Author: Web Desk

HONG KONG — Art censorship in Hong Kong is “very much real,” an expert said after the city’s much-anticipated art gallery opened recently without showcasing some expected artworks by a Chinese dissident.

 

The former British colony’s largest art museum, M+, opened Nov. 12 to great fanfare, but also heated debate because of its failure to exhibit two of famous exiled artist Ai Wei Wei’s artworks in a donated collection of celebrated Swiss art collector Uli Sigg.

 

Among the collection of contemporary Chinese art from the 1970s to the 2000s, Ai’s Study of Perspective: Tiananmen, a photo that features Ai’s middle finger in front of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and Map of China, a sculpture made of salvaged wood from a Qing Dynasty temple, have been under review by authorities since March this year, essentially barring them from display.

 

That came two weeks after M+ director Suhanya Raffel guaranteed that the gallery would show Ai’s art and pieces about the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, according to The South China Morning Post.

 

In the same month, Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said the authorities would be on “full alert” to ensure museum exhibitions would not undermine national security, after pro-Beijing lawmakers said the artworks at M+ caused “great concerns” to the public for “spreading hatred” against China, public broadcaster RTHK reported.

 

In a September editorial in local media outlet Stand News, Ai called the government’s decision to shelve his two pieces “incredible.”

 

“The Study of Perspective series I started at Tiananmen Square 26 years ago once again became the testing ground for an important change in history, and a convincing note for China’s political censorship of its culture and art,” Ai wrote. Other images in the series featured the middle finger in front of the White House, the Swiss parliament and the Mona Lisa.

 

Sigg donated over 1,400 artworks and sold 47 pieces to M+ gallery in 2012, before the city experienced political turmoil from the 2014 Occupy Central movement, the 2019 anti-government protests and implementation of the controversial national security law last year.

Sigg originally wanted to make mainland China home to his collection, but no art galleries there could ensure that his artworks, including Ai Wei Wei’s, would be displayed without restriction, according to SOAS University of London art history professor Shane McCausland.

 

“Hong Kong’s legal framework at the time promised that these artworks could be shown…[but] policy on display will have changed dramatically after the national security law came in,” McCausland told VOA.

 

The head of the West Kowloon Cultural District, Henry Tang, said ahead of the M+ gallery opening that the board would “uphold and encourage freedom of artistic expression and creativity,” but added that the opening of M+ “does not mean artistic expression is above the law.” He also denied that the two artworks put under review meant they were illegal.

 

However, such an ostensibly normal bureaucratic act from the government is China’s usual form of censorship, McCausland said.

 

“It’s often unclear even to the initiated, where the boundary lies, as it moves all the time. The laws are framed in vague language: they often appear to be applied arbitrarily and randomly. …The application depends on the [Chinese] leadership from the top, where there is a degree of sensitivity to criticism and intolerance of critiques,” he said.

The city’s freedom of artistic expression has been declining since the national security law took effect last year, according to a local independent performance and dance artist who asked that she only be identified by her initial, “V.”

 

“This [the ban] did not come as a surprise – some artists’ works that might be considered sensitive are not allowed to display recently after the national security law was out, not to mention M+ is a government venue,” V told VOA.

 

Self-censorship has become a norm in Hong Kong’s art circles, V added.

 

“The atmosphere has been rather tense. Some movie screenings had to be canceled. Now we still want to voice out our views, but we start thinking about if we should express in a very edgy way, or if politics is the only way for us to express,” she said.

 

A new film censorship law came into effect in November that aims to “prevent and suppress acts or activities that may endanger national security.”

 

The supposedly autonomous region is now on track to mirror mainland China’s propaganda and censorship, McCausland said.

 

“Essentially Hong Kong is poised to become very similar to the framework within the rest of China, with artists being vigilant and constantly watching the moving sense of what’s OK and becoming attuned to when the likelihood is high of the system kicking in with legal ramifications, such as house detention or other judicial options that are open to the authorities, which they are happy to use to ensure the public discourse of harmony,” he said.

 

Growing art censorship is expected to intensify the talent drain in Hong Kong, which has witnessed an exodus to Western countries, including Britain and Canada, since the start of the 2019 anti-government protests, the art expert said.

 

“We know there was an astounding majority in favor of democracy – the views of the people were very clear but now you are hearing and seeing the space for expression has been closed down, and often in a heavy-handed way,” McCausland said.

 

The University of Hong Kong, one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious educational institutions, has ordered the removal of a sculpture commemorating the student victims of the Tiananmen crackdown since October. The university cited “the latest risk assessment and legal advice” as the reason for the request to take away the iconic statue that has been in place for the last 24 years.

 

“Being an ‘artivist’ [activist artist] is not easy anymore – I started thinking about the role I should play in this era. … I can’t say for sure I will go, but some of my artist friends left because funding has become more challenging,” V said.

 

Source: Voice of America

TEHRAN, IRAN — An Iranian air defense test on Saturday in the Natanz region of central Iran caused an explosion heard as far as 20 kilometers from the Chahid Ahmadi-Rochan nuclear complex, according to a military official and local media.

 

“An hour ago, one of the region’s missile systems was tested to assess readiness on the ground, and there is nothing to fear,” said army spokesperson Amir Tarikhani on state television.

 

A “defensive missile was fired in order to test a rapid reaction to a possible attack,” said Iribnews, the television site.

 

The explosion was heard in the sky over the town of Badroud, 20 kilometers from the nuclear power plant, according to the official Irna news agency.

Iranian news agencies earlier reported a large explosion in the sky above Natanz but said there was no official explanation of the incident.

 

The semi-official Fars news agency quoted its reporter in nearby Badroud as saying a short blast was heard that was accompanied by an intense light in the sky.

 

The Islamic Republic says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

 

“The residents of Badroud heard the noise and saw a light coming from an object that had just exploded in the sky of the city,” a witness told the agency.

 

The Iranian military’s test comes as talks to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed in Vienna on Monday after several months.

 

Negotiations are taking place between Iran and the major powers still party to the agreement, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Russia and China, after the United States withdrew from the pact in 2018 under the presidency of Donald Trump.

 

This agreement offered Tehran the lifting of part of the sanctions stifling its economy in exchange for a drastic reduction in its nuclear program and placing under strict U.N. control.

 

On April 11, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (OIEA) reported an accident that caused a power failure at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, one of the places central to the country’s nuclear program, accusing Israel of being behind it.

 

This factory had the new cascades of centrifuges banned by the Vienna Agreement that had been put into service the day before.

 

Israel has repeatedly stated that it is ready to use any means, including force, to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon capability, and Iran has carried out periodic exercises to improve the defenses around its nuclear sites.

 

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — In its attempts to revitalize trilateral cooperation with Japan and South Korea, the Biden administration is facing a decadeslong dispute between the allies that is jeopardizing Washington’s goals of curbing Beijing’s growing aggression and Pyongyang’s threats, according to experts.

 

Senior Biden administration officials have been holding multiple meetings with key allies in East Asia to forge trilateral cooperation aimed at achieving its goals for the region and the Indo-Pacific.

 

The Pentagon said Washington’s plans for the region include directing “cooperation with allies and partners” so that it could “deter Chinese military aggression and threats from North Korea,” according to its global posture review released Monday.

 

Reemergence of dispute

 

The latest Washington-Tokyo-Seoul trilateral effort met with a setback, however, when a long-standing strain in Seoul-Tokyo relations surfaced during recent trilateral talks, derailing a joint press conference on November 17.

 

Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo objected to having a scheduled joint press conference alongside South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun because of a long-running territorial dispute over the Liancourt Rocks — known as Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan — a set of islets in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

 

Seoul and Tokyo’s deep historical animosity also stems from the Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Speaking alone at the press conference, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said, “There are some bilateral differences between Japan and the Republic of Korea that are continuing to be resolved.” The Republic of Korea (ROK) is the official name of South Korea.

 

After Sherman spoke, Masashi Mizobuchi, a spokesperson at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, said Japanese officials withdrew from the press conference to protest a November 16 visit to the disputed islands by the chief of the South Korean police, according to Reuters.

 

South Korean senior officials and lawmakers visit the islets occasionally to reassert South Korea’s territorial claim.

 

At the time, Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said his government felt holding a joint press conference with South Korea was inappropriate while the countries were embroiled in a dispute over the islet.

 

South Korea’s Choi said he decided not to take part in the briefing out of concern the dispute would overshadow other issues, according to Bloomberg. “If we held a joint press conference, Japanese media would have asked questions related to the visit, and the two sides would have to rebut one another’s position on Dokdo. We were worried about that,” Choi told reporters in Washington.

Emerging challenge

 

“The weak state of Japan-ROK relations is one of the Biden administration’s greatest vulnerabilities in Asia today,” said Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia and the Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

 

“It allows North Korea to drive wedges and China to resist pressure to abide by international norms,” he added.

 

According to Daniel Sneider, a Japan-Korea relations expert at Stanford University, a possible consequence of failing to coordinate trilateral ties puts Washington’s objective of countering China at risk.

 

“If I were Japanese, and as an American, I would worry a lot more about the Chinese efforts to exercise control and domination over the entire Korean Peninsula,” Sneider said. “They already do that over North Korea, more effectively than I would say about Taiwan.”

 

It is “very important to focus on common security and diplomatic objectives” rather than trying to “broker disagreements about the past,” Green said, adding that the Biden administration has been “making some modest progress” despite some setbacks.

 

A State Department spokesperson, who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the subject, on Wednesday told VOA’s Korean Service that the Biden administration was “committed to strengthening” the trilateral relationship, which is “critical for our shared security and common interest in defending freedom and democracy.”

Both the Japanese and the South Korean foreign ministries also told VOA’s Korean Service that they recognized the importance of trilateral cooperation.

 

A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson who also preferred anonymity because of the subject matter said Thursday that “the collaboration among Japan, the United States and the ROK [is] important for regional peace and stability beyond issues related to North Korea.”

 

Masashi Mizobuchi, a spokesperson at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, emphasized Wednesday that it was “vital to maintain the unity” among Japan, South Korea and the U.S.

 

“These three countries continue to exchange views” on “future response regarding North Korea,” ways to cooperate on “realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, China’s actions in the East and South China seas,” and other global issues, Mizobuchi said.

A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson, while also stressing the importance of the three-way cooperation, said on Wednesday that “the three countries continue to engage in active communication and exchange at various levels, including among the foreign ministers, the vice foreign ministers and special representatives for Korean Peninsula affairs.” The South Korean spokesperson also preferred to remain anonymous because of the subject matter.

 

Enhancing diplomacy

 

Sneider said the Biden administration should intervene through high-level diplomacy committed to trilateral cooperation, given the long-standing historical differences between the two allies.

 

“What is absent is anything at the leadership level” that would show political will of strengthening the trilateral ties, Sneider said. “If you’re a midlevel or a senior-level ministry official in either country, you’re only going to go so far if you don’t have the signal from the top.”

 

Patricia Kim, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies, said, “The continued efforts by the Biden administration to emphasize the importance of trilateral cooperation and to create space for the U.S., Japan and ROK to discuss common concerns and coordinate actions is the right approach.”​

 

Source: Voice of America

SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA — Top U.S. defense officials admit recent Chinese military advancements, including the test of a hypersonic weapon system, are reason to worry, but the secretary of defense says if Beijing was hoping to intimidate or scare the U.S., that is not happening.

 

“America isn’t a country that fears competition,” Lloyd Austin told government officials and defense companies in a speech Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California.

 

“We’re facing a formidable challenge,” he said. “And we’re going to meet this one with confidence and resolve — not panic and pessimism.”

 

During his speech, Austin addressed China and Taiwan, but he also spoke about Russia, which has tens of thousands of troops massed along its border with Ukraine.

 

The U.S. remains focused on Ukraine, he said, adding that Russia had invaded before, in 2014 when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula. The U.S. is making sure Ukraine has what it needs to defend its territory, Austin said.

 

On Taiwan, Austin said the U.S. is working to deter conflict, not change the status quo. He said the U.S. is seeking open lines of communication with China’s military leaders to prevent miscalculations.

 

Top U.S. military officials have repeatedly raised concerns for months, warning Beijing is “closing the gap” as it aims to surpass the United States as the world’s preeminent military power in the coming decade.

 

Washington’s most senior military officer, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went as far as to compare China’s hypersonic test in July to Russia’s launch of the world’s first artificial satellite in the 1950s, which sparked the space race that dominated the next several decades.

 

“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” Milley told Bloomberg Television last month. “It has all of our attention.”

A Pentagon report released last month on China’s military power concluded that Beijing is “increasingly willing to confront the United States and other countries in areas where interest diverge,” and warned that China is likely to have at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

 

Only Defense Secretary Austin, just back from a trip to Seoul where he met with his South Korean counterpart, has been seeking to lessen the anxiety that has been growing in Washington and elsewhere.

 

During a joint news conference with South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook this past Wednesday, Austin called China’s hypersonic test “a capability but certainly not the only capability.”

 

“We have concerns,” he said, adding, “My job is to focus on the broader picture.”

 

In prepared remarks Saturday, Austin says the U.S. “has been stepping up its efforts” to counter China’s rise as a military power, looking to pour more money into research and development, and testing, of new systems that will allow the U.S. to be more lethal from afar.

 

He also says money is being spent on drone and stealth technologies, and efforts are being made to make sure existing weapons systems are more resilient, both the physical attack and attacks from cyberspace.

 

“When we maintain our technological edge, we maintain our military edge,” according to Austin’s prepared remarks. “The United States has an advantage that no autocracy can match—our combination of free enterprise, free minds, and free people.”

 

The Defense Department, under Austin, has also been emphasizing stronger ties with allies in the Indo-Pacific, something he emphasized during his visit to Seoul and in a subsequent phone call with his Japanese counterpart.

 

But he says the expansion of traditional alliances, and new efforts such as AUKUS (Australia, the U.K. and U.S.) and the Quad (the U.S., Japan, India and Australia), should not be seen as the first moves in a new Cold War, this time pitting Washington against Beijing instead of Moscow.

 

“We’re not seeking an Asian version of NATO or trying to build an anti-China coalition,” Austin said. “And we’re not asking countries to choose between the United States and China.”

 

“Instead, we’re working to advance an international system that is free, stable and open,” he added.

 

But some of the talks surrounding the strengthened U.S. alliances has rankled Beijing.

Earlier this week, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a Taiwan-based research organization that a potential Chinese military attack on Taiwan would be “a major danger to Japan’s territory… and therefore an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance.”

 

In response, China summoned Japan’s ambassador for an emergency meeting.

 

A statement from Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying further criticized Abe’s remarks, saying they “openly challenged China’s sovereignty and gave brazen support to Taiwan independence forces.”

 

 

Source: Voice of America