Day: April 13, 2023

The leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile defended the Dalai Lama on Thursday, telling reporters that video footage of the Tibetan Buddhist leader kissing a boy and asking him to “suck my tongue” was likely promoted online by pro-Chinese sources.

“It needs no explanation as to who would gain from maligning the image, the reputation and the legacy of His Holiness,” said Penpa Tsering, the head of the India-based Central Tibetan Administration. “Considering the scale and extent of the orchestrated smear campaign, the political angle of this incident cannot be ignored.”

Video of a Feb. 28 public event near the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, India, has sparked online criticism over the last week. It prompted a statement of apology from him on Monday. 

The clip shows the boy at first asking the 87-year-old for a hug during a ceremony in which the Dalai Lama blessed more than 120 students who had just completed a skills training course. 

He then points to his cheek and says to the boy “first here.” The boy kisses the cheek and gives him a hug. Then the Dalai Lama motions to his lips and says “here also,” and kisses the boy briefly on the lips.

He then sticks out his tongue and says “and suck my tongue.” With laughter in the background, the video shows the boy sticking his tongue out before withdrawing it, and the Dalai Lama did the same.

In Tibetan culture sticking out one’s tongue is sometimes used as a traditional greeting, and can be seen as a sign of respect or agreement.

The boy, Kiyan Kanodia, was interviewed by Radio Free Asia just after the event. Asked how he felt after meeting the Dalai Lama, he said he felt blessed with “positive energy.” 

“I just can’t express how good it feels. It was a really good experience meeting him,” he said. “You feel very positive energy and there’s a lot of positive energy in you when you get blessed by him.”

Kanodia’s grandfather, Basant Bansal, made similar remarks to RFA. Bansal is the chairman of the M3M Group, a real estate company in India whose philanthropic arm sponsored the skills training course.

Antics, pranks and joviality

Tibetan officials have found that the initial instigators for making the video go viral on social media were pro-Chinese, Tsering told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi.

Tsering listed the many ways the Dalai Lama has been physically affectionate with people he meets – including political leaders. 

Cuddling, holding someone’s nose, playing pranks and otherwise engaging in jovial interactions have all been all part of the Dalai Lama’s public repertoire, Tsering said. That includes touching foreheads, which he did with the boy at the February event.

“That’s the highest honor, from a Buddhist perspective,” he said. “All of these are part of His Holiness’ antics.”

The remark about the tongue “was meant to be for the amusement of others” in the room, Tsering said.

“The personal integrity of His Holiness has never been in question in 87 years, so how can people pass judgment on one incident?” he asked. “We know how grandfatherly affection can be. But this went a little beyond.” 

NGO wants an investigation

Tsering pointed out that the boy’s mother was seated nearby during the event and didn’t have any complaints. Neither did any of the students, he said.

Still, the executive director of a Delhi-based child rights group, Haq: Center for Child Rights, said that “no custom or traditional or religious practice that results in violation of children’s rights is acceptable.”

Bharti Ali told RFA in an email that she is worried about the boy’s safety, especially now that the video has received so much attention. The incident “requires necessary investigation and action,” she added.

“We cannot on the one hand teach safe and unsafe touch to children and on the other allow inappropriate actions to be passed off as playfulness,” she said.

Tsering asked that anyone who is disturbed by the circulated footage watch video of the entire event to understand the tone of the event. 

“We are sure you’ll be able to differentiate between lust and love,” he said.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

It’s been more than 10 days since the new school year began in North Korea, and a large number of poor children have yet to show up for classes because they are needed for farm work during the planting season.

So authorities are warning their parents to send them to school or face interrogation or public shaming, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.

Most North Korean elementary schools should have around 30 students in each classroom, but one or two from each class have yet to show up for their first day of school, a resident in the northern province of Ryanggang, who is knowledgeable about the education sector in Paegam county, told RFA’s Korean Service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Today, the county’s education department sent a notice to parents who have not sent their children to school … warning that they will notify the party committees and their parents’ workplaces if they don’t attend,” he said.

The warnings come after previous efforts to get the children to school failed, according to the source.

“When the class attendance rates are down, the homeroom teacher will be interrogated,” he said. “Even if their classmates come to their homes to pick them up, or if the teacher visits with the parents, there are still quite a few children who do not come to school.”

The source said that the children who aren’t attending school are from families experiencing economic hardship.

“The reason why children do not come to school is because they have to help their parents, who are busy preparing their small plots of land for farming in the mountains as the planting season begins,” he said. 

Matter of survival

Planting season is vital for many rural families to survive. 

“Farming on their private plots is the most important activity for the year because corn, beans, potatoes and whatever else can be grown on small plots of land will be the only food these households … have to stay alive this year,” the source said. 

The same problem existed in previous years, but it fell to the teachers to ask the parents to send their kids to school, he said. This is the first year that parents are getting an official warning, and it appears to be highly unusual.  

While there’s no accompanying punishment laid out in the warning other than being reported to the party committee, the potential for public disgrace by such a high-ranking institution makes the report alone a serious threat, he said.

For the country’s poorest, going into the mountains to find some empty land to grow vegetables is a matter of survival. North Korea has suffered from chronic food shortages for decades, and a suspension of trade with China during the COVID-19 pandemic made the shortages worse. 

At one point during the pandemic, the government told the people that they would no longer receive rations and would be on their own for food. 

The impoverished children work to cultivate the newly slashed and burned land, so they have no time to go to school.

Summoned for questioning 

In the city of Kimchaek, in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, the problem is so dire that authorities there began calling in the parents for interrogation, a source there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“There are a total of 28 students in my kid’s class in elementary school, but four of them are not attending,” she said. “Last week, schools in the city submitted absentee lists to the education department, and included their parents’ jobs, their titles and home addresses.”

The source said she believes that the interrogations began on Monday. 

“Interrogating the parents will not guarantee a 100% attendance rate,” she said. “For families who do not have food to eat right now or who are struggling to live, it is more important to not starve than it is to send their children to school.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

The number of people killed in an air strike seen as one of the worst attacks on civilians by Myanmar’s junta since a military coup two years ago has risen to 165, the country’s shadow government said Thursday.

The attack, in which jets bombed and helicopters strafed the opening ceremony for a public administration building in northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region on Tuesday, is the latest example of the military’s increasing reliance on air power in its multifront conflict with armed resistance groups, who have enjoyed growing success on the ground.

Rescue worker Nway Oo told RFA Burmese that 130 bodies had been cremated as of Thursday morning. But he said workers are struggling to comb through unidentified remains amid the ongoing threat of a military attack. Hours after the air strike on Tuesday, junta troops again attacked the site, killing three rescue workers.

“The gender of some of the bodies cannot be determined,” Nway Oo said. “Some of their bodies were too disfigured to even identify whether they were male or female.”

The remains of only 59 people were identifiable, he said, while the rest of the bodies “had to be picked up part by part and buried.”

Initial reports from the site in Kanbalu township’s Pa Zi Gyi village said at least 83 bodies had been cremated, including those of 22 minors, although sources told RFA Burmese that rescue efforts and the collection of remains had been hampered by by a continued military presence in the area, as well as the scale of the devastation from the attack. 

Witnesses have said that it was hard to tell how many people had died because the bodies were so badly mangled by the bombs and machine gun fire.

The country’s shadow National Unity Government – made up of members of the former civilian government and other individuals who oppose the junta – announced that the death toll at Pa Zi Gyi had risen to 165, including 27 women and 19 minors. In a statement, the NUG said efforts are still underway to identify victims and that the number of dead is “likely to increase.”

While the statement did not include the exact number of people injured by the air strike, it said at least 17 people had been “seriously wounded” and underwent major surgery.

Ongoing threat of attack

Residents told RFA military jets have occasionally been seen flying over the village to survey the site, while a column of more than 80 troops has been stationed around two miles to the east.

Ko Myo, a resident of Pa Zi Gyi, said rescue workers were frantically cremating remains amid the risky security situation.

“We have brought in some car tires [to build pyres],” he said. “We’ve had to [cremate] urgently, as the military’s planes are still flying around. We have to collect as many bodies as possible and cremate them before we leave.”

Meanwhile, Pa Zi Gyi has become a ghost town, as more than 800 residents of the 100-home village have fled since the attack and are too frightened to return while the threat of another raid looms, Ko Myo said.

A resident who gave his name as Maung Oo told RFA he had lost six family members in the air strike, and said he will never forgive the junta for carrying out such a brutal act.

“My youngest brother, brother-in-law, grandfather, aunties, niece and nephews were among the dead,” he said, calling those responsible for the attack “animals.”

“We must take up any available weapons and fight back. I will never stop fighting them even if I have to give up my life.”

Holding the junta accountable

Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe, the NUG’s minister of women, youths and children affairs, said the shadow government is working to hold the junta accountable for Tuesday’s attack and other atrocities visited on the people of Myanmar.

“Attacks targeting innocent civilians are very serious war crimes … under both international and domestic laws,” she said. “That is why we are working to prosecute those who are responsible in both local and international criminal courts.”

The military confirmed in a statement on Tuesday evening that it had carried out a “precision” attack on Pa Zi Gyi because members of the anti-junta People Defense Force paramilitary group had gathered there and “committed terrorist acts” in the area.

Junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun told the military-controlled broadcast channel MRTV that those killed in the strike were members of the PDF, not civilians, and that the large number of casualties was the result of a rebel weapons cache exploding during the operation.

But rescue workers have disputed that account. They say the attack on the site was deliberate and thorough, beginning with a jet fighter bombing run and followed by an Mi-35 helicopter strafing the area.

Residents of Pa Zi Gyi whose family members were killed have called on the international community to take effective action against the junta and to block sales of jet fuel, weapons and ammunition to the regime.

On Thursday, Indonesia, the 2023 chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, issued a statement on the bloc’s behalf two days after the United Nations and United States condemned the attack.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

The wife of a Vietnamese political activist and blogger convicted of spreading “anti-state propagand”a issued a letter on Thursday expressing disagreement with the verdict and thanking supporters and attorneys who defended her husband.

The Hanoi People’s Court sentenced Nguyen Lan Thang, a long-time contributor of blog posts on politics and society to Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese service, to six years in prison and two years of probation. 

Authorities arrested him in July 2022 based on allegations that he posted videos on Facebook and YouTube that were said to “oppose” the Vietnamese Communist Party.

He is one of four jailed Radio Free Asia contributors in Vietnam. 

“Although we disagree (if not oppose) with the trial and the verdict, our hearts feel warm because humanity is still alive,” wrote Thang’s wife Le Thi Bich Vuong.

“Our family would like to thank everyone for their posts, shares, support, and encouraging smiles toward us,” her letter said.

Vuong went on to say that her family still believes that Thang is “a patriot who has never done anything wrong with the country and his conscience.”

“We believe in what is right and that true progress will eventually triumph,” she wrote.

Thang’s conviction is the latest of a string of judgments against dissidents under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, frequently used by authorities to restrict freedom of expression and opinions deemed critical of the regime.

‘Gross miscarriage of justice’

Various human rights and other groups weighed in on the verdict, with the International Commission of Jurists calling it a “gross miscarriage of justice which should be immediately quashed.”

“The prosecution and conviction is not only a miscarriage of justice against an individual, but yet another attack on an already battered rule of law in Vietnam,” Ian Seiderman, the organization’s legal and policy director said in a statement. 

“The ongoing and heightened crackdown has targeted civil society activists, lawyers, journalists, political commentators and human rights defenders for engaging in activities that are protected under human rights law,” he said.

London-based Amnesty International tweeted that Thang’s trial had been “riddled with flaws.” 

“The sentence is nothing more than an attempt to silence him and others bravely documenting human rights abuses in the country,” the organization said.

RFA President Bay Fang said the conviction was “a miscarriage of justice and an assault on free expression in Vietnam” and called on authorities to immediate release Thang and drop the charges against him.

“The outrageous harassment he has endured and his sentencing to six years in prison demonstrate the extent to which Vietnamese authorities will go to silence independent journalists and voices,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.

Squelching free speech

Amanda Bennett, head of the United States Agency for Global Media, which comprises six organizations including RFA, said Thang’s sentencing struck another blow against free speech and freedom of the press in Vietnam.  

“For nearly a decade, Nguyen Lan Thang shared timely and prescient perspectives on freedom, democracy, and human rights with the Vietnamese audience of Radio Free Asia,” she said in a statement issued Thursday. “I join the chorus of international voices calling on the government of Vietnam to drop all charges and immediately release Nguyen Lan Thang.”

Thang’s conviction came two days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to visit Hanoi to mark the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. 

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Right Watch said Blinken should take the opportunity to urge the Vietnamese government to end its systemic abuse of freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and release the more than 160 political prisoners, including Thang, imprisoned for exercising their rights.

“The Vietnamese government’s human rights record has deteriorated in recent years, with almost all prominent bloggers, citizen journalists, and rights activists arrested and imprisoned for expressing views the authorities did not agree with,” Robertson said in a statement.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

China has issued a set of draft regulations that will require chatbots using artificial intelligence and developed by its tech giants to stick to the ruling Communist Party line, amid comments that the move will likely be the death of further innovation in the sector.

“The content generated by generative artificial intelligence should reflect the core values ​​of socialism,” the country’s Cyberspace Administration said in draft rules issued for public feedback and comment on April 11.

“[It] must not contain subversion of state power, overthrow of the socialist system, incitement to split the country, undermine national unity [or] promote terrorism [and] extremism,” it said, using phrases typically used to target public dissent and criticism of the government.

“Content that may disrupt economic and social order” is also banned, according to the draft rules, which the government wants to see implemented by the end of the year.

The rules come as Chinese tech firms rush to launch homegrown AI chatbots, amid reports that regulators have warned major tech companies not to offer the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT to the public.

They reflect official concerns around any technology that can produce content without the prior approval of government censors. 

‘Corrupt regime’

In 2017, Tencent took down its chatbot Baby Q after it referred to the government as a “corrupt regime,” claimed it had no love for the Communist Party and said it dreamed of emigrating to the United States, amid reports that its programmers had been hauled in for questioning by police.

Nonetheless, the rules also claim that the government supports “independent innovation, popularization and application” in technologies like artificial intelligence algorithms and frameworks.

However, organizations and individuals using AI products to provide services will be held responsible for their output, it warns.

Social media comments said the rules would likely sound the death knell for AI innovation in the sector, which has already seen a demo version of Baidu’s homegrown chatbot Ernie launched with only a preselected set of questions allowed at the press conference in mid-March.

“This subversive AI is hereby sentenced to death. Sentence to be carried out immediately,” quipped Twitter user @Meta_epoch, while @TTL0001 wondered if the bot would need to fill out an application for Communist Party membership.

According to user @linglingfa, the rules mean that this style of AI “will definitely be banned in China now.”

“AI that has to encompass sensitive words is basically dead in the water,” agreed user @hunterpig586, in a reference to the list of politically sensitive terms currently banned from China’s internet.

“The AI should also study the 20 Principles, support the Two Establishes, consciously uphold the Two Maintains and achieve the Four Self-confidences!” quipped Twitter user @Alexajinyu in a sarcastic reference to key elements of supreme leader Xi Jinping’s personal ideology.

“This is ridiculous — why don’t they just give up altogether, really,” added @luhaha777, while @Kev1nLee214 added: “It’s clear that [AI chatbots] are destined to become a tool for ideological output … as their input material is ideological in the first place.”

And user @swift_pink1231 wondered: “What will they do when AI evolves further and is able to block them out?”

Killing innovation

Australia-based computer scientist Zhang Xiaogang said the censorship of chatbots would likely kill innovation in the sector.

“A dictatorial regime will always try to control everything, but this is a ridiculous approach,” Zhang said. “Restricting such things is tantamount to restricting AI itself, which will cause China’s AI to fall behind the rest of the world.”

“All China will be able to do then is steal other people’s technology,” he said.

Social media influencer Great Firewall Frog, who uses the Twitter account @GFWFrog, said the first priority of Chinese development is to curb and suppress innovation.

“The first priority of AI research teams is … to comply with the relevant laws and regulations,” he said. “In China in the new era under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party spends most of its AI research efforts trying to find and filter out content that it deems insulting to China, and to maintain the stability of the regime.”

“The Communist Party’s AI can only become even more focused on the ruling party,” he said, adding sarcastically: “If it’s not careful, it could get accused of picking quarrels and stirring up trouble, or incitement to subvert state power.”

Veteran economist Li Hengqing said the new rules show that the ruling party will have to keep tightening controls on public speech if it is to stay in power in the long term.

“The important thing is the content, the so-called ideology,” Li said. “Ideology is China’s current weakness.”

Media commentator Wang Jian said Beijing only has a use for innovation if it helps maintain the party’s grip on power. “The Chinese Communist Party’s core value is to stay in power,” he said. “To do this, it has two tools at its disposal: the gun and the pen, and the pen is where ideology comes in.”

“The Communist Party would prefer not to allow an industry to develop if it could threaten its ideological controls,” he said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

The glowing article on the “Wealthy Together” news site praised the university-educated couple for quitting their jobs and returning to their hometown to start a waste recycling business.

Drawing on propaganda urging college graduates not to be too picky about their jobs, the article – republished on various Chinese Communist Party-approved news sites – lauded the couple for “throwing off their scholarly gowns” and getting behind the government’s rural entrepreneurship drive.

But the woman quoted in the article, identified only by her surname Song, took to social media to complain that the article misrepresented their situation and voice anger at being used to score propaganda points for the government. 

Also, the post said she had put details of the recent career change, along with photos and video, on the social media platform Xiaohongshu, only to have them used without her consent.

“I’m outraged,” said a post from Henan by user @LuChiMiaoer. “I’m the person quoted and I want to say … that we are doing this as a temporary measure due to unavoidable circumstances.”

“I told the reporter – I didn’t know where they were from – that I would answer questions but that they couldn’t use the video,” the post said. “They used my private personal photos and posted the video anyway.”

“I am really angry, and I don’t know how to get in touch with the person who interviewed me,” it said.

“Work hard, and don’t be blindly led into quitting your job to start a business … which is much harder in terms of time, money and energy than everyone imagines,” the post warned.

‘Common prosperity’

The published article portrayed the couple – a former state-owned enterprise employee and a former accountant – as a shining example of supreme leader Xi Jinping’s slogan “common prosperity” and included photos of them up to their waists in flattened cardboard boxes.

“Everyone is different,” the article quoted Song as saying. “In the office, you have to deal with all kinds of interpersonal relationships, leaders, and conflicts with colleagues.”

“But you don’t have so much to worry about collecting waste products [and you] sleep better,” says the article, which touts the couple’s business in Puyang, in the central province of Henan.

Online comments under the piece were scathing.

“The victim herself didn’t even know this was being compiled as an inspirational news item,” commented @xiaomingming, along with laughter and crying emojis.

“People who write stuff like this are shameless,” added @TheWorldIsSoBigIWannaSeeItAgain, while @VeryFull commented: “People who have nothing better to do make up stuff like this to fool us,” with a crying emoji.

‘State of chaos’

Beijing-based current affairs commentator Ji Feng said the government doesn’t appear to have much of a strategy in the face of what he termed economic “collapse” in the wake of three years of zero-COVID restrictions, which ended last December following nationwide street protests.

“The whole of China is in a state of chaos, of collapse,” Ji said. “More and more people are unemployed – 20% of them. There aren’t any good jobs for young people.”

Young people have told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews that they are unwilling to sacrifice themselves for the government’s attempt to kickstart the economy without relying on export manufacturing to drive growth.

Financial commentator He Jiangbing said many young people who were once fervent nationalists and supporters of the ruling party have had a rude awakening in the current situation.

“These millennials could have once been ‘little pinks,’” He said, using a nickname for young nationalists and party supporters. “They would once have been employed by the system, in a state-owned enterprise, and that would have been seen as a great situation to be in.”

“The fact that manufacturing is leaving [China] has had a huge impact, not just on young people, but on everyone,” he said. “There are tens of millions of college students, and an estimated half of them can’t find jobs.”

“That’s the problem, right there – how [will the government] appease them?” He asked. “They can try to fool them, to string them along, but they don’t even believe this stuff any more.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.