Day: April 4, 2023

In Brief

Following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover in New York City en route to Central America, reports by official Chinese media outlets described her as being “embarrassed” when upon arrival she “was coolly received” by crowds of protesting Chinese who looked at her like a “rat in the street.”

Such reports quoted The Wall Street Journal as saying that she “is keeping largely out of the public eye” and used short video clips that ostensibly showed Tsai “having to quickly duck into a hotel through a side door” in order to avoid the crowd. 

Such claims soon spread widely across the Chinese internet and were reprinted by most national and provincial media outlets, including China Daily and Global Times.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) verified that the above descriptions misrepresented and distorted Tsai’s arrival and subsequent time spent in the city, after checking with on-site eyewitness reporters in New York City. 

In Depth 

Tsai stayed in New York City from the afternoon of March 29 to the morning of March 31, as an initial stopover during her planned 10-day diplomatic visit to Taiwan’s allies in Central America. The Chinese government strongly condemned Tsai’s transit through the United States and organized groups of overseas Chinese within the U.S. to protest it.

Tsai arrived at the Lotte Hotel in Manhattan at 4 p.m. on March 29. AFCL learned from a number of on-site reporters that 400-500 protesters organized by China had gathered in an open space across from the southwest side of the hotel. In between chants of “Down with Tsai” and  “Taiwan independence is a dead end,” the protestors waved Chinese flags and intermittently sang Chinese patriotic songs. 

Meanwhile, north and south of the hotel’s eastern entrance, about 100 to 200 people holding Taiwanese flags gathered in support of Tsai, chanting “Go Taiwan” and “Long live the Republic of China.”

While the two factions occasionally bandied words and competed to see who could shout their slogans the loudest, local police and special duty officers prevented a repeat of the clashes that marked Tsai’s previous transit through New York in 2019.

Did Mainland Chinese media provide the full picture of Tsai’s hotel arrival?

No. Mainland Chinese coverage of Tsai’s visit only shows voices and images of the opposition protests, with official reports of the event describing her as a “street rat” that “everyone shouted at.”

Subsidiary media outlets of CCTV and People’s Daily re-used a photo taken by journalist Zhang Wenxin in a World Journal report as evidence that Tsai received a cold reception by overseas Chinese. However, photos of Tsai’s supporters also taken by Zhang and published in the same article were not used by mainland media.

Did Tsai quickly duck into her hotel through a side door?

No. A segment from a widely circulated video produced by the CCTV subsidiary social media account Riyue Tantian appears to show Tsai and her entourage quickly entering the Lotte Hotel. The corresponding voiceover narration reads, “To avoid the tidal wave of protests, she had to quickly duck into the hotel through a side door.”

After examining both the layout of the Lotte Hotel and the full video the clip was edited from, AFCL found that Tsai neither dodged the crowd nor entered through a side door. Rather, she entered through the hotel’s front door. 

After getting out of her car at the hotel’s main entrance, Tsai waved to supporters who had gathered to welcome her, voluntarily approached the crowd and shook hands with several onlookers before making her way to the hotel amidst the crowd.

A clip from Riyue Tantian, pro-Beijing news outlet on the popular Chinese social media platform Wechat edited out the first half of the video in which Tsai shakes hands with her supporters. Several Republic of China flags being held by her supporters can still be seen reflected off glass doors captured in the second half of the video.

Did Tsai mostly keep out of the public eye while in transit?

No. A Wall Street Journal report on March 30 stated that, “President Tsai Ing-wen is keeping largely out of the public eye.” In addition to changing “president” to “Taiwan’s leader,” the Chinese translation of the article published on March 31 used slightly different wording to describe Tsai’s trip, claiming that she “virtually didn’t appear in the public eye.”  

AFCL confirmed through interviews with journalists and citizens that Tsai attended several public events over the three days and two nights she was in New York.

On the evening of March 29, for example, Tsai gave a speech at a banquet hosted by local Chinese. She delivered her speech in a mixture of English, Mandarin and Minnan to an audience of 700 attendees and media representatives. Tsai later politely mingled with many of the guests.  

On the morning of March 30, Tsai went to Brooklyn to talk with young entrepreneurs of Taiwanese descent, including Lillian Lin, co-owner of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry. Lin told AFCL that during her meeting with the president at a cafe, Tsai tasted their shop’s dried pineapples while listening to the story of how Yun Hai brought local Taiwanese produce to sell outside the country. After leaving the cafe, Tsai briefly interacted with people and media waiting outside for her, giving a thumbs up as some onlookers shouted, “Taiwan No.1.”

At noon, Tsai went to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York to attend a reception with representatives of friendly U.N. countries. At the reception, Tsai tasted cuisine prepared by the Taiwanese Masterchef Junior Liya Chu and viewed artwork by renowned Taiwanese illustrators Zhong Yiting and Zhang Yaqing, both of whom had come to New York to participate in an art exhibition. 

The only event on Tsai’s itinerary closed to the media was a private meeting at the Hudson Institute on the evening of March 30.

The office of Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, confirmed this Monday that he will meet with Tsai when she passes through California on her return to Taiwan. This will be the first time a president of Taiwan has met with the speaker of the House on American soil.

Conclusion

AFCL found Chinese media accounts that Tsai Ing-wen “was coolly received” and “looked like a street rat” during her time in New York to be inaccurate and misleading.

Tsai did keep a low profile during her time in the city by not holding any press conferences or giving any exclusive interviews to reporters. However, she both appeared and spoke at multiple public events covered by the media. While some overseas Chinese did fiercely oppose and protest her brief stop in the United States, many others warmly welcomed her. 

Translated by Shen Ke and edited by Malcolm Foster.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) is a new branch of RFA established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. Our journalists publish both daily and special reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of public issues.

Forest protection activists found more than 200 fallen trees that had been illegally cut down in a vast protected area of northern Cambodia that showed signs of around-the-clock operations, transport trucks, motorcycles and armed security.

Activists with the Prey Lang Community Network for Preah Vihear province traveled through the area for four days and three nights in late March. 

Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised publicly that he would take action to prevent illegal logging in Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, which covers land in Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom and Kratie provinces. 

He’s even blamed Cambodia’s poor in recent years for the country’s growing loss of forest cover. But activists have said that government authorities have done nothing to prevent supporters of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party from illegally exporting timber to neighboring Vietnam, a major buyer of luxury hard wood.

A 2020 survey by researchers at Denmark’s University of Copenhagen showed that Cambodia had lost 26 percent of its tree cover, equivalent to about 5.7 million acres, since 2000, according to satellite imagery

Moving timber day and night

Activists told Radio Free Asia on Monday that logging transport trucks and motorcycles seen last month carried an identifying logo from the Phnom Penh-based Macle Logistics (Cambodia) Co., Ltd.

A Prey Lang community network member, Srey They, said the perpetrators brought wood out of the forest day and night in an area where forest crimes are on the rise. Groups of between five and 10 people – some of them armed – were seen cutting and transporting timber in Preah Vihear’s Rovieng district, he told RFA.

“It is very sad that the government has established the protected area, but there are still perpetrators of deforestation for companies,” Srey They said. 

Illegal logging continues in Cambodia because of compliant government officials, Cambodian Youth Network project coordinator Oath Latin said.

“This involves corruption between the timber traders, the perpetrators and the officers who are stationed around the Prey Lang checkpoint,” he said.

RFA was unable to contact the director of the Department of Environment, Song Chan Socheat, and the spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Neth Pheaktra, on Monday, calling several times without an answer.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Nearly 130 Rohingya Muslims leaving Myanmar for Malaysia by boat were arrested by the junta’s navy in waters off Mon state on Sunday after brokers revealed information about them to local villagers.

A resident said a boat was seized when the arrests were made near the Gulf of Martaban in southeast Myanmar after brokers went to buy food in Chaungzon township. Authorities have sent 65 of the boat people to Mawlamyine Prison in Mon state to await trial, he said.

A lawyer representing the Rohingyas said the junta often regards such people as illegal immigrants, and that they would likely be charged with immigration law violations.

The four brokers, who were Buddhists from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, were also arrested. Several Rohingya Muslim children were also on board, and were being cared for by local people, the resident said. 

A member of a local charity group from Chaungzon township said there have been similar arrests of Rohingya in the area in the past. Those arrested are normally sent to prison, the worker said.

“But I don’t know what will happen to them next,” the charity worker said. “I think they will be interrogated and some of them might be bailed out and the rest will go to prison.”

Latest group to try to reach Malaysia

More than 740,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine following a military crackdown on the ethnic group that started more than five years ago, and now live in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Of the more than 600,000 that remained in Rakhine, around 125,000 are living in displaced people’s camps in the state.

Every year, hundreds abandon the camps and take to the sea in small, poorly-provisioned boats to try to reach other countries, including Muslim majority countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

According to statistics collected by Radio Free Asia, nearly 2,000 Rohingyas have been arrested on their way to Malaysia from refugee camps in Rakhine and Bangladesh from December 2021 to March 2023. 

The junta has sentenced nearly 500 of them to two to five years in prison under Myanmar’s immigration law. 

A Rohingya aid worker in Yangon, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told RFA that the Rohingya fleeing Rakhine know they could be arrested or killed on the way, but they are risking their lives to live freely.

“They are not allowed to go anywhere in that state,” the aid worker said. “They left risking their lives, as they know they would be free in a new land, if they escape, or they will just go back to their original lives of failure if they get caught. They have already anticipated that they could end up like this.” 

Rohingyas usually pay almost 8 million kyat (about U.S.$2,800) per person before they begin their journey to Malaysia from Rakhine, and some end up being abandoned by brokers along the way, he said.

RFA contacted the military junta spokesman for Mon state, Toe Win, but he didn’t immediately return the call.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has recommended prosecuting 54 mostly senior officials, including the former vice minister of foreign affairs, over a pay-to-play scheme connected to the repatriation of Vietnamese nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry’s Investigation Security Agency said Tuesday that it had completed its probe of the scheme and submitted its findings to the Supreme People’s Court, calling for the 54 people to be charged with giving bribes, receiving bribes, brokering bribes, abusing one’s position as a public servant and appropriating assets by fraud, according to state media.

The proposed charges stem from a case against former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung for having allegedly received 21.5 billion dong (U.S.$915,000) in bribes to add companies to a list of providers of repatriation flights. 

State media said Dung was in charge of approving the plans to organize repatriation flights based on proposals by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Department.

In addition to Dung, the agency proposed charges of receiving bribes for Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vu Hong Nam, Assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Quang Linh, Head of the Government Office’s Department of International Relations Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Department Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, and Vice Chairman of the Hanoi City People’s Committee Chu Xuan Dung, as well as 16 others.

Other defendants are from the ministries of public health, transport, and public security; the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam; the People’s Committees of Hanoi and Quang Nam province and the Hanoi Municipal People’s Committee.  

The agency recommended charges of brokering bribery for Major General Nguyen Anh Tuan – the deputy director general of the Hanoi police force – and three others.

During the investigation, Tuan confessed that he had received 61.6 billion dong (U.S.$2.65 million) to help Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang and Le Hong Son – the director general and deputy director general of the Blue Sky Co. – avoid criminal prosecution for their role in the repatriation scandal. On March 31, the Ministry of Public Security removed Tuan from office and ordered him to retire. 

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Nam was said to have received 1.8 billion dong (U.S.$76,600) during his posting as Vietnamese ambassador to Japan to help the Nhat Minh Company to sell air tickets and accommodations at hotels as quarantine places for passengers of six flights to repatriate Vietnamese nationals from Japan. 

 

Nguyen Quang Linh, the assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, was accused of receiving 4.2 billion dong or U.S.$179,000 to help some companies obtain permits to organize “rescue flights.” 

Linh was accused of violating Vietnam’s laws and working rules and regulations in advising the government on selecting enterprises participating in the organization of flights to repatriate Vietnamese nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

From April 2020 to January 2022, Vietnam organized around 400 rescue flights, bringing back over 70,000 citizens from more than 60 countries and territories. Many passengers had to buy overcharged tickets and undergo troublesome procedures to get a flight home.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

A former Hong Kong actress known for her roles in softcore adult movies and horror flicks played the role of “unofficial diplomat” in China’s bid to woo Honduras away from diplomatic relations with Taiwan, she told a pro-Beijing newspaper.

In an exclusive interview with the Sing Tao Daily, Diana Pang, 50, said she had recently made a trip to Honduras to “promote business links” and met with President Xiomara Castro, who told her she was planning to switch diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic of China.

“It was necessary to help the Chinese business community gain a foothold in Honduras,” said Pang, who later went on to act and direct in pro-government films in mainland China. “Everyone needs to do their bit to aid the Chinese diplomatic effort.”

Beijing has been stepping up its campaign to isolate Taiwan diplomatically since President Tsai Ing-wen, whose growing ties with U.S. officials has prompted military saber-rattling from the People’s Liberation Army, was elected in 2016. 

Taiwan now has formal relations with only 13 countries, including Belize, Nauru and the Vatican, after Kiribati and the Solomon Islands broke off diplomatic ties with Taipei last year. Honduras announced it would switch ties as Tsai began a trip to Latin America that will wind up with a meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The interview with Pang was published days after a meeting between Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina in Beijing, right at the start of Tsai’s tour of the Americas.

Beijing insists that its diplomatic partners accept its claim on Taiwan, which it calls the “one China” policy, effectively forcing them to cut ties with the democratic island.

But Taiwan’s 23 million people have repeatedly shown through public opinion polls that they have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life to be ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.

Think tank dean

Taiwanese national security researcher Shih Chien-yu noted that Pang also recently made an appearance at China’s prestigious Bo’ao Economic Forum and was appointed dean of the Beijing-based International Economic Strategy Research Institute, a think tank set up in November.

“It’s kind of incredible that she is now a dean of this institution,” Shih said. “A lot of media are speculating about her meteoric rise from Hong Kong porn star to research institute director.”

“What actual qualifications does she have for the role?” Shih asked. “I think Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party should take the trouble to investigate.”

In her interview, Pang called on the Hong Kong movie industry to play a role in “telling good contemporary stories” and to act as a cultural bridge between China and the rest of the world. 

She predicted that “diplomatic recognition of China will become a global trend,” adding that she shrugs off the labels “porn star” and “red movie star” alike.

Using celebrities

Pang was born in the south-central city of Changsha in 1972, while her grandfather was deputy mayor of Zunyi city. 

She went to live in the United States at the age of 14, where she won a slew of beauty pageants including “Miss China” and “Miss Asia.”

In 2013, she was appointed to the People’s Political Consultative Conference – a political advisory body that includes loyal celebrities among its delegates – for the western province of Gansu in 2013.

“[Pang] is someone who has experienced a resurgence in fortunes in the new era [since Xi took power],” he said. “Her star is rising because she has deliberately set out to collaborate with the government.”

Celebrities like Pang are increasingly being co-opted by the ruling party’s outreach and influence arm, the United Front Work Department, said commentator Bi Xin.

“In China, former artists and celebrities can wind up with a slew of different job titles,” Bi said. “On the other hand, they can bring you down just by charging you with a crime, such as drug use or prostitution.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Hong Kong martial arts superstar Donnie Yen has hit back at more than 100,000 people who signed a petition calling for his removal from last month’s Oscars ceremony due to his public support for Beijing, claiming the move was part of “cancel culture.”

“I’m allowed to love my own culture, love my own country,” Yen said in a recent interview with Variety. “Why cannot I be patriotic?” 

“This whole online cyber-bullying/cancel culture has got to stop,” he said of the petition calling on the Academy Awards to remove him as an award presenter after he called the 2019 pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong “a riot.”

“You can’t own somebody’s thoughts. And you want to silence them? It’s totally hypocritical,” Yen said.

Yen presented an award at the March 12 ceremony despite public criticism and street protests from pro-democracy activists and Chinese dissidents, who displayed photos of Yen shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a celebrity line-up.

The protest, which was attended by former 1989 student leader Wang Dan, came as more than 110,000 people signed a petition on Change.org calling for Yen to be dropped from the ceremony.

Yen had earlier told GQ Hype magazine in a recent interview after being asked about the boycott of his movies and his view of the 2019 protest movement: “It wasn’t a protest, OK, it was a riot.”

“A lot of people might not be happy for what I’m saying, but I’m speaking from my own experience,” said Yen, using very similar language to official descriptions of the protests.

‘Form of silencing’

Taiwan-based petition co-author Tong Wai Hong, who was acquitted of “rioting” charges linked to his role in the 2019 protest movement, said creating and signing a petition was just a way for people to express their opinions, and didn’t amount to cyber-bullying.

“He has the freedom to say what he likes, and we citizens are also free to use such methods to express our opposition to his remarks and his actions,” Tong said. 

“As an artist, he is a public figure, so his comments could mislead a lot of people and distort the truth, and were therefore irresponsible,” he said.

Tong said the aim of the petition had never been to silence Yen.

“Instead, I would like to ask people in Hong Kong, people in the movie industry … why they can’t even talk about not being able to make [certain] movies, and why some films the public want to see can’t be screened,” he said.

“If the voices of the poorest and of all citizens aren’t being heard, is that not also a form of silencing?” Tong said. “I think he should consider that instead.”

Tong said that while the petition hadn’t been successful in getting Yen removed from the Oscars ceremony, it was a rare example of a Hong Kong rights issue making world headlines.

“Usually, it’s very rare for a Hong Kong human rights issue to make an international appearance,” he said.

‘100% Chinese’

Yen was born in the southern city of Guangzhou, settling in Hong Kong at the age of 2, and emigrating to the United States at 12.

He renounced his American citizenship in 2010, saying publicly that he was “100% Chinese.”

He was admitted as a delegate to the Communist Party’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in January 2023, following in the footsteps of Jackie Chan.

Many Hong Kongers started boycotting Yen’s movies over his pro-Beijing stance during the 2019 protest movement against the erosion of Hong Kong’s promised freedoms and judicial independence.

They grew into pitched street battles between protesters armed with bricks, Molotov cocktails, catapults and other makeshift weapons against riot police who fired tear gas, rubber bullets and occasionally live rounds of ammunition at protesters and journalists.

Rights groups and protesters alike criticized the unsafe and indiscriminate use of tear gas and other forms of police violence during the months-long protest movement, as well as rampant abuses of police power and abuse of detainees.

Police violence against young and unarmed protesters early in the movement brought millions onto the city’s streets and prompted the occupation of its international airport.

In other incidents, unarmed train passengers were attacked by both armed riot police at Prince Edward station and by white-clad mobsters at Yuen Long, who laid into passengers and protesters with rods and poles while police took 39 minutes to answer hundreds of distress calls from the scene.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.