Month: September 2021

The Lao government is pushing ahead with more hydroelectric dams despite uncertainty about Thailand’s willingness to purchase the electricity they generate, Lao officials and others with knowledge of the situation said.

Laos has 78 dams in operation and has signed memorandums of understanding for 246 other hydroelectric projects in its quest to become the “battery of Asia” that exports electricity to neighboring countries, primarily Thailand.

But Thailand has not yet decided whether to buy additional power generated by new dam projects from Laos and may not sign agreements to purchase electricity from four major planned Mekong River dams — the Luang Prabang, Sanakham, Pak Lay, and Pak Beng dams, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) told RFA in an Aug. 26 email.

“The decision to buy or not to buy power from Laos depends on the need of Thailand, the [industrial] production in Thailand and prices,” EGAT said.

The Thai National Energy Policy Commission under the Ministry of Energy confirmed that it has not signed any power purchase agreements (PPAs) from the four dam projects, said Chalermsri Prasertsri, an attorney from the Community Resources Center and a representative of the Thai Mekong People’s Network from Eight Provinces, comprised of people who live by the Mekong River.

“We’re opposed to the plan — more specifically the plan to purchase power from Pak Beng, Pak Lay, Luang Prabang and Sanakham dams in Laos,” she told RFA on Aug. 27.

The network previously has cited transboundary environmental impacts of such projects, including fluctuations in the water level of the Mekong, the disruption of seasonal fish migration, and a lack of sedimentation.

Additionally, EGAT said it would include a condition in the future PPAs that dam developers must be responsible for any environmental and social impacts in Thailand created by the dams, she said.

Witoon Permpongsacharoen, director of the Mekong Energy and Ecology Network, said that new PPAs were not necessary because Thailand’s energy reserves are so large that it must review all contracts.

But an official from the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told RFA that the Lao government had not received a formal notice from the Thai Energy Ministry indicating that officials were not going to sign PPAs from the four Lao dams.

“Now, Thailand is still our number-one market and a good customer,” he said.

“If Thailand doesn’t buy electricity from those four dams, we’ll sell it to China, Vietnam, and Cambodia,” said the official.

In early August, Lao government proposed to sell 1,200 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Thailand in addition to an existing 9,000 MW, he said.

“Right now, the two sides are in the process of negotiating,” he said.

Laos has the potential to produce up to 28,000 MW of power in 2030.

Luang Prabang Dam

Some observers are questioning the wisdom of Laos continuing its dam-building program in light of the environmental and social impacts of past projects as well as the frequency of flood disasters, some of which have killed people.

Earlier this year, Xaysomphone Phomvihanh, president of the Lao National Front for Construction, said the Luang Prabang Dam project, scheduled for completion in 2027, is one of the most important government development projects, the Lao Economic Daily reported in March.

But he urged the dam developer Ch. Karchang Public Company Ltd., to be mindful of the project’s impact on environment and local people. The Thai construction company also built the Xayaburi Dam, Laos’ first mainstream Mekong hydropower project that came under fire for its social and environmental effects.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has called for the Luang Prabang Dam project to be suspended until a heritage impact assessment (HIA) can be completed, Monthira Unakul, a culture and arts expert at UNESCO’s Thailand office, told RFA on Tuesday.

The well-preserved ancient capital of Luang Prabang in the northern Laos’ province of the same name, known for its many Buddhist temples and monasteries, is situated in a valley at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers.

The 7th-century city, which has been a major center of tourism — a sector which brought in U.S. $900 million a year before the 2020 pandemic shutdown — was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995.

“The World Heritage Committee made the decision in July this year that the construction of the Luang Prabang Dam should be suspended until the HIA has been done,” Monthira Unakul said.

The committee wants a study on the impact of the dam on the World Heritage Site to be completed and reported to it by Feb. 1, 2022, she said.

Monthira Unakul said she was aware that construction on the dam had not yet begun, although access roads to the site and other project infrastructure have already been built.

Raweewan Bhuridej, secretary of the Thai National Committee for the Protection of the World Heritage Sites, told RFA on Tuesday that Laos had received U.S. $70,000 from the World Heritage Fund and the Chinese government to conduct the HIA.

Laos “has to look at all impacts and risk factors on which the design will be based on,” she said. “Then, the report of the study should be sent to the World Heritage Center for further consideration.”

The Lao government is gathering data on the potential impact of the Luang Prabang Dam on the World Heritage Site, said an official at the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, who declined to be named in order to speak freely.

“Yes, we’re discussing the process with the World Heritage Center, and we’re filing a report with our government,” he said. “The relevant departments are doing the HIA, which might be complete this week.”

Residents of Luang Prabang City said they are concerned about the project, is only 12 miles (20 km) from the city of 55,000 people.

“We’re worried that when the dam releases water, it might flood our homes or part of the city,” said one local.

Another resident said, “From what we have seen, the water would flood our vegetable gardens along the Mekong River bank.”

Complains of low compensation

The Sanakham Dam, slated for completion in 2028, will be the seventh Mekong River dam inside Laos after the Xayaburi, Don Sahong, Pak Beng, Pak Lay, Luang Prabang, and Phougnoi dams.

Other hydropower projects are underway to provide electricity to neighboring Vietnam.

The Chareun Sekong Power Company in cooperation with Vietnam’s Song Da-5 Company is building the Nam Emoon Dam and a high-voltage power line from the dam in Sekong province to the Lao-Vietnamese border, a Chareun employee told RFA on Sept. 2

Construction on the U.S. $235 million dam began in early 2019 and is slated for completion this year. The dam’s 131 MW of electricity will be sold to Vietnam, the employee said.

Another Vietnamese company, Song Da-6, is building the Sekong A Dam in Sanamxay district of Attapeu province in southern Laos due for completion in 2023.

Up to 160 families will lose a total 20 hectares of farmland in five villages in Sanamxay district, though 80 percent of the compensation has been paid, said an official from the Energy and Mines Department of Sekong Province. The district was the site of the deadly Xe Pian Xe Namnoi Dam collapse in July 2018.

A landowner who lost about one hectare of rice fields to the project told RFA that the developer paid his family compensation of 3 million kip (U.S. $300) per hectare, about a fifth of the market price.

“With that money, we can’t buy any land anywhere in this area,” he said.

A villager who lives near the Sekong River in Sanamxay district said that developers have not yet decided whether to relocate the families there, even though the project will flood about 3,342 hectares of land.

These families will have to wait until the dam is finished before the developer can determine whether their homes and farmland will be flooded, said a Sanamxay district official. If they do flood, then they will be moved to another location.

In the meantime, builders are clearing land on higher ground for them because their farmland is now covered with dirt and they cannot grow anything.

Song Da-6 Company is investing U.S. $49 million to build the 86-MW Sekong A Dam, on which construction began early this year and is planned to wrap up in 2023. The project’s electricity will be sold to Electricite du Laos, the Lao state power company.

Reported and translated by RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Credit Suisse has said it will shut down a Swiss bank account belonging to dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s foundation, citing his “criminal record” in China, although he has never been convicted of a crime, according to Ai.

In a Sept. 7 post to Artnet, Ai said he had received a “surprising notice” from Credit Suisse, informing him that it was terminating the account of his Fart Foundation, which he set up to support free speech.

“They did this, they wrote, in accordance with a new policy of closing all accounts with people who have had criminal records,” Ai wrote, in a post translated by China scholar Perry Link.

“They believed (or pretended to believe?) that I had been convicted of a crime in China,” he said. “Just a bit of homework could have shown them that I was never formally charged, let alone convicted of a crime.”

“When the Beijing regime detained me and smeared my name, it was only applying its normal techniques of persecuting political opponents,” Ai said.

Ai told RFA in an interview on Wednesday that the bank had cited “new rules” leading to the decision.

“This is, of course, absurd,” he said. “I said that if they had done the most basic investigation, they would have seen that I was never formally arrested nor prosecuted.”

Ai was detained incommunicado for about three months in 2011 but not charged, although the Chinese authorities later hit his company with a U.S.$2.4 million tax bill.

He ran afoul of authorities for outspoken commentary on government scandals, including shoddy school construction and corruption that contributed to the deaths of thousands of students in a massive earthquake in Sichuan Province in 2008.

Appeasing the Party

He told RFA that he believes the move was instead driven by a desire to appease the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in the hope of boosting its market share in China.

“The relationship between an individual and those in power is the same the world over; it’s just a matter of degree,” he said. “[It depends how] shameless people are prepared to be; some are more prepared to be shameless than others.”

Ai said he had also been warned by another Swiss bank, UBS, that it would shut down his account after he gave an interview to a Swiss media organization in which he criticized the country’s anti-immigration policies.

Ai said he has no wish to continue to use UBS’ services, whether or not the bank withdraws its original decision.

U.K.-based author Ma Jian said Western banks shouldn’t support the CCP, nor do its bidding.

“It’s possible that the Chinese government told Credit Suisse to do this to Ai Weiwei as a way of controlling him,” Ma said.

“The whole Western financial system is basically unethical when it comes to making money in China, and there is collusion between politics and business for their own benefit,” he said.

“Globalization has brought a lot of opportunities to the CCP, and where economic activity goes, politics will soon follow,” Ma said.

Looking to expand

In his article, Ai said Credit Suisse was likely looking to expand in China, hoping to triple their number of employees in the country within the next five years.

“In China and elsewhere, political connections are the fuel of the economic colonialism that occupies the core of today’s surging globalization,” Ai said.

“In China’s state capitalism, high officials enjoy unchecked power and wield it in an environment totally empty of democratic supervision.”

He said no foreign country can do business in China without the backing of the country’s political and financial elite, known as the “princelings.”

He said the further danger is that Western cultural institutions want to attract Chinese money.

“This marks the final triumph of cultural globalization,” Ai wrote.

“We think of war as invasive and bloody, but cultural invasion and war, fought with invisible gunpowder and producing odorless gore, is in fact just as cruel and unscrupulous.”

Last year Reuters reported that global wealth managers, including Credit Suisse, were examining whether their clients in Hong Kong had ties to the city’s pro-democracy movement, in an attempt to avoid getting caught in the crosshairs of China’s draconian national security law.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Police in Hong Kong on Wednesday arrested key members of a group that once organized an annual candlelight vigil for the victims of the June 4, 1989 massacre in Beijing, the group said.

Chow Hang-tung, vice chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was taken away from her home in handcuffs wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Truth” emblazoned it in the early morning after posting to social media that the police were at her door.

“Someone has been ringing on our doorbell and trying to hack through our door security code for the past five or 10 minutes,” Chow wrote.

Chow, a barrister by profession, said she regretted she would be unable to appear at the High Court on Wednesday to argue that former Stand News journalist and activist Gwyneth Ho, who is awaiting trial under the national security law, should be released on bail.

“I fear Gwyneth may not be released after the bail hearing this morning,” Chow wrote. “My message to the people of Hong Kong: keep fighting and don’t give in to power wielded unreasonably.”

At least three other key members of the group — Leung Kam-wai, Chan To-wai, and Tang Ngok-kwan — were also taken away, the Alliance said.

Police later confirmed that they had arrested three men and one woman, aged between 36 and 57, on suspicion of failing to comply with an information request under Article 43 of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

They said further arrests could still be made.

The arrests came after the Alliance refused to cooperate with a request by national security police to hand over detailed information on its finances, membership, and activities dating back years.

Chow had argued that the group wasn’t bound to comply with the Aug. 25 order to hand over confidential documents by Sept. 7, because it isn’t an agent of a foreign government under Article 43 of the national security law.

The police have said they will take action against any group failing to comply with such orders.

Prepared for arrest

Her fiance Ye Du, who lives in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, said he had made mental preparation for Chow’s arrest.

“They moved so fast to take her in that I’m not sure she was even prepared for it herself,” Ye told RFA. “I spoke with her around midnight last night … and she said she would be in the High Court to represent Gwyneth Ho.”

“As for me, I have been mentally prepared for this for a long time,” Ye said. “As a member of the democratic movement myself, this is entirely to be expected.”

“We have become used to the idea that people we know disappear, be it in mainland China or Hong Kong,” he said. “We are accustomed to living in darkness.”

Ye said it was unlikely that Chow would be granted bail once charged under the national security law, and it was unclear when he would hear from her again.

Under the law, failure to submit information under the law by the specified deadline is punishable with fines of up to 100,000 yuan and imprisonment for up to six months.

Request for review

On Tuesday, Alliance committee member Tsui Hon-kwong said he would apply for a judicial review over the police’s demand, saying the Alliance wasn’t a foreign agent.

“Our name is the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, so we are obviously patriotic,” Tsui said.

“There are three criteria for foreign agents: they must receive overseas funding and instructions from a foreign country, and they must act in the interests of a foreign country.”

“Everything [we do] is for the benefit of China,” he said.

Security secretary and former police chief Chris Tang said on Tuesday that some people were receiving financial support from political organizations overseas to carry out activities that are in foreign interests.

He also hinted that even activists already in jail could be targeted by the national security police, as they were allegedly getting treats brought in by visitors.

“Many people may wonder what the problem is with having one more hair clip, one more piece of chocolate,” Tang said. “These signify privilege within prison walls.” 

“By smuggling these things inside… [to] recruit followers and build influence, [they] create hatred towards the government and endanger national security,” he said.

Ho, who was among 47 former lawmakers and pro-democracy activists arrested for “subversion” under the national security law after they took part in a democratic primary, was returned to prison on Wednesday.

Ho had made media access a precondition of going ahead with the hearing.

But national security judge Esther Toh ruled that the media wouldn’t be permitted to cover the proceedings. 

“Bail is of course important, but it is meaningless to have a process that is unfair and not open to the public,” Ho said in comments reported by Stand News.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

State-run mainstream media in China appeared to have ignored the 45th anniversary of the death of late supreme leader Mao Zedong this week, although leftist websites ran tributes to the “Great Helmsman.”

The Red Song Network posted an article listing rousing tributes to Mao, as well as reports of “spontaneous” events marking his death, on its front page.

“On Sept. 2, 2021, residents of Xiangyang community … in Heihe city, Heilongjiang held a an event to mark the 45th anniversary of Chairman Mao’s death,” the article said.

The party was titled “Watching Red Movies and Recalling the Years of Prosperity,” and moved many participants to tears, the article said.

“They thought of Chairman Mao’s great achievements, thought that without Chairman Mao, there would be no [ruling Chinese] Communist Party [CCP], and we wouldn’t have the happy lives we have today,” it said.

Meanwhile, residents of Shexian county in northern Hebei province “spontaneously gathered to express their infinite love for Chairman Mao” on Sept. 3, the article said.

“Today, there are thousands of hearts facing Beijing and [Mao’s birthplace] Shaoshan; there are also thousands of smiling faces turned towards the red sun and the great savior of the people,” it said.

‘Longing for the Mao era’

It also quoted poems and tributes to Mao made by the website’s readers, ending with the words:

“Chairman Mao, we will always follow you!”

Hunan current affairs commentator Guo Min said crowds of visitors make the pilgrimage annually to Mao’s birthplace in Shaoshan around this time of year.

“The fact that they are doing this sends a message, I think,” Guo said. “A lot of things that are happening right now are similar to the past.”

“Our leaders in particular seem to feel some kind of longing for the Mao era.”

Writer Tan Zuoren said that while many people in China still revere Mao, Maoism in today‘s China also forms the political basis for some very concrete demands.

“People who truly worship and mourn Chairman Mao are often those with the least education, the lowest incomes and the lowest social status,” Tan said.

“These people are often far away from the centers of power, wealth and even culture,” he said. “They are the marginalized part of the population.”

Workers and farmers

He said the stronger China appears to become, the more leftist, Maoist tendencies are emerging, with far more such groups now visible than during the 1980s and 1990s.
 
“Back then hundreds of millions of people who once loved Mao started to hate and condemn him,” Tan said. “It seemed that all of their misfortunes were his fault.”

“But then, economic development came, and workers were laid off in huge numbers and farmers started losing their land, and their material interests were harmed,” he said. “People had no way to stand up for their rights, and so they naturally started to miss the good old days.”

He said workers and farmers had better social standing during the political violence and social turmoil of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

“At least during the Cultural Revolution, workers, laborers and farmers had some kind of nominal social status,” Tan said. “Nobody dared to bully them.”

A petitioner from Wuhan surnamed Gao said many petitioners — ordinary Chinese who try to use existing complaints channels to fight for their rights in the face of official harassment and abuse — weren’t simply engaging in idealistic, blind worship when they revered Mao, however.

“After many years of petitioning, I have managed to learn a little bit of the truth, but it’s hard,” Gao said. “Internet controls are so tight now, so it’s very difficult to do.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.