Day: March 14, 2022

More than 100 families in the Lao capital Vientiane are calling on authorities to investigate a sand dredging company after their activities in the Ngeum River allegedly caused landslides that damaged several houses, sources in the capital told RFA.

Sand is a hot commodity in Southeast Asia, needed to support a booming construction industry. But digging it up from the bottoms of rivers can be disastrous for the environment, accelerating erosion and leading to landslides that destroy buildings near riverbanks.

The families, from Thasommor village the city’s Xaythany district, say that the company has been taking the sand without reinforcing the riverbank.

“There were some landslides near my mom’s plot of land because of the sand dredging,” a resident of the village told RFA’s Lao Service March 11. “The landslides even affected my brother’s house, which had to stop construction.”

Residents of the village petitioned the authorities to rectify the problem in the past, but they say that they received no response. They say they desperately need an embankment to protect their land and homes along the Ngeum.

Another villager told RFA that the problem with the company has been going on for years, with authorities never taking the villagers’ concerns seriously.

A third villager said that although his house is not near the river, he frequently hears complaints from other villagers about landslides caused by dredging. He said that prior to the dredging, damage to homes from landslides never happened.

“There is no embankment around here. It is a private company that does the dredging. The company may have a concession to operate like this, but I don’t know much about that,” he said.

An official from Xaythany district’s Natural Resources and Environment office told RFA that if the Thasommor residents are experiencing damaged homes due to landslides, they should ask their village chief to write a letter to the office so that authorities can investigate.

The Vientiane administrative office and Vientiane energy and mines sector have, however, not authorized any Lao company to operate a sand dredging business along the Ngeum, the official said. There is therefore no information regarding which company’s sand dredging ships are allegedly causing the problems, he said. The official added that frequent flooding in the country is the main cause of landslides.

In order to prevent landslides along the Mekong River and its tributaries, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said companies with sand dredging concessions can operate only seven months per year, from December through June. When the rainy season starts, all the companies must stop their work. But some companies do not follow these instructions, RFA has confirmed. 

In 2018, the Ministry of Public Work and Transport and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment proposed that the Lao government stop issuing dredging concessions along the Mekong and its tributaries to Lao companies.

Sand dredging is a problem in other riparian communities along the Mekong. RFA has reported on the environmental damage from dredging in Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, in addition to Laos. Though the region’s governments have attempted to regulate the practice, high prices for sand fueled by high demand in places like Singapore often lead companies to ignore restrictions.

Translated by Phouvong. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Authorities in China locked down most of the northeastern province of Jilin on Monday in a scramble to contain a highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, deploying troops to the region to keep order and aid in a mass testing and quarantine operation.

The National Health Commission said it had confirmed 1,337 locally transmitted cases of the “stealth” omicron variant B.A.2 during the last 24 hours, 895 of which were in Jilin, where police permission is now being required to leave the province or travel within it.

Some 7,000 reservists were sent to Jilin, using drones to carry out aerial spraying and disinfection, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Several buildings in Beijing were sealed off at the weekend, while Shanghai reported 713 cases so far this month, of which 632 were asymptomatic. All schools in Shanghai moved to online teaching from Monday.

Hong Kong on Monday reported 26,908 new cases and 249 deaths during the past 24 hours, but its figures include results from home tests using rapid antigen tests, as well as PCR tests conducted by health authorities and labs.

But chief executive Carrie Lam stopped short of imposing further restrictions on a city where authorities are currently using sewage monitoring and other test data to lock down specific buildings and neighborhoods at a time, and where there is a ban on public gatherings of more than two people.

Across the internal border in Shenzhen, authorities reported 75 newly confirmed cases on Sunday, prompting the city government to order a week-long, citywide lockdown from Monday pending three rounds of compulsory mass PCR testing.

Public transportation has been suspended, and residential communities closed to people coming or going, with employees ordered to work from home.

Video footage uploaded to social media showed long lines for PCR testing, and empty shelves in local supermarkets after households stocked up on essentials ahead of the lockdown.

“The supermarket normally has vegetables, grains, rice, which are all normal daily supplies,” a resident says in one video clip. “Shenzhen is a first-tier city, but we can’t get a hold of vegetables or rice now, because the whole city has to fight this outbreak.”

Door-to-door testing

Some districts, including Longhua, Nanshan, Futian and Luohu, are under particularly stringent measures, with residents banned from leaving their homes, and forced to wait for door-to-door testing teams.

Shenzhen officials played down fears on social media, seeking to reassure residents that there would be enough rice, noodles, oil, meat, eggs and poultry for everyone, with the authorities taking measures to prevent hoarding and price-gouging.

In neighboring Dongguan, mass PCR testing was also under way, with public transportation suspended, residential compounds under lockdown and factories, businesses and industrial sites closed, with schools moving to online teaching.

Shanghai resident Gu Guoping said the constant rounds of mass testing were “a waste of resources … inconveniencing people and delivering benefits to particular vested interests.”

Another Shanghai resident surnamed Zhang said there are partial lockdowns in the city’s Xuhui district, as well as on university campuses.

“Many schools, residential compounds, hospitals, where they have had cases or contacts of cases have been closed, and nobody is allowed to leave Shanghai right now,” she said.

“More than 50 percent of people are still allowed to go out, while the rest have to stay home eating takeout,” Zhang said. “It’s very hard to get takeout now, and everyone is hoarding, rushing to buy stuff, so groceries are hard to come by.”

In the northern province of Hebei, traffic restrictions are in place in Lanfang, downtown Cangzhou and Qingxian county, with roadblocks on major and minor roads in and out of Guangyang district.

Chinese infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong warned that China is likely only at the very start of an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases, as rail operators cut train services and offered free refunds to people who had already bought tickets.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

In an unusually bold move, the Vietnam government has commemorated the 34^th anniversary of a battle against the Chinese navy in the South China Sea with a ceremony led by the prime minister and a front page editorial Monday in the ruling party’s mouthpiece.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh made an unprecedented visit to the Memorial for the Johnson South Reef Battle in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa province at the weekend. He paid tribute to the 64 Vietnamese soldiers who were killed in the incident on March 14, 1988. Chinh was the first top Vietnamese leader to lead such a commemoration of the fallen soldiers.

Johnson South, or Gac Ma in Vietnamese, is a reef in the Spratly islands in the South China Sea. In mid-March 1988, the Vietnamese navy sent two transport ships and a landing ship to try to claim some of the reefs in the disputed Union Banks, including Johnson South.

While the Vietnamese soldiers were moving construction material onto the reef and putting up a flag, they came under fire from the Chinese troops. According to China, the Vietnamese opened fire first.

In just a couple of hours, 64 mostly unarmed Vietnamese soldiers were killed and nine were captured, the largest loss suffered by the Vietnamese military at sea since the end of the Vietnam War. Johnson South Reef has been under China’s control since.

For a long time, the battle was not talked about in public and up to now, is still not included in the school curriculum. When mentioned by Vietnamese state-controlled media, they tend to omit the word “China” and replace it with “foreign forces.” Vietnamese leaders have seemingly wanted to avoid offending China, and for the public not to dwell on the command mistakes that might have led to the defeat.

Netizens and activists, however, have been asking on internet forums why the soldiers were not armed and why were they not allowed to fight back.

Front page news

Things have changed this year.

Nhan Dan daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, on Monday ran three articles on the Johnson South Reef battle and the Spratlys on its front page.

The main article, titled “Eternal glory to the sea defenders,” condemned the Chinese navy for being “a blatant force, ignorant of justice and reason,” and said their military action was totally unprovoked.

Another report covered an “incense-offering ceremony to commemorate the martyrs on the 34^th anniversary of the Gac Ma Battle” in Danang.

The top article reported on Prime Minister Chinh’s visit to Khanh Hoa province, the administrative headquarters of Vietnam’s Spratly islands.

Chinh was quoted as ordering the local government to develop the Spratlys into “an economic, cultural and social center” in the South China Sea.

“This is a clear message of maritime sovereignty and self-reliance,” said a Vietnamese analyst who doesn’t want to be named as he is not authorized to speak to foreign media.

Another political analyst and prominent blogger, Huy Duc, wrote on his Facebook page: “This [the prime minister’s order] is a strategic step towards setting up our ‘policy fortress’ to defend Vietnam’s sovereignty at sea and our islands.”

“No country can pick its neighbors but a dignified nation would never be imprisoned by geography,” Duc said.

Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, D.C., said that the Vietnamese government is “trying to signal resolve, especially as the world is pre-occupied with the war in Ukraine.”

“I think you also have to look at it in the context of the war in Ukraine,” Abuza said.

In his opinion, the Vietnamese government has been “overtly pro-Russia and abstained on the U.N.vote against Moscow due to their long historical relations and the fact that they are one of the largest consumers of Russian weaponry.”

“And yet the [Ukrainian] war should leave the Vietnamese very nervous,” Abuza warned.

“(President Vladimir) Putin‘s justifications to launch an offensive war on the flimsy basis of having once controlled that territory and historical affinity sets a very dangerous precedent for Chinese aggression in Southeast Asia, in general, and Vietnam, in particular,” he said.

China claims sovereignty over all of the Spratly islands, where Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have claims. 

The UK on Monday hit out at authorities in China and Hong Kong after they put pressure on a London-based rights group to take down its website, threatening prosecution under a draconian national security law applicable anywhere in the world.

Hong Kong’s national security police wrote to Benedict Rogers, CEO of Hong Kong Watch, ordering him to take down the group’s website, which recently criticized the Hong Kong government’s handling of a skyrocketing COVID-19 wave in the city.

“You and Hong Kong Watch are obliged to remove the website … without delay, and immediately cease engaging in any acts and activities in contravention of the national security law or any other laws of Hong Kong,” the police letter said. “Should you fail to do so, further action will be instituted against you and Hong Kong Watch without further notice.”

The group has been highly critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s rights record in Hong Kong, particularly following a city-wide crackdown on pro-democracy activists, opposition politicians and journalists after the national security law was imposed on the city from July 1, 2020.

British foreign secretary Liz Truss said the letter was a clear attempt at intimidation.

“The unjustifiable action taken against the UK-based NGO Hong Kong Watch is clearly an attempt to silence those who stand up for human rights in Hong Kong,” Truss said in a statement on Monday.

“The Chinese Government and Hong Kong authorities must respect the universal right to freedom of speech, and uphold that right in Hong Kong in accordance with international commitments, including the Joint Declaration,” she said, in a reference to the U.N.-register treaty governing the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule.

“Attempting to silence voices globally that speak up for freedom and democracy is unacceptable and will never succeed,” she said.

The police letter also accused Rogers of “collusion with a foreign power” under Article 29 of the law, saying he had lobbied for sanctions against Hong Kong, thereby interfering in China’s internal affairs and undermining its national security.

“A person who commits the offense shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than 3 years [with a maximum penalty of] life imprisonment,” said the letter, which confirmed that the Hong Kong Watch website is currently being blocked by the Hong Kong authorities.

The U.K. suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong after the national security law took effect.

‘Extraterritoriality’ clause

Hong Kong Watch said the group is one of the first foreign organizations to be targeted under the law.

Group patron Lord Patten of Barnes, the last colonial governor of Hong Kong, said Chinese and Hong Kong officials are “trying not only to stamp out freedom of expression and information in Hong Kong but also to internationalize their campaign against evidence, freedom and honesty.”

Lord Alton of Liverpool, who was sanctioned by China last year, said the letter was a significant escalation on the part of the Chinese government.

“It signifies the attempted application of the abhorrent ‘extraterritoriality’ clause of the draconian national security law which Beijing imposed on Hong Kong,” he said.

“The result of that appalling law is the total destruction of Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy, and now the regime is using that law to try to undermine freedom around the world. It is … a shocking attempt to intimidate and threaten an organization which has been at the forefront of global advocacy for Hong Kong.”

Rogers, who was turned away by Hong Kong immigration officers at the city’s international airport when he last tried to travel there five years ago, said the group wouldn’t be silenced by such threats.

“We will not be silenced by an authoritarian security apparatus which, through a mixture of senseless brutality and ineptitude, has triggered rapid mass migration out of the city and shut down civil society,” he said. “We will continue to be a voice for the people of Hong Kong and those brave political prisoners who have been jailed under this authoritarian regime.”

He said it was ironic that many Hong Kong police officers and government officials still hold foreign passports, send their children to be educated in the West, and have their savings held in Western banks overseas to avoid Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaigns.

Voices silenced

Pro-democracy activist Joey Siu, who advises Hong Kong Watch, said many dissenting voices have already been silenced within Hong Kong itself.

“The Hong Kong government has used the national security law to disband and dissolve various civic groups and to arrest most of the pan-democrats during the past few months,” Siu told RFA. “They want to stop them from taking Hong Kong’s voice onto the international stage, and dampen concern in the international community to the human rights situation [in the city].”

“The national security law can be applied to anyone, anywhere in the world, to foreigners transiting through Hong Kong, as well as to permanent residents and Chinese nationals,” she said.

Attempts to load the Hong Kong Watch website from Hong Kong on Monday resulted in a notice saying “unable to connect to this site,” with the site only accessible via a VPN.

An official who answered the phone at the Hong Kong police force declined to comment “on individual cases” when contacted by RFA on Monday.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

The Taiwanese military reported another fighter jet air crash on Monday, the second since the beginning of the year, and has grounded its fleet of French-built Mirage planes as it investigates.

A Mirage 2000-5 multirole fighter jet crashed into the sea near Taitung on the island’s southeastern coast during a routine combat training mission, the military said in a statement, adding that the pilot managed to eject safely and has been hospitalized for observation.

The army is searching for the aircraft and conducting an investigation into the accident, the statement said.

Air force Inspector-General Liu Hui-chien told reporters that the Mirage fleet would be grounded while the investigation was carried out.

Taiwan purchased 60 Mirage 2000 fighters in 1992 and last year signed a technical support service agreement with the French manufacturer Dassault Aviation S.A to help maintain the aging Mirage fleet.

On Jan. 11, a F-16V – one of the most advanced fighters in Taiwan’s possession, crashed in the sea off the west coast, killing its sole pilot.

The Taiwanese air force suspended combat training for its U.S.-made F-16 fleet for over a week but put them back in action in late January.

Heavy flight demands

In recent months, the island’s military airplanes have been scrambled regularly as China continued almost daily incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The rate was noticeably high in January. On Jan. 23 the PLAAF (People’s Liberation Army Air Force) deployed 39 aircraft in the island’s ADIZ.

Analysts say that the incursions may be strategically intended to wear down Taiwan’s air capabilities through near constant overuse and shortened maintenance schedules.

“Due to PLAAF increasing activities in Taiwan’s southwest, the Mirage aircraft originally based in Hsinchu were transferred to Taitung for training and tasks execution,” said Shen Ming-Shih, acting deputy chief executive officer at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

“As the investigation into the crash is being conducted, it cannot be ruled out that personnel and machine failure was due to heavy flight demands,” he said.

But this incident would not stop Taiwan’s air force from performing “the task of preventing Chinese incursions,” Shen said.

Last year, two F-5 fighter jets crashed into the sea near the southeastern coast in an apparent collision during a training mission, resulting in two deaths.

The Taiwanese air force suffered four crashes in 2020 including two helicopters and two fighter jets – an F-5 and a F-16.