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Category: World

Explained: What is America’s ‘blacklist’- and does it really work against China?

Editor02 mins

GlobalFoundries, a New York-based company, is the world’s third largest maker of semiconductor chips. It landed in hot water this month when U.S. authorities fined it $500,000 for selling its products to SJ Semiconductor, a Chinese company that can be found on a growing list of firms deemed a national security threat. Known unofficially as “America’s blacklist,” this catalog of over a thousand companies is maintained by the Bureau of Industry and Security, a division of the Commerce Department. Officially called the they had blocked an attempt to smuggle a bottle of gallium out of the country. People in Washington and Beijing are waiting to see whether the list gets longer or shorter in the coming year. The newly elected president, Donald Trump, will take office in January, and he’s promised big changes. Still, Trump has spoken out forcefully against China. Says Phildius: “I think he will—for lack of a better word—keep the screws tightened.” We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Junta raids in Myanmar’s Sagaing force thousands from homes

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Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar’s military has launched an operation to clear pro-democracy insurgents from a contested central area, sending nearly 10,000 villagers fleeing for safety, an aid worker and residents said on Thursday. Junta forces have suffered significant setbacks in fighting over the past year but the army commander has vowed to recapture lost ground this dry season, when the military can take its heavy vehicles on dried roads into rebel zones. “They’re worried for their security, they can’t go home. We’re watching the situation and waiting,” an aid worker said of the situation in Kyunhla township, 175 kilometers (108 miles) northwest of the city of Mandalay. About 200 junta troops had raided more than 10 villages in the township in what the aid worker told Radio Free Asia was a violent campaign launched eight days ago. Residents said some homes were torched while soldiers had also occupied some homes. Kyunhla is in Sagaing, a heartland region populated largely by members of the majority Burman community that has been torn by violence since democracy activists set up militias to battle the military after the 2021 coup. RFA tried to reach Sagiang’s junta spokesperson, Nyan Wing Aung, but he did not respond by the time of publication. The aid worker, who declined to be identified for security reasons, said many of the villages had sought shelter in the woods near their fields. “If they have rice, oil and salt, they’ll be OK. At the moment, it’s very chilly, and for the people with fevers, they need blankets and medicine,” the aid worker said. RELATED STORIES Children make up nearly 40% of Myanmar’s 3.4 million displaced: UN Thousands flee fighting in Myanmar’s heartland Perhaps it would be better if Myanmar’s civil war became a ‘forgotten conflict’ The United Nations said on Wednesday more than 3.4 million people aredisplaced in Myanmar, an increase of 250,000 over the past few months, because of the conflict, severe flooding in July and September and economic collapse. “Compounding these challenges, high inflation, sharp currency depreciation, and ongoing trade disruptions due to conflict and border closures by neighboring countries have reduced access to essential goods, further straining communities,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Myanmar has received only $279 million, or a mere 28% of the overall funding requested for 2024, the office said. “Without immediate additional funding, the worsening crisis will push more people into extreme hardship, deepen vulnerabilities, and limit the potential for recovery for millions across Myanmar,” it said. Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Volkswagen sells Xinjiang plant linked to Uyghur force labor

Editor07 mins

German automaker Volkswagen said Wednesday that it has sold its operations in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing has been accused of widespread human rights abuses against Uyghurs. Activists and experts have accused VW of allowing the use of Uyghur slave labor at the its joint-venture plant with Chinese state-owned company SAIC Motor Corp. in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital. In a statement, the company cited “economic reasons” for its pullout from Xinjiang, home to about 12 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, where it also has a test track in Turpan. “While many SVW [SAIC-Volkswagen] sites are being, or have already been, converted to produce electric vehicles based on customer demand, alternative economic solutions will be examined in individual cases,” the statement said. “This also applies to the joint venture site in Urumqi,” it said. “Due to economic reasons, the site has now been sold by the joint venture as part of the realignment. The same applies to the test tracks in Turpan and Anting [in Shanghai].” The plant was sold to Shanghai Motor Vehicle Inspection Certification, or SMVIC, a subsidiary of state-owned Shanghai Lingang Economic Development Group for an undisclosed amount, Reuters reported. RELATED STORIES Leaked audit of VW’s Xinjiang plant contains flaws: expert US lawmakers query credibility of Volkswagen forced labor audit Volkswagen reviews Xinjiang operations as abuse pressure mounts Volkswagen under fire after audit finds no evidence of Uyghur forced labor Protesters disrupt Volkswagen shareholder meeting over alleged Uyghur forced labor The sale comes two months after an expert who obtained a leaked confidential copy of Volkswagen’s audit of its joint venture plant in Xinjiang said the document contained flaws that made it unreliable. Volkswagen declared in December 2023 that the audit of its Urumqi factory showed no signs of human rights violations. But after analyzing the leaked audit report, Adrian Zenz, senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, found that contrary to its claims, the audit failed to use international standards and was conducted by questionable examiners. Zenz, an expert on Xinjiang, concluded that the audit’s methodology was faulty and insufficient and that the report was “unsuited to meaningfully assess the presence or absence of forced labor at the factory.” Zenz called the news a “huge victory for the Uyghurs.” “This step was long overdue, he told RFA. “Sadly, it took public pressure and showcasing the full extent of the sham of the audit.” Strong international pressure Gheyyur Qurban, director of the Berlin office of the World Uyghur Congress who has led anti-Volkswagen activities, said Volkswagen’s withdrawal from Xinjiang was not due to economic reasons, but was linked to strong international pressure over the Uyghur issue. He said the World Uyghur Congress, a Uyghur advocacy group based in Germany, pressured the automaker to leave the region and forced it to defend itself before the international community. A Volkswagen I.D. concept car is displayed at the Beijing Auto Show in Beijing, China, April 24, 2018. In the statement, Volkswagen also said it was extending its joint venture agreement with SAIC until 2040 to introduce new vehicles to meet China’s growing market demand for electric cars. The original agreement was in place until 2030. The news came as the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting issued a statement expressing concern over the situation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Tibetans in Tibet persecuted by the Chinese government. The G7, or Group of Seven, comprises the major industrial nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and the European Union. “We remain concerned by the human rights situation in China, including in Xinjiang and Tibet,” said the statement, which urged China to abide by its international human rights commitments and legal obligations. But Rushan Abbas, chairperson of the executive committee at the World Uyghur Congress, said that the carefully worded statement was insufficient. “The genocide persists, conditions worsen and concrete actions remain lacking,” she said, referring to China’s violence targeting the Uyghurs, which the U.S. and some Western parliaments have recognized as genocide. “While de-risking supply chains is vital, it must be paired with bold measures to hold China accountable for state-sponsored forced labor,” Abbas said. “Awareness demands action. We urge G7 nations to move beyond rhetoric and lead in holding China accountable for its human rights abuses.” Edited by Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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EXPLAINED: Who are Myanmar’s Arakan Army?

Editor09 mins

The Arakan Army insurgent group in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state has made rapid advances against the junta over the past year and controls more territory and people than any other rebel force in Myanmar. Rakhine state, or Arakan as it used to be known, was a separate kingdom until it was conquered by Burmese kings in 1784. Now the Arakan Army, or AA, could be on the brink of a major step towards fulfilling what it calls the “Arakan Dream”, of once again securing self-determination for the state of more than 3 million people, some 60% of whom are ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and about 35% Muslim Rohingya. As the AA advances towards its goal of driving out junta forces, scrutiny has turned to how it sees Rakhine state’s future in Myanmar, how it would handle the state’s Muslim minority, amid accusations of serious rights abuses, which the AA denies, and how it would accommodate China’s economic ambitions. Lightning progress The AA was founded in 2009 by members of the ethnic Rakhine community, led by former student activist Twan Mrat Naing, seeking shelter with the Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, in northern Myanmar. The AA recruited some of its first fighters among Rakhine men working in jade mines in Kachin state. They gained experience fighting the military alongside the KIA and other insurgent forces in Shan state, before filtering back into Rakhine state from around 2014. The AA burst onto the scene in Rakhine state on Jan. 4, 2019, with Independence Day attacks on four police stations. Aung San Suu Kyi, who led a civilian government at the time, ordered the military to crush the “terrorist” force but the two sides later agreed to a ceasefire. The AA condemned the military’s February 2021 coup but did not immediately resort to arms. Over the next two years of on-again, off-again ceasefires, the AA built up its administrative capacity through its political wing, the United League of Arakan, including a COVID-19 vaccination drive. In November 2023, it launched a large-scale offensive in coordination with two Shan state insurgent forces, as part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance. The AA made lightning progress, initially in northern Rakhine state and a southern part of neighboring Chin state that it claims, seizing military outposts, bases and towns, as well as large amounts of arms and ammunition. Arakan Army soliders with captured arms and ammunition in a phto posted on the group’s website on Feb. 13, 2024. The AA claims to have more than 30,000 fighters though independent analysts suspect its strength is around 20,000. The AA controls about 80% of Rakhine state – 10 of its 17 townships and one in neighboring Chin state. In townships it does not control, it has pinned junta forces into pockets of territory, such as the state capital, Sittwe, the town of Ann, home of the military’s Western Command, and the Kyaukpyu economic zone on the coast where China has energy facilities. RELATED STORIES Arakan Army treatment of Rohingya minority poses challenge to Myanmar opposition Arakan Army’s gains enough to enable self-rule in Myanmar’s Rakhine state International criminal court seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief Confederation While all of Myanmar’s insurgent forces want to throw off military rule, they differ when it comes to ultimate aims. Most ethnic minority forces and pro-democracy militias drawn from the majority Burman community aspire to a democratic, federal union but the AA has called for a vaguely defined “confederate status” for Rakhine state. “We will see whether a Federal Union of Myanmar will have the political space for the kind of confederation that our Arakanese people aspire for,” AA leader Twan Mrat Naing told the Asia Times newspaper in a 2022 interview. The prospect of the AA governing Rakhine state is bound to raise fears for the Rohingya. The AA’s position on the persecuted Muslim minority community has shifted over the years, from seemingly moderate and inclusive to accusations of mass killings this year. The catalyst for the hardening of the AA line on the Rohingya was a campaign by the junta to recruit, at times forcibly, Rohingya men into militias to fight the AA. U.N. investigators said they documented attacks on Rohingya by both the AA and the junta. On Aug. 5, scores of Rohingya trying to flee from the town of Maungdaw to Bangladesh, across a border river, were killed by drones and artillery fire that survivors and rights groups said was unleashed by the AA. The AA denied responsibility. As well as capturing large volumes of weapons from the military, the AA has been helped by its insurgent allies in the northeast, analysts say. For revenue, it says it relies on taxes and donations from Rakhine workers overseas. It denies any link to the flow of methamphetamines from producers in Myanmar to a booming black market in Bangladesh. The role of China is likely to be crucial as it seeks to bring peace to Myanmar. China has extensive economic interests in its southern neighbor including a hub for its Belt and Road energy and infrastructure network in Rakhine state at Kyaukpyu, where China wants to build a deep sea port. Natural gas and oil pipelines begin at Kyaukpyu and run across Myanmar to southern China. The AA, like other insurgents in Myanmar, has not attacked Chinese interests, though it has surrounded Kyaukpyu. Some analysts say the AA, with its northeastern Myanmar connections, has links to China. However, there has been no public indication that China is pressing the AA to make peace with the junta, as it has done with groups in northern and northeastern Myanmar. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Taejun Kang. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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China seeks easing of Japan ties amid growing tension with US

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China on Friday added Japanese passport-holders to a newly expanded list of people eligible for unilateral visa-free entry on a trial basis, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian announced on Friday. China also notified Japan that it will remove a buoy near the Diaoyu Islands, which are also claimed by Japan as the Senkaku Islands, Kyodo news reported. Japan had objected to the installation of the buoy in the high seas over Japan’s southern continental shelf in the Pacific Ocean without explanation, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi calling the move “regrettable” in June. The buoy was installed in high seas north of Japan’s southernmost Okinotori Island by the Chinese survey vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 during a voyage through Japan’s waters, ostensibly “for the purpose of scientific research and serving public good.” An illustration of printed Chinese and Japanese flags July 21, 2022. Taiwanese national security expert Shih Chien-yu said China is also looking for other sources of income before the Trump administration comes to power in Washington, bringing with it a huge hike in tariffs. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will impose a 10% tariff on all products coming into the U.S. from China on his first day in office as penalties for deadly fentanyl and illegal immigrants, which he claimed were pouring across the borders. Competition with US Trump’s election victory sparked concern in China, where many expect the next president to take a tougher stand than his predecessor, particularly on trade and economic issues, with repercussions for an already struggling Chinese economy. “Faced with the way its international relations are going, China is learning to put aside the proud attitude of the past,” Shih said. “It’s clear that there will be competition with the United States, so Beijing will definitely look to compete by reaching out to Tokyo to try to ease ties.” “They’ll be wanting to do this especially over the next few months, before Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy becomes clear … because if they wait until after that, there’ll be very little room for further action,’ he said. Shih said any rapprochement with Tokyo could also have security implications for the region. “China, the United States and Japan have a very special military and security relationship, so China will be trying to differentiate its relationships with the United States and Japan,” he said. “China will try to make some adjustments regarding Japan’s stance, which is to protect Taiwan or assist in its defense, because Japan will play an important role in any military conflict in the Taiwan Strait,” Shih said. Asked about visa-free entry for Japanese nationals, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing wants to boost exchanges with Japan. “We hope that Japan will work with China to jointly enhance the level of facilitation of personnel exchanges between the two countries,” Mao told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Monday. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Joshua Lipes. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Laos detains staff at hostel linked to backpacker poisonings: media

Editor04 mins

Police in the Lao tourist town of Vang Vieng have detained staff at a backpackers’ hostel linked to the death of six tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, media reported on Tuesday. Two young Australian women, a British woman, two young Danish women and an American man have died, and about a dozen more people were reported to be sick, after consuming drinks suspected to have been laced with methanol on Nov. 12 in the town that has for years been a laid-back stop for young Western travelers. The Laopost news site reported that the 34-year-old manager and seven employees at the Nana Backpacker Hostel, where at least some of the victims are known to have stayed, had been arrested. Media reported earlier that the hostel had been temporarily closed. Laos has not officially confirmed the cause of the poisonings though a Thai hospital, where one of the victims died, said it was methanol, a clear, tasteless liquid that can be used to boost the alcohol content of drinks, often with fatal consequences. Mass methanol poisonings occur with grim frequency around the world. RELATED STORIES Mayor of Lao tourist town hit by poisoning promises justice for victims 6 tourists dead after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos Australian, American take death toll from tainted alcohol in Laos to 4 Details of how the tourists came to drink tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng are sketchy and it is not clear if they were all drinking at the same place. While authorities have ordered inspections of tourist venues and are carrying out an investigation of the incident, business owners in Vang Vieng told RFA Lao there had already been a drop in tourism in the town. “Yes, we’ve started to see some impact,” said one bar owner. “We’ve seen a decrease in the number of foreign customers,” she said, adding that foreign tourists are “much more careful” when they visit her establishment. District mayor Bounchan Malavong told media on the weekend that authorities had responded quickly to the deaths, investigating and taking measures including inspecting restaurants and entertainment venues to ensure that safety standards are upheld and to protect tourists. Edited by Taejun Kang. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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US bars 29 more Chinese companies over Uyghur slave labor

Editor03 mins

WASHINGTON – The United States has banned another 29 Chinese companies from exporting their goods to America due to their alleged use of Uyghur slave labor. It’s the largest single blacklisting since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act became law in 2021. The listing, by the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party into claims that U.S. venture capital firms are funding companies involved in Uyghur slave labor and thereby financing “genocide.” Pressure campaign In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the latest bulk blacklisting shows Washington’s resolve “to ensure that goods made from the forced labor of Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang do not enter the United States.” RELATED STORIES US lawmakers mark East Turkestan National Day with Uyghur community US blacklists 3 more Chinese textile firms over Uyghur slave labor EXPLAINED: What’s the controversy over ‘Uygur’ vs ‘Uyghur’? Rishat Abbas, the chairman of the Washington-based Uyghur Academy, told Radio Free Asia that the blacklisting represented “a critical move in the fight against forced labor in supply chains” in China. “By restricting goods from over 100 Chinese companies linked to the exploitation of Uyghurs in East Turkistan, this action sends a strong message to the Chinese Communist Party,” Abbas said, using the preferred Uyghur name for the Xinjiang region of China. Abbas added that the mounting international pressure was pushing Beijing toward a position where it may soon be forced “to reassess its policies of oppression toward the Uyghur population.” Edited by Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Mayor of Lao tourist town hit by poisoning promises justice for victims

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The mayor of the Lao tourist town of Vang Vieng has promised justice for the six foreign tourists who died after consuming drinks suspected of being laced with methanol on a night out in the riverside backpacker hub, the Laotian Times newspaper reported. District mayor Bounchan Malavong told media on the weekend that authorities had responded quickly to the deaths, investigating and taking measures including inspecting restaurants and entertainment venues to ensure that safety standards are upheld and to protect tourists. Two young Australian women, a British woman, two young Danish women and an American man have died, and about a dozen more people were reported to be sick, after going out for drinks on Nov. 12 in the town that has for years been a laid-back stop for young Western travelers. “Bounchan Malavong … addressed the media about the ongoing investigation and the measures being taken to bring justice to the deceased,” the newspaper reported. “The mayor acknowledged that the incident has negatively impacted the image of tourism in Vang Vieng and Laos but reassured the public that tourism in the area remains strong, with both domestic and international visitors continuing to come.” The Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its condolences on Friday and emphasized its commitment to investigating the incident and holding those responsible accountable. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased,” the ministry said. Laos has not officially confirmed the cause of the poisonings though a Thai hospital, where one of the victims died, said it was methanol. The Laotian Times said investigations were underway to determine the cause and the results, once confirmed, would be shared with foreign countries. RELATED STORIES 6 tourists dead after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos Foreign journalists at ASEAN find Lao restrictions frustrating Lao blogger who criticized failed response to flood freed from prison Details of how the tourists came to drink tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng are sketchy and it is not clear if they were all drinking at the same bar. However, a cheap hotel where at least some of the victims are known to have stayed, the Nana Backpackers Hostel, had been temporarily closed, the Laotian Times reported. The hostel’s Vietnamese manager has been detained for questioning, according to the AFP news agency, which didn’t name them. Several governments, including the Australian, British, New Zealand and U.S., have updated their travel advisories to warn of the dangers of tainted alcohol in Laos. “Please be alert to the potential risk of methanol poisoning, especially when consuming spirit-based alcoholic drinks,” the U.S. embassy said. “Purchase alcoholic beverages and drinks from licensed liquor stores, bars, and hotels. Avoid homemade alcoholic drinks. Check liquor bottles for signs of tampering or counterfeiting, such as labels with poor print quality or incorrect spelling.” Methanol is a clear, tasteless liquid that can be used to boost the alcohol content of drinks, often with fatal consequences. Mass methanol poisonings occur with grim frequency around the world. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said some 1,200 people have fallen ill from drinking methanol-laced drinks in the past year, with 394 deaths worldwide, many of them in Asia. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Cambodia, Laos sack foreign ministers in preparation for more combative geopolitics

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On Nov. 19, Sok Chenda Sophea, who was only brought in as Cambodia’s foreign minister last year, was given the in as secretary of state. Washington’s leading China hawk is expected to take a much tougher stance on Beijing’s partners in Asia, such as Cambodia, and on mainland Southeast Asia’s vast scam industry that is increasingly victimizing U.S. citizens. Unlike Sok Chenda Sophea, Prak is more of a ruling-party partisan who can push back against U.S. criticism. Presumably, Phnom Penh realizes it’ll soon have to wade into a new fight with Washington, making it even more important to be on the best terms with Beijing. Beijing won’t be displeased by Prak’s return. Attuned to Beijing China is believed to have grown weary with some of the princelings installed in Hu Manet’s cabinet during last year’s vast generational succession process. It has been lobbying for the return of Prak, an old-style politician who understands how Beijing prefers things to be done. In Vientiane, Saleumxay did a good job in recent years of pitching Laos to the rest of the world, including the West, and as the only fluent English speaker in the Politburo was key to securing some important development assistance packages from Japan, the U.S., and European states. Yet Laos’s dire economic situation, particularly its massive debts to China, isn’t improving, and only Beijing has the ability to assist meaningfully. A damning report by the IMF published last week noted that Laos’s economy “critically relies on the continued extension of debt relief from China.” Vientiane knows it must narrow its foreign relations again to focus squarely on China. Indeed, the communist party is eager to find a more senior role for pro-Beijing figures like Sommath Pholsena, currently a deputy president of the National Assembly and a childhood friend of Xi Jinping, China’s president. He’ll likely be the next National Assembly chair. Thongsavanh Phomvihane, the new foreign minister, started his career at Laos’s embassy in Beijing, has closer ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and is more of a party loyalist than Saleumxay. Like Prak, he’s an older, more traditional and safer pair of hands, someone who understands what Beijing wants and how to provide that. David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes the Watching Europe In Southeast Asia newsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Cambodian trafficking victim describes forced marriage, abuse in China

Editor011 mins

Sok Suosdey had always worked hard to help support her family in Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province, on the border with Thailand, but no matter what she did, they remained poor. In 2016, things became even more dire when her family was saddled with repayment of a loan to a local bank. So when a neighbor approached her that year with the opportunity to make a higher salary in China, Sok Suosdey – who asked to use a pseudonym for this report to protect her privacy – leapt at the chance. After making the necessary preparations, she departed to the bustling city of Shanghai, excited with the prospect of becoming financially independent in China and helping her family get free from debt back home. But around a month after her arrival, the woman who had promised her a job told her she would have to marry a deaf Chinese man and if she refused, she would be on the hook for the costs associated with her relocation to China – a sum far beyond her ability to pay. Sok Suosdey agreed, but said that after her marriage, she was reduced to “a slave” in her husband’s home. She was made to take a job to earn money for the family, but her mother-in-law also forced her to do household chores whenever she had a break, and subjected her to relentless physical and mental abuse, she said. “Every day, my mother-in-law chased me to work from 10 am-11 pm, sometimes until 2 am,” she told RFA Khmer. “I only slept three hours a night, and I worked very hard. When I was at home, I also worked as a seamstress, sometimes as a laborer, or putting springs into children’s water guns.” Sok Suosdey said that if she needed new clothes, she was made to buy them with her own money. Her mother-in-law also refused to let her communicate with Cambodian friends she made or with family members back home, as “she was afraid I would run away from home.” “My Chinese mother-in-law insulted me and made me hurtful and fed up,” she said. Things were no different after having a child with her husband. “The most painful thing was that after I gave birth to a son, my mother-in-law kept me away from him and didn’t let him know who I was,” she said. “She wouldn’t let me take care of him and would even call the police when I tried to take him to school.” Trafficking to China According to a report by the human rights group Adhoc, in the first nine months of 2024, at least 29 Cambodian women were trafficked to China. Of the trafficked women, 28 were forced to marry Chinese men. According to the same source, in 2023, 28 Cambodian women were rescued from human trafficking in China. The NGO said that some of the women who married Chinese men were beaten, abused and forced to work as slaves by their husbands and families. In addition to physically and mentally abusing the women, some families also forced them into sex work, leaving them traumatized, it said. RELATED STORIES Trafficked Cambodian teenage girl returns from China Cambodian teen rescued from family home in China after Facebook plea ‘He told me that if I ran away he would report me to the Chinese police’ Sok Suosdey told RFA that, because she could no longer endure the abuse, she saved enough money to buy a mobile phone and started to seek help via social media. She started a group on Facebook for Cambodians in China and spent time searching for people she knew lived close to her parents back home. It was through these sources that she was able to contact her mother and get authorities at the Cambodian Consulate to intervene on her behalf. On July 16, 2024 – seven years after being trafficked to China – Sok Suosdey finally returned home to her family in Cambodia. Now 35, things have not been easy for Sok Suosdey back home, according to Sun Maly, the head of Adhoc’s Women’s Unit. She is the sole breadwinner of a household with an elderly mother, a father who was blinded during Cambodia’s civil war, and a younger brother with a mental disorder. But despite the challenges, Sok Suosdey is thankful for her rescue and overjoyed to be reunited with her loved ones, she said. Assisting victims When victims of human trafficking return to Cambodia, they receive assistance from the Ministry of Social Affairs’ Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation agency, which provides them with mental health treatment and rehabilitation. However, the assistance is only temporary, and many victims face a long road to recovery. A Cambodian victim of trafficking (c) hugs her parents after she returns home from being rescued in China, in an undated photo. Once a victim is released from the Ministry of Social Affairs, humanitarian groups such as Adhoc step in to provide additional help. Adhoc’s Sun Maly said that her NGO now provides victims with sewing machines to help them achieve financial stability by starting their own business following their rescue. “My case manager has helped to find skilled trainers who can help women victims in tailoring,” she said. “Most villages have tailors, but as they age out, a victim with the ability to sew can replace them by setting up their own garment business.” Some victims told RFA that the Cambodian government needs to do more to pressure Chinese authorities to investigate claims of trafficking inside China. Chou Bun Eng, the permanent deputy chair of the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Trafficking Committee, told RFA that she has met with Chinese authorities in the past to highlight the need to investigate such claims. However, she said that her Chinese counterparts regularly deny that there are any cases of Cambodian women being trafficked and forced into marriage in China – only consensual marriages. Domestic violence they classify as a “family dispute,” she said. “I’m not saying that all cases involve trafficking –…

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