Day: November 8, 2021

The spread of coronavirus in a key Chinese city bordering North Korea put an abrupt halt to rail freight between the two countries only eight days after they lifted an almost two-year-long trade cut-off, sources in China told RFA.

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Jan. 2020, Beijing and Pyongyang sealed off the 880-mile Sino-Korean border and suspended trade to prevent the virus from crossing the border into North Korea.

The move killed off much of North Korea’s nascent market economy that relied on the purchase and sale of Chinese imports, and the lack of imported food, fertilizer and equipment led to skyrocketing food prices.

The resumption of rail freight on Nov. 1 had raised hopes that badly needed relief would be flowing across the border, but a new spike in COVID-19 cases in Dandong, across the Yalu River from North Korea’s Sinuiju has dashed those hopes.

“Since Friday, the coronavirus emergency quarantine has been bolstered in the Dandong area,” a resident of the city told RFA’s Korean Service on Sunday.

“Due to the outbreak, all public transportation networks were suspended and there is a red light up between customs offices in North Korea and China,” said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

City authorities told the residents of Dandong that traffic from outside the city would not be allowed in and advised them to stock up on enough food for a one-month lockdown, the source said.

“Additionally, the Dandong municipal government will restrict businesses like restaurants, massage parlors, internet cafes, mahjong and gaming parlors and public saunas under a strengthened emergency quarantine posture,” the source said.

“Restaurants will have limits on the number of guests they can serve and will have limited business hours, and the police are banning large gatherings and restricting movement of people,” said the source.

Residents who wish to ride buses must now present their ID and register with the authorities before being allowed to buy a bus ticket, the source said.

“Wouldn’t it be difficult for trade between China and North Korea to resume under these circumstances? When the virus first took hold in Wuhan, a city very far from the North Korean border, North Korea took that as a signal to lock down customs,” the source said.

“Now it’s in Dandong, right across the river. Would they reopen their border so easily this time?”

Authorities are also locking down other areas of Dandong’s surrounding Liaoning province, including Dalian, about 190 miles (300 km) to the west, a Chinese citizen of Korean descent told RFA.

“The city government and police have blocked off roads and railways and residents are banned from moving after there were new confirmed cases in Zhuanghe,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons. Zhuanghe is a smaller city administered by Dalian.

“Dalian and Dandong are three hours away by car, so residents often use the trains and highways to get around, but they’ve suspended bus and train travel and are making security checks on the highways,” the source said, adding that gatherings and certain businesses are also restricted in Dalian.

“In this situation, it is unlikely that Sino-North Korea trade will resume anytime soon.”

According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, Dandong had recorded 20 new cases on Sunday – up from 11 on Saturday.

Reported by Jieun Kim for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Laos is beginning to run out of gas, sources in the country say.

Filling stations began to post signs reading “No Gas” or “Temporarily Closed” around Nov. 1, and supplies have fallen since. Some motorists have decided to stay home, unwilling to risk driving their motorcycles or cars for fear of running out of fuel on the road.

“We’re in a situation now where it’s getting harder to find gas,” one motorist told RFA’s Lao Service on Nov. 2, speaking like other sources for this story on condition of anonymity.

“And we don’t want to buy gasoline in bottles or other containers from vendors on the street, because we don’t know if they’ve mixed it with water or other substances.”

“Gasoline is usually orange, but gasoline bought on the street looks clear, like water,” he said.

A car owner in the capital Vientiane said his neighborhood gas station hasn’t had gas since Nov. 1. He tried other stations nearby and finally found some fuel at the fifth he visited.

The Lao government should solve this crisis quickly, he said.

“Gasoline is not only getting scarcer but also more expensive. And a lot of people are suffering more because they’re getting paid less,” the source said. “For example, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m working only half time and am getting paid about 50 percent of my usual salary.”

“I’m staying home now because of the travel restrictions and the gas shortage,” he said.

A motorist in Vientiane’s Naxaythong district said all gas stations in his Elay Tai village were closed, and that anyone needing gas must now buy it on the street.

“These street vendors are very smart,” the source told RFA.

“Knowing that the shortages were coming, they bought a lot of gas and then hoarded it to sell in bottles or other containers for more money, purchasing it at $1.00 a liter and then selling it at $1.30. This problem must be solved!” he said.

Long lines of vehicles quickly form at pumps that do still have gasoline, residents of the capital said.

“A lot of people are going to the gas station at Don Tiao village with containers to buy gas, because they think that the gas shortage will get worse, and many other pumps in the area have already been closed because of the shortage,” he said.

A gas station owner in the Pakkading district of Borikhamxay province, near the capital, said he can’t get any gasoline either.

“I’m not hoarding gas. I’m just not getting any,” he said.

High exchange rates, fraud

High currency exchange rates and fraud are both to blame for the country’s shortage of gas, government officials and bank employees told RFA, asking for anonymity in order to speak freely.

The exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Lao currency, the kip, is so high that the Lao State Fuel Company can’t afford to increase supply to meet the demand, an employee of the company told RFA on Nov. 4.

“Our fuel company has less foreign currency, imports less gas, and distributes less gas to the pumps. That’s why we’re short of gas. However, the shortage is only temporary and will be solved soon,” he said.

A bank employee said that a low currency exchange rate fixed by the government at 9,100 kip to the dollar is driving business to the black market, where 11,000 kip per dollar can be exchanged.

“On trade, Laos’ revenue in foreign currency dropped by 60 percent this year,” he said.

Gasoline importers have defrauded the government at the same time, causing a loss of $200 million in revenue during the first nine months of the year, an official at the central government’s Ministry of Finance said.

“They evaded taxes and declared lower amounts of gasoline imported, or even the wrong kind brought in,” he said. “For example, a company might import 1,000,000 liters of gasoline, but declare only 800,000 liters to the tax authorities. Or they would say it is was diesel and not gas.”

On Nov. 5, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a notice raising the price of gasoline for the 17^th time in the last four months, with the cost of super-grade gas now jumping by $0.08 per liter, regular gas climbing by $0.02 per liter, and diesel climbing by $0.05 per liter.

“You can say that this shortage has now become a crisis,” an official at the Ministry of Industry and Trade said. “We have tried to lower the taxes on gas prices in order to keep prices low, but we can’t keep going like this because we don’t have the money.”

“So we have no choice but to raise the prices. If we don’t do this, we’ll have less and less gas,” he said.

Translated for RFA’s Lao Service by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.

A hospital in North Korea sent 10 people with COVID-19 symptoms to an unheated ward in freezing temperatures, and then falsified the causes of their deaths to maintain Pyongyang’s claim that the country is completely virus free, sources in the country told RFA.

The 10 patients were admitted to a section of the hospital that is normally used to treat tuberculosis, a resident of Chongjin in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, where the hospital is located, told RFA’s Korean Service.

“The hospital said they died from malnutrition, but these were people who complained of fever and were diagnosed with pneumonia caused by the flu,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“They were left in a part of the ward with no heating, despite the cold weather. They all died soon after,” the source said.

Since the start of the pandemic in January 2020, North Korea has taken extensive measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which causes COVID. The government locked down entire cities and counties, banned travel between provinces, and shutdown the Sino-Korean border, which included a suspension of trade with China. The trade ban was partially lifted earlier this month, only to be reinstated again after a new outbreak in the Chinese border city of Dandong.

Pyongyang declared these “preventative measures” successful in April 2020, when Pak Myong Su, the director of the anti-epidemic department of North Korea’s Central Emergency Anti-Epidemic Headquarters, gave a rare interview with foreign media to proclaim that “not a single person was infected” with the virus in the country.

Observers immediately doubted the claim, citing North Koreas’ crumbling medical infrastructure, the relative ease by which people could cross the Sino-Korean border, and the willingness of the regime to hide the truth.

Additionally, RFA reported in April 2020 that the government warned the public that COVID was spreading in three areas of the country, including the capital Pyongyang.

The following March, RFA reported that the North Korean government has been keeping track of “suspected cases” of coronavirus infections but never confirms anyone showing symptoms as having COVID. Sources said that when a person suspected of having the disease dies, the body is hastily cremated to prevent a posthumous confirmation.

Similar tactics were at play for the 10 “tuberculosis patients” in Chongjin, the resident told RFA.

“The hospital informed the patients’ families only and they immediately buried the bodies at a nearby hill without explaining the exact cause of death. The families are angry, saying they should at least be told what the symptoms were and get a clear answer on why they died.”

The government has continued to keep people in the dark about the truth of the coronavirus situation in the country, a resident of Mundok county, South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA.

“No one has died from the coronavirus in North Korea because the public will never know about it. Hospitals announce those deaths are due to tuberculosis [TB] or flu,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Authorities are leaving domestic coronavirus cases out of the news cycle and falsely claiming coronavirus deaths as TB cases, said the second source.

“If you look closely, tuberculosis doesn’t destroy the lungs like the coronavirus does. But most people don’t know that so when someone dies from coronavirus and they say it’s tuberculosis, who is going to know?” said the source.

“No one knows … other than the doctor who was in charge and the central government officials,” the source said, adding that in his neighborhood there were three recent deaths chalked up to TB. 

With the weather turning colder, flu cases are on the rise and death tolls are up as well, the source said.

“But most of them are filed as deaths from malnutrition or flu, not the coronavirus,” the source said.

An internal survey conducted by the Ministry of Health in March 2021 revealed some 13,000 “suspected cases” in North Hamgyong, the most in the entire country, a source told RFA in a previous report.

According to the survey’s results, officially reported only to the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, most of the suspected cases were in the cities, including the provincial capital Chongjin, North Korea’s third largest city and home to more than 600,000 people.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said that as of Sept. 21, only about 43,000 of North Korea’s population of 25 million were tested for COVID-19, and there was not a single confirmed case.

Of those tested between Sept. 15 and 21, 109 had a flu-like illness or severe acute respiratory infection, and 582 were health care workers.

Reported by Jieun Kim for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

The wife of veteran Myanmar political activist Ko Kimmy, who was detained last month, on Monday rejected the military junta’s accusation that he was plotting acts of terror after taking part in a spate of violent attacks in Yangon.  

Kyaw Min Yu, better known by his alias Ko Jimmy, had been a staunch opponent of the Feb. 1 coup that deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her democratically elected government.

He was arrested by the junta on Oct. 24, and his wife, Nila Thein, told RFA at the time that he was in critical condition after enduring torture at the hands of security forces.

Ko Kimmy was accused by the junta on Sunday of plotting terror acts and working with the shadow National Unity Government.

The military said in a statement he was arrested with weapons in the Panglong Housing Estate in the Yangon region.

Military-owned TV and newspapers showed Ko Jimmy kneeling behind six AK-47 assault rifles, 8 M-16 pistols, two 12-volt pistols, a local handgun, 18 rounds of ammunition and a machete, all said to be seized from him.

He was charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Unlawful Association Law and the Illegal Weapons law—a combination of charges that carry a maximum sentence of 30-45 years in prison.

The junta’s statement said Jimmy had taken part in attacks in three townships of Yangon and was arrested before carrying out attacks in five other townships in the metropolis, home to 7 million of Myanmar’s 54 million people.

“Now that he was seized along with weapons, we will continue to take action against him in accordance with the Anti-terrorism Law, the Illegal Weapons law and the Explosives Law,” said junta spokesman Maj Gen. Zaw Min Tun.

“We were able to make the arrest because of collaboration with the security forces by responsible people.”

Ko Jimmy’s wife Nila Thein said the military did not have a code of conduct for treating detainees and that the public was well aware of the torture and forced admissions of all who were in their hands.

“Not all statements by the military are true, as everyone knows. Our people have all experienced their evil, wicked and deceptive ways over the years,” Nila Thein told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

She also expressed grave concern for her husband, noting that many opponents of the coup had died during interrogations following their arrests.

Prior to his recent arrest, Ko Jimmy was imprisoned from 1988 to 2005 for his political activities and again from 2007 to 2012, spending 21 years in prison.

Ko Jimmy was a leader of the so-called 88-generation, a group of students who led the August 1988 uprising against the previous military regime that had run Myanmar, then known as Burma, since 1962, running the economy into the ground and creating a pariah state.

Their protests led to reforms that eventually ushered in a brief period of democratic rule from 2016 that ended with this year’s coup.

Kyaw Htwe, a member of the National League for Democracy Central Committee, the leadership of the ousted ruling party, said forcing Ko Jimmy to kneel in front of weapons was an insult to human dignity.

“Jimmy is a very strong man with strong beliefs. Even though he has been arrested, there will be many more Jimmies. There will be a lot of people like Jimmy who will continue to fight for the next generation of revolutionaries.”

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Paul Eckert. 

The wife of a Vietnamese journalist arrested for nominating himself for election to the country’s National Assembly has called for intervention in her husband’s case, appealing for help in letters sent to foreign embassies and international rights groups on Monday.

Do Le Na asked the international community in her letters to pressure Hanoi to release citizen journalist Le Trong Hung, who was arrested March 27 after declaring his candidacy for election in a challenge to political processes tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam.

Do Le Na told RFA that she hoped her appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission, UN Human Rights Council, and other groups would inspire the families of other political prisoners in Vietnam to take similar steps.

“I sent my letters out, firstly, because they have the duty to protect human rights, and secondly because I hoped to attract more attention to my family’s case,” Na said in an interview with RFA on Monday.

“I would also like people living in Vietnam—and especially the families of detainees who don’t dare to speak up—to know that it is everyone’s right to speak out against injustice, and that we shouldn’t be afraid of [the government] if we are in the right,” she said.

On Nov. 5, Hung’s lawyer and family were allowed access to the indictment filed against him by the Hanoi People’s Procuracy, Na said.

According to the document, Hung is being prosecuted under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code for “creating, storing, disseminating information, materials, items and publications against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”

Central to the case against Hung, Na said, are four videos posted to his Facebook page covering politically sensitive issues.

Topics discussed in the videos included the deadly Jan. 9, 2020 police crackdown during a land dispute in Dong Tam Commune, the role of the courts in Vietnam’s political system, and Hung’s own candidacy for election to the National Assembly.

Na challenged those who had declared Hung’s videos opposed the state or defamed national leaders to confront her husband and his lawyers in person at his trial.

“The openness, transparency, fairness, and strictness of the law can be guaranteed only if they do so,” Na said.

No date has been announced yet for Hung’s trial, but a conviction under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code could leave him facing a term of from five to 12 years in prison.

One of two self-nominated candidates for Vietnam’s National Assembly, Hung, 79, is a former teacher and founder of CHTV Television, which formerly livestreamed videos on hot-button social and political issues.

Hung’s arrest followed that of another would-be election candidate arrested for his online postings. Tran Quoc Khanh, 61, was sentenced to a six-and-a-half year prison term on Oct. 28—the latest conviction aimed at shutting down criticism online of the one-party communist state.

Vietnam is ranked 175^th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index for 2021.

Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. Arrests continue in 2021.

Translated for RFA’s Vietnamese Service by Anna Vu. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Hong Kong universities have begun filming classes, as ‘national security education’ is rolled out in several of the city’s higher education institutions, forcing young people to absorb government propaganda about an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and peaceful protest.

Reuters reported on Nov. 5 that at least one surveillance camera was visible in a lecture hall at Hong Kong Baptist University, citing two students who attended a compulsory “national security education” class similar to those being rolled out in all the city’s universities, while an unidentified person was taking photos.

Compulsory national security education is currently being rolled out at the Baptist University, the Polytechnic University (PolyU), Lingnan University, and the Education University. While it seeks to inform students exactly which sorts of behaviors could constitute a breach of the law, there is also a heavy emphasis on patriotism and bolstering a sense of Chinese identity among Hong Kong residents, according to course materials seen by Reuters.

Former PolyU social science lecturer Chung Kim-wah said he would usually warn students before photographs were taken of them, allowing those who don’t want to be photographed to remove themselves temporarily.

He said he had also read the course materials seen by Reuters.

“Basically, they’re just a mouthpiece for the government,” Chung said, adding that, according to his information, all PolyU classes and lectures must now be filmed in their entirety.

“As far as I know, every PolyU class, including the social science faculty, is being filmed now,” Chung said. “A former colleague of mine told me very directly that it is basically impossible to speak freely now, especially when teaching social sciences.”

“It has already had a deterrent effect on some [former] colleagues,” he said. “I asked them why nobody had spoken out about this, and they said everyone’s afraid.”

Fiona Cheung, vice president of foreign affairs of the PolyU Student Union, said video recording of classes started during the hybrid teaching system adopted due to the coronavirus pandemic, but that the cameras weren’t only used to record online classes.

“We have seen newly installed cameras,” Cheung told RFA. “Before, there was only a camera in front of the teacher’s computer, but now there’s also a camera in the middle of the seating area that films everyone present in the class.”

“So everything that happens in a class will be filmed, which is having a bad effect on students,” she said.

A request for comment from PolyU went unanswered at the time of writing on Monday.

Banned words, actions

“National security education” — which is being tailored to all age-groups from kindergarten to university — is mandated under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020, the government says.

The law bans words and deeds deemed subversive or secessionist, or any activities linked to overseas groups as “collusion with foreign powers,” as well as public criticism of the Hong Kong government or the CCP.

It  has ushered in an ongoing and citywide crackdown on all forms of public dissent and political opposition, with dozens of opposition activists charged with “subversion” for taking part in a democratic primary, and election rules changed to ensure only pro-CCP candidates can run.

The government is also pushing ahead with further legislation on espionage and other “covert” activities to continue a crackdown on what Beijing insists was an attempt by hostile foreign powers to foment a “color revolution” in Hong Kong during the 2019 protest movement.

Several civil society organizations, including the group that ran the now-banned Tiananmen massacre vigils, protest march organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, the Professional Teachers’ Union, and Wall-fare, a prison support group for those in custody because of the 2019 protest movement, have disbanded after being denounced by Hong Kong’s leaders or CCP-backed media.

‘Statutory obligation’

A spokeswoman for Hong Kong’s Education Bureau said it is a “statutory obligation” to promote national security education in universities, Reuters reported.

“The community would expect the universities to uphold good governance and accountability to the public, and their operations have to comply with the law and meet the interests of students and the community at large,” she said in comments emailed to the news agency.

Reuters said at least six liberal academics have been forced from their university jobs, while student unions have been disbanded and student leaders arrested.

Universities will be required to raise the Chinese national flag in daily ceremonies starting in January, according to a recent directive from the Education Bureau.

Meanwhile, China’s ministry of education is pushing ahead with plans to make it easier for Hong Kong students to enroll in universities in mainland China on the basis of their secondary school diploma, waiving the need to sit an entrance exam.

From 2022, 129 higher education institutions will accept direct applications from Hong Kong residents across 21 provinces and municipalities, the Hong Kong education bureau said in a Nov. 4 statement on its website.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.