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Category: World

North Korea resumes coal shipments to China in violation of sanctions

Editor08 mins

North Korea has resumed shipping coal to energy-starved China to secure much needed foreign currency despite U.N. sanctions prohibiting the transactions, RFA has learned. U.N. Security Council Resolution 2371, adopted in August 2017, forbids countries from buying coal that originates in North Korea. The sanctions are aimed at depriving Pyongyang of cash and resources that could be funneled into its nuclear and missile programs. But China’s energy needs are great, and North Korea’s coal is of exceptionally high quality, so sales of coal stocks to Chinese buyers resumed in mid-July, a trade official in North Korea’s South Pyongan province, north of Pyongyang, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Trading companies affiliated with the party and the military resumed exporting coal to earn foreign currency on orders of the Central Committee,” said the source.  “Coal exported to China is transported from Nampo port to the West Sea,” the source said, referring to the body of water west of the Korean peninsula, known internationally as the Yellow Sea.  “It is common for the coal to be transferred from the North Korean trading company’s ships to  Chinese ships on the open sea,” the source said. The ship-to-ship transfers are an effort to avoid detection, although monitors have known the sales have continued since the sanctions were imposed. In 2019, the U.S. Treasury penalized two Taiwanese citizens and three shipping companies for transferring petroleum products with North Korean ships on the high seas. In October 2021 RFA reported that coal exports from North Korea to China, sometimes through ship-to-ship transfers, were on the rise as China struggled with severe coal shortages that led to rolling blackouts in many parts of the country. Maritime trade between the two countries has been on and off during the coronavirus pandemic. It was off again after North Korea declared a “maximum emergency” in May when a major outbreak was traced to a military parade in late April. Authorities have apparently made an exception in the case of coal. Some trading companies are getting bolder and forego ship-to-ship transfers entirely, the source said. “Some of the powerful party-affiliated trading companies bring the Chinese ships into the port of Nampo, where they are loaded with coal and then sail directly to Chinese ports. They can receive the cash right there on the spot,” the source said. “Foreign currency earned from coal exports is not deposited into the Foreign Trade Bank of the DPRK but is collected directly by the party.” The coal shipped out of Nampo goes to various ports in China’s Shandong province, with Longkou being the most popular destination, sources said. Coal is also transferred over a much shorter distance between Ryongchon county in the northwestern province of North Pyongan and Donggang, China, a trade official in North Pyongan told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “These days, at Jinhung Wharf in Ryongchon county, military trading companies that have received permission to resume coal exports from the Central Committee are exporting coal through the sea,” he said. “Powerful trading companies are earning foreign currency by exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of coal at a time by borrowing large ships from China,” said the second source. A ton of North Korea’s high-quality anthracite coal can fetch between U.S. $100 and $110 in China, according to the second source. This is almost double the cost per ton quoted by sources in the RFA report from October 2021.  “Military companies are using the foreign currency they earn from coal exports to secure fuel for Border Guard patrol boats and warships and food for military personnel,” the second source said. Sources told RFA that they were not able to determine if the resumption of coal exports is being carried out under any agreement with the Chinese government. RFA contacted offices at the United Nations, including the U.S. mission to the U.N., by phone and email but had not received any response as of 4 p.m. Wednesday. A U.S. State Department spokesperson told RFA that United Nations sanctions on the DPRK remain in place. “We will continue to implement them and encourage others to fully implement them, including at the United Nations and with the DPRK’s neighbors,” the spokesperson said. “The DPRK continues to fund its WMD and ballistic missile programs through sanctions evasion efforts in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.” “It is important for the international community to send a strong, unified message that the DPRK must halt provocations, abide by its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions, and engage in sustained and intensive negotiations with the United States.” Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Vietnam court charges 7 people for their roles in road demolition protest

Editor05 mins

Authorities in Vietnam’s Nghe An province have officially charged seven people in connection with a clash with riot police over the demolition of a local road earlier this month, family members said Wednesday. Ha Thi Hien, Tran Thi Nien, and Bui Van Canh were charged on July 22 with “resisting against officers on official duty,” while Tran Thi Hoa, Bach Thi Hoa, Ha Thi Thoa, and Ha Van Hanh were accused of “disturbing public order,” relatives told RFA Vietnamese. Family members said they had only learned of the charges – each of which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison – after receiving a notice from the Nghi Loc District Police Department on Wednesday. “I am very worried about my wife. They [the police] said she would be held for two months before trial,”  Nguyen Van Duc, the husband of Ha Thi Hien, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service. “All of my neighbors feel sorry for her, saying that Hien had never said or done anything bad, and ask why she was taken away. Since her arrest, our two young kids have been crying and asking for Mom every night,” he said. Riot police guard a fence build to stop protestors preventing the demolition of a hundred-year-old road on July 13, 2022. Photo: Citizen Journalist On July 13, hundreds of riot police descended on Binh Thuan parish in Nghe An’s Nghi Thuan commune as a similar number of protesters attempted to remove a fence blocking a road that connects the parish to an area highway. The road, which had been in use for more than 100 years, is located on land the government granted to a private company for a planned industrial zone. Police tried to disperse the protesters with smoke grenades and explosives but they fought back. Ten people were arrested in the clash, during which officials said protesters had “used bricks, stones, bottles, sticks [and petrol bombs], attacked and detained a police officer and injured five other police officers,” according to a statement issued after the incident. Authorities released one woman the same night and two men three days later. However, the other seven had remained in custody for two weeks before their families were notified of the charges against them on Wednesday.  The seven are being held at a temporary detention facility during an investigation of their case, which is expected to last until Sept. 10, according to the notice from the Nghe An Police Department, which also claimed that all of the accused had “refused access to a defense lawyer, or did not request one.” Duc said his wife Hien is innocent and was “only watching the protest” when she was arrested. She did not act against the police, he said. Duc said he has had to take leave from work to care for his two kids, aged three and six, and his mother, who is more than 80 years old. Attempts by RFA to contact the Nghi Loc District Police and the lead investigator for the case, Hoang Doanh Toan, went unanswered Wednesday. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Tibetan arrested for creating ‘unlawful’ WeChat group

Editor04 mins

Chinese officials in a Tibetan-populated region of Sichuan this month arrested a Tibetan man accused of setting up a group honoring Tibetan religious leaders on the popular social media platform WeChat, Tibetan sources said. Lotse, 57 and a resident of Sichuan’s Sershul (in Chinese, Shiqu) county in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was taken into custody in July for creating the chat group, which was set up to celebrate the birthdays of revered Tibetan lamas, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA this week. “The group has around 100 members who come from all parts of Tibet,” RFA’s source said, citing local contacts and speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Chinese authorities called Lotse’s creation of the group “unlawful,” the source added. Lotse, a single father of two sons, is now believed to be detained by authorities somewhere in Sershul, and local Tibetans were questioned about him and pressured by police in the period leading up to his arrest, the source said. “Chinese police also visited Lotse at his home before his arrest and threatened him for creating such a group without the government’s permission,” he added. Banned birthday celebration Sichuan authorities arrested two Tibetans in 2021 for celebrating the 86th birthday on July 6 of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, sources told RFA in earlier reports. The pair, a man named Kunchok Tashi and a woman named Dzapo, both in their 40s, were taken into custody in Kardze’s Kyaglung town on suspicion of being part of a social media group that shared images and documents and encouraged the reciting of Tibetan prayers on the Dalai Lama’s birthday. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India in the midst of a failed 1959 Tibetan national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan country in 1950. Displays by Tibetans of the Dalai Lama’s photo, public celebrations of his birthday and the sharing of his teachings on mobile phones or other social media are often harshly punished. Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killings. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Beijing bites back over repeated rumors of Pelosi’s Taiwan visit

Editor08 mins

China ratcheted up its already strong response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plans to visit Taiwan, with the Ministry of Defense in Beijing threatening military action. Ministry spokesman, Sr. Col. Tan Kefei, told a media briefing on Tuesday that, should Pelosi insist on making the visit, “the Chinese military will never sit idly by, and will certainly take strong and resolute measures” to retaliate. The U.S. “must not arrange for Pelosi to visit the Taiwan region,” he said. China considers the self-governed democratic island a breakaway province and its reunification a matter of “national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Britain’s Financial Times first reported on the planned visit last week, saying it would be part of a tour that will also include Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Pelosi and her entourage will also make a stopover in Hawaii to visit the headquarters of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the paper said. It would be the first time since Newt Gingrich’s 1997 trip that a U.S. House speaker has visited the island. U.S. officials have not confirmed the news but President Joe Biden indicated that the military “did not think it was a good idea right now” for Pelosi to visit Taiwan.  The much talked about trip by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the third most senior figure in the political system, has created a huge headache for U.S. policymakers. Biden is expected to discuss it, among other issues, with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a telephone call on Thursday. It would be the fifth such conversation since Biden became U.S. president in January 2021. ‘Fourth Taiwan crisis’ Before the defense ministry delivered its official response, the Chinese foreign ministry had already protested against the reported trip, saying the U.S. must be prepared to “assume full responsibility for any serious consequence arising.”  Analysts say with so much tension over the alleged visit, U.S.-China relations are entering a “perilous period.” Taylor Fravel, Director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), wrote on Twitter that Pelosi’s visit seems likely “as other members of Congress cast her visit as a question of what China can or cannot ‘dictate’ to Congress.” This would “create even stronger incentives for a forceful response,” as Xi Jinping’s “policy, reputation and credibility will be seen to be at stake.” “We’re heading straight toward a Fourth Taiwan Strait crisis,” Fravel warned, referring to previous crises in the Taiwan Strait. The last one was in 1996 and ended after U.S. intervention. Some Taiwanese analysts disagree with the assessment, saying the possibility of a war is low. “This is not good timing for Xi to wage a fourth Taiwan crisis,” said Ming-Shih Shen, a senior expert at the Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR). There are only a few months left before the opening of China’s most important political event – the Chinese Communist Party’s Congress – where Xi is believed to be seeking an unprecedented third term. “The situation’s being exacerbated perhaps by those who oppose Xi’s leadership within the Party in order to create troubles [for him],” Shen said. To go or not to go? Despite China’s hawkish response, Pelosi should still make the visit, said the Taiwanese expert, adding that it would work for her domestically, too. Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said that China’s coercion tactics “work only when countries allow them to do so” and the United States “should stand up to China.” “China’s economy is not in better shape than ours and China is not going to war over Pelosi’s visit,” he said. “Bowing down to Chinese bullying makes us look weak at a time when we need to appear strong. Weakness, like withdrawing our embassy and trainers, encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine. We can’t make that mistake twice,” Schuster added. “The current tensions over Speaker Pelosi’s putative visit to Taiwan puts the Biden Administration in a no-win situation,” said Carl Thayer, a veteran regional expert. “If Speaker Pelosi decides to visit Taiwan, Xi Jinping will have no recourse but to provoke a crisis to demonstrate China’s resolve. This will put further strain on U.S.-China relations and undermine efforts underway by Biden to find some common ground with China,” the Canberra-based analyst said. The Biden Administration, in his opinion, “has not yet had to respond to a major incident of Chinese bullying and also has not gone out of its way to provoke a confrontation with China.” “If Pelosi decides to go and China throws down the gauntlet, this will be the first test for President Biden to call China to account and push back against its bullying,” Thayer said.

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Vietnamese police suspend incest and fraud investigation into Buddhist group

Editor05 mins

Police looking into accusations of incest, fraud and abusing democratic freedoms by a Buddhist sect in Vietnam say they are temporarily suspending their work. Monday’s announcement by the Investigation Security Agency of Long An province police follows a previous police announcement that Peng Lai Temple (Tinh That Bong Lai) leader Le Tung Van used the religion for years to benefit personally from charitable donations. At his trial, last week, Le Tung Van said the people who leveled accusations against him should be brought to justice. “I did not offend the Vietnamese Buddhist Church in Long An province, nor did I offend the Duc Hoa district police. On the contrary, [we] were victims of horrible humiliation and slander for a long time. Whoever accuses me of offending them should appear in court. [We should] stand up to confront them and make it clear, don’t deceive the court!” Six members of the religious group were sentenced to a combined 23 years and six months in prison last week on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code. News site Thanh Nien reported that investigators said they decided to put their work on hold because they had received many accusations against Peng Lai, so they needed to be cautious and make separate studies into the differing claims. It said the agency is waiting for blood tests and genetic analysis before following up on incest allegations and will drop that line of investigation if the tests are negative. The Zing news site quoted an unnamed Long An police official as saying the Investigation Security Agency had received accusations on three separate issues against Peng Lai but had only looked into the claims of “abusing democratic freedom,” while ignoring claims of incest and fraud. He said police are preparing to resume investigations into those two claims. Monday’s announcement that police were suspending their investigation prompted lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan to write on Facebook: “From the very beginning, when I received information about the cases related to the Peng Lai Temple, I had a somewhat hostile view of them … Up to this point, through some information that the official newspapers have published, it seems that the accusations of incest in the Peng Lai Temple are inference, lacking solid scientific basis. This also means that my aversion to the people there is unfounded.” Earlier this year state media were accused of trying to influence public opinion with headlines such as “Police investigating incest at Peng Lai Temple,” and “Peng Lai retreat: When morality has gone and ignorance leads the way.” The six sentenced temple members were convicted after prosecutors said they posted videos on social networks, including one defaming Thich Nhat Tu of the Vietnamese Buddhist Church. The indictment said the six posted articles and clips on Facebook and YouTube from 2019 to 2021 containing lies, fabricated and distorted information, which insulted the Duc Hoa District Public Security Agency, offended Buddhism and harmed the honor and dignity of Thich Nhat Tu.

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Execution of 4 activists by junta puts peace in Myanmar further out of reach

Editor012 mins

The execution of former student leader Ko Jimmy and three other democracy activists by Myanmar’s junta could become a serious obstacle to resolving the country’s political crisis, analysts and observers said Tuesday. The official Global New Light of Myanmar on Monday announced the executions of Ko Jimmy, whose real name is Kyaw Min Yu, former National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw, and activists Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw without reporting the date and method of killings. It is believed the men were hanged on Saturday in Yangon’s Insein Prison. The act drew widespread condemnation from Western governments, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), international rights groups and Myanmar-based democracy activists, as well as the Southeast Asian nation’s shadow National Unity Government and the People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries that are fighting the junta on the NUG’s behalf. On Tuesday, political analyst Kyaw Saw Han told RFA Burmese that the ASEAN-backed proposal for a dialogue that would include all of Myanmar’s stakeholders is now less likely than ever, as the executions have lessened the opposition’s interest in a peaceful resolution. “The ASEAN plan, which is being promoted by the international community, to meet with [deposed NLD leader] Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and then meet with the junta and all those involved in the conflict to find a solution, will be delayed,” he predicted. “I think it will be very difficult to have a dialogue. Right now, the public is angry. Their emotions of anger have been stirred up, so it is harder than before to accept this. We can say it will almost certainly be delayed and that the probability for such a dialogue is very low at this point.” The junta has reneged on a five-point consensus (5PC) it agreed to with ASEAN in April 2021 to put the country back on the path to democracy. The consensus called for an end to violence; dialogue among all parties; mediation by a special ASEAN envoy; ASEAN-coordinated humanitarian assistance; and a visit to Myanmar by an ASEAN delegation. Col. Khun Okkar of the Peace Process Steering Team of ethnic armies that have signed a nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with the government since 2015 told RFA that his group will no longer meet with the junta if called for peace talks, as the executions show that the regime is not interested in upholding its promises. “Those who signed the NCA should not violate the points stated in the pact, namely, to respect human rights and to protect the lives and property of the people,” he said. “And so, based on that, we will not respond without consulting among ourselves to [the junta’s] calls for further discussions. We have made that decision.” Khun Okkar added that the actions of the junta could completely derail the peace process because public confidence in the process will be damaged beyond repair. Ko Ko Gyi, a leader of Myanmar Prominent 88 Generation Student Group and current People’s Party Chairman, talks to journalists during a press briefing at their 88 Generation Students Peace and Open Society Office, June 15, 2015, in Yangon, Myanmar. Credit: Associated Press Prior executions Only three people have been executed in Myanmar in the past 50 years: student leader Salai Tin Maung Oo, who helped to organize protests over the government’s refusal to grant a state funeral to former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant that resulted in a deadly crackdown in 1974; Capt. Ohn Kyaw Myint, who was found guilty of plotting an assassination of military dictator Gen. Ne Win; and Zimbo, a North Korean agent who bombed the country’s Martyrs’ Mausoleum during an attempted assassination of South Korea’s then-President Chin Doo-hwan in 1983. While Myanmar’s courts have sentenced people to death, there have been no executions carried out in the 30 years since the country’s 1988 democracy uprising and prior to the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup. Ko Ko Gyi, the chairman of Myanmar’s lesser known opposition People’s Party, said that the junta’s decision to carry out the death penalty after more than 30 years will certainly impact the likelihood of a peaceful resolution to the country’s crisis. “For those who are trying to find a political solution, it will be very difficult because of this,” he said. “The public’s emotions are running very high. That’s why I objected and made appeals from the beginning not to [proceed with the death penalty]. Now that it has happened, I see that there will be many difficulties ahead for a political solution.” He said that public opposition to military rule is likely to become more fierce, which authorities will respond to with greater force, lessening the likelihood of any kind of reconciliation. Myanmar-based political analyst Ye Tun said he also expects reprisals by Myanmar’s armed opposition to intensify following the executions. “This was a bit too serious. Retaliation is likely,” he said. Regional PDF groups have vowed to take revenge against junta forces for the weekend’s executions. Despite the blowback, junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told a press conference held in the capital Naypyidaw on Tuesday that the consequences of the executions had “already been considered,” but the decision was taken to “mete out justice for those who died at their hands.” “The crimes they committed deserved several more death sentences than the ones committed by those on the death row,” he said. “Therefore, the government unavoidably decided to go ahead with the punishments in accordance with the law, for the sake of innocent people and their relatives. It’d be cruel and show a lack of empathy for us to be lenient to the accused perpetrators and let them go unpunished.” The four activists had been convicted of crimes that included contacting the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, PDF and NUG, which in September declared a nationwide state of emergency and called for open rebellion against junta rule, prompting an escalation of attacks on military targets by various allied pro-democracy militias and ethnic armed groups. Other…

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Plan to bring back public loudspeakers annoys residents of Vietnam’s noisy capital

Editor03 mins

Residents of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi are opposing a controversial plan by the city to resume using public loudspeakers to make pronouncements, which many see as an archaic remnant of the Vietnam War era, sources told RFA. At the height of the war in the 1960s and 1970s, the loudspeakers played an important role in North Vietnamese wards and communes to supply people with information about battles, including warnings about approaching U.S. bombers. The loudspeakers were used on a daily basis as late as 2017, when then-Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung declared that the speakers “completed their historical missions.”  The city then designated them for use only in emergency situations. The Hanoi People’s Committee recently approved a communication plan for 2022-2025 that would again employ the speakers for everyday announcements. The city plans to expand their use where necessary so that all residential units are within earshot of a loudspeaker by 2025. But many residents say they don’t want to hear it. “I was astonished by this news, as it took a lot of effort and time to get rid of the loudspeakers here in Hanoi,” Nguyen Son, a resident of Hanoi, told RFA. “I don’t know why they want them back.” Opponents point out that the city already has a noise pollution problem that daily loudspeaker announcements would only make worse. “The ward-operated public loudhailers have been a nightmare to many people and one source of noise pollution in urban areas. Many residents strongly oppose this form of propaganda,” Bui Quang Thang, another Hanoi resident,  told RFA. “Nowadays, people living in urban areas have many tools to get information in a variety of ways, such as through television, internet, social media and smartphones,” he said.  Reintroducing loudspeakers would be a waste of money, he said. “Many other areas such as health care, education and environmental protection need more investment and should be prioritized,” Thang said. RFA sent emails to the Hanoi People’s Committee for comment, but received no response. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Tibetans returning from exile questioned by Chinese authorities

Editor05 mins

Tibetans returning from exile to their home regions in Tibet are being summoned for questioning by Chinese authorities watching for signs of disloyalty or separatist sentiment, Tibetan sources say. Returnees living in Golog (Chinese, Guoluo) and Ngaba (Aba) counties, Tibetan-populated regions in western China’s Qinghai province, have recently been called in by police without warning, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA this week. “They are being asked about possible involvement in political activities,” RFA’s source said, citing contacts in the region and speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Frequent meetings are being held to tell them how to live ‘a decent life’ under Chinese government rule and to stay away from sensitive political issues, and they are also being questioned over the phone from time to time,” the source said. As part of a broadening Chinese campaign of political education, Tibetans returning from exile to their former homes have been taken on excursions to Chinese cities to show them what the authorities call evidence of progress and development under Communist Party rule, the source added. Tibetans returning from exile to Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa are kept under particular scrutiny, another source in exile said, with their cell phones regularly inspected and monitored and their movements restricted around politically sensitive dates like the July 6 birthday of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Efforts by China to bring Tibetans back to Tibet have escalated in recent years, with Chinese authorities reaching out to Tibetans living in India and Nepal about their plans to return and asking them what kind of work they are currently doing, sources say. “The Chinese government tried to send me money back when India was experiencing its worst wave of COVID cases, but I wouldn’t take their money,” said a Tibetan man now living in India but formerly from Qinghai. “They called me and tried to convince me to return, and they also interrogated my parents at their homes back in Tibet,” he added. COVID status Chinese authorities in Sichuan are meanwhile demanding that local Tibetans report the COVID status of relatives living outside the country, threatening them with the loss of housing subsidies and other government support if they fail to disclose the information, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Tibetan families must also reveal the cell phone numbers and social media accounts of their relatives living outside of China, one source said. China closely tracks communications from Tibetans living in Tibetan areas of China to relatives living abroad in an effort to block news of protests and other politically sensitive information from reaching international audiences, sources say. Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force more than 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers later fled into exile in India and countries around the world following a failed 1959 national uprising against China’s rule. Tibetans living in Tibet frequently complain of human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Chinese rights lawyer Chang Weiping tried in secret as family members held by police

Editor08 mins

Detained rights lawyer Chang Weiping — whose lawyers say he has suffered torture in incommunicado detention — stood trial for subversion on Tuesday behind closed doors, as his wife was prevented from traveling to the court in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi. Chang’s trial on charges of “subversion of state power” began at 9.00 a.m. local time at the Feng County People’s Court, as his wife Chen Zijuan tweeted that she had been pulled over at a highway exit and prevented from taking the exit for the court. The sentence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a minimum jail term of 10 years. The trial lasted around 90 minutes, with sentencing to be announced at a later date, Chen said via her Twitter account. “Chang Weiping, I stand here today at the highway exit for Feng county,” Chen, clad in a green suit and holding a large bouquet of flowers, says in a short video recorded as police and COVID-19 enforcement officials mill around her. “I want to present these flowers to you. Today is your Good Friday; but also I think your day of glory,” she said. “I’m so sorry that I was unable to be there for you in person despite traveling more than 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) in the hope of seeing you with my own eyes.” “But they have been holding me here on this highway for more than 10 hours now,” Chen says. “I just heard from the lawyer that the trial is over already.” “But whatever the outcome, this has not been a fair trial. This trial wasn’t yours; instead it was the scene of their crime.” Chang Weiping in an undated photo. Credit: China Human Rights Lawyers Global response German ambassador to China Patricia Flor hit out at the treatment of Chen. “#ChangWeiping’s wife @zijuan_chen was held up at a roadblock when trying to enter Feng [county], where she wanted to attend the trial,” Flor said via her official Twitter account. “It is unacceptable that relatives are obstructed from supporting a defendant. #Justice needs #transparency.” The French embassy in Beijing also tweeted on Tuesday: “The French Embassy in Beijing stands with human rights lawyer CHANG Weiping and his family ahead of his closed trial on 26 July … and reiterates its support for human rights lawyers working for the rule of law in China.” The British government account @UKinChina called for the release of Chang and all prisoners of conscience in China. “#ChangWeiping, arrested in 2020 after raising issues of torture and #humanrights in China (including his own mistreatment) is today scheduled for trial behind closed doors,” the account tweeted. “The UK calls for the release of all those currently detained for promoting fundamental rights and freedoms.” Chen said she had been told she couldn’t visit Feng county because she had traveled from Dongguan in the southern province of Guangdong, which the authorities said contained medium- and high-risk areas for COVID-19. “After that, an ambulance came to take me away to an isolation facility,” she told RFA. “They are going too far,” she added. “I had no problem getting out of Xianyang Airport, and had called to inquire about the COVID-19 policy for [the area] but then they pulled me over in Feng county.” “They used COVID-19 policy as an excuse.” Chen, who was traveling with an older relative and an eight-year-old child, called a lawyer to get some food delivered to the car, but was prevented from receiving it by police at the scene. Two friends of Chang’s, Tian Qiuli and Long Kehai, were also prevented from traveling to the court buildings, and ordered to return to nearby Baoji city by local police. Tian’s hair was pulled by a police officer during an altercation, and they were later detained, Chen said. Luo Shengchun, the wife of fellow detained rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, slammed the authorities’ treatment of Chang’s family. “It’s been really heard on [Chen] Zijuan, her mother and child, who have to stay overnight,” Luo told RFA. “I don’t know if they even have food to eat.” Attendees targeted Chang’s detention came after he attended a dinner with prominent activists in Xiamen, including the founder of the New Citizens’ Movement, Xu Zhiyong, in early December 2019. He and several others who had attended that dinner were arrested in a nationwide operation. The rights group Safeguard Defenders said in an October 2021 report on “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL) that the authorities have detained more than 57,000 people under the system since its inception in 2013, detailing a system of grueling interrogations and torture used to elicit “confessions” from detainees, who can be held for up to six months without access to a lawyer. The report said Chang was tortured during six months of RSDL between October 2020 and April 2021. Chang, who was only allowed to meet with a lawyer after nearly a year in detention, was strapped immobile into a “tiger chair” torture device for six days straight, and deprived of food and sleep, his lawyer said in September. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Chinese strike drone flies near Taiwan as island stages military drills

Editor06 mins

The Chinese military flew a reconnaissance and strike drone near Taiwan for the first time just as the island staged its largest multi-force drills to boost self-defense capabilities. Japan’s Ministry of Defense Joint Staff issued a press release on Monday saying that a Chinese TB-001 reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was spotted flying between the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyakojima before heading towards Taiwan. The drone, nicknamed the “Twin-Tailed Scorpion,” then flew very close to the coast of Taiwan’s Hualien County, deep inside the island’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). An ADIZ is an area where foreign aircraft are tracked and identified before further entering into a country’s airspace. The Japanese defense ministry also provided the UAV’s flight path which did not intrude into Japan’s airspace. The ministry still scrambled fighter jets in response and continued to monitor the situation. This was also the first time that a TB-001 has flown solo from the East China Sea to the Pacific, the ministry noted. Chinese TB-001’s Monday flight path. CREDIT: Japanese Ministry of Defense Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has yet to say anything about the drone’s flight operation but on Monday it said China sent another reconnaissance aircraft, a Shaanxi Y-8, to Taiwan’s ADIZ. “The TB-001 could also carry weapon systems and conduct attack missions,” Jyh-Shyang Sheu, a military expert at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research told RFA. “We have seen the UCAVs playing a role in attacking aircraft in some armed conflicts in recent years. By sending the drone, China might also want the challenge the air defense capability of Taiwan, but these kinds of UCAV are normally easily detected by radar systems,” said Sheu, who added that Taiwan needs to make sure that its integrated air defense system works well. Chinese air sorties have become much more regular in recent months as tension rises in the Taiwan Strait. The TB-001 is China’s modern medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV that can also be armed for combat purposes. Designed by Tengden Technology, an UAV manufacturer based in Sichuan, it is believed to help greatly boost the Chinese military’s reconnaissance capabilities. A Taiwan Navy frigate fires a missile during the combined drill on Tuesday. CREDIT: Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense Tracking Taiwan’s exercise Japanese media quoted anonymous military sources as saying that China may have flown the drone to gather information about Taiwan’s annual large-scale military drills, as well as to “give a warning to Taiwan.”  The annual Han Kuang military exercise entered Day Two on Tuesday, with President Tsai Ing-wen observing a joint naval combat readiness drill aboard a Kidd class destroyer. Some 20 different naval and coast guard vessels took part in the drill, believed to be the largest live-fire exercise ever staged with combined forces from all branches of the army. Tuesday’s drill also included port air defense and anti-mining exercises, and an anti-submarine operation. Elsewhere, thousands of army reservists are taking part in counterattack exercises in different locations, including some of Taiwan’s most strategic beaches.  Larger and more active participation of civilians and reservists is seen as the highlight of this year’s exercise. In Miaoli County, about 100 km west of Taipei, reservists were seen building concrete barriers on the beach in sweltering heat to block an enemy landing.  The Taiwanese defense ministry introduced a new, more demanding, reservist training program in March to improve the combat readiness of the island’s reserve forces in the face of threats from China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province.

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