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Category: South Asia

Cambodian political activists flee to safety after threat, court summons

Editor011 mins

A prominent Cambodian activist fled to safety after receiving a death threat allegedly for joining street protests, while a member of a political party challenging Prime Minister Hun Sun’s government is also on the run after a court ordered him to appear on what he says are false charges. Five years after strongman Hun Sen launched a crackdown against the political opposition and civil society, the country of nearly 17 million people that he has ruled since 1985 will hold local elections on June 5, followed by a parliamentary vote next year. Opposition politicians, including those from the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) that was banned during the 2017 crackdown, have faced harassment when trying to organize for the June elections. Sat Pha, a CNRP supporter, said she believes a handwritten threat that authorities from Hun Sen’s one-party government posted the note on the door of her home. The threat said, “You, contemptible, don’t be bold or you will be disappeared.” Sat Pha said she has been on the run since April 16, fearing that she will meet the same fate as other opposition activists in Cambodia. “[They] could put me in jail or make me disappeared or make me crippled for my whole life,” Sat Pha told RFA from an undisclosed location. “I see this dictatorial regime is good at beating people, killing people and throwing people in prison.” She herself was released from prison six months ago after serving a year in detention for inciting social unrest during a peaceful protest in front of Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh. Prior to her imprisonment and following her release, Sat Pha participated in protests staged by fellow activist Theary Seng, a Cambodian American lawyer who is on trial in Phnom Penh for treason and incitement, and with relatives of political prisoners. In a video clip apparently recorded in a jungle in neighboring Thailand and posted on Theary Seng’s Facebook page, Sat Pha said she left Cambodia under pressure from the government. “They posted a life threatening message at my house after I arrived home from the Khmer New Year holiday,” she says in the video. “I beg for national and international help to find justice for me.” Sat Pha also appealed to NGOs and the United Nations to help her remain safely in Thailand as a political refugee. Speaking to RFA on Monday, Theary Seng called the threat against Sat Pha “a cowardly move by this dictatorial regime,” aimed at tamping down her protests that have tried to draw attention to the crackdown. “She has received many threats in the past, but she has refused to give up her [street] protests. But this time I told her that her life is more important than joining protests with me. They have threatened her because she dares to join protests and do advocacy work with me.” Sok Isan, spokesman of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), told RFA that party authorities did not threaten Sat Pha and accused her and other activists of fabricating stories about political persecution to try to obtain asylum through the United Nations. “It is a made-up show to invent a political incident, so she can claim political rights,” he said. “It has happened in the past. In Phnom Penh, the authorities are everywhere, so they would see it if someone posted such a message.” Cambodian activist Sat Pha (C) takes a nap in a jungle in Thailand where she is hiding out after being threatened in Cambodia, April 18, 2017. Credit: Theary Seng/Facebook Fraud and forgery charges Siam Pluk, a former opposition Candlelight Party member and president of the unregistered Cambodia National Heart Party, also fled to safety after the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued an order for him to be apprehended for allegedly forging a document of party supporters, Theary Seng said. Seng Theary said that the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued an arrest warrant for Siam Phluk because he did not remain silent after the Ministry of the Interior refused to register his political party. Ly Sokha, an investigating judge of the court, on April 4 ordered authorities to bring in Siam Phluk for questioning before April 25 in connection with allegations of fraud and the use of forged documents to form his party in 2021. The offense carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. After the ministry refused to recognize the new political party, Siam Phluk joined the Candlelight Party, which at one time was part of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) that opposed Hun Sen’s government. Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP and banned 118 of its elected officials from politics two months later for the party’s alleged role in a plot to overthrow the government. The moves were part of a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs and the independent media that paved the way for his CPP to win all 125 seats in Parliament in the country’s July 2018 general election. Soeung Sen Karuna, spokesman for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), said political persecution has prompted opposition activists to flee to safety to Thailand, Malaysia and other countries, especially after the dissolution of the CNRP. “Peaceful protests are the rights and freedoms of the people guaranteed by the constitution, so the authorities must not restrict the rights of citizens,” he told RFA. Siam Phluk also provided support to striking workers of the NagaWorld Casino in Phnom Penh, who demonstrated near the casino to demand that it reinstate laid-off workers and recognize their union, Seng Theary said. “Siam Phluk joined me to deliver drinking water to NagaWorld strikers a few times,” she said. “He stood in protest in front of the court each time I had a court hearing, and the authorities took pictures of him.” RFA could not reach Siam Phluk for comment. In an interview with Radio France International his attorney, Sam Sokong, denied that his client had falsified fingerprints as alleged by the Ministry of the Interior….

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Former Vietnamese coast guard leadership charged with embezzlement

Editor03 mins

Authorities in Vietnam have arrested seven coast guard officers, including the former commander and the top Communist Party leader, for allegedly embezzling the military branch’s funds in the country’s latest high-profile corruption case, media reports said. In mid-April arrests announced on Monday included former coast guard commander of the, Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Son, and the former political commissar, Lt. Gen. Hoang Van Dong. Both men had previously been confined to their homes after being dismissed from the coast guard and all other party positions in October 2021 during a review of the coast guard’s Vietnamese Communist Party leadership The review found that between 2015 and 2020 the leadership “lacked responsibility, leadership, direction, examination and monitoring.” It reported serious violations in financial management, the procurement of technical equipment, and the prevention and control of smuggling. Also charged with embezzlement after being dismissed after the review were the former deputy commander and chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Pham Kim Hau; the former deputy commander, Maj. Gen. Bui Trung Dung; the former deputy political commissar, Maj. Gen. Doan Bao Quyet; and the former deputy commander, Full Col. Nguyen Van Hung; and the deputy head of the Finance Department, Sen. Col. Bui Van Hoe. The Vietnamese Coast Guard is a young force. It was established in 1998 but has grown rapidly. Amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, Vietnam has prioritized maritime security, and the Vietnamese navy and coastguard have received large investments from the government budget. However, observers say that big money and the lack of transparency has led to rampant corruption in the system. The sacking of the coast guard generals could serve as a warning signal for authorities to tighten control over government funds invested in law enforcement, analysts say. The Ministry of Defense’s Criminal Investigation Agency, meanwhile, has been conducting another investigation related to oil and gas management violations. The agency has prosecuted 14 people for taking bribes, including Maj. Gen. Le Xuan Thanh and Maj. Gen. Le Van Minh. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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White House: Biden to host US-ASEAN summit in Washington May 12-13

Editor08 mins

President Joe Biden will meet with Southeast Asian leaders in Washington for a special U.S.-ASEAN summit next month, the White House announced Saturday. The meeting in mid-May will take place amid tensions in the South China Sea, divisions among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations over its response to the crisis in post-coup Myanmar, and the lack of a collective condemnation by the bloc of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a stark contrast to the West’s condemnation of it. “President Biden will host the Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Washington, DC on May 12 and 13 for a U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. Cambodia, the 2022 holder of the ASEAN chairmanship, confirmed the new dates for the summit. “During this historic meeting, the Leaders of ASEAN and the United States will chart the future direction of ASEAN-U.S. relations and seek to further enhance strategic partnership for the mutual benefits of the peoples of ASEAN and the United States,” Phnom Penh said in a statement issued Sunday. The U.S.-ASEAN summit was originally scheduled for the end of March but was postponed because scheduling for the meeting ran into trouble when the facilitating country, Indonesia, could not get all ASEAN members to agree on a date. Next month’s meeting will be the second special summit between Washington and the Southeast Asian bloc since 2016 and the first in-person one since 2017, Cambodia said.   “The Special Summit will demonstrate the United States’ enduring commitment to ASEAN, recognizing its central role in delivering sustainable solutions to the region’s most pressing challenges, and commemorate 45 years of U.S.-ASEAN relations,” Psaki said. The summit is also set to happen a few days after a general election in the Philippines to determine who will succeed Rodrigo Duterte as president of the longtime U.S. defense ally at the frontline of territorial disputes with Beijing over the South China Sea. During his nearly six years in office, however, Duterte has fostered closer relations with China despite diplomatic protests lodged by Manila over intrusions by Chinese coast guard ships and other vessels in waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.     Balancing power The U.S. sees Southeast Asia as crucial to its efforts to push back against China’s rising power in the South China Sea and across the Indo-Pacific region. “It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner in Southeast Asia. Our shared aspirations for the region will continue to underpin our common commitment to advance an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, secure, connected, and resilient,” Psaki said. The Biden administration announced the new dates for the summit more than two weeks after the American president met with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House, where they discussed the South China Sea, among other issues. “From our point of view, freedom of navigation is important, international law is important, the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS] is also important, and peaceful resolution of disputes so you avoid some accidental conflicts,” Lee said during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on March 30, a day after his meeting with Biden. Myanmar crisis ASEAN, meanwhile, has been grappling with a 14-month-old crisis in bloc member Myanmar, where the Burmese junta’s forces have bombed and burned swathes of the country to quell resistance to the military’s overthrow of an elected government in February 2021. In late March, the junta blocked ASEAN envoy Prak Sokhonn from meeting with deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his three-day visit to Myanmar, despite its pledge to grant him access to all political stakeholders, Prak, the Cambodian foreign minister, told reporters upon returning to Phnom Penh. At the end of an emergency meeting of ASEAN leaders in April last year, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the junta chief who led the coup, agreed to allow an envoy from the Southeast Asian bloc access to all stakeholders in Myanmar as part of a Five-Point Consensus to end the political crisis in his country. Apart from the Myanmar crisis, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has tested ASEAN unity. In early March, the bloc as a whole issued a statement calling for a ceasefire but without naming Russia or using the word “invasion.” Meanwhile on March 2, most ASEAN member-states – except for Vietnam and Laos, which abstained – supported a much tougher U.N. General Assembly resolution against Moscow.

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Taiwanese rights activist home from China after five-year ‘subversion’ jail term

Editor010 mins

Taiwanese rights activist and NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh has arrived home on the democratic island following his release at the end of a five-year jail term for “subversion” in China. “After being improperly detained by China for more than 1,852 days, Lee Ming-cheh arrived at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport at around 10 a.m. today, April 15, 2022,” a coalition of rights groups that has campaigned for Lee’s release said in a statement. “Due to disease prevention regulations, neither the [coalition] nor family members were able to meet him at the airport,” it said, adding that a news conference would likely be held when Lee has completed his quarantine period. Lee was shown in local live TV footage arriving off a Xiamen Air flight to Taipei and being escorted to a car by two people in full personal protective gear. “When I finally returned to Taiwan, I saw Ching-yu, who was looking tired and wan but very excited, through the window,” Lee said in a joint statement issued with his wife, Lee Ching-yu. “I am still very tired and the world seems quite unfamiliar, although my current isolation is completely different from the isolation I experienced in China,” he said. “Now I am embraced by love, not besieged by terror.” The statement continued: “Our family’s suffering is over, but there are still countless people whose human rights are being violated in China. May they one day have their day of liberation, too.” “We know that freedom comes from oneself, just as the people of Taiwan traded blood and tears under martial law for freedom, democracy and human rights,” the letter said. “May the Chinese people know and learn from this.” Taiwan’s government said Lee’s incarceration was “unacceptable.” “Lee Ming-cheh … was tried by a Chinese court for ‘subversion of state power’ and imprisoned for five years, which is unacceptable to the people of Taiwan,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng told reporters on Friday. He called on the Chinese government to protect the rights of Taiwanese nationals in China. ‘Vilifying China’ Lee is a course director at Taiwan’s Wenshan Community College, and had volunteered with various NGOs for many years, the Free Lee Ming-cheh Coalition said in a statement posted on the Covenants Watch rights group’s Facebook page. “The Free Lee Ming-cheh Coalition has always believed that Lee Ming-cheh is innocent,” it said. “He has only ever concerned himself with commenting on human rights in China, civil society and other similar issues online.” “The treatment he received after being imprisoned was hardly in line with international human rights standards,” the group said. “Apart from being forced to eat bad food, to live in unheated quarters, and wear discarded clothes … Lee’s right to communicate was also restricted,” it said. “We will continue to monitor Ming-cheh’s physical and mental health following his return to Taiwan,” it said. His release comes after he was held for most of his sentence at Chishan Prison in the central Chinese province of Hunan, where authorities repeatedly refused to allow his wife to visit him. Lee was also barred from speaking to his wife on the phone, or from writing letters home, Amnesty International’s Taiwan branch has said. Lee applied to visit her husband at the prison 16 times during the past two years, but was refused every time, although the family members of other prisoners had visiting rights at the time, it said. A lifelong activist with Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is vilified by Beijing for refusing to accept its claim on the island, Lee was sentenced by Hunan’s Yueyang Intermediate People’s Court to five years in jail for “attempting to subvert state power” in November 2017. He was accused of setting up social media chat groups to “vilify China.” Cross-strait tensions According to statistics from Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), Lee Ming-cheh is among 149 Taiwan nationals to have gone missing in China since Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016. While the Chinese authorities had assisted in providing some information on 82 missing Taiwanese, some information on the remaining 67 had been withheld or was insufficient to draw any conclusion. Eeling Chiu, secretary general of Amnesty International’s Taiwan branch, warned that what happened to Lee could happen to citizens of any country, citing the case of Swedish national and Hong Kong-based publisher Gui Minhai, who remains behind bars in China after being arrested in Thailand for alleged “crimes” committed in Hong Kong. Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony in the 50 years prior to the end of World War II, but was handed back to the 1911 Republic of China under the Kuomintang (KMT) government as part of Tokyo’s post-war reparation deal. The KMT made its capital there after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists that led to the founding of the People’s Republic of China. While the Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as an “inalienable” part of its territory, Taiwan has never been ruled by the current regime in Beijing, nor has it ever formed part of the People’s Republic of China. The Republic of China has remained a sovereign and independent state since 1911, now ruling just four islands: Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The island began a transition to democracy following the death of KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek’s son, President Chiang Ching-kuo, in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of a president, Lee Teng-hui, in 1996. Taiwan’s national security agency has repeatedly warned of growing attempts to flood Taiwan with propaganda and disinformation, and to infiltrate its polity using Beijing-backed media and political groups. Lawmakers say the country is doing all it can to guard against growing attempts at political infiltration and influence by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department in Taiwan. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Former Myanmar army officer calls Rohingya crackdown ‘genocide,’ offers to testify

Editor08 mins

Captain Nay Myo Thet served in Myanmar’s military for nearly six years in Rakhine state but defected in December and relocated to an area under the control of anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) forces. In 2016, a military crackdown forced some 90,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine state and cross into neighboring Bangladesh, while a larger one in 2017 in response to insurgent attacks, killed thousands of members of the ethnic minority and led to an exodus of around 700,000 across the border. The former transportation officer told RFA’s Myanmar Service in an interview that the military’s clearance operations amounted to “a genocide” and said he is willing testify as a prosecution witness in a case that was brought against the military to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. RFA: Can you first tell us about your background? Nay Myo Thet: I first attended the Pyin-Oo-Lwin Defense Services Academy in 2006. I finished training in 2008 and served with units in the Division 5 and Division 6 areas in Kayin and Kachin states, as well as northern Shan state. I was sent to Rakhine state in 2015 to serve with the No. 233 Infantry Battalion in Buthidaung and was stationed there until I joined the CDM in November 2021. RFA: Can you tell us more about the operations that drove the Rohingya people out of Rakhine State? Nay Myo Thet: I was a captain in the Supply and Transport Battalion in 2015, serving with the No. 1 Border Police Force Strategic Command. A clearance operation was launched for the first time in 2016 following a terror attack in Kyi-Gan-Byin and another one in 2017 after the [Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgent] raid on three Border Police posts in the same area. When we went there the second time, we noticed there was nothing much left behind. The locals had taken away almost everything. RFA: Did the troops really commit the atrocities against the Rohingya people as accused by international rights groups? What’s your take?  Nay Myo Thet: I can tell you only some things I’d learned about the units I served with. There was one officer who wanted to make a search for deadly weapons, like knives, and he asked the girls in the village to go into one room, lined them up and stripped them naked. And then, I heard from one soldier who was talking about his colleague who had raped a Rohingya woman. I cannot remember his name. Another incident I remember was about a young boy being thrown into a well. These incidents happened while I was serving with the No. 233 Infantry. And then, there were incidents that were spread by word of mouth about some soldiers committing brutal acts. Villagers were driven out of their houses and those who ran away were shot to death. Most of the bodies were buried in the fields beside the villages. As you may have seen in the photos, people left their villages in hordes – some carrying elderly people who could not walk in makeshift stretchers. Many who couldn’t cross the border were forced to live in the jungle and mountains. ‘This amounted to a genocide’ All these things should not have happened. Everything that happened was unacceptable. I tried to sound out my colleagues. Most of them had the idea that these people must be driven out – that they could not stay – because the [insurgents] who raided and attacked the police posts were of their same ethnicity. These villagers were giving support to the [insurgents] and they believed there would be no peace unless they were got rid of. These were their views. So, this wasn’t even like an ordinary military operation which would never be so brutal. They just wanted to get rid of the entire community without bothering to find out who [the insurgents that attacked the police posts] were. I agree with the international charges that all of this amounted to a genocide. RFA: What do you think of [deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) leader] Aung San Suu Kyi going to The Hague [in 2019] to defend the military against the charges made in the case brought by The Gambia? Nay Myo Thet: It seems like the military was waiting for a scapegoat, waiting for the NLD to come into power, to defend them because they could have done this [themselves] a long time ago and they didn’t … I think she went there with two goals – to defend the country’s integrity with a nationalist spirit as well as to defend the military. She seemed to feel responsible for the military. But I think it was wrong for her to do that. She shouldn’t have gone there. She wasn’t responsible at all for what happened and she didn’t commit the crimes. The military was responsible [for the crimes] … for creating the division between the [ethnic] Rakhines and the Rohingyas. Even for sowing hatred between the Rakhines and the [majority ethnic] Bamar. If I were to be summoned [to the ICJ], I’d surely go and disclose all I know. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane.

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Japan PM set to visit SE Asia in late April

Editor06 mins

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is planning a visit to Southeast Asia later this month to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region, according to news reports and a government official. Kyodo, a Japanese news agency, said Kishida’s trip would take place during the so-called Golden Week holidays and includes stops in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The report cited unnamed diplomatic sources. Golden Week 2022 runs from April 29 to May 5. It starts with Showa Day and ends on Children’s Day, with a five-day consecutive holiday between May 1–5. It also reported that Kishida may consider a visit to Europe during the holiday period. A previously proposed meeting between ministers of defense and foreign affairs from Japan and India in mid- to late-April may therefore have been postponed as usually foreign ministers accompany the prime minister on his foreign trips. RFA has approached the Japanese Foreign Ministry for confirmation. In Jakarta, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah on Thursday confirmed to BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news agency, that Kishida would visit Indonesia “at the end of April.” He said the exact date would be announced later. Kyodo reported that in Southeast Asia, the Japanese prime minister is expected to “underscore cooperation toward realizing the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific amid China’s rise.” Thailand and Indonesia are this year’s chairs of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) and the Group of 20 respectively. Vietnam meanwhile shares interest with Japan in safeguarding maritime security in the South China Sea where China holds expansive claims and has been militarizing reclaimed islands. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force personnel on the destroyers JS Suzutsuki (L) and JS Inazuma (R) after arriving as part of an Indo-Pacific tour at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, in a file photo. Credit: Reuters Free and open Indo-Pacific “China is the principal geopolitical threat, be it for India, Japan or Southeast Asian countries,” said Pratnashree Basu, associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank. “Pooling resources and strengthening capacities is therefore an ongoing process for almost all countries in the Indo-Pacific in order to be in positions of stronger pushback in the face of China’s aggression,” she said. Japan last year joined a growing list of countries that are challenging China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. Tokyo sent a diplomatic note to the United Nations rejecting China’s baseline claims and denouncing what it described as efforts to limit the freedom of navigation and overflight. Japan is not a South China Sea claimant, but Tokyo has deepened security ties with several Southeast Asia nations with claims or interests there. The Japanese Navy and Coastguard have conducted joint exercises with Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor at the Department of Politics and International Studies, International Christian University in Tokyo, said that Japan prioritizes maintaining stability and a rules-based approach to governing the South China Sea as its sea lanes are critical arteries for the Japanese economy. Tokyo has also been playing an important role in supporting the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. Leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, including Japan, the U.S., Australia and India are meeting in person later in May in Tokyo for a summit. The Quad is widely seen as countering China’s weight in the region. Kishida visited India and Cambodia in March, his first bilateral trips since taking office in October 2021. Cambodia is the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

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Emigration inquiries spike in China amid grueling COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions

Editor012 mins

As a citywide lockdown continued in Shanghai and around 100 cities imposed more limited COVID-19 curbs, immigration consultancies said they are receiving a record number of inquiries from people hoping to get out of China for good. Keyword searches relating to emigration spiked more than 100-fold in recent days, according to publicly available data from the Baidu search engine for the week from March 28 to April 3. Canada, the United States and Australia were the top three countries shown in such searches, with searches for immigration to Canada showing a 28-fold increase compared with the previous week. “The number of immigration consultations has skyrocketed in the past few days,” an employee who answered the phone at the Beijing-based immigration consultancy Qiaowai told RFA on Wednesday.  “We are very busy every day, and waiting times are relatively long, because we don’t have enough consultants.” “This is likely the case for every other company [in the sector],” the employee said. “There are more coming from Shanghai because the pandemic is pretty bad in Shanghai right now.” An employee who answered the phone at the Immigration 11 agency gave a similar response. “There are quite a lot of people inquiring,” the employee said. “I need to hurry up [with this call].” “Is it the pandemic? We’ve had a lot of people consulting us from Shanghai in Guangdong, and also a lot from Beijing,” the employee said. Senior journalist Chen Hongtao said the figures could be an indication that high-ranking officials in the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families are voting with their feet. “Anyone who has the option to leave may be thinking about how to get out,” Chen said. “Those who work for the regime don’t believe [propaganda], and they have access to a lot more information [than regular people].” “Most middle and working-class people don’t have the wherewithal to get hold of comprehensive information,” he said. “They’re the ones who believe what the little pinks [pro-CCP commentators] tell them.” A woman who identified herself by the pseudonym Zhang Li said she and her friends are in the process of trying to leave China. “I don’t think this is weird at all,” Zhang said. “It’s normal … because the pandemic disease control measures aren’t based on scientific decisions.” “I know a woman, a medical student, who is currently submitting her application to emigrate to the U.S.,” she said. “She plans to study [English] first, then become a nurse.” However, it looks likely that the majority of people will have trouble leaving, in the absence of political clout or existing immigration channels. An employee who answered the phone at the Shanghai police department’s exit and entry administration said the office, which issues passports and exit permits, is currently closed. “You can’t apply for passports, and entry-exit offices are all closed around here because of the pandemic,” the employee said. “There are some cases where on-site review of materials is happening for emergency circumstances, for example, to visit the critically ill overseas, or to go and study overseas,” they said. Meanwhile, residents of Shanghai said they are still struggling to source enough food and other daily necessities, with strict stay-at-home orders still in place across the city. “I went to the neighborhood committee to order food,” a resident surnamed Xu told RFA. “It’s been 20 days, and I still haven’t gotten the rice I ordered. I am out of oil and soy sauce for cooking at home, and I haven’t been able to buy more.” “I have to try to get food sent from online… we have been locked down here since March 8,” she said. A resident of Baoshan district surnamed Zheng said people who test positive are now being “sealed” inside their own apartments or buildings, as isolation and quarantine facilities are full. “If you test positive, the entire building will be sealed off with barbed wire, and nobody will be allowed in or out,” Zheng told RFA. “The disease control people set up a hut outside to guard it.” “Last week, they would take you away in a vehicle immediately if you tested positive,” he said. “That’s not the way they’re doing it now.” A resident of Xuhui district surnamed Liu said the supplies delivered to people’s homes during the lockdown were nowhere near enough to last the entire length of lockdown. “In the first stage, some people had no food,” she said. “In the second stage, Pudong was closed for four days, and then Puxi was closed for another four days, but I didn’t expect the city to be locked down forever.” “They government sent a batch of groceries, but … the food they have distributed was far from enough,” Liu said. A resident surnamed Zhao gave a similar account. “We have been locked down for more than a month, and we had food for four days,” he said. “There’s not enough for such a long time… all the stores are closed.” The Shanghai municipal health commission reported a total of 27,719 newly confirmed cases on Thursday, with rapidly constructed and converted field hospitals and quarantine facilities unable to meet demand for beds. “You can’t get into the Fangcang cabin hospitals, and a lot of people can’t even get an ambulance if they call 120,” Zheng said. “We have no idea how many people have died of COVID-19.” However, reports have also emerged of people being forcibly dragged from their homes to isolation facilities, even with a negative PCR test. One audio recording features a young couple who have tested negative arguing with enforcement personnel. “Our tests were negative,” one person says, while a police officer answers: “The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says you are positive.” “No way,” the person replies. “I have a negative test result. If I go to the cabin hospital I will wind up positive.” The ongoing lockdown comes after CCP leader Xi Jinping urged local governments on Wednesday to stick to his zero-COVID policy, with a slew of reports and commentaries in state media defending the…

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Bangladesh home minister: Rohingya have babies to get more food aid

Editor08 mins

The way food aid is distributed to Rohingya needs to be adjusted because it is driving population growth in the country’s sprawling refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, a senior Bangladesh government official said. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the home minister, suggested that because the food rations encourage Rohingya to have more babies, as he put it, the government intends to reduce food aid destined to the refugees. “The Rohingya, irrespective of age, get the same amount of food. One adult man and a newborn baby get the same amount of food. Therefore, they give birth to more babies – 35,000 babies are born every year,” he told the RFA-affliated BenarNews agency on Monday, a day after he led a meeting of a government committee that coordinates and manages law and order at the southeastern camps along the Myanmar border that house about 1 million Rohingya refugees from nearby Rakhine state. The committee discussed food allocation and other issues related to security, according to Khan. “The Rohingya have more babies for more food,” he said. “We have decided that the quantity of food will be reduced. Our relevant agencies will work out a fresh standard of ration.” The number of babies at the camps is about half of what Khan claimed, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Responding to a BenarNews request for details, the office released a spreadsheet that showed there were 18,858 children younger than 1 in the Rohingya camps as of Feb. 28. Md. Shamsud Douza, an additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner under the Ministry of Disaster Management, told BenarNews that food allocations for Rohingya refugees are fixed in coordination with the World Food Program (WFP), a U.N. agency. “Every Rohingya family gets a monthly food card with per-head allocations of 980 taka (U.S. $11.40) to 1,030 taka ($11.97). They collect rice and 19 other essentials from some designated shops fixed by the WFP, according to their requirements,” Douza told BenarNews on Tuesday. He said his office had not received any directive about changing the allocations. Officials at the WFP and UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency, did not immediately respond to BenarNews multiple requests for comment on Khan’s proposal. Criticism Human rights activists, meanwhile, criticized the government, saying that cutting food allocations would not reduce the birth rate among Rohingya and such efforts could cause malnutrition and food insecurity. Md. Jubair, the secretary of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, said the allocations already fall short. “We get a maximum 1,030 taka per person per month. With this small amount we buy 13 kilograms of rice, pulses, fish, salt, edible oil, vegetable and other essentials. It is very hard to run a family with this allocation,” he said. Another activist said such cuts would have a negative impact. “The amount of food aid given to each Rohingya family helps them live with minimum requirements. Further cutting it down is not acceptable because it would spell a disastrous impact on the health and food security of the entire Rohingya population, especially on the women and children,” Professor Mizanur Rahman, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, told BenarNews. “If the government reduces food rations, then women would not reduce food allocations for their male family members and cut it for themselves and the children. In that case, the women and children will face malnutrition and food scarcity,” he said. He added: “Everywhere in the world, poor people think of having more children for more food or more income and Rohingya must not be singled out in this regard.” Nur Khan, a former executive director of Ain-O-Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi human rights group, also challenged Khan’s comments. “This is really unfortunate that we hear such an unfair comment about the food intake of the Rohingya. Talking about someone’s food is not decent,” he told BenarNews. “There is no correlation between increased food allocation and a population boom: cutting food allocation would in no way reduce the birth rate. I would strongly oppose any move to cut food allocation for the Rohingya in the pretext of reducing birth rates,” he said. Birth control efforts According to Dr. Pintu Kanti Bhattacharya, deputy director at the department of family planning in Cox’s Bazar district, the higher birth rate among the Rohingya stems from superstition, religious bigotry and a lack of education. “The local and international NGOs and the government’s family planning department have been working to motivate the Rohingya to adopt birth control measures,” he told BenarNews. “The family planning workers visit door-to-door twice a week at camps and conduct counseling so they do understand the benefits of family planning,” Bhattacharya said, adding that agencies provide contraceptives including pills, injections and condoms. “Compared to the situation in 2017 and 2018, the Rohingya people are friendlier to family planning,” he said. Bangladesh has seen an influx of about 740,000 Rohingya since a Myanmar military crackdown against the stateless Muslim minority group in August 2017.

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‘Middle Way’ approach for Tibet not just about politics: Dalai Lama

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A Middle Way approach to the question of Tibet’s status under Beijing’s rule does not concern politics alone and will benefit both the Tibetan and the Chinese people, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said in a rare political statement in India this month. “The Middle Way approach is not just a political and administrative approach,” the Dalai Lama said, speaking on April 7 at a traditional Shoton, or Yogurt, Festival held in Dharamsala, India, seat of Tibet’s exile government, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). “Instead, it is a practical approach and mutually beneficial to both Tibetans and Chinese, in which Tibetans can preserve their culture and religion and uphold their identity. We cannot resort to violence and banish the Chinese from our lands,” the Dalai Lama said. Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago. And in the debate over how best to advance the rights of Tibetans living under Beijing’s rule, some Tibetans have called for a restoration of the country’s former independence. 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 freedoms, including strengthened language rights, guaranteed for ethnic minorities under the provisions of China’s own constitution. “Despite the Chinese government’s continuous oppression of Tibetans inside Tibet, Tibetans have endured it all,” the exiled spiritual leader said. “So Tibetans in exile must work hard. China’s brutal policies will not last long, and will someday change.” The Tibetan struggle for greater freedoms has been a struggle lasting over generations, the Dalai Lama said. “So older Tibetans must nurture the younger generations of Tibetans, to whom we can pass on our Tibetan language, culture, and religious and traditional beliefs.” Nine rounds of talks on greater autonomy in Tibetan areas of China were held between envoys of the Dalai Lama and high-level Chinese officials beginning in 2002, but stalled in 2010 and were never resumed. Formerly Tibet’s traditional ruler, the Dalai Lama has made few political statements in public since handing his political responsibilities over to an elected exile leader, or Sikyong, in 2011 and now considers himself only Tibet’s spiritual leader. ‘Something achievable’ The Dalai Lama continues to work hard for the good of his people, though, said Marco Respinti, director-in-charge at Bitter Winter, an online magazine monitoring religious freedom in China. “And the good of the Tibetan people should be something achievable, not just some utopia,” Respinti said. “While the Chinese Communist government is literally waging a cultural genocide against the Tibetans, and the Uyghurs and the Mongols, the Dalai Lama has taken on himself the moral responsibility both to stop the horror and to get something concrete done. “The Middle Way approach tries to keep these two things together, envisioning a future of interactions and exchanges,” Respinti said. China’s Communist Party remains determined to destroy Tibet’s national and cultural identity though, and seeks only “total surrender to its totalitarian power,” Respinti said. “The Middle Way approach is the last noble chance that Tibetans can offer to the CCP, but the CCP has no intention of taking it.” Translated with additional reporting by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Hong Kong resident held in southwest China for taking part in protests

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Authorities in the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi have detained a resident of Hong Kong for taking part in the city’s pro-democracy protests, RFA has learned. The woman, whose birth name is Tan Qiyuan, but who is widely known by her nickname Nicole, was detained by police in Guangxi’s Liuzhou city in April 2021 when she took a trip to her hometown after many years of living in Hong Kong. Nicole has been incommunicado since April 2, 2021, when she messaged a cousin saying she was flying back to Liuzhou that afternoon. Nicole’s friend, who wanted to be identified only his nickname A Feng, said she was on the way to celebrate her mother’s birthday. He messaged her on April 2, but never got a reply. “I thought she might reply later. I waited and waited but she didn’t reply,” he said. “I started to think something wasn’t right, and she still hasn’t replied to this day and … her phone is switched off.” “She told me she’d be back in Hong Kong by the end of April at the earliest, or maybe in May … she wasn’t going to stay very long in mainland China,” he said. “She knew, and everybody else knew, that it was dangerous.” Activists said little is known of Nicole’s fate, as her family are likely being targeted by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s “stability maintenance” teams, which place people under surveillance and prevent them from contacting the outside world in politically sensitive cases. A fellow activist surnamed Duan in the southern city of Shenzhen, who has some knowledge of Nicole’s fate, said the authorities in China have ways to track people arriving across the border. “If you enter the CCP’s jurisdiction with your mobile phone, even if you switch it off, they can track you if you are deemed sensitive,” Duan said. “The CCP also intimidates the relatives and friends of the parties involved, meaning that many of them daren’t speak out,” he said. Hong Kong rights activist Liao Jianhao believes Nicole was detained for her role in recent mass protest movements in Hong Kong. “The whole case is likely about prosecuting her for taking part in the Occupy Central movement of 2014 and the anti-extradition movement of 2019,” he told RFA. Prior to her detention, Nicole was an active citizen journalist, using Twitter to post real-time news about the protests, and resident of Hong Kong, although she was born in Guangxi. Liao said she is currently being held in the Liuzhou Detention Center on charges of “incitement to subvert state power.” “One of her [alleged] crimes was hosting mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong,” he said. “She was also part of the press team and was involved in helping those injured [in clashes with police].” Liao said the authorities may have targeted Nicole in the hope of obtaining the names of mainland Chinese residents who supported the 2019 protest movement in Hong Kong. She had earlier taken part in demonstrations in support of the 47 former opposition lawmakers and pro-democracy activists arrested for “subversion” under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing from July 1, 2020. “I took part in a demonstration in Causeway Bay on Sept. 27, 2019, and Nicole gave me first aid when I was hit by a tear gas grenade,” Liao said. “I am very grateful to her.” He said it was illegal under Chinese law to detain someone for a crime committed outside mainland Chinese jurisdiction. “The location was Hong Kong, which has nothing to do with [the authorities] in Liuzhou,” Liao said. “Liuzhou shouldn’t be able to bring a case against Nicole under Chinese law, but everyone knows what kind of country China is.” He said the CCP regards the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement as an attempt by foreign powers to instigate a “color revolution” in the city. “They think it’s a political activity created by hostile factions aimed at overthrowing CCP rule, which is actually pretty absurd,” Liao said. Former Hong Kong University of Science and Technology student Zhu Rui, who was also born in mainland China, said the CCP won’t stop pursuing mainlanders who took part in the Hong Kong protests. “We are facing an unscrupulous and evil regime,” Zhu told RFA. “We have to keep telling ourselves to keep trying to damage the CCP regime for as long as we’re free, because once they catch us, we’ll just be prisoners or hostages.” “Nicole was merely expressing her demands for freedom, democracy and the rule of law peacefully like any other Hongkonger,” Zhu said. “These were freedoms we should have had, but which were taken from us by the CCP.” He said CCP leader Xi Jinping is imposing oppressive controls on Hong Kong along the lines of the oppression of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang. “They’re putting everyone they lay eyes on in jail,” Zhu said. Lydia Wong, a researcher at the Georgetown University Asian Law Center who specializes in Hong Kong, said the Chinese authorities are increasingly keen to pursue dissidents far beyond mainland China, citing the fact that Beijing made Hong Kong National Security Law applicable to anyone of any nationality, anywhere in the world. “You can commit these actions anywhere in the universe, but you can still be arrested wherever police in Hong Kong or mainland China are able to arrest people,” Wong told RFA. “It is entirely plausible that they will use their domestic judicial system to target certain people they think are participating in the anti-China movement in Hong Kong,” she said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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