Day: July 27, 2023

North Koreans are complaining about being overworked in preparation for Thursday’s 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.

Citizens are made to drop everything to beautify their towns, practice for dancing and sports competitions, and attend educational lectures, taking them away from economic activities at a time when many in the country are having trouble making ends meet. 

Though the fighting in the war is widely considered to have ended in a stalemate, and no peace treaty to end it was ever signed, North Korea has made July 27 a national holiday called the “Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.”  

To prepare for Thursday’s festivities, authorities are even taking children out of school, a source from the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“The authorities bother people from the early morning until late at night to prepare for the event,” he said. “From 5:30 in the morning, each neighborhood watch unit must mow lawns, clean public toilets, and paint fences … to create a holiday atmosphere.”

Workers are called away from factory floors to study propaganda, the resident said.

“[They] have classes at education halls, study films, and paint propaganda signs and wall boards,” he said. “Starting July 20, the wall board exhibitions related to [the holiday] were held in each city and county.”

Citizens are also being made to donate money for the big event, another Ryanggang resident told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“Each household is donating 3,000 won (US$0.27) to support the People’s Army,” she said. “[That’s] enough to buy a kilogram (2.2 lbs) of corn, which is enough to feed a poor family for a day.”

The second resident said students were being made to practice marching for parades and dancing for a mass dance event.

“They are complaining that they hope it rains all day that day,” she said.

According to the second resident, the schedule for Thursday is similar in each city and town across the country. Events include every citizen presenting flowers to statues of North Korea’s previous leaders, a military parade, and sports competitions with teams fielded by each factory and organization.

Additionally, there are propaganda speech contests, and mass dance events.

“For these events, the Central Committee [of the Korean Workers’ Party] has set July 27 as a rest day. From 10 p.m., fireworks will be held in each province,” she said.

Satellite imagery revealed that a military parade was held Thursday in the capital Pyongyang. It included missile transporter erector launcher vehicles, or TELs. 

Money matters

Because every citizen has something to do to prepare for the day, they are not free to earn money, and will experience difficulty making ends meet as a result.

In most North Korean families, men are required to work at their government-assigned jobs, but they are paid only a nominal salary. The responsibility for earning money therefore falls on their wives, many of whom operate family businesses by buying and selling goods in the marketplace.

Though these women are still called housewives colloquially, they are in fact the breadwinners of their families, and taking them away from their work is a recipe for family hardship.

Ladies in Kowon county, in the eastern province of South Hamgyong have been made to practice dancing every day from 7 to 8 p.m. in front of the local cultural center, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity for personal safety.

“Housewives who have to buy food for their families by selling in the marketplace are being mobilized …  during the day to prepare for a ball event in the evening,” she said. “People are complaining, saying, ‘We won’t get anything to eat and we are told to dance.’”

In the city of Sinuiju, on the Chinese border in the northwest, people were made to prepare for a three-hour mass dance from 7 to 10 p.m. on Thursday, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

“There are college students involved in the outdoor mass dance and singing political event but the housewives who are members of the city’s Socialist Women’s Union of Korea get mobilized as well,” she said. “They complain, saying that ‘dancing is originally meant to be fun and exciting, but being forced to dance makes it more difficult than working.’”

Global remembrance

The international community released statements that reflected on the lessons learned from the Korean War 70 years ago.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an order that recognized the sacrifices of soldiers who fought in the war and officially made Thursday National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day in the United States. 

“Let us honor the Korean War Veterans who fought to defend the security and stability we enjoy today,” the order said. “Let us renew our commitment to the democratic values for which they served and sacrificed.”

A statement by Lloyd Austin, the U.S. secretary of defense, called on Americans to remember the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers and its allies, and reiterated that the “ironclad alliance” with South Korea “is stronger than ever.”

Several U.S. lawmakers, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY) issued a statement warning that North Korea continues “to threaten the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific with its missile and nuclear program.”

“Today’s anniversary reinforces the need for a strong U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance to bolster peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and reminds us how important it is to stand against authoritarianism,” the statement said.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who in March introduced the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act which would officially end the Korean War with a peace treaty, said that passing that legislation would be an important first step to achieving peace on the peninsula. 

He argued that a peace treaty would not be a form of appeasement to North Korea and that U.S. troops could still be stationed in South Korea even with a peace treaty. 

U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres, meanwhile, said in a statement that the armistice agreement has “served as a legal foundation for the preservation of peace and stability on the Peninsula,” but reminded the world that Korea remains divided. 

“Amidst rising geopolitical tensions, increased nuclear risk, and eroding respect for international norms, the threat of escalation is growing,” he said. “We need a surge in diplomacy for peace. I urge the parties to resume regular diplomatic contacts and nurture an environment conducive to dialogue.”

The seven decades since the war ended show that the status quo on the Korean peninsula is not an “adequate response to the suffering of people” in North Korea, said a joint statement by several U.N. experts, including Elizabeth Salmon, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is more isolated from the global community than ever before,” the statement said, drawing attention to current issues such as mass poverty, starvation, and overbearing government control, and continuing issues from over the past 70 years, like separated families, forced disappearances, and abductions of citizens from other countries.

“We cannot remain indifferent. Today, every actor, and particularly both parties to the Armistice Agreement and the international community, must recall the plight of the people of North Korea, the disappeared and the separated, and urgently seek ways to reengage and find solutions.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has assured Chinese Premier Li Qiang that Cambodia will continue its close relationship with Beijing after control of the government is handed over to Hun Sen’s eldest son next month.

“Please, Your Excellency, be assured that the new government’s policy toward China based on [our] mutual traditional friendship, trust and win-win cooperation will not be changed,” the prime minister wrote in a letter dated Wednesday.

Hun Sen announced his resignation after close to 40 years in power, saying at a news conference on Wednesday that a new Hun Manet-led government would be formed on Aug. 22, after the National Election Committee officially reports the results from last Sunday’s election. 

Preliminary results show Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party winning 120 of 125 seats in the National Assembly. The election included the 45-year-old Hun Manet as a first-time candidate for parliament from Phnom Penh.

The tightly controlled vote was condemned by the United States, France, Australia and others as neither free nor fair because of the exclusion of the main opposition Candlelight Party, as well as for efforts to neutralize the political opposition through threats, arrests and other means. 

For China, close ties with Cambodia ensure that Beijing has a supporter in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Time and again, Cambodia has undermined ASEAN unity on the disputed South China Sea over which Beijing has made sweeping claims of sovereignty, angering competing claimants.

Power projection

China and Cambodia began developing the Ream Naval Base, in Sihanoukville province on the Gulf of Thailand, with Beijing’s funding in June 2021. Cambodian officials said this week that renovation work has almost been completed, according to Voice of America.

The base would help Beijing boost its power projection in Southeast Asia and the Taiwan Strait. It would be China’s first naval staging facility in the region and the second in the world after a base in Djibouti.

Phnom Penh has repeatedly denied that China is being given exclusive military access to the base, saying that would contradict Cambodia’s constitution. 

Hun Manet’s government will need Chinese support to maintain power, while Vietnam may be reluctant to have close relations, even with its historical ties to the CPP, for fear of indirect economic sanctions from the United States, Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia.

“China needs the Hun family government to achieve its long-term interests – the completion of the Chinese-related Ream Naval Base,” he said. 

In February, Hun Sen flew to Beijing for an official visit with Hun Manet and another son, 40-year-old lawmaker Hun Many.

The prime minister met with President Xi Jinping and then-Premier Li Keqiang and signed 12 agreements with the Chinese government, including the building of schools in Kratie province, a US$44 million grant for the removal of unexploded ordnance and the construction of a reservoir in Kampong Thom province.

A report by the Ministry of Economy showed that China held more than US$4 billion of Cambodia’s nearly US$10 billion in foreign debt at the end of 2022’s second quarter.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed.

Within days of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) orchestrating a sham election last Sunday, at which it pocketed almost all parliamentary seats and consolidated its authoritarian rule, it quickly moved on to what the bogus ballot was supposed to achieve: an apparent vote of public confidence in the country’s new leaders.    

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that he will resign next month, after 38 years in power, and hand over the premiership to his eldest son, Hun Manet. That coronation will become official when parliament reconvenes on August 22, at which point a much wider “generational succession” will also take place. Most other aging party grandees will also resign, gifting their ministries to their children as an inheritance. According to leaked lists of nominees, almost the entire cabinet

All eyes are now on the once-in-a-generation succession that will likely see Prime Minister Hun Sen next month hand over the premiership to his eldest son, Hun Manet, while other ruling party grandees will also gift their ministries to their children as an inheritance. According to leaked lists of nominees, almost the entire cabinet will be replaced next month, mostly by the children of the current elite.

To name but a few: Hun Manet, 45, will become prime minister. Siem Reap provincial governor Tea Seiha, 43, will take over as defense minister from his father Tea Banh. Sar Sokha, 43, a ministry of education secretary of state, will inherit the interior ministry from his dad Sar Kheng. 

Cham Nimol, 43, a commerce ministry secretary of state could become the next commerce minister, a position her father Cham Prasidh held for decades. The children of Sok An and Chea Sim, two late party grandees, will get into the cabinet. Supreme Court chief Dith Munthy’s son, Dith Tina, 44, is already there, made agriculture minister last year. Say Samal, 43, the son of Senate President Say Chhum, has been environment minister since 2013. For good measure, another of Hun Sen’s sons, Hun Many, 40, will become Minister for Civil Service. 

Generational change

As the names and ages suggest (and that list isn’t exhaustive), this will be a sweeping generational change for Cambodia. Yet, give eye to three individuals who are neither princelings nor all that young. One of the few cabinet ministers expected to stay put is Aun Pornmoniroth, 57, the trusted finance minister since 2013. Indeed, he’s also expected to be the only deputy prime minister who will keep that post. 

Back in 2020, the ruling party reportedly kicked around the idea that Pornmoniroth could be a transition prime minister, taking over from Hun Sen and ruling for a few years so that the inexperienced Hun Manet could gain some first-hand ministerial know-how. But that “Singapore Model” – so-called because that’s what state founder Lee Kuan Yew handled succession in 1990 – appeared to fall out of favor, presumably because Hun Sen got his way and convinced the other party grandees that their families’ wealth and patronage networks would remain intact if everyone’s children rose through the ranks at the same time. Nonetheless, it at least showed that Pornmoniroth was a trusted, albeit neutral, technocrat. Indeed he is. In recent years, Pornmoniroth’s finance ministry has consolidated its power over the rest of the ministries, especially when it comes to budgets. He’s now the keeper of the state coffers. 

Who’s set to take over as the new foreign minister? That would be Sok Chenda Sophea, 66, the head of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, a government body charged with overseeing foreign investments. So we might get an economics-minded person in the foreign ministry. A graduate of the University of Aix en Provence in France, Chenda Sophea is competent on the world stage and well-liked by international development agencies. Consider him a World Economic Forum-type of minister. 

The talk in Phnom Penh is that Chenda Sophea will repivot the foreign ministry away from its focus on geopolitics, namely how Cambodia maneuvers in America and China’s New Cold War, towards a more neutral focus on simply attracting foreign investment and diversifying trade links. That, of course, means maintaining close ties with Beijing, by far the principal investor. But it also means healthier relations with the West, the main purchasers of Cambodian-made goods.

In 2017, when Cambodia’s relations with the West really began to deteriorate, trade with the United States was worth $3.4 billion. It was up to $12.6 billion last year. It’s well known that certain officials in the economic ministries are peeved by Hun Sen and co’s constant talk about Western interference and the unwillingness to make good on claims of wanting rapprochement with the West. 

Trusted officers

Last is Vongsey Vissoth, 58, currently a permanent secretary of state at the finance ministry (so Pornmoniroth’s key ally) and the minister attached to the Prime Minister’s office, who is tipped to become the next Minister for the Council of Ministers, effectively the cabinet organizer. For a decade, that post was dominated by the late Sok An, the so-called “minister with many arms” because of his control of so many portfolios. Vissoth could play a similar role, especially as Hun Sen’s go-between with the cabinet, considering that the outgoing prime minister has no intentions of leaving politics; he’ll still have a say in most issues from his position as ruling party president. 

Despite their kids taking over, Hun Sen will still dictate party politics, especially over his Dauphin, while Tea Banh and Sar Kheng will watch over their sons in the defense and interior ministries, respectively. But it looks likely that this trifecta of experienced, middle-aged, economics-minded ministers will be the political managers; the trusted Chief Operating Officers to the retiring CEO’s.  

Will that create tensions? Possibly. It’s foreseeable that some of the princelings will want more independence than they’ll get. Perhaps dynastic egos will come into play. Maybe it’ll dawn on them that they’re beholden to their fathers’ patronage. But one imagines that this will be limited by the other ministries being dependent on Pornmoniroth and Vissoth (whose current job put him in charge of the government’s fiscal policies and budgets) for finances.

Expect financial prudence as a political tactic. They’ll also control the provincial purse strings. The trifecta will be trusted to keep the princelings in line and the government on track, particularly if they are to steer a refocus towards growing the economy, not play-acting at geopolitics and intra-party tussles.     

The new cabinet will have little wiggle room in other areas, too. The government has already laid out a rigorous masterplan (the “Pentagon Strategy”) that aims to make Cambodia a high-income economy by 2050. As such, the departments know what they’re supposed to be working towards regardless of whether there’s a new, youthful commerce or industry minister. It’ll be the trifecta’s task to shepherd the new administration through this transition.

David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. As a journalist, he has covered Southeast Asian politics since 2014. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.

Beijing has become “an even more critical economic partner” for Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, a new report by the U.S. intelligence community says, with China buying more Russian oil and gas than before and helping the country skirt U.S. sanctions.

Released Thursday by the office of Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, the report says Beijing has pursued “economic support mechanisms for Russia that mitigate both the impact of Western sanctions and export controls” meant to financially strangle Moscow.

“The PRC has increased its importation of Russian energy exports, including oil and gas supplies rerouted from Europe,” it says, calling China “an increasingly important buttress for Russia in its war effort” and saying it is “probably supplying Moscow with key technology.” 

“Beijing has also significantly increased the use of its currency, the yuan, and its financial infrastructure in commercial interactions with Russia, allowing Russian entities to conduct financial transactions unfettered of Western interdiction,” the nine-page report says.

It says that China has since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine become “Russia’s most important trading partner, although as of April 2023 it had not fully replaced Western trade volumes” before the war.

Cheap energy

China has benefitted from the arrangement, the report notes, and it has not necessarily been driven by a desire to support Moscow, despite the two countries’ burgeoning “no-limits” friendship declared last year. 

Instead, the buying was “spurred by steep discounts on oil” in the wake of the G-7’s $60 price cap on Russian oil, it says, with the high volume of trade nevertheless “providing Moscow much-needed revenue” to fund its war effort, as Western sanctions squeeze its economy.

Overall Russian imports from China increased 13 percent year-on-year in 2022, the report says, while exports to China increased 43 percent to hit $114 billion, causing total bilateral trade to hit a record high. 

In terms of Russian crude oil, the report says China last year overtook India as Moscow’s largest buyer, with Chinese imports peaking at 2 million barrels per day in May 2022, shortly after the war began. 

Russia also sold twice as much liquefied gas to China in 2022 compared to 2021, and the two countries had agreed to construct a second Siberian pipeline to support surging natural gas exports.

Microchip exports from China to Russia, meanwhile, increased by 19 percent, the report says. But it notes that China is currently “still unable to make advanced chips that are competitive with U.S. and Western options” when it comes to military purposes, with the chips often failing.

That has led Russia to look elsewhere.

More than a year into the invasion, the report notes, “hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of U.S.-made or U.S.-branded semiconductors are flowing into Russia despite sanctions and export controls,” even as official global exports of microchips to Russia and Belarus fell 54%.

China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Weapons transfers

The report does not accuse China of supplying Russia with weapons for its war effort, which U.S. officials have said would be a red line. 

Politico on Monday published a story detailing apparent sales of military hardware from Chinese firms to Russia, but State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the report had not been verified and appeared to downplay sales by private companies.

“We would obviously have to conduct our own assessment before making any kind of determination about whether an activity was a sanctions violation or whether we need to impose additional sanctions in response to some activity that we’ve seen,” Miller said.

The United States would “very much oppose any action on the government side – the Chinese Government transferring lethal assistance to Russia,” he said, but still had “concerns” about weapons transfers “on the private sector side” from China to Russia.

A Burmese national who took part in a plot to attack Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations has been convicted in the United States of conspiracy to assault a foreign official.

Phyo Hein Htut was found guilty on July 24 after an eight-day trial and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 14, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the southern district of New York said in a statement. He faces up to five years in prison. 

Phyo Hein Htut, who resides in New York, had volunteered to be on a security team for Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun. But he was secretly feeding information about the ambassador, the mission and its personnel to an arms dealer in Thailand who sold weapons to the Myanmar military as part of a plot to harm the ambassador, according to the statement. 

Kyaw Moe Tun has been a key critic of Myanmar’s military junta, which seized control of the Southeast Asia country from the elected civilian-led government in a February 2021 coup. 

He was appointed to his post before the coup. The junta has demanded that he step down as ambassador, but he has refused to do so.

From about February 2021 through early August, Phyo Hein Htut conspired to injure or kill the ambassador by accepting money from the arms dealer sent to him to hire attackers in an attempt to force Kay Moe Tun to step down from his post, the statement said.

“The fact that they tried to assassinate the courageous Myanmar ambassador who stood up for the people at the United Nations was the lack of rule of law and violence has reached outside of Myanmar to the U.S.,” said Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the President’s Office of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government.

Billy Ford, a program officer for the Burma team at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said the incident was a “clear indication that the Myanmar military is a criminal organization willing to do anything to sustain its power — even attempting to assassinate a sitting U.N. ambassador.”

“Since it illegally took power more than two years ago, the military has repeatedly committed crimes and atrocities, including air strikes on civilians and this assassination attempt, with impunity,” he said.  

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Radio Free Asia that the evidence against Phyo Hein Htut was overwhelming enough to result in a unanimous jury verdict against him. 

“His heinous efforts to organize an attack on U.S. soil against the U.N. ambassador deserves the maximum possible punishment as a deterrent to others who would think about undertaking such actions,” he said.

U.S. authorities revealed the plot to kill the ambassador on Aug. 6, 2021, after they arrested, Phyo Hein Htut, then 28, and Burmese national Ye Hein Zaw, then 20, who was said to have been an intermediary who sent money from an arms dealer in Thailand to bankroll the attack.

Authorities charged both men with conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon a foreign official.

In December 2021, Ye Hein Zaw pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy, RFA reported.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

Majorities of people across the world view China in an increasingly negative light but believe the country’s technological achievements are beyond those of other wealthy countries, according to a new survey.

The survey, released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, also found middle-income countries the least likely to view China’s foreign policy negatively, with only neighboring India among eight such surveyed countries where a majority hold unfavorable views.

In total, 27,285 people in 24 countries were surveyed about China, Pew said, with the results showing a “median of 67% of adults express unfavorable views of the country” and “28% have a favorable opinion.”

“Most people also think China does not take into account the interests of other countries in its foreign policy (76%) and a median of 57% say China interferes in the affairs of other nations a great deal or fair amount,” the Pew survey said. Meanwhile, it said, a “median of 71% think China does not contribute to global peace and stability.”

However, the negative views were strongest in high-income countries, with overall views “somewhat rosier” – even if not entirely positive – in middle-income countries like Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa.

“India stands out as the only middle-income country in which a majority has unfavorable views of China,” Pew said, noting that two-thirds there hold negative views. “And in three middle-income countries – Kenya, Mexico and Nigeria – a majority even gives China a positive rating.”

But even in these countries, the trend was mostly negative for China, with more people viewing China negatively than in Pew’s 2019 survey. In India, for instance, the figure jumped from 46% to 67%. In Brazil, it went from 27% to 48%, and in Mexico it jumped from 22% to 33%. 

In Indonesia, though, negative views of China dropped from 36% to 25%. Nigeria was steady with relatively few negative views, at 15%.

Technological advancement

Despite the widely negative views of the country, though, China’s technological progress is viewed in a largely positive light.

Pew found a median of 51% of people across the 24 surveyed countries viewed China’s technology as “above average” compared to other wealthy countries, and 19% saw it as “the best” in the world.

“In fact, outside of South Korea, nearly half or more in every country say Chinese technological advancements are the best in the world or above average relative to other wealthy nations,” the report said, with about four-in-10 in middle-income countries saying it’s “the best.”

Pew also noted it asked people in middle-income countries, “many of which are increasingly reliant on Chinese companies like Huawei for components of their 4G and 5G systems,” about their views on the quality of Chinese-made cell phones, tablets and computers.

“Across these eight countries, there is a relatively widespread sense that these products are well-made,” the report said. “Middle-income publics are more divided when it comes to their cost: A median of 50% describe them as inexpensive, while 44% call them costly.”

On the privacy of such Chinese-made devices, it said people around the world were divided: a median of 45% said they felt their data was “safe” on such devices, and a median of 40% said it felt “unsafe.”

Declining views of China’s economy

Views of China’s economic strength have also fallen around the world since Pew’s last round of surveys, which took place before COVID-19 and the near implosion of Chinese property firms like Evergrande.

The report notes that in 2020 in Canada, for instance, 47% of people viewed China as the world’s preeminent economic power, compared to 36% who said that about the United States. But this year, more people in Canada pointed to the United States (44%) than China (40%).

A similar trend took place around the world, with Australia one of the few places where more people are more likely to see China as the leading economy. Yet even there, the share fell from 55% to 50%, with those pointing to the United States growing from 34% to 39%.

Some of the worst falls occurred in Europe.

In Germany, the 55% majority who saw China as the world’s leading economic power in Pew’s 2020 surveys declined to 43% this year, with the United States rising in people’s estimations from 17% to 34%. 

In the United Kingdom, opinion is now split, with competing 40% blocs pointing to both the United States and China as the leader. But in 2020, 47% singled out China, compared to just 37% for the United States. 

“China’s image as an economic superpower is stronger in high-income countries than middle-income ones,” the Pew report notes, identifying Italy as the only high-income country where a majority (55%) put China ahead, with only 31% giving that mantle to the United States.