Lao miners are facing layoffs after an influx of Chinese laborers at a potash mine in the central province of Khammouane. They complain that the ratio of 3,000 miners from China to only 100 Lao workers breaks an agreement that mine operators must hire more domestic workers than Chinese. The state-run Chinese mining outfit exports most of the key fertilizer ingredient back to China, which looms large over the economy of its small neighbor. Chinese mine operators say they import their own workers because Lao workers lack skills.
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government said Thursday that it is ready to launch an online bank that uses cryptocurrency in an effort to disrupt the flow of foreign currency to banks run by the ruling military junta, including the country’s central bank.
The Spring Development Bank will be the Southeast Asian nation’s first financial institution to operate solely with crypto and blockchain technology. It will have a trial run with 1,000 users and 100 supervisors on July 22.
“Spring Revolution” refers to popular protests that began in February 2021 following the military’s coup d’etat.
The NUG – made up of members of Myanmar’s former democratically elected government and other opponents of the junta – set up the bank to ensure the financial security of the people, said Tin Tun Naing, the shadow minister of planning, finance, and investment and governor of the NUG’s interim central bank.
Banks controlled by the junta have blocked the accounts of users, seized their deposits, and provided their personal account data to the authorities by violating the bank regulations, he said.
“There are many incidents where the terrorist military council has threatened people’s deposits in the banks which the people have deposited with trust,” he said at a press conference on Thursday. “We are responsible for protecting people’s financial security — the safety of the people’s funds and their personal data.”
Myanmar’s banking industry nearly collapsed following the military coup, as many bankers and other employees at financial institutions walked off the job to join the nationwide civil disobedience movement in opposition to the junta. The system received a further blow from restrictions on transactions implemented by the junta-controlled central bank.
The NUG issued an ordinance on June 1 to establish an interim central bank to regulate and rectify the banking sector and to safeguard foreign exchange reserves from misuse by the junta.
The Spring Development Bank, expected to be fully operational by the end of August, will serve as the NUG’s representative bank to help with funding, tax collection and fundraising for the Spring Revolution, Tin Tun Naing said.
Currencies supported
Initially, the bank will support transactions in Myanmar kyat, U.S. dollars, Malaysian ringgit and Singaporean dollars, said officials at the press conference.
Later, the bank will handle transactions in British pounds, euros, South Korean won, Japanese yen and other currencies.
The NUG is planning for the bank to support payments for trade and links with international banks, provide loans, and offer currency swaps, fixed deposits and prize-linked savings account services such as depositing gold and using credit cards, NUG officials said.
Myanmar’s National Unity Government intends for Spring Development Bank to disrupt the flow of foreign currency to banks controlled by the military council. Credit: Spring Development Bank/Facebook
It also will issue revolutionary bonds and auction property owned by the State Administration Council, as the junta regime is known.
The bank expects to have 100,000 users in its first six months of regular operations, and 500,000 users in the following six months, officials said.
RFA could not reach the junta’s central bank for comment.
A financial expert said the development was positive but that SDB would have to take precautions to avoid fraudulent digital currency transactions.
“I see it as a positive since it is using transparent technology for transactions, but we have to be cautious about technical fraud — scams,” he said.
Easier for transferring money
Min Zayar Oo, the NUG’s deputy minister of planning, finance and investment, said the crypto banking system will be safe to use.
“Similarly, the SDB has also implemented a security system [in case] users leak the data,” he said.
Pro-military junta Telegram channels frequently reported arrests of supporters of the revolution and users of the NUG’s mobile money service, NUG Pay.
Myo Myint Aung, who is helping anti-dictatorship activists on the Thai-Myanmar border, said the crypto banking system will be easier for transferring money and supporting resistance fighters.
“For us, this means that when we send money to the youths [revolutionaries], we can send it safely,” he said. “In the same way, we deposit money in the bank safely. We don’t have to worry about our accounts being blocked.”
Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
North Korean authorities have arrested a soldier guarding the Chinese border for using methamphetamine, part of a larger trend of illegal activities and poor discipline among soldiers in the border region, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.
The guard had used his position to earn money by accepting bribes from smugglers who make a living by illegally importing goods from China. The lucrative arrangement allowed him to afford his drug habit, sources said.
The police received a tip from someone in the neighborhood where he was caught, a resident of the border city of Hyesan, Ryanggang province, told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“He was a senior soldier and was caught … doing drugs at the home of his 23-year-old girlfriend,” the resident said.
North Korean soldiers patrol the bank of the Yalu River in the North Korean town of Sinuiju across from the Chinese city of Dandong. Credit: AFP file photo
During the police investigation, the soldier confessed that he had collected bribes from smugglers since he was stationed there in 2019, and he used the money he earned to buy methamphetamine.
There are five brigades of the armed Border Security Command stationed at North Korea’s northern border with China and Russia, along the Yalu and Tumen rivers. Unlike ordinary army units, border guard soldiers have more opportunities to earn money through bribery related to cracking down on smuggling and cross-border activities.
This soldier also robbed people to fund his drug habit.
“When the soldier ran out of money, he robbed residents’ houses several times to buy meth,” the first source said. “He also robbed a woman on the road at night, stole her cell phone and ran away.”
Sources said that such misbehavior among troops is on the increase, but there was no hard evidence to support this. It is almost entirely anecdotal.
Stolen documents
In another case, a border soldier in Pochon county, in the same province, fled his unit with stolen documents.
This incident stemmed from the soldier feeling upset that he was being questioned by a senior officer in front of the entire company, another Ryanggang resident said, without providing further details.
“The missing documents are known to be insignificant, but the brigade issued an order to capture the runaway soldier along with the documents,” he said.
Agents were dispatched to search for the runaway soldier and authorities issued an alert telling residents to immediately report if any stranger visits their home, the second resident said.
“The border security command soldiers struggled for several days without a good night’s sleep as they searched for the escaped soldier,” he said. “The commanders of the soldier’s company and battalion will be held responsible for his actions.”
The soldier remains at large.
Stories like these have caused the public to hold border guards in low regard, the first source said.
“Residents think of the border security command as a ragtag group with no fighting ability and poor discipline, unlike ordinary army units,” he said. “Border security soldiers are only interested in making money by colluding with smugglers and other people crossing the border.”
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.
Authorities in Vietnam said Friday they have arrested the other three of six ethnic minority individuals accused of spearheading deadly attacks in June on two commune offices in central Dak Lak province that left nine people dead.
Police say the six were leaders of two groups of about 40 people armed with guns and knives who conducted a dawn raid on the headquarters of Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes in Dak Lak’s Cu Kuin district on June 11.
In all, authorities detained nearly 100 ethnic minorities for allegedly participating in terrorist attacks in which two commune officials and three civilians also were killed. The attackers also held three civilians hostage, but one escaped, and the other two later were freed.
Dak Lak Provincial Police Director Maj. Gen. Le Vinh Quy told state media that police arrested the three remaining wanted members of the group on Friday. They included Y Khing Lieng, Nay Duong and Y Hoal Eban.
Police arrested the other three wanted suspects Y Ju Nie, Nay Yen and Nay Tam on July 15.
In the days immediately following the attack, authorities had said those involved were young people who harbored delusions and extremist attitudes and had been incited and abetted by the ringleaders via the internet.
The attacks occurred in an area that is home to about 30 indigenous tribes known collectively as Montagnards, who have historically felt persecuted or oppressed.
Vietnamese state media had reported that the attackers were Montagnards, but the country’s Ministry of Public Security did not identify those arrested as such, Radio Free Asia reported earlier.
In late June, RFA interviewed several overseas Montagnard organizations whose members denied involvement in the incident and condemned the violent attacks.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
Hong Kong residents have been lining up at branches of state-run banks in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen to withdraw funds in recent days, waiting several hours after making appointments to get hold of their cash, Radio Free Asia has learned.
The Luohu branches of the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China were packed on Thursday with Hong Kongers who had crossed into mainland China via the Lo Wu border checkpoint, which has run its own immigration operation since Hong Kong’s 1997 return to Chinese rule.
Several security guards were on duty at the doors of each bank, with batons and riot shields stacked at the ready, and at least 20 chairs set out for waiting depositors.
A notice placed outside the Luohu branch of the Bank of China warned depositors that there would be a “wait of at least 4-5 hours” for withdrawals.
Given the tight security, depositors were extremely wary of explaining their reasons for withdrawing their money, but the long lines come amid concerns about the Chinese economy and the liquidity in its banking system.
Customer A from Hong Kong said he was told to wait despite having booked an appointment to withdraw funds ahead of time.
“Even if you made an appointment, you still need to wait in line,” the security guard told him. “That’s the rule.”
“That’s not what the [manager] said yesterday,” Customer A replied, insisting that he not be identified for fear of reprisals. “He said I could come right over and pick up the money if I made an appointment.”
Limits on withdrawals
A member of the Bank of China’s customer service team said withdrawals of more than 200,000 yuan, or about US$27,800, now require appointments to be booked at least one day in advance, and that different banks and branches have different requirements.
Some banks are limiting withdrawals to 100,000 yuan (US$13,900) a day, the staff member said, and appointments are typically required for any withdrawal over 20,000 yuan (US$2,780).
Repeated calls to the three banks’ Luohu branches to make an appointment rang unanswered during office hours on Thursday.
Security guards were on duty at the doors of the Bank of China in Luohu, Shenzhen, Thursday, July 20, 2023. Credit: Gigi Lee/RFA
One depositor whose progress was observed from start to finish by Radio Free Asia lined up for several hours outside the branch. But when they got inside, they were given a number and made to wait for more than an hour inside.
Only one employee was visible in the branch, and asked the depositor several times for the reason for the withdrawal. They were asked to sign multiple documents and enter multiple passwords, alongside a thorough ID check.
While they eventually managed to withdraw 60,000 yuan (US$8,350), the entire process lasted around five hours.
Frozen accounts
Some depositors said they had been refused permission to withdraw funds remitted to mainland China from Hong Kong, on the basis that their accounts had been frozen pending investigation for suspected “fraud.”
“They told me there was an issue with my funds,” Customer B said. “The policy in mainland China is such that they would even freeze an account with 4,000 yuan in it.”
“We’re talking the kind of money you could get through in a day, and they’re still holding it up,” she said. “They said the details didn’t match up.”
Several Hong Kong residents who asked not to be quoted confirmed that they had made fairly small remittances to mainland Chinese banks, which were then frozen due to suspected money laundering, including one payment of 5,000 yuan to help an elderly relative.
Chinese financial affairs commentator Si Ling said liquidity is extremely tight in mainland China, and more and more people are rushing to get their money out of Chinese banks.
“Investors can see that the investment environment in mainland China is deteriorating at an accelerated rate,” Si said.
“And mainland China is introducing more measures to restrict Hong Kong people from withdrawing funds.”
Si said the process of withdrawing money is being made deliberately onerous, to slow down the outflow of money and prevent a liquidity crisis.
“You have to report any amount you withdraw now, and the worse the liquidity crisis gets, the more panic there will be,” he said.
Commentators said then that restrictions on the use of bank cards pointed to an underlying crisis in China’s financial system, against the background of a wider economic downturn in the wake of the zero-COVID policy, which ended in December 2022.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
Prime Minister Hun Sen had been grooming him for years. And in December 2021, he finally declared that his eldest son – the foreign-educated military general, Hun Manet – would one day succeed him as Cambodia’s next prime minister.
“Who would dare to oppose this? Hun Sen will die someday, so why not let his son take over?” he asked at a public event in Sihanoukville.
This week, the prime minister said the transfer of power could become a reality as soon as next month.
But the prime minister’s son isn’t the only heir poised to take on power from an aging generation of political elites. They appear ready to hand over the government to a new generation, many of whom are literally their sons and daughters.
In April, the prime minister sent a dozen senior government ministry appointments to King Norodom Sihamoni for his approval. Every candidate was related to a top military, government or CPP official.
The last parliamentary election in 2018 was widely condemned as neither free nor fair after the Supreme Court ordered that the main opposition party at the time, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, be disbanded.
Duong Chantra, a senior CNRP official who now lives in Thailand, said the CPP’s nepotistic practices aren’t fair to ambitious and capable young Cambodians who don’t have powerful relatives.
“We don’t want to see them practice such dynastic power transfer,” he said. “It creates disappointment and hopelessness for the younger generations who are not from that kind of lineage.”
The CPP is preparing to welcome members of the new generation into the prime minister’s cabinet after the election, CPP spokesman Sok Ey San told Radio Free Asia this week.
In an earlier interview, he told RFA that the party that wins elections has the right to appoint who they want.
“Are there any countries in the world that employ the children of opposition party officials?” he asked. “For our ruling party, we appoint and promote people from our own party.”
