Day: May 9, 2022

Southeast Asian foreign ministers will meet “unofficially” in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the Myanmar junta reneging on a consensus with ASEAN to move the country back towards democracy, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said.

At the meeting to be held on the eve of a two-day U.S.-ASEAN summit in the American capital, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah will call for unofficial engagement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with Myanmar’s parallel civilian National Unity Government (NUG), the ministry said Monday.

“The meeting will be held on the 11th in Washington,” Saifuddin’s press secretary told BenarNews.

“It will be held face to face as most leaders will be there.”

The official also confirmed that Saifuddin had told a local newspaper, The Star, that the May 11 meeting was being held unofficially and to discuss the post-coup crisis in Myanmar.

“We will put forward several views on how we can ensure the 5PC is implemented properly,” the minister said in an interview Saturday with The Star.

Saifuddin was referring to a five-point consensus agreed upon among ASEAN members, including the Burmese junta, which overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, three months after her party won re-election by a landslide.

Most analysts agree that implementation of the consensus, which was reached on April 24 last year, has been a colossal failure. ASEAN envoys appointed by successive chairs of the regional bloc have not been able to meet with all parties concerned, and the junta’s forces have unleashed even more violence after agreeing to the consensus.

More than 1,800 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Myanmar’s security forces since the coup, and nearly 11,000 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced by the military regime.

The consensus had called for the “immediate cessation of violence”; a constructive dialogue among all parties; the mediation of such talks by a special envoy of the ASEAN chair; provisions of humanitarian assistance coordinated by ASEAN; and a visit to Myanmar by an ASEAN delegation, headed by the special envoy, to meet with all parties.

‘Engage the NUG’

Meanwhile, Saifuddin, who had earlier said he would propose that ASEAN start an informal dialogue with the NUG and the National Unity Consultative Council, reiterated that he would make this proposal at this week’s meeting. The NUCC includes representatives of the NUG, civil society groups, ethnic armed organizations, and civil disobedience groups.

“It’s okay for us to show impartiality but we should engage [the NUG] because according to the 5PC, we need to engage all stakeholders,” he said.

This did not imply ASEAN was taking sides, he noted. Besides, Saifuddin had said in late April that he already contacted the NUG.

“We have no business in choosing sides. We have to take into consideration that the NUG is a government that was formed through an election and the NUCC is the grouping of all kinds of organizations, parliamentarians, civil society organizations, ethnic groups and regional groups,” Saifuddin told The Star.

The Malaysian foreign minister’s comments came about a week after the Myanmar junta’s foreign ministry reacted furiously to his earlier suggestion that ASEAN engage unofficially with the NUG.

On May 3, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted the junta’s foreign ministry as saying it “protests and rejects” the Malaysian foreign minister’s remarks, because “they could abet terrorism and violence in the country, hampering the Myanmar Government’s anti-terrorism efforts and infringe international agreements related to combatting terrorism.”

Separately, a group of Southeast Asian parliamentarians on Monday urged ASEAN and the U.S. to take the opportunity of their meeting next week to initiate tougher action against the Myanmar military.

“We urge the U.S. and ASEAN to adopt much stronger measures than those taken so far, including the suspension of Myanmar’s membership in the group, travel bans in the region for Min Aung Hlaing and his generals, and targeted sanctions against the leaders of the coup,” ASEAN parliamentarians for Human Rights said in a statement.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Hong Kong’s one-horse leadership poll, which selected former security chief John Lee — the only candidate — for the city’s top job at the weekend, has wiped out any distinction between the city and the rest of mainland China, commentators said on Monday.

Lee, a former police officer who oversaw a violent crackdown on the 2019 protest movement, was “elected” by a Beijing-backed committee under new rules imposed on the city to ensure that only those loyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can hold public office.

Ninety-nine percent of the 1,500-strong committee voted for Lee, who was the only candidate on the slate.

Lee, who takes office on July 1, the anniversary of the 1997 handover to China, vowed to “start a new chapter” in Hong Kong, which has seen waves of mass, popular protest over the erosion of the city’s promised freedoms in recent years.

He also denied that anyone had been detained or imprisoned for “speech crimes” under a draconian national security law imposed on the city by Beijing from July 1, 2020, saying that people were only taken to court because of their “actions.”

Incumbent chief executive Carrie Lam said Saturday‘s “election” showed why a citywide crackdown on dissent and political opposition, which included the changes to electoral processes, was needed.

“[The] chief executive election was very important, because … it meant we were able to fully implement a political system in which Hong Kong is ruled by patriots,” Lam told reporters.

She thanked Beijing for restoring “stability” in Hong Kong with the national security law and the electoral changes.

The national security law ushered in a citywide crackdown on public dissent and criticism of the authorities that has seen several senior journalists, pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai and 47 former lawmakers and democracy activists charged with offenses from “collusion with a foreign power” to “subversion.”

“National security education” — a CCP-style propaganda drive targeting all age-groups from kindergarten to university — is also mandatory under the law, while student unions and other civil society groups have disbanded, with some of their leaders arrested in recent months.

‘Steady erosion of political and civil rights’

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. criticized Lee’s “election” as “part of a continued assault on political pluralism and fundamental freedoms.”

“The current nomination process and resulting appointment … further erode the ability of Hongkongers to be legitimately represented. We are deeply concerned about this steady erosion of political and civil rights and Hong Kong’s autonomy,” they said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Lee’s selection had “violated democratic principles and political pluralism in Hong Kong.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Beijing believed that Lee would lead a new administration and the people of Hong Kong to “a new prospect of good governance.”

A Taiwan-based Hongkonger who have only the surname Wong said the city had entered a “new era,” referencing the political ideology of CCP leader Xi Jinping.

“What is this era? It is one of rule by a military regime and of white terror of a kind that Taiwan has seen before; an era of dictatorship,” Wong said.

“I don’t think there is any more room for breakthroughs or changes to the way things are developing for civil society in Hong Kong, or to the system,” he said. “There’s no going back from this.”

A former 2019 protester who gave only the nickname Joker said he had also left his home city for democratic Taiwan, and has no prospect of going back there any time soon.

“It makes no difference to me whether John Lee comes to power or not; the government has had no respect for us since [the protests],” he said. “For me, Hong Kong is no longer the Hong Kong I once knew. It is no longer our home.”

Former Causeway Bay bookstore manager Lam Wing-kei, also exiled in Taiwan, said the process had accelerated quicker than he had expected.

“Things are worse in Hong Kong than I had previously thought they would get,” Lam told RFA. “It’s just like … [the rest of China] … The main thing now is obedience; obeying orders from central government,”

‘A tragedy for Hong Kong’

Taiwan-based current affairs commentator Sang Pu said Lee is likely to take an even harder line on matters deemed “national security” by Beijing than Carrie Lam.

“John Lee is a security chief, not a decision-maker; he’s the white glove [concealing the iron fist] of the CCP,” Sang told RFA. “It’s clear from his record that he has a tough style, and may be even more vicious than either Carrie Lam or [her predecessor] Leung Chun-ying.”

“[For example,] I understand that prisons in Hong Kong are becoming more and more indistinguishable from prisons in China,” he said. “I think CCP will seize even more control of Hong Kong in future, with religion, families and communities deeply impacted … no different from Xinjiang or the Soviet Union.”

“This is a tragedy for Hong Kong.”

Huang Chieh-chung, associate professor of international affairs and strategy at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, said Lee will also likely preside over even harsher national security legislation under Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law.

He said it was a move in the wrong direction.

“The best thing would be for Beijing to govern Hong Kong as little as possible, and let the people of Hong Kong decide what the [differences between Hong Kong and China are],” Huang said.

“The more Hongkongers have a right to speak up, the better.”

Fan Shih-ping, professor at the Institute of Politics at Taiwan Normal University, said any distinction between Hong Kong and mainland China has been eroded with Lee’s accession to power.

“Hong Kong has become a police state, dominated by the police, with a chief executive who comes from the police,” Fan said.

“When we in Taiwan see this unfolding, we see a Hong Kong that is totally different from the way it was before.”

He said Taiwan should beware of accepting Beijing’s offer to rule the democratic island under the “one country, two systems” model promised to Hong Kong.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Police were deployed to the campus of Beijing International Studies University at the weekend, as authorities in Shanghai step up forcible, mass isolation of residents in the wake of a top-down directive from ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping.

A post on the BISU leaders’ message board said restrictions on people entering and leaving the school campus and the fencing off of living areas to prevent the spread of COVID-19 had been implemented with no consultation, and before any official announcement had been made.

It said workers sent in to implement the restrictions and carry out disinfection work weren’t wearing masks, and that the measures had done little to stem the spread of the virus.

“Please could the leaders take charge on behalf of ordinary people,” the post said, adding that people were bound to gather in public spaces if they were prevented from moving around freely.

A video clip apparently shot at the BISU campus over the weekend showed rows of uniformed police officers standing ready, while a law enforcement officer gave a warning by megaphone.

“This is your first warning,” the officer says. “We hope you will cooperate with the school CCP committee … and disperse immediately.”

“If you are still here after the third warning, then the police will take lawful action to clear the area,” the officer says.

After an official tells them to use official channels to pursue complaints, one person shouts: “You’re crazy! What channels do I have?”

The BISU website posted a call for the university to obey CCP leader Xi Jinping’s call on colleges and universities to take part in his zero-COVID policy, which has led to grueling lockdowns enforced by steel barriers, forcible transfers to isolation facilities and ongoing mass testing in major cities including Shanghai, affecting tens of millions of people.

The BISU party committee said it viewed disease control and prevention as “the political priority for the present,” and would “resolutely implement” the policy, without need for local centers for disease control and prevention (CDCs) to get involved.

City lockdown

In Beijing’s Chaoyang district, residents of the Jiayuan residential compound were placed under lockdown by officials, who welded them into their apartment buildings with steel barriers.

Beijing resident Wang Qiaoling said dozens of families were confined to their homes by the move.

“These are 28-story high-rise apartment buildings, usually with three households to a floor, and sometimes four, so multiply 28 by three … it’s really scary,” Wang said. “Are any of them patients needing dialysis? Any who need to attend hospital or get out to buy medicines on a regular basis?”

Shanghai’s lockdown has resulted in an unknown number of seriously ill patients dying due to lack of access to hospitals, which are insisting on negative PCR results, a test that can take up to 48 hours to return a result.

“Is this what they mean by serving the people?” Wang said. “I bet the person giving this order didn’t have any family members in that block.”

“We had the Wuhan lockdown of 2020, and they’re still locking cities down. Not just lockdowns, either, but welding people’s buildings shut.”

Beijing-based current affairs commentator Ji Feng said Chaoyang is one of the most densely populated districts in Beijing.

While most people in the city are currently going about their lives in a normal manner, the targeted lockdown in Chaoyang show how far local officials are willing to go to please those higher up.

“It’s overkill at each level of the hierarchy,” Ji said. “If something gets said at the highest level, then every level below that overdoes the response, for fear of [spoiling their service record].”

“If nothing bad happens, there are no bad consequences for overdoing things … in China, no questions get asked by leaders or those lower down about the process; only the result,” he said.

‘Many are resisting’

Since Xi’s speech reiterating his commitment to the zero-COVID policy, authorities in Shanghai have also stepped up lockdown measures, emptying entire residential buildings and taking residents away to isolation centers if only one person tests positive for COVID-19.

“Please don’t go out,” a residential official is heard saying in one video posted to social media. “The entire building will be taken away if even a single person tests positive.”

Other videos showed enforcement personnel in PPE white suits forcing their way in to people’s homes, spraying disinfectant all over their belongings, and separating a woman from her child.

In one video, a resident refuses to leave with officials or to hand over the keys to her apartment.

A Shanghai resident surnamed Chen said people are trying to resist.

“Many people are resisting,” Chen told RFA. “I told them that it didn’t matter which leader came up with this idea; that it was totally unreasonable.”

Signs of widespread dissent are also emerging online, only to be rapidly silenced.

Chinese constitutional expert Tong Zhiwei had his Weibo account shut down after he wrote a post arguing that the forcible removal of residents to isolation centers, as well as the requisitioning of their homes for isolation purposes, is illegal in the absence of emergency legislation.

“These agencies have no right to use coercive means to force residents to be quarantined in makeshift hospitals,” Tong wrote. “Public authorities at all levels and of all types in Shanghai have the responsibility and obligation to immediately stop the use of coercive means to send any residents other than patients, pathogen carriers, and suspected patients to isolation facilities.”

He said the forcible requisitioning of people’s homes is also illegal.

“Officials in Shanghai forcing residents to hand over their house keys, then sending people into their homes for ‘disinfection’, is trespassing illegally in citizens’ homes,” Tong wrote, adding, “this practice has already been implemented in some areas.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

The Chinese military conducted live-fire drills around Taiwan over the weekend, its official website said Monday, while Japan reported scrambling fighter jets because of a suspected intrusion of its airspace over the East China Sea.

In a short dispatch on Monday, the military’s website said “naval, air and conventional missile forces of the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command held drills in seas and airspace to the east and southwest of Taiwan Island from May 6 to 8, in a bid to test and improve the joint operations capability of multiple services and arms.” PLA stands for People’s Liberation Army.

It didn’t provide further details.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense’s (JMOD’s) Joint Staff also confirmed via its social media that from May 6 to 8, Japanese air force’s fighters “scrambled to cope with a suspected intrusion into Japan’s airspace over the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.”

Before that on Sunday, the JMOD issued a press release saying that the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and four other warships were spotted on May 7 in the waters about 150 kilometers (95 miles) south of Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture.

On May 6, the number of ships in the flotilla was six, the ministry said.

‘Future operations against Taiwan’

The Chinese vessels were conducting live-fire drills with carrier-based fighters and helicopters, the JMOD said, adding that Japan’s Izumo light aircraft carrier was dispatched to monitor the situation.

RFA has approached the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense (MOND) for comment on the latest Chinese drills.

Taiwan’s local media reported that he ministry has deployed Sky Bow III missiles, which have a maximum range of 200 kilometers (125 miles), to deal with threats to eastern Taiwan. F-16V fighter jets will be deployed at Taitung’s Chihang Base and a number of Hsiung Feng III and Harpoon missiles will also be moved to the east.

Taiwanese people consider themselves citizens of a sovereign country but China claims the self-ruling, democratic island is a breakaway province of China and vows to unite it with the mainland, by force if necessary.  

Experts said that the appearance of the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and aircraft near eastern Taiwan was a direct challenge to the island. Qi Leyi, a Taipei-based military analyst and commentator for RFA Mandarin, said that the PLA joint combat drills will escalate further in the future.

“The sea and the airspace east and southwest of Taiwan will remain the focus of future operations against Taiwan,” Qi said.

“Besides naval and air forces, the conventional missile force will be utilized, too, to attack Taiwan’s important political and military targets,” he said.

Shen Ming-ShiI, acting deputy chief executive officer at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a government think-tank, said that in addition to demonstrating the capabilities of the aircraft carrier battle group, the Chinese drills around Taiwan also aim “to demonstrate the PLA blue water combat capabilities.”

“It’s likely that one or two Chinese submarines have also conducted coordinated exercises underwater,” Shen said.

The Taiwanese MOND said on May 6, 18 Chinese military planes entered the southwestern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the largest intrusion by Chinese military aircraft so far in May.

Put on alert

A week ago on May 2, the Japanese and Taiwanese militaries were put on alert after spotting a flotilla led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier sailing from the East China Sea towards the Pacific Ocean.

On that day, the aircraft carrier was accompanied by seven destroyers and supply vessels, forming the largest Liaoning carrier group in recent voyages, according to the Chinese mouthpiece Global Times.

Among seven warships in the Liaoning carrier group were the Type 055 large guided missile destroyer Nanchang, the Type 052D guided missile destroyer Chengdu, and the Type 901 comprehensive supply ship Hulunhu.

The Liaoning – China’s first aircraft carrier – was seen carrying a number of J-15 fighter jets as well as Z-8 and Z-9 helicopters.

The carrier group is on a “routine, realistic combat training mission,” said the hawkish newspaper.

Last December, the aircraft carrier and five other vessels conducted drills in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the West Pacific for 21 days in order to boost its combat capability.

The Global Times quoted Shi Hong, the editor of a Chinese military magazine, as saying that the waters where the Liaoning carrier group is holding drills is “a vital sea region should a reunification-by-force operation take place.”

“By moving in tandem with aerial and maritime forces from the Chinese mainland, the carrier group could completely cut off the routes foreign forces may take if they militarily interfere with the Taiwan question,” Shi was quoted as saying.

Taiwanese military analyst Shen Ming-Shih however pointed out that the fact that China uses the Liaoning aircraft carrier as the flagship to command and the other active carrier Shandong is in port for maintenance, shows that “the PLA still has the problem of dual aircraft carrier maritime confrontation, and its navigation scope is also limited.”

“It can try bullying Taiwan, but in the face of the U.S. naval and air superiority, China still has great concerns,” he said.