Myanmar’s President Thein Sein on Monday became the first leader of his country to visit the White House in nearly half a century, in a warm welcome by the U.S. for the head of the once-pariah state and a strong show of support for his reform program.

In a scene that would have been unthinkable three years ago under Myanmar’s former military regime, U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed Thein Sein, an ex-general, to talks in the Oval Office while protesters gathered outside.

Rights groups and some U.S. lawmakers were wary that the visit was premature and likely to take the pressure off of Thein Sein’s government to implement promised reforms.

Speaking after the talks, Obama praised Thein Sein’s leadership in spearheading the country’s democratic transition over the past two years but raised “deep concerns” about ethnic violence against minority Muslims in Myanmar and other rights issues.

Thein Sein vowed to push forward with reforms in Myanmar while asking for U.S. support amid the many “obstacles and challenges” facing the country, which is also known as Burma.

“Our democratic government is just two years old and we have carried out many political reforms,” he said.

"For our democracy to flourish in our country, we will have to undertake more political and economic reforms in the years ahead,” he said, adding that Myanmar will need the “assistance and understanding” of the U.S. and the rest of the international community to do so.

‘Genuine efforts’

Thein Sein’s visit repays a trip in November by Obama to Myanmar, after the two countries formalized their diplomatic relations last May for the first time in more than 20 years.

Since his reformist government took power in 2011 following decades of military misrule in Myanmar, Thein Sein’s government has released hundreds of political prisoners, eased restrictions on assembly and the press, and renewed attempts at dialogue with armed ethnic minority groups.

His government has also allowed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest during the junta regime, to enter parliament following landmark by-elections last year.

In response, the Obama administration has suspended sanctions against Myanmar in an attempt to encourage further change and extend its influence in the former military-ruled nation.

But rights groups have said the steps fall short of pledged reforms and the government has failed to address abuses including recent ethnic violence against Muslims in Rakhine state and central Myanmar over the past year.  Two outbreaks of violence in Rakhine state last year left nearly 200 dead and hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority Muslim Rohingyas displaced, and the clashes in central Myanmar this spring killed dozens.

Obama said Thein Sein had made "genuine efforts" to solve the ethnic conflicts that have plagued Myanmar for decades, but urged an end to the violence.

"The displacement of people, the violence directed towards them needs to stop," he said at the briefing after the meeting.

But he praised the country’s progress toward reform, saying Thein Sein was the “first to recognize” further changes needed.

"What has allowed this shift in relations is the leadership that President Thein has shown in moving Myanmar down a path of both political and economic reform,” he said, referring to the country by its official name, instead of “Burma,” in a gesture of support.

'End to all forms of discrimination'

In a speech after the White House visit, Thein Sein urged an end to the ethnic violence and ethnic discrimination in the country, but stopped short of mentioning the Rohingyas.

"Myanmar people of all ethnic backgrounds and all faiths—Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and others—must feel part of this new national identity," he said at a forum at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

“We must end all forms of discrimination and we must ensure not only that intercommunal violence is brought to a halt but that all perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Thein Sein said the government was working toward forging a lasting peace with ethnic minority militias in the country’s borderlands, saying he was “confident” peace could soon be forged with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state.

Myanmar is also in the process of working to reform the role of its military, developing “a new vision of national security and strategy necessary to ensure people’s human security.”

The military—which under the country’s 2008 constitution is reserved a quarter of the seats in parliament—has come under fire from rights groups for abuses committed in fighting against the Kachin, as well as for standing by amid the sectarian clashes in Rakhine and central Myanmar.

Past commitments

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch had urged Obama to use Thein Sein’s visit to insist Myanmar implement past commitments to reform, including pledges made just before the U.S. president’s visit to Yangon last year.

“If the US keeps delivery carrots on the same schedule while Burma breaks its promises, Burma’s leaders will conclude that they are no longer under serious international pressure to follow through on reforms,” HRW’s Asia advocacy director John Sifton said in a statement on the visit.

The U.S. Campaign for Burma staged demonstrations outside the White House and elsewhere in Washington against Thein Sein’s visit.

“President Thein Sein has not taken any recent steps to investigate allegations of government-perpetrated violence, revise laws that condone human rights abuses, or hold anyone accountable for gross violations of international law,” the group said in a statement.

A report released Monday by the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights said it had found evidence that police were complicit in attacks in the Mingalar Zayone quarter of Meikhtila in March that resulted in a “massacre” of 20 children.

On the eve of the talks Thein Sein told the Washington Post that the military “will always have a special place” in government and dismissed as “pure fabrication” allegations that the military had condoned or participated in violence perpetrated against Muslims.

Reported by RFA’s Burmese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Thousands of supporters of Cambodia’s main opposition party marched through the streets of Phnom Penh Monday calling for international pressure on the country’s government to postpone July national elections and reform its electoral procedures.

The demonstrators, led by Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) deputy president Kem Sokha, gathered at Freedom Park and marched to the European Union Delegation to Cambodia and United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) to seek support for their demands.

The group wore white ribbons on their heads and carried with them petitions which also called for reforms recommended by the U.N. and nongovernmental organizations to the country’s electoral body, or National Election Commission (NEC).

“The CNRP, which represents the voters, would like the international community to push the NEC and the ruling party to respect recommendations raised by [U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Cambodia] Surya Subedi and other NGOs,” the petitions read.

The petitions called on the government to postpone elections until the NEC addresses allegations by The Committee for Fair and Free Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) and the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) of irregularities in voting lists.

The CNRP says as many as 1 million people are missing from the lists.

“The election must be delayed at least one or two months to correct those mistakes,” the petitions read.

They also asked for the international community to apply “pressure against the government to unconditionally allow [CNRP] leader [Sam Rainsy] to return to the country safely” to contest the July 28 elections.

Sam Rainsy has been living in self-imposed exile in France since 2009, facing a total of 11 years in prison over a string of convictions that critics contend are politically motivated. The NEC has said that he cannot stand in the coming elections because of his prison convictions.

The United States is among countries that have criticized the Cambodian authorities for disallowing Sam Rainsy from running in the elections, saying his case calls into question the vote’s legitimacy.

Strong support

Military police, police officers and anti-riot police were deployed near the demonstrators, who had not been given permission to march, but allowed them to proceed unhindered to the two offices, where Kem Sokha addressed the crowd.

“The ruling party must reform the NEC in order to hold a free and fair election,” Kem Sokha told the CNRP supporters, adding that support for greater transparency in the electoral process was “the strongest it’s ever been.”

Kem Sokha also invited Prime Minister Hun Sen to participate in public debates ahead of the July 28 polls, saying that the leader had “used his political position to attack the opposition” with impunity.

“I would like to leave a message to the prime minister: if you are brave enough, please come forward to join a debate,” he said.

A demonstrator named Srey Vy told RFA’s Khmer Service that she was not worried about her personal security and was excited to take part in the march.

“The last time we held a sit-in demonstration, but this time we decided we would march and we succeeded,” she said.

The demonstrators disbanded peacefully after delivering their petitions to the EU and OHCHR.

Second protest

The rally marked the second mass protest by the CNRP in the capital in a push for electoral reforms.

Supporters staged a sit-in protest in late April, but march planned as part of the demonstration was called off after the NEC agreed to study demands for changes in election procedures, which it later rejected.

Local rights groups have charged that the NEC is biased toward Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), but the NEC maintains that its nine members—who were approved by a CPP-dominated parliament last year—are independent and do not need to be changed.

Following Monday’s rally, Cambodian cabinet Spokesman Phay Siphan told RFA that the CNRP had breached its promise to authorities that demonstrators would not march.

He said Hun Sen was not obligated to respond to the demands of the opposition.

“Kem Sokha is not a judge—the voters are the judges,” he said.

“They will judge [Hun Sen’s] achievements as good or bad and that will be reflected in the July vote.”

Hun Sen recently reaffirmed that the government would not delay the election or audit voting lists under any circumstances.

According to law, he said, national elections must take place every five years in the fourth week of July.

Hun Sen, 61, has ruled the country for 28 years and earlier this month vowed to stay in power until he’s 74.

Reported by Van Vichar for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Religious freedom continued to decline in China this year, while Vietnam showed slight signs of improvement despite ongoing abuses, the U.S. State Department said in an annual report to American lawmakers.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar, also known as Burma, violations of religious freedoms continued unchanged in spite of progress made in political reforms, the report said.

In China, the State Department’s 2012 Religious Freedom Report said, “the government’s respect for religious freedom declined during the year, particularly in Tibetan areas and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Republic.”

In general, China’s government emphasized state control over religion, the report said, adding that the religious activities of religious adherents were restricted “when these were perceived, even potentially, to threaten state or Chinese Communist Party interests, including the Party’s concept of social stability.”

Protestants and Catholics practicing outside of state-controlled churches came in for particular scrutiny, said the report, as did members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and smaller groups called “evil cults” by China’s government.

“Government repression, including crackdowns at monasteries and nunneries, resulted in the loss of life, arbitrary detentions, and torture,” said the report.

The U.S. Secretary of State has designated China as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) since 1999, with the designation most recently renewed in August 2011.

Countries of Particular Concern

Countries of Particular Concern are countries “that are considered to commit ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom,’ and whose records call for the U.S. government to take certain actions under the terms of the [International Religious Freedom] Act,” said the report.

Burma, or Myanmar, also designated a CPC since 1999 with that status renewed in 2011, saw “considerable” movement in political reform during 2012, “but the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department report said.

The report noted especially that local officials in the country’s Rakhine state took part in ethnic violence targeting Rakhine’s Muslim community last year.

Overall, Myanmar authorities “subjected religious activities and organizations to restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly,” the report said, adding that the government  promoted Theravada Buddhism over other religions, “particularly among certain ethnic minority populations.”

In Vietnam, though abuses of religious freedom—involving arrests, detentions, and convictions—were  reported during the year, “the government also showed signs of progress,” said the report.

“It registered new congregations, permitted the expansion of charitable activities, and allowed large-scale worship services with more than 100,000 participants.”

Problems remain

“Other problems remained, [though], especially at the provincial and village levels, including slow or denied approval of registration for some groups. Some Christian groups also reported harassment or administrative obstacles when they tried to hold Christmas services,” the report said.

The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later and has since ignored repeated calls by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) to reinstate the country’s designation.

“The Vietnamese government is still using vague national security laws to suppress independent Buddhists, Protestants, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities,” USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett told RFA in April.

“And they are definitely working to stop the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism through discrimination, instances of violence, and repeated episodes of forced renunciations of faith.”

“It’s still a very concerning situation, and one that we believe does merit CPC designation,” Swett said.

Lax enforcement

In Laos, “the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department’s report said.

“Officials respected the constitutional rights of members of most religious groups to worship, albeit within constraints imposed by the government.”

But local officials were sometimes lax in their enforcement of laws protecting religious freedom, said the report.

“District and local authorities in some of the country’s 17 provinces continued to be suspicious of non-Buddhist religious groups and occasionally displayed intolerance for minority religious groups.”

This was especially true in the case of Protestant congregations, “whether or not officially recognized,” the report said.

Contrasting cases

Meanwhile, in Cambodia, “there were few reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice,” though Buddhism is the country’s state religion, said the report.

“[Cambodia’s] constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom and, in practice, the government generally respected religious freedom.”

By contrast, the government of North Korea “severely restricted religious activity, except for some officially recognized groups it tightly supervised,” according to the State Department report.

“Reports by refugees, defectors, missionaries, and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) indicated that the authorities arrested and subjected to harsh penalties persons engaged in religious proselytizing and those in unauthorized contact with foreigners or missionaries.”

Reports of arrests and punishments  during 2012 were difficult to verify, though, “[D]ue to the country’s inaccessibility and the inability of foreigners to gain timely information,” the report said.

Plans by authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong to build a cemetery reportedly reserved for officials and war heroes have sparked satire and anger on China's Internet in recent days.

In an era where sky-high land prices put a traditional burial plot far beyond the means of most people, a common joke circulates that regular folk "can't afford to die."

According to recent media reports, the Guangzhou municipal government has earmarked 620 million yuan (U.S. $100 million) for the construction of a new "revolutionary cemetery" in the city's Fushan district, which will begin in June.

While calls to the Guangzhou municipal civil affairs bureau went unanswered during office hours in the wake of the media reports, the bureau responded to online criticisms via its account on the popular Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, denying claims that the government planned to create an elitist cemetery.

"The Fushan cemetery is a public cemetery," it said, before adding: "But it will have the honor of burying individuals who have made a special contribution to their country."

But the attempt at clarification didn't hold much water with local residents.

One resident of Guangzhou surnamed Zhang told RFA that the whole idea of such a division was basically wrong.

"I don't believe it's acceptable to have a section of the cemetery for regular folk and a section for officials," he said. "Officials shouldn't be allowed any sort of special treatment in cemeteries, regardless of how much of the space they are given."

"Everyone should be treated the same," Zhang said.

Netizen backlash

Meanwhile, online comments hit out at yet another area of life in which those who hold public office are given special power and privileges.

Microblog user @geyanxingju commented in one post: "Even death is subject to special privileges; why bother letting us live at all?"

Another commentator quipped: "When the earthquake came, we let the officials go ahead [of the rescue teams] ... When planes are overbooked, officials board first ... So we should let them die first, too!"

A tweet reporting a man-on-the-street interview on the topic allegedly carried out by state broadcaster CCTV was retweeted thousands of times, amid scores of laughter emoticons.

In the interview, the journalist asks an old man his opinion of a planned cemetery for officials. The old man thinks for a moment, before asking, "Will they be burying them alive?"

War cemetery

The Guangzhou authorities have also announced plans, meanwhile, to demolish a war cemetery and memorial honoring Chinese soldiers who died in World War II.

The Baiyunshan war cemetery was initially set up after the war using donations gathered by Kuomintang Gen. Sun Li-jen, known by his nickname "Rommel of the East," who led the Chinese "First Army Under Heaven," credited with defeating the most troops in the war against Japanese invasion forces in China.

Later in the war, Sun's New 38th Division played a key role in protecting the Burma Road and joined the 'X Force' under Joseph Stilwell during the campaign to retake northern Burma in 1943.

Many of those buried in the cemetery fought and died alongside Sun, who was one of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's most respected generals.

Reported by Yang Fan and Yang Jiadai for RFA's Mandarin service, and by Wei Ling for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

North Korea fired two projectiles into the ocean Monday, according to South Korean officials, defying warnings from the United Nations to refrain from escalating regional tensions after a series of launches over the weekend.

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed the firings from two locations on North Korea’s east coast, Agence France-Presse reported, adding that it was unclear whether the tests involved guided missiles or rockets from multiple launchers.

“North Korea launched two projectiles on Monday—one in the morning and the other in the afternoon," a JCS spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Monday’s launches were the sixth by North Korea in three days, after firing three missiles on Saturday and one on Sunday, all of which fell into the Sea of Japan—also known as the East Sea.

Some reports referred to the launched projectiles as missiles.

The two projectiles fired on Monday followed similar trajectories as the four previous launches over the weekend, officials at both the JCS and South Korean Defense Ministry said.

The weekend launches had drawn condemnation from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who warned Sunday of a “dangerous escalation” on the Korean Peninsula and urged Pyongyang to refrain from further actions.

Ban called for North Korea to return to negotiations in order to lower tensions in the region, which he said had heightened the risk of dangerous miscalculation.

South’s reaction

South Korea on Monday urged North Korea to stop firing missiles, saying that the launchings were raising tensions, regardless of whether they were intended to test new weapons or to demonstrate Pyongyang’s firepower.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday quoted an information bulletin by Pyongyang’s Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea which angrily responded to criticism of what it called a “regular military exercise to bolster up the country's defense capability.”

It dismissed calls to end its launches as “another unpardonable challenge to [North Korea] and an undisguised provocation driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to an extreme phase.”

North Korea has accused South Korea and the U.S. of escalating tensions on the peninsula following a series of small- and large-scale joint military drills in recent months which have featured nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

Routine launch?

Test launches of short-range missiles by North Korea are fairly routine. The North last launched two such missiles into the sea in March.

Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, told RFA’s Korean Service that the recent launches were “nothing unusual.”

“The North Koreans have done it many times in the past, and are likely to do it again and again,” he said.

“Like any military force, the North Korean armed forces need to test their weapons and train their soldiers.”

He said that short-range missiles with conventional warheads “do not constitute any significant threat” and that the tests were likely not an attempt to draw attention from Washington or Seoul.

“If they need more tension, they are likely to resort to their old tactics of tension-building: bellicose rhetoric and, perhaps, long-range missile launches and nuclear tests,” Lankov said.

“Frankly, this seems to be much ado about nothing.”

Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February.

Both tests were in violation of international sanctions that ban North Korea from developing missile or nuclear technology, prompting the U.N. Security Council to adopt even tougher measures against the country in March.

Pyongyang began issuing vitriolic war rhetoric after the new sanctions were imposed, raising ominous prospects of a nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula.

Earlier launches

North Korea has launched five long-range missiles or rockets over the past seven years and last December placed a satellite in orbit.

Pyongyang claimed the satellite was part of peaceful research, but critics said the launch amounted to a banned ballistic missile test that marked a major advance for the North's illicit nuclear weapons program.

Following Monday’s launches, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called for the full implementation of relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions against its ally North Korea and called for dialogue in order to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference on Monday that North Korea had not “formally” breached any U.N. Security Council resolutions by test-firing short-range missiles over the last few days.

But he urged calm for the region and called for the resumption of aid-for-disarmament talks between the two Koreas, United States, China, Russia and Japan.

Chinese authorities in Inner Mongolia are investigating fresh clashes between ethnic minority Mongolian herders and Han Chinese settlers over land, as Beijing continues to expand farming and mining in the area, an official source said on Monday.

A dozen Mongolian herders in were "severely beaten" while defending their grazing lands after "more than a hundred" Han Chinese gathered to attack them with sticks and stones, the U.S.-based  Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

The attacks took place on Friday in a village near Bayanhua township, in Right Uzumchin banner (in Chinese, Dong Wuzhumuqin Qi) in northeastern Inner Mongolia's Xilingol league, where in 2011 a herder named Murgen was killed amid standoff with Han Chinese mining company employees in an incident that set off a wave protests by ethnic Mongolians in the region. A banner is a regional division equivalent to a county, while a league is equivalent to a prefecture.

SMHRIC said photos of Friday's clashes showed herders from the Saruulbulag Gachaa group of villages were taken away by ambulance and police vehicles after they fell unconscious from the beatings.

Herders beaten unconscious in the clash lie on the ground, May 17, 2013. Photo courtesy of SMHRIC.

Rising criticism of China's official trade reports has put pressure on the government to reform its currency controls.

Doubts about government trade figures have been growing since December as the General Administration of Customs (GAC) continues to report strong export gains despite weak demand in China's markets abroad.

Economists greeted the latest trade data for April with a chorus of incredulity after GAC reported that exports of 1.17 trillion yuan (U.S. $190.7 billion) climbed 14.7 percent, while imports of 1.06 trillion yuan (U.S. $172.8 billion) rose 16.8 percent from a year before.

Analysts focused on the export growth, noting it was based largely on claims of a 57-percent surge in shipments to Hong Kong, which were unlikely to be supported by Hong Kong's corresponding import data.

In March, GAC reported exports to Hong Kong jumped nearly 93 percent, although Hong Kong said imports from China increased less than 14 percent, Bloomberg News reported.

Similar patterns persisted in April with mirror trade figures between China and Taiwan. While China recorded export growth of over 49 percent, Taiwan said imports from China actually fell 2.7 percent.

"We continue to notice glaring discrepancies between China and its trade partners' data, and so again suggest caution in interpreting the report," said Societe Generale economist Yao Wei in a commentary cited by the Associated Press.

Counterfeit invoices

Experts have pointed to the practice of submitting false invoices, a longstanding paperwork fraud in China that can serve at least two purposes.

Counterfeit invoices can be used to claim export tax rebates, while invoices with inflated export values can hide illicit inflows of "hot money" for investment and currency speculation, evading the government's capital controls.

In a widely-cited analysis, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief economist Luis Kuijs estimated that China's exports in April rose only 5.7 percent after adjustment for "overinvoicing."

If that estimate is accurate, it would mean that some $15 billion of hot money may have flowed into China under false invoices last month.

On May 5, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) warned it would increase scrutiny of exporters seeking to hide capital inflows under the cover of trade payments, the official English-language China Daily reported.

"Companies and banks who break the regulations face being fined or closed, and their practices exposed to the public," said SAFE. But the warning came too late to affect the April trade report, issued on May 8.

Hot money

The RBS analysis of overinvoicing appears to support previous estimates of hot money flows returning to China following political fears over the scandal surrounding former Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai.

"Over the course of this year, I wouldn't be surprised if $200 billion was repatriated," Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Derek Scissors told Radio Free Asia last month.

Some of the hot money has been chasing profits from the rising value of the yuan, which hit a record high of 6.1925 to the U.S. dollar on May 9, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The report attributed the appreciation to "excess global liquidity and subsequent capital arbitrage in the Chinese market," noting that "some speculative money may enter China disguised as trade payments."

Scissors said China's actual exports can be estimated as a function of the hot money flows.

"In periods where capital is being returned, and the Chinese know it, I just cut export growth in half until the accumulated difference equals the amount of capital I estimate is returning," he said in an e-mail comment on the April trade numbers.

Considering convertibility

The growing international attention to China's unreliable trade data has put pressure on the government to consider faster reforms of its currency controls to make the yuan freely convertible.

So far, the government has allowed convertibility on China's current account, covering trade, but it continues to restrict convertibility on its capital account for investment and asset flows.

On May 6, the State Council said it would propose a plan this year for capital account convertibility, although the reform may take until 2020 to complete.

On May 11, SAFE created a minor stir with a circular posted on its website, announcing that it would streamline some convertibility rules by abolishing 24 regulations on funds in foreign direct investment (FDI).

The changes affect activities including re-investment of yuan by foreign companies and property purchases by foreign individuals, Bloomberg News reported.

Vigorous debate

But even modest moves have sparked a vigorous debate. Some Chinese economists fear that full convertibility could lead to uncontrollable outflows in hard times, risking a social and political crisis.

"China should not rush to fully give up capital control," said Yu Yongding, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, according to Xinhua.

"We're in a time of economic and financial uncertainties, and the capital control is a firewall. Although the firewall is leaking, it's better than not having one," said Yu.

Such concerns could delay full convertibility for years and keep trade figures subject to rough estimates until capital flows subside.

But if hot money keeps moving into China at the current pace, appreciation pressure on the yuan could blunt China's competitive edge and export growth.

North Korea on Saturday launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Defense, in defiance of international sanctions and efforts to bring the rogue nation to the table for talks.

The ministry detected two launches in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The missiles launched may be a modified anti-ship missile or the KN-02 surface-to-surface missile derived from the Soviet era SS-21 that has a range of about 120 kilometers (75 miles)," the Seoul official said.

He said that judging by the trajectory and distance traveled, the missiles were neither medium- or long-range, adding that they were fired in a northeasterly direction, away from South Korean waters.

In April, North Korea deployed two intermediate-range missiles along its east coast in what was seen as a response to joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises, but they were recalled earlier this month after the operations ended.

The intermediate-range missiles, known as Musudan, are believed to have a range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) and may be capable of striking the U.S. Pacific island of Guam.

"All missiles launched fell into the sea," the South Korean Defense Ministry official said of Saturday’s firing, adding that it was likely part of a military exercise or a missile test.

The launches could also be a show of force for the U.S., which last week docked the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in South Korea’s port city of Busan. The North had referred to the carrier’s port call as “a fresh tinderbox to escalate the tension and ignite a nuclear war.”

Routine launch?

Test launches of short-range missiles by North Korea are fairly routine. The North last launched two such missiles into the sea in March.

But tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula since Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February.

Both tests were in violation of international sanctions that ban North Korea from developing missile or nuclear technology, prompting the U.N. Security Council to adopt even tougher measures against the country in March.

Pyongyang began issuing vitriolic war rhetoric after the new sanctions were imposed, raising ominous prospects of a nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has launched five long-range missiles or rockets over the past seven years and last December placed a satellite in orbit.

Pyongyang claimed the satellite was part of peaceful research, but critics said the launch amounted to a banned ballistic missile test that marked a major advance for the North's illicit nuclear weapons program.

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies this week completed a trip to South Korea, China, and Japan, where he discussed plans to deal with the North Korean nuclear threat.

Activity at local markets in North Korea has picked up in recent weeks since Pyongyang toned down threats of war against South Korea and the U.S., according to traders along the Chinese border.

Both black and authorized markets had quieted down during weeks of rising tensions on the Korean peninsula in March and April, with border restrictions tightened and many North Koreans busy with war drills and other preparations, sources said.

But this month, with Pyongyang’s war rhetoric dying down, the marketplaces have started bustling again, according to traders who bring goods to North Korea from neighboring China—the isolated country’s main trading partner and source of goods.

“Business is going well because North Korea’s markets are recovered, and they hadn’t until May,” an ethnic Chinese North Korean who runs a small trading business between China and Pyongyang told RFA’s Korean Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another North Korean of Chinese descent who conducts trade between China and Chongjin in North Hamgyong province, and who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said some traders and merchants are doing so well they are running out of inventory.

“Since the situation in North Korean markets is good, Chinese products are in short supply,” he told RFA, adding that he would be picking up extra inventory on his next trip because business was booming.

“I planned to buy 50,000 yuan [about U.S. $8,000] worth of products, but actually I’ll be buying another 20,000 to 30,000 yuan [U.S. $3,000 to $5,000] worth of extra products.”

Returning to normal

Pyongyang began issuing vitriolic war rhetoric after the United Nations in March imposed a new regimen of sanctions in response to the North’s third nuclear test on February 12, raising ominous prospects of a nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula.

North and South Korea are still in a standoff over negotiations about the suspension of the Kaesong industrial park, a key cooperation project.

But daily life is returning to normal for North Koreans, with the markets along with it, while smuggling activities along the Chinese border that fuel the country's thriving black market trade are also picking up, traders said.

“Recently, smuggling has been very active along both sides of the river [border],” a source from Dandong in northeastern China said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“A large amount of herbs and vegetables grown in North Korea are illegally traded for Chinese rice and fertilizer.”

“Vigorous smuggling between China and North Korea shows that the North has regained its stability,” he added.

However, business could slow down again once the rice planting season begins, with local marketplaces open for shorter hours, sources said.

At least three quarters of North Korea’s imports come from China—Pyongyang’s main diplomatic and economic ally—and the U.N. has said the success of the new sanctions depends largely on Beijing.

Annual trade between the two countries is worth some U.S. $6 billion, but in the first quarter of this year it dropped more than 7 percent, with China's exports to North Korea down 13.8 percent to U.S. $720 million, according to the Reuters news agency.

Reported by Joon Ho Kim for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Goeun Yu. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

A project to modernize an historic area of Tibet’s capital Lhasa has ignited a storm of protest online and among international Tibetan support groups, with some calling the move an attempt to destroy Tibetans’ “living connection” to their past.

Tibet’s India-based government in exile, or Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), said in a May 16 statement it is “deeply concerned” about the project’s impact, saying it is transforming Lhasa’s central Jokhang temple and the Barkhor, or Old City, around it into a “superficial tourist spot.”

Meanwhile, an online petition launched on Wednesday and signed by over 200 Tibet scholars in countries around the world voiced “grave concern over the rapidly progressing destruction of much of the traditional architectural heritage of the Old City of Lhasa and its environs.”

“This destruction is not simply a matter of aesthetics,” said the petition, addressed to China’s president Xi Jinping and to UNESCO director-general Irina Bukova.

“It is depriving Tibetans and scholars of Tibet alike of a living connection to the Tibetan past,” the petition said.

“It is bringing in its wake the forced displacement of large numbers of Tibetans from their own homes, effectively diminishing the Tibetan presence in one of the most important Tibetan cultural sites,” the petition added.

UNESCO, which lists as World Heritage Sites Lhasa's Potala Palace, Jokhang temple, and Norbulinkga, has previously raised concerns about a need to protect the the cityscape.

In December, the city government launched a seven-month, 1.2 billion yuan (U.S. $196 million) project begun to revamp the Barkhor area, including upgrading water and electrical infrastructure.

Moved out from the Barkhor

Tibetan shopkeepers and traders have already been moved from the Barkhor, a traditional gathering place for Lhasa residents and Tibetan pilgrims for hundreds of years, a local resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service last week.

“On the pretext of modernizing the Barkhor, Chinese authorities have relocated Tibetan traders to the area of [Lhasa’s] Yuthok bridge, where they can barely survive on what they earn,” the man said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The Chinese are planning to turn the Barkhor into a tourist attraction for commercial benefit with total disregard for the area’s traditional architectural heritage,” he said.

Speaking to RFA, Columbia University Tibet scholar Robbie Barnett noted “a lack of transparency in the [project’s] decision-making process, a lack of communication, and uninvolvement with the public and with experts on what is truly an issue of great importance in terms of world heritage.”

Some of the protests voiced online and in blogs, including concerns that the Jokhang temple itself may be damaged or destroyed, appear to have been “overstated,” though, Barnett said.

“For example, there seems to be no evidence to suggest that there is any threat to the Jokhang.”

What China should consider now is whether it wants to turn Lhasa into a venue for mass tourism “where large numbers of tourists will come and leave a hugely damaging footprint,” Barnett said.

“Standardization of all the street frontages will look pretty, but after a few years people will stop paying money to go there.”

The Jokhang temple has been a symbolic center of Tibetan protests against Chinese rule in Tibet, and the Barkhor was a center of Tibetan unrest in 2008 that left at least a dozen people dead.

Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tseten Namygal. Written in English with additional reporting by Richard Finney.

Myanmar on Friday released around 20 political prisoners, including a prominent activist who had recently been thrown back in jail after receiving a pardon, ahead of President Thein Sein’s historic visit to Washington next week.

Social campaigner Nay Myo Zin, who in the first case of its kind in the country had his previous amnesty revoked earlier this month under a controversial provision of the criminal code, left the Maubin prison in Ayeyarwady region where he had been held for 14 days.

Friday’s group amnesty did not require other prisoners to sign a document binding them to the provision, which had raised concerns among the country's thousands of ex-political prisoners over their ability to freely engage in democracy after it was used to re-imprison Nay Myo Zin.

Zaw Htay, director of the president’s office, said on his Twitter page that the amnesty signaled that Myanmar’s efforts at democratic reform would be “all-inclusive” and that the country’s dissidents were not being used as a form of leverage.

Thein Sein has granted several prisoner amnesties since his reformist government took power in 2011 following decades of military misrule in Myanmar, though many of them have occurred either just before or immediately following strategically diplomatic events.

Members of the government’s political prisoner scrutiny committee say that according to their list, around 160 dissidents remain behind bars in Myanmar, though some activists have put the number as high as 200.

Nay Myo Zin told RFA’s Myanmar Service that officials at the prison had read him the president’s order before letting him go.

“I am happy that the president is making a good move for the country by ordering the release of political prisoners without any conditions,” he said.

“I also would like to thank the president. It is obvious that he is willingly helping the country when we need reforms and when the government needs to earn the trust of the people.”

Nay Myo Zin, who had been critical of the nation's police was earlier this month ordered to serve six years of a sentence he got for a conviction in 2011 after he had been freed in January last year.

His return to prison to serve part of a 10-year sentence he was handed under the draconian Electronics Transactions Act in 2011 drew attention to Article 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which gives the president powers to free prisoners but also to "remit the whole or part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced" at any time.

Nay Myo Zaw welcomed Thein Sein’s new amnesty and said he had even been invited by the government to participate in Myanmar’s reform process.

“I have been expecting that all political prisoners would be released without any conditions and I think it is finally happening. We have been fighting against the old systems of the old era…. We are ready to collaborate for the betterment of our country,” he said.

“There are some [purged] military intelligence officers still in different prisons. I want them released as well because if we can work together for our country, this would be good. I want the government to allow everybody to collaborate in politics.”

US visit

Thein Sein is expected to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday as the first leader of Myanmar to visit Washington since 1966. A Myanmar government official told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity that Thein Sein was due to leave late on Friday and return next Thursday.

Thein Sein has embarked on substantial democratic reforms in the more than two years since his government took power, and the meeting with Obama is seen as an acknowledgement by Washington of the progress he has made in reversing the oppressive policies of Myanmar’s former junta leadership.

In addition to the release of large numbers of political prisoners, Thein Sein’s government has eased restrictions on assembly and the press, renewed attempts at dialogue with armed ethnic minority groups, and allowed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to enter parliament.

As a result, the Obama administration has suspended most sanctions against Myanmar in an attempt to encourage further change and extend its influence in the former pariah nation.

But several of the political prisoners released Friday said reforms are not coming fast enough and called for the release of all of Myanmar’s remaining jailed dissidents.

Ye Htut Khaung, who was released after being sentenced in 2011 under Myanmar’s religion act, maintained that he and the country’s other political prisoners were innocent, adding that many others are languishing in the country’s jail for their beliefs.

“We have suffered mental anguish [while imprisoned] and I am very sad for our friends who were not released today,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “We can feel what they feel.”

“We must remember the political prisoners who remain in various prisons around the country. It is not enough for the government to simply establish the political prisoner scrutiny committee.”

Kan Min Tha, a political prisoner who was released from Yangon’s notorious Insein prison—where Reuters News Agency reported 10 prisoners had been released—welcomed the amnesty without conditions.

But he said that the government must answer for the dissidents who remain behind bars.

“We were released today, but I don’t know why other political prisoners were not,” he said.

“They released us without any conditions for the first time—we didn’t need to sign anything. But we demand the release of the other political prisoners.”

Article 401

Ye Aung, a member of the government's political prisoner scrutiny committee, said Thein Sein’s government needs to make assurances that future amnesties will no longer hinge on Article 401.

“As committee members, we have asked for the release of additional political prisoners as soon as possible. The committee also submitted a request to release political prisoners without requiring them to sign Article 401,” he said.

Ye Aung said Thein Sein is responsible for deciding which political prisoners must sign the document on their release and which do not.

“We have called on the president to order the release of all political prisoners without any conditions.”

In April, Burmese authorities released 93 prisoners, including nearly 60 identified by a rights group as political prisoners.

The government freed 452 prisoners in November last year in a gesture of “goodwill” ahead of an historic visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, but the amnesty drew criticism from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners which said that none of those granted freedom had been sentenced for their political views.

More than 80 political detainees were released among more than 500 prisoners in September 2012 ahead of Thein Sein’s trip to the U.S. to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Additional political prisoners were released in amnesties in July last year and in May 2011.

Reported by Kyaw Thu and Ei Ei Khine for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Two ethnic Khmer monks have escaped into hiding after an attempt by Vietnamese government and religious authorities to strip them of their religious status following accusations of anti-state activity, sources said on Friday.

Thach Thuol and Lieu Ny—both of the Ta Set pagoda in the Vinh Chau district of Soc Trang province—evaded arrest on Thursday when hundreds of local Buddhists blocked police efforts to detain them, the two men told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

“On May 16, at about 4:45 p.m., about 100 plainclothes police officers entered the pagoda to arrest me and monk Lieu Ny,” Thach Thuol said. “We both escaped arrest, but they came again at 11:00 p.m.”

Hundreds of local followers prevented police from entering the pagoda, and police broke locks and glass windows while trying to gain access, Thuol said.

The state-controlled Patriotic United Buddhist Association of Soc Trang province had announced two days before that they would force the monks to defrock, declaring in a statement by Buddhist leader Duong Nhon that the two men had used phones and the Internet to give interviews and transmit “fabricated information” about state policy toward Vietnam’s ethnic Khmer Krom minority.

“That decision [to defrock us] was not correct,” monk Lieu Ny said, speaking to RFA.

“Monks can be defrocked only when they have violated [one or more] of the Buddhist vows not to kill, steal, rape, or lie in order to harm others,” Ny said.

“Because we are citizens we have to respect the law. But this decision by Venerable Duong Nhon did not specifically state what rule we had broken.”

“I think this was a decision taken by the government of Vietnam,” Ny said, adding, “They did everything. They only put Duong Nhon’s name under it and forced him to sign.”

Third monk

Meanwhile, a third Khmer monk, Ly Chanh Da of Vinh Chau’s Prey Chop temple, was defrocked by local police on May 16 and thrown unconscious into the street, the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation said in a statement Friday.

“He is staying at [a] villager’s house now,” the Federation said. “He is in a very bad health condition. Sometimes he cannot even remember his own name.”

“The Patriotic United Buddhist Association had ordered Ly Chanh Da to defrock, but Ly Chanh Da did not listen,” Hua Si Hung, acting vice chair of the Vinh Chau People’s Committee, told RFA.

“The Association then asked relevant authorities from the village to force Ly Chanh Da to defrock,” he said.

Reached for comment, Duong Sa Kha, head of the Ethnic People’s Office of Soc Trang province, described the case as “an internal affair of the Patriotic United Buddhist Association.”

“If you want to know more, you can come here to talk … The Association did not ask the police to do anything,” he said.

A U.S. bipartisan commission recommended in April that Vietnam be returned to a State Department list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom.

Vietnam, under one-party communist rule, “continues to expand control over all religious activities [and] severely restricts independent religious practice, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) said in an annual report.

Though religious activity has grown in Vietnam in recent years, the government continues to “repress individuals and religious groups it views as challenging its authority,” USCIRF said.

Reported by Quoc Viet for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Authorities began moving tens of thousands of people, including some displaced by communal violence, back to their homes and temporary camps Friday after a tropical storm from which they had sought shelter left western Myanmar largely unscathed.

Cyclone Mahasen fizzled out and veered west of its expected point of landfall, sparing more than 8 million people along the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar and Bangladesh that the U.N. had warned could have faced “life-threatening conditions.”

At least 46 people were killed either by the storm or while trying to escape it, including 31 Muslim Rohingyas whose boat capsized after setting sail from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, according to officials. Of the 31 who drowned, 25 were children and six were women.

Fifteen people were confirmed killed in Bangladesh by Mahasen which produced winds up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour before being downgraded to a tropical depression.

In Myanmar, which was spared the brunt of the storm’s force, efforts were under way Friday to return some of the 70,000 people evacuated, including

Rohingyas displaced by communal violence last year, to their homes in 13 townships and to area refugee camps.

Win Myaing, a Rakhine state information official, told reporters that the government was assisting displaced evacuees in returning to camps, while others were returning to their homes on their own.

“We brought back displaced persons from five refugee camps to their places as a preliminary group,” he said of the evacuated Rohingyas.

“Some were sent back to their temporary tents at the camps and others were sent back to new huts that are more secure.”

Win Myaing said that there were no reports of deaths or serious damage from the storm and that the area was “no longer in danger.”

Distrust of government

Authorities had struggled over recent days to evacuate Rohingyas from camps thought to be in the path of the cyclone, where they had been living since two outbreaks of communal violence between Buddhist and Muslims last year.

Many camp residents, distrustful of the government, had refused to leave, prompting officials to issue a stern warning to those failing to comply with evacuation instructions.

Myanmar, which is also known as Burma,  saw its southwest coast devastated in 2008 by Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 130,000 people.

Local people were left homeless and without food or water in its wake, complaining that the country’s then-ruling military junta had deliberately blocked aid to victims of the catastrophic storm.

They also said officials hindered private attempts to plug the gap, and an unknown number of people were jailed for providing aid.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement earlier this week that Muslims in the camps on the Rakhine state coast were at risk not only from the storm but also from violence at the hands of ethnic Rakhine communities and local security forces.

Rights groups have accused security forces of complicity in last year's violence between Buddhist Rakhines and Rohingya Muslims, which left at least 192 dead and displaced 140,000.

Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Ailing democracy activist Zhu Yufu has been subjected to abusive treatment at his jail in the eastern province of Zhejiang following an international campaign for his release, relatives and rights groups say.

Prison authorities have handed out "punitive abuses" to Zhu, 60, after his relatives traveled to the United States to garner more support for his release, the China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.

"Authorities at Zhejiang Province No. 4 Prison have reportedly canceled nutritious meals for Zhu, who in May has suffered several fainting spells due to weakness," the group said.

Zhu's wife Jiang Hangli said she was extremely concerned for her husband's health following her most recent visit to the Zhejiang No. 4 Prison on Tuesday.

The family has already repeatedly asked that Zhu be released on medical parole, to no avail, and Jiang's most recent application was turned down on Tuesday, she said.

Prison officials told her that the reports of Zhu's ill health were "not factual," and warned her to be careful of what she said in public, Jiang said in an interview on Wednesday.

"They said he didn't qualify for medical parole," she said, adding that she had been accompanied on her visit by a number of police and officials, who had recorded and filmed the entire meeting.

"They said I had been saying too much ... and that this wasn't good for Zhu," she said.

"They said his medical condition was fine, and that they had medical records, but they didn't give them to me; they just put them on the table," Jiang said.

"I took a peek, but they wouldn't let me read them in detail."

Denied phone calls and letters

According to CHRD, Zhu has been denied his monthly phone call to his family, to which prisoners are entitled. He was also being prevented from sending or receiving letters, it said.

The U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid said Zhu had reported fainting spells linked to his angina and high blood pressure, but a prison official said Zhu was faking the symptoms.

"[The prison] has downgraded his meal plan and forbidden him to make calls to his family," it said.

"ChinaAid condemns the prison for its illegal acts in depriving Zhu of his legitimate rights and urges the prison to provide him humanitarian medical treatment and release him as soon as possible on medical parole," the group said.

China Democracy Party

Fellow Zhejiang activist Chen Shuqing said he and other members of the banned opposition China Democracy Party (CDP), of which Zhu was a founding member, accompanied to the jail when she visited on Tuesday.

"I spoke to a [prison official] surnamed Wang, who told me that overseas media reports and what Jiang was saying was not true," Chen said.

"We also recorded and filmed the visit," he said.

Zhu was given a seven-year jail term in January 2012 for "incitement to subvert state power" after he penned a poem calling on the Chinese people to vote with their feet.

At his trial, the prosecution cited as evidence a poem, “It Is Time,” that Zhu wrote and shared during online calls for 'Jasmine' rallies inspired by protests in the Middle East in early 2011.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Li Zhongyan was recruited in 1979 by authorities in Qitaihe city in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang as a cover teacher, as part of a drive to boost teacher ranks in schools by hiring bright young high school graduates from rural areas. Attracted by official promises of promotion, Li taught for nearly two decades in rural schools, but lost her job amid mass layoffs of teachers in the program. She told RFA's Cantonese service that she and others like her have been petitioning for some sort of social assistance, pension or compensation from the government, for the past 16 years:

It was my parents' influence [that made me take up teaching]. My mother was a teacher, but my family circumstances were tough. I was the eldest of eight children. I was good at schoolwork, though. At that time they were recruiting teachers, and they said that [cover teachers] would be able to formalize their status later, which is why I took the test. I got the highest marks.

I feel it's very unfair that other people were able to become full teachers, but those who worked the hardest and achieved the most weren't able to upgrade their status.

We are all in our fifties and sixties now, which means we are close to retirement age. I am really quite depressed, because we have been seeking out [officials] for so many years now, with no result. We have to take manual labor jobs to survive, which is a heavy burden. Some of the teachers who are also farmers can till some land, but some are so poor that even the roofs on their thatched huts leak.

The government has just dropped us, and won't give us the time of day. They say what we are doing is illegal. Recently they drove us out into some deserted place and beat us up. I was beaten till I was black and blue and my clothes were all torn. They also took our money away. At the time I was so angry that I had a heart attack, and had to be taken to hospital for emergency treatment. But I didn't die. We have been roughed up by them in the past, too.

People like us have absolutely nothing. Petitioning is such a hard way of life. But we are still determined. We're not going to give up now, after we've been petitioning all these years.

Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.