One of three Burmese armed resistance fighters who sought medical assistance in Thailand was killed as Thai authorities handed them over to junta authorities en route to Myanmar, Radio Free Asia has learned. The incident prompted Thailand’s opposition Commoners Party on Monday to condemn the Thai government for cooperating with Myanmar’s military regime in what it said was a violation of domestic and international law. The three members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force entered the Thai border town of Mae Sot, across from Myawaddy in Myanmar’s Kayin state, on…
Day: April 10, 2023
Myanmar’s rebel groups bomb pavilions built by military for New Years water festival
Myanmar’s New Years, called Thingyan, is normally a water festival in which people can drench each other during the hottest time of the year. And junta troops have been busy building pavilions around the country to create a sense of normalcy in the war-wracked country. But in an apparent attempt to dispel any notions of stability under military rule, rebel groups set off several bombs this past weekend at these pavilions in the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and Mawlamyine. No one was injured in the blasts, but they have clearly…
China using spies to keep Muslim Uyghurs from fasting during Ramadan
Chinese police are using spies to make sure that Uyghur Muslims are not fasting during the holy month of Ramadan – including members of their own ethnic group. The spies – which Chinese officials refer to as “ears” – are drawn from ordinary citizens, police and members of neighborhood committees, said a police officer from an area near Turpan, or Tulufan in Chinese, in eastern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. “We have many secret agents,” she told Radio Free Asia. China began banning Muslims in Xinjiang from fasting during Ramadan in…
China-Taiwan: How Beijing calibrates its Taiwan response
The Chinese Communist Party defeated the KMT in a civil war that ended in 1949, forcing the latter to flee to Taiwan. But in recent decades, the former rivals have found common ground in the 1992 Consensus, a vaguely worded understanding that says there is only “One China” which includes Taiwan. BBC
Chinese feminist moves to United States, calls for international action
One of China’s “Feminist Five” activists who sparked an international outcry when they were detained ahead of International Women’s Day in 2015, has left the country to take up a position as a visiting scholar in the United States. Zheng Churan was detained alongside fellow activists Li Tingting, Wu Rongrong, Wei Tingting and Wang Man on March 6, 2015, two days ahead of International Women’s Day, as they planned a campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.” While they were eventually…
Dalai Lama apologizes after video shows him asking boy to ‘suck my tongue’
The Dalai Lama apologized on Monday for kissing a young boy on the lips and asking him to “suck my tongue” at a student event in northern India. The Feb. 28 incident has sparked online criticism. The leader of Tibetan Buddhism posted a statement on his Twitter account, saying he “wishes to apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused.” The statement said the Dalai Lama “often teases people he meets in an innocent and…
China sentences two prominent activists after attending 2019 dissident gathering
A Chinese court on Monday sentenced two prominent political activists to more than a decade in prison for “subversion of state power” – a charge often used to target critics of the government – after they attended a 2019 dissident gathering. The Linshu County People’s Court in the eastern province of Shandong handed down a 14-year jail term to Xu Zhiyong and a 12-year sentence to rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi. Ding and Xu, the founder of the “New Citizens’ Movement” campaign for government transparency, were detained after they attended a…
China-Taiwan: Aircraft carrier ‘seals off’ island on third day of drills
Ms Pelosi’s high-profile visit to Taiwan last August, while she was the US House of Representatives Speaker, was followed by four days of unprecedented military drills, which saw China fire ballistic missiles into the seas around Taiwan. Ms Pelosi was the highest-ranking US official to land in Taiwan since the 1990s. BBC
Myanmar authorities tell residents to relocate away from Magway’s air force base
Myanmar authorities in Magway have informed residents that they must relocate their homes from the vicinity of the air force base by May 20 under the pretext of land encroachment, locals said Friday. Residents said municipal officials first notified about 100 families in the city’s Aung Zayar ward adjacent to the base on March 25 to relocate, and then convened a meeting at the township hall five days later and told them to move by May 20. Most of the affected residents are tricycle rickshaw drivers, carpenters and masons who…
‘Secret rooms’ in North Korean restaurants create a space to conduct illicit affairs
In North Korea, couples involved in illicit romantic or business affairs who need private places away from prying eyes don’t have many options. So restaurant and karaoke bar owners have created “secret rooms” – usually in the back of their establishments – where so-called “8.3 couples” can pay extra for privacy, which brings in extra cash, sources in the country say. The slang for secret or adulterous couples comes from a government directive issued back on August 3, 1984, that encouraged factories to earn extra money beyond their state-set profit…