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Uyghurs warned against divulging ‘state secrets’ before UN right chief ‘s China visit

Editor010 mins

Chinese officials in Xinjiang are warning Uyghurs not to divulge “state secrets” during a visit by United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet this month, officials in the western region said. A Chinese government video instructing Uyghurs on 10 things not to do has been shared widely on Douyin, a Chinese version of the TikTok short video app, in Xinjiang, the sources said. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee of Yarkand (in Chinese, Shache) county in Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture recently uploaded the video to social media. It features 10 female CCP officials from the county reciting the “10 commandments” and warning Uyghur residents not to disclose so-called state secrets. Chinese officials in Xinjiang told RFA that a government notice with the same title had been issued two months ago. “It’s been around two months since we received it,” said a female police officer from Yarkand township. When RFA pointed out that the same directive was previously in place, the officer said it was renewed because of the U.N. delegation’s visit. A five-member advance team from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) arrived in China last week to prepare for a visit by Bachelet expected in May, though the dates have not yet been disclosed. The U.N. human rights chief and former Chilean president first announced that her office sought an unfettered access to Xinjiang in September 2018, shortly after she took over her current role. But the trip has been delayed over questions about her freedom of movement through the region. Uyghur activists and other rights groups are pressing for Bachelet to have independent and unfettered access to Xinjiang to conduct a meaningful investigation of alleged atrocities in the region. Human rights activists say that by issuing such notices and promotional videos, China is threatening the region’s residents not to disclose any information about the government’s widely documented repression of Uyghurs. A directive not to take calls RFA contacted Chinese government offices in several cities in Xinjiang to ask officials about the preparations that were underway before Bachelet’s arrival. Most said that authorities have warned locals not to accept calls from unknown phone numbers and not to answer questions from the U.N. human rights team without approval from the government. “We have a directive to not answer phone calls starting with zero,” said a female official from Yarkand county’s Dongbagh village, referring to international calls in China. A security chief from the No. 2 village of Imamlirim township in Aksu (Akesu) prefecture’s Uchturpan (Wushi) county said people were informed about the directive at a village meeting. “Don’t talk to any foreigners and don’t answer phone calls starting with zero. This was told to us at the village meeting,” he said. In the Yarkand county CCP video, authorities warned Uyghurs in sometimes threatening manner not to divulge, question or argue about “state secrets.” A male police officer from the Dongbagh village police station said he was worried about answering questions from RFA because of the government directive. “We have a directive on not answering questions from unknown and strange phone calls and people,” the officer said. Zumret Dawut, a Uyghur who was held in an internment camp and says he was forced to undergo permanent sterilization surgery, said Chinese authorities have always required Uyghurs in Xinjiang to keep quiet whenever U.N. human rights commissioners have visited the region. “Similar directives existed when I was there,” Dawut said. “They asked us the same things before flag raising ceremonies in the morning. They would ask us not to speak to foreigners and not to talk to them about the [internment] camps, and so on.” Up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and others have been held in a vast network of internment camps operated by the Chinese government under the pretext of preventing religious extremism and terrorism among the mostly Muslim groups. China has said that the camps are vocational facilities for Uyghurs and meant to deter religious extremism and terrorism. “They would ask us to stay away from foreigners and if asked about China, they would say talk to them about positive things about the country,” Dawut said. ‘China is afraid’ Bachelet will be the first U.N. human rights commissioner to visit China since 2005. Her office has been under pressure from rights activists to issue an overdue report on rights violations by Chinese authorities targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in the Xinjiang. Uyghur groups have demanded that office issue the report before her visit. RFA previously reported that since 2009, Uyghurs arrested on charges of “leaking state secrets” have been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Uyghurs are sensitive to the consequences of saying too much, Dawut said. “Despite this, the authorities still felt it was necessary to continue such propaganda,” Dawut told RFA. “The need for this Chinese heightened alert on tightening the information leaks on of state secrets may have been the result of the forthcoming visit by a U.N. investigation team.” Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, a Uyghur political observer who lives in the United States, said a country’s state secrets should only be known by high-ranking officials or institutions that govern that country, and not the public. “If the Chinese government is urging the rural population of the Uyghur region not to divulge so-called state secrets, then what is being hidden here is not a secret, but all the policies and practices of the state — which is the Uyghur genocide,” he told RFA. “China is afraid that the U.N.’s Bachelet will discover the truth if Uyghurs speak out about the Chinese policy of genocide,” Kokbore said. “That’s why they have initiated this campaign of deception.” Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Vietnam ‘opinion workers’ push Russian fake news on Ukraine on social media

Editor010 mins

Vietnamese “opinion workers” who promote the Communist Party and protect its image on social media now have a new role: spreading fake or misleading reports that support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Facebook. Facebook groups like “Đơn vị Tác chiến Mạng” (Cyber CombatUnit), “Truy quét Phản động” (Elimination of Reactionary Forces), “Bộ Tự lệnh Tác chiến” (Combat Command), and “Trung đoàn 47” (Regiment 47) that have worked to counter criticism of the Communist Party all now post information in favor of Russia. For example, Trung đoàn 47, which is believed to be part of a cyber combat force in the Vietnam People’s Army, posted this justification for the invasion: “Mr. Putin said: ‘Moscow has done everything it can to maintain Ukraine’s territorial integrity as well as protect the interests of Donetsk and Lugansk’s people but Kiev had blocked Donbas, suppressing local residents and shelling Donbas.’” Đơn vị Tác chiến Mạng posts fake news on a nearly daily basis. One video clip shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with members of his Cabinet and a close-up shot of a handful of white powder on his desk that looks like heroin. Đơn vị Tác chiến Mạng claimed that Zelensky posted this video on his website before it was quickly deleted. Facebook attached an alert on the video to let viewers know it is an altered recording, though it is still available. Even wider of the mark has been coverage of the massacre in Bucha, a town outside the capital Kyiv where hundreds of Ukrainians were killed by Russian soldiers. The torture and murder of Bucha residents apparently carried out by Russian soldiers before Ukrainian forces retook the town has drawn international calls to bring perpetrators to justice for war crimes. But Don Vi Tac Chien Mang said the atrocities were faked by Ukraine officials and soldiers, who, the Facebook group claimed, transported the corpses to Bucha from another location. RFA sent evidence to prove the video was fake to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, asking for comment as to why the social media platform had not yet identified it as such. A team representative said a response would be forthcoming within 24 hours, but RFA did not receive a reply. ‘It cannot discourage me’ The pro-Russian disinformation comes from a force of tens of thousands of cyber troops created by the Hanoi regime to watch and attack people online for posting information seen as detrimental to the Vietnamese Communist Party. Targets include individual netizens like Phan Chau Thanh, a Vietnamese businessman living in Poland who along with his friends began to organize the delivery of relief aid to Ukraine refugees in Poland right after the war broke out. “I find this war extremely unjustifiable,” Thanh said. “How can Russia carry out an invasion of another country right in the middle of Europe in the 21st century? Therefore, I want to provide Vietnamese people with updates about the war through the eyes of a person living in Europe.” Posts from his Facebook account garner thousands of views among Vietnamese, including government officials and the army of official influencers. “Since the war started, or over the past 60 days, my Facebook account has been blocked four times,” he said, due to reports accusing him of violating Facebook’s community standards. In December 2021, Meta, Facebook’s parent, announced that it had removed from the site a network of users who attacked political dissidents in Vietnam through similar methods. Thanh said he has also received a flurry of obscene and nasty comments, a typical tactic of Vietnamese cyber troops. “Of course, it makes me feel down, but it cannot discourage me,” he said. “It irritates me, but in many cases it gives me stronger determination to keep going.” RFA sent Facebook a message containing Phan Chau Thanh’s complaints but did not receive a response. In many cases, Vietnamese opinion workers are amplifying fake news created by Russian propagandists. Their influence could be seen recently when a video of four Ukrainian men ripping apart Vietnamese flags went viral on Facebook, passed on as “evidence” of the Ukrainian government’s hostile view toward the Southeast Asian nation. The video fueled a wave of criticism against Ukraine and served to support the Vietnamese government’s decision to maintain neutrality in the face of Russia’s brutal attack. It turned out the flag-tearing incident occurred in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv 16 years ago. Fallout from the video Oleksandr Gaman, Ukraine’s ambassador to Vietnam, was forced to address the fallout from the video on the embassy’s Facebook page. “The information war, part of the burning war in Ukraine, has come to Vietnam. Russia is making every effort to create frictions between Ukrainian and Vietnamese people,” Gaman said in a video speech posted on April 19, adding that old videos and photos and fake facts were being presented as the official position of Ukraine. A representative from the Ukrainian Embassy in Hanoi told RFA that Russia also has a large army of fake newsmakers. Natalia Zhynkina, the embassy’s temporary chargé d’affaires, said Russia was taking advantage of the image of the former Soviet Union, a country that supported Vietnam during its war with the United States, to make its propaganda appealing to the Vietnamese. But she questioned the effectiveness of Russia’s tactics. “A question should be asked about the effectiveness of Russia’s communication attempts in Vietnam,” she told RFA. “I believe that the information created by Russia has failed to attract the attention of young people. A communication campaign based on hostility and a war will never succeed.” Despite Russia’s efforts, many Vietnamese have shown support for Ukraine in various ways. Hundreds of people in Hanoi have taken part in events at the Ukrainian Embassy and fundraising events to raise money for those affected by the armed conflict. Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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Laos shrugs as villagers lose farms to dam reservoir

Editor06 mins

Developers who built Laos’ Nam Khan 3 dam have not compensated farmers who lost crops to rising water in the reservoir, sources living near the dam told RFA. A Lao government official said the displaced villagers were unlikely to get any more money. The dam, which sits on the Nam Khan River, began operating in 2016, and the villagers were relocated downstream to a newly built resettlement village. While they received money for lost homes, they were never given any compensation or new plots of farmland. Instead, they were told that they could continue to work at their farms upstream from the dam. But those farms are now flooded. “The dam owner recently made a survey. When they close the waterway, the water in the reservoir is on the rise and floods the villagers’ farmland,” a villager living near the dam in the province’s Xieng Ngeun district in the northern part of the country told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “The villagers have not received compensation like a plot of new cultivated farmland in a resettlement village. It seems like the dam owner just got their land for free and they get nothing at all,” the villager said. According to the villager, the dam has negatively affected more than 650 people in 10 villages. “There are only a few parts of the farmland that are not completely flooded. The villagers have not received money for their lost farmland, but all of them want it. If we do not get the compensated, for our lost farmland, it will be so sad,” a second villager said. A Xiengngeun district official confirmed to RFA that the rising water in the reservoir has damaged farmland and trees and caused landslides. “The dam owner has to investigate and solve these problems, and the district has informed them they should do this,” the official said. An official at the province’s Energy and Mines Department, however, told RFA that the villagers were not entitled to compensation for flooded farms because the dam owned the land and had allowed the farmers to cultivate it. The Nam Khan 3 Dam is a 60-megawat dam, designed and constructed by the Sinohydro Corporation of China and owned by the state-run Électricité du Laos, which financed the project by borrowing about $130 million from China’s Exim Bank. The Nam Khan River, where the dam was built, meets the Mekong River at the ancient city of Luang Prabang in the northern part of Laos. The project is one of dozens of dams that Lao has constructed on the Mekong River and its tributaries under its controversial economic strategy to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia” by selling electricity to neighboring countries. But displaced villagers commonly complain that they are not sufficiently compensated for what they have lost in the name of development. The energy official said the villagers would not be able to cultivate any of the land near the reservoir without permission. “Water is rising in the areas belonging to the dam owner, so there is no problem,” the energy official said. “As there is no farmland left in the resettlement village, there will be no compensation to those villagers who are affected by the dam,” said the energy official, who pointed out that the villagers already received compensation for their houses, as well as some of the trees on their property. From the local government’s point of view, the issue of compensation has already been settled, he said. When villagers who said they were told they could continue to farm on land that has now been flooded complained to the National Assembly for relief, they were told that the issue of compensation had been resolved and they were not eligible for additional relief. Reported and translated by RFA/Lao service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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China clamps down on dissident writer who criticized cult of personality around Xi

Editor010 mins

Despite asking for public input ahead of a key party congress later this year, Chinese authorities appear to be stepping up its clampdown on public dissent amid a growing cult of personality around ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping. Retired writer and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Association Tian Qizhuang is apparently incommunicado after he submitted an “opinion” opposing the Xi personality cult, saying it was in breach of the CCP charter. In an open letter to CCP disciplinary chief Zhao Leji, Tian accused Guangxi regional party secretary Liu Ning of “serious violations” of the party charter in a speech he made in a recent communique. “We must work hard to forge our party spirit and loyalty to core [leader Xi Jinping] with a high degree of political awareness,” the communique read, after the regional party CCP conference elected Xi as a delegate after he was nominated by the CCP Central Committee, in an exercise aimed at requiring and demonstrating loyalty to Xi. “[We must] always support our leader, defend our leader and follow our leader,” the communique said. In his letter, Tian argued that the communique was in breach of a clause added to the CCP charter at the 12th Party Congress in 1982, forbidding personality cults around Chinese leaders. “The key point about cults of personality is that they privilege personal power over the constitution and the law, violating the republican principle that everyone is equal before the law,” Tian wrote. “The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region party committee has blatantly issued this communique in violation of the CCP charter,” he said. “This denial of the basic policy of sticking to the rule of law also shows that the cult of personality [around Xi] has already reached a dangerous level,” Tian wrote, calling on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) to “investigate and deal with the matter promptly, and make the results and punishment known to the whole party … to prevent such corrupt thoughts and culture from making a comeback.” The CCP, instructed by Xi, has said it is soliciting online opinions and suggestions ahead of the party congress from April 15 through May 16, in a bid to “brainstorm and promote democracy.” But several days after the letter was published, Tian received a visit from local state security police, who swept his home for “evidence,” confiscating his cell phone and computer. Paeans to Xi The Guangxi communique came after outgoing Shenzhen party secretary Wang Weizhong lauded Xi to the skies in his valedictory speech, listing five of the leader’s attributes for which he would remain “eternally grateful.” Current affair commentator Wei Xin said paeans to Xi are likely to become even more frequent in the run-up to the 20th CCP National Congress later this year. “On the one hand, we have a wave of populism, accompanied on the other by structural changes in the highest echelons of the CCP Central Committee, which is inclining itself more and more towards individual totalitarianism,” Wei told RFA. “The party constitution isn’t enough to rein in the cult of personality or the centralization of power in one individual in the face of those changes,” he said. “[These tendencies within] the CCP will get stronger and stronger in the next six months as we approach the 20th party congress, and will likely peak in the fall.” Wei’s warning harks back to a 2010 essay by Chengdu party school professor Liu Yifei titled “Never forget to oppose personality cults.” In it, Liu warns that a lack of clear understanding in party ranks of the dangers led to disaster in the absence of strong institutional constraints, resulting in “a leader who couldn’t be curbed” by his own party: late supreme leader Mao Zedong. Feng Chongyi, a professor of Chinese Studies at the Sydney University of Technology in Australia, said the emerging personality cult around Xi is linked to the CCP leader’s successful removal of presidential term limits via China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), in 2018. “After the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976] ended, the party line was against individual autocracy, and the abolition of lifelong leadership was part of that,” Feng said. “No leader from Hu Yaobang, to Zhao Ziyang, to Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, served more than two terms in office, but he is now breaking that rule and bringing back lifelong tenure.” “To achieve that, he needs a deification campaign and a personality cult; it’s all part of the same operation,” he said. Distractions from bad news Feng said there is plenty of bad news from which Xi needs to distract people through populism. “There is trouble at home and abroad, with a constantly weakening economy, and worsening confrontation with developed countries,” he said. “This has created a lot of dissatisfaction within party ranks, but China doesn’t have … democratic elections or any political process.” “So, as long as they can suppress people like this writer, he will get his re-election,” Feng said. Tian’s silence came as online platforms including Weibo, Douyin and WeChat began requiring users to supply their IP address, making it easier to locate people when they comment or post. WeChat said it will begin displaying the location of users when they publish content, using their IP address, with domestic accounts showing the user’s province, autonomous region or directly governed municipality, and overseas accounts showing their country. Hebei-based political scientist Wei Qing said the move feeds into the growing use of “grid management,” which divides localities up into grids, giving officials responsibility for the actions of anyone living in their square. “The goal is grid management, which is central government policy, and the Cyberspace Administration is implementing that central policy,” Wei said. “Controlling the movement of people is the biggest characteristic of an autocratic society.” “Now that China is heading back to the Cultural Revolution, the movements of people both in physical space and in cyberspace, will be one of the most important goals.” He said local officials’ knowledge of who is posting from where…

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Vietnam protests as China declares annual South China Sea fishing ban

Editor08 mins

China has once again announced a unilateral fishing moratorium in the South China Sea, to vigorous protests by Vietnam but the Philippines has so far not reacted. The three-and-half-month ban began on Sunday and covers the waters north of 12 degrees north latitude in the South China Sea which Vietnam and the Philippines also call their “traditional fishing grounds.” Hanoi spoke up against the fishing ban, calling it “a violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty and territorial jurisdiction.” The moratorium applies to part of the Gulf of Tonkin, and the Paracel Islands claimed by both China and Vietnam. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman said: “Vietnam requests China to respect Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its maritime zones when taking measures to conserve biological resources in the East Sea (South China Sea), without complicating the situation towards maintaining peace, stability and order in the East Sea.” Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said Vietnam’s stance on China’s fishing ban “is consistent and well established over the years.” Meanwhile the Philippines, which holds a presidential election next weekend, hasn’t responded to the moratorium. In the past, Manila has repeatedly protested and even called on Filipino fishermen to ignore the Chinese ban and continue their activities in the waters also known as the West Philippine Sea. Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang speaks at a news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam July 25, 2019. Credit: Reuters. Risks of overfishing China has imposed the annual summer fishing ban since 1999 “as part of the country’s efforts to promote sustainable marine fishery development and improve marine ecology,” Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. A collapse of fishery stocks in the South China Sea due to overfishing and climate change could fuel serious tensions and even armed conflict, experts said.  “Overfishing is the norm in open-access fisheries, so restrictions on fishing represent a sensible policy,” said John Quiggin, professor of economics at the University of Queensland in Australia. “But China’s decision to impose such restrictions implies a claim of territorial control which other nations are contesting,” Quiggin told RFA. “The best outcome would be an interim agreement to limit over-fishing, until boundary disputes are resolved, if that ever happens,” he added. China’s fishing ban in the South China Sea is expected to end on Aug. 16. It also covers the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, with a later end-date. Chinese media said this week that the South China Sea branch of the Coast Guard and local authorities will patrol major fishing grounds and ports “to ensure that the ban will be well observed.” At the end of last year, Beijing issued a new regulation threatening hefty fines of up to tens of thousands of dollars on activities of foreign fishermen in China’s “jurisdictional waters.” The self-claimed “jurisdictional waters” extend to most of the South China Sea but the claims are disputed by China’s neighbors and have been rejected by an international tribunal. Rashid Sumaila, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada and author of a 2021 report on the fishery industry in the East and South China Seas, said in an interview with RFA that “the simmering conflict that we see in the South China Sea is mostly because of fish even though countries don’t say it out loud.” “Fishery is one of the reasons China’s entangled in disputes with its neighbors in the South China Sea,” Sumaila said. A file photo showing Chinese fishing boats docked in Jiaoshan fishing port in Wenling city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province on July 12 2013. Credit: AP. Distant-water fishing Meanwhile, China’s distant-water fishing causes serious concerns across the world, mainly because of the size of the Chinese fleet and its “illegal behavior,” according to a recent report. The report released in March by the Environmental Justice Foundation, a U.K. non-profit organization, traces “China’s vast, opaque and, at times illegal global fisheries footprint,” using mainly China’s own data. It found that China’s distant-fishing fleet that operates on the high seas and beyond its exclusive economic zone is “by far the largest” in the world. The number of Chinese distant-water fishing boats is unknown, but could be around 2,700, according to some estimates. China is responsible for 38 percent of the distant-water fishing activities of the world’s 10 largest fleets in other countries’ waters, the report said. Chinese fishing vessels operate “across the globe in both areas beyond national jurisdiction and in the EEZs of coastal states.” Researchers who worked on the report have identified “high instances of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, destructive practises such as bottom trawling and the use of forced, bonded and slave labour and trafficked crew, alongside the widespread abuse of migrant crewmembers.”

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Shanghai fires, probes officials after man placed in body bag while still alive

Editor08 mins

Authorities in Shanghai on Monday announced punishments for five officials in the city’s Putuo district after an elderly man was found alive in a body bag en route between a care home and a morgue. “Five people in Putuo District, Shanghai were held accountable for wrongly transferring an elderly person from a care home,” the city’s Putuo district government said in an announcement on its official Weibo account. “On the afternoon of May 1, reports were posted online that a so-called dead body being transferred from the Shanghai New Long March Care Home was found to show signs of life,” it said. “Putuo district government … launched an immediate investigation and sent the elderly man to receive treatment in hospital, where he is currently stable.” It said Putuo civil affairs bureau chief Zhang Jiandong, section chief Liu Yinghua and social development director Wu Youcheng had been fired pending a ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) disciplinary case against them. Meanwhile, a doctor surnamed Tian had been struck off for signing the man’s death certificate, and is currently under police investigation, it said. A team has been sent from the civil affairs bureau to carry out further supervision at the care home, which has also been subjected to an administrative punishment, the statement said. The move came after a video clip saw staff load, then unload, a yellow body bag from a vehicle outside the care home. “The care home said the person is dead, but the people from the funeral home said they’re still alive; they’re moving,” a person behind the camera says. “They’re not even dead, yet they’re declared dead.” “Now they’re discussing what to do. Get them out of there; what else can you do? What you’re doing is immoral.” “They’re not even dead, and they’re put in a van to go to the funeral home,” the man’s voice says. Widespread anger The staff then push the gurney back into the care home courtyard with the zip partially unfastened and leave. The care home later apologized, but online comments showed widespread anger, as Shanghai’s 25 million residents continued into a fifth week of COVID-19 lockdown that has brought havoc to the city. Some 400 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in care homes, amid growing suspicion that the figure is being under-reported, in a city where only 62 percent of over-60s have been fully vaccinated, and just 15 percent of those over 80 have received two shots. The average age of deaths is 84, according to the government. Vice mayor Liu Duo said the city’s disease control and prevention efforts were “stable and improving,” however. “Disease control and prevention work has entered a critical phase,” Liu told reporters. “Effective disinfection measures can play a positive role in cutting off transmission routes.” Liu made no mention of the New Long March incident. Current affairs commentator Fang Yuan said the huge amount of political pressure on staff and officials during lockdown has led to “chaotic actions.” “The disease prevention and control regulations are too aggressive,” Fang told RFA. “This kind of chaotic action is worse than inaction.” ‘Total chaos’ He said it could also be a way to show those higher up how the system is failing to function under CCP leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy. “It’s also a form of passive resistance,” Fang said. “Better to cause incidents through the chaos and get the attention of those higher up, because only then will order return.” Fang said the incident had generated huge amounts of public anger in a city where people are regularly banging pots and pans from apartments in a muted form of mass protest. “They want to deal with these kinds of incidents in as low-key a manner as possible, but there is huge pressure from public opinion,” Fang said. “It’s not okay to ignore it.” A Shanghai resident surnamed Chen said the authorities have restarted mass PCR testing in several districts of the city in recent days, but that he has refused to take part, as others have done, fearing being transported out of their homes where they are more likely to catch the virus. “I didn’t go; I’m not doing it,” Chen said. “The whole thing is total chaos; they can’t control it.” “The highways are all blocked, and there’s nowhere to run,” he said. “There’s a lot of tension all over the country.” Beijing municipal health commission spokesman Li Ang has ordered restaurants in the city to stop allowing customers to eat in for four days, in a bid to stem rising cases over the May holiday break. The city is also starting to build makeshift hospitals to isolate those who test positive for the virus, in a sign that the capital will keep going with Xi’s favored approach to managing COVID-19 risk. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Myanmar’s junta vows to defend China-backed copper mine after PDF threats

Editor010 mins

Myanmar’s junta has vowed to defend a suspended Chinese copper mine, seen as a key source of revenue for the military regime, after the country’s armed opposition threatened to destroy the project if owners resume operations. The Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing’s Salingyi township is a joint venture between China’s state-owned Wanbao Co. and the military-owned Myanmar Economic Holding Limited (MEHL) company. Following the military’s Feb. 1, 2021 coup, employees walked off the job to join the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), reducing the mine’s operating capacity by more than 80 percent. In early April, junta Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in eastern China’s Anhui province in what analysts said signaled Myanmar’s desire for deeper economic ties to its northern ally. Not long after the trip, residents of Salingyi reported that workers were being called back to the mine to restart the project after more than a year of downtime, prompting threats from anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries. Late last week, junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the military would deploy troops to protect the mine in the event of an attack. “As a government, we have a responsibility to protect all investments in the country, both legally and on the ground, and we must work to provide security for them,” he said, adding that the junta is “working to get things back on track” at Letpadaung. Zaw Min Tun didn’t provide details on the status of the mine or whether any other foreign projects had come under threat. His comments came in response to an April 21 joint statement from 16 PDF groups from Salingyi and nearby Yinmarbin townships threatening to destroy the mine if Wanbao brought it back online. A spokesman from the NRF, one of the PDF groups that issued the warning, told RFA that Chinese and other foreign-owned assets in Myanmar qualify as fair game for the armed opposition if they are generating income for the junta. “If the military can purchase weapons with that money, the people will suffer further persecution,” he said, calling the statement a warning to other foreign companies in Myanmar “earning money that will be used [by the junta] to buy bullets to kill people.” Sit Naing, a spokesperson from the Salingyi PDF, clarified that the groups “don’t have a plan to attack foreigners,” but said if foreign companies “keep working with the military and take part in persecuting the people, we will have to attack them, without fail.” Zin Mar Aung, foreign minister for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), to which the prodemocaracy PDF has pledged its loyalty, expressed disappointment with China for its support of the junta in a recent statement. An excavator works on a section of the Letpadaung copper mine site in Sagaing region’s Salingyi township, in a file photo. Credit: RFA Resident protests Reports that operators are restarting the 60-year-old Letpadaung copper mine project – which has already faced criticism for appropriating land from 26 area villages and damaging the environment with chemical waste and dust – have also prompted opposition from Myanmar’s civilian population. Residents of Letpadaung have held daily protests demanding that Beijing respect the wishes of the people of Myanmar by shutting the mine down, and on April 25, nearly 560 prodemocracy groups sent an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping urging him to stop supporting the junta through the mine and other China-backed development projects. In an interview with RFA, a member of the CDM in Salingyi called on all copper mine staff to remain in the movement, even if they are called back to work by Wanbao. “As the project is directly affiliated with the junta, we are urging staff to hold out and refuse to return to work to resume operations, no matter how much incentive the company offers,” the CDM member said. “We ask that they go back to work only when the country is liberated.” Other sources were more direct in their condemnation of China, including a Salingyi township protest organizer who noted that Beijing has been backing the junta for much of the 15 months since the military’s coup. “They don’t give priority to the people, and they are prioritizing our enemy the military’s leader [Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing], so China is our common enemy,” she said. “I want to appeal the workers to stand with the people. No matter how many incentives or extra salary they offer, don’t consider working for the enemy.” Reassessing control in Myanmar In response to an RFA email seeking comment on the situation in Salingyi, China’s embassy in Yangon said that Chinese projects in Myanmar “are meant to benefit Myanmar’s economic development, bilateral interests, and the livelihoods of the local people.” Attempts by RFA to contact Wanbao and Letpadaung copper mine officials went unanswered, as did calls to junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun. According to Myanmar’s Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, 32 Chinese garment factories were set on fire in the early months of the coup, while PDF attacks on Chinese projects have damaged the water supply pipeline to the Letpadaung project, as well as a gas pipeline and nickel plant in Mandalay region. A Myanmar-based analyst on China-Myanmar relations, who declined to be named, said the NUG’s statement was a “warning” to China, emboldening local PDF groups. “The PDFs are trying to make China reconsider whether the junta can effectively protect its interests, after it offered support to the junta,” the analyst said. “China should reassess who is really in control on the ground … We will have to wait and see if they decide to negotiate with the NUG after they do so.” Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Delivery of US Howitzers to Taiwan delayed due to Ukraine crisis

Editor04 mins

An arms contract between the United States and Taiwan is facing severe delays due to “crowded production lines” caused by the war in Ukraine, prompting Taipei to look for alternatives, the island’s Ministry of National Defense has confirmed. The first batch of U.S.-made M109A6 “Paladin” self-propelled howitzers will not be delivered in 2023 as planned as the production capacity of the U.S. arms industry has been affected by the ongoing Ukrainian war, Taiwan has been notified. Instead, the U.S. has offered some alternative long-range precision strike weapon systems such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the Taiwanese Ministry said, adding that officials are currently evaluating the proposal before making a final decision. Last August, Washington approved the sale of 40 M109A6 “Paladin” self-propelled howitzers and related equipment at an estimated cost of U.S. $750 million to Taiwan. It was part of the first arms sale to Taiwan approved by President Joe Biden since taking office that also included 20 M992A2 Field Artillery Ammunition Support Vehicles, 1,698 multi-option Precision Guidance Kits, and other related equipment and logistical support. The first eight units were due to be delivered next year, with another 16 each in 2024 and 2025, but U.S. manufacturers have now said it would be 2026 at the earliest. Eight weeks into the war, Washington decided to ramp up the delivery of artillery guns including a large number of howitzers to Ukraine as part of an additional U.S.$800-million military assistance package, the Associated Press reported. The Taiwanese military has been using two older howitzer variants – the M109A2 and M109A5. The “Paladin” is believed to be far superior with increased armor and an improved M284 155mm howitzer cannon. The proposed alternative – HIMAR – is a multiple-launch rocket system made by Lockheed Martin Corp. It can be mounted on a military truck, is mobile and has a strike distance of 300 kilometers (185 miles) when carrying M57 Army Tactical Missile Systems. Local media reported that besides the howitzers, a Taiwanese Navy’s plan to purchase 12 MH-60R Seahawk anti-submarine helicopters from the U.S. may also run into difficulties as the U.S. deemed that the helicopter is not suitable for asymmetric warfare. Although Washington and Taipei do not have formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is committed by law to help provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Those arms sales have long been an irritant in relations between Washington and Beijing which regards the island as part of China, although Taiwan governs itself.

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China enlists foreign vloggers to whitewash Uyghur situation in Xinjiang

Editor020 mins

China has enlisted some fresh faces in its pushback against charges it is committing genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang: young foreign social media influencers who produce short videos showing happy minorities in the far-western region. Travel videos recorded by video bloggers known as vloggers are carried on platforms such as Twitter that are banned in China and spread by state media and affiliated sites. The echo and amplify Beijing’s massive propaganda effort to depict Uyghurs as content with and grateful for Chinese rule. The videos show “foreign travelers” interviewing people in factories in Xinjiang, with captions such as “Friends, it’s a lie that there is a genocide of the Uyghurs.” “Everything is normal here,” and “Is there a single piece of evidence that there are more than 1 million people in concentration camps?” State-owned media outlets and local governments organize the pro-China campaign, paying vloggers to take trips, according to documents posted online and video producers familiar with the system. “What happens is you’ll have a state media like CGTN or CRI or iChongqing or any number of organizations which are run by the Chinese government — which are the Chinese government — and what they will do is they will pay for the flights, pay for the accommodation, organize the trip, and liaise with the content creator and invite them to go on these trips,” said YouTuber Winston Sterzel, who lived in Xinjiang. Minders working as translators or fixers are always present to make sure the content creators follow the script, he said. Vloggers, who post short videos on their personal websites or social media account on platforms like YouTube, say that local government officials arrange their travel and logging during trips they are hired for to make videos that put China in a good light. “They arrange our travel, and they pay for our lodging and food,” said YouTuber Lee Barrett in a video he recorded.   Business Insider reported in January that China’s consulate general in New York signed a U.S. $300 million contract with U.S.-based Vippi Media in New Jersey to create a social media campaign promoting positive messaging about China TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch as a lead-up to the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. Social media influencers were asked to produce content for their target audiences on Chinese culture, positive diplomatic relations between China and the U.S., and consulate general news. ‘Living happily and joyfully’ On the YouTube channel “Two Brothers,” Netherlands-based Tarekk Habib and Anas Habib, both of Egyptian descent, published a video on Dec. 31, 2021, in which they say a Chinese company agreed to pay them U.S. $1,000 to produce and share a video extoling the government’s measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus at the Olympics and to ensure the safety of athletes. They said they turned down the request and instead produced a video discussing China’s oppression of Uyghur Muslims. China’s struggle to shape world opinion about Xinjiang will come into sharp focus this month, when U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet makes a long-awaited visit to China, including Xinjiang. Since 2017, about 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples are believed to have been incarcerated a vast network of internment camps in Xinjiang. The U.S. and a handful of European countries have labelled these practices genocide, while China has angrily rejected criticism and maintains the camps are vocational training centers designed to combat religious extremism and terrorism. In fall 2021, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government began an initiative to mobilize foreign students in China to praise “Xinjiang policy.” The effort was part of the central government’s larger plan to portray ethnic minorities in Xinjiang as happy and content, according to an article in Xinjiang Daily. Under the title “The people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are living happily and joyfully,” the report cited a series of letters written by Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping in which he called on foreign students in July 2021 to increase their understanding of the “real China,” so that their knowledge would inspire others to understand the country as well. The XUAR government in October 2021 sponsored a trip to Xinjiang for students from 16 countries, including Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Burundi, Uganda, Russia, Pakistan, Korea, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, the U.S. and the U.K. Chinese state media said the students visited Kashgar (Kashi), Hotan (Hetian), and other places, and saw Xinjiang’s economic development, social stability, quality of life, culture, ethnic unity and religious harmony. “They are not only able to look after the young and old people in their homes, they can also earn a salary. Their work environment is very good, and they are truly happy,” an Armenian student was quoted as saying. Such accounts are meant to counter a growing tide of well-researched reports by researchers and foreign media about conditions in Xinjiang. Government minders Since the start of 2018, authorities have prevented most international journalists from entering Xinjiang and forced foreigners living in the region to leave. YouTubers from the U.S. and South Africa who lived in the Xinjiang or in mainland China for a decade or more said that while recent vlogs by foreigners “traveling” to Xinjiang appear to be simple and normal, government fixers are always on the other side of the camera, controlling what is said and recorded. “You’re gonna be approached by your agent or your middleman … who is a communicator between you and the management company, or as they call themselves, talent agencies,” said LeLe Farley, an American comedian and rap artist who lived in China for years and worked as an announcer for Chinese-language programs. “Those talent agencies get word directly from the government, like ‘we need foreign bloggers for white-washing Xinjiang; we need them to go there, and here’s the trip that we’ve prepared for them to go on. We’ll pay for the whole trip,’” he said. Josh Summers, who ran a popular blog known as “Far West China” as well as a YouTube channel, moved…

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Indonesia confirms invitation to Ukraine for G-20 summit, says Putin will attend

Editor08 mins

Indonesia has asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be a guest at the G-20 summit, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said Friday, belatedly confirming an invitation to the war-torn European nation’s leader that the United States had urged him to extend. The Indonesian president also said that Vladimir Putin, the leader of G-20 member Russia whose military invaded Ukraine in February, had agreed to attend the same summit in Bali in mid-November, although the Kremlin had not confirmed his participation. Indonesia hold this year’s presidency of the grouping of the world’s top 20 economies. “We know that the G-20 plays the role of catalyst in the global economic recovery and the two things are affecting the global economic recovery in a major way: COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine,” Jokowi said in a speech broadcast on YouTube.  “It is in this context that I invited President Zelenskyy to attend the G-20 summit,” he said of his call Wednesday with the Ukrainian president. Meanwhile in Washington on Friday, the Pentagon’s press secretary said that Putin “absolutely shouldn’t be” welcomed at the G-20 summit. “He isolated Russia by his own actions and should continue to be isolated by the international community … [as one of the] consequences of his actions in Ukraine,” John Kirby told CNN. A day earlier, when asked whether President Joe Biden would attend the G-20 summit were Putin to attend as well, a White House spokeswoman indicated that a decision had yet to be made. “[T]he President has been clear about his view: This shouldn’t be business as usual, and that Russia should not be a part of this,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. “But, again, [the G-20 summit] six months away; we don’t even have confirmation of these reports [about Putin’s attendance].  So I’m certainly not going to get into a hypothetical in this case.” Southeast Asia analyst Derek J. Grossman said Indonesia’s invitation to Ukraine reflected its stated foreign policy. “The nonaligned path in action,” the senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp., a U.S. think-tank, said on Twitter. Ukraine is not a G-20 member, but Indonesia, as the holder of the group’s presidency, can invite leaders of non-member countries as guests. Zelenskyy on Wednesday pre-empted Indonesia by announcing via Twitter that Jokowi had invited him to the summit. His attendance at the G-20 summit would “depend mainly on the situation in the battlefield,” Vysotskyi Taras, a senior Ukrainian government official, was quoted by Reuters as saying on Thursday. ‘War must be stopped immediately’ Jokowi, however, said he had turned down a request by Zelenskyy that Indonesia send weapons to Ukraine.  “I reaffirmed [to Zelenskyy] that in line with our constitution and our independent and active foreign policy, we cannot send arms support to other countries, but we are prepared to send humanitarian aid,” Jokowi said.  The Indonesian leader also said he had called for an end to the war, in his telephone conversation with Putin on Thursday.    “It should be underlined that the war must be stopped immediately and peace negotiations be given a chance. Indonesia is ready to contribute to achieving that goal,” Jokowi said. “President Putin expressed gratitude for the invitation to the G-20 summit and said that he would attend,” he added. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would prepare for the summit but did not say whether Putin would go to Bali. “Putin wished success for the Indonesian G-20 presidency and assured that Russia will do everything necessary and everything possible to contribute to it,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency TASS. But, Peskov said, “it is premature to talk about any other modalities of our participation.” Last month, President Biden said Ukraine should be able to participate in the G-20 summit, if the grouping did not expel Russia, the country that invaded its smaller neighbor and former Soviet socialist republic next-door on Feb. 24. Washington went a step farther on April 6, saying that it would boycott some of the group’s meetings if Russian officials attended, which it then did later in the month.  On April 20, several nations, including Ukraine and the United States, walked out when Russian officials addressed a G-20 meeting convened by Indonesia in Washington. Indonesia had invited all members, including Russia, to attend the group’s meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs that day. Shailaja Neelakantan in Washington contributed to this report for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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