Day: April 22, 2024

Apple’s app store in China has taken down at least four chat apps that are widely used internationally, sparking concerns over the impact on the free flow of information and freedom of speech among users of its products in the country.

Apple told Reuters on Friday that it had removed Meta Platforms’ messaging apps WhatsApp and Threads from the China App Store on orders from the government due to “national security” concerns.

The app-tracking site Apple Censorship showed that the two apps were no longer available in China, while two other encrypted messaging apps — Telegram and Signal — were also taken down from the store on Friday.

Commentators told Radio Free Asia that the move could be a preemptive form of retaliation ahead of the passage of a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday that targets the Chinese social media app TikTok.

The removal also comes as the ruling Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping steps up a “national security” political campaign encouraging members of the public to look out for suspicious activity by potential foreign-backed actors in their everyday lives.

According to Apple Censorship, Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, all Meta products, were still available to download as of 1230 GMT on Monday, as were YouTube and X.

“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns,” Apple said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Friday.

“We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” the statement said, but didn’t explain how the apps could have generated national security concerns.

The Cyberspace Administration of China also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters or specialist media TechCrunch.

However, the agency announced last August that all app stores would need to go through a registration process to continue operating in China, and the move could be a part of that process.

A tech industry worker who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals said he was disappointed in Apple over the takedown of the apps.

“The reason we all like Apple’s products is that its high level of technology can offer us freedom of information,” the worker said. “But when it comes to China, Apple just kneels down.”

While Apple products, particularly devices bought outside of China, have a reputation as a relatively secure option for anyone wishing to evade government monitoring, questions remain about their ability to protect users’ privacy in an all-encompassing surveillance state like China.

The tech industry worker cited the example of Apple’s AirDrop file sharing system, long regarded by the authorities as problematic because it offers a way for people to share content without going through the country’s tightly monitored and heavily censored internet.

The Beijing municipal judicial affairs bureau said on Jan. 8, 2024 that it had managed to de-anonymize AirDrop users, sending a warning to anyone hoping to share banned content without triggering censorship alerts or leaving evidence that might be used to target them in criminal proceedings.

“Apple continues to castrate itself,” the tech industry worker said. “Is this the same Apple that refused to hand over user data to the FBI in the United States? They are using double standards so as to access the Chinese market.”

He said it was possible that the move is a form of retaliation for current attempts to ban TikTok in the United States.

“I suspect that the Chinese government is taking this opportunity to retaliate,” they said. “Apple has become a tool of the Chinese government.”

U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao agreed.

“TikTok is of strategic significance to the Chinese Communist Party … so it’s inevitable that they will find ways to fight back,” Teng said.

But he said there is a big difference between the national security concerns cited in the United States TikTok bill, and those cited by China.

“In Chinese Communist Party strategic discourse, national security actually means the security of the Chinese Communist Party,” Teng said. “So according to that logic, using WhatsApp or any other app to spread information freely would allow more liberal and democratic ideas to spread, which would threaten the Communist Party’s grip on power.”

He said the breaking of AirDrop for Chinese users came after lone protester Peng Lifa hung banners calling for democratic government and for Xi Jinping to step down from a traffic flyover in Beijing in October 2022, just days before the 20th party congress nodded through an unprecedented third and indefinite term in office for Xi.

“This approach may be to [Apple’s] economic benefit in the short term, but will harm them in the long term,” Teng said.

The controversy over app store takedowns comes after Apple’s Tim Cook visited China last month, underscoring the country’s importance to the company, which was the country’s top seller of smartphones, holding 17.3% of market share, according to IDC Research.

Yet Chinese iPhone sales slumped 24% from a year ago in the first few weeks of 2024, according to research from Counterpoint Research.

In February 2023, Apple took down Damus, a Twitter-like social media app linked to Jack Dorsey’s Nostr social media platform, after the Chinese authorities said it had failed a security assessment.

That app was likely banned because of its lack of content moderation, and because it offered access to trading platforms for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which are technically banned in China, industry analysts said at the time.

Shares in Apple tumbled in September 2023 after the Chinese authorities reportedly banned the use of foreign-made electronics including Apple’s iPhone for government business.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Eugene Whong.

Got the latest washing machine? How old is your fridge? It’s a little hot in here — are you sure you don’t need air-conditioning?

These are all searching questions being asked by “grid workers,” people hired by the local government to keep tabs on neighborhoods and report their findings.

In a bid to boost flagging economic growth and weak domestic demand, the Chinese government is tapping the grid workers to ask people to trade in their old cars, washing machines and other household appliances, and even to remodel their homes.

Ruling Chinese Communist Party officials once called on people to hand in their cooking pans and any items made of metal to smelt steel in backyard furnaces, in a bid to outpace the economies of Britain and the United States during the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s.

Now, motivated by similar concerns, the authorities want them to buy all manner of consumer goods, get a fancier car and a home makeover instead — all subsidized by the government, working in tandem with local businesses.

A nationwide consumer goods trade-in program announced by the Ministry of Commerce on April 12 aims to boost the recycling of household appliances by 15% this year, compared with 2023, and the replacement rate of cars by 45%, tying in with fresh emissions standards that take effect in 2025.

“Replacing old consumer goods with new ones,” is identified as a “key task” by 15 government departments this year, along with boosting trade in second-hand cars, according to a copy of the document posted to the Ministry of Commerce website.

The focus of the plan is “expanding domestic demand” and meeting people’s need for a “better life,” it said.

Since then, the Shijiazhuang branch of online retailers JD.com has teamed up with home appliance-makers to offer discounts of up to 35% on air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and other kitchen and bathroom equipment, according to a report last Thursday in the Hebei Daily newspaper.

Subsidies are also available to those buying new appliances of up to 1,000 yuan, the paper reported, while car sales and service centers in the Shijiazhuang Yuhua Automobile Park are also offering trade-in policies to boost new car sales.

Meanwhile, the grid workers are also carrying out surveys of the state of people’s home appliances and plans to replacement, and getting households to enter all of the information the authorities want on a single form, according to screenshots posted by WeChat group users last week.

A resident of Shanghai who gave only the surname Liu for fear of reprisals said she had been approached by a community worker last week in a bid to get her to spend more money on new appliances.

“I said there was no need, as I can just use the ones I have now,” Liu said. “They’re just trying to get people to spend money.”

“If people’s appliances break down, then they will buy new ones of their own accord,” she said. “You don’t have to tell them to do it.”

A resident of the northeastern city of Qingdao who gave only the nickname John for fear of reprisals said he has received a number of SMS text messages containing promotions for home appliances, while local residential communities have even started to sell new appliances themselves.

“They are trading in old cars and appliances for new ones, and promoting air conditioners in rural areas,” John said. “The neighborhood committees are sending texts to people’s phones, and a notice has been issued in our community WeChat group.”

“There are even products right there that have been brought in for promotion by the neighborhood committees,” he said.

John said he took advantage of the promotion to acquire a new air cooler/heater, marked down to just 399 yuan after discounts and subsidies from a listed price of 1,500 yuan.

“But then most people won’t know what the original price was,” he said.

A similar pilot is under way in Shandong’s Weifang city, while Hunan province will be subsidizing local residents to buy cut-price TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators and other home appliances, state media reported.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Eugene Whong.

Large-scale military drills between the United States and the Philippines began on Monday, with a portion of this year’s “Balikatan” exercise expected to take place for the first time in Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea – a move that could anger Beijing. 

At least 16,000 troops – 11,000 from the U.S. and 5,000 from the Philippine side – are taking part in the drills, along with hundreds of troops from Australia and France, who were invited to be direct participants in the 2024 Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) Exercise.

This year’s iteration will incorporate new aspects, with part of the exercise taking place outside the Philippines’12 nautical-mile territorial waters and in the EEZ, where tensions have risen lately between Manila and Beijing over their contending claims in the South China Sea. 

This year, the Philippine Coast Guard has also been invited to participate, the first time in 39 years that a civilian entity has been asked to join the drills.

Drills on deterring a ground invasion will take place in Batanes, the northernmost Philippine island chain that lies just across the strait from Taiwan, officials said, but they declined to give other details about that portion of the drills closed to press coverage.   

“This exercise represents the essence of unity, collective responsibility and enduring partnership between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of America and other partners,” Filipino military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner said as he declared the three-week drills open.

“It is not a partnership of convenience but rather a clear reflection of our shared history, unwavering commitment to democracy and respect for international law in our pursuit of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

Brawner emphasized that both nations are coastal states that “understand the importance of maritime cooperation in addressing the complex challenges that threaten peace and security in our region.”

This was an obvious reference to China, which has of late allegedly ramped up its harassment of Filipino boats delivering supplies to an old navy ship that Manila purposely grounded on Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal) to serve as its outpost in the area.

Last month, three crew members of a Philippine supply boat were injured when the China Coast Guard fired water cannons to block its advance.

The Philippines and the United States are mutual defense treaty partners, and Washington has said repeatedly that it will come to Manila’s aid in case of an armed attack on any of its military and civilian ships.

Lt. Gen. Willian Jurney, the commander of the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific, who is in charge of the American side, said this year’s drills were more expansive.

“If you are not getting better, you are getting worse. Each year, we work closely with our partners to make Balikatan more challenging,” he said. “We’re building military readiness across the full range of combined and joint operations. When we get better, the Philippines gets stronger, safer and more secure.” 

This time around, the Balikatan drills will also welcome observers from other Southeast Asian neighbors, Britain, Canada, South Korea, India, Japan, New Zealand and Germany, Brawner said.

Philippine move pays off  

Ray Powell, a maritime security analyst at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, said China’s “bullying” in the South China Sea had pushed the Philippines closer into the embrace of its defense ally, the United States.

“China’s escalations – intended to cow Manila into submission – have instead served to galvanize the Philippines’ friends and allies by reminding them of the near and present danger [that] its expansionist agenda presents to the international order,” he told BenarNews.

Powell also noted that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appeared to have come away from a trilateral summit with his U.S. and Japan counterparts in Washington earlier this month with some victories – foremost among them, the securing of economic and defense backing by the two allies.

China has protested the drills, saying that its position on the South China Sea remained clear and that it blamed Manila for allegedly provoking hostilities by infringing on its territory.

This year, the Americans have dedicated ships, aircraft including their F-22 Raptor fighter jets, and medium-range capability weapons system, among others, for the exercise. 

The Philippine military will be showcasing some of the military hardware it acquired for its modernization program, including a frigate, FA-50 fighter jets, and Super Tucano light attack aircraft.

One of the major events under this year’s Balikatan is a joint sail among ships from the Philippines, U.S. and France in the South China Sea, from April 25 to May 4. These vessels will be conducting gunnery drills and other training activities during the joint sail.

Another major event is a maritime strike or ship sinking exercise which will be held off Ilocos Norte province in the northern Philippines on May 8. 

Jeoffrey Maitem, Mark Navales and Jojo Riñoza contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

Myanmar’s military draft has created a cottage industry of corruption as administrators across the country offer eligible citizens a way out of fighting in exchange for a price, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Desperate to shore up its dwindling ranks amid mounting losses to rebel groups and mass surrenders, the junta enacted a conscription law that came into effect in April, three years after the military seized power in a coup d’etat.

Now anyone aged 18-35 can be forced to serve for up to five years – and local administrators in charge of carrying out the draft are enriching themselves in the process.

“Eligible people … are entered into a lottery and the names that are selected have to serve,” said a resident of eastern Mandalay region’s Pathein Gyi township who, like others interviewed, asked not to be identified for security concerns.

“We’re told that if we don’t want to go, we can pay them [the administrators] money to arrange for a replacement,” she said, adding that the option to pay a bribe is not publicly disclosed, but common knowledge.

Sources RFA Burmese spoke to said bribes to avoid service range from 500,000 kyats (US$240) to a staggering 50 million kyats (US$23,830), depending on the area and draft quota requirements. Even the low end of the range represents several times the monthly income of the average worker in Myanmar.

A young man from Hinthada township in the southern region of Ayeyarwaddy told RFA that he was even approached by the regional governor to pay money to avoid service after he was selected in a lottery.

“He told me that I could make substitutions with others, but I’d need to pay him 3 million kyats (US$1,430) for this,” he said. “So, I gave him the money.”

Fleeing and assassinating

The conscription law has prompted thousands of youth to flee Myanmar’s cities for the countryside, where many say they would rather fight for rebel groups, or to leave the country entirely. 

Rebel groups have fought back, assassinating administrators for abetting the military regime. In some cases, local officials have resigned, caught between the wrath of the public and junta pressure to meet draft quotas.

The solicitation of bribes has contributed to the opacity of the draft process, further angering a public that is already turning against the military. 

RFA has received numerous reports that administrators are omitting draft-eligible individuals from the lottery process without providing any explanation.

Authorities are also coercing the youth of poor, squatter families in Yangon and other cities into military service and forcing other households in the community to support the families financially and pay their salaries.

Multiple attempts to contact junta spokespersons for a response to claims of draft-related corruption went unanswered by the time of publication.

Drafting the hardly eligible

Under Myanmar’s military conscription law, anyone aged 18-35 can be called up to serve for up to five years.

Junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun recently announced that, based on the country’s 2019 census, at least 13 million people – or nearly one quarter of Myanmar’s population – are eligible.

The junta has said it will conduct military training once a month for 5,000 trainees from around the country each time. A total of 50,000 people will be recruited in the first year, retroactive to the enactment of the law.

A 34-year-old man from Yangon’s North Dagon Myothit township said that he was selected in a draft lottery despite only having one year of eligibility left.

“I don’t want to run away and I refuse to join the service, so I had to ask for help from local authorities to get my name off of this year’s list,” he said. “I had to pay them a 1.4 million-kyat (US$670) bribe.”

RFA has also received reports of authorities entering some residents into draft lotteries who are well outside of age eligibility.

In one village in eastern Bago region, eight people were recently selected to be drafted, including one 59-year-old man. A resident of the village told RFA that the man asked authorities whether a younger person could take his place, but they refused.

“Instead the administrator said he would substitute his underlings for the eight people selected in the draft and demanded that they each pay him 2.5 million kyats (US$1,190),” a resident said.

The resident advised the 59-year-old not to pay the bribe, but he said the administrator threatened to confiscate his home if he refused, so he agreed.

Join or go into debt

Local administrators – obliged to provide fresh recruits for junta officials in the capital Nay Pyi Daw – are subject to little oversight, and appear more than willing to enrich themselves in the process.

Those families who lack the means to buy their way out of military service have few options, while for others, paying the bribes can mean a lifetime of crushing debt.

A widow in Bago region’s Daik-U township recently petitioned authorities to spare her son after he was selected in a draft lottery, as he was her sole means of support, according to a close friend of the young man.

“They offered to take 50 million kyats for her son to avoid service,” he said. “She borrowed the money and gave it to the officials, but they asked for another 3 million kyats (US$1,430).”

The friend said that the widow was able to borrow the additional money, but the young man was wracked with guilt and later took his own life.

Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Nearly 80 people at refugee camps in western Myanmar have died in only three weeks due to poor living conditions, displaced people and aid workers told Radio Free Asia. 

Seventy-six people have died at six camps for internally displaced individuals near the capital of Rakhine state, Sittwe, according to civil society groups. The highest fatalities were recorded at Ohn Taw Gyi camp with 38 deaths and Say Tha Mar Gyi camp with 27 deaths.

“Every day, two or three children die the same way,” one worker said, declining to be named to protect their work in the area.

The most deadly symptoms of unclean water were diarrhea and vomiting, which largely affected children, a displaced person told RFA, adding that it is difficult to know what water-borne illnesses are affecting the camps’ residents due to a lack of doctors in the area.  

“Living in the camp for internally displaced people is quite tough. One house to another house is quite close and people live together,” he said, declining to be named for security reasons.

“The water is not clean. Food is not as free as before.

“People in camps have to eat food depending on availability. All the children, including newborn babies, as well as one or two-year-old children, vomit and suffer from diarrhea and stomach aches.”

The death toll has risen due to the lack of available doctors to treat symptoms and the absence of accessible medicine for refugees, he said, noting that only short-term medications are available for children and elderly people because of the shortage in Sittwe. 

While symptoms like these are common in refugee camps, the death toll is at an all-time high because there is nothing they can do to prevent it, people residing in the camps told RFA. 

Stricter blockades, fewer options

Fighting in Rakhine state between the Arakan Army and the junta has left locals stranded after fleeing from battle zones and international aid organizations unable to remain in the conflicted state. 

Most of the displaced people in the camps are ethnically persecuted Rohingya or other Muslim minorities in Rakhine state, who are often suffering from few rights and limited mobility.

It is difficult to pay for medical treatment because Muslim refugees are not allowed to move freely and earn money, said one aid worker.

“There are children who died [without medical treatment] due to lack of money in the camps. They are facing such a bad situation,” he said, declining to be named for fear of reprisals. 

“The military junta does not provide these people with basic human necessities and does not arrange for the international humanitarian organizations to help them out.”

He added that even though civil organizations are eager to assist, they are unable to do so effectively due to the lack of medicine. He attributed this to blockades that prevent supplies from reaching major parts of the Rakhine state.

Predominantly Muslim villages and refugee camps in western Sittwe have been restricted from importing and transporting food and medicine since 2012, and residents face strict travel restrictions.

In early November 2023, the junta placed wider restrictions on transporting food products and medicine into the region.

Kaman and Rohingya residents live together in about 15 camps near Sittwe, but aid workers have only been able to learn the casualties from six, meaning the death toll could be significantly higher, aid workers said. 

Free Rohingya Coalition founder Nay San Lwin told RFA that Muslim refugees are facing a dire situation because of the blockade.

“If such problems arise either in the camps or villages, at least people could get permission to go to the hospital and clinic. Now it is in the worst situation,” he told RFA on Sunday.

“All of these problems are because of the junta’s blockage and people are facing this situation. This is not yet the end of the military council committing genocide against our Rohingyas.”

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Taejun Kang.

A Thai border hospital received nearly 40 injured people for treatment after a battle in neighboring Myanmar, according to Thai officials on Monday.

At least 38 were admitted in total, Thai public health minister Cholnan Srikaew said during a press conference at Mae Sot General Hospital on Monday. 

Mae Sot is a Thai city that shares a border with Myanmar to the west. It is notable as a trade hub and for its substantial population of Burmese migrants and refugees.

“We treat them according to their conditions, mostly involving surgery,” he said. “There were 22 people admitted on Saturday. Another 16 gradually came on Sunday.”

Cholnan declined to disclose how many junta troops and rebel soldiers were included among the injured.

“We do not discriminate which group they are,” he said, adding that foreign nationals would be referred to relevant security agencies following their treatment.

The armed branch of the Karen National Union, called the Karen National Liberation Army, and its allies captured junta Infantry Battalion 275 in Myawaddy, a Burmese town that shares a border with Thailand’s Mae Sot, on April 10. 

After rebel forces intercepted a junta convoy and injured over 100 soldiers on its way to recapture Myawaddy on Thursday, Mi-35 helicopters bombed the town in retaliation on Saturday around 3 a.m. 

Gunfire between junta troops and rebel forces and airstrikes could be heard late into late Sunday morning, Thai soldiers and Mae Sot residents told Radio Free Asia.  

Since the rebel capture of Battalion 275, about 200 junta troops have been stranded at a customs compound near the border’s Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2, roughly 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Mae Sot.

RFA could not confirm if these troops were among those admitted to Mae Sot’s hospital. 

Following Saturday and Sunday’s battles, about 3,000 people were evacuated and several hundred refugees were taken to Rujira ranch a few kilometers north of Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2, according to Thai officials. 

The evacuees were predominantly Myanmar, said Thai soldiers, in addition to some Thai nationals working in Myanmar. Thai authorities provided refugees with food and medical services.

As of Monday, about 2,000 displaced people have returned since fighting calmed in Myawaddy, the Bangkok Post reported on Monday, adding that Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 1, which is used for immigration, remains open. 

The newspaper cited a Thai military officer as saying that negotiations between the junta and the Karen rebel force and its allies have begun. 

Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesperson at The Karen National Union, told RFA that it is reviewing the military and public welfare situation since fighting has calmed.

Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.