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Category: World

Eight songs that didn’t make it into China’s Lunar New Year gala

Editor025 mins

As people across China welcome the Year of the Dragon, the ruling Communist Party’s propaganda machine has stepped up a campaign of “positive energy” and “good news” about the economy despite widespread reports of slashed bonuses, unpaid wages and youth unemployment and disenchantment. Yet the songs that have truly resonated with people during the past year weren’t featured on the annual star-studded Spring Festival Gala show aired by state broadcaster CCTV on Friday.  Most of these songs first emerged on social media and became quite popular – until censors blocked many of them. But people are still able to see and hear them using virtual private networks, or VPNs, or finding other ways to circumvent China’s “Great Firewall.” Some are still viewable on Bilibili, the Chinese version of YouTube, or other social media platforms.   1. “You’re Not Really Happy” by Mayflower “Are you happy?” an interviewer asks an oil-smeared mechanic at the start of a reboot of the 2008 Mayflower hit “You’re not really happy.” “Sure,” says the man, adding that happiness is fixing cars and not giving his parents any cause to worry. “But what about your happiness?” asks the interviewee. “I don’t know,” says the man uncertainly, in a remixed video posted to X by citizen journalist Mr Li is not your teacher. Undercutting propaganda images of a prosperous country that is merely undergoing some “problems and challenges,” the song’s lyrics highlight the need to pretend everything is fine, just to survive. “You’re not really happy — that smile’s just a disguise,” say the lyrics. “The world laughs, and you join in, hiding your tears. Survival’s the game, no choice, just comply.” “Why take this punishment when you’ve already lost … let sorrow end now, start fresh, breathe new air,” it concludes, striking a chord with X users when it was posted on Feb. 2, ahead of the Lunar New Year festivities. “Chinese people’s happiness is like North Korean happiness, like Stockholm syndrome happiness,” commented @pifuzhinu113541 on the video. “Because ‘unhappiness’ is a crime!” “This is most people,” added @Louis00135, while @DodgyLee1 quipped: “Propaganda department: Don’t spread rumors if you don’t believe them. Also the propaganda department: The whole country is brimming with optimism!”  U.S.-based current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan said the song “lays bare the scars that lie below the glamorous image projected by the Chinese Communist Party.” “The video raises the question why, in the world’s second-largest economy, so many people from different social classes, men, women and children, are having such a hard time, and can’t achieve happiness,” Tang said.   2. “Descendants of the Dragon” by Namewee Malaysian rapper Namewee’s love letter to the “little pinks” drips with cultural references and political irony, and has notched up more than 7 million views since it dropped — just in time to welcome the Year of the Dragon. Complete with emperor figure in a Winnie-the-Pooh mask as a stand-in for Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, the song isn’t the first time Namewee has taken aim at the “little pinks,” some of whom recently also went viral in a stand-off with British boogie-woogie pianist Brendan Kavanagh around the public piano at London’s St. Pancras Station.     Images and references to Winnie-the-Pooh are banned by Chinese internet censors due to a supposed resemblance to Xi, who is suspected of ordering the removal of Lunar New Year’s Eve from the list of official public holidays this year, because its name (除夕 chúxì）is a homophone for “get rid of Xi” (除习 chúxí). According to Namewee’s Facebook page, the song is satirically “dedicated to every Chinese at home and abroad from all over the world (including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), to defend the dignity of the Chinese people!” “As a ‘descendant of the dragon,’ we must always remember: Love the party, love the country, love the chairman!”  The track fires out multiple puns on the Chinese word for dragon, “龙 lóng,” taking aim at those who further the aims of the authoritarian government, despite not wanting to live under its rule. “There’s a group of people from the East,” Namewee raps, “who love their motherland but live in London, Cambodia, Northern Myanmar and Thailand … everywhere, from NYC to LA, chain-smoking, talking on the phone all day, to their cousins and their nephews, calling all their fellow villagers to come and join them.” “Hating on Japan and dissing the U.S. is our duty … flooding YouTube, criticizing and spreading fake news — FALSE!” it says. “His Majesty dons the Dragon Robe,” Namewee raps, while dancing alongside “Emperor Poo.” “Together, we learn to roar like a dragon.” A Chinese person who recently emigrated to Australia and gave only the nickname Liga for fears of reprisals said anti-communist culture is now hip, with the potential to reach large global audiences. “This is a new trend, the attractiveness of anti-communist creative content, which can be monetized,” Liga said. “It shows that people who are dissatisfied with the Chinese Communist Party are now a political force that cannot be ignored, despite not having the right to vote.” “Their influence is pretty formidable, with the help of the internet,” they said.   3. “Qincheng Prison Welcomes You” by RutersXiaoFanQi Chinese censors have gone to considerable lengths to have the channel silenced, filing takedown requests that YouTube has complied with despite growing concerns over Beijing’s “long-arm” overseas law enforcement. The channel’s song “Qincheng Prison Welcomes You” opens with the face of Winnie-the-Pooh shining down as the sun, and warns that anyone found insulting Xi will find themselves welcome at Beijing’s notorious Qincheng Prison. YouTuber @RutersXiaoFanQi puts out a steady stream of spoof videos and satirical content targeting Xi Jinping, in what has become a sub-genre using the hashtag #InsultTheBun. “Insult Winnie, commit thought crimes, the trail to jail is your fate,” sing the robotic synthesized voices. “Make yourselves at home, fellow inmates, old and new alike.” “You may laugh, but you’re on the list — can’t you see?” “The monarchy’s no longer a…

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Critics dismiss Vietnam’s clemency for death row inmates as ‘progress’

Editor06 mins

Vietnam’s President Vo Van Thuong recently commuted the sentences of several inmates on death row to life in prison as part of a general amnesty, but rights campaigners and legal experts said the move should not be seen as a sign that the country is improving its rights record. Instead, they said, Vietnam’s liberal use of the death sentence is part of a bid by the government to keep its citizens in line and burnish its international image through regularly announced acts of clemency. On Dec. 27, Thuong granted amnesty to 18 death row inmates, commuting their sentences to life in prison. More than a month later, five other death row inmates had their sentences similarly reduced after they filed a petition to Thuong. California-based activist Nguyen Ba Tung of the Vietnam Human Rights Network told RFA Vietnamese that the amnesty was simply part of a bid by the government to “beautify Vietnam’s image on the world stage.” “The government retains the death penalty as a way to menace the people,” he said in a phone interview. “At the end of the year, or on special holidays, they let the president grant an amnesty to show that they are ‘humane.’ But international human rights groups can see through this act.” Vietnam’s judiciary is notorious for its application of the death sentence. Eighteen criminal charges in the country’s penal code carry maximum sentences of execution – most of which are related to drug crimes. Amnesty International’s latest annual report on death sentences and executions, released in May 2023, ranked Vietnam as eighth among nations with the most recorded death sentences in 2022, with at least 102. Just weeks prior to Thuong’s decision to grant amnesty to the five death row inmates, a court in Nghe An province handed down nine death sentences to convicted traffickers from a busted drug ring. Amnesty ‘not a progressive act’ Nguyen Van Dai, a veteran lawyer in the capital Hanoi, told RFA that the application and commutation of the death sentence is all part of a strategy by the government to threaten its citizens at home and avoid criticism abroad. “Every year, Vietnam hands out hundreds of death sentences to drug traffickers and murderers,” he said. “If all the death inmates were executed, the international community would pillory Vietnam. So they find inmates who were sentenced to death for less heinous criminal acts and grant them amnesty.” Dai dismissed the idea of amnesty for death row inmates as progress or a sign of judicial reform. “Progress means that clemency should be granted to all prisoners, both political or criminal, but it is never applied in cases of national security,” he said. “This is a form of discrimination and I don’t consider amnesty a progressive act.” In 2022, Vietnam granted clemency to 31 death row inmates, four of whom were foreign nationals. In September 2023, Vietnam executed death row inmate Le Van Manh, despite claims by Amnesty International that his case was “mired in serious irregularities and violations of the right to a fair trial,” and calls by the international community to stay his sentence. Manh was sentenced to death in 2005, when he was 23 years old, for allegedly raping and killing a female student from his village earlier that year. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintained his innocence until his execution. Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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Arakan Army claims capture of third city in Myanmar’s west

Editor03 mins

An ethnic armed organization in Myanmar announced it has now captured three major cities, according to a statement from the Three Brotherhood Alliance.  Rakhine state’s Arakan Army (AA) claims to have captured the last major junta territory in Mrauk-U, effectively taking control of the city. On Thursday, the group captured Police Battalion 31, following earlier captures of junta Battalions 377, 378, and 540. Both junta soldiers and policemen surrendered during the battle, said one Mrauk-U resident, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. “The fighting in Mrauk-U is over. Locals are not allowed to enter the city at the moment. The No. 31 police battalion has also been captured by the AA,” he told RFA on Friday. “I heard they surrendered. But the AA attacked the military battalions. The junta troops surrendered after the battalion commander died.” However, it’s unclear how many police officers and soldiers surrendered and are in Arakan Army custody, he said, adding that the situation wasn’t stable yet. The Arakan Army currently occupies all 10 battalions formerly under control of the junta’s Kyauktaw-based No. 9 Military Operation Command Headquarters. The army also controls three townships across Rakhine: Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, and Minbya. There is currently no military police or soldier presence in the townships, residents said, adding that most had surrendered, fled, been captured, or died during battles.   Radio Free Asia contacted the Arakan Army’s spokesperson Kaing Thu Kha and Rakhine’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein for more information on the battle, but neither responded by the time of publication. The regime has not released any information on conflicts in Rakhine state, including Thursday’s battle in Mrauk-U. The Three Brother Alliance, consisting of three ethnic armies, has made huge gains in Rakhine and Shan states since launching its campaign at the end of October, prompting thousands of junta troops to surrender or flee to neighboring countries. Bangladesh’s foreign minister Hasan Mahmud announced 340 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police fled to Bangladesh on Wednesday, adding they would be returned to Myanmar. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Myanmar resistance fighters burned alive stokes outrage

Editor011 mins

Two young men in shackles are interrogated by armed men. As villagers look on, the men are suspended from a tree and set on fire. Their screams are heard over the flames as a unified cheer goes up among observers. Video footage of this atrocity has gone viral in Myanmar, fueling outrage in a nation already hardened to the depravity of war after three years of increasingly bloody conflict since the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup d’etat.  Sympathizers have circulated artwork on social media to pay tribute to the men who died, Phoe Tay, 23, and Thar Htaung, 22. The art includes symbolic images of two stars hanging from a tree under a campfire. The video shows their deaths in graphic detail. They were captured Nov. 7, 2023, in fighting between pro-junta forces and resistance fighters at Myauk Khin Yan village in Magway region’s Gangaw township.  According to a local official from the administration of the shadow National Unity Government, the video was taken by a villager who fled the area on Dec. 12 and Dec. 13. It’s unclear who first posted the video that began circulating widely this week. The two young men were members of the local Yaw Defense Force that attacked positions held by junta troops at Myauk Khin Yan and then retreated when reinforcements from the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia arrived, according to the YDF. The two young men were left behind after they both sustained leg wounds. The YDF said every household in Myauk Khin Yan was told to send one person to witness the executions. The video starts with the two young men being questioned by armed, uniformed soldiers while shackled at the legs and their hands tied behind their backs. The video then shows them dragged in chains to a nearby tree where they are hung as a fire is set just underneath. A crowd of people in civilian clothes can be seen in the background. Sporadic laughter from people apparently located closer to the violence can can be heard in the video. Local sources, who declined to be name for safety reasons, said Phoe Tay was a first year university student and Thar Htaung was enrolled at a secondary school. Both were apparently enrolled in the resistance force. Radio Free Asia spoke to the father of Phoe Tay. The father, Myint Zaw, already knew of his son’s death but has not seen the video – partly because he lacks adequate internet access in his village. He voiced horror and anger.  “Yes, it is Po Tay, my son,” Myint Zaw said. “He is gone. His life as a human is over. At that time, they were tortured. There was blood on the head. I didn’t witness it, but I learned that he was beaten on the head, beaten on the knees.” “We could not retrieve the body. Nobody could go there because Myauk Khin Yan is the stronghold village of Pyu Saw Htee [pro-junta militia],” he said.   Myint Zaw said of the video: “I haven’t watched it. But there are reports about it, and many people are talking about it.” “His friends in the village are horrified by it,” he said. “People are deeply hurt. They cannot accept such an act.” Online outrage Since the coup three years ago, reports of torture, beheadings and burning of corpses by junta forces have become commonplace, but the graphic nature of the Nov. 7 video has triggered a wave of revulsion in Myanmar and beyond – and sympathy for the dead.  Hundreds of people have commented on Facebook and others have posted online images and memes that feature the two young men. “I could no longer watch that video. How merciless they were,” said Facebook user Ko Zaw, who lists himself as a resident of Kuala Lumpur. “May you two avoid such a fate in your next lives. Please have compassion with each other, Myanmar citizens.”  Burmese social media has seen an outpouring of AI-generated art tributes to Phoe Tay and Thar Htaung after the nature of their deaths became public. (Clockwise from top left: AIMasterPieces, Christine Ang, ChanHlong, Hein Htut Aung, Crd-AungYeWin and UKhaing) Among the social media artwork are images depicting two stars hanging from a tree, a phoenix rising from the ashes and two young men looking down into a cloud-covered valley. “Whenever I check my phone, I see your faces, brothers,” said Facebook user and Bangkok resident Thein Lin Aung, who added that the amount of graphic photos and videos being reposted was bordering on the reckless. “Even those without any blood relationship feel such a heavy pain,” he wrote. “Please think about their parents, families and relatives.”  ‘Justice must be sought’ RFA’s calls this week to junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the video went unanswered.  But the junta-appointed Information Ministry claimed in a statement on Wednesday that the video was fabricated by militia groups and the two young men were killed by a rival People’s Defense Force. “The illegal subversive media is only circulating fake news at the right time to mislead the public and the international community that the security forces are carrying out such inhumane and brutal acts of terrorism, which are being committed by the terrorists from the so-called PDFs,” the ministry said. NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt told RFA that the NUG’s Ministry of Home Affairs has started building a case against the alleged perpetrators. However, several sources told RFA that village residents have expressed their fear of identifying the culprits. After the killings, nearly 200 people fled the village because they felt threatened by Pyu Saw Htee militia members, local people said. Gangaw township includes a significant number of supporters for the military junta and members of the Pyu Saw Htee militia, which the military has supplied with weapons and provided with training. Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister for NUG, noted that some of the perpetrators in the video weren’t wearing a military uniform. He described the…

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Myanmar junta kills 6 internally displaced women and children

Editor04 mins

Junta troops shot and killed women and children living in eastern Myanmar, a human rights group told Radio Free Asia.  The group was attacked while fleeing a junta offensive in Kayah state’s Shadaw township, Karenni State Interim Executive Council secretary Zue Padonmar said Wednesday. After being captured in the forest outside their village, they were taken alive as hostages.  “It happened on Feb. 5. Three women and three children were killed. One of the women who was killed was pregnant,” she said.  “The children who were killed were very young. This kind of incident rarely happens. They are war-torn displaced people … They were taken as human shields.” The victims included two disabled women in their 50s, a 33-year-old pregnant woman, and three children between the ages of three and seven. The women’s bodies were found with wounds on their faces and legs, likely inflicted during their interrogation, said Banyar, director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, who goes by one name. They were later shot in the head. The group was captured when a special operations force launched an offensive in Kayah state. The column was reinforced at Shadaw Byuhar Hill by a helicopter of troops who captured the women and children, along with a man, to use as human shields, Banyar said. Only the man was able to escape.  The regime’s targeting and killing of civilians is a war crime, Zue Padonmar told RFA. The Karenni Interim Executive Council said it is preparing to take legal action against the junta in domestic and international courts. Zue Padonmar also urged the international community not to cooperate with the junta or sell them aviation fuel. RFA contacted junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun to confirm details about the alleged shooting, but did not receive a response by time of publication. The junta also carried out an aerial bombardment on a school at Daw Si Ei village in western Demoso township on Feb. 5, killing four children and injuring at least 10, according to local defense forces.  A total of 4,500 civilians have been killed across the country in the three years since the military coup, according to a statement by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners on Feb. 7. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Arakan Army captures two junta battalions in Rakhine state

Editor010 mins

The Arakan Army has captured two key military units in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, giving it effective control of Minbya township and putting it in a position to challenge junta control of the state capital, according to an ethnic rebel alliance and sources in the region. On Tuesday morning, the Arakan Army, or AA, routed Light Infantry Battalions 379 and 541 – the two junta battalions that remained in Minbya after the ethnic rebels captured the 380th battalion on Jan. 28 – the Three Brotherhood Alliance, of which the AA is a member, said in a statement. “All junta soldiers surrendered to the AA,” said a resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. It wasn’t clear how many soldiers this entailed, but the latest estimates by military experts suggest most battalions in the Burmese Army have around 200 men. The takeover means “the AA now controls Minbya,” he said. People are worried about possible airstrikes by the military and “don’t dare go outside.” ​​The advances are the latest in a series of victories for the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which launched a campaign in October on junta forces in the northern and western parts of the country. In northern Rakhine and neighboring Chin state, the AA seized arms and ammunition during several attacks on junta positions in January. On Jan. 16, nearly 300 junta troops surrendered to the AA after it took control of two major military junta encampments in Kyauktaw township. And on Jan. 24, the Three Brotherhood Alliance said in a statement that the AA had won full control of Pauktaw, a port city just 16 miles (25 kilometers) east of the Rakhine capital Sittwe. The takeovers follow the AA’s occupation of the entirety of western Chin’s Paletwa region – a mere 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the border with Bangladesh – in November, after it ended a ceasefire that had been in place with the junta since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat. The Three Brotherhood Alliance claimed in a statement late on Tuesday that the AA has now captured all but two of the 10 light infantry battalions under the aegis of the No. 9 Military Operations Command in Kyauktaw. They include the 379th, 380th and 541th battalions in Minbya; the 374th, 376th and 539th in Kyauktaw; and 378th and 540th in Mrauk-U township – the last two of which were also taken on Tuesday morning, the alliance said. The two remaining light infantry battalions under the No. 9 Military Operations Command are 377th in Mrauk-U and 375th in Kyautaw, according to the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which added that the AA had also taken control of Artillery Battalion 377 in Kyauktaw. Central Rakhine offensive No. 9 Military Operations Command in central Rakhine’s Kyauktaw township is one of three junta command centers in the state, the other two being No. 5 in southern Rakhine’s Toungup township and No. 15 in northern Rakhine’s Buthidaung township. A Rakhine-based military observer told RFA that the AA is focusing on taking control of No. 9 Military Operations Command so that it can launch offensives from the region against battalions under No. 5 and No. 15. “If the AA can capture the [Operations Command] in Kyauktaw, then they will control the central area of the state,” the observer said. “This area is important for military offensives, so the AA could use it to launch strategic attacks on the military in other areas.” The observer noted that the junta is ceding battalions and townships despite its use of the air force, navy and ground troops, suggesting that it no longer has the capacity to counter AA offensives. Arakan Army forces display arms and equipment seized after the capture of the Myanmar army’s Light Infantry Battalion 540 in Minbya, Feb. 2, 2024. (AA Info Desk) He also suggested that if the AA is able to take complete control of Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw, it would likely push on to fight for control of the capital Sittwe and Ann township, where the junta’s Western Military Headquarters is located. “If the junta loses these towns, it can be assumed that the next phase of battles will occur in Sittwe … and Ann,” he said. “It may then spread further to Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships.” The AA has yet to issue any statements about the junta battalions they have captured, casualties suffered in the fighting, or the number of military troops who have surrendered. Rapid gains Another resident monitoring the military situation in Rakhine told RFA that the AA could assume control of as many as five townships in the north of the state by the end of February, before advancing south. “We earlier thought that the AA would proceed with attacks in southern Rakhine only in 2025, after first taking control of the north,” he said. “However, they have made significant gains in Ramree and Toungup townships in a short span of time. The junta soldiers have fled [across the borders] to Bangladesh and India, and more soldiers will surrender soon.” In its statement on Tuesday, the Three Brotherhood Alliance said it also expects that the AA will fully capture the Taung Pyo Let Wei and Taung Pyo Let Yar border outposts north of Rakhine’s Maungdaw township along the border with Bangladesh, days after launching attacks on the two areas. The alliance claimed that AA fighters had located the bodies of several members of the junta-affiliated Border Guard Forces killed in the fighting and confiscated a large cache of arms and ammunition, adding that “more than 200 junta soldiers fled the area to Bangladesh.” Meanwhile, fighting remains fierce in Ramree township, where the AA launched attacks on a military outpost in December, residents of the area said. More than 10,000 civilians have fled the clashes and at least 60 homes were destroyed in military airstrikes and artillery attacks, they said. The junta has yet to release any statements related to the military situation in Rakhine state….

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Myanmar junta troops seize over 300 hostages

Editor03 mins

One woman died and over 300 villagers were arrested after a junta raid in central Myanmar, residents told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. Troops shot 21-year-old Khin Soe Wai while she fled her village in Mandalay township, locals said.  Over 50 soldiers stormed Kan Swei village following a clash with local resistance forces on Sunday. Mandalay and Myingyan People’s Defense Forces attacked junta troops with drones only half a mile away. After shooting Khin Soe Wai, villagers said the column occupied the village’s monastery, interrogating more than 100 villagers on Tuesday and burning down three homes.  Troops took more than 30 of them to a village in nearby Natogyi township. After arriving in Na Nwin Taw Bo, soldiers arrested over 300 more villagers, who have not been released yet, Myingyan-based defense forces member Bo Moe Kyo told RFA on Wednesday. “On the fifth, a woman from Kan Swei who ran away was shot dead,” he said. “About 150 villagers in Kan Swei were detained in the monastery. They were beaten and tortured. About 30 of them were taken by the junta troops.” Since the raid, some 5,000 residents from eight villages in Myingyan township and Natogyi township have been forced to flee due to the junta column, he said. “Na Nwin Taw Bo was raided by the column again. There were no casualties. But they arrested everyone they met: children, adults and women,” he said. “More than 300 villagers were arrested. They are still being held as hostage.” Calls by RFA to Mandalay’s junta spokesperson Thein Htay to learn more about the raid went unanswered on Wednesday.  In January, four women and five men from Mandalay region’s Myingyan township were arrested and killed by junta troops. As of Feb. 6, over 4,400 people across the country have been killed since the military seized power three years ago, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Senate confirms Kurt Campbell as No. 2 US diplomat

Editor03 mins

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed President Joe Biden’s top Asia foreign policy aide, Kurt Campbell, as deputy secretary of state.  Campbell, previously the Indo-Pacific Affairs coordinator on the White House’s National Security Council, was confirmed in an overwhelming 92-5 vote to replace Wendy Sherman, who retired in July. During his confirmation hearing in December, Campbell said he would prioritize the strategic threat posed by China if confirmed, and coax the Senate to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea to help push back against Beijing’s expansive South China Sea claims. “Even our allies and partners say, ‘Hey, wait a second. You’re holding China to account to something you yourself haven’t signed up for?’” Campbell said at the time. “We’ve gotten very close in the past; I’d love to get that over the finish line. It’ll be challenging. I’m committed to it.” During the hearing, he was praised by Democrats and Republicans alike, with Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee who was the ambassador to Japan during the Trump administration, praising Campbell for his “most helpful, most insightful” guidance. In the Obama administration, Campbell was credited as being the architect of the president’s “pivot to Asia,” which aimed to reorient U.S. foreign policy away from the Middle East toward East Asia. In the current White House, he has been credited with reinvigorating “the Quad” dialogue between the United States, Australia, India and Japan. Campbell’s appointment shows the Biden administration’s increasing focus on China in its foreign policy. The longtime public servant was described as being possibly “the biggest China hawk of them all” by Politico upon his appointment to the White House in 2021. However, he also led the charge in organizing last year’s high-profile summit in San Francisco between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, which paved the way for the ongoing easing of diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing. Edited by Malcolm Foster

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Myanmar resistance army deports nearly 60 Chinese nationals

Editor04 mins

An armed resistance group in northern Myanmar handed over nearly 60 Chinese nationals accused of online fraud and owning illegal weapons, according to the army’s statement on Monday night.  The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which occupies Kokang region on the country’s border with China, deported 59 Chinese citizens between Sunday and Monday, the army’s information department said.  One group of 36 people was arrested on Sunday and another 23 were captured on Monday. The army announced it had investigated the Dong Chein and Swan Hauw Chein neighborhoods of Shan state’s Laukkaing city during a crackdown on drug trafficking and illegal weapons. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army’s Special Police Department seized mobile phones and weapons from the 36 suspected of online fraud, according to a statement from the Kokang Information Department. Monday’s suspects were arrested in relation to online money laundering. All those arrested were handed over to Chinese authorities at an internally displaced persons camp called BP-125 on the China-Myanmar border in Laukkaing, according to Kokang Police. The arrested Chinese nationals were transferred to Chinese authorities by Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army forces on Feb. 5, 2024.  (The Kokang) Security forces have been conducting daily inspections in the city to combat drug and weapons smuggling, as well as online scam groups, a Laukkaing resident told RFA on Tuesday. “Now the forces conduct searches of homes and people every day,” he said. “People who work for a money scamming gang were arrested. The rest of the people were suspected [gang] leaders. They’ve also been arrested.” In Kokang region, local resistance forces have encouraged residents to report illegal online activities since Feb. 1. They are also registering foreigners residing in the area legally and allowing them to obtain temporary residence permits. Since the launch of Operation 1027 at the end of October, the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which includes the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, has committed to fighting online fraud in Kokang region. In late January, China issued arrest warrants for 10 people believed to be gang leaders, including the former chairman of the Kokang regional junta administration group.  From September to December 2023, more than 44,000 Chinese nationals were deported by both the junta and the United Wa State Army.  More than 50,000 foreigners who entered Myanmar illegally from Oct. 5, 2023 to January 2024 have been sent back to their respective countries, regime leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced during a security and defense meeting on Jan. 31. Of those who were returned, 48,120 were Chinese nationals and 1,810 were from other countries, he added. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Arakan rebels in Myanmar’s Rakhine seize outpost on Bangladesh border

Editor012 mins

The anti-junta Arakan Army seized an outpost manned by the military-affiliated Border Guard Force along western Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh on Sunday, confiscating arms and equipment, according to residents and an alliance of ethnic rebels. The attack marked the latest blow to Myanmar’s military in Rakhine state, where the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, ended a ceasefire in November that had been in place since the junta assumed power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat. The AA took control of the Taung Pyo Let Yar outpost in Maungdaw township on Sunday afternoon, taking prisoners and prompting nearly 60 fighters with the Border Guard Force, or BGF, to flee towards the border, the Three Brotherhood Alliance – of which the AA is a member – said in a statement. The statement by the alliance, which also includes the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, said that AA fighters were killed in the battle, although it did not provide details of the number of casualties. It said the AA is also attacking a nearby BGF outpost called Taung Pyo Let Wae. The two outposts, located just north of the seat of Maungdaw township, are vital to the junta and each were manned by at least 100 soldiers, residents told RFA Burmese. Local people bring a man wounded by a gunshot to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Ukhia, Bangladesh, Feb. 4, 2024. (Tanbir Miraj/AFP) Photos and videos of the battle posted to social media appeared to show BGF troops running towards the Bangladesh border amid volleys of gunfire, as well as wounded BGF fighters. Media reports cited officials in Bangladesh as saying that at least 95 Myanmar border guards, some of whom are wounded, have fled across the border over the last few days. Reports said the Myanmar border guards had been provided shelter at Bangladesh Border Guard outposts and that at least 24 of them had been sent to hospitals in neighboring Cox’s Bazar district to be treated for their wounds. Fierce fighting continued in the area on Monday, residents said, and the military sent a jet fighter to carry out an airstrike. One resident of Maungdaw who declined to be named due to security concerns said the AA began attacking the outposts on Saturday, forcing villagers to flee to the border for safety. “Some local residents fled to Bangladesh, while others dug bunkers and took shelter,” he said. “Fighting is ongoing … so [people] don’t dare stay there. A plane came and attacked two or three times.” More than 1,000 people live in the Taung Pyo area, including residents of nearby Thin Baw Hla and Mee Taik villages who were displaced by fighting between the military and anti-junta forces in 2022. The junta has not released any information about the attacks on the BGF outposts in Maungdaw or troops fleeing to Bangladesh. Calls by RFA to Hla Thein, the junta’s attorney general for Rakhine state, went unanswered Monday. Fighting spills across border At least two people in Bangladesh – a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya refugee – were killed on Monday when a mortar shell fired from Rakhine exploded on the woman’s house in Bandarban district near where the fighting was happening, media reports said, citing Bangladeshi government officials. Police identified the two victims who died in the mortar explosion as Hosne Ara, 50, a local resident, and Nobi Hossain, 65, a Rohingya laborer who was working at her house. “Firing and shelling had intensified since the morning. Suddenly, a mortar shell landed in my sister’s house and exploded. She died,” Shah Alam, Hosne Ara’s brother, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news outlet, on Monday. A Bangladeshi boy displays a bullet, allegedly shot from Myanmar during fighting between Myanmar security forces and Arakan Army, in Ghumdhum, Bangladesh, on Feb. 5, 2024. (Shafiqur Rahman/AP) Iman Hossain, the son of the dead Rohingya laborer, said his family had received the news that his father was killed in the explosion. “We came to Bangladesh from Myanmar to save our lives. But my father died in a Myanmar mortar shell [explosion]. What else can be more painful than this?” Nobi Hossain told BenarNews. Some 1 million ethnic Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh since 2017, when they were driven out of Myanmar by a military clearance operation. ‘AA will press further’ Another resident of Rakhine’s Maungdaw township, who also spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, said only 10 BGF battalions and three BGF tactical forces remain there and in nearby Buthidaung township. “I believe the AA will press further,” he said. “If the outposts of Taung Pyo are captured, I think that [cross-border] trade will resume in Rakhine state. Also, I think, the rest of the outposts in the area will be attacked, too.” The resident said the AA is likely targeting outposts along the border to reestablish trade routes with Bangladesh, which had been blocked by the military. “When the junta blocked the roads to Rakhine, all goods became scarce, so the AA feels they have the responsibility to reopen them,” he said. “Therefore, it can be assumed that the main reason for the attacks in Maungdaw are to reestablish trade with Bangladesh.” Smoke rises from a Myanmar Border Police post following fighting with Arakan Army forces near Ghumdhum, Bangladesh, Feb. 5, 2024. (Shafiqur Rahman/AP) The AA announced in December that it had captured more than 60 BGF outposts since November, when fighting resumed in Maungdaw township. The group claimed that junta troops retreated from most of the outposts because they were “afraid of being attacked.” The AA has launched offensives against junta bases in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Kyauktaw, Rathedaung, Ponnagyun and Ramree townships. Rohingya refugees Meanwhile, in Rakhine’s Taung Nyo township, where clashes between the military and the AA are now raging, the junta has set up temporary camps to receive some of the Rohingya refugees who have been living in Bangladesh. Khin Maung, an aid worker who is assisting…

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