Some 210,000 migrants from Myanmar have flooded into Thailand over the past two years under a renewed bilateral labor agreement with Myanmar’s junta. But those applying for jobs under it face a daunting maze of paperwork, often leading to the murky world of bribes and brokers. For many, the costs and difficulties involved in legal entry push them towards illicit paths into Thailand. And when the promises of employment agencies fall through, it’s not Myanmar’s military who step up to resolve the issues, but it is rather Thai labor officials…
Month: November 2023
Christian families’ homes destroyed in southern Laos
The homes of 10 Christian families were recently destroyed by local authorities and nearby residents, the latest instance of religious harassment in southern Laos. The families were driven from three villages in Saravan Province’s Samoey District about two months ago, according to some fellow Christians and officials. District authorities eventually arranged for new land for the families in one of the villages where they could rebuild their homes, but no compensation or financial assistance has been provided, the sources told Radio Free Asia. “Now, the authorities have put them together…
Meta closes nearly 4,800 fake accounts in China that tried to polarize US voters
Someone in China created thousands of fake Facebook and Instagram accounts designed to impersonate Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the US ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said on Thursday. The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The accounts sported fake photos, names and locations as a way to appear like everyday American Facebook users weighing in on political…
Meta takes down China-based network of thousands of fake accounts
In some cases the accounts copied and pasted verbatim posts from US politicians – both Republicans and Democrats – including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Reps Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, and others. BBC
North Korea bars contact between soldiers and civilians
North Korea is barring even casual contact between soldiers and civilians, apparently to keep soldiers from smuggling military goods to the public, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the two groups were able to interact, and in fact North Korean propaganda portrays a unifying bond between the military and ordinary people. But soldiers stole military supplies such as food, fuel and Chinese cell phones and smuggled them to civilians, who then sold them in the markets. When the pandemic struck in early 2020, authorities…
Hospitals under fire amid widening Myanmar conflict
At least three hospitals were damaged in clashes between Myanmar’s military and armed resistance groups in the third week of November alone, according to rights groups and residents, further straining a healthcare system already reeling from dwindling resources and widespread conflict under junta rule. The attacks took place on Nov. 17 in northern Shan and Rakhine states, and the following day in Sagaing region – three hotbeds of resistance since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat and launched a scorched earth offensive targeting the armed…
Beijing silent on key meeting amid growing dissent in party ranks
China’s ruling Communist Party appears to have postponed a key political meeting, in a move analysts said suggests that party leader Xi Jinping faces strong currents of dissent from within party ranks that he may not be able to keep under wraps at a plenary session. The third plenary session of the Central Committee – the party’s biggest decision-making body – is typically held a year after a new leadership takes power, yet Xi’s third term in office was nodded through by the 20th party congress in October 2022, with…
Hong Kong police arrest man at airport for ‘Free Hong Kong’ T-shirt
Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested a man who went to board a flight out of the city, charging him with “sedition” under colonial-era laws for wearing a T-shirt with a banned protest slogan printed on it, after questioning a lone protester holding up a blank sheet of paper at the weekend. Acting on a tip-off, national security police arrested Chu Kai-poon, 26, as he approached his boarding gate, charging him with “committing one or more acts with seditious intent,” “possession of seditious publications” and “possessing other people’s ID cards.”…
PwC fined $7mn over exam cheating by China and Hong Kong staff
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. PwC has been fined $7mn after a US regulator found that more than 1,000 of its audit staff in China and Hong Kong cheated on internal training exams designed to get them up to speed on US standards. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said that PwC staff improperly shared test answers over the course of at least two years up to 2020. Without admitting the allegations, PwC’s Hong Kong…
China’s workers face layoffs, unpaid wages ahead of Lunar New Year
At a time when China’s hundreds of millions of migrant workers might normally be hoping to earn some extra cash ahead of the Lunar New Year festivities, the struggling economy has left employers unable to pay wages, or forced companies to shut down facilities and lay off staff, according to residents and news reports. Dozens of employees staged a protest at sudden layoffs at a China Telecom facility in the northern province of Shaanxi, according to the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin’s Strike Map of industrial disputes. The map showed…