Day: March 23, 2023

As Muslims around the world prepare to begin the holy month of Ramadan, China’s Muslims are facing fasting bans and their cultural and religious traditions increasingly under attack.

Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang are being ordered not to allow their children to fast, with children quizzed by the authorities over whether their parents are fasting or not, local officials and rights groups say.

“During Ramadan, the authorities are requiring 1,811 villages [in Xinjiang] to implement a round-the-clock monitoring system, including spot home inspections of Uyghur families,” World Uyghur Congress spokesperson Dilshat Rishit said. During Ramadan, Muslims are called to fast during daylight hours.

And China’s 11.4 million Hui Muslims – close-knit communities of ethnic Chinese who have maintained their Muslim faith over centuries – are in danger of being erased entirely under the Communist Party’s draconian religious rules, rights groups have warned in a new report.

They have been identified by Beijing as “a threat to be resolved through forcible assimilation,” a report from a coalition of rights groups, including the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said.

This is in stark contrast to the relative freedoms they enjoyed before President Xi Jinping launched a renewed attack on religious worship, forcing Christians, Muslims and Buddhists alike to submit to party control and censorship of their religious lives under his “sinicization” program, the report said.

“Hui community members were able to openly participate in mosque communities, Arabic schools, and private worship, albeit under restrictions facilitated by party liaisons,” it said. “Hui entrepreneurs were encouraged to develop business and tourism connections with the wider Muslim world as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.”

But religious affairs under Xi have been “influenced by Islamophobic rhetoric that has pervaded global counterterrorism discourse,” making them targets of a “counterterrorism” campaign in Xinjiang, with more than 100,000 Hui sent to “re-education” camps alongside Uyghurs, it said.

‘Stands in solidarity’

President Joe Biden on Thursday said the United States supports Muslim communities suffering hardship and oppression. “Today especially, we remember the universal human right to practice, pray, and preach our faiths peacefully and openly,” he said in a statement marking the start of Ramadan.

“The United States stands in solidarity with Muslims who continue to face oppression – including Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China, Rohingya in Burma, and other Muslim communities facing persecution around the world,” he said.

Turghunjan Alawudin, who chairs the religious committee at the World Uyghur Congress, welcomed Biden’s statement.

“We can see from these congratulations that religious belief is deeply respected in democratic nations,” he said. “China neither respects the culture nor tolerates the religious beliefs of other peoples but treats its own culture as supreme. Instead of congratulating Muslims for the arrival of Ramadan, China continues to restrict the Muslims from fasting and praying.”

“China has exhibited extreme hostility towards the religious beliefs and fine traditions of Uyghurs by further restricting all aspects of Uyghur national and religious holidays.China continues its ongoing genocide against the Uyghur Muslims in its attempt to erase them,” he said.

‘Ethnic unity’ campaign

China has also targeted Muslim communities with its “ethnic unity” campaign under which officials impose Han Chinese “relatives” on ethnic minority Uyghur families, who then put pressure on them to observe non-Muslim traditions, including drinking alcohol and eating pork.

“Unity” policies haven taken place in Xinjiang against a backdrop of the mass incarceration of at least 1.8 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minority Muslims in “re-education” camps, and their involvement in forced labor, as well as amid reports of the systemic rape, sexual abuse, and forced sterilization of Uyghur women in the camps.

Alongside Uyghurs, “Hui have also been subject to restrictions aimed at eliminating ‘signs of extremism’ and intrusive surveillance of public and private life,” the report said.

In 2020, authorities in the eastern province of Shandong detained Hui Muslim poet and writer Cao Haoxin, also known by his pen name An Ran, after he tweeted criticism of China’s ongoing mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other violations of Muslims’ rights.

Hui rights activist Ma Ju said many people don’t even know his community exists.

“A lot of people don’t even know that this ethnic group exists,” Ma said. “A lot of experts and scholars have been shocked to hear that we number more than 10 million, and are among the three largest ethnic groups in China.”

“This report marks their place in world history, and remembers their suffering,” said Ma, who founded the rights group Umbrella of Hope to campaign for Hui rights from the United States.

He said the current genocide being perpetrated on the Uyghur people has already happened once before to the Hui, following the Communist Party’s religious reforms of 1958.

“Now they are going to erase the last vestiges of our culture that still remain,” Ma said.

Ma said the wave of global Islamophobia that emerged alongside the United States’ “war on terror” in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks has also fueled anti-Muslim racism in China.

‘Mass detentions’

Serikjan Bilash, who founded the Kazakhstan-based rights group Atajurt, said authorities in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture have carried out “mass detentions” of religious figures in the region during the past few days.

“Most of these people have already served heavy sentences,” he said. “This year, the targets for arrest by the Chinese Communist Party are people who have already spent two to three years in a concentration camp in Xinjiang.”

“Sources [told Atajurt] that they are being sent to other provinces of China, or to secret prisons in Xinjiang,” he said.

Repeated calls to local police departments in Ili prefecture rang unanswered during office hours on Thursday.

Schools in Ili are also using children to obtain information about their parents’ religious observance, Serikjan said.

“[They are given] forms asking detailed questions about what are normal practices in Muslim families,” he said. “For example, whether the parents use [the Islamic greeting] assalamualaikum when they greet their relatives.”

“Also, whether their parents are eating or drinking water at midday, and if they have eaten breakfast after the sun has already risen,” he said. 

An official who answered the phone at the Xinyuan county education bureau confirmed that people in education and any adults who work for the government are banned from fasting during Ramadan.

“Students aren’t allowed to fast, and family members who are public servants aren’t allowed to either, the official said.

A Kazakh Muslim who gave only the single name Kamina said anyone found fasting will be subject to retaliation in practice, however.

“Fasting isn’t really allowed,” she said. “Some people have voluntarily renounced fasting out of fear, while others fast secretly.”

“Some places allow fasting but then they monitor those people and call them religious diehards, and they are detained,” she said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

South Korean lawmaker Thae Yong-ho was once a high-ranking North Korean diplomat. In 2016, while he was Pyongyang’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, he defected with his family to the South. Less than four years after his family arrived in Seoul, Thae won a local election and became a member of the National Assembly representing the city’s wealthy Gangnam district. 

As a member of the assembly, Thae has served on the Foreign Affairs and Unification committee, drawing on his unique expertise on North Korea to help form South Korean policy. On Mar. 8, South Korea’s ruling People Power Party elected Thae to its supreme council, making him the first defector to enter into a South Korean political party’s leadership.

RFA’s Korean Service interviewed Thae on March 16 to discuss struggles faced by North Korean escapees who have resettled in South Korea, North Korean security, North Korea’s leadership, and other issues. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

RFA: You’re the first North Korean defector to become a member of the South Korean National Assembly, and you have continued to blaze the trail by becoming the first defector to rise into a major political party’s senior leadership. What does your success mean in terms of South Korean society’s views on North Korean escapees?

Thae: I feel that the window of prejudice and discrimination against North Korean escapees in South Korean society has been broken again. I think this is an opportunity to show that South Korea is a truly diverse and inclusive society. In countries like North Korea and China, being a member of the Standing Committee means that you have risen to be the best of the best. But the fact that I went in as an elected official is truly great for anyone who knows this structure. I hope it will be an opportunity for new hope for the North Korean escapees who have fallen into a sense of defeat and pessimism.

RFA: What do you imagine that Kim Jong Un might be thinking to see a former member of his regime being elected as a supreme council member of a South Korean political party?

Thae:  Kim Jong Un receives daily reports from the United Front Department on the political and economic situation in South Korea. [He] probably thinks that if this news reaches North Korea, it will be a big deal. He could also worry that there will be more breakaways from the elite. [Most North Koreans] probably won’t know about it right away, but this is the Internet era and many North Koreans abroad are using cell phones or the Internet. It will become a well-known fact sooner or later.

RFA: North Korea continues to promote nuclear and missile advancement. What do you think Kim Jong Un’s true intentions are? And how do you think South Korea and its allies should respond to this?

Thae:  One goal is to develop nuclear weapons to completely subdue South Korea with nuclear weapons. The other is so that the United States comes to nuclear negotiations with North Korea and responds to nuclear disarmament negotiations on North Korea’s terms. 

First, we are currently holding a large ROK-US joint military exercise right now called Freedom Shield, and it is based on extended deterrence. If Kim Jong Un flinches though, the end of the North Korean regime will come swiftly under the might of a huge conventional force. 

Next, South Korea must temporarily acquire nuclear weapons. North Korea has nuclear weapons, South Korea does not. The United States has nuclear weapons, so North Korea is trying to negotiate nuclear disarmament between countries with nuclear weapons. 

So, if [the South has] nuclear weapons, we have a justification to confidently engage in nuclear disarmament negotiations.

RFA: In your book, “Password of the Third Floor Secretary Room,” you said past negotiations with North Korea were deceptions meant to waste time. If South Korea temporarily possesses nuclear weapons and enters into nuclear negotiations with North Korea, how should Seoul’s approach differ from previous negotiations?

Thae: Telling [North Korea] to get rid of [missiles] all at once won’t work. We have to go step by step. Let’s get rid of ICBMs by mutual verification. For the next step, let’s get rid of missiles (SLBMs) from submarines. We must open the way to denuclearization by building trust through nuclear disarmament step by step, like the way Russia [or its predecessor state, the Soviet Union] and the United States have done.

RFA: There is a lot of criticism about this proposal. Some say that if South Korea acquired nuclear weapons, international sanctions could be imposed, and the ROK-US alliance could be weakened. What is your opinion on this?

Thae: We are a country that has a military alliance with the United States. So, we can’t play alone, or unilaterally. We must go through endless debates and negotiations with the United States. In the future, if the nuclear military alliance between North Korea, China, and Russia deepens further, the U.S. will eventually come to a stage where it is carefully examining whether it is possible for them to fight two wars at the same time on the Korean Peninsula and in Taiwan, in front of China. 

Anticipating these steps, we must constantly negotiate and discuss with the United States. We should never give up on our own without setting these goals and negotiating with the United States. 

RFA: Does this mean that we can expect that the issue of international sanctions will be resolved naturally if there is dialogue with the United States? 

Thae: Right, as long as the United States agrees. We have to convince the U.S. that it is ultimately beneficial for us to arm ourselves and achieve a nuclear balance with North Korea.

RFA: The North Korean regime has passed its leadership from father to son for three generations now. Do you think the Kim Dynasty can continue to the fourth generation? Will Kim Jong Un’s daughter Kim Ju Ae one day rule North Korea?

Thae: I think the North Korean regime will never make it to the fourth generation with Kim Ju Ae. Since Kim Jong Un came to power, the North Korean regime has gone too far in a very unstable and abnormal direction over the past decade. 

I wonder if Kim Jong Un is truly so nervous that he is making such a fuss to have his 10-year-old daughter succeed him. Another problem is that the military and government leadership cannot remain stable from year to year. They are constantly changing players. This means there is no consensus or solidarity between Kim Jong Un and the leaders surrounding him. So, distrust is building. I think that’s why they are constantly changing personnel. 

Next, young people who are growing up in North Korea have no loyalty to the North Korean system. They only value reality, and dream of a more open and prosperous country. When they grow up and become the backbone of North Korea in their 40s and 50s, I believe that Kim Jong Un’s system will inevitably collapse.

RFA: Experts have raised the possibility that Kim Ju Ae may be the successor to Kim Jong Un, though. Isn’t it at least possible?

 

Thae: I wonder if Kim Jong Un would really hand over the power to his daughter, not to a son. I think right now he is building this image that the next succession will go to four generations because he has children. 

Also, if Kim Jong Un is insecure about his health right now, let’s say he got sick today, then [his sister] Kim Yo-jong has no choice but to emerge as a replacement. To some extent, Kim Yo-jong would rule. 

I think it may be part of a power struggle to imprint in advance that Kim Yo-jong cannot rule indefinitely, but that she would have to hand power over to Kim Jong Un’s children when they become adults.

 

RFA: According to the recently published book “The Pyongyang Lady Who Came from London,”  penned by your wife O Hye-son, it seems you worked really hard while you were in North Korea. In your book, “Password of the Third Floor Secretary Room,” you said that the moment you defected from North Korea in the U.K., “tears flowed endlessly.” Can you explain more about how you felt at that time?

 Thae: Two emotions crossed my mind. One was thinking about defecting from North Korea at my age, and I thought that I had lived such a wasted life for so long. The other thing was that I thought about what kind of life I would live from then on. I was leaving North Korea and coming to South Korea. I committed to myself that I would devote the rest of my life, to the very end, for freedom and democracy and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

RFA: People in North Korea are listening to Radio Free Asia Broadcasting. Is there anything you would like to say to them directly?

Thae: Only because you were born in North Korea, you are living a difficult life right now. I think you must overthrow the Kim Jong Un regime if you want to live a free life like those in South Korea and be treated like a human like people in other countries are. When the Kim Jong Un regime collapses, that will be the day you will find a life worthy of human dignity.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.

Local authorities in Laos have warned rural villagers not to venture into an area of land that has been designated for a Chinese tourist development, but the villagers told Radio Free Asia that they have been fishing in that area for generations.

District-level officials issued notice on Feb. 16 to the villagers of Huai Siet, in the central province of Borikhamxay, that if they are found fishing or crabbing in the river within the tourist development area, they will be arrested and prosecuted.

“I heard an official say that this area will be preserved for a golf course and a Chinese research area,” a villager, who like all unnamed sources in this report declined to be named on fear of reprisal, told RFA’s Lao Service. “They put markers around the fish pond already …. This is a place for local people to find food for their families, but the officials … have been preventing villagers from entering since last month.”

Laos owes much of its recent economic growth to land concessions that have mostly gone to companies in neighboring countries like China, Thailand and Vietnam. But the concessions often generate friction between developers and residents, many of whom refuse to speak out publicly because they fear retribution.

The villager said that for some of Huai Set’s residents, the river is their only food source.

“The villagers have been using this river to fish and catch crabs since the time of their ancestors,” she said. “If the government is preserving it for the Chinese tourist development, they will have to find another place to search for food.”

Another villager said that the people of Huai Set need help from the government to find other areas to catch food.

“There hasn’t been any related official who has come by to help the local villagers search for another place to find food for our families. So some of us will have to move to other areas to search for food.

She said the project has been in the works for several years, and it includes a research facility on fish and crab raising.

The developer of the project, the Chinese-owned ACTS Company, plans to build a golf course and other projects in an area where they were granted a 70-year concession. The tourist development is projected to open in 2024, at the same time as a bridge over the Mekong River that would connect Borikhamxay and Thailand’s Bung Kang province. 

A local government official confirmed that the project includes a fish and crab research center.

“[Chinese investors] put a big sign in front of the road on the way to the bridge telling tourists to visit when the bridge is completed.” 

In December, ACTS’ director Ly Fong and others involved in the project attended a groundbreaking ceremony. During that ceremony it was revealed that the 39-hectare (96-acre) project will include a trade center, a tourism center, a cultural center, a hotel and guesthouse, a golf course and fishing areas. It will be completed in two to three years.

Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Edited by Eugene Whong.