Day: June 28, 2023

Telegram is becoming the messaging platform of choice for fans of Myanmar’s junta, who are using it to report on critics – some of whom have gotten arrested or even killed.

For example, actress Poe Kyar Phyu Khin recently posted a video entitled “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Our True Leader)” to the TikTok social media platform ahead of the jailed former state counselor’s June 19 birthday, prompting several users to post photos of themselves bedecked in flowers and express their best wishes.

Incensed by the post, supporters of the military junta – which took control of the country in a February 2021 coup – took toTelegram to demand that Phyu Khin and those who responded to her be arrested.

On the night of Suu Kyi’s birthday, junta security personnel showed up at the door of Phyu Khin’s home in Yangon and took her into custody. Pro-junta media reported the arrest and said that some 50 people had been detained that week alone for “sedition and incitement.”

This is the new reality in post-coup Myanmar, where backers of the military regime regularly scour the internet for any posts they deem critical of the junta before using Telegram to report them to the authorities, activists say.

Telegram has become a “form of military intelligence,” said Yangon-based protest leader Nang Lin.

“It may look like ordinary citizens are reporting people who oppose the military, but that’s not true,” he said. “It’s the work of their informers. It’s one of the junta’s intelligence mechanisms. In other words, it’s just one of many attempts designed to instill fear in the people.”

‘Online weapon’

In a similar incident, rapper Byu Har was arrested on May 24, just days after being featured on pro-military Telegram channels for a video he published on social media in which he complained about electricity shortages and said that life was better under the democratically elected government that the military toppled.

Additionally, authorities arrested journalist Kyaw Min Swe, actress May Pa Chi, and other well-known personalities after pro-junta Telegram channels posted information about them changing their Facebook profiles to black to mourn the more than 170 people – including women and children – killed in a military airstrike on Sagaing region’s Pazi Gyi village in April.

“Military lobbyists and informers go through these comments and … report the owners of the accounts to Han Nyein Oo, who is a major pro-junta informer on Telegram,” said an activist in Yangon, who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal. “Then, because of a small comment, the poster and their families are in trouble.”

London-based rights group Fortify Rights also recently reported on the junta’s use of Telegram as an “online weapon” against its critics.

“We can say that they are increasingly using Telegram channels as an online weapon as one of various ways of instilling fear in the people so that they dare not speak out,” the group said in a statement.

RFA sought comment from Telegram’s press team but was forwarded to an automated answering system, which said that the company “respects users’ personal information and freedom of speech, and protects human rights, such as the right to assembly.”

The answering system noted that Telegram “plays an important role in democratic movements around the world,” including in Iran, Russia, Belarus, Hong Kong and Myanmar.

The founder of the Telegram channel is Russian-born Pavel Durov. In 2014, he was forced to leave the country and move to Saint Kitts and Nevis, a small Caribbean island nation, because he refused to hand over the personal information of Ukrainian users to Russian security services during the Crimea crisis in Ukraine. 

Telegram headquarters is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun regarding the regime’s use of pro-military Telegram accounts to arrest people went unanswered Wednesday.

Arrests violate constitution

Thein Tun Oo, the executive director of the Thayninga Institute of Strategic Studies, which is made up of former military officers, told RFA that claims the junta uses Telegram to track down its critics are “delusional.”

“If you feel insecure about Telegram, just don’t use it,” he said, adding that “such problems” are part of the risk of using the app.

But a lawyer in Yangon, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns, told RFA that even if the junta isn’t gathering information about its opponents on Telegram, arresting and prosecuting someone for posting their opinions on social media is a blatant violation of the law in Myanmar.

“It’s not a crime to post birthday wishes for someone on Facebook, whether it’s for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi or anyone else,” he said. “These arrests are in violation of provisions protecting citizens’ rights in the [military-drafted] 2008 constitution.”

Pro-junta newspapers often state that action will be taken against anyone who knowingly or unknowingly promotes or supports Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw made up of deposed lawmakers, and any related organization under the country’s Counter-terrorism Act, Electronic Communications Law, and other legislation.

According to a list compiled by RFA based on junta reports, at least 1,100 people have been arrested and prosecuted for voicing criticism of the junta on social media or sharing such posts by others since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

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

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday said he won’t pardon two of his most prominent opponents – opposition party leader Kem Sokha and Cambodian-American lawyer Theary Seng – who were imprisoned over the last year, saying the decision was necessary in light of recent foreign intervention in Cambodia.

“You are shaking hands while you are stepping on my feet,” Hun Sen said during a public appearance in Phnom Penh, using “you” to refer to foreign powers.

“I don’t pardon them because I don’t trust you,” he said. “You intend to destroy me.”

Hun Sen in recent months has frequently invoked the specter of national security threats at public appearances ahead of July 23 elections, which he has framed as a referendum on who can best maintain Cambodia’s sovereignty. 

“From now on, those who seek foreign intervention will stay in prison,” he said. “We don’t release you. Don’t include them in prisoners who will be pardoned or have a reduced prison term. We are stopping foreign intervention in Cambodia.”

In May, Hun Sen said that Western diplomats have insulted him in the past by visiting with Kem Sokha while he was under house arrest. He said he doesn’t “trust foreigners who insult me, insult my sovereignty, insult myself when they worked with me and at the same time worked with others.”

‘Let her die. So be it.’

Kem Sokha was arrested in 2017 on treason charges and was finally sentenced in March to 27 years in prison.

Before his sentencing, ambassadors from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States often met with him at his Phnom Penh home.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman went to see him during a June 2021 trip that also included a meeting with Hun Sen. An angry prime minister later said that she secretly went to Kem Sokha’s home without informing the foreign minister.

Over the last year, several top U.S. officials have also called for the immediate and unconditional release of Theary Seng, who was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2022 on treason charges. 

The sentence prompted condemnation from rights groups and the U.S. government. During a visit to Phnom Penh last August, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Hun Sen to free her and other activists held on politically motivated charges.

The treason charges against Theary Seng and 50 other activists stemmed from abortive efforts in 2019 to bring about the return to Cambodia of opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has been in exile in France since 2015. 

Theary Seng often used costumes to make a political statement. During one court session, she dressed as “Lady Justice,” complete with blindfold, scale and sword.

Before her trial, she underscored her readiness to go to jail by cutting her hair during a video interview with Radio Free Asia. After her sentencing, she was transferred to Preah Vihear Prison in the country’s far north.

Hun Sen on Wednesday said that even though she has dual citizenship, her case applies only to Cambodia law.

“The bald Apsara is being jailed in Preah Vihear,” he said, referring to a female celestial being often depicted in Cambodian culture. “She wants to hold a hunger strike? Let her die. So be it.”

‘If we don’t shoot, they will look down on us’

Hun Sen also spoke again about drones that allegedly have been flying across the border from Vietnam in the country’s northeast.

Earlier this week, the prime minister ordered 500 troops and 200 anti-aircraft weapons systems to four provinces to hunt down the drones. He said the aircraft are believed to be operated by “ethnic insurgents” in Vietnam, but Vietnamese authorities have denied that the drones were theirs.

On Wednesday, Hun Sen offered a US$20,000 reward to each military unit that shoots one down.

“Starting this evening, we need to shoot it,” he said. “We can afford to shoot between two million to four million bullets. We haven’t shot it for a while, this is a chance to test it. We won’t be poor by shooting it. If we don’t shoot they will look down on us.”

He added that at least five drones crossed into Cambodia illegally on Tuesday night.

ADHOC spokesperson Soeung Senkarona told RFA that staff members for the rights group stationed in the four provinces haven’t been able to find any information about the alleged drone presence. 

“There is no irregularity reported,” he told RFA. 

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

Hundreds of millions of workers in the Asia-Pacific region are vulnerable to climate change impacts in their sectors, but trillions of dollars could be added to economies during the transition to net zero carbon emissions if the countries seize opportunities, with giants China and India set to benefit the most, a report said Wednesday.

The Asia-Pacific region is regarded as one of the most vulnerable areas globally to climate change impacts, and is poised to experience a temperature increase rate twice as fast as anywhere else. 

Approximately 43% of workers in the Asia-Pacific region are employed in vulnerable sectors, such as agriculture, conventional energy, manufacturing, transportation and construction, and so they are particularly susceptible to any disruption, said the new report released by Deloitte Asia Pacific, an accounting firm.

However, the report said that if countries seize decarbonization and green innovation opportunities through a rapid and coordinated transition, they could add U.S. $47 trillion to the region’s economies by 2070 and create 180 million jobs by 2050.

Pradeep Philip, Head of Deloitte Access Economics, said that 80% of the skills required for jobs in the increasingly decarbonized economy already exist. 

“How governments act individually and collectively to support these workers to adapt, contribute and thrive as our economy transforms will be one of the biggest determinants of equality in the coming decades,” Philip said.

“No country can do it alone, but together it is possible to influence a just transition where the benefits far surpass the cost.”

Deloitte said 48% of China’s total workforce – the highest proportion in the Asia-Pacific region – are employed in industries most vulnerable to the physical impact of climate damage and the economic transition to net zero carbon emissions.

India has 43% of its workforce in vulnerable industries, while in Southeast Asia, 38% of workers are employed in such sectors.

In Laos and Myanmar, Deloitte said that almost half the workforce is engaged in the at-risk agriculture sector. 

China, the world’s top carbon dioxide emitter, has pledged to reach net zero by 2060 and is currently driving massive growth in the renewable sector.

The Deloitte report said almost two-thirds of the world’s renewable energy jobs are in Asia, with China alone accounting for 42% of the global total in 2022.

Since 2020, China’s new energy vehicle industry has been booming with policy support from the government. Last year, China sold 5.67 million electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, about 60% of total sales globally.

China has already established 21 undergraduate programs on curbing carbon emissions and carbon neutrality and 42 colleges to train talent in the country, Deloitte said, as part of Beijing’s effort to tackle climate change while pursuing economic growth.

Earlier this month, another report said China will account for more than half of the increase in the deployment of renewable power worldwide this year, which would be the largest annual rise in new renewable capacity ever. 

However, China also continues to emit record levels of carbon dioxide, with emissions set to rise to an all-time high in 2023.

China’s CO2 emissions grew by 4% in the first three months of 2023 compared to last year to hit a quarterly record high of more than 3 billion metric tons, said an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Finland-based independent organization, in June.

The most significant contributors to the growth in emissions were coal-powered electricity generation and higher production of construction materials, mainly steel and cement.

Edited by Paul Eckert.

A string of multinational companies – including German car giant Volkswagen, Spanish clothier Zara and China-based online retailer Temu – have come under renewed scrutiny this month for allegedly inadequate efforts to determine whether Uyghur forced labor is used in their supply chains. 

In Europe, a prominent human rights organization and two other organizations filed a complaint on June 21 with German authorities alleging that Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW haven’t taken appropriate measures to prevent or eliminate forced labor in the making of their automobiles.

In the United States, a report from the U.S. House Select Committee on China said that Temu has failed “to maintain even the façade of a meaningful compliance program.”

And Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing and the owner of the Zara clothing chain, Inditex, are the subjects of a lawsuit filed this month by The European Uyghur Institute in Paris and several other nongovernment organizations.

The complaint at the Tribunal Court of Paris alleges that the brands continue to ignore human rights abuses in Xinjiang and have profited from forced labor.

“It’s up to the economic players to show that their products are not sullied by forced labor,” institute’s president, Dilnur Reyhan, told Nikkei Asia.

China has come under harsh international criticism in recent years for its severe rights abuses of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, including forced labor.

The U.S. government and several Western parliaments, including the German Bundestag, have declared that the abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far western part of China amount to genocide or crimes against humanity.

Clamping down

In response, more Western governments are clamping down on companies whose products and supply chains involve Uyghur forced labor.

Both the German complaint and the U.S. House report cited recent laws passed in their countries aimed at halting Uyghur forced labor.

The June 21 complaint from the Berlin-based organization European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, or ECCHR, was the first filed regarding the Uyghur issue since the implementation of a new law in January that requires German companies to take appropriate measures to prevent or eliminate forced labor. 

The ECCHR, as well as the World Uyghur Congress and the Association of Ethical Shareholders Germany, cited a report from Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom last year that documents the presence of forced labor throughout the entire automobile supply chain in the Uyghur region.

“While companies like Volkswagen may deny their direct use of forced labor, our inquiry focuses on whether they can guarantee that their suppliers refrain from employing Uyghur forced labor,” said Yalqun Ulughyol, a researcher at Sheffield Hallam University. 

Volkswagen has a joint venture factory with its Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp. in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

BMW and Mercedes-Benz are also connected to forced labor as well through their supply chain, the complaint said. 

VW has defended its plant, where workers now perform quality checks on assembled vehicles, saying that it is a typical joint venture operation in China and that there have been no signs of mistreated laborers.

The companies have stated that they strictly enforce human rights standards in their supply chains, but ECCHR said “multiple reports have consistently confirmed that independent factory audits are impossible. Therefore, companies cannot rely on audits to fulfill their human rights due diligence.”

Prompts VW audit

Still, in response to the university’s report, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blum stated on June 21 that the company intends to carry out an independent audit of the Urumqi factory later this year. 

Nicolai Laude, the head of Integrity and Sustainability Communication at Volkswagen, told RFA’s Uyghur service that he was unaware of the complaint and couldn’t comment on its specific details. 

But he said that Volkswagen rejects “all forms of modern slavery, including forced labor and human trafficking.”

“In cases of severe violations, such as the use of forced labor, if suppliers fail to rectify their actions, contracts with them would be terminated,” he said.

The German Supply Chain Act empowers the country’s Federal Office of Economic and Export Control, or BAFA, to investigate companies that fail to fulfill their obligations in prohibiting forced labor. It allows for the imposition of fines if necessary and even the suspension of government contracts for up to three years.

“The companies have not presented supporting documents proving that they are adequately responding to the risk of forced labor in supplier factories in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” the ECCHR said in the complaint to BAFA.

Tilman Massa of the Association of Ethical Shareholders, told RFA that there has been “a lack of transparency in the actions of the three German car companies.”

“Even the shareholders in their annual general meetings, they don’t answer our questions about what exactly they are doing in China,” he said. “Officially, they tell us that they fulfill all the human rights due diligence obligations but without saying how exactly. 

“So what we hope with the complaint is that the corresponding state authority can use their new powers in the supply chain due diligence law to really investigate what exactly the German car companies are really doing to make sure they don’t have forced labor in their supply chain in China.”

‘Contaminated with forced labor’

Meanwhile, the U.S. House report – “Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide” – said that Temu doesn’t have any system to ensure compliance with the the December 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA, which blocks the importing of goods produced by forced labor in Xinjiang.

Temu, launched in the United States last September by a Shanghai-based company, offers heavily discounted products on its online platform that are mostly shipped to consumers directly from China.

“American consumers should know that there is an extremely high risk that Temu’s supply chains are contaminated with forced labor,” the June 22 report said. 

The report was a follow-up to an initial May report that called for changes to the “de minimis” threshold for customs inspections. 

The threshold allows foreign fast-fashion websites like Temu and Shein – a China-backed global fashion e-tailer that’s based in Singapore – to ship their goods direct-to-consumer without being subject to the UFLPA if the package is worth less than $800.

Temu and Shein are likely responsible for more than 30% of all packages shipped to the United States, last week’s report said.

“Despite facilitating millions of purchases by Americans each year, when asked, Temu did not report any compliance or auditing system to independently verify that the tens of thousands of sellers who list on Temu are not selling products produced with Uyghur forced labor,” it said. 

“Temu’s current compliance plan relies almost entirely on its China-based third-party sellers that send shipments to the United States with insufficient data to facilitate appropriate customs scrutiny,” it said.

‘Xinjiang cotton’

Temu does require its 80,000 sellers to agree with a “Third Party Code of Conduct” that includes boilerplate language saying that the company has “a zero-tolerance policy” for the use of forced labor. But the language doesn’t mention Xinjiang or the UFLPA, the report said.

The report included a screenshot of an item listed for sale on Temu described as a pendant with “Xinjiang cotton.” 

“In response to our inquiry, Temu acknowledged that it does not have a policy in place to prohibit the sale of goods from Xinjiang,” the report said.

The committee said it would continue its efforts to scrutinize the supply chains out of China, as well as “the relevant business practices of Nike, Adidas, Shein, and Temu.”

On Tuesday, Temu posted a position on LinkedIn for a U.S.-based compliance officer who would develop policies and procedures for anti-money laundering, licensing requirements and reporting obligations.

Another posting showed that Temu is also searching for a lawyer to help the company create a protocol for screening merchandise. The job postings were first reported by Reuters.

Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Vietnamese authorities have released two family members belonging to an unofficial branch of the Hoa Hao Buddhist community after serving six-year prison sentences for disrupting public order during a confrontation with authorities at their home.

Bui Van Trung, 62, and his son, Bui Van Tham, 36, were convicted in February 2018 in the country’s An Giang province.

Vietnam’s government officially recognizes the Hoa Hao religion, which has some 2 million followers across the country, but imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hoa Hao groups, including the sect in An Giang province, that do not follow the state-sanctioned branch.

Rights groups say that authorities in An Giang routinely harass followers of the unapproved groups, prohibiting public readings of the Hoa Hao founder’s writings and discouraging worshipers from visiting Hoa Hao pagodas in An Giang and other provinces.

Trung, also known as Ut Trung and leads the Ut Trung Home Church, had been held at An Phuoc Prison in southern Vietnam’s Binh Duong province, but was transferred to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this month for colon cancer treatment. Than served his sentence at Xuyen Moc Prison in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, also in the south.

The pair returned to their home in An Giang’s Phuoc Hoa village on Monday.

Trung appeared “very weak” on his release from Cho Ray Hospital as he was still in recovery from an emergency operation to remove a tumor in his large intestine, an Ut Trung Home Church follower and former prisoner of conscience who identified himself as Nam told RFA Vietnamese.

Trung’s daughter Bui Thi Bich Tuyen, was also convicted in 2018 and handed a three-year term; she has since been freed. His wife, Le Thi Hen, was given a two-year suspended sentence at the time because she was suffering from an illness.

Deteriorating health

Nam said Trung’s tumor was discovered in mid-2022, but prison authorities did not allow him to seek treatment until it became significantly worse. A doctor who examined Trung as his jail term came to an end convinced the warden of An Phuoc Prison that he was in need of an urgent surgical procedure and that he should be transferred to Cho Ray.

“If he had received timely treatment, his health wouldn’t have become that bad,” he said. “As they wanted to harm Hoa Hao Buddhism adherents, the prison did not send him to the hospital [right away].”

According to Nam, prison authorities wanted to send Trung back to prison after his surgery, but allowed him to recover in the hospital after his family members protested.

Once he has fully recovered from the procedure, Trung will need to undergo chemotherapy treatment for his cancer, he said.

On  April 18, 2017, traffic police accompanied by unidentified men in civilian clothes stopped Hoa Hao Buddhists going to the Bui family’s home to observe the death anniversary of a friend, confiscating motorbikes and registration papers, family members told RFA in earlier reports.

Several motorbikes were seized even though their owners presented papers proving proper registration, Bui Van Trung’s daughter Bui Thich Tuyen told RFA at the time.

Two months later, on June 26, 2017, Trung and his son Tham were arrested by security officials and unidentified civilians while returning from a visit to a neighboring commune.

This is not the first time Trung and Tham were jailed because of their beliefs.

In 2012, the father and son were convicted of “resisting officers on official duty” after promoting religious freedom and refusing to join the officially sanctioned Hoa Hao Buddhist Sangha, and sentenced to four and two years in prison, respectively.

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

There’s no “finish line” for U.S. foreign policy toward China besides maintaining peace, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, even if Beijing and Moscow seek to build an “illiberal” world order.

The comments came less than two weeks after Blinken made a visit to Beijing that U.S. officials described as an effort only to reopen talks with their Chinese counterparts, and which delivered little more.

Speaking at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Blinken said in the near-term and “maybe even in the lifetimes of most people in this room” there is no “clear finish line” for the United States when it comes to Beijing except to maintain peaceful relations.

“The bottom line is this: China’s not going away, and we’re not going away,” Blinken said. “We have to find a way to … coexist peacefully.”

He added that the “post-Cold War era” where “commerce ultimately geopolitical competition” was now over and that there is a “profound competition undeeway right now to shape what comes next.”

“We want to make sure that in that competition, we’re in a position of strength where we are able to shape what comes next,” Blinken said, adding that the alternative would be a new “illiberal” world order where a few world powers dictate terms to countries around them.

Taiwan at heart of dispute

Asked by CFR President Richard Haass, who hosted the event, about his comments last year that Beijing had decided that the decades-old status quo on Taiwan was no longer tenable, Blinken doubled down.

He pointed to recent Chinese military operations and exercises, “economic coercion exerted against Taiwan, and for that matter exerted against countries that have relationships with Taiwan,” and efforts to exclude Taiwan from institutions like the World Health Organization.

“All of this is a stirring of the pot. That is antithetical to the preservation of the status quo,” Blinken said. 

The United States, by contrast, always communicates “our determination to maintain the status quo,” he said, because that’s what most of the world wants in the Taiwan Strait.

He noted that “50% of commercial traffic and trade goes through that strait every single day” and 70% of the world’s microchips are made on the self-governing island that Chinese President Xi Jinping last year vowed to “reunite” with the mainland using force if necessary.

“On Taiwan, if there were to be a crisis as a result of actions that either side takes that takes that offline, you’ve got potentially a global economic crisis,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons – maybe the main reason – that country after country is going to both of us and saying we expect the responsible management of this issue to be sustained.”

But Blinken also said that any geopolitical competition with China did not mean that the United States wanted to curb its economic growth.

“It’s not in our interest to do that,” he said. 

Mixed messages

Blinken’s trip to Beijing earlier this month initially appeared to ease tensions between Washington and Beijing after nearly a year of rising discord that began with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August trip to Taiwan and peaked with the February spy balloon incident.

However, U.S. President Joe Biden angered Beijing just days later when he used a campaign event ahead of the 2024 election to call Xi a “dictator” who was “embarrassed” by the alleged Chinese spy balloon and by China’s current “real economic difficulties.”

Blinken defended Biden by saying he always spoke “candidly” and for all Americans, even as China’s foreign ministry protested the remarks.

Speaking at another campaign event in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on Tuesday night, Biden questioned “China being this great power” that will be able to rewrite the international order in its favor. 

He said its efforts to do so had by contrast united “the rest of the world” against it, and he again alluded to the country’s economic difficulties.

“China has enormous problems — enormous problems,” Biden said. “I’m not going to get into it right now. But the idea that they are going to be able to do things that they thought they could do is not accurate.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday said she had not seen Biden’s remarks and appeared circumspect.

“When it comes to having problems, I suppose all countries, the U.S. included, face challenges,” Mao said, adding that China’s government was confident it was tackling issues facing the country. 

“Meanwhile, we hope the U.S. will concentrate on solving its own problems and play a constructive role in making the world stable and prosperous.”

Talk it out

At a separate event on the South China Sea dispute at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said he was encouraged about U.S.-China ties in the wake of Blinken’s trip.

He said he was only disappointed that Beijing was still denying military-to-military communications with the United States on the apparent basis that “somehow that will embolden the United States.”

“I’m a diplomat, so this should come as no surprise, I believe in diplomacy,” he said. “I believe in talking to people. I believe in keeping those channels of communication open at all times, and so we were gratified that through the secretary’s visit, I think we’ve reestablished and reopened those senior level channels of communication.”

“In the coming weeks, you’re likely to see more senior level exchanges,” Kritenbrink said, reiterating that he wished that would be extended to the military sphere. “Two militaries the size and capability of the U.S. and China, we always need to be talking to one another.” 

Edited by Malcolm Foster.