Day: July 28, 2023

Lost in recent news about China’s spy-base in Cuba was the fact that Huawei employees are working for the Latin American dictatorship. The Chinese telecoms giant isn’t just helping maintain an intelligence-gathering facility. It’s also helping Cuba oppress its own citizens. 

This is a common thread in Chinese diplomacy: Giving authoritarian regimes the technological tools they need to surveil, repress, and punish dissidents. 

Huawei, whose links with the Chinese Communist Party are well established, has been Cuba’s main technology provider for the state telecommunications company since 2017. 

According to a Swedish study, this is part of China’s support for “digital authoritarianism,” and Huawei’s eSight Internet management software that filters web searches is also in use across Latin America. When the Cuban people staged massive protests in July 2021, the government controlled and blocked the internet using technology “made, sold and installed” by China, according to Senator Marco Rubio. 

Then there’s Africa. In September 2018, Djibouti started surveillance system construction in collaboration with the state-owned China Railway Electrification Bureau Group. The video surveillance system covers major urban areas, airports, docks, and ports in the city of Djibouti.  

In Asia, China is reportedly cooperating with Myanmar’s military government in constructing a surveillance post on Great Coco Island. In December 2020, Myanmar applied 335 Huawei surveillance cameras in eight townships as part of its “Safe City” project. 

The cameras have facial recognition functions and alert authorities if surveilled persons are on a wanted list. In July 2022, Reuters reported that Myanmar’s military government installed Chinese-made cameras with facial recognition capabilities in cities across the country. The equipment was purchased from Dahua, Huawei, and Hikvision. 

In another case of close Chinese support for an authoritarian ruler in Southeast Asia, it was confirmed in February 2023, that China has a naval base in Ream, Cambodia.

In June 2019, the Deputy Commissioner of the General Commissariat of the Kingdom of Cambodia Police and Chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Police visited Chinese companies including Huawei and Hikvision, expressing interest in China’s “Safe Cities” surveillance systems and other police equipment which he hoped to introduce for “improving public security and combating crimes.” 

In October 2022, according to Voice of America, Cambodian human rights activists suspected Cambodian local police of using drones and surveillance cameras supplied by Chinese companies to monitor labor rights protesters. 

Belt and Road Initiative

In Pakistan, China has installed Chinese technology for domestic surveillance since at least 2016. That’s when the so-called “Safe City” project commenced operations in Islamabad, in collaboration with Huawei and other Chinese companies like e-Hualu. The project has established checkpoints and electronic police systems along major city thoroughfares, enabling citywide vehicle monitoring. In 2017, Huawei collaborated with the Punjab Safe Cities Authority in Pakistan to build a safe city system in Lahore. The project includes an integrated command and communication center, 200 police station sites, and 100 LTE base stations.

In Central Asia, Huawei and Hualu surveillance systems are throughout Dushanbe, ostensibly to combat what local authorities say is “terrorism and extremism.” In May 2023, the head of Sughd Province Tajikistan met with Huawei representatives to discuss its 25 million USD “Safe City” project in Khujand, its provincial capital. 

Much of China’s global provision of domestic surveillance tools is through its Belt and Road initiative, through which it has sent technology to Egypt and Nigeria, Uganda, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Angola, Laos, Kazakhstan, and Kenya. There’s also Serbia, where a political dissident claimed that the objective of the country’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative is to “hunt… down political opponents.” 

Technology surveys show that around the world, at least 79 states have bought into Huawei’s surveillance package. They include liberal democracies like Italy, Netherlands, and Germany. A Huawei contract can thus signal entry-level affiliation with Xi Jinping’s New World Order, where “a future and destiny of every nation and every country are closely interconnected”—by invasive Chinese technology that abets oppression. That doesn’t belong in America’s backyard, in Cuba, or anywhere else in the world.

Aaron Rhodes is senior fellow at Common Sense Society and President of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe. Cheryl Yu is senior researcher at Common Sense Society. The views expressed here are their own and do not reflect the position of RFA.

A court in Hong Kong on Friday rejected the government’s bid to impose an injunction on performances of and references to “Glory to Hong Kong,” the banned anthem of the 2019 protest movement, citing a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression. 

The government had wanted the court to grant the ban on broadcasting or distributing the song or its lyrics, which the government says advocate “independence” for the city, and which has been mistakenly played at international sporting events instead of the Chinese anthem, “March of the Volunteers.”

But High Court Judge Anthony Chan said he couldn’t see how an injunction, which the government wanted to include online platforms, would help.

“I am unable to see a solid basis for believing that the invocation of the civil jurisdiction can assist in the enforcement of the law in question,” Chan said in the ruling.

The anthem was regularly sung by crowds of unarmed protesters during the 2019 protest movement, which ranged from peaceful demonstrations for full democracy to intermittent, pitched battles between “front-line” protesters and armed riot police, and was banned in 2020 as Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on the city.

When the government announced last month it was seeking an injunction, downloads of the song spiked on international streaming platforms before it was removed from several platforms.

The song calls for freedom and democracy rather than independence, but was nonetheless deemed in breach of the law due to its “separatist” intent, officials and police officers said at the start of an ongoing citywide crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political activism.

The song is still frequently sung by pro-democracy activists outside of Hong Kong.

‘Chilling effect’

In a decision seen as a partial reprieve for dwindling freedom of expression in the city, the court also took into account the potential “chilling effect” an injunction would have on freedom of expression and its effect on “innocent third parties.”

The judgment went on to say that contempt proceedings for breach of an injunction would involve proving the relevant criminal offense and would therefore not be easy to enforce. There was also a risk of “double jeopardy,” in which a person could potentially be prosecuted for overlapping offenses under the National Security Law and for breach of the injunction, it said.

The government had argued that the injunction was necessary to prevent people disseminating the song anonymously, and to prevent its use at public events “which can arouse certain emotions and incite people to secession, endangering national security.”

Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said his administration would be “studying the matter and following up.”

“The Special Administrative Region government has a duty to effectively prevent, stop and punish actions and activities that endanger national security,” Lee told journalists in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. “I have asked the Department of Justice to study the verdict actively and follow up as soon as possible.”

He said anyone who calls the song “the true national anthem of Hong Kong” is breaking the National Anthem Law banning insults to China’s national anthem.

“The threat of endangering national security can come suddenly, so we must take effective measures to prevent it,” he said.

Law bans insults to PRC anthem

Hong Kong passed a national anthem law in June 2020 banning ‘insults’ to the Chinese national anthem after Hong Kong soccer fans repeatedly booed, yelled Cantonese obscenities or turned their backs when it was played at matches.

In November, Hong Kong police announced a criminal investigation into the playing of “Glory to Hong Kong” at a rugby match in South Korea.

Hong Kong Journalists’ Association president Ronson Chan welcomed the court’s ruling.

“I welcome this ruling, which is very reasonable,” Chan said. “I agree that the relevant matters are already covered by criminal law, so there is no need for an injunction.”

“I’d like to thank the judge for pointing out … the potential for a chilling effect in the exercise of such powers,” he said.

“If we want to tell good stories about Hong Kong, I don’t think further restrictions are a good idea,” Chan said.

The government has repeatedly said that it respects freedoms protected by the city’s constitution, “but freedom of speech is not absolute.”

“The application pursues the legitimate aim of safeguarding national security and is necessary, reasonable, legitimate, and consistent with the Bill of Rights,” it said in a statement about the injunction application last month.

Press freedom groups have warned that the government has “gutted” freedom of expression in the city, amid an ongoing cull of “politically sensitive” books from the shelves of public libraries.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

The eldest son of Prime Minister Hun Sen vowed to maintain peace in Cambodia when he takes over as head of the government next month, saying on Facebook and Telegram that he’ll also aim “to ensure the development and tranquility of the people.”

Hun Manet’s message on Thursday came a day after his father announced he would hand over the prime minister position next month.

The 45-year-old posted a photo along with the message that shows Hun Sen dressed in a military uniform and standing in a jeep at a 2019 anniversary celebration for the Royal Cambodian Army Command’s headquarters. 

Hun Manet, who until recently served as deputy commander of Cambodia’s armed forces, is also dressed in uniform in a second jeep following just behind Hun Sen.

“My father’s word that I will always remember and be determined to apply in all circumstances: ‘When you become the prime minister of Cambodia, you must maintain peace to ensure the development and tranquility of the people,’” Hun Manet wrote.

Hun Manet’s statement is welcome, but “peace” doesn’t just refer to “no war,” said Ny Sokha, the president of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) NGO. It must also include respect for human rights, social justice and social equality, he said.

“Determination is not enough. It needs real practice so that people can believe in him,” he told RFA. “We are waiting to see what priority issues he will address after he officially becomes the new prime minister of Cambodia.”

Peace and the political opposition

Hun Sen, 70, has served as prime minister since 1985. He told reporters 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 Sunday’s election. 

Preliminary results show the ruling Cambodian People’s Party winning 120 of 125 seats in the National Assembly in the July 23 vote, which included Hun Manet as a first-time candidate for parliament from Phnom Penh. Critics have said the tightly controlled election was neither free nor fair.

Hun Sen was a signatory to the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and often touts his “win-win” initiative to persuade the remaining bands of Khmer Rouge guerillas to lay down arms in the 1990s.

He has also methodically co-opted all political opposition over the years, and he often points out that his long reign as prime minister has brought peace and economic development to Cambodia after decades of civil war. 

In the months leading up to last Sunday’s election, Hun Sen persuaded dozens of opposition activists to switch their allegiance to the CPP, while others were threatened with legal action.

“Now Hun Sen uses the word peace to arrest and put people in prison,” Chea You Horn, the president of the Khmer Association of Victoria in Australia, told Radio Free Asia last month.

Men Sothavrin, a former parliamentarian from the now-banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, said Hun Manet appears to be copying his father’s dictatorship style. 

“Hun Manet must show that he is different from his father and never repeat his father’s dictatorship,” he said. “He must reinstate genuine multi-party democracy and respect human rights, especially political rights, freedom of press and expression.”

Translated by Chandara Yang. Edited by Matt Reed.

Myanmar’s junta has relocated Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed head of the deposed National League for Democracy, from a prison in the capital Naypyidaw to “a more comfortable state-owned residence,” a party official and a source with ties to the prison said Friday.

“It has been confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi has been placed in a house in a residential area of Naypyidaw,” an NLD official who declined to be named due to security concerns told RFA Burmese.

A source with connections to Naypyidaw Prison, where Suu Kyi had been held since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup d’etat, also confirmed that the former State Counselor had been “relocated,” speaking to RFA on condition of anonymity.

Both sources could only confirm that the move had taken place “recently,” but were unable to confirm the exact date or location.

Media reports said Suu Kyi had been transferred to a residence for deputy ministers in the capital on July 24.

Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment went unanswered Friday.

Junta courts found the 78-year-old Suu Kyi guilty of corruption charges and in violation of election and state secrets laws in December 2022. She faces a total of 33 years in jail for 19 cases, and had been held in solitary confinement in Naypyidaw. Suu Kyi’s supporters say the charges were politically motivated.

A second NLD official suggested to RFA on Friday that the transfer may have been made in response to increased domestic and international pressure on the junta to end Myanmar’s political stalemate.

“The junta has let the world know through this transfer that it is also facing difficulties in resolving the turmoil in Myanmar,” the official said.

The junta has been embroiled in a protracted conflict with Myanmar’s increasingly formidable armed resistance groups and ethnic armed organizations since the military detained Suu Kyi and other top leaders of the NLD during the coup.

Next steps scrutinized

International media reports said Friday that Suu Kyi could be permitted to meet with Deng Xijun, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s special representative for Asian affairs, who is currently in Naypyidaw. As part of Deng’s third visit to Myanmar since the coup, he has met with top military generals, including junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

The junta has announced three consecutive six-month extensions of emergency rule in Myanmar since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, citing ongoing instability in the country. The current period is set to expire on July 31, and observers are closely watching for signs of the regime’s next move.

The NLD has said it will hold a special meeting of its central committee on Saturday to discuss the latest developments.

Last month, a source with knowledge of the situation in Naypyidaw Prison told RFA that three military officers visited Suu Kyi at the facility on May 27 and June 4 to enlist her help in peace negotiations with the armed resistance, only to be rebuffed by the former state counselor.

As an opposition leader, Suu Kyi had been the face of Myanmar’s democracy movement and lived under house arrest imposed by previous military rulers for 15 of 21 years between 1989 and 2010.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Matthew Reed.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo secured billions of dollars in investment commitments from Chinese companies during a two-day visit to China that wrapped up on Friday, his ministers said.

One of the biggest deals was an U.S. $11.5 billion commitment from one of the world’s largest glass makers, Xinyi, to build a manufacturing plant in Indonesia, said Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, who accompanied Jokowi on the trip.

“This will be the second largest factory in the world after China,” the minister told a press conference, referring to Xinyi’s planned investment. “The output will be almost 95% for export because the market is overseas.”

If realized, Xinyi’s investment would create 35,000 jobs, Bahlil said.

Indonesia has a potential resource of 25 billion tons of quartz sand, the main raw material for making glass and solar panels, according to official data. And China is the world’s main producer of solar panels, with a 70% market share.

Bahlil said Xinyi had already invested $700 million in Indonesia last year to build a factory in Gresik, East Java.

At a meeting on Thursday, Jokowi and Chinese President Xi Jinping focused on mutually beneficial economic cooperation, Indonesia’s top diplomat Retno Marsudi said.

During the visit to China, Jokowi sought more Chinese investment in renewable energy, health, food security and the construction of a new Indonesian capital city, Retno said.

In the health sector, Chinese businesses made investment pledges worth about $1.4 billion, she said.

China is Indonesia’s biggest trading partner and a major source of investment. Last year, Indonesia’s exports to China were recorded at $65.9 billion while imports were $67.7 billion, according to the Indonesian government’s statistics agency.

China was the second largest source of investment in Indonesia in 2022 with $8.2 billion, behind Singapore with $13.3 billion, according to data released by the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board.

Market leader

Energy analysts welcomed the government’s move to sign investment deals with China for processing quartz sand.

“This is the right move because China is a market leader [in producing solar panels],” said Daymas Arangga, executive director of Energy Watch, an independent think-tank in Jakarta.

But he suggested the government also invite other countries, such as South Korea and Japan, to invest in the sector to prevent a price monopoly by China.

“The issue is that China controls the price. So other countries should also be offered to invest to maintain the market,” he told BenarNews.

Fahmy Radhi, an energy observer at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said Indonesia could boost its profits 10 times by processing quartz sand at home.

“This is a smart step to add value to the mineral, and we should support it,” he told BenarNews.

Fahmy noted that Indonesia, the world’s largest nickel producer, similarly added value to its nickel ore resources by boosting domestic processing. 

Indonesia increased its profits from processing nickel, a key metal for making stainless steel and batteries, to $30 billion last year from $3.3 billion in 2018.

Indonesia banned raw nickel ore exports in 2020 to encourage the domestic smelting and refining industries. The country has also attracted investments from foreign companies – especially from China – to build battery factories in the country as part of its ambition to become a hub for electric vehicles.

‘Maintain peace, stability’ in region

Meanwhile in his meeting with Xi on Thursday, the Indonesian president called on major powers to manage their rivalries and avoid conflicts that could threaten Southeast Asia, Retno said on Friday. 

“President Jokowi stressed that all countries, including China, must maintain peace, stability and prosperity in the region,” she said.

She said Jokowi also welcomed the resumption of communication between China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies and strategic rivals.

Tensions have been brewing between China and several Southeast Asian nations over overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway that carries about a third of global trade.

Indonesia, while not a claimant to any of the disputed islands or reefs in the South China Sea, has repeatedly clashed with China over fishing rights and energy exploration near the Natuna Islands.

These islands lie within Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone but are also claimed by China under its sweeping “nine-dash line” map.

Indonesia has rejected China’s claim as having no legal basis. 

Earlier this month, China and Southeast Asian nations agreed to speed up an agreement to prevent conflict in the South China Sea.

A code of conduct to prevent conflicts and promote cooperation in the disputed South China Sea has been under negotiation between China and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 2002, but progress has been slow.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

When she was just 13, Ngawang Sangdrol was arrested for protesting Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule in Tibet. She spent more than a decade in prison before international pressure led to her release in 2002. 

Now an activist at the International Campaign for Tibet, her mission to draw attention to human rights abuses in her homeland like what she endured is complicated, she said, by China’s tight control over information in and out the region.

“Arbitrary detention and arrests take place in Tibet at a regular pace,” Ngawang told RFA. But “heavy restrictions” on communications – digital surveillance is widespread – makes it hard to tell the scope of the abuse, she added.

A study from Rand Europe, a research group, released this week sheds new light on the extent of China’s detention operations in Tibet – by measuring light from 79 sites in the region previously identified as detention centers of various security levels. 

Rand researchers examined NASA satellite images from January 2014 until July 2022. While they believe that the number of prisons, jails and other detention facilities has remained the same over the past decade, they noticed that lighting at Tibet’s long-term, high security prisons “experienced a major period of growth in 2019 and 2020.” 

The finding suggests a shift toward longer detentions as seen in Xinjiang against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups that have attracted greater international attention, the study says, although it adds that firm conclusions remain difficult.

“In both Tibet and Xinjiang, growth in night-time lighting has been concentrated in higher-security facilities, suggesting that in both regions there may be an increased emphasis on long-term imprisonment and detention of dissidents rather than shorter-term detention,” the report said.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations by press time. 

An information black hole

Rand chose to focus on light in part because there are few other options. 

According to activists, Tibetans who speak out against alleged abuses face severe punishments. Tibetans have been detained for everything from communicating with foreigners to promoting Buddhist culture over Han teachings, a number of reports by the U.S. government and other entities have alleged.

But Rand said that information flows have become even more restricted as protocols put in place for COVID-19 made it harder for Tibetans to travel and as a system of surveillance has expanded.

Tibet is a “black hole” of information, said Ruth Harris, Rand Europe’s research director for defense and security. 

Satellite imagery and nighttime analysis is an important methodology “for understanding what’s going on and to help policymakers to make good and informed decisions as much as they can,” Harris told RFA.

‘Stability maintenance’

Rand used a similar study lighting in 2021 to document what it called the “rapid, coordinated growth” of detention facilities in China’s Xinjiang region over the previous decade.

As many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups are thought to have been detained by Chinese authorities. In a report last fall, the United Nations said it found allegations of torture and other severe human rights abuses to be credible and said they may constitute crimes against humanity. 

China has called the allegations baseless.

Policies in Xinjiang and Tibet fall under China’s policy of “stability maintenance,” a post-Tiananmen euphemism for crackdown on dissent. But the broader world has a much better picture of what has transpired in Xinjiang than in Tibet even though Chinese authorities have conducted a similar campaign of “preventive repression” there, Rand said.

Rand used data by the Tibet Research Project, which had previously identified potential detention centers in the region, as the basis for its own report.

Most of the 79 facilities appear to have light security, indicating that they may be holding facilities used to detain people for a short period. 

A call for more investigation

There are 14 facilities identified as higher security in Rand’s report on Tibet. The facilities have a larger footprint and at least three watchtowers.

Researchers noticed an increase in lighting in facilities in Ngari prefecture in Western Tibet Autonomous Region, as well as in Lhoka, Nagchu and Lhasa, the capital of the TAR.

The report lists a number of limitations in its findings. Little to no information exists on whether a facility has been decommissioned, or who is responsible for running particular detention centers, or the overall policies guiding their operations. 

Conditions inside the facilities are largely unknown too. 

“The precise workings, nature and scale of the CCP’s efforts to imprison and detain Tibetans currently remain poorly understood” and deserve greater study, the report states.

Sangdrol, a Buddist nun now in her 40s, said prisoners of her era endured brutal punishments during their incarceration. She’s heard tales of torture within the current prison system too, including through the use of electric batons. 

But the group’s overarching finding – that the detention facilities remain active – didn’t come as a surprise to Sangdrol. 

“The expansion of higher-security detention centers and prisons are very likely considering the number of people arrested and gone missing,” Sangdrol said.

Edited by Jim Snyder