Day: January 4, 2023

The recent wave of ‘white paper’ movement and the New Year’s protests over a nationwide ban on fireworks could be the beginning of a broader political resistance to authoritarian rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping, exiled political activists said in recent interviews.

Veteran dissidents who have spent decades campaigning for, thinking and writing about democracy in China said the momentum of the recent protests is likely far from spent.

“Some people are saying that the ‘white paper’ movement is over, but we are still seeing expressions of popular feeling, including the recent fireworks movement,” former 1979 Democracy Wall movement leader Wei Jingsheng said. 

“They may be fairly minor, but they still indicate that there is opposition to Xi Jinping, and to the Communist Party,” he said.

“People are less and less willing to tolerate the Communist Party’s dictatorial rule,” said Wei, who now lives in the United States. “Given the prevalence of this mood, it’s possible that more unexpected developments could happen.”

Wei said nobody had foreseen the recent wave of “white paper” protests sparked by a fatal lockdown fire in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi which appeared in cities across China in late November.

“Nobody foresaw the fireworks movement either,” he said. “What is foreseeable is that there is going to be a huge wave of COVID-19 infections this Lunar New Year, which will have a direct effect on the stability of this regime.”

【#河南 周口警察制止燃放 #烟花】
【年轻人反抗 打砸并推翻警车】
河南省周口市鹿邑县2日数名年轻人燃放烟花，警察制止并试图带走放烟花的人，引起一群年轻人反抗。群众拍打警车，警察想驾车离开但被阻拦，群众高喊“放人”，警察称没有抓人，但是群众情绪高涨，接着群众打砸警车，并且将警车推翻。 pic.twitter.com/I9xVvsLdGw

— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) January 3, 2023

‘Patriotic education’

To be sure, the recent wave of protests could well fade and not lead to wider change amid government attempts to squelch overt public resistance. 

Unconfirmed reports have been circulating on social media suggesting that the authorities in Henan, where the protesters faced off with police ostensibly over a fireworks ban at New Year’s, will be stepping up “patriotic education” efforts among students in the province, in a bid to nip any mass popular resistance in the bud.

But veteran current affairs commentator Chen Pokong said redoubling efforts to teach young people to “love” their country and the Communist Party is unlikely to help at this stage.

“This has been the failure of the Xi Jinping era, because ideological work and political education were his main areas of focus, and he started with kids in primary school,” Chen said. “After 10 years of such efforts, the fact that the Communist Party has to keep talking about [doing more of it] just shows how much of a failure they have been.”

“The vast majority of people will continue to push back against the Communist Party,” he said. “People who lack all hope react by developing a new level of awareness.”

‘Barbaric policies’

Hu Ping, the U.S.-based former editor-in-chief of the dissident magazine Beijing Spring said Xi’’s personal power likely peaked when he was voted through for an unprecedented third term in office at the 20th party congress in October.

He said the “white paper” protests were a direct response to three years of mass surveillance, rolling lockdowns and incarceration in quarantine camps under Xi’s rigid coronavirus restrictions.

“It was harder to mount a collective resistance in the past because the Communist Party had typically always targeted people with certain identities, as well as those who were willing to express their strong disaffection in public based on their political ideas,” Hu said.

“But the barbaric policies of zero-COVID affected everyone indiscriminately, so everyone feels they are being severely persecuted, and shares a common feeling of hatred,” he said. “So collective resistance is far more likely right now, because of the resonance of these emotions.”

Hu said the fact that protests have already begun across the country will embolden others to follow suit.

“Once this kind of action breaks out, and people start taking to the streets and standing together with even more people, they will be inspired and encouraged,” he said. “[We have already seen] slogans and political demands for Xi Jinping and the Communist Party to step down.”

“Once this keeps happening, people’s confidence and resolve to oppose the government will be strengthened, and the effect of that shouldn’t be underestimated,” Hu said.

Rising discontent

Wei said he believes the collapse of the Communist Party regime isn’t far off.

“China’s democracy movement has been more than 40 years in the making, after many ups and downs, twists and turns,” Wei said. “The situation in China right now is that there is poor economic growth, massive spread of disease.”

“A lot of young people can’t find work, while the elderly just continue to die,” he said.

“This has meant that the democracy movement has started to find popular favor again, not through propaganda work from a bunch of intellectuals, but because ordinary people are influencing each other,” he said.

This means that any future movement may not actually require a leader.

“I have a good feeling about the Chinese democracy movement right now, because people are very different from the way they were 40 years ago, when they didn’t feel quite so deeply that China should be democratic,” Wei said.

“Xi Jinping’s perverse policies are already unbearable to the general public, and everyone can now see the difference between democracy and autocracy because of how fast information travels nowadays,” he said.

Historical pattern?

U.S.-based veteran democracy activist Wang Juntao said that mass popular resistance movements in history had often started out in sporadic and spontaneous protests over specific incidents.

“If you look at the events that are happening today, and then look at similar events in history, you can see that today is just the beginning,” Wang said. “There is a kind of inevitability about the mechanism.”

“Whether it’s the ‘white paper’ movement or the fireworks movement, they will lead to a larger-scale political movement that puts forward clear political demands,” he said.

Hu said he expects widespread social unrest in 2023, likely targeting Xi as a leader, who bears much of the blame for the pandemic following the suppression of COVID-19 whistleblowers like the late doctor Li Wenliang in its early stages in the central city of Wuhan.

Wei said he hopes for “peaceful evolution” from an authoritarian regime to a constitutional democracy in China.

“Peaceful evolution is still everyone’s greatest hope, and would be the best route,” he said. “But we can’t rule out the possibility that various emergent situations could trigger the collapse of the entire regime.”

“A peaceful [democratic] transition under pressure, as happened in Taiwan, is looking increasingly likely,” Wei said. “I expect to see more protest movements in the year to come.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Laos’ new Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone began his term promising to “raise the spirit of the revolution to the highest level,” and top economic officials aim to rein in surging inflation and spur growth amid hopes of a recovery in tourism and loosening travel restrictions, particularly from China.

But with inflation nearing 40 percent, rampant corruption, and many people forced to get second jobs to make ends meet, ordinary residents expressed little confidence in the new leader or the economy’s prospects.

“Some Lao people have hope that the new prime minister will solve high inflation, the kip’s devaluation and rising prices,” said a truck driver from the northern part of the country. “But it is just empty hope. They just want him to get the role, and maybe something will change since the previous government was unable to resolve the problems.”

Khamjane Vongphosy, the new minister of planning and investment, predicted the economy would grow 4.5% amid renewed tourism this year. He said monetary officials would aim to cap inflation at 9%, stabilize the country’s exchange rates and increase the money circulating in the economy in the upcoming year. 

In addition to tourism, the government will prioritize export-based industries in 2023, he said, and crack down on corruption that many see as the main cause driving economic collapse.

“The first priority of the Lao government’s social-economic development plan is to make economic growth sustainable by setting up production bases in the country for export,” Vongphosy said. “The second priority is to limit state budget expenses, improving management in state investment enterprises to make profit and control losses.”

Military, not economic training

For his part, the new prime minister, sworn in on Dec. 30, vowed in his inaugural speech to give his utmost for the country.  

“I promise that I will raise the spirit of revolution to the highest level at all times and with the members of the government I will do my duty as best as I can under the constitution and laws of our country,” Siphandone said.

But one Lao citizen didn’t see him as well-equipped to tackle Laos’ problems because Siphandone studied to be a military leader, saying that he got the top job because of his political connections.

“He doesn’t know economic management. He became prime minister through nepotism,” said the man, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal. “Most people do not accept his selection because he doesn’t have the qualifications or experience to do the job as prime minister.”

A resident of Champassack province expressed measured optimism. “People are tired of the chronic problems … that are never solved for a long time, [so] they have hope in the new prime minister.”

Born in 1966, Sonexay Siphandone finished his B.A. degree at a military academy in Laos and studied political strategy before becoming governor of Champassack province in 1987. Prior to his appointment as prime minister, he had served as deputy prime minister and minister for planning and investment for over a year. 

Corruption and inflation

A resident of Luang Prabang province told Radio Free Asia’s Lao Service that the government’s growth targets are hard to achieve without a crackdown on corruption.

“Daily expenses … and gasoline price are more expensive in both rural areas and the city,” the resident said. “I go to the market to buy food every day, and 100,000 kips (around U.S.$ 10) can’t buy anything.”

One Lao villager from Luang Namtha province said that the government’s target can’t be reached in reality due to a major lack of exports, as Laos imports most of its food and commercial products from neighboring countries. “The kip rating is low, gold prices are high, everything is up in the market, even goods produced in Laos are up.” 

The depreciation of the kip over a protracted, multi-year economic crisis has resulted in the government taking on increasing amounts of foreign-owned public debts, with Laos buying foreign currencies to repay those expenses.

Another resident of Luang Prabang who operates a tourism business told RFA that although Laos was reopened for tourism in 2022, he saw little income because of the high inflation and the rapid devaluation of the kip. 

“There are about 50-70 tourists every day who come and make income for tourism industries, but [it is still] not much,” he said.

Meanwhile, an official with the Asian Development Bank told RFA that the Lao government has failed to effectively enforce monetary policies controlling inflation and currency devaluation, despite the steps taken to increase growth in 2022. 

“We forecast that the Lao economy will grow 3.5%, and the World Bank said that it will grow by 3.8%, based on a revival of tourism industries and the increase of foreign tourists coming to visit the country,” the ADB official said. “But inflation and the kip’s devaluation are making goods and merchandise more expensive for Lao citizens to buy.”

Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

COVID deaths are surging in Tibetan areas of China after strict lockdowns aimed at controlling the spread of the disease were ended by Chinese authorities in early December, Tibetan sources say.

More than 100 people have died in Tibet’s capital Lhasa since restrictions under Beijing’s zero-COVID policy were lifted on Dec. 7 following widespread protests across China, a source living in Tibet said.

“On Jan. 2 alone, 64 bodies were cremated at the Drigung Cemetery in Maldro Gongkar, with 30 cremated at the Tsemonling Cemetery, 17 at the Sera Cemetery, and another 15 cremated at a cemetery in Toelung Dechen,” the source said.

“Before this, only 3 to 4 bodies were cremated each day at these cemeteries in the Lhasa area,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Tibetans have also died of COVID in the Ngaba, Sangchu, Kardze and Lithang areas of the western Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai, other sources said, with so many bodies brought to Ngaba’s Kirti monastery in Sichuan that some were laid out to feed the vultures.

10 monks die

Another source in Tibet said that 15 elderly Tibetans had died from Dec. 7 to Jan. 3 in Ngaba county’s Meruma village alone. “But the Chinese government hasn’t offered any testing sites or facilities providing timely medical treatment, which is very concerning,” the source added.

“We are seeing 10 to 15 bodies brought to Kirti monastery every day so that monks can provide last rites. But around 10 Kirti monks, mostly elderly or having underlying health problems, have also died during the last four days,” the source said.

Many have also fallen ill after joining large gatherings to pray for the dead and infected, other sources said.

Every area affected

“There isn’t a single place in Tibet where COVID hasn’t reached,” a Tibetan living in Sichuan’s Derge county told RFA, speaking like other sources on condition of anonymity to avoid the attention of authorities.

 “For instance, in my own region, so many people are getting sick now with symptoms like high fever, and children are not even allowed to get vaccinated, which is even more worrying,” the source said.

Also speaking to RFA, another source in Derge said that everyone in his family was now sick, with no one well enough to go out to buy food. 

“One member of my family was sick for the last 8 days and still hasn’t recovered. We think that it’s COVID, but we don’t have the test kits or medical facilities that would let us know for sure,” he said.

Sources in Ngaba meanwhile reported a surge in local COVID infections after authorities relaxed restrictions on residents’ movements, with one source saying, “In my own circle of acquaintances, at least 40 Tibetans, many of them elderly, have died after falling sick.”

Requests to government hospitals for comment received no response, with one hospital in Gansu’s Sangchu county saying only that they had “a number of COVID patients” at their facility.

China’s National Health Commission announced on Dec. 25 that it would no longer publish daily COVID case numbers, adding to public concerns that it would conceal information about the pandemic’s spread following the easing of restrictions.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Beijing said it would work with Manila to resolve maritime issues amicably as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday amid bilateral tensions over the South China Sea.

China also noted it was ready to resume talks on joint oil and gas exploration in the contested waterway, while Marcos said that Manila hoped to announce the resumption that it had earlier terminated due to Beijing’s territorial claims in the sea region.

“China will work with the Philippines to continue to properly handle maritime issues through friendly consultation, resume negotiations on oil and gas exploration, promote cooperation on oil and gas exploration in non-disputed areas, and conduct green energy cooperation on photovoltaics, wind power, and new energy vehicles,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement about the Marcos-Xi meeting.

“The two sides have identified agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and people-to-people exchanges as four priority areas of cooperation,” the statement added.

Marcos was undertaking his first state visit to Beijing as president weeks after Manila complained about Chinese boats “swarming” in South China Sea waters within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

For his part, Marcos said the Philippines and China should strengthen their partnership to make the two countries stable and strong.

“We are hoping that after the pandemic becomes more manageable, that we will not only return to the path that we were on before the pandemic but that we even build-up to greater heights … [in] our participation in joint programs and joint ventures together,” Marcos said, according to a statement by the Philippine Office of the Press Secretary.

Marcos mentioned the continuing negotiation for joint exploration in the South China Sea, saying the issue is very important to the Philippines. 

“I really hope – I would very much like, as you have suggested, Mr. President, to be able to announce that we are continuing negotiations and that we hope that these negotiations will bear fruit because the pressure upon not only China, not only the Philippines but the rest of the world to move away from the traditional fronts of power,” he said.

Marcos’ immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had ended talks over joint exploration because of China’s claims that overlap with Manila’s in the South China Sea. 

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea on historical grounds, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Beijing also claims historic rights to areas of the waterway that overlap Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone as well.

Since taking office in June, Marcos has repeatedly stated that his government would assert a 2016 international arbitration court ruling, which Manila won and which invalidated China’s vast claims to the sea region.

Beijing has ignored the ruling.

Manila already has filed 65 diplomatic protests against Beijing under Marcos’s leadership.

Earlier on Wednesday, Marcos met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and focused on discussing trade and investments, according to the office of the Philippine leader.

Marcos noted that both countries should “further their relationship” although there were some “difficulties” that needed to be dealt with.

He did not mention what these difficulties were, but Manila has filed numerous diplomatic complaints against Beijing since last year over China’s continued heavy presence in South China Sea areas it considers are within its exclusive economic zone.

Marcos noted that Li had told him on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cambodia in November that their bilateral partnership “far outweighs” the differences.

China has been the Philippines’ major trading partner, posting a total trade of U.S. $29.1 billion from January to September 2022, with exports amounting to $8.1 billion and imports $21 billion.

China is also a major contributor to the country’s tourism industry. Last year, the Philippines recorded 9,574 tourist arrivals from China, according to statistics.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who was part of the Philippine delegation, said they also met with China’s top legislator, National People’s Congress Standing Committee chairperson Li Zhanshu, who expressed the same sentiment.

“He (Li) feels and believes that our relationship should be deepened and strengthened through our legislative bodies, acting in coordination and having more engagements and meetings. So, that’s why we will look forward to the invitations that have actually been extended in the previous years but due to COVID, it did not materialize,” Romualdez told Filipino reporters.

“But now that China is opening up this year, we look forward to seeing these same engagements and these exchanges between the Congress of China, and the Congress and Senate of the Philippines come to fruition in the year 2023,” he added.

Dennis Jay Santos in Davao City, southern Philippines, and Luis Liwanag in Manila, contributed to this report. RFA Mandarin, which is part of Radio Free Asia, also contributed to this report. RFA is a news service affiliated with BenarNews.

Cambodian authorities have started to dismantle the charred remains of the Grand Diamond City Casino in Poipet to pave the way for new construction, only one week after the massive blaze killed at least 26 people.

But the sudden shift from rescue efforts to rebuilding the casino has angered the families of a dozen people who remain missing in the aftermath of the fire and who say not enough has been done to search for their loved ones and investigate the cause of the catastrophe.

Sek Sokhom, a spokesperson for Banteay Meanchey province, said Wednesday that authorities found seven safes with cash in them while going through the buildings, but added that no more bodies have been found.

“We have fenced the scene and the committee’s engineers are dismantling the burned buildings,” he said.

Relatives say at least three Cambodians and nine Thais are still missing since the fire. 

Khem Vong’s wife Sam Srey Mom is one of those not yet found. He told RFA he is disappointed with how authorities are focusing on the site and securing cash safes before searching for his wife.

“I have asked them many times but they said they will wait for their superiors,” he said. “I don’t know what to say. They are prioritizing money over human life.”

The fire broke out shortly before midnight on Dec. 28 in the casino along Cambodia’s border with Thailand, injuring nearly 60 people. Thai authorities at the time said that more than 100 people were transferred to the Thai side, but only 34 were admitted for treatment. 

Thawatchai Bunseng, a Thai official from Aranyaprathet district across the border from Poipet, said Cambodian authorities are the ones responsible for finding victims, adding that families will suffer without being able to properly bury their loved ones. 

“Cambodia is responsible for the search and safeguarding of the bodies and evidence. Cambodia can resolve the case according to the law but we will wait and see,” he told RFA.

“We can’t search for ourselves … if they said they stopped searching, it means they stopped.”

Ny Sokha, president of the NGO Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, said authorities should continue searching for victims and investigate the fire to bring those responsible to justice, adding that it is up to officials to make sure victims’ families feel at peace.

“[The investigation] is crucial for compensation. At the end of the [investigation] there must be people found to be responsible before compensation can be discussed,” he said.

Firefighters were only able to douse the blaze by 2 p.m. on Dec. 29, according to a report by the Associated Press. Civil society officials told RFA that the deaths were caused by the negligence of casino owners and relevant authorities who had skirted building codes. One official pointed out that the fire spread rapidly across the complex because it was built using wood, as opposed to concrete. 

A victim who survived the fire said the casino didn’t comply with fire codes. He added that there was no fire alarm inside and too few exits out of the building, which prevented some of the guests from escaping.

Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh.  Edited by Josh Lipes.

Myanmar’s military rulers ordered the release of 7,012 inmates, including some political prisoners, in an Independence Day amnesty Wednesday.

Detainees held in prisons and police stations across the country had their sentences reduced in accordance with Section 401 of the Penal Code, according to junta news releases received by RFA.

Wednesday marks the 75^th anniversary of the end of British colonial rule.

Lawyers, who wished to remain anonymous, told RFA some political prisoners had already returned to their homes early Wednesday, while families of others were still waiting outside prisons.

Minister of Religious Affairs under the National League for Democracy-led government, Thura Aung Ko, was released from Yangon’s Insein Prison Tuesday night. He had been serving a 12-year sentence for alleged corruption. Police officers and soldiers took him to his home in Yangon, his daughter wrote on her Facebook page.

The National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 2020 elections but the NLD-led government was overthrown in a February, 2021 coup. The junta has arrested many party members along with the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison, and President Win Myint who faces 12 years behind bars.

There was no indication that Suu Kyi or Win Myint were included in the amnesty.

Writers freed

Among those released from Yangon’s Insein prison were authors Than Myint Aung and Htin Lin Oo, a Yangon lawyer, who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons, told RFA.

Than Myint Aung is a well-known fiction writer who also worked for many charities in Myanmar. She had been serving a three-year sentence for alleged incitement. Htin Lin Oo was also sentenced to three years in prison for sedition.

Poet Myo Tay Zar Maung, who had been sentenced to two years for sedition, was freed from Yamethin Prison north of Naypyidaw Wednesday.

Journalists Kyaw Zeya and Ah Hla Lay Thu Zar were also among those set to be freed as was Naing Ngan Lin, the social affairs minister for Yangon region under the NLD-led government.

In spite of the Independence Day amnesty, and one on National Day last November, the junta continues to target opposition politicians and real or alleged pro-democracy activists. More than 16,800 have arrested since the coup, according to Thailand-based monitoring group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). Ahead of Wednesday’s amnesty, it said 13,375 political prisoners were still being held.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Written in English by Mike Firn.