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S Korea, Japan, China fail to set summit date, condemn N Korea

Editor2 years ago07 mins

South Korea, Japan, and China have not only failed to agree on a date for a landmark trilateral summit of their leaders, but also in jointly condemning North Korea’s latest illegal satellite launch, exposing the widening gaps in reinvigorating that three-party cooperation. The foreign ministers of the three nations did not hold a joint press conference on Sunday, after their first ministerial talks in four years – a rare occurrence that could signify the differing diplomatic stances among these key Asian geopolitical entities. “The countries have reaffirmed their agreement to hold the summit, the apex of their cooperative framework, at the earliest mutually convenient time,” South Korea’s Foreign Minister Park Jin said in a solo briefing after the trilateral meeting with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts, Yoko Kamikawa and Wang Yi in the South’s port city of Busan. A South Korean government source, who asked for anonymity due to sensitivity of the matter, told Radio Free Asia that the joint press conference did not take place as Wang had pre-arranged plans. The person did not elaborate. According to a separate South Korean government official who spoke to RFA prior to the meeting, the primary goal of the ministerial meeting was to set a date for the trilateral summit. The last trilateral summit took place in 2019 in Chengdu, China. “Efforts will be made to ensure that the summit takes place soon,” Park said, without specifying an exact date. The South Korean minister mentioned his proposal for the three countries to reactivate their intergovernmental mechanism as a means to fortify the framework of trilateral cooperation. However, he did not clarify whether this proposal was agreed upon by all parties. Whether China would want to continue the trilateral summit platform has become questionable as its emergence as a global power has relatively lessened its focus in the region. The increasing collaboration of South Korea and Japan under the trilateral framework with the United States also has been a source of discomfort for Beijing. In fact, with South Korea’s current conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration, Seoul has been more vocal in criticizing China on the international stage – with concerns ranging from Beijing’s decision to repatriate North Korean defectors back to the Kim Jong Un regime to China’s coercive behavior towards the democratically self-governed island of Taiwan. North Korea The three ministers also failed to issue a joint statement in condemning North Korea’s latest provocation, a departure from previous trilateral foreign ministers’ meetings which usually included a consensus on security issues in the Korean peninsula. “I emphasized that North Korea’s recent so-called military reconnaissance satellite launch, along with its ballistic missile launches and nuclear development, are among the greatest threats to peace and security in the region,” Park said during his solo briefing, without saying what has been agreed with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts. North Korea launched a satellite last Tuesday, despite international warnings. Rocket technology can be used for both launching satellites and missiles. For that reason, the U.N. bans North Korea from launching a ballistic rocket, even if it claims to be a satellite launch. The lack of a joint statement is a sharp contrast with the trilateral foreign minister meeting among the U.S., South Korea and Japan in San Francisco, in which the three called the military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, including Russia’s technological aid to help the North Korean launch, a “serious threat to international peace and stability.” Unlike previous occasions, when China’s foreign ministry often expressed its regrets, Beijing refrained from issuing a public criticism of North Korea’s latest launch, as the strategic value of Pyongyang has been raised due to intensifying U.S.-China relations. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday claimed that its satellite passed over Hawaii and observed “a naval base in the Pearl Harbor, the Hickam air-force base in Honolulu,” as well as South Korea’s Busan.

Foreign ministers wield new brooms in Cambodia and Thailand

Editor2 years ago013 mins

Shortly after being appointed Thailand’s new foreign minister in early September, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara made a telling remark: “We want the Thai people to feel that the foreign ministry is contributing to their lives.” Sok Chenda Sophea, Cambodia’s new foreign minister, appointed a few days before Parnpree, told his new ambassadors: “All of you should work to represent the nation and enhance the Kingdom’s prestige, especially in areas like diplomacy, economics, food, sports and the arts. These are the focus of the new government’s foreign policy.” The two new foreign ministers bear a striking resemblance. Neither are career diplomats. Parnpree, whose father and grandfather were prominent in the foreign ministry, instead rose through the ranks of the commerce ministry under the Shinawatra sibling’s governments and then became chairman of the state oil company PTT. Thailand’s Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara arrives at the government house in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 5, 2023, to take his oath of office. Credit: Sakchai Lalit/AP Sok Chenda cut his teeth in the tourism ministry in the 1990s. Parnpree served as chairman of the Thailand Board of Investment. Sok Chenda was head of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, the country’s investment board, from 1997 until this year. Parnpree was head of a negotiation team for the creation of a free trade zone with India. Sok Chenda headed the Cambodian Special Economic Zones Board. Parnpree studied public administration at the University of Southern California. Sok Chenda studied economics at the University of Aix en Provence. Moreover, both are unlike their predecessors. Don Pramudwinai, a career diplomat and foreign minister under the years of Prayut Chan-ocha’s military-run government, was often accused of putting geopolitics, chiefly relations with Beijing, ahead of more balanced, economics-focused policy, as well as for conducting “cowboy diplomacy” over the Myanmar crisis that badly dented ASEAN unity. Another charge against Don was that, because he was appointed by a junta that had just taken power in a coup, he “spent a large part of his time explaining when, how, and to what extent his country would return, or has returned, to democracy.” As Benjamin Zawacki added, “His tenure has been marked by a conservative and defensive posture rather than one of enterprise or ambition.” Similar accusations have been leveled at Cambodia’s former foreign minister. Prak Sokhonn, who was quick to lash out against the perceived Western interference in Cambodia’s domestic affairs, was more aligned with Beijing than some officials in the economic ministries liked, and, one hears, not entirely trusted by the former prime minister Hun Sen. Indeed, Hun Sen is believed to have ignored Prak and the foreign ministry by condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Economics at the center Parnpree and Sok Chenda are new brooms, appointed to refashion their ministries away from a defensive posture on their relations with China and a fixation with stoking geopolitical tensions, and towards a more sustainable, front-foot policy that puts economics at the center. As one Thai newspaper put it, Parnpree is “expected to impart a new momentum to the country’s foreign policy with a strong emphasis on exploring economic dimensions of bilateral and multilateral relationships.” A Cambodian analyst has argued, “To maintain economic development, Cambodia cannot become subject to US or Western economic sanctions. Maintaining economic development may be Cambodia’s main priority under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Manet. This appears to be the case with the appointment of Sok Chenda Sophea as the minister of Foreign Affairs.” These ideas aren’t radical. Surakiart Sathirathai, Thailand’s foreign minister between 2001 and 2005, sought to create “CEO ambassadors”. Surin Pitsuwan, a predecessor, established a “Team Thailand” approach, with diplomats supposed to represent the nation as much as the foreign ministry. But the return to a more stable, stripped-down foreign policy makes sense as Thailand and Cambodia undergo political change. Hun Sen speaks at a press conference at the National Assembly after a vote to confirm his son, Hun Manet, as Cambodia’s prime minister in Phnom Penh, August 22, 2023. It is said that Hun Sen did not entirely trust his foreign minister, Prak Sokhonn. Credit: Cindy Liu/Reuters Thailand has its first civilian, democratically elected government again for more than a decade. Cambodia has just undergone a once-in-a-lifetime generational succession of its ruling elites, with almost the entire old guard resigning in August to make way for a younger generation, mostly the children of that old guard. Neither Parnpree nor Sok Chenda are big characters. Indeed, they’re rather bureaucratic. And they are on the senior end of the age spectrum. At 66, Parnpree is one of the oldest in the new Thai cabinet. Sok Chenda, aged 67, is the oldest of Cambodia’s important ministers. (He’s 20 years older than the PM.) They are also excellent counterparts to their prime ministers. Srettha Thavisin, the Thai premier, is a businessman at heart. Although Hun Manet rose through the ranks of the military, he studied economics and played a guiding role in the companies owned by his wife. Parnpree and Sok Chenda appear happy to defer much of the more razmataz foreign policy, such as showing up for international summits, to their prime ministers. Srettha, the self-styled “salesman”-in-chief, clearly likes traveling around the world and meeting foreign leaders, and posing for rather ingratiating and embarrassing selfies with them. Cambodia’s ruling party obviously wants Hun Manet to be front-and-center of Cambodia’s engagement abroad, a role similar to the one played by his father. As such, having nose-to-the-grindstone foreign ministers makes sense alongside globetrotting premiers. Experienced foreign policy thinkers In part, too, the two new foreign ministers are also designed to appease the private sectors, especially as Cambodia and Thailand have untested and unsteady governments; Thailand in the form of an odd coalition and Cambodia with its dynastic succession of Hun Manet and almost the entire cabinet. It’s not quite the Biden administration’s evocation of a “Foreign Policy for the Middle Class” but it’s not far off. How the new foreign ministers translate their briefs into action remains to be seen. In…

Activists call for probe into China’s ‘consular volunteers’ network

Editor2 years ago011 mins

The Chinese Communist Party is running a global network of “consular volunteers” through its embassies and consulates who form part of its “United Front” influence and enforcement operations on foreign soil, according to a new report, prompting calls for democratic governments to investigate. While Chinese embassies and consulates have been using such informal networks for at least a decade, they were recently formalized through a State Council decree that took effect on Sept. 1, yet the networks remain largely undeclared to host countries, the Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders said in a report published this week. Consular volunteers are mostly drafted in to help with administrative tasks linked to consular protection, risk assessments, and even “warnings and advisories” to overseas citizens and organizations, the report said, citing multiple online recruitment advertisements and other official documents. This gives them full access to individuals’ personal information, and “may also dangerously enhance their function of control over overseas communities and dissenters,” the report warned. China is already known to rely on an illegal, overseas network of “police service centers” that are sometimes used as a base from which to monitor and harass dissidents in other countries. Since taking power in 2012, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has launched an accelerated expansion of political influence activities worldwide, much of which rely on overseas community and business groups under the aegis of the United Front Work Department. Under the radar While Beijing has shut down some of its overseas police “service centers” following protests from host countries, the “consular volunteer” network has managed to fly under the radar until now, further enabling China’s overseas influence and illegal transnational law enforcement operations, according to the report. According to the State Council decree, “The state encourages relevant organizations and individuals to provide voluntary services for consular protection and assistance.” The state also “encourages and supports insurance companies, emergency rescue agencies, law firms and other social forces” to take part in consular work, it says. A building [with glass front] suspected of being used as a secret police station in Chinatown for the purpose of repressing dissidents living in the United States on behalf of the Chinese government stands in New York City’s lower Manhattan on April 18, 2023. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images The decree also requires Chinese nationals overseas to “abide by the laws of China,” regardless of location. Organizations and individuals that “make outstanding contributions to consular protection and assistance” are to be commended and rewarded, it says. And official reports on volunteer commendation ceremonies and training events show that they are – under the supervision of individuals with “direct and demonstrable ties to the CCP’s United Front,” the Safeguard Defenders report said. “The [consular volunteer] network runs through United Front-linked associations and individuals and shows the involvement of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office,” it said, adding that the Office was labeled an “entity that engages in espionage” by the Federal Canadian Court in 2022. Global effort A March 2023 recruitment drive by the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic posted to an official website called for volunteers from among “overseas Chinese, international students, Chinese employees of Chinese-funded enterprises and other individuals in the Czech Republic, overseas Chinese groups, Chinese-funded enterprises and other organizations, institutions and groups.” Similar notices have been seen in Trinidad and Tobago, Botswana, Turkey, Malaysia, Johannesburg, Equatorial Guinea, Chile and Japan, the report said, adding that the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office has also been directly named as a participant at training events for consular volunteers in Rio de Janeiro and Florence, Italy. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, “the United Front system acts as a liaison and amplifier for many other official and unofficial Chinese organizations engaged in shaping international public opinion of China, monitoring and reporting on the activities of the Chinese diaspora, and serving as access points for foreign technology transfer.” The Safeguard Defenders report called on democratic countries to review the practice of “consular volunteering” by Chinese diplomatic missions, and warned them not to take part in United Front-linked events. French current affairs commentator Wang Longmeng described consular volunteers as quasi-spies. “The so-called assistance in providing consular services actually means collecting financial support from overseas Chinese individuals,” Wang said. “This can help the Chinese Communist Party control overseas Chinese remotely, making them loyal to party and state, as well as helping China to steal Western technology and intelligence.” “These people are also collecting information on dissidents, and many dissidents’ family members back home are also being threatened,” he said. “This is a quasi-espionage organization and an integral part of the Chinese Communist Party’s transnational repression network.” Wang said European countries have been fairly slow to catch on to such practices, compared with the United States. “That encourages the Chinese Communist Party to extend its long arm even further,” he said. “Their intention was never to stop transnational repression and United Front work,” he said, calling for EU legislation to curb such activities “as soon as possible.” APEC summit Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the U.S.-based Human Rights in China, said China’s consulate in San Francisco had engaged in the large-scale mobilization of patriotic protesters during President Xi Jinping visit last week to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in the city.. “The Chinese Communist Party will take up every bit of space it can in democratic societies to extend its rule and engage in state persecution,” Zhou told Radio Free Asia. “Consulates wield a great deal of power overseas.” “Much like it did with overseas police stations, the international community needs to face up to this form of [Chinese] government control.” After Chinese international student Tian Ruichen took part in protests supporting the “White Paper” movement of November 2022 and the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, he was unsettled to find he’d been doxxed – a common tactic employed by supporters of Beijing. He told Radio Free Asia that overseas dissident communities need far more protection from the long arm of the Chinese Communist Party than they are currently…

China media talk up economic environment to shore up FDI

Editor2 years ago08 mins

In recent days, China’s state media have spared no effort in posting upbeat narratives even as the latest economic indicators for October showed a patchy recovery. Some reports hailed rosy projections from foreign investment banks as the basis of the argument such as the one in the Economic Daily on Friday, which cited the likes of Goldman Sachs and UBS Group. The paper said these banks believe that the “important driver of the accelerated recovery of [emerging markets in 2024] is China’s economic development.” The slew of articles talking up the economic landscape comes as foreign interests continued to shrink for the fifth month in October, with foreign direct investments (FDI) falling 9.4% to 987 billion yuan (US$138 billion) in the first 10 months of the year, compared with the year-earlier period. Furthermore, China recorded its first-ever quarterly deficit in FDI by balance of payments for July-September, the latest data available, at US$11.8 billion. The measure records monetary flows linked to foreign-owned entities in China. Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research, said foreign investors will have little appetite in placing their money in China until the structural adjustments in the economy are completed or the end is in sight. “There will continue to be opportunities in certain pockets, including electronic vehicles, fintech, AI, and some supply chains, but they are relatively small compared with the larger industrial base and property,” he told Radio Free Asia. “China will always be important to the global economy but the peak growth days are over for the foreseeable future.” Amid the stuttering post-COVID recovery, Beijing is also grappling with economic structural challenges, coupled with global slowing growth and a cautious improvement in bilateral relations with the United States following last week’s summit between the two’s leaders Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in San Francisco. The drag from the real estate market crisis, underscored by indebted property developers that have defaulted on creditors and implicated overseas investors, is playing up on the broader economy. A battered property sector means slower land sales, a crucial lifeline for the coffers of local governments who are already under the weight of overextended local government fund vehicles established to fund infrastructure projects that struggled to generate sufficient returns to cover their obligations. Measures to shore up the property market included relaxing borrowing rules like reducing mortgage rates and the downpayment ratio and raising the liquidity of banks by lowering the reserve amount they need to maintain. Chinese regulators have also ordered banks and financial institutions to help stabilize the property market by keeping financing channels available for developers. Banking But in urging banks to step up efforts, authorities are reiterating the need to manage risks better and preserve the soundness of the financial system. Again, they borrowed the views of China-based foreign banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered, via state media reports. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) mouthpiece People’s Daily cited these foreign institutions for being “very optimistic of the potential of the China market.” HSBC, it said, recorded a 54% increase in net profit to more than 6 billion yuan, and the bank would have invested an additional 3 billion yuan between 2021 and 2025. HSBC headquarters building is seen in Pudong financial district in Shanghai December 8, 2010. Picture taken December 8, 2010. (Credit: Reuters) Standard Chartered, on the other hand, would have invested US$300 million in areas including digital transformation, expanding its network and risk management between 2022 and 2024. “All the western banks have to say positive things about the Chinese economy otherwise they will be in trouble with the regulators and the leadership in Beijing,” said Collier. “However, a number of Hong Kong-based banks, including HSBC, earn the majority of their profits from mainland activities and therefore they are forced to put all their eggs in one basket as they have few alternatives.” Outlook for 2024 Pundits are hopeful for more stimulus policies when a revival of market-oriented reforms may be unlikely due to the political climate where the state exerts greater control over the economy including a once vibrant private sector. Such indications could come next month at the CCP’s annual Central Economic Work Conference where officials meet annually to set policy plans and the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy. In its forecast, UBS is expecting China’s 2024 growth to be in the mid-4% and Goldman Sachs at 4.8%. Goldman Sachs analysts in their forecast for next year said several reasons constitute “a challenging longer-run growth outlook.” They are a persisting property downturn and ongoing demographic deterioration – with a shrinking working-age population – that requires China to reinvent its growth model. Additionally, while there may be a modest cyclical rebound in exports, it is unlikely to reverse the ongoing diversification of global value chains away from China and toward some of its peers. Still for 2023, China’s central bank governor Pan Gongsheng said the country is on track to achieve its targeted 5% growth. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

Faced with decline in marriages, Xi calls on women to build families

Editor2 years ago012 mins

Faced with plummeting marriage rates, flagging births and a rapidly aging population, Chinese President Xi Jinping wants the country’s women to step up and embody “the traditional virtues” of marriage and raising children in a bid to “rejuvenate” the nation. The number of Chinese couples tying the knot for the first time has plummeted by nearly 56% over the past nine years, the financial magazine Yicai quoted the 2023 China Statistical Yearbook as saying, with such marriages numbering less than 11 million in 2022. Young people are increasingly avoiding marriage, having children and buying a home amid a tanking economy and rampant youth unemployment, part of an emerging social phenomenon known as the “young refuseniks” – people who reject the traditional four-fold path to adulthood: finding a mate, marriage, mortgages and raising a family. A recent poll on the social media platform Weibo found that while most of the 44,000 respondents said 25-28 is the best age to marry, nearly 60% said they were delaying marriage due to work pressures, education or the need to buy property. Georgetown University student Chelsea Yao, 22, who hails from the southern city of Guangzhou, said she doesn’t find the prospect of marriage at all enticing after enduring years of restrictions under the zero-COVID policy. “It may look like a peaceful family, but parents actually have a lot of conflict,” she said. “In the end, marriage is about everyone living together … when you grow up and realize what it’s actually like, it seems a little unnecessary,” Yao told RFA Mandarin, adding that antagonism between men and women seems to be intensifying in today’s China. “Rather than making how you feel dependent on another person,” she said, “it’s better to focus on what you want to do.” Backing away Yet Xi, whose 24-member Politburo is the first in decades not to include a single woman, is calling for the political mobilization of women like Yao to step up and compensate. Backing away from his party’s time-honored rhetoric on gender equality that was once a mainstay of its claim to legitimacy, Xi told a recent meeting that women have a “unique” role to play in the nation’s return to family life. China’s President Xi Jinping speaks at an event on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Week in San Francisco, California, Nov. 15, 2023. “We need to … guide women to play their unique role in carrying forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation,” he says. Credit: Carlos Barria/Pool/AFP “We need to … guide women to play their unique role in carrying forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, establish a good family tradition, and create a new trend of family civilization,” Xi told a recent meeting with leaders of the party’s All China Women’s Federation in comments reported by state news agency Xinhua. “Only with harmonious families, good family education, and correct family traditions can children be raised and society develop in a healthy manner,” Xi said. “We need to actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing,” he said, including “guiding young people’s views on marriage and childbearing” in a bid to reverse the rapidly aging population. Chinese women should be mobilized “to contribute to China’s modernization,” Xi told All-China Women’s Federation leaders. “The role of women in the … great cause of national rejuvenation … is irreplaceable.” Meanwhile, Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang’s speech to the five-yearly Chinese Women’s National Congress also broke with the party’s usual lip-service to gender equality – by not mentioning it at all. Widening gender gap The lack of enthusiasm for women’s rights has had a real-world impact, too. When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China ranked 69th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, which measures policies and suggests measures to address gender inequality. By 2023, the country had fallen to 107th place. While few women have ever risen to the highest ranks of the Communist Party, Xi’s insistence on a domestic role for women is a departure even from the luke-warm, Mao-era rhetoric about gender equality, and the depiction of the party in propaganda films as liberating working class and rural women from the shackles of traditional gender roles, including forced marriage and prostitution. China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang speaks during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 4, 2023. His speech to this year’s Chinese Women’s National Congress made no mention of gender equality. Credit: Pedro Pardo/Pool via Reuters In May 2021, Beijing unveiled new plans to boost flagging birth rates and reverse population aging, raising the official limit on the number of children per couple from two to three. But Chinese women haven’t been stepping up to solve the government’s population problems as readily as Xi had hoped. And the current emphasis on traditional Confucian culture appears to have exacerbated gender inequality under Xi, who has also offered little in the way of practical assistance, according to Wang Ruiqin, a former member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference from the western province of Qinghai. “The liberation of women … should be fundamentally based on their social status,” she said. “But the Chinese Communist Party’s claim that women hold up half the sky is really about political expediency.” She said that rather than just calling on women to take more responsibility for marriage and childrearing, the government should put its money where its mouth is. “The Chinese Communist Party is aware of these problems … but doesn’t actually have any fundamental measures to remedy them,” Wang said. “There is no women’s liberation, no employment or welfare protections, and the cost of raising children isn’t shared by the government.” Obstacles Chinese women face major barriers to finding work in the graduate labor market and fear getting pregnant if they do manage to get a job, out of concern their employer will fire them, a common practice despite protection on paper offered by China’s labor laws. And the authorities have cracked down hard on…

Over 1,000 Myanmar schools empty as fighting resumes in Rakhine

Editor2 years ago04 mins

Over 1,000 schools in western Myanmar have been abandoned by pupils, education officials told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. Escalating battles in northern Rakhine state between the junta and Arakan Army have emptied schools in 10 townships. In those townships, students are normally sent to some 1,800 schools, now of which only about 650 can operate, said Rakhine state’s education director Ba Htwe Sein. “It’s not that they are closed. Parents in uninhabited villages don’t send children to school,” he told RFA. “Children don’t come to school because parents don’t let them go. They are worried about the children. We have not ordered the schools to close.” Rakhine’s education department is telling township education offices to encourage students to go to school and asking schools to run as normal in areas where they can, he added. Some entire villages have fled because of fighting, like Chein Khar Li in Rathedaung township, said one parent from the village. Since Nov. 13 when the Arakan Army and junta’s year-long ceasefire ended, children have not been sent to school in conflict-ridden areas. “My daughter is in the fourth grade. She attends Chein Khar Li village’s elementary school. Since November 13, the entire village has fled. There is only a school with no teacher at all,” the parent said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “Everyone is fleeing. Even if the child wants to go to school, she could not go to school because there is no one to teach her. I am worried about the delay in children’s education.” Since the junta has blocked land and water routes to suppress the Arakan Army, teachers and other school employees can’t get to work, he added. Most educators in battlegrounds are also fleeing for their lives, said one middle school teacher in Pauktaw, where a series of junta attacks since Nov. 16 have led residents to flee en masse. “How can the teachers go to schools? The teachers themselves are fleeing the war. There are no schools anymore, so who is going to teach?” she said, asking to remain anonymous to protect herself from reprisals. “Even teachers have to flee to save their lives.” Reopening schools seems impossible in the near future, residents told RFA, adding that junta troops are firing heavy artillery every day in Pauktaw. More than 26,000 people from 4,700 households in Rakhine state have fled due to intense conflict, the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Friday. The report also said at least 11 local people have been killed and more than 30 have been injured by heavy shelling in Maungdaw, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw and Ann townships. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

Myanmar junta arrests 50 in Yangon-area crackdown

Editor2 years ago06 mins

Myanmar’s military junta has arrested nearly 50 young people in and around Yangon over the past three weeks, residents told Radio Free Asia. The people, mostly under 30 years old, were arrested between Nov. 1 and 21. Approximately 30 of them were arrested in Kayan township, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Myanmar’s largest city. People from the area told RFA Burmese that the Kayan People’s Defense Force have frequently conducted attacks on junta targets there. It has not yet been possible to obtain information on the reasons for their detention or their whereabouts, and their family members have no access to them, said a resident who insisted on anonymity for security reasons. Arrests of civilians has been a common practice since the February 2021 coup, when the military took over control of the government. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners released an updated report on Nov. 21 stating that over 25,000 civilians have been arrested across the country since the coup, with 19,702 still remaining in detention. At least 10 of the people arrested in Kayan township were taken into custody on Nov. 19, when the junta inspected overnight guests at a dormitory there, the resident said. “Soldiers inspected overnight registration at a dormitory. The arrestees had been living there for some time,” the resident said. “They showed all their documents, but around 10 young men were apprehended. They have not been released and cannot be contacted.” The other 20 people from Kayan township were arrested between Nov. 1 and 18, usually at night. This has resulted in decreased nighttime activity in the township, residents said. Over the same period of time, three people were arrested in Kamayut township, five in Dagon Myothit (Seikkan) township and 10 in North Okkalapa township. People monitoring these arrests told RFA that it remains unknown whether they will be released or not. Two of the Kamayut arrests occurred on Tuesday, a covert online media group called Kamayut Information told RFA. “We have learned that some young men living on the first floor of Sin Ma Leik wholesale market were arrested around 7 pm,” a member of the group told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “The military has also made arrests at the bustling San Yeik Nyein bus stop, Hledan bus stop and Hledan train station in Ward 3 since August and September.” Staying home A resident of Shwe Pyi Thar township told RFA, requesting not to be identified for safety reasons, that news of arrests keeps people inside at night. “In our ward, no one goes outside at night after we ask the children to come back home before we close the doors.” Ko Kaung, a participant in recurring anti-junta flash protests in Yangon, told RFA that the junta soldiers arrest individuals during their patrols, with a specific focus on targeting the youth under 18. “They make arrests if they find anything suspicious on mobile phones during inspections, and they also detain individuals around 18-year old during their patrols,” he said. Ko Ye Ba Wal, the chairman of the Octopus youth organization that helped to organize flash protests, told RFA that the military has three separate plans to maintain power. “The first plan is to hide the battle news across the country. The second is to defeat urban resistance forces, and the third one is to extort money as ransom from those apprehended.” The Mirror, a military controlled newspaper, reported Wednesday that false information had been circulating suggesting that young people were being forced to do military training to become porters for the military. According to the report a junta official said that this was misinformation, and did not acknowledge that any arrests had occurred. RFA attempted to contact Attorney General Htay Aung, the spokesperson of Yangon Region government for a comment but phone calls went unanswered. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Myanmar junta uses pregnant women and monks as human shields

Editor2 years ago05 mins

Nearly 100 civilians were caught in a battle in western Myanmar on Tuesday, locals told Radio Free Asia. As fighting in Rakhine state between the Arakan Army and junta forces continues over the disputed town of Pauktaw, residents report an increase in abductions and injuries across the region. Junta forces abducted nearly 100 people, including monks, the elderly, children and pregnant women in Pauktaw to use as human shields. The civilians were abducted on Nov. 16 when the Arakan Army captured Pauktaw’s police station, which was previously occupied by junta troops. In retaliation, the regime attacked the coastal area by firing weaponry from navy ships and aircraft. By the following week, the junta army and police had re-captured Pauktaw and were patrolling neighborhoods. The Arakan Army seized control of the city again on Tuesday and rescued the captured civilians, according to a statement the group released. It also stated the regime was frequently using heavy artillery and launching rockets from ships and by aircraft. The junta stated it had captured Pauktaw before Tuesday, but an announcement by junta spokesman Maj. Gen Zaw Min Tun in military-controlled newspapers did not say anything about the arrested people. Fighting between the two groups is also affecting civilians in the state’s northeast. On Monday evening in Paletwa township on the Chin state border, eight civilians, including five children, were injured in a junta airstrike. Some of the children are in a critical condition after they were struck by bomb shrapnel while bathing in a creek, said a woman from Mee Zar village, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “The children were hit when they came back from bathing in the creek down from the village. The adults were hit when they went to pick things up,” she said. “I heard that the injured are in a critical condition. At the moment, we’re hiding when we hear the sound of the plane. I am still afraid it will come again.” All eight victims are currently receiving medical treatment at Mee Zar District Hospital. RFA contacted Chin state’s junta spokesperson Kyaw Soe Win by phone regarding the aerial bombardment, but he did not respond by the time of publication. Mee Zar village is about 10 kilometers (six miles) away from Paletwa township’s Hta Run Aing village, where another clash between the junta army and Arakan Army erupted, locals said. On Monday evening, a Christian church in Matupi township’s Lalengpi town was destroyed during the junta’s airstrike, according to the locals. Eleven residents, including eight children, were killed during an aerial bombardment on Vuilu village in Matupi township on the night of Nov. 15. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

Karenni officials: 200 university workers are safe after evacuation

Editor2 years ago07 mins

More than 200 civilians evacuated from a university during recent fighting in the Kayah state capital in eastern Myanmar are being provided health care at a safe location, Karenni officials told Radio Free Asia. The military junta has alleged that the civilians, which include teachers and the rector from Loikaw University, were being detained against their will. “Some of them seem to be in a good mood, but some others said they are missing their family members,” said Banyar, the director of the Karenni Human Rights Organization. “We have told them that we will proceed in accordance with rules and regulations.” Fighting began in Loikaw in eastern Myanmar on Nov. 11 when the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, or KNDF, targeted junta bases and a prison in the city. Junta troops retaliated with airstrikes and shelling, killing 20 civilians, according to the Karenni Human Rights Organization. The KNDF announced on Nov. 15 that they had successfully occupied the university, where two battalions of military junta soldiers had been stationed. The soldiers had frequently raided and shelled nearby villages, according to KNDF Chairman Khun Bedu. Regime spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said the attack on Loikaw University was a “barbaric act” and alleged that Karenni troops had killed some teachers and taken other teachers hostage. Khun Bedu denied these accusations, saying the attack was carried out only because soldiers were stationed there. Karenni Nationalities Defense Force fighters stand at Loikaw University in Loikaw, Myanmar, in this still image taken from video released Nov. 16, 2023. Credit: Karenni Nationalities Defense Force/Handout via Reuters A Karenni National Progressive Party official told RFA that junta troops used some university staff members and students as human shields during the fighting. They were evacuated to a secure place and no one has been tortured or killed, he said. “We are working to allow them to go to their destinations safely,” he said. “We are not using them as human shields like the military did.” On Monday, the KNDP published a recorded video clip on its social media page with statements from the university’s rector and several teachers. Some of the university staff members were being questioned about possible junta associations, said Banyar, who goes by one name. Legal action may be taken against some of them, he said on Monday. He did not provide specific details. Artillery attacks and air strikes Karenni forces launched their offensive this month after their northern allies’ “Operation 1027,” during which rebel groups won control of three major cities in Shan state. The Karenni Humanitarian Aid Initiative on Tuesday said air strikes and artillery attacks killed 68 civilians between Nov. 11-19 in Loikaw and Shan’s Pekon township. Victims included 10 children and 18 women, the group said. The information was gathered from the Karenni Human Rights Organization and media reports, they said. A humanitarian volunteer for Karenni displaced persons told RFA that the actual casualty toll may be higher. “We cannot get some figures from the frontlines of battles,” the volunteer said. “As the military was being defeated in the battles, they carried out air strikes on civilian targets and shot people dead.” RFA attempted to contact Myint Kyi, junta spokesperson for Kayah state, but phone calls went unanswered. Myanmar military soldiers who surrendered to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force ride in the back of a vehicle in Loikaw, Myanmar, in this still image taken from video released Nov. 15, 2023. Credit: Karenni Nationalities Defense Force/Handout via Reuters Neither the junta nor Kareni forces have stated total casualty tolls from the fighting that began on Nov. 11. Elsewhere in Myanmar, a People’s Defense Force in Chin state said they have occupied a military outpost at Kennedy Peak between Kalay and Tedim townships. About 30 junta soldiers had been stationed at the outpost since the February 2021 military coup. “We began to attack this outpost at 4 a.m., and totally controlled the camp at around 6 a.m.,” an official from PDF Zoland told RFA. “It was the highest mountain in northern Chin and strategically important. So we captured it.” RFA attempted to contact Kyaw Soe Win, the social affairs minister and junta spokesperson for Chin state government, for his response but was unable to reach him. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

China orders financial support for battered property sector

Editor2 years ago010 mins

The Chinese government has urged banks and financial institutions to back a sputtering real estate sector where the biggest developers have buckled under the weight of tremendous debt and don’t have the capital to complete pre-sold homes to hundreds of thousands of homebuyers. The move underscores Beijing’s dilemmatic position of having to defuse local government debt risks while pumping capital into the real economy to prop up growth. The property sector is particularly precarious not only because it is a major growth driver, but the housing issue is closely tied to social stability. Authorities told financial institutions that they need to support “reasonable” fund-raising requirements for developers that are “operating normally,” according to a report from the official Xinhua news agency Friday. The report added that capital raised through credit, bonds and stock issuance has paid off in helping stabilize the real estate market, citing a meeting organized by the central bank, the People’s Bank of China, foreign exchange and stock regulators, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The meeting was also attended by officials from the two stock exchanges, policy banks and 18 national commercial banks, five asset management firms and four of the country’s biggest stockbrokers. There is no official tally of the extent of debt chalked up by property developers. China Evergrande is the world’s most indebted developer with more than US$300 billion in liabilities. It defaulted on its debt two years ago and has yet to come up with a repayment plan. At the end of October, a Hong Kong High Court judge gave the Hong Kong-listed company until Dec. 4 to come up with a plan when a winding-up hearing will be heard. Evergrande is not alone. Country Garden and Sunac are also in hot soup. The crisis is more pronounced in tier-two cities or below, where most of the 841 demonstrations against property developers since January 2022 to date have occurred, based on data from Freedom House’s China Dissent Monitor. Most of them were staged by homebuyers demanding delivery of their properties with a smaller proportion of construction workers seeking salary payments. Implications of property woes China’s property crisis is a growing concern and a drag on the broader economy – the financial wellbeing of local governments, where traditionally, land sales for real estate projects are a huge contributor to their revenues. These governments are already under pressure from the cracks of local government fund vehicles that are issued to fund infrastructure like roads and airports but have not generated enough returns to cover their obligations. And massive debts piling up are also fueling concerns of a systemic financial crisis. The Central Financial Commission, the financial watchdog led by Premier Li Qiang, on Monday emphasized in a meeting the need to improve financial services that will help economic development. “It is necessary to comprehensively strengthen financial supervision, the responsibility of managing risks, coordination among departments, heighten control of the risk sources as they are diffused, and boost relevant reforms to improve prevention, warning and management mechanisms,” according to a separate Xinhua report citing a commission meeting that Li chaired. A woman rides a scooter past a construction site of residential buildings by Chinese developer Country Garden, in Tianjin, China August 18, 2023. Credit: Reuters Government debts are expected to account for 83% of China’s gross domestic product in 2023, up from 77% last year, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF’s Mission Chief for China, Sonali Jain-Chandra pointed out that more measures are needed to secure a recovery of the property market, which should include ways to accelerate the exit of troubled developers and greater central government funding for housing completion, following a visit to China early this month. According to analysts at Nomura, an estimated 20 million units of unconstructed and delayed pre-sold homes across the country are the biggest hurdle to turning the property crisis around, and about $440 billion will be needed to complete their construction, CNBC reported. In October alone, official data showed that the scale of unsold floor area for residential real estate soared by 19.7%, compared with October 2022. Funds raised by developers dropped 13.8% to 10.73 trillion yuan (US$1.48 trillion) in the first 10 months of the year. Domestic loans into real estate dropped 11% while foreign investments plunged 40.3% in the 10 months. The rating agency S&P Global has forecast China’s property sales to fall as much as 15% this year, with the drop to taper off to 5% for 2024. The continued property slump would hinder the post-COVID recovery of the world’s second-largest economy where real estate and its related industries make up about 30% of GDP. Beijing has also been ramping up measures to prop up the economy. It announced last month a 1 trillion yuan government bond issuance, which allows local governments to frontload part of their 2024 bond quotas. Indications for 2024 Investors and businesses are also watching out for more indications on Beijing’s macroeconomic direction for 2024 at next month’s annual Central Economic Work Conference. “I think they will continue to send similar signals as what we’ve seen in the past couple of quarters. That is, a high priority to supporting private consumption, fighting financial risks including from housing, continued fiscal support and continued support for the private sector and further opening-up,” said Allan von Mehren, China economist for Danske Bank. “It will be interesting to see if we get any clues about their growth target for 2024.” Von Mehren pointed out that there is speculation of a 5% target but he sees this as a “quite ambitious target as the base effects will be much less favorable compared to this year.” Beijing has set a growth target of around 5% for this year, which state media has touted this month to be within reach. Last month’s data show China’s recovery to remain uneven. While industrial output and retail sales were on an uptrend, the consumer price index, a gauge of inflation,…

Category: World