Day: August 4, 2022

The families of 77 political activists sentenced to death by Myanmar’s military junta say they live in fear that their loved ones will be executed without warning after the military regime hanged four prominent prisoners of conscience.

Frustration with the junta boiled over last week after it put to death veteran democracy activist Ko Jimmy and former opposition lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw, as well as activists Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, despite a direct appeal from Hun Sen to Min Aung Hlaing. The executions prompted protests in Myanmar and condemnation abroad.

On Thursday, the daughter of a 56-year-old former junta soldier sentenced to death for allegedly helping pro-democracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries told RFA Burmese that she can’t bear to think that her father might be executed at any point without her knowing.

“As a family member, there is no way I could accept that my father might die all of a sudden,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“They gave him the death sentence, but did he deserve it? He had no involvement [in the anti-junta protests]. I think it is completely unfair that he was given the death penalty just for planning to get involved.”

She claimed that her father was arrested by the military without having committed any crime and was sentenced to death by a military court without having the opportunity to defend himself legally.

She urged the junta to let her father serve out a life sentence in prison, noting that he is a veteran soldier who spent many years in the military.

Prior to last week, only three people had been executed in Myanmar in the past 50 years: student leader Salai Tin Maung Oo, who helped organize protests over the government’s refusal to grant a state funeral to former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant in 1974; Capt. Ohn Kyaw Myint, who was found guilty of an assassination plot on the life of dictator Gen. Ne Win; and Zimbo, a North Korean agent who bombed the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon in an attempted assassination of the visiting South Korean President Chin Doo-hwan in 1983.

In the more than 30 years between Myanmar’s 1988 democratic uprising and the military coup of Feb. 1, 2021, death sentences have been ordered, but no judicial executions were carried out. Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has said at least 77 people are currently sentenced to death in Myanmar.

Legality of execution

Legal experts have noted that only the country’s democratically elected head of state has the right to order an execution under existing laws.

Aung Thein, a High Court lawyer from Yangon, said coup leader Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing considers himself Myanmar’s head of state and that carrying out the death penalty is his right.

“[The junta hasn’t] disposed of the 2008 [military-drafted] Constitution. It has only been suspended,” he said.

“Since they have said they are operating according to the 2008 Constitution, [Min Aung Hlaing] believes the responsibility of head of state falls to him. That’s why he might be under the impression that he can order executions.”

A lawyer from Yangon, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said that the hanging of a person considered a political challenger to the military appears more like “revenge” than anything legally justifiable.

“Things have gone from political repression to military repression,” the lawyer said. “When a rivalry becomes intense, the execution of the opposition by a rival organization can be seen more as revenge than legal action.”

Junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said the four activists executed last week were “perpetrators of terrorism” and were “judged according to the law.”

He told a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw a few days after the executions that ideally the junta would have killed the four more than once.

Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), said the unlawful arrest and execution of the opposition under unjust laws is the same thing as “murder in prison.”

He expressed concern that last week’s executions would lead to more “official” killings in the country’s prisons.

“For a military regime which sees the people as the enemy and kills them wherever they like, executing people in prison is not very unusual. In fact, this is not the death penalty. This is murder in prison, as it is based on unjust laws and unsubstantiated cases and verdicts. After these executions, we worry that the junta may continue, using it as a precedent.”

A mother whose son was recently sentenced to death in Yangon’s Insein prison told RFA she can only pray that no other family members of those on death row be forced to experience such a tragedy.

“It’s not good in my heart. I don’t know how to describe it,” she said.

“There is anxiety because I’m afraid [another execution] will happen. Nobody wants that to happen. I’m praying that it won’t. … I pray for the speedy release of these young kids.”

ASEAN criticism

The current rotating chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, told a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Phnom Penh on Wednesday that if political prisoners continue to be executed in Myanmar, he would be forced to “reconsider ASEAN’s role” in mediating the country’s political crisis.

Under an agreement Min Aung Hlaing made with ASEAN in April 2021 during an emergency meeting on the situation in Myanmar, known as the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), the bloc’s member nations called for an end to violence, constructive dialogue among all parties, and the mediation of such talks by a special ASEAN envoy. The 5PC also calls for the provision of ASEAN-coordinated humanitarian assistance and a visit to Myanmar by an ASEAN delegation to meet with all parties.

Even Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged that the junta had failed to hold up its end of the bargain on the consensus in a televised speech on Monday in which he announced that the junta was extending by six months the state of emergency it declared following last year’s coup. He blamed the coronavirus pandemic and “political instability” for the failure and said he will implement “what we can” from the 5PC this year, provided it does not “jeopardize the country’s sovereignty.”

Foreign Minister of Singapore Vivian Balakrishnan, who is attending the ASEAN meeting in Cambodia, publicly stated on Thursday that further discussion between the bloc and the junta “would not be beneficial” if there is no progress made in the implementation of the 5PC.

Myanmar’s junta has killed at least 2,148 civilians over the past 18 months and arrested nearly 15,000 — some 12,000 of whom remain in detention, according to the AAPP.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cash-strapped collective farms in North Korea are sending workers to the mines and fisheries to raise operating funds to meet food production targets — a policy that cost the lives of 10 farmers in a gold mine collapse last month, sources inside the country said.

Ten 10 farm workers were sent by a cooperative farm in South Hwanghae province’s Ongjin county to work as a “cash-making group” in a gold mine operated by the provincial state security department, a resident of the province told RFA.

“Even the miners are reluctant to work there because the tunnels are deep and dangerous,” she said. “Even so, the cash-making group from the cooperative farms went in there to mine gold.”

The farmers were sent to a poorly supported section of the gold mine. It collapsed, and all 10 were killed, including a man in his 30s with a newborn at home, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

The state security authorities that run the mine said it would not compensate the farmers’ families, asserting that the farm workers entered the gold mine voluntarily, she said.

State-run farms in other parts of North Korea are also forcing their laborers to go far afield to raise funds, with no money coming from the central government.

“Cooperative farms are struggling to raise agricultural funds to increase their agricultural crops, but the prospects for farming this year are not bright,” said a resident of North Hamgyong province.

“The reality is that there is no government support and measures for farming. Poor farmworkers go out of their way to earn money, and some even lose their lives.”

The Chikha cooperative farm in North Hamgyong province’s Chongam district organized a “cash-making group” and “sericulture group” to earn extra money, he said.

“This year, the money from the farm’s cash-making group is being diverted into various kinds of hard work,” said the resident, who declined to provide his name for safety reasons. “The group is jumping to take any money-making work such as gold mining and fishing.”

At the Chikha cooperative farm, an average of five farmers in each working group catch fish in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, or gather gold from a nearby mine, he said.

‘A tragic incident’

Agricultural production in North Korea historically has been decimated by natural disasters such as floods, the lack of fertile land, and government mismanagement. As a consequence, the country has come to rely on foreign aid for food, with widespread malnutrition and starvation deaths reported.

But a border lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic preventing nearly all trade with neighboring China and international sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program have exacerbated North Korea’s food shortages.

“Many cooperative farms have ‘cash-making groups’ these days,” said the resident of South Hwanghae province.

“The government does not guarantee the supply of agricultural materials that are supposed to be supplied, so the farms had to organize a ‘cash-making group’ to earn money to support [themselves],” said the source who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

Four or five workers from each working group of 35 farmers are selected to help raise money to pay for fertilizers and pesticides, and to pay bribes to gain favor with Workers’ Party of Korea officials who oversee the farm, the resident said. Each member of the group must earn an average of 500 Chinese yuan (U.S. $74).

The South Hwanghae resident said the struggle to raise cash led to the farmers’ deaths last month.

“The farmers in the cash-making group believed that the gold mines that were dug during the Japanese colonial period had the most gold, so they entered a mine with weak pillars and suffered a catastrophe all at once,” the South Hwanghae resident said. Japan ruled the Korean peninsula as a colony from 1910-45.

“This is a tragic incident,” she added. “Farm workers who had to farm in the field died instead as they were entering the mine to make money.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee and Leejin J. Chung for RFA Korean. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

UPDATED at 7:00 p.m. EDT on 2022-08-04

Southeast Asian nations called for “maximum restraint” as China launched ballistic missiles into the waters around Taiwan on Thursday, while Western nations urged Beijing not to escalate tensions further after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi – who was in Cambodia’s capital for meetings with counterparts from ASEAN states and other nations – called the unprecedented live-fire drills “reasonable and legitimate steps to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” as China kept venting its fury over Pelosi’s stop in Taipei.

More than 100 aircraft and more than 10 warships took part on Thursday in the first day of live-fire exercises that will go until Sunday, Chinese state media reported. China began the exercises a day after Pelosi left Taiwan after becoming the highest ranking American official to visit the island in 25 years.

The Taiwan Defense Ministry responded by scrambling jets to warn away 22 Chinese aircraft that crossed into its air defense zone and also fired flares to drive away four drones involved in the exercises, according to Reuters.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose foreign ministers are meeting in Phnom Penh this week along with the top diplomats from China, the United States and other powers, came out with a rare collective statement expressing worry about the tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Without naming China or the U.S., they said ASEAN was concerned about volatility that “could destabilize the region and eventually could lead to miscalculation, serious confrontation, open conflicts and unpredictable consequences among major powers.”

“ASEAN calls for maximum restraint” and for the powers to “refrain from provocative action,” according to excerpts from their statement.

“We should act together and ASEAN stands ready to play a constructive role in facilitating peaceful dialogue between all parties including through utilizing ASEAN-led mechanisms to de-escalate tension, to safeguard peace, security and development in our region,” the Southeast Asian foreign ministers said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Phnom Penh on Thursday, said he did not want China to manufacture a crisis to increase military activity in the region and that the United States opposed “any unilateral efforts to change the status quo” on Taiwan.

Retno Marsudi, the foreign minister of ASEAN member Indonesia, said her nation was “worried about the increasing rivalry between the big powers.”

“And if this rivalry is not managed properly, it will lead to an open conflict that will surely threaten peace and stability, including in the Taiwan Strait,” she warned.

In Manila, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs joined the chorus of regional concern about tensions around Taiwan.

“Diplomacy and dialogue must prevail,” it said.

Cambodia, this year’s ASEAN chair, issued its own statement where it too announced that it “consistently and firmly adheres” to the One China Policy, under which Beijing is recognized as the sole government of China.

The United States also holds this policy, but maintains close unofficial ties with Taiwan and is obligated by law to provide defense support. Washington only acknowledges China’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan rather than endorsing it.

For its part, Cambodia said it considered issues related to Taiwan along with Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang as being “under the sovereign rights of the People’s Republic of China.”

Wang: Pelosi ‘irresponsible’

Wang, meanwhile, took a hardline stance on what he saw as efforts against Beijing. He lashed out at Pelosi for visiting Taiwan, saying it was a “manic, irresponsible and highly irrational” act, CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster, reported.

China’s foreign minister also rejected a statement from leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations on Wednesday, where they expressed concern about the proposed live-fire exercises.

“There is no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait. It is normal and routine for legislators from our countries to travel internationally. The PRC’s escalatory response risks increasing tensions and destabilizing the region,” the G7 said.

Wang accused the G7 – which includes the United States and Japan – of ignoring the negative effects of Pelosi’s visit.

“It groundlessly criticizes China for taking such measures, which are reasonable and legitimate steps to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s foreign ministry quoted Wang as saying in response to the G7.

Wang also challenged the U.S. to get on board with Beijing’s plan.

“The United States should not dream of obstructing China’s reunification. Taiwan is a part of China. The complete reunification of China is the trend of the times and an inevitability of history,” he said.

‘Abiding interest in peace’

On Thursday, Washington’s top diplomat reiterated the American government’s support for Taiwan while remaining committed to the One China policy.

“The United States continues to have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Antony Blinken said in an opening statement at the ASEAN meeting where Retno Marsudi joined him.

“We oppose any unilateral efforts to change the status quo, especially by force,” he said. “And I want to emphasize [that] nothing has changed about our position.”

He also said that he did not want China to “manufacture a crisis or seek a pretext to increase its aggressive military activity,” according to a transcript from his joint press conference with Retno.

“We, and countries around the world believe that escalation serves no one and could have unintended consequences that serve no one’s interest including ASEAN members and including China.”

Blinken said U.S. officials had reached out to their Chinese counterparts over the last several days to convey this message.

“Maintaining cross-strait stability is in the interests of all countries in the region, including all of our colleagues within ASEAN,” he said.

Pelosi’s Taiwan visit reverberated far beyond ASEAN to South Korea, a U.S. ally that tries to balance security ties with Washington with key economic links with China.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol chose not to interrupt his vacation to meet Pelosi in person – and the two spoke by phone instead.

“President Yoon’s vacation schedule and Speaker Pelosi’s visit to the Republic of Korea overlapped, and we did not rearrange our schedule,” said his office in a statement. 

Some South Korean analysts said Yoon, whose country is a long-time U.S. ally,  had blundered by becoming the only leader not to meet Pelosi.  Her four-nation Asia trip began in Singapore and Malaysia before the Taiwan stopover, and will end in Japan.

“It gives a bad sign that South Korea is a very weak link (among the U.S. allies),” said Cha Du Hyeogn of the Seoul-based Asan Institute.

“What would China think later? Who will be the primary target when it’s confronting each country in the Indo-Pacific region?” said Cha, reflecting criticism in Seoul that Yoon had snubbed Pelosi to avoid Chinese anger over her Taiwan visit.

UPDATED with controversy in South Korea over President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failure to meet Pelosi.

RFA Korean in Seoul and Jason Gutierrez in Manila contributed to this report by by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

The Chinese government has ramped up restrictions ahead of the birthday of a preeminent Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, calling on local leaders in two Tibetan regions to prevent people from posting his photo or well wishes online, sources with knowledge of the situation said Thursday.

Authorities have threatened to arrest Tibetans in the Ngaba and Dzoge regions who defy the order by posting messages on Aug. 8, the 80th birthday of the 11th Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche (honorific) Lobsang Tenzin Jigme Yeshe Gyamtso Rinpoche.

Rinpoche is the chief abbot in exile of the Kirti Monastery, one of the most important and influential monasteries in Tibet.

“The government has warned of such activity by Tibetans, and individuals will be arrested and severely punished if found defying it,” said a Tibetan source inside Tibet who declined to be identified so as to speak freely. 

Chinese authorities restricted monks from the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoge county and the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba county, both in Sichuan province’s Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, from celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday in 2021. The areas are heavily populated with ethnic Tibetans.

Monks were not allowed to leave their monasteries, and gatherings were not permitted during that time. 

“Last year Tibetans inside Tibet anticipated restrictions and scrutiny from the Chinese government on celebrating the 80th birthday of the Kriti Rinpoche, so they held back,” said a Tibetan who lives in exile.

“But this year, Tibetans living in exile and inside Tibet are looking forward to celebrating Rinpoche’s birthday and offering tenshug,” the source said, referring to a long-life prayer offering made to spiritual teachers. “But we are seeing restrictions and scrutiny in Ngaba and Dzoge.” 

The Kirti Monastery has been the site of the majority of self-immolations by monks who oppose China’s repressive policies in Tibet.

“In one post circulating among some online Tibetan chat groups, members have been warned not to talk about the Kirti Rinpoche or his birthday and to be careful,” the source in exile said. 

Restrictions are greater in the Ngaba region now also because of the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party later this year, said the Tibetan in exile.

Rinpoche was born in Thewo Takmoe Gang in the Amdo region of Tibet on the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. When he was a child, leading lamas recognized him as the reincarnation of 10th Kirti Rinpoche, and he was placed at Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in 1946.

Rinpoche went with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile to Dharamsala, India, in 1959, following the invasion of Tibet by China a decade earlier. He undertook advanced studies in Buddhist religion and philosophy in India, and took higher vows of Buddhist monkhood from the Dalai Lama in 1962. 

From the late 1980s onwards, Rinpoche held various positions in the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government in exile. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Senior officials in Hong Kong’s new administration have been lining up to show their loyalty to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by condemning U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, as U.K. lawmakers were reportedly planning their own Taiwan trip.

“The Hong Kong … government has unwavering determination in and a clear stance against any advocacy of ‘Taiwan independence’, and fully supports the central government’s resolute determination in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Hong Kong chief executive John Lee said in a statement on the government’s website.

He said Pelosi’s visit had gambled with the well-being of Taiwan’s 23 million nationals, calling it “extremely selfish.”

A government spokesman echoed the phrasing used by Chinese officials all over the world.

“Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan constitutes gross interference in China’s internal affairs, seriously undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity [and] greatly threatens the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesman said.

The statements were rapidly followed by similar statements from the city’s justice secretary Paul Lam, who said it was the “sacred duty” of all Chinese nationals to ensure Taiwan — which has never been ruled by the CCP nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China — to “unify” with China.

Lee’s second-in-command Chan Kwok-ki called Pelosi’s visit “wanton,” and vowed to lead the administration “to fully support and facilitate the country in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely handle Taiwan-related matters.”

Chiang Min-yen, a Taiwanese citizen who was a student in Hong Kong during the 2014 Umbrella movement, said the statements from the government marked a new low in relations between Hong Kong and Taiwan, which has been a vocal critic on an ongoing crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong under the national security law.

“The Hong Kong government has to go a step further and make a positive effort [through these statements] to show loyalty to Beijing,” Chiang told RFA. “This is actually a very dangerous sign, because it shows that Xi Jinping’s wolf warrior diplomacy directly affects and extends to Hong Kong’s handling of foreign relations, including those with Taiwan.”

“[This] will actually damage Hong Kong’s reputation as an international financial center … something that Beijing is very afraid of.”

Global offensive

Chinese officials and pro-CCP commentators have launched a global media offensive around Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, claiming that the island is an “inseparable” part of Chinese territory.

The Chinese ambassador to France, Liu Shaye, warned that the CCP may need to impose “re-education” on the island following “unification,” suggesting that China is already planning to export its repressive form of ideological brainwashing beyond its borders.

In an interview with France’s BFM TV, Lu blamed the lack of receptiveness to China’s insistence on “unification” among Taiwan’s 23 million people on “extreme propaganda” by its ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Kazakh citizen journalist Mirbek Serambek, who is currently in exile in France, told RFA that “re-education” likely refers to the mass internment camps used to “re-educate” Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. That policy is part of a CCP assimilation program in Xinjiang that has been branded genocide by some Western governments and legal experts.

“It shows that the Chinese government’s re-education policy is unlikely to change for the time being, and that it was likely on strict orders from [CCP leader] Xi Jinping,” he said. “Xi Jinping will take a more radical approach following the Pelosi incident, both internally and externally.”

“The Chinese government may set up re-education centers in or near Hong Kong over the next few years,” Serambek said. “It will keep on oppressing other groups if Western countries don’t step up sanctions.”

Wuer Kaixi, the Uyghur former student leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square, said Liu is in the mold of a “wolf warrior” diplomat, and is reacting against Washington’s new-found determination not to appease China over Taiwan.

“China today is not only not worried about going against the values shared by the rest of the world, but is proud of it and normalizes bullying, which is incredible,” Wuer told RFA. “It’s gotten to the point where … one of its ambassadors has spoken with pride of this domineering approach.”

UK MPs to visit Taiwan

An employee who answered the phone at the Chinese embassy in France declined to comment on Thursday.

“I can’t answer you because I can’t get a hold of my superiors; you need to go through the proper channels,” the employee said.

The embassy press office asked for questions to be emailed, but no reply had been received by the time of writing.

Meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador to the U.K. warned members of parliament not to visit Taiwan, following a media report that there are plans in the pipeline for such a trip.

“We call on the U.K. side to abide by its own commitments and not to underestimate the extreme sensitivity of the Taiwan issue or follow in the U.S.’ footsteps and play with fire,” Zheng Zeguang told reporters.

“Remember: those who play with fire get burnt,” he said.

The Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee had originally planned to visit Taiwan in February this year, but the trip was postponed because a member of the delegation tested positive for COVID-19.

In a report published on Aug. 3, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) quoted sources as saying that the delegation is expected to travel this fall

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Authorities in Taiwan on Thursday warned the democratic island’s 23 million citizens not to travel to China unless absolutely necessary, after police in China’s Zhejiang announced the arrest of a Taiwanese national for “separatism.”

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which handles ties with China “urged Taiwanese citizens to assess the risks of visiting China,” following the arrest of Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuan on charges of “separatism,” the Central News Agency (CNA) reported.

Yang, a 32-year-old pro-democracy campaigner and vice chairman of the independence-leaning Taiwanese National Party, was taken into custody by state security police in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city on Aug. 3 on charges relating to his activities in support of Taiwanese independence, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

“Taiwanese nationals should exercise caution when traveling to China given the potential risks to their personal freedom and security,” CNA quoted the MAC as saying.

The MAC has called on China to stick to a cross-straits anti-crime agreement, but has yet to receive notification of his arrest through official channels, CNA said.

“Yang’s arrest has been viewed in some quarters as retaliation for U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recently concluded trip to Taiwan,” the agency reported.

Seeing Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a threat to China’s sovereignty claims, Beijing has taken a number of countermeasures, including banning the import of certain food from Taiwan and scheduling live-fire drills in six maritime areas in the vicinity of the island from Aug. 4-7, it said.

‘Irrational actions’ by the PRC

It said at least two Taiwanese nationals, retired National Taiwan Normal University academic Shih Cheng-ping and independent scholar Cheng Yu-chin are currently also imprisoned in China on national security and espionage charges.

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) condemned Yang’s arrest as “a serious human rights violation.”

“China, which claims to be a great power, has repeatedly abused its judicial system to detain Taiwanese people on the grounds of national security,” the party said in a statement widely reported in local media.

“The CCP has resorted to a series of irrational actions in the past couple of days to exert extreme pressure on Taiwan via malicious bullying behavior, in a bid to sow fear among the Taiwanese people and force Taiwan to submit,” the DDP said.

“Today they have stooped to using the personal freedom of a Taiwanese national for political blackmail … meaning that Taiwanese people in China could be arrested at any time as part of this red terror campaign,” it said.

The Taiwan National Party was set up in July 2011 by former national policy adviser to the president Huang Hua, independence activist Kao Kin-lang, scholars Liu Chong-yee, Yang Chih-yuan and others.

Exiled Chinese dissident Guo Baosheng, who is acquainted with Yang, said he was shocked by the news of his arrest.

“I was shocked because he hated the CCP and swore that he would never go back to China unless it was China free,” Guo told RFA.

Ammunition in dispute over Pelosi

Gao said the last contact he had with Yang was in May this year, adding that Yang had been less politically active since losing his bid for a New Taipei legislature seat in 2020.

“He probably thought there was no risk and just went on over there,” Guo said. “Also, I am guessing some spy agents tricked him [to go there] by pretending to be [fellow activists] persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”

“He likes to befriend these dissidents,” he added.

Guo said Yang could have been arrested a while ago, but Beijing is now using his case as ammunition in the row over Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, which has also prompted live-fire military exercises by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the firing of missiles across the island.

Another friend of Yang’s, Wang Yikai, said on his personal Facebook page that he knew that Yang had recently signed up for a Go tournament in Wenzhou.

Aside from the military response, several government websites in Taiwan were attacked during Pelosi’s visit, with cybersecurity research institutes saying the attacks were likely launched by Chinese hackers.

Beijing has slapped import bans on thousands of Taiwanese food products, while its Taiwan Affairs Office has sanctioned four Taiwanese companies labeled by Beijing as “pro-independence diehards.”

Chen Kuide, executive chairman of the Princeton China Society, said all of these reactions were predictable.

“For Pelosi to make this visit in such a formal and high-profile way has angered the CCP and caused a great loss of face,” Chen told RFA.

“All of these things are being done to save face for the country and to restore the [Chinese] public’s good impression of their country,” he said. “They’ll do it for a while, and do it like they mean it, but really starting something with the U.S. military wouldn’t be a good idea, although possible.”

Little Pinks a diversion

A Shanghai resident surnamed Liu said that Pelosi’s visit had mobilized strong nationalistic sentiment among CCP supporters online, known as Little Pinks, with many calling for Pelosi’s plane to be shot down.

But he said much of the online hype was a distraction technique designed to whip up populist support ahead of the 20th party congress later in the year.

“Without such hot topics to divert public attention from domestic social conflicts, how can [CCP leader Xi Jinping] smoothly achieve another term at the 20th National Congress?” Liu said.

Another Shanghai resident surnamed Wang agreed.

“Most people know they wouldn’t start a war, but they were enjoying the excitement,” Wang said. “In the end, [China] softened its stance, and got a lot of online ridicule for that.”

“Now, the topic has been banned from the internet.”

MAC spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng said: “The people of Taiwan will never submit to Beijing’s civil and military attacks … [and] will resolutely take countermeasures.”

“We warn the CCP authorities not to take this opportunity to provoke trouble, and immediately abandon its attempts at intimidation and retaliation,” Chiu said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.