus Lubawinski. “I can confirm that the German Embassy in Yangon, where we continue with our embassy work, is headed by a chargé d’affaires,” he wrote in an email to RFA. “The reduction from ambassadorial level to charge d’affaires, is, in layman’s terms, degrading,” said Kyaw Swa Tun, the third secretary at the Myanmar Embassy in Washington who joined the opposition after the coup. “It’s like saying we don’t need to pay attention to an unethical group,” he told RFA. “At present, most countries, including Europeans, have lowered their statuses in dealing with the regime. It also shows that they are not recognizing the junta and thus, the junta’s role is downgraded,” added Kyaw Swa Tun. Min Zaw Oo, executive director of the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security said countries lowered the level of their diplomatic representation to avoid the poor optics of recognizing the junta. The regime is estimated to have killed at least 5,600 civilians in nearly 16 months since the coup. “When an ambassador comes in, he has to be officially recognized by the head of state. So, they do not want a big blaring photograph in the newspapers showing the current junta leader accepting their new ambassadors,” he said. Diplomatic sources in Yangon say Denmark, Italy, Israel and South Korea are considering following Britain, Germany and Australia in downgrading their level of representation. The U.S., European Union and Japan, however, are maintaining ambassadors at their embassies in Yangon. Hiram J. Ríos Hernández, spokesman for the U.S embassy in Yangon told RFA in an email that the US will continue to put pressure on the junta to return to the path of democracy in Myanmar. “Amb. Thomas Vajda presented his credentials to democratically elected President U Win Myint on January 19, 2021,” he told RFA by email. “The U.S. will continue to press the military regime to cease its violence, release all those unjustly detained, provide unhindered humanitarian access, and restore Burma’s path to democracy.” Zin Mar Aung, foreign minister of the National Unity Government, speaking with RFA during her visit to Washington May, 12, 2022. Credit: RFA Outreach to the NUG The European Union (EU) embassy in Yangon has said it will not change its current ambassadorial post, a spokesperson told RFA on behalf of Amb. Ranieri Sabatucci. “The EU does not envisage any change to my accreditation for the time being. The movements in the diplomatic sphere do not have any effect on our dealings with the military council,” he said, using a shorthand for the junta. Germany and Britain, the colonial ruler of what was formerly called Burma, and the EU have held meetings with representative of the country’s National Unity Government (NUG), a parallel administration made up of former lawmakers and officials of the government of leader Aung San Suu Kyi. “The federal government in Germany has spoken to individual members of the NUG. These exchanges have been made public,” said Lubawinski. “The U.K. sees the NUG as an important stakeholder for resolving the crisis,” said Small of the British Embassy. “The EU is having informal exchanges with the NUG. These are entertained by and from a number of interlocutors including our HQ in Brussels, the EU Mission to ASEAN and the EU Mission to the UN in New York,” said the EU mission in Yangon. “The EU retains the right to entertain relationships with any relevant party in Myanmar, including the NUG,” the statement issued on behalf of Sabatucci. Analyst Kyaw Swa Tun said that although the NUG has not yet been officially accepted by the international community, these contacts can been as a sign the group in increasingly being recognized as a legitimate government. Zin Mar Aung, who represents the NUG on the world stage, held key meetings on the sidelines of the U.S.-ASEAN summit in Washington last week with Wendy…

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Vietnamese attorneys face abuse from police when defending their clients

Editor010 mins

Attorneys in Vietnam say their ability to defend their clients in court is being undercut by threats and physical abuse the lawyers themselves face, often at the hands of state authorities. Defense lawyers in civil cases and politically charged ones said they not only encounter the usual obstacles to their work in a country with a long history of corruption — long pre-trial detentions of clients, witness intimidation, and politically motivated charges — but they also have been threatened and, in some cases, beaten by police and investigators who want defendants to be found guilty. Attorney Le Hoang Tung from Everest Law Firm filed a complaint after he was assaulted this month by an investigator while meeting with police officers in Ho Chi Minh City. City police denied the accusation on Wednesday, saying that the investigator did not assault Tung and that the lawyer was injured when he slipped and fell. They failed to explain why there were shoe marks on Tung’s shirt — evidence supporting the accusation that the investigator kicked the lawyer. In response, the Vietnam Bar Federation (VBF), which protects the rights of lawyers, submitted a request to police to investigate the incident, and to act against people who abuse attorneys or otherwise interfere with their ability to practice law. Attorney Nguyen Van Hau, a standing member of the VBF, told RFA on Wednesday that the organization sent requests to the directorates of the Ho Chi Minh City police and procuracy, which must provide public responses and handle the case in accordance with the law. “As for our part at VBF, we will monitor [the case] and protect the legitimate rights of lawyers participating in legal proceedings,” he said. Vietnam’s Law on Lawyers ensures that attorneys have the right to take part in legal proceedings, provide legal services, and protect justice, individuals and organizations’ rights and interests, and citizens’ rights to democracy and freedom. “No one can violate these rights,” Hau said. Tung’s case appears to involve the wrongdoing of single person, he said. “Sometimes, after lawyers raise an issue, the two sides [lawyers and investigators] start to argue with each other, and then they lose control,” said Hau. “If violations are detected, they should be handled properly and seriously. According to the Constitution, the body of a person is inviolable. Assaulting an ordinary person is already an infringement.” Defending their rights Other lawyers have suffered physical attacks in recent years. In November 2015, attorneys Tran Thu Nam and Le Van Luan were attacked by a group of eight people wearing face masks after they visited Do Thi Mai, whose son, Do Dang Dung, had been beaten to death at a temporary detention center. Prior to that, Mai said that Hanoi police had forced her to refuse access to lawyers. Nam and Luan then met with her to learn more about the case. In November 2021, attorney Ngo Anh Tuan from the Hanoi Bar Association reported that local police chased him away when he visited a client in Thanh Khuong commune, Bac Ninh province. “I will fulfill the responsibilities and protect the dignity of a lawyer until the last day I have my lawyer’s card,” he wrote on Facebook at the time. “I will have zero tolerance and will fight against all the violations of mine and my colleagues’ lawful rights.” Attorney Nguyen Duy Binh was representing colleague Tran Vu Hai, who as a lawyer defended political dissidents until he was accused of tax evasion, when Binh was forcefully escorted out of the courtroom by police for asking a defendant if the court had denied her request to petition five other lawyers to represent her. Binh was detained for a short time, before being released. Speaking about the incident, Binh told RFA on May 18 that he had been treated violently at least three times by people working in the justice system and that police had confiscated his mobile phone and deleted all of his data. Binh said that more attorneys are being assaulted by police due because Vietnam’s judiciary system” that enables investigative agencies and police investigators to prevent lawyers from doing their job. “Investigators don’t want lawyers to get involved in the cases they are working on because lawyers will make it harder for them to accuse suspected people and prove them guilty,” he said. “Perhaps, they think that lawyers will give advice to their clients in accordance with the law, making their clients more confident in answering questions and issues raised by investigative agencies,” said Binh. Lack of judicial independence In its annual worldwide human rights report last year, the U.S. State Department identified the lack of judicial independence as a key shortcoming in Vietnam. “The law provides for an independent judiciary, but the judiciary was effectively under the control of the [Communist Party of Vietnam], it said in the report, covering the year 2020. “There were credible reports political influence, endemic corruption, bribery, and inefficiency strongly distorted the judicial system,” it added, noting that “most, if not all, judges were members of the CPV.” Observers say attorneys who work as defense lawyers in political or sensitive cases are more likely to be assaulted. The number of cases in which police officers “raised their arms” or “lifted their legs” and “bumped” into people, including lawyers, with the intent to injure them have become common, attorney Dang Dinh Minh told RFA Wednesday. “Even lawyers who have good understanding of the law are sometimes victims of this problem,” he said. He suggested that authorities take a hard look at the problem and prosecute perpetrators. “Calling it by its true name would make it easier to address the issue in accordance with the law,” Minh said. “This is not only a sanction but also a deterrent to prevent the violation from being perpetuated. It would also help the relationship between citizens and law enforcement officers be healthy again.” Translated by Anna Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Top US official meets in India with Tibet’s Dalai Lama

Editor05 mins

The top U.S. official responsible for Tibetan issues met on Thursday morning with Tibet’s Dalai Lama at the exiled spiritual leader’s residence in Dharamsala, India. The meeting came on the second day of an official visit to the seat of Tibet’s government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration, and drew a quick rebuke from China’s Foreign Ministry. Uzra Zeya, the State Department’s special coordinator for Tibetan issues, spoke with the Dalai Lama for more than an hour in the meeting, which was also attended by exile government leader Penpa Tsering, who accompanied Zeya and her delegation, and by Namgyal Choedup, representative of the Dalai Lama at the Office of Tibet in Washington D.C. “I am President Biden’s special coordinator for Tibetan issues, and it is my greatest honor to be received by you,” Zeya said, addressing the Dalai Lama at their meeting. “I bring greetings from our president and the American people and best wishes for your good health and gratitude for your message of peace for the world.” The Dalai Lama in turn expressed his happiness at meeting the U.S. diplomat, who was named to her post in December 2021. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Sikyong Penpa Tsering — the democratically elected political leader of Tibet’s exile government — confirmed the meeting and said that Zeya and the Dalai Lama had discussed U.S. efforts “to preserve Tibet’s religion, language and culture to protect Tibet’s identity.” Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, and Tibetans frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national identity and culture. At a May 19 press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denounced Zeya’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, calling Tibet’s exile government an illegal organization and the Dalai Lama himself “a political exile disguised as a religious figure.” “The appointment of the so-called ‘US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues’ constitutes an interference in China’s internal affairs. China is firmly opposed to this and has never acknowledged it,” Zhao said. In the debate over how best to advance the rights of the 6.3 million Tibetans living in China, some Tibetans call for a restoration of the independence lost when Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950. The CTA and the Dalai Lama, however, have adopted a policy approach called the Middle Way, which accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedom, including strengthened language rights, for Tibetans living under Beijing’s rule. Nine rounds of talks were previously held between envoys of the Dalai Lama and high-level Chinese officials beginning in 2002, but stalled in 2010 and were never resumed. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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US government’s special coordinator for Tibetan issues to meet with Dalai Lama

Editor07 mins

A top U.S. official on Tibet will meet with the Dalai Lama on Thursday morning during a two-day official visit to Dharamsala, India, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Uzra Zeya, who was appointed as the State Department’s special coordinator for Tibetan issues in December 2021, will make the stop during trips to India and Nepal on May 17–22 to “deepen cooperation on human rights and democratic governance goals, and to advance humanitarian priorities,” the department said Monday. Zeya, who is also the undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, arrived with her delegation at the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on Wednesday and will meet the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader at his residence the following day. The visit comes at a time when the Chinese government is stepping up repressive measures on some minority groups in the country, including Tibetans and Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The U.S. State Department’s 2022 human rights report, which covers 2021, cited significant human rights issues in Tibet perpetrated by authorities, including: arbitrary arrests; extrajudicial killings; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; and severe restrictions on religious freedom. Zeya is working to promote a substantive dialogue without preconditions between Beijing and the Dalai Lama and his representatives, or with democratically elected Tibetan leaders. She is also working to protect Tibetans’ linguistic, cultural and religious heritage. During the visit, Zeya plans to tour the Tibetan Children’s Villages school, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, the Tibet Museum, the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, and a number of monasteries. Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the elected leader of Tibet’s exile government, welcomed Zeya upon her arrival in what is the first high-level contact between the U.S. and the Tibetan leadership during the Biden administration. “The Biden administration’s immediate appointment of the special coordinator after taking office is itself is a huge honor, and during her visit here in the Dharamsala she will be briefed on different management and the overall Tibetan administration, where she will also meet with the Dalai Lama,” said CTA spokesman Tenzin Lekshey. “So, this visit will facilitate the U.S. government to understand and further strengthen support for Tibet.” Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile, said the special coordinator’s visit to Dharamsala “sends a strong political message to China” of the need to work toward a negotiated agreement on Tibet. Bhuchung Tsering, interim president of International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group that promotes democratic freedoms for Tibetans, told RFA that Zeya’s meeting with CTA leaders is significant in two respects. “First, China has been under scrutiny lately with regard to various concerns, and Tibet is one of the most crucial, so we believe that this meeting with our Tibetan leaders is crucial for the Tibetan issue globally,” he said. Second, while campaigning in September 2020, President Biden and his administration promised to take a strong stand against China’s human rights abuses in Tibet and to support Tibetans’ cultural and religious rights, he said. “The special coordinator’s visit to India signifies his promise and his administration’s initiative to draw support for Tibet,” Tsering said. During his first official visit to the U.S. after being elected CTA leader, Tsering met with Zeya in Washington in April and with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders. In January 2000, Julia Taft, the late former U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, became the first special coordinator for Tibetan issues to visit Dharamasala. Sarah Sewell, former undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, visited the city in 2014 and 2016 when she held the special coordinator position. At the time of Zeya’s appointment to the role in December 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that her designation demonstrated the Biden administration’s “commitment to advance the human rights of Tibetans, help preserve their distinct heritage, address their humanitarian needs, and meet environmental and water resource challenges of the Tibetan plateau.” Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Report tracks China’s assertiveness at sea over the decades

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China is the source of destabilization in the South China Sea and has been for the last couple decades, but Beijing’s assertiveness has less to do with its rivalry with the United States than is commonly assumed, a new report says. In the report “Dynamics of Assertiveness in the South China Sea” published by the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), an U.S. non-profit research institution, U.K.-based academic Andrew Chubb examines maritime disputes and the changes in state behavior of the most active claimants including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Philippines and Vietnam. The report is based on based on data that measures the year-on-year changes in assertive behavior by the three countries between 1970 and 2015. Chubb identified four types of assertiveness which states are demonstrating while pursuing their interests in the South China Sea, ranging from verbal claim assertions via statements and diplomatic notes to threats of punishment and the use of force. One of the findings is that increasing Chinese assertiveness has been continuous in the South China Sea, with the PRC making assertive moves in most years since 1970. Furthermore, the PRC’s coercive actions, or those that involve the threat or use of punishment, became much more frequent after 2007, the year that marked the beginning of a rapid expansion of Chinese patrols and massive land reclamation efforts. China’s assertive actions have most frequently targeted the Philippines and Vietnam, the study found, and were generally not driven by dynamics in Sino-U.S. relations – although Washington, which is not a claimant in the South China Sea, has in the past decade become increasingly vocal about China’s behavior. More recently, it has also stepped up freedom of navigation operations and military drills in those waters. Deterrence strategy The study also draws conclusions about the stance of the China’s rival claimants. On Vietnam, it finds that as early as the 1990s, virtually every assertive move by Hanoi in the South China Sea concerned its disputes with China. Meanwhile, Vietnam remained a target for around 80 percent of PRC assertive actions through the 2000s. But by 2010, after three years of sustained Chinese advancements, Vietnam could no longer keep up with the PRC and from mid-2011 on, new Vietnamese assertive activities were mostly verbal declarations, as Hanoi switched its focus toward diplomacy, according to the study. Manila’s behavior in the South China Sea, on the other hand, has been more sporadic and inconsistent than that of the other claimants, and more likely to be one-off incidents rather than ongoing actions. The confrontation between Chinese maritime militia and the USNS Impeccable in the South China Sea in 2009. (Center for Strategic and International Studies). Serious U.S. concerns only started in March 2009 when the U.S. surveillance ship USNS Impeccable, believed to have been conducting hydrographic surveys, was harassed by Chinese maritime militia while operating near Hainan island in the South China Sea.  The study finds that PRC’s assertive policy in the South China Sea has not been driven by its great-power competition with the U.S. China’s policy gathered steam about a decade before the sharp downturn in Sino-U.S. relations from 2017. The author says it is challenging for Washington to formulate a response to Bejing’s assertiveness while continuing to be seen as a stabilizing force in the region. “Given the protracted nature of the PRC build-up, it definitely means that the U.S. has a lot of challenges if it wants to use policy tools to try to deter the PRC from engaging assertive moves,” Chubb said. The author looked into “the idea of trying to counter the PRC’s strategy by deliberately raising the risk of escalation … that has been advocated by a number of influential policy thinkers over the years.” Chubb advised against it, saying that one of the greatest strengths of the U.S. in the region is being seen as a stabilizing force. “Looking at the situation over the past couple decades, it’s quite clear that the PRC is the source of destabilization and the U.S. presence has been by and large a stabilizing one.” “Deterrence strategy should focus on economic measures such as trade negotiations rather than actions that raise the risk of military escalation,” he said. ASEAN countries could also do more to send a “subtle but loud deterrence signal” that will force Beijing to make concessions or at least give it incentives for moderation. “Over the past couple decades, the intra-ASEAN disputes have been neutralized, ASEAN countries are no longer advancing claims against each other in an active manner,” Chubb said. But he noted that even “symbolic gestures would be taken very seriously by the PRC as a sign that countries in the region are forming a united front against China.”  

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Shanghai residents take issue with ‘fake’ propaganda claims about reopening

Editor08 mins

Residents of Shanghai have been reporting their city government to a national fraud hotline after claims of fully stocked, open supermarkets and eateries were posted by a ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper. Shanghai officials say the city has been free from any new COVID-19 infections for four days straight, as some shops have been allowed to open and public transport will likely resume at the weekend. Residents of housing compounds are now being allowed out on a limited basis, one person at a time, and with ongoing restrictions on their movements in the local area. Some 790,000 people remain under total lockdown, while 2.71 million are still subject to strict controls on their movements and 19.8 million are now in “prevention” areas requiring a green health code to travel or access goods and services outside the home. Citywide testing and contract-tracing will continue, hoping to close in fast on any new infections to contain outbreaks before they can spread, municipal health commission spokesman Zhao Dandan told journalists on Wednesday. Infected people and close contacts will continue to be sent to isolation facilities, Zhao said. Since the city government claimed it had achieved zero-COVID on Monday, officials have ramped up local visits and inspections, with municipal party secretary Li Qiang visiting Fengxian district and mayor Gong Zheng visiting Songjiang district on Tuesday, to encourage ongoing testing and tracing efforts. CCP newspaper the People’s Daily also published a graphic based on the Shanghai government’s plans to reopen food and beverage businesses from May 16, describing breakfast and dim sum bars, fast food joints, hair salons, supermarkets and farmers’ markets as opening up gradually. A delivery worker is seen delivering orders to residents next to a checkpoint on a closed street during a Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown in the Jing’an district in Shanghai, May 17, 2022. Credit: AFP Fraud hotline report Social media users hit out at the graphic, with some people posting screenshots showing they had reported the municipal authorities to a national fraud hotline. “Sort this account out,” one comment read, referencing the Shanghai government’s official Weibo account, while another wrote: “Sort out the Shanghai government, stop them talking rubbish with their eyes open.” “Please sort out @shanghaifabu,” another tip-off says, referencing the same account. The People’s Daily account later removed the graphic. A Xuhui district resident surnamed Zhou said senior officials appear to be ramping up public appearances as part of their “celebration” of zero-COVID. “The leaders will be putting on a show, including appearing under the Oriental Pearl tower,” Zhou said. “They have already begun rehearsals, and they seem to be getting ready to celebrate.” Zhou said the compound he lives in remains locked down, and he can’t go out even to buy daily necessities. “A lot of stores are still closed right now, so there’s no point in going out anyway,” Zhou told RFA. “Even if the stores are open, they have nothing in stock, nothing to buy.” “If you want to buy stuff, you still have to rely on group buying,” he said. Fresh fruit highly sought after Zhou said one of the most sought-after items is fresh fruit, with even apples currently selling for prices 50 percent higher than before lockdown. In a video clip posted to social media, a member of a neighborhood committee in Xuhui accused local residents of breaking disease control regulations by buying in fruit, and stop them from collecting their order. “All we want is to eat some fruit,” a woman says in the video. “It was banned until May 15, but we’re still not allowed to order it on May 16.” “Now there are several people dragging me away,” she says. “This is such bullshit. Don’t ordinary people have a right to live as well?” Current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping said many people are angry over what they say is fake news stories being peddled by the authorities. “Of course they’re going to be angry, if they’re living through hell in Shanghai right now,” Zhang said. “We should take seriously these accusations of fake news coming from the people of Shanghai.” “They should take a good look at their content. The police lied and released false information, so this post was bound to cause offense to people,” he said. Meanwhile, police detained a man surnamed Lu on Tuesday at the China Resources Vanguard supermarket in Global Harbor on suspicion of “conjuring up rumors from thin air,” the Shanghai government said. Lu had allegedly claimed that the supermarket was being forced to operate by the government under chaotic management and in filthy conditions. Lu was jailed on an administrative punishment by police in Shanghai’s Putuo district for “disturbing public order with made-up allegations,” it said. Administrative sentences of up to 15 days can be handed down by police to perceived troublemakers without trial. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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