This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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A 200-foot AM radio tower for Jasper, Alabama, broadcaster WJLX was stolen “without a trace” on Feb. 2, 2024, according to the station.
“I’ve been around the business my whole life, I’ve been in it professionally for 26 years and I’ve never heard of an entire tower being stolen,” WJLX General Manager Brett Elmore told Birmingham television station WABM.
WJLX, which is now unable to broadcast on its AM frequency, said it has since had to shut down its broadcast operations entirely, including its FM station. The Federal Communications Commission told WJLX on Feb. 8 that it could not operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air. It will continue to stream its programming only via the internet and its apps, it said.
Elmore has also filed a request with the FCC for WJLX to remain silent for now without losing its license, The Washington Post reported. The paper said if stations remain silent for more than one year, the FCC considers them expired.
The station’s absence was a cause for worry for Sharon Tinely, president of the Alabama Broadcasters Association, who told WABM, “What if there were a crisis going on right now that the community needs to hear information from local sources on a local radio station and they can’t.”
“This is a huge loss,” Elmore told the Guardian. “People have reached out and asked how they can help, but I don’t know how you can help unless you have a 200ft tower and an AM transmitter.”
The tower was uninsured, according to Elmore, and replacing it could cost $60,000-plus. WJLX has set up a GoFundMe account and so far raised over $8,000.
That station said it was alerted to the theft when a landscaping cleanup crew arrived at the tower site to clean up the property, only to find it completely cleared out by the thieves. “I couldn’t believe it,” Elmore recalled.” I asked him [the landscaper] if he was sure he was at the right place. He responded, ‘the tower is gone. Wires are scattered everywhere.’”
The radio tower was located in a wooded area, behind a local poultry plant, The Guardian reported. Elmore told the paper that thieves had cut the tower’s wires and somehow removed it, while also taking the station’s AM transmitter from a nearby building.
Elmore said he believes the thieves may have targeted the tower to sell the metal and also told The Guardian that about six months ago, a nearby radio station had its air conditioning unit, copper pipes and other materials stolen.
The station has filed charges with the Jasper Police Department and the case is currently under investigation.
“This is a federal crime and whoever did this it’s not worth your time, effort or energy,” Elmore told WABM. “Because when we find you, you are going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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A 200-foot AM radio tower for Jasper, Alabama, broadcaster WJLX was stolen “without a trace” on Feb. 2, 2024, according to the station.
“I’ve been around the business my whole life, I’ve been in it professionally for 26 years and I’ve never heard of an entire tower being stolen,” WJLX General Manager Brett Elmore told Birmingham television station WABM.
WJLX, which is now unable to broadcast on its AM frequency, said it has since had to shut down its broadcast operations entirely, including its FM station. The Federal Communications Commission told WJLX on Feb. 8 that it could not operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air. It will continue to stream its programming only via the internet and its apps, it said.
Elmore has also filed a request with the FCC for WJLX to remain silent for now without losing its license, The Washington Post reported. The paper said if stations remain silent for more than one year, the FCC considers them expired.
The station’s absence was a cause for worry for Sharon Tinely, president of the Alabama Broadcasters Association, who told WABM, “What if there were a crisis going on right now that the community needs to hear information from local sources on a local radio station and they can’t.”
“This is a huge loss,” Elmore told the Guardian. “People have reached out and asked how they can help, but I don’t know how you can help unless you have a 200ft tower and an AM transmitter.”
The tower was uninsured, according to Elmore, and replacing it could cost $60,000-plus. WJLX has set up a GoFundMe account and so far raised over $8,000.
That station said it was alerted to the theft when a landscaping cleanup crew arrived at the tower site to clean up the property, only to find it completely cleared out by the thieves. “I couldn’t believe it,” Elmore recalled.” I asked him [the landscaper] if he was sure he was at the right place. He responded, ‘the tower is gone. Wires are scattered everywhere.’”
The radio tower was located in a wooded area, behind a local poultry plant, The Guardian reported. Elmore told the paper that thieves had cut the tower’s wires and somehow removed it, while also taking the station’s AM transmitter from a nearby building.
Elmore said he believes the thieves may have targeted the tower to sell the metal and also told The Guardian that about six months ago, a nearby radio station had its air conditioning unit, copper pipes and other materials stolen.
The station has filed charges with the Jasper Police Department and the case is currently under investigation.
“This is a federal crime and whoever did this it’s not worth your time, effort or energy,” Elmore told WABM. “Because when we find you, you are going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Washington, D.C., February 13, 2024—Iranian authorities must immediately release four journalists from the FardayeEghtesad news site who have been detained since February 5, drop any charges against them, and answer for the raid on their outlet and mass detention of 30 staff, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
Around 2 p.m. on February 5, security forces raided the newsroom of the privately owned multimedia economic news website FardayeEghtesad in Argentina Square in the capital, Tehran, detained all 30 staff inside the building, searched the newsroom, and confiscated everyone’s cellphones and other electronic devices, such as laptops.
The families of the journalists gathered outside the building shortly after as authorities kept the journalists incommunicado. After 14 hours, the security forces released most of the staff, according to those sources, which said authorities did not provide any explanation for the detention.
Five journalists were detained in the newsroom for four days.
Ali Mirzakhani, editor-in-chief of FardayeEghtesad, was released on February 9. The other four journalists—deputy editor Behzad Bahman-Nejad and video journalists Ali Tasnimi, Mehrdad Asgari, and Nikan Khabazi—were transferred on February 9 to an undisclosed location.
As of February 13, the four journalists were detained in Shapoor Police Department in downtown Tehran, according to news reports, which said the journalists were taken to their newsroom multiple times and were questioned for long hours while security forces repeatedly searched the newsroom.
The journalists have been denied access to legal representation, and their families have not been told the reason for their arrest, according to those reports. CPJ was unable to determine whether the journalists had been formally charged.
“Iranian authorities must free journalists Behzad Bahman-Nejad, Ali Tasnimi, Mehrdad Asgari, and Nikan Khabazi immediately and unconditionally and cease the practice of arbitrarily locking up members of the press,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Such group detentions show, shamefully, that authorities do not find it necessary to disclose even a minimum of details about why these reporters have been arrested. Authorities must answer for the raid on the outlet and mass detention of 30 journalists.”
CPJ’s review of FardayeEghtesad shows that although authorities have not suspended the news website, its content hasn’t been updated since February 4.
Iran was the world’s sixth-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s most recent annual prison census, with 17 imprisoned journalists as of December 1, 2023.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York requesting comment on the case but did not receive any response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Mohammed Emran Hossan, a correspondent for the news website Newsnow24 and Dainik Amader Shomoy newspaper, was killed in a collision with a vehicle at around 1 a.m. on December 30, in the Rangunia sub-district of southeast Chittagong district, according to news reports and Rustam Ali Sikder, the journalist’s father, who spoke with CPJ.
A jeep hit Hossan’s motorcycle and ran over his body, according to a complaint, reviewed by CPJ, that was filed by the family at Rangunia Model Police Station on the day that Hossan died.
No arrests had been made although the police were given the driver’s name, those sources said. A journalist familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, said the driver went into hiding shortly after the crash.
Chandan Kumar Chakraborty, officer-in-charge of Rangunia Model Police Station, told CPJ that officers were searching for the driver, whose vehicle was brought into police custody in early February, and the police were investigating what authorities considered to be a road accident.
The circumstances surrounding Hossan’s death were unclear, the anonymous journalist said, adding that that a witness told him that they saw Hossan’s motorcycle standing upright on the road after the crash.
Sikder and the anonymous journalist told CPJ that they suspected Hossan was targeted due to his journalistic work. Sikder said that his son tipped off a civil service official about illegal construction on government-owned land three months before his death and authorities demolished the structure on September 20.
On September 21, Hossan reported in Newsnow24 that two brothers, whom he named, were rebuilding the structure the day after the demolition. In the article, Hossan said one of the men phoned him after he visited the site and said, “I will make you a corpse. And I will see how great a journalist you are.”
On September 23, Hossan filed a complaint about the threat, reviewed by CPJ, at Rangunia Model Police Station. Chakraborty said that the police were investigating the complaint.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Access Now, and the #KeepItOn coalition strongly condemned the Pakistani caretaker government’s suspension of mobile services across the country during its elections and called for full internet access to be reinstated immediately.
Read the full joint statement here.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Sahajak Boonthanakit, a Thai actor, will never forget the day he met Chen Zhi.
“He was very much – I don’t want to make this too dramatic – but very much like a godfather. He didn’t say much, I believe, except hello,” Sahajak recalled in an interview with RFA. “He seemed so powerful.”
Chen, a Chinese émigré, is indeed one of Cambodia’s best-connected tycoons. At the time of the 2018 meeting, he held a position equal to secretary of state as an adviser to Cambodia’s Interior Ministry. He later became an adviser to then-Prime Minister Hun Sen and today holds the same position for Hun Sen’s successor and son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, according to royal decrees granting him the roles. His Prince Group conglomerate, which includes real estate, malls, banks and more across Cambodia, has raked in billions of dollars.
To Sahajak, though, the short, pale, goateed 30-year-old was just the enigmatic “money man” financing his latest film and hosting a meal at a Phnom Penh villa overlooking the Mekong river.
After luxury cars ferried the cast and crew to Chen’s home, Sahajak and his colleagues were led to a banquet hall. A large round table seating roughly 20 was laid with fine wines and delicacies, including shark-fin soup, which regularly sells for hundreds of dollars a bowl.
The film they were celebrating was Cambodia’s first attempt at a homegrown, Hollywood-style action flick. “The Prey” centers on Xin, a Chinese detective wrongly imprisoned in a remote Cambodian prison while working undercover to penetrate a violent gang engaged in unspecified but lucrative cybercrimes.
In backing Cambodia’s first big-budget action movie, Chen likely sought to establish himself as a tycoon of consequence.
But it was also a sort of Freudian slip of the checkbook. Chinese police have been investigating whether much of Chen’s wealth is drawn from illegal activities similar to those featured in the film, RFA has learned.
Chen Zhi was a backer of “The Prey,” Cambodia’s first attempt at producing its own Hollywood-style action movie. (The Prey” / Altered Vision Films – Kongchak Pictures) Previously unreported Chinese criminal court judgments dating from 2020 to 2022 describe Chen’s Prince Group as a “notorious transnational online gambling criminal group” that has generated at least 5 billion yuan ($700 million) in illicit revenue. In May 2020, Beijing police established a special task force to investigate the Prince Group, court records show. Since then, there have been at least seven judgments from separate Chinese provincial courts convicting low-level Prince Group or Prince Group-linked employees of gambling and money laundering offenses.
The Prince Group itself and Chen so far do not appear to have become the subjects of a Chinese prosecution. A representative of Prince Group told RFA the company denies all the allegations, which it believes are the result of “impersonation by criminal elements.”
But to understand how Prince Group could draw such scrutiny, it is necessary to look at how Chen transformed from an unknown small business owner in his native China to a multibillionaire Cambodian citizen. Today, he boasts deep connections to Cambodia’s most powerful officials, which may well have protected him and other Prince Group executives — at least thus far.
This is the first of three stories examining how his Prince Group came to rise so rapidly, where the wealth came from and why Chinese law enforcement is looking at it so closely.
A princely rise to power
Chen was born on Dec. 16, 1987, in Fujian, which has for centuries been a hub of international trade. He was “a young business prodigy,” according to a biography posted on the website of DW Capital Holdings, the Singapore fund manager for his personal investments. Before the age of three, the biography claims, he was assisting with a family business in Shenzhen.
Chen’s first solo venture was apparently a small internet café in Fujian’s capital, Fuzhou, according to the website. In 2011, the bio noted, Chen sailed off into the “uncharted waters of real estate development in Cambodia.”
Chen’s business ventures came into sharper focus when he emigrated to Cambodia, where opportunities abound for the smart and well-connected.
His first firm was a Phnom Penh-based real estate company established the year he emigrated, according to bank records seen by RFA. In 2015, he founded Prince and it soon became an omnipresent brand on the streets of Cambodian cities.
Its real estate arm, the Prince Group, played a major role in the transformation of Sihanoukville from a quiet, if seedy, coastal resort to a Chinese casino boomtown. Having seen healthy returns on its thousands of Sihanoukville apartments and hotels, the Prince Group branched out into Phnom Penh condominiums, supermarkets and shopping malls. Within a year of its founding, they began offering banking services as a private microfinance institution. Three years later, the group received its commercial bank license.
As Chen’s businesses were growing, so too was his political capital.
Chen Zhi stands with Cambodia’s then-Prime Minister Hun Sen after Chen was made “neak oknha” on July 20, 2020. (Prince Holding Group) On Feb. 16, 2014, Chen was naturalized as a Cambodian citizen. Naturalization – which requires an investment or government donation of about $250,000 – has become an increasingly popular route for wealthy foreigners, but few have made the personal inroads Chen has. Three years later, a royal decree declared him an adviser to the Interior Ministry. While unpaid, the role gave Chen status in Cambodia equivalent to that of an undersecretary of state.
Weeks after he received that title in 2017, Chen went into business with Sar Sokha. At the time, Sokha’s father was the powerful interior minister. In 2023, Sokha took over the position himself.
Chen and Sokha’s business – Jinbei (Cambodia) Investment Co. Ltd. – was dissolved in 2021, but it was the first of five companies with names featuring the word Jinbei established by Chen and other Prince executives, according to Cambodian business records. Together, the companies formed the Jinbei Group, whose website today boasts of $300 million invested in the Cambodian tourism sector.
Though they are separate entities, so close is the association between the companies that Chinese authorities have called Jinbei a “subsidiary” of Prince in court documents linking the two – a description Prince Group rejects.
Jinbei’s flagship is arguably a seven-story, 16,500 square meter Sihanoukville hotel and casino called the Jinbei, or Golden Shell, in Mandarin. It opened in 2017.
The resort, which boasts 43 gaming tables spread over a 2,000 square meter casino floor, and two V.I.P. saloons, was one of more than 100 casinos to open in Sihanoukville in the years leading up to 2019 – boom years that saw the city feted as a new Macau.
Speaking to Macau Business in 2019, Jinbei’s marketing manager, Victor Chong, attributed this flourishing to the Cambodian government’s “pro-business” stance, under which he said a casino license was issued to anyone willing to pay the $40,000 annual fee.
Jinbei Casino in the southern resort city of Sihanoukville, a magnet for Chinese gamblers visiting Cambodia, is seen in this undated photo. The casino is owned by Chen Zhi’s Jinbei Group. (Jin Bei Casino via Facebook) Online, under the table
Though the laws are not always enforced, gambling is illegal for Cambodian citizens. It was Chinese nationals who made up most of the customers in Sihanoukville’s gambling dens as well as the lion’s share of proprietors.
Throughout the mid- and late-2010s, the gamblers were joined by an influx of Chinese gangsters looking to make quick money as loan sharks and extortionists. Bodies started washing up on the beach. Prostitution, illegal in Cambodia, flourished. Cybercriminals, who had long used Sihanoukville as a base, exploded in numbers. Many scammers targeted their compatriots back in China.
A sense of impunity began to reign with brazen gangland-style shootings in the streets and at restaurants. The intended victims were invariably Chinese, although Cambodians were occasionally caught in the crossfire.
The atmosphere drew China’s ire – but what may have troubled Beijing even more than the upswing in crimes against its nationals was the business model many of the casinos used. Most were hosting online gambling websites targeting customers in China, a clear violation of Chinese law.
Citing the rising crime, and likely bowing to pressure from Beijing, Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2019 outlawed online gambling operations. The consequences for Sihanoukville were nearly instantaneous. More than 200,000 Chinese workers and entrepreneurs abandoned the city, and thousands more were stuck without funds to get home.
The pandemic, China’s tight travel restrictions and its domestic economic struggles have only compounded the problems. Four years on and Sihanoukville’s skyline is a mess. At night, the blinking lights of the few remaining casinos glimmer through skeleton frames of half-finished skyscrapers, abandoned mid-construction.
Commuters ride motorcycles along a street in Sihanoukville, Feb. 14, 2020. The city was once hailed as a new Macau, but a ban on online gambling and the COVID pandemic thwarted those dreams. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP) But if there are losers here, the Prince Group isn’t one of them.
On a visit by RFA last year, Jinbei was still welcoming guests through its doors under a gigantic neon clam filled with lucky red dice. The multi-story Prince Mall, home to luxury goods stores, a videogame arcade and the Prince Supermarket, replete with lobster tanks, still beckoned the odd shopper. And at the heart of the mall’s ground floor a display stand for the group’s real estate arm showcased architects’ models for coastal and metro skyscraper apartments.
Even the Nonni II, Chen’s $24 million superyacht with an onboard home cinema and a disco bar, still could be seen docked at Sihanoukville’s ports from time to time.
What has allowed Prince to flourish while so many competitors saw their bubbles burst? The answer, according to court documents, is crime – on a massive scale.
High-tech money mules
According to court records seen by RFA, Chinese law enforcement began openly investigating the Prince Group in 2020 and, in particular, whether at least a third of its estimated $2 billion investment value came from illegal online gambling operations.
In May 2020, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau created a group called the 5.27 Special Task Force. It was formed “to investigate and handle the case of the notorious transnational online gambling criminal group, known as the ‘Prince Group,’ in Cambodia,” according to a 2021 court judgment. Prince spokesman Gabriel Tan wrote in an email that this task force “is not related to any activities of Prince Holding Group.” In a follow-up note he said that any explicit mention of Prince within court documents is due to “ impersonation issues.”
The judgment describing the task force – from a district court in Henan – was one of several issued in different provinces against individuals linked to the Prince Group who are accused of money laundering and gambling.
Some of these individuals worked directly for the conglomerate, while others worked for Prince-linked companies, including Jinbei. One judgment describes Jinbei as “a subsidiary of the Cambodian Prince Group” that “has developed a series of gambling software and put it on the Chinese network platform.”
The Prince Group is also accused of continuing to run the type of online casinos Hun Sen banned in 2019, the court documents suggest.
Chinese citizens are allowed to move only $50,000 out of the country each year. Those capital controls would stymie the efforts of anyone trying to run illicit online casinos, such as the Prince Group has been accused of doing.
The solution Prince is alleged to have arrived at, the Chinese courts found, was employing a vast network of individuals to ferry bank cards between China and Cambodia. In all, the task force identified 458 people who had allegedly moved money in this way for the Prince Group.
One such money mule, Guo Caina, was 28 when in March 2018 she was recruited from her hometown of Luoyang to work for Prince in Cambodia, according to the court judgment against her. Her job would be a mix of customer service and bookkeeping, she had been told. Once in Cambodia, Guo handed over four Chinese bank cards in her name in exchange for 1,000 yuan ($140) per card. She quit the company after one day and went back to China but was rebuffed when she asked to have her bank cards returned. By the end of April 2018 more than 140 million yuan ($19.5 million) in gambling funds had passed through her bank accounts, according to the judgment.
Guo pled guilty to being part of a conspiracy to open a casino. She was given a suspended sentence and fined 30,000 yuan ($4,200).
Chinese law enforcement is openly investigating the Prince Group, whose headquarters in Phnom Penh are seen in this undated photo. (Google Street View) Guo’s case is far from unique. The court judgments reviewed by RFA are littered with mules like Guo being convicted for processing gambling funds, so the Chinese believe, on behalf of the Prince Group and Jinbei.
A July 2022 announcement by the Wancang County Court in Sichuan province estimated the Prince Group’s illicit profits from gambling activities since 2016 at more than 5 billion yuan ($700 million).
Multiple attempts to reach Chen were unsuccessful, but Prince spokesman Tan told RFA that the company “categorically denies any involvement with Jinbei Group and the alleged online gambling operations.”
“The references to ‘Cambodia Prince Group’ in the Chinese court documents are likely the result of impersonation by criminal elements,” Tan wrote in an email, adding that the company is “aware of multiple instances where our company’s name has been misused by unauthorized entities, individuals and criminal elements.”
He similarly denied that the company had made use of Chinese employees’ bank cards to transfer online gambling funds, calling the allegations “completely unfounded with respect to the Prince Holding Group.” Jinbei could not be reached for comment.
Too connected to jail?
The prosecutions against Prince’s alleged money mules and betting agents are part of a wider war on gambling announced by the Chinese government in 2018. Beijing views online casinos as a national security threat, estimating gambling to be responsible for 1 trillion yuan ($145 billion) in capital flight each year.
In January 2023, a Macau court sentenced Alvin Chau, one of the island’s most successful gaming tycoons, to 18 years in prison on 162 charges, including heading an organized crime group, fraud and facilitating illegal online gambling.
In August, nine Chinese-born Cambodians were arrested in Singapore as part of the city state’s largest ever money-laundering investigation. Prosecutors accused them of operating illegal gambling websites targeting mainland China. Observers noted that the crackdown came one week after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Singapore, suggesting that Beijing might have been behind the charges – especially since several of the accused had outstanding arrest warrants in China.
The Prince Group may present a more complex challenge for Beijing. The Chinese police and judiciary appear intent on pursuing a case that Prince and its subsidiaries constitute a criminal group. But the names of Chen and other senior figures in the group – many of whom are his uncles and cousins – have been wholly absent from any Chinese court judgments.
Where they remain present, however, is in the political fabric of China’s most reliable regional ally.
When regional heads of state converged on Phnom Penh in November 2022 for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ biannual meeting, Hun Sen presented them with limited-edition luxury watches valued at $20,000 apiece. The face of each timepiece was emblazoned with the name of Chen’s Cambodian watchmaker, Prince Horology.
Cambodia’s then-Prime Minister Hun Sen shows one of the 25 limited-edition watches that were given as gifts after the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, Nov. 13, 2022. The watches bear the name of Chen Zhi’s Cambodian watchmaker, Prince Horology. (Cindy Liu/Reuters) Further afield, in his role as Hun Sen’s personal adviser – a position he has held since 2020 – Chen has accompanied him on a diplomatic mission to Cuba and doled out aid on the government’s behalf to neighboring Laos. He is also a personal adviser to former National Assembly President Heng Samrin and former Interior Minister Sar Kheng. Shortly after Hun Manet became Cambodia’s first new prime minister in four decades, Chen was named one of his 104 advisers. Those ranks give him a rank equal to minister.
Any attempt to charge Chen directly, then, would necessarily implicate Cambodia’s top law enforcement official and embarrass both the former and current prime ministers. Beijing spent decades of diplomatic effort and billions of dollars turning the Hun dynasty into one of China’s most ardent friends.
Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said he could not comment and referred RFA to Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Cambodian American academic Ear Sophal, who has authored books on Cambodia and China, told RFA it seems unlikely Chen will be heading to prison anytime soon.
“Clearly, someone’s untouchable,” Sophal said. “Is Chen Zhi trying to do something political in China? No. So it’s okay, it’s just money; his underlings will pay.”
Edited by Abby Seiff, Jim Snyder, Mat Pennington and Boer Deng.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Jack Adamović Davies and Mary Zhao for RFA Investigative.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Welcome back to the China In Eurasia Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter tracking China’s resurgent influence from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.
I’m RFE/RL correspondent Reid Standish and here’s what I’m following right now.
As Huthi rebels continue their assault on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the deepening crisis is posing a fresh test for China’s ambitions of becoming a power broker in the Middle East – and raising questions about whether Beijing can help bring the group to bay.
Finding Perspective: U.S. officials have been asking China to urge Tehran to rein in Iran-backed Huthis, but according to the Financial Times, American officials say that they have seen no signs of help.
Still, Washington keeps raising the issue. In weekend meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bangkok, U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan again asked Beijing to use its “substantial leverage with Iran” to play a “constructive role” in stopping the attacks.
Reuters, citing Iranian officials, reported on January 26 that Beijing urged Tehran at recent meetings to pressure the Huthis or risk jeopardizing business cooperation with China in the future.
There are plenty of reasons to believe that China would want to bring the attacks to an end. The Huthis have disrupted global shipping, stoking fears of global inflation and even more instability in the Middle East.
This also hurts China’s bottom line. The attacks are raising transport costs and jeopardizing the tens of billions of dollars that China has invested in nearby Egyptian ports.
Why It Matters: The current crisis raises some complex questions for China’s ambitions in the Middle East.
If China decides to pressure Iran, it’s unknown how much influence Tehran actually has over Yemen’s Huthis. Iran backs the group and supplies them with weapons, but it’s unclear if they can actually control and rein them in, as U.S. officials are calling for.
But the bigger question might be whether this calculation looks the same from Beijing.
China might be reluctant to get too involved and squander its political capital with Iran on trying to get the Huthis to stop their attacks, especially after the group has announced that it won’t attack Chinese ships transiting the Red Sea.
Beijing is also unlikely to want to bring an end to something that’s hurting America’s interests arguably more than its own at the moment.
U.S. officials say they’ll continue to talk with China about helping restore trade in the Red Sea, but Beijing might decide that it has more to gain by simply stepping back.
Three More Stories From Eurasia
1. ‘New Historical Heights’ For China And Uzbekistan
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev made a landmark three-day visit to Beijing, where he met with Xi, engaged with Chinese business leaders, and left with an officially upgraded relationship as the Central Asian leader increasingly looks to China for his economic future.
The Details: As I reported here, Mirziyoev left Uzbekistan looking to usher in a new era and returned with upgraded diplomatic ties as an “all-weather” partner with China.
The move to elevate to an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” from a “comprehensive strategic partnership” doesn’t come with any formal benefits, but it’s a clear sign from Mirziyoev and Xi on where they want to take the relationship between their two countries.
Before going to China for the January 23-25 trip, Mirziyoev signed a letter praising China’s progress in fighting poverty and saying he wanted to develop a “new long-term agenda” with Beijing that will last for “decades.”
Beyond the diplomatic upgrade, China said it was ready to expand cooperation with Uzbekistan across the new energy vehicle industry chain, as well as in major projects such as photovoltaics, wind power, and hydropower.
Xi and Mirzoyoev also spoke about the long-discussed China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, with the Chinese leader saying that work should begin as soon as possible, athough no specifics were offered and there are reportedly still key disputes over how the megaproject will be financed.
2. The Taliban’s New Man In Beijing
In a move that could lay the groundwork for more diplomatic engagement with China, Xi received diplomatic credentials from the Taliban’s new ambassador in Beijing on January 25.
What You Need To Know: Mawlawi Asadullah Bilal Karimi was accepted as part of a ceremony that also received the credential letters of 42 new envoys. Karimi was named as the new ambassador to Beijing on November 24 but has now formally been received by Xi, which is another installment in the slow boil toward recognition that’s under way.
No country formally recognizes the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, but China – along with other countries such as Pakistan, Russia, and Turkmenistan – have appointed their own envoys to Kabul and have maintained steady diplomatic engagement with the group since it returned to power in August 2021.
Formal diplomatic recognition for the Taliban still looks to be far off, but this move highlights China’s strategy of de-facto recognition that could see other countries following its lead, paving the way for formal ties down the line.
3. China’s Tightrope With Iran and Pakistan
Air strikes and diplomatic sparring between Iran and Pakistan raised difficult questions for China and its influence in the region, as I reported here.
Both Islamabad and Tehran have since moved to mend fences, with their foreign ministers holding talks on January 29. But the incident put the spotlight on what China would do if two of its closest partners entered into conflict against one another.
What It Means: The tit-for-tat strikes hit militant groups operating in each other’s territory. After a tough exchange, both countries quickly cooled their rhetoric – culminating in the recent talks held in Islamabad.
And while Beijing has lots to lose in the event of a wider conflict between two of its allies, it appeared to remain quiet, with only a formal offer to mediate if needed.
Abdul Basit, an associate research fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told me this approach reflects how China “shies away from situations like this,” in part to protect its reputation in case it intervenes and then fails.
Michael Kugelman, the director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, added that, despite Beijing’s cautious approach, China has shown a willingness to mediate when opportunity strikes, pointing to the deal it helped broker between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March.
“It looks like the Pakistanis and the Iranians had enough in their relationship to ease tensions themselves,” he told me. “So [Beijing] might be relieved now, but that doesn’t mean they won’t step up if needed.”
Across The Supercontinent
China’s Odd Moment: What do the fall of the Soviet Union and China’s slowing economy have in common? The answer is more than you might think.
Listen to the latest episode of the Talking China In Eurasia podcast, where we explore how China’s complicated relationship with the Soviet Union is shaping the country today.
Invite Sent. Now What? Ukraine has invited Xi to participate in a planned “peace summit” of world leaders in Switzerland, Reuters reported, in a gathering tied to the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Blocked, But Why? China has suspended issuing visas to Lithuanian citizens. Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis confirmed the news and told Lithuanian journalists that “we have been informed about this. No further information has been provided.”
More Hydro Plans: Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Energy and the China National Electric Engineering Company signed a memorandum of cooperation on January 24 to build a cascade of power plants and a new thermal power plant.
One Thing To Watch
There’s no official word, but it’s looking like veteran diplomat Liu Jianchao is the leading contender to become China’s next foreign minister.
Wang Yi was reassigned to his old post after Qin Gang was abruptly removed as foreign minister last summer, and Wang is currently holding roles as both foreign minister and the more senior position of director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office.
Liu has limited experience engaging with the West but served stints at the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog and currently heads a party agency traditionally tasked with building ties with other communist states.
It also looks like he’s being groomed for the role. He recently completed a U.S. tour, where he met with top officials and business leaders, and has also made visits to the Middle East.
That’s all from me for now. Don’t forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you might have.
Until next time,
Reid Standish
If you enjoyed this briefing and don’t want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every other Wednesday.
This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Abuja, February 2, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Thursday’s release on bail of Nigerian journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha and calls for authorities to drop all charges against him and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized.
“Saint Mienpamo Onitsha was detained for nearly four months simply for doing his job, which should never be considered a crime,” said CPJ Africa Head Angela Quintal in New York. “While we welcome Thursday’s release of Onitsha, we repeat our call for Nigerian authorities to swiftly drop all charges against him and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalists do not continue to be jailed for their reporting.”
In October 2023, police arrested Ontisha, founder of the privately owned online broadcaster NAIJA Live TV, and charged him with cyberstalking under section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act and defamation under the criminal code. The charge sheet cited a September report about tensions in the southern Niger Delta region.
On December 4, a court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, heard Onitsha’s bail application and on January 25 the court granted him bail with a condition that he provides two sureties—persons willing to take responsibility for any court decisions made if Onitsha fails to meet bail obligations—with a bond of 10 million naira (US$8,372), according to copies of the court ruling, reviewed by CPJ, and Onitsha’s lawyer, Anande Terungwa, who spoke by phone with CPJ.
The court also ordered the residence of the sureties must be verified by the court registrar and that the sureties must submit documents proving they own a landed property in Abuja, as well as their recent passport photographs, according to those same sources.
Onitsha’s next court date is March 19. If convicted, he faces a 25 million naira (US$20,930) fine and/or up to 10 years in jail on the cyberstalking charges—as well as potential imprisonment for two years for charges of defamation and the publication of defamatory matter under the Criminal Code Act, according to Terungwa and a copy of the charge sheet reviewed by CPJ.
Terungwa told CPJ that the delay between Onitsha being granted bail on January 25 and his release on February 1 was due to a prolonged verification process among officials and prosecution lawyers on the conditions of Onitsha’s bail.
Onitsha appeared in CPJ’s 2023 prison census, which documented at least 67 journalists jailed across Africa as of December 1.
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A pigeon, suspected of being used by China for espionage, has been released after eight months in police custody in Mumbai, according to local media reports.
The falsely-accused bird was released from the Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals on Tuesday, said a police officer in India’s most populous city, as cited by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency on Wednesday. Its current whereabouts are unknown.
The pigeon was caught in May, 2023, at a port in the Chembur suburb of Mumbai with two rings tied to its legs featuring words that appeared to be Chinese, which led the police to suspect it was spying for China, PTI reported.
The bird was taken to the animal hospital for custody, until it emerged in January that it was actually an open-water racing pigeon from Taiwan, which had escaped and flown to India, according to the news agency.
This was not the first time a pigeon has been detained by the watchful Indian police force.
In March, 2023, two suspected spy pigeons were caught in the eastern Odisha state. The first one was found on a fishing boat with devices fitted on its leg which appear to be a camera and a microchip. The two birds are believed to still be under investigation.
Back in 2020, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir captured a bird that belonged to a Pakistani fisherman, but later found that it had simply flown across the border, admittedly without permission.
Before that, in 2016, another pigeon was captured after it was found with a note threatening Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Flying spies
Throughout history, pigeons have been used by the militaries in many countries for delivering messages and spying.
“Today, with all kinds of ways to intercept messages sent by electronic means, terrorists or enemies of a state can use ways that cannot be tapped, such as pigeons,” said Yusuf Unjhawala, an Indian defense analyst as well as a scholar at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore
“The use of animals for military purposes is an old thing, from horses to elephants to pigeons,” said Unjhawala. “Dolphins can also be used to detect underwater mines.”
A Taiwanese defense expert, Shen Ming-Shih from the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said racing pigeons have gained such popularity that raising them has become an industry in Taiwan.
“Taiwan also uses racing pigeons to send intelligence or deliver messages, despite the advancement of various communication technologies,” Shen told Radio Free Asia.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan.
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KYIV — Ukrainian officials on January 27 said Russia had intensified attacks in the past 24 hours, with a commander saying the sides had battled through “50 combat clashes” in the past day near Ukraine’s Tavria region.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and Moscow continued to dispute the circumstances surrounding the January 24 crash of a Russian military transport plane that the Kremlin claimed was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Kyiv said it has no proof POWs were aboard and has not confirmed its forces shot down the plane.
Live Briefing: Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL’s Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, the Ukrainian commander in the Tavria zone in the Zaporizhzhya region, said Russian forces had “significantly increased” the number of offensive and assault operations over the past two days.
“For the second day in a row, the enemy has conducted 50 combat clashes daily,” he wrote on Telegram.
“Also, the enemy has carried out 100 air strikes in the operational zone of the Tavria Joint Task Force within seven days,” he said, adding that 230 Russian-launched drones had been “neutralized or destroyed” over the past day in the area.
Battlefield claims on either side cannot immediately be confirmed.
Earlier, the Ukrainian military said 98 combat clashes took place between Ukrainian troops and the invading Russian army over the past 24 hours.
“There are dead and wounded among the civilian populations,” the Ukrianian military’s General Staff said in its daily update, but did not provide further details about the casualties.
According to the General Staff, Russian forces launched eight missile and four air strikes, and carried out 78 attacks from rocket-salvo systems on Ukrainian troop positions and populated areas. Iranian-made Shahed drones and Iskander ballistic missiles were used in the attacks, it said.
A number of “high-rise residential buildings, schools, kindergartens, a shopping center, and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed or damaged” in the latest Russian strikes, the bulletin said.
“More than 120 settlements came under artillery fire in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolayiv regions,” according to the daily update.
The General Staff also reported that Ukrainian defenders repelled dozens of Russian assaults in eight directions, including Avdiyivka, Bakhmut, Maryinka, and Kupyansk in the eastern Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukrainian military intelligence, said it remained unclear what happened in the crash of the Russian Il-76 that the Kremlin claimed was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were killed along with nine crew members.
The Kremlin said the military transport plane was shot down by a Ukrainian missile despite the fact that Russian forces had alerted Kyiv to the flight’s path.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told RFE/RL that it had not received either a written or verbal request to secure the airspace where the plane went down.
The situation with the crash of the aircraft “is not yet fully understood,” Budanov said.
“It is necessary to determine what happened – unfortunately, neither side can fully answer that yet.”
Russia “of course, has taken the position of blaming Ukraine for everything, despite the fact that there are a number of facts that are inconsistent with such a position,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted Ukraine shot down the plane and said an investigation was being carried out, with a report to be made in the upcoming days.
In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the creation of a second body to assist businesses in the war-torn country.
Speaking in his nightly video address late on January 26, Zelenskiy said the All-Ukraine Economic Platform would help businesses overcome the challenges posed by Russia’s nearly two-year-old invasion.
On January 23, Zelenskiy announced the formation of a Council for the Support of Entrepreneurship, which he said sought to strengthen the country’s economy and clarify issues related to law enforcement agencies. Decrees creating both bodies were published on January 26.
Ukraine’s economy has collapsed in many sectors since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. Kyiv heavily relies on international aid from its Western partnes.
The Voice of America reported that the United States vowed to promote at the international level a peace formula put forward by Zelenskiy.
VOA quoted White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby as saying that Washington “is committed to the policy of supporting initiatives emanating from the leadership of Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy last year presented his 10-point peace formula that includes the withdrawal of Russian forces and the restoration of Ukrainian territorial integrity, among other things.
With reporting by Reuters and dpa
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Ukraine and Russia have contradicted each other over whether there had been proper notification to secure the airspace around an area where a military transport plane Moscow says was carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs crashed, killing them and nine others on board.
Russian lawmaker Andrei Kartapolov told deputies in Moscow on January 25 that Ukrainian military intelligence had been given a 15-minute warning before the Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane entered the Belgorod region in Russia, near the border with Ukraine, and that Russia had received confirmation the message was received.
Kartapolov did not provide any evidence to back up his claim and Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov reiterated in comments to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that it had not received either a written or verbal request to secure the airspace where the plane went down.
Yusov said Ukraine had been using reconnaissance drones in the area and that Russia had launched attack drones. There was “no confirmed information” that Ukraine had hit any targets, he said.
“Unfortunately, we can assume various scenarios, including provocation, as well as the use of Ukrainian prisoners as a human shield for transporting ammunition and weapons for S-300 systems,” he told RFE/RL.
Live Briefing: Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL’s Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
There has been no direct confirmation from Kyiv on Russian claims that the plane had Ukrainian POWs on board or that the aircraft was downed by a Ukrainian antiaircraft missile.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for an international investigation of the incident, and Yusov reiterated that call, as “there are many circumstances that require investigation and maximum study.”
The RIA Novosti news agency on January 25 reported that both black boxes had been recovered from the wreckage site in Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine.
The Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case into what it said was a “terrorist attack.” The press service of the Investigative Committee said in a news release that preliminary data of the inspection of the scene of the incident, “allow us to conclude that the aircraft was attacked by an antiaircraft missile from the territory of Ukraine.”
The Investigative Committee said that “fragmented human remains” were found at the crash site, repeating that six crew members, military police officers, and Ukrainian POWs were on board the plane.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on January 25 called the downing of the Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane a “monstrous act,” though Moscow has yet to show any evidence that it was downed by a Ukrainian missile, or that there were Ukrainian prisoners on board.
While not saying who shot down the plane, Zelenskiy said that “all clear facts must be established…our state will insist on an international investigation.”
Ukrainian officials have said that a prisoner exchange was to have taken place on January 24 and that Russia had not informed Ukraine that Ukrainian POWs would be flown on cargo planes.
Ukrainian military intelligence said it did not have “reliable and comprehensive information” on who was on board the flight but said the Russian POWs it was responsible for “were delivered in time to the conditional exchange point where they were safe.”
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that “currently, there are no signs of the fact that there were so many people on the Il-76 plane, be they citizens of Ukraine or not.”
Aviation experts told RFE/RL that it was possible a Ukrainian antiaircraft missile downed the plane but added that a Russian antiaircraft could have been responsible.
“During the investigation, you can easily determine which system shot down the plane based on the missiles’ damaging elements,” said Roman Svitan, a Ukrainian reserve colonel and an aviation-instructor pilot.
When asked about Russian claims of dozens of POWs on board, Svitan said that from the footage released so far, he’d seen no evidence to back up the statements.
“From the footage that was there, I looked through it all, it’s not clear where there are dozens of bodies…. There’s not a single body visible at all. At one time I was a military investigator, including investigating disasters; believe me, if there were seven or eight dozen people there, the field would be strewn with corpses and remains of bodies,” Svitan added.
Russian officials said the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, six crew members, and three escorts.
A list of the six crew members who were supposed to be on the flight was obtained by RFE/RL. The deaths of three of the crew members were confirmed to RFE/RL by their relatives.
Video on social media showed a plane spiraling to the ground, followed by a loud bang and explosion that sent a ball of smoke and flames skyward.
This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Intense battles between junta troops, the Kachin Independence Army and joint People’s Defense Forces have killed 40 civilians, locals told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
Fighting in northern Myanmar has surged for four days as allied resistance forces and junta troops fight for control over Shan state’s Mongmit city. Junta airstrikes and heavy weapons are responsible for civilian deaths, residents who witnessed battles said.
Fighting began last Thursday, when the Kachin Independence Army captured Mongmit Police Station and junta camps in the city, and ended on Sunday. The military retaliated with heavy arms and indiscriminate airstrikes, burning Mongmit market and causing high civilian casualties, locals said.
Most victims were from the southern neighborhoods of Mongmit, said one resident who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
“We can’t say the number of the people who died in the neighborhood yet. For sure, the southern neighborhood has the most deaths, including Let Hkoke Tan and Haw Nan,” he said. “I can estimate that there are almost 40 dead and they all are civilians.”
One local who fled the city on Saturday told RFA he witnessed the deaths of civilians and junta soldiers while fighting raged in the city center. He has since seen casualty lists circulated.
“I saw four dead civilians. I can confirm that one military officer and about seven junta soldiers were dead when we left the city,” he said, asking to remain anonymous to protect his identity. “I don’t know the current situation of the city because the phone lines are down now.”
At least 10 people were injured and are being treated at nearby village clinics, he added.
Continuous aerial attacks and shelling damaged and destroyed houses downtown and in the city’s south, locals said, adding that homes near the police station were burned down.
About 150 shops in the market caught fire and several monasteries were also damaged by heavy artillery, according to residents.
Calls to Shan state’s junta spokesperson Khun Thein Maung and national spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun by RFA to learn more went unanswered Wednesday.
Kachin Independence Army spokesperson Col. Naw Bu said he could not confirm details about the battles due to phone line outages in the area. Telecommunication and internet access have been cut off in Mongmit city where fighting occurred. More than 10,000 people have fled the city, residents said.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
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A well-known Vietnamese human rights lawyer and his family have arrived in the United States a year after they were stopped by police from boarding a flight to New York.
Vo An Don landed at Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Thursday with his wife and three children. He told Radio Free Asia that they were able to leave Vietnam without any obstacles.
“Arriving in a country of freedom made me very happy,” he said. “Everything went very well as the International Organization for Migration supported and created favorable conditions for us.”
Don represented defendants in high-profile, politically sensitive cases, including blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known as Mother Mushroom, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2017 for “spreading propaganda against the state.”
Last year, he told RFA that he and his family had decided to seek asylum in the United States because they were suffering harassment by authorities in his home province of Phu Yen and economic hardship since he could no longer work as a lawyer.
The Washington-based International Organization for Migration secured funding for the family’s airfare, but authorities at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City wouldn’t allow them to board their flight in September 2022.
Airport police told him he would need to contact immigration authorities in Phu Yen for an explanation of why he was barred from traveling overseas.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit last month to Hanoi paved the way for police to allow him to travel, Don posted on Facebook. Just before Biden arrived, police advised Don that the exit ban on him and his family had been lifted, he wrote.
“The truth is they wanted me to stay in Vietnam as a hostage for negotiations with the U.S. until they got what they wanted,” he wrote. “Then they let me go as a human rights gift.”
‘Traded like a type of good’
A decade ago, Don represented the wife of a criminal suspect who was beaten to death by police in 2012. He also defended four Vietnamese citizens who were jailed in 2017 after sailing to Australia in search of work.
In 2017, he was stripped of his license to practice law after he posted a comment on Facebook that said lawyers in Vietnam regularly use payoffs to win cases for their clients.
On Thursday, Don and his family flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, after arriving at Dulles. They were scheduled to board another flight to Fayetteville, Arkansas, their final destination.
On Facebook, Don cited Vietnam’s Constitution, which says “citizens have the right to freedom of movement and residence inside and outside the country without any obstruction.”
Instead, authorities treat people in Vietnam “like dirt,” he wrote.
“They’re bullied and oppressed, and when they want to leave the country, they are traded like a type of good,” he wrote. “I am a human, not a pet for them to give visitors as a gift.”
Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Matt Reed.
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According to the latest update from the Israeli military, Hamas is still holding at least 229 hostages captured during its October 7 incursion into southern Israel. The group has stated that they will not release all hostages until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza. To discuss the release thus far of four hostages and prospects for future releases, we speak to Gershon Baskin, who helped negotiate a critical hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas in 2011. “I really think this is some kind of negotiating game and competition that exists featuring Qatar and Egypt,” says Baskin.
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Updated October 19, 2023, 5:38 p.m. ET
Authorities in China have banned a book about the last Ming dynasty emperor Chongzhen after online comments said its analysis could apply to current Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
“Chongzhen: The hard-working emperor who brought down a dynasty” by late Ming dynasty expert Chen Wutong recently disappeared from online bookstores, including the website of state-run Xinhua Books, with multiple searches for the book yielding no results on major book-selling platforms this week.
Meanwhile, keyword searches for the book and its author on the social media platform Weibo yielded no results on Thursday.
Current affairs commentators said the book has likely been removed from public view after online comments drew parallels between its analysis of the fall of the 1368-1644 Ming dynasty and China’s current situation under ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
Many online comments picked up on a particular line in Chen’s book: “With one bad move following another, the harder he worked, the faster he brought the country to ruin.”
“From the Ming Dynasty all the way to the present day,” chuckled a post on the “Stupid Stuff from China” Facebook page dated Oct. 17.
“It’s obvious what it’s hinting at,” commented one reader.
Another reader likened Xi to several emperors who were the last of their dynasties.
“Chongzhen, Daoguang, Pu Yi, Winnie [the Pooh], so many like this,” the reader said, using Xi’s nickname Winnie the Pooh, whom he is said to resemble.
Current affairs commentator Wang Jian said the book’s ban was likely down to that sentence, which resonates in people’s minds.
“The book wouldn’t have much of an effect on [Xi], except that it reflects what everyone is thinking,” Wang said. “Xi Jinping has been going against common sense and the will of the people in recent years — everyone has reached a consensus about that.”
“[The book shows that] if someone tries to abuse their power, misfortune will befall them, so it has become a sensitive topic,” he said. “It would never have been banned if it didn’t speak to that social consensus and public feeling.”
A copy of the book appeared on second-hand websites for 1,280 yuan (US$175), 27 times the price of a new copy. Credit: Online screenshot provided by Chen Zifei Former Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kei, who now runs a bookshop on the democratic island of Taiwan, said any book in China that carries a potentially political message can be banned at any time.
“The top priority for the [Chinese Communist Party] regime is to maintain its grip on power,” Lam, who was detained for months by state security police for selling political books to customers in mainland China, said.
“As soon as they find a book with ideological implications for the regime or its hold on power, they will list them as banned books,” Lam said, citing the banning of the “Sheep Village” series of children’s picture books in Hong Kong.
“The people in power make the decisions, and also determine the criteria for banning a book, which can’t be rationally understood,” he said.
Current affairs commentator Fang Yuan said it’s common in China, where people can’t express their opinions freely, for public dissatisfaction with the government to emerge indirectly, through historical references.
He said people have seemingly responded to the ban by selling used copies of the book at hugely inflated prices on second-hand book-trading platforms, which are less stringently regulated.
One copy of the book was even listed on the Confucius online second-hand bookstore for 1,280 yuan (US$175), 27 times the listed price for a new copy.
“When there’s no hope of playing hard-ball, the public and civil society expresses its anger by playing a softer game, as a way to curse out the government,” Fang said.
“[This book ban] shows that the situation is very sensitive and has reached a stage where everything is tense and everyone is on guard.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Eugene Whong.
Update changes the image to the most recent edition of the book.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Three ailing Uyghur women recently released from the same prison in China’s Xinjiang region have died within days of one another, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, who said inmates at the facility are only given access to medical treatment in extreme cases.
Two sisters in their 30s and a 75-year-old grandmother died in early October from different ailments they developed while in detention at the Baykol Women’s Prison in Ghulja, a city located in the upper Ili River valley near Kazakhstan that is also known as Yining in Chinese.
The three women were jailed on charges of “religious extremism,” prison sources said. Such offenses deemed by Chinese authorities include Uyghurs who pray, possess a Quran or study Islam.
The sisters — Melike, 33, and Merziye, nearly 40 — hailed from Ghulja’s Araosteng village, a source with knowledge of the prison and an officer at the village police station told RFA Uyghur, although they were unable to provide details about their deaths.
They were each sentenced to 12 years in prison, jail officials said.
Baykol Women’s Prison was built after authorities in Xinjiang began mass arrests of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in 2017, said the source who knows about the issue and, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal.
The prison houses at least 10,000 inmates from different areas of the far-western region — an exceptionally high number, the source said.
In a separate interview, a police officer confirmed that there are at least 10,000 inmates in Baykol Women’s Prison and said the health of many detainees has deteriorated as a result of mandatory “educational programs” at the facility, particularly those who are older or have existing health issues. The officer did not elaborate on what the “educational programs” entailed.
Uyghurs and other Muslims detained by the Chinese government in “re-education” camps in 2017 and 2018 have reported that they were forced to sing political songs, learn Mandarin Chinese, and study speeches of Chinese Communist Party leaders. Some of the nearly 2 million who were held against their will were subjected to torture, rape, forced sterilization and forced labor.
China has said that the camps were vocational training centers and that they are now closed, though many Uyghurs are still being held in prisons.
Since the establishment of the Bakyol Women’s Prison about six years ago, and particularly over the last year, there has been a significant decline in the health of the detainees and an increase in deaths in custody, the sources said.
When contacted by RFA, an official in charge of medical affairs at the prison confirmed that the sisters had died following their release and referred further questions about the cause of their deaths to a superior.
The higher-level official said that a elderly woman named Ayshemgul, who was serving a nine-year sentence, died “of high blood pressure and cancer” the same week as the sisters.
“She passed away shortly after her release from prison,” the official said.
The medical affairs official, who has worked at the prison for eight years, said ailing detainees are only referred to medical staff in severe cases.
About 20-30 detainees require medical attention inside or outside the prison each week, she said.
“Every day I see three to five ailing inmates,” she told Radio Free Asia. “I receive reports, and they inform me of their pain. … I primarily treat severely ill individuals.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Shohret Hoshur for RFA Uyghur.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Residents of Bago city in central Myanmar have begun cleaning up waterlogged streets, apartment buildings and stores following floods from heavy rain on Sunday.
But as they strive to return to normalcy, many are struggling with related health issues, including diarrhea and colds.
Flooding in Myanmar caused chaos across five regions, prompting 13,000 people in Bago region alone to relocate to relief camps or Buddhist monasteries for shelter.
About 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rain fell in Myanmar over 24 hours — the highest level in nearly 60 years, according to the country’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.
A dozen neighborhoods and seven villages across the region’s capital, Bago city, were inundated with water when the Bago River overflowed.
Local charitable organizations have set up more than 30 relief camps to assist those affected.
A city resident who sought temporary shelter at a flood relief center told Radio Free Asia that he is cleaning up the upper floor of his house so his family can return home, even though water remains on the lower level.
Meanwhile, sections of the Yangon-Bago highway and several villages remain submerged as of Friday.
About 40 miles from Bago, villagers living in communities along the highway are grappling with flooded fields. Farmers have reported that tens of thousands of acres of nearly ripe paddy fields in the region are submerged due to the flooding.
Flooding caused by torrential monsoon rains also inundated the Mandalay and Yangon regions, displacing residents and disrupting traffic.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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A Cambodian man who was expelled from a state-run school because he was too short has filed a complaint with the Ministry of Interior over the beating he received from security guards during a protest earlier this week.
Keo Sovannrith, 20, was demonstrating alone at the Ministry of Education on Monday when local authorities in civilian uniforms pulled him into a car and beat him.
He told Radio Free Asia that he tried to file a complaint with local police in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district on Wednesday, but they refused to accept it. The same security guards who roughed him up earlier this week then took his phone, he said.
He filed the complaint with the Interior Ministry on Thursday. He said he will follow up with ministry officials after the annual Pchum Ben festival, which ends on Monday.
“I urged the ministry to speed up a solution on the matter,” he told RFA. “It seems the district guards have more power than police and other authorities.”
Keo Sovannrith was admitted to the National Institute of Physical Education last November despite standing 162 centimeters (5 foot 4 inches) tall, under the 165 centimeter (5 foot 5 inch) minimum requirement for applicants.
He was removed from enrollment with no explanation in December, along with 11 other prospective students.
In July and August, Keo Sovannrith and several others protested several times in front of the ministry to demand readmission to the teacher training program. They said the institute’s enrollment requirements were too opaque and randomly applied.
Police surrounded and beat them on Aug. 21. Video of the incident was widely viewed on Facebook.
Soeung Sengkaruna, a spokesman for the rights group Adhoc, said that the Daun Penh security guards aren’t police officers and don’t have the authority to confiscate people’s belongings.
“Only the judicial police with the court’s order can arrest people,” he said. “The ministry should look into the issue to avoid any criticism from people and the international community who are watching over the law enforcement of Cambodia.”
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.