Day: March 21, 2022

“Beyond the Holocaust, the United States has concluded that genocide was committed seven times,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. “Today marks the eighth as I have determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya.”

Dates and key details of genocides recognized by the United States are in the slideshow.

Five years after Myanmar’s military killed thousands of Rohingya and expelled 740,000 of the Muslim minority to neighboring Bangladesh, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that the 2016-17 ethnic-cleansing campaign met the definition of genocide. The top American diplomat cited a U.N. investigation that found Myanmar troops retaliating for attacks on border guard posts committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with “genocidal intent,” and a U.S. probe that found mutilations, crucifixions, and the burning and drowning of Rohingya children. The same military accused of genocide overthrew the government in a coup in February 2021 and has subjected wide swathes of the country to similar brutality.

North Korean authorities are going from farmhouse to farmhouse to check if farmers are hiding any unregistered cows, threatening to send the contraband cattle to work on collective farms, sources in the country told RFA.

Owning a cow without registering it with the government is a crime in North Korea, where cattle have been considered a means of production to be owned and managed by the government, and lent out to businesses and people, like farmers, as needed.

However, a few years after leader Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011, the government instituted policies giving farmers the responsibility to raise their own cattle, register them with the state, and use them to plow the fields and for transportation — all while still making them available for cooperative farm work.

Under the so-called Responsible Farmland System, the state retained the power to grant the farmers the field they worked but it was relieved of the responsibility of providing them the means to plow the fields.

But farmers have been breeding their own cattle and have stopped registering them, a resident of Ryongchon county in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA’s Korean Service March 17.

Authorities are now cracking down.

“From yesterday, the cooperative farms in Sosok village have been sent to investigate privately owned cattle, under the direction of the county and led by the Farm Management Committee,” said the source who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“They went house to house. The cattle were classified and registered as either having or not having a nose ring. The cows with nose rings are eligible to be mobilized at cooperative farms for plowing,” the source said.

In the city of Chongju, in the same province, a resident explained how the Responsible Farmland System, which began in 2015, had originally been seen as a setback for the farmers.

“At that time, they had to borrow the cooperative farm-owned cattle to plow. There were many complaints, as they had to pay for the cattle with their autumn grain rations, so they saw it as a deduction,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“Some of the farmers solved the problem by buying calves from the cooperative farms and raising them on their own. Since then, calf trades among the farmers are on the rise and are common these days,” she said.

Since the whole point of the Responsible Farmland System was to collect more grain from the farmers, the authorities simply allowed them to register and own the cattle, but then the farmers started using them for purposes other than farming, the second source said.

“Many of them found that they could earn more money by using the cattle to haul goods to the market for merchants by oxcart instead of merely plowing fields. So now there are lots of cases where the farmers are raising cattle for personal income,” she said.

Shortly after the Responsible Farmland System began, privately owned cattle still needed to be registered under a cooperative farm, the second source said.

“My cousin registered his calf with the management office, but he uses it for his personal income. He even built a cart for his calf by himself. There are many individuals who trade calves between themselves. One small calf is traded between 300,000 to 400,000 won [U.S. $50 to $67],” she said.

“More personal cattle are now used to make income after they are registered, and it’s now becoming normal for cows to be owned and used without registration at all. This is why the authorities are taking measures to discover privately owned cattle,” she said.

After discovering unregistered cattle in the investigation, the collective farm will be able to mobilize all cattle in the area for its own spring plowing.

“The farmers are now complaining that the government did not help them feed or raise the cattle but now they get to use the cows for cooperative farm work without compensating the farmers,” the second source said.

According to both sources, this is the first time that the authorities have taken measures to count these privately owned animals. Once a cow is registered with the state, the cattle can be called into service whenever the farm needs it, even if it is not farming season.

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

China has fully militarized at least three of its artificial islands in the South China Sea, equipping them with missile systems and fighter jets, a top U.S. commander has said.

The Associated Press quoted U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John C. Aquilino as saying on Sunday that the construction of missile arsenals, aircraft hangars, radar systems and other military facilities at Mischief Reef, Subi Reef and Fiery Cross “appeared to have been completed.”

“The function of those islands is to expand the offensive capability of the PRC (People’s Republic of China) … They can fly fighters, bombers plus all those offensive capabilities of missile systems,” Aquilino said.

“They threaten all nations who operate in the vicinity and all the international sea and airspace,” he added.

This is in stark contrast to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reassurance that China would not militarize the islands.

Beijing has developed at least seven artificial islands in the South China Sea, creating 3,200 acres of new land since 2013, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

This is the first time U.S. officials have mentioned the deployment of Chinese fighter jets to the islands as according to Greg Poling, AMTI’s director, “no one has ever spotted fighter jets in the Spratlys so far as we know.”

In 2015, during a visit to the White House, Xi said: “Relevant construction activities that China are undertaking in the island of South — Nansha (Spratly) Islands do not target or impact any country, and China does not intend to pursue militarization.”

Xi also said that China is “committed to maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

Aquilino told AP that “over the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the largest military buildup since World War II by the PRC.”

“They have advanced all their capabilities and that buildup of weaponization is destabilizing to the region,” he said.

He also said that any military and civilian plane flying over the disputed South China Sea “could easily get within range of the Chinese islands’ missile system.”

China has yet to respond to Aquilino’s statement in the report but Beijing has said that it is committed to “managing differences and disputes through dialogue, and addressing disputes through negotiation, consultation, and peaceful manner, and exploring ways to achieve mutual benefit through cooperation.”

Six parties including Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam hold competing claims to the South China Sea, but China’s claims are the most expansive.

An international tribunal in 2016 rejected China’s claims but Beijing refused to accept the ruling.

Continued drills

Meanwhile in China, the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration on March 19 issued a new navigation warning banning ships from entering an area in the Gulf of Tonkin for 20 days, until April 9, due to military exercises.

This area was already closed for live-fire drills from March 4 to March 15. The Taiwanese intelligence agency said on March 10 that the closure might have been for the Chinese military to carry out search-and-rescue for an aircraft which reportedly crashed in the sea earlier this month.

China has not acknowledged any plane crash.

Part of the closed area lies within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry protested, asking China to respect its EEZ and continental shelf.

China’s Foreign Ministry replied, saying that “it is reasonable, lawful and irreproachable for China to conduct military exercises on its own doorstep.”

Vietnam and China reached an agreement to demarcate their share of most of the Gulf of Tonkin in 2000 but their negotiation on the mouth of the gulf has stagnated.

Taiwanese intelligence officials have warned that as the world is focused on the war in Ukraine, China is taking advantage of the situation to “test the limits of the U.S. and other South China Sea claimants.”

Calls are growing for the government of Taiwan to focus on homeland defense in order to better prepare the democratic island for a possible Chinese invasion.

Earlier this month, former Taiwanese chief of staff Adm. (Ret.) Lee Hsi-ming published an article co-authored with military analyst Michael Hunzeker calling on the island’s democratic government to act soon to build its defenses, drawing on lessons from the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.

“The visceral images of Russian tanks pouring across Ukrainian borders and Russian rockets slamming into Ukrainian cities show that the threat is real, while the surprising efficacy of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces proves that resistance is possible,” Lee and Hunzeker wrote in the March 15 article published in War on the Rocks.

Su Tze-yun, director of military strategy and industry at Taiwan’s National Defense Academy, said he approved of the concept of a homeland defense for Taiwan, where most people are keen to preserve their democratic way of life.

Currently, homeland defense plans exist, but haven’t been hived off into a separate organization, he said.

“The military system consists of active-duty troops, reserve troops, and voluntary reserve troops, which is similar in concept to a homeland defense,” Su told RFA. “Active-duty troops and reserve troops are also doing homeland defense.”

He said the island has typically focused far more on its defensive, rather than its offensive, capabilities.

“The point of Taiwan’s preparedness isn’t to set up as an enemy of China, but rather to prevent CCP aggression,” Su said.

Dedicated territorial defenders

The article called for preparations for an insurgency that could see dedicated territorial defenders carrying out mobile, hit-and-run missions to wreak havoc on logistics convoys, supply depots, command posts, and early follow-on forces, once the initial wave of troops has passed their location. “Lumbering cargo jets” would be particularly good targets, the article said.

The territorial defense force could be kept separate, but be trained by, the national military, and recruit young people who may not have time to be full-time soldiers, according to Hunzeker and Lee.

It said approaches to a potential invasion by China have typically so far focused on either improving Taiwan’s military capabilities or on deterring any attack in the first place.

“If deterrence fails, a territorial defense campaign can rally international support as well as buy time for outside forces to intervene,” Lee and Hunzeker said.

“It will take Taiwan years to build a viable territorial defense capability from the ground up,” the article said. “Russia’s invasion, tragic though it is, has created a rare window of opportunity to jump-start the process.”

“Public opinion polls continue to suggest an uptick in the Taiwanese people’s willingness to fight,” it said, adding that some of country’s 23 million people are already volunteering in civil defense organizations.

The article also called for armories across the island that could also be used as mobilization and training centers.

“Getting weapons and rounds into the hands of the people, ensuring the people know how to use them, and making sure there are enough … are all essential,” it said.

Xi’s ambition

CCP leader Xi Jinping recently told the country’s military and armed police force to get ‘combat ready’ to defend national sovereignty and security, amid fears that Beijing may be planning an invasion of Taiwan in the next few years.

“The entire army needs to strengthen its performance so as to do a good job of ensuring a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan, and of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the party,” Xi told People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police (PAP) leaders, according to a Mar. 10 report in the official CCP newspaper, the People’s Daily.

Some political analysts believe Xi is gearing up to make a definite move to annex, or, in the CCP’s terminology, “unify with,” Taiwan in the next five years.

America’s top commander in the region Adm. Philip Davidson, has warned that China could be preparing to bring forward plans to invade Taiwan as early as 2027.

However, Lee and Hunzeker’s article argued that ultimately an invader can’t take and maintain control of a country easily when faced with a resistant population.

“As Russian forces are likely to discover if they do manage to overwhelm Ukraine’s military defenses, a foreign invader cannot attain its ultimate goal — political control — until it pacifies the population,” it said, calling for “a properly organized, trained, and equipped territorial defense force” capable of waging a prolonged insurgency.

Taiwan has never been ruled by Beijing nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China, but has been locked out of international diplomacy and agencies at the CCP’s insistence for decades.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has repeatedly said that the country’s 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or their democratic way of life, and insists on being treated as a sovereign nation as a prerequisite for any cross-straits talks, an idea that is anathema to Beijing.

Washington has said it will no longer seek to “appease” China on Taiwan, announcing an end to a ban on high-level official and diplomatic contact with Taiwanese officials on Jan. 9, at the tail end of the Trump administration.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Monday said the city would lift some flight bans and stall plans for compulsory mass testing favored by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the city ran out of coffins amid spiraling COVID-19 deaths.

Lam said the new rules would allow Hong Kong residents stranded in those countries to get home sooner, but added that they will still have to undergo quarantine on arrive.

“We’re not relaxing measures on inbound control,” Lam said. “We’re just straightening out the arrangements, to allow many Hong Kong residents stranded in these nine countries to return in a gradual and orderly manner.

“The prevention and control measures when they get here will be more stringent than many places.”

Meanwhile, the government will relax social distancing requirements, allowing some businesses to reopen from April 21 in the absence of a further wave of COVID-19 infections, she said.

The move comes as the city’s health authorities confirmed that a total of 11,103 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in public hospitals. The city has has reported more than a million infections and nearly 5,700 deaths since the omicron COVID-19 outbreak began in December 2021.

Lam said it was too soon to relax all public gathering restrictions, however.

“There are tens of thousands of cases every day, which has come to seem normal,” she said. “There are more than 10,000 or 20,000 cases every day, which brings with it great risks and puts great pressure on the whole of society.”

Morgues are overflowing and there is a shortage of coffins.

The city’s food and environmental hygiene department said some 1,700 coffins had arrived in Hong Kong via sea and land by March 20, while crematoria would keep running during the annual grave-tending festival of Ching Ming on April 5, which is generally a public holiday.

Testing suspended

Lam said her government will be stepping up its vaccination program in the coming weeks, adding that the mass testing program was being suspended after consulting with mainland Chinese medical experts, who concluded that Hong Kong doesn’t have the same capacity for social control via local neighborhood committees as the CCP does.

“We need to ensure the right timing for mass compulsory testing, because there will be a lot of people inconvenienced by the whole process,” Lam said, adding that the best time to do mass testing was either at the start or the end of an outbreak.

She said limited compulsory testing combined with overnight mandatory lockdowns of residential blocks or communities will continue as before.

Stringent travel restrictions imposed since 2020 have taken their toll on local and international businesses, as well as creating mental health issues as large sectors of the economy are shut down, with lower-income families bearing the brunt of the restrictions.

Lam said schools would reopen for in-person teaching after the Easter break, on April 19, with public venues including sports facilities would follow suit two days later.

“We … need to take account of the social and economic impacts [of these restrictions],” she said.

Vaccination concerns

According to an analysis of 5,167 cases by the Hospital Authority obtained by the Ming Pao newspaper, more than 70 percent of those who died hadn’t been vaccinated at all, while 87 percent of the vaccinated dead had received the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine.

“The poor protection offered by the Sinovac jab is one of the reasons the outbreak in Hong Kong is out of control,” Taipei thoracic surgeon Su Yi-feng told RFA.

Studies have shown that the protection offered by the jab wanes rapidly, with neutralizing antibody levels at just 16.7 percent, six months after vaccination.

Former public doctors’ union leader Arisina Ma, now based in the U.K., said lack of public trust in Chinese-made vaccines, the only ones available to the public, was likely behind the low vaccination rate.

She said there are also public concerns about the use of imported mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna, yet the government has never ordered recombinant protein vaccines made by Novavax and Medigen of Taiwan.

“Some people worry that mRNA vaccines could affect their genes, so the recombinant vaccines should ease their concerns,” Ma told RFA. “I could be hard for them to get through to other sectors of the population without offering them.”

Hong Kong has one of the best-performing public healthcare systems in the world, raking eighth overall in the 2021 World Healthcare Innovation Index in 2021.

Yet its COVID-19 deaths have surpassed the officially recorded deaths in the early days of the pandemic in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.