• ijrepjournalism@gmail.com
  • contact@ij-reportika.com
Ij reportika Logo

Category: World

China steps up threats on eve of expected unofficial Taiwan visit by Nancy Pelosi

Editor012 mins

Any visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is currently leading a congressional delegation on an Asian tour, to Taiwan would lead to “very serious developments and consequences,” China warned Monday, the eve of an expected visit to the democratic island. While Taiwan wasn’t on Pelosi’s official four-country itinerary, RFA sources and sources cited by local media and CNN said she would make an unofficial trip late on Tuesday to the island, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China. But even an unofficial stopover would be regarded by Beijing as “a gross interference in China’s internal affairs,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters. “We would like to tell the United States once again that China is standing by, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will never sit idly by, and China will take resolute responses and strong countermeasures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Zhao said. “If she dares to go, wait and see what happens,” he told a regular news briefing in Beijing. The Trump administration announced in January 2021 that the U.S. was lifting curbs that had been in place since Washington cut ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979, saying Washington would no longer “appease” Beijing. President Joe Biden has previously said China is ‘flirting with danger’ with its ongoing threat to annex Taiwan, saying the U.S. is committed to defending the island in the event of a Chinese invasion, a statement U.S. officials later framed as an interpretation of the existing terms of the Taiwan Relations Act requiring Washington to ensure the island has the means to defend itself. But Biden struck a more conciliatory note in a phone call last Friday with CCP leader Xi Jinping, saying U.S. policy hadn’t changed, and that Washington doesn’t support full international recognition for Taiwan’s sovereignty. Xi warned Biden that “those who play with fire get burnt.” Taiwan’s presidential office and foreign ministry have both declined to comment on any visit by Pelosi, although premier Su Chen-chang has said the island’s government, which still uses the name of the 1911 Republic of China, will welcome any foreign VIP guests. “We extend a warm welcome to foreign VIPs who come to visit our country; we will make the best possible arrangements for their visit, and also respect their plans when arranging the schedule,” Su told reporters. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (R) shakes hands with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the Istana Presidential Palace in Singapore during a visit to the Asia-Pacific region, Aug. 1, 2022. Credit: Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information / AFP More saber-rattling Drew Thompson, a former U.S. defense official and senior visiting fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said via his Twitter account that he expects Pelosi to make an unofficial stop in Taiwan after her visit to Malaysia. While Beijing privately considers this an acceptable outcome, Thompson said the PLA could launch high-profile reconnaissance flights around Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), a form of saber-rattling that has become commonplace in recent years. Former Taiwanese civil aviation director Chang Kuo-cheng said Pelosi’s aircraft won’t be allowed to enter Taiwan’s airspace, so much take a roundabout route via airspace controlled by the Philippines, the U.S. and Japan. “She will not pass through our airspace,” Chang said. “If she tries, China may take action; something they have long prepared.” Tao Yi-fen, an associate professor of politics at National Taiwan University, said Pelosi’s visit could still prompt Xi to take action, regardless of the route Pelosi takes if she visits. “The CCP is about to hold the 20th party congress, so if Xi Jinping does nothing after issuing all of those warnings, it could have a negative impact on his bid for a further term in office at the party congress,” Tao said. Taiwan resident Hsiao Wu said the war of words is largely being manufactured by Beijing, created by the CCP’s insistence on annexing Taiwan, by force if necessary. “Every now and then, I will get Chinese friends asking me if [Taiwan] really wants a war,” Wu said. “But no, we don’t. Our side is peaceful.” “If the PLA really scrambles to fly alongside [Pelosi’s] flight or target-locks their missiles, then that would be an overreaction,” he said. “[Nonetheless], if a person of her rank comes to Taiwan, regardless of what they want to talk about, it will show support and a good attitude to Taiwan, and boost its [international] image,” Wu said. External distractions Meanwhile, a Chinese student in Canada said the CCP needs an external distraction from an imploding real estate market and weak economic performance in the wake of Xi’s zero-COVID policy. “Social conflicts are more acute in China now … it needs to engage in some provocations … and strengthen domestic controls so as to shore up social stability,” the student said. “The more conflicts at home intensify, the more they will project them outwards.” Current affairs commentator Fang Wenxiang agreed. “I think that [China’s] ‘wolf-warrior’ diplomacy has affected all areas of government now,” Fang said. “Ministry of defense spokesmen used to be very cautious, but now they’re coming out with unreasonable statements, from which it will be hard to back down.” Wu Qiang, independent researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, said the official response seems to be changing from day to day since the row over Pelosi’s trip blew up. “[The official line] is changing from day to day, and it colored by opportunism and ambiguity,” Wu said. “It seems they have reached their rhetorical limit for the time being, because they don’t want to cause political shocks or turmoil in China ahead of the 20th party congress.” “Nor do they want an expansion of popular nationalism off the back of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan … the CCP is being cautious about nationalistic sentiment ahead of the 20th party…

Read More

Myanmar stages countrywide demonstrations against military junta

Editor06 mins

Burmese citizens, angered by the execution of four democracy activists last week and worn down by 18 months of military rule, staged rallies across Myanmar, from major cities to regions that have seen the heaviest clashes between troops and People’s Defense Forces (PDFs). The Sunday rallies were held in the major cities of Yangon and Mandalay along with the regions of Sagaing and Thanintharyi. Protesters made vows to fight for democracy, banged pots and sounded car horns as well as promoting their cause on social media. Residents said since the public pledge of allegiance ceremonies had been announced in advance, security was tighter than usual in the big cities. They also spotted security guards and plainclothes officers.  People were searched and there were some arrests. About 30 Mandalay residents who posted comments on Facebook urging people to participate were arrested by military council forces, according to a member of Mandalay’s Sanga (Buddhist monk) Union. “There were people who were arrested after writing posts urging people to take part in activities a day in advance. They were arrested due to military informants like Han Nyein Oo,” he said. “They prepared ambushes in the night and stuck posters on electricity poles urging people not to participate,” the monk told RFA. He said the protests were still a success because many people still took part. Telegram channels supporting the military council have been campaigning for the arrest and prosecution of those involved in the campaign. A woman holds a poster saying “Only the righteous one wins”. CREDIT: Citizen journalist Fighting until the junta is defeated RFA has not been able to independently confirm the exact number of people arrested for participating in, or inciting people to make, the pledge of allegiance. Nang Linn, a member of the University Students’ Force, told RFA the public pledge was made as a commitment to participate in the anti-dictatorship revolution until the end by people who have suffered since the military took power on Feb.1, 2021. “The main thing is that we will transform the stubbornness, anger, and bitterness that we are experiencing during this anti-regime revolution into a revolutionary spirit and then we will all march together and fight until we reach the revolution’s goal. Therefore, the public pledge was made by the power of the people,” he said. Nann Linn said the democracy movement shows the power and defiant attitude of people across Myanmar, while respecting the martyred leaders of the movement. A woman in Pazondaung township spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. She said she recited the pledge of allegiance and banged pots at home because security on the streets was too tight. “I saw on Facebook that people planned to recite the vow and bang pots and pans, and cars would sound their horns. I banged a bowl, “she said. “Not every house in my ward banged pots. Some banged iron buckets and others crashed Jam Jam Jam [cymbals]. Cars honked their horns but people didn’t didn’t protest for long,” the woman told RFA. People in the war-torn areas of Monywa, Yinmabin and Kani township in Sagaing Region and parts of Thanintharyi region also made the pledge of allegiance, holding banners saying “Only the Righteous one wins”. Protesters across the country said they will continue marching until the goals of the anti-dictatorship revolution have been reached.

Read More
Drew Pavlou

China intimidated by new age political activist Drew Pavlou

Editor05 mins

China is a mighty country with robust economy and the largest population. It is the second largest economy of the world after the USA. Some experts term China as the next super power. But recently, China got intimidated by a new age Australian political activist and former university senator from the University of Queensland Drew Pavlou. Pavlou is also known for organizing protests in support of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests and against Chinese government policies on Uyghurs and Tibetans.

Read More

Vietnamese religious leader appeals five-year sentence

Editor04 mins

The man at the center of allegations of incest, fraud and abusing freedoms has appealed against his five-year prison sentence. Le Tung Van from the Peng Lei House Buddhist Church, now known as Thien Am on the Edge of the Universe, was sentenced on July 21 on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms”. Police have since suspended investigations into claims the church was an incest cult whose leaders personally profited from charitable donations. Le’s lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, brought the accused to the Duc Hoa district people’s court to file an appeal, accompanied by a team of defense lawyers. Le raised five points to assert his innocence. He said he did not offend the Vietnamese Buddhist Church in Long An province, or the Duc Hoa district police. He said, on the contrary, he and members of his group suffered years of humiliation and slander. Le repeated a call made at his trial for his accusers to stand up to him and make their claims in court. The church leader accused five organizations of persecuting his religion: The Duc Hoa district Police Agency, the Long An provincial Police Department, the Duc Hoa district People’s Procuracy, the Long An province’s People’s Procuracy and the People’s Court. He called on the appeals court to drop the charges against him and his colleagues and free them immediately and unconditionally. Le’s lawyer Dang Dinh Manh told RFA that he and four associates believed the Duc Hoa district court had unfairly tried six members of Peng Lei because of at least 22 procedural violations. “With Le Tung Van’s appeal we hope the appeals court will reach a verdict in accordance with the law, declaring there was no crime under Article 331 of the Criminal Code,” he said. “If we have a guarantee that the procedural regulations will be strictly implemented, it will have a very positive impact on the policy of building a state based on the rule of law, restore people’s trust in the law and enhance the prestige of the prosecuting agencies.” So far only Le has filed an appeal but lawyer Dao Kim Lan said he believed the six others charged to be innocent. “Personally, as a lawyer directly involved in the case and having access to all the files, I determine that my clients have not committed a crime according to the charges and documents and evidence shown in the case file,” he said.  

Read More

‘Hungry river’ phenomenon to blame for severe erosion of Mekong River banks in Laos

Editor012 mins

Upstream dams and sand mining have caused significant erosion along the Mekong River in western Laos, according to experts, devastating riparian communities in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation with high waters and powerful currents. But residents of those communities say they believe that other issues are to blame. Brian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia Program and the Energy, Water, and Sustainability Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., said upstream activities had created a “hungry river” phenomenon responsible for the severe erosion. “There is a natural phenomenon called a ‘hungry river’ where a river which has been robbed of its sediments looks for new sediment to fill its course,” he said. “Sediment is taken out of a river system by upstream dams and sand mining, so when the river goes ‘hungry’ it pulls new sediment into it from river banks through erosion processes.” “Upstream dams in China have removed more than half of the sediment from the Mekong mainstream and now that Laos has built about 100 dams, the effects are being felt even more severely,” he said. If dams must be built, their designs should include sediment flushing mechanisms to allow sediment to pass through the structure, Eyler said. If they don’t include the flushing systems, the situation will “get worse and worse because the river will get hungrier and hungrier as time passes,” he added. Direct impact The dams are part of Laos’ ambitious plan to become the “battery of Southeast Asia” and boost the landlocked nation’s economy by selling the generated electricity to neighboring countries like Thailand. But the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers, and financial and power demand arrangements. Ian Baird, director of the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there are many factors responsible for the Mekong River erosion, including sand dredging and deforestation, though he agreed that the main cause is the “hungry water” phenomenon. “This phenomenon takes place because all the dams on the Mekong River collect all the sediment, [and] the water released from the dams has less sediment,” he said. “When the water gets hungrier, it causes erosion along the Mekong River bank in the region below the dams.” The erosion has a direct impact on riparian communities, causing the collapse of roads, and the washing away of land, forcing Laotians who live near the riverbank to relocate, Baird said. “The villagers who used to grow vegetables like tomatoes and chili peppers in the dry season on the riverbank can’t do that anymore,” he said. “If they still want to grow vegetables, they’ll have to grow them on higher ground, to which they’ll have to pump the water up. They’ll have to pay for electricity [to do that].” Growing vegetables on higher ground also means that the crops will not benefit from river sediment that acts as a natural fertilizer, so farmers will have to buy fertilizer as well, Baird said. Land subsidence from erosion has cracked this road near the bank of the Mekong River in Paksan, Bolikhamxay province, central Laos, July 16, 2022. Credit: RFA Many erosion ‘hotspots’ Lao officials point to other possible explanations for the erosion that wipes out houses and land in riparian communities. In Bokeo province in the northern part of the country, an entire village of 300 households was lost to the river over the past 24 years due to powerful waves caused by ship movement, an official from the province’s Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA. “The culprit is the large and heavy ships weighing up to 100 tons running through the river,” he said. “The ships are the worst enemies of the riverbank. Their strong waves destroy the riverbank. Some waves are more than one meter (3.3 feet) high.” At least 73 kilometers (45 miles) of the 179 kilometers (111 miles) of Mekong River bank in central Laos’ Borikhamxay province is severely eroded, said Vixay Phoumy, director of the province’s Public Works and Transport Department at the agency’s annual meeting on July 7. Only 21 kilometers (13 miles) of the stretch is protected by retaining walls. “We have many hotspots in Thaphabath and Borikhan districts where the erosion is worse,” an official from the province’s Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA.  “From our inspection, we know that the riverbank slides down the most in the rainy season,” he said. “Of course, some homes and farmland have been washed away too.” Farther downstream, strong currents in the Mekong have eroded about 90 kilometers, or nearly 50%, of riverbank, in Saravan province, an official of the province’s Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA. A stretch of eroded riverbank along the Mekong River in Pakkading district, Bolikhamxay province, central Laos, July 2022. Credit: RFA ‘Our common problem’ The severe erosion is not confined to the Laos side of the Mekong River and affects banks on the Thai side as well, said Omboon Thipsuna, secretary-general of the Mekong Community Organizations Network Association, 7 Provinces, Northeastern Region (NCPO) in Thailand.  “The main cause is the upstream dams releasing and holding water,” she told RFA. “It’s obvious that the sediment has disappeared.” “The water goes up and down,” she said. “They [riparian residents] see it tumbling down every day.” Thipsuna called for bilateral talks between Laos and Thailand to find a solution to the erosion issue. “It’s our common problem,” she said. The Sanakham Dam, a proposed hydropower project on the Mekong mainstream between Xayaburi and Vientiane provinces in Laos will make the erosion worse, she said, adding that water levels currently can go up to four meters (13 meters) high daily. The cash-strapped Lao government can only afford to build erosion-prevention barriers in a few locations, leaving the residents of many other areas to deal with the issue on their own. “The Mekong River bank erosion has been occurring for years, causing a lot of concerns to our riparian residents,” said a villager in the town of Paksan, capital of…

Read More

Jokowi ends NE Asia tour aimed at bolstering support for G20 summit’s success

Editor08 mins

Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the leader of G20 President Indonesia, undertook a carefully curated tour of Northeast Asia this week to ensure multilateral support for the group’s summit in November amid divisions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, analysts said. The Indonesian president visited China, Japan and South Korea – all countries with important trade and investment ties to Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Jokowi’s trip sent “a message of concrete cooperation and friendship amid a global situation steeped in rivalry and containment efforts,” Indonesian Foreign Minister told reporters in Seoul, the last leg of Jokowi’s five-day tour. “The leaders appreciated President Jokowi’s leadership in contributing to global peace,” she said. Indonesia has often strived to balance its relations between China and its rival superpower, the United States. But in his role as this year’s holder of the revolving G20 presidency, Jokowi has had to step up his diplomatic game by playing a mediatory role to blunt the wedge that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine created in the group, observers said. On one side, western countries in the Group of Twenty have condemned Russia for invading Ukraine. On the other, member-states including China, Indonesia and India, have refused to follow suit and still maintain ties with Moscow. Still, there is no doubt Jokowi wants the G20 summit, scheduled for November in Bali, to be a success, analysts said. “The trip was relevant to Indonesia’s chairmanship of the G20,” David Sumual, chief economist at Bank Central Asia, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service. “Indonesia wants to make sure the G20 summit is successful and attended by all members,” he said. According to Agus Haryanto, an analyst at Jenderal Soedirman University in Purwokerto, Indonesia is concerned about the prospect of no agreement at the Bali summit. “At the G20, Indonesia faces a major challenge on what the outcome of the G20 summit in November will be,” he said. “With good relations with the three countries [China, Japan and South Korea], Indonesia is looking for support to smoothen things out and reduce tensions.” Jokowi, whose term ends in 2024, wants to leave a legacy of being a peacemaker and reaffirm the country’s “independent and active” foreign policy, Agus said.  “During his first term, the president paid less attention to foreign affairs. Now in his second term, Jokowi has shown that domestic politics and foreign policy are equally important.” Tense meetings Under Indonesia’s presidency, G20 meetings have been fraught, as most have occurred after the invasion of Ukraine in late February. At the group’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali earlier in July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walked out – at least once – during what he called the “frenzied castigation” of Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Before that, top U.S. British, Canadian and Ukrainian financial diplomats walked out as a Russian official addressed a G20 meeting in Washington on April 20. “The trip will also undoubtedly strengthen support for Indonesia’s G20 presidency, especially in preparation for the summit” in Bali, Foreign Minister Retno said on Thursday about her boss’s visits to Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul. Indonesian President Joko Widodo (left) shakes hands with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the Presidential Office in Seoul, July 28, 2022. Credit: Yonhap via Reuters ‘Respect international law’ Jokowi’s trip to Northeast Asia also showcased Indonesia’s non-aligned foreign policy, which helped him secure U.S. $13 billion in investment pledges in total from China, Japan and South Korea. At a meeting between Jokowi and Japan’s top executives on Wednesday, 10 Japanese companies pledged a total of U.S. $5.2 billion in investments in the next few years, Indonesian officials said. These include a pledge by carmaker Toyota Motor Corp to invest $1.8 billion to build its electric vehicles in Indonesia over the next five years. In Seoul, South Korean companies expressed intentions to invest $6.72 billion, including in the electric vehicle battery, steel and gas sectors.  In addition, China said it wanted to increase crude palm-oil imports from Indonesia by 1 million tons, worth $1.5 billion. While investment pledges are welcome, Ninasapti Triaswati, an economist at the University of Indonesia, cautioned about economic and defense deals with China in light of Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. “China’s aggressive actions in the area are causing regional tensions. Likewise, regional tensions between China and Taiwan and Japan will have a negative impact on the ASEAN region and East Asia.” In a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Jokowi stressed the importance of peace in the South China Sea, said Retno, Indonesia’s top diplomat. The only way to maintain stability and peace is to respect international law, especially UNCLOS 1982,” she said, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

Read More

North Korea builds state-of-the-art wards for privileged COVID patients

Editor07 mins

North Korea has set up “Special Treatment Divisions” in hospitals in the capital Pyongyang, where the country’s elite can go for treatment if they show symptoms of COVID-19, angering average citizens who lack access to similar care, sources told RFA. For high-ranking officials of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, the divisions are up and running at the Pyongyang Medical University and Kim Man Yu hospitals, a resident of the city told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “A medical practitioner said that the number of the Party’s high-ranking officials who have been hospitalized due to confirmed COVID-19 at Pyongyang Medical University Hospital’s ‘Special Treatment Division’ is unknown, but there have been 10 or more officials who were quarantined with suspected COVID-19 symptoms,” the source said. “The Central Committee organized the Special Treatment Divisions as special medical facilities for high-ranking officials when the pandemic crisis began [in 2020]. There were few hospitalized patients, but after the military parade in April, the hospitalizations of Central Committee officials increased significantly,” he said. Though North Korea maintained that it was completely “virus free” for the first two years of the pandemic, Pyongyang finally acknowledged the presence of the virus within its borders in May 2022, saying that a large military parade at the end of April had spread the disease nationwide, and the government declared a maximum emergency. The country’s archaic medical system is ill-equipped for the global pandemic, but the wealthy and elite live in an almost first-world bubble and their money or status can grant them top-notch care in the event they need it. The facilities at the Special Treatment Divisions are state-of-the-art, the source in Pyongyang said. “They are equipped with imported COVID-19 diagnostics and vaccines,” they said. “If a fever patient is confirmed, he or she receives intensive treatment. The facility is equipped with various medicines and medical facilities such as IVs, oxygen cylinders, as well as oral vaccines. The patient receives three nutritious meals [a day] for a quick recovery.” While fever cases do not appear to be in decline in Pyongyang, the government continues to claim victory over the disease, another resident of the city told RFA. The government declared the capital as one of the areas of the country with no active cases as recently as Wednesday, according to 38 North, a website run by the Washington-based Stimson Center that monitors North Korean issues. “Fever patients who show symptoms of COVID-19 continue to appear from among the residents and officials here in Pyongyang, but the Central Committee keeps repeating propaganda that it has won the battle,” the second source said. “The residents are complaining that the authorities are only interested in special treatment for high-ranking officials … while ignoring treatment for ordinary residents,” he said.  The second source confirmed that the Special Treatment Divisions for the high ranking officials of the Central Committee are operated out of the two hospitals mentioned by the first source. Meanwhile, senior officials of the city government go to Special Treatment Divisions in Pyongyang Hospitals #1 and #2, the second source said. But the average citizen receives much more rudimentary treatment. “For ordinary residents [exhibiting symptoms], the doctor assigned to their household will [only] check their body temperature each day. Unless they have a high fever, they will be designated as suspected COVID-19 patients and quarantined at home for two weeks,” the second source said. “If they are suspected of having COVID-19 after a diagnosis, they must be isolated at a quarantine facility located on the outskirts of Pyongyang and the only treatment they get is two anti-fever pills each day,” he said.  Meanwhile at the Special Treatment Centers, a team of doctors will check in on patients several times a day and provide medicines for specific side effects, the second source said. Once they are discharged, food is delivered to their homes, he said.. “The residents who see this are accusing the authorities of discrimination. They say, ‘Only the officials are actually people, and we are not even considered human,’” he said. North Korea has so far only confirmed six cases of COVID-19 infection. Nearly 4.8 million people suffering from symptoms of the virus have been recorded as “fever” patients, 99.994% of whom have recovered, according to state media. Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Read More

Jailed Chinese dissident sends wife ‘suspect’ letter from Xinjiang prison cell

Editor08 mins

The wife of a Chinese dissident from the northwestern region of Xinjiang jailed for subversion after standing up for Uyghurs says she has received what could be a forcibly written letter from him, prompting fears of “extreme persecution” in prison. Zhang Haitao, an outspoken critic of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s treatment of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, is serving a 19-year jail term at Xinjiang’s Shaya Prison for “incitement to subvert state power” and spying charges. He was handed the sentence by the Intermediate People’s Court in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, on Jan. 15, 2016. Even before the pandemic, which has led the authorities lock down prisons and ban face-to-face meetings, Zhang had only been allowed three family visits during the first five years of his sentence. Since then, his wife Li Aijie, who fled China with her son after being harassed and threatened by local authorities, has only received a handful of letters from Zhang. The most recent letter came after a gap of one year and eight months, and didn’t appear to be genuine, Li told RFA. “The obvious difference this time is that he wrote in the letter that he was eating very well, and in very specific terms; he mentioned beef, lamb, chicken, milk and eggs, etc,” Li said. “I don’t think a lot of ordinary people in China eat that well [outside of prison],” she said. “It was a bit hard to believe.” “I think the prison authorities forced him to write those things,” Li said. The letter, dated June 27, 2022, is only the fifth Zhang has sent to his family since his sentence began. In it, Zhang also says he has good clothing, and tells his family not to try to visit. “The letter I received said there was no need to visit him,” she said, adding that Zhang has spent time in solitary confinement. “We have previously confirmed that he wasn’t even allowed outside for exercise,” Li said. “Why wouldn’t he want to see his family? At least his sister, and to find out how we’re doing in the U.S.” The letter signs off with something even more unexpected, Li said. “The weirdest things is that he writes: ‘Thanks to the party, to the government, and to the country’,” Li said. “That’s just not credible.” “The whole reason he went to jail in the first place was for scolding and criticizing the country and its government,” she said. “He is an innocent man, [wrongfully] convicted: how could he be thanking them?” “It was very painful and uncomfortable for me to read that line,” Li said. “The Zhang Haitao I know is a tough guy who doesn’t crack.” “In the absence of extreme persecution, it would be unthinkable for him to write this kind of self-violation,” she said. Chinese dissident Zhang Haitao, now jailed in Xinjiang, is shown in an undated photo. ‘They don’t want him to come out alive’ Zhang’s sister Zhang Qingzhen last visited her brother in April 2018, she told RFA on Thursday. No visits from family members have been allowed since, despite several requests made by Zhang Qingzhen. “I asked for a video call [after the pandemic], and they said there was no equipment for video calls between Xinjiang and Henan,” she said. “So I said, ‘OK, I’ll come to Xinjiang for the video call’, but they said no, and told me not to come,” Zhang Qingzhen said. “Then I called the prison bureau and they told me I couldn’t have a video call.” “It’s much harder now.” Zhang Qingzhen fears that the reason for the denial of family visits is that Zhang has been tortured, and the authorities don’t want the news to get out. She also fears they don’t plan on letting her brother out of prison alive. “He has been held in solitary confinement … Now he’s in a state where he can’t die, but he’s not living either,” she said. “They don’t want him to come out alive.” Repeated calls to Shaya Prison went unconnected on Thursday. At Zhang’s trial, the prosecution cited 69 posts to the Chinese social media platform WeChat and 205 Twitter posts and retweets, as evidence of “incitement to subvert state power.” Li, who gave birth to the couple’s son shortly after he was jailed, and was left with no income, was relying on relatives for financial support, she told RFA at the time. But ChinaAid, which helped to organize her escape from China, said she had faced abuse within her family as well as threats from officials. Zhang, 46, was initially detained on June 26, 2015 on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” but the charges against him were later changed to the more serious charges of subversion and spying. The court said it had handed down a longer jail term because Zhang had “colluded” with overseas organizations. Reported by Qiao Long for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Read More

China announces three exercises in S. China Sea as Taiwan issue raises tensions

Editor08 mins

In a regional show of strength China announced three almost-simultaneous military exercises in the South China Sea between July 27 and 31, just as reports emerged that the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi may embark on her Asia-Pacific tour on July 29. The Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) issued three navigation warnings GD70/22, GD71/22, GD73/22 advising ships against entering three designated areas in the South China Sea during time slots starting July 27 and finishing July 31. A navigation warning is a public advisory notice to mariners about changes to navigational aids and current marine activities or hazards including military exercises. Coordinates provided by the Guangdong MSA show three areas close to China’s mainland but one of them lies only some 240km from Pratas Island, claimed by both the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan but controlled by Taipei. Prior to these drills, the Chinese military held two exercises back to back from July 16-20 and July 20-22, also in the South China Sea. One of them covered an area of nearly 100,000 square kilometers (38,610 square miles). China often holds military exercises at short notice as a form of protest in response to U.S. naval activities and political developments that Beijing deems “hostile.” The unusually high frequency of drills this month shows China-U.S. tensions have been raised by Pelosi’s reported Taiwan visit and the presence of the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group in the South China Sea. Six warnings China has responded strongly against the rumored trip which, if confirmed, would be the first visit by a U.S. House Speaker to Taiwan since 1997. In his telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Washington against “playing with fire” over Taiwan. “Playing with fire will only get you burnt. I hope the U.S. is clear on this,” state news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying during the phone call. Before the Xi-Biden meeting, different Chinese government agencies had already issued at least six official warnings against the visit, with the Defense Ministry on Thursday threatening that “actions are the best answer.” Countries in the region are watching these latest developments closely, said Shahriman Lockman, Director of Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS). “The concern here is how China would seek to retaliate if Pelosi were to visit Taiwan,” Lockman said. “If that retaliation took place in the South China Sea, perhaps in the form of a deployment of combat aircraft to the Spratlys [a disputed island chain], it would underscore to other countries the growing risks of US-China rivalry,” he said. U.S. media reported that Nancy Pelosi, the third most senior figure in the American political system, would depart for an Asia-Pacific tour on Friday.  Both Bloomberg and NBC quoted anonymous sources as saying that the tour would take Pelosi to some U.S. allies in the region, including Japan and Singapore, but whether she would make a stop in Taiwan remained “unclear.” Some leading American China experts have called on the U.S. House Speaker to postpone any Taiwan visit. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at the Capitol in Washington on July 21, 2022. U.S. officials say they have little fear that China would attack Pelosi’s plane if she flies to Taiwan. CREDIT: AP Avoid confrontation Bonnie Glaser, Director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in the New York Times that the event would be seen by Beijing as “a serious provocation.” “Chinese leaders might be willing to risk an escalation such as challenging Ms. Pelosi’s plane or flying military aircraft directly over Taiwan for the first time,” they said. “Leaders on all sides must wake up and find off-ramps to avoid a dangerous confrontation that neither side wants,” the two analysts said, arguing that a crisis in the Taiwan Strait would put the island in a very difficult situation. Shahriman Lockman from Malaysia’s ISIS suggested that, should Pelosi decide to skip Taiwan, the Americans “could attempt to present this as a demonstration of restraint and maturity.” “I think there is a good middle ground here which is for Pelosi to telephone Tsai Ing-wen from Japan so she won’t need to visit Taiwan but at the same time, be able to show her support,” Lockman said. The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a Chinese province, but it is obligated by law to provide the island with defense capabilities. During his conversation with the Chinese leader on Thursday Biden made clear that Washington “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” according to a White House press release. The office of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday thanked Biden for his continuous support, the official Central News Agency reported. “The Presidential Palace expresses its gratitude … and looks forward to China’s shared responsibility” in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the report said. 

Read More

Academic under house arrest after writing about improving Vietnam’s Communist Party

Editor06 mins

The former director of the SENA (Southeast and North Asia) Institute of Technology Research and Development has been placed under house arrest and banned from leaving Vietnam amid a probe into allegations of ‘abusing democratic freedoms’ for submitting a series of recommendations on improving the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. On Wednesday the Ministry of Public Security said the Investigation Security Agency had decided to probe Nguyen Son Lo, 74, under Article 331 of the Criminal Code. The ministry did not explain why the investigation had been launched, saying the Investigation Security Agency was “focusing on investigating, collecting documents, and consolidating evidence on the criminal acts of the accused and related individuals … according to the provisions of law.” Lo’s close friend Nguyen Khac Mai, director of the Hanoi-based Minh Triet Cultural Research Center, said his colleague was a highly-decorated war hero who turned to study and offered his insights on the situation of the country and ways to improve people’s lives. “Recently he founded a think-tank on cultural research and development,” said Mai. “He told us ‘the issue of culture has become a huge issue these days for the nation’ so he wanted to contribute to this field.” He said his friend had written a number of books to advise the country’s leaders, offering recommendations on Vietnam’s economy and culture. “The Central Inspection Commission [of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam] came to SENA to work with him and confirmed they had not forbidden him from expressing his opinions or making recommendations. They just asked him not to spread them widely,” Mai said. Lo was advised not to send his books to provincial Party secretaries or National Assembly deputies. He was told to send them internally to bodies such as the Central Organizing Commission, the Central Inspection Commission, the Central Commission on Propaganda and Education, the Secretariat and the Politburo of the party’s Central Committee. According to Mai, Lo agreed to send his comments only to responsible officials but did not understand why he was being investigated. Last year, Bach Thong district police in Bac Kan province, published an article titled “Suggestions to build the Party or act against the Party.” The article referred to the SENA Institute and claimed it had written an open letter about the 13th National Congress of the Party expressing incorrect and distorted views on Party and State. Mai said his colleague was not acting against the party. “He only has a constructive mind. He wants to contribute, correct mistakes, improve, make this Party and government more civilized and cultured, more humane, more popular, and kinder.” “That’s his aspiration and I think 90 to 100 million people also want the same. No one wants to overthrow the regime, they just want it to be better.” “Less corruption, more humanity, less immoral behavior, no land grabbing but negotiation and proper compensation. That is his wish like mine and others,” said Mai. On July 4, the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations issued a decision to suspend the operations of the institute and take steps to abolish it, saying its establishment and operations violated regulations. According to Mai, SENA is a civil society organization, legally registered with the state and its members are former high-ranking cadres such as Nguyen Manh Can, former deputy head of the Central Organizing Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Read More

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