Day: March 4, 2024

Zhang Xiaoming, Beijing’s outspoken former representative in Hong Kong at the time of the 2019 protest movement, has been removed from his post at a political advisory body.

While state broadcaster CCTV reported that Zhang has been removed from the post of deputy secretary general of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, it was unclear whether he is accused of any wrongdoing.

State media continued on Monday to refer to Zhang as “comrade,” indicating that he remains a Communist Party member.

CCTV gave no reason for Zhang’s removal at the age of 61, four years short of the official retirement age of 65, and he remains a rank-and-file member of the Conference, appearing on the rostrum during Monday’s opening ceremony.

Several pro-China figures in Hong Kong declined to comment on Zhang’s departure when contacted by RFA Cantonese on Sunday.

However, political sources cited by the Singapore-based pro-China Lianhe Zaobao newspaper said Zhang could be on his way to another job, rather than being fired in some kind of disgrace.

China’s government has removed a number of ministerial-level officials from their posts in recent months without explanation, including former foreign minister Qin Gang and former defense minister Li Shangfu.

Hardliner

In Hong Kong, Zhang is largely remembered as a hardliner who flagged a number of repressive policies shortly before they were implemented. He was apparently sidelined in favor of Xia Baolong in 2020, possibly to take the fall for the 2019 protest movement.

In 2013, Zhang said a march demanding fully democratic elections proved that the freedoms guaranteed under the handover agreement were still intact.

He made local headlines during the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement of 2014 when he seemed to minimize the importance of the civil disobedience campaign for universal suffrage, by saying: “The sun is still going to rise.”

In September 2015, Zhang ruffled feathers with an early warning that the powers of the city’s chief executive would always trump those of the legislature and judiciary and that the separation of powers “does not suit Hong Kong.”

Limits to free speech

By 2016 he was condemning the “fishball revolution” protests in Mong Kok as being “close to terrorism,” and warning that anyone who espoused independence for the city should be barred from running in elections — a policy that was later implemented by city officials.

He also warned in the same year that there were “limits” to the free speech that Hong Kong was promised under the terms of its 1997 handover to Chinese rule.

By 2017, Zhang had been promoted to head the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office in Beijing, replacing Wang Guangya in the job. He was therefore the most senior Chinese government official in charge of Hong Kong affairs when the city was rocked by the anti-extradition movement, which broadened to include calls for fully democratic elections.

In 2019, he characterized the anti-extradition movement as “chaos and violence,” saying it was an attempt to foment a “color revolution,” or regime change, in Hong Kong.

Despite being demoted to deputy director with the appointment of Xia Baolong as director in 2020, Zhang continued to speak loudly against opposition politicians, saying they were “anti-China, disruptive elements” who should be excluded from public office, heralding changes to election rules that eliminated pro-democracy candidates from both legislative and district-level elections.

“It is only natural to demand that those who govern Hong Kong must be patriots,” Zhang said, adding: “Those who oppose China in order to create chaos in Hong Kong need to get out.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

China announced on Monday that it was canceling an annual news conference by Premier Li Qiang — which for years offered journalists a rare opportunity to put questions to a senior Chinese leader, albeit at a carefully staged and edited event rounding off the National People’s Congress.

Li will not be holding the traditional news conference at the close of the annual parliamentary session, which opens in Beijing on Tuesday, something that has happened every year since 1993, National People’s Congress spokesperson Lou Qinjian said.

The move would shield Li from having to answer questions deemed too politically sensitive for a live televised event, current affairs commentator Johnny Lau said. 

“The cancellation of the premier’s press conference naturally reduces Li Qiang’s public exposure,” Lau said. “Canceling it avoids a potentially embarrassing situation if foreign journalists start asking about sensitive topics.”

While most of the questions aimed at the heads of the Chinese government were carefully pre-screened by officials, the annual news conference has, from time to time provided the outside world with glimpses into the mindset of China’s usually secretive leadership.

In 1998, then-premier Zhu Rongji responded to a question about the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, saying that the authorities had taken “decisive measures” to stabilize the situation, describing the weeks-long student-led pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square as “political turmoil.”

And in 2020, then-Premier Li Keqiang made waves by telling the annual press conference that there were still 600 million people on an extremely low income in China, a comment that was seen as a veiled rebuke to President Xi Jinping’s claim to have eliminated poverty.

Li Keqiang’s unexpected death in October 2023 prompted a mass outpouring of public grief across China, which commentators said was an expression of dissatisfaction with Xi’s leadership and economic policy.

A veteran Chinese journalist who gave only the surname Shi for fear of reprisals said Li Qiang is likely seeking to avoid searching questions on the economy from foreign journalists.

“China’s economic decline since the zero-COVID policy has been serious,” Shi said. “Li Qiang doesn’t really want to answer a bunch of questions from Western journalists on topics like the shifting of supply chains, or the collapse of real estate companies and private enterprises.”

Other unwanted topics might include unemployment and a rapidly aging population, Shi said.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning declined to comment on the cancellation of the press conference at Monday’s briefing, saying only that concerns about the move were “unnecessary.” 

Dutch journalist blocked

The move came as foreign correspondents in China called for better treatment of journalists after authorities in the southwestern city of Chengdu shoved a Dutch journalist to the ground and detained him and his cameraman as they tried to film a protest, in a move that foreign correspondents in the country said is becoming increasingly common across the country.

The incident highlighted ongoing harassment of foreign journalists by the authorities across China as they try to do their jobs, according to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.

In a video report published by Dutch public broadcaster NOS, correspondent Sjoerd den Daas is approached by an unidentified man in a blue shirt, who shoves him to the ground and snatches away his microphone and backpack, as he approaches a group of protesting customers and investors outside the Sichuan Trust bank.

The protesters, who number just a handful, appear pleased to see the camera, and call out “Give us back our money” as the crew approaches.

“Sichuan Trust can no longer pay its bills; its coffers are empty,” den Daas wrote in his report on the demonstration. “The investors can whistle for their money, but it seems talking about that isn’t allowed.”

“The authorities have turned out in large numbers and intervene as soon as we get close,” he wrote, adding that some 8,600 people have been left high and dry after placing their money in Sichuan Trust, an unofficial “shadow” bank which offered high returns but greater risks.

“‘Move on!’ a plainclothes officer shouts as he drags us away from the crowd. Camera and smartphone are snatched from our hands and we are held at a nearby police station for two hours.”

Footage published by NOS shows unidentified personnel telling the journalists to “stop filming” as they are bundled into a car. On footage of them being taken away, a woman’s voice is heard commenting: “They’re taking the foreigners away.”

Increased harassment of journalists

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said in a statement on March 1 that it was “extremely disturbed” by the treatment of the Dutch journalists, who were on a reporting trip to Chengdu from their base in Beijing.

“This incident comes amid widespread reports from [our] members of increasing harassment and obstruction across China, as they try … to report on the country,” the Club said in a March 1 statement.

It said the journalists were “subsequently surrounded by both plainclothes and uniformed police,” who pushed den Daas to the ground again and manhandled his cameraman, forcing him to stop filming.

“The correspondent repeatedly identified himself as a foreign journalist and showed his government-issued press ID,” the Club said, adding that its members have “reported numerous incidents of similar harassment and obstruction” while trying to report across China during the past year.

It called on the Chinese government to protect foreign journalists better, and to allow them to do their jobs.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a news briefing on March 1 that she was unaware of the incident, but added that “foreign journalists working in China also need to abide by Chinese laws and regulations.”

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Russia has imported more than 1.5 million artillery shells from North Korea to cover its insufficient arms production as the war with Ukraine rages on, but about half of the shells are duds, a Ukrainian military official said.

South Korean military analysts also told Radio Free Asia that the shells that do fire cannot be aimed precisely, and sometimes even cause casualties among the Russian ranks.

“As of today, based on available statistical data, the Russians have already imported one and a half million shells from North Korea,” Major General Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, told news outlet Interfax-Ukraine. 

“But these munitions are from the 1970s and 1980s.,” he said. “Half of them do not function, and the rest require refurbishment or verification before use.”

South Korea said last week that the number of artillery shells North Korea has sent to Russia could be as high as 3 million. 

Kyiv has also alleged that North Korea has sent missiles to Russia and these have been used against Ukraine, which Pyongyang and Moscow deny. The transfer of North Korean arms to Russia has been condemned by the U.S. and almost 40 other countries.

Skibitskyi said that in exchange for the dated Soviet-era ammunition, North Korea is getting missile and submarine tech from Moscow.

“And the most important thing here for the international community is that North Korea is definitely asking for technologies related to nuclear weapons,” he said. 

“It is necessary to call Russia to responsibility, because the whole world is fighting for non-proliferation, and Russia is openly starting to work in this direction in exchange for receiving additional ammunition, missiles and other types of weapons.”

The poor quality of North Korean ammunition used by Russia in Ukraine has been widely discussed.

In December, the Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief of Staff said on Facebook that the shells were so shoddy that often they exploded in the barrels of Russian cannons and mortars.

Lee Il-woo, secretary-general of the Seoul-based Korea Defense Network, told RFA Korean that the North Korean shells cannot be fired accurately.

If you look at the craters where the shells [fired by the Russian military] landed, they are spread out in a circular pattern with no consistent impact group,” Lee said.

 “The fact that the shells are spread out like this means that the accuracy of the shells is very low,” he said. “Low precision means that when the shells are fired, they may even fall on the heads of their allies.”

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

Chinese-speaking online users claimed that Japanese Buddhist monks were recently paid to board the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier to “drive away evil spirits” from the vessel through an exorcism.

But the claim is false. Although the monks did visit the ship, they were not compensated for their time there and the ritual was not an exorcism but rather a prayer for the crew’s good fortune, according to an official from the vessel and Buddhism experts. 

The claim was shared on Weibo on Feb. 6. 

“Recently, the USS Ronald Reagan paid 14 Japanese monks to go inside the aircraft carrier to chant to exorcise the Devil out of the vessel,” reads the claim in part. 

The post also claimed that the monks were part of the “Tantra Buddhism” sector, portrayed as smaller and more secretive than Chinese Buddhism, or Han Buddhism, which has a significant following in China.

The claim was shared alongside a total of four images showing a group of people who appear to be Buddhist monks conducting a ritual in an enclosed area. 

The identical photos with similar claims have also been shared on popular Chinese social media platforms, such as Weibo, Netease and Xigua Video.

But the claim is false.

Voluntary invitation

A reverse image search on Google found the corresponding photos published on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, an official archive for media relating to U.S. armed forces, on Jan. 31.  

“Buddhist monks pray on the ceremonial quarterdeck during a tour of the U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), while in-port Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Jan. 31,” reads the caption of the photos. 

The USS Reagan Lt. Commander Phil Chitty said the visit of the monks was voluntary and free of charge, adding that it was part of the U.S. efforts to engage with local religious leaders. 

“Their visit to the ship was part of a larger trip where they visited several historical monuments,” Chitty told AFCL.

The Yokosuka naval base’s official X account posted a 12-second clip on Feb. 8 showing the monks chanting in front of a bronze statue of former President Reagan while aboard the ship. 

“Monks prayed for safe voyages on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier,” reads the caption of the clip.

The carrier has formerly hosted several other religious ceremonies as seen here, here and here. 

Blessing of peace

The monks who visited the U.S. vessel appear to be chanting the “Great Compassion Mantra,” a well-known chant mainly used for blessings of peace or spiritual comfort, said Lin Chien-te, director of Taiwan’s Institute of Religion and Humanities at Tzu Chi University, who reviewed a video of their ritual. 

Weijen Teng, head of the Department of Buddhist Studies at Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, shares a similar view. 

Teng told AFCL that the monks appear to be merely praying for blessing, although he believed they recited a separate sutra for the defense of one’s country.

“It is not an exorcism,” said Teng. 

Separately, the USS Reagan’s public affairs office told AFCL that the monks were from a temple associated with Muso Kokushi, a famous Zen master who lived and taught in Yokosuka during the 13th to 14th centuries. 

While Kokushi in his early years did practice Shingon and Tendai – two influential Buddhist sects classified as tantric in Japan – he later converted to the non-tantric Zen sect in his later years and maintained this to his death, according to Teng. 

Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.

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A Myanmar rebel alliance and junta officials discussed reopening the border and preserving a ceasefire at peace talks brokered by China, an Arakan Army official said Monday.

The talks between the Three Brotherhood Alliance and the military in the Chinese city of Kunming addressed the reopening of trade gates, deputy commander Nyo Tun Aung said in an online press conference. 

“We continue to discuss the previous Haigeng Agreement at every meeting,” he said, referring to the alliance’s name for the ceasefire agreed during January talks.

“We are continuing to strengthen the ceasefire, [addressing] the China-Myanmar border issue, how to wipe out the online scamming business and how the border exits should be reopened.”

Regime forces agreed to let the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army manage Shan state’s Kokang city, according to local media reports. The reports said junta officials asked the ethnic armed group to avoid harming China’s interests in order to allow them to reopen the border gates. 

Radio Free Asia contacted the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army to learn more about the topics discussed, but they did not respond by the time of publication.

Junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun did not return RFA’s calls trying to confirm the details.

The talks in China’s Yunnan province took place last Thursday and Friday, according to a member of an ethnic armed group who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Three Brotherhood Alliance and junta representatives agreed to a ceasefire in the previous round of talks on Jan. 11. An ex-military official  later said it was not sustainable and less than a week after the agreement, both sides were accused of violating it in a skirmish. 

The latest discussions focused on the ceasefire in northern Shan state since the Arakan Army has continued fighting junta forces in Rakhine state, Nyo Tun Aung said.

Since the Arakan Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army launched their 1027 attack in October, the three allied forces have captured at least six townships in Rakhine and Chin states. 

In northern Shan state, the Three Brotherhood Alliance captured 16 cities, including Muse and Chinshwehaw, which are vital for Chinese border trade.

Although fighting between the alliance and junta in Shan state has largely gone quiet since the ceasefire, non-alliance member the Kachin Independence Army launched an offensive only days later and has since attacked multiple cities. 

Peace talks still need to address the fighting in Rakhine state where the Arakan Army attacked a junta naval base and took control of parts of a China-funded special economic zone, causing construction delays.

Political analyst and former regime army officer Hla Kyaw Zaw told RFA that the current ceasefire talks are solely due to pressure from China and are not a satisfactory situation for both sides.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

 

Canberra will invest $64 million Australian dollars (US$41.8 million) over the next four years, including A$40 million in new funding, to expand maritime cooperation with Southeast Asia, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Monday.

Wong made the pledge at a forum on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit 2024 in Melbourne, which will celebrate 50 years of partnership between Australia and the regional bloc.

The summit is being held against a backdrop of increasingly assertive posturing by China in the South China Sea and the intensifying civil war in Myanmar, both of which are likely to be high on the agenda.

Wong said the new funds for maritime cooperation would contribute to security and prosperity within the region.

“What happens in the South China Sea, in the Taiwan Strait, in the Mekong subregion, across the Indo-Pacific, affects us all,” she said in her keynote address Monday.

She said the “region’s character” was under challenge and that no country must dominate.

“We face destabilizing, provocative and coercive actions, including unsafe conduct at sea and in the air and militarisation of disputed features,” Wong said, without singling out a specific nation.

China asserts sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes each year, putting it at odds with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and Taiwan. 

In 2016, an international tribunal refuted the legal basis for nearly all of China’s expansive maritime and territorial claims in the waterway. It said that Beijing’s insistence on holding “historic rights” to the waters were inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS.

Beijing has never recognized the 2016 arbitration or its outcome.

Speaking at the same forum, Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said the rule of law and especially UNCLOS was the fundamental starting point for maritime cooperation in the region.

“The shared stewardship of the seas and oceans in the region behooves us to unite in preserving the primacy of international law so we can ensure equitable and sustainable outcomes for all,” he said.

“It also calls for us to stand firmly together in opposing actions that contradict or are inconsistent with international law.”

The Philippines under the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has taken a stronger stance in dealing with Beijing on the South China Sea.

Marcos has also pursued warmer ties with the United States, a traditional ally, reversing the policies of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

In recent months, tensions between Manila and Beijing have led to numerous run-ins, including the China Coast Guard’s alleged harassment of Filipino vessels delivering provisions to troops at its military outpost on Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the South China Sea.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.