Read about this topic in Cantonese. One of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, Joshua Wong, was transported from prison to court Friday and charged with colluding with foreign forces, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Wong, 28, is already serving a four-year-and-eight-month sentence for subversion. He is currently due for release about one-and-a-half years from now. If found guilty on the new charge it could prolong his imprisonment. Wong is one of the most internationally recognizable faces of the now-quashed democracy movement in the city. He was…
Category: RFA
Trump, Xi pave way for fresh trade talks in 90-minute call
Read about this topic in Cantonese. President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping agreed on fresh trade talks to overcome a tariff stalemate in a highly anticipated phone call on Thursday that China’s state media reported first, stressing that it was the U.S. leader who initiated it. On his social media feed, Trump described the 90-minute conversation as a “very good phone call.” It came during a tense period in U.S.-China relations after Washington accused Beijing of backtracking on a May 12 agreement to reduce tariffs by not freeing up…
Tiananmen Mothers face blackout as China tries to silence memory of June 4 crackdown
On the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, families of victims held an annual memorial at a Beijing cemetery even as authorities left them incommunicado amid a tightening grip by China on commemorations of the 1989 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. For the first time, authorities banned the members of the Tiananmen Mothers group from carrying mobile phones and cameras as they gathered at the Wan’an cemetery, severing their contact with the outside world. But the elderly mothers still laid flowers for their loved ones who were killed in the June…
Thailand resists Cambodia push to take border dispute to UN court
Read reporting on this topic in Khmer. Thailand is resisting Cambodia’s push to bring their border dispute to the U.N. International Court of Justice after a firefight last week that killed one Cambodian soldier, raising tensions between the Southeast Asian neighbors. In a press statement Wednesday, the Thai government said its troops had acted in self-defense during a routine patrol in an area under Thai sovereignty. About Cambodia’s proposal “to resort to a judicial mechanism or a third party,” Thailand stressed that it is “ready to engage in negotiations with…
VietJet Air asks government to go after its online critics
Read about this topic in Vietnamese. VietJet Air, Vietnam’s biggest private commercial airline, has asked the mayor of Hanoi to take action against people spreading “false information” about the company online. And the mayor is doing just that. In a statement published by the Vietnamese government on Monday, the Mayor Tran Sy Thanh ordered relevant agencies to investigate and handle Facebook accounts responsible for disseminating “false information” about Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, the billionaire CEO of VietJet. The post on the government’s official Facebook account, however, was later edited to…
Tibetans evicted then reinstated after protest at US-China women’s soccer match
Tibetan activists protested for a “Free Tibet” during a women’s soccer friendly between the United States and China at the weekend — and won the support of other spectators who booed when they were briefly evicted from their seats by security. The Chinese team members and support staff confronted the eight activists who were seated close to them during Saturday’s friendly international match at the Allianz stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota, that the U.S. won 3-0. The activists, dressed in white T-shirts, had been shouting slogans and holding up white…
Vietnam communist party budget is the elephant in the room as To Lam cuts costs
Read about this topic in Vietnamese. Since becoming general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, To Lam has drawn international attention with his aggressive plans for cost-cutting within the government but he’s been quiet about another drain on the state budget – the ruling party itself. After taking office last August, he has moved this year to eliminate and merge ministries and central government agencies, reduce the number of provinces and cities by half, and dismantle district-level administrative units. Tens of thousands of civil servants have already lost their…
‘Am I that scary?’: Tiananmen Mother, 88, marks son’s death, still faces surveillance
Read about this topic in Mandarin. Note: This article contains a graphic description that some readers may find upsetting. An 88-year-old mother whose son died in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre has trouble even walking to a Beijing cemetery to commemorate his passing every June 4, but authorities still keep her under surveillance. “Am I that scary?” she asks. Zhang Xianling is one of the founding members of the Tiananmen Mothers group that represents the families of victims of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left hundreds if not thousands dead.…
Regional Chinese censorship more aggressive than national Great Firewall: study
Online censorship in China by some regional governments is even more aggressive than enforcement of the national-level ‘Great Firewall’ by the central government, according to a recent study and local sources. The Great Firewall Report (GFW Report) highlights how the central Chinese province of Henan has adopted its own provincial firewall which is less sophisticated and robust than the central government’s but more volatile and aggressive, blocking significantly more websites than the national-level censorship system. Local sources told Radio Free Asia that the heightened restrictions at the provincial government level…
China replaces its top official in Hong Kong
Read about this topic in Cantonese. China announced Friday it was replacing its top official in Hong Kong who was regarded as a symbol of Beijing’s hardline approach toward the territory since 2019 pro-democracy protests. China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said it was removing Zheng Yanxiong from several key positions including as director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Zheng was viewed as the Chinese Communist Party’s top envoy in Hong Kong and a key liaison with…