AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
March 30 “83 buried in a Tibet landslide”
A huge landslide came crashing down a mountainside in Tibet on Friday, burying 83 workers in a gold mining area, Chinese state-run media said. A vast three-kilometre-long section of land, with a volume of two million cubic metres, slid down a slope and buried the workers' camp in Maizhokunggar county, east of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, the official Xinhua news agency said. … But mining developments can lead to accusations of exploitation. In 2010, at least four Tibetans may have been killed and 30 others hurt when Chinese police fired on crowds protesting the expansion of mine operations blamed for environmental damage, US-based Radio Free Asia reported.
CHINA DIGITAL TIMES
March 29 “Tibetan Self-Immolation Toll Reaches 114”
… The ongoing wave of fiery protest has prompted a controversial crackdown - authorities have been detaining those accused of “inciting innocent people to commit self-immolation,” and enhancing surveillance in Tibetan areas under Chinese rule. Radio Free Asia reports on an official document identifying prohibited behavior that has been circulating the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Qinghai province: Prohibitions listed in the document are aimed at “strengthening the protection of social stability and maintaining discipline by cracking down on unlawful activities in the relevant areas,” the document, written in Tibetan, says.
NEW YORK TIMES (Also in DEUTSCHE PRESSE AGENTUR)
March 29 “Tibetan Monk Dies in Self-Immolation in China”
A Tibetan monk killed himself this week by self-immolation near a monastery in western China, according to a report on Thursday by Radio Free Asia, which is financed by the United States government. The act by the monk, Kunchok Tenzin, 28, took place at a major intersection near Mori monastery, to which the monk belonged, in Gansu Province, which has a significant Tibetan population.
TIBETAN REVIEW
March 29 “China further curtails Tibetans with ‘13 don’ts’”
Chinese authorities in Rebgong (Chinese: Tongren) County of Malho (Huangnan) Prefecture, Qinghai Province, have announced and begun implementing a set of 13 forbidden activities that are seen as being critical of Chinese rule in Tibet and especially includes ban on self-immolations and related activities. Radio Free Asia (Washington) Mar 28 reported that the undated Tibetan-language document, which bans as illegal activities such as filming self-immolation protests and seeking welfare donations, had been disseminated in all the towns and villages of the county.
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
March 28 “Tibetan envoy says China can end immolations”
An envoy of the Dalai Lama said Wednesday that Tibetans would likely end a wave of self-immolation protests if China reopened dialogue with the exiled spiritual leader to address grievances. … In the latest protest, US-based Radio Free Asia reported that a Tibetan mother of four burned herself to death in southwestern China's Sichuan province on Sunday.
WORLD
March 27 “Chinese outraged over another forced late-term abortion”
Another photo of a baby forcibly aborted at seven months by Chinese officials went viral last weekend, stirring anger in the Chinese community online. … One Guangzhou doctor told Radio Free Asia that what happened to Lü’s baby is essentially murder.
HUFFINGTON POST
March 27 “Why Is Beijing Leaking the Revolution?”
A book written in 1856 on the causes of the French Revolution has apparently gained popularity among Chinese intellectuals. China is known more for banning books than recommending them, but according to Business Insider, last year senior Party officials began suggesting Alexis de Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the Revolution, to their subordinates. … Columbia University Tibet scholar Robbie Barnett takes a more cautious line. As he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview, "Even if there was a total collapse, it might not lead to any improvement in Tibetans' situation." It's quite possible, for example, that China would reorganize itself along even more nationalistic and militaristic lines.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
March 27 “Flares, gunshots, and fires, oh my: The latest South China Sea accusations fly”
China has denied Hanoi's accusations that it fired upon a Vietnamese fishing boat last week near the Paracel Islands as "sheer fabrication," and claims that its patrol vessel only fired flares and did not damage the boat. … Radio Free Asia reports that Pham Quang Thanh, the captain of the fishing boat, said that "When we saw the vessel from afar, we left right away. But after about 30 to 40 minutes, they were already right behind us."
BBC
March 27 “China media”
… Overseas Tibetan rights groups say that he is the 111th Tibetan to self-immolate in protest at Chinese rule since 2009. … Nor have mainstream media commented on internet users on Sina Weibo and other social media platforms angered and shocked at a photo allegedly of a forcibly aborted foetus. The US government-funded Radio Free Asia and overseas Chinese-language media say its mother was reportedly forced to terminate her seven-month pregnancy in Anhui for exceeding her childbirth quota.
REUTERS (Also in DEUTSCHE PRESSE AGENTUR)
March 26 “China jails 20 on jihad, separatism charges in restive Xinjiang”
Chinese courts have sentenced 20 people to up to life in jail on charges of separatism and plotting to carry out jihad in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, the government said on Wednesday. … Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said the 20 were actually guilty of no more than listening to the U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia and using the internet to discuss the importance of religious and cultural freedom.
IRRAWADDY NEWS (Also in CPJ)
March 26 “Media Watchdog Condemns Threats Against Reporters in Meikhtila Pogroms”
Journalists covering the recent violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the central Burma city of Meikhtila were harassed by monks and their supporters, a media rights watchdog has said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a statement on Monday expressing concern over the treatment of journalists covering the situation in Meikhtila near Mandalay. … According to the report, journalists working for leading media organizations—including the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Radio Free Asia, Democratic Voice of Burma and The Irrawaddy—were threatened by anti-Muslim mobs, which threatened them and forced some journalists to delete footage and pictures from their cameras. … RFA also reported that that one of its reporters was among the nine journalists who were intimidated as they were photographing monks destroying a mosque in Meikhtila.
CEYLON TODAY
March 26 “Intolerant regime talks of love and compassion”
The Tibetan plateau received 11 million tourists in 2012, and the number is expected to double. Meanwhile, China continues to make it difficult for the Tibetans to obtain even passports. Instead, it preaches humanity to them On the 18th day of the first month of the Water-Ox Year (in February 1913), Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, proclaimed the 'Independence' of Tibet. … Radio Free Asia recently reported: "No new Chinese passports have been issued to Tibetan individuals in TAR, except for a few Tibetan officials who received the passports for official purpose and which they need to hand back upon their return." Sonam Dorjee, a researcher working in the Office of Tibet in Taiwan found out that unlike Chinese nationals, Tibetans face "A very complicated and difficult process" to obtain passports.
SING TAO USA
March 26 “Japanese Prime Minister Hopes EU Will Maintain China Arms Embargo”
Radio Free Asia reported that Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida has told media that China’s non-transparent and rocketing military spending as well as its increased naval activities in disputed waters poses a threat to Japan and the immediate region.
CHRISTIANITY TODAY
March 25 “China Cracks Down on House Churches”
ChinaAid reported in February the Chinese government's plan to eradicate all unofficial, Protestant house churches across the country. Now, that plan appears to have been set in motion.
"The ruling Chinese Communist Party's ideological agency in Jiaozhou city called on township Party committees and neighborhood panels to investigate fully all unofficial venues of worship on their territory," according to a report from Radio Free Asia.
FOREIGN POLICY – DEMOCRACY LAB (Blog)
March 25 “Democracy Lab Weekly Brief - March 25, 2013”
… And now for this week's recommended reads: … Radio Free Asia releases their findings in a report on Burma's progress in increasing openness via communications technology.
ASSOCIATED PRESS (Also in NEW YORK TIMES, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, RTHK, HUFFINGTON POST, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, KYODO NEWS AGENCY, GLOBAL POST)
March 24 “Anti-China protest: Tibetan mother of 4 self-immolates near Sichuan monastery”
A U.S.-backed broadcaster says a Tibetan mother of four young children has killed herself in the latest self-immolation protest in western China. Radio Free Asia said 30-year-old Kalkyi set herself on fire Sunday near a monastery in Sichuan province's Aba county. The report said she died at the scene and her body was placed in the nearby Jonang Tibetan Buddhist monastery.
KOREA HERALD (Also in YONHAP, KOREA TIMES, GLOBAL POST)
March 24 “N. Korean movie to be shown at Hawaii, Wisconsin film festivals”
A North Korean movie that has made its debut in the United States last month will be shown at two more film festivals in the United States, a media report said Saturday. The romantic comedy made jointly by North Korean, British and Belgian film producers has been invited to the Hawaii and Wisconsin film events slated for April, Radio Free Asia said.
KOREA TIMES
March 23 “NK dispatched hacking agents overseas early this month”
While even the Seoul authorities announced yesterday that the hacking of broadcasting stations and banks was generated locally from Korea, there have been constant suspicions about North Korean involvement. Amid such suspicions, Radio Free Asia – based in t he United States – cited a North Korean defector from the Kim Il Automation University as saying that he had information that hacking agents were dispatched to China and other overseas locations in the beginning of this month.
NEW YORK TIMES (Also in ASIAN TIMES)
March 22 “Myanmar Troops Sent to City Torn by Sectarian Rioting”
As a picture of chaos and anarchy emerged from a city in central Myanmar on Friday, President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the area and ordered the military to assist in quelling rioting that residents say has left at least 20 people dead. … One video posted to Facebook by Radio Free Asia on Friday showed Muslim women and men cowering and shielding their heads from flying objects as they fled their attackers. Onlookers are overheard shouting, “Oooh! Look how many of them. Kill them! Kill them!”
CHINA DIGITAL TIMES
March 22 “Rights Group Speaks Out Against Surveillance in Tibet”
As a long wave of protest by self-immolation in Tibet rages on, Beijing has been taking special measures to crackdown in the region. In addition to detaining Tibetans accused of “inciting self-immolation,” plans to upgrade state surveillance in Tibetan regions of China were announced in February, much to the chagrin of international advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Radio Free Asia reports: A bid by Beijing to expand a new surveillance and security system across Tibet significantly increases the monitoring particularly of ex-prisoners and exile returnees and raises tensions in a region already gripped by resentment against Chinese rule, a human rights organization said Thursday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS (Also in TECH IN ASIA)
March 22 “Google Exec Urges Myanmar To Embrace Free Speech”
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Friday urged Myanmar's government to allow private businesses to develop the country's woeful telecommunications infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of competition and free speech. … Data capable smartphones remain prohibitively expensive, averaging $563 in a nation where the average income is $60-70 per month, according to a February 2013 study by Radio Free Asia's Open Technology Fund.
FRANCE 24
March 21 “Buddhist-Muslim violence flares up anew in Burma”
Photos and videos coming out of the central Burmese town of Meikhtila show rioting and attacks against Muslim-owned businesses, in the country’s worst communal violence since last year's clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in the eastern part of the country. … A police source cited by Radio Free Asia says the shop owner broke an item belonging to the customers, leading to a brawl; Muslim activists, citing local sources, say the customers tried to sell the shop owner fake gold. Either way, the dispute quickly drew a crowd that attacked the goldsmith’s store as well as other Muslim-owned businesses.
GUARDIAN
March 19 “China police accuse Tibetan of killing wife amid latest 'self-immolation protest'”
Chinese authorities have accused a Tibetan man of murdering his wife, in response to reports that she self-immolated in protest at Beijing's policies. … Dzoge Lekshek, an exile with contacts in the region, told Radio Free Asia: "The authorities wanted Dolma Kyab to declare that she burnt herself as a result of a family conflict and when he refused to comply, he was detained and taken away."
EXAMINER
March 18 “Chinese police have obliterated a Tibetan prayer written on the face of a cliff”
The tensions between the Tibetans and Chinese authorities has been getting uglier. On March 18, 2013, Radio Free Asia has reported, Chinese Police Remove Tibetan Cliff Prayer. Chinese police are said to have completely destroyed a prayer put on a cliff by Tibetan villagers calling for the long life of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
March 16 “A country held together by fear, rhetoric and nuclear weapons”
In North Korea these days, factory workers in combat gear ride in camouflaged trucks, brandishing signs calling for the ''great war for the reunification of our fatherland.'' … ''It's like religious preaching,'' said Moon Seong-hwi, a defector from North Korea who writes for Radio Free Asia. ''The North's nuclear weapons program is not just aimed at the outside world; it's directed at the domestic populace.''
ASSOCIATED PRESS (Also in AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, GUARDIAN)
March 16 “Tibetan monk self-immolates inside China temple”
A Tibetan Buddhist monk set himself on fire inside a western Chinese monastery recently singled out by authorities as a hub of the grisly self-immolation protests striking the region, reports said Sunday.
U.S.-backed broadcaster Radio Free Asia said Lobsang Thokmey, 28, was the 108th Tibetan to self-immolate in a string of protests against Chinese rule and religious restrictions starting in February 2009. His protest took place on the fifth anniversary of a 2008 government crackdown in the area in which police fired into a crowd, allegedly killing 10 people.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 15 “Google's Schmidt to Visit Myanmar”
Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt heads to Myanmar next week, a sign of the Southeast Asian country's appeal to leading U.S. technology companies as it emerges from decades of secrecy and crippling western sanctions. … According to a report from the Open Technology Fund, a research division of Radio Free Asia, Chinese company Huawei Technology Co leads the smartphone market. The report, which doesn't break down smartphone makers' market share in the country, says Huawei phones there cost between US$500 and US$600. Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4, on the other hand, retails for US$1,120 in Yangon—far more than in the U.S. because of third-party restrictions. South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy smartphones retail between US$115 and US$500 in Myanmar, according to the report.
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL (Also in CAMBODIA NEWS)
March 15 “Cambodia set to release dissident reporter”
A 72-year-old Cambodian journalist and rights campaigner jailed last year to serve a 20-year sentence is set to walk free after a court quashed his conviction. Mam Sonando, owner of an independent radio station, was convicted of "insurrection" and sentenced to 20 years in prison in October. … Comfrel Director Koul Panha said the CPP dominates court officials, the armed forces and the police, putting them under the party's control. "I am worried about this political trend that is leading the country to a fragile democratic process. Cambodia is heading toward a one-party state," he told Radio Free Asia.
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING COMPANY
March 15 “Opposition Leader 'horrified' by Radio Australia jamming”
Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he would be 'horrified' if the ABC's international service was being blocked from broadcasting in China. … The AIB says broadcasts in Mandarin from broadcasters including the BBC, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America have been interfered with for many years.
FOX 2 – ST. LOUIS
March 13 “Coal Mine Accident Kills 21”
Four workers from a coal mine in China are still missing following an accident that has already claimed 21 lives. According to the Washington Post, 58 other workers were also involved, but not harmed in the accident. China remains world leader in coal production and deaths. In February, RFA (Radio Free Asia) reported China produced about 3.66 billion tons of coal in 2012 which was about four times more than the U.S.
COUNTERPUNCH
March 13 “Nuclear War Through North Korean Eyes”
There is little doubt that civilians on both sides of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) are weighed down with anxiety as both countries carry out provocative large-scale military drills amid threats of nuclear war. … Recent reports published by Radio Free Asia (RFA) detail the intellectual insecurity of North Korean civilians, who in consuming copious amounts of state media in the absence of any other source, deeply fear the threat of strikes or an invasion from foreign powers. RFA quotes a resident of North Korea’s Yanggang Province who has allegedly said, “The authorities said if we have nuclear weapons, we can scare off anyone we meet, but on the contrary even though we have nuclear weapons and we’re shouting that we might launch a preemptive strike, I’m worried it seems we might receive a preemptive strike.”
March 10 “China ranks top for women in senior management, but is that enough?”
A new study released shows that China ranks at the top globally for proportion of women in senior management, with 51% of senior management positions in mainland Chinese companies now held by women. … A piece on Radio Free Asia reminds us of the many overt and covert women are discriminated against in the workplace. There's the usual discrimination based on appearance. Then there's this: a lawyer quoted in the story says that many job adverts specify that women who are married and have children would be given priority, because companies want to avoid the costs of maternity leave.
TIBETAN REVIEW
March 9 “US award brings further Chinese restrictions on Tibet blogger”
China has reacted with vengeance to the US State Department’s awarding of a woman of courage award to Beijing-based Tibetan writer and blogger Ms Tsering Woeser, putting two policemen on guard on the floor of her apartment in addition to the existing tight restrictions on her movement. … “They suspect that the US Embassy might organize an event [for me], and that if that happens there could be media people present. So I was told that I cannot go out,” Radio Free Asia (RFA, Washington) Mar 7 quoted Woeser as saying.
BUSINESS INSIDER
March 8 “Korean Slip-Up Could Be 'Disastrous'”
North Korea's consistently belligerent rhetoric reached new heights this week as a general said the country has a long-range missile armed with nuclear warheads on standby , and supreme leader Kim Jong-un told troops to " prepare for war ." … “Tensions are high in North Korea as if there is a likely war to be triggered soon,” a source in North Pyongang province who recently visited China told Radio Free Asia. As Kim explains: the North interprets joint U.S.-South Korea exercises "as an act of war — that's why they were ratcheting up the rhetoric. ... North Korea sees this as the other side trying to go into North Korea."
GUARDIAN (Also in DEUTSCHE PRESSE AGENTUR, KYODO NEWS)
March 8 “Four killed in Xinjiang violence”
Four people have been killed and eight injured in China's far-western region of Xinjiang, government officials said. One person is under arrest following the deaths on Thursday afternoon in Korla, central Xinjiang. … Radio Free Asia said police in Korla confirmed a citywide security clampdown following the deaths. An officer who answered the phone at the municipal police incident room suggested one or more Uighurs had attacked Han Chinese but declined to give details.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 8 “Opinion Editorial: The Case of the Missing Uighur”
The Pacific island republic of Palau, population 20,000, feels more like a small town than a country. So when a resident disappears, it makes the local papers. When that resident is Adel Noori—an exonerated former Guantanamo detainee who's still wanted by China for ethnic separatism—it's also international news. … Of all the Uighurs in Palau, Mr. Noori was also best connected to the Uighur diaspora. During Rushan Abbas's first shift translating for Mr. Noori in Guantanamo, she recalls, the detainee shocked her by calling her name. They had never met before, but he remembered her broadcasts for Radio Free Asia. "He knows a lot of people," Ms. Abbas says. "He has been very active for Uighur human rights."
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
March 6 “China Jams Voice of America, Other Foreign Radio Broadcasters, Group Says”
China has been interfering with English-language radio programs, extending its “Great Firewall” -- as Western observers often call the country's comprehensive online censorship system -- into the radio field, according to the Association for International Broadcasting. … AIB said research carried out by the individual broadcasters, as well as independent groups, suggests the jamming is coming from within mainland China. The BBC, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America’s broadcasts in Mandarin have been consistently blocked for many years in China, but this is the first time that English-language services have seen such concerted interference, it said.
NEW YORK TIMES
March 5 “Editorial: Another Round of Sanctions for North Korea”
China’s decision to join the United States in proposing tougher sanctions on North Korea is a welcome step. … In the meantime, China and the United States should be working covertly to disrupt the North’s nuclear program, as the Americans and Israelis did with Iran’s. Washington could invest more in Radio Free Asia to broaden its reach so more information could reach the North’s people. Dealing with North Korea has never been easy, but neglect certainly will not help contain its nuclear and missile capabilities.
TIBETAN REVIEW
March 3 “China defied as 1,500 Tibetans pray for self-immolators”
Defying China’s ban on holding prayer services of any kind for those who had staged self-immolation protests against its rule, more than 1,500 Tibetans gathered in Dzatoe (Chinese: Zaduo) Township of Tridu (Chenduo) County in Yulshul (Yushu) Prefecture, Qinghai Province, on Feb 25 to pray for such Tibetans who had “sacrificed their lives for Tibet,” reported Radio Free Asia (Washington) Mar 1.
CHINA AID NEWS
Leaders and believers of various house churches in Beijing held a joint seminar on Monday of this week so that they could give their opinions on the Cape Town Commitment achieved at the Third Lausanne Congress. However, the seminar was harassed by the Public Security Bureau when a police officer booked by force the ID information of the attendants.
EXAMINER (Also in TIBETAN REVIEW, PHAYUL)
March 2 “Three Tibetans have been sentenced for self-immolation crimes by China”
China's response to the tragic series of self-immolations by Tibetan protesters has been a criminalization of activities alleged to be associated with these acts under Chinese law. … Radio Free Asia reported, "The trial was conducted quietly with a huge presence of security forces in and around the Kanlho Prefecture court. The Tibetans were barred from coming close to the court premises."
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
March 1 “Angry scenes in China amid land grab protest”
Villagers in southern China were on Friday locked in a tense standoff with police after angry protests over land rights, a local resident said, as Beijing prepares for its annual meeting of legislators. Residents of Shangpu, in the province of Guangdong, have occupied the village square since last Friday amid claims that corrupt local officials were selling local land, the US-based Radio Free Asia website reported.
