beijing — Over the last few weeks, China has gone to great lengths to give the impression that it is opening up to the world – whether for foreign businesses, tourists or journalists.

I can’t speak with certainty on these claims. I’m not a China specialist, but a regional reporter who covers what often feels like an impossibly large part of the world, including China.

But my recent experience on a short reporting trip to Beijing reveals the difficulties faced by foreign journalists working in the country. It’s an experience that goes against the official narrative of an “opening up” in China.

Recently, the Chinese government invited me to cover the country’s biggest annual political event, including a meeting of its National People’s Congress, which wrapped up this week in Beijing.

I hadn’t expected to get a visa. Journalists working for U.S. and many other Western news outlets have been mostly shut out of China since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when U.S.-China tensions spiked, and the country entered a severe three-year period of lockdowns and strict COVID controls.

No VOA journalist had been given a visa for China since 2020, other than a State Department correspondent who was part of a traveling press pool during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

By my count, China handed out at least seven short-term journalist visas for U.S. and European media to cover the week-long political gathering, known as the “Two Sessions,” during which China’s political elite delivered a consistently upbeat message about China’s struggling economy.

Mixed messages

It doesn’t take an expert to see that China faces a long list of problems. Even after lifting its COVID-19 lockdown at the beginning of last year, China’s economy has seen some of its slowest growth in decades. Foreign investment has plunged, amid geopolitical tensions and a series of high-profile detentions of Chinese and foreign businesspeople. And fewer tourists are coming to China compared to before the pandemic.

At the Two Sessions, China downplayed those challenges, setting an ambitious economic growth target of about 5% for the year. But while authorities promised to reduce barriers to tourism and foreign trade, they also tightened the Communist Party’s grip over the government and expanded national security laws that many foreign critics already saw as vague.

As a journalist, I also sensed inconsistent messaging. While China restored pre-COVID levels of media access at the Two Sessions, it canceled the usual press conference given by the premier at the end of the gathering. Many reporters felt conflicted about the cancellation; while it was clear the questions at this press conference were usually pre-selected, it was still a rare chance for journalists to engage with a senior Chinese leader.

Journalistic restrictions

Most of my challenges as a reporter began when I left Tiananmen Square, where the political meetings were held, and visited other parts of Beijing. For much of this month, the entire capital area has seen an increased security presence, as is typical during sensitive political moments.

But I figured the omnipresent police patrols would not prevent me from conducting basic journalistic tasks, such as getting video footage of major tourist areas and conducting brief, impromptu interviews with local residents.

My interview questions were innocuous. What do Chinese people think about the upcoming U.S. presidential election? Do they prefer Donald Trump or Joe Biden? Do they have any hope that U.S.-China ties will improve?

The questions generated a range of thoughtful responses, which you can see in the video below.

I didn’t experience any trouble until I returned to my hotel that evening, when I received a phone call saying I should appear immediately at a local office of the Ministry of Public Security, China’s main state policing agency that also monitors domestic political threats.

Upon arrival, I was escorted down a nondescript hall to a small conference room, where I was met by several officers, who proceeded to conduct an interrogation.

Why, the officers demanded to know, was I asking people about Trump and Biden, and not writing about the Two Sessions for which I had media credentials? The focus of my reporting trip, I responded, was on China’s policies, including its foreign relations.

Why, they wanted to know, had I not gotten permission before filming? I told them that not only was I in a public area, but I did also not shoot any interviews without first getting permission from the interviewees.

Their last question took the form of a rebuke: Why was VOA not more fair in telling China’s side of the story? Apparently, the officers had not appreciated the irony that I had been interviewing residents for a piece with the main goal of providing Chinese perspectives.

Pattern of abuse

In the end, I received only a mild scolding before I was allowed to leave. Other China-based reporters often experience far worse abuse, even if only counting very recent incidents.

The week before I arrived in China, a Dutch journalist covering a bank protest in the central city of Chengdu was shoved to the ground and had his equipment confiscated by police, who detained him and his cameraman for several hours while preventing them from making phone calls.

This week, a reporter for The Associated Press said he and a colleague were followed by plainclothes police, who at one point even trailed him into a bathroom. The AP reporters were in Chengdu speaking with elderly retirees who had invested in a trust fund that had gone bankrupt.

“Over a dozen plainclothes followed us, using tactics I’ve only seen in Xinjiang. They followed me into the bathroom and to the airport. They took photos of us,” the reporter, Dake Kang, said on social media website X. “This is Chengdu, one of the most liberal cities in China. Startling to see such tactics deployed here.”

Foreign journalists have often experienced harassment when visiting far-flung areas, such as Tibet or Xinjiang, where China is accused of severe human rights abuses, or while reporting on other politically sensitive topics, such as protests or natural disasters.

But if my experience, and that of many others, is any indication, it is becoming much more difficult for foreign journalists to do even the most non-controversial stories in the biggest of China’s cities.

Even China’s state-controlled journalists have faced increasing restrictions. Just this week, authorities in the city of Sanhe, 50 kilometers outside Beijing, harassed reporters from state outlet CCTV during a live broadcast near the scene of a deadly gas explosion.

The incident prompted a public backlash, even drawing a statement of concern from a Communist Party-affiliated association of journalists.

“The incident was a wake-up call to a problem suffered for decades by more professional news outlets in China that have attempted to do real reporting in the face of formal press restrictions from the Chinese Communist Party leadership above, and frequent intimidation down below,” wrote David Bandurski, in a commentary published in the China Media Project.

“Such acts of obstruction are not an exception but the very nature of media policy in China,” he added.

Open to the world?

So, how does all this relate to China’s official narrative that it is open to the world?

I obviously can’t say how all foreign investors feel about returning to China. But I’ve spoken with colleagues in business and academia who no longer feel comfortable traveling to the country, citing fears of arbitrary detention.

I can’t speak for foreign tourists, either. But I can tell you how difficult it was as a newcomer to accomplish even the simplest tasks – such as booking a taxi, paying for a meal with a foreign bank account and checking Facebook, Instagram or virtually any other Western social media app – given China’s insistence on placing a digital firewall between its people and the rest of the world.

What I can say with certainty is that I felt welcomed by Beijing residents, who seemed eager to interact with VOA, despite a state-backed campaign portraying foreign journalists as potential spies and dangerous troublemakers.

But at one point during last week’s meetings, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told gathered media that his government is “opening its door wider” to the world. At another point he insisted “more foreign friends are welcome to join us” in telling China’s story.

From my point of view, it sure didn’t feel that way.
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Sydney — Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said Friday the government will resume funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.  In January, Australia joined several Western nations in suspending funding to UNRWA after Israeli intelligence suggested a dozen of its workers had been linked to the October 7 attack by Hamas militants.  Australia is also being criticized for canceling the visas of several Palestinians fleeing the conflict with Israel in Gaza.  The Australia Greens party says the move “shows a lack of humanity.”

Speaking to reporters Friday in Canberra Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong  said she was confident UNRWA was “not a terrorist organization.”  She added that the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians was critical to providing help to people in Gaza “who are on the brink of starving.”

Earlier this month, Canada and the European Union announced they would also resume funding to UNRWA. The United States, the agency’s largest donor, continues to freeze payments.

Wong told reporters she is satisfied an investigation into the allegations following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas has been thorough.

“The nature of these allegations warranted an immediate and appropriate response. The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organization, and that existing additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding,” she said.

Australia’s resumption of aid to the agency comes amid criticism for canceling the visas of Palestinians fleeing the conflict.

Data from the Department of Home Affairs states that Australia granted 2,273 temporary visas for Palestinians with connections to Australia between October 7 and February 6.  

More than 2,400 visitor visas were also granted to people declaring Israeli citizenship during that period.

The visa category does not allow recipients to work or have access to education or government-funded health care in Australia, although they would not be turned away from emergency rooms.

Campaigners for refugees and migrants say several Palestinians have had their Australian visas abruptly canceled by the Canberra government in recent days. The government, citing “privacy reasons,” refuses to say how many visas are affected.

A cancelation notification obtained by local media asserted a particular applicant had never intended to genuinely “stay temporarily in Australia.”

Australia’s left-leaning Labor government has defended its actions, insisting they were based on ongoing security checks.  A spokesperson for the Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the “Australian government reserves the right to cancel any issued visas if circumstances change.”

But Adam Bandt, the leader of the Australian Greens party, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.  Friday that visa applicants are being treated unfairly.

“What Labor is saying is that peoples’ visas are being canceled because Labor does not know how long the Labor-backed invasion of Gaza will last, and, accordingly, they are refusing them entry into the country.  That is callous inhumanity,” said Bandt.

Australia has said Israel has the right to defend itself after the attack by Hamas militants last October.

Canberra advocates a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state co‑exist within internationally recognized borders. 
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washington — China’s state-owned plane manufacturer is facing industry skepticism over its claims that its newest passenger aircraft, the C919, can break the passenger-jet duopoly of Boeing and Airbus.

COMAC’s promotional tour through the fast-growing aviation markets of Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia ended in Malaysia on Wednesday, according to China’s official Xinghua news agency. At each stop, the Shanghai-headquartered enterprise presented its C919 to potential buyers as a viable alternative to the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737.

International and regional tourism is expected to reach, then surpass pre-pandemic levels in many Southeast Asian countries this year, according to analysts who cautioned that subsequent growth may hinge on China’s economy making a full recovery.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) expects the demand for passenger aircraft in the Asia-Pacific market to increase over the next two decades from 3,314 to 9,701 planes, according to Chinese state media.

But Skift, a travel industry research site, quoted the executive chairman of Air Lease, one of the largest aircraft lessors in the world, saying the company isn’t planning to buy any C919 jets.

“The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] and COMAC are very interested in selling the C919,” said Steven Udvar-Hazy at the aviation industry’s Wings Club in New York on February 29. “But it’s a one-way dating relationship.”

Brendan Sobie of Sobie Aviation, an aviation industry consultancy in Singapore, told CNBC, “It’s still early days to know if COMAC can shake up the duopoly. … We are not likely to see a C919 overseas order of significance in the near term.”

As the C919 tour progressed, COMAC said its goal was to showcase the aircraft and lay “the groundwork for future market expansion in Southeast Asia.”

The C919 is certified only by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which approved it in September 2022. The narrow-body jet entered commercial service with China Eastern Airlines last year in May.

COMAC says it has more than 1,000 orders for the C919, but most of those are from Chinese airlines and aircraft lessors. At the Singapore Airshow, COMAC took orders from Tibet Airlines, a Chinese entity, for 40 C919 single-aisle planes. Boeing and Airbus planes are sold out through the end of the decade, according to Bloomberg.

China has said it wants to secure broader international recognition for the C919 and plans on pursuing European Union Aviation Safety Agency certification.

Boeing and Airbus executives say they’re not worried about the aircraft that was shown for the first time outside China at the Singapore Airshow February 20-25.

The C919 is “not going to rock the boat in particular,” Christian Scherer, chief executive officer of Airbus’s aircraft commercial business, said at a media roundtable on the sidelines of the industry event.

Scherer added the C919 was a “legitimate effort” by China but is “not very different” from the Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

Dave Schulte, Boeing’s commercial marketing managing director for Asia-Pacific, said airlines in Southeast Asia may consider ordering C919s, according to Barron’s.

However, he warned that COMAC will face the same supply-chain disruptions as Boeing and Airbus as post-pandemic demand for air travel increases. Assembled in China, the C919 relies heavily on components, including engines, from companies outside China such as GE and Honeywell International.

After Singapore, COMAC took the C919 to Vietnam from February 26-29 for its own airshow followed by a two-week progression of shows in Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Tan Wan Geng, COMAC’s board chair, described Vietnam as an important international aviation center in Southeast Asia and predicted increased exchanges and cooperation between his operation and Vietnam’s aviation industry.

In Singapore, Tibet Airlines ordered 10 ARJ21 jets, the C919’s smaller predecessor, and China’s Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Group ordered six ARJ21s.

 

Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation Undersecretary of State and spokesman Sinn Chanserey Vutha said last week that Cambodia supported the entry of C919 and ARJ21 jets into the aircraft market.

“This is a good sign for the aircraft market,” he told China’s official Xinhua while attending the demonstration flight event.

Nguyen Thien Thong, a leading expert in aviation engineering in Vietnam, told VOA Vietnamese in a February 28 telephone interview that it is unlikely that airlines in Vietnam will purchase or lease the COMAC aircraft in the near future.

The founder of the Aviation Engineering program at Van Lang University said that adding one more airline supplier to their current fleets of Airbus and Boeing would complicate maintenance, management and operations while increasing costs.

“I don’t think it is effective,” added the former head of the Aviation Engineering Department at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.

Udvar-Hazy, the Air Lease executive chairman, pointed to a lack of support infrastructure needed to make the C919 commercially viable in international markets, according to Skift. He added the Chinese jet also lacks technical support training. 

“Without that,” he said, “there’s no export market.”
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washington — VOA has recently obtained video footage depicting Rohingya from Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps being trained as soldiers in Rakhine state, the scene of heavy fighting between Myanmar’s military junta and ethnic armed groups.

The footage shows the young refugees armed with weapons and undergoing military training, revealing what appears to be forcible recruitment by the junta. Experts and witnesses say they believe the young recruits will be used as human shields by the junta in their struggle to regain territory lost in recent battles with the Arakan Army in Rakhine.

The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group, have faced persecution and discrimination in Myanmar for decades.

Denied citizenship under a 1982 Citizenship Law, they have been subjected to systemic discrimination, violence and expulsion from their homes in Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh to the north. The military government has long portrayed the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, marginalizing them from society.

The junta, which seized power in a bloody and widely denounced coup just over three years ago, began enforcing a militia conscription law on February 10. Soon after, rumors began circulating of Muslims in Rakhine being arrested and forced to join the military.

Despite the junta’s denials, a video released on March 6 shows about 300 Rohingya youths from IDP camps near Sittwe, Rakhine’s junta-controlled capital, being forced to wear military uniforms and sitting in a large warehouse. The video also features the minister of security and border affairs of Rakhine state, Colonel Kyaw Thura, supervising the operation.

On March 6, 2024, more than 300 Rohingya individuals were estimated to have been sent for military training and compelled to wear military uniforms. The video captures the visit of Colonel Kyaw Thura, the Rakhine State Security and Border Affairs minister, from the Myanmar junta. (UGC courtesy video)

Amid continuing losses in battles with the Arakan Army (AA), a powerful ethnic armed group based in Rakhine state, “the military junta is attempting to use Rohingyas as human shields for political gain,” said Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG) deputy human rights minister, Aung Kyaw Moe, in an interview via Zoom. The NUG views itself as a shadow government for Myanmar.

“The military junta, which has been heavily defeated in the battles with the Arakan Army, is using the Rohingya because of the need to reinforce their ranks, and they are taking them from refugee camps where there is no land to run to,” said Aung Kyaw Moe, NUG’s first Rohingya minister.

Arakan Army

The Arakan Army, established in 2009 by Rakhine youth leaders, is a well-trained and well-armed military faction representing a Buddhist ethnic minority. It is part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which includes the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Ta’Ang National Liberation Army.

The alliance has achieved several major victories against the junta, beginning with the “1027” operation in October of last year in which the junta suffered significant losses of territory and troops.

According to Rakhine observers, there are an estimated 45,000 troops in the AA. The group seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government in Rakhine state, aiming to “restore the sovereignty of the Arakan people,” according to its mission statement online. The name Arakan is another name used to refer to the Rakhine people.

Fighting between the junta and the AA, which began in November 2023, is fierce. Dozens of Rohingya civilians were killed in January and February during junta attacks, some with heavy artillery, on AA troops based in Rohingya villages, according to local human rights organizations.

Forced recruitment tactics

Local Rohingya sources have confirmed to VOA that approximately 500 Rohingya youths from IDP camps controlled by the Myanmar military have undergone military training, raising concerns about forced recruitment tactics.

“When the military enforced the conscription law, junta commanders visited IDP camps in Sittwe and Rohingya villages around February 11 to 13, areas they had previously avoided,” a young Rohingya man, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told VOA. “They first consult with camp leaders, then pressure us to take up arms, citing our duty as Myanmar citizens under the conscription law.

“In addition,” he said, “they threaten us that those who refuse to take up arms will face dire consequences.”

Since 2017, approximately 1 million Rohingya refugees have been forcibly displaced from Myanmar, seeking shelter in neighboring Bangladesh. Additionally, an estimated 630,000 Rohingyas, designated as stateless by the United Nations, face movement restrictions inside Rakhine state.

“Rohingya, who have endured severe oppression by the Myanmar military, reaching the level of genocide charges in Rakhine state, are now being coerced by the army to join their ranks and confront the Arakan Army as human shields. Young Rohingya from villages are unable to flee to neighboring Bangladesh,” said the Rohingya youth.

Several videos have surfaced on social media, revealing recruited Rohingya wearing uniforms and holding rifles riding a military truck and undergoing military training in a field. When VOA checked with local sources, it was confirmed that these events occurred last week near the Rakhine state capital, Sittwe.

Dozens of young Rohingya men were given military training by the junta’s troop in Sittwe, Myanmar, on March 9, 2024.  (UGC courtesy video)

A spokesperson for the junta has not yet responded to questions from VOA about the videos, including one that shows the Rakhine border minister visiting Rohingya while wearing a military uniform.

Consequences of coercion

“Initially, the junta claimed that because the Rohingya are not citizens, they have no reason to give them military training,” Aung Kyaw Moe told VOA. “The junta said that it was fake news, but the videos we received prove that they put the Rohingya in uniforms and give them military training.”

Although the young men are being forced into military service, the videos show them laughing and joking, looking unaware of their situation.

“A Rohingya child who has been locked up in a refugee camp since the age of 6 is now 18 years old. This child does not know what is going on in the outside world,” the deputy minister said. “There are hundreds of thousands of people who have been locked up in refugee camps for years and don’t know what’s going on outside. The junta knows this and is using it.

“On the other hand,” he added, “among the Rohingya and other ethnic groups, there are leaders who do business with the junta and organize the Rohingya according to their will.”

Historical coexistence

Aung Kyaw Moe also highlighted consultations between the NUG and the Arakan Army regarding Rohingya in Rakhine State.

“The Arakan Army has condemned forced Rohingya recruitment, citing their historical coexistence,” he told VOA. “Historically, the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist Rakhine communities have shared a relationship of peaceful coexistence, characterized by mutual respect and cooperation.

“Despite occasional tensions,” he continued, “both communities have often lived side by side, intermingling culturally and economically. This historical bond has been a testament to the resilience of communal harmony in the region.”

Holding the junta accountable

“The military junta is the common enemy,” the young Rohingya man told VOA. “Not just for the Rohingya, but for the entire country. We must question why [it] now arms us. The army exploits Rohingya suffering for its gain.”

Miemie Winn Byrd, a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Myanmar-U.S. military relations expert, remarked on the irony that the same army responsible for brutally killing thousands of Rohingya is now arming them as soldiers.

“Today the junta are saying the Rohingya are citizens and should be conscripted into the military, whereas for all this time the junta has said that they are not citizens,” she said in a recent interview with VOA. “This highlights the lack of legitimacy of the current government.

“They do as they please because they are not a legitimate government; they are essentially a group trying to terrorize the country. Therefore, it’s not surprising to witness such actions from them, because they are not a professional organization.”

Aung Kyaw Moe emphasized that the junta’s exploitation of vulnerable Rohingya violates international law.

“This is inhumane and a clear violation of the provisional measures issued by the … World Court, which called for the prevention of genocidal acts against the Rohingya minority,” he said.

“The military junta must be held accountable for these egregious violations of human rights and international law.”
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