Day: July 3, 2023

In the brick-walled crypt of a church in central London hangs a painting of a many-armed, black-clad figure wearing an elastomeric mask and a yellow construction hat, evoking a figure that was once a familiar sight during the 2019 protest movement in Hong Kong.

One of its many pairs of hands – protesters were referred to in Cantonese at the time as the “hands and feet” of the movement – is clasped in apparent prayer, with other pairs clutching water bottles and a retractable baton for fending off charging cops.

In the goggles of the figure – a composite of the front-line protesters who used Molotov cocktails, bricks, bows and arrows and street barricades to engage in pitched street battles with riot police during the 2019 Hong Kong protests – is reflected the black bauhinia, symbol of the protest movement.

Other works depict a shower-head washing an exposed brain, a reference to attempts by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to brainwash its citizen, and a portrait of jailed pro-democracy Joshua Wong behind bars formed of black umbrellas, bringing to mind the 2014 “umbrella movement,” when protesters used umbrellas to protect against pepper spray.

They are all works of art by Badiucao, whose latest exhibit showcases political and protest art that is deemed so incendiary by Beijing that it has made repeated attempts to have his exhibits shut down in other countries.

Transnational repression

Its theme is transnational repression. Overseas dissidents are increasingly finding that even if they leave China and settle in a democratic country, they are still targeted by agents and supporters of the Chinese state in their new home.

Chinese Communist Party agents and supporters have carried out physical attacks and smear attempts on dissidents far beyond its borders, kidnapped them and forced them to return home to face punishment using threats against their loved ones, according to rights groups and personal stories shared with Radio Free Asia.

Badiucao has remained undeterred by Beijing’s attempts to censor him overseas, however.

The walls of the exhibit are packed with political punches – a portrait of jailed pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai has pride of place, while another work shows students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong engulfed in flames while defending their campus against a determined assault by riot police, who fired thousands of rounds of tear gas during the attack.

One image shows Chinese President Xi Jinping wearing a pair of TikTok logos for glasses, with the warning “Xi is Watching You,” highlighting privacy concerns around the Chinese-owned social media platform.

Such images would quickly run afoul of a strict national security law in Hong Kong, where depictions of scenes “glorifying” the protests are banned from public display.

Some have already been shown in Poland, where the organizers kept the exhibit open despite strong displeasure from Chinese officials.

‘Threats to my family and safety’

Many were inspired by the response of Hong Kong protesters, who used his artwork in response to the banning of his planned 2018 exhibit in the city, just a day before it opened.

“The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t just come up with ways to get my exhibits canceled — it also threatens me with threats to my personal safety,” Badiucao told Radio Free Asia as the exhibit opened.

“It also threatens the safety of the people I work with, and my family back in China,” he said.

The Hong Kong theme of the exhibit is aimed at speaking out on behalf of people who haven’t been allowed to speak for themselves since Beijing imposed a draconian security law on the city three years ago, criminalizing public criticism of the government.

Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong, who now lives in Taiwan, said he has faced similar attempts at censorship outside China, adding that the national security law has stifled freedom of expression both in his home city, and even far beyond China’s borders.

“Don’t think you’ll be fine once you have left Hong Kong,” Wong warned. “Last year I took part in a small exhibition in the United Kingdom, and the Hong Kong party newspapers sent their people to carry out a smear campaign.”

“This is long-arm control … you’re not safe in Europe, because they’re not very vigilant there about preventing censorship by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said. “However, it’s safer in Taiwan.”

For Badiucao, a Hong Kong democracy movement that carries on in exile is still valid.

“I don’t think it means that Hong Kong has fallen,” he said. “You can take your home with you anywhere.”

“All of those Hong Kongers now in exile have taken the spirit, culture and identity of Hong Kong with them,” he said.

“Wherever you have Hong Kongers still drawing breath, there is still hope,” he said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

A report from Human Rights Watch released Monday found numerous irregularities during the 2022 local commune elections that suggest widespread vote tampering and improper counting, raising concerns about whether Cambodia can hold a fair parliamentary election later this month.

The irregularities, which include vote tampering and improper vote counting and reporting, “call into question the credibility of Cambodia’s National Election Committee,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. 

“While it’s already clear that the national election in July will be a mockery of the democratic process, a toothless and incompetent National Election Committee only makes matters worse,” he said.

The report comes as Cambodia’s Constitutional Council approved – as expected – an amendment to the election law that prohibits those who don’t vote in the July 23 election from running for office in future elections. It now goes to King Norodom Sihamoni for his signature.

The election change appears to be aimed at preventing a large-scale boycott of the vote by supporters of the main opposition Candlelight Party, the only one that could have mounted a serious challenge to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

A boycott would be a way of expressing public anger over the committee’s decision in May to ban the Candlelight Party from running in the election. The committee blamed inadequate paperwork, but opposition activists have said the decision was politically motivated.

Anyone who doesn’t vote next month won’t be able to run as a candidate in next year’s Senate, district and commune elections, and also won’t be able to run in the next general election scheduled for 2027.

The amendment also allows for the prosecution of individuals and parties who discourage people from voting.

Human Rights Watch’s report cites a joint statement issued last week by a coalition of civil society organizations, associations and trade unions that was critical of the amendment’s “impact on free democracy, voter freedom of expression, voting rights, and to stand for candidates.”

It said the amendment “was made hastily and without consultation with stakeholders, including civil society organizations” in keeping with democratic standards. 

Fraud and tampering

Human Rights Watch’s report also noted that the Candlelight Party reported widespread intimidation of its polling place observers in Phnom Penh during last year’s commune elections.

In at least five Phnom Penh polling places, officials counted votes behind closed doors, the organization said. Limiting observation of ballot counting wasn’t widely seen or reported during the previous commune election in 2017, it said.

Election officials were required last year to submit a results form – called an “1102 form” – after ballots were counted at each site.

Human Rights Watch said it looked at the Phnom Penh forms because the 2022 results in the capital were so different from previous elections. 

In 2017, for example, the CPP won in 690 of 2,080 polling places, or 33 percent. But last year, the CPP won 99.9 percent – or all but one – of the 2,155 polling places in Phnom Penh for which Human Rights Watch examined the 1102 forms.

Additionally, vote numbers didn’t correctly add up on the 1102 form in 19 percent of total stations, and “corrections, correction fluid or crossed-out sections were found in key sections” on 1102 forms in 15 percent of polling stations.

“The irregularities in the 1102 forms are especially important because the commune elections are often seen as a testing ground for the national elections,” Human Rights Watch said.

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

Companies in India are supplying weapons to Myanmar’s junta while Prime Minister Narendra Modi expresses concern about the political crisis in Myanmar on the international stage, observers said Monday, highlighting the two-faced nature of the strategy.

Indian arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics Limited, or BEL, transferred military equipment worth more than US$5.1 million to Myanmar’s army or known Myanmar arms brokers Alliance Engineering Consultancy and Mega Hill General Trading over a period of six months from November 2022 to April 2023, the rights group Justice for Myanmar reported in June.

The military equipment included metallic sonar domes; transducers and gaskets for the domes to be used on frigates, warships or submarines; directing gear systems; technical documents; various items for radio transmission or radar equipment; and manpack radios for battlefield communication.

Justice for Myanmar called the shipments “part of a pattern of Indian support for the Myanmar military and its domestic arms industry” and called on India’s allies to use their leverage to “pressure India to stop the supply of arms and dual use goods and technology” to the regime, including during Modi’s state visits to the U.S. and France this year.

The weapons sales come even as Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden issued a joint statement following their meeting at the White House on June 22 expressing concern about the worsening rights situation in Myanmar and calling for the release of the country’s political prisoners.

Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, pointed out the hypocrisy of India selling weapons to the junta with one hand while saying it is concerned with the situation in Myanmar on the other.

He noted that India has stayed neutral amid the ongoing conflict in Myanmar and neglected or even arrested refugees who have fled fighting across its border.

“But on the international arena, when making a statement as a democratic country, it uses the terms ‘democracy and human rights,’” he told RFA. “It doesn’t make any sense. It is a government that is indirectly supporting the crimes committed by the Myanmar military by willfully ignoring them.”

Justice for Myanmar’s report came on the heels of one released in May by U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews, who said the junta had imported at least US$1 billion in arms and raw materials to manufacture weapons between the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup d’etat and December 2022.

Rights groups say the junta is using such weapons against the people of Myanmar, including to attack the armed resistance and civilians who oppose its rule.

While Russia, China and Singapore were the major sources by far, the U.N. report found that Indian entities, including state-owned entities, had transferred US$51 million in arms and related materials to the junta over the same period. That followed Russia’s US$406 million, China’s US$267 million, and Singapore’s US$254 million.

Selling weapons for war crimes

Ko Mike, a spokesman for the Blood Money Campaign, a collective of Myanmar activists campaigning to stop revenues reaching the junta, said that Indian companies selling weapons to Myanmar are abetting war crimes.

“They are supporting killings by a terrorist group [the junta] that is committing the worst crimes in the world,” he said. “Sometime in the future, it will be necessary to do something internationally about accountability [for such entities].”

Ye Tun, a political analyst, said that Modi appears to believe the junta is responsible for maintaining stability in Myanmar.

“So if you [maintain stability] by using weapons, India will sell weapons to Myanmar’s military [to support such alleged efforts].”  

Prior to the sales detailed in Justice for Myanmar’s latest report, the group noted that Indian state-owned arms producer Yantra India Limited shipped multiple 122mm howitzer barrels to the junta in October 2022 in an apparent breach of international law.

The Indian government has so far ignored calls by civil society organizations and the people of Myanmar, including the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, and failed to comply with U.N. resolutions and its responsibilities under international law, said Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadana Maung.

Radio Free Asia attempted to contact the Indian Embassy in Myanmar by email for comment but received no response. Calls to junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun, seeking comment on the claims, went unanswered Monday.

Regional stability at risk

Thein Tun Oo, the executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, which is made up of former military officers, called it “normal” for India to assist its neighbor.

“India can stand on its own two feet and cooperate with anyone it wants to,” he said. “India has taken Myanmar as a partner … [because] Myanmar is the best country for India to cooperate with on the security of the Indian Ocean. So, it is normal for India to cooperate with Myanmar.”

But NUG spokesman Kyaw Zaw said that as the world’s largest democracy, India is expected to embrace democratic values and not prop up regimes that oppress their own people.

“We hope that India will try to understand the will of the people of Myanmar and help them to fulfill that will,” he said.

If India instead continues to support the junta, he said, there will be no resolution to the conflict in Myanmar and the stability of the region will be at risk.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Vietnam on Monday sentenced activist Phan Son Tung to six years in prison for advocating the formation of an opposition to the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, his lawyer told Radio Free Asia.

Tung, 39, was arrested in August 2022 on anti-state propaganda charges for calling for the formation of the Prosperous Vietnam Party, which would work toward eliminating inequality in political power by removing communist party leadership.

Also related to his charges were his demand for citizens to have the freedom to establish associations and political organizations, and his social media content, which authorities said was “anti-state.”

According to the indictment, Phan Son Tung created and managed three YouTube channels, namely “For a prosperous Vietnam,” Phan Son Tung and Son Tung TV, and a Facebook page under the name David Phan. He had posted around 1,000 video clips on these channels, generating more than 148 million views with 530,000 followers.

The indictment also accused him of creating and disseminating 16 video clips with fabricated and confusion-creating content, six of which contained information promoting psychological warfare. Another 17 pieces of content distorted, slandered or insulted the prestige of organizations or the honor and dignity of individuals. 

The indictment also acknowledged that he had been remorseful, cooperative and sincere in his confessions, and had paid a fine of 27 million dong (US$1,149), the total revenue generated from advertising income and from selling merchandise emblazoned with the words “For a Prosperous Vietnam.”

‘Full of social evils’

According to a Facebook post by attorney Le Van Luan, Tung used to work on the Project Management Board of Vietel Real Estate Firm but then moved out to establish his own company. 

It was then that he learned that Vietnam is a society “full of social evils,” and he began to advocate for a stronger Vietnam with a “clean government” that is free of corruption, with each person playing their role. 

During Monday’s trial, which began at 8:30 a.m. and ended at noon, Tung acknowledged every action he was accused of. But he maintained that none of those were crimes, his lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

“He reaffirmed that his acts were not unlawful and the defense lawyers also proved this,” Tuan said. “However, the prosecutors still stuck with their viewpoint.”

Tuan said he was expecting a shorter sentence because during the trial the prosecution did not demonstrate how his actions deserved a greater sentence. But because he had multiple violations, the judge decided to hand down the minimum sentence proposed by the prosecution, said Tuan.

Tung has become the sixth activist charged with “anti-state” propaganda under Article 117 since January 2023.

Amnesty International has described the law as a means to suppress legitimate dissent and “a favored tool of the authorities to arbitrarily imprison journalists, bloggers and others who express views that do not align with the interests of the communist party.” 

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster

Hong Kong police on Monday issued arrest warrants and offered bounties for eight activists and former lawmakers who have fled the city, saying they are wanted in connection with “serious crimes” under Hong Kong’s national security law.

Police named former pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law, Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, U.S.-based activist and political lobbyist Anna Kwok and legal scholar Kevin Yam among the wanted, and offered bounties of HK$1 million (US$127,700) for information that might lead to an arrest.

“We attach great importance to this case, and so we are offering rewards of 1 million Hong Kong dollars for each wanted person,” Chief Superintendent Steve Li said.

He said many on the list had “advocated sanctions … to destroy or intimidate Hong Kong officials” or advised foreign countries to attack Hong Kong’s status as a financial center.

“We hope that the public will provide information on these people and their cases,” he told a news conference in Hong Kong on Monday.

The move is the latest example of China’s ‘long-arm’ law enforcement that has included police surveillance among Chinese and their relatives overseas, including through unapproved “police service stations” in many countries. 

U.K-based activists Finn Lau and Mung Siu-tat and U.S.-based businessman Elmer Yuen are also on the wanted list.

Those named face a slew of charges including “collusion with foreign powers” and “inciting subversion and secession” under a draconian law imposed on Hong Kong by the Communist Party in the wake of the 2019 protest movement that effectively bans public dissent and peaceful political opposition.

‘Absolutely evil’

Law, 29, a former student leader of the 2014 Umbrella Movement who at 23 was the youngest person to serve as a member of the city’s Legislative Council following a landslide victory in the 2016 general election, is wanted on charges of “incitement to secession” and “collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security,” national security police Superintendent Hung Ngan told reporters.

Law, who has been granted political asylum in the United Kingdom, said the news was “stressful,” and that he would need to be more careful about where he chose to travel in future.

In comments posted to his Facebook page, he said the accusations against him were an abuse of national security terminology, a bid to suppress dissent, and denied receiving foreign funding of any kind.

“The right to work on any peaceful political initiative should be guaranteed in a civilized country,” Law said. “The only conclusion is that the national security law is absolutely evil.”

Anna Kwok tweeted in response: “Just woke up to see I’m wanted with a $1M HKD bounty on my head. Our work at @hkdc_us continues, stronger and louder.”

She called on U.S. President Joe Biden not to allow Hong Kong chief executive John Lee into the United States for an upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, or APEC, in San Francisco in November.

‘Soft confrontation’

Australia-based Ted Hui, 41, whose assets were frozen by HSBC in January 2021 after he fled the city, is wanted on the same charges in connection with “repeatedly advocating for independence” for Hong Kong and the democratic island of Taiwan on social media.

The move came after an article in the ruling Chinese Communist Party-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper called on China to use the Interpol “red notice” system to try to apprehend people overseas for breaching the national security law, which applies to speech and acts all over the world without regard to a person’s nationality.

Security chief Chris Tang, who was chief of police during the 2019 protest movement, also warned in an interview with the paper that anyone engaging in “soft confrontation,” including online comments anywhere in the world, could be targeted by the authorities under the law.

“Endangering national security is a very serious offense,” a Hong Kong government spokesman said on Monday. “The fugitives should not have any delusion that they could evade their legal liabilities by absconding from Hong Kong.”

A police statement said anyone aiding, abetting or funding anyone accused under the law, including online, could also be targeted in future.

The arrest warrants were issued after protesters gathered in overseas cities at the weekend to mark the third anniversary of the law, implemented on July 1, 2020, and to mourn those who died during the 2019 protest movement against the erosion of Hong Kong’s promised freedoms.

Memorial for those who died

Hong Kongers in Taipei held a memorial service for those who died in the protests, placing flowers before portraits of those who died.

A former protester who is now living in Taiwan said he only escaped the city because the national security law hadn’t yet been implemented at the time of his arrest, meaning that he was granted bail – now very unusual under the law – and was able to flee.

“Once the national security law was passed … there was no more justice – it’s one-sidedly pro-government,” the protester said. “It has destroyed fairness and the spirit of the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, protesters gathered in London on Saturday to mark the death of Leung Kin-fai, who died after stabbing himself on July 1, 2021, after delivering a non-fatal stab wound to a police officer outside the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay.

“I don’t want to talk about it, but I daren’t forget it,” one protester told Radio Free Asia at the scene, where many participants wore masks and hoods in an apparent bid to avoid reprisals against loved ones back home or attacks from supporters of Beijing on British soil.

A protester who gave only the nickname J told the crowd that the recent crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong had given the lie to Beijing’s promises that the city would be allowed to retain its traditional freedoms under its “one country, two systems” framework following the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.

The handover anniversary was marked in Hong Kong by a celebratory mass of red flags throughout the downtown area and in busy thoroughfares.

Police have made more than 1,000 arrests under the law, with thousands more targeting former protesters under colonial-era public order and sedition laws.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Bangladesh has seen a spike in dengue cases and deaths in less than a month, according to government health figures released on Monday that did not include infections in Rohingya refugee camps, where cases of the mosquito-borne disease have been climbing as well.

The government reported 9,193 cases and 56 deaths since the start of 2023, compared with 2,865 cases and 21 deaths on June 9.  

Health officials in Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district that hosts about 1 million Rohingya refugees, reported 330 cases in June and 10 more during the first three days of July.

The officials estimated that about 96% of those infected were Rohingya Muslims living in the sprawling and densely populated camps by the border with Myanmar, from which members of the stateless group fled persecution.

Since Jan. 1, more than 1,500 Rohingya have been infected and three have died – numbers that are expected to climb during the monsoon season, which just began and runs through mid-August.

Rashid-e-Mahbub, president of Health Rights Movement, an NGO, said Rohingya camp leaders should act to combat mosquitoes responsible for the spread of the disease.

“The living space in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar is very densely populated. If its management is not done effectively, the dengue situation can escalate,” he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service.

Meanwhile, Medical Officer Fahim Ahmed Faisal of the Cox’s Bazar Civil Surgeon’s Office, said 350,000 mosquito nets had been distributed in the camps.

A government official in Cox’s Bazar said other steps were being taken to combat the spread of mosquitoes.

“Our people regularly clean the drains, garbage bins and standing water points in the camps,” Md. Mostafa Sadek told BenarNews, adding that fogger machines to kill adult mosquitos have been used in camps stricken with dengue outbreaks.

Of the 33 refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, dengue outbreaks have been most prevalent in four camps in Ukhia, a local sub-district.

Abul Kalam, a resident of the Shalbon Rohingya camp in Teknaf, complained of poor sanitary conditions.

“Because of unclean drains, mosquito infestation has increased … as a result, most children suffer from various diseases including dengue,” he told BenarNews.

Another Shalbon resident expressed concern for family members who had become sick recently.

“I have six children in my house. Two of them have had high fevers since yesterday,” Nur Nahar told BenarNews on Monday. 

“Even after first aid, their health condition did not improve. I think they were infected with dengue,” he said, adding that two family members were infected last year.

During a visit to the Shalbon camp on Monday, a BenarNews correspondent saw three people cleaning the camp’s drains while children sat nearby. 

An entomologist blamed the refugee camps for contributing to the outbreak.

Dengue cases this year are much higher than in previous years, Jahangirnagar University professor and entomologist Kabirul Bashar told BenarNews.

“In Rohingya refugee camps, due to the lack of sanitation and overcrowding, infection rates are much higher than in areas outside the camps,” he said.

On Monday, the Directorate General of Health Services reported that four people had died in the previous 24 hours, bringing to 56 the year’s nationwide death toll from dengue. Data shows three deaths occurred in Dhaka city and one in Mymensingh.

In addition, at least 436 dengue patients were admitted to hospitals in the last day, including 174 in Dhaka city.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.