Day: November 14, 2022

Was it intentional or a simple mistake?

In a scene that went viral on social media in Hong Kong, the unofficial anthem of Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests was blared over the sound system before a rugby match between Hong Kong and South Korea played just outside of Seoul on Sunday.

The song, “Glory to Hong Kong,” which calls for democracy and liberty, rose to prominence during the widespread protests in Hong Kong in 2019 against increasing encroachment on civil liberties by mainland Chinese authorities. 

Normally, China’s national anthem, which praises communism, is played whenever Hong Kong sports teams play internationally. 

Hong Kong’s government demanded an investigation into the incident.

The song is highly symbolic to the people of Hong Kong, who have pushed back against the growing constraints on expressions of free speech and press imposed on them by the Hong Kong government, which is largely doing Beijing’s will.

“The song pokes right at the sore spot of the Hong Kong government. It reminded the government of the fact that it does not truly govern Hong Kong,” said former legislative council member Ted Hui, who is in exile overseas. 

“The Hong Kong government is aware that it is a weak and unpopular government,” Hui said. “It fears that the pro-democracy movement will be revived, and that the momentum may grow stronger again.”

This is the clip when “Glory to Hong Kong,” the protest anthem, was played at the Asian Rugby Seven Series in South Korea: https://t.co/o02abNBQ5y pic.twitter.com/kB8lr5i6CV

— Kris Cheng (@krislc) November 13, 2022

Human error?

The Seoul-based Korea Rugby Union said that the gaffe was a result of human error and had no political motivations, and that it had apologized to the Asia Rugby Union, and both the Hong Kong and Chinese teams participating in the tournament.

But Ronny Tong, a member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, said the incident was likely not human error and must have had Hong Kong-based accomplices.

Tong said that those responsible may have violated several laws, including by committing sedition under the Crimes Ordinance, separatism or collusion with foreign forces under the National Security Law of Hong Kong, or conspiracy to contravene under the National Anthem Ordinance.

Tong said that the Hong Kong government should conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with the law, rather than simply protesting and demanding an apology. 

But Hong Kong current affairs commentator and lawyer Sang Pu told Radio Free Asia on Monday that Tong’s legal analysis made no sense, saying it was impossible to apply Hong Kong law in South Korea.

Tong had no proof of his assertion, Sang said. “[He] claimed that it was an individual in Hong Kong who plotted to have someone meddle with the Chinese national anthem. This is pure imagination. Why not consider other possibilities?”

Similar anthem gaffes have occurred on many occasions over the years. In 2017 Russian gold medal winners at the biathlon world championship in Austria saw their flag raised to the tune of the Yeltsin-era Russian anthem.

After a Kazakh athlete won a gold medal at an international shooting competition in Kuwait in 2012, the organizers played a fake version of the Kazakstan anthem made for the comedy movie Borat.

Hong Kong won Sunday’s match against South Korea 19-12. The third leg of the Asian Rugby Seven Series is scheduled for Nov. 26-27 in Amjan, UAE.

Translated by Min Eu. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Highly anticipated yet viewed with low expectations, the summit Monday between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping improved the tone in bilateral contacts after years of tensions while underscoring how Taiwan looms over efforts to keep a strategic rivalry from spiraling into conflict.

After three hours of talks at a resort hotel on the Indonesian island of Bali on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, Biden said he and Xi were “very blunt with one another,” while a Xi spokesperson described the meeting as “in-depth, candid and constructive.”

Those phrases–diplomatic speak for airing sharp differences—came after both leaders, in their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office nearly two years ago, acknowledged global expectations that the superpowers keep the numerous U.S.-China disputes from deteriorating into conflict.

“The Biden-Xi meeting exceeded low expectations, with both leaders clearly expressing a desire to manage differences and work together on urgent global issues,” said Patricia Kim of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.

The White House said Beijing and Washington also “agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts” in areas like climate talks and other global issues, including resuming long-frozen discussions by joint working groups.

“The fact that the two sides agreed to reinitiate working level discussions in transnational challenges including climate change, public health and food security is quite promising,” Kim told Radio Free Asia, adding that much hard work remained.

Although Biden and Xi go back more than a decade to when they were both vice-presidents, they have spoken only by phone since Biden took office. Face-to-face talks between the leaders of the two powers have value in themselves.

“This was the first face-to-face meeting between President Biden and President Xi in about five years, and it occurred at a tense time in the US-China relationship,” said Sheena Chestnut Greitens, the Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“In my view, the buildup in Chinese military and nuclear capabilities, combined with a relative lack of dialogue to understand China’s intentions and lack of robust crisis management mechanisms, pose significant risks to stability in the U.S.-China relationship,” she told RFA.

Neither ‘more confrontational (nor) more conciliatory’

Among other useful opportunities, Biden was able to size up Xi just weeks after he was reappointed for a norm-busting third term as leader at Chinese Communist Party.

“I didn’t find him more confrontational or more conciliatory,” Biden told reporters after their summit. “I found him the way he’s always been, direct and straightforward.”

The U.S. president added: “I am convinced that he understood exactly what I was saying and I understood what he was saying.”

Among contentious issues Biden raised with Xi were concerns over China’s crackdown since 2019 in Hong Kong, harsh policies against minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, trade and Russia invasion of Ukraine, the White House said.

Although there were no expectations of big policy breakthroughs and there was no joint statement, Biden appeared to make headway in winning oblique Chinese criticism of Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine. Xi is an ally of Putin in a relationship that undercuts China’s claim to be neutral in the Ukraine war.

“President Biden and President Xi reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” the White House said. Chinese statements excluded mention of this.

“While this particular line did not appear on the official Chinese readout, the fact that the White House readout clearly noted that both leaders affirmed this statement was significant and a critical communication of redlines to Putin,” said Kim of Brookings.

Looming largest was Taiwan, the self-ruling island democracy that Beijing views as an inalienable part of China and a domestic affair that no other country has the right to interfere in. Washington has longstanding security ties with Taipei, even as it officially recognizes only the government in Beijing under a one China policy.

‘The core of China’s core interests’

On Taiwan, Biden told Xi that the U.S. had not changed its one China policy, and “opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side,” the White House said.

Biden “raised U.S. objections to (China’s) coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan, which undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, and jeopardize global prosperity,” it said.

Xi described Taiwan as “the core of China’s core interests,” and “the first insurmountable red line in U.S.-China relations,” and called for the U.S. leader to stick to his commitment in not supporting Taiwanese independence.

Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of giving support to “separatist forces in Taiwan” and retaliated by freezing climate talks and sharply increasing military activities around the island after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited in August. 

Biden’s denial that there has been any change in U.S. policy follows his statements that Washington would help Taiwan defend itself and comes amid moves by American lawmakers to increase military assistance to Taiwan and expedite current arms contracts.

To Beijing, such U.S. actions raise doubts about Washington’s commitment to the status quo, said Chang Teng-chi, head of political science at National Taiwan University in Taipei.

“Ultimately … there is no trust between the two sides, so all they can hope to do is dynamic crisis management,” he told RFA.

Monday’s meeting in Bali nonetheless left the U.S. “in a better position now than we were before,” said Oriana Skylar Mastro, Center fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

“It’s a good thing that the two leaders met and it’s important to continue the dialogue,” she told RFA.

“However, the fundamental issues that are causing conflict between the two sides, in particular the Taiwan issue, there’s been no progress made on those.”

 Reporting by RFA Mandarin and Cantonese. Translation and editing by Luisetta Mudie.

Since he took over as Chinese Communist Party chief in 2012, Xi Jinping has spared no effort to entrench the monopoly on political power that the party has held since Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic in 1949. With top-down decision making by “core leader” Xi, who is fresh from appointing himself a third term as leader, the party’s dominant role in ideology, society and the economy is set to deepen.

A group of young Laotians have come under harsh criticism – and could be subjected to “re-education” – for carrying an ornately dressed woman in a palanquin around the country’s most important religious landmark during a Buddhist festival

The youths apologized after being ordered to do so, but explained that they wanted to promote the arts and meant no disrespect.

The idea for the procession came from Lao literature and history, and the woman – an “Upson girl,” whose job it was to entertain kings in the past – was based on a sculpture at an ancient temple, a member of the group who organized the procession wrote on his FaceBook page.

“This sculpture is now kept in the [old] Emerald Buddha Temple in Vientiane,” he wrote. “Our new generation of Lao artists picked this piece of art and just wanted to recreate it.”

“We had no intention to show any disrespect to the stupa,” he wrote. “We conducted that activity to promote the arts, but we now understand that that activity was not appropriate from the point of view of the public.”

But the Nov. 6 procession around the large gold-covered Pha That Luang, known as the Great Stupa, in the center of Laos’ capital of Vientiane, sparked heavy criticism from monks, government authorities and members of the public.

Many said it ran counter to Lao tradition and culture. Some said only kings or monks should be carried around in a palanquin, while others pointed out that an “Upson girl” was considered to be a “bad girl,” or a one of the ancient court’s prostitutes.

“Carrying a woman on a wooden box and on the shoulders in a parade around the That Luang Stupa like that is wrong,” said a senior monk in Vientiane, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons. “The act shows that the group didn’t respect our sacred place, tradition and culture. It’s not right; I’ve never seen anything like this in my 60 years of existence.”

A young Buddhist follower told RFA’s Lao Service that parading an “Upson girl” around the stupa strongly violated Laos’ tradition and culture. 

“In the past, only the king could sit on the palanquin and be carried around,” he said. “It’s not appropriate that a woman should be carried. It must be a king, according to our tradition, culture and history.”

The procession took place during the week-long annual That Luang Festival, Vientiane’s most important Buddhist celebration held during November’s full moon. 

Laotians from across the country go to the temple wearing ethnic costumes, playing traditional music, dancing, and bearing flowers, incense and candles. Led by chanting monks, worshipers typically walk clockwise around the stupa three times.  

The That Luang Stupa Festival Organizing Committee decided a day after the procession to take action against the youths because they had not first obtained permission for the procession, and because their act was offensive to Lao tradition and culture.

The youths were told to formally apologize the That Luang Stupa and to the public at a ceremony during which they also would present four beeswax castles and four packages of candles and flowers to senior monks at the temple.

The member of the group who apologized on Facebook said that the group members were not aware of the religious ceremony at the stupa and that guards at the gate did not stop them from entering.

A district police officer said the police would investigate the incident and “re-educate” the group. “That would be it; no other punishment would be imposed,” he said.

Re-education entails reminding offenders of the rules and standards of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the county’s sole ruling party, and government policy on specific subjects. 

A few days later, an official from Vientiane’s Saysettha district confirmed that the group offered a formal apology at a stupa, and added that the festival organizing committee believed the youths did not intend to insult Lao tradition and culture.

Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Prime Minister Hun Sen justified spending about U.S.$500,000 of the national budget on domestically produced luxury watches as gifts for visiting ASEAN dignitaries, arguing they showcased Cambodia’s “scientific and technical progress.”

Critics countered that the money would have been better spent on helping Cambodia’s people.  

Hun Sen commissioned a total of 25 tourbillon watches from Prince Group, Cambodia’s fastest growing conglomerate, as gifts to VIP attendees of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, Summit in Phnom Penh last weekend. 

Each cost about $20,000, he said during a press conference at the conclusion of the summits on Sunday.

The timepieces were meant to show the world what “Khmers can do,” he said.

“We want to show Cambodia’s ability to produce watches,” Hun Sen said, while raising one for the media to get a good look.

Luxury watch collection

A luxury watch aficionado himself, the Cambodian leader owns a collection of watches worth at least $13 million, an apparent discrepancy with his $2,500-a-month salary, according to his detractors. 

He vowed to wear the commemorative watch to future ASEAN summit meetings and noted that some of the other ASEAN leaders were already wearing theirs.

“I’m sure my grandkids will demand this watch from me. But I will not give it to them because it is a souvenir of my 3rd ASEAN Chairmanship,” he said. Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia since 1985 and Cambodia has chaired the Southeast Asian bloc twice before, in 2002 and 2012. 

The 70-year-old leader said he would likely not chair for a fourth time because of his advanced age.

Pricey swag

The government should have given gifts that reflect Cambodia’s national identity, rather than wasting money on lavish trinkets, Ly Chandaravuth of the Mother Nature Cambodia environmentalist group told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“Many Cambodians are living under the poverty line,” he said. “So I think by showing off wealth and pride by giving these watches as souvenirs is not something that I should be proud of if I were the leader.”

“The real pride should be when our people  are able to live in happiness with genuine peace—free from fear or from any social insecurity,” he said.

Cambodia’s minimum monthly wage is the equivalent of about $200 per month.

The expensive gifts were not necessary, especially when the government is underfunded, said Yong Kim Eng, president of the local People’s Center for Development and Peace NGO.

“Some of our local authorities always complain about lacking budget … to provide necessary services to their citizens,” said Yong Kim Eng. 

“At the same time, some people living in rural areas flock to neighboring countries to become migrant workers due to their difficulties and suffering,” he said. “They become over indebted just to make ends meet.” 

RFA was not able to contact government spokesperson Phay Siphan for comment as of Monday.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Locked down on campus under China’s zero-COVID policy, university students are developing odd hobbies like group crawling and caring for cardboard pets, prompting concerns for their mental health, according to commentators and news reports.

Video clips uploaded to social media sites in recent days showed a group of young people crawling around after each other in a circle on a college sports field, prompting viewers to speculate it was a reaction to months-long campus lockdowns. Officials at the Communications University of China said they were “looking into” the activity. 

Social media users shot video clips of similar activities going on at other universities, including Beijing-based Tsinghua University and the University of International Business and Economics.

One social media user commented: “So, this is happening on campus. I get it, regardless of whether it is an activity organized by the students, a game for everyone, or a kind of performance art. I am so bored as the years go by on campus, during what should be the sunniest times for youth, when we have all kinds of social contact before finally starting adult life. Instead, all we see are the dorm, the classroom and the canteen.”

However, the post appeared to have been deleted later in the afternoon, with a note saying that 18 “malicious comments” had been deleted. 

User @Beijing_Fund saw the crawling as a cry for help.

“This sort of behavior is aimed at attracting public attention, and a call for society to take heed of the mental state of college students,” the user wrote.

“Chronic depression requires some kind of release, so some people are having some fun doing this,” added @XuJiaoShou, while @III_Helpless added: “College students are miserable right now, because the college gates are locked, and they have been punished for speaking out online … [Leaders’ career records] are more important than allowing the students to live normal lives.”

Some pro-government voices took a more cautious tone.

“We can tolerate this, but we don’t condone it,” user @Lawyer_Chen_Xiaodou wrote. “But there is no need to go claiming that this behavior is harmless and spontaneous.”

“It shouldn’t be banned, but it shouldn’t be promoted, either,” wrote @Sima_3_shun. “It’s a group psychological disorder, and this abnormal behavior is how it expresses itself.”

But user @resident_of_planet_714 retorted: “Those of you who spend your whole time online should try being [locked inside] a university campus for three years and see how you like it.”

Unconfirmed reports were also circulating on social media saying that officials at the East China Normal University took photos of a student crawling alone on campus, and dispatched a couple of security guards to the sports field.

Another post said students who organized crawling activities at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications were reported by Communist Party Youth League officials, and hauled in to “drink tea,” a euphemism for being questioned by the authorities.

Cardboard pets

The Communication University of China in September deleted a post containing patterns for students to cut cardboard “pets” for themselves out of boxes used for deliveries, prompting suspicions that the authorities had banned promotion of the practice.

“Cats and dogs made of discarded cardboard boxes have become popular in colleges and universities across the country, with … Generation Z college students tying up their ‘carton dogs’ outside the doors of dorms, or ‘walking the dog’ on the athletics field,” a recent Weibo post from The Paper said of the phenomenon.

It cited experts as saying the hobby revealed something about the mental state of college students.

A blogger who uses the handle @Surfing_Voice said even extremely passive forms of protest are subject to punishment by the authorities.

“The absurd behavior of students is typical of the times we live in, yet even harmless and passive resistance like this will be punished and criticized by the universities,” the blogger said.

“Why do college students live such restricted lives? They spent 10 years getting ready for the college entrance exam, because it will result in a degree; the cost of losing that [diploma] would be huge,” they said.

“The college students who took to the streets in the 1920s and 1980s were all thinking about … facing down the government and opposing corruption, about discussing social issues — college students these days look [caged] by comparison.”

U.S.-based scholar Zang Zhuo agreed.

“In the crazy and socially disordered era of the pandemic, the more people know, the more they suffer,” he said. “The more energy they have, the easier it is to precipitate [mental] collapse.”

“I can’t condemn the Communist Party enough for their evil actions, driving a cohort of young students crazy,” he said, in a reference to the zero-COVID policy that has seen strict lockdowns imposed on university students, but not university staff or officials.

“It’s not even resistance now, this behavior of college students … This generation of young people in China has been brainwashed to the point where they … daren’t resist and have no sense of social responsibility,” Zang said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.