Day: November 15, 2022

Hong Kong police on Tuesday announced a criminal investigation into the playing of “Glory to Hong Kong,” a banned song linked to the 2019 protest movement, at a rugby match in South Korea.

“The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau is dealing with the case,” the government said in a statement on Tuesday. “Police will take follow-up actions seriously in accordance with the law on whether the incident has breached the National Anthem Ordinance or any other legislation of Hong Kong, including the Hong Kong National Security Law.”

The national security law, which heralded a citywide crackdown on dissent and mass exodus of people in the wake of the 2019 protests, bans public speech or actions deemed likely to “incite hatred” of the government, while the national anthem law bans any speech or actions deemed to be disrespectful to the Chinese national anthem. 

In a scene that went viral on social media in Hong Kong, “Glory to Hong Kong” blared out over the sound system before a rugby match between Hong Kong and South Korea played just outside of Seoul on Sunday. International sporting protocol would require China’s communist national anthem, the March of the Volunteers, to be played instead.

The Hong Kong government said the song is “closely associated with violent protests and the [Hong Kong] ‘independence’ movement,” although the song calls for freedom and democracy rather than independence. 

In September, a 43-year-old man was arrested for “sedition” after playing Glory to Hong Kong on the harmonica at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral vigil in Hong Kong.

The police announcement came as match organizers Asian Rugby blamed the anthem gaffe on “an innocent mistake” by an intern, government broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong reported on Tuesday.

“But questions remain about why the song, associated with violent protests in Hong Kong in 2019, ended up in a folder where all national anthems were stored,” the station’s report said.

Asia Rugby’s interim CEO, Benjamin van Rooyen, told reporters that the Hong Kong Rugby Union had provided the correct audio file to Asia Rugby when the Hong Kong rugby team played in Bangkok last month, and that the Korea Rugby Union should have had the correct anthem on file after Hong Kong played a match in the country in July.

“This was somebody who was provided with a song … and somebody pressed play. That person has no understanding of the politics of the world,” van Rooyen told an online news conference in comments quoted by Radio Television Hong Kong. “I don’t think there were any ulterior motives in any of this. This was a simple human error.”

The Hong Kong Rugby Union said future errors of this type would mean the Hong Kong team’s “immediate withdrawal from competition.”

‘Chilling effect’

Last week, Hong Kong citizen journalist Paula Leung was jailed for three months after she pleaded guilty to “insulting the national anthem” by waving a colonial-era Hong Kong flag at a shopping mall that was screening a medal ceremony for Hong Kong fencer Edgar Cheung on July 26, 2021.

Australian lawyer and rights activist Kevin Yam said Hong Kong courts are imposing increasingly harsh sentences on cases involving China’s national symbols.

“There were a few cases more than 10 years ago now involving the national flag law, but they only wound up with fines of around 1,000 or a few hundred Hong Kong dollars,” Yam told RFA. “Nowadays, you can go to jail for booing the national anthem.”

“This is a terrible thing, and it will have a chilling effect, and shows how Hong Kong is moving backwards, and not with the times,” he said. “Things are different under the national security law, and freedom and human rights have all gone into reverse.”

Sociologist Chung Kim-wah said such measures can only ban public expressions of anti-government feeling, not the feelings themselves.

“They are now using various laws to impose the heaviest possible sentences, so that nobody will dare to resist or spread discontent with the regime,” Chung told RFA. “Beijing … wants Hong Kong people to refrain from expressing themselves so that they eventually get used to it, and can only obey [the authorities].”

“But stopping them expressing themselves won’t mean they accept all of this; it will just fuel greater discontent in more people.”

In 2019, when protesters began defending peaceful demonstrators against riot police firing tear gas, non-lethal bullets and occasionally live ammunition with Molotov cocktails, bricks and other makeshift weapons, Hong Kong fans chanted “Freedom for Hong Kong” and booed the Chinese national anthem at a soccer match in South Korea.

They waved banners that read “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution in our time!” a popular protest slogan that was banned under the national security law, and sang “Glory to Hong Kong.” 

Hong Kong passed a national anthem law in June 2020 banning ‘insults’ to the Chinese national anthem after Hong Kong soccer fans repeatedly booed, yelled Cantonese obscenities or turned their backs when it was played at matches. 

Hong Kong second-in-command Chan Kwok-ki met with the South Korean Consul General on Monday to protest against Sunday’s incident.

“The [Hong Kong government] raises strong objections to [Asian Rugby] for its inability … to prevent the incident from happening,” Chan was quoted as saying in a government statement. He said the Hong Kong Rugby Union would launch its own investigation to study ways to ensure the incident is never repeated.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

A congressional advisory group has called for the creation of two new U.S. government bodies to plan for economic sanctions and supply chain management in the event of a conflict with China.

Western sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine have highlighted for Chinese President Xi Jinping the strategic exploitability of trade dependence, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said Tuesday in its annual report.

Amid growing tensions in U.S.-China relations, that’s led to a top-down reorientation of strategic policy in Beijing that has not yet been matched in Washington, the report says.

“Among other measures, Xi Jinping’s so-called ‘dual circulation’ strategy aims to diminish China’s dependence on exports and critical imports, while encouraging Western companies to remain reliant on supply chains routed through China,” it says.

The threat of supply chain disruption by Beijing may be well understood in Washington, the report notes, but there “remains a gap between America’s growing recognition of the challenges China presents and our responses to date in dealing with them.”

To fix that, the commission, which was formed by Congress in 2000 to advise it on China-U.S. ties, recommends in the report that the legislative branch create two new inter-agency bodies within the executive branch to help streamline policy. 

The first, known as the Economic and Security Preparedness and Resilience Office, would coordinate moves to diversify U.S. supply chains away from a reliance on China. The second body would be a committee charged with planning sanctions for “a range of possible scenarios, including (but not limited to) a Chinese attack, blockade, or other hostile action against Taiwan.” 

“A continuing lack of visibility into critical U.S. supply chains likely masks potential vulnerabilities to disruptions and compromise by Chinese state actors,” the report says, noting a reliance on China “for certain critical global supply chains,” such as rare earths and pharmaceuticals could prove dangerous in a conflict.

“Chinese leaders are aware of their supply chain strengths, as well as their weaknesses, and they are taking active measures to limit their own vulnerabilities and sustain and enhance their leverage over certain U.S. supply chains,” it says.

Unveiling the report in the Senate on Tuesday, Alex N. Wong, the chairman of the commission, said Xi’s recent saber-rattling about the prospect of an invasion of Taiwan and the worsening global geopolitical situation indicated Congress should act quickly.

“The Ukraine conflict is a sobering reminder that war by – and between – major powers is a real threat in the present day,” Wong said. “That should force us, with new urgency, to realistically evaluate how to reduce our own dependence on China for critical goods, how to bolster our means for deterring conflict, and how to build strong coalitions to respond to conflict and coercion.” 

Kimberly T. Glas, the vice chair, said China’s priorities after observing “the difficulties that Russia is presently encountering” made clear that Xi is “preparing China to resist future international rebuke and sanctions” in the event of a Taiwan invasion.

“Xi Jinping has been unequivocal in promoting an economic vision that aims to diminish China’s dependence on exports and critical imports, while encouraging the world’s companies to remain reliant on supply chains routed through China,” Glas said, calling for the United States to similarly act to reduce any “excessive dependence on potentially hostile foreign powers.”

The United States agreed to spend $66.5 million for construction at military bases in the Philippines, beginning next year, and is looking to fund more projects under a 2014 cooperation agreement between the allies, Filipino defense officials announced Tuesday.

These projects, which call for training facilities and warehouses to be built on bases, are part of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, Department of National Defense (DND) spokesman Arsenio Andolong said.

The agreement supplements the Visiting Forces Agreement, a 1999 bilateral pact that provides the legal cover for large-scale joint military exercises between the U.S. and the Philippines, Washington’s longtime defense ally in the contested South China Sea region.

“The department is committed to accelerate the implementation of EDCA by concluding infrastructure enhancement and repair projects, developing new infrastructure projects at EDCA locations and exploring new locations that will build a more credible defense posture,” Andolong said in a statement.

Defense official have said there are five “agreed locations” – the Cesar Basa Air Base and Fort Magsaysay in the northern provinces of Pampanga and Nueva Ecija; the Antonio Bautista Air Base and Benito Ebuen Air Base in the central provinces of Palawan and Cebu; and the Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro city in the south.

“Currently, $66.5 million (3.8 billion pesos) is earmarked for the implementation of approved EDCA projects at the agreed locations,” Andolong said. “The projects include construction of training, warehouse and other facilities at Cesar Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Fort Ramon Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, and Lumbia Airport Base Station in Cagayan de Oro.”

The work is to be completed over the next two years, according to officials.

Warming relationship

The announcement comes as ties with the U.S. have improved since President Rodrigo Duterte left office in June.

During his six years in power, Duterte, who once threatened to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement, forged closer ties with China, the United States’ rival superpower.

He was succeeded by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who met with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

Biden and Marcos said the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty binds the nations to help each other in times of outside aggression, and so it was important to maintain their “critical relationship.”

The U.S. repeatedly has said it would quickly come to the Philippines’ aid over an attack in the South China Sea. Manila is locked in a dispute with Beijing over territories claimed by both nations.

Meanwhile on Monday, military chief Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro said the U.S. had proposed adding five facilities to the list.

“It is not definite yet,” Bacarro told reporters.

Those sites, which were announced on Tuesday, include two in Cagayan, and one each in Zambales (specifically in Subic, the site of a former American naval base), Palawan and Isabela.

The proposal is subject to approval by the defense and foreign affairs departments.

“The DND remains consistent in its position that all engagements with the U.S. as well as other foreign partners must be conducted in accordance with the Philippine Constitution and other national laws,” Andolong said.

Japan seeks similar agreement

Japan, which has its own territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, is seeking a similar visiting forces pact to allow its forces to train in the Philippines, a defense official said. Currently, Japanese forces are allowed to join Philippine-U.S. training exercises as “observers” only.

The Philippines and Japan share intersecting interests “in the West Philippine Sea and of course the borders that we share,” acting Defense Secretary Jose Faustino said. The West Philippine Sea is the Philippine name for its claimed territories in the South China Sea.

“So our goal really is to strengthen this cooperation,” he told reporters.

Aie Balagtas See in Manila contributed to this report.

China is planning to digitize the medical records of its 1.4 billion people, harnessing the power of big data to track the health status of everyone in the country and sparking fears that the planned “universal health code” will become yet another tool for controlling the country’s citizens.

A joint directive issued on Nov. 9 by the country’s National Health Commission and other health-related agencies, calls for the installation of “dynamically managed electronic health records and universal electronic health codes for every resident” by 2025.

In practice, this will mean that the healthcare records of every individual in mainland China will be digitized, linked to their national ID card number via a national platform, and integrated with a unified health code that can be widely shared among hospitals, clinics and, potentially, government agencies.

The news prompted an outcry on social media, sparking comparisons with a fictional surveillance system portrayed on the dystopian TV show Black Mirror.

One comment on Twitter said the system was similar to electronic tagging systems used to manage livestock, while another worried that it would give rise to a points system like the one in Black Mirror. Comments on Sina Weibo showed similar concerns.

California-based healthcare practitioner Chen Guodong said the move could violate patient confidentiality.

“If your medical information can be freely shared with others, or easily obtained by a government, this will have a massive impact on your marriage, employment and higher education prospects,” Chen said.

“The content of consultations between doctors and patients, and patient information, are strictly confidential and cannot be shared with third parties,” he said. “This action by the Chinese government is a total invasion of privacy.”

Chinese media outlet Caixin.com quoted people close to the health ministry as saying that there was a difference between the proposed unified “health code” and the Health Code COVID-19 prevention app, which currently tracks people’s movements and COVID-19 test results as part of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.

It will enable confidential and fully detailed healthcare information on anyone to be shared between first- and second-tier hospitals, while third-tier hospitals will gain access to “core information” on patients shared nationwide. The report didn’t specify which details would be included in a person’s “core information.”

Discrimination and security fears

Disabled activists in China say that stringent health-check standards bar people with many disabilities and other medical conditions from getting work as teachers or other civil servants, highlighting rampant employment discrimination by governments around the country.

Rights groups have highlighted widespread discrimination against people with HIV and people with disabilities in China, including the exclusion of disabled children from schooling from an early age. 

The move has also prompted fears around data security, with so much sensitive information held electronically.

In July, a hacker forum user with the handle ChinaDan posted an offer for sale of 23 terabytes of data from the Shanghai Police Department that included sensitive personal information on 1 billion people.

ChinaDan didn’t specify how they came by the data, only that it was hosted on Alibaba Cloud, but uploaded three folders containing some 750,000 database entries by way of a sample for potential buyers. 

Exiled dissident surgeon He Anquan, who currently works in New York, said the end result of the digitization program could be that people’s private information is posted online for all the world to read.

“National networks carrying information like blood type, personal home address, family background and … even DNA could be attacked by hackers … with people’s private information being exposed for all to see,” He told RFA in a recent interview.

“Privacy could become a thing of the past,” he said.

The Nov. 9 document also calls for the national health information platform to “promote the exchange and sharing of test results.”

According to He, the move is particularly worrying given that the authorities have already used the Health Code COVID-19 app to restrict the movements of political dissidents, as well as people planning to protest the mass freezing of rural bank accounts in June. 

Online records of government tenders and contracts gathered by RFA in August 2019 showed that provincial and municipal authorities across China were buying large amounts of instruments, tools and medical supplies designed to collect DNA samples from people. 

“We are seeing the rise of high-tech authoritarianism … particularly the use of high-tech methods to control the population by a totalitarian government,” He told RFA.

“Dissidents like me used to joke that when you get out of jail in China, you just wind up in a bigger prison — China,” he said. “If that bigger prison is getting a digital upgrade, then that’s pretty terrifying.”

Social media concerns

Some comments under the hashtag #AllResidentsToHaveFullyFunctionalHealthCodesBy2025 on the social media platform Weibo echoed He’s concerns.

User @Li_Tiezhu’s_Crown commented, in an apparent reference to the Henan rural bank protesters prevented from leaving their homes by the COVID-19 Health Code app: “Given the red health codes allocated to those petitioners in Henan, I really can’t believe that this electronic health code … is really about our health.”

User @Li_Zhengxi_Sissi added: “Wouldn’t it sound fancier just to call it monitoring integration?” while @aro-ace commented: “Having difficulty breathing.”

@There_is_a_grocery_store_in_the_mountains said they opposed the plan.

“Such tools and methods aren’t necessary for normal medical treatment … codes should make things more convenient for people, not be allowed to define them by their [medical] attributes,” the user said. “They shouldn’t always be thinking about how they can use such tools to define, curb and restrict people.”

@Tsuruko_Namikawa’s comment was blunter still: “Looks similar to the way you’d brand a pig.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.