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Junta officials bulldoze 200 homes in Myanmar neighborhood

Editor03 mins

Junta administrators destroyed 200 homes in a neighborhood in Myanmar’s Yangon Division on charges of trespassing, residents told Radio Free Asia, the latest in a series of evictions to clear squatter communities in urban centers. The homes in Mingaladon township’s Pale neighborhood were bulldozed on Thursday by municipal officers and troops, they said.  Officials sent residents letters in late April telling them they had to leave  by an early May deadline.  Myanmar’s military has cleared tens of thousands of homes across the country, accusing people of squatting. The neighborhoods are usually in the suburbs of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, crammed with makeshift dwellings made from tarpaulin, scraps of wood and corrugated iron.  A resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA that only 18 households left willingly. The rest were destroyed. “They brought a bulldozer to completely flatten them,” he said. In the eviction notice, signed by the junta chairman of Mingaladon township’s Planning and Administration Board, residents were told  “all squatter buildings” in the area had to be dismantled and removed by May 10. People who have lost their homes have had to find rented accommodation, neighbors said. RFA telephoned Yangon region’s junta spokesperson, Htay Aung, for information about the incident  but he did not answer the phone. On April 26, junta forces and municipal officials ordered district authorities to remove 600 houses in Yangon’s Mayangone township, residents said. According to data compiled by RFA, nearly 20,000 houses in Mayangon, Dagon Myothit (Seikkan), Dagon Myothit, Dawbon and Mingaladon townships, have been removed in the more than three years since the military seized power from a democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup. In addition to Yangon, the second city of Mandalay and some other centers have seen  forced evictions. On Dec. 2, 2022, the United Nations called the removal of residential homes by force without providing replacements for those evicted a war crime. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.  

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In bid to reduce traffic jams, Vietnam mulls congestion fees

Editor07 mins

Vietnamese drivers entering big cities during peak traffic periods will have to pay “congestion fees” if one lawmaker gets his way.  Nguyen Phuong Thuy, a representative from the capital Hanoi, argued during a discussion Tuesday in the National Assembly that the fee would boost the state budget, increase funds for land transport infrastructure – and reduce traffic jams. He was one of 23 National Assembly deputies who discussed a draft Law on Roads, including the possibility of charging fees on personal cars that enter city centers at certain times, according to a state media. The proposal comes as Vietnam grapples with growing traffic congestion, inadequate transportation infrastructure and increasing air pollution from exhaust fumes despite the government’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. Officials in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city with a population of 9 million, calculated that in 2022, the city lost about 138 trillion dong, or US$5.4 billion, due to traffic jams for missed work time, wasted fuel while sitting in traffic and labor force costs. Public transportation is lacking. In 2022, Hanoi had about 5.8 million motorbikes and 600,000 automobiles, though only 140 bus lines, meeting an estimated 31% of total demand, according to a report by the Hanoi Times. Five centrally governed cities in Vietnam – Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong, Danang and Can Tho – have the authority to impose driving charges not previously defined by law, according to a report by Viet Nam News.  It wasn’t immediately clear what the fees might be under the new proposal. Three conditions must be met for the scheme to work, Thuy said, according to an online report by VN Express. First, the collection should be digitized. Second, public transportation should meet at least 30% of transportation demand. And third, infrastructure, parking lots, and public transit systems must connect personal vehicles with public ones. “Cars owned by people both inside and outside the city have increased, while old, dilapidated infrastructure has failed to meet transport demand,” he said.  Mixed views But some people are skeptical the plan would be effective. Hanoi resident Nguyen Khac Toan said he didn’t believe a fee on inbound-city cars would reduce traffic jams. “The fee collection measure seems right, but it is only situational and patchy,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It would not help because those who need to drive a car into the city would pay to do so.” Traffic gridlock occurs near the National Convention Center during the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi, Jan. 26, 2021. (Nhac Nguyen/AFP) Former National Assembly Deputy Luu Binh Nhuong wrote on Facebook that poor traffic management is the main cause of traffic jams in Hanoi — not inbound personal vehicles.  Therefore, any fees imposed on these drivers would not be not fair and would be a violation of free movement and free business under the country’s Constitution and Competition Law, he said. Nguyen Quang A, another Hanoi resident, said a willingness by city officials to address limited parking spaces and high parking  fees would help ease the situation. Drivers have to pay several hundred thousand dong an hour to park, and lots are difficult to find, he said.  “For city dwellers, there should be parking lots built for them, but in case they park on the streets, a fee should be collected for using public space,” he said. “Those who own cars have to follow. That is the easiest way to solve traffic jams and to collect money for the city budget.” Past proposals This isn’t the first time that Vietnam’s major cities have considered fees on personal vehicles entering the city center – but none have been implemented. The Vietnamese government issued a decree in April 2022 to enhance order, transport security and reduce traffic jams, and several cities were told to conduct a fee collection pilot program for inbound vehicles. In 2017, Hanoi’s People’s Council issued a resolution on enhancing traffic order and combating traffic congestion. It called for limiting or stopping motorbike traffic in certain areas of the five centrally governed cities after 2030, as well as collecting tolls from vehicles in highly congested and polluted areas of major cities. The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s southern economic hub, included a traffic jam fee in its general city planning project until 2040, a plan that would look further to 2060. Fees would be collected during specific times of the day, including peak travel.  Translated by Gia Minh for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. 

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South Korea, China, Japan to hold trilateral talks on May 26-27 in Seoul

Editor05 mins

Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will meet on May 26-27 in Seoul for their first trilateral talks in more than four years, South Korea’s presidential office said on Thursday. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will have bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday, ahead of their three-way gathering on Monday, South Korea’s deputy national security adviser, Kim Tae-hyo, said. The summit will cover six areas of cooperation: economy and trade, sustainable development, health issues, science and technology, disaster and safety management, and people-to-people exchanges, Kim said, adding that the leaders would issue a joint statement. The leaders will also discuss regional and international issues and meet about 80 businesspeople at a dinner on Sunday and a business forum the next day, Kim said. “The summit will serve as a turning point for fully restoring and normalizing the trilateral cooperation system among South Korea, Japan and China,” he added. “It will also provide an opportunity to recover future-oriented and practical cooperation momentum that will allow the people of the three countries to feel the benefits.” The neighbors held an inaugural stand-alone trilateral summit in 2008, and were supposed to meet annually after that. But the summit has been suspended since it was last held in December 2019, in China, because of bilateral feuds and the COVID-19 pandemic. Relations between all three have been fraught for various reasons over recent years. South Korea and Japan are working to improve relations strained due to historical disputes stemming from Japan’s wartime aggression. They are also strengthening their trilateral security partnership with the United States amid growing rivalry between China and the U.S. Japan, South Korea and the United States underscored their security cooperation against North Korean threats and reinforced their commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific” during an August 2023 Camp David summit. In 2018, the year before the last summit between the three Asian neighbors, in the Chinese city of Chengdu, North Korea unexpectedly changed its aggressive stance toward the U.S. and South Korea. Seoul, in turn, eased its criticism of Pyongyang.  Japan, however, continued to prioritize pressure on North Korea, causing disagreement with Seoul over North Korea policy. By the 2019 talks, the three neighbors could only agree on a general policy of cooperating on efforts to denuclearize North Korea. China and South Korea have also clashed in recent years over a U.S. missile defense shield installed in South Korea. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the U.S. and its allies for their “intimidation in the military sphere” of North Korea at a recent bilateral summit. In March, Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution to extend a monitoring panel for enforcing North Korean sanctions, while China abstained, blocking U.S.-led efforts to control Pyongyang’s weapons program. Edited by Mike Firn.

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In a first, Kim Jong Un’s portrait is displayed next to his predecessors

Editor06 mins

For the first time, a large portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was placed alongside portraits of his father and grandfather in a public place in what experts say is a move to boost the cult of personality surrounding him. State media released images of the three portraits adorning the facade of the Central Cadres Training School of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang during the school’s opening ceremony this week.  The three portraits were also shown above the chalkboard in one of the classrooms. Photos of the first two dynastic leaders, national founder Kim Il Sung, and his son and successor Kim Jong Il, are displayed in every public building and private home. They are treated with such respect that citizens have been praised in state media for dashing into their burning homes to rescue the portraits. A general view of the completion ceremony to mark the opening of the newly completed school of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Cadres Training School in Pyongyang, May 21, 2024. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS/AFP) Until now, Kim Jong Un’s photo had not been displayed next to his predecessors in an official setting. It’s not yet known if this will become the norm nationwide.  Should the display of all three leaders be mandated by law, it would suggest that Kim Jong Un demands more respect than his father did. Displays of Kim Jong Il’s portrait only became mandatory upon his death in 2011, though people voluntarily hung it up while he was still living as a display of patriotism.  Kim Il Sung portraits, meanwhile, have been mandatory since the 1970s. Murals and music video The move comes amid other propaganda efforts to elevate Kim Jong Un’s status.  Just a few weeks ago, the country debuted a new music video that casts him as the “friendly father of the nation.” New murals depicting Kim have been erected nationwide over the past few years. These are all examples of the systematic idolization of Kim Jong Un carried out in stages according to Kim In-tae, a senior researcher at the South Korea-based Institute for National Security Strategy. The portrait display follows the trend of “placing Kim Jong Un at the pinnacle of North Korea’s collectivism and totalitarianism,” he told RFA Korean. By placing his photo alongside his father and grandfather, Kim is trying to inherit the legacy and revolutionary tradition of his predecessors, Hong Min, from the North Korean Research Division at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification, told RFA. “It shows that he has gone from prioritizing his predecessors and setting himself at a level lower than them to now standing as a leader of the exact same level,” said Hong, adding his prediction that the country will now start heavily promoting Kim Jong Un’s own ideological principles. The cadre school’s opening ceremony also served to cast Kim as a champion of socialism, as portraits of prominent communist ideologues Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin also were also on display, Hyun In-ae, from Seoul’s Ewha Womans University noted.    “It seems they declared to the whole world, ‘We are orthodox socialism,’” she said. “At the same time, this also signifies a declaration to the world that Kim Jong Un is the firm leader of North Korea.” Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar rebels capture junta camp near capital of Kachin State

Editor05 mins

Ethnic minority Kachin insurgents have captured a junta military camp near the state capital of Myitkyina, in northern Myanmar, which has also given them control of a main trade route to the border with China, a spokesman for the rebel group told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.  The Kachin Independence Army is one of Myanmar’s most powerful insurgent forces and has made gains in recent weeks with the capture of eight towns in Kachin State and northern Shan State, as well as about 100 junta military camps, it says. On Tuesday evening, Kachin fighters took control of a junta infantry battalion base in Waingmaw township, about 20 km (12 miles) to the south of the Myitkyina, said Col. Naw Bu, the Kachin Independence Army’s information officer.  “That camp was providing security for the villages such as Aung Myay 1 and 2, as well as Waingmaw town. So it can be said to be strategically important,” he said. The territorial gain has also given the Kachin force control of a main road going south, including to the border with China, which is about 40 km (25 miles) to the east.  “There are no military camps on the other side of the Waingmaw-Laizar-Momauk-Lwegel road. We are stationed here, but we are not allowing cars or others to travel yet due to security reasons,” Naw Bu said. Lwegel is a main crossing for trade on the border with China. The junta has also not issued any statements on the fighting. RFA tried to telephone Kachin State’s junta spokesperson, Moe Min Thein, to ask about the situation but he did not answer.  The Kachin force is one several that have made significant gains recently against forces of the junta that overthrew an elected government in early 2021 triggering bloody opposition to military rule. Pro-democracy fighters have taken up arms and linked up with ethnic minority armies, like the Kachin, which have been battling for self-determination for decades in hilly border regions. While the opponents of military rule have captured numerous junta bases, towns and villages, in fighting that escalated sharply late last year, none has seized a state capital. Naw Bu declined to comment on casualties on either side in the latest fighting, or on if any weapons and ammunition had been captured. Ethnic minority Lisu fighters loyal to the junta control two camps in Waingmaw town while a junta infantry battalion holds another position there, he said. Civilian Deaths Responding to the Kachin offensive, junta forces bombed Hkat Shu village in southern Waingmaw township on Monday and Tuesday, killing six residents, including children, and wounding 19, according to residents. A severely wounded woman was taken to hospital in Myitkyina while the rest of the injured were getting treatment at Waingmaw’s hospital, one  resident, who declined to be identified, told RFA. The junta-backed Myanma Alin newspaper said on Wednesday that the military regime was not responsible for the attacks on Hkat Shu village. About half of Hkat Shu’s population of 10,000 have fled because of the fighting, residents said. According to data compiled by RFA, mostly from accounts from residents and the insurgents, nearly 80 civilians were killed in Kachin State due to the junta airstrikes and heavy weapons between Jan. 1 and May 21. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Taejun Kang. 

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North Korean toy store blows up on state media with ICBM-themed fireworks

Editor06 mins

A fireworks store in North Korea was featured in the country’s state media for its unique products, including fireworks shaped like intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Experts told Radio Free Asia that the fireworks, shaped like North Korea’s Hwasong-17 ICBM, unveiled in 2020 and first test fired in 2022, are meant to instill national pride among children, and the parents who would buy them. “Our store carries fireworks that everyone loves, and that teenagers and students enjoy,” a worker at the Changgwang Fireworks Store said on the May 19 Korea Central Television broadcast.  The report showed an entire section of the store with missile-themed fireworks, including a launcher in the shape of a transporter erector launcher vehicle, or TEL. The store’s military-themed products are clearly aimed at children, as its interior includes colorful pictures of animals on the walls, and a small fenced-off play area for toddlers, flanked by two very large Hwasong-17 models and a mural depicting the missile being launched into a sky full of cartoon stars and bursting fireworks. Military themed-toys are very common in North Korea, but the country seems to want the people to be on board with dedicating resources and labor to missile and rocket development. KCTV (Korean Central TV) reported that the Changgwang fireworks store in Hwasong District, Pyongyang, North Korea, is now selling new fireworks, including models of the Hwasong ICBM, May 19 ,2024. (KCTV) In February 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s wife, Ri Sol Ju, was spotted wearing an ICBM-shaped necklace at a banquet commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Founding of the Korean People’s Army. In February 2024, the country forced residents to buy laminated photos of a reconnaissance satellite rocket launch to display in their homes as a constant reminder of the country’s military achievements. Instilling pride  The missile-themed displays are an attempt to foster national pride among the people, both through children and their parents, Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, told RFA Korean. “It reinforces the message that North Korea needs nuclear weapons and missiles because of the U.S. threat,” he said. “And it is a way of explaining away the dire economic conditions that North Korean people suffer from because it’s being blamed on the United States.” David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said the displays are an effort by the authorities to try to “ reinforce the legitimacy of North Korea as a military power to show off its nuclear and missile capabilities.” “It’s an example of the prioritization of resources that the Kim family regime does,” said Maxwell. “It prioritizes enhancing the reputation of the regime over the welfare of the people, while the people suffer the worst lives of really any population in the world today.” Such militaristic children’s toys were unheard of decades ago, said Kim Su-kyung, who escaped North Korea in 1998 and resettled in the United States. “When I was young, there were no goods like this,” she said. “We used to play a military game called ‘Kill the Yankee’ during field day at school, but it seems like that has now been upgraded and made into these types of toys.” She said the public would not be receptive to these toys and would not appreciate the government’s attempts to manipulate public opinion with “useless toys.”  Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

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Airstrike kills woman on Myanmar-Bangladesh border

Editor05 mins

A Myanmar junta airstrike near the border with Bangladesh on Tuesday killed one civilian and injured 11, residents told Radio Free Asia, the latest casualties in a region that has seen some of the country’s most intense fighting in recent weeks. Junta forces launched air attacks after insurgents from the Arakan Army assaulted the military regime’s Border Guard Force near Maungdaw town on Monday. In response, aircraft dropped three bombs on two nearby villages in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw township. Since November, the Arakan Army has captured eight townships across Rakhine State and has launched several offensives in other areas. Fighter jets bombed Shwe Baho and Baw Di Kone villages at around 4 a.m., one resident, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals, told RFA.  “A young woman died in Shwe Baho. She is a university student and was taking refuge in the village. The whole family was fleeing the battle but they were injured,” he said. “The Arakan Army is attacking Lay Mile’s Border Guard Force, so [the junta] bombarded all areas and surrounding villages.” The dead woman, Pan Ei Pyu, 22, also worked at a social assistance group, residents said. The wounded ranged in age from 5 years to 71, residents said.  Myanmar’s junta has yet to release any information on the attack. Rakhine State’s junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, did not answer calls from RFA. Forces of the junta, which seized power in an early 2021 coup, have lost territory in several parts of the country since late last year when militia groups, formed by pro-democracy activists and allied ethnic minority insurgent groups fighting for self-determination went on the offensive. Despite making advances, the junta’s opponents have no air power, leaving them, and villages in areas in which they operate, vulnerable to airstrikes. Four civilians were killed and six were wounded between May 14 and 19 when the junta bombed villages in southern Maungdaw township, residents said. On Saturday, the Arakan Army announced it had captured all junta camps in Buthidaung, a township along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Hours earlier, the group was accused of attacking a school with a drone where members of the Rohingya minority, a mostly Muslim community that has faced persecution for decades, were sheltering. Eighteen people were killed and more than 200 were wounded, residents said. The Arakan Army, in its Saturday statement, did not mention the Rohingya deaths, but said its forces were aiming to capture Maungdaw town, about 16 km (10 miles) west of Buthidaung township, also near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. International aid groups and local residents in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Thandwe townships were told to evacuate by the United League of Arakan, the political wing of the Arakan Army, after it issued a warning of more attacks on junta forces on Monday. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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Heat wave kills 100 in Myanmar, mostly infants and elderly

Editor04 mins

Scorching temperatures killed about 100 people in central Myanmar in just four days, social aid groups told Radio Free Asia on Monday. In the Sagaing region’s Monywa township, heat-related illnesses have killed people as young as one month but it is the sick and elderly who are most at risk, aid workers and residents said. “The death toll rose sharply. It’s a pity that babies were among those deaths. Some were just four or five months old,” an official from the Thukha Hita blood donation and funeral assistance group told RFA.  “There were up to 29 bodies yesterday …  in two cemeteries in Monywa town.”, said the group official, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. The extreme heat from Thursday to Sunday largely affected sick and elderly people, said one resident assisting those in need, adding that Saturday and Sunday were the worst days. “They can’t stand the heat at all,” said the resident, referring to the sick and old. “It’s so terrible that even we, young people, can’t survive. The power outages haven’t helped.” Two Monywa-based organizations, Yone Gyi Lu Nge social assistance association and Thukha Hita blood donor association and funeral assistance, are helping to cremate the bodies to keep up with the rise in deaths.   RFA telephoned the Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson, Nyunt Win Aung, for more information about the situation but he did not answer. The junta’s Ministry of Health spokesperson, Than Naing Soe, told RFA the ministry was organizing heat-stroke prevention awareness and treatment but he declined to comment further. According to the military’s weather agency, the highest temperature in Monywa city was recorded on Friday, reaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). Some families are opting to stay in hotels to escape the heat because of the unreliable, or even non-existent, power supplies, residents said. Numerous people had sought treatment in clinics and hospitals for heatstroke and dehydration, they added. Myanmar has seen extreme temperatures throughout this year’s hot season, killing as many as 40 people per day in early May. In Rakhine State in western Myanmar, severe water shortages have affected 50 villages and killed more than  80 people. Temperatures usually cool down a bit in May and June with the arrival of the rains. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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Chinese agents highly active in democratic Taiwan, dissidents say

Editor014 mins

On Jan. 13, 2023, Guangdong dissident Xiao Yuhui crossed the 10-kilometer (6-mile) stretch of water from China to Kinmen, a small island that is still controlled by Taiwan, paddling across on a surfboard. But Xiao’s bid to escape the influence of the Chinese government didn’t end there. He believes the ruling Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping is now focusing closely on “cleaning up” opposition voices overseas, and has spotted people he believes to be Chinese agents a number of times at public events in democratic Taiwan. According to a former Chinese agent who spoke recently to Australian broadcaster ABC, this is exactly what’s going on. Former Chinese spy “Eric” told the station that he has been involved in surveillance, abductions and the silencing of targets around the world since 2008. The Spanish-based group Safeguard Defenders, which has warned the world about China’s secret police stations, its network of “consular volunteers” and its targeting of dissidents and activists overseas, has now launched a “one-stop shop” legal advice center to help fight transnational repression by Beijing. “The Chinese Communist Party kidnaps and threatens people at home, and they do the same thing overseas,” Xiao said, in response to a question about the ABC report. The sight of unidentified people he suspected were agents of the Chinese state filming and recording at pro-democracy events in Taiwan worried him enough that he now stays away from protests, rallies and other public events that are seen by Beijing as “anti-China.” He’s not the only one who’s worried, either. “Both the Taiwanese government officials and the human rights groups who have assisted me have said they hope I won’t take part in so many activities or give public interviews, which could lead to my whereabouts being exposed,” Xiao told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “They told me this because [China] has so many political collaborators in Taiwan,” he said. Strange behavior Li Jiabao, a former exchange student from China who applied for political asylum after speaking out against constitutional amendments allowing Xi to abandon term limits for his own job, said he has been continually targeted by authorities in China since then. One unidentified person approached Li as he took part in a documentary in 2019 about his life story and situation, demanding that the director delete all footage, he said. “[The director] didn’t even know whether he had captured the person following us or whether he was just a very suspicious sort of person,” Li said. “The man seemed very nervous and panicky, and behaved unacceptably, threatening us.” On another occasion, Li spotted someone who appeared to be following him in a park near his home. The man would watch him, but then looked at his phone if Li looked in his direction. Chinese exchange student Li Jiabao shouts ‘defend freedom of speech’ and ‘defend Taiwan’s sovereignty,’ at a protest in Taiwan’s southern port city of Kaohsiung, April 7, 2019. (Hsia Hsiao-hwa/RFA) Li noticed people exhibiting similarly strange behavior at rallies he attended in Taipei to mark the anniversaries of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen massacre, he said. Shortly after his denunciation of Xi, someone contacted him claiming to be a journalist, and sent him emails in a bid to have him download an app to his phone. “He used a disposable account,” said Li, who later realized what had likely happened after reading media reports of Chinese agents posing as journalists. “Turns out he was phishing me.” “The main thing they want is to get access to your contacts … as well as the Telegram, Facebook and other chat records commonly used by dissidents,” he said. “They can also be used to track your location at any time, to know who you are meeting, what you did and what activities you took part in.” Money for spying Li has also been approached and offered money to spy on fellow dissidents in Taiwan, he revealed. “Someone asked me how much you can make a month in Taiwan, said I must be short of money, and told me to go and film the Falun Gong, and the next day to film dissidents, including asking them how they’re doing,” he said. “They told me just to live my life, and that they would contact me via a Hong Kong account if I thought it was too sensitive,” he said. “The Chinese want to find out if you’re willing to do stuff for them for money. I always refuse.” Xiao said the Chinese agents clearly knew of his love of photography, because he remembers being approached in October 2023 to take photos of planes taking off and landing at Taipei’s Songshan Airport, home to a Taiwanese Air Force base that runs the flying service for the president and vice president of Taiwan. “They give you some simple tasks to do and some financial support, to see if you can be bought, then more work would follow,” he said. Xiao smelled a rat at the time, and turned down the offer. Threats to family members back home are another key part of the Chinese state security police playbook, according to dissidents overseas. Li said he once received a message from his family asking if he was “being used by overseas or foreign forces.” Xiao said the authorities back home had visited his mother at her home and tried to get her to call him and find out his whereabouts and future plans. Abduction threats Sometimes, the goal is to get the target to a location where they can be handed over to the Chinese police, the former Chinese agent, who gave only the pseudonym “Eric,” told ABC. During the program, it emerged that RFA political cartoonist Rebel Pepper, whose real name is Wang Liming, was one of the targets, with Eric detailing a plot to lure Wang to Cambodia, using a Chinese-owned conglomerate that has become one of the fastest-growing companies in Cambodia – the Prince Group – to carry out the scam.  RFA has verified…

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Vietnam’s ruling party names To Lam as new state president

Editor05 mins

Vietnam’s Communist Party has named minister of public security To Lam as the new president in an unprecedented reshuffle of the country’s leadership. It also nominated Tran Thanh Man as the new chairman of the National Assembly, it said in a statement.  Party cadres at a meeting that concluded on Saturday “recommended” Lam and Man to the top positions. The National Assembly – Vietnam’s parliament – is expected to approve the appointments when it meets this week. The two men will be replacing Vo Van Thuong and Vuong Dinh Hue, who were forced to resign earlier in the year amid an anti-corruption campaign that has seen dozens of senior officials lose their jobs or be disciplined. The campaign, dubbed the “blazing furnace”, was initiated by the party’s general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, who sees corruption as the biggest threat to the Communist Party’s legitimacy. But some critics say it has been used as a political tool by factions in the party to eliminate competitors. Gen. To Lam, 66, has been minister of public security since April 2016 and deputy minister for six years before that. He joined the public security service in 1974 and rose through the ranks to become a general in 2019. As his successor at the ministry of public security has not been nominated, Lam appears to have retained his minister’s position for now. Lam is believed to be one of the main figures behind the “blazing furnace” campaign, having been deputy head of the party’s anti-corruption steering committee since 2021.  The general was accused of involvement in the kidnapping of Trinh Xuan Thanh, a Vietnamese fugitive, in Berlin in 2017 and Thanh’s return to Hanoi through Slovakia. The Hanoi government denied all allegations but the case led to a temporary rift in diplomatic relations between Germany and Vietnam. Lam will be the third state president in just 15 months – his predecessor Thuong was forced out in January and Thuong’s predecessor Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigned a year earlier. Tran Thanh Man, 62, currently deputy chairman of the National Assembly, is to take over from Vuong Dinh Hue, who was once considered a rising star in Vietnam’s politics and a contender for the job of general secretary. Hue stepped down this month after the party’s central inspection commission found that he had committed mistakes and wrongdoings unfit for a political leader.  During last week’s meeting, the party’s senior officials also voted to add four new members to its powerful Politburo. The new appointments are expected to restore unity within the party’s leadership but analysts warn that infighting may continue in the run up to the 14th national party congress, slated to take place in January 2026. Nguyen Phu Trong, 80, who has been the party’s general secretary since 2011, is expected to step aside at the congress, or even before that, but there’s no clear imminent successor to his position. To Lam and Pham Minh Chinh, the incumbent prime minister, are seen by Vietnam watchers as strong candidates to succeed Trong as general secretary. Edited by Mike Firn.

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