Day: November 12, 2021

The construction of China’s third aircraft carrier is making steady progress and the carrier, known as Type 003, may be launched as soon as February next year, a U.S. think tank said.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington D.C., said in a new report that commercial satellite imagery of Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai shows that the installation of the vessel’s main external components “is nearing completion.”

The visual appearance of the carrier has gone through a “significant shift” in the last few weeks, CSIS researchers said, adding that according to their analysis, “the initial installation of major internal components has been completed.”

China already has two aircraft carriers in operation, named Liaoning and Shandong. China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was bought from Ukraine in 1998, updated and commissioned in 2012. The Shandong was domestically constructed and put into operation in 2019.

Compared to those two, the Type 003 has some new important components including catapult systems, used for launching aircraft from the ship. This, noted the report, is “a major leap forward for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)” as the Liaoning and the Shandong rely on less advanced ski jump-style take-off systems.

The report’s authors estimated that the Type 003 would launch in roughly three to six months but the developers still have to address several technical challenges.

“Even after launch, it will still be years before the Type 003 is commissioned into the PLAN and achieves initial operating capability,” the report said.

China already has the biggest naval fleet in the world, according to the US Office of Naval Intelligence. But the U.S. has by far the largest number of aircraft carriers in the world – 11 compared to China’s two.

And U.S. naval vessels are generally technically superior. For example, while all U.S. aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered, Chinese carriers including the Type 003 are believed to run on conventional steam propulsion.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, which is watching China’s military developments closely, said in a report published earlier this year that the Type 003 would enable the PLA Navy to project power past the “first island chain.”

The “first island chain”, conceptualized during the Cold War, commonly refers to the major archipelagos that lie off the East Asian mainland coast. The chain stretches from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the northeast to the Malay Peninsula in the southwest, and includes the territory of U.S. allies Taiwan and the Philippines.

A court in Myanmar on Friday sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years for encouraging resistance to the country’s military rulers and other alleged crimes, drawing a rebuke from the U.S. State Department, which called the conviction “unjust.”

Fenster was a managing editor for the online Frontier Myanmar magazine when he was arrested as he attempted to leave the country in May. He was also charged with unlawful association and violating immigration laws.

The court found him guilty on all three charges Friday, his lawyer told RFA. Fenster’s sentence, which includes a period of hard labor, is the harshest given to any of the seven known journalists convicted by the military junta that seized power from the country’s democratically elected government in a Feb. 1 coup.

Fenster could also face life imprisonment if convicted on two more charges of terrorism and treason, which were added to his case on Thursday.

The sentences were imposed by the Special Court at Insein Prison. When asked by his lawyer if he would appeal his case, Fenster replied that he would not, “because these orders came from above.”

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the ruling “represents an unjust conviction of an innocent person.”

“We are closely monitoring Danny’s situation and will continue to work for his immediate release,” the department said.

Fenster’s charges were in part based on his former work at Myanmar Now News, which continued to broadcast after the junta ordered it and other outlets to close. But the journalist had stopped working for Frontier Myanmar in July 2020, months before the coup, Myint Kyaw, a Yangon-based journalist who has been following the case, told RFA.

“I think this sentence is very ugly,” he said.

The charges had no legal basis, Frontier Myanmar’s Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kean told RFA.

“Danny’s legal team made it clear to the court last year that he had already resigned from Myanmar Now and was working for Frontier,” Kean said.

A statement by the magazine said the court had ignored Frontier Myanmar’s tax and social security records and statements by Frontier employees presented to the court as evidence.

Myanmar Now’s Editor-in-Chief Swe Win also confirmed to RFA that Fenster had left the company before the coup.

Fenster was also accused of supporting illegal organizations like the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a group of ousted lawmakers that eventually formed Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the junta, said that journalists were also charged with crimes when the NLD was in power. The court reached the proper verdict, he said.

“It was because of what he had written and the crimes he had committed,” Zaw Min Tun told RFA.

International reaction

The harsh sentencing was emblematic of the struggles of journalists in Myanmar since the coup, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

“Journalists have been under attack since 1 February, with the military leadership clearly attempting to suppress their attempts to report on the serious human rights violations being perpetrated across Myanmar as well as the extent of opposition to the regime,” Bachelet said.

Thirty-four journalists who were arrested in Myanmar following the Feb. 1 military coup remain in custody following prisoner amnesties that many had hoped would see them freed, sources in the country say.

Many of the reporters who remain jailed have been charged with defaming Myanmar’s military or for suspected ties with the opposition National Unity Government or the local People’s Defense Force militias set up to resist military rule, sources say.

Advocacy groups joined the U.N. and U.S. in calling for Fenster’s immediate release.

“This long prison sentence against a journalist is a travesty of justice by a kangaroo court operating at the beck and call of the Myanmar military junta. Danny Fenster has done nothing that should be considered a crime,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“The junta’s rationale for this outrageous, rights abusing sentence is first to shock and intimidate all remaining Burmese journalists inside Myanmar by punishing a foreign journalist this way. The message is that ‘if we can do this to a foreigner, imagine what we will do to you,’” he said.

Robertson said the junta also wanted to send a message to the U.S. that they would be willing to take hostages in response to economic sanctions.

Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director at Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that Fenster’s was the longest sentence for a journalist in Myanmar in decades.

He called the conviction “extremely shocking” but said that it was probably part of a larger strategy that has nothing to do with the crimes Fenster allegedly committed.

“They like the fact that they can have someone who is [still at risk for] life imprisonment, which can put them in a good position to negotiate with the West in general and with the U.S.,” he said.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Cambodian authorities freed a detained Cambodian labor union leader and two fellow labor activists on Friday after an appeals court upheld parts of their convictions while releasing them for time served for other charges, rights groups and activists said.

Union leader Rong Chhun and labor rights activists Sar Kanika and Ton Nimol were among 18 political prisoners released by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s authoritarian government, which has staged a sweeping crackdown on the political opposition and critics since 2017.

The three labor activists were joined by a political party leader, five wives of jailed Cambodian opposition activists, and six environmental activists.

“I, Rong Chhun, have returned to see you again,” he told a crowd of about 200 supporters outside Prey Sar Prison on the outskirts of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, where he was serving his sentence.

“We must walk toward freedom. We must seek democracy for our country. Even though I was jailed more than a year, I have always stayed with you,” said Rong Chhun.

“The prison can’t break activists and people’s spirits,” he said. “When we are not afraid they will stop arresting us. We must maintain our courage for the sake of freedom, our rights and democracy.”

Rong Chhun and the two labor activists had parts of their sentences for incitement suspended, according to the Cambodian human rights organization Licadho.

The Phnom Penh Appeals Court did not say why it decided to drop the other charges against the three, who will be on probation and face restrictions on their travel and activities for two years.

Authorities arrested Rong Chhun for a statement he made in July 2020 about the alleged loss of land near Cambodia’s border with Vietnam border after he visited the area and spoke with local residents.

Sar Kanika and Ton Nimol were arrested during peaceful demonstrations in August and October 2020, respectively, Licadho said in a statement.

Rong Chhun and Sar Kanika have spent more than 15 months in prison, while Nimol has been locked up for over a year.

The appeals court dropped the remainder of Rong Chhun’s two-year sentence and the remainder of Sar Kanika’s 20-month sentence. Ton Nimol must serve 14 months and 24 days in prison, though the court suspended the remainder of his 20-month sentence.

The court said the trio must remain on probation for three years following their release, forbade them from associating with each other, and required them to inform a prosecutor if they changed addresses, Licadho said.

The court also upheld an order for the three activists to each pay 2 million riel (U.S. $500) in fines, and jointly pay 400 million riel (U.S. $100,000) in damages, the group said.
Rong Chhun left prison with Khmer Win Party President Soung Sophorn who was also released. Authorities had arrested the politician in August 2020 on charges of inciting chaos and causing insecurity to society after he protested and demanded Rong Chhung’s release from jail.

Soung Sophorn told the crowd outside the courthouse that he would resume his political career following his release.

Court officials also released five women from a group known as the “Friday Wives” for their weekly rallies on behalf of their husbands from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). The five were arrested for demanding the release of Rong Chhun and CNRP activists during a protest in front of Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh. The women had already spent 12 to 20 months in jail.

Also on Friday, authorities released six environmental activists from the group Mother Nature, but the court upheld an earlier 20-month incitement sentence passed in absentia on the group’s founder Alejandro Gonzalez Davidson.

“The government has softened its stance which is a sign indicating that the situation is getting better,” said Thailand-based political analyst Seng Sary.

He told RFA that the gestures could be beneficial for Cambodia, seen by many outsiders as a de facto one-party state, when it serves as chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) in 2022, and hosts meetings with the European Union and the United States, both of which have sanctioned Phnom Penh over human rights abuses.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Authorities in Shanghai are mulling curbs to a growing murder mystery games industry that has swept China in recent years, saying the fancy-dress role-play events in which players try to solve an imaginary murder could be threat to “national security.”

According to Nov. 9 draft regulations, businesses running the hugely popular events will be required to ensure that none of the content presented to guests will “endanger national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity, or … national security.”

Scripted events should also avoid depicting explicit scenes, gambling, violence or drug-taking, as well as any content that could “promote cults or superstitions,” the draft rules said.

Role-plays should also steer clear of “disrupting social order or undermining social stability,” it said.

Games that use “horrible, cruel, violent or vulgar scenes” likely to harm the mental health of staff or customers should be banned, along with displays depicting animal cruelty or “human body defects,” the draft said, calling for public comments to be sent to the department of culture and tourism by Dec. 8, 2021.

Organizers should “carry the red gene and stick to the [ruling Chinese’s Communist Party (CCP)’s] ideological line,” the draft said.

“Businesses that violate these rules will be dealt with by the relevant departments,” the draft rules warn.

CCP suspicions

An estimated 10 million young people will have played one or more of the games by the end of this year, according to media reports.

A gaming enthusiast who gave only the surname Dai said murder mystery and escape role-plays are hugely popular among young people, especially college students.

“Murder mystery games have been one of the few industries to boom in the economic downturn of the past few years,” Dai said. “But during the clampdown on extracurricular tuition [and cram schools], it was also mentioned.”

“A lot of these have already been raided by authorities in Beijing … now it’s Shanghai’s turn,” she said.

Dai said she believes the CCP is suspicious of any indoor gatherings that it doesn’t control or supervise.

Current affairs commentator Wang Zheng said the immersive nature of the games is what appeals most to young people, mostly late millennials and Generation Z.

“Murder mystery games are a new social platform for young people [to meet],” Wang said. “You can make new friends doing it.”

“Some companies have also been using murder mysteries as a form of team-building,” he said. “When the murder mystery is done, everyone eats dinner together.”

Wang said the CCP appears worried that young people could use the role-playing events as a way to communicate about politics or social issues in China.

“[They fear that], once the truth gets out, it may be too late to control it,” he said.

Policy met with ridicule

Media reports say the market for the in-person version of the games could reach 15.42 billion yuan this year, with participants likely to top nine million, and thousands of physical stores run by organizers of the events.

China Media Project quoted online comments about the reported psychological ill-effects of the games, known in Chinese as “jubensha,” as ridiculing the idea.

“Yes, as soon as I go to work, I feel murderous, so how should we characterize that psychological problem?” it quoted one Weibo user as saying.

“The backlash against state media moralizing over jubensha and its supposed harmful effects prompted Xinhua News Agency to disable comments on its original … post [about the games],” CMP reported.

“The moralizing about jubensha in the Chinese media of late has been encouraged by the larger wave of greater government regulation directed at the entertainment industry, which has focused on cyberspace and such trends as fandom culture and online gaming,” it said in an Oct. 1 article.

“Despite talk of the need to protect China’s youth, these moves are primarily about ensuring that media and culture, including all manner of entertainment activities, align with … the values … of the Chinese Communist Party,” the article said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

A court in Hong Kong has jailed a political activist nicknamed “Captain America 2.0” for chanting slogans deemed secessionist under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing.

Ma Chun-man was handed a five years-and-nine-months sentence on Thursday by the District Court, which found him guilty of of “inciting secession” after he chanted slogans including “Free Hong Kong, revolution now!” from the 2019 protest movement, and “Hong Kong independence is the only solution,” as well as calling for independence in public speeches.

Ma, 31, was handed a harsher sentence due to the “serious” nature of the offense, with judge Stanley Chan dismissing his lawyer’s mitigation plea that his actions were all peaceful in nature.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed the law on Hong Kong from July 1, 2020, banning 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.

The law 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.

“National security education” — which is being tailored to all age-groups from kindergarten to university — is also mandatory under the law, while student unions and other civil society groups have disbanded, with some of their leaders arrested in recent months.

Hong Kong’s City University announced on Thursday that its president Way Kuo will step down in 2023, without explaining the move.

University presidents step down

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced a day earlier that its president Wei Shyy, who called for an inquiry into the death of HKUST student Chow Tsz-lok during the 2019 protest movement, will step down next year.

Shyy had called for an independent inquiry into Chow’s death and its rumored links to police activity, and later told reporters he had “no need” to support the national security, as it was already law, and would have to be obeyed.

City University vice president Matthew Lee said the university will conduct a “global” recruitment exercise to find Kuo’s successor.

“He has decided to step down as president after his third term expires in May 2023,” Lee told reporters. “The university has set up a selection committee to conduct an international recruitment process.”

Benson Wong, former assistant politics professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said it is clear that Hong Kong’s universities, many of which have already derecognized their student unions, are planning to comply fully with the CCP’s wishes under the national security law.

“They may claim that there is global recruitment [for Shyy and Kuo’s replacements], but this is just for show … because a lot of the time they will already have a list of their preferred candidates,” Wong said.

“They may randomly add in some well-known scholars to go through the motions of ‘selection,’ but they won’t win in the end,” he said.

“I think Hong Kong’s academic reputation is going to dwindle over time due to this sort of politicization,” he said. “We won’t get well-known or experienced academics wanting to come and do research or management jobs in Hong Kong any more.”

Scant room for free thinking

Like Shyy, Kuo and City didn’t take part in any CCP-backed activities in support of the national security law, snubbing the “Reboot Hong Kong” initiative headed by two former chief executives close to Beijing.

The university and Kuo had both repeatedly called for a “separation” between politics and education, running counter to the current “national security” patriotic education campaign in Hong Kong.

Chung Kim-wah, deputy head of the Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), said there is scant room left for free thinking or debate in Hong Kong’s education system.

“Was it Kuo who didn’t want to renew his contract, or the board?” Chung said. “I don’t know … but it immediately makes me recall that he didn’t sign up to support the national security law.”

“If you don’t do what the government wants, then you won’t get what you want next time around,” he said. “We have seen that the person they chose to lead the University of Hong Kong is unqualified to do so, so we can expect that the people who replace Shyy and Kuo won’t be either.”

“They’ll probably both be Chinese nationals who have studied overseas,” he said.

Chung said the growing curbs on freedom of speech in Hong Kong’s universities will mean that the best students and faculty won’t hang around for long.

“Even students are quitting now — a lot of students suddenly stopped attending last year,” he said. “I worry that neither the students nor the faculty will want to stay; certainly the best ones won’t.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.