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Malaysian FM: ASEAN’s Myanmar envoy welcomes informal talks with NUG, NUCC

Editor3 years ago09 mins

ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar has welcomed the idea of engaging informally with Myanmar’s Myanmar’s National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), a body of opposition stakeholders, and its parallel civilian government, as the junta has reneged on a promise to put the country back on a democratic path, Malaysia’s foreign minister said in an interview Wednesday. Meetings with opposition stakeholders could be held via video conference calls and other means if the junta prohibits such meetings in-person, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told BenarNews after an informal gathering here with other top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ahead of a leader-level summit here with the United States. “I thought the ASEAN special envoy, in his concluding remarks – though I cannot speak on his behalf – … in some ways welcomed the idea of engaging the NUG and the NUCC and the other stakeholders,” Saifuddin said. “Two other ministers spoke along the same lines, but not necessarily mentioning the NUG and the NUCC.” He was referring to the National Unity Government, Myanmar’s parallel, civilian-led government. The NUCC is a more representative body, which includes members of the NUG, civil society groups, ethnic armed organizations, and civil disobedience groups. Saifuddin’s proposals at Wednesday’s meeting in Washington included strengthening the role of the bloc’s envoy to Myanmar and ensuring that the United Nations special envoy to the country, Noeleen Heyzer, is invited to relevant ASEAN meetings. Heyzer could not attend an ASEAN meeting last week to coordinate humanitarian aid to Myanmar because the Burmese junta does not recognize her. “I mentioned that the U.N. secretary general’s special envoy needs to be invited to all of the relevant meetings, regardless what the junta is saying. You cannot allow the junta to dictate who is to be invited,” Saifuddin noted having told meeting with the ASEAN ministers. “If it is an ASEAN meeting, then it is ASEAN that should decide who is to attend. And in this context we should invite Dr. Noeleen Heyzer.” Two weeks ago, the Myanmar junta reacted furiously when Saifuddin said he planned to propose that the ASEAN envoy must engage informally with NUG. In its response, the junta branded the NUG “terrorist groups.” Judging from that response, the Burmese generals won’t be happy to learn that Saifuddin said he was planning to have his first in-person meeting with the NUG’s foreign minister, Zin Mar Aung, in Washington on Saturday. He said he planned to solicit her opinion on how the people of Myanmar can move on. ‘We need to be more creative’ The foreign ministers of the ASEAN member-states are in Washington with their countries’ leaders to participate in the U.S.-ASEAN summit. Saifuddin said the ministers had planned the informal meeting here to mainly discuss the crisis in post-coup Myanmar and the non-implementation of a five-point agreement that the junta agreed to with ASEAN to return the country to peace and democracy. The junta’s reneging on the agreement notwithstanding, ASEAN members plan to stick with the five-point consensus, Saifuddin said. “We are very much still on board with the five-point consensus, but I think many of us are quite frustrated …,” Saifuddin acknowledged. “I think we need to be more creative and that is why, for example, we [need to] start naming the stakeholders …the NUG, the NUCC, all of them.” The points of the consensus call for a constructive dialogue among all parties; the mediation of such talks by a special envoy of the ASEAN chair; and a visit to Myanmar by an ASEAN delegation, headed by the special envoy, to meet with all parties. BenarNews asked Saifuddin if he believed the NUG should attend the U.S.-ASEAN summit, because the junta is being kept out of ASEAN meetings and Washington is following the regional bloc’s lead on that. The NUG foreign minister was in Washington, as of Wednesday. “Well, we have not come to that point. My suggestion to the ASEAN meeting this morning was to engage informally. We, as you know, many of us are democrats at heart and our countries are democracies,” the Malaysian minister said. “But at the same time, we do not want to, you know, to do something that is probably beyond what we can handle. So I thought the best way forward for now is to engage with the NUG informally.” Meanwhile, when a senior Biden administration official was asked Wednesday about who would represent ASEAN member-state Myanmar at the summit, he replied “we’ll have more to say on this tomorrow.” “We have had diplomatic engagement with the government in exile. We are in discussions about the best way to represent what has transpired in Burma and how to represent that in the meeting,” the senior administration official told Radio Free Asia, the parent company of BenarNews, in a briefing to media. “I think one of the discussions has been to have an empty chair to reflect our dissatisfaction with what’s taken place and our hope for a better path forward.” BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

North Korean labor managers in China demand more money as job market tightens

Editor3 years ago08 mins

North Korean job placement officials in China are demanding more money and perks like free cell phones from Chinese companies for the use of North Korean workers, a consequence of the tight labor market that has grown out of the COVID-19 pandemic, sources in China told RFA. Pyongyang dispatches legions of workers to both Russia and China to work in factories and on construction sites to earn foreign cash for the state. The workers give the lion’s share of their salaries to their North Korean handlers, who forward it to the central government. But demand for workers is rising as China’s economy struggles under a new wave of lockdowns, giving officials at the North Korean human resources companies new negotiating leverage with their Chinese business partners. While the North Koreans say the extra cash will improve the lives of the foreign workers they supervise, Chinese business owners suspect the placement officials are using the money for other purposes. A common tactic is to request more money to improve the workers’ squalid living conditions, a Chinese citizen of Korean descent, from Yanji, in the northeastern province of Jilin, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “On the outskirts of Yanji, about 300 North Korean workers … are employed by a clothing processing company. According to the original contract, the monthly salary per worker is 2,000 yuan (U.S. $297), but the North Korean handler is asking for more money in addition to that,” the source said. “The North Korean handlers demand things like electronic devices like cell phones and laptops, which they will use. Even if the company president buys them the devices, they will still ask for more money under the pretext of feeding the workers meat and providing them with snacks,” he said. Since the border with North Korea remains closed, the labor managers hold all the cards and the company owners have very little leverage, according to the source. “It is impossible to dispatch more manpower from North Korea because of the coronavirus crisis. It’s like the North Korean manpower managers are strangling the Chinese company owner, who is in a hurry to get the factory operating,” he said. “Even with the Chinese company’s proposal to give an average of an additional 30 yuan ($4.46) per worker per day to account for the additional working hours, the North Korean officials argue that it is not enough,” the source said. In some disputes, the North Korean consulate has had to step in to mediate between the labor managers and business owners, another Chinese citizen of Korean descent in the border city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River from North Korea’s Sinuiju, told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The consulate sent a warning to a North Korean human resource company in a contract with a poultry processing company, urging them to ‘abide by the law and order of the host county,’ but to no avail,” the second source said. “The Chinese company offered an additional 15 yuan [$2.23] per hour per person for night work, but the North Korean official said that was not enough and they got into a huge argument,” he said. The Chinese business owner argued that he would be unable to offer more than the agreed 2,000 yuan per worker per month as stipulated in the contract unless there was additional night work, the second source said. “However, the North Korean officials are raising the issue, saying that fresh vegetables that were brought in daily before the coronavirus crisis have decreased to once a week during the pandemic, and the workers are suffering,” he said. “The officials say that the reason they are arguing over wages is to feed the workers better, but in reality, it is because they don’t have enough funds after they pay off the state,” the second source said, adding that most of the human resource companies operate a cafeteria exclusively for their workers, and they are usually adequately fed. “It is true however that after paying off the government and the consulate, as well as their food and living expenses, they don’t have enough to pay the workers their cut, as well as their food and living expenses,” he said. The U.N. Security Council reported that 50,000 out of 100,000 North Korean overseas workers were dispatched to China. The Chinese government claims to have repatriated more than half of the workers, but did not disclose specific figures. According to RFA sources, about 30,000 North Korean workers are believed to be in the Dandong area. North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019. But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions. Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Cambodian tycoon with ties to Chinese fugitive dies

Editor3 years ago04 mins

The Cambodian national soccer team wore black armbands during their Southeast Asia Games match against Singapore on Wednesday evening in tribute to Phnom Penh Crown Football Club owner Rithy Samnang who had died that morning, according to a statement from the Football Federation of Cambodia. It is understood that Samnang, who turned 41 in March, had been suffering from cancer. Outside of sports, Samnang had business interests in a variety of fields ranging from digital payments to hotels. He was not only incredibly wealthy but also highly connected. His wife Phu Cherlin is the daughter of Kok An, a senator in the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. In 2017, his brokerage firm Askap Gold was revealed by the Phnom Penh Post to count among its “main clients” Hun Maly, the youngest daughter of Prime Minister Hun Sen for whom it processed $600,000 of payments in one month alone. An RFA investigation last year revealed that Samnang had leveraged some of those high-level connections for the benefit of another business partner, Chinese fugitive Xu Aimin. Xu became a naturalized Cambodian citizen in 2005. Eight years later a Chinese court would find him guilty of running a $1.75 billion illegal online gambling ring from Cambodia and sentence him to 10 years in jail. While 36 of his co-conspirators were extradited, Xu has remained in Cambodia and at liberty. In 2019, six years after Xu was convicted over the illegal gambling scheme, he and Samnang broke ground on the KB Hotel, a luxury Sihanoukville property whose centerpiece – ironically enough – was a 650-square-meter casino. More recently, in February of this year VOD reported on victims of human trafficking who alleged they were held, beaten and forced to work on scam operations in buildings connected to the hotel. In the middle of a tribute video posted to Facebook on Wednesday by Samnang’s Phnom Penh Crown soccer team was footage of Samnang giving a speech at the Kantha Bopha hospital. Partially visible in the video at his right-hand side is Xu’s face and torso. The pair had been donating $200,000 to the hospital on behalf of an investment company they managed together. The donation had been overseen by the head of Cambodia’s military police Gen. Sao Sokha, who is also the president of the Football Federation of Cambodia. On Wednesday the federation posted photographs of Sokha paying his respects and burning incense over Samnang’s body, which was covered in a white cloth.

Hong Kong police arrest Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen over protester assistance fund

Editor3 years ago013 mins

National security police in Hong Kong have arrested four people including Cardinal Joseph Zen and pop star Denise Ho on suspicion of “collusion with foreign powers” after they acted as trustees for a legal defense fund for democracy protesters. Hui Po-keung, another trustee of the now-disbanded 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which helped arrested protesters pay for their legal and medical bills, was arrested at Hong Kong’s international airport on Tuesday. Zen, a 90-year-old retired Catholic bishop who has long been an outspoken defender of human rights, democracy and civil liberties, Cantopop singer Denise Ho and barrister Margaret Ng were also arrested on the same charge. Some reports said former pro-democracy lawmaker Cyd Ho, who is currently on remand awaiting trial in a different case, and who was also a trustee, would also likely face the same charge. The national security police confirmed they had arrested two men and two women aged 45 to 90, on suspicion of “conspiracy to collude with foreign powers.” Zen was released after several hours of questioning, the Hong Kong Free Press said via its Twitter account. The Vatican said in a statement reported by the Catholic News Agency that it was following the case closely. “The Holy See has learned with concern the news of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following the development of the situation with extreme attention,” the Holy See press office said. The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund was set up on June 15, 2019, at the height of the anti-extradition movement that broadened to include demands for fully democratic elections and greater official accountability. Its aim was to provide humanitarian relief in the form of funding for medical, psychological, legal and other necessary assistance to those injured or arrested during the police crackdown on the protest movement. The fund disbanded in August 2021 because it no longer had access to a bank account because the Alliance for Democracy that had processed its funding had been suspended. Both groups were later ordered to provide information to national security police on their sources of funding and their donors, under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. Cardinal Joseph Zen attends the Episcopal Ordination of the Most Reverend Stephen Chow in Hong Kong’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 4, 2021. Credit: AFP. ‘Brutal crackdown’ The law criminalized calls on the international community for sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials, overseas lobbying or fundraising on behalf of the pro-democracy movement, and criticism of the authorities deemed to incite public anger or “hatred” against the government. The U.K.-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said four trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund had been arrested, naming Ng, Denise Ho, Cardinal Zen and Hui. “We condemn the arrests of these activists whose supposed crime was funding legal aid for pro-democracy protesters back in 2019,” the group’s chief executive Benedict Rogers said in a statement on the group’s website. “Today’s arrests signal beyond a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” the statement said. “We urge the international community to shine a light on this brutal crackdown and call for the immediate release of these activists.” The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) also hit out at the arrests, which came days after pro-Beijing security hardliner John Lee was anointed leader of Hong Kong in a one-candidate election that analysts said erased most significant differences between the once free city and the Communist Party-run mainland. “These arrests mark a new and deeply worrying phase in the crackdown upon what remains of Hong Kong’s civil society,” it said in a statement. “John Lee, Hong Kong’s new chief executive, is posing a direct challenge to the international community and the autonomy promised to Hong Kong under international law,” IPAC said, calling for the immediate release of those arrested. “Mere words are no longer enough,” it said. “We also call upon our governments to impose targeted sanctions on John Lee, and others involved in these persecutions.” New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also called for the immediate release of those arrested, and for the charges against them to be dropped, China researcher Maya Wang said via her Twitter account. Meanwhile, a U.S.-based rights group went ahead with the 2022 Human Rights Press Awards after they were canceled by the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), citing legal risks under the national security law. “On #WorldPressFreedomDay, we declare that the freedom of the press will NOT be canceled,” Campaign for Hong Kong founder and president Simon Chu said via Twitter. “Help recognize journalists who told the truth courageously and those who can no longer report freely.” Hong Kong Cantopop singer, actress and LGBT activist Denise Ho posing for a photograph with protesters during a #MeToo rally calling on the Hong Kong police to answer accusations of sexual violence against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, August 28, 2019. Credit: AFP Xi is a ‘pathetic coward’ A petition calling on FCC president Keith Richburg to have a more public conversation about the controversial decision had garnered some 170 signatures its organizers said were journalists, including many former winners of the awards. (Disclosure: Richburg is a member of RFA’s board of directors). “More than 170 journalists signed the petition, 25 are reportedly this years’ awardees & over 20 of us are the former winners of the Awards. We emailed the FCC on 29 April, 3 May and today,” a Twitter account called @lettertofcc said on May 10. “I think we need to at least acknowledge that there are still journalists in Hong Kong who stick to their day-to-day reporting, and say that we stand with them, that we take note of them and their work, and thank them for that,” Yuen Chan, a senior lecturer on London’s City University journalism program, told RFA. She said simply saying that press freedom was dead was too pessimistic an approach for people who are still working as journalists in the…

China deletes WHO chief’s criticism of zero-COVID policy from social media platforms

Editor3 years ago011 mins

Ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censors rushed to delete comments by the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) criticizing its zero-COVID policy as unsustainable from social media platforms in China on Wednesday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on China to change its approach, saying CCP leader Xi Jinping’s favored policy “will not be sustainable” in the face of new fast-spreading variants of the virus. Tedros’ comments were deleted from Weibo and ignored by China’s tightly controlled state media. But foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian hit back at a news conference on Wednesday. “We hope the relevant individual can view Chinese COVID policy objectively and rationally and know the facts, instead of making irresponsible remarks,” Zhao said. CCP commentator Hu Xijin said Tedros should “respect China.” “When he speaks specifically about China, he should think whether his words will have a positive effect on promoting solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 in China,” Hu, a former editor-in-chief of the CCP-backed Global Times, said via his Twitter account. Keyword searches on Weibo for “Tedros” in Chinese, as well as the equivalent abbreviation to WHO yielded no results on Wednesday, while users were unable to share an article about his comments from an official U.N. account, Agence France-Presse reported. Prior to their deletion, Tedros’ comments had drawn a number of positive responses, with people wanting to know if the government would listen. The censorship came as the majority of Shanghai’s 26 million residents remained under a grueling lockdown, walled into their apartment buildings and homes with steel fencing, with major transportation routes and services shut down, as many still struggled to access food, essential supplies and urgently needed medical treatment. China insists that its zero-COVID strategy is the only way to prevent a massive death toll from COVID, as has been seen in other countries. Researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University published a paper in the scientific journal Nature on Tuesday saying that allowing the omicron variant to tear through the population would likely result in 1.6 million deaths and the collapse of rural healthcare systems. A worker disinfects the queue area of a swab test collection site for Covid-19 coronavirus in Beijing, May 11, 2022. Credit: AFP. Distancing from China But critics say the policy is the result of Xi wanting to boost his domestic image as a leader who can succeed by doing things differently from liberal democracies ahead of the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year. Lee Lung-teng, a high-ranking health minister in Taiwan’s government during the 2003 SARS epidemic, said Tedros appeared to be distancing himself from his previously cozy relationship with Beijing. “He had been helping them clean up their image and acting as if they were doing it right, but maybe he is coming under pressure from someone else, who could be threatening to withdraw their support for him if he continues to be so biased in favor of China,” Lee told RFA. “Maybe he can’t bear [not to speak out] any longer.” “Everywhere else is gradually opening up, so isn’t it a bit strange that they are still talking about zero-COVID … when a situation with no infections would be impossible,” he said. Ren Ruihong, former head of the medical assistance department at the Chinese Red Cross, said Xi is keen to tout his “victory” over the COVID-19 pandemic when he seeks an unprecedented third term in office at the 20th party congress. “The 20th CCP National Congress is happening soon,” Ren said. “International focus is on whether or not Xi Jinping can get another term in office.” “If he abandons the zero-COVID policy now, it will be tantamount to abandoning his own political platform … basically everyone understands that it’s a political necessity [for Xi].” A Shanghai resident surnamed Ma agreed, saying the city’s officials seem to be constantly changing how they implement the zero-COVID directives from higher up. “The decrees are changing daily, sometimes twice a day,” Ma said. “Different instructions are coming from different leaders.” “Nobody can figure out the rules. There aren’t any,” she said. “First they said we have to do a PCR test every five days, then it was seven.” “We were supposed to be out of lockdown by May 1, but now it’s mid-May and we’re still not out of it; nobody knows when it will end now,” Ma said. Losing patience in Shanghai Shanghai residents are increasingly unwilling to toe the line on mass testing amid a string of false positives reported on social media. “People aren’t scared of the virus at all now, but the rule of law has been completely destroyed,” Ma said. “The law is what the officials say it is.” “There’s no humanity, even if you’re sick or elderly: I think it’s worse than during the Cultural Revolution,” she said. In one video clip uploaded to social media, residents of Beicai township in Shanghai’s Pudong New District yell at officials for trying to get them to go to a makeshift “hospital” that was actually rows of tents. “Is this a place to house human beings?” one person shouts. “These tents would blow over in a strong wind.” Social media reports said private taxis are currently charging 3,000 yuan per pickup; 12,000 for airport transfers, after the city’s subway network was shut down. People also posted video showing officials in full PPE removing food from a large refrigerator in an apartment they had allegedly come to “disinfect.” Many social media accounts have been shut down permanently during the Shanghai lockdown. Retired Shanghai teacher Gu Guoping said several of his accounts have been shut down after he criticized the government. “My WeChat account has been blocked by the internet police and Tencent six or seven times, even after I changed my phone number,” Gu told RFA. “This means that I have been cut of from various sources of information, and I have very limited access to information that is local to Shanghai,” he said. The shutdowns came as the Shanghai Cyberspace Administration repeated calls for social media content users…

Uyghur secretary of Marxism Institute at Xinjiang University confirmed detained

Editor3 years ago05 mins

About 20 Uyghur teachers from a university in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region have been arrested, including the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of the school’s Marxism Institute, a Uyghur source in the town of Ghulja and local authorities told RFA. Six of the educators from Ili Pedagogical University in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) are being held in detention, including Abdullah Ismail of the Marxism Institute. He was abducted in 2018 and charged with being “two-faced,” the sources said. The CCP uses the term to describe an official or party member who is either corrupt or ideologically disloyal to the party. The source in Ghulja, who has knowledge of the situation, sent RFA the names and phone numbers of two people who had worked closely with the school on Abdullah Ismail’s case. When RFA called one of them, a staff member in the school’s Education Department, reluctantly acknowledged that she knew him but refrained from commenting on his situation. Parhat Kadir, Abdullah Ismail’s former high school classmate who now lives in the Netherlands and is the former chairman of the Dutch East Turkistan Uyghur Union, said Ismail was well-liked in high school, where he was a top student and a skilled soccer player. “Abdullah was my classmate from first to 10th grade,” he told RFA. “He was an honest and hardworking kid.” Abdullah Ismail, who was born in 1962 in Ghulja’s Suidong township, was admitted to the Literature Department of the Ili Pedagogical University in 1981, Kadir said. After he graduated four years later, he began teaching at the school. As secretary of the Marxism Institute, Ismail published research papers on Marxist theory in a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Ili Gazette, the source said. Ismail later was included on the list of suspicious persons in the school in 2017 when China stepped up its crackdown on Uyghurs by detaining them in “re-education” camps, and had been interrogated intermittently, the source from Ghulja said. He was charged with several criminal charges, though the source did not name them. The preliminary questioning was conducted by the School Discipline Commission, according to the source who provided the phone number of a disciplinary officer in charge of the investigation that year. The disciplinary officer confirmed that Ismail had been a member of school administration and was abducted in 2018. He also said he met the teacher four or five years ago and had sent material he collected during his investigation to the relevant authorities. “It was in 2017 that I was asked to collect and give his material to the school disciplinary committee,” he told RFA. “He was charged with being a two-faced person. “He was a member of school administration before being CCP secretary of the Marxism Institute at Ili Pedagogical University,” the disciplinary officer said. “He was the secretary when he was arrested. Nobody knows or nobody told us how many years he was sentenced to [following arrest] in 2018.” Behtiyar Nasir, deputy inspector general of the World Uyghur Congress, said he attended Ili Pedagogical University in the late 1980s when Ismail was a teacher there. He said Ismail had received a doctorate in philosophy from a university in Beijing. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

US warship sails through Taiwan Strait after China drills

Editor3 years ago010 mins

A U.S. warship has sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the second such transit in two weeks and only two days after a large Chinese military live-fire exercise, signaling increased tension in the strait. The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said that its Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on May 10 (Tuesday) through international waters in accordance with international law.” “The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” it said, adding that the transit “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” Exactly two weeks ago on April 26, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson, also from the 7th Fleet, made a similar transit. On both occasions, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “sent troops to track and monitor the U.S. warship’s passage,” according to a statement from the PLA Eastern Theater Command. Snr. Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson for the command, said China “firmly opposes” what he called “provocative acts” by the U.S. that sent “wrong signals” to Taiwan. The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense, meanwhile, said Wednesday that the Taiwanese military closely monitored movements at sea and in the air around Taiwan as the U.S. warship sailed northwards in the strait and “the situation was normal.” Prior to that it warned that on the same day as the U.S. ship’s transit, a Z-10 attack helicopter and two Ka-28 anti-submarine warfare helicopters of the PLA entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The Z-10 attack helicopter crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait, apparently a step up from the PLA incursions that occur almost daily at present. This was only the second time this year a Chinese aircraft has crossed the median line, with the first occurring on Jan. 31. Imminent attack on Taiwan? Over the weekend, the PLA conducted three days of live-fire drills around Taiwan with the participation of “naval, air and conventional missile forces,” according to its website. The Liaoning carrier group, led by the PLA first aircraft carrier, has been operating in the area and conducted training with live munitions in the Philippine Sea, east of Taiwan and south of Japan from May 3 to at least May 9. A J-15 jet fighter takes off from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills over the weekend. (Japan Ministry of Defense) The threat of a military action against Taiwan between now and 2030 is “acute,” U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said during a hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “It’s our view that (China is) working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention,” she said without elaborating further. Haines and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Scott Berrier said that events in the Ukrainian war and how Beijing construes them could impact China’s timeline and approach to Taiwan but they believe that China prefers to avoid a military conflict over the island if possible. Grant Newsham, a retired U.S. Marine colonel turned political analyst, said that by his own estimate a PLA attack on Taiwan could happen “anytime from 2023 onwards.” “It much depends on the United States. If America is distracted by domestic turmoil, is having financial troubles, and is focused on a war in Ukraine, I think Beijing just might make its move,” Newsham told RFA. “China has indeed been building a military force and capability designed to attack and subjugate Taiwan. They have probably had the capability to move an assault force across the Strait since at least 10 years ago,” the analyst added. “We are in a dangerous time. “ China considers Taiwan a province of China and has repeatedly said that the democratic island of 23 million people will eventually be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. ‘One-China’ Policy On Tuesday, China reacted angrily after the U.S State Department updated its page on U.S.-Taiwan relations on May 5 and removed wordings such as “Taiwan is part of China” and “The United States does not support Taiwan independence.” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian speaks during a news conference in Beijing, China March 18, 2022. (Reuters) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing that the U.S. modification of the fact sheet “is a trick to obscure and hollow out the one-China principle.” “Such political manipulation of the Taiwan question and the attempt to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait will hurt the U.S. itself,” Zhao warned. “There is only one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” the spokesman said. “The U.S. has made solemn commitments on the Taiwan question and the one-China principle in the three China-U.S. joint communiqués,” he said, adding that Washington should abide by them. The U.S. State Department responded that “there’s been no change in our policy.” “All we have done is update a fact sheet, and that’s something that we routinely do with our relationships around the world,” spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing on Tuesday, pointing out that the fact sheet has not been updated for several years. “When it comes to Taiwan, our policy remains guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques and Six Assurances, as that very fact sheet notes,” Price said. The spokesman reconfirmed “our rock-solid, unofficial relationship with Taiwan,” and said the U.S. calls upon China to “behave responsibly and to not manufacture pretenses to increase pressure on Taiwan.” Under the U.S. policy, Washington has formal diplomatic relations with Beijing but retains a “robust unofficial relationship” with Taipei and is committed by law to make available to the island the means to defend itself.

Activists face new threats as pro-junta militias spread in Myanmar

Editor3 years ago09 mins

Death threats against pro-democracy and anti-junta activists are on the rise across Myanmar as militia groups loyal to the military regime expand their presence in the country’s urban areas and other more densely populated regions, sources said Tuesday. In late April, eight members of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) and their supporters were found brutally murdered in Mandalay with badges or cards on their bodies displaying the insignia of a group calling itself the Thway Thauk, or “Blood Comrades,” militia. Since the killings, similar groups have emerged in Bago, Tanintharyi, and Irrawaddy regions, as well as in the capital Naypyidaw, issuing death threats on social media against the NLD, activists, journalists, and members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group, sources said. Among them are the Thway Thitsar (Loyal Blood) in Naypyidaw, the Yangon Castigate Group (YCS) in Yangon, the Patriotic Coalition in Bago region’s Pyay township, and the Soon Ye (Kite Force) in Tanintharyi region. An anti-coup protester in Tanintharyi region’s Dawei township told RFA’s Myanmar Service that opponents of the military regime feel increasingly unsafe as the groups spread. “What I am worried about is my family members, not myself. I’m worried that my family members will be killed,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Neither side has complete control on the ground and so people are in a very precarious situation.” On May 2, a group in Tanintharyi’s Launglon township calling itself Soon Ye said in a Facebook post that it had the addresses of anti-coup protesters and would harm their family members if they did not stop their activities. A day later, the Dawei District Democracy Movement Strike Committee said in a statement that Soon Ye members shot and killed three villagers in their homes in Launglon’s Pandale village on April 28 and killed another man on the road between Dawei and Launglon on May 3. In Bago’s Pyay township, a group calling itself the Patriotic Coalition began posting threats in recent days, according to residents. On May 5, the Thway Thauk posted a statement on its Telegram social media account that claimed an anti-coup protester was killed in nearby Wethteegan township’s Hlwa-zin village, although sources in the area told RFA no such killing had occurred. Kyaw Zeya, a former Member of Parliament for the NLD in Pyay township, said such threats are part of a bid by pro-junta forces to cut off support for the PDF and the country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG). “They are trying to discourage people from supporting the NUG government and to stop engaging in political activities,” he said. “Those who have been very active on the political scene and their families could become their targets. So, this is a time for everyone to be extremely cautious in their movements.” A former NLD MP for Irrawaddy region’s Maubin township named Ei Ei Pyone said in a Facebook post that her family received an online threat from a group calling itself the Maubin Thway Thauk on Monday. A day earlier, the same group opened fire on a resident of the town named Zaw Win Myint, while other sources reported hearing gunfire in the area that evening. ‘A downward spiral’ Aung Thu Nyein, director of ISP-Myanmar, a research institute, told RFA that rule of law “has totally collapsed” in Myanmar and said no political stakeholder is safe. “It’s a downward spiral, with one side killing the other and so on,” he said. “In this situation, when people have no security, who would dare to set up a political party?” Observers have speculated that the military regime may have been behind the recent bloodshed attributed to the militia groups, but junta Deputy Minister Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun denied the claims in an April 27 press conference and said they were carried out by the PDF to create “confusion and instability.” He also rejected accusations that the military regime had ignored the killings, although no suspects have been arrested in any of the cases. According to RFA reporting, pro-junta militias are responsible for killing at least 18 people between April 25 and May 10. The dead include NLD members and party supporters, family members of PDF paramilitaries, and civilians from Mandalay, Yangon, Kyaukse, Singhu and Launglon townships. A high court lawyer told RFA that the junta assumed responsibility for such killings after it seized control of the country in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. “The political rivalry is gradually growing stronger and stronger, and the situation is getting out of control at the grassroots level,” said the lawyer, who also declined to be named. “The rule of law has collapsed and the regime, which has taken control of state power, is fully responsible for the situation.” Political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA that Myanmar had become “a failed state.” “This is a natural outcome when two sides are competing for dominance, and so we cannot say which side is right or wrong,” he said. “All of this happened as a result of the junta’s violent repression of the people, and now our country is in ruins.” Junta security forces have killed at least 1,833 civilians and arrested nearly 10,600 others since last year’s coup, according to Thailand-based NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners — mostly during peaceful protests of military rule. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Deaths and arrests rise in Myanmar’s heartland

Editor3 years ago011 mins

Junta security forces have killed at least 155 civilians and arrested 683 others in Myanmar’s Magway region — the heartland of the majority Bamar people — since the military seized power 15 months ago, according to reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Local sources said that troops had destroyed more than 2,100 houses by arson in Magway over the same period — making it second only to Sagaing in regions hit hardest by the attacks since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup. In the first week of April alone, at least 20 villages were razed in Magway’s Pauk township, where the armed opposition has gained a foothold in recent months. Sources told RFA that nearly all the incidents occurred in the Magway townships of Magway, Pakokku, Seik Phyu, Gangaw, Saetottara and Myaing — all pockets of strong resistance to military rule. Much of the reporting on abuses by junta troops to date has focused on Myanmar’s remote border regions, where armed ethnic groups seeking independence have battled the country’s military for decades and established a patchwork of self-administered territories. The new statistics from Magway, where the population is more than 95% Bamar, suggest that not even members of the Myanmar’s majority ethnic group in the country’s central region are immune to attacks by the military. Daw Aye, a 56-year-old woman from a village in southern Pauk township, told RFA that her home was destroyed in two fires set by the military and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militiamen on April 10 and 24. “My house was a decent building with a separate stable for the animals … and now it’s all gone,” she said, adding that her destroyed property was valued at around 20 million kyats (U.S. $10,800). “I don’t know if I’ll ever live in that kind of house again. We have no place to live even if we could go back to the village. We no longer sleep peacefully at night. We cannot eat our meals in peace. We must always be alert.” Residents of Gangaw township’s Taungbet village said troops and Pyu Saw Htee fighters set two fires that destroyed 36 houses there after accusing them of providing haven to anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries, which the military regime has labeled a terrorist group. More than 800 people were forced to flee the village in the attacks, they said, adding that at least 695 houses in 17 Gangaw villages have been destroyed by arson since the coup. Lay Lay Win, a resident of Pauk’s Htan Pauk Kone village, told RFA that her husband Than Tun Oo was arrested on Feb. 21 while he worked on the tract’s water tower by a 30-man column of junta troops from the military’s Pakokku-based 101st Brigade, who brutally murdered him the same day. “My husband was said to be tortured and stabbed. He was hit in the face with rifle butts and was vomiting blood before he died,” she said. “We only learned of his fate when some of the young men who were arrested that day and later released told us what had happened.” Lay Lay Win, who has two young children and is pregnant with her third child, said that Than Tun Oo was targeted after informants told the military he was assisting the local PDF. She said the military did not inform her of her husband’s death or return his body to their family. Gangaw township, which borders Myanmar’s restive Chin state, was one of the first centers of armed opposition to junta rule. Fighting between the local PDF and the military has been frequent there since early 2022, as it has been in the nearby townships of Saw and Htee Lin. Residents of the area told RFA that every time the two sides clash, the military raids nearby villages, targeting them with arson attacks and even air strikes. Refugees on the rise Meanwhile, the number of refugees forced to flee their homes amid the fighting in Magway has risen in recent months, according to residents. In Htee Lin township alone, some 1,400 people have been displaced since the coup. Kyaw Aye, a resident of the township’s Kyin village, told RFA he and his family had to flee their home four times on April 17, the day of the Burmese New Year, due to repeated air strikes. “On New Year’s Day, we heard gunshots near the village. Our whole family huddled together at home because we were scared and we had to flee in the evening as a plane flew over the village and fired randomly,” he said. “We’ve been on the run again and again — once four times in one day [on New Year’s Day],” he said. “We’re now taking refuge in a nearby village after spending two nights in the jungle.” Kyaw Aye said he was among 70 people, including children and the elderly, who fled his village during the most recent military attack and were forced to find shelter in the jungle. When asked about the arrests and killings in Magway, junta deputy minister of information, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, attributed them to PDF groups moving between the region and Chin state. “In the northern part of Magway region, there have been some fake reports that the army was burning villages. But when we captured some PDF members, they said that the army didn’t do it,” he said. “We captured a nurse and a health worker, and their statements were already released to newsmen. This group is making up stories about what is really happening.” History of resistance Despite the army raids, Boh Cross, the leader of the Myaing Township PDF, told RFA that the armed opposition is gaining significant territory in northern Magway. “The situation is much better than before,” he said, adding that there are now eight PDF units in Myaing township alone, with a strength of more than 10,000 fighters. “Our organizations … are all working together.” Pauk Kyaing, a resident of Pauk township, told RFA that Magway region has long…

Struggling businesses ready to welcome tourists again as Laos reopens

Editor3 years ago07 mins

Laos fully reopened its borders to foreign visitors Monday after more than two years of coronavirus restrictions, a move applauded by business owners who rely on tourism to the landlocked Southeast Asian nation. Laos’ economy is likely to still feel the effects of the pandemic, however, as China, a major economic partner, is keeping its borders closed after a resurgence of the virus in many of the country’s major cities. The Lao Prime Minister’s Office issued a notice May 7 indicating that it would lift nearly all restrictions, including reopening all international border checkpoints and entertainment venues in the country. Everyone aged 12 and over who is not vaccinated, including Lao citizens, have to show negative COVID-19 tests within 48 hours of their departure for Laos. But they do not need to submit to tests following their arrival, and vaccinated people do not have to be tested at all, the notice said. “As the notice indicated, we’re now wide open,” an official of the Information Culture and Tourism Department of the Lao capital Vientiane told RFA’s Lao service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “All the Lao-Thai friendship bridges are open and everybody is free to enter or exit Laos and can travel all over the country,” the official said. A Thai immigration officer at a bridge between Laos’ Savannakhet province and Thailand’s Mukdahan province told RFA on Monday that traffic has already picked up. “They’re required to have only their passport and a proof of vaccination,” the Thai officer said. “Many Thais and Laotians have crossed the bridge today.” That is welcome news to many Laotians who have struggled to keep businesses afloat without the benefit of tourism. “We’re happy because we’ve been struggling for more than two years,” a restaurant owner in Vang Vieng, a popular tourist town in Vientiane province, told RFA. “We all hope that the tourists come to our town and our country soon, so that we can have some badly needed income.” That sentiment was shared by a hotel employee in Vientiane. “I’m happy that we have the opportunity to receive more foreign tourists,” the source said. “The country is completely open like before the pandemic, and I am happy to return to my job and see all the night clubs and karaoke bars open again.” Laos relies heavily on its tourism industry: the 4.8 million foreign visitors it welcomed in 2019 accounted for 5.9% of its gross national product (GNP). Tourism fell off a cliff in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Only 886,400 visitors arrived in Laos that year, the latest data from the World Tourism Organization, generating just 1.2% of GNP. Tourism from Thailand is especially important to Laos, accounting for more than 2 million of the 2019 visits. But more than 1 million Chinese also visited Laos that year, and until China relaxes its border restrictions, tourism is unlikely to reach pre-pandemic levels. Exports to China will also remain limited, further delaying a full economic recovery. “We’ve been open since yesterday, but the Chinese side hasn’t opened yet because China hasn’t lifted their COVID-19 restrictions,” a Lao border official stationed at Boten, the main crossing point between China and Laos in Luang Namtha province, told RFA on Tuesday. “They are only allowing a maximum of 300 trucks a day into their country.” Trucks from Laos must wait more than a week to get into China, a Lao trucker said. “They’re not open. It’s getting more difficult to get into China and it takes at least seven days to cross the border,” he told RFA. An official at Luang Namtha’s Public Works and Transport Department told RFA that the Chinese authorities are overly strict. “When are they going to open their border? The answer is ‘I don’t know,’ because the number of COVID-19 cases in China is still on the rise, several thousand a day,” the source said. In the most recent outbreak, newly confirmed daily cases in China peaked in late April at more than 30,000. But major cities across the country remain under strict lockdowns as part of the country’s zero-COVID policy. The number of active COVID-19 cases in Laos is in decline, with only 110 new cases on Monday. About 67 percent of the country’s population of 7.2 million are fully vaccinated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country confirmed 208,535 cases and 749 deaths, according to statistics from the health ministry. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Category: World