World Archives - Page 144 of 244 - Investigative Journalism Reportika

Leaked documents reveal Myanmar junta’s plans to strike in Chin state

Editor3 years ago03 mins

The Myanmar junta is preparing to launch airstrikes against the Chin National Front in the country’s western Chin state, a spokesperson for the ethnic armed organization told Radio Free Asia, citing leaked internal military documents. According to the documents, which the Chin National Front, or CNF, acquired earlier this month, the airstrike is intended to target the organization’s headquarters on Mt. Victoria, in Thantlang township. “We cannot reveal where we got this intelligence information, but we are preparing the best we can for the defense against this airstrike,” CNF spokesperson Salai Htet Ni told RFA’s Burmese Service. He said the documents revealed that churches, hospitals, clinics and schools are also on the list of possible targets. News of the plans frightened people living in the area, a civilian living near Mt. Victoria told RFA. “We are the only village near that mountain,” he said. “If they also target the village, we could be hit hard.” Thant Zin, the junta’s spokesperson for Chin state, has not responded to the CNF’s claims that the military is preparing to launch airstrikes in region. The military only launches airstrikes when absolutely necessary, said Thein Tun Oo, executive director of Thaenaga Institute for Strategic Studies, a pro-military think tank formed with former military officers. “The position is the same for all armed organizations in the country. If they view something as detrimental for their security, they take military action. This is a very normal path,” he said. “But I am suspicious that such an important decision to launch an airstrike has been leaked to the outside. It is hard to say whether their information is right or wrong.” Junta forces last month killed 63 people in Kachin state, many of them members of the Kachin Independence Organization, when they bombed a concert in what is believed to be the bloodiest single airstrike in Myanmar since last year’s military coup. Translated by Ye K.M. Maung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

China sentences mother of Uyghur Dutch airman to 15 years for visiting him abroad

Editor3 years ago2 years ago05 mins

Chinese authorities have sentenced the mother and sister-in-law of an Uyghur member of the Dutch air force to 15 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorism and revealing state secrets. The cases are another example of Beijing severely punishing members of the ethnic minority for visiting or contacting relatives abroad. Capt. MUN (pseudo name for security concerns), now a Dutch citizen, has been living in the Netherlands since 2006. His mother came to visit him in 2014 to attend his wedding, he told IJ-Reportika. In 2016, the same year he joined the Royal Netherlands Air Force, he lost contact with his mother, Imanem Nesrulla, and his sister-in-law, Ayhan Memet, he said. In 2018, while he was stationed in the United States of America, his sister-in-law was able to initiate contact with him for the first time in two years, using the WeChat messaging platform. She told him that Chinese authorities arrested his mother and sent her to a concentration camp, MUN said. Then in 2019, he heard that his sister-in-law was arrested for telling him about his mother’s arrest. MUN made several appeals to the Dutch government to find out more information about both cases, but it wasn’t until he returned to the Netherlands in 2020 that his inquiries made any headway. The Dutch foreign ministry contacted the Chinese Embassy, and in July 2021 he received news that his mother and sister-in-law had both been sentenced to 15 years in prison. “[Ayhan] had told me of my mother’s situation, hoping I would get my mother released since I was living in Europe and working in the military. Just for this information, the authorities sentenced her to 15 years in jail.” MUN said. Enemy force According to the written response he received from the ministry, Imanem was charged with “supporting terrorist activities and inciting ethnicity [sic] hatred and discrimination,” and Ayhan for “illegally providing national intelligence to foreign forces.” In China’s view, MUN said he is considered part of an “enemy force.” MUN said he was very disappointed that the Dutch foreign ministry could do nothing to help him after they were able to reveal his family members’ fates. “It seems this will hurt their big interests,” he said. “I wrote to my prime minister twice but did not receive any response.” MUN said that both his mother and sister-in-law lived and worked in Qumul (in Chinese Hami), about 370 miles east of Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Due to his professional responsibilities, MUN has refrained from any involvement with political activities, but he expressed that he can remain silent no more, and he is now doing as much as he can for his mother and sister-in-law. “[Previously] I was not willing to speak to the media as a complainer and a victim because of my position,” he said. But now, “I have to do this for my mother and sister-in-law, who are in prison because of me.”

North Korean censors destroy more than half of soldiers’ Mother’s Day letters

Editor3 years ago05 mins

North Korea’s military ordered soldiers to write letters to their mothers ahead of the country’s Mother’s Day, which was on Wednesday, but military censors destroyed more than half of them for ideological reasons, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia. To make matters worse, the censors even used the contents of some letters to identify and punish problematic soldiers, sources said. “The letters from soldiers of each unit … are opened before they arrive at the regimental postal office, and the ones that contain complaints about the difficulties of military service are sorted out and destroyed,” a source from the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. The number of mothers who aren’t receiving letters is likely in the hundreds of thousands. Every able-bodied North Korean must serve in the military. Until recently, male soldiers spent 10 years in the service, but since 2020, men serve eight years and women five as part of a fighting force estimated by the CIA World Factbook to be 1.15 million strong. From the letters sorted out, the censors made a list of soldiers with “weak ideological wills” – in other words, those who complained about hunger or fatigue, the source said. Those soldiers will be sent to ideological training. Letters written by a unit of soldiers guarding the border with China in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong had to pass through two rounds of censors, a source there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “The letters were first opened and censored by the company security officers, then they were all collected at the regiment and the military’s security authorities inspected them again,” the second source said. Some of the soldiers on the weak ideology list did not even complain. Instead they made the mistake of asking about their mothers’ wellbeing, the second source said. “A soldier sent his regards to his mother and asked her if the house had not collapsed in a recent flood and if the farming was going well,” the second source said. “However, the military security department pointed out that this shows that the soldier … does not trust the Party and speaks weakly instead of trusting that the Party takes care of the lives of all citizens.” Because so many soldiers are now going to be sent to ideological reeducation, they are griping about the authorities’ duplicitous behavior, because they are the ones that ordered them to write the letters in the first place, the second source said. Though Mother’s Day is most commonly celebrated around the world on the second Sunday in May, it falls on other dates in many countries. It is a relatively new holiday in North Korea, introduced in 2012 during the first year of Kim Jong Un’s reign, and became a public holiday in 2015. Authorities chose Nov. 16 in remembrance of an iconic speech about mothers delivered on that day in 1961 by Kim’s grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung. Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

“The results may be unpredictable”, said Xi schooling Trudeau over media leaks

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping schooled Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit on Wednesday over leaks about their one-on-one meeting, according to a video of the incident. The encounter was apparently sparked after Reuters quoted Canadian government sources as saying that Trudeau had held a side meeting with Xi on Tuesday, their first in more than three years. During it, Trudeau reportedly expressed concerns about Chinese interference in Canadian elections. “Everything we’ve discussed has been leaked to the papers, and this isn’t appropriate,” Xi says while seeming to force a smile in comments translated by an interpreter. “That was not the way the conversation was conducted.” “This isn’t how we go about it, right? If there is sincerity on your part, then we shall conduct our discussions with mutual respect,” Xi said in footage from a break at the G20 obtained by CTV News Channel’s Annie Bergeron-Oliver, a reporter accompanying Trudeau. The Chinese interpreter failed to fully translate the entirety of Xi’s Chinese into English. After Xi said “this is inappropriate” while shaking his head in seeming disapproval, he gave Trudeau one last look, spread both hands and shook his head again while uttering, “otherwise the results may be unpredictable.” Between Xi’s two utterances, Trudeau tried to emphasize the importance of open communication between leaders. “In Canada we believe in free and open and frank dialogue and that is what we will continue to have,” he said. “We will continue to look to work constructively together but there will be things we disagree on.” Halfway through listening to his interpreter’s translation of Trudeau’s speech however, Xi noticed the nearby cameras. Xi then repeated the phrase, “Let’s create the conditions” twice, shook hands with Trudeau and quickly left. A report from Reuters on Tuesday revealed that Trudeau and Xi’s meeting had been preceded by the arrest of an employee from Canada’s largest power company. The man was charged with stealing trade secrets for China. At a routine press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning declined to comment on the incident.

Nearly 1.7 million new refugees of conflict in Myanmar since coup

Editor3 years ago010 mins

Nearly 1.7 million people have been displaced by conflict in Myanmar since last year’s military coup, bringing the total number of refugees who have fled fighting in the country to more than 3 million and putting a heavy strain on aid resources in the Southeast Asian nation. The Institute for Strategy and Policy, an independent research group, said in a report earlier this month that as of Nov. 2, at least 1,650,661 people had been forced to escape conflict in regions that include Sagaing, Magway, Bago, Chin and Kayah in the more than 21 months since the military took power in Myanmar. The new refugees join an estimated 497,200 internally displaced persons who fled conflict before the Feb. 21, 2021 coup and at least 1,019,190 who have crossed Myanmar’s borders into the neighboring countries of Thailand, India and Bangladesh due to fighting both prior to and after the putsch, the group said. The new total of 3,167,051 represents roughly six percent of the country’s population of 54.4 million. As the number of refugees continues to swell, amidst a protracted conflict in Myanmar’s remote border regions between the military and anti-coup paramilitary groups and ethnic armies, local and international aid groups say the junta has barred them from accessing those in need or hampered efforts to deliver crucial supplies to camps for the displaced. Speaking to RFA Burmese on Wednesday, a refugee in Chin state’s war-torn Kanpetlet township said medicine and food resources at their camp have nearly dried up, putting an already vulnerable population at greater risk. “We are in a very difficult situation,” said the refugee, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal by the military. “We are in desperate need of medicine for the elderly, pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers, and children under the age of five.” According to ethnic Chin human rights groups, conflict since the military coup has created more than 110,000 new refugees in Chin state, more than 60,000 of whom fled to other regions of Myanmar and more than 50,000 of whom crossed into India’s Mizoram state to escape the fighting. In Kayin state, the ethnic Karen National Union said that daily battles between the military and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, had caused at least 186,471 people to flee their homes in the Karen-controlled townships of Hpapun, Kawkareik, Kyainseikgyi, and Myawaddy as of Aug. 16. Meanwhile, more than 130,000 ethnic Rohingya refugees who fled violence in Rakhine state in 2012 and 2017 remain in more than 10 camps for the displaced in Sittwe township, aid workers say. Aid undelivered The scale of the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar prompted an agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the junta to facilitate the immediate distribution of aid to refugees in the country through the military regime’s Ministry of International Cooperation at a May 6 meeting in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Nonetheless, aid groups – including U.N. agencies and NGOs – say they have been blocked from doing so or that the supplies they have handed over to the junta remain undelivered under the pretense of security risks. Attempts by RFA to contact the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management via email for comment on why aid has largely been withheld from Myanmar’s refugees went unanswered Wednesday, as did requests for comment to Ko Ko Hlaing, the junta’s Union Minister for International Cooperation. Banyar, the director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, said that junta restrictions have made the distribution of relief impossible in the country, and advised that aid groups “leave Myanmar officially.” “Providing humanitarian aid through the countries bordering Myanmar will be more effective,” he told RFA. Other groups have suggested that ASEAN’s relief agency had overestimated its ability to deliver. In a statement on Nov. 1, the Thailand-based Border Consortium, which has assisted refugees along the Thai-Myanmar border since 1984, said the agency “lacks experience” in responding to emergency situations and claimed that efforts to distribute aid to rural Myanmar would remain fruitless without the military’s blessing. Rohingya migrants are escorted after their boat carrying 119 people landed on the coast of Bluka Teubai, North Aceh, Indonesia, on November 16, 2022, after surviving a five week journey at sea. Credit: AFP Rohingya refugee arrests The new figures for refugees of conflict in Myanmar came as reporting by RFA found that authorities had arrested at least 388 Rohingyas who tried to flee refugee camps in Rakhine state and neighboring Bangladesh for Malaysia between Oct. 17 and Nov. 11. Authorities in Myanmar do not recognize Rohingyas as citizens of the country, despite members of their ethnic group having a long history in Rakhine state, and subject them to discrimination and movement restrictions. Among those arrested in the three weeks ending Nov. 11 were 60 members of a group of 80 Rohingyas, including 45 children, whose boat sank near Ayeyarwaddy region’s Bogale township as it made its way to the Andaman Sea on Oct. 30, leaving 20 people missing. A Bogale resident who is helping the detained Rohingyas told RFA that the 60 Rohingya are being detained at the township’s police station on immigration charges. On Oct. 20, authorities arrested 117 Rohingyas who they said were trying to leave Myanmar for Malaysia at a house in Yangon region, and 54 Rohingyas – including a pregnant woman – who planned to the same destination near Ayeyarwady region’s Maubin township two days later. On Nov. 2, authorities in Kayin state’s Kawkareik township arrested 101 Rohingyas attempting to flee to Thailand from Rakhine state’s Buthidaung township, sources said. According to data collected by RFA, authorities in Myanmar have arrested at least 992 Rohingyas who tried to flee their homes between December 2021 and mid-October 2022. Among them, 223 have been sentenced to between two and five years in prison under Myanmar’s immigration laws. Translated by Myo Min Aung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Fed up with COVID lockdowns, migrant workers in Guangzhou break through barriers

Editor3 years ago06 mins

Migrat workers whose movements have been restricted by rolling lockdowns and compulsory COVID-19 testing under China’s strict zero-COVID policy have taken to the streets of the southern province of Guangdong in recent days, according to video clips uploaded to social media. One video clip reportedly shot in Haizhu district of the provincial capital Guangzhou on Monday night showed hundreds of people surging along a street, shoving over traffic barriers and arguing with police and disease prevention personnel in protective gear. It was the latest outpouring of resentment in China over restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the virus. In another clip posted to Twitter, people are shown smashing barriers before flinging what appear to be plastic crates at workers and officials in protective gear, while a woman exclaims from behind the camera: “Wow, that’s going too far! So scary!” Dissatisfaction with the frequent lockdowns was the main reason driving the protests, said a man who gave only his name as Xu. “They’d been locked up so long and couldn’t do business, and so they just rushed out,” he told Radio Free Asia. “Last night a ton of people broke through the quarantine barricades. Seems like special police were sent in,” he said. “I don’t know how many people were there.” Xu said people have been locked up for weeks in areas where the protests broke out. Long-term closure and inability to work, coupled with insufficient supplies, were the main reasons for people’s protests. Local authorities did not respond to requests for comment. In another video, dozens of people face off in an alleyway with dozens of disease control personnel and police across fallen traffic barriers, before the camera pans to show police holding down a man restrained by cable ties with a foot on his neck. Footage sent to Radio Free Asia showed hundreds of people running along two different streets, trampling traffic barriers and shouting, while another shot showed hundreds standing still and facing off near a COVID-19 testing station, with some people pushing over barriers. ‘Love of freedom’ And in a clip sent to RFA’s Cantonese Service, people apparently confined to apartment buildings in Guangzhou sing the anthem of the 2014 Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, “Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies,” by Hong Kong rock band Beyond, to the night sky. “Forgive me, my whole life I’ve had a love of freedom,” the crowd sings in Cantonese, the lingua franca of both Guangdong and Hong Kong. Chinese media outlet Interface News reported that the protests had prompted local leaders to hold an emergency meeting on Monday night to tweak the way the zero-COVID policies are being enforced. The Guangdong province health commission said via its official WeChat account on Tuesday that “adjustments” would be needed to local policies, slashing quarantine periods from seven days at a quarantine camp plus three days observation at home to five days in quarantine and three days at home. Local officials must arrange for the “timely release” of people once their quarantine and home isolation periods are completed and the necessary negative tests completed, the commission said. Local officials should avoid being overly rigid in enforcing restrictions, and do a good job of preventing and responding to risks, the statement said. China’s health ministry reported 17,772 new locally COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 1,621 confirmed cases and 16,151 asymptomatic infections, the biggest spike since late April. Of those, 5,633 new locally transmitted infections were in Guangdong. Two sub-districts of Haizhu district have been locked down, including Liwan and Panyu. Translated and written by Luisetta Mudie, edited by Malcolm Foster.

Lao preacher arrested previously for evangelism found dead and badly beaten

Editor3 years ago06 mins

A Lao Christian preacher who had previously been arrested for evangelism was found dead and badly beaten a few days after disappearing, villagers told Radio Free Asia. A few days before his body was found with signs of torture, two men believed to be district authorities visited Sy Seng Manee, 48, they said. His corpse was found on Oct. 23 with his motorbike in a forest near a road to Donkeo village in Khammouane province. Local residents said they believe Sy was murdered because of his religious beliefs and preaching. A villager, who is also a soldier and lives in a community north of Donkeo, told RFA that he witnessed the preacher’s abduction. He saw three men get out of a black truck with no license plates, grab Sy and violently push him into the vehicle and drive away. The villager who requested anonymity for safety reasons said at the time he believed the men were authorities arresting a drug dealer or criminal, so he went on his way. But after hearing about the preacher’s death, he realized that the man was Sy. He then informed others in his community about what he had seen, and they, in turn, told Sy’s family. Lao police said they are still investigating the death. The Law on the Evangelical Church, which took effect in December 2019, gives Christians in Laos the right to conduct services, preach throughout the country and maintain contacts with believers in other nations. But they still often face opposition from residents or local authorities in this predominantly Buddhist nation. In March, officials in Savannakhet province ordered a Christian family to remove social media posts and videos of villagers attacking a man’s coffin during his funeral in December 2021 because they opposed the family’s faith and struck mourners and pallbearers with clubs, RFA reported. The family buried the patriarch in their own rice field, but authorities and residents continued to harass them. Authorities expropriated their land in February, and other villagers torched their home, relatives and other sources said in an earlier report. Former arrest Local authorities first arrested Sy in August 2018 because he held weekly meetings in his house to preach to the villagers, locals said. Authorities tried to force him to sign a document denouncing the Christian faith and pledging that he would stop preaching, but he refused and was jailed for three days and fined. A few years after his release, Sy began preaching again until he disappeared this October and turned up dead. “His death was due to his belief in Christianity,” said a village resident who declined to be identified out of fear for his safety. The resident said he heard that authorities may have arrested Sy when they went to a gathering. “They don’t like the Christian religion, so that’s what they do,” he said. A Christian preacher in Nakai district, where Donkeo village is located, said he believes that Sy was murdered because his Christian belief displeased local residents. “Each district is different in terms of other religious beliefs,” said the preacher, who declined to be named for fear of his safety. “Some provinces are strict and some are loose when it comes to harassment.” One Christian villager said he now feared for his own safety because the same might happen to him and other believers in the village. He called on police to quickly arrest the murderers. “If the murderers are not arrested, it will strongly affect the Christian community,” he told RFA. “In the past, each time a situation like this happened, there was a related sector responsible for thoroughly investigating the case.” Translated by Sidney Khotpanya for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

“Glory to Hong Kong”, protest anthem of HongKong protests got played as China’s national anthem

Editor3 years ago3 years ago06 mins

Was it intentional or a simple mistake? In a scene that went viral on social media in Hong Kong, the unofficial anthem of Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests was blared over the sound system before a rugby match between Hong Kong and South Korea played just outside of Seoul on Sunday. The song, “Glory to Hong Kong,” which calls for democracy and liberty, rose to prominence during the widespread protests in Hong Kong in 2019 against increasing encroachment on civil liberties by mainland Chinese authorities. Normally, China’s national anthem, which praises communism, is played whenever Hong Kong sports teams play internationally. China controlled Hong Kong’s government demanded an investigation into the incident. The song is highly symbolic to the people of Hong Kong, who have pushed back against the growing constraints on expressions of free speech and press imposed on them by the Hong Kong government, which is largely doing Beijing’s will. “The song pokes right at the sore spot of the Hong Kong government. It reminded the government of the fact that it does not truly govern Hong Kong,” said former legislative council member Ted Hui, who is in exile overseas. “The Hong Kong government is aware that it is a weak and unpopular government,” Hui said. “It fears that the pro-democracy movement will be revived, and that the momentum may grow stronger again.” This is the clip when “Glory to Hong Kong,” the protest anthem, was played at the Asian Rugby Seven Series in South Korea: https://t.co/o02abNBQ5y pic.twitter.com/kB8lr5i6CV — Kris Cheng (@krislc) November 13, 2022 Human error? The Seoul-based Korea Rugby Union said that the gaffe was a result of human error and had no political motivations, and that it had apologized to the Asia Rugby Union, and both the Hong Kong and Chinese teams participating in the tournament. But Ronny Tong, a member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, said the incident was likely not human error and must have had Hong Kong-based accomplices. Tong said that those responsible may have violated several laws, including by committing sedition under the Crimes Ordinance, separatism or collusion with foreign forces under the National Security Law of Hong Kong, or conspiracy to contravene under the National Anthem Ordinance. Tong said that the Hong Kong government should conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with the law, rather than simply protesting and demanding an apology. But Hong Kong current affairs commentator and lawyer Sang Pu told Radio Free Asia on Monday that Tong’s legal analysis made no sense, saying it was impossible to apply Hong Kong law in South Korea. Tong had no proof of his assertion, Sang said. “[He] claimed that it was an individual in Hong Kong who plotted to have someone meddle with the Chinese national anthem. This is pure imagination. Why not consider other possibilities?” Similar anthem gaffes have occurred on many occasions over the years. In 2017 Russian gold medal winners at the biathlon world championship in Austria saw their flag raised to the tune of the Yeltsin-era Russian anthem. After a Kazakh athlete won a gold medal at an international shooting competition in Kuwait in 2012, the organizers played a fake version of the Kazakstan anthem made for the comedy movie Borat. Hong Kong won Sunday’s match against South Korea 19-12. The third leg of the Asian Rugby Seven Series is scheduled for Nov. 26-27 in Amjan, UAE. Translated by Min Eu. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Analysis: Biden-Xi summit delivers calmer tone, reminders of US-China fault lines

Editor3 years ago011 mins

Highly anticipated yet viewed with low expectations, the summit Monday between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping improved the tone in bilateral contacts after years of tensions while underscoring how Taiwan looms over efforts to keep a strategic rivalry from spiraling into conflict. After three hours of talks at a resort hotel on the Indonesian island of Bali on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, Biden said he and Xi were “very blunt with one another,” while a Xi spokesperson described the meeting as “in-depth, candid and constructive.” Those phrases–diplomatic speak for airing sharp differences—came after both leaders, in their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office nearly two years ago, acknowledged global expectations that the superpowers keep the numerous U.S.-China disputes from deteriorating into conflict. “The Biden-Xi meeting exceeded low expectations, with both leaders clearly expressing a desire to manage differences and work together on urgent global issues,” said Patricia Kim of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. The White House said Beijing and Washington also “agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts” in areas like climate talks and other global issues, including resuming long-frozen discussions by joint working groups. “The fact that the two sides agreed to reinitiate working level discussions in transnational challenges including climate change, public health and food security is quite promising,” Kim told Radio Free Asia, adding that much hard work remained. Although Biden and Xi go back more than a decade to when they were both vice-presidents, they have spoken only by phone since Biden took office. Face-to-face talks between the leaders of the two powers have value in themselves. “This was the first face-to-face meeting between President Biden and President Xi in about five years, and it occurred at a tense time in the US-China relationship,” said Sheena Chestnut Greitens, the Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “In my view, the buildup in Chinese military and nuclear capabilities, combined with a relative lack of dialogue to understand China’s intentions and lack of robust crisis management mechanisms, pose significant risks to stability in the U.S.-China relationship,” she told RFA. President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 14, 2022. Credit: Reuters Neither ‘more confrontational (nor) more conciliatory’ Among other useful opportunities, Biden was able to size up Xi just weeks after he was reappointed for a norm-busting third term as leader at Chinese Communist Party. “I didn’t find him more confrontational or more conciliatory,” Biden told reporters after their summit. “I found him the way he’s always been, direct and straightforward.” The U.S. president added: “I am convinced that he understood exactly what I was saying and I understood what he was saying.” Among contentious issues Biden raised with Xi were concerns over China’s crackdown since 2019 in Hong Kong, harsh policies against minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, trade and Russia invasion of Ukraine, the White House said. Although there were no expectations of big policy breakthroughs and there was no joint statement, Biden appeared to make headway in winning oblique Chinese criticism of Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine. Xi is an ally of Putin in a relationship that undercuts China’s claim to be neutral in the Ukraine war. “President Biden and President Xi reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” the White House said. Chinese statements excluded mention of this. “While this particular line did not appear on the official Chinese readout, the fact that the White House readout clearly noted that both leaders affirmed this statement was significant and a critical communication of redlines to Putin,” said Kim of Brookings. Looming largest was Taiwan, the self-ruling island democracy that Beijing views as an inalienable part of China and a domestic affair that no other country has the right to interfere in. Washington has longstanding security ties with Taipei, even as it officially recognizes only the government in Beijing under a one China policy. At their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, Nov. 14, 2022, President Joe Biden told China’s President Xi Jinping that the U.S. had not changed its one China policy, the White House said. Credit: AFP ‘The core of China’s core interests’ On Taiwan, Biden told Xi that the U.S. had not changed its one China policy, and “opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side,” the White House said. Biden “raised U.S. objections to (China’s) coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan, which undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, and jeopardize global prosperity,” it said. Xi described Taiwan as “the core of China’s core interests,” and “the first insurmountable red line in U.S.-China relations,” and called for the U.S. leader to stick to his commitment in not supporting Taiwanese independence. Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of giving support to “separatist forces in Taiwan” and retaliated by freezing climate talks and sharply increasing military activities around the island after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited in August. Biden’s denial that there has been any change in U.S. policy follows his statements that Washington would help Taiwan defend itself and comes amid moves by American lawmakers to increase military assistance to Taiwan and expedite current arms contracts. To Beijing, such U.S. actions raise doubts about Washington’s commitment to the status quo, said Chang Teng-chi, head of political science at National Taiwan University in Taipei. “Ultimately … there is no trust between the two sides, so all they can hope to do is dynamic crisis management,” he told RFA. Monday’s meeting in Bali nonetheless left the U.S. “in a better position now than we were before,” said Oriana Skylar Mastro, Center fellow…

Biden gets political boost on eve of key meeting with Xi

Editor3 years ago08 mins

Leaders of half the world’s population gathered in Phnom Penh on Sunday but for the traveling White House press corps the big news was breaking half a world away as President Joe Biden’s Democrat Party re-secured control of the Senate in mid-term elections. That provided a political boost to Biden ahead of Monday’s face-to-face meeting in Bali, Indonesia, with China’s President Xi Jinping, which the American leader predicted would be defined by straight-talking between leaders of two rival powers. While the Democrats are still expected to lose control of the lower House of Representatives, which will make it more difficult for the Biden administration to get things done, the outcome was better than expected for the party. Speaking to reporters before attending Sunday’s East Asia Summit at a hotel in the Cambodian capital, Biden acknowledged that domestic politics has an impact on his international standing. The U.S. president’s trip to the region is all about signaling Washington’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific. “I know I’m coming in stronger, but I don’t need that,” Biden said. “I know Xi Jinping. I’ve spent more time with him than any other world leader. I know him well. He knows me. We have very little misunderstanding. We’ve just got to figure out where the red lines are and what are the most important things to each of us.” “There’s never any miscalculation about where each of us stand. And I think that’s critically important in our relationship,” Biden added. Although Biden had extensive in-person meetings with Xi during the Obama administration, and several phone calls with the Chinese leader since becoming president two years ago, Monday’s meeting will be their first face-to-face of his presidency. There are still many issues for him to raise, including China’s recent military exercises off Taiwan, its disputes with neighboring nations over the South China Sea, the crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, trade and new U.S. restrictions on semiconductor technology. The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit, which is the second installment of November’s Asian summit season. The first chapter ended on Sunday in Cambodia, which was hosting as the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – a position that will now be taken for the next year by Indonesia. The East Asia Summit is a gathering of ASEAN’s key dialogue partners in the Indo-Pacific. It comprises the 10 members of ASEAN, along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the U.S. That accounts for about 53% of the world’s population and last year, nearly 60% of global gross domestic product worth an estimated $57.2 trillion, according to the Australian government. The diplomatic impact of Sunday’s summit was diluted by the absence of Xi – China was represented by Premier Li Keqiang – and Russian President Vladimir Putin who sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Biden arrived late to the summit on Sunday morning, but later sat at the same table as Lavrov. There was no audio on the official feed of the meeting monitored by a journalist from the RFA-affiliated network, BenarNews, making it difficult to discern immediately if there were sharp exchanges over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to discuss the issue. “The Secretary discussed the United States’ unwavering commitment to assist Ukraine in mitigating the effects of Russia’s continued attacks on critical infrastructure, including with accelerated humanitarian aid and winterization efforts,” the State Department said. The two also talked about renewing the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which expires on Nov. 19 to support global food security and Ukraine’s battlefield continued effectiveness. Blinken told Kuleba the U.S. considers the timing and contents of any negotiations with Russia are entirely Ukraine’s decision. Also Sunday, Biden was holding separate meetings with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to discuss the nuclear threat from North Korea and other regional stability issues, the White House said. The U.S. has military bases in both countries. Biden’s presence at the summit gave him the opportunity to try to win over more countries into supporting the U.S. Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an attempt to counter China’s economic and political influence in the region. Biden heads back to Washington after the G-20 while Vice President Kamala Harris takes his place at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, better known as APEC, in Thailand between Nov. 16-19.

Category: World