Day: April 28, 2023

A Uyghur college student who supported the “white paper” protests in China is being detained in Xinjiang pending an investigation into her communication with her brother who lives in the United States, a state security agent said.

Kamile Wayit, a 19-year-old preschool education major at a university in China’s Henan province was detained in December after posting a video about November’s “white paper” protests across China.

When she returned to her home in Atush, the capital of Xinjiang’s Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, for winter break, city police apprehended her, her brother Kewser Wayit told Radio Free Asia in an earlier report.

She was one of dozens of young people around China detained in relation to the protests sparked by a fatal lockdown fire in an apartment building in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi that killed about 40 Uyghurs.

The demonstrators also opposed the rolling lockdowns, mass surveillance and compulsory testing under China’s zero-COVID policy, with some holding up blank sheets of printer paper and others calling on President Xi Jinping to step down.

Authorities now are reviewing Wayit’s case for potential prosecution, said a State Security Bureau police officer in Atush, adding that she was apprehended for communicating with her brother who lives in the United States, but also related to her posting on TikTok about the fire in Urumqi.

“The State Security Bureau detained her,” the agent said. “After her case reaches the prosecutor’s office, her lawyer can review her case, [which is] related to state security [and is] vastly different from other social cases.”

The agent also expressed some uncertainty over the crime Wayit would be charged with.

“I don’t know what her real crime was” or what relevant organizations determined her crime to be based upon, she said. 

Arrest ‘echoes’ suffering of many others

The agent said she didn’t know exactly how long Wayit would be held at the national security detention center, but that once the prosecutor’s office reviewed her case, it would be submitted to the court for trial.

“It may take two to three months for her case to reach the prosecutor’s office, and then they will inform the accused’s family about inviting lawyers to defend her rights, or the government will appoint a lawyer for her free of charge,” she said.

The state security police officer suggested that RFA contact Hawagul, an official at the Bureau of Justice in Atush, for information, but she was out of the office.

Wayit’s detention has raised concern among some American institutions that have publicly called attention to her case in recent weeks. 

The editorial board of “The Tufts Daily,” the student newspaper at Tufts University near Boston published an opinion piece on Wayit, whose brother is a mechanical engineering graduate student at the institution. 

Kamile Wayit’s arrest “echoes the stories of millions of Uyghurs who have suffered years of oppression from the Chinese Communist Party,” the April 12 editorial said. 

It went on to say that advocacy for the detained Uyghur could include reaching out to officials in powerful institutions, signing petitions and connecting with local Uyghur organizations. 

“In addition to being aware of the atrocities taking place throughout the world, there is a responsibility for those with the privilege of freedom to support those within our community and beyond who suffer from systems of injustice,” the editorial said.  

On April 20, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor  tweeted that Wayit would not be spending the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, with loved ones because of her detention. 

“We are concerned by her detention by the People’s Republic of China, and we call on the PRC to ensure respect for her human rights and fundamental freedoms, including all fair trial guarantees, and to immediately and unconditionally release all unjustly detained persons,” the tweet said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

China’s ruling Communist Party has granted itself more powers under an amended espionage law, expanding the definition of what constitutes “spying,” amid ongoing raids on U.S. consultancy firms in China.

The National People’s Congress passed amendments to the Counter-Espionage Law on April 26 that broaden the scope of material that can be used to back up allegations of spying.

“Documents, data, materials, and items related to national security and the national interest,” are now treated as state secrets under the law, state news agency Xinhua reported. 

The raids come amid growing concern that the amended law will give state security police and other investigators new powers to access corporate facilities and electronic equipment. There’s also concern that normal business activities like gathering intelligence on local markets, competitors and partners could be treated as “espionage” amid growing tensions between Beijing, the United States and its allies.

The Chinese authorities have typically employed a highly elastic definition of what constitutes a state secret, and national security charges are frequently leveled at journalists, rights lawyers and activists, often based on material they posted online.

The newly amended law gives no definition of what constitutes a matter of national security or the national interest, but expands the definition of espionage to cover cyberattacks against government departments or critical information infrastructure, Xinhua said.

Under the amendment, authorities may now access data and electronic equipment and issue travel bans to individuals.

The move came as police in Shanghai visited U.S. management consultancy Bain & Co.’s office in Shanghai and questioned staff there.

“We can confirm that the Chinese authorities have questioned staff in our Shanghai office. We are cooperating as appropriate with the Chinese authorities,” Bain & Co. said in a written statement sent to Reuters and the Associated Press on April 26.

Meanwhile, The Financial Times reported that police took away computers and phones but did not detain any employees, and that they had made more than one visit to the office.

Last month, authorities in Beijing raided the office of U.S. due diligence firm Mintz, detaining five Chinese nationals in the process.

Japan seeks clarification

Japan said on Wednesday that it had asked Beijing to clarify exactly which activities constitute espionage, and that it was advising its nationals to be alert regarding the revised law. At least 17 Japanese nationals have been detained in China on “spying” allegations since the law first took effect in 2014.

An employee of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma was detained in March on suspicion of “spying,” prompting a protest from Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi during a visit to Beijing this month.

Jeremy Daum, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, told Reuters that the amended law has adopted “an expansive understanding of national security.”

The EU Chamber of Commerce in China said the investigation of Bain would affect investor confidence in the wake of three years of stringent pandemic restrictions.

“At a time when China is proactively trying to restore business confidence to attract foreign investment, the actions taken send a very mixed signal,” the chamber said in a statement on Friday.

U.S.-based economist Xia Yeliang said Sino-US relations are at their lowest ebb in 50 years.

“There is a kind of us-and-them relationship that is emerging out of tense diplomatic relations and [recent] military and strategic confrontation,” Xia said. “China uses its wolf-warrior diplomacy to smear the United States and other Western countries.”

“Foreign companies should be sensitive to this risk and divest if necessary,” he said.

Rising risk of doing business in China

New York-based lawyer Chen Chuangchuang said the risk of doing business in China is likely to keep on rising with the ongoing clampdown on the flow of information in China under supreme leader Xi Jinping.

“The Chinese market isn’t easy to operate in, and if you can manage to get a foothold and stay there, it suggests that your company doesn’t … care about justice or human rights,” Chen said.

He said the Chinese authorities already had the ability to surveil and search foreign company executives even before the amendments were passed.

“This has been going on for a long time,” Chen said. “It’s just that foreign companies feel that they used to enjoy special treatment in China, whereas it was just that they didn’t dare to go after them before because they wanted good relations with the United States.”

He said it is likely that consultancy firms and other companies gathering information in China could be deemed too sensitive to be allowed to operate there under the current regime.

“It’s very simple. Xi Jinping wants to stabilize the country to minimize threats to his [grip on power], so all external contacts must be controlled by the government,” he said.

“It all depends on whether you benefit the Chinese Communist Party in any way,” Chen said. “If you don’t, you’ll have to leave.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

Authorities in southern Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City are on a drug busting tear, following the discovery by customs officers last month of MDMA, ketamine and cocaine hidden inside 156 toothpaste tubes in the baggage of Vietnam Airlines crew members.

On Friday, police announced they had shut down a Vietnam-based MDMA ring that allegedly imported some 106 kilograms (233 lbs.) of the drug in pure powder form from Vietnamese living in France via international postal services since late 2021, according to a report by the official HCMC Public Security Online Newspaper.

The ring, led by a man known as Tri Whale (Tri “Ca Voi”), is accused of using the powder to produce more than 450,000 finished ecstasy pills, weighing some 230 kilograms (506 pounds), for domestic sale. The ring sold the pills in Ho Chi Minh and other localities for “tens of billions” of Vietnamese dong (10 billion dong = U.S.$426,000), the report said.

On April 24, police arrested 21 people, including Tri Whale, for the illegal production and trade of MDMA following a raid on the ring’s lab in District 4 and searches of 16 residential homes. During the raid, authorities confiscated 18,000 ecstasy pills, 900 grams of ketamine, 120 sachets of a synthetic drug cocktail known as “happy water” – and 21 packets containing a colorless crystalline substance, as well as lab equipment used to produce the drugs.

The latest bust comes days after police in Ho Chi Minh announced the prosecution of 65 people in an expanded investigation into the March 16 arrest of four flight attendants arriving on an international flight from Paris, who told authorities that someone in France paid them more than 10 million dong, or about U.S.$425, to help transport “some goods” to Vietnam.

The flight attendants were carrying 112 toothpaste tubes containing 8.4 kilograms (18.5 lbs.) of gray tablets and 42 toothpaste tubes containing 3 kilograms (6.7 lbs.) of white powder. They said they were unaware of the narcotics and didn’t know the identity of the person who asked them to transport the tubes. 

No drugs were found during searches of their homes, and they were released due to lack of evidence.

Authorities have discovered six other cases in which a Vietnamese resident of France paid Vietnamese people studying or living in France to bring drugs hidden in toothpaste tubes and dietary supplement boxes into Vietnam through Hanoi’s airport. 

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

Tibetans heading to the capital of Lhasa for pilgrimages or for other reasons must obtain a permission letter from a local official assuring that the traveler will not instigate or participate in any protests that would disrupt social order, Tibetans inside the region said.

Many Tibetan Buddhists travel to Lhasa, which has a population of about 560,000, to visit the major religious sites such as the Potala Palace, Barkhor Street, Jokhang Temple and Norbulingka Palace. 

The journey is often made on foot to accumulate good karma — a belief that the sum of a person’s actions will decide their fate in future incarnations.

In 2018, Chinese authorities tightened restrictions on Tibetans traveling to Lhasa from other parts of the Tibet Autonomous Region and from Tibetan-majority areas of Chinese provinces for pilgrimages. They made Tibetans obtain a special permit to travel to the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

But beginning this year, Tibetans must fill out a separate application form from a local official and submit it to an office in Lhasa, and a resident of the city must provide assurance that the traveler will not engage in protests. 

Beijing views any sign of peaceful protests and self-immolations as acts of separatism, threatening China’s national security.

Authorities told a group of Tibetans who went on a pilgrimage to Lhasa from Kyungchu county of Ngaba, a Tibetan region in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, to register their names in an office in the Tibetan capital, said one of the sources who declined to be named for security reasons.

But since they didn’t know anyone in Lhasa who could [vouch] for them, they were not able to book hotels and had to turn back, he said.  

“Actually, one must obtain a permit letter from their respective county or village office to enter Lhasa beforehand,” the source said. “And then, once you get that, you need a resident in Lhasa to verify that you will not engage in any sort of riots.” 

Lhasa residents who verify a traveler must sign a document upon the latter’s arrival in Lhasa, he added. 

Discriminatory practice

The new security process for Tibetans began after COVID-19 restrictions were eased, he said. 

A few Tibetans traveling from Ngaba, Ngakrong and some other parts of Qinghai were forced to return since they did not know anyone in Lhasa to sign for them,” the source said. 

Another Tibetan source from the region, who also declined to be identified for safety reasons, said the change is another way that China has stepped up its repression of Tibetans. 

“If you are Chinese, you can just show your identity card to enter Lhasa, but for Tibetans, the Chinese government has leveled up their restrictive tactics and implemented an extra process,” he said. 

If a Tibetan has been involved in anti-China political activities in the past or appears suspicious, then authorities make it very difficult for them to enter Lhasa,” he added.

Chinese authorities have placed a growing number of restrictions on Tibetans in or entering Lhasa and increased police presence there since 2008. In March of that year, police violently suppressed peaceful Tibetan protests, which led to the destruction of Han Chinese shops in the city and deadly attacks on Han Chinese residents.

The event sparked a wave of demonstrations against Chinese rule that spread into Tibetan-populated regions of western Chinese provinces. Security forces quelled the protests and detained, beat or shot hundreds of Tibetans.

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

A human rights lawyer and his family were forced to move out of their home after their landlord shut down their water and electricity – a tactic used recently on other activists as authorities seek to drive dissidents and rights lawyers out of Beijing. 

Wang Quanzhang and his wife, rights activist Li Wenzu, have lived in a community in Beijing’s Shunyi district for almost three years. Recently, their landlord asked them to move out, and on Wednesday, the utilities were shut off.

“Look at our house. It’s pitch dark,” Li said in a video posted online. “Quanzhang lit up a candle. It’s dim, but It still sheds some light in the house.” 

“Never would I have imagined that we would need to live with candlelight in Beijing,” she said.

Wang was a prominent target of a nationwide crackdown that saw more than 300 human rights lawyers and associates detained beginning on the night of July 9, 2015 – known as the “709 Crackdown.” He was subsequently jailed for several years after he was found guilty of “subversion of state power,” and later sued the authorities over his treatment while in detention.

Lately, his family has dealt with unreasonable demands from the landlord, including multiple rent increases and home renovations, Wang said. 

They’ve also faced “stability maintenance” measures from authorities in Beijing and Wang’s home province of Shandong – steps aimed at forestalling any form of public protest or criticism of the government during key political events or politically sensitive dates in the calendar.

Last year, the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress passed a rental ordinance that forbids landlords from forcing tenants out of leasing agreements by shutting off utilities. But the landlord’s actions, and his insistence that the family leave, ignore that ordinance, Wang said.

“I feel that behind the landlord’s insistence, there must be some sort of approval or encouragement that motivated him to do so,” he said. 

Wang said Beijing authorities have been pushing him to move back to Shandong, but haven’t had a clear-cut legal basis to force the move. This week, he called the police over the utility shut-off.

“The police seemed to have come prepared,” he said. “They asked a few simple questions and left, after telling me that this is not a criminal case but a civil dispute.” 

In March, state security police surrounded their home on International Women’s Day. They did the same in December on Human Rights Day, Wang said.

‘Beijing has become intense’

Li Heping, another lawyer persecuted in the “709 Crackdown,” is also facing eviction from his Beijing home. He and his family have encountered many obstacles in finding another place to live. 

“We had tried to rent in various locations. However, in just three or four hours after signing a leasing contract, the police would visit our landlord,” said Li’s wife, Wang Yuling. 

The landlord would then refuse to rent the property and would change the locks, she said. Additionally, the family has been followed by plain-clothes police and has faced other surveillance measures.

“Recently, for reasons unknown, the situation in Beijing has become intense,” she said.

Independent journalist Gao Yu told Radio Free Asia that authorities are evicting non-Beijing registered human rights activists with the same tactics used in the past to expel so-called “low-end” unregistered migrant workers. 

Ji Feng, a student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen protests who has lived in Beijing’s Songzhuang artist’s village for eight years, has faced similar treatment. 

The local party secretary visited Ji’s new landlord, who then terminated his lease, and State Security officials have told Ji they would help him relocate to Hebei, Gao said.

“This is coordinated,” Gao said. “The political persecution is continuing. Persecutions after persecutions.”

Translated by Min Eu. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Friday it was involved in a near-collision with Chinese vessels that carried out “dangerous maneuvers” in the South China Sea, the latest in a string of incidents in the disputed waters.

On Sunday morning, two China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels intercepted Philippine patrol boats and “exhibited aggressive tactics” near Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, the PCG said in a statement. At one point, CCG 5201 came within 50 yards (46 meters) of a Philippine ship.

“This close proximity posed a significant threat to the safety and security of the Philippine vessel and its crew,” coast guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarirela said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the CCG vessel 4202 persistently followed BRP Malabrigo at a distance of 700 yards, closely monitoring its movements.”

The Philippines had deployed two 44-meter vessels – BRP Malapascua and BRP Malabrigo – to carry out a week-long maritime patrol in the West Philippine Sea, part of the contested South China Sea within Manila’s exclusive economic zone. A small group of Filipino journalists was also on board.

In a separate incident, on April 21, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy vessel with the bow number 549 crossed paths with Philippine vessels near Pag-asa Island, the PCG said.

China has competing claims in the South China Sea with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam. In 2016, an international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines and against Beijing’s sweeping “nine-dash line,” but China has since refused to acknowledge the ruling.

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday called on China to respect the Philippines’ rights in the West Philippine Sea.

“The China Coast Guard’s interference with this routine patrol mission was totally inconsistent with freedom of navigation, and a number of documented incidents also involved highly dangerous maneuvers that were contrary to standard navigational practices,” department spokeswoman Maria Teresita Daza said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Friday that the Philippine boats trespassed into waters near Ren’ai Reef, the Chinese name for Ayungin Shoal, and deliberately took “provocative actions,” citing the presence of journalists.

The Chinese maritime vessels acted in accordance with the law, while taking care to avoid the dangerous approach of the Philippine vessels, Reuters news agency quoted Mao as saying.

Daza said routine patrols in Philippine waters could not be premeditated or provocative, and called on Beijing to “refrain from actions that may cause an untoward incident.”

The recent incidents coincided with the visit of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang to Manila, where he met his counterpart Enrique Manalo and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

During the meeting, Marcos said the two countries agreed to open more lines of communication to resolve maritime disputes.

The near-collision also came as the Philippines conducted its largest-ever “Balikatan” military exercise with the United States. The training culminated in the sinking of a mock enemy ship, a decommissioned World War II-era Philippine vessel, off the coast of Zambales province along the West Philippine Sea on Thursday.

Observers have said the military drills underline the strengthening alliance between Manila and Washington amid China’s increasingly assertive claims in the South China Sea.

‘Ceaseless intimidation’

During the recent maritime patrol, the PCG said it identified “over 100 alleged Chinese maritime militia vessels” spread across different shoals and islands, including Sabina Shoal, Pag-asa, and Julian Felipe Reef. Despite numerous radio challenges, these vessels refused to leave.

A large gathering of maritime militia vessels – a Beijing-backed armed fishing fleet – was spotted near Julian Felipe Reef. The PCG said it deployed rigid hull inflatable boats to disperse them but none of the vessels “reacted or made any attempts to vacate the area.”

In February, a CCG vessel directed a military-grade laser light twice at a Philippine ship, causing temporary blindness to the crew at the bridge. Manila filed a diplomatic protest over the incident, with Marcos himself summoning the Chinese envoy.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the deputy minority floor leader, said the recent events were just the latest in a “continuous, unbroken and apparently unrepentant” string of incidents that China should be made accountable for.

She said the foreign office should immediately file a diplomatic protest and the Marcos government immediately condemn China’s “ceaseless intimidation” in the strongest possible terms.

“The executive should not wait for an even worse incident in order to finally put its foot down and tell Beijing to cease and desist in this kind of aggressive action,” she said.

She noted, however, the government was correct in seeking cooperation with other countries because “a broader alliance is a better alliance.”

“Let us urgently work on building this bigger coalition of countries who are against China’s misbehavior, who uphold our victory at The Hague, and who want to preserve peace and stability in the region,” she said.

Marcos is expected to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden next week for a state visit, with regional security top of the agenda.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.