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Category: China

  • Did China Coast Guard ships ignore ‘prohibited waters’ around Taiwan’s Kinmen area?

    Tensions between China and Taiwan have flared following the death of two Chinese fishermen near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Island in early February. 

    In the wake of that incident, Chinese-language media outlets claimed that China ignores Taiwanese boundaries around the island, and that Chinese Coast Guard vessels entered Taiwan’s “prohibited” waters, closer to the island, during Feb. 25 drills.

    However, a study of open-source intelligence that tracks ship movements showed that the coast guard vessels in fact mostly avoided crossing into “prohibited” waters, briefly doing so only twice between Feb. 25 and March 7. 

    Two zones

    Kinmen, which is just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from mainland China, is surrounded by two zones of ocean that Taiwan has barred mainland Chinese vessels from entering. 

    The zones are identical on Kinmen’s west and north coast, closer to mainland China, but they are split into two zones on the south and east side: an outer zone called “restricted waters” and an inner zone closer to the island called “prohibited waters.”

    The latter line marking is considered a de facto sea border with China.

    Riyue Tantian — a subsidiary social media account of China Central Television, or CCTV — posted a video on Weibo on Feb 26, claiming that its live footage shows China Coast Guard vessels entering Taiwan’s prohibited waters around Kinmen during drills conducted the day before.

    Parts of both the video and accompanying text were taken from two separate coast guard press releases earlier that day. 

    Several Taiwanese news outlets have also made similar claims about the purported intrusion from Chinese vessels, with one political talk show even claiming that China has deployed “paramilitary operations” against Kinmen. 

    But the claims are misleading. Below is what AFCL found.

    Methodology

    To pinpoint Chinese ships’ exact location around Kinmen, AFCL sourced real-time location data for these ships from Marine Traffic – an open-source platform regularly cited by mainstream news outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

    The platform only displays data for ships that broadcast their location using radio signals, which are typically relayed via satellites, also known as an open Automatic Identification System, or AIS.

    While it’s common for most ships to emit these signals, there are instances where these signals are deliberately deactivated, often by military ships to maintain operational secrecy. AFCL’s analysis focuses on Chinese vessels whose AIS was recorded by Marine Traffic around Kinmen. 

    After taking screenshots of vessel movements, AFCL then manually added lines over screenshots, illustrating the locations of the relevant Chinese ships as well as “restricted” and “prohibited” waters around Kinmen based on official public data from Taiwan. 

    What happened on Feb. 25?

    Seven Chinese Coast Guard, or CCG, vessels are recorded as patrolling around Kinmen on Feb. 25, according to the Marine Traffic data.

    They include two large former military ships (CCG 2202 and CCG 2203) and five normal patrol ships (CCG 14608, CCG 14609, CCG 14513, CCG 14515 and CMS 8027). 

    CMS, or China Marine Surveillance, was originally under China’s Ministry of Land and Resources, but later was integrated into the CCG.

    Among them, CCG 2202 crossed into Kinmen’s restricted waters a little after 2:00 a.m. while sailing from the southeast towards the southwest.

    Marine Traffic uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is 8 hours behind Taiwan time and 4 hours ahead of Washington time.

    1.jpg
    CCG 2202 entered restricted waters around Kinmen on the morning of Feb. 25. In this and all screenshots below, the purple line marks the shared restricted and prohibited waters along the west and north of Kinmen. Where the zones split along the island’s south and east sides, the blue line marks restricted waters and the red line prohibited waters. (Screenshot/ Marine Traffic) 


      

    At around the same time, CCG 2203 briefly crossed into and made a single pass within the restricted waters alongside the south of Kinmen as the graphic below shows. 

    2.jpg
    CCG 2203 approached restricted waters around Kinmen from the south at the same time CCG 2202 was sailing from the north on Feb. 25. (Screenshot/Marine Traffic)

    Both ships approached but never crossed into Kinmen’s prohibited waters, coming within less than 4 nautical miles of Kinmen at one point before veering off into open water at around 4:00 a.m. and continuing their patrols throughout the rest of the day at a distance. 

    Four of the five other Chinese vessels on patrol near Kinmen on Feb. 25 only entered the island’s restricted waters briefly.

    CMS 8027, however, entered Kinmen’s prohibited waters a little before 1:00 a.m. on Feb. 25, the sole Chinese vessel that AFCL observed to have done so that day. 

    3.jpg
    Amongst five other official ships patrolling around Kinmen on Feb. 25, one of them – CMS 8027, marked in indigo above –  crossed into Kinmen’s prohibited waters. (Screenshot/Marine Traffic)

    Huang Chung-ting, an associate research fellow at the Taiwanese military think tank Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said while the intrusion of CMS patrol ships into Kinmen’s prohibited waters is certainly a provocation towards Taiwan, it is not as strong a challenge as sending former navy vessels such as CCG 2202 and CCG 2203 into these waters. 

    Compared to regular law enforcement vessels such as CCG 2202 and 2203, the surveillance ships [such as a CMS] have the nature of general administrative purpose only, he explained. 

    In contrast, the CCG is still now a branch of China’s armed forces directed by the country’s Central Military Commission, which has led U.S. officials to previously state that they may treat the CCG as a part of the Chinese Navy, Huang added.

    Huang said activities of CCG ships are likely to be concentrated in Kinmen’s south because the separate borders of the restricted and prohibited waters in that area allow China to perform more calculated escalatory naval movements compared to the northwest and west of the island, where the overlapping restricted and prohibited water limit such provocations. 

    After Feb. 25

    While China did launch “regular” patrols in the waters near Kinmen following Feb. 25, six of the vessels checked in this article (2202, 2203, 14608, 14609, 14513, and 14515) only crossed slightly over into Kinmen’s restricted waters or sailed a short distance away from it.

    Marine Traffic data show that CCG 2202 sailed into Kinmen’s restricted waters again on Feb. 27. In the following week, the ship repeated a similar daily patrol straddling Kinmen’s restricted waters while gradually shifting the main course of its daily routes farther and farther towards the open sea southeast of the island.

    4.jpg
    CCG 2202 crossed through Kinmen’s restricted waters several times between Feb. 26 to March 6. The straight line running through the middle of Kinmen indicates that the AIS signal disappeared for a time between 8:54 a.m. and 10:02 p.m. on Feb. 29. (Screenshot/Marine Traffic)

    CCG 2203’s course mirrored CCG 2202 during the same timeframe, entering Kinmen’s restricted waters on Feb. 27 while gradually shifting the main course of its daily patrols further away from Kinmen to the southeast.

    5.jpg
    CCG 2203 also sailed through Kinmen’s restricted waters several times from Feb. 26 to March 6.  (Screenshot/Marine Traffic)

    While CMS 8027 sailed through Kinmen’s prohibited waters again on both Feb. 26 and 27, there was overall very little change in the trajectory of CCG vessels on duty near Kinmen between Feb. 25 and March 7. 

    6.jpg
    CMS 8027 sailed through Kinmen’s prohibited waters between Feb. 26 to March 6. (Screenshot/ Marine Traffic)

    ‘Talk tough and tread carefully’

    Huang from the Institute for National Defense and Security Research told AFCL that he does not believe that the situation represents a “reversal” of the long-term status quo surrounding Kinmen, pointing to China’s decision to avoid sending multiple CCG vessels deep into Kinmen’s prohibited waters as evidence. 

    Huang pointed out that the specific language used in official CCG statements regarding maritime disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea and with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands highlights a nuanced difference in China’s strategy towards Kinmen. 

    For instance, the CCG emphasizes that it is conducting patrols within “the range of China’s jurisdictional waters” in the South China Sea, but its statement concerning Kinmen only mentions the “waters around the island,” a sign of the Chinese government’s often used “talk tough and tread carefully” approach towards Taiwan, according to Huang. 



    7.jpg
    The CCG statement about Kinmen only declares that the dispute is occurring in the “waters around Kinmen and Xiamen,” while a statement from the organization concerning a dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea specifically calls the disputed area “China’s Nansha Islands.” (Screenshot/ CCG Official Weibo)

    The variance in terminology and tone suggests that China adopts distinct diplomatic and tactical approaches in its maritime interactions with different neighbors, reflecting tailored strategies based on the unique geopolitical contexts of each dispute.

    Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alan Lu for Asia Fact Check Lab.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China bans ‘former good friend’ from talking about Hong Kong | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China and Myanmar team up in online scam raids | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hainan pilot’s US plane collision anniversary reminds of South China Sea risks

    On the anniversary of the death of Wang Wei – the Chinese pilot whose fighter jet collided with an American aircraft over Hainan island in 2001 – China’s internet sphere is filled with messages praising his heroism as well as condemning the United States.

    Wang’s Shenyang J-8II, together with another Chinese fighter, were sent from Hainan’s Lingshui airfield to intercept a U.S. Navy’s EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft operating near the island in the South China Sea in the morning on April 1, 2001.

    Chinese and U.S. sides provided different accounts of events leading to the incident that took place at around 9:15 a.m. local time, when Wang’s airplane collided with the EP-3 mid-air, causing him to eject into the sea. His body was never recovered.

    Wang was posthumously awarded the Medal of First-Class Hero and Model, as well as the honorary title of “Guardian of Territorial Airspace and Waters” of China.

    The incident resulted in a serious political dispute between Beijing and Washington then, and now, as the situation in the South China Sea remains precarious, analysts warn of the risks of further confrontation and conflict.

    Fueling nationalism

    The “heroic sacrifice” of Lt. Cmdr. Wang Wei surfaces again this year with bold messages on Chinese public channels against the U.S. “aggressors.”

    On WeChat, a post by Housha from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province – Wang Wei’s birthplace – was read 34,400 times and received 2,700 “thumb-ups”.

    “It has been 23 years since Wang Wei left this world but the South China Sea is still rough and the waves are not quiet,” Housha wrote. “The intention of the U.S. to invade China’s territorial waters and airspace continues but it is now putting the Philippines in the firing line.”

    “I have come to a profound understanding that the U.S. is not China’s “imaginary enemy”, it is undoubtedly THE enemy.”

    Housha added that “happiness and peace need to be defended with life and blood.”

    Another post by ‘Chilling’ on the platform X, formerly Twitter, which is inaccessible inside China and therefore likely aimed at a foreign audience, reads: “He [Wang Wei] represents the blood and strength of the Chinese people and can help people see the true face of the United States!”

    Wang Wei memorial.jpeg
    The memorial of Wang Wei in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. A commemoration ceremony was held for him on April 1, 2021. (Xinhua)

    Ian Chong, a political analyst from the National University of Singapore, said that the “nationalist reaction” may stem from the latest events in the South China Sea, where Beijing has been embroiled in escalating tensions with the Philippines, a treaty ally of the U.S.

    Another analyst, Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said that the 2001 Hainan incident is being used by Beijing as fuel “to feed the tensions”.

    “China’s Communist Party always modified the facts and truth to fit its interests,” Schuster told Radio Free Asia. 

    “They will repeat that “hero” narrative as required to maintain the fiction that the PRC is the victim of aggression, not the perpetrator,” the analyst said, referring to China by its official name the People’s Republic of China .  

    “I see that propaganda based on the incident as a tool to sustain Beijing’s effort to sustain public support and justify its actions,” he added.

    De-escalating the risks

    Since 2001, there have been several occasions when China blamed the U.S. for risking “another Hainan incident.” 

    In August 2014, a Chinese fighter jet intercepted a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine warfare aircraft at about 135 miles (217 kilometers) east of Hainan Island.

    The Chinese think tank South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative said in a report that the U.S. military’s aerial close-in reconnaissance over the South China Sea increased in both frequency and intensity, with around 1,000 sorties in 2023 alone.

    The U.S. maintains that its ships and airplanes “will fly and sail anywhere international law allows” under the “freedom of navigation” principle of law of the sea.

    The risk of conflict between the two superpowers may become even greater, as “the conditions that allowed for de-escalation may be less available today than in 2001,” according to NUS’s Ian Chong.

    “There remain big questions about the People’s Liberation Army’s command and control and crisis de-escalation efforts,” Chong said.

    The Chinese military has embarked on a major modernization masterplan and the Pentagon’s 2023 Report concluded that “the PRC turned to the PLA as an increasingly capable instrument of statecraft.”

    The U.S. National Security Strategy in 2022 also stated that the PRC “is the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order.”

    In 2001, to end the dispute over Hainan incident and to secure freedom for the EP-3’s 24 crew members detained by China, the U.S. sent a letter to Beijing saying that it was “very sorry” about the pilot’s death and about the U.S. plane’s landing on Hainan without China’s permission.

    “The incident does tell us there are risks in China’s behavior and some will argue we should back off,” said Schuster from the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.

    “That’’s very similar to the 1930s when U.S. and European ‘experts’ urged the same approach to Hitler’s aggression in the 30s. It did not deter him, it emboldened him,” argued the retired navy captain turned analyst.

    The 2001 incident “does remind us of the risks but it does not justify retreat to avoid them,” he said, adding that would risk something more serious and destructive.

    Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China bans ‘former good friend’ from talking about Hong Kong

    China’s former “good friend” economist and ex-chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia Stephen Roach said he was prohibited from discussing Hong Kong in his speech while attending the China Development Forum in Beijing last week.

    Roach was invited to speak at this year’s forum in his capacity as senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he had hoped to raise his concerns about Hong Kong’s future. 

    But he told Radio Free Asia that he was stopped, as organizers made it clear before, during and after the forum that they did not want to hear sharp questions, only “views constructive to China.”

    “I’ve written a few articles that raised serious concerns about the future of Hong Kong and those touch on sensitivities in Beijing, and largely for that reason, they asked me not to speak about that at the China Development Forum.”

    In addition, he criticized Hong Kong academic and business representatives at the forum for not truthfully reporting Hong Kong’s situation to Beijing.

    He cited, as an example, his discussions on China’s financial market policies with a 20-year acquaintance and current chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Laura Cha, on a separate occasion on the sidelines of the forum.

    Roach said he had raised three points: Hong Kong and China’s economies are interdependent on each other, concerns about the negative impact of the U.S.-China political conflict on Hong Kong trade, and worries of Hong Kong’s autonomy especially after the enactment of the second national security law, commonly known as Article 23.

    “So I said all three of those will spell trouble for Hong Kong in the years ahead, and Laura Cha agreed with two of my three points – the Chinese economy, the adverse impact of the U.S.-China conflict,” Roach said.

    “But she did not agree with my point on Hong Kong’s political autonomy being compromised by either Beijing or its own,” he said, adding that his argument stemmed from an economic consideration and not politics, which almost no one has disputed. 

    Roach stated that “Hong Kong is over” in a February commentary published in the Financial Times, attributing the demise of the city, an international financial center, to its domestic politics, China’s structural problems and the worsening U.S.-China tensions.

    He also then claimed the turning point of Hong Kong’s decline was when former Chief Executive Carrie Lam introduced the extradition bill that triggered large-scale democratic demonstrations in 2019. He described Beijing’s subsequent imposition of the national security law in 2020 to have “shredded any remaining semblance of local political autonomy.” 

    Last month, the Hong Kong government swiftly passed Article 23, which expanded the scope of what constitutes a breach of national security by creating new offenses and increased punishment for offenders. 

    A transformed platform

    The first China Development Forum was opened in 2000 by then Premier Wen Jiabao. But it was conceived by Wen’s predecessor, the reformist premier Zhu Rongji, as a platform for Chinese leaders to debate and discuss policies and issues in the presence and participation of foreign experts.

    In previous years, the forum also featured a closed-door discussion with foreign chief executives where China’s number two in power, the Chinese premier who has traditionally held the economic portfolio, entertained questions from foreign investors. The premier’s meeting was canceled this year.

    ENG_CHN_Roach_04022024_2.jpg
    Former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, center, listens to a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping during the opening session of China’s 19th Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

    Roach has attended the forum for 24 consecutive years, since the first edition in 2000. He said in the Zhu era, issues could be discussed freely and openly, recalling a session at the 2001 forum in which Zhu sat in and participants openly debated on issues.

    “I urge current Chinese and Hong Kong leaders to do likewise. Debate on issues and not based on personal political agendas.”

    Roach’s recent “Hong Kong is over” theory has incited fury among the establishment, including former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Executive Councilor Regina Ip. Still, he vowed to continue to speak out for the benefit of Hong Kong and China.

    When asked whether he would be worried about not being able to return to Hong Kong after Article 23 was passed, the economist paused before responding.

    “If constructive criticism causes uncomfortable reactions from politicians and business people, they need to look at themselves,” he said.

    Should he be unwelcomed to return, he stressed that he will continue to write and speak to tell the truth, as “debate is more important than personal pressure.”

    According to Roach, foreign investors are seriously assessing the risks of doing business in Hong Kong, amid the uncertainty of how Article 23 will be enforced and interpreted, which has cast a shadow on the city’s autonomy under the one county, two systems principle. 

    Compounded by the U.S.-China spat, capital outflows may intensify, he warned.

    Since the beginning of 2020, the U.S. has announced three rounds of sanctions, sanctioning a total of 18 Beijing and Hong Kong government officials, including Chief Executive John Lee, Chief Secretary Eric Chan, Security Secretary Chris Tang, and Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Secretary Erick Tsang. 

    U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced last Friday his intention to impose entry restrictions on more Hong Kong government officials. 

    This year’s China Development Forum was attended by more than 200 delegates, including eight representatives from Hong Kong. 

    Business leaders apart from Laura Cha included Johnson Cha, chairman of C.M. Capital Advisors, Jacob Kam, chief executive officer of MTR Corporation, Vincent Lo, chairman of Shui On Group, and Richard Li, chairman of Pacific Century Group. 

    From academia, there were Lawrence Lau, economist and former vice-chancellor the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Zheng Yongnian, founding director of the Institute for International Affairs at CUHK Shenzhen, who is regarded as one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “national mentors”, and Li Cheng, a political scientist at the University of Hong Kong.

    Translated with additional reporting by RFA Staff. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kwong Wing for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China court jails ‘tortured’ rights activist Xu Qin for four years

    Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu have handed a four-year jail term to veteran rights activist Xu Qin, after repeatedly delaying her trial and sentencing despite concerns over her deteriorating health, and amid reports of torture from a prominent rights group.

    The Yangzhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Xu, a key figure in the Wuhan-based China Rights Observer group founded by jailed veteran dissident Qin Yongmin, to four years’ imprisonment on March 29 for “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch rights website reported.

    It quoted Xu as telling the sentencing hearing: “I’d like to thank everyone for their care and support, and also thank my husband for his help and support. Regardless of whether it’s futile or not, I must appeal. This is my right.”

    An award-winning activist in a number of high-profile human rights cases, including that of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, Xu was detained under “residential surveillance at a designated location” in 2021, a form of incommunicado detention rights groups say puts detainees at greater risk of torture and mistreatment.

    Her family told RFA in earlier interviews that Xu is a stroke and heart attack survivor who suffers from high blood pressure, among other ailments.

    But according to the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch rights website, many of Xu’s health problems were caused by her torture and mistreatment in detention.

    “During her detention and interrogation, Xu Qin was brutally tortured to extract a confession, and was held in solitary confinement for a long period of time,” the website said in a report about her sentencing published on Sunday.

    “Xu already suffered from multiple health problems including stroke, heart attack and hypertension, and as a result [of the torture], she was left paralyzed and unable to stand,” it said.

    Since she was locked up in the detention center, Xu has started using a wheelchair, according to her lawyer.

    Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan are seen in an undated photo. (xuyan709 via X)
    Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan are seen in an undated photo. (xuyan709 via X)

    Xu told the court on Friday that she would appeal the sentence, which came after more than two years in pretrial detention at the Yangmiao Detention Center in Yangzhou city, where she held intermittent hunger strikes in protest at a loss of communications privileges as well as a months-long ban on meetings with her lawyer, Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch said.

    Repeated calls to Xu’s lawyer rang unanswered during office hours on Monday.

    Trial was delayed

    Xu’s trial was delayed several times following her initial detention in May 2021, with the authorities citing only “unavoidable circumstances.”

    But her family says it was delayed due to her refusal to provide the state security police with a “confession.”

    The trial was eventually held on Nov. 7, 2022, but the verdict and sentencing were also repeatedly delayed until now.

    New York-based rights lawyer Chen Chuangchuang, who also heads the U.S. branch of the banned China Democracy Party, said Chen has always been an extremely tenacious activist.

    “The trial was held a long time ago, but the verdict and sentencing were delayed multiple times, which is a deliberate form of torture used by the Chinese Communist Party,” Chen told RFA on Monday.

    Chen said that one of the purposes of the authorities’ repeated delay in pronouncing the sentence was to get Xu Qin to plead guilty, and that she had been especially targeted due to her association with Qin Yongmin.

    According to the Weiquanwang rights website, the charges against Xu listed her participation in Qin’s China Rights Observer and its sister organization Rose China as evidence against her.

    Qin was sentenced in July 2018 to 13 years’ imprisonment for “incitement to subvert state power,” the latest in a string of long sentences for his peaceful dissent and attempts to build the banned China Democracy Party.

    A contemporary of exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng, Qin was sentenced to eight years in prison for “counterrevolutionary propaganda and subversion” in the wake of China’s Democracy Wall movement in 1981.

    He served a further two years’ “re-education through labor” in 1993 after he penned a controversial document titled the “Peace Charter.”

    Qin then served a 12-year jail term for subversion after he helped found the China Democracy Party in 1998 in spite of a ban on opposition political parties.

    Xu was honored with the Lin Zhao Freedom Award for her human rights advocacy in 2022, and the Oscar China Freedom Human Rights Award last month.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kitty Wang for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China court jails ‘tortured’ rights activist Xu Qin for four years

    Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu have handed a four-year jail term to veteran rights activist Xu Qin, after repeatedly delaying her trial and sentencing despite concerns over her deteriorating health, and amid reports of torture from a prominent rights group.

    The Yangzhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Xu, a key figure in the Wuhan-based China Rights Observer group founded by jailed veteran dissident Qin Yongmin, to four years’ imprisonment on March 29 for “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch rights website reported.

    It quoted Xu as telling the sentencing hearing: “I’d like to thank everyone for their care and support, and also thank my husband for his help and support. Regardless of whether it’s futile or not, I must appeal. This is my right.”

    An award-winning activist in a number of high-profile human rights cases, including that of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, Xu was detained under “residential surveillance at a designated location” in 2021, a form of incommunicado detention rights groups say puts detainees at greater risk of torture and mistreatment.

    Her family told RFA in earlier interviews that Xu is a stroke and heart attack survivor who suffers from high blood pressure, among other ailments.

    But according to the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch rights website, many of Xu’s health problems were caused by her torture and mistreatment in detention.

    “During her detention and interrogation, Xu Qin was brutally tortured to extract a confession, and was held in solitary confinement for a long period of time,” the website said in a report about her sentencing published on Sunday.

    “Xu already suffered from multiple health problems including stroke, heart attack and hypertension, and as a result [of the torture], she was left paralyzed and unable to stand,” it said.

    Since she was locked up in the detention center, Xu has started using a wheelchair, according to her lawyer.

    Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan are seen in an undated photo. (xuyan709 via X)
    Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan are seen in an undated photo. (xuyan709 via X)

    Xu told the court on Friday that she would appeal the sentence, which came after more than two years in pretrial detention at the Yangmiao Detention Center in Yangzhou city, where she held intermittent hunger strikes in protest at a loss of communications privileges as well as a months-long ban on meetings with her lawyer, Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch said.

    Repeated calls to Xu’s lawyer rang unanswered during office hours on Monday.

    Trial was delayed

    Xu’s trial was delayed several times following her initial detention in May 2021, with the authorities citing only “unavoidable circumstances.”

    But her family says it was delayed due to her refusal to provide the state security police with a “confession.”

    The trial was eventually held on Nov. 7, 2022, but the verdict and sentencing were also repeatedly delayed until now.

    New York-based rights lawyer Chen Chuangchuang, who also heads the U.S. branch of the banned China Democracy Party, said Chen has always been an extremely tenacious activist.

    “The trial was held a long time ago, but the verdict and sentencing were delayed multiple times, which is a deliberate form of torture used by the Chinese Communist Party,” Chen told RFA on Monday.

    Chen said that one of the purposes of the authorities’ repeated delay in pronouncing the sentence was to get Xu Qin to plead guilty, and that she had been especially targeted due to her association with Qin Yongmin.

    According to the Weiquanwang rights website, the charges against Xu listed her participation in Qin’s China Rights Observer and its sister organization Rose China as evidence against her.

    Qin was sentenced in July 2018 to 13 years’ imprisonment for “incitement to subvert state power,” the latest in a string of long sentences for his peaceful dissent and attempts to build the banned China Democracy Party.

    A contemporary of exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng, Qin was sentenced to eight years in prison for “counterrevolutionary propaganda and subversion” in the wake of China’s Democracy Wall movement in 1981.

    He served a further two years’ “re-education through labor” in 1993 after he penned a controversial document titled the “Peace Charter.”

    Qin then served a 12-year jail term for subversion after he helped found the China Democracy Party in 1998 in spite of a ban on opposition political parties.

    Xu was honored with the Lin Zhao Freedom Award for her human rights advocacy in 2022, and the Oscar China Freedom Human Rights Award last month.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kitty Wang for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • US, allies to conduct joint patrols to counter China

    The United States, Japan and the Philippines are launching joint naval patrols in the South China Sea in a move seen as countering China’s increased aggression in the region.

    The trilateral exercise is part of a “package of initiatives” that top leaders of the three countries will announce at their first-ever summit on April 11, according to the U.S. news outlet Politico, which was the first to report on the plan.

    While the Philippines and the U.S. have already been conducting regular joint drills, this will be the first time that the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force takes part in such activity, to be held “at the earliest” possible date, said Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. 

    The Asahi quoted unnamed Japanese government sources as saying that the move is made “in response to China’s growing naval presence in the region.”

    There are no further details on the joint plan, but Politico said that it would be “a show of force designed to show Beijing its belligerence won’t be tolerated.”

    In recent months, China’s coast guard has stepped up its campaign of harassment near some disputed reefs in the South China Sea, using water cannons against Filipino vessels. 

    Philippine boat.jpg
    Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4, left, is hit by two Chinese coast guard water cannons as they tried to enter the Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea, March 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

    Beijing’s tactics will be high on the agenda at the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the three countries form a regional “security triangle.”

    “On the South China Sea … the three allies are deeply aligned,” said a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a U.S. think tank.

    “Japan is well positioned to play a linking role among Indo-Pacific countries,” it noted.

    “Japan views the East and South China Seas as a connected theater,” CSIS said, adding that Tokyo believes that helping Southeast Asian countries confront China in the South China Sea “is part and parcel to pushing back on Chinese revisionism across the region, including in the East China Sea, where China directly threatens Japanese interests.” 

    Radio Free Asia learned earlier this year that the Japan International Cooperation Agency is also preparing a 10-year maritime security support plan for four ASEAN nations – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – to boost security in the South China Sea.

    ‘Ship riddled with bullets’

    The planned joint patrols have met with angry responses from China. 

    The Global Times newspaper called the move the “latest case of U.S. intention to deplete allies and weaken China” as Washington “recruits Japan” to further destabilize the region and threaten China’s surrounding security.

    It quoted a Chinese analyst as warning U.S. allies and partners, including Japan and the Philippines, that “they are all pawns for the U.S. to benefit from.”

    “Beijing’s narrative is that every time the situation escalates it is due to its opponents’ “provocations”, and so it bears no responsibility for any of its aggressions,” said Ray Powell, a maritime security analyst at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, Stanford University.

    The Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, whose primary area of responsibility is the South China Sea, has just conducted a real combat training exercise in the South China Sea, according to the Ministry of National Defense.

    The exercise, held on unspecified dates “in early spring,” aimed at enemy targets, such as “armed fishing boats harassing China in its sea areas,” and Philippine Coast Guard vessels, according to Hu Xijin, Global Times’ former editor-in-chief.

    Hu posted a video clip of the training exercise on social media platform X with a stern warning to Manila that “Once the Philippines fires the first shot, I fully support China’s PLA (People’s Liberation Army) in making [the] Philippine ship riddled with bullets.”

    “I believe most Chinese people will support it by then,” added the Chinese political commentator.

    “China’s strategy is to escalate until its adversaries give up, so beating the war drums is intended to cause them to back off,” Powell from Stanford University told RFA.

    The analyst said that with its current assertive transparency campaign, Manila is reaching out and forming partnerships with more like-minded nations despite Beijing’s threats.

    Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Why Are U.S.-imposed Problems the Main Headwind China Faces?

    In 2023, China achieved a strong 5.2 percent GDP growth rate, leading major global economies and driving worldwide economic growth, despite facing a complex and severe economic landscape. Yet, what challenges lie ahead for China’s enduring economic growth? In the special edition of The Hub, Wang Guan talks to Jeffrey Sachs, professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. “The U.S. is trying to put sticks to the spokes,” he said, adding that the main headwinds China is facing are U.S.-imposed problems, including high tariffs and technology bans. He also highlighted China’s leadership in technology and its efforts to enhance global ties.

    The post Why Are U.S.-imposed Problems the Main Headwind China Faces? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Returning from China, North Korean workers are paid in dubious IOUs

    North Korean workers returning from China with hopes of a big payday are incensed because the government is not paying them in cash. Instead, it’s giving them bank-issued money vouchers, which the workers are worried might end up being worthless, residents told Radio Free Asia.

    The vouchers, essentially IOUs, were issued in 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities explained that they could be used just like cash, and that they would be phased out once the pandemic ended. 

    Until then, the vouchers – printed on lower quality paper than the currency –  are supposed to be traded with cash on a 1:1 ratio, but nobody knows how long they will be good.

    North Koreans are already distrustful of their government on money matters because in 2009 it revalued the won, issued new currency and limited the amount of older currency that could be traded for the newer one, wiping out the life savings of many. 

    Since then, faith in the won has been shaky, so dollars, euros and yuan are therefore freely traded in North Korean marketplaces. Faith in the vouchers is even shakier than the won.

    “Most of the workers feel like they have returned empty-handed, so they are angry,” a resident of the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

    “Although the party emphasizes that the money vouchers should be used without restrictions like cash, people distrust them because the authorities clearly stated that they are a temporary measure due to the prolonged COVID-19 crisis,” she said.

    Assumptions

    When workers are sent overseas – mostly to China – there’s already an understanding that the lion’s share of their wages will be forwarded to the cash-strapped government in Pyongyang. 

    The remainder, however, is several times more than what they would earn doing the same job in North Korea. 

    So the Chinese companies get cheap labor, the government gets a lot of foreign cash, and the workers still come out ahead – or such was the assumption.

    The workers, mostly young women working in factories, had been in China since before the pandemic, some for six years or more.

    Because they were earning yuan in China the workers thought they would be paid in yuan upon their return.

    But they are now told to accept payment in money vouchers, which the people have very little confidence in, the North Pyongan resident said.

    Red tape and unfair exchange rates

    On top of this, the government appears to be exploiting the workers further through red tape and unfair exchange rates, the sources said. 

    “The market exchange rate is 1,700 to 1,800 won per Chinese yuan,” she said. “But the announced rate is fixed at 1,260 won per yuan, so the workers are getting screwed.”

    The Chinese companies paid 2,500 yuan (about US$350) for each worker every month, but about two-thirds of this money was sent to the state. 

    The workers were said to be earning about 800 yuan ($110) per month, but then red tape fees cut into even that amount.

    “There’s management fees at headquarters, maintenance costs at the consular department, insurance costs, social subsidies, and accommodation fees,” the resident said. “When all is said and done the workers are said to be getting between 100 and 300 yuan (US$13-41) for the whole month.”

    Remarkably, that is still above the paltry salaries for government-assigned jobs in North Korea.

    Another North Pyongan resident said that the workers are getting a raw deal after putting in 14-hour days in China and now have to accept payment in money vouchers.

    “The selection of workers dispatched overseas is still ongoing these days, but not many workers are willing to go to China,” she said. “The poor working environment and intensive labor exploitation in China, as well as the fact that the payment is not properly compensated, have become widely known facts.”

    She said that some of the workers who returned this time gave up all of their wages and returned with nothing, after the authorities compelled them to donate to various funds and subsidies.

    These include supporting national and local construction projects, condolence donations for the late former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on their death anniversaries, and funds to strengthen national defense.

    “They won’t see even a single yuan coin for all their hard work in China,” the first resident said.

     Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kim Jieun for RFA Korean.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indonesian President-elect Prabowo to visit China in first official post-polls foreign trip

    Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto will visit China next week at the invitation of President Xi Jinping for what will be his first official overseas visit since his election last month, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

    By inviting Prabowo – currently Indonesia’s defense minister – Beijing is trying to gain an edge over Washington and strike first in wooing the future leader of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, analysts in Jakarta said.

    During Prabowo’s three-day visit starting Sunday, Xi will hold talks with the Indonesian president-elect on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest, Lin Jian, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular daily press conference in Beijing on Friday.

    “At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto will visit China from March 31 to April 2,” Lin said, according to a transcript posted on the ministry’s website.

    “Mr. Prabowo’s visit to China will be his first overseas visit as president-elect. It fully demonstrates the robustness of China-Indonesia ties.”

    The Indonesian Defense Ministry spokesman also confirmed Prabowo’s China visit, saying its aim was to strengthen bilateral relations and increase cooperation in the defense sector.

    “This visit is part of the two countries’ ongoing efforts to strengthen strategic dialogue and cooperation, which is vital for regional security and stability,” Brig. Gen. Edwin Adrian Sumantha told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service.

    ID-Prap-pic-TWO.jpg
    President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo (second from right) walks with Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto (left), military chief Gen. Agus Subianto (second from left), and police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit after a meeting with high-ranking military and police officers at military headquarters in Jakarta, Feb. 28, 2024. [Bay Ismoyo/AFP]

    Regional political observers see Prabowo’s upcoming visit to China mostly in the context of Sino-U.S. competition for influence in Southeast Asia, and Beijing’s investment of billions of dollars in Indonesia.

    During the nearly decade-long presidency of outgoing leader Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Indonesia and China drew closer, many analysts said.

    Al Azhar University Defense Analyst Raden Mokhamad Luthfi cited China’s big projects in Indonesia.

    “One example is the Belt and Road Initiative project in the form of the Jakarta-Bandung Fast Train and the nickel downstreaming industry,” Raden told BenarNews.

    He was referring to China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative project, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train, which began commercial operations in October 2023.

    Nickel downstreaming refers to domestic processing of nickel ore, that is, to refine commodities at home to make exports more valuable. Chinese-linked companies dominate the nickel smelter industry in Indonesia.

    Another reason for China’s invitation to Prabowo was that Beijing wanted to ensure that under Prabowo, Indonesia does not move closer to the United States and the West.

    “I suspect that China wants to ensure that Prabowo continues the foreign policy that Jokowi previously carried out,” he said.

    China is invested in the Prabowo presidency because it wants its projects in Indonesia to stay on track, Raden said.

    However, he doesn’t approve of China being Prabowo’s first stop as president-elect.

    “Prabowo’s visit to China is too soon. It would have been better if he had waited until he was inaugurated first, then visited a foreign country,” Raden said.

    “Visits to foreign countries by the newly inaugurated Indonesian president should first be to neighboring ASEAN member countries such as Malaysia, considering that Indonesia’s interests are much greater in ASEAN than in other countries,” Raden said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

    ID-Prab-pic-THREE.JPG
    Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) talks with Indonesian President Joko “Joko” Widodo after the 29th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2022 in Bangkok, Nov. 18, 2022. [Rungroj Yongrit/Pool/via Reuters]

    Prabowo has bucked tradition in another way as well with his overseas trip, according to Zulfikar Rahmat, director of the China-Indonesia Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios).

    This is the first time that a president-elect – one who has not been sworn in – has accepted a foreign government’s invitation to visit, Zulfikar told BenarNews. Prabowo is to be inaugurated as president in October.

    “There are two reasons for this. The first is, of course, that Prabowo sees China as a partner in the economic sector. We know that in recent years, China has been Indonesia’s number one trading partner,” he said.

    “Second, I see that Prabowo wants to continue Jokowi’s legacy, which is [being] close to China.”

    Like Jokowi, Prabowo puts Indonesia’s economy front and center, which brings it closer to China, Zulfikar said.

    Muradi, a politics and security analyst at University of Padjadjaran in Bandung, said Prabowo had an interest in seeing how China carries out its defense modernization, which is expected to be completed in 2027.

    “[That’s] because China devotes almost 12% of GDP to their defense budget. So, China is one of the countries on the continent that has modern ships other than India,” Muradi, who goes by one name, told BenarNews.

    “Why did Prabowo go straight to China instead of ASEAN countries first? … Because Southeast Asian nations were not seen as very strategic by Prabowo. Instead, assume China is the current strategic power,” Muradi said.

    “Why didn’t Prabowo go to the U.S. first? Because until now, it is not clear who will win the November election – Biden or Trump. … Prabowo didn’t want to go to [meet] Biden, [if] Biden lost. Or to Trump, if it turned out Trump lost,” he said.

    Muradi predicted that after China, Prabowo’s next overseas stop would be in Russia, because its election, as it were, has concluded with Vladimir Putin being re-elected.

    “Maybe Prabowo will only go to the U.S. in January or February 2025,” Muradi said.

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pizaro Gozali Idrus.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • In isolated South China Sea territory, Filipino fisherman see ‘dwindling catch’

    Filipino fisherman Larry Hugo worked fast to launch his small boat from Pag-asa, a small island which the Philippines occupies in the disputed Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea, before the sun set in the horizon. 

    Pag-asa, internationally known as Thitu Island and also claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, sits far out at sea from the main Philippine islands and is inhabited by nearly 300 Filipinos.   

    Hugo has lived here for the past 15 years. The catch used to be enough to sustain his family until lately, when the presence of Chinese coast guard and militia ships all but forced him and other fishermen to venture closer to shore, he said. 

    The 45-year-old, who hails from the town of Roxas on Palawan island, is just one of many locals who refuse to give in to despair. Hugo recently spent half a day at sea and returned home with a small catch.

    “Yesterday, I went out for fishing but I only got around four kilos (8.8 pounds) of small fish, just enough to cover my gasoline and food for two days,” he told BenarNews.

    “Yearly, our catch declines because of the illegal fishing by the Chinese and the Vietnamese. Some of them were using dynamite and cyanide,” Hugo told BenarNews in Filipino outside a small grocery store where he hangs out with friends. 

    Earlier this month, BenarNews journalists spent four days on Pag-asa. It is one of about nine islands and atolls occupied by Manila in the Spratlys. The island hosts a small community and is equipped with a runway and a school. 

    PH-pag-asa2.jpg
    Children walk home from their school on Pag-asa (Thitu) Island, March 21, 2024. [Mark Navales/BenarNews]

    Pag-asa, the largest of the islands in the Spratly chain, is officially part of the Philippine province of Palawan. Pag-asa is about 300 miles (483 km) from Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan island in the western Philippines. 

    In recent years, more Chinese ships have traveled into waters around Pag-asa and made their presence felt, according to locals. 

    Along with Scarborough Shoal to the north, Pag-asa has been at the center of news headlines involving China, which claims large swathes of the South China Sea based on historical grounds.  

    PH-pag-asa3.jpg
    A woman washes clothes outside her home on Pag-Asa, March 20, 2023. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]

    BenarNews reporters who joined a Philippine mission earlier in March to survey the island and its surrounding areas saw a Chinese fishing fleet, escorted by Chinese militia and coast guard ships as they deployed huge lights to attract fish to their nets. 

    The Philippines has accused China of illegally harvesting corals and of using dynamite to fish, an allegation Chinese officials have denied. Vietnamese officials also have denied the claim. 

    PH-Pag-asa-satellite-photo.jpg
    Pag-Asa Island as seen from a satellite, April 4, 2022. [Credit: CSIS/AMTI/MAXAR Technologies]

    Jonathan Anticamara, professor at the Institute of Biology, College of Science, University of the Philippines-Diliman, said it was the first time marine research had been conducted in Sandy Cay, a sandbar located a few nautical miles from Pag-asa. The researchers’ mission was to identify the corals, fish and invertebrates present in the feature.

    “The main goal of this research I think, which is very interesting for the Filipinos, is that these are offshore reefs that belong to the Philippines and the Filipinos do not know so much about these reefs,” Anticamara said.

    “So we need to know what’s going on with these reefs. So that’s why we need to go underwater and we need to see what’s in there,” he said.

    The visit by the Filipino marine research expedition to Sandy Cay angered China, which complained that this had infringed on Chinese “territorial sovereignty.”

    “Thirty-four individuals from the Philippines ignored China’s warning and illegally landed on Tiexian Reef,” China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said in a statement, using the Chinese name for Sandy Cay. 

    PH-pag-asa4.jpg
    A pair of Filipino fishermen push their boat ashore on Pag-asa (Thitu) Island, March 20, 2023. [Mark Navales/BenarNews]

    In September 2023, Philippine officials blamed Chinese maritime militia ships for massive destruction of coral reefs, particularly in the seabed of Rozul Reef and Escoda Shoal, both features near Palawan island. 

    Hugo said he and other fishermen have complained about “dwindling catch.” 

    “We only get a few fish here now compared to before. These illegal fishermen from China and Vietnam are destroying the fish sanctuaries,” he said. 

    PH-pag-asa5.jpg
    A Philippine Coast Guard ship is seen from the shore of Pag-asa (Thitu) Island in the South China Sea, March 20, 2024. [Jeoffrey Maitem/BenarNews]

    With no regular direct ships or commercial airline carrying people to and from the island, it has been impossible for Hugo and other residents to quickly cross to the main Philippine islands in cases of emergencies. 

    Since he moved to Pag-asa in 2009, Hugo said he had managed to leave it on rare occasions to visit his relatives on Palawan island. 

    “We just have to live with it. No regular aircraft of the Philippine Air Force was coming because of the bad condition of the runway. It was not concrete and was slippery when it rains,” he said.

    That could be changing. 

    “But now it’s different. We have a good runway and the air force flies four times a week. People will just have to list their names for manifest and there will be prioritization depending on the importance of travel,” he said. 

    Pag-asa Island-map.jpg
    Pag-Asa Island as seen from a satellite, April 4, 2022. [Credit: CSIS/AMTI/MAXAR Technologies]

    In January, Palawan Gov. Victorino Dennis Socrates traveled to Pag-asa, where he promised that the government would undertake efforts to boost “the country’s sovereignty in the region,” local media reported.

    “To all our fellow countrymen across the Philippines, our claim to Kalayaan may just be words, but you being here, proving and shouting through your character, way of life and physical presence, truly affirms that Kalayaan is indeed part of the Philippines and Palawan,” Socrates said, according to Inquirer.net.

    Pag-asa lies within the Kalayaan Islands, which are part of the Spratly chain.

    “I believe the government is encouraging more people to come and settle here, not only in Pag-asa but in the outlying islands,” the governor said.

    PH-pag-asa6.jpg
    Ricel Galvan, a former fisherman, is seen inside the compound of his house on Pag-asa Island in the South China Sea, March 21, 2024. [Mark Navales/BenarNews]

    Despite the promises, constant harassment from the Chinese has made it difficult for fishermen, said Ricel Galvan, 37, who took a job with the school’s maintenance staff.

    In 2018, residents were free to catch fish, but now the Chinese prevent them, he said. 

    “We were told by local officials to just lie low and choose a location far from the Chinese,” he told BenarNews. 

    To support his wife, Aileen, 34, who has been studying in Palawan to become a teacher and their children, aged 10 and 11, Galvan said he accepted a contract from the local government of Kalayaan to work as a support staff in the island. 

    At the same time, he maintains a small store selling supplies to his neighbors.  

    “Life here is very hard. Worst is the transportation. We can’t just get off the island if we want to,” he said. “We have no commercial transportation. We need to keep an eye and wait for the availability of government vessels.”

    “It’s sad but life must go on. We just have to sacrifice a little,” he said. 

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales for BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Taiwan’s Kinmen Island: On the front lines of tension with China

    Taiwan’s tiny Kinmen island, just six kilometers (four miles) off the coast of mainland China, has become a focal point of fishing and territorial disputes, much to the chagrin of island residents who just want to earn a living in peace.

    Tensions have risen following the deaths of two Chinese men when their speed boat capsized after evading inspection by Taiwan’s Coast Guard on Feb. 14 in waters that Taiwan says are restricted around the island, but which Chinese fishermen have increasingly plied.

    The incident prompted strongly worded protests from Beijing. Chinese officials said they wouldn’t recognize the restricted zone, and soon afterwards China Coast Guard vessels boarded and searched a Taiwanese cruise ship, according to media reports.

    Local fishermen told Radio Free Asia that long before the incident, Chinese fishing boats had been helping themselves to fish that were once the preserve of Kinmen’s fishing community.

    Some have filmed the boats – which often come in the evenings, shining bright lights to attract fish – on their phones, but there’s little they can do to stop them.

    “Here’s a [Chinese] boat that’s just like the one that capsized … going after yellow croaker,” a fisherman who declined to be named told RFA, showing footage captured on his phone. “Yellow croaker goes for the highest prices in China.”

    ENG_CHN_FEATURE_KinmenFish_03192024.2.JPG
    A fisherman shows off his catch of yellow croaker in Kinmen, Taiwan, Feb. 21, 2024. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

    “This is in a protected area where we’re not allowed to fish, but you can see them putting out the nets everywhere — just 50 meters away [from our shoreline],” he said. “Their nets are all across the protected area — several hundred of them.”

    He said the Chinese fishing boats have also been known to remove nets set by fishing boats from Kinmen, causing economic losses for island residents.

    “These are all Chinese speedboats,” he said, pointing to several bright lights in the waters. Once this was “our traditional fishing ground, where we would catch yellow croaker and white pomfret, but now it is a Chinese fishing ground.”

    Kinmen’s colorful history

    Kinmen was occupied during World War II by Japanese forces, who drove Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang troops out.

    But when the Kuomintang government relocated to Taiwan after losing a civil war to communist forces under Mao Zedong in 1949, they kept most of the Chinese navy and stationed large numbers of troops on Kinmen – which effectively deterred any attempt at a communist invasion.

    Kinmen once more became a key battlefield at the beginning of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958 when Chinese troops fired nearly half a million artillery shells on the island, which is roughly the size of the New York borough of Brooklyn.

    The island is still littered with relics of the Chinese civil war: an abandoned tank on a beach, anti-landing spikes and a World War II era cannon fired to entertain tourists. 

    There’s also a massive concrete speaker that plays sentimental hits by Taiwanese pop diva Teresa Teng and extols the benefits of a democratic way of life across the busy shipping lane that divides Kinmen from China.

    A documentary about the island titled “The Island Between” was recently nominated for an Oscar.

    Kinmen’s people have been bombed by Allied forces, starved by the Japanese army, forcibly conscripted by China and branded traitors by the authoritarian Kuomintang government in Taiwan.

    It’s a liminal place that straddles borders of identity and loyalty, and has once more found itself on the front line of a historic conflict that could threaten regional stability.

    ENG_CHN_FEATURE_KinmenFish_03192024.4.jpg
    Kinmen residents, many of whom have family and business ties in China, regularly take the high-speed ferry to Fujian province. (Lee Tsung-han/RFA)

    Today, Kinmen’s 197,000 residents have family and history on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and shuttle regularly by ferry back and forth to the Chinese city of Xiamen. They are wary of talking to journalists for fear that doing so will hurt their businesses, which rely on Chinese customers, or loved ones who are Chinese citizens.

    Some have expressed mistrust of the Democratic Progressive Party government in Taipei, especially during the recent dispute over the fatal Chinese fishing boat incident.

    At times, the island’s loyalties can seem fluid. In 2022, it emerged that one of the island’s generals was a Chinese spy who had pledged to surrender the island in the event of a Chinese invasion.

    Blaming Taiwanese politicians

    If the Chinese fishing boat incursions continue, the island’s fishermen are worried about their livelihoods. Many blame Taiwanese politicians for politicizing the deaths of the two Chinese citizens by making them about cross-Straits tensions, rather than just a private tragedy.

    “Those in power over us have never lived like we do, making our living from the sea,” one fisherman told RFA Mandarin. “All we care about is getting three meals a day and how much money we’ll make today.”

    “How can a tiny country like ours compete with them over there?”

    ENG_CHN_FEATURE_KinmenFish_03192024.3.jpg
    Taiwan coast guard personnel inspect a Chinese fishing vessel that capsized during a chase off Kinmen island, Feb. 14, 2024. (Taiwan Coast Guard Administration via AP)

    Many in Kinmen want their government to stop insisting so much on Taiwan’s sovereignty and go back to the days of tacit understandings and accommodations.

    “We used to have an unspoken understanding with them,” another fisherman said. “But our government has broken the rules of the game by escalating, and so the other side has to escalate too.”

    A fishmonger at Kinmen’s Kincheng Market who gave only the surname Chang told RFA that everyone needs to calm down and start being more polite to each other.

    “I want to live in a country at peace, not in the chaos of war,” she said. 

    The United States is bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help the island, whose 23 million people have little interest in being ruled by Beijing, to defend itself.

    ‘Very sensitive’

    Meanwhile, the bodies of the two Chinese crewmembers are still in the Kinmen Funeral Home, as officials bicker about how to get them home in the absence of diplomatic ties between China and Taiwan, according to sources on the ground.

    “It’s very sensitive,” a worker at the funeral home told RFA. “Most of us don’t know what’s happening.”

    “There have been nearly 20 meetings, and there are a lot of problems, which have become political,” she said. “I don’t know how things are going to go across the Taiwan Strait.”

    ENG_CHN_FEATURE_KinmenFish_03192024.5.jpg
    Taiwanese fishermen at work in Kinmen, March 2024. (Lee Tsung-han/RFA)

    A Kinmen fisherman who declined to be named for fear of possible reprisals said he had seen Chinese fishing boats “snaking round and circling” Taiwan’s Coast Guard vessels, in a manner he described as “provocative.”

    “They cross the median line [back into Chinese waters] the moment we give chase, and they’re always faster,” the fisherman said. “Our law enforcement boats can’t catch them.”

    Tensions over fishing grounds are so commonplace that pro-China social media accounts claimed after the Feb. 14 incident that it was caused by a Taiwanese Coast Guard captain whose business interests were being harmed by the Chinese boats. 

    These claims were later shown to be misleading by the Asia Fact Check Lab, which is affiliated with RFA.

    Some said they resented that Taiwan’s government had dispatched officials from the Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei, rather than just letting local officials and the Red Cross sort out the return of the two men’s bodies.

    They also point to what they call dubious claims by the Taiwanese Coast Guard that it has no video footage about the incident.

    Reluctant to talk

    Many who RFA contacted were wary of giving interviews for fear of reprisals from Beijing, even though they are citizens of democratic Taiwan, suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front influence operations are already highly developed in Kinmen.

    One fisherman commented anonymously: “China allows these fishing boats to fish indiscriminately off Kinmen, without identification plates or skipper licenses, yet the Taiwanese Coast Guard goes to rescue them if they get into trouble in bad weather — we’ve watched them do this from the shore.”

    ENG_CHN_FEATURE_KinmenFish_03192024.6.jpg
    Kinmen County Councilor Tung Sen-pao, seen in March 2024, has called for better enforcement of Taiwan’s fishing bans. (RFA/Lee Tsung-han)

    Another complained that the Chinese fishing boats were emboldened by a lack of adequate law enforcement by the Taiwanese Coast Guard, which is supposed to enforce Taiwanese law in waters on Kinmen’s side of the strait.

    “We’ve relied on the sea for generations — how are we supposed to get enough to eat?” he said. “They have to regulate it.”

    Kinmen County Councilor Tung Sen-pao, who has no party affiliation, said there should be mutual recognition of fishing bans to enable stocks to regenerate, yet this is increasingly being ignored by Chinese fishing fleets.

    “I don’t think anybody wants to see tragic deaths like the ones [on Feb. 14],” Tung said. “Nobody wants to cause this level of heartache.”

    ENG_CHN_FEATURE_KinmenFish_03192024.7.jpg
    Security officials inspect fishing vessels at Kinmen’s Hsinhu Fishing Port, March 2024. (Lee Tsung-han/RFA)

    He said that what’s not generally spoken about is the amount of smuggling that goes on between Kinmen and China, a trade that benefits the residents of Kinmen as well as those of China.

    “Naturally the fishing community is keeping mum, because if this dispute rumbles on, they will lose those connections, their network, with China. Everybody’s income will take a hit if the maritime restrictions are enforced too strictly.”

    Tung called for better enforcement of Taiwan’s fishing bans, which are designed to enable sustainability in the fishing industry.

    Chen Shui-yee of the Kinmen Fishermen’s Association said the fishing community feels it is caught between, trying to appease both sides at once.

    “The fishermen in China aren’t organized, so there’s no equivalent party we could talk to,” Chen said. “So we won’t get involved. Our local government never talks to us about these things anyway.”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Hsia Hsiao-hwa and Lee Tsung-han for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China railway for Davao dream dashed as Marcos tilts towards the US

    By Kalinga Seneviratne in Davao, Philippines

    After being elected to the presidency in a landslide vote in June 2016, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte visited China in October and declared that his country was “realigning” its foreign policy to move closer to China.

    He was accompanied by 400 Filipino business executives and returned home with Chinese pledges of investments and loans worth $24 billion. One of those investments was to build a 1300km railway across the southern Mindanao Island with Chinese loans and technology.

    People on this long-neglected island eagerly waited for the railway, as Mindanao had never had a rail network.

    It would have given farmers an alternative way to transport their produce to markets and boosted tourism to the scenic mountainous island.

    The first stage of the project — a 103 km railway linking Tagum City to Digos City through Davao City — was supposed to be constructed by the second quarter of 2022. But this never materialised, and when Duterte left office in June 2022, the negotiations over the project’s funding were still ongoing.

    Building a railway across Mindanao has been a promise of successive presidents for almost 90 years, but no foreign donors have made the investments until the Chinese showed interest.

    On 28 June 2017, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) approved the pesos 35.26-billion Mindanao Railway Project (MRP) Phase 1 Tagum-Davao-Digos Segment. Transport Undersecretary Rails Cesar Chavez said the construction would begin by the second quarter of 2018.

    “During Duterte’s time, he was leaning towards China, but now Marcos is leaning towards the US,” noted Councillor Pilar Caneda Braga of the Davao City Council in an interview with IDN. “All projects (with China) that have not taken off until now are cancelled”.

    While emphasising that the railway project is a national issue and not one the council should comment on, she did indicate that the railway was a welcome project for the city of over 1.6 million people.

    “During Duterte’s time, there were problems with loans and borrowings. It (negotiations) fizzled out,” she said.

    Reshaping foreign policy
    Duterte’s successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, is reshaping the country’s foreign policy and realigning the Philippines more closely with the US’s militaristic strategies in Asia. China has apparently lost interest in the project.

    The stumbling block is believed to have been the 3 percent interest China wanted on the loan they will make available to build the railway.

    In contrast, Japan announced this month that they would be lending $1 billion to the Philippines for the Metro Manila railway extension project at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent.

    Department of Transport Under-Secretary Jeremy Regino said on February 24 that the Mindanao rail project had been terminated. However, he added that they had not terminated negotiations with China, which was still ongoing.

    During a visit to Davao in February, President Marcos said that the Mindanao rail project has not been terminated.

    He has ordered the Transport and Finance departments to look at a hybrid model that could be funded via private investments and ODA (overseas development assistance). He added that private investors could build the railway, while rolling stocks and engines could be financed via ODA or vice versa.

    The mountain scenery close to Digos City
    The mountain scenery close to Digos City where the railway would promote tourism. Image: IDN

    It is believed that the US is also considering a funding model for the railways through its ODA mechanisms, perhaps in alliance with the Asian Development Bank, Japan, and possibly South Korea.

    ‘Debt trap’ narrative
    This would give the US enormous propaganda clout over China and help spread its China “debt trap” narrative further.

    The Dutertes are believed to be unhappy with Marcos’s strong tilt towards the US, which is antagonising China.

    Sebastian Duterte, the former president’s son, is Davao City Council’s mayor. He has recently made some critical comments about President Marcos’s policies.

    His elder sister is Sarah Duterte, the Vice-President of the Philippines, who garnered more votes than the president in the May 2022 elections.

    In July 2023, Duterte visited China in a private capacity and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who called upon the former president to “play an important role” in promoting ties between their countries and resolving the territorial dispute in the South China Sea (which Manila refers to as the West Philippines Sea) amid Philippine’s growing military ties with the US.

    Upon his return, Duterte met Marcos to brief him on the visit.

    In January 2023, President Marcos made an official visit to China and, in a joint statement issued by the two neighbours said, Xi and Marcos had an “in-depth and candid exchange of views on the situation in the South China Sea, emphasised that maritime issues do not comprise the sum-total of relations between the two countries and agreed to appropriately manage differences through peaceful means”.

    Naval skirmishes
    However, throughout 2023, there have been skirmishes between Chinese and Filipino naval vessels and supply ships sailing to the Spratly Islands, which the Philippines considers as their territory.

    Amid this, Marcos has made a strong tilt towards the US, with the Philippine media backing his stance, which is focused on developing stronger defence ties between the two countries.

    But many countries across Asia are getting worried. In November 2023, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong cautioned Marcos when asked about rising tensions in the South China Sea during a regional forum in Singapore.

    He is reported to have asked Marcos: “Are you sure you (Filipinos) want to get into a fight where you will be the battleground?”

    Councillor Braga hinted at why the Filipinos welcomed Marcos’s stance when the same question was asked of her.

    “Generally, Filipinos are more inclined towards the US because many of our relatives are in the US, and we have been under American rule for several years. So, we have a better relationship with the US”, she said.

    “There have been some abuses in that relationship, but then America needs the Philippines vis-à-vis China. So, America is courting the Philippines using the EDCA. It is simple as that.”

    Defence cooperation
    EDCA is a defence cooperation agreement that allows the US to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays. Still, the US is not permitted to establish any permanent military bases.

    The agreement was signed in April 2014, coinciding with US President Baraka Obama’s visit to Manila, where he promoted his “pivot to Asia” strategy.

    Marcos recently agreed to allow US forces to access some six bases in northern Luzon, the closest point to Taiwan. China has threatened to mount pre-emptive strikes on these bases if provoked.

    Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Manila for the second time in two years. China’s Global Times described the visit as a move by Washington to create an AUKUS-like clique in Asia aimed at China in the South China Sea.

    It said: “Blinken’s visit is seen by Chinese observers as partly to incite the Philippines to continue its provocations in the South China Sea and partly to pave the way for a summit of the US, Japan and the Philippines that is scheduled for April”.

    Manila’s waltzing with Washington is raising eyebrows in Southeast Asia, which needs a peaceful environment to prosper.

    During a visit to Australia to attend the ASEAN-Australia forum to mark 50 years of relations, Marcos made a passionate speech to the Australian Parliament seeking Canberra’s support — a staunch US ally — for his battle with China.

    But, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, speaking during a joint press conference at the forum with the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said: “While we remain … an important friend to the United States and Europe and here in Australia, they should not preclude us from being friendly to one of our important neighbours, precisely China.”

    He added: “if they have problems with China, they should not impose it upon us. We do not have a problem with China”.

    Kalinga Seneviratne is a correspondent for IDN is the flagship agency of the nonprofit International Press Syndicate. The article is published with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Auckland Polyfest 2024: Vibrant showcase of cultural diversity, youth empowerment

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Tiana Haxton, RNZ Pacific journalist

    South Auckland was a hub of indigenous pride as the Auckland Polyfest 2024 revealed a vibrant celebration of cultural diversity, youth empowerment, and the enduring legacy of Pasifika heritage.

    From the rhythmic beats of Cook Islands drums to the grace and elegance of Siva Samoa, the festival brought together over 200 teams from 69 schools across Aotearoa.

    Polyfest, now in its 49th year, continues to captivate audiences as one of the largest Pacific festivals in Aotearoa.

    What began in 1976 as a modest gathering to encourage pride in cultural identities has evolved into a monumental event, attracting up to 100,000 visitors annually.

    Held at the Manukau Sports Bowl, secondary school students from across New Zealand share traditional dance forms and compete on six stages over four days.

    Five stages are dedicated to the Cook Islands, New Zealand Māori, Niue, Samoa and Tonga.

    A sixth “diversity” stage encourages representation and involvement of students from all other ethnicities, ranging from Fijian, Kiribati and Tuvaluan, through to Chinese, Filipino, Indian and South Korean.

    ‘Rite of passage’
    For festival director Terri Leo-Mauu, Polyfest represents more than just a showcase of talent — it’s a platform for youth to connect with their cultural heritage and celebrate their identities.

    Auckland Polyfest 2024 – a vibrant showcase.  Video: RNZ

    “It’s important for them to carry on the tradition, a rite of passage almost,” Leo-Mauu said.

    “It’s also important to them because they get to belong to something, they get to meet friends along the way and get to share this journey with other people.”

    Samoa Stage performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024.
    Samoa stage performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024. Image: RNZ Pacific/Tiana Haxton

    The sentiment is echoed by participants like Allen Palemia and Abigail Ikiua, who serve as youth leaders for their respective cultural teams.

    For Palemia, leading Aorere College’s Samoan team, Polyfest is a chance to express cultural pride and forge lifelong connections.

    “Polyfest is great . . .  it is one of the ways we can express our culture and further connect and appreciate it.”

    Aorere College team leaders at the Auckland Polyfest 2024.
    Aorere College team leaders at the Auckland Polyfest 2024. Image: RNZ Pacific/Tiana Haxton

    Similarly, Ikiua, a team lead for the Niue team, sees Polyfest as a platform for cultural revival and self-discovery.

    Reconnecting culture
    “I think Polyfest is a good place for people to reconnect to their culture more, and just a way for people to find out who they are and embrace it more.”

    Niue Stage performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024.
    Niue stage performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024. Image: RNZ Pacific/Tiana Haxton

    Connection to their indigenous heritage plays a huge role in the identities of the young ones themselves.

    Fati Timaio from Massey High School is representing Tuvalu, the third smallest country in the world.

    He shared how proud he is to be recognised as Tuvaluan when he performs.

    “It’s important to me cus like when people ask me oh what’s your nationality? and you say Tuvaluan they will only know cus you told them aye but like when you come to Polyfest and perform, they know, they will look at you and say oohh he’s Tuvaluan . . .  you know what I mean.”

    big group shot - Massey High School - Tuvalu group
    Massey High School’s Tuvalu group performing at ASB Polyfest 2024. Image: RNZ Pacific/Tiana Haxton

    Festival goers say this celebration of cultural identities from te moana nui o kiva and beyond is reinvigorating the young ones of Aotearoa.

    The caliber of performances was astronomical, an indication of what to expect at next year’s event, which will also be the 50th anniversary of Polyfest.

    50 years event
    The 50 year’s celebrations next year are expected to be even bigger and better following the announcement of a $60,000 funding boost by the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Dr Shane Reti.

    Reti said the government’s sponsorship of the festival recognises the value and role languages play in building confidence for Pacific youth.

    An additional $60,0000 funding boost will also be given to the festival in 2030 to mark its 55th year.

    Samoa Stage performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024.
    Samoa stage performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024. Image: RNZ Pacific/Tiana Haxton

    With the 50th anniversary of Polyfest on the horizon, the future of the festival looks brighter than ever, promising even greater opportunities for cultural exchange, community engagement, and youth empowerment.

    Festival organisers are expecting participant figures to surpass pre-covid numbers at next year’s event.

    The pre-pandemic record saw 280 groups from 75 schools involved.

    Cook Islands performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024.
    Cook Islands performers at the Auckland Polyfest 2024. Image: RNZ Pacific/Tiana Haxton
    • Competition results are available here

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • China steps up checks for people bypassing the ‘Great Firewall’

    Police in China are stepping up spot searches of people’s phones for apps enabling them to bypass the Great Firewall of government internet censorship, residents told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews.

    A resident of the southwestern province of Sichuan who gave only the surname Huang for fear of reprisals said he had recently been stopped on the subway in the provincial capital, Chengdu.

    “This happened to me in Chengdu,” Huang said. “A police officer stopped me on the subway and wanted to check my phone, but I didn’t allow him to.”

    “I told him he had no law enforcement powers and he let it go,” he said.

    Chinese authorities have stepped up spot checking operations on the streets and on public transport in the years since the “white paper” protest movement of 2022, which the government blamed on infiltration by “foreign forces,” and have been forcing people to download an “anti-fraud” app that monitors their phone usage, according to recent interviews.

    Huang said he has also seen police checking people’s phones on the streets of Shanghai and Beijing.

    ENG_CHN_GreatFirewallChecks_03262024.2.JPEG
    A screenshot of an SMS alert from the Hubei provincial police department warning a phone user to stop using circumvention tools to get around China’s Great Firewall. (RFA)

    A resident of the northeastern province of Jilin who gave only the surname Zhang for fear of reprisals said police have been stepping up similar checks where he lives.

    “You have to be very clandestine to get around the Great Firewall,” Zhang said. “Circumvention tools and viewing overseas websites are not allowed.”

    “Generally speaking, nobody dares to post photos that have come from outside the Great Firewall to WeChat,” he said. “If you do, your account will be blocked.”

    He said anyone who gets hauled in to “drink tea” with the feared state security police will have their phone checked as a matter of routine, meaning that people need to delete such software or reset to factory settings to avoid discovery.

    He said that while some uncensored content occasionally gets through, there isn’t as much as before the current crackdown.

    According to Huang, the current crackdown was sparked by the “white paper” protests, after which the authorities have targeted university students to crack down on people going “over the wall” to get content that hasn’t been censored by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    ‘You have to be especially careful’

    A mobile phone repair specialist in the southern province of Guangdong who declined to be named for fear of reprisals said the police-approved “anti-fraud” app can also detect the presence of circumvention tools on any phone where it has been installed.

    “As long as your phone has the anti-fraud app installed, they will know what you are doing,” she said.

    “You have to be especially careful now if you want to get around the Wall.”

    A screenshot provided by a resident of the central province of Hubei showed an SMS alert from the provincial police department warning them that circumvention software had been detected on their phone, in violation of the Online Security Law.

    ENG_CHN_GreatFirewallChecks_03262024.3.JPEG
    People hold white sheets of paper during a protest over COVID-19 restrictions after a vigil for the victims of a fire in Urumqi, in Beijing, Nov. 28, 2022. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

    The user was ordered to cease and desist or report to the local police station, on pain of further “enforcement measures,” according to the text message.

    According to the X citizen journalist account “Mr Li is not your teacher,” a student at the School of Electronic Information and Computer Engineering at Sichuan’s Institute of Industrial Technology was recently disciplined for “ignoring online security regulations” and using software to bypass the Great Firewall on many occasions between Feb. 29 and March 11, according to a photo of the school’s disciplinary announcement.

    They had accessed content on overseas websites and reposted it to two WeChat groups, which “violates the school’s student regulations,” the notice said.

    The student was given a warning under the college’s disciplinary code, it said.

    Last month, China’s state security police started combing through the account’s follower list and putting pressure on people living in China to unfollow it, the journalist reported.

    China’s Cyberspace Administration has also been stepping up its campaign to remove unapproved content from Chinese social media platforms, reporting that it revoked the licenses of more than 10,000 websites in 2023, and hauled in more than 10,000 “for interviews.”

    The websites were being targeted for “spreading false information, incitement of confrontation and other harmful content,” state news agency Xinhua reported on Jan. 31.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China releases Tibetan monks and residents held for dam protests | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China releases Tibetan monks and residents held for dam protests

    Chinese authorities have released hundreds of monks and other Tibetans arrested in February for peacefully protesting the construction of a dam in a Tibetan-populated area of Sichuan province, but are still holding two accused of being ringleaders, two sources inside Tibet said. 

    Tenzin Sangpo, senior administrator of Wonto Monastery, and a village official named Tenzin, were arrested on Feb. 23 on suspicion of leading protests last month against the Gangtuo Dam project in Dege county, or Derge in Tibetan, in the province’s Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

    The dam is expected to submerge six monasteries, including Wonto, and force the resettlement of at least two major communities along the Drichu River, or Jinsha River in Chinese. 

    All told, more than 1,000 Tibetan monks and residents of Dege county were arrested for protesting. Several of those arrested, including Sangpo and Tenzin, were transferred from where they were previously detained to the larger Dege County Detention Center.

    Sangpo and Tenzin have been handed over to the government Procuratorate Office, responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious criminal cases, said the sources who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals by authorities.

    Since then, authorities have provided no details about their whereabouts or the charges against them, the sources said. 

    “The local Tibetan people are worried that the government will accuse them of having instigated the February protests and being responsible for sharing information with the outside world,” said the first source, referring to Sangpo and Tenzin.

    Another monk, who has assumed the responsibility of monastery administrator in place of Sangpo, was also briefly detained by authorities, the sources said. 

    Beaten and given little food or water

    One monk who was arrested, detained and released said authorities kept those arrested in crowded cells meant to hold fewer than eight people.

    They also fed the detainees poor quality tsampa – ground-up, roasted barley flour that is a Himalayan staple – fit for horses, mules or other animals.

    “Some days, we were not given any water to drink,” he said. “On other days, when there was water, we were given very little.”

    Authorities also slapped the monks and made them run around the prison grounds as punishment for their crimes or beat them if they refused to run, the monk said.

    “One monk was beaten so badly that he could not even speak,” he said. “He is now under medical treatment.”  

    Tenzin Sangpo (L), senior administrator of Wonto Monastery and village official Tenzin (R), both from Wangbuding township, Dege county, in southwestern China's Sichuan province are seen in undated photos. (Citizen journalist)
    Tenzin Sangpo (L), senior administrator of Wonto Monastery and village official Tenzin (R), both from Wangbuding township, Dege county, in southwestern China’s Sichuan province are seen in undated photos. (Citizen journalist)

    Tibetans who had been arrested were pressured to incriminate each other, causing psychological trauma, said the sources.

    Since the protests and arrests in February, authorities have been closely monitoring villages and monasteries on both sides of the Drichu River, and no outsiders have been allowed to enter the township, sources said. 

    They have set up five checkpoints between Wonto village and Dege county, with dozens of police at each, they said. 

    Villages residents and monks from Wonto Monastery are not free to travel unless they have a permit to visit the county, the sources added. 

    Before the protests, there were more than 50 younger monks at Wonto Monastery, but they were sent to the county government school after the protests.

    Future of dam project uncertain

    Chinese officials and media reports have given mixed and contradictory information about the future of the dam project.

    The Gangtuo Dam is part of a plan that China’s National Development and Reform Commission announced in 2012 to build a massive 13-tier hydropower complex on the Drichu. The total planned capacity of the 13 hydropower stations is 13,920 megawatts. 

    Some have said that its future is uncertain, with preliminary checks being conducted to determine whether it is possible to complete it, sources said. Their findings will be presented to the State Council, the national cabinet of China, for a final decision.

    But others made clear that the Gangtuo Dam project would continue, with a visiting county official telling the leaders of the project coordination team to adhere to their work orders and make arrangements for “the next step of work,” according to a local Chinese government announcement. 

    Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kalden Lodoe and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China sprays Philippines at South China Sea


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

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  • Manila protests China’s “aggressive actions” – South China Sea | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Mike Chinoy on China


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Assignment China: Mike Chinoy on journalism in the People’s Republic | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


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  • Philippines summons China envoy to protest ‘aggressive actions’ in South China Sea

    Manila on Monday summoned a Chinese envoy to strongly protest the “aggressive actions” of the China Coast Guard in the South China Sea, following an incident that left three crew members aboard a Philippine supply boat injured.

    The Philippines was on Saturday attempting to resupply troops stationed on a ship at Second Thomas Shoal, known locally as Ayungin Shoal, when China’s coast guard and maritime militia “harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers against the routine RoRe [rotation and resupply] mission,” officials said.

    Chinese water cannon blasts hurt three Filipino crew members and caused “significant damages to the vessel,” the Philippine Coast Guard said.

    “The Department of Foreign Affairs summoned the Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy this morning to convey the Philippines’ strong protest against the aggressive actions undertaken by the China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia against the rotation and resupply mission undertaken by the Philippines in Ayungin Shoal on 23 March 2024,” Ma. Teresita Daza, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement. 

    China “has no right to be in Ayungin Shoal,” she said, a low-tide elevation that lies well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

    “China’s continued interference with the Philippines’ routine and lawful activities in its own exclusive economic zone is unacceptable,” said Daza.

    Saturday’s incident was the second time this month that Philippine crew members were injured in a confrontation between Chinese and Philippine ships in the disputed South China Sea.

    Tense incidents at sea have become more frequent lately, as Chinese ships try to block Philippine ships and boats from delivering supplies to Manila’s military outpost there. 

    The Philippines in 1999 deliberately grounded an old navy ship on the shoal – BRP Sierra Madre – where it maintains a detachment of troops.

    Four crew members aboard a military-contracted Philippine ship sustained minor injuries when a water cannon blast from China Coast Guard ships shattered the windshield on the bridge during the incident on March 5, according to Filipino officials.

    “The Philippines urges China to take the correct track of abiding by international law and respecting the legitimate rights of other states like the Philippines, and to cease and desist from its continued violation of international law,” Daza said, adding the Philippine embassy in Beijing had also been instructed to lodge a protest with China’s foreign ministry. 

    China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including Second Thomas Shoal that is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also have territorial claims to the sea.

    A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague dismissed China’s sweeping historical claims to the waterway, but Beijing has refused to acknowledge the ruling. 

     000_34M396M.jpgThis frame grab from aerial video footage taken and released on March 23, 2024 by the Armed Forces of the Philippines shows a vessel described as a China Coast Guard ship (L) deploying water cannon against the Philippine military-chartered civilian boat Unaizah May 4 during its supply mission near the Second Thomas Shoal. (Armed Forces of the Philippines/AFP)

    On Monday, China’s embassy in Manila said it had communicated its “strong opposition” to the Philippine government, which it accused of attempting to transport construction materials to the shoal – a claim that Manila has denied. 

    “The China Coast Guard in response has implemented lawful regulation, interception, and expulsion in a reasonable and professional manner,” the embassy said in a statement.

    It added that the international arbitration award in 2016 was illegal and therefore “null and void.”

    Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro on Monday urged Beijing to take its claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea to international arbitration.

    “If China is not afraid to state its claims to the world, then why don’t we arbitrate under international law?” Teodoro told reporters, adding Manila would not budge on its position.

    “They are the ones who entered our territory. No country believes [their claims] and they see this as their way to use force, intimidate and bend the Philippines to their ambitions.”

    Washington condemned China’s most recent actions as “dangerous” and said they “undermine regional stability but also display a blatant disregard for international law.”

    “[The] People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships’ repeated employment of water cannons and reckless blocking maneuvers resulted in injuries to Filipino service members and significant damage to their resupply vessel, rendering it immobile,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

    Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales reported from Manila.

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By BenarNews Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Manila blasts China’s ‘unprovoked aggression’ in latest South China Sea incident

    China’s coast guard on Saturday fired a water cannon at a Philippine supply boat in disputed waters in the South China Sea, causing “significant damages to the vessel” and injuring its crew, the Philippine coast guard said.

    Manila was attempting to resupply troops stationed on a ship at the Second Thomas Shoal, known locally as Ayungin Shoal, when the Chinese coast guard and maritime militia “harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers against the routine RoRe (rotation and resupply) mission,” said the Philippine National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea.

    The West Philippine Sea is the part of the South China Sea that Manila claims as its jurisdiction.

    The Chinese coast guard also set up “a floating barrier” to block access to shoal where Manila ran aground an old warship, BRP Sierra Madre, to serve as a military outpost.

    The Philippine task force condemned China’s “unprovoked aggression, coercion, and dangerous maneuvers.”

    Philippines’ RoRe missions have been regularly blocked by China’s coast guard, but this is the first time a barrier was set up near the shoal. 

    The Philippine coast guard nevertheless claimed that the mission on Saturday was accomplished.

    Potential consequences

    The Second Thomas Shoal lies within the country’s exclusive economic zone where Manila holds sovereign rights. 

    China, however, claims historic rights over most of the South China Sea, including the Spratly archipelago, which the shoal forms a part of.

    A Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson on Saturday said the Philippine supply vessel “intruded” into the waters near the shoal, called Ren’ai Jiao in Chinese, “without permission from the Chinese government.”

    “China coast guard took necessary measures at sea in accordance with law to safeguard China’s rights, firmly obstructed the Philippines’ vessels, and foiled the Philippines’ attempt,” the ministry said.

    “If the Philippines insists on going its own way, China will continue to adopt resolute measures,” the spokesperson said, warning that Manila “should be prepared to bear all potential consequences.”

    Chinese militia.JPG
    Chinese Maritime Militia vessels near the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024. (Adrian Portugal/Reuters)

    U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson wrote on social media platform X that her country “stands with the Philippines” against China’s maneuvers.

    Beijing’s “interference with the Philippines’ freedom of navigation violates international law and threatens a free and open Indo-Pacific,” she wrote.

    Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Hae Kyong Yu also said that Canberra shares the Philippines’ “serious concerns about dangerous conduct by China’s vessels adjacent to Second Thomas Shoal.” 

    “This is part of a pattern of deeply concerning behavior,” Yu wrote on X.

    Edited by Jim Snyder.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hong Kong’s ‘alarming’ national security law comes into force

    Law, which has in effect silenced opposition, comes into force with penalties of up to life in prison for treason and insurrection

    Hong Kong’s new national security law came into force on Saturday, putting into immediate effect tough penalties of up to life imprisonment for crimes including treason and insurrection.

    The law – commonly referred to as article 23 – targets five categories of national security crimes, and was swiftly passed by Hong Kong’s opposition-free legislature on Tuesday.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • China tries but fails to disrupt a tribute at UN to Cao Shunli

    Despite protests from China and its allies, human rights organisations paid a public tribute to the late activist Cao Shunli during a debate at the UN Human Rights Council, ten years after her death. A victim of ‘deadly reprisals’ against her activism, Cao died in March 2014 after months of arbitrary detention in China. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/03/15/joint-statement-on-the-10-year-anniversary-of-deadly-reprisals-against-chinese-activist-cao-shunli/]

    NGOs and activists paid tribute to the late Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli by holding a moment of silence and applauding her name during their speaking time at the Human Rights Council.

    Delivering a joint statement before the Council plenary on behalf of ISHR and 16 organisations accredited to the UN as well as 20 NGOs without consultative status, a human rights defender from the Chinese mainland concluded her intervention with a short silence and a call to States and NGOs to mirror the courage of human rights defenders and always stand in solidarity with them.

    After the intervention, in a sign of respect to Cao Shunli, the room was filled with applause from NGOs and a handful of governments in honour of Cao and in solidarity with victims of reprisals for cooperation with the UN.

    ‘It is unacceptable to normalise reprisals,’ the human rights defender from the Chinese mainland said. ‘Cao’s courage inspires defenders globally, so let her legacy and name resonate in this room until there is accountability for all victims of reprisals,’ she emphasised.

    In an attempt to silence the activist, the Chinese delegation raised a point of order protesting against the statement. This mirrored their 2014 response to ISHR and other NGO’s attempt to hold a moment of silence at the Council after Cao’s death, during which Chinese diplomats disrupted the session for over an hour. This time, Cuba, Venezuela, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Russia supported China in their attempt to silence activists’ right to speak at the United Nations. 

    In response to China’s attacks, Belgium on behalf of the 27 states of the European Union, supported by the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom, took the floor to defend NGOs’ right to speak freely.  

    ‘We cannot allow Cao’s story and her work to be forgotten,’ said Raphaël Viana David, China Programme Manager for ISHR. ‘Ten years on, no one has been held to account for this emblematic case of tragic State reprisals. UN experts called for an inquiry in 2014, 2019 and once again last week. Governments cannot let Beijing off the hook: they must push for accountability for Cao’s fate and for that of all activists who have been persecuted for cooperating with the UN in standing up for human rights.’

    ISHR and its civil society partners urge the international community to hold the individuals and institutions responsible for Cao’s death to account and to end all acts of reprisals and repressive measures seeking to restrict civil society space and prevent activists from engaging with the UN.

    https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/china-fails-in-disrupting-tribute-at-un-to-cao-shunli-ten-years-after-her-death-in-custody

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • The World Stands Still and its Inhabitants Spin

    From battlefields to legislative arenas, and to Academy Awards, it is difficult to reconcile reality with the manner in which events are presented to the public. The world stands still and its Inhabitants spin.

    Battlefield

    The Trump administration’s State Department declared, “The Chinese government is committing genocide and crimes against humanity through its wide-scale repression of Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, including in its use of internment camps and forced sterilization.” Before being elected, President Joe Biden affirmed the previous administration’s rhetoric. He said, through a spokesperson that “the policies by Beijing amounted to genocide.”

    Not a single Uighur killed, not a single Uighur starving, not a single Uighur forced out of a bombed home, and no Uighur property expropriated. The Uighurs are working, enjoying life, going to refurbished mosques, gaining more prosperity every day, and the U.S. government charges genocide. The charge is based on the temporary relocation of Uighurs to massive “education camps” several years ago and having them listen to what their government expects of its citizens, such as learning the Chinese language, working at a responsible job, and knowing that if you live in China you must follow Chinese laws and not engage in terrorism. Human rights violations in Xinjiang are a matter of perspective; it’s certainly not approaching genocide.

    A report released last year by The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that since 2017 the Chinese government had committed grave rights violations against millions of Uighurs and other Turkic people in Xinjiang, abuses so systematic and widespread that they “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

    Pakistan journal, the Express Tribune, reported that, “Xinjiang, an autonomous region of China, has never been more prosperous than it is now due to unprecedented achievements in socio-economic development and the improvement of people’s lives. One of the many achievements of the region is the protection and inheritance of the languages, traditional cultures and customs of all ethnic minorities in the region as all residents fully enjoy their rights, live a happy life in a stable environment.”

    In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians are murdered by Israelis every day, their property expropriated, their families forced out of bombed homes, and many starved. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller states, “The U.S. has not observed acts in Gaza that constitute genocide. Those are allegations that should not be made lightly … we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide.” Evidently, the U.S. State Department gets its information from the Israeli government press office. It should pay attention to official channels, such as Craig Mokhiber, Director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who left his post, protesting that the UN is “failing” in its duty to prevent what he categorizes as “a textbook case of genocide” in Gaza.

    How can it be? How can a powerful department in the most powerful state have the most corrupt leadership and consider that what is light is dark and what is dark is light?

    Legislative arena

    Senator Chuck Schumer expounded the U.S. government’s latest use of words that criticize Israel, while refraining from actions to change Israel’s policies. Speaking harshly on the Senate floor and characterizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “as one of the main stumbling blocks to Israeli-Palestinian peace,” Schumer intended to convince a portion of American public, which is critical of Biden’s subservient attitude toward apartheid Israel, that the Biden administration is getting tough with the genocide killers of the Palestinians.

    Who is Chuck fooling; all Israeli governments and not only Netanyahu’s, have been “stumbling blocks to Israeli-Palestinian peace.” Try to tell Israel what to do and they will assuredly do the opposite. Schumer has sent a signal to Netanyahu, “Don’t worry, we’ll use harsh words but will not do anything to impede your genocidal plans. You can count on us. We’ll fool all the innocents into thinking what is light is dark and what is dark is light. Gotta win the election.”

    Award Ceremonies

    The tentacles of foolery and deceit reach into all avenues of daily life. The Oscar awards, already noted for “questionable choices” in awards, displayed the role that politics plays in the Academy’s “votes.” The awards contradict the assumption that there are independent votes by independent people ─ a majority of experienced and knowledgeable cinema professionals cannot make the same mistakes and be inclined to introduce the same politics into the awards. In a secret vote, one or two can err, but, without collusion, a majority cannot have exhibited the same errors.

    The winner in the documentary category, 29 days in Mariupol, had two failings: (1) It is not a documentary, and (2) it is not original.

    A documentary is a non-fiction movie, television, or radio show that uses facts and information to tell a story about a subject. The subject is defined and the facts and information are gathered from media sources — film, books, television, newspapers, archives, historical records — to prepare a script that focuses on the subject. The film 29 days in Mariupol does not fit the description of a documentary; material is not gathered and objectively selected to fit the subject in a truthful and honest presentation. In the film 29 days in Mariupol, a subject has been selected to fit the available film, which contains one person’s selective reporting of the war in Mariupol.

    The entire film content is a compilation of NBC news dispatches by one NBC reporter. These news dispatches have been shown on television and there is no reason to repeat what was recently available. The film lacks focus on a defined subject and tends to highlight destruction to hospitals and wounding of children.

    The film 29 days in Mariupol is not a documentary; the film 29 days in Mariupol is a political statement ─ Putin’s Russia is waging a war of aggression that has destroyed a Ukrainian city and harmed the children. All that might be true, but statements should not solicit academy awards. Considering that last year’s documentary winner, Navalny, also had a political content of similar nature, the charge of the film being a statement can be changed to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science using the award ceremonies to make political statements.

    Another award winner, in the category of foreign films, The Zone of Interest, a fictitious story of Rudolf Höss, German Commandant of the Auschwitz Camp, and his family doing daily chores in their home close to the concentration camp, is not a film. A film has a story, a defined script, movement, action, and characters that capture the sympathy of the audience. The Zone of Interest has none of these and as much impact as sitting on a bench and watching people frolic along the path.

    We are told that behind a wall, close to the Höss family home, is the Auschwitz concentration camp and its victims. This is all right for a book of fiction (the film is fiction, only the names and camp are real) but not for cinema, which tells its story by celluloid images and not by words. In this “film,” the audience is expected to create images from words reflecting from the walls and become emotionally involved from the imagined contrasts — challenging tests of imagination and sensitivity.

    The Zone of Interest is not entirely boring. The reason for that anomaly is its creation of expectation — what is the next device that the movie will employ to get us disturbed again? Other than those who get their jollies from hearing people scream, who could be interested in this lugubrious and sinister nightmare? Who is willing to pay the price of admission to be bored, disturbed, and have to excuse the use of unfortunate concentration camp victims as a backdrop for an entertaining film?

    At the Academy Award ceremony, the film’s director, Jonathan Glazer, spoke against the memory of the Holocaust as justification for Israel’s war in Gaza. However, the film was prepared and finished much before the latest atrocities on the Gazans and can serve to justify, in many unknowing minds, Israel’s attack on the Gazans. Glazer was caught in the realization of having released the film at the wrong time and revealed it could have a sinister purpose.

    The major academy award winner, Oppenheimer, arouses a question of purpose. The Oppenheimer story has been told in several films, biographies, plays, documentaries and TV presentations and is a voice of a distant past. Why project him again at this time? Producer Emma Thomas considered Oppenheimer “to be her and Nolan’s riskiest film to date.” So, why did they undertake this “risky” adventure?

    Derived from a popular and excellent biography, the production had some impetus and a difficult climb to commercial viability. Did someone, other than the writers and directors, want Oppenheimer on the silver screen and furnish the publicity and distribution that guaranteed its winning the academy award and achieving box office success? I’m not a conspiratorial theorist; I abhor reckless conspiracies, but what was considered conspiratorial regarding Zionists has become facts, and I see another possible conspiracy.

    J. Robert Oppenheimer, who never represented himself as a Jewish person, is often mentioned in the film as being of Jewish heritage. In one particular scene, he relates he wants to do something to help the Jews (not the Americans or Europeans) in their struggle against Hitler? Did Oppenheimer ever say this and how would anyone know he did? The physicist admitted he never read the newspapers and the persecution of the Jews in Germany did not reach top news until after the war. Why is his statement plugged into the script and who did it?

    The script features a great deal of discussion about its subject’s Judaism, including Oppenheimer’s efforts to recruit Jewish scientists exiled from Nazi-occupied Europe, and emphasizes the role that he and  Jewish scientists played in the developments of “little boy” and “fat man,” the first two atomic bombs. Is this a way of telling Americans that the Jews were instrumental in winning World War II? It may sound far-fetched, but could Oppenheimer be another subtle means of Zionists recreating the biblical David vs. Goliath story, one of their favorite tales, where David is represented by the Jewish scientists and Goliath is Nazi Germany? This was definitely not the intent of those who wrote the biography and those who produced, directed and scripted the movie, but it is a theme of the film and emerges as an interpretation. I apologize if I offend anyone for mentioning the interpretation.

    Making a commercially successful movie, and Oppenheimer is a huge financial success, is more than its script, acting, direction, and production. Getting the idea from the right people to the right people at the right time, financial backing, distribution, and publicity are equally important. The LA times writes that, “Since 2015, the film rights had been under option by J. David Wargo, a successful New York businessman who studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was itching to get the book into production. Various scripts had been commissioned and rejected.” After languishing for years with no sign of appearing on the big screen, Oppenheimer hit the jackpot.

    Decades before the production of the movie, the Zionists brought Oppenheimer to Israel and had him glorify apartheid Israel in a speech he made in 1958.

    I can say that the whole world sees in Israel a symbol, and not just a symbol of courage, and not just a symbol of dedication, but of faith and confidence in man’s reason, and a confidence in man’s future, and in the confidence in man, and of hope. These are all now largely and sadly missing in those vast parts of the world which not so long ago were their very cradle.

    Martin Kramer, an American-Israeli scholar of the Middle East at Tel Aviv University and the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, claims that Oppenheimer expressed his admiration for Israel at a 1965 talk to a New York audience.

    Israeli society, he told his New York audience a few months later, was “forced by danger, by hardship, by hostile neighbors, to an intense, continued common effort.” As a result, “one finds a health of spirit, a human health, now grown rare in the great lands of Europe and America, which will serve not only to bring dedicated men and dedication to Israel, but to lead us to refresh and renew the ancient sources of our own strength and health.”

    Another bothersome aspect that indicates the Zionists are everywhere, promoting whomever and whatever they can is that a Google search of “Oppenheimer life” retrieves several citations, all starting the same as that of Time Magazine: “He was born in 1904 into a wealthy secular Jewish family in New York City and educated at Manhattan’s Ethical Culture School, graduating in 1921 …” Why are Oppenheimer and other Jewish scientists identified by a religious ethnicity they never followed, while other non-Jewish scientists are not identified by their religious ethnicity?

    That’s the Academy Awards for this year. Next year brings other award hopefuls:

    • Anthony Hopkins plays the role of Sir Nicholas Winton in a soon to be released film, One Life, which tells the story of Sir Winton’s enabling 669 children to leave Czechoslovakia for England after the Nazi 1938 occupation.
    • The World Will Tremble is described by Variety as telling the story of “Solomon Wiener and Michael Podchlebnik, [two prisoners at the Chelmno extermination camp] who, against all odds, managed to escape. On Jan. 19, 1942, they became the first people in the world to provide eyewitness accounts of the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews at the hands of the Third Reich.”
    • In Symphony of the Holocaust, a documentary about the survival, life, and final wish of 13-year-old Holocaust survivor and violinist, “Shony Braun transforms his experiences in four Nazi camps into the Symphony of the Holocaust, a musical testament to the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War
    • Origin compares the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany to that of Black people in America and the Dalits in India.

    I previously wrote that it is difficult to argue against the mentioning of the past Holocaust atrocity until we realize that its constant highlighting is a principal tool in the Zionist extermination kit. The Zionist use of the Holocaust to divert attention from the contemporary genocide of the Palestinian people is as criminal as the Holocaust, making the victims a silent partner to an additional genocide, and demonstrating that their deaths keep Zionism alive.

    The world is off its axis, shadowing the day with misconceptions, blinding the night with a light that makes comfort impossible.

    The firing ceased and like a wounded foe
    The day bled out in crimson: wild and high
    A far hyena sent his voice of woe
    Tingling in faint hysteria through the sky.

    Tell her I fought as blindly as the rest,
    That none of them had wronged me whom I killed,
    And she may seek within some other breast
    The promise that I leave her unfulfilled.

    I should have been too tired for love or mirth
    Stung as I am, and sickened by the truth—
    Old men have hunted beauty from the earth
    Over the broken bodies of our youth!
                                Roy Campbell

    The post The World Stands Still and its Inhabitants Spin first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • High level North Korean delegation visits China

    A North Korean diplomatic delegation is in China for talks on strengthening cooperation, marking the highest-ranking official talks between the two nations since Pyongyang lifted COVID-19 lockdown. 

    The delegation, led by North Korea’s international department director Kim Song Nam, met with Wang Huning, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, according to the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang on Friday. 

    In a meeting with Kim, Wang voiced China’s willingness to promote bilateral ties with Pyongyang and proposed that the two nations work together to create a “peaceful and stable external environment,” read a statement posted on the embassy’s website.

    “The two sides also exchanged views on issues of common interest, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” the statement added, without elaborating further. 

    North Korea last Monday fired ballistic missiles into the sea for the first time in two months as the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Seoul for a democracy conference hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

    South Korea’s military said multiple short-range missiles were fired from a region south of the North’s capital, Pyongyang, landing east of the Korean Peninsula, adding that it shared information on the launch with the United States and Japan.

    Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the launches after his country’s coast guard also reported the firing of what it said appeared to be a ballistic missile.

    “North Korea’s series of actions threaten the peace and security of our region and the international community, and are absolutely unacceptable,” said Kishida at that time, calling the launch a violation of U.N. resolutions.

    The North’s missile launch came just after Seoul and Washington finished 10-day large-scale annual joint military drills.

    This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pyongyang and Beijing. The North declared 2024 as the year of North Korea-China friendship, a designation first introduced in 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

    Kim, who used to work as an interpreter for the North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and the former leader Kim Jong Il, is known to have a deep knowledge of Chinese affairs. Wang, meanwhile, is considered the fourth most powerful voice within the Chinese Communist Party.

    It is unclear how long Kim would stay in China, but North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday that the tour will take the North Korean delegation to Vietnam and Laos.

    Laos plans to host the ASEAN Regional Forum and other ASEAN-related meetings as this year’s chair country. The annual meeting is the sole regional forum joined by North Korea.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Chinese residents of North Korea worry about returning from China

    Chinese residents of North Korea who went to China during the COVID-19 pandemic are starting to return, but some are wondering if they should have stayed in China given all the restrictions on bringing things into the country, sources told Radio Free Asia.

    North Korean authorities denied requests by returnees to import goods, even those that they planned to sell or use in their own homes, including clothing and household goods. 

    “They were going back without items that they wanted to resell,” a resident of Yanji in China’s northeastern province of Jilin told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Their request was denied.”

    Called Hwagyo in Korean, which means “overseas Chinese,” these people descended from Chinese who moved to the Korean peninsula in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s, prior to the split between North and South Korea. The Korea National Diplomatic Academy estimated that there were around 5,000 North Korean Hwagyo in 2017.

    According to rough estimates from North Korean residents, during the coronavirus pandemic, more than 70% of the Hwagyo community decided to weather the storm in China as they were facing severe economic difficulties at home. 

    North Korea last week gave the green light for a third wave of Hwagyo returnees, after having approved returns in December and January. 

    But some may be reluctant to return as word gets back about the severe restrictions.

    “Many Hwagyo who returned to North Korea are regretting their return,” said another Yanji resident, who requested anonymity for personal safety.  “They said that Hwagyo are even banned from doing business in the marketplace.” 

    The first Yanji resident said he had heard that 33 Hwagyo entered North Korea through Wonjong customs recently, referring to the border crossing between Hunchun, China, and Rason in northeastern North Korea.

    RFA sources confirmed that more Hwagyo came through the border crossing that connects Dandong, China with Sinuiju, North Korea in the peninsula’s northwest, but RFA was not able to determine how many. (Korean Service, please explain how “it was confirmed”)

    “The (North Korean) Consulate General in Shenyang asked returning Hwagyo not to reveal details such as the number of people returning and their departure date to the outside,” the first resident said. “They were only allowed to carry one piece of luggage upon entry and the luggage was restricted from containing any South Korean products.”

    Easy Money

    The luggage situation might be a big problem for the returnees. 

    Hwagyo in North Korea do not have North Korean citizenship and are officially citizens of the People’s Republic of China, so prior to the pandemic, they had been able to travel back and forth between the two countries with relative ease.

    This put them in a very privileged position from a business perspective because they could go to China, load up on products not available in North Korea, and sell them for a considerable markup when they got home.

    According to the second Yanji resident, prior to the pandemic, North Korean wholesalers would mark the date that a Hwagyo was to return from China so that they could line up at the house to buy the latest products they brought back. Though most North Koreans struggle to make ends meet, money flowed into the hands of Hwagyo with relative ease.

    But now that may all change.

    As the news spreads, Hwagyo still in China are worried that they won’t be able to go to China as often as before and they won’t be able to sell Chinese products in North Korea, the second resident said, adding that many are planning to return to North Korea, settle their affairs, and then move to China permanently.

    “If Chinese products cannot be imported and sold in North Korea in the future, there will be no reason for Hwagyo to continue living there,” he said

    Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Trafficked Cambodian teenage girl returns from China

    A 16-year-old Cambodian girl who said she was tricked by job brokers, sold to a Chinese man who held her against her will in Zhejiang province arrived back in Cambodia on Wednesday.

    “I am releasing this video to show that I have arrived in Cambodia safely,” said the girl, whose name Radio Free Asia is withholding because she is a minor, in a short video she posted on Facebook.

    In the video recorded at Phnom Penh International Airport, she thanked Cambodian President Hun Manet, the Cambodian consul general in Shanghai and police who helped facilitate her return.

    The trafficking of Cambodian girls and women to China as brides has increased in recent years, according to Human Right Watch’s 2024 World Report, an annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe. 

    Brokers have increasingly targeted teenagers as brides, the report said. Many are tricked or forced into marriages with Chinese men, who may subject them to abuse and sexual slavery, hold them prisoner, force them to perform labor and pressure them to have babies, the report said. 

    Following the girl’s return, her mother told RFA that her daughter quit school in early 2023 to work in a factory to help the family financially, but then she lost contact with her. She urged other parents to beware of human trafficking schemes.

    “Since I have lost my child, I have lost my mind,” she said. 

    Girl posted video seeking help

    The rescue operation began when Chinese police went to the man’s home in Zhejiang province on March 10 after the girl posted a video and a written message on Facebook seeking help from Cambodian authorities, RFA reported earlier. 

    Cambodia’s consul general in Shanghai informed police and accompanied authorities to the home.

    The girl, from eastern Tbong Khmum province, cooperated with Chinese investigators and was kept in a safe place under the care of consulate officials. 

    She later told RFA via Facebook Messenger that the man regularly beat and insulted her, locked her in a room at times, and forced her to have sex to try to impregnate her. 

    Chum Sounry, spokesman for Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, told RFA via the Telegram instant-messaging service on Wednesday that authorities sent the girl to Hagar International, a Swiss-based global humanitarian NGO founded in Cambodia in 1994 that assists people who have escaped sexual slavery and human trafficking. 

    The spokesman discouraged other Cambodians from seeking employment overseas where they could be sold as brides.

    In August 2023, brokers told the girl and three of her friends that they could work at a market in China and earn US$700 a month — about four times the average monthly earnings in Cambodia.

    The brokers drove the girls from Phnom Penh, through Vietnam and into China, where they were put in a room with other Cambodian and Vietnamese girls and women, the girl previously said. 

    The Chinese man paid money for her, while her friends were sold separately.

    Moeun Tola, executive director of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, said authorities have been able to rescue many Cambodians trafficked to China because they spoke out about their predicaments via social media or other means. 

    He urged the government to provide trafficking victims with job training so they do not leave Cambodia again and risk revictimization. 

    Translated by Yun Samean for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin 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.