Day: February 10, 2022

North Korean workers in China are forbidden to travel to Beijing during the Winter Olympics, as Pyongyang is afraid they could get swept up in Olympic fever and “betray their homeland” by contacting South Koreans, sources in China told RFA.

In the Chinese city of Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River border from the North Korean city of Sinuiju, a consulate oversees thousands of workers dispatched by the government of Kim Jong Un to China to earn desperately needed foreign currency.

North Korean trade workers make deals with Chinese businesses to procure goods to ship into North Korea, or to provide laborers for factory work.

Business during the coronavirus pandemic has been rough. With factories shut down and trade with North Korea suspended from January 2020 to last month, many of the workers can’t even cover their own living expenses in China. The Olympics could reveal to them how much better off the rest of the world is.

This is why the consulate last week told everyone not to travel long-distance until the Feb. 4-20 Olympics are over, a North Korean trade worker in Dandong told RFA’s Korean Service.

“If they have to travel outside of Dandong, even if they need emergency supplies to send back to the homeland, they need to report their intention to travel to the consulate in advance, show their train ticket reservation, and inform the consulate who they will meet and the time and place of the meeting,” said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“They underscored that travel to Beijing and the surrounding areas, where the Winter Olympics are happening right now, is strictly prohibited. If there’s an urgent need to meet with a Chinese counterpart in or around Beijing, they must travel under the supervision of a companion designated by a state security agent,” he said.

The consulate in Shenyang, which is within the same province as Dandong, requires trade workers there to report on their activities daily, a source familiar with the consulate told RFA.

“They have to report the details of who they met and what they did each day through the end of the Winter Olympics,” the second source, who also requested anonymity for security reasons, said.

“Family members of North Korean trade officials stationed in China are also being closely monitored to make sure their movements and ideological conditioning are not heading towards Beijing,” the second source said.

Pyongyang is afraid that the spectacle of the Olympic Games could be alluring to the North Koreans in China, the second source said.

“The consulate warned that if a family member of a trade official is caught travelling to Beijing to watch the Winter Olympics, the trade official and their whole family will be punished as anti-party counter-revolutionaries,” he said.

“They fear that the trade officials and their families might come in contact with hostile forces, including people from South Korea, and this could cause them to betray their motherland during the Winter Olympics,” the second source said.

With the trade officials themselves having trouble making ends meet right now, “their ideology could easily be shaken,” the source said. “Their motivations could easily be bought by hostile forces such as South Korea, so the North Korean authorities continue to closely monitor their movements”

There are an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 North Koreans working in China, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Person’s Report.

North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019.

But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions.

North Korea announced in January that it would not send athletes to the Beijing Olympics due to the coronavirus and what it called “hostile forces.”

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

A Cambodian woman freed on Wednesday after serving four years in jail for posting a video of herself throwing a shoe at a poster of Prime Minister Hun Sen said she had taken out a loan to pay the fine imposed to secure her release.

Sam Sokha, a supporter of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested in Thailand in February 2018 by Thai authorities and forced to return to Cambodia despite having earlier been granted refugee status by the United Nations’ refugee agency.

The former factory worker had faced another six months in jail unless she could raise 10 million riels (U.S. $2,460) to pay the fine levied this week by the Kampong Speu Provincial Court. But after raising the money to pay the fine, the court refused to give her a receipt, she told RFA on Thursday.

“They could be afraid that I might post the receipt on social media to prove that they had pressured me to pay 10 million riel,” she said. She is still concerned for her security however as she now has no proof that she has paid her fine, she added.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of the rights group Licadho, said it is rare that a Cambodian court will force a person already released from jail to pay a fine, calling the provincial court’s move “very strict.” The court should have given Sam Sokha more time to pay the fine, he said.

“She was given only one day to raise 10 million riel. This was not nearly enough time, even if she had properties to sell,” he said.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said that Cambodian courts use excessive fines as a “roundabout way” to keep human rights activists like Sam Sokha behind bars.

“Her entire conviction was ludicrous to start with, and shows how Prime Minister Hun Sen treats the judicial system as his plaything to settle vendettas against anyone who dares ridicule him,” Robertson said.

“This additional six-month sentence is just adding insult to injury in a case where human rights have been abused from the start. But Sam Sokha can take heart that many people are still laughing every time they watch her video with her infamous shoe.”

Sam Sokha is one of dozens of CNRP supporters who have been detained for protests against the crackdown on the party by Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than 35 years.

Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017 in a move that allowed the ruling Cambodian People’s Party to win all 125 seats in Parliament in a July 2018 election and drew U.S. sanctions and the suspension of trade privileges with the European Union.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Richard Finney.

The Philippines took delivery on Thursday of four American-made Cessna planes for training navy pilots to help safeguard Manila’s maritime territories, the government said, amid tensions with Beijing in the disputed South China Sea.

The United States handed over the U.S. $2.2-million package of Cessna 172 Skyhawk planes a day after China agreed to donate millions of dollars in military and other equipment to the Philippines despite a territorial dispute in the sea with Manila, as both superpowers ratchet up competition for allies in the Indo-Pacific.

American embassy officials turned the four aircraft to Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana at the Naval Air Wing in Sangley Point, south of Manila.

“These air assets will significantly improve the navy’s ability to prepare naval pilots for the crucial task of monitoring and safeguarding our maritime territories and domain,” Lorenzana said.

“As we rejoice over this milestone, we also recognize the productive and enduring relationship between the United States and the Philippines, which is the key to the success of this acquisition program. … We acknowledge our shared commitment to help preserve the peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Manila acquired the aircraft through the U.S. Foreign Military Financing Program, which allows Washington’s allies to buy excess American defense equipment at deep discounts.

The Philippines and the U.S. have long been allies, and are bound by the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which calls on them to aid each other in times of war, or external aggression by a third party.

The treaty has never been used or tested, but Washington has assured Manila about its readiness to fulfill its duty in the face of an increasingly assertive China, which has ignored a 2016 international arbitral court ruling that threw out its claims to almost the entire South China Sea.

The U.S. has delivered a number of pieces of equipment to aid the Philippine military’s modernization program, including two second-hand U.S. Coast Guard cutters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and weapons.

Lorenzana said the “ardent support” of Washington in the Philippines’ military modernization program “is very much appreciated and valued” not only by the defense department but by the entire Filipino nation.

“[I] thank you for steadfastly holding the other end of our enduring partnership, that is helping us modernize our armed forces … On our end, rest assured that we are committed more than ever to the alliance,” he said.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Two of China’s athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics — figure skater Zhu Yi and freestyle skier Eileen Gu — were born in the United States, but later decided to embrace their Chinese heritage and represent the host nation at the Olympics.

Yet they have been very differently received in China, with Zhu castigated on social media after a number of falls while skating, and Gu lionized after she took gold in the women’s freestyle skiing big air final at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

While California-born Gu has been lauded for her patriotism despite dodging questions about her current nationality, Zhu has been subjected to harsh criticism for “messing up,” and for her relative lack of fluency in Mandarin, despite having publicly renounced her U.S. citizenship in 2018.

“She should learn Chinese properly first; then maybe talk about how patriotic she is,” one user commented acerbically on social media.

Zhu’s tears, obvious self-criticism and a father who returned to the motherland to work as a top-level artificial intelligence expert don’t seem to have softened the online criticism either, while praise for Gu appears to be everywhere.

“Zhu really messed up,” one comment said, while another opined that “her performance was unacceptable.” Mistakes by Gu, who speaks fluent Mandarin with a Beijing accent, were regarded as “cute,” on the other hand.

“Eileen Gu speaks fluent Chinese, and even has a Beijing accent, making it easier for her to connect with Chinese social media users,” Chiaoning Su, assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Oakland University, told RFA.

“She is also very popular in Chinese media and online because of her appearance … and her status as a Stanford University student,” Su said.

“Zhu Yi’s Chinese isn’t great by comparison, and so that gives the impression of greater distance … so it puts her in a more unflattering light,” she said.

Free pass

Yet Gu has been unwilling to address the issue of patriotic allegiance head on.

“When I’m in the U.S., I’m American, and when I’m in China, I’m Chinese, she has replied to journalists’ questions about whether she has renounced her U.S. citizenship.

A search on the website of the U.S. Treasury in early February revealed no official record of renunciation for anyone with a name resembling Gu’s.

Yet the question of her citizenship appears to be a non-issue for most social media commentators.

U.S.-based journalist Wang Jian said it’s likely that Gu’s skiing gold has given her a free pass among the Chinese public.

“They don’t care if she has dual nationality or not; they just want her to win gold [for China],” Wang said. “And now she’s done that, she can get away with anything.”

“If she hadn’t won gold, she would have been history … castigated [like Zhu],” he said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Authorities have ramped up security controls in Tibetan areas of western China during the Beijing Winter Olympics, with police monitoring residents closely to block communications with Tibetans living in exile, sources in the region say.

Restrictions are especially tight in the Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu province and the Ngaba (Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan, one man living in the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service this week.

“Tibetans in these places are barred from speaking with Tibetans in exile, and Tibetans who have been to India and then returned are being summoned each day for questioning by the local police,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Pictures of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama are also being seized wherever they are found, the source said.

“The situation here is more intense than ever before, and local Tibetans are terrified now to receive calls from the exile community and communicate with them,” he added.

Police in Thewo (Diebu) county in Gansu are now questioning local Tibetans and examining mobile phones and online chat groups for evidence of contacts outside the region, Trisong Dorje, a second source, said from exile in Dharamsala, India.

“Tibetans are also being warned not to talk to anyone outside,” Dorje said, citing contacts in Gansu. “And Tibetans in Ngaba who had earlier traveled to India are being specifically targeted by the Chinese government and have to report to their local police station every day.

“Tibetans who have returned to Kanlho after traveling to India are never hired for government jobs, as the Chinese authorities believe they have a ‘separatist mentality,’” Dorje said.

Tibetans in Ngaba and Kanlho who have sent money to Tibetans in exile for use in prayer ceremonies are routinely threatened by Chinese authorities, with their mobile phones confiscated and bank accounts closed, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

The 2022 Winter Olympics, which opened in Beijing on Feb. 4, have drawn a series of protests and boycotts from the international community because of China’s treatment of Tibetans and other minority groups.

Formerly an independent country, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago, and Tibetans living in Tibet frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Faced with falling birth-rates and reluctance by cash-strapped and time-poor couples to have more children, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has ordered family planning officials to “intervene” to prevent abortions among teenagers and adolescents.

Family planning associations across the country are ordered to “begin a targeted campaign relating to abortion, in order to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions among young people,” according to a Jan. 29 document posted to the Family Planning Association website.

Family planning officials must also begin an online propaganda campaign focused on “respecting the social value of childbirth, advocating age-appropriate marriage and childbearing, as well as optimal child-bearing and raising.”

Eugenics has been an official part of CCP policy since the implementation of the Maternal and Infant Health Care Law in 1994.

The law requires doctors to recommend postponement of marriage if either couple has a contagious disease or an active mental disorder, while couple where one party has a serious hereditary disease may only marry if they agree to use long-term contraception or submit to sterilization.

If prenatal tests reveal that a fetus has a serious hereditary disease or serious deformity, women are expected to have an abortion, the law says.

Now, the government wants to use fresh social media content and slogans to “strengthen guidance of young people’s views on marriage, love and family, and reshape parenting culture to embrace multi-child families,” the family planning directive said.

“The new marriage and childbirth culture must be incorporated into village regulations, and content that is inconsistent with this must be revised,” it said.

Fertility-friendly environment

Such content should “promote the new fertility policy, the new concept of marriage and childbirth … to create a fertility-friendly environment,” it said.

A Chinese journalist who gave only the pseudonym Zhong Tao said the measures appear to be aimed at ensuring that more babies are born, even it they are born to younger, unmarried people.

“Unmarried pregnancy and even teenage pregnancy will become the norm, with all of the legal, social and moral issues that entails,” Zhong told RFA. “This will lead to a rise in single-parent families.”

The directive comes after official figures showed a sharp fall in the number of new marriage registrations from 13.47 million couples in 2013 to just 8.143 million couples in 2020.

“Encouraging single-parent families and early childbirth may yet become the focus of future family planning policy,” Zhong said. “Especially for young people … who haven’t decided what they want from life yet, they might be willing to try having children without considering the burden they bring.”

Lu Jun, the co-founder of the health non-profit Yirenping Center, said the claim that these “interventions” to prevent abortion is to protect young women’s health is a smokescreen.

“Basically what this means is that women are still going to be treated as reproductive machines,” Lu told RFA. “It shows us that the changes in family planning policy we have seen during the last 10 years have little to do with the reproductive health of the nation, and everything to do with serving government population goals.”

“When they wanted to control the population, they pushed abortion and imposed forced abortions,” he said. “Now they want to boost the so-called national fertility rate, they want to stop people having abortions.”

High cost of child rearing

Lu said he fully expects local family planning officials, who have a track record of violence, forced abortion and other abuses against couples not complying with CCP guidelines, will also use coercive measures to force women to have children they don’t want.

“There will definitely be a lot of arbitrary implementation in governments at all levels, and across the country, including abuses of power,” he said. “There will be targets and quotas set for abortions prevented.”

The CCP unveiled new plans in May 2021 to boost flagging birth rates and reverse population aging, raising the official limit on the number of children per couple from two to three.

But the people who do most of the mental, physical and emotional work of child-bearing and childcare — Chinese women — may not step up to solve the government’s population problems as readily as CCP leader Xi Jinping is hoping.

Raising kids in China is a costly business, with parents stretched to find money for even one child’s education. While state-run schools don’t charge tuition until the 10th year of compulsory education, they increasingly demand nominal payments of various kinds, as well as payments for food and extracurricular activities.

Xi has said that “education and guidance should be provided to promote marriage and family values among marriage-age young people,” with the Politburo promising tax and housing incentives in the pipeline for couples wanting to have children.

Other promised support measures include improvements to prenatal and postnatal care, a universal childcare service, and reduced education costs for families.

China’s fertility rate stood at around 1.3 children per woman in 2020, compared with the 2.1 children per woman needed for the population to replace itself.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.