RFA in the News (May 2021)
INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS (Also in CATHOLIC REGISTER, LIFE NEWS)
May 31 “China's new three-child policy is nothing to celebrate”
… According to a 2020 Radio Free Asia report. . . an average of eight million 'extra' pregnancies are aborted in China each year.
TRIBUNE
May 31 “China probing report of its national held in Dubai for commenting on Galwan clash”
… He sent out a message on May 20 calling on the international community for help after he was detained by Dubai police while transiting the country on his way out of China, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on May 27.
PHNOM PENH POST
May 31 “Kingdom ‘has the right to choose’ aid sources”
… The minister hit back at a news report by US-based Radio Free Asia (RFA), which claimed he had confessed that Cambodia allowed China to develop the Ream Naval Base after the dismantling of the US-sponsored facility.
APPLE DAILY (Also in TIMES OF LONDON, AUSTRALIAN)
May 31 “Brother of exiled Uighur leader sentenced to life imprisonment”
… In a statement on Saturday, the organization strongly condemned the sentencing of Hushtar Isa, which was reported by Radio Free Asia.
UCA NEWS
May 31 “Fears rising over China's looming 're-education' of Christians”
… In April, Radio Free Asia (RFA) published a report that claimed authorities in China were detaining Christians in secretive, mobile "transformation" facilities to make them renounce their faith.
INDIA BLOOMS
May 30 “Chinese dominance: Xinjiang authorities detain elderly Uyghur woman”
… While investigating the detentions of women in the XUAR, where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of internment camps since early 2017, Radio Free Asia (RFA)’s Uyghur Service spoke with a police officer in the prefecture-level city of Turpan (in Chinese, Tulufan) who volunteered that a village elder named Zaytunhan Ismail had recently been arrested.
APPLE DAILY
May 30 “Chinese church, buddhist college stage events to mark Communist Party’s centenary”
The Fujian college might have had no choice but to hold the event out of funding consideration, Shandong-based monk Shi Dongguo told Radio Free Asia.
HANKYOREH
… Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Radio Free Asia on Monday that Biden’s promise to vaccinate South Korean troops raised the possibility of resuming large-scale joint military exercises, which are currently on hold.
ASEAN TODAY
May 26 “Worker deaths show toxic chemical use continues on Lao banana farms”
… The two laborers, aged 18 and 30, both died following respiratory complications and their deaths are the latest in a series of similar cases on foreign-owned banana plantations in Laos, according to Radio Free Asia.
TAG 24
May 26 “CHINESE POLICE ARE TESTING EMOTION-DETECTION TECH ON DETAINED UYGHURS MUSLIMS”
… Some Uyghur populated regions have had nearly all husbands and fathers removed from their homes for re-education and have introduced "relatives" in their place to promote "ethnic assimilation" according to Radio Free Asia.
NEPAL 24 HOURS
May 26 “‘Uyghur Tribunal Determination Could Change Paradigm For China Relations’”
…According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Uyghur Tribunal, chaired by prominent lawyer Geoffrey Nice, will convene in London, England from June 4-7 to hear testimonies and review evidence about the situation in the XUAR, where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities since early 2017.
KBS WORLD RADIO
May 25 “US to Notify S. Korea of Vaccine Delivery Plan Next Week”
… Asked by Radio Free Asia (RFA) whether the vaccine supply was for the allies' joint military exercise in the summer, the Pentagon said the decision took into account the close working environment between their forces, including within the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ).
THE GUARDIAN
May 25 “PEN International raises alarm over severe prison sentences for Uyghur writers”
… His brother, who works as Deputy Director of Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Uyghur Service, believes that Ahmetjan Juma’s punitive prison sentence is a form of punishment for his work at RFA highlighting human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
NEWS CLICK
May 25 “‘Stand with Myanmar’: International Solidarity Campaign to be Held against Military Violence”
… One student told Radio Free Asia that “Students have been arrested, imprisoned, and unjustly shot during the protests,” adding that, “Out of respect for those killed and tortured, we won’t go to school until the uprising is over.”
FEDERALIST
May 24 “Chinese Concentration Camp Survivor Reveals Torture, Rape, And Plans For Invading Europe”
… “The current situation has already surpassed ethnic and religious issues,” Sauytbay told Radio Free Asia in 2020.
PRENSA LATINA
May 23 “Vietnamese vote in elections tailored to the Communist Party”
… There are a total of 343 women on the candidate list, according to Radio Free Asia. Authorities want to boost the representation of women in parliament from 27% to 30% by 2030.
JAKARTA POST
May 23 “20 Myanmar soldiers killed in raid on police station: local media”
… Radio Free Asia reported that 10 soldiers and four policemen were killed, including the deputy police chief of Moebye police station.
APPLE DAILY
May 23 “More trouble for China’s chipmakers as Shandong firm owes wages: reports”
… When a Radio Free Asia reporter called the person responsible for the adverts on Thursday and asked whether recruitment was still taking place, the woman who answered said only that there was no problem and everything was normal before quickly hanging up the phone.
DIPLOMAT
May 21 “Key Cambodian Opposition Figure Defects From Banned CNRP”
… According to a report by Radio Free Asia (RFA), Pol Ham, the party’s deputy president, will join the Cambodian Reform Party, which was formed earlier this year by the former CNRP official Ou Chanrath.
POLYGRAPH
May 20 “China’s ‘Wolf Warriors’ Spread Staged Eid al-Fitr Dance Video”
… Dolkun Isa, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) rights group, told Radio Free Asia (RFA)’s Uyghur service that China had designed and used the event to spread “disinformation” and to counter allegations of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
MARITIME EXECUTIVE (Also in INQUIRER)
May 20 “Chinese Maritime Militia Unit Releases Video Celebrating Military Role”
… The video - an official production of the Political Department of the PLA Hainan Province Sansha Garrison - was first reported by Radio Free Asia.
KOREA HERALD
May 20 “NK refuses COVAX monitoring, causing delays in vaccination”
… Earlier this month the Gavi alliance, which co-leads COVAX with the World Health Organization, said the vaccine shipments to the North would be delayed to the second half of this year due to the country’s lack of technical preparedness and the global supply shortage, according to Radio Free Asia.
LATIN TIMES
May 19 “WATCH: E-Bike Elevator Explosion Leaves Old Chinese Woman, Baby In ICU”
… In a post from the Radio Free Asia Facebook page, footage of an electric bicycle exploding drew attention with some locals calling for the ban of the e-bike being brought into residential building elevators.
APPLE DAILY
May 19 “Outspoken Chinese tycoon Sun Dawu could spend 25 years behind bars: report”
… The court appeared to have expedited proceedings, Radio Free Asia reported.
38 NORTH
May 19 “Reforestation Progress and Backsliding in North Korea’s Northern and Southern Regions”
… References… Hong, A. “Deforestation to get more food is aggravated by North Korea’s food shortages” Radio Free Asia (자유아시아방송). May 19, 2020.
TELEGRAPH
May 19 “China's fishing fleet may be front for international spying operation”
… An investigation by Radio Free Asia has linked a fleet operating out of Woody Island in the contested Paracel archipelago to projects involving national security information, suggesting that the ships are engaged in activities beyond fishing.
APPLE DAILY (Also in VPN COMPARE)
May 19 “Overseas Chinese student detained for bypassing censorship speaks of freedom and democracy”
... According to Radio Free Asia, he went to Taiwan as an exchange student in 2016 and was exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking.
SUPCHINA
May 19 “The death of Jiang Qing, a.k.a., Madame Mao”
… The same dynamic continued in 2021: Radio Free Asia reported on the flowers and other offerings left at the grave, many of them brought by Maoist groups from across the country.
JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION (Also in ASIA NEWS)
May 17 “Xi Jinping Stresses His Historical Preeminence in Preparation for the CCP Centenary”
… An account of the nine years under Xi Jinping (2012 to 2021), during which the supreme leader fine-tuned “socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era,” took up one-fourth of the book (Radio Free Asia, April 30; CNA.com.tw, April 12).
DEFENSE NEWS
May 17 “Taiwan unveils Army restructure aimed at decentralizing military”
… This possibility was welcomed by experts speaking to Radio Free Asia’s Chinese-language coverage of the announcement.
DIPLOMAT
May 17 “Myanmar Seizes Western Town After Heated Battle with Civilian Militia”
… According to Radio Free Asia, the Myanmar armed forces, or Tatmadaw, pounded the town of Mindat with heavy artillery and helicopter gunships, in an attempt to displace a local ethnic militia that has arisen to resist the February 1 military coup.
NATIONAL REVIEW
May 17 “Chinese Nationalism, at Home and Abroad”
… He was responding to my Q&A podcast with Gulchehra Hoja, the Uyghur-American journalist who works for Radio Free Asia.
GLOBAL VOICES
May 16 “Environmental activists convicted in Cambodia for planning ‘one-woman walk’”
… Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson told Radio Free Asia that their group did not violate any law, as the arrest was done hours before the planned walk.
CHRISTIANITY DAILY
May 15 “China Uses Lies To Justify Eradication Of Uyghurs In Xinjiang, Experts Say”
… However, Radio Free Asia reported that the Han population accounts for up to 91.1% of China's total population, with a growth rate of about 4.9%.
INDIA BLOOMS
May 15 “China: Jailed Uyghur businessman dies in Xinjiang Prison Hospital under mysterious circumstances”
… Last year, Radio Free Asia said its Uyghur Service learned that Abduhelil Hashim, a 59-year-old businessman from the county-level city of Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) in the XUAR’s Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture, had been detained and subsequently sent to Qara Bughra Prison in the prefecture’s Kunes (Xinyuan) county for “religious extremism.”
CENTRAL BANKING
May 14 “Myanmar suffering slow-motion bank run, reports say”
… Radio Free Asia and Reuters have reported that the Central Bank of Myanmar is struggling to keep commercial banks adequately supplied with cash.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
May 13 “China Imprisons More Than 600 Imams, Uighur Rights Panel Says as Muslims Mark Eid al-Fitr”
… In November last year, the Radio Free Asia had reported that China detained hundreds of Muslim imams in the restive Xinjiang province.
DAILY NK
May 12 “North Korea imports COVID-19 vaccine samples from China and Russia”
… According to a report by Radio Free Asia, a Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) spokesperson said that the delivery of vaccines to North Korea would “[depend] on the supply situation” but that “a COVID-19 vaccine introduction could be envisaged in the second half of 2021.”
EXPRESS
May 12 “North Korea chaos: Desperate Kim Jong-un pleads with farmers to collect own urine”
… Kim Jong-un’s authoritarian regime has said each farmer must produce two litres a day, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
HERITAGE FOUNDATION
May 12 “Religious Persecution in China Intensifies With Brainwashing Camps for Christians”
… According to a recent Radio Free Asia report, Chinese Christians are being detained at secretive “brainwashing camps.”
APPLE DAILY
May 12 “Prisoner’s mother visited by police in Guangdong after investigating son’s treatment”
… Niu’s mother had earlier told Radio Free Asia that medical staff at Luocun Hospital in Guangdong’s Foshan city, where her son had been treated, were forbidden from disclosing any information about his condition.
UCA NEWS
May 11 “Court date set for deposed Myanmar leader Suu Kyi”
… “We are not sure whether we will be able to see her privately or not,” her chief lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told Radio Free Asia on May 10.
CHRISTIANITY DAILY
May 10 “Chinese Authorities Reject Official Complaint From Family Of Detained Rights Lawyer”
… The detained rights lawyer's wife told Radio Free Asia that she had an "altercation with the staff of the Shaanxi provincial state prosecutor's office" and that staff had left the reception area and shut the door, leaving her alone.
ANADOLOU AGENCY
May 8 “OPINION - Purge genocide culprits from democratic leadership: Myanmar”
… After the first well-reported bouts of organized violence against Rohingyas broke out in June and October 2012, the NLD vice-chair went on to publicly deny the ethnic identity of Rohingyas on a Burmese language service of the Radio Free Asia, an official broadcaster for the US government.
ASIA TIMES
May 7 “India will be frontline state in Myanmar’s civil war”
… The chorus – British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Asia, Western non-governmental organizations promoting democracy and human rights – soon began receding and the locus shifted from the streets to the world capitals with a massive diplomatic campaign for international intervention.
KOREA TIMES
May 7 “COVID-19 vaccine likely to arrive in North Korea in second half of this year”
… According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Edwin Salvador, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Pyongyang, said the organization will cooperate with the North to comply with the technical requirements to obtain the vaccines.
ARIRANG
May 7 “'CVIA' leaves room for civil nuclear programs in N. Korea: Fmr. IAEA deputy director”
… Speaking to Radio Free Asia, former IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen said "abandonment" is more of an euphemistic expression than "denuclearization and dismantlement."
EQUAL TIMES
May 7 “The women’s revolution: what the coup means for gender equality in Myanmar”
… According to data provided to Radio Free Asia by the local organisation Gender Equality Network, women make up some 60 per cent of the protesters who have taken to the streets and between 70 and 80 per cent of the movement’s leaders.
KOREA HERALD
May 6 “Gavi expects delay in vaccine shipments to North Korea”
… “Depending on the supply situation, a COVID-19 vaccine introduction could be envisaged in the second half of 2021,” a Gavi spokesperson told Radio Free Asia, refraining from fixing concrete dates.
POLYGRAPH
May 6 “After Crushing Free Media, Cambodia’s Hun Sen Claims to 'Place High Value' on Journalism”
… Two Radio Free Asia journalists, Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin, were picked up in November 2017 on what Human Rights Watch called “baseless espionage charges.”
DIPLOMAT
May 6 “Can Myanmar’s New ‘People’s Defense Force’ Succeed?”
… “A lot of time has gone into training,” Khin Ma Ma Myo, the NUG’s deputy minister of defense, told Radio Free Asia.
INDIA BLOOMS
May 6 “Human Rights and China: Uyghur School Director jailed for 14 years”
… Ahmetjan Juma, whose brother Mamatjan Juma is the deputy director of RFA’s Uyghur Service, went missing from his home prefecture of Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) in 2017 and was added to a list of disappeared Uyghur intellectuals compiled by the Norway-based “Uyghuryar” Foundation, reports Radio Free Asia.
ASEAN TODAY
May 6 “Cambodia’s COVID-19 lockdown has created an avoidable food crisis”
… “There are hundreds of thousands of these people though, and we can’t resolve this promptly,” he told Radio Free Asia.
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
May 5 “North Korea getting ready for COVID-19 vaccines after reporting 'zero' cases”
… Edwin Salvador, head of the WHO office in Pyongyang, said Tuesday that North Korea is "in the process" of complying with the technical requirements needed to obtain COVID-19 vaccines, Radio Free Asia's Korean service reported.
FORBES
May 5 “Are Christians In China Next In Line For ‘Re-Education’?”
In April 2021, Radio Free Asia reported that “authorities in China are detaining Christians in secretive, mobile ‘transformation’ facilities to make them renounce their faith.”
MIRROR
May 5 “Fears for Wuhan Covid whistleblower not seen in public for more than a hyear”
… In March, sources told Radio Free Asia that Mr Fang was initially detained on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power," but that this charge was revised to "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," which is often frequently used to target peaceful critics of the Communist Party.
GLOBAL CEMENT
May 5 “Laotian cement plant workers paid back wages in long running dispute”
… All 170 employees owed money by the Guestown-Lao company plant in Luang Prabang province’s Nam Bak district have now received US$42,000 from the plant’s new owner, according to Radio Free Asia.
POLYGRAPH
May 4 “Palestinian Envoy Touts Number of Xinjiang Mosques, Ignores Demolition Evidence”
… In December 2016, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the Chinese Central Ethnic-Religious Affairs Department had launched a “Mosque Rectification,” putatively to promote public safety.
NATIONAL REVIEW
May 4 “A Uyghur Daughter, and Journalist”
… She is a Uyghur-American journalist, working for Radio Free Asia.
APPLE DAILY
May 4 “CCP steps up nationwide political-legal rectification campaign”
… According to Radio Free Asia, at least 376 police officers in Inner Mongolia have taken the initiative to confess their misconduct, after the authorities responsible for “nationwide education and rectification of the political-legal institutions” urged self-reporting in a bid to eradicate any black sheep in the system.
DIPLOMAT
May 4 “Kachin Insurgents Shoot Down Myanmar Military Helicopter”
… Radio Free Asia reported that Kachin Waves, a local news outlet, claimed that after the helicopter was shot down, two artillery shells fell on a monastery in Konglaw village, killing a monk and two villagers, and injuring nine other people.
KHMER TIMES
May 4 “Cambodia should close down United Nations Human Right Office by 2030”
… For instance, people tend to report human rights abuses to human rights NGOs, to Radio Free Asia (RFA), to Voice of America (VOA) instead of the government channels.
CHRISTIANITY DAILY
May 3 “CCP Demands Chinese Schools Teach Communist Propaganda And Party Line”
… According to Radio Free Asia, the new measures order CCP party branches to be set up within schools and guide its teachers, researchers, undergraduate students, and others within the institution.
UCA NEWS
May 3 “Cambodians plead for food as lockdown takes its toll”
… The government has pledged to help them. Radio Free Asia reports in this YouTube video.
DIPLOMAT
May 3 “The Military Junta Has Driven Myanmar’s Journalists Back Underground”
… “Journalists are living in fear because there is no safety for us,” a senior editor from a Myanmar news agency told Radio Free Asia this week.
PLOYGRAPH
May 3 “Did Vietnam’s President Vow to Never Oppose China? Doubtful.”
… More recently, Vietnam and other countries have rejected the legitimacy of thousands of domestic trademarks China filed for myriad land features scattered throughout the South China Sea, Radio Free Asia reported.