A North Korean representative to the United Nations dismissed reports the country is sending soldiers to support Russia in the war in Ukraine as “groundless rumors,” adding that its cooperation with Moscow was “legitimate and cooperative.”
It was the first public comment from a North Korean official since South Korea’s spy agency last week said the North had decided to send about 12,000 troops to fight Russia’s war in Ukraine, and had already dispatched 1,500 soldiers to Vladivostok for training.
“As for the so-called military cooperation with Russia, my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless stereotyped rumors aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK and undermining the legitimate, friendly and cooperative relations between two sovereign states,” said the North Korean official during a session of the U.N. General Assembly First Committee on disarmament and international security on Monday.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.
The official’s remarks came in response to the Ukrainian envoy’s comment that the North was planning to soon send “large-scale” regular troops to help Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
Russia said on Monday it would continue to strengthen ties with North Korea, while declining to confirm South Korea’s report.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Oct. 10 dismissed speculation of North Korean troops going to Ukraine as “fake news.”
The United States said it could not confirm the report, while North Korea’s state-run media outlets had remained silent at time of publication.
In a separate U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday, South Korea’s ambassador to the U.N., Hwang Joon-kook, called for an immediate halt to the growing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
“We are well aware that North Korea is a habitual violator of international norms and Security Council resolutions. However, recent actions by Pyongyang have even surprised us,” said Hwang.
He denounced Russia for “taking a gamble” out of desperation by involving a third country in its aggression and said its military cooperation with the North would potentially make Pyongyang “an active belligerent in warfare.”
“Russia and North Korea must immediately stop violating international obligations,” said Hwang.
“It is hard to believe that a permanent member of the Security Council would take such a gamble and shift the course of the war.”
North Korea and Russia have moved closer over the past year or more amid widespread suspicion that North Korea has supplied conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly submitted a bill to the lower house of parliament on Monday to ratify a treaty to raise its relationship with North Korea to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The change was agreed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 19 in Pyongyang after summit talks during the Russian president’s state visit.
The new partnership includes a mutual defense assistance clause that would apply in the case of “aggression” against one of the signatories.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.
China on Monday urged Myanmar’s junta to find and punish the perpetrators of a bomb attack on its consulate in Mandalay over the weekend, but observers warned that more attacks are likely amid public anger over Beijing’s support for the military regime.
China has remained one of the junta’s few allies since the military orchestrated a coup d’etat and seized control of Myanmar in February 2021.
Chinese investment in Myanmar is substantial, and the armed opposition has attacked several projects in a bid to cut off badly-needed revenue for the junta, which is straining under the weight of global sanctions in response to its putsch.
On Friday evening, unknown assailants detonated a bomb at the Chinese consulate in Mandalay region’s Chanmyathazi township, damaging part of the building’s roof, the junta and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday. No one was hurt in the blast.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility.
On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Li Jian condemned the attack and called on the junta to “make an all-out effort to hunt down and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
The Chinese consulate in Mandalay also urged all Chinese citizens, businesses and institutions in Myanmar to monitor the local security situation, strengthen security measures and take every precaution to keep themselves safe.
Myanmar’s junta has said it is investigating the incident and is working to arrest those responsible.
Opposition condemns attack
An official with the Mandalay People’s Defense Force, which runs anti-junta operations in the region, denied responsibility for the bombing.
“The Mandalay People’s Defense Force has not carried out any urban missions, including the attack on the Chinese consulate general’s office recently,” said the official who spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
The foreign ministry Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, also condemned the bombing in a statement that said it opposes all terrorist acts that tarnish relations with neighboring nations. It said differences of views should be solved through diplomatic means rather than violence.
“Such kinds of attacks have absolutely nothing to do with our NUG government or our People’s Defense Force,” said NUG Deputy Foreign Minister Moe Zaw Oo. “We never commit terrorist acts and we condemn such attacks.”
Moe Zaw Oo suggested that the junta had orchestrated the attack to “[create] problems between our forces and China.”
“The junta is trying to exacerbate the conflict … and sowing discord,” he said, without providing evidence of his claim.
Tay Zar San, a leader of the armed opposition, echoed the NUG’s suspicion that the junta was behind the attack.
“The military regime and its affiliated organizations are intentionally provoking ethnic and religious conflict under the context of anti-Chinese sentiment,” he said, adding that the junta has “organized” anti-Chinese protests in downtown Yangon and Mandalay.
He also provided no evidence to back up his claims.
Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun for a response to the allegations went unanswered Monday.
Enemy of the people
Tay Zar San said that the people of Myanmar have been angered by Beijing’s support for the junta and its attempts to pressure ethnic armed groups along its border to end their offensive against the military.
Since launching the offensive nearly a year ago, heavy fighting for control of towns in northern Shan state has sparked concern from China, which borders the state to the east, and forced it to shut previously busy border crossings.
China has tried to protect its interests by brokering ceasefires between the junta and ethnic armies, but these haven’t lasted long.
Myanmar’s Army Commander Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, left, speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a hotel in Naypyidaw, Jan. 18, 2020. (Office of the Commander in Chief of Defense Services via AP)
Junta supporters have expressed concern that territory lost to the armed opposition will not be retaken and are posting messages opposing China’s engagement on social media. Earlier, the junta supporters staged anti-China protests in Yangon, Mandalay, and the capital Naypyidaw.
Than Soe Naing, a political commentator, said that the people of Myanmar will increasingly target China if Beijing continues supporting the junta.
“As this struggle intensifies, anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar is likely to grow,” he said. “However, it is important to recognize that this is not a conflict with the Chinese people, but rather a response to the Chinese Communist Party’s stance and the misguided policies of its leadership on the Myanmar issue.”
Additional tension
The consulate bombing came amid reports that China’s military had fired at the junta’s Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets as they carried out airstrikes on ethnic rebels on the border.
A video of the purported attack – in which anti-aircraft guns fire into the air while Chinese-language commands are given – went viral on Saturday evening, although RFA has been unable to independently verify its authenticity or the date it took place.
Additionally, an official with the People’s Defense Force in Sagaing region’s Yinmarbin township told RFA that his unit had ambushed a junta security detail guarding a convoy of trucks carrying copper from the Chinese-run Letpadaung Copper Mine Project in nearby Salingyi township.
At least one junta soldier was killed, but the convoy was able to proceed, said the official, who also declined to be named.
A traffic police officer directs traffic near a welcoming billboard to Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Naypyidaw, Jan. 17, 2020. (Aung Shine Oo/AP)
RFA was unable to independently verify the official’s claims and efforts to reach the junta’s spokesperson for Sagaing region went unanswered Monday, as did attempts to contact the Chinese Embassy in Yangon.
In late August, junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing vowed to protect Chinese assets and personnel in Myanmar during a meeting with the Chinese ambassador.
Last week, reports emerged that Min Aung Hlaing will visit China for the first time since the coup. When asked by Bloomberg about the military leader’s visit to China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian declined to comment.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
Shouting their petitions through megaphones from 7:00 a.m. for hours on end, protesters outside Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng’s house in Washington’s Kalorama diplomatic district are prompting neighbors to complain about the noise.
The Chinese protesters have different complaints, but they are all using the liberty they enjoy on U.S. soil to get across a message to the Chinese government that would likely get them locked up back home.
But many residents have scant sympathy.
“This protest is outrageous,” local resident Holly Sukenik told RFA Mandarin. “It’s not just a First Amendment, freedom-of-speech kind of issue, because it is disturbing anybody who lives within several blocks.”
“People could not go outside and enjoy their backyards; they have little children — it’s waking up their children, or preventing the children from sleeping, from going to bed,” she said. “It is affecting the quality of life of everybody around, and it’s been going on for two years.”
Former millionaire businessman Hu Liren, who is among the protesters outside Xie’s residence, said he stopped using a loud speaker after realizing the impact of his protest on those around him.
“I would like first of all to apologize to the neighbors around here,” Hu told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “The megaphones and loudhailers really do disturb local residents and affect their lives.”
“I decided I wouldn’t use loudspeakers any more, so now I just hold up this sign,” he said.
Signs of Chinese President Xi Jinping are seen posted along the street outside the residence of China’s ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C., Oct. 2024. (Image from RFA video)
Hu is complaining to the Chinese government over his company’s loss of tens of millions of yuan after a supplier in the eastern province of Shandong started sending him fake and defective raw materials.
He wants the suppliers, who are being protected by authorities in Shandong’s Linyi city, held to account, and has traveled to the United States to protest after being threatened by officials from the city.
Demolition complaint
Fellow protester Ma Yongtian, who hails from the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin, said she has been petitioning in Washington on and off since 2013, moving her protest this year from the Chinese Embassy to the ambassador’s residence.
Part of her protest over the demolition of her family’s house by authorities nearly a quarter of a century ago involves burning incense in front of a portrait of ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
“I come to burn incense for Chairman Xi because my family’s case has dragged on for 24 years,” Ma said via loudspeaker outside Xie’s home. “We won a lawsuit in 2002, but then the Changchun municipal authorities declared it was a wrong decision in 2003.”
Municipal regulations in Washington bar the use of public sound systems or loudhailers above a certain noise limit, and residents have put in complaints with the city council over the protests, and city officials “are now working for a resolution,” Sukenik said, in a reference to new legislation currently going through the council that would limit speakers in public places to just 55 decibels.
“I feel I should apologize,” Ma told RFA Mandarin when asked about the impact on local residents. “But the main responsibility should lie with Ambassador Xie Feng.”
“As a representative of [the Chinese] government, he should come out and do something to resolve this issue.”
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng claps during the grand opening ceremony for Panda Ridge at the San Diego Zoo, Aug. 8, 2024. (Derrick Tuskan/AP)
Asked what that would look like, Ma called for a direct channel for dialogue with the Chinese government, “so we can interact in a positive way, not just this vicious cycle.”
The protesters are also insistent that they haven’t broken any laws.
According to the District of Columbia Noise Control Act, non-commercial public speech isn’t currently considered noise, as long as the sound levels as measured at the nearest house doesn’t exceed 80 decibels.
A recent news report by the wusa9 TV station said the output of the protesters’ speakers was 104 decibels, without specifying the precise location where the levels were measured.
Not everyone is aggrieved by the protests, however.
Local resident Andrew Hall said he was unbothered by the noise, which he said was completely legal, and that the right to protest was something that a country should provide for its citizens.
Meanwhile, Sukenik said she too supported the protestors’ right to protest — just not quite so loudly.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Wang Yun for RFA Mandarin.
A boat carrying 70 people off the coast of southern Myanmar overturned on Sunday night and eight people were confirmed dead and 17 were missing, including children heading back to school after a holiday, a rescue worker told Radio Free Asia.
The crowded ferry capsized when it encountered strong currents soon after setting off from the island village of Kyauk Kar, bound for Myeik town to the south in the Tanintharyi region, said a resident of the area who declined to be identified due to media restrictions imposed by military authorities.
“We only managed to recover eight bodies last night. There are a lot still missing,” said the rescue worker who also declined to be identified.
“There are also survivors. We don’t know the exact list. Right now, it’s chaos.”
Boat accidents are common in Myanmar, both on its many rivers and off its coasts. Hundreds of commuters, migrant workers and refugees have been involved in accidents this year.
The resident said students heading back to school after the Thadingyut holiday, along with their parents and others displaced by recent conflict in the area, were among the victims of the accident that occurred as the ferry was passing through a channel known for treacherous currents.
“From Kyauk Kar there’s … the opening of the ocean where the current is too strong,” one resident said. “When the current was too rough, due to the boat’s position and because it was top heavy, it overturned.”
The eight people found dead were identified as seven women between the ages of 16 and 60, and a three-month-old boy, residents said.
According to a rescue committee, 47 people survived while 17 children were unaccounted for. Residents and civil society organizations were searching for more victims.
The military has not published any information about the accident, and calls by RFA to Tanintharyi region’s junta spokesperson, Thet Naing, went unanswered.
Amid the escalation of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a claim emerged in Chinese-language social media posts that the United States had not evacuated its citizens from Lebanon as of Oct. 6.
But the claim is false. The U.S. had arranged multiple evacuation flights, including on Oct. 2.
“The United States is not organizing an evacuation in Lebanon, and more than 80,000 American citizens who are under fire need to evacuate themselves,” the claim reads in part.
Similar claims have been shared to draw a comparison between the U.S. and China, with users touting China’s prompt evacuation of its citizens.
China’s ministry of foreign affairs announced on Oct. 8 it evacuated 215 of its citizens in two batches from Lebanon.
Chinese influencers claimed that the U.S. had not begun evacuations of its citizens from Lebanon as of Oct. 6. (Screenshots/Weibo and YouTube)
Following targeted explosions of many Hezbollah group members’ electronic devices on Sept. 17 and 18, conflict between the militant group and Israel has escalated into open exchanges of fire on several occasions.
But the claim about the U.S. not moving its people out of Lebanon is false.
The U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave the country while commercial flights were still available and raised its travel alert for Lebanon to a four – the highest level available – on Sept. 21.
It later ordered families of embassy personnel and some employees in Beirut to leave Lebanon on Sept. 28.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Oct. 2 and 3 that the U.S. had arranged evacuation flights on Oct. 2.
U.S. evacuation efforts have been also reported by international media outlets, including Reuters, which reported on Oct. 10 that U.S.-organized flights had carried more than 1,000 U.S. citizens from Lebanon to Turkey over a week.
Reuters added that two other aircraft had delivered U.S. citizens from Beirut to Frankfurt and Doha, and that “authorities expect” that such evacuations would continue for the thousands of U.S. citizens remaining in Lebanon.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.
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 Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.
Myanmar garment factory worker Win Lae was shocked when she heard that colleagues at the Chinese-owned factory where she used to work were being offered money in exchange for sex with Chinese technicians and buyers.
“Some workers are really poor and the news was spreading – when they offered 300,000 kyat (US$143) for a night, it’s a huge amount for female workers. It’s still happening,” said the former worker, who asked to be identified as Win Lae, of her time at the factory owned by the Dongxin Garment Co. Ltd.
The company did not respond to requests for comment.
The situation at her factory in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon is far from rare, labor activists say, as a deteriorating economy leaves women across Myanmar’s manufacturing sector more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, abuse and violence.
International labor group the Business and Human Rights Resource Center said in a report this month that women in Myanmar’s garment sector face “dire and repressive working conditions”.
The group documented 155 cases of abuse in Myanmar factories, linked to 87 international companies, between Dec. 1, 2023, and June 30, with 37% of them gender-based incidents including “verbal, physical and sexual abuse and harassment, often for not meeting unreasonable production targets.”
An economy in freefall since the military ousted an elected government in February 2021 has exacerbated the problem of exploitation for many in Myanmar as factory owners and supervisors know that employees are increasingly desperate for cash as inflation erodes living standards, a labor activist told Radio Free Asia,
“It’s easy to take advantage of the garment workers. They use poverty,” said the woman activist who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.
The Business and Human Rights Resource Center also reported evidence of sexual harassment and assault at the Dongxin factory.
Workers in another factory complained that the manager was “matchmaking” female workers with men back in China, raising fears of human trafficking when she began taking them with her on visits to China, the labor group said.
Other cases the group documented included male supervisors groping women and expressing sexual or romantic interest and angry supervisors mistreating workers.
In this Sept. 29, 2015, file photo, workers in the Great Forever factory stitch clothes in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone outside Yangon, Myanmar. (AP)
‘No leverage’
Win Lae described various pressures put on workers that made them vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse, including being forced to work through the night, ostensibly to fill orders.
“There are no arrangements or sleeping areas for the operating workers. If they take a rest, they can only rest in the technicians’ room and they then have the opportunity,” Win Lae said, referring to more senior technical staff taking advantage of women workers.
Win Lae also said that peer pressure and pay-offs facilitated sexual exploitation.
“The supervisor gets paid to persuade another operator. She gets pocket money if another operator sleeps with the technician,” said Win Lae, who said she was also laid off after raising an issue of unfair pay.
“For many Japanese and Chinese brand companies, we don’t have any leverage and we can’t reach them,” the activist said. “The only way is the legal process, and you know, the legal process here in Myanmar, it’s terrible.”
Since the 2021 military takeover, 16 major labor unions have been banned, and workers have reported both factory management and junta authorities suppressing dissent more aggressively.
The International Labor Organization’s Commision of Inquiry for Myanmar late last year found “far-reaching restrictions on the exercise of basic civil liberties and trade union rights.”
Many women victims of sexual exploitation, abuse and violence see no choice but to suffer in silence.
“They pretend nothing happened at work because they don’t want to lose their jobs, even if they’re feeling stressed or traumatized,” the labor activist said.
“The companies should take that kind of problem seriously and respond. The brands and companies have full responsibility for that.”
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kiana Duncan for RFA.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was seeking a “strong reaction” from countries who have acknowledged that North Korea is becoming more involved in Russia’s war against his country.
South Korea’s spy agency said last Friday that North Korea had dispatched 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training.
NATO and the United States said they could not confirm the report, while North Korea had remained silent at time of publication.
Speaking in his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelenskyy said there was ample satellite and video evidence that North Korea was sending not only equipment to Russia, but also soldiers to be prepared for deployment.
“I am grateful to those leaders and representatives of states who do not close their eyes and speak frankly about this cooperation for the sake of a larger war. We expect a normal, honest, strong reaction from our partners on this,” he said.
“If the world remains silent now and we have to engage soldiers from North Korea on the front line in the same way we have to defend ourselves from [Iranian] Shahed drones, this will certainly benefit no one in the world and only prolong the war,” Zelenskyy added.
“Unfortunately, instability and threats can significantly increase after North Korea becomes trained for modern warfare.”
Zelenskyy’s remarks came after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service released detailed satellite images it said showed a first deployment, saying it estimated the North could send about 12,000 soldiers.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service says North Korean personnel were gathered within Russia’s Ussuriysk military facility, pictured on Oct. 16, 2024. (Airbus Defense and Space via South Korea’s National Intelligence Service/AFP)
South Korea’s presidential office said North Korea’s troop movement to Russia was being closely tracked in coordination with its allies, and the South would continue to monitor the situation and take all necessary measures proactively.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday he could not confirm reports that North Korea had sent troops to Russia ahead of a possible deployment, but added that it would be concerning, if true.
NATO chief Mark Rutte said Friday the alliance could not confirm the South Korean intelligence agency’s report but it was in “close contact” with its partners.
The foreign ministers of France and Ukraine said on Saturday that the involvement of North Korean regular troops to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be a serious escalation of the war.
In South Korea, the ruling People Power party warned of the possibility of North Korea using the advanced military technology Russia is expected to provide in return for the deployment to provoke South Korea.
“The party will actively support our government’s policies and put the safety of our people first,” it said on Monday.
North Korea and Russia have moved noticeably closer over the past year or more amid widespread suspicion that North Korea has supplied conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
A day before South Korea’s announcement, Zelenskyy cited Ukrainian intelligence reports saying that North Korean personnel had already been deployed in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, with an additional 10,000 troops being prepared to join the fight.
He suggested that Russia was relying on North Korean forces to compensate for its substantial troop losses, as many young Russians seek to avoid conscription. The Ukraine government estimated that, as of Sunday, Russian casualties were almost 680,000 since the start of the war.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun told lawmakers in early October that North Korea was likely planning to send troops to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Oct. 10, however, dismissed that as “fake news.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly submitted a bill to the lower house of parliament on Monday to ratify a treaty to raise its relationship with North Korea to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which was agreed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 19 in Pyongyang after summit talks during the Russian president’s state visit.
The new partnership includes a mutual defense assistance clause that would apply in the case of “aggression” against one of the signatories.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.
A Tibetan from Sichuan province has made a rare public appeal on Chinese social media, calling on authorities to take action against a company that he accuses of illegally extracting sand and gravel from a local riverbed, Tibetan sources with knowledge of the situation said.
In a 5-minute video posted on WeChat on Oct. 15, Tsongon Tsering from Tsaruma village in Kyungchu county said Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering Co.’s digging has caused severe soil erosion and a drop in water levels in the Tsaruma River.
Such public appeals are rare due to fear of reprisals from the government for speaking out against authorities or state-approved projects.
Authorities have since shut down his account and blocked search terms related to his name on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform, said two sources from inside Tibet, who like others in this report, declined to be identified out of fear of retribution.
Tsering’s case illustrates how authorities silence Tibetans who accuse Chinese companies of violating environmental regulations or harming the environment.
In the video, Tsering says Tibetan residents had made repeated appeals before local authorities for action against the company for causing environmental harm, but to no avail.
Tsongon Tsering, a Tibetan man from Tsaruma village in Kyungchu county in China’s Sichuan province, calls for authorities to take action against illegal sand and gravel mining taking place since May 2023 on the Tsaruma River. (Image from citizen video via WeChat)
“The Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering’s business office has been illegally extracting sand and stones from the river in Tsaru Ma Village during their road construction work,” he says in the video while holding up his ID card.
“The large-scale and indiscriminate extraction of sand from the river has led to serious soil erosion in the surrounding area and is posing a threat to the foundations of residents’ homes,” he continues.
Tsering’s video, which gained significant attention online, was also widely shared by other users on the platform but even those were taken down and all related content censored by Thursday, Oct. 17, the two sources said.
Sources from the region said they fear Tsering, who hails from Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, will face punishment for his public criticism of authorities.
Four other sources inside Tibet confirmed Tsering’s statement that the sand extraction from the local river has caused environmental harm and that locals had reported the issue to various government departments at the village and county levels.
They also provided photos and videos as evidence of the damage, but no action had been taken, said the sources.
Tsering’s video, which had around 10,000 views in a day’s time, received more than 500 comments from netizens, the majority of whom expressed support for his appeal and called for environmental protection and for the Chinese state media and authorities to address the issue.
Tsering also tagged official Chinese media outlets in his post to draw their attention.
Affects the Yellow and Yangtze
In the video, Tsering explained that the Tsaruma River, where the extraction is taking place, is linked to the Yangtze and Yellow River systems, two of China’s most important.
“The pollution of these river sources and the protection of local ecosystems and biodiversity are deeply interconnected issues,” he said. “Moreover, this directly affects the water resources of Asia and the conditions of the high-altitude frozen soil.”
A sand mining operation is seen along the Tsaruma River in Kyungchu county in Sichuan province, China, in this image posted Oct. 15, 2024, by Tibetan resident Tsongon Tsering. (Image from citizen video via WeChat)
On Oct. 17, a source told RFA that following Tsering’s online appeal, the Kyungchu County Development and Reform Office had promised a thorough investigation into the matter.
An official from the Ngaba Prefecture Ecological Protection Office said his office was aware of the issue and investigating it in collaboration with the Sichuan Provincial Ecological Environment Monitoring Office, Chinese state media reported.
The agencies would release their findings soon, he said.
“Although environmental protection policies were introduced many years ago, implementation issues persist in our area,” said Tsering in the video.
Brushing it under the rug
In it, he confirms that the county’s Ecological Environment Bureau responded to his complaint in April 2024, confirming that the construction company had extracted sand and stones from the river and that it had been fined.
But Tsering said the response merely covers up for the relevant business enterprise and tried to brush the problem under the rug.
“They have addressed minor issues while avoiding the major ones, and have not taken any action to restore the ecological environment or manage the soil erosion situation,” he said. “They have simply erected barriers around the endangered house foundations and considered the matter resolved.”
Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering, registered in China in June 2012, is involved in various construction projects including road construction, urban development, hydropower projects and environmental protection works.
RFA Tibetan could not reach the company for comment.
Additional reporting by Dorjee Tso and Tashi Wangchuk for RFA Tibetan. Translated and edited by Tenzin Pema and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Dolkar and Choegyi for RFA Tibetan.
A Tibetan from Sichuan province has made a rare public appeal on Chinese social media, calling on authorities to take action against a company that he accuses of illegally extracting sand and gravel from a local riverbed, Tibetan sources with knowledge of the situation said.
In a 5-minute video posted on WeChat on Oct. 15, Tsongon Tsering from Tsaruma village in Kyungchu county said Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering Co.’s digging has caused severe soil erosion and a drop in water levels in the Tsaruma River.
Such public appeals are rare due to fear of reprisals from the government for speaking out against authorities or state-approved projects.
Authorities have since shut down his account and blocked search terms related to his name on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform, said two sources from inside Tibet, who like others in this report, declined to be identified out of fear of retribution.
Tsering’s case illustrates how authorities silence Tibetans who accuse Chinese companies of violating environmental regulations or harming the environment.
In the video, Tsering says Tibetan residents had made repeated appeals before local authorities for action against the company for causing environmental harm, but to no avail.
Tsongon Tsering, a Tibetan man from Tsaruma village in Kyungchu county in China’s Sichuan province, calls for authorities to take action against illegal sand and gravel mining taking place since May 2023 on the Tsaruma River. (Image from citizen video via WeChat)
“The Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering’s business office has been illegally extracting sand and stones from the river in Tsaru Ma Village during their road construction work,” he says in the video while holding up his ID card.
“The large-scale and indiscriminate extraction of sand from the river has led to serious soil erosion in the surrounding area and is posing a threat to the foundations of residents’ homes,” he continues.
Tsering’s video, which gained significant attention online, was also widely shared by other users on the platform but even those were taken down and all related content censored by Thursday, Oct. 17, the two sources said.
Sources from the region said they fear Tsering, who hails from Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, will face punishment for his public criticism of authorities.
Four other sources inside Tibet confirmed Tsering’s statement that the sand extraction from the local river has caused environmental harm and that locals had reported the issue to various government departments at the village and county levels.
They also provided photos and videos as evidence of the damage, but no action had been taken, said the sources.
Tsering’s video, which had around 10,000 views in a day’s time, received more than 500 comments from netizens, the majority of whom expressed support for his appeal and called for environmental protection and for the Chinese state media and authorities to address the issue.
Tsering also tagged official Chinese media outlets in his post to draw their attention.
Affects the Yellow and Yangtze
In the video, Tsering explained that the Tsaruma River, where the extraction is taking place, is linked to the Yangtze and Yellow River systems, two of China’s most important.
“The pollution of these river sources and the protection of local ecosystems and biodiversity are deeply interconnected issues,” he said. “Moreover, this directly affects the water resources of Asia and the conditions of the high-altitude frozen soil.”
A sand mining operation is seen along the Tsaruma River in Kyungchu county in Sichuan province, China, in this image posted Oct. 15, 2024, by Tibetan resident Tsongon Tsering. (Image from citizen video via WeChat)
On Oct. 17, a source told RFA that following Tsering’s online appeal, the Kyungchu County Development and Reform Office had promised a thorough investigation into the matter.
An official from the Ngaba Prefecture Ecological Protection Office said his office was aware of the issue and investigating it in collaboration with the Sichuan Provincial Ecological Environment Monitoring Office, Chinese state media reported.
The agencies would release their findings soon, he said.
“Although environmental protection policies were introduced many years ago, implementation issues persist in our area,” said Tsering in the video.
Brushing it under the rug
In it, he confirms that the county’s Ecological Environment Bureau responded to his complaint in April 2024, confirming that the construction company had extracted sand and stones from the river and that it had been fined.
But Tsering said the response merely covers up for the relevant business enterprise and tried to brush the problem under the rug.
“They have addressed minor issues while avoiding the major ones, and have not taken any action to restore the ecological environment or manage the soil erosion situation,” he said. “They have simply erected barriers around the endangered house foundations and considered the matter resolved.”
Anhui Xianhe Construction Engineering, registered in China in June 2012, is involved in various construction projects including road construction, urban development, hydropower projects and environmental protection works.
RFA Tibetan could not reach the company for comment.
Additional reporting by Dorjee Tso and Tashi Wangchuk for RFA Tibetan. Translated and edited by Tenzin Pema and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Dolkar and Choegyi for RFA Tibetan.
When Xi Jinping took his place as leader of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in 2012, some commentators expected he would be a weak president beset by factional strife in the wake of the jailing of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and cryptic official references to rumors of a coup in Beijing.
“I left China for Ecuador and Colombia, then walked north through the rain forest,” one migrant — an author whose writings were banned under Xi — told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “I left on Aug. 8 and entered the United States on Oct. 21.”
“I was limping from my second day in the rainforest, and I was robbed by bandits,” the person said. “I could have died.”
A migrant from China, exhausted from the heat, rests on the shoulder of a fellow migrant from Nicaragua after walking into the U.S. at Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on June 5, 2024. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP)
Another recent migrant — a writer — said they left because everything they wrote had been banned.
“My articles were banned from newspapers and magazines, my name was not allowed to be mentioned, and I couldn’t take part in public events,” they said. “I realized if I stayed in China, my life would just be a huge disaster, so I fled in a hurry.”
Xu Maoan, a former financial manager in a private company, said he used to make a good professional salary of 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) a month, but lost his job due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
He never succeeded in finding another, despite sending out hundreds of resumes, and recently joined many others making the trek through the rainforest to the U.S. border.
“I didn’t find out about the white paper movement until I got to the United States,” Xu told RFA Mandarin. “All news of it was blocked in China.”
Reversing course?
But it wasn’t just the pandemic; Xu and many like him were growing increasingly concerned that Xi was reversing the investor-friendly policies of late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, with his confrontational attitude to Western trading partners and hair-trigger sensitivity to “national security,” an elastic term used to describe any activity that could threaten or undermine the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative.
“I have personally experienced how the government drove away foreign investors and cracked down on the private sector, in the name of national security,” Xu said. “The government is in financial difficulty, so if they don’t like you, they raid you.”
Chinese police conduct work during a raid of the Shanghai office of international consultancy Capvison in an undated photo. (Screenshot from CCTV via AP)
“[Xi] quarreled with Europe and the United States, frightening foreign investors, who withdrew to Vietnam and India,” he said. “His values are the opposite [of Deng Xiaoping’s].”
“The domestic economy has collapsed, but they just won’t admit it,” he said. “I was afraid we would be going back to the days of famine and forced labor of the Mao era, so I left in a hurry.”
Xi’s abolition of presidential term limits in 2018 and the creation of what some fear is a Mao-style cult of personality around him is also driving concerns.
“Xi has deified himself as the ‘core’ leader with his own personality cult, but he lacks Mao’s charisma,” Ma Chun-wei, assistant politics professor at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “He requires everyone to study Xi Jinping Thought throughout the party and the whole education system.”
Yet Xi is one of the most ridiculed leaders in recent Chinese history, according to exiled author Murong Xuecun.
“He has had the most nicknames of any general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the past 70 years,” Murong told RFA in a recent interview. “Some people calculate that he has more than 200 nicknames.”
Pro-democracy activists tear a placard of Winnie the Pooh that represents President Xi Jinping during a protest in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP)
“The key to all of this is the political system,” Murong said. “Xi rose to lead the Communist Party and have power over appointments, the military, the party, the police and national security agencies through a series of opaque and intergenerational processes.”
“He commands everything, yet his power isn’t subject to any kind of supervision or restriction,” he said. “He can purge or replace anyone he doesn’t like.”
Lying flat
Murong likened China under Xi’s rule to “a runaway train rushing towards a cliff with him as the driver.”
“China has now entered the garbage times, when everything it does is doomed to failure,” he said. “The shadow of Xi will always haunt China.”
A souvenir featuring portraits of former Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, top left, Deng Xiaoping, top right, Jiang Zemin, bottom left, Hu Jintao, bottom right, and current President Xi Jinping is seen for sale on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Oct. 25, 2016. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
“Those who can leave will leave, and those who can’t will lie flat,” Murong said.
Internationally, Xi has encouraged a far more expansionist and aggressive foreign policy than his predecessors, with island-building and military operations in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, and a barrage of nationalist rhetoric around Beijing’s claim on democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
A Hong Kong-born researcher at the London-based think tank China Strategic Risk Institute who gave only the nickname Athena for fear of reprisals said Xi has strongly rejected international values like freedom, democracy and the rule of law, and cares little about international criticism of China’s human rights record.
Instead, China has taken the fight to international organizations, and was recently accused of “gaming” its human rights review at the United Nations.
People attend a job fair in Huai’an, in China’s Jiangsu province, June 2, 2024. (AFP)
Xi’s administration was also instrumental in turning Hong Kong from a thriving financial hub and politically engaged city with freedoms of speech, association and publication intact to a city where the majority of people are being forced to toe the government line or risk imprisonment.
In recent years, international concerns are growing that Xi may be preparing for a military invasion of Taiwan, which he has vowed to “unify” with the rest of China.
Yet he may have more of an internal battle on his hands than he bargained for, according to former Lt. Col. Yao Cheng of the Naval Aviation Force.
“He has been messing with the military for more than 10 years, ever since he came to power,” Yao told RFA Mandarin. “Between 2012 and 2015, he arrested hundreds of generals, yet his attempts to reform the military between 2015 and 2017 were a failure.”
A Chinese Coast Guard vessel fires a water cannon at the Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4 on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024. (Adrian Portugal/Reuters)
Part of the problem is that Xi has never been a soldier, despite wearing the uniform of a Commander in Chief, he said.
“Now Xi is commander-in-chief of the Joint Operations Command at the Central Military Commission, managing an army of several million people,” Yao said. “Yet he procured military equipment in a haphazard manner, spending money recklessly and winding up with a pile of scrap copper and iron.”
Meanwhile Xi has backed up Beijing’s claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea with newly built islands and military bases, as Chinese Coast Guard vessels regularly harass China’s neighbors, as well as ordering repeated rounds of military drills around Taiwan.
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force recently launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads into the Pacific Ocean.
Yet Yao believes that Xi ultimately lacks the support of most of China’s generals.
“He took down the leaders of the Rocket Force, and wants to attack Taiwan now, but the military won’t do this; they will wait and see,” he said. “They may be engaging in busywork for now, but they won’t do what Xi Jinping wants.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Luisetta Mudie and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA Mandarin.
Myanmar’s civil war is driving up housing demand in Yangon, causing rents to skyrocket as people displaced by conflict in remote border regions seek out the relative safety of the country’s largest city, according to real estate agents and residents.
Myanmar’s military orchestrated a coup d’etat in February 2021, touching off widespread rebellion by ethnic armies and armed opposition groups. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire, and the United Nations’ refugee agency estimates that some 3.1 million people have been displaced by fighting.
That’s caused Yangon’s population to swell from around 5.6 million to as many as 10 million people, leading to a shortage of housing and causing rents to nearly double since early 2023, a real estate agent in Yangon told RFA Burmese.
“Now we estimate that Yangon’s total population has become 15-18% of the whole country [of around 56 million],” said the agent who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“People can’t find a place to rent, and many are living in overcrowded apartments,” he said. “Some apartments have been turned into dormitories to accommodate up to 30 people.”
Real estate agents estimate that at present, there are just over 300,000 apartments in central Yangon.
Another real estate agent said that the cost of rent “has been gradually rising since 2023,” from around 300,000 kyats (US$145) to 500,000 kyats (US$240) per month for a studio apartment.
“Those who can’t pay move to the outskirts of the city,” he said. “The apartments in some areas downtown aren’t worth the increased rent.”
A woman who fled fighting in Rakhine state’s Thandwe township to Yangon in April said her rent had increased from 300,000 kyats to 350,000 kyats (US$165) per month since then, while her younger sister now pays 500,000 kyats per month, up from 300,000 kyats in early 2023.
Aside from Yangon and Ayeyarwady regions, five of Myanmar’s regions and seven of its states see regular armed conflict, prompting many residents to seek the relative stability of the country’s commercial hub.
Mass relocation
A resident of Yangon, who also declined to be named, told RFA that real estate agents are increasingly raising rents as the city becomes overcrowded.
“As a result of the influx of people displaced by civil war, flooding, and other crises, apartment rental prices are rising,” she said. “Real estate agents are taking advantage of the situation, demanding higher prices and capitalizing on the desperate circumstances of those displaced persons.”
A neighborhood in Lanmadaw township, Yangon, on October 9, 2024. (RFA)
As rents go up, the sale prices of property are also rising. In Yangon’s Dagon Myothit township, before the military coup, the price of a 10-foot (3-meter) wide home was just over 10 million kyats (US$4,765). Just over three years later, the same home now sells for 50 million kyats (US$23,820), real estate agents told RFA.
The price of apartments in Yangon’s Sanchaung and Kamayut townships has risen to 100 million kyats (US$47,645) from 60 million kyats (US$28,585) a year earlier, they said, while rents in these areas have doubled to 600,000 kyats (US$285) from 300,000 kyats over the same period.
Social Affairs Minister Htay Aung, the junta’s spokesperson for Yangon region, said on Oct. 8 that plans are underway to expand housing projects in the city due to the increasing number of displaced persons.
“This is part of the trend of migration between rural and urban areas,” he said. “As Yangon city develops, we have plans to extend the [boundaries of the] city.”
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
Myanmar’s civil war is driving up housing demand in Yangon, causing rents to skyrocket as people displaced by conflict in remote border regions seek out the relative safety of the country’s largest city, according to real estate agents and residents.
Myanmar’s military orchestrated a coup d’etat in February 2021, touching off widespread rebellion by ethnic armies and armed opposition groups. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire, and the United Nations’ refugee agency estimates that some 3.1 million people have been displaced by fighting.
That’s caused Yangon’s population to swell from around 5.6 million to as many as 10 million people, leading to a shortage of housing and causing rents to nearly double since early 2023, a real estate agent in Yangon told RFA Burmese.
“Now we estimate that Yangon’s total population has become 15-18% of the whole country [of around 56 million],” said the agent who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“People can’t find a place to rent, and many are living in overcrowded apartments,” he said. “Some apartments have been turned into dormitories to accommodate up to 30 people.”
Real estate agents estimate that at present, there are just over 300,000 apartments in central Yangon.
Another real estate agent said that the cost of rent “has been gradually rising since 2023,” from around 300,000 kyats (US$145) to 500,000 kyats (US$240) per month for a studio apartment.
“Those who can’t pay move to the outskirts of the city,” he said. “The apartments in some areas downtown aren’t worth the increased rent.”
A woman who fled fighting in Rakhine state’s Thandwe township to Yangon in April said her rent had increased from 300,000 kyats to 350,000 kyats (US$165) per month since then, while her younger sister now pays 500,000 kyats per month, up from 300,000 kyats in early 2023.
Aside from Yangon and Ayeyarwady regions, five of Myanmar’s regions and seven of its states see regular armed conflict, prompting many residents to seek the relative stability of the country’s commercial hub.
Mass relocation
A resident of Yangon, who also declined to be named, told RFA that real estate agents are increasingly raising rents as the city becomes overcrowded.
“As a result of the influx of people displaced by civil war, flooding, and other crises, apartment rental prices are rising,” she said. “Real estate agents are taking advantage of the situation, demanding higher prices and capitalizing on the desperate circumstances of those displaced persons.”
A neighborhood in Lanmadaw township, Yangon, on October 9, 2024. (RFA)
As rents go up, the sale prices of property are also rising. In Yangon’s Dagon Myothit township, before the military coup, the price of a 10-foot (3-meter) wide home was just over 10 million kyats (US$4,765). Just over three years later, the same home now sells for 50 million kyats (US$23,820), real estate agents told RFA.
The price of apartments in Yangon’s Sanchaung and Kamayut townships has risen to 100 million kyats (US$47,645) from 60 million kyats (US$28,585) a year earlier, they said, while rents in these areas have doubled to 600,000 kyats (US$285) from 300,000 kyats over the same period.
Social Affairs Minister Htay Aung, the junta’s spokesperson for Yangon region, said on Oct. 8 that plans are underway to expand housing projects in the city due to the increasing number of displaced persons.
“This is part of the trend of migration between rural and urban areas,” he said. “As Yangon city develops, we have plans to extend the [boundaries of the] city.”
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
Heavy fighting is underway in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state between junta troops and ethnic rebels in the vicinity of the military’s western command center, trapping civilians in the crossfire, residents said Friday.
The Arakan Army, or AA, battling for self-determination for the mostly Buddhist Rakhine people, has taken territory across Rakhine state and controls 10 of the state’s 17 townships, and one in neighboring Chin state since the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat.
It would be the first rebel group to take over a state if it seizes all territory in military control there, as it has vowed to do.
Clashes have intensified since the AA launched an offensive on Sept. 26 against military positions in Rakhine’s Ann township, capturing the military’s Taw Heing Taung and Me Taung strategic hills. The junta has since sent reinforcements to the area.
The fighting is now located around five kilometers (three miles) from the junta’s Western Regional Military Command, according to residents who spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity, due to security concerns.
“The AA has been firing heavy weapons both day and night at the western command, Light Infantry Battalion No. 373, and the artillery battalion in Ann township,” said one resident, adding that the military has responded with multiple airstrikes. “The fighting is escalating in downtown Ann now.”
A resident of Ann said that inhabitants of the town have tried to escape the fighting, “but the junta won’t let them.”
“People are living in constant fear, uncertain of what might happen next,” the resident said. “There is a severe shortage of food, medicine, and medical care, as hospitals and clinics are struggling to provide services.”
According to the resident, the price of medicine at local markets is now “far beyond the reach of ordinary citizens,” while transportation has become extremely difficult as “gasoline prices have soared to more than 30,000 kyats (US$14) per liter.”
Travel prohibited
Another resident of Ann, who also declined to be named, said junta forces ended departures on Wednesday, when they stopped 15 vehicles carrying more than 100 people attempting to flee to nearby Pa Dan and Min Bu townships.
“It remains unclear where the passengers have been taken,” he said.
Weapons and ammunition seized by Arakan Army forces on Mae Taung hill in Ann township are seen Oct. 7, 2024. (AA Info Desk)
Attempts by RFA to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha went unanswered Friday, as did efforts to reach the junta’s Rakhine state spokesperson Hla Thein.
Fighting between the AA and junta forces in Rakhine state began around a year ago, when the AA ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the military coup.
Residents of Rakhine state say that the junta has been conducting more aerial attacks on civilian areas in townships which were lost to the AA, as well as areas of intense fighting.
Data compiled by RFA found that junta airstrikes killed 93 civilians and wounded 66 others in Rakhine’s Thandwe, Maungdaw, Pauktaw, Myaebon and Toungup townships in September alone.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
A prominent overseas opposition activist defected to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party on Friday, two months after his brother was arrested on incitement charges while trying to flee the country.
Hay Vanna, who lives in Japan, apologized to Senate President Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet for his role in organizing protests among overseas Cambodian workers in August in Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia.
The demonstrations “caused chaos” and were “provoked by extremists,” such as exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy, Hay Vanna said in the two-minute video posted on Facebook.
“I declare that I am parting from Sam Rainsy,” he said. “I want to use my knowledge that I have to serve the country and I ask Samdech [Hun Sen] to forgive me so I can join the CPP.”
Also on Friday, Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Yi Sokvouch signed a warrant ordering the release of Hay Vanna’s brother – Hay Vannith, who is a health ministry civil servant – from Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison, pending his upcoming trial.
As of early Saturday in Phnom Penh, Hay Vannith was still detained.
Cambodian civil servant Hay Vannith. (Citizen photo)
Hay Vanna’s apology video was similar to a number of high-profile announcements made by opposition party activists and government critics who switched their allegiances in the months ahead of the July 2023 general election.
The August protests were directed at the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Triangle Development Area, or CLV, an economic cooperation deal aimed at encouraging trade between the three countries that was forged in 1999.
The CLV became a topic of online discussion in July when three activists, in an 11-minute video posted on Facebook, voiced concerns that it could cause Cambodia to lose territory and natural resources to Vietnam.
Hun Sen ordered the arrests of the three activists and later warned of more arrests. He also threatened Hay Vanna’s family in an angry speech that was shown on state-run television.
“This person by the name of Hay Vanna, who lives in Japan, commented on the so-called ceasing of the four Cambodian provinces to others,” Hun Sen said.
“But you shouldn’t be confused – you have family members here in Cambodia,” he said. “And they who are living here, must not be arrogant. After hearing his message … you must stop, or else.”
Hay Vannith and other relatives worried about their safety for weeks after Hun Sen’s threat. But at first, Hay Vannith believed he would be overlooked by authorities because of his lack of involvement in politics, a longtime friend, Chiva Sum, told Radio Free Asia last month.
On Aug. 16, he was arrested in northwestern Cambodia at the busy Poipet border crossing with Thailand. Five days later, a recorded confession was posted on the government spokesperson’s Facebook page.
In the audio clip, Hay Vannith said that his brother instructed him “to carry out a plan to mobilize the people with an intent to overthrow the government and absolutely oppose the CLV through the means of sharing on Facebook and Telegram.”
However, the allegations were made “falsified in a political manner,” Chiva Sum told RFA.
‘Warmly welcomed’
Yi Sokvouch, the judge who ordered Hay Vannith’s release on Friday, said he will remain under court supervision. He must respond to all inquiries made by the judge and appear before an investigative judge twice a month, he said.
Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister one month after the 2023 election in favor of his son, Hun Manet. But he retains power as president of the CPP and sometimes serves as acting head of state in his role as Senate president.
“The president of the CPP, Hun Sen, has warmly welcomed Hay Vanna’s apology and his request to join the CPP,” a statement posted on Hun Sen’s Facebook page said.
The statement included a reposting of Hay Vanna’s video and a plea from Hun Sen to other party members to forgive Hay Vanna.
RFA wasn’t able to reach CPP spokesman Sok Eysan for comment on Friday.
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.
New York, October 18, 2024—More than 1,500 emails threatening a bomb attack were sent on October 14 to Ukrainian media outlets, government agencies, schools, business centers, and hotels, as well as dozens of Ukrainian embassies abroad. The sender blamed three journalists with U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) — Iryna Sysak, Valeria Yehoshyna, and freelancer Yulia Khymeryk — for prompting them to plan the alleged attack.
“CPJ denounces the intimidation of journalists Iryna Sysak, Valeria Yehoshyna, and Yulia Khymeryk, and calls on Ukrainian authorities to ensure timely investigations into the bomb threats recently sent across Ukraine,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Ukrainian authorities must ensure the safety of the journalists and hold the perpetrators to account. Journalists must be able to work safely without fear of retaliation.”
The threats followed an October 8 investigation by the three journalists published by Schemes, an investigative journalism TV program within RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service, about Russian secret services recruiting Ukrainians to set fire to Ukrainian military vehicles.
After evacuating several buildings after the bomb threats and investigating, Ukraine’s national police stated on October 15 that they opened criminal proceedings for “knowingly false reports of threat to the safety of citizens.”
Ukrainian media outlets that received bomb threats include:
“We will not be intimidated and stand behind our reporters who will continue to bring news to Ukrainian audiences without fear or favor,” President Stephen Capus said in a post on his RFE/RL website.
According to RFE/RL, the unnamed group that claimed responsibility for the bomb threat messages also called for the burning of Ukrainian military vehicles on social media.
New York, October 18, 2024—More than 1,500 emails threatening a bomb attack were sent on October 14 to Ukrainian media outlets, government agencies, schools, business centers, and hotels, as well as dozens of Ukrainian embassies abroad. The sender blamed three journalists with U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) — Iryna Sysak, Valeria Yehoshyna, and freelancer Yulia Khymeryk — for prompting them to plan the alleged attack.
“CPJ denounces the intimidation of journalists Iryna Sysak, Valeria Yehoshyna, and Yulia Khymeryk, and calls on Ukrainian authorities to ensure timely investigations into the bomb threats recently sent across Ukraine,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Ukrainian authorities must ensure the safety of the journalists and hold the perpetrators to account. Journalists must be able to work safely without fear of retaliation.”
The threats followed an October 8 investigation by the three journalists published by Schemes, an investigative journalism TV program within RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service, about Russian secret services recruiting Ukrainians to set fire to Ukrainian military vehicles.
After evacuating several buildings after the bomb threats and investigating, Ukraine’s national police stated on October 15 that they opened criminal proceedings for “knowingly false reports of threat to the safety of citizens.”
Ukrainian media outlets that received bomb threats include:
“We will not be intimidated and stand behind our reporters who will continue to bring news to Ukrainian audiences without fear or favor,” President Stephen Capus said in a post on his RFE/RL website.
According to RFE/RL, the unnamed group that claimed responsibility for the bomb threat messages also called for the burning of Ukrainian military vehicles on social media.
Myanmar’s junta has forcibly recruited migrant workers sent home by Thailand for illegal entry and overstaying their visas in as many as five separate incidents in recent weeks, according to deportees, some of whom said they were released after paying hefty “ransoms” to the military.
Desperate to shore up its dwindling ranks amid mounting losses to rebel groups and mass surrenders, the junta enacted a conscription law that came into effect in April, three years after the military seized power in a coup d’etat.
Under the law, men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 must serve a minimum of two years in the military. Young people have been fleeing the country in droves since its implementation, many of whom have traveled to neighboring Thailand where they landed in prison on immigration charges.
Earlier this month, Thailand’s Department of Employment announced that Thai authorities had detained nearly 200,000 Myanmar nationals during a 120-day nationwide crackdown on migrant workers who lack proper identification or documentation.
While it was unclear how many Myanmar migrant workers were deported during the crackdown, the junta announced that Thai authorities had repatriated about 1,000 workers in August and another 400 in September.
The junta announced in early October that 405 Myanmar migrant workers who had been arrested for various reasons and released in Thailand were returned home in September.
A recent investigation by RFA Burmese found that Myanmar migrant workers who had served prison terms in Thailand’s Ranong province on immigration charges were forcibly recruited by the military after being returned home via Myanmar’s southernmost port of Kawthoung in Tanintharyi region in recent weeks.
‘Ransom money’
Deportees and civil society workers indicated that there have been up to five such incidents, and that some of the workers were released by the military after paying large fees.
A family member of a 30-year-old man told RFA that he was arrested for military service shortly after Thailand deported him to Kawthoung.
“We had to seek help for his release, and had to pay about 70,000 baht (US$2,100) to junta officials,” said the family member who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “Actually, we have no money, and had to borrow this money.”
In one such forced recruitment on Sept. 26, authorities from Ranong province delivered 127 Myanmar migrant workers to the junta at Kawthoung, according to Thar Kyaw, the chairman of the Meikta Thahaya Self Administrated Funeral Welfare Association in Ranong city.
“Junta officials asked whether they would prefer to go to jail for illegal border crossing or serve in the military for two years,” he said, adding that the deportees were taken to the No. 262 Infantry Battalion base in Kawthoung.
Recruits for Myanmar military training in the Mandalay region are seen on July 30, 2024. (@pyithusitt via Telegram)
Some of the deportees were released after paying “ransom money,” he said, while those who could not pay were sent for military training.
Lost contact
Family members told RFA they have been unable to contact their recruited loved ones and are worried about their safety.
One person said a young man from their family crossed the border into Thailand to “go shopping” and was arrested because he “had no valid documents.”
“He served two months in prison and then was deported from Thailand to Myanmar,” the family member said. “He was taken to No. 262 Infantry Battalion in Kawthoung because no one paid for his release … We know nothing about his status.”
Junta officials also abducted 23 of 150 deportees and 48 of more than 120 others released from Ranong Prison on July 30 and Aug. 7, respectively, RFA learned.
Human rights activists called on the international community to take action against the junta for its actions.
“From a legal aspect, such abductions for forced military service are completely unacceptable,” said one activist who also declined to be named. “This is against international law and the international community, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [of which Myanmar is a member], should level immediate and effective sanctions against the junta.”
Attempts by RFA to contact the chairman’s office of the Central Body for Summoning People’s Military Servants for comment on the reports of forced recruitment went unanswered Thursday.
On Sept. 23, the anti-junta National Unity Consultative Council urged the Thai government to stop deporting undocumented Myanmar migrant workers, calling it akin to “forcing them to serve in the military.”
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
South Korea’s spy agency said Friday that North Korea had decided to send “large-scale” troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia’s Far East undergoing training.
The National Intelligence Service, or NIS, released detailed satellite images it said showed a first deployment, saying it estimated the North could send around 12,000 soldiers in total.
The North was spotted transporting its special forces troops to Russian territory on a Russian naval transport ship between Oct. 8 and 13, according to the NIS.
North Korea and Russia have moved noticeably closer over the past year or more amid widespread suspicion that North Korea has supplied conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
If confirmed, the move would be a rare foray by the long-isolated and nuclear-armed North into a foreign conflict.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service says this image shows North Korean personnel gathered within the training ground of Russia’s Khabarovsk military facility on Oct. 16, 2024. (Airbus Defense and Space via South Korea’s National Intelligence Service/AFP)
About 1,500 North Korean soldiers were transported during the first phase, using four amphibious landing ships and three escort vessels owned by Russia, the NIS said.
These troops were moved from areas near the North Korean cities of Chongjin, Hamhung and Musudan to Russia’s Vladivostok, said the NIS, adding that a second phase of transport is expected to occur soon.
They have been stationed across various locations in the Far East, including Vladivostok, Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk and have been issued Russian military uniforms and weapons, according to the agency.
12,000 troops expected
The NIS said that they are expected to be sent to the front lines once they complete their “adaptation training,” adding that it expects a total of 12,000 troops, including those from the country’s most elite military units, could be deployed.
South Korea’s presidential office said Seoul has been closely tracking North Korea’s troop movement to Russia from the beginning in coordination with its allies, and will continue to monitor the situation and take all necessary measures proactively.
NATO chief Mark Rutte said Friday the alliance could not yet confirm South Korean intelligence’s report, but it is in “close contact” with its partners.
“At this moment, our official position is that we cannot confirm reports that North Koreans are actively now as soldiers engaged in the war effort,” Rutte told reporters following a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
“But this, of course, might change,” he said.
Rutte added NATO was “in close contact” with its partners, particularly South Korea, which was taking part in this week’s talks as part of the so-called Indo-Pacific Four, along with Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
“We will certainly have that conversation with them to get all the evidence on the table,” said Rutte.
Separately, EU spokesperson Peter Stano said in a statement: “Continued military support from the DPRK to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine will be met with an appropriate response.” The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cited Ukrainian intelligence reports saying that North Korean personnel had already been deployed in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, with an additional 10,000 troops being prepared to join the fight.
Zelenskyy suggested that Russia is relying on North Korean forces to compensate for its substantial troop losses, as many young Russians seek to avoid conscription.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun told lawmakers in early October that North Korea was likely planning to send troops to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Oct. 10, however, dismissed the claim as “fake news.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly submitted the bill to the lower house of parliament on Monday to ratify the treaty with North Korea on a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which was sealed in June.
The treaty was signed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 19 in Pyongyang after their summit talks during the Russian President’s state visit.
The new partnership includes a mutual defense assistance clause that would apply in the case of “aggression” against one of the signatories.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.
Villagers and rare earth miners are trapped on the Myanmar-China border following a battle between allied rebel forces and junta troops, residents told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
The Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, is one of dozens of ethnic armed groups fighting the junta for territory and autonomy. Since the 2021 coup, it has seized 220 bases and 11 towns across Kachin and Shan states.
Fighting has centered on the region’s lucrative rare earth and gem mining sites, as well as major trade routes leading to Kachin state’s capital, Myitkyina, and further north to China.
The KIA seized control of nearly all of Shan state’s Chipwi township in early October but continue to try to take control of the remaining junta camps and border posts in the area.
While Chinese officials have previously allowed those displaced by fighting to enter the country and later be repatriated, 1,000 residents and workers trapped by fighting on Thursday were met with closed borders near Chipwi’s Pang War town, said one resident, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons.
“The Chinese haven’t opened the gate from yesterday until early today. Along the border, everyone is sleeping in tents and it’s very crowded,” he said, adding that KIA forces had captured Chanyinku village, nine kilometers (five miles) from Pang War. “Now, they’ve nearly arrived in Pang War. The junta is also shooting with heavy weapons.”
Residents began fleeing when fighting broke out near a stream in Chanyinku, he said. They can’t escape along the Chipwi-Myitkyina Highway or other vehicle routes due to heavy fighting, leaving them stuck at the Chinese border.
Ethnic armed groups and Myanmar’s junta have asked for China’s help, but the neighboring giant has declined to take sides, instead brokering short-lived ceasefires and peace talks. Conflict on the border and throughout the country has encroached on Chinese investment, trade, territory and infrastructure, causing Chinese border officials in Ruili to warn armed groups in northern Myanmar to stop fighting or it would “teach them a lesson.”
In a video posted on social media on Thursday a woman said Chinese authorities allowed their own nationals to enter the country, but Myanmar nationals were not allowed near the border gate. Another video showed Chinese authorities had blocked the border crossing with barriers tied together with rope to prevent Myanmar citizens from entering.
Myanmar refugees and Chinese rare earth workers try to enter China at the China-Myanmar border gate in Pang War on Oct. 18, 2024. (Kachin New Group)
The Chinese embassy in Yangon did not respond to emails from RFA requesting more information about the border closure.
Some Pang War residents are sheltering in nearby forests and a church, residents said as fighting continued Friday about a kilometer from the town.
KIA forces have been trying to capture junta border guard posts in the area, said Information Officer Naw Bu.
“I’ve heard that from Pang War to Chanyinku village, KIA forces are doing a ground clearance operation,” he said. “But we don’t know some of the battle details.”
KIA and allied forces turned their attention on Pang War after capturing a border guard post 16 kilometers (10 miles) away on Tuesday, residents said.
They are also trying to seize a border guard post in Waingmaw township’s Kan Paik Ti town, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Pang War, they added.
RFA attempted to contact Kachin state’s junta spokesperson Moe Min Thein for more information on the offensive, but he did not respond.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
The International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank are poring over a highly-critical audit of a multimillion dollar COVID-19 aid package in Solomon Islands, partly supported by the two institutions, that found widespread mismanagement and potential corruption.
The report from the Solomon Islands Auditor General Office highlighted a litany of problems surrounding delivery of the SBD$309 million (US$37 million) emergency funding for businesses and households between 2020-21.
Though the audit notes the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic and the “heightened the inherent risk for expediting procurements,” it paints a damning picture of missing documentation, conflicts of interest, procedural breaches and possible fraud.
“We are currently going over the report and will be discussing it with the authorities,” an International Monetary Fund, or IMF, spokesperson told RFA affiliate BenarNews.
“The need for reforms to improve fiscal governance and public financial management in Solomon Islands has been underscored by the IMF, and we will continue to encourage and support the country in advancing these reforms.”
The audit’s findings are likely to reinforce public concern about thriving corruption in Solomon Islands. The country scored 43 out of 100 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index last year, with 0 indicating “highly corrupt” and 100 “very clean.”
The economic stimulus package, endorsed in May 2020 by the cabinet of former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, was funded by the Asian Development Bank, or ADB, the government and other development partners.
At the same time, the IMF approved US$28.5 million in emergency financing to help the country address urgent balance of payments needs. Honiara agreed to publish an audit of all COVID-19 related spending as part of the deal.
The ADB, which handed out US$20 million to the government’s COVID-19 response plan and the stimulus package, said it was aware of the audit and ready to investigate any alleged complaints of wrongdoing it received.
“The ADB’s Office of Anticorruption and Integrity takes all complaints of alleged integrity violations in ADB supported projects seriously,” it said in a statement.
Since its release earlier this month, the auditor’s report has made waves in Solomon Islands, a Pacific nation of about 700,000 people that lies some 1,750 kilometers (1,087 miles) off Australia’s east coast, between Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Political pressure is growing on police to open an investigation into the findings, but Commissioner Mostyn Mangau has said he was waiting for a referral from the auditor general.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele said the report would be tabled in parliament and debated, but it had not yet been discussed in cabinet.
“There are processes there to be followed,” he told reporters in Honiara.
He added the audit “comes under the prerogative of the Minister of Finance,” who was out of the country.
Sogavare took up the post of finance minister after serving as prime minister between 2019 and 2024.
Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele speaks at a press conference in Canberra on June 26, 2024. (AFP)
The economic stimulus package was managed by a small, overstretched team in the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The arrangement resulted in “many control weaknesses and control breakdowns,” Auditor General David Teika Dennis said in his report.
The audit report found, for example, that senior officials personally signed for many payments for beneficiaries but provided no evidence they had handed the payment on to the designated person.
“This was a significant breakdown of internal control – allowing government officers to sign for payments for beneficiaries who may not even be aware they are due to receive payment or how much they are to receive was a major fraud risk,” the audit report said.
“We identified one government officer who had personally signed for 251 Imprest Account cheques worth approximately SBD$6.8 million. The officer was also involved in encouraging and preparing applications for individuals.”
Funds were also paid to members of parliament to spend in their constituencies, but there was very little documentation to show how the money was used, the report said.
Overall, less than 10% of successful grant applications for aid could be provided to auditors, who also faced obstruction and delays while trying to do their work.
Charley Piringi contributed to this report from Honiara.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Harry Pearl for BenarNews.
The International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank are poring over a highly-critical audit of a multimillion dollar COVID-19 aid package in Solomon Islands, partly supported by the two institutions, that found widespread mismanagement and potential corruption.
The report from the Solomon Islands Auditor General Office highlighted a litany of problems surrounding delivery of the SBD$309 million (US$37 million) emergency funding for businesses and households between 2020-21.
Though the audit notes the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic and the “heightened the inherent risk for expediting procurements,” it paints a damning picture of missing documentation, conflicts of interest, procedural breaches and possible fraud.
“We are currently going over the report and will be discussing it with the authorities,” an International Monetary Fund, or IMF, spokesperson told RFA affiliate BenarNews.
“The need for reforms to improve fiscal governance and public financial management in Solomon Islands has been underscored by the IMF, and we will continue to encourage and support the country in advancing these reforms.”
The audit’s findings are likely to reinforce public concern about thriving corruption in Solomon Islands. The country scored 43 out of 100 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index last year, with 0 indicating “highly corrupt” and 100 “very clean.”
The economic stimulus package, endorsed in May 2020 by the cabinet of former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, was funded by the Asian Development Bank, or ADB, the government and other development partners.
At the same time, the IMF approved US$28.5 million in emergency financing to help the country address urgent balance of payments needs. Honiara agreed to publish an audit of all COVID-19 related spending as part of the deal.
The ADB, which handed out US$20 million to the government’s COVID-19 response plan and the stimulus package, said it was aware of the audit and ready to investigate any alleged complaints of wrongdoing it received.
“The ADB’s Office of Anticorruption and Integrity takes all complaints of alleged integrity violations in ADB supported projects seriously,” it said in a statement.
Since its release earlier this month, the auditor’s report has made waves in Solomon Islands, a Pacific nation of about 700,000 people that lies some 1,750 kilometers (1,087 miles) off Australia’s east coast, between Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Political pressure is growing on police to open an investigation into the findings, but Commissioner Mostyn Mangau has said he was waiting for a referral from the auditor general.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele said the report would be tabled in parliament and debated, but it had not yet been discussed in cabinet.
“There are processes there to be followed,” he told reporters in Honiara.
He added the audit “comes under the prerogative of the Minister of Finance,” who was out of the country.
Sogavare took up the post of finance minister after serving as prime minister between 2019 and 2024.
Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele speaks at a press conference in Canberra on June 26, 2024. (AFP)
The economic stimulus package was managed by a small, overstretched team in the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The arrangement resulted in “many control weaknesses and control breakdowns,” Auditor General David Teika Dennis said in his report.
The audit report found, for example, that senior officials personally signed for many payments for beneficiaries but provided no evidence they had handed the payment on to the designated person.
“This was a significant breakdown of internal control – allowing government officers to sign for payments for beneficiaries who may not even be aware they are due to receive payment or how much they are to receive was a major fraud risk,” the audit report said.
“We identified one government officer who had personally signed for 251 Imprest Account cheques worth approximately SBD$6.8 million. The officer was also involved in encouraging and preparing applications for individuals.”
Funds were also paid to members of parliament to spend in their constituencies, but there was very little documentation to show how the money was used, the report said.
Overall, less than 10% of successful grant applications for aid could be provided to auditors, who also faced obstruction and delays while trying to do their work.
Charley Piringi contributed to this report from Honiara.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Harry Pearl for BenarNews.
China is developing one of the contested Paracel Islands into a major intelligence base in the northern part of the South China Sea, new satellite images analyzed by a British think tank revealed.
A new report by Chatham House found that Beijing has been building a massive new radar system on Triton – the westernmost and southernmost island in the Paracel archipelago, less than 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Vietnam’s coast.
Vietnam and Taiwan also claim sovereignty over the Paracels but China controls the entire island chain after seizing it from the South Vietnam government in 1974. Beijing’s deployment of a drilling platform near Triton island in May 2014 led to a serious standoff with Hanoi and triggered an unprecedented wave of anti-China protests in Vietnam.
Triton Island, called Zhongjian Dao in Chinese, also serves as a base point that China uses to draw a straight baseline to claim its territorial waters around the Paracel Islands. A U.N. arbitration tribunal in 2016 rejected this claim and the United States challenges it with its freedom-of-navigation operations in the area.
(Google Maps)
The enhanced radar facility on Triton, according to Chatham House’s report, would “offer a challenge to China’s competitors in the region and internationally.”
Satellite images provided by U.S. firm Maxar Technologies and analyzed by the report authors show the “striking development” of an advanced radar system known as SIAR, or synthetic impulse and aperture radar, “which purportedly detects stealth aircraft.”
The SIAR is characterized by its distinctive octagonal shape, similar to the one that the Chinese military built in 2017 on Subi Reef in the Spratly islands.
Several other structures on Triton have been identified as a radar tower, currently under construction, and facilities to store and launch anti-ship missiles or portable radars.
Implications for Vietnam
The radar system on Triton is the latest in a network of at least three counter-stealth radars, including those on Subi and Hainan islands, and “would significantly increase China’s signals intercept and electronic warfare capabilities across the disputed Paracel Islands archipelago and add to a wider surveillance network spanning much of the South China Sea,” said the report.
Michael Dahm, a senior resident fellow at the U.S. Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, was quoted as saying that as SIAR radars cannot see over the curve of the Earth, the one on Triton – monitoring the area between those covered by the other two radars – will help close the surveillance gap between Subi Reef and Hainan Island and “give China contiguous counter-stealth radar coverage of the South China Sea.”
Vietnam would be the first at the receiving end with the report predicting that intelligence structures on Triton “would significantly diminish” the country’s capacity to operate undetected in the area.
“Alongside existing radar on Triton which can detect sea-going vessels, Beijing now has the potential to track Vietnamese air movements and gain forewarning of Hanoi’s maneuvers in the area, including efforts to access oil and gas deposits,” it said.
Construction of a radar tower on Triton Island, October, 2024. (Maxar Technologies/Chatham House)
Chatham House analyst Bill Hayton suggested that new developments on Triton “might be a warning that China is planning to mount another drilling expedition.”
Radio Free Asia tried to contact Vietnamese authorities for comment but has not yet received a reply.
Last August, international media reported on the construction of a 600-meter (656 yard) runway on Triton that, albeit too short for patrol aircraft, could host drones.
The assumed “runway” turned out to be a road but Hanoi at the time voiced concern, saying that, “all activities in the Paracel Islands conducted without Vietnamese permission are violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty.”
Vietnam has also accused China of attacking one of its fishing boats near the Paracels last month, injuring 10 fishermen. China denied the accusation, and said the Vietnamese men were fishing illegally in Chinese waters.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
