Day: March 8, 2024

Hong Kong’s government on Friday tabled a draft national security bill that proposes life sentences for anyone who “endangers national security,” with sentences of up to 10 years’ imprisonment for “illegally disclosing state secrets.”

The Safeguarding National Security bill, which is highly likely to pass in the city’s Legislative Council within a few weeks due to the lack of opposition lawmakers, comes amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the wake of the 2019 pro-democracy protests that has used both a 2020 National Security Law and colonial-era sedition laws to prosecute and jail people for protest and political opposition in unprecedented numbers. 

The government says the legislation will plug “loopholes” left by the 2020 National Security Law and claims it is needed to deal with clandestine activity by “foreign forces” in the city, which the ruling Chinese Communist Party blames for the 2019 mass protest movement that was sparked by plans to allow extradition to mainland China.

The law proposes sentences of up to life imprisonment for “treason,” “insurrection,” “sabotage” and “mutiny,” 20 years for espionage and 10 years for crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition.”

It also allows the authorities to revoke the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passports of anyone who flees overseas, and to target overseas activists with financial sanctions.

The concept of “collusion with foreign forces ” runs throughout the draft bill, and sentences are harsher where “foreign forces” are deemed to be involved.

Currently, pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai is on trial for a similar offense under the 2020 National Security Law — the case against him relies heavily on opinion articles published in Lai’s now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper.

The draft law allows police to extend the detention of arrested persons from 48 to 14 days in national security cases, and also creates a new offense: “unlawfully using a computer or electronic system to endanger national security,” which is punishable by 20 years in prison.

Security chief Chris Tang said there was a “genuine and urgent need” for the new law, citing waves of mass popular resistance and campaigns for full democracy in recent years, and particularly the protests of 2019.

“Hong Kong has undergone serious threats to national security, especially the color revolution and black-clad violence in 2019, which was an unbearably painful experience,” said Tang, who has previously warned that art “can be a pretext for subversion.”

Elastic definition of ‘national security’

Hong Kong officials and national security judges, who operate without a jury, have so far employed a highly elastic definition of what constitutes a threat to “national security.”

For example, dozens of former opposition politicians and activists are currently standing trial for “subversion” for organizing a democratic primary election.

But rights experts and activists including the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Rights Defenders have warned during the consultation process that the law will criminalize actions like peaceful protest or political opposition that should be protected under international law.

Some lawmakers expressed concerns on Thursday that the law could be used to curb public speech or the media.

Justice Secretary Paul Lam appeared to confirm that it could, saying that the law would be used to target those who “incite hatred,” citing the example of “insulting words” used about visitors from mainland China in recent years.

Amnesty International in January described the Article 23 legislation as “a dangerous moment” for human rights in Hong Kong, warning that Hong Kong authorities would likely “push through” this legislation with minimal meaningful consultation, and without ensuring its compliance with international law.

“The government has made clear it intends to double down on repression of civic freedoms under Article 23 by introducing steeper penalties and expanding cases in which the legitimate exercise of rights would be criminalized in the name of national security,” the group’s China director Sarah Brooks said in a statement on Jan. 30.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

Addressing an annual parliamentary session in Beijing, ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping extended “festive” greetings in honor of International Women’s Day, which falls Friday, to women delegates to the world’s biggest legislature earlier this week.

“I hope that all women will be spirited and energetic, and play their role in advancing China’s modernization by holding up half the sky,” Xi said, quoting late supreme leader Mao Zedong’s epithet about women.

The last time Xi mentioned women specifically in a high-profile speech, he was using similar language to call on them to play an “irreplaceable role” in nurturing “traditional Chinese virtues and fostering stronger family values,” according to state media reports of his speech to the All-China Women’s Federation in October 2023.

Yet women were only mentioned twice in the annual work report by premier Li Qiang to the assembled National People’s Congress, in broad-brushed wording about “protecting their rights and interests.” Xi Jinping got 18 mentions in the document, the English version of which ran to nearly 14,000 words.

Women occupy just over 26% of the nearly 3,000 seats in the National People’s Congress and slightly more than 22% of seats in its advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. 

That puts China 89th out of 190 in the Parline ranking of female representation in global parliaments. For comparison, the United States ranks 72nd and the United Kingdom 48th.

Further up the echelons of power, a different picture emerges, however.

Just 11 out of 205 members of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee are women, while no women have sat on the 24-member Politburo since the retirement of vice premier Sun Chunlan in March 2023. No woman has ever sat on the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.

‘A male alliance’

While things appear to have worsened under Xi’s rule, the “core leadership circle” of the Chinese Communist Party has always excluded women, feminist commentators and rights activists told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.

“It’s a male alliance, and its patriarchal and authoritarian aspects are reflections of each other,” U.S.-based feminist activist and writer Lu Pin said.

The few women who do make it to the higher levels of political power aren’t representative of Chinese women generally, and don’t work to advance their cause, says Lu.

“[They] have no connection with the vast majority of women,” Lu said. “Everything they do is just an extension of what their male comrades do.”

Women only occupy 8% of jobs in senior leadership positions in China, according to a December 2023 report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“All of the national policies affecting China’s direction in the 100 years since the Communist Party was founded have been decided by that … small group of men sitting on the Politburo Standing Committee, which has never had a female member,” Zhang Jing, New York-based founder of Women’s Rights in China, said in an interview, commenting on that report. 

“In particular, the decades of persecution under the one-child policy.”

“Marxism does talk about equality between men and women — at least the concept is there, but Mao Zedong just used that as a slogan without actually putting it into practice,” she told Radio Free Asia.

Wang Ruiqin, who once represented the All-China Women’s Federation at the Qinghai provincial Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, agreed.

“The oppression of women … basically hasn’t changed since the founding of the Communist Party 100 years ago — it’s part of traditional culture,” she said, commenting on the same report.

“After the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949 … they brought in three women as ministers because they had just gotten into power and they needed to put on a show,” she said. 

“They had slogans about equality between men and women … but there hasn’t been a substantive boost for women’s liberation in the more than 70 years since then … and things have gotten worse under the Xi Jinping administration,” Wang said.

The lowest rungs of politics

Sociologist Xu Fang, who lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, said Chinese women have typically shown a better level of participation at lower levels of the political system.

“But as power becomes more and more concentrated, there will be very few women at the tip of the pyramid,” she said.

Even on the lowest rungs of politics, participation hasn’t even reached the target of one third set during the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, according to veteran feminist activist Feng Yuan, who was present at that event.

“One third is a very important threshold, a kind of critical mass,” she said. “The government also made this commitment.”

So what kind of progress do Chinese feminists most hope to see over the next few years?

For Lu Pin, civil and political rights are more important than anything else, including economic, social and cultural rights, especially now that the government has suppressed civic groups and non-government organizations that used to promote women’s rights.

“Chinese women aren’t allowed to fight for their own rights at the moment,” she said. “Women should be allowed to decide what rights are important to them, and what methods they want to use to fight for them — that is the key.”

“The reason women’s rights have been suppressed is that women haven’t been allowed to define what their rights are, then pursue them,” she said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.

A rebel army in Myanmar seized over a dozen junta camps in the north, an official told Radio Free Asia on Friday. 

Since the Kachin Independence Army launched an offensive on Sunday, it has captured 14 camps near its headquarters in Lai Zar city on the Chinese border, said information officer Col. Naw Bu.

Several townships in Kachin state have been caught in frequent conflict as junta troops and Kachin Independence Army soldiers fight for control of the area’s jade mines, highways, and border areas. 

Since China brokered a ceasefire between the Three Brotherhood Alliance and junta forces, Kachin state’s largest army – not in the alliance – has been a formidable opponent for the military in both Shan and Kachin states. 

Rebel soldiers seized camps on Myitkyina-Bhamo road on the fifth day of the six-day attack.

“The largest camp, Hpun Pyen Bum where 120 millimeter heavy weapons are based, was captured on Thursday evening. Ntap Bum camp was also captured,” he said. 

“Most of the junta’s small defensive camps around Bum Re Bum and Myo Thit were captured. Now, these small defensive camps are being used [by the KIA] to attack big camps, like Bum Re Bum and Ka Yar Taung.”

The junta army has been firing heavy artillery at the Kachin Independence Army’s headquarters in Lai Zar since Thursday, he added. 

The bombardment has impacted not only Lai Zar, but also the border with China. Shells fired by junta troops killed three civilians, including a child and a woman on Thursday. Three more fell across the Chinese border, destroying property, locals said.

RFA contacted the Chinese Embassy in Yangon and national junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun to confirm the army fired shells into China, but neither responded by the time of publication. 

A Lai Zar resident told RFA this morning that the sounds of fighting could be heard everywhere as the junta continued to attack the city with heavy weapons. 

“Since this morning, gunshots have been heard in many places. There were more than eight rounds of artillery fired this morning until 8 a.m.,” he told RFA on Friday. “The shells landed on the other side of Lai Zar city, on the Chinese side and burned houses. Many people in the city have been fleeing to safety.”

Grounded Flights and Closed Roads

The Kachin Independence Army has not had control of these camps since 2011, Col. Naw Bu said, adding they also plan to reopen Bhamo-Myitkyina Road. The highway was closed in July after fighting erupted between the junta and Kachin Independence Army in Nam Sang Yang village, near Lai Zar.

Clashes in Kachin state’s capital have also impacted transportation in and out of the state. An airline ticket sales representative told RFA resistance groups began attacking multiple flight locations across the region.

On Thursday, the Kachin Independence Army and allied People’s Defense Forces attacked the junta air force headquarters with short-range missiles. The groups also fired heavy weapons at Bhamo Airport, forcing it to close indefinitely and suspend flights.

“Bhamo Airport has been closed since Thursday. The airport authorities have shut down the airport and are not sure when the planes will be allowed to land again,” a representative told RFA, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. “I am not sure if the canceled flights will be replaced so I am just refunding people’s money.”

A Bhamo resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons said fighting in the city continued into Friday.

“The airport was attacked by a short-range missile and the runway was hit and damaged a little. People who are traveling urgently and the sick are having a hard time now the airport is closed,” he said. “Heavy weapons were also firing all night last night. I couldn’t sleep.”

RFA contacted Kachin state’s junta spokesperson Moe Min Thein regarding the closures and conflict, but he did not respond.

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

The Bougainville region of Papua New Guinea, which voted unambiguously for independence in 2019, has refused to recognize the central government’s appointment of a senior police officer in the latest sign of tensions over the autonomous territory’s future.

Bougainville’s government wants to achieve its independence aspirations by 2027 but faces opposition from Papua New Guinea’s leaders who fear it could encourage secessionist movements in other regions of the volatile Pacific island country. An estimated 10,000-15,000 people died in a decade-long war between Bougainville and Papua New Guinea, according to an Australian government report on the conflict.

Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama said the appointment earlier this week of a deputy head of police for Bougainville by Papua New Guinea’s police commissioner “usurped” his government and was a breach of the 2001 peace agreement that officially ended the civil war.

The national government “ignored my government in this decision and we were never consulted nor privy to the process,” Toroama, a former commander in the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, said in a statement Thursday. 

“This appointment will not be recognized by the Autonomous Bougainville Government as it is unconstitutional and breaches the Bougainville Peace Agreement,” he said.

The anger at the police appointment comes as frustrations simmer over lack of progress in getting Papua New Guinea’s Parliament to ratify the results of the independence referendum. 

Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country with an estimated 12 million people, is a focus of intensifying U.S.-China rivalry for influence in the Pacific. Some analysts have said Bougainville, home to about 300,000 people, would add a new dimension to the great power competition in the region if it were an independent nation.

Taiwan’s government reportedly wrote to Toroama in 2020 following his election, offering support. 

A report from the Washington-based Heritage Foundation in January said China was already preparing for possible Bougainville independence and has previously offered $1.0 billion for economic development through its contacts with Sam Kauona, a former general in the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and a former presidential candidate.

A statement Thursday from Bougainville’s Attorney-General Ezekiel Masatt said the central government is treating Bougainville’s people and the law with “careless disregard and disdain.”

Papua New Guinea’s government has “devious and devilish intentions and strategies,” he said.

National Police Commissioner David Manning, at a general press conference on Friday, said that the police force only consults the Bougainville government on the appointment of the head of police in the region, a police spokesperson told BenarNews.

Bougainville, which makes up the easternmost islands of Papua New Guinea and borders the Solomon Islands, is the site of the long-inactive Panguna copper and gold mine – the historical source of conflict with the central government that spiraled into civil war as Bougainville suffered the environmental costs but got little of its substantial earnings.

The Bougainville government in February renewed the exploration license of Bougainville Copper, a company in which Bougainville and Papua New Guinea each have 36% shareholdings. The renewal paves the way for redevelopment of the mine in the coming years, the company said citing Toroama, and offers a potential windfall for impoverished Bougainville as the mine has among the world’s largest copper deposits.

Masatt’s statement also criticized the failure of Papua New Guinea’s Parliament to consider ratification of the results of the independence referendum, which got more than 97% support from Bougainville’s voting public.

Despite an agreement between Toroama and Prime Minister James Marape, Parliament did not address the issue in 2023 and failed to address it at its first sitting for 2024 in February, he said, instead adjourning the legislature until May.

Papua New Guinea police did not immediately comment on the Bougainville government’s statements, but said Police Commissioner David Manning would hold a press conference on Friday.

The opposition’s Bougainville shadow minister, Puka Temu, said the police appointment is an example of the government failing to maintain respectful relations with the Bougainville administration.

“The government continues to shift the goal posts with their handling of the ratification of the referendum results,” he said. 

“It is becoming clear,” Temu said, that the government “is not making enough effort to consult with the ABG [Autonomous Bougainville Government], and this is unnecessarily frustrating a straightforward process.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

Vietnam’s state-controlled media have finally broken the silence on the arrests of two famous human rights activists after police confirmed their detention.

The reports come a week after Nguyen Chi Tuyen and Nguyen Vu Binh were taken in for questioning by the Hanoi police.

Tuyen, 50, is a social activist, regularly participating in protests about national sovereignty and environmental protection. He is best known for running two YouTube channels commenting on the issues, with around 160,000 followers.

Nguyen Vu Binh, 56, is a former editor of Tap Chi Cong San, or Communist Review, and a blogger for Radio Free Asia.

The Hanoi Police Security and Investigation Agency said on Feb. 29, they executed arrest and search warrants for the two men on charges of “propaganda against the state” under Article 117 of the law.

The Voice of Vietnam website said Tuyen repeatedly used Youtube and X to spread what it called “fake news.”

His wife, Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, told RFA police did not give the family any documentation about the arrest of her husband.

She said during the house search, the police only read out the warrants, which she did not remember fully due to the stress of the occasion.

RFA’s reporter could not contact Nguyen Vu Binh’s family.

Nguyen Chi Tuyen shut down his two YouTube channels two years ago and switched to a new channel called AC Media to focus on reports about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

A year ago Hanoi police questioned him about some old YouTube live streams and this January they banned him from leaving the country.

“Vietnam must free bloggers Nguyen Chi Tuyen and Nguyen Vu Binh and cease its unremitting harassment of independent reporters,” said Shawn Crispin, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Southeast Asia representative on Thursday. “It’s high time Vietnam stopped equating journalism with criminal behavior.”

Vietnam was the fifth worst jailer of journalists worldwide, with at least 19 reporters arrested as of Dec. 1, 2023, according to CPJ’s annual global prison census.  

Human Rights Watch also condemned the two arrests and the abuse of Article 117 to suppress freedom of expression.

“The Vietnamese government treats all online expression of peaceful political views as a dire threat to the ruling party and government, and crushes such dissent with politically motivated arrests, trials, and prison sentences,” said HRW Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson.

The U.S.-based group called on Vietnam’s government to stop the crackdown on bloggers, human rights campaigners and social activists, and demanded the immediate release of people detained solely for exercising their basic human rights.

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