Day: January 3, 2022

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit violence-ridden Myanmar on Friday despite the explosion of two bombs near the Cambodian Embassy on Dec. 31, a Foreign Ministry official said Monday.

The blasts from the two improvised explosive devices caused no damage or casualties but they underscore the turmoil in Myanmar since February 2021, when the country’s military overthrew the elected government. Nearly 1,400 people have been killed and 11,328 have been arrested in the past 11 months, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Thailand.

Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong told RFA in a written message that he trusts Myanmar to protect the safety of Hun Sen and other Cambodian officials when they visit to “work for a solution” to the crisis and bring Myanmar back into the fold among the other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The planned trip “will not be changed because we trust the host country to protect the safety of the guests,” he wrote.

Cambodia holds the rotating chair of ASEAN for 2022 and has said it will focus on strengthening the 10-member regional political bloc’s centrality and unity.

Brunei, the former chair of ASEAN, was criticized for allowing Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to attend the ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Indonesia in April 2020, where member states agreed to a five-point consensus on Myanmar.

The consensus called for an immediate end of violence in Myanmar, constructive dialogue among all parties, and the creation of a special envoy.

But some ASEAN nations refused to let Min Aung Hlaing attend the ASEAN Summit in October, saying they preferred a non-political figure because the junta did not follow through on the five-point agreement.

Koy Kuong did not respond to a question from RFA about whether Cambodia was concerned that some ASEAN member states might boycott the next summit, which is to be hosted by Cambodia, because of disagreement over Myanmar.

Hun Sen has acknowledged Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, chief of Myanmar’s military and the junta government, as the country’s head of state.

Some Burmese have condemned Hun Sen on social media and burned photos of him in public for planning to meet with junta leaders, and have pledged to protest against the presence of the prime minister and his one-party government.

Cambodia is leading ASEAN in the wrong direction, causing it to be divided over the Myanmar issue, said Ear Sophal, an associate dean and professor at the Thunderbird School of Management in Phoenix, Arizona.

“[It is] totally splintering ASEAN and making the organization look foolish,” he said. “If ASEAN cannot stand up to Myanmar’s generals, the [member states] might as well go home.

“Cambodia has no credibility when it comes to democracy,” he said. “Of course, Hun Sen wants to embrace the Myanmar generals — they are the same, but different.”

Ear Sophal also said that the participation of Myanmar’s military leaders in the next ASEAN Summit would likely lead the heads of some member states to boycott the meeting.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Inflation in North Korea has caused the price of even government issued calendars to skyrocket, to the point that they have become a status symbol separating rich and poor in the isolated country, sources there told RFA.

It was once customary every December for the government to give each household an official one-page calendar marking the Gregorian and Juche dates, the latter named after national founder Kim Il Sung’s ideology of self-reliance and counting the number of years since his birth in April 1912.

But in recent years people have had to be self-reliant and pay for their annual gift. Several different types of calendars also became available.

Six-page double-sided calendars with color photos that dedicate an individual page for each month, printed in the capital Pyongyang, cost the most. Each province also has several locally printed ones that are cheaper but are of lesser quality.

RFA reported last year that the 2021 calendars were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The closure of the border with China and suspension of trade made imported paper and ink scarce, and in mid-January, people still hadn’t received their calendars.

In 2022 the same issues as last year persist. A second year without imports has ruined North Korea’s economy and made food shortages worse. Under these conditions, the price of calendars has increased as much as fourfold, and only those fortunate enough not to be worrying about their next meal can even think about which of the “government-gifted” calendar they want to buy.

“One change is noticeable in the New Year’s calendar. They added another slogan, beyond the usual ‘Our great comrades, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, are with us forever,’” a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service Dec. 27.

“The new calendar also says, ‘We wish for the well-being of the General Secretary,’” said the source, referring to current leader Kim Jong Un by his official title.

In the northwestern province of North Pyongan, the Pyongyang-printed calendars are popular, but expensive, a resident of North Pyongan province told RFA on the same day.

“The New Year’s calendars have been published and they are being sold at market stalls in each region,” the source said. 

“But the calendars with color photos that were printed in Pyongyang, are so expensive that ordinary citizens cannot afford to buy them,” said the North Pyongan source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

In addition to the Pyongyang calendars, there are two or three locally printed calendars available to the residents of North Pyongan.

“The six-page national calendars are popular because they… use a higher quality of paper and show beautiful landscape photos,” said the North Pyongan source.

A six-page Pyongyang calendar last year cost 10 yuan (U.S. $1.57), but this year they cost between 30 and 40 yuan, or the cost of several dozen kilograms of corn, according to the North Pyongan source.

“Who other than the super-rich would be willing to buy a calendar for that much?” said the North Pyongan source.

Production of calendars was delayed even more than last year in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, the resident of that province said.

“A simple one-page calendar, with the 12 months printed on a single sheet, and a six-page picture calendar appeared in the market only a few days ago,” said the North Hamgyong source.

“The official national calendar, with a separate month on each page, has a government-mandated price of 3,000 won (U.S. $0.60). There are limited copies of this calendar distributed to each of the state-run companies and units. These calendars are smuggled out and are being traded in the market at the ridiculously high price of 30 to 40 yuan ($4.70-6.30),” said the North Hamgyong source.

There are some who still receive the calendars as free gifts, according to the North Hamgyong source.

“This year the gift was limited to honored veterans, leaving most ordinary residents to spend the whole year without a calendar.”

Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Xi’an’s 13 million residents were left bargaining and bartering for essential foodstuffs amid ongoing food shortages, as the city entered its 11th day of lockdown amid a wave of COVID-19 cases.

As some people took to social media to appeal for assistance as their food supplies ran low, or they were unable to access medical care, others started local trading networks in residential compounds to try to meet each other’s needs through bartering.

“Everything is getting bartered in Xi’an,” a resident of the city surnamed Wang told RFA. “People are swapping stuff with others in the same building, because they no longer have enough food to eat.”

Another resident said in a video clip that some people were trading cigarettes and iPhones for bags of rice. “We now have a barter system in our residential compound,” the man says in the clip. “We had a bag of rice, and the neighbor wanted to trade … a smartphone and a tablet.”

“We have six bags of rice in our home but no vegetables.”

Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Xi’an have called for calm, as many in Xi’an are taking to social media complaining that they were unable to get sufficient food supplies after being ordered to stay in their homes.

The city authorities have deployed around 29,000 police officers to enforce the lockdown, while countless local security guards are preventing people from entering or leaving areas designated high or medium risk.

One video clip that made the rounds on social media showed security guards beating a teenager in the lobby of a building because he went out to buy steamed buns.

“I was hungry, so I came out to get some mantou,” the youngster is heard telling the guards, who beat and kick him, knocking his food to the ground. City authorities later said the guards had been punished.

Residents were initially told they would be allowed to send a designated person to buy groceries every other day, but many have since told RFA that the security guards in many areas aren’t allowing anyone to leave.

Those who can make it out to buy supplies are finding that prices have skyrocketed, especially of fresh fruit and vegetables, despite a well publicized effort by the government and volunteers to bring fresh produce into the city in large quantities to hand out to beleaguered residents.

One video clip posted to social media showed a man who said he had paid around 40 yuan for 10 capsicum peppers, the same amount for six tomatoes and 40 yuan for two cabbages.

“The vegetable vendor must be making a fortune,” the man complains, while showing his haul to friends.

‘Spoiled for choice’

State media, which is tightly controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported on a line of trucks hauling a selection of vegetables, fresh fruit and pork belly into residential households in one part of the city on Dec. 29, delivering fresh food to around 180 households.

But the address given in the news report was tracked down by social media users, who discovered it was a residential compound for employees of the Shaanxi Provincial People’s Congress and the Xi’an municipal government, prompting a public outcry on social media.

A Xi’an resident surnamed Song said the food given to the families of officials looked luxurious compared with what regular people are getting.

“They were spoiled for choice when it comes vegetables,” Song said. “Where can regular people find stuff like that?”

“I managed to get one head of Chinese leaves, a zucchini, four bell peppers, three heads of garlic, a piece of ginger, two scallions and three potatoes,” she said.

According to the Shaanxi provincial government, a total of 41,000 police officers have been dispatched to Xi’an to maintain public order, with 29,000 of those deployed to Xi’an, 20,352 of whom are working in residential compounds.

Some 4,000 are operating traffic roadblocks, while others are guarding hotels or COVID-19 testing sites.

Stability maintenance 

A Shaanxi scholar who gave only the surname Tian said the government’s top priority in times of crisis is always maintaining public order and social stability, rather than looking after the needs of ordinary people.

“They have been building up the stability maintenance system ever since 2004,” Tian said. “They say there are only 40,000 police officers in Xi’an, but actually there are many more [security personnel] who aren’t police, including neighborhood committees and security in charge of buildings.”

“There are also village officials and their teams and so on,” he said.

Commentator Han Dapeng said the lockdown doesn’t appear to be preventing the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, however.

“They used this total lockdown method on Wuhan last year, but Omicron is still going strong,” Han said. “Yet the rates of fatality and severe disease are both very low.”

“I don’t think this Xi’an lockdown is about disease prevention,” he said. “It’s more about controlling the population.”

State news agency Xinhua reported that China had 161 confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide on Monday, 101 of which were locally transmitted.

New cases in Xi’an fell to their lowest in a week, health officials said Sunday, as the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursues a “zero COVID” approach involving tight border restrictions and swift, targeted lockdowns.

Zhang Canyou of the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that several rounds of testing in Xi’an had showed there are “some positive changes” in case numbers, which have dipped since the lockdown began.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Popular Hong Kong media organization Citizen News has announced it will cease operations in the wake of a national security police raid on pro-democracy news site Stand News, which folded after two of its senior journalists were arrested for “sedition” last week.

“Citizen News will cease operations from Jan. 4, 2022,” the site said in a post to its Facebook page at the weekend. “The website will no longer be updated, and will eventually close down entirely.”

“It is with great sadness that we thank all of our subscribers for their support; we will carry your deep love with us, recorded in our memories,” the award-winning platform, crowdfunded in 2017, told its more than 800,000 followers.

“We have been trying our best not to violate any laws but we can no longer see clearly the boundaries of law enforcement and we feel that it’s no longer safe to continue our work,” Citizen News co-founder Chris Yeung, who has previously served as president of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA) told journalists on Monday.

“Journalists are people too, with families and friends, and we need to take the fact that this is an unsafe environment seriously,” Yeung said.

Citizen News chief editor Daisy Li, also a former HKJA president, said trying to operate within the confines of an ongoing crackdown on freedom of the press wasn’t an option.

“I can’t even figure out whether such-and-such a story or report, or even such a sentence … will break the law under the new regime we have, and I’m the editor-in-chief,” Li said.

“If I’m not confident managing our reporters to keep working … then surely I have some responsibility towards them [to stop]?” she said. “Can we stickto safe news? Is that even possible?”

Yeung said Citizen News hadn’t been contacted by law enforcement, but had taken a preemptive decision based on what happened to Stand News.

The Dec. 29 raid saw more than 200 police officers raid Stand News offices, and seven people arrested on suspicion of “sedition” under a colonial-era law. An asset freeze using powers under the national security law prompted the outlet to cease operations immediately and lay off all staff.

Two senior editors at the now-shuttered Stand News have now been charged under colonial-era sedition laws, while five other arrestees have been granted bail.

The nationalistic Global Times newspaper, which has close ties to CCP mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said Citizen News had used its privilege to criticize Beijing and the Hong Kong authorities, and showed it was likely “unable to adapt to the new situation” in Hong Kong, where the national security law forbids such criticism.

The site’s closure comes after it was denounced by Hong Kong secretary for security Chris Tang for a “misleading report” after it said he had refused to guarantee that freedom of speech would be protected, despite being promised in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

“Similar to Stand News, it also published articles harshly criticizing the central government and also the Communist Party of China. For example, in an article published in June, it referred to the CPC leadership as “dictatorship” and criticized it for “abusing its power” in controlling the local governance in Hong Kong,” the Global Times said.

“Despite a chorus of Western media-led criticism, the Hong Kong government will continue implementing the national security law … to regulate media outlets, which cannot become platforms for instigating social conflicts or anti-China movements, nor a channel for brainwashing and poisoning the mind’s of Hong Kong’s youths,” it said.

Political commentator To Yiu-ming said that once national security police have targeted media outlets for “sedition,” the authorities will likely move ahead with plans to crack down on what they say is “fake news.”

“Just like the Ministry of Truth in [George Orwell’s dystopian novel] 1984, they will be the one sole source of the truth, and only they can know or judge which news is true,” To told RFA.

“Its similar to the old Soviet-style concept of news, in which those in power decide what is true and what isn’t, and the media are only allowed to convey the official truth,” he said.

‘This has shocked the whole world’

On the democratic island of Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Liu Shih-fang said that Hong Kong had seen the demise of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, Stand News and Citizen News in recent months, indicating that the CCP’s promises of freedom of speech and publication for Hong Kong were officially now dead.

“This has shocked the whole world,” Liu told RFA. “We never expected that [CCP leader] Xi Jinping and [Hong Kong chief executive] Carrie Lam would ensure that there was no room whatsoever for freedom of speech.”

“Nor that freedom and democracy would disappear bit by bit [in Hong Kong],” Liu said.

Liu called on the ruling DPP and “all progressive forces” in Taiwan and around the world to stand in solidarity with Hong Kong.

“We should do our best to help in any way we can,” Liu said. “I also call on the international community to … condemn high-ranking officials in Hong Kong,” Liu said.

Former Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kei, who fled to Taiwan after been detained by Chinese police for selling banned political books to customers in mainland China, appeared less surprised.

“It’s obvious that any publication is now going to be subjected to strict censorship,” Lam said. “It’s possible that the publishing industry will be exactly the same as that in mainland China, where any book without a [CCP-approved] book number is considered illegal.”

“We have already seen curbs on the screening of movies and musical performances,” he said. “I can’t see any indication that this will let up; to put it bluntly, Hongkongers are finished.”

Former Stand News acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam and former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen, and the company that owns the media outlet were charged with conspiring “together and with other persons, to publish and/or reproduce seditious publications”, court documents showed.

They also stand accused of inciting “hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection” against the government and the incitement of “persons to violence”.

Four former Stand News board members including Cantopop star Denise Ho were released on bail without charge, while the seventh arrestee, Chan Pui-man, is already in custody awaiting trial on separate charges under the national security law, which was imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing from July 1, 2020 following citywide pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Hong Kong on Monday swore in a new batch of members of the city’s Legislative Council (LegCo), who were elected under new rules designed to ensure that only “patriots” pre-approved by a Beijing-backed committee can stand in elections.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

North Koreans hit by food shortages and soaring prices caused by the closing of cross-border trade with China are now finding it hard to buy cooking oil, an essential commodity, sources say.

Cooking oil previously cost less than 10,000 North Korean won, or about U.S. $2 per kilogram, but has now become more expensive, a resident of Puryong county in North Hamgyong province told RFA.

“Now, it costs around 45,000 North Korean won [U.S. $9], and there are cases now where the cooking oil stand is empty due to insufficient quantity in the marketplaces, so people sometimes aren’t able to buy it,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“If you don’t have sugar or seasoning, you just don’t eat it, but oil is essential to our diet,” the source said. “However, it has been a long time since many residents have cooked with cooking oil.”

The source said that he had recently bought a small bottle of cooking oil to help celebrate the New Year and had encountered a group of other women from her village on her way home.

“I was astonished to hear them say that they hadn’t had any cooking oil for a long time and couldn’t even remember when they had it last,” he said. “A woman living next door to me said she had not been able to use cooking oil at all since the fall of last year. She was jealous of the oil that I had.”

Also speaking to RFA, a resident of Manpo city in Chagang province said that cooking oil is now commonly sold in small bottles or plastic bags of 50 or 100 grams.

“And if someone is seen carrying cooking oil packed in 2-kilogram cans, everyone looks at that person with envy,” the source said. “I bought half a bottle, about 500 grams, of oil a couple of months ago, and I’m using it little by little. And when you see other families, you can hardly find side dishes cooked with oil.

“The authorities have said they will solve the cooking-oil problem by cultivating crops of oil plants such as sunflower and castor bean, but in reality we’re not seeing any farms growing oil plants. Total national production would probably be negligible anyway,” he said.

Also missing from many North Korean tables this year is a red bean porridge called patjuk, a popular traditional winter food believed to ward off bad luck in the new year, but now largely out of residents’ reach due to rising prices, sources said.

“Just like last year, many residents cannot afford to make patjuk and are instead making porridge from corn,” said a resident of North Hwanghae province, which borders South Korea.

“Only some people have enough money to afford beans, but for regular citizens this has become a luxury,” the source said, also speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

North Korea now needs external food aid to meet its basic needs, according to a Dec. 2 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The FAO said North Korea should have imported 1.06 million tons of grain between November 2020 and November 2021 to cover the gap between supply and demand, but trade with China has been on hold since January 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Reported by Chang Gyu Ahn and Jieun Kim for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun and Claire Lee. Written in English by Richard Finney.