Day: February 4, 2023

Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) walks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Jan. 4, 2023. [Shen Hong/Xinhua via AP]

While the new Philippine president has signaled that his administration wants to work with Beijing on economic development, “strengthening Philippine deterrence, modernizing its military, and diversifying strategic partners will be an undeniable component of the Marcos government’s policies,” Gill said.

Last month, Marcos undertook his first presidential visit to China, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to set up a hotline between their nation’s foreign offices to communicate over tensions in contested waters of the South China Sea.

On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the announcement in Manila about the expanded access to the Philippines for U.S. forces.

“This would escalate tensions and endanger peace and stability in the region. Regional countries need to remain vigilant and avoid being coerced or used by the U.S.,” ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

Reactions at home

The Philippines has yet to reveal the names of the four new sites where American forces will be given access.

“[W]e’re pleased to announce today that President Marcos has approved four new EDCA locations, and that brings the total number of EDCA sites to nine,” Austin said at the news conference with Galvez, according to a transcript from the Pentagon.

While responding to a reporter’s question later on, Austin said “EDCA is not about permanent basing here in the Philippines.” 

“It’s about providing access that allows us to increase our training opportunities with our partners, our allies here,” the U.S. defense chief said. “It’s about having the ability to respond in a more effective fashion as we’re faced – as we’re collectively faced with humanitarian assistance issues or natural – or disaster response issues. 

Although news of the expanded defense ties with the U.S. has generally been well received here, others have expressed caution.

Nationalist activists point to past abuses committed by American troops in the Philippines. These include the case of Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, a Marine who was convicted of killing a transgender Filipino woman but was pardoned by President Duterte.

“As the number of EDCA bases mutates into nine, the administration should brief Congress and tell the public on where these additional four will be,” House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said in a statement Friday.

“National security is not harmed by that candor. But any secrecy will deal transparency, an avowed hallmark of this administration, a serious blow,” said Recto, a former senator.

On Saturday, Galvez issued a statement in which he defended the decision to expand the EDCA with the U.S., saying it is “the sovereign right of every country” to build its defense capability.

“[I]n pursuit of that right the DND [Department of National Defense] has been and will always remain 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,” the Philippine defense secretary said. 

The newly expanded deal “is not about permanent basing in the Philippines, which is forbidden by the Philippine Constitution,” and it “will allow our allies access to training opportunities with Philippine personnel on a rotational basis,” Galvez stressed. 

Under the deal, facilities and infrastructure will also be constructed to help enhance the Philippine military’s capabilities and “serve as storage or housing for assets and materiel,” he added.

“Prepositioned equipment that will be stored in the Agreed Locations will strengthen our capabilities to immediately deliver humanitarian assistance to disaster-affected areas

as well promote more rapid reaction times during disasters, emergencies, or contingencies,” he said.

BenarNews is an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia. 

Zhou Fengsuo, a former student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, recently took over as executive director of the New York-based group Human Rights in China. He says he will be looking to forge a movement for change in China alongside overseas Chinese and young people, who he believes will carry on the momentum begun by the “white paper” protests in November. He spoke to RFA Mandarin about his new role:

RFA: Could you give us some background on Human Rights in China?

Zhou Fengsuo: Human Rights in China is one of the longest-running overseas human rights organizations. I am ready and willing to accept the challenge of carrying forward this torch that was lit in 1989 … into the future, whether it be [campaigning for] the Tiananmen Mothers who are seeking justice for the victims of the June 4, 1989, massacre, or funding or campaigning for Chinese prisoners of conscience, which the younger generation will take over.

Right now, the most important tasks are international campaigns, for example those targeting the United Nations or other international organizations, and this will be one of the key points of focus for Human Rights in China.

This group has a very good reputation in the English-speaking world, yet we can do more in this regard to ensure the … international community gains a better understanding of China’s human rights situation, so more people can actively support freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law for China.

RFA: What role have overseas communities played in the Chinese democracy movement in recent years?

Zhou Fengsuo: With the white paper movement, we once more saw the importance of overseas students. There were large-scale protests overseas after Peng Lifa protested at the Sitong [traffic] flyover [in Beijing on Oct. 13, 2022], with people shouting similar slogans like “Xi Jinping, step down!”; these also found their way back to China. Many of those who were detained in China during the protests had returned from studying overseas.

While it seemed that the [Communist Party’s supporters] Little Pinks had the upper hand before the pandemic, there are also many seeds of hope for overseas students, and they are the forces that will change China in the future.

It is the aim of Human Rights in China to serve [overseas Chinese], so they can truly enjoy freedom and democracy [here in the United States], and so that they can become the driving force behind China’s future democratization.

RFA: The FBI has arrested a large number of overseas Chinese for spying for the Chinese government recently. How do you plan to prevent the harassment of overseas students by agents of the Chinese state in the United States?

Zhou Fengsuo: The most important thing is to provide them with an environment in which they know that they have protection and rights here; that those who love freedom and democracy needn’t live in fear in the United States. This will be a key focus of our work in future, to set up a service center through which any overseas Chinese, overseas students can contact us if they have any concerns. We will also be taking the initiative in future to call on schools to take steps to safeguard students at risk, and to protect free-thinking people.

RFA: Some say that overseas rights organizations are out of touch with the reality of living in China. How do you plan to help people there?

Zhou Fengsuo: Experience has taught us that overseas campaigning is very important, whether it’s just building consensus, boosting social influence, or improving the lives of prisoners of conscience. Human Rights in China in recent years has had insufficient connections in China, and that is something I will be actively developing. I will do my best to serve those who are on the front line in China, to come up with ideas, and to let them choose the kinds of risks they take, choose their own path. We can provide help to them in various ways. I believe that, now matter how dark the current times may seem, there will always be people who have enough courage and faith in the Chinese democratic movement to keep going and to find new ways [to resist]. Even in dark times, we must remain full of hope.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

She appears alongside her husband, smiling by a snowy stream on the forested slopes of Mt. Paektu, North Korea’s tallest mountain and a sacred peak said to be tied to the origins of the three-generation Kim Dynasty.

Another image from the recently published photo book, “The People Sing of Mt. Paektu,” shows Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju warming their hands by a fire next to smiling soldiers in winter gear. 

The 100-page propaganda book – being used in educational sessions across the country – venerates the so-called “Paektu bloodline” going back to national founder Kim Il Sung, but in a more personable, family-friendly way than the more bombastic personality cult that Kim Jong Il, the current leader’s father, built around himself.

But what many North Koreans find jarring about the book is its attempt to burnish Ri’s image, “praising her as a noble figure of the Paektu line and a protector of socialism,” a source in South Pyongan province told Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Most citizens know Ri’s relatively humble origins as a singer for the Milky Way Orchestra, once one of North Korea’s most prominent musical acts.

A video of the orchestra performing the song Soldier’s Footsteps in 2011 shows Ri in traditional clothing, belting out militaristic lyrics such as “I lived my life in military uniform as time flowed by. Life has many paths, but I walked the path of revolution.” 

Because she is a well known singer though, people who have seen the photobook wonder why authorities are now trying to connect her to the Paektu line’s revolutionary past. 

“They scoff, asking how the authorities can propagate that she is of the Paektu bloodline, when most people know she was a singer in a performance group,” said the source, who said the book has been used during morning educational sessions for workers at several companies that have offices at the Unsan Pharmaceutical Plant where he works.

Pumping up her image

Though Ri Sol Ju married Kim Jong Un in 2009, she was only introduced to the public as his wife three years later, shortly after her husband became the country’s ruler. 

It is believed that Kim and Ri are parents of three children, including a girl named Ju Ae, who recently made several appearances with her father.

North Korea has been pumping up Ri’s status in recent years. In 2018, state media began calling her “Respected First Lady,” a title that hadn’t been used for 40 years. She has also made several public appearances with her husband over the past few years, including state visits abroad, something previous leader’s wives and consorts never did.

Being a former singer detracts from the idealized image of a first lady and could tarnish Kim Jong Un’s image, Ken Gause, director of Strategy, Policy, Plans and Programs Division Special Projects at the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses, told RFA.

“Especially in a culture like North Korea, where there’s a certain harshness and certain purity, where they try to portray the leader as being above the kind of, normal sort of careers that some people would have, especially, dancers and things like that,” said Gause.

No images of revolutionary heroine

Curiously, the book favors Ri over Kim Il Sung’s first wife, Kim Jong Suk, who is treated as a national heroine for fighting alongside her husband against Japanese colonizers, a source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. 

“There are no photos of Kim Jong Suk,” the second source said, “and she participated in the anti-Japanese revolution.”

So revered is Kim Jong Suk that authorities renamed a county, a naval academy, and several other places after her.

When people compare Ri to Kim Jong Suk they cannot help but see her as unworthy, the sources say.

Gause said that it is a mistake to expect Kim Jong Un to create a similar cult in the same vein as his father.

“I have a problem with people talking about Kim Jong Un’s personality cult … It’s nowhere near what his father’s personality cult was,” Gause said.

Some Kim Jong Il myths include the story of his birth on Mt. Paektu, which includes talking animals, multiple rainbows and a new star appearing in the sky. Or his purported score of 18 in his first golf outing. 

“The personality cult has never been along [the same] lines [as his father’s], which are God-like.  He’s more human,” said Gause.

And part of projecting the more human like image is Ri accompanying her husband to public events, something that previous leaders’ wives or mistresses rarely did.

Ri joined Kim on 36 diplomatic events in 2018, according to the North Korean affairs website NK Pro, including a visit to China and three inter-Korean Summits that year.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung with additional reporting by Eugene Whong. Edited by Eugene Whong, Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. 

Myanmar’s military junta has declared martial law in 37 townships across the country and authorized military tribunals to hand down life sentences and the death penalty for a wide range of offenses, a move that political and military analysts say will lead to more bloodshed, displacement and terror.

Thursday’s move came a day after military leaders extended their emergency rule over the country for six more months. It marked the second anniversary of the Feb. 1, 2021, coup that ousted the democratically elected government.

All of the affected townships, scattered across eight states and regions, are in areas where anti-junta forces have a strong presence, from Sagaing in the north to Kayin in the south.

In fact, all the towns where martial law was declared are actually under control of forces opposed to the military government, said Defense Minister Yi Mon of the shadow National Unity Government, made up of members of the previous ruling party and other junta opponents.

“The military knows the actual situation – that they don’t control those areas but they declared martial law anyway just to save face,” he told RFA’s Burmese Service. 

Still, martial law gives military commanders and military courts full judicial and administrative powers in those areas, allowing them to hand out the maximum penalty under the law for 23 specific crimes, including discrediting the state, illegal association, and unlawful possession of a weapon.

Giving military courts such power has no precedent in Myanmar, said a lawyer who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“As lawyers, we have never seen such an order issued,” the lawyer said. “Direction from the administration that the highest punishments must be imposed for these cases is not in accordance with the legal system that has been operating in Myanmar for generations nor international law.” 

‘Like an ulcer that never heals’

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of Theyninga Institute for Strategic Studies, which is made up of former military officers, said that martial law had to be issued in order to crush rebel forces that have grown because the military had gone soft on them – a tacit acknowledgement that the military has faced serious setbacks.

“The military dealt with the armed resistance as softly as possible and avoided forceful attacks in some areas,” he said. “The military was giving them some time to think of peaceful ways in hope that they would join in on elections.

“But quite contrary to the military’s expectation, the resistance forces did not back down,” he said. “Armed resistance is like an ulcer that never heals as time passes. Now the martial law has been declared to crush them for the peace and security in those regions.”

Indeed, the 37 townships under martial law will likely be targeted for increased military hostility, said political analyst Than Soe Naing.

“Two years after the military coup, many people in several parts of Myanmar are going to fall into the hellhole of military aggression,” he said. “There will be no law or judicial court there. The military will attack, kill and commit genocide against our people in many ways.” 

The move will essentially allow the junta to unlawfully kill armed resistance fighters in the region, said a military officer from the Khin-U Support Organization, one of the resistance groups in the northern Sagaing region, who like many in this article insisted on anonymity for security reasons.

“They declared martial law only to unjustly kill our revolutionary forces. What is feared is that they might kill more innocent civilians for no particular reason,” the officer said. “Our regional defense forces will just fight them head-on and then move to safety as usual. There is nothing to worry about.” 

Elections not possible in these areas

The declaration also means that the junta is no longer capable of holding elections in those areas, Than Soe Naing said.

Junta chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to hold multi-party elections, but opponents have dismissed those efforts as a sham because they believe any election will be rigged to exclude parties ousted by the coup and keep the junta in power.

Publicly, the junta has tried to minimize the resistance. Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said in a Jan. 23 junta meeting that 198 of the 330 townships across the country were 100 percent peaceful, 67 had serious security issues, and 65 townships were in need of effective security measures. 

And yet the junta has expanded martial law from six townships around Yangon to 37.

Zaw Yan, a farmers’ rights activist, said the declaration will “lead to major bloodshed.” It was made so that the military could “kill everyone in their way to rule those regions by hook or by crook.” 

But it also shows that the junta is becoming desperate because the whole country is resisting it, he said.

The move will certainly boost the number of displaced people in the country, said security analyst Kyaw Saw Han. Already, fighting since the coup has uprooted at least 1.2 million people within the country, and many have also fled across borders into India or Thailand.

More arrests, killings and human rights violations are ahead, Kyaw Win, executive director of the London-based Burmese Human Rights Network said.

“According to martial law, they are going to act as judges, they are going to rule the cases in their favor openly in military courts,” he said. “They don’t have the strength to fight all the resistance forces at the same time. Therefore, martial law was issued to help their forces cut the strength of the resistance.”

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Apple’s China App Store has removed a Twitter-like social media app linked to Jack Dorsey’s Nostr social media platform, which relies on a decentralized network of users exchanging encrypted information to evade control or censorship by governments or private companies.

Damus was removed from the Apple China App Store a day after being launched there, the developers said via their Twitter account.

“We are writing to notify you that your application, per demand from the Cyberspace Administration of China, will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China, which is not in compliance with the App Store review guidelines,” the App Store said in screenshot of the notification letter attached to Damus’ tweet.

According to the Cyberspace Administration, the app had failed a security assessment for apps having “public opinion” or “social mobilization” capabilities, the letter said.

Apple’s removal of apps from its Chinese app store that could empower users to get around the country’s strict censorship regime has sparked criticism from users and service providers before.

‘Must comply’

In October 2019, the company took down a hugely popular police-tracking app from its Hong Kong store after it was used by participants in the 2019 protest movement to evade arrest or police violence.

“Apps must comply with all legal requirements … it is your responsibility to understand and make sure your app conforms with all local laws … apps that solicit, promote, or encourage criminal or clearly reckless behavior will be rejected,” it said in the letter to Damus.

The app was likely banned because of its lack of content moderation, and had already been rejected multiple times because Apple requires apps to have a mechanism for reporting and blocking objectionable users and content, the Bitcoin site Watcher.Guru said in an article on Friday.

Any online platform that is accessible to users inside the Great Firewall of Chinese internet censorship must first acquire an internet content provider license, which are generally refused to apps capable of “disrupting public order” or evading censorship, and to platforms that refuse to gather real-name information and IP addresses from users or hand over user data to the authorities when requested.

Nostr — short for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays — also had built-in support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, Watcher.Guru said.

“The inclusion of support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network is another reason why authorities don’t look kindly on the project, as crypto is banned within the country,” it said.

Snowden a fan

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, now exiled in Russia after leaking huge quantities of information on the agency’s mass-surveillance of ordinary citizens to the media, is a prominent fan of Nostr and related apps.

“The problem is that most major states are pressuring corporations to limit speech,” Snowden wrote after opening an account on the platform, posting a screenshot of the post to his Twitter account on Jan. 23.

“The solution is to remove the ability to limit speech from corporate hands,” he wrote, adding to his Twitter followers: “Find me there.”

A social media user in China who gave only the nickname Lisa said Damus had the ability to evade Chinese internet censorship, and that she knew of many people who had already downloaded it.

“The new Twitter-like app, Damus, was popular in China for a day, but was taken down today,” she said. “I saw there were discussions about this in my WeChat groups for the past couple of days.”

“It was taken down from the store after just one day,” she said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.