A Chinese human rights lawyer who lost his law license after speaking out about the cases of 12 Hong Kong activists has been arrested in Laos and could face deportation to China, the Associated Press reported.
Lu Siwei was arrested in Vientiane Friday morning as he boarded a train for Thailand. He was traveling to Bangkok to board a flight to the United States to be with his wife and daughter, according to the AP.
Lao police said that there was something wrong with his passport, according to Bob Fu, founder of Texas-based religious rights group ChinaAid.
Lu sent a message at 10:10 a.m. on Friday saying that he had been detained by three policemen, according to his wife, Zhang Chunxiao.
“I haven’t been able to get in touch with him again,” she told Radio Free Asia. “I feel that they will send him back as soon as possible.”
Lu had been under surveillance in China since his attorney’s license was revoked in 2021, Zhang said. A camera was installed at the door of their house, and he had been barred from leaving China.
‘Long-arm jurisdiction’
The arrest in Laos was obviously due to the “long-arm jurisdiction” of Chinese authorities, who have been aggressively pursuing Chinese dissidents abroad, Fu said. Lu would face prison if returned to China.
Fu said he was contacted by Lu’s family two weeks ago to help him leave China. Lu had valid visas for Laos and the United States, and two ChinaAid activists were traveling with him when he was arrested, the AP said.
Fu sent the AP photos of Lu’s passport to verify his claims.
He told RFA that Chinese authorities likely asked Lao police to focus on Lu’s passport during the interaction at the train station. He said he’s spoken with several U.S. State Department senior officials about the arrest.
One of the two activists [left] traveling with Chinese rights lawyer Lu Siwei [right] argues with police who were in the process of detaining Lu, near the Thanaleng dry port, 13 kilometers (8 miles), south of Vientiane, on July 28, 2023. Credit: Anonymous source via AP
“The State Department activated the emergency response mechanism and immediately notified the U.S. embassy in Laos and the diplomatic systems of other allied countries,” Fu said.
China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP on Friday. Numbers listed for Lao’s Foreign Ministry rang unanswered, and the Laotian embassy in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment, the AP said.
Lawyer for detained activist
Lu was hired by the family of Quinn Moon, one of 12 protesters who were jailed after trying to escape to democratic Taiwan by speedboat following the 2019 Hong Kong protest movement.
He was particularly vocal in the months following their initial detention and repeatedly commented about his unsuccessful attempts to gain access to his client.
After his law license was revoked in 2021, Lu told RFA that he couldn’t have predicted he would end up in this situation.
“Sometimes it is difficult to imagine what your life will bring,” he said. “You can make some plans, but there are still some certain events that will change your life.”
Tenzin Younten wanted Tibetans living in the diaspora in Darjeeling, India, to speak in their native language. So, the 19-year-old rapper wrote a song about it.
“I saw two Tibetans in my neighborhood communicating in the local dialect [Nepali] and that just triggered me,” Younten, whose stage name is Youns BoB, told Radio Free Asia. “I then thought and decided that I must empower young Tibetans in exile to at least communicate in our own language. So, I went home and wrote the song ‘Speak in Tibetan if You Are Tibetan.’”
Rap music has become a creative way for Tibetan youths living in exile to assert their cultural identity and to communicate their stance on Tibet-related issues.
They say they believe their songs represent a powerful cultural framework to stand up for Tibetan identity, closely tied to Tibetan Buddhism, which has come under assault by the Chinese government in recent years as it seeks to maintain an iron grip on the restive Tibet Autonomous Region.
In the past, Chinese authorities have jailed scores of Tibetan writers, artists, singers, and educators living inside the region for asserting Tibetan national and cultural identity and language rights, especially after widespread protests swept Tibetan areas in 2008.
In 2020, authorities in Tibet sentenced singer Lhundrub Drakpato six years in prison for his song “Black Hat.”
The lyrics criticized repressive Chinese government policies in Driru County in the northern Tibetan city of Nagchu. In recent years, the county has been one of the most severely and militarily controlled areas in the region, according to the rights group Free Tibet.
Many young Tibetan musicians like Tenzin Younten say music is a powerful agent capable of arousing emotional and patriotic sentiments. Credit: Tenzin Younten/Instagram
Meanwhile, the music of the up-and-coming singer Younten and his song “Speak in Tibetan if You Are Tibetan” have become popular among some members of the Tibetan diaspora, and he now has more than 5,000 fans on Instagram.
Many young Tibetan musicians like Younten say music is a powerful agent capable of arousing emotional and patriotic sentiments. They say their lyrics instill a sense of pride in being Tibetan and seek to unify and strengthen Tibetan communities in the diaspora.
Not everyone is a fan
Other Tibetans living abroad have criticized Younten’s song, questioning whether speaking only in Tibetan validates someone as being ethnically Tibetan and portrays authentic Tibetan identity and culture.
Netizen Kalsang-td recently posted a comment on Instagram below Younten’s song: “You are completely wrong, brother, if one cannot speak Tibetan doesn’t mean he is not a Tibetan[.] Tibetans have many tribes and regions and they all have different languages and dialects.”
Another netizen, smokytibetan, also posted a comment on Instagram about the song, saying, “All I’m saying is let people speak whatever they want to speak. It’s not up to you or other Tibetans in our society to be telling others how to be. Btw [by the way] there are plenty of Tibetans living in their respective western nations who don’t speak Tibetan as their first language so you should acknowledge that.”
Younten said he does not have contact with anyone inside Tibet, so he doesn’t know if his songs have reached people inside the region. But posts on the video-sharing app TikTok indicate that some young Tibetans inside China’s borders have heard his music.
‘You are our pride’
A Europe-based Tibetan rapper, Tenzin Seungyi, has gained a following abroad in part because of his song “Rewa,” which means “hope” in the Tibetan language, in which he sends a message of inspiration to Tibetans inside the Tibetan Autonomous Region. He sings:
Respect to our brothers and sisters inside Tibet, Thank you for preserving our Tibetan language and culture, You are our pride, I am sure we will all meet in front of Potala. I am lucky to be born as Tibetan. I hope that I will be born as Tibetan in my next life.
Tenzin Dawa Tsona, a Tibetan singer in his early 30s, performs in the video for his song ‘Your Holiness,’ which is dedicated to the Dalai Lama. Credit: Screenshot from Tenzin Dawa Tsona’s YouTube channel
Rapper Tenzin Dawa Tsona, a Tibetan in his early 30s, grew up in Dharamsala, India — the residence of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile — and attended the Tibetan Children’s Village school there. The nonprofit organization provides care and education for Tibetan children living in exile.
Tsona turned to rapping after immigrating to the Netherlands with his family. Finding himself in a new and different cultural environment helped shape his music and lyrics, he said.
“Music is a unique communicative way to express our feelings whether it’s to pay tribute to His Holiness the Dalai Lama or sing songs of love for Tibet or send a message of hope to our Tibetan brothers and sisters back in Tibet,” said Tsona, who is married and has a son.
His song “Your Holiness” is dedicated to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. In a video of the song, Tsona raps, “If we didn’t have Your Holiness as our leader, Tibetan culture and pride, Tibetan language and religion, Tibetan unity and kindness, compassionate and sympathetic Tibetans, Tibetan identity would have vanished.”
The Dalai Lama, considered a separatist by the Chinese government, seeks a greater autonomy for Tibet as a part of China, though, with guaranteed protections for Tibet’s language, culture, and religion.
A voice for the voiceless
Tsona also released a song titled “Lhamo Dhondhup” on July 6 to mark the 88th birthday of the Dalai Lama. In it, he sings:
Even though the Tibetans are dispersed We remain united because of His Holiness. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the soul of the Tibetan people.
Tsona’s songs have reached young Tibetans in western China, who have posted comments about them on the Chinese instant-messaging app WeChat. One listener thanked him for sharing such sentiments in his songs.
Tibetan rappers living in the diaspora have a duty to their fellow Tibetans inside China, Tsona said.
“[L]iving in a free country, I believe that we have the responsibility to be the voice for our voiceless people inside Tibet through mediums like music,” he said.
Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.
The number of heatstroke patients in South Korea has surged in the past two days, following a heat wave that hit the country after the end of the rainy season.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on Saturday, 46 people were diagnosed with heatstroke across the country Wednesday and 62 on Thursday, when a heat wave warning was in place for most parts of the country.
The daily tallies represent a sharp increase from the four cases reported Sunday, the agency said.
Heatstroke is a serious medical condition that can be fatal if not treated immediately. It is caused by the body’s inability to cool itself down and can lead to a number of symptoms, including a high fever, headaches, confusion and seizures.
Since the country began monitoring heatstroke on May 20, it had reported 868 patients as of Thursday.
About 26.2 percent, or 227, of the total were elderly citizens aged 65 and above.
The KDCA recommended that people take precautions against heatstroke, such as staying indoors if possible and wearing loose-fitting, light-colored clothing and wide-brimmed hats if they have to go outside.
They were also advised to avoid outdoor activity during the hottest part of the day, which is typically from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Satellite photos have detected signs of North Korea releasing water from a dam in the border area despite South Korea’s request to give prior notice, a U.S.-based radio company reported Saturday.
The release of water from North Korea’s Hwanggang Dam has raised concerns about potential flooding in areas located south of the border every summer in recent years. The dam is located in the upper region of the Imjin River, which flows through the Korean Peninsula from the north to the south.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) said satellite photos from Planet Labs, a U.S. commercial satellite imaging company, showed some of the dam’s floodgates were wide open to discharge water on July 20. They also showed visible water turbulence caused by the surging water.
The dam continued to discharge water Monday, and more floodgates were seen open Thursday, the media reported.
But the latest water discharges appear to have been made to control the water level and were not enough to cause a flood in the lower region of the Imjin River in South Korea, the radio company reported, citing a researcher at the Korea Institute for Security Strategy.
The discharges were made a few days after the South Korean government made repeated requests to Pyongyang to give prior notice if it releases water from the dam.
Under an inter-Korean agreement signed in October 2009, the North agreed to notify the South in advance of its plan to release water, following an accident that killed six South Koreans after the North discharged water from the dam without notice.
Pyongyang, however, has not implemented the agreement since 2011.
South Korea and the United States staged combined anti-submarine drills, involving a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, in waters south of the Korean Peninsula on Saturday, Seoul’s Navy said, amid joint efforts to reinforce readiness against North Korean military threats.
The exercise took place in waters south of the southern island of Jeju, mobilizing the South’s ROKS Yulgok Yi I Aegis-equipped destroyer, the ROKS Yi Sun-sin submarine and the U.S.’ USS Annapolis submarine, according to the armed service.
The drills focused on training response procedures against a simulated North Korean submarine, such as searching for, tracking and identifying the target, the Navy said.
“This exercise was prepared to strengthen the South Korean and U.S. navies’ response capabilities and enhance interoperability in preparation against North Korean submarine infiltrations amid growing threats from North Korea’s missile provocations,” the armed service said.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Monday, after the U.S.’ Los Angeles-class submarine’s arrival at a naval base on Jeju earlier in the day.
Tens of thousands of teachers staged a large-scale protest in downtown Seoul on Saturday, calling for the normalization of the public education, after a colleague took her own life at an elementary school last week.
Police estimated that around 21,000 activists took part in the event, while organizers asserted that the number of attendees reached as high as 30,000.
The protest came after a teacher, known only as a 23-year-old woman in charge of first graders at an elementary school in southern Seoul, apparently took her own life on the premises last week.
Several allegations surrounding her death have surfaced, including claims that she was under immense stress due to parents’ complaints about school violence. However, the school has denied the allegations.
The participants wore black attire to express condolences for the teacher, while urging authorities to come up with measures to safeguard teachers’ rights and promote the normalization of public education.
Earlier this week, the government and the ruling People Power Party agreed to move forward with a set of legal revisions aimed at protecting teachers’ rights and enhancing their authority in classrooms.
The decision comes in the wake of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s instruction to devise comprehensive guidelines to address the erosion of teachers’ rights.
