Day: April 20, 2023

Tibetan demonstrators held rallies in Europe, the United States, India and Australia this week to protest negative media coverage of a video of the Dalai Lama asking an Indian boy to suck his tongue in what Tibetans say was a misinterpretation of an innocent, playful act.

A video of the Tibetan Buddhists’ spiritual leader hugging and kissing the young boy on the lips at a student event in northern India on Feb. 28 went viral on social media and sparked online criticism and accusations of pedophilia.

The Dalai Lama, 87, later apologized to the boy’s family, and Tibetans quickly came to his defense, explaining that sticking out one’s tongue is a greeting or a sign of respect in their culture.

More than 2,000 Tibetans and their supporters rallied in Switzerland, demanding that local media apologize to the Dalai Lama for misinterpreting the video. Activists approached one news organization that agreed to look into the matter. 

“I have never seen Tibetans gathered in such a huge number in a long time, and it is very important that we organize these rallies against those who defamed His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” said Tenzin Wangdue, vice president of the Tibetan Association of Liechtenstein,

More than 300 Tibetans and Indian supporters gathered in Bangalore, India, to demand apologies from news organizations. About 15,000 people gathered on April 15 in Ladakh, a region administered by India as part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China for decades. 

“We the faithful followers of His Holiness The 145th Dalai Lama are deeply saddened and shocked by the deliberate attempt of many news/media portals, circulating a tailored propaganda video clip to defame and malign the impeccable character and stature of His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama,” said a statement issued on April 14 by the Ladakh Buddhist Association’s Youth Wing in Kargil to show its solidarity with the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader.

When the Dalai Lama meets with people, “he speaks with them freely, without any reserve or cautiousness, as if they were long-time friends, and treats them lovingly,” said Ogyen Thinley Dorje, the Karmapa, or spiritual leader and head of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the four major lineages of Tibet. 

“Sometimes he does playfully tug someone’s beard, or tickle them, or pat them gently on the cheek or nose,” he said in a statement issued on April 12. “This is just how he normally is, and it shows no more than his genuine delight and love for others. 

Tibetans living in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated areas of Chinese provinces as well as those who live abroad believe the Chinese have used the video to cast a dark shadow on the Dalai Lama.

“Tibetans inside Tibet have seen and heard about the video clips on various social media,” said one Tibetan from inside the region, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

“It is so pleasant to be able to see pictures of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but at the same time it is heartbreaking to see how the Chinese government is taking advantage of this and manipulating the playful video interaction between the Dalai Lama and the young Indian boy,” the source said. 

Many Tibetans inside Tibet have not publicly commented on the video, knowing that it would be dangerous to do so because of China’s heavy surveillance and repression in the region, said another Tibetan who declined to be named for the same reason.

“The Chinese government would track down the individuals and punish them and they would be sentenced to three to four years [in prison],” the source said. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

The 14 Vietnamese migrant workers illegally crossed the border into China, then traveled to Fujian province. There they bought a used fishing boat and embarked on the final leg of their journey: the 160-kilometer (99-mile) voyage across the Taiwan Strait.

But the boat never made it. Around mid-March, Taiwanese officials said they had only found 10 bodies washed up in different locations on the island’s west coast.

After a month-long investigation, Taiwanese police determined that after launching from Fujian, their boat had capsized at sea, and the nine men and five women, between the ages of 30 and 42, had all died trying to enter Taiwan so they could earn an income several times higher than what was possible in their homeland.

Many Vietnamese go to Taiwan in search of a better life these days, but if they cannot do it legally, they might take the sea route, said Lee Yangchi, director of the International Criminal Division for Taiwan’s National Police Department.

The police investigation revealed that all of the migrants had previously worked in Taiwan illegally and had been deported for violating labor laws. The law prohibits reentry for several years after being deported. 

“Nine people in this group had previously crossed the border into Taiwan to work illegally, while the remaining five had come to Taiwan to work legally but then began working underground,” Lee said. “So they were all deported” – before trying to enter the country again.

Working illegally

According to data released by Taiwan’s National Immigration Service, as of 2019, Vietnamese accounted for 45% of the total number of illegal workers there.

“To tell you the truth, it’s all for making a living,” said a Vietnamese working illegally in Taiwan, identified by his initials PNT. The 33-year old from Ha Tinh province in northern Vietnam has been working in Taiwan for eight years, seven of which were illegal.

PNT said he paid U.S.$6,400 to a brokerage company in Vietnam to give him a job in a Taiwan tire factory, but he left the job after finding out his income was lower than expected.

The fees workers pay to brokers can range from U.S.$3,000 to .$7,000, and people are willing to pay. 

The average salary in rural Vietnam amounts to a mere U.S.$150 per month according to data from Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Prospective migrants have to save up years to afford the brokerage fees, or they will go into debt, and carry the burden of paying it off from the moment they arrive in a foreign land.

“The broker said that if you go to Taiwan and work overtime, you can earn more than 20 million dong [$850] a month, but in reality, there are not enough jobs like that,” said PNT.

According to VD Tung, an employee at a Taiwanese labor brokerage company, the problem is insufficient workload for those hoping to work overtime. Workers find that they can only earn the base salary, he said.

Taiwan’s minimum wage is NT$26,400 per month, which is about 20 million dong (U.S.$850), but this has only been in effect since January.

Workers must also pay various fees out of their paycheck, including insurance, brokerage services, and other costs that may arise.

According to Tung, illegal work has a much higher income.

“If you compare the income between legal and illegal work, the legal income never catches up with the illegal income,” he said.

A better life

PNT boasted that with the money he has been able to earn in Taiwan, he built a house for his  parents in the countryside and provided education expenses for his five younger siblings.

But working illegally can be a huge risk. Three days after breaching a work contact, the migrant worker will be declared absconded, and the worker’s identity will be provided to the authorities.

If caught working illegally, they will be deported to Vietnam, and banned from returning to Taiwan for six to eight years. 

But deportation is not the only fear that illegal workers face. Losing health insurance is another serious problem, especially in the case of illness or work-related accidents.

Because of the lack of proper documentation and the loss of protection from brokers, the workers are exposed to the risk of exploitation and abuse by their employers.

Without proper documentation, illegal workers cannot sign regular employment contracts, so they can only do jobs that pay by the day or by piece, instead of receiving a monthly salary. . And often the work can be harder.

Although he did not disclose his specific workplace, PNT said he is currently working in the high mountains in Taiwan, mostly harvesting vegetables on farms. He said that he has to work 12 hours a day on average.

Although he did not disclose his specific workplace, PNT said he is currently working in the high mountains in Taiwan, mostly harvesting vegetables on farms. He said that he has to work 12 hours a day on average.

Asked why he accepted such difficult work, he said, “One must accept a miserable family so that the child can be happy, rather than making the whole family happy.”

After nearly a decade working in a foreign land to support his family, PNT said his wish is to be able to continue working in Taiwan more. Two years from now, his passport will expire. Then he will return to his hometown to build his own future, he said.

The migrant worker population in Taiwan is quite diverse, but most are from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand.

VD Tung said that the rate of Vietnamese people leaving their legal jobs to work illegally is highest among all nationalities of migrant workers in Taiwan.

Pay to work

“The defection rate of Vietnamese workers is the highest, surpassing that of other countries, because the cost for Vietnamese workers to go to Taiwan is the highest.”

According to Tung, workers from other Southeast Asian countries only have to pay $1,000 or $2,000 to come to Taiwan to work, while Vietnamese have to pay $4,000 to $5,000 or even higher.

The fruits of their labor line the pockets of brokerage firms in Vietnam, but once the workers set foot on the airplane, the Vietnamese brokerage firms’ responsibility immediately ends. 

Vietnamese workers in Taiwan told RFA in previous reports that when there was a dispute with their employer, they could not go to any brokerage company for help.

Additionally, Taiwan’s law on protecting the rights of migrant workers is still considered incomplete.

Specifically, migrant workers working in areas such as domestic help and care for the elderly are not covered by the Labor Standards Act, leading to unsafe working conditions, and even abuse.

The Taiwanese government has not yet allowed agricultural employers to hire foreign workers, resulting in a situation where the demand for labor is high but there are few Taiwan citizens looking for farm labor jobs. Employers are therefore forced to hire illegally.

Translated by Hanh Seide. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Witnesses said a top local police officer shot a man during a raid on an illegal cock fight, but police later said that the gunshot came from an accidental discharge – which angered the victim’s family.

Witnesses said Seang Bunnal, the deputy police chief in Prey Veng province’s Ban Phnom district, led a group of officers in the raid over the Khmer New Years holiday weekend. 

Seang Bunnal fired his pistol, hitting San Vicheca, a 36-year-old farmer, witnesses said. San Vicheca had been watching the cockfighting and was sitting on a motorbike when he was struck, his brother said.

The brother, San Tola, told Radio Free Asia that San Vicheca was being treated at a hospital in Vietnam. Doctors have been unable to remove the bullet and he may be permanently paralyzed, San Tola said.

After the shooting, a group of people and journalists stopped Seang Bunnal. He was detained and later released, witnesses said

Prey Veng Provincial Deputy Police Chief Prak Chanthet wrote a report this week to National Police Commissioner Neth Savoeun that called the shooting an accident. Seang Bunnal is still being investigated and the case hasn’t been sent to court officials yet, Prak Chanthet said. 

San Vicheca’s family continues to insist that the shooting wasn’t an accident. They also say that he didn’t fight with police during the raid. 

Seang Bunnal refused to talk to RFA when reached for comment, citing the ongoing investigation. 

Police should only use lethal weapons when they’re fired upon, Adhoc spokesman Soeung Sen Karuna told RFA. But if the other party doesn’t have a weapon, it’s illegal to shoot at them, he said.

“There should be a good reason,” he said. “Police can’t just use lethal weapons. The victim was shot from behind which meant the victim was afraid.” 

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday publicly lashed out at Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith and other top government officials for not being responsive to his online messages – and also called out Kanharith for a sexist online comment that recently caused an uproar.

“I want to talk about the ministers’ Telegram group,” the prime minister said at a Phnom Penh hospital, referring to an instant messaging app. “When I sent my messages in the group, it took them seven days to get it. And they just responded ‘thank you.’ 

“These kinds of people, why do they need a phone? Some of the ministers are lazy.”

Hun Sen said the 71-year-old Kanharith was the worst, sometimes taking 15 days to answer a message.

“He is the minister of information but he doesn’t read the news,” the prime minister said. “I don’t know what to say. He posts on Facebook constantly but doesn’t look at WhatsApp and Telegram.”

Kanharith, a former newspaper editor and legislator who has served in top roles at the ministry for nearly 30 years, was heavily criticized on his Facebook page this week after he posted a photo showing a man spraying a water toy gun at a woman’s breast while she drove a motorbike during Khmer New Year. 

His comment next to the photo said: “What a really nice shot!” The post received over 15,000 reactions, 1,300 shares and 870 comments. 

‘Not just this photo’

Kanharith’s posting negatively affects the dignity of women, said Mean Lisa, a member of the Mother Nature NGO.

“It’s not just this single photo,” she said. “In the past, this information minister has posted photos implying sexual harassment on women. He shouldn’t make fun out of that. It creates a bad example.”

Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophoan couldn’t be reached for comment. Radio Free Asia sent several messages to Kanharith but didn’t receive a response.

Khmer Student Intelligent League Association president Keut Saray urged Hun Sen to re-educate his ministers by prohibiting Kanharith from posting any more inappropriate photos. 

“He is a public figure who is the servant of the people and an example for his subordinates. He should act as a good role model for Cambodians in general, especially journalists,” he said.

‘People are disappointed’

Additionally, the prime minister should also be blamed when his ministers don’t respond in a timely fashion to his messages, Keut Saray said. It looks like Hun Sen doesn’t effectively manage his ministers but instead runs the government like a family, he said.

Hun Sen on Thursday also called out Soy Sokha, the secretary general at the Office of the Council of Ministers, for being slow to reply. He also said that Minister of Planning Chhay Thorn and government adviser Ek Sam Ol were quick to respond to his messages but didn’t seem to closely read the content of the messages.

If ministers can’t respond to Hun Sen on time, how can they be trusted to respond to the needs of the people? asked Vorn Pov, president of the Independent Democracy of Information Economic Association.

The prime minister should look into reshuffling inactive ministers after the upcoming July parliamentary election, if the CPP wins, he said.

“People are tired of lagging services. People are disappointed in relying on ministers,” he said. 

Translated by Samean Yun and Keo Sovannarith. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

The British police are investigating a number of alleged Chinese police stations in the country as it emerged that a businessman with ties to the Communist Party’s United Front operations was photographed rubbing shoulders with then-Prime Minister Theresa May.

Faced with a barrage of questions in parliament, government ministers declined to comment in detail on a report in The Times newspaper about the alleged police stations, which Beijing says are offices to help overseas Chinese with various administrative affairs, but which human rights groups say are used to spy on dissidents and try to bring them back to China.

The Times report included a photo of May and businessman Lin Ruiyou, who has known ties with United Front officials that work to promote loyalty to Xi and spread his personal brand of political ideology, and overseas organizations loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.

“The latest reporting in The Times on the so-called overseas police stations is of course of great concern,” Home Office spokesman Lord Sharpe of Epsom told the House of Lords on Thursday, calling the matter “sensitive.”

“Investigations by the law enforcement community are ongoing,” he said, confirming that the authorities are probing more than one of the alleged police stations.

“It is difficult for me to comment on ongoing matters, but … yes, it is fair to say that there is more than just one,” he added, but said the government is keen to eradicate transnational oppression by authoritarian governments on British soil.

The report comes out after the recent arrests of two men in New York for allegedly setting up an overseas branch of the Chinese government’s Ministry of Public Security in Manhattan that was eventually shut down by the authorities last year.

Beijing has shut down a number of the offices in the wake of a September 2022 report from the Spain-based Safeguard Defenders group listing dozens of such operations, sparking investigations and orders to shut down from governments around the world.

“Through our police forces and the intelligence agencies that work with them, we take a proactive approach to protecting individuals and communities from threats,” Sharpe said. “Where we identify individuals who may be at heightened risk, we are front-footed in deploying security measures and guidance where necessary.”

Shared address

Asked about the photo of Lin, a British citizen and key figure in a ruling Conservative Party Chinese constituency group, with Theresa May, Sharpe replied: “It is very difficult for any prominent politician of any party, within or outside government, to know precisely who is appearing in a selfie with them.”

Lin, whose Croydon-based food delivery service All Eat was identified as sharing an address with an illegal Chinese police service station by Safeguard Defenders, has made multiple trips back to his home province of Fujian in recent years. 

He presides over the U.K.-based Changle Overseas Chinese Association, for people who hail from the Changle district of Fujian’s provincial capital Fuzhou.

He is mentioned in a Feb. 21, 2021, report on the official website of the Fuzhou Returned Overseas Chinese Association as taking part in an event organized by the United Front Work Department of the Changle district Communist Party Committee, which brought overseas Chinese on school visits to make charitable donations towards students’ education.

Lin also appears in a Jan. 9, 2020, report on China’s Sohu.com internet platform, taking part in a charity event to donate to people in need, accompanied by Zheng Jun, a member of the local United Front Work Committee.

A keyword search for his name in Chinese on Thursday resulted in a number of similar news stories on Chinese official websites or media platforms dating back to 2019.

‘No reassurances’

Chris Philp, Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire had earlier faced questioning from members of parliament in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Yvette Cooper of the opposition Labour Party said Lin’s role as a Conservative Party fundraiser “raise[d] vital national security concerns,” and that the government had failed to deliver an update on the Chinese police stations, as they had promised months ago.

“We have heard nothing—no reports of arrests and no reassurance that these operations have been closed down,” Cooper said. 

“Instead, we are told that one key individual has been vice-chairman of the Chinese group fundraising for the Conservative Association in the City of London, and has attended party-organized events with two out of the last three Conservative prime ministers,” she said.

Philp said Chinese infiltration via police stations wasn’t confined to the United Kingdom, however. “We are aware of approximately 100 alleged stations of the kind we are discussing around the world,” he said, mentioning the recent arrests in New York.

Hong Kong activists based in the U.K. have repeatedly warned that community groups in the country may have been infiltrated by people loyal to Beijing, posing potential threats to incoming migrants from Hong Kong under the British National Overseas visa scheme.

The British government says 160,700 people have emigrated to the United Kingdom on the  scheme, which includes a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship, since its launch in 2021, which prompted retaliation from Beijing.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

A Taiwanese publisher who published many books banned in China is believed detained in Shanghai, according to a leading Chinese literary figure, sparking comparisons with the cross-border detentions and kidnappings of five Hong Kong booksellers in 2015.

Li Yanhe, known by his pen-name Fucha, or Fuchsia, was detained after traveling to visit relatives in China, writer Bei Ling told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.

“I heard it through literary circles in Shanghai,” Bei said. “We know that he has been detained, but not where he is.”

Bei said Li had come to mainland China to visit relatives and tend to the graves of his ancestors, a reference to the grave-sweeping festival of Qing Ming on April 5.

Bei initially reported Li’s detention via Facebook, but later took the post down at the request of Li’s relatives. He said an earlier attempt to secure his release during the recent visit of former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou hadn’t been successful.

He called on the Taiwanese government, as well as high-profile figures in the media and publishing world to speak out on Li’s behalf.

Many people are likening Li’s disappearance to the cross-border detention and kidnapping of five Hong Kong publishers from the Causeway Bay Bookstore in 2015, including Lam Wing-kei, who later sought refuge in Taiwan from an ongoing crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

‘Safe and well’

The Taiwanese government agency charged with managing relations with Beijing said Li was “safe and well,” but declined to comment further.

Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Jan Jyh-horng said the government is paying attention to developments in the case, and offering “care and assistance” to his family members, the island’s Central News Agency reported from a regular news briefing.

“We have to respect the family’s wishes, so we are unable to offer further explanations at this time,” Jan told reporters. “That’s all I can tell you.”

Taiwan’s semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation said it would always “give priority to the personal safety of the parties concerned, and respect the wishes of the family members.”

“We will continue to pay attention to the development of the case and provide necessary assistance,” said the foundation, which has previously functioned as an unofficial go-between in closed-door negotiations with Beijing.

Li, who is ethnically Manchu, founded the Eight Banners imprint under Taiwan’s Book Republic publishing group in 2009, using it to publish non-fiction works on China’s overseas infiltration and influence operations, the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, and other work critical of Beijing.

The Taiwan-based Hong Kong news site Photon News said recent titles offering independent views of Tibetan and Mongolian history could also have sparked Beijing’s ire, a view shared by Book Republic’s founder and president Kuo Chung-hsing.

“I can only guess that it has something to do with the fact that the views in the books he published were different from the official Chinese view of history,” Kuo told Radio Free Asia. “Maybe he is now being investigated [for that].”

Incommunicado

Kuo said Li had gone incommunicado three or four days after arriving in Shanghai in mid-March, where he had intended to tend to family graves and visit his sick mother.

“[Li] Yanhe is still a Chinese national, so the officials here [in Taiwan] may not be able to do anything,” he said.

Former Causeway Bay bookseller Lam Wing-kei agreed.

“The way they see it, if you were born in mainland China, you are from there,” he said. “Back when the Causeway Bay people were detained, they treated two of my colleagues who were born in mainland China a bit differently from myself and Lee Bo, who were born in Hong Kong.”

“The difference was that they didn’t allow [them] to return to Hong Kong, whereas they did allow me and Lee Bo to go back to Hong Kong,” Lam said.

Lam said the incident should remind publishers in Taiwan to reconsider planned visits to China.

“There is a danger, and your security can’t be guaranteed,” he warned. “Their national security law applies anywhere in the world, and the entire universe.”

Eight Banners Press declined to comment when contacted by Radio Free Asia on Thursday, saying they hadn’t managed to verify the news of Li’s detention independently.

‘Unprecedented bad news’

Germany-based writer Liao Yiwu said via his Facebook account that if Bei Ling’s account is accurate, then “it is unprecedented bad news for Taiwan’s cultural sector.”

“It is as bad as another ‘kidnapping case in Causeway Bay,’” he wrote in a reference to the detention of the five Hong Kong booksellers. “Taiwan’s political, cultural and journalistic circles, regardless of their political stance, should not remain shamefully silent. Otherwise, the whole free world will look down on them,” Liao wrote.

Li was born in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning to a Manchu family, and joined the Chinese Communist Party after graduating from university, before rising to become vice president of the Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House.

He married a Taiwanese woman in 1996, and settled in Taiwan in 2009. His last Facebook post was made on March 12.

In another recent case, Chinese authorities arrested Chen Zhiming, the editor of a Hong Kong-based political magazine who went missing in September 2022, on suspicion of “running an illegal business,” Radio Free Asia reported in January.

The former editor at the People’s Daily Press who moved to Hong Kong to set up the Exclusive Characters political magazine specializing in in-depth interviews with influential people, stopped updating his social media accounts from around Sept. 21, 2022.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.