Month: February 2022

Singapore broke from ASEAN’s line Monday by saying it would impose sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, after the Southeast Asian bloc, in a statement, neither condemned Moscow nor called the strike on its neighbor an invasion.

Singapore said it would suspend exports of items that could be used as weapons in Ukraine, and that it would block some banking and financial transactions connected to Russia. Analysts called the city-state’s move unprecedented.

“We are witnessing an unprovoked military invasion of a sovereign state as we speak …. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a clear and gross violation of the international norms and a completely unacceptable precedent,” Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told parliament on Monday.

“[W]e will impose export controls on items that can be used directly as weapons in Ukraine to inflict harm or to subjugate the Ukrainians. We will also block certain Russian banks and financial transactions connected to Russia. The specific measures are being worked out and will be announced shortly,” he added.

Singapore and next-door neighbor Indonesia were the only Southeast Asian countries to condemn Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, although the Philippines issued its own strongly worded statement on Monday.

Manila “expresses explicit condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine,” Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a statement, adding that the country had voted “yes” on a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion.

By contrast, a collective statement issued by the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was wishy-washy, according to analysts.

First, ASEAN did not mention Russia in the statement – at all. Second, the statement by ASEAN did not state that what was happening in Ukraine was an invasion. And third, ASEAN asked “all parties” to exercise restraint, in a situation where one country was defending itself from an invasion by a giant neighbor with superior military might.

In their statement, the ASEAN foreign ministers also put the burden of upholding “the principles of mutual respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and equal rights of all nations” on “all parties” rather than just the invading nation.

ASEAN’s bland statement did not surprise Southeast Asia analyst Derek J. Grossman.

“ASEAN predictably can’t bring itself to criticize Russia for invading Ukraine,” the senior defense analyst at the Rand Corp., a U.S. think-tank, said on Twitter.

“Thanks for nothing, ASEAN.”

Southeast Asia expert and academic Zachary Abuza commended Singapore for its stand.

“Once again Singapore is way out front of ASEAN: defending international law, imposing a swath of banking sanctions, a ban on export of dual use tech, travel restrictions, despite the short-term economic costs,” Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, said on Twitter.

“Rare leadership from Southeast Asia.”

ASEAN’s statement also contrasted sharply with vocal protests against the Russian invasion that took place in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and other capitals of members of the regional bloc.

ASEAN Meeting in Washington

Separately, the United States announced Monday that it would host ASEAN leaders at a special meeting in Washington on March 28-29, the Associated Press reported.

“It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner and to strengthen an empowered and unified ASEAN to address the challenges of our time,” AP quoted White House press secretary Jen Psaki as saying in a statement.

The meeting comes as Washington is pushing to make the Indo-Pacific region a top foreign policy priority amid Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea.   

Six Asian governments – including four ASEAN countries – have territorial claims or maritime boundaries in the waterway that overlap with the sweeping claims of China. While Indonesia does not regard itself as party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone.

Lately, stability in Southeast Asia has been threatened with alleged incursions by Chinese vessels in the exclusive economic zones of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia in the South China Sea.

Russia’s military strike on Ukraine has raised fears of similar actions by Beijing in areas it calls its territory.

“[T]his is something that creates a very dangerous legal precedent, especially for an assertive country like China that has repeatedly pushed for its own interpretations of international law, most clearly in the South China Sea,” National War College’s Abuza wrote in a column for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, last week.

Evacuations

Meanwhile, Southeast Asian countries were working overtime to evacuate their nationals from Ukraine, either to neighboring countries, or to bring them back home.

On Feb. 26, two days after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed a directive sent to all government agencies and provincial heads asking them coordinate in providing assistance to the 7,000 Vietnamese who reside in Ukraine, mainly in Kharkiv, Odessa and Kyiv, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA), the parent company of BenarNews.

Additionally, on Monday, Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority asked local airlines to work out plans by March 2 to bringing citizens home, RFA reported.

The sizeable Vietnamese community in Ukraine dates back to the 1980s, when Moscow signed an agreement with Hanoi to allow talented students to study or work in the country.

In Manila, the Philippines foreign affairs department said there were about 350 Filipinos living and working in Ukraine.

On Monday, the department said that about 40 of them had been evacuated safely to areas in Poland, Hungary and Moldova. Six of them have already arrived in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, independent reports confirmed by the Philippine foreign department said that “two vessels with Filipino crew members were hit by a bomb and shelling in the Black Sea.”

A Marshall Islands-flagged and Turkish-owned commercial cargo ship, the Yasa Jupiter, was hit by a bomb off the coast of Ukraine’s port city of Odessa on Feb. 24. Eleven Filipinos were among the crew members.

The Filipinos “were not hurt in the incident” and have already been in touch with their families back home, the department said, citing information gathered by Filipino diplomats.

Another vessel with 21 Filipino seafarers, the Japanese-owned, Panamanian-flagged grain bulk carrier M/V Nomura Queen was “hit by a missile strike in the Black Sea off Odessa and bore damage to its stern,” the department said.

“One Filipino crew member fell upon impact and sustained a non-life threatening injury while the rest of the Filipino crew are safe,” it added.

The vessel was expected in Istanbul for repairs, and the foreign department said it was already in touch with its owner to monitor the condition of the crew.

Elsewhere, nine Malaysians and two of their dependents have been safely evacuated from Kyiv and were expected to reach Malaysia on Tuesday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Monday.

Indonesia has evacuated 31 of its citizens from Ukraine to Poland and Romania.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Teuku Faizasyah, confirmed the news shared by the ministry via Twitter that 25 Indonesian citizens in Odessa, Ukraine had been taken to Bucharest on Sunday, while six Indonesians living in Lviv were evacuated to Poland on Monday.

The ministry said that there were 153 Indonesian nationals in Ukraine, most of whom lived in Kyiv and worked in the manufacturing and service sectors.

There are more than 350 Thais working Ukraine, said the Thai embassy in Warsaw, which has jurisdiction over the former Soviet republic. The embassy said that 99 Thais arrived in Warsaw and Bucharest on Sunday. But officials were most worries about the 14 Thais stranded in Kyiv a city near the border with Russia.

“Our top concern is Thai people stranded in Kharkiv, next to the Russian border. Due to the situation, we cannot take them out,” Chettaphan Maksamphan, the Thai ambassador to Poland, said on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday.

“The situation in Kharkiv is really bad. We told those Thais to stay put,” he wrote.

BenarNews reporters Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok, Ronna Nirmala in Jakarta, Suganya Lingan in Kuala Lumpur, Basilio Sepe and Jojo Riñoza in Manila, and RFA’s Vietnamese Service contributed to this report.  BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

The Chinese government has demolished a third Tibetan Buddhist statue in what sources told RFA is the latest example of official efforts to stamp out the Tibetans’ religious traditions.

The statue of Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, is the third verified by RFA as having been destroyed by Chinese officials since December. It once stood three-stories high at the Chanang Monastery in Drago (in Chinese Luhuo) county of the Kardze (in Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It was razed in late January, sources living in exile and satellite imagery revealed.

“This is the second massive destruction in Drago in January alone,” a Tibetan living in exile told RFA’s Tibetan Service. 

RFA reported that another three-story statue at a different monastery in Drago had been destroyed in early January, only weeks after authorities toppled a 99-foot Buddha statue just 900 meters (2,700) away. A three-story structure is around 40 feet high.

Satellite imagery of the Chanang Monastery taken Oct. 3, 2019 shows the the site of the statue of Padmasambhava which stood three-stories high, but an image taken Feb. 25, 2022 shows the destruction of the statue as indicated by the circular objects on the ground.    

“Though there has been no explanation of the reasons for its destruction, it falls in line with the Chinese government’s policy of demolishing Tibetan religious sites in the region,” the exiled Tibetan said.

The source noted that the Padmasambhava statue had only been built six years ago.

“Though the Chinese authorities warned that they would demolish the statue last year, one of the Lamas of the monastery had documentation supporting the significance of the statue, so the demolition was pushed to a later date,” the source said.

“After the appointment of Wang Dongsheng as the secretary of the Drago County Party Committee in 2021, he put more priority on the statue’s demolition in line with the Chinese Communist Party’s hardline policies against Tibetans,” the source said.

Sometimes, Chinese authorities make up regulations to justify the demolition of Tibetan statues, another Tibetan exile told RFA.

“When the Chinese government demolished the 99-foot statue of Buddha and the three-story statue of Maitreya Buddha at Gaden Namyal Ling monastery in Drago, they trotted out unbelievable justifications such as that the height of the statue was not appropriate … or that it was blocking the pathway within the monastery compound,” the second source said.

“But this statue of Padmasambhava in not in the way of the monastery, so it is evident that it can be nothing but the Chinese government’s encroachment on Tibetans’ religious freedom,” the second source said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

North Korean soldiers must complete an educational course lionizing the country’s previous leaders ahead of the national founder’s birthday celebration, prompting complaints from some military members already exhausted by extensive winter training, sources in the military told RFA.

Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, was born on April 15, a major holiday now known as the “Day of the Sun.” His son and successor, Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), was born on Feb. 16, the “Day of the Shining Star.”

The two holidays solidify the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family, which has now ruled North Korea for three generations.

RFA reported in late January that citizens nationwide were forced to attend propaganda lectures ahead of the 80^th Day of the Shining Star this year. Ahead of the 110^th Day of the Sun, the focus is on solidifying loyalty among members of the armed forces, but the soldiers are complaining that they are overworked and need food and rest.

The new educational plan is the brainchild of the General Political Bureau. It seeks to underscore the achievements of the two late leaders, as well as draw upon them for martial inspiration, a military source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA’s Korean Service Feb. 23.

“The timing of the project will differ slightly depending on the circumstances of each unit but starting from the end of February until the Day of the Sun, lecture sessions, presentation sessions, exhibitions of publications and documentary film study sessions will be conducted in every unit with the aim of recognizing the greatness and immortal achievements of the predecessors,” said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“In addition, various idolization books such as ‘The Great Appearance of General Kim Il Sung,’ ‘Great Steps,’ and ‘Anecdote of Military-First Revolution’ were distributed to each unit,” he said.

The soldiers will also be made to update statues and portrait shrines dedicated to the two late leaders in each unit.

“A project to replace the figures of the Sun with new statues and portraits, and to replace older revolutionary history catalogs with newer ones … must be displayed before the Day of the Sun in the education room in each battalion and company,” the source said.

“The soldiers are really unhappy with this new ideological education plan. They say that what they desperately need right now is not a new catalog of revolutionary history or education about the previous leaders’ greatness. They need to eat well and have a day of rest,” he said.

The education plan asks the entire army to throw away illusions of peace and be ready for battle at any time, a military-related source in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA.

“They instructed the soldiers to … welcome the Day of the Sun while successfully completing their ongoing winter training and preparing for battle mobilization,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“The soldiers have been suffering from nonstop training without proper rest since the start of the year. They have been forced to participate in various events since the beginning of the year for the Day of the Shining Star, so the officers and soldiers are exhausted,” he said.

The soldiers want to get through the Day of the Sun events quickly and hopefully rest for the remainder of the day, the second source said.

“Perhaps because this year marks the 110th anniversary of the Day of the Sun, [the authorities] are strongly pushing forward the political ideology education project. The soldiers are complaining of fatigue as they are pushing the officers and soldiers to prepare in advance.”

Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Thousands of Chinese nationals remain stranded in Ukraine, nearly four days after the Russian invasion, despite official promises to evacuate them.

The Chinese embassy in Kyiv told Chinese citizens in Ukraine to make preparations to evacuate the country on Friday, warning of a “high security risk,” and calling on them to register with the authorities to take charter flights out of the country.

But by Monday, no more had been heard from officials on the evacuation plan, according volunteer in touch with Chinese nationals in Kyiv.

“As far as I know, there are a lot of them down in subway stations in urban areas,” the volunteer, surnamed Wen, told RFA. “[The evacuation plan] simply wasn’t going to work because so many of the bridges have been blown up.”

“They said they would charter flights, and several of my friends registered, but there has been no next step,” she said.

A Chinese national who escaped across the border to Moldova said many other Chinese nationals are hoping to follow him.

“A lot of Chinese nationals who want to leave Ukraine are contacting me right now,” the man said. “I am telling them how to do it.”

Unconfirmed social media posts said the Chinese ambassador has been evacuated to Russia, alongside employees of China’s Huawei telecoms giant, leaving regular Chinese citizens behind to fend for themselves. State news agency Xinhua published a report on Sunday saying ambassador Fan Rong was still in Ukraine, however.

Nationals of democratic Taiwan had been picked up by cars sent by their embassy and driven all the way to Poland, while group chat participants on WeChat were unable to discuss concrete arrangements for fear of getting their accounts shut down by Chinese censors.

Repeated calls to the Chinese embassy in Ukraine rang unanswered during office hours on Monday, as did calls to to the consulate in Odessa.

Narrative vs. reality

Meanwhile, Chinese nationals trapped in Ukraine have been attacked and harassed by Ukrainians angered by their government’s support for Putin, according to social media reports.

Former Southern Metropolis Daily editor Cheng Yizhong said ties between Beijing and the Kremlin had warmed considerably since CCP leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

“Xi Jinping has elevated the relationship with Russia since he came to power … so the Propaganda Department has an overreaching narrative, which is to avoid criticizing Russia,” Cheng told RFA. “It’s all about prioritizing politics, without taking into account that things aren’t the way Putin says they are.”

Any Chinese nationals stuck in Ukrainian cities faces overnight bombing raids and shelling, according to Ukrainian Arthur Kharytonov, a member of the Ukraine-based Free Hong Kong Center, which has campaigned for greater solidarity with Hong Kong amid a national security crackdown on dissent and political opposition under the CCP.

“I’m right now in the very city center of Kyiv because the fight is here,” Kharytonov told RFA. “It’s difficult, very difficult because … Russia is attacking only at night. Last night was very hard. It was a lot of bombing attacks in Kyiv … and a lot of gunfire all around the city.”

“And this night will be the same. So of course, I’m quite scared,” he said. “It’s very terrible to know that you could be killed, right now.”

Kharytonov said he had decided to stay because Kyiv was better defended than most of the county.

“We have no secure place here in Ukraine; every city is under attack,” he said. “So even to travel is quite dangerous.”

He welcomed moves to exclude Russia from SWIFT international payments network.

“Russian money [is] Putin’s money. So if Russia is losing money, Putin loses his money,” Kharytonov said. “We hope that it will provoke huge protests [that] will attack Putin, and to make him stop the war.”

“We just want them to [go] back to Russia, to liberate all our territories, including Crimea and Donbass. And let them leave how they want, but we don’t need them in Ukraine,” he said.

Tasteless jokes cause trouble

The renewed attacks on Ukrainian cities came as Chinese nationals stranded in the country called on Chinese social media commentators to stop joking about getting Ukrainian women as a result of the war, as the popular joke was making them a target of suspicion and hostility among Ukrainians.

“These comments have been translated by the Ukrainian media, so basically everyone knows about it now,” one student said in a video clip circulating on Twitter. “Now, old ladies and young people alike are questioning Chinese students in the bomb shelters in Kyiv [about this].”

“This means a lot of [Chinese] students are afraid to stay in the subway stations [during air raids],” the student said. “I hope you keyboard warriors will keep your words to yourselves so we have a hope of surviving.”

“Some of us are asking us where we’re from, and we say we’re Japanese,” the student said. “Thanks to you guys, we daren’t even say we’re Chinese.”

“You lack morality and a sense of truth; you aren’t even human. So many people have died, and you say that’s a good thing because you can get their women?”

A Ukrainian woman with the nickname Masha also took to the Chinese platform Weibo to call on people to quit making jokes about the war.

“These online jokes about the war are deeply hurting the feelings of the Ukrainian people, and also affecting our Chinese friends living and working here,” she said. “In the past couple days, there has been a difference in atmosphere … maybe your jokes are having an adverse effect on them.”

The Chinese embassy issued a statement in the early hours of Saturday morning, calling on Chinese nationals to conceal their identities, and not to display the Chinese flag.

The official China News Service also called on social media users to “learn to put themselves in others’ shoes, be considerate of the suffering of others during a war, stay moral, and speak rationally about the war, and don’t be a jeering spectator.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

China has launched military training on Hainan island, its most southerly province, a day after the U.S. 7^th Fleet announced that one of its destroyers transited the Taiwan Strait.

The Hainan Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigation warning saying military training would take place from Sunday to Tuesday close to the sea and that entering the area within a six-mile radius was prohibited.

A navigation warning is a public advisory notice to mariners about changes to navigational aids and current marine activities or hazards including fishing zones and military exercises.

The warning did not specify what kind of military training but the provided coordinates indicated the location is near China’s Wenchang Rocket Launch Site.

On Saturday, the U.S. Navy 7^th Fleet said in a statement that its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson was “conducting a routine Taiwan Strait transit.”

The statement said the transit was conducted “through international waters in accordance with international law” and “through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State.”

Before this and most recently, the USS Dewey made a similar transit on Jan. 22, 2022, and the USS Chaffe on Dec. 15, 2021. But those two ships did not turn on their automatic identification system (AIS), whereas the USS Ralph Johnson did, effectively advertizing its mission.

The 7^th Fleet said the USS Ralph Johnson’s transit “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Taiwan’s security

The move was heavily criticized by China. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command spokesman, Sr. Col. Shi Yi, was quoted by Chinese state media as saying that “such an action is provocative and aims to embolden Taiwan separatist forces.”

Shi also called the U.S. action “hypocritical and futile” and said the PLA tracked and monitored the destroyer’s movements.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and vows to take it back, by force if necessary.

While it’s not unusual for the U.S. navy to sail through the Taiwan Strait, Saturday’s mission took place against a tense international backdrop, as fighting intensifies in Ukraine after an invasion by Russian forces.

There has been speculation that China could exploit a situation in which Washington was preoccupied by Ukraine by taking action against Taiwan or in the South China Sea.

Beijing has rejected that suggestion, but the Ukraine conflict has at the very least highlighted the diplomatic gulf between Washington and Beijing, as China avoids direct criticism of Russia’s conduct.

The hawkish Chinese tabloid Global Times said “while the ongoing Ukraine-Russia tussle is intensifying, the U.S. military is attempting to demonstrate its capabilities to stir up trouble” in both Europe and Asia.

The same newspaper in an editorial last week warned Taiwan that the Ukrainian crisis proved that “Washington is not reliable” and there is only one option for the island’s future – “to achieve reunification with the mainland.”

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense on Monday said “in response to the development of the Ukrainian-Russian military conflict,” Taiwan’s army continues to “maintain a high degree of vigilance and closely monitors the military dynamics around the Taiwan Strait to ensure national security.”

One lesson that China can learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Alexander Vuving, a professor with the Hawaii-based Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, is that a unilateral decision to take over a smaller country won’t be acceptable in modern times.

“I think China is not yet ready to launch an invasion of Taiwan,” Vuving said, adding: “But China will intensify its ‘testing’ action to test the capabilities and resolve of its opponents across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea.”