Thai police on Friday arrested 12 Khmer Krom refugees found working illegally in Thailand, taking them to a detention center for processing and trial for entering the country without permission, sources told RFA.
The group, including 7 men and 5 women, were taken into custody at a vegetable market in central Thailand’s Phatum Thani province, said another member of the ethnic group who escaped arrest because she had arrived late for work.
“I got there about 5 minutes late — otherwise I would also have been detained,” RFA’s source named Chanthy said, adding that when she arrived she saw four uniformed Thai police officers put the 12 refugees into a police van and take them away.
The group are now being held by Phathum Thani Immigration Police for eventual return to Vietnam, where the ethnic Khmer Krom, natives of a region formerly a part of southeastern Cambodia, regularly complain of persecution by Vietnamese authorities.
Members of the ethnic group also face suspicion in Cambodia, where the Khmer Krom are perceived not as Cambodians but as Vietnamese.
Chanthy called on refugee assistance groups to urge Thai authorities to release all Khmer Krom detained in Thailand. “One is my own son-in-law, whose wife has a 5-month-old baby who needs a father,” she said.
Also speaking to RFA, a Khmer Krom refugee named Si Veth, who escaped from Vietnam to Thailand 5 years ago, said her father and mother were among the group of 12 arrested Friday at the market in Phatum Thani.
“They had only wanted to work there to earn money because they are living as refugees in Thailand, where it is difficult to find a legal job,” she said, calling on U.N. refugee officials to intervene with Thai authorities to secure the group’s release.
Official status as refugees
More than 200 Khmer Krom are now believed to be living in Thailand, where many have official status as refugees granted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
President of the Khmer Krom Refugee Association in Thailand Lim Keo said the 12 now being held will face trial on charges of entering and working in the country illegally. He urged U.N. officials in Thailand to pressure government authorities to free all Khmer Krom now detained in Thailand.
“I’m not sure how to help this particular group, though. Some may already have refugee status, and others may not,” he added.
Venerable Son Yoeung Ratana, a Buddhist monk and information director for the U.S.-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, said that members of the Khmer Krom community are leaving Vietnam because they face government persecution after asking for their rights as an indigenous group.
”The Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation urges Thai authorities to release the Khmer Krom refugees so they can regain their freedom,” he said. “We also urge the UNHCR to speed up the process providing those asylum seekers with refugee status so they can live legally in Thailand,” he added.
Sources have accused Vietnamese authorities of confiscating Khmer Krom land in Vietnam and of restricting religious and other traditional observances of the group, along with the teaching of Khmer script to Khmer children.
Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Richard Finney.
The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which convenes in Beijing on Oct. 16, is expected to grant an unprecedented third five-year term to Xi Jinping, the CCP general secretary and state president. In the run up to the congress, RFA Cantonese and Mandarin examined the 69-year-old Xi’s decade at the helm of the world’s most populous nation in a series of reports on Hong Kong, foreign policy, Chinese intellectuals, civil society and rural poverty.
Ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping will seek a third term in office at the 20th party congress, which opens on Sunday, amid tightened security in the capital, after a rare and anonymous public protest called for his resignation.
Photos circulating on social media showed guards keeping watch at major traffic flyovers in the city after someone hung two huge banners from the Sitong flyover on the Third Ring Road in Beijing, one of which called for Xi’s resignation.
“Remove the traitor-dictator Xi Jinping!” read one banner, video and photos of which were quickly posted to social media, only to be deleted.
“Food, not PCR tests. Freedom, not lockdowns. Reforms, not the Cultural Revolution. Elections, not leaders,” read the second.
Keywords and accounts linked to the protest were rapidly deleted from China’s tightly controlled social media platforms, as the ruling party’s well-oiled censorship machine swung into action.
Searches for “Haidian,” the district where the banners appeared, and “hero” were all blocked by Friday, amid reports that social media users who talked about the incident were getting their accounts shut down.
Tightened security is in place across the country, even 3,600 kilometers (2,200 miles) west of Beijing in Tibet’s regional capital and other major cities, where even emojis were being monitored.
“On October 12, the Chinese government sent out orders to the heads of counties and cities in and around Lhasa, Shigatse and Phenpo stating that no one should engage in religious activities or gatherings, or share religious material on their social media,” said a resident of Tibet.
Sharing general greetings carrying images or emojis of religious deities on social media is also forbidden, and “they are threatening that the administrator of the chat group and the members will all be punished if caught doing so,” the source told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity for personal security reasons.
People watch while smoke rises as a banner with a protest message hangs off Sitong Bridge, Beijing, China October 13, 2022 in this image obtained by Reuters.
‘Core’ leader
On the eve of the CCP 20th National Congress, Xi Jinping has been hugely successful in gathering the reins of power into his own hands, reeling in control from disparate branches of party and government, and feeding a growing cult of personality around his personal brand of political ideology, analysts told RFA on Friday.
Xi currently holds, like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping before him, the moniker of “core” leader and CCP general secretary, alongside the presidency of the country and the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which commands the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
By 2018, six years into his tenure, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC) had removed presidential term limits from the country’s constitution, paving the way for a third term in office and breaking with the post-Mao political convention that leaders step down after two terms.
“After a decade of rule, Xi Jinping appears to have no intention of emulating his predecessors Jiang Zemin or Hu Jintao, and has no intention of handing over the reins of supreme power to anyone,” political commentator Lu Chen wrote in a commentary broadcast on RFA’s Mandarin Service.
“[This] abolished the administrative reforms that Deng Xiaoping had worked hard to implement in response to the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976], and restarted the system of lifelong party leadership begun in the Mao era,” Lu said. “Technically, Xi Jinping can now be re-elected until the end of his life.”
Despite sporadic signs of public protest and dissent from within the ranks of the CCP, political analysts are largely agreed that a third term in office for Xi is now extremely likely.
“Xi Jinping’s impending re-election is part of a process by which Chinese society has centralized power,” Lu said. “As Xi has drawn power to himself from the rest of the party, so the Chinese government has taken all power away from civil society.”
Liang Wen-tao, professor of political science at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University, said there have been rumors of dissent within party ranks, including wild claims of a political coup attempt that placed Xi under house arrest.
“This is, after all, a break with convention, and will naturally be challenged [by some],” Liang, who is also known in Cantonese as Leung Man-to, said in a recent commentary for RFA’s Cantonese Service. “There have been different opinions on whether Xi could be voted back in.”
“But he has been planning to move to a system of lifelong tenure for a long time now,” he wrote.
Taming the elders
Xi’s anti-corruption campaign has long since disposed of the biggest hitters loyal to party elder Jiang Zemin, once believed to wield huge influence long after he stepped down after two terms in office, Liang said.
“By gradually replacing them with his own cronies, Xi has successfully suppressed the power of the Jiang faction in the military,” he said.
A string of corruption cases involving once-powerful chiefs of law enforcement has also seen off serious challenges to Xi’s rule from within the police, armed police and political and legal affairs committee system, Liang said.
Xi managed this by bringing the People’s Armed Police under the sole command of the CMC, when it had formerly been under the control of the CMC and China’s cabinet, the State Council.
He has also managed to eclipse the influence of party elders, who once ruled China from behind the scenes, according to New York City University politics professor Xia Ming.
“China now controls the whole of society since the pandemic,” Xia said. “Elderly people were the most vulnerable during the pandemic, so [the leadership] has been able to put huge pressure on elderly members of the Politburo, who take their health very seriously.”
A behind-the-scenes package of “services” for party elders, in conjunction with the Health Code COVID-19 tracking app, has also enabled the leadership to know where they are at any time, he said.
“This means the elders aren’t able to make political connections as they have done in the past, nor to make rash comments about the current government,” Xia said. “Even if they are dissatisfied with Xi Jinping, and have opinions about him, it’s much harder for them to exert the huge influence they did in the past.”
Meanwhile, Xi’s constant political pressure on state media and on China’s once-powerful internet conglomerates has suppressed not just outright dissent, but almost any public point of view not pre-approved by government censors, Liang said.
“With the establishment of party supremacy … over the media, Xi Jinping has been able to significantly curtail premier Li Keqiang’s political influence and thereby mitigate any political threat from him, albeit in a disguised manner,” he said.
Shanghai party chief Li Qiang drinks during a group discussion held on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Tuesday, March 6, 2018. Credit: AP
Future leaders
What is less predictable than whether Xi will stay in power for a third term is how long that term will be, analysts said.
In the absence of major political leaks, commentators are still unsure of who will make it into the 25-member Politburo, still less of the makeup of the next Politburo standing committee, currently a seven-member body at the heart of political power in China.
The Asia Society has suggested five potential scenarios, including the promotion of current Shanghai party chief Li Qiang to the post of premier.
If Xi unveils a Politburo standing committee packed with his allies, this will send a signal that his power is now supreme, while a more balanced line-up could hint at intense negotiations behind the scenes at Zhongnanhai, analysts have told RFA in recent interviews.
Chen Chien-fu, associate professor of international relations at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, said three main factors will go into deciding who is in key positions of power: the age of candidates, internal power structures within the party, and the extent to which Xi feels psychologically secure.
Chen said he believes current propaganda chief Huang Kunming, Chongqing municipal party chief Chen Min’er, Ding Xuexiang, who currently directs the CCP’s powerful General Office and Shanghai CCP chief Li Qiang are all likely contenders for a seat on the Politburo standing committee.
“The key point to look out for will be whether the next generation of leaders are dependent on Xi Jinping for their position, or whether they have a strong and independent power base of their own,” Chen said.
Chen said it is also worth looking at which officials under the age of 60 are promoted into the 25-member Politburo.
“These people could become important future contenders for the leadership succession in China,” he said.
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Additional reporting by RFA Tibetan. Translation by Tenzin Dickyi.
The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which convenes in Beijing on Oct. 16, is expected to grant an unprecedented third five-year term to Xi Jinping, the CCP general secretary and state president. In the run up to the congress, RFA Cantonese and Mandarin examined the 69-year-old Xi’s decade at the helm of the world’s most populous nation in a series of reports on Hong Kong, foreign policy, Chinese intellectuals, civil society and rural poverty.
Ten years after ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping came to power, China’s once-nascent civil society appears to have died in infancy, activists and rights lawyers told RFA, as Xi gears up to seek a third, possibly indefinite, term in office at the forthcoming party congress.
China was described back in 2008, after the Sichuan earthquake, as being “on the threshold” of having a functioning civil society.
Fast forward a decade, and a research paper penned by civil society researchers at Peking University describing the development of civil society as one of China’s greatest achievements, looks like a moldering historical document from a bygone era.
Human rights attorney Wang Quanzhang said the Xi administration has largely nipped that development in the bud, because civil society is seen by the authorities as a thorn in their side.
Wang said the government has gotten it wrong, because civil society groups ease social tensions and offer aid where the government doesn’t, contributing to social stability.
“If civil society cannot develop, then the rest of society will be less and less balanced, giving rise to continual and extreme cases of social conflict,” said Wang, who was released in 2020 after a four-and-a-half year jail term for subversion in connection with the public interest cases he was involved in.
“Chinese people have been oppressed by various organizations for a long time, throughout their history, without any independent civil entities to support them,” he said. “The stress on the individual can be enormous.”
China started the 21st century on a note of hope, with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) already in the bag, and appearing to presage an era of unprecedented liberalism.
But rapid economic development began to expose growing social inequality, and its attendant social problems.
Fireworks explode over the National Stadium during the opening ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing on Aug. 8, 2008. Credit: Associated Press
Pressed to shut down
A number of non-government groups took advantage of what was once a relaxed regulatory environment to offer assistance and services to people in need, among them a group called the Beijing Transition Research Institute, or Chuanzhixing, which said it was “committed to investigating issues and phenomena related to freedom and justice in the process of social transformation.”
Group founder Guo Yushan once helped rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng with his daring escape from house arrest at his home in the eastern province of Shandong, enabling him to take refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Guo also helped the families of children sickened during the melamine-tainted infant formula scandal of 2008, and grew into one of the better-known rights groups.
U.S.-based activist Yang Zili, who used to work for Chuanzhixing, dates the beginning of the end for the group when Xi Jinping came to power at the 18th party congress in 2012.
“Civil society was suppressed very soon after Xi Jinping came to power,” Yang told RFA. “It started with a growing number of restrictions on the organization’s activities, before it was banned outright.”
“We used to hold a weekly lecture, and it started when the authorities wouldn’t let us have a politically sensitive guest speaker who was going to talk on a politically sensitive topic,” he said.
“They eventually interfered to the extent that they wouldn’t let us hold [the lectures] at all,” Yang said.
The Beijing municipal government banned Chuanzhixing outright in July 2013, saying it had failed to register with the authorities in the correct category.
Other civil society groups were soon to meet the same fate.
The Liren Rural Library grassroots educational project, which built libraries in rural schools, health rights advocacy group the Beijing Yirenping Center, and the Unirule Institute of Economics all gradually disappeared from view.
“Organizations like Liren and Chuanzhixing, where I worked, have all been wiped out now,” rights activist Chen Kun told RFA.
“Their employees have either gone abroad, been imprisoned, or have no way to speak out on these matters any more,” he said.
Newly elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping waves as he leaves after meeting with the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Nov. 15, 2012. Credit: Reuters
Harsh environment
Josef Benedict, a researcher at the Asia-Pacific Department of the Global Civil Society Engagement Coalition (CIVICUS), an international non-profit organization headquartered in South Africa, said China is now one of the world’s most closed societies.
Activists have to work in extremely harsh environments, with the recent crackdown meaning that NGOs have basically lost any autonomy, and with most of the better-known groups shut down by the government, Benedict said in comments emailed to RFA.
Elizabeth Plantan, an assistant professor of political science at Stetson University who studies Chinese civil society, said the government appears to be encouraging environmental groups, however.
Activists and NGOs working on environmental issues locally, regionally and nationally are still able to operate relatively freely, especially in the area of environmental public interest litigation, Plantan told RFA.
Groups promoting government transparency around pollution data and that cooperate with state actors via official think-tanks are also tolerated, she said.
But she said that Chinese leaders’ antipathy toward civil society is well-documented, and unlikely to wane.
Civil society is clearly listed as one of the “seven taboos” in the CCP’s Document No. 9, a leaked secret policy document from 2013 that also bans public discussion of judicial independence, universal values, press freedom, citizens’ rights, the historical mistakes of the CCP and the country’s financial and political elite.
Maya Wang, senior China researcher at the New York-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the banning of civil society groups has weakened social cohesion rather than threatening it.
“Currently, Chinese society can be said to be atomized, which means that under a totalitarian regime, people are isolated and can only rely on their families for any kind of assistance,” Wang told RFA.
“It is difficult for people to connect with each other or to do anything together,” she said.
Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang speaks via video link from his home in Jinan, in China’s eastern Shandong province, April 23, 2020. Credit: AFP
Changed forever
Wang Quanzhang, who was one of dozens of prominent rights lawyers detained, imprisoned or otherwise targeted during a nationwide operation targeting the profession in 2015, said that crackdown had changed the situation of rights attorneys forever.
While they had been targeted in the past, the authorities began pursuing them at a far greater rate during the second five years of Xi Jinping’s tenure at the helm of party and state.
In the 18 years from 1998 to 2015, 29 Chinese lawyers were stripped of their right to practice for representing human rights cases.
Between 2016 and 2021, that number had risen to 42.
“The July 2015 arrests were yet another small peak in the authorities’ crackdown on citizens’ rights protection and human rights lawyers,” Wang told RFA.
“Since then, the activities of civil society groups like human rights law firms have been further restricted and compressed,” he said.
Rights lawyer Wang Yu told a recent online conference organized by U.S.-based groups that her license to practice was revoked in 2020, and that she has so far had little success in offering legal assistance to clients without it.
Wang was suddenly rendered incommunicado in 2021, after being named by the U.S. State Department as an International Woman of Courage.
Sources told RFA at the time that the authorities had prevented her from attending the online award ceremony and from speaking to the media.
Guangzhou-based rights lawyer Sui Muqing, who was also targeted in the 2015 crackdown, said his license was revoked in 2018.
“I think the environment for civil society has obviously gotten very bad,” Sui told RFA. “It’s not just human rights lawyers and activists.”
“Intellectuals and people inside the system [of government] are affected by the chilling effect, too,” he said.
Malaysia’s upcoming election could cost the Myanmar shadow government one of its biggest allies – Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.
Following Myanmar’s military coup in Feb. 2021, Saifuddin was the first ASEAN foreign minister to contact the parallel, civilian National Unity Government (NUG), publicly meet with the NUG foreign minister and push for the regional bloc to actively engage with it.
But with most analysts giving Saifuddin’s party little chance of winning the next election, the question is whether a new Malaysian government would be as active in engaging the Burmese politicians ousted in the coup.
Saifuddin has been actively pushing for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members to engage with other stakeholders and to find better solutions to the post-coup crisis in Myanmar, said Thomas Benjamin Daniel, Foreign Policy senior analyst at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.
“He is a progressive minister who supports humanitarian and democratic objectives and has been very vocal in holding the junta accountable for its actions,” Daniel told BenarNews.
“We could see a more muted Malaysia if Saifuddin is no longer foreign minister.”
Since becoming foreign minister in August 2021, Saifuddin has emerged as the Southeast Asian diplomat most actively trying to resolve the crisis, Daniel said.
Through his diplomacy, Malaysia in April became the first member-state of the regional bloc to officially contact Myanmar’s NUG, which many consider to be the legitimate government in exile. A month later, he had his first in-person meeting with Zin Mar Aung, his counterpart from the NUG, in Washington, D.C., after the U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit.
Saifuddin was also the first ASEAN foreign minister to broach the idea of scrapping a five-point consensus the regional bloc made with Myanmar, a kind of roadmap to return that country to democracy, because the junta has done nothing to implement the accord.
“Until today, there has been no real progress on the 5PC [five-point consensus]. The violence continues, and in fact [has] gotten worse. … It shows the junta is making a mockery of the 5PC,” Saifuddin wrote on Facebook in July.
And last month in New York, Saifuddin said that Kuala Lumpur planned to press ASEAN into deciding the fate of its five-point consensus on Myanmar before the regional bloc’s summit Nov. 8-13 summit in Phnom Penh.
“Between now and November ASEAN must seriously review if the 5-point consensus is still relevant and decide if it is still relevant,” Saifuddin told reporters after meeting with Burmese opposition members on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly proceedings.
“By the time we meet in November, we must ask hard questions and have an answer.”
Now, however, Saifuddin won’t be attending the ASEAN summit, his press aide told BenarNews on Thursday.
That’s because after Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced elections on Oct. 10, his government became a caretaker government and his ministers caretaker ministers, until the polls.
‘Each minister has their own style’
Daniel of ISIS Malaysia said it is uncertain whether Saifuddin Abdullah would continue to serve in the cabinet or as a member of parliament in the next government.
Saifuddin belongs to the Bersatu party, which is headed by former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, the man widely seen as the “turncoat” who brought down the Pakatan Harapan government Malaysians voted for in the 2018 election.
Political analyst Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs believes this will have turned many voters against them.
“It would be an uphill struggle for them to retain their seats,” Oh told BenarNews.
“Betraying the popular mandate is a cardinal sin for those educated voters.”
Additionally, said analyst Jeniri Amir, Bersatu does not have much grassroots support.
“Bersatu in general is a weak party. If we look at the party grassroots, they will definitely lose in the next general elections,” Jeniri, a senior fellow at the Malaysian Council of Professors, told BenarNews.
“Saifuddin will most likely not be part of the new government even if he wins his seat.”
Would a new Malaysian foreign minister continue Saifuddin’s approach and retain contact with Myanmar’s NUG?
One former foreign minister thinks yes.
“This policy will continue although the way it is presented will be different,” said ex-top diplomat Syed Hamid Albar.
“Of course, in the management of foreign policy, each minister has their own style.”
NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Madison Realty Capital, a vertically integrated real estate private equity firm focused on debt and equity investment strategies, today announced that it has provided a $32 million loan to Vibrant Cities for a recently completed, eight-story mixed-use residential and retail property located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
The 95-unit property, known as Pivot Apartments, received TCO in May, and is 69% leased to date. Additionally, Pivot contains 4,900 square feet of ground floor retail space that is fully leased to Wasabi Sushi, La Cocina Oaxaqueña, and Social Tea. Thirty of the property’s residential units are fully leased for use as short-term rentals to Sonder USA Inc., a boutique hospitality company and short-term rental manager. Located at 1208 Pine Street, Pivot is ideally situated for professionals directly off Interstate 5, within minutes of multiple public transit options, and borders Seattle’s Central Business District, home to Fortune 500 companies and popular Seattle tourist destination, Pike Place Market. The Property participates in Seattle’s Multifamily Tax Exemption Program by designating 20% of the residential units as affordable.
Josh Zegen, Managing Principal and Co-Founder of Madison Realty Capital, said, “Pivot offers centrally located, flexible short- and long-term living options for Seattle’s robust employment market. We are pleased to further expand our presence in the Pacific Northwest by delivering a customized financing solution to Vibrant Cities, an experienced developer in Seattle with an extensive history of delivering high-quality multifamily properties.”
Ming Fung, Co-Founder and President of Vibrant Cities, added, “Madison Realty Capital’s team deeply understood our vision for Pivot Apartments and its place within Seattle’s most dense and hippest neighborhood located within walking distance to the core of downtown Seattle. Their reputation for professionalism and certainty of execution made them the best choice to complete this exciting new development in Seattle’s Capitol Hill.”
Pivot contains a unit mix of studio, one-, and two-bedroom residences with modern interiors, high-efficiency HVAC systems, LED light fixtures, and built-in closets, with some units offering private balconies and in-unit washer/dryers. Community amenities include an outdoor deck, parking garage, bike storage, on-site office, and fitness center for both long-term and short-term tenants.
About Madison Realty Capital
Madison Realty Capital is a vertically integrated real estate private equity firm that, as of August 31, 2022, manages approximately $9.5 billion in total assets on behalf of a global institutional investor base. Since 2004, Madison Realty Capital has completed approximately $21 billion in transactions providing borrowers with flexible and highly customized financing solutions, strong underwriting capabilities, and certainty of execution. Headquartered in New York City, with an office in Los Angeles, the firm has approximately 70 employees across all real estate investment, development, and property management disciplines. Madison Realty Capital has been named to Commercial Observer’s prestigious “Power 100” list of New York City real estate players. To learn more, follow us on LinkedIn and visit www.madisonrealtycapital.com.
A total of 1,746 cases of lumpy skin disease in cattle, have been reported in Mongolia so far this year, and 1,255 of them have been slaughtered, local media reported yesterday.
So far, the eastern province of Sukhbaatar and southern provinces of Dundgovi and Dornogovi, have been quarantined due to the disease, said the report, citing the country’s General Authority for Veterinary Services.
Lumpy skin disease is a viral infection of cattle, characterised by fever, enlarged superficial lymph nodes and multiple nodules on the skin and mucous membranes.
The livestock sector is a main pillar of the Mongolian economy, with around 70 million heads of livestock in the country, with a population of around 3.4 million.
Taming the elders
