Day: March 6, 2024

Calls are growing for authorities in Hong Kong to release Lai Ke, a transgender activist from China who now faces repatriation after being jailed while transiting the city en route to Canada, her supporters and a rights group said in online statements.

Lai, who is also known as Xiran, was hauled in for questioning while transiting Hong Kong International Airport en route from Shanghai to Toronto in May 2023, and later handed a 15-month jail term for “forging” her travel documents at a secret trial with no lawyer present, according to her supporters.

As is Hong Kong’s policy for trans inmates, she served her sentence at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, a psychiatric detention center, and was released early for good behavior on March 2.

But instead of being released, Lai was immediately transferred to the Castle Peak Bay Immigration Detention Centre, sparking fears among her supporters and rights groups that she will be sent back to China, according to the X account @FreeLaiKe.

If she is forcibly repatriated, Lai will be “at grave risk of persecution,” Amnesty International has warned.

“The Hong Kong authorities must urgently clarify Lai Ke’s pending immigration status,” Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks said in a statement dated March 1. “As she is due to be released after serving her sentence, authorities must free her without conditions and allow her to travel onwards to a destination feasible for her.”

“In any event, the authorities must allow Lai Ke to legally challenge any deportation order following her release after serving her sentence,” Brooks said.

Mistreated in detention

Lai’s supporters say that she had been a vocal advocate for trans rights back in China alongside her partner Cai Xia, who was detained by the Chinese authorities in June 2023 in connection with her activism and her transgender identity, and accused of “organizing obscene activities.”

The Lai Ke (Xiran) Global Concern Group, which has been actively posting about her situation on Twitter and Instagram, said Lai had also been mistreated while in detention in Hong Kong, saying guards deprived her of her hormone medication, put her in solitary for a week calling her an “alien,” and forced her to cut her hair short.

The group said Lai had suffered physically and psychologically after being deprived of her hormone replacement therapy for two months, despite having the medication in her luggage. 

“Throughout her detention, Lai Ke repeatedly requested access to hormone medication, only to have these requests denied on various pretexts,” it said in a statement dated Feb. 27.

“As a result, Lai Ke was forced to cease hormone replacement therapy medication for nearly two months, leading to severe physical and psychological repercussions, including instances of self-harm,” it said.

Her parents weren’t informed of her whereabouts until July 19, 2023, and the authorities initially claimed that there was no record of Lai having entered Hong Kong, the group claimed in the statement, which RFA was unable to verify independently.

It accused the Hong Kong authorities of “complicity” in the Chinese government’s persecution of trans people.

The group also posted a letter handwritten by Lai in classical Chinese, an archaic form of the written language used by premodern writers, in which she complains about her treatment.

It said earlier attempts by Lai to write about her experiences in the detention center were censored by detention center authorities.

‘Time is of the essence’

According to Amnesty International, Lai is vulnerable to repatriation under Hong Kong immigration law, because she isn’t a resident of the city.

“Time is of the essence to prevent Lai Ke from being unlawfully deported to mainland China, where she would be at grave risk of serious human rights violations – including arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and even torture and other ill-treatment – due to both her transgender identity and her activism,” Brooks said.  

“To return her given these risks would be an abandonment of Hong Kong’s obligations under international law,” she said.

Amnesty International said it has documented systematic oppression and discrimination of transgender people in China, as well as large-scale censorship in recent years leading to the closure of online lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex groups and social media accounts.

It said police in China have repeatedly arrested, detained and imprisoned human rights defenders of all kinds using “unjustified, broadly defined and vaguely worded charges.”

Hong Kong Catholic priest and rights activist Franco Mella said that trans inmates are typically held in Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, but that the final decision over whether to continue hormone treatment lies with the center’s doctor.

“Any medications need to be discussed with the doctor — who can approve them but can also not approve them,” Mella said. “It’s the doctor’s decision.”

He said it was unclear how long Lai might be held at the Castle Peak detention center.

“Once you go in there, there’s no way of knowing when you’ll be released,” he said.

Crackdowns on LGBTQ+ community

LGBTQ+ activism is all but extinct in China, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping has cracked down on anyone displaying the rainbow flag in public, members of China’s LGBTQ+ community told Radio Free Asia in interviews in January.

In August 2023, Chinese officials removed an LGBTQ+ anthem titled “Rainbow” by Taiwanese pop star A-Mei from her set list from a concert earlier this month in Beijing, while security guards forced fans turning up for the gig to remove clothing and other paraphernalia bearing the rainbow symbol before going in, according to media reports.

A month after that crackdown, authorities in the central Chinese city of Changsha removed the song “Womxnly” – which commemorates a Taiwanese teenager who was found dead in a school toilet after being bullied by classmates for his “feminine” appearance – from the set list of Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai, after it became an anthem for the island’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and questioning community.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.

China’s top state planner has projected a multi-billion-dollar market from Beijing’s policy pushing for industries to upgrade their equipment and citizens to trade in their old vehicles and home appliances for new ones.

The domestic consumption push, an integral part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s latest mantra to unleash “new productive forces,” is seen as instrumental to Beijing’s efforts to revive growth.

Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, also assured the media that Beijing’s 5% GDP goal is achievable.

“This goal is in line with the annual requirements of the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ and matches the potential of economic growth, a goal that can be achieved with positivity and hard work,” he told reporters at a press conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress Wednesday. 

Zheng said the economy is recovering and showing new results, without specifying. One such potential result could be the over 5 trillion yuan (US$694 billion) that is forecast to be created annually as industries and companies upgrade their equipment to raise development quality.

“Chinese industries and the agricultural sector last year invested about 4.9 trillion yuan in equipment. The push to raise quality development will only increase demand for equipment upgrade,” he said at the joint briefing with China’s finance minister, commerce minister, central bank chief, and head of the securities regulator.

The campaign will focus on industrial, agricultural, construction, transport, education, cultural tourism and healthcare, where the upgrade will foster reduced carbon emissions, safety, digital transformation and smart intelligence, Zheng added.

Similarly, Zheng described the trade-in market for vehicles and home appliances as “huge” and in the “trillion yuan” level, given that car and white goods ownership last year reached 336 million units and 3 billion units, respectively. 

The upgrade and trade-in drives could enhance China’s efforts to build a circular economy, he noted.

“The promotion of such large-scale equipment upgrade and consumer goods trade-in is a systematic project … to be supported by fiscal, financial and tax policies.”

“New productive forces” was coined by President Xi during a trip to the rustbelt Northeast region last September, where he highlighted the need for a new economic model. In Xi’s China, the state’s role is expanding and the private sector is retreating. 

Central government agencies and local governments are now focused on putting the new vision into play. Chinese Premier Li Qiang in his maiden government work report on Tuesday called for a “new leap forward” to modernize the industrial system and accelerate the development of new productive forces across sectors like electric vehicles, hydrogen power, new materials, life sciences and commercial spaceflight. 

To support the domestic demand policy, Beijing will issue 1 trillion yuan of special long-term bonds this year, and more in the next few years. 

The thrust of China’s economic policy direction is “seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through advancement, and in construction before destruction,” according to the Chinese premier’s work report.

As such, authorities could be banking on “new productive forces” to buffer the structural challenges that clouded the outlook of the Chinese economy, like a deepening real estate market crisis, local government indebtedness and economic issues due to demographic shifts. Li’s report offered little details on structural reforms which some analysts said are crucial to address fundamental problems.

Externally, China’s foreign trade will face a severe situation, commerce minister Wang Wentao said at the press conference.

Echoing the complexity and unpredictability of the external environment, People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng stressed that the central bank will leverage on monetary policies and intensity macro-control policies to ensure stability.

“China’s monetary policy toolbox is still rich [with tools at our disposal], and there is still sufficient room for monetary policy [adjustments],” Pan said, adding that the bank will keep the yuan basically stable.

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

A three-day junta raid left one man dead and 100 homes destroyed in northern Myanmar, residents told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.

Joint military forces stormed a village in Kachin state’s Hpakant township on Sunday. 

The rebel Kachin Independence Army and a local resistance group, the Kachin People’s Defense Force, have been attacking a nearby battalion since Feb. 26, making villages prime targets for junta attacks. 

The area, known for its jade trade, has been caught between battles of rebel and junta forces vying for control of the region’s gem mines. 

Troops stationed near Tar Ma Hkan village torched more than 100 homes and shops in the village, residents said. 

According to a villager, soldiers shot a man in his 40s as the raid continued into Tuesday.

“This junta column came to reinforce the infantry battalion, but the Kachin Independence Army and the Kachin People’s Defense Force intercepted them, so they could not retreat or move forward,” he said, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. 

“That’s why they burned the village. Shwe Nagar Pharmacy, Ma Nge Mobile Phone Shop and a grocery store were also burned and destroyed by junta troops.”

More than 4,000 people live in Tar Ma Hkan village, residents said. Most villagers are employed in the jade industry, both in the mining and trade sectors. 

Locals said the junta camp near Tar Ma Hkan village was captured by the Kachin Independence army and affiliated defense groups on Tuesday evening. However, RFA could not independently confirm these claims.

RFA contacted Kachin state’s military spokesperson Moe Min Thein and Kachin Independence Army information officer Col. Naw Bu for more information on this battle, but neither responded by the time of publication.

Hpakant township was last attacked on Jan. 9, when junta troops used villagers as human shields following a battle with nearby People’s Defense Forces.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

A North Korean defector’s recent account has shed light on Pyongyang’s enforcement of forced labor at nuclear sites.

The comments mark the first instance of an explicit testimony on a practice that puts political prisoners at risk of radiation exposure.

Describing the working conditions at the nuclear facilities as “prison-like,” a 40-year-old defector who escaped the North in 2019 said North Korea requires forced labor from its political prisoners at such sites.

Few ordinary people wish to work there for fear of radiation exposure despite a number of perks offered to workers, said the defector, as cited by the Korea Institute for National Unification. 

For instance, the North Korean authorities reduced the mandatory military service from 10 years to five for those who work at the nuclear facilities, while offering benefits of college and the country’s sole ruling party membership, the defector told the institute. 

But she added she had heard that “those who serve [military service] there die in three years,” as a result of exposure to radioactive materials.

This is the first time a North Korean defector has come forward with concrete testimony that political prisoners are forced to work at a nuclear facility, according to the institute. 

In response to the defector’s claim, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said it “needs to be further verified.”

“There is no information to date on the existence of political prison camps or forced labor at nuclear facilities,” said a ministry official.

The testimony came a week after the Korea Institute of Radiological Medical Sciences, or KIRAMS, released a report on its tests of 80 North Koren defectors who used to live near Punggye-ri where the North’s nuclear test site is located. 

The report found 15 out of 17 who were tested for chromosomal aberrations had been exposed to radiation back in the North before they escaped.

KIRAMS indicated that this exposure could be attributed to North Korea’s nuclear tests, although it also clarified that a direct causal relationship cannot be conclusively established.

“Significant additional research is needed to more scientifically assess the impact of North Korea’s nuclear tests on neighboring populations, including more testees and early testing,” said KIRAMS.

Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.

Political activist Huynh Truong Ca says he will continue to demand democracy in Vietnam, following his recent release from a five-and-a-half-year prison term.

Ca, 53, still has to serve three years of probation following Monday’s release, but he told Radio Free Asia Tuesday that wouldn’t silence him.

He was arrested on Sept. 4, 2018 on charges of “propaganda against the state” under Article 117 of the criminal law. His detention came after he took part  in a protest against bills on Special Economic Zones and cyber ​​security in Ho Chi Minh City. 

The SEZ bill angered Vietnamese who said it would give valuable business concessions to foreign, not local, companies. The cyber security bill raised concerns the government would use the law to suppress freedom of expression.

“I just want to demand human rights and want the country to have democracy,” Ca told RFA Vietnamese.

“When I livestream, I call on everyone to protest the Special Economic Zone law.”

Ca is a member of the Constitution group, which promotes civil and human rights, supposedly guaranteed in Vietnam’s 2013 constitution.

In addition to the 2018 protest, he frequently made live broadcasts on the issues.

His indictment states that from March 23 to August 19, 2018, Ca conducted 40 livestreams on his Countryside Guy Facebook page. Prosecutors said nearly half the broadcasts contained content “that distorts and defames the government, and is against the state.”

Ca called his prison conditions harsh with a cramped cell, food “not fit for cats or dogs” and a lack of fresh water.

He didn’t hire a lawyer for his initial trial and refused to defend himself, saying he’d lost faith in Vietnamese justice.

“I considered hiring a lawyer but I saw that in Vietnam there were many political cases that lawyers could not solve,” Ca said.

“It doesn’t do anything. It’s just for decoration. That’s why I didn’t hire a lawyer. I wanted to send the message that I do not believe in their judiciary.”

He was sent to Dong Nai province’s Xuan Loc Prison where he shared a block with other political prisoners.

Many times, the group fought for their rights, and held two short hunger strikes demanding to receive books from their families and improve conditions.

Before being arrested, Ca had a traffic accident and said he didn’t receive adequate and timely treatment in prison.

He still has leg pain and blurred vision but said his personal health is not important.

“I am most concerned about the health of this country and its people,” he told RFA.

“If we want our country to have democracy and civilization, we should demand it. If many people demand it, the government will surely listen,” he added.

Ca was one of nine members of the Constitution group arrested in 2018.

State media reported that he confessed to the charges filed against him, but Ca said he only admitted the acts he had committed, saying they complied with the constitution.

The remaining eight members were convicted of “disturbing security” under Article 118, with sentences ranging from 30 months to eight years in prison. 

Two members are still serving prison sentences: Hoang Thi Thu Vang and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.