Day: December 4, 2021

Tran Thi Ngoc was only 19 years old when she died in the back of a truck in Grays, Essex, northeast of London in October 2019.

She was one of 39 Vietnamese who perished in a refrigerated container truck as they were smuggled into England — attempting to complete a journey that thousands of Vietnamese people have made before them, and continue to make to this day.

You might simply call them “container people.”

Container People

It has been two generations since a wave of desperate humanity fled the aftermath of the Vietnam War and became known as the “boat people.” Much has changed during the intervening decades. Vietnam has thrown off the shackles of war and emerged as a tiger economy in Southeast Asia. But like the boat people before them, container people dream of a better life in the West, escaping the fate they were handed at birth.

For many, the United Kingdom is their dream destination.

“Today and forever, Tran Thi Ngoc will never be able to realize her dream,” her father Nguyen Van Ky told RFA. He spoke from the family’s home in Vinh in Nghe An province, the region of central Vietnam where founding communist leader Ho Chi Minh was born.

Ngoc was the oldest of four. Growing up in a poor household, she had always felt the responsibility to care for her younger siblings. She had begged her parents to let her go to England, to advance her education and get a job to help support the family and the three younger children.

Ky still nurses the heartbreak of losing his daughter, but he turns pensive when it’s suggested to him that he’d not allow another family member to attempt such a treacherous journey. Ky concludes that he would still agree to let his three remaining children go abroad to study and work “if they could legally do so.”

This article is part of a four-part RFA series examining the aftermath of the tragedy that took the lives of 39 Vietnamese people two years ago. We look how Vietnamese make the perilous journey to and through Europe. And we ask why many families still aspire to send their most capable member — a promising son or daughter, a young mother or father — to work abroad, despite the risk of exploitation by human traffickers and even death.

According to a report published in August 2017 by the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council, Vietnamese smuggling networks bring about 18,000 people from Vietnam to Europe each year in what amounts to a $300 million business. Smuggling, the council notes, becomes trafficking when it involves the exploitation of migrants.

RFA has spoken to members of Vietnamese communities across Europe who say that the wave of migrants coming from Vietnam has continued, despite a global coronavirus pandemic that caused countries including Vietnam to seal their borders in parts of 2020 and 2021.

“The horrific death of the 39 people in England had no impact, in my opinion. People keep coming,” said Nguyen Hoang Linh, editor of the Vietnamese-language Bridge to the World Online in Hungary.

Authorities confirm this.

Chief Detective Nicole Baumann with Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office said the number of migrants entering the country during the country’s lockdown periods did not abate.

“We had lockdown periods here in Germany when people could no longer work in nail salons. We suddenly started noticing Vietnamese migrants working in construction. That was completely new,” she told RFA.

If anything, migration and trafficking experts noted the journey has become more dangerous and rife with exploitation, as we will explore in the next few installments of our series.

The Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) with the Council of Europe said in a report on trafficking in Europe in 2020 that, “traffickers have exploited the coronavirus crisis, profiting from vulnerabilities and difficult economic circumstances. Law enforcement agencies have reported increased prevalence of sexual exploitation online and use of technology to facilitate criminal conduct. There have also been delays in the criminal justice system, to the detriment of victims’ rights.”

Push and Pull Factors

The pull factors drawing Vietnamese people to Europe are the economic opportunities there, which are partly fueled by organized crime. Migrants fill a demand for cheap, illegal labor in nail salons, sweatshops and cannabis farms across Germany and the U.K., often led by ethnic Vietnamese organized crime groups.

But pull factors cannot be isolated from the push factors that motivate people to leave Vietnam, research from non-government groups suggests. In addition to a desire to escape poverty, there are social, environmental, political, even religious factors that drive people to put their lives in the hands of traffickers.

Migrants take those risks for a chance to earn somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 pounds sterling in the U.K. to support their families back home.

Such was the case with Nguyen Thi Van and her husband Tran Hai Loc, who also died in the Essex lorry. The young couple left their small children behind in Nghe An — the same province as 20-year-old Ngoc — and paid 60,000 pounds for the journey to the U.K. ITV News reported the couple was found dead in the container, still holding each other’s hands.

One person who made it safely to the U.K., Nguyen Manh Tuan, told RFA how he migrated here illegally in 2013 under circumstances very similar to the Essex victims. He declined to disclose his age and home town, because he still has a wife and family in Vietnam. Tuan has applied for political asylum in the U.K. and is awaiting a review of his case.

Back home he tried his hands at doing business, but he said he faced pressures on two fronts: mounting debts, and an oppressive government that made it hard for anyone who spoke up to make a living. A member of a vocal Catholic community, he said his grandfather had spent 15 years in jail for his religious activities.

Tuan agreed with his creditor to go abroad to pay off his debts. The creditor arranged everything, he said.

“I gave them my photograph; they created the necessary paperwork. How, I don’t know. I just followed the smuggler. They arranged to fly me to Russia. From there, each stop, they led the way, from Eastern Europe to France, then to the U.K. channel crossing.”

He was completely reliant on his smugglers, not knowing even the names of the towns he passed through. All he knew was the destination was England, and that the U.K. “had more human rights than other countries,” he told RFA.

Tuan travelled through the Ukraine, Poland and Germany. He now realizes just how lucky he had been.

“I was scared in that container. In there, you don’t know anything. It’s just four iron walls. Travelling on forest roads, it was cold and miserable. When I heard about the 39 migrants dying, I felt numb. They went under the same circumstances as I had. But they left their bodies on that truck, on their way to freedom — and here I am … safe.”

Nguyen Thi Hoa, who asked RFA to refer to her by a pseudonym, entered the U.K. illegally in 2010 and has since become a legal resident there.

“The number of Vietnamese people coming to England is incalculable,” she said. “But how may trips have resulted in deaths? So, when there’s a fatal trip, people will say the price isn’t worth it. But after the death of the 39 migrants, people still keep coming.”

Hoa, now 41, said she paid $5,000 USD at the time. Through an acquaintance she connected with smugglers who took her from her home in northern Vinh Phuc province, to Russia, through Eastern Europe on to Western Europe.

The journey lasted four months, and was interrupted by bouts in prison whenever she was caught by local authorities in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and France.

Routes and Risks

‘Hoa said she flew from Hanoi to Russia, where she and about a dozen other Vietnamese were picked up at the airport. They were told to surrender their passports to their minders, put in a truck and driven away.

“We travelled by truck, going through a lot of countries. At times the truck carried 50 or so people, all of them were big and muscular people.”

Other times, she had to walk through forests, for weeks on end.

“We had to go at night and wade through streams. We got lost in the woods. Oh my, it was very hard and rough! We walked for several weeks,” she said. “Sometimes when someone was too weak, they’d leave them behind and wouldn’t allow them to continue.”

Mimi Vu, a human trafficking expert based in Vietnam, said that while most people trafficked into China are women and young girls, in Europe and the U.K. most victims are men and boys.

But those women and girls who do travel to Europe face another dimension of brutality. Le Thi Tuyet, a woman from Nghe An, now settled in Poland, told RFA that back in 2010, she witnessed many women being sexually assaulted, in one country after another, by the people smuggling them.

“They saw that I was old, so they left me alone. If you are young, you are as good as dead. Any young woman would be forced to sleep with them. The Chinese, the Westerners, even our ‘Commie’ brothers. They were the worst! The smugglers had no scruples. It was hard.”

Whether it is men or women making the trip, the route described by Nguyen Thi Hoa mirrors those taken by many migrants from Vietnam, and it is one that has been used since the Cold War, according to Mimi Vu.

“The bulk of victims come from a handful of provinces from north-central and northern Vietnam, provinces that have sent their citizens overseas to work and send money back home since the 1980s,” she said, referring to Quang Ninh, Quang Binh, Ha Tinh, Nghe An and Hai Phong.

Ngoc, the young woman who died in the refrigerated lorry in Essex, had tried to travel from one of those provinces, Nghe An, by legal means, her father Ky said. The parents paid 1 billion Vietnamese dong for their daughter’s trip, the equivalent of about $45,000 USD, which they financed through a bank loan. Ky said after Ngoc died, traffickers paid a portion of it back.

“She couldn’t make it as an international student. She interviewed two, three times with the Americans (to go study in the United States). She didn’t make the cut, but she was still determined.

“She said she would go over to England, find a way to study and become legal. That’s what she wanted. Her mother and I thought she had a chance, so we helped her make it happen.”

Illegal gold mine operations have run unchecked in the capital of Myanmar’s Kachin state since the military seized power 10 months ago, raising concerns for villagers who spent years protesting a massive Chinese-backed dam project in the early 2000s.

Local sources along the Irrawaddy River in Kachin recently told RFA’s Myanmar Service that illegal gold mining operations began in earnest only weeks after the military’s Feb. 1 coup. They said they fear the unregulated activities could damage the waterway and the surrounding environment.

A resident who gave her name as Laura said that a gold mining operation in Myitsone is situated at a riverbend where the current is extremely strong. She said the mining impacts the integrity of the banks and could lead the river to change course during the rainy season, flooding nearby Tanphare village.

“Gold mining with the use of all this heavy machinery shouldn’t be done here. If they continue to mine like this, our Myitsone scenery will be lost forever,” she said.

“Tanphare village may also have flooding issues. I’m very much worried that we would lose all of our beautiful natural environment.”

Gold miners are dredging the Irrawaddy to collect the mineral from the riverbed, dumping the silt and wastewater back into the waterway and causing serious pollution, sources said.

Illegal gold mines have operated along the Irrawaddy in previous years, but few have made as large an impact as those launched in the aftermath of the Feb. 1 military coup. In the 10 months since, Kachin has seen a significant increase in operations in Shwegu, Mohnyin, Chibwe, Sunprabon, Myitkyina, Hpakant, Tanaing and Waingmaw townships.

Myanmar’s previous military-backed government halted construction of the controversial U.S. $3.6 billion Chinese-backed Myitsone hydropower project on the Irrawaddy in Kachin state in 2011 because of concerns over potential flooding and other environmental impacts. Locals were also angry that 90 percent of its electricity would be exported to China.

Residents told RFA they would continue to fight environmental threats to the region, regardless of who is in power.

Kyaw Naing Soe of Shwegu township expressed concern that the nearby tourist attraction of Shwe Maw Gyun island, which is home to sacred Buddhist sites, would suffer irreparable damage as an increasing number of illegal gold miners have arrived in the area by boat since September.

“The reason we are strongly opposed to these activities is that Shwe Maw Gyun island is one of the major landmarks of Kachin state and we don’t want to see it destroyed,” he said.

“It’s not just resistance from a religious point of view. It’s a prominent landmark of Kachin state. The river’s water level is quite low at present, but when the water level rises, the riverbanks will collapse.”

Resources at risk

Under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, which was deposed by the military in February, the Kachin State Department of Mines had allocated 223 gold mines and 262 small-scale personal mines in 11 townships as of May 2020. The mine operators were not allowed to dredge the river and only permitted to dig 300 feet from the waterway.

The NLD government also established rules preventing gold miners from dumping waste into the river. However, the current mining operators do not follow these rules, locals said.

RFA called the director of the Kachin State Mining Department to inquire about the situation but received no response.

Dr. Tu Khaung, the minister of natural resources for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), joined residents in criticizing the unregulated gold mining activities in Kachin.

“It is true that gold mining operations have been on the rise in Kachin state since the coup,” he said.

“Illegal gold mining is on the rise everywhere — it’s as if there is no rule in the region. The junta is focusing its efforts to consolidate its power base, to hold onto power, and NUG is currently in no position to manage anything on the ground. Everything seems to be up for grabs.”

The sharp rise in unregulated gold mining is not only a cause for concern for the environment but also for various crimes and drug-related problems, residents said. They told RFA they are worried that if the economic crisis, which has worsened since the coup, is not addressed in time, the problem will only become worse.

Kachin state’s abundant natural resources — gold, amber, jade, copper, and rubies — have fueled a long-running civil war between the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic armed organization, and the Myanmar military, which have clashed over the control of mining areas used to finance their operations.

Reported by Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in northwest Myanmar’s Sagaing region since the military seized power, as the area has become a center of armed resistance to the junta over the past 10 months.

According to an investigation by RFA’s Myanmar Service, at least 414 civilians have died since the Feb. 1 coup, including 309 people who were killed at the hands of security forces. The anti-junta Peoples’ Defense Force (PDF) has killed 105 civilians, many of whom it claims were local administrators acting as informants to the military.

The single most deadly crackdown in the region took place in Kalay city’s Tarhan ward, near the border with Chin state, when soldiers and armed police stormed anti-junta protesters barricaded inside Fort Tarhan on March 28 and April 7. At least 18 people died and many others were injured or arrested in the raids.

A member of the Mingin township PDF, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, told RFA that the incidents convinced him that he needed to do more than protest but to fight back against the junta with weapons.

“We would only be able to ask for peace if we had guns to counter theirs,” he said.

“We launched the resistance so that the oppression ends here, and our children will not suffer like us. When men joined the resistance, older women who could not join the fight took off their earrings and offered them to us to buy weapons. Even the women were very enthusiastic about the resistance in Sagaing region.”

There are 37 townships in Sagaing region and almost all of them have their own PDF groups. There are also groups with other names, combining for a total of nearly 50 resistance groups. In Myaung township, a group made up entirely of women recently joined a PDF team in attacking a police station.

A member of the Myaung Township Women Warriors told RFA that the anti-junta forces are becoming more organized as the resistance continues.

“At long last, the PDF groups in Sagaing region have become well-connected,” said the fighter, who declined to provide her name. “And our strength has grown day by day. Every group is becoming stronger. The oppressed have united and are getting stronger. And we carry on our armed struggle with strong conviction.”

According to local PDF members, the strength of the PDF forces in Sagaing region started with about four to five men per village in the beginning and has now increased tenfold. That is why, they said, the military has increasingly employed heavy artillery and airstrikes in a bid to crush the resistance.

PDF ‘terrorism’

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun denied that military operations are being carried out in the region, telling RFA that security forces are working to “bring stability” to Sagaing, which he claimed had been beset by PDF “terrorism.”

“We have found that PDF terrorists are recruiting in the villages. They make threats that they will kill villagers if they refuse to join,” he said.

“In some villages, whole families were killed, or their houses burned. Security measures are being taken there to ensure immediate stability.”

Last month, sources told RFA that around 30,000 residents from 30 villages in Sagaing’s Depayin township and 10,000 from 20 villages in nearby Shan state’s Pekon township sought refuge as government soldiers conducted raids in the area from Nov. 8-9, setting buildings alight under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

The 50 villages are centers of dogged resistance to the military regime, which has waged an offensive against ethnic armed organizations and anti-junta forces in the country’s remote border regions since seizing power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy government on Feb. 1.

Hopes for liberation

Aung Nay Myo, a resident of Sagaing’s Monywa township, predicted that the region will be the first to be liberated.

“Sagaing Region is politically and historically a strong base. We need to start a good opening move for any revolution from a base like this. That’s why we have the strongest anti-coup street protests and became the area with the highest number of armed clashes in [the resistance],” he said.

“It all started with strong protests in Monywa and then the resistance gradually grew stronger and stronger. … I think Sagaing region will become the first liberated area in the country.”

According to data compiled by RFA based on statements by the shadow National Unity Government, there were 597 armed clashes in Sagaing region in the five months from June to November and a total of 274 civilians and 1,137 junta soldiers were killed over the same period. The number of civilians killed by both sides in Sagaing in the past 10 months totaled at least 414, based on NUG monthly statements and reports from local media.

According to the Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, more than 75,250 people have been displaced by clashes in Sagaing region in the nine months from the coup until the end of October.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

HONG KONG — Art censorship in Hong Kong is “very much real,” an expert said after the city’s much-anticipated art gallery opened recently without showcasing some expected artworks by a Chinese dissident.

 

The former British colony’s largest art museum, M+, opened Nov. 12 to great fanfare, but also heated debate because of its failure to exhibit two of famous exiled artist Ai Wei Wei’s artworks in a donated collection of celebrated Swiss art collector Uli Sigg.

 

Among the collection of contemporary Chinese art from the 1970s to the 2000s, Ai’s Study of Perspective: Tiananmen, a photo that features Ai’s middle finger in front of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and Map of China, a sculpture made of salvaged wood from a Qing Dynasty temple, have been under review by authorities since March this year, essentially barring them from display.

 

That came two weeks after M+ director Suhanya Raffel guaranteed that the gallery would show Ai’s art and pieces about the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, according to The South China Morning Post.

 

In the same month, Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said the authorities would be on “full alert” to ensure museum exhibitions would not undermine national security, after pro-Beijing lawmakers said the artworks at M+ caused “great concerns” to the public for “spreading hatred” against China, public broadcaster RTHK reported.

 

In a September editorial in local media outlet Stand News, Ai called the government’s decision to shelve his two pieces “incredible.”

 

“The Study of Perspective series I started at Tiananmen Square 26 years ago once again became the testing ground for an important change in history, and a convincing note for China’s political censorship of its culture and art,” Ai wrote. Other images in the series featured the middle finger in front of the White House, the Swiss parliament and the Mona Lisa.

 

Sigg donated over 1,400 artworks and sold 47 pieces to M+ gallery in 2012, before the city experienced political turmoil from the 2014 Occupy Central movement, the 2019 anti-government protests and implementation of the controversial national security law last year.

Sigg originally wanted to make mainland China home to his collection, but no art galleries there could ensure that his artworks, including Ai Wei Wei’s, would be displayed without restriction, according to SOAS University of London art history professor Shane McCausland.

 

“Hong Kong’s legal framework at the time promised that these artworks could be shown…[but] policy on display will have changed dramatically after the national security law came in,” McCausland told VOA.

 

The head of the West Kowloon Cultural District, Henry Tang, said ahead of the M+ gallery opening that the board would “uphold and encourage freedom of artistic expression and creativity,” but added that the opening of M+ “does not mean artistic expression is above the law.” He also denied that the two artworks put under review meant they were illegal.

 

However, such an ostensibly normal bureaucratic act from the government is China’s usual form of censorship, McCausland said.

 

“It’s often unclear even to the initiated, where the boundary lies, as it moves all the time. The laws are framed in vague language: they often appear to be applied arbitrarily and randomly. …The application depends on the [Chinese] leadership from the top, where there is a degree of sensitivity to criticism and intolerance of critiques,” he said.

The city’s freedom of artistic expression has been declining since the national security law took effect last year, according to a local independent performance and dance artist who asked that she only be identified by her initial, “V.”

 

“This [the ban] did not come as a surprise – some artists’ works that might be considered sensitive are not allowed to display recently after the national security law was out, not to mention M+ is a government venue,” V told VOA.

 

Self-censorship has become a norm in Hong Kong’s art circles, V added.

 

“The atmosphere has been rather tense. Some movie screenings had to be canceled. Now we still want to voice out our views, but we start thinking about if we should express in a very edgy way, or if politics is the only way for us to express,” she said.

 

A new film censorship law came into effect in November that aims to “prevent and suppress acts or activities that may endanger national security.”

 

The supposedly autonomous region is now on track to mirror mainland China’s propaganda and censorship, McCausland said.

 

“Essentially Hong Kong is poised to become very similar to the framework within the rest of China, with artists being vigilant and constantly watching the moving sense of what’s OK and becoming attuned to when the likelihood is high of the system kicking in with legal ramifications, such as house detention or other judicial options that are open to the authorities, which they are happy to use to ensure the public discourse of harmony,” he said.

 

Growing art censorship is expected to intensify the talent drain in Hong Kong, which has witnessed an exodus to Western countries, including Britain and Canada, since the start of the 2019 anti-government protests, the art expert said.

 

“We know there was an astounding majority in favor of democracy – the views of the people were very clear but now you are hearing and seeing the space for expression has been closed down, and often in a heavy-handed way,” McCausland said.

 

The University of Hong Kong, one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious educational institutions, has ordered the removal of a sculpture commemorating the student victims of the Tiananmen crackdown since October. The university cited “the latest risk assessment and legal advice” as the reason for the request to take away the iconic statue that has been in place for the last 24 years.

 

“Being an ‘artivist’ [activist artist] is not easy anymore – I started thinking about the role I should play in this era. … I can’t say for sure I will go, but some of my artist friends left because funding has become more challenging,” V said.

 

Source: Voice of America

BELGRADE — Thousands of people blocked roads across Serbia in an anti-government demonstration targeting two new laws that environmentalists say will let foreign companies exploit local resources.

 

Serbia’s government has offered mining rights to two companies, China’s Zijin copper miner and Rio Tinto. Green activists say the projects will pollute land and water in the Balkan nation.

 

The protest is a headache for the ruling Peoples’ Progressive Party led by the President Aleksandar Vucic ahead of parliamentary and presidential election next year.

 

Thousands gathered on the main bridge in the capital, Belgrade, chanting “Rio Tinto go away from the Drina River.”

 

They held banners reading: “Stop investors, save the nature, We are not giving away the nature in Serbia,” and “For the land, the water and the air.”

 

Roadblocks have been set up all over Serbia including the second largest city of Novi Sad in western Serbia, in Sabac, Uzice, and Nis in the south and in Zajecar in the East.

 

“The reason (for the protest) is to protect our land, water and air. We do not want it to be sold cheaply,” said Stefan, a student protesting in Belgrade.

 

Rio Tinto has promised to adhere to all domestic and EU environmental standards, but environmentalists say its planned $2.4 million lithium mine would irreversibly pollute drinking water in the area.

 

The protesters are angry about a referendum law passed last month which will make it harder for people to protest polluting projects, as well as a new expropriation law, which makes it easier for the state to acquire private land.

 

President Vucic, on his Instagram profile, published a picture of the village of Gornje Nedeljice, where Rio Tinto has already started buying land for its future lithium project.

 

Vucic said once the environmental study on the project is complete, he would call a referendum to allow people to decide whether the project should go through.

 

“Everything we build today we are leaving to our children,” Vucic wrote on Instagram.

 

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — In its attempts to revitalize trilateral cooperation with Japan and South Korea, the Biden administration is facing a decadeslong dispute between the allies that is jeopardizing Washington’s goals of curbing Beijing’s growing aggression and Pyongyang’s threats, according to experts.

 

Senior Biden administration officials have been holding multiple meetings with key allies in East Asia to forge trilateral cooperation aimed at achieving its goals for the region and the Indo-Pacific.

 

The Pentagon said Washington’s plans for the region include directing “cooperation with allies and partners” so that it could “deter Chinese military aggression and threats from North Korea,” according to its global posture review released Monday.

 

Reemergence of dispute

 

The latest Washington-Tokyo-Seoul trilateral effort met with a setback, however, when a long-standing strain in Seoul-Tokyo relations surfaced during recent trilateral talks, derailing a joint press conference on November 17.

 

Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo objected to having a scheduled joint press conference alongside South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun because of a long-running territorial dispute over the Liancourt Rocks — known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan — a set of islets in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

 

Seoul and Tokyo’s deep historical animosity also stems from the Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Speaking alone at the press conference, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said, “There are some bilateral differences between Japan and the Republic of Korea that are continuing to be resolved.” The Republic of Korea (ROK) is the official name of South Korea.

 

After Sherman spoke, Masashi Mizobuchi, a spokesperson at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, said Japanese officials withdrew from the press conference to protest a November 16 visit to the disputed islands by the chief of the South Korean police, according to Reuters.

 

South Korean senior officials and lawmakers visit the islets occasionally to reassert South Korea’s territorial claim.

 

At the time, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said his government felt holding a joint press conference with South Korea was inappropriate while the countries were embroiled in a dispute over the islet.

 

South Korea’s Choi said he decided not to take part in the briefing out of concern the dispute would overshadow other issues, according to Bloomberg. “If we held a joint press conference, Japanese media would have asked questions related to the visit, and the two sides would have to rebut one another’s position on Dokdo. We were worried about that,” Choi told reporters in Washington.

Emerging challenge

 

“The weak state of Japan-ROK relations is one of the Biden administration’s greatest vulnerabilities in Asia today,” said Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia and the Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

 

“It allows North Korea to drive wedges and China to resist pressure to abide by international norms,” he added.

 

According to Daniel Sneider, a Japan-Korea relations expert at Stanford University, a possible consequence of failing to coordinate trilateral ties puts Washington’s objective of countering China at risk.

 

“If I were Japanese, and as an American, I would worry a lot more about the Chinese efforts to exercise control and domination over the entire Korean Peninsula,” Sneider said. “They already do that over North Korea, more effectively than I would say about Taiwan.”

 

It is “very important to focus on common security and diplomatic objectives” rather than trying to “broker disagreements about the past,” Green said, adding that the Biden administration has been “making some modest progress” despite some setbacks.

 

A State Department spokesperson, who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the subject, on Wednesday told VOA’s Korean Service that the Biden administration was “committed to strengthening” the trilateral relationship, which is “critical for our shared security and common interest in defending freedom and democracy.”

Both the Japanese and the South Korean foreign ministries also told VOA’s Korean Service that they recognized the importance of trilateral cooperation.

 

A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson who also preferred anonymity because of the subject matter said Thursday that “the collaboration among Japan, the United States and the ROK [is] important for regional peace and stability beyond issues related to North Korea.”

 

Masashi Mizobuchi, a spokesperson at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, emphasized Wednesday that it was “vital to maintain the unity” among Japan, South Korea and the U.S.

 

“These three countries continue to exchange views” on “future response regarding North Korea,” ways to cooperate on “realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, China’s actions in the East and South China seas,” and other global issues, Mizobuchi said.

A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson, while also stressing the importance of the three-way cooperation, said on Wednesday that “the three countries continue to engage in active communication and exchange at various levels, including among the foreign ministers, the vice foreign ministers and special representatives for Korean Peninsula affairs.” The South Korean spokesperson also preferred to remain anonymous because of the subject matter.

 

Enhancing diplomacy

 

Sneider said the Biden administration should intervene through high-level diplomacy committed to trilateral cooperation, given the long-standing historical differences between the two allies.

 

“What is absent is anything at the leadership level” that would show political will of strengthening the trilateral ties, Sneider said. “If you’re a midlevel or a senior-level ministry official in either country, you’re only going to go so far if you don’t have the signal from the top.”

 

Patricia Kim, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies, said, “The continued efforts by the Biden administration to emphasize the importance of trilateral cooperation and to create space for the U.S., Japan and ROK to discuss common concerns and coordinate actions is the right approach.”​

 

Source: Voice of America