Day: November 10, 2021

A second missile target shaped like an U.S. aircraft carrier has been spotted in desert in northwest China not far from the first, according to analysis of satellite imagery by the U.S. Naval Institute.

Images from Maxar Technologies published at the weekend showed structures that looked like a full-scale aircraft carrier and at least two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at a suspected target range in the Taklamakan desert in China’s Xinjiang region.

USNI News, the Naval Institute’s news portal, now reports a second site that “consists of a single aircraft carrier target” about 300 miles from the first site but also in the Xinjiang region.

USNI News says the new target shares the same characteristics as the first but is only half the size of a real U.S. Nimitz-class carrier.

Analysts say the mock-ups are likely used as training targets for Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) and to send a message of deterrence to the U.S. and its ally Taiwan.

“It’s very clear that the Chinese are developing ASBMs – in effect giving them a new way of attacking U.S. Navy and allied naval capabilities at long range,” said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst on defense strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

“Unlike traditional anti-ship missile systems, which are cruise missiles, ASBMs will use a ballistic trajectory and attack from above on a target below,” Davis said.

According to the analyst, “the mock ups are designed to test the sensors on the missile for terminal guidance – (that is) to adjust the missile’s trajectory to lock in on a carrier, given the carrier is a moving target, once the missile is descending over its target.”

“At the broader level, this is part of China building up military capabilities to counter U.S. military intervention in a future Taiwan contingency that could emerge if China decides to use military force to annex Taiwan,” Davis said.

Taiwan’s defense minister Chiu Kuo-cheng admitted on Oct. 6 that cross-strait tensions were “at their worst in 40 years.”

China regards the self-governing, democratic island as a breakaway province and vows to bring it under Beijing’s control, by force if necessary. Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state.

‘Focuses on readiness’

The U.S. Defense Department wouldn’t be drawn on the recent revelations.

When asked about the Chinese mock-up targets and the apparent missile training program, a spokesman said the Pentagon is, instead, “focused on its own preparation and readiness.”

“What we’re concerned about … is the increasing intimidation and coercive behavior of the Chinese military in the Indo-Pacific, and also the coercive tactics they’re using, even using economic tools around the world to bend other nations to their will or to their view of what’s in their best interest,” the department Press Secretary John Kirby told a news briefing Tuesday.

“We’re focused on developing the capabilities, the operational concepts, making sure we have the resources and the right strategy in place so that we can deal with the PRC as the No. 1 pacing challenge” Kirby said, using a term that refers to a competitor — the People’s Republic of China – posing the principal challenge to U.S. defence strategy.

China has been developing several anti-ship ballistic missile programs. The latest Department of Defence’s annual report on China’s military suggests that in July 2019, the Chinese military “conducted its first-ever confirmed live-fire launch into the South China Sea, firing six DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles into the waters north of the Spratly Islands.”

At the same time, the People’s Liberation Army is seeking to develop a longer range land-based ASBM, the DF-26, as well as anti-ship missiles that can be fired from aircraft and warships, the report said.

A former activist now serving jail time in China for fleeing Hong Kong by speedboat after the 2019 protest movement is currently undergoing “labor and educational reform” in prison, according to his family.

Tang Kai-yin, who is serving a three-year jail term for “organizing others to cross a border illegally” at Conghua Prison in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, recently told his family in a letter home that he has been assigned to “labor reform” and “reform through education,” according to a Facebook post from his brother.

The letter, which wished his family good health and asked about forthcoming game releases and TV shows, also suggested Tang had been working hard to please his captors, and had emerged with a grade of not less than 60 percent from his recent assessments, entitling him to a call with a family member once a month, the post said.

But former inmates in Chinese prisons told RFA that the upbeat tone of the letter likely belied the suffering Tang was going through.

Beijing-based Guo Li, who served five years in a Guangdong prison before his conviction was overturned, said he had spent a good deal of his time in manacles, chained to the wall.

Guo said he had also undergone “reform through education,” and had to sit monthly tests during his time in jail.

“This is a mandatory requirement laid down by the ministry of justice [in Beijing],” he said. “It’s mostly about current affairs in China, directives issued by the central government, and various events happening in Beijing.”

“I had to watch the national news show for half an hour at 7.00 p.m. every night.”

Housing rights activist Ni Yulan, who has served a three-year jail term linked to her activism, said she also had to study speeches made by Chinese leaders and comment on them.

“It’s good if you have to read newspapers, because at least you have something to read,” Ni said. “When you watch TV, you have to comment according to their standards.”

“You also have to learn certain laws and regulations by rote,” she said.

A rights lawyer and former prison inmate who gave only the surname Gao said prisons also typically blare out “revolutionary” songs and conduct patriotic education classes.

“They play red songs every day, songs praising the [ruling Chinese Communist] Party (CCP) in prison,” he said. “I also had to watch the CCTV news programs at the same time every day.”

Guo said Tang is undergoing a process known as “criminal assessment,” under which inmates can earn privileges, or even an early release.

“If you get the top scores with no accidents or violations in any month, you can win rewards and praise,” he said. “After a few commendations and top scores, you go to a more regular level of inspection, which is every three or six months, and if you do well at that, inspections are annual only.”

“If you accumulate [commendations and high scores], you can get a reduction in your sentence,” he said.

A history of abuses

In May 2021, the family of fellow speedboat detainee Andy Li said he is being secretly held in a psychiatric hospital following his return to Hong Kong, a newspaper in the city reported.

Andy Li, 30, is being held in solitary confinement at the notorious, maximum security Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the case.

It said the facility “has a history of alleged abuses against its inmates.”

Li was taken to Hong Kong’s Yuen Long police station soon after arriving back on March 22 at the end of his jail term, and immediately arrested under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

On Dec. 31, 2020, the Yantian District People’s Court in Guangdong’s Shenzhen city handed down jail terms of three years to Tang, two years to fellow fugitive Quinn Moon for “organizing people to illegally cross a border,” and sentences of seven months to Li and seven other detainees for “illegally crossing a border.”

They were among a group of 12 Hong Kong activists intercepted by the authorities aboard a speedboat that is believed to have been heading for the democratic island of Taiwan.

Eight detainees were handed over to the custody of the Hong Kong police on March 22, 2021 after time already served was taken into account, while Tang Kai-yin and Quinn Moon were left to serve their sentences in China.

A further two activists were returned to Hong Kong because they were under 18 at the time of their arrest. They are currently on remand at Hong Kong’s Pik Uk Prison awaiting trial on charges linked to their escape bid.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Marriage rates in China are continuing to fall in spite of policies from the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aimed at encouraging people to have more children amid falling birthrates, suggesting that the next generation of young people in China has other things on its mind.

According to the civil affairs ministry, the number of newly married couples has fallen for the first three quarters of 2021, when compared with figures for the previous year, with just 1.72 million couples tying the knot in the third quarter, a new quarterly low.

Evidence suggests the numbers are continuing to show a long-term downward trend that can’t just be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, and have more to do with a lack of trust in the government’s promises to ease the burden on couples who choose to raise children.

A recent survey by the CCP’s Youth League found that for Gen Z — young people born between 1995 and 2009 — around 34 percent of nearly 3,000 urban respondents no longer regard finding a life partner as inevitable.

The survey cited United Nations population data as saying that only 69.2 percent of 20-29 year-olds are likely to be married by 2030, eight percentage points lower than the 2013 figures.

“The willingness of Gen Z to get married is showing a downward trend,” an Oct. 8 report in the CCP’s official Guangming Daily said. “Further analysis found that women’s willingness to marry is significantly lower than men’s.”

According to the survey, more than 43 percent of women said they would either not marry, or were unsure if they would. Uncertainty about marriage was also linked to economic prosperity, with young people in richer cities more likely to want to stay single than those in smaller cities.

“The more developed the economy, the more people actively choose to be single,” the report said. “As economic development continues, the number of young people not keen on partnering up may continue to rise.”

Young people who took part in a separate, Beijing-based, survey cited problems with finding affordable housing as a major obstacle, in a culture where home ownership is widely seen as a prerequisite for couplehood, the report said.

Others cited the “high economic cost of marriage,” and “the high cost of childbirth and bringing up children,” the paper said.

“Some young people yearn for freedom and an unfettered life, and think that an interesting single life is better than marriage,” it said. “[They] devote more time and energy to personal career development and hobbies.”

‘Too much work’

Others felt relationships were too much work.

“I don’t want anyone to affect my emotions, and I don’t want to deal with the emotions of another person when I am busy and tired,” one respondent told the survey.

The article blamed individualism for influencing Gen Z, who have “greater self-awareness and independence” than earlier generations, prompting them to push back against social pressure to cope with excessive work schedules, exorbitantly priced weddings, and the psychological pressure of steering children through a highly competitive education system.

Current affairs commentator Si Ling said the CCP’s attempts to encourage couples to raise more children seem to be falling on deaf ears.

“Why aren’t they attracted by [these incentives] or trust them? It will take time for any benefits from these policies to show themselves, because population growth requires a long timespan with no immediate results,” Si said.

Rights activist Ma Yongtao said CCP policy is largely aimed at protecting the interests of the ruling class, and has failed to address many of the deep-seated issues young people face.

“Any CCP policy works for the interests of the ruling elite, and not on the interests of the general population,” Ma told RFA. “Back in the days of family planning policies, they wouldn’t allow people to give birth when the population was sufficient.”

“There have been some new slang words appearing recently in private and online, like ‘lying down,’ ‘turning inward,’ and ‘leeks,” he said.

“Leeks” is a term used to refer to the general population as a harvestable or disposable resource to be used by the authorities for their own purposes.

“People know they are leeks, which is why they are choosing to lie down,” Mao said.

LGBT+ concerns

Meanwhile, the CCP has refused to move ahead with marriage equality for LGBT+ groups, who are increasingly moving away from the public sphere amid growing political restrictions on public speech.

Last month, LGBT Rights Advocacy China (also known as Queer Advocacy Online) announced it was ceasing all activities and shutting down its social media accounts.

The group had campaigned for LGBT+ rights, including same-sex marriage, and its founder Peng Yanzi once went undercover at an electroshock “conversion therapy” facility, successfully suing it.

The group had also brought landmark cases to the court, including those granting custody rights to non-traditional families.

The civil affairs ministry said on Nov. 5 it had recently shut down 3,300 “illegal social organizations” and websites unaffiliated with any government entity, state news agency Xinhua reported.  

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.