Month: March 2024

Thousands March in Cameroon to Press for Women’s Rights

Posted on by SeeAF

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Thousands of Cameroonian women were out on the streets Friday — International Women’s Day — to press for more access to education and economic opportunity, as well as an end to harmful prejudices and practices.

The Central African nation’s Ministry of Women’s Empowerment said about 30,000 women came out to mark this year’s International Women’s Day, many wearing special green and yellow gowns bearing the slogan “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress.”

The women sang about longing to be free and achieving true equality with men.

Rights activist Muma Bih Yvonne said women want to end the perception that they should be limited to child rearing, domestic chores and farm work.

“Women just want a level playing ground,” she said. “Women want equal opportunities; women want that the gender gap that has been delaying for so long should be bridged. If you have a female and a male child, give them the same responsibilities, level the playing ground.”

Muma said illiteracy among women remains high because many families still prefer to send only boys to school. Protesters said the practice blocks women from positions in public offices in which literacy is a requirement.

They also criticize that men own more than 85% of land in Cameroon and will sell it only to other men or hand it over only to their sons.

In hopes of changing long-established practices, organizers of Friday’s rally invited several hundred men, including traditional rulers who impose what the women describe as inhumane treatment on widows. Some of the practices include forcing women to sleep with the corpses of their late husbands and drink water used in bathing the bodies as a sign they did not kill their spouse.

Ernest Akuofou, an adviser to the traditional rulers of Ndop in Cameroon’s North-West region, said after listening to the demonstrators that he is convinced women should be given the same opportunities as men.

“In my village community it is just recently that women have been admitted to the level of notability. Why is it only now? Even as they are admitted at that level, the treatment given to them is not commensurate,” Akuofou said.

“That is why men are using the stereotypes on them: ‘Why do you go to talk politics [when] you are supposed to be in my kitchen?’” he said. “Those are the stereotypes; those are the things which push women to the background.”

Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, Cameroonian minister of Women’s Empowerment and Family, said President Paul Biya is committed to improving the conditions of women.

She said the appointment of more women as managers of state corporations and directors of administrative offices shows there is a political will to end prejudices and involve women in decision making.

“Many of them [women] do not know their rights,” Ondoa said. “If they want to progress, they must have the will, and I think the government is doing a lot to allow women to really emerge. Women have proven that they can be in all domains, but we still need to do more to see that all those who enter primary education are not dropped out.”

Ondoa noted that Cameroon currently has over 60 women in the country’s 180-member National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, and about 50 women who are mayors of towns and cities.
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Son of Korean Immigrants Takes Charge of Los Angeles Police Department

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A son of Korean immigrants last week became the interim chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. He is the first Asian American to hold this position. Genia Dulot has the story.
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Western Flight Suits Help Save Ukrainian Fighter Jet Pilots’ Lives

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A pair of American aviators are helping Ukrainian fighter jet and helicopter pilots get some vital equipment. The gear is being donated by American and European pilots. Mariia Prus has the story.
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Zimbabwe Women Stand Up for Expectant Mothers in Rural Areas

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A group of women from small hold farms in Zimbabwe have mobilized resources to build a shelter for expectant mothers who live far from the nearest clinic. It can literally save the lives of pregnant women who cannot reach a clinic in time to give birth. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Mashava, Zimbabwe, south of the capital, Harare.
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Factbox: Scope of Hong Kong’s New National Security Laws

Posted on by SeeEA

HONG KONG — Hong Kong on Friday published its new national security draft law, a document that broadens the definition of crimes including sabotage, sedition and state secrets, and stipulates tougher penalties of up to life imprisonment.

The bill comes on top of a 2020 security law imposed by China a year after pro-democracy protests.

Lawmakers are expected to pass the draft bill within weeks, and the law could have implications for many sectors in the global financial hub including business, academia, law, diplomacy and the media, observers say.

The new offences span a number of areas ranging from grave acts affecting sovereignty including insurrection – or initiating armed conflict against a Chinese armed force – to everyday offences including possession of publications deemed seditious. Authorities say the law will apply beyond Hong Kong.

KEY OFFENCES AND SENTENCES

SEDITION

Rights advocates and lawyers say this category can be applied very broadly, and any one possessing any publication deemed seditious, such as a book or an article, can be accused of this offence.

*The offence carries jail terms of up to 7 years for any seditious act, word or publication with the intention of bringing hatred, contempt or disaffection against China or Hong Kong governments.

*If such acts are carried out in collusion with an “external force”, which could include foreign governments, a foreign political party, an international organisation or a company linked to a foreign government, the penalty rises to 10 years.

*The offence also carries a 3 year jail term for possession of a publication with seditious intention, although the bill does not give specific examples of what such material might be.

*Law enforcement officers may enter any premises, including with reasonable force, to remove or destroy seditious publications.

*The law also potentially lowers the threshold for sedition convictions, no longer requiring prosecutors to prove the intention to incite public disorder or violence.

*Calls by some media advocacy and rights groups to remove sedition were ignored by authorities.

STATE SECRETS

*At least 3 years jail for unlawful possession of a state secret which would likely harm national security if released, defined broadly to include secrets spanning defence, foreign affairs, economic development or scientific technology.

*Jail terms of 5 years for unlawful acquisition of such secrets, and 7 years for those leaving Hong Kong with such state secrets.

*While the government introduced a limited public interest defence for state secrets, some lawyers say the law gives authorities and the courts much discretion on the matter.

EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE

*Jail terms of 14 years for collaborating with an external force to bring about interference over areas including government policy, the legislature, courts or elections.

ESPIONAGE

*Jail terms of 20 years for acts including entering prohibited places, and intercepting information or documents of use to an external force.

TREASON

*Maximum life imprisonment for various acts including joining an external armed force at war with China, or use of force to endanger Chinese unity. Jail terms of 5 years for a person who takes part in military or armed “drilling” with an external force without official permission. Lawyers say this could include those who have received military training with a foreign government.

INSURRECTION

*A maximum penalty of life imprisonment for crimes including joining an armed force in conflict with China, or an act that endangers the unity of China.

MUTINY

*A maximum term of life imprisonment for inciting a member of a Chinese armed force to abandon allegiance to China, or to organise or initiate a mutiny.

SABOTAGE

*Up to life imprisonment for any person who colludes with an external force to damage or weaken public infrastructure.

HOW WILL THE LAW AFFECT DEFENDANTS’ RIGHTS?

Right advocates say the new law will further undermine the legal protections for defendants charged with national security offences.

The right to a lawyer, the presumption of innocence and right to bail had long been strong features of Hong Kong’s Common Law traditions. Under a 2020 China-imposed national security law, many pro-democracy politicians and activists have been denied bail under stricter rules.

Under the new law, authorities are expected to go further.

“The most drastic changes of the legislative bill would be issues related to due process and fair trials,” said Eric Lai, a fellow with the Center for Asian Law at Georgetown University in the United States.

“It seems the government almost ignores all of the recommendations from the opposing views during the consultation period. The vague and broad terms of offences and definitions remain in the bill,” he said.

The detention period of suspects will be expanded from a maximum 48 hours now, to an additional 14 days with the approval of a magistrate. Access to a lawyer could also be denied in view of circumstances endangering national security by the magistrate, who may issue a warrant authorising a senior police officer to restrict the person’s consultation with a lawyer. A defendant’s movements could also be restricted.

“It is a broad application of very extreme restrictions on the legal rights of an arrestee in Hong Kong,” Lai added.
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Biden Announces Drastic Gaza Aid Measure, Warns Against Trump in State of Union Address

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US President Joe Biden used his third State of the Union speech Thursday evening to announce a dramatic measure to facilitate aid into Gaza, push funding for Ukraine’s war efforts and to warn the country of the threat posed by Donald Trump, his likely opponent in the November election. VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this wrap-up of what may be the most consequential speech ahead of the president’s reelection bid.
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Biden Targets China During State of Union Speech

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BEIJING — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized China’s “unfair economic practices” and insisted he has done a better job standing up to Beijing than did former President Donald Trump, his rival in this year’s presidential election.

In his State of the Union address, Biden also touted other aspects of his China policy, including “standing up for peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits” and revitalizing “our partnerships and alliances in the Pacific.”

“I’ve made sure that the most advanced American technologies can’t be used in China … frankly for all his tough talk on China, it never occurred to my predecessor to do any of that,” Biden added.

Biden’s China comments, which made up only a brief part of his nationally televised speech, come a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi escalated his country’s verbal attacks on the United States.

On the sidelines of an annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress, Wang accused the United States of trying to contain China through sanctions, and insisted that Washington has “wrong perceptions” about Beijing.

“The means to suppress China are constantly updated, the list of unilateral sanctions is constantly extended, and the desire to inflict punishment on China has reached an unimaginable level,” said Wang during what appeared to be a tightly scripted interaction with local and foreign media.

Wang’s comments were a contrast from September, when Biden met Chinese President Xi Jinping in California. At that meeting, both sides agreed to restart dialogue and cooperate on several initiatives, including to counter the flow of fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid, into the United States.

While Wang acknowledged that “some progress” was made at what he called the “historic meeting,” he accused the United States of breaking some of its promises.

“If the United States always says one thing and does another, where will its credibility be as a major country? If the United States is nervous and anxious whenever it hears the word ‘China,’ where is the self-confidence of a major country?” Wang said.

Even as high-level talks resumed, the United States has expanded sanctions against China on a range of issues, from human rights abuses to its relations with Russia. U.S.-China ties are also strained over a wide range of other issues, including China’s behavior in disputed areas of the South China Sea, its military intimidation of Taiwan, and a growing U.S.-China technological competition.

Political cudgel

In his speech Thursday, Biden reiterated that he wants “competition with China, but not conflict,” while noting that the United States is “in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st century against China or anyone else for that matter.”

“For years, I’ve heard many of my Republican and Democratic friends say that China is on the rise and America is falling behind. They’ve got it backwards … America is rising,” Biden said.

“We have the best economy in the world. And since I’ve come to office, our GDP is up. Our trade deficit with China is down to the lowest point in over a decade,” he added.

China is expected to get more public attention as the U.S. presidential election campaign intensifies. On Thursday, both Biden, a Democrat, and U.S. Senator Katie Britt, who delivered the Republican response, used China to attack their political opponents.

“The Chinese Communist Party is undercutting America’s workers. China is buying up our farmland, spying on our military installations, and spreading propaganda through the likes of TikTok,” Britt said, referring to the popular video-sharing social media app owned by a Chinese company.

“The CCP knows that if it conquers the minds of our next generation, it conquers America,” Britt said. “And what does President Biden do? He bans TikTok for government employees, but creates an account for his own campaign.”

U.S. lawmakers are making a renewed push to pass legislation that would effectively force Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or face a U.S. ban. Some U.S. lawmakers warn ByteDance could pass private information about U.S. users to China’s Communist Party – an allegation rejected by the company’s CEO. Previous attempts to ban TikTok have been unsuccessful.

But despite recent developments, U.S.-China relations remain more stable than in past years, said Wang Huiyao, the founder and president of the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization.

“We don’t want to see a downward spiral like we used to have. Because if that happens, that could be very dangerous for not only the U.S. and China, but for the world,” Wang told VOA during an interview at his office.

“I’m still cautiously optimistic,” Wang said. “Because people realize that [after] the last six, seven years, if the U.S. and China really get into a very ugly situation, then the whole world is finished.”
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Hong Kong’s New National Security Bill Includes More Power to Suppress Dissent

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HONG KONG — Hong Kong unveiled a proposed law that threatens life imprisonment for residents who “endanger national security” on Friday, deepening worries about erosion of the city’s freedoms four years after Beijing imposed a similar law that all but wiped out public dissent.

It’s widely seen as the latest step in a crackdown on political opposition that began after the semi-autonomous Chinese city was rocked by violent pro-democracy protests in 2019. Since then, the authorities have crushed the city’s once-vibrant political culture. Many of the city’s leading pro-democracy activists have been arrested and others fled abroad. Dozens of civil society groups have been disbanded, and outspoken media outlets like Apple Daily and Stand News have been shut down.

Hong Kong leader John Lee has urged legislators to push the Safeguarding National Security Bill through “at full speed,” and lawmakers began debate hours after the bill was released publicly. It’s expected to pass easily, possibly in weeks, in a legislature packed with Beijing loyalists following an electoral overhaul.

The proposed law will expand the government’s power to stamp challenges to its rule, targeting espionage, disclosing state secrets, and “colluding with external forces” to commit illegal acts among others. It includes tougher penalties for people convicted of working with foreign governments or organizations to break some of its provisions.

The law would jail people who damage public infrastructure with the intent to endanger national security for 20 years — or life, if they collude with an external force to do so. In 2019, protesters occupied the airport and vandalized railway stations.

Similarly, those who commit sedition face a jail term of seven years but colluding with an external force to carry out such acts increases that penalty to 10 years.

On Thursday, an appeals court upheld a conviction for sedition against a pro-democracy activist for chanting slogans and criticizing the Beijing-imposed 2020 National Security Law during a political campaign.

Its expansive definition of external forces includes foreign governments and political parties, international organizations, and “any other organization in an external place that pursues political ends” — as well as companies that are influenced by such forces. Beijing said the 2019 unrest was implemented with the support of external forces and the city government has been critical against what they called external interference during the movement.

The bill proposed to allow the prosecution of illegal acts committed outside of Hong Kong for most of its offenses.

Critics say that the proposed law would make Hong Kong even more like mainland China.

However, the government said it was necessary to prevent a recurrence of the massive anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019, insisting it would only affect “an extremely small minority” of disloyal residents.

It defined national security as a status in which the state’s political regime and sovereignty are relatively free from danger and threats, so are the welfare of the people and the state’s economic and social development among other “major interests.”

The legislature’s president, Andrew Leung, told reporters that the process was accelerated because the bill was necessary to safeguard national security.

“If you look at other countries, they enacted it within a day, two weeks, three weeks … So why can’t Hong Kong do it in a speedy manner? You tell me,” the pro-Beijing politician said.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, requires the city to enact a national security law, but a previous attempt sparked a massive street protest that drew half a million people, and the legislation was shelved.

Such demonstrations against the current bill are unlikely, due to the chilling effect of the 2020 law after it was enacted to quell the 2019 protests.

During a one-month public comment period that ended last week, 98.6% of the views received by officials showed support, and only 0.72% opposed the proposals, the government said. The rest contained questions or opinions that did not reflect a stance on the law, it added.

But business people and journalists have expressed fear that a broadly framed law could criminalize their day-to-day work, especially because the proposed definition of state secrets includes matters linked to economic, social and technological developments. The government has sought to allay concerns by adding a public interest defense under specific conditions in the proposal.

John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said it remains to be seen how courts will interpret the provision that allows a public interest defense to charges of disclosing state secrets.

The bill, if passed as tabled, is likely to have chilling effect on local civil society, Burns said, especially political and public policy lobby groups that have benefited from connections to overseas counterparts.

“At least initially, I expect them to be especially cautious about expanding links with similar groups overseas,” he said.

The law also authorizes stiffer measures against suspects in national security cases. Those who are arrested but released on bail could face a “movement restriction order” which limits the places they can live and enter, as well as prevent them from communicating with certain people.

Authorities would be empowered to hit absconders with financial sanctions, such as preventing other people from hiring them, leasing them property, starting businesses with them, or providing economic support to them.

Last year, police offered bounties of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) on more than a dozen activists living abroad, including former lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui, whom they accuse of colluding with external forces to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China.

Prisoners convicted of national security offenses will not be eligible for sentences reductions until authorities are confident early release would not risk national security. This would apply to all national security prisoners, even those whose sentences were imposed prior to the bill.
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US: Stopping Iran’s Resupply of Houthis ‘Most Important’ to Secure Red Sea

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Pentagon — As attacks by Iran-backed Houthis continue in the Red Sea, the commander in charge of U.S. military operations in the Middle East says the U.S. needs to stop Iran from providing the militants with weapons.

“The most important thing is to deny their ability to resupply from Iran. The Houthis are not building. They’re putting it all together and assembling, but they don’t create inertial navigation systems. They don’t create medium-range ballistic missile engines,” Gen. Erik Kurilla, the chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

The U.S. and British militaries have launched multiple combined operations against weapons facilities, radars and launch sites in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The U.S. has also continued near-daily strikes to take out weapons that were prepared to launch and shoot down incoming Houthi weapons, including strikes late Wednesday against two Houthi drones.

An anti-ship ballistic missile launched earlier Wednesday from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen killed three crew members of the Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier True Confidence in the Gulf of Aden, CENTCOM said in a statement. It was the first fatal strike by Iran-backed Houthi militants since the onslaught on international shipping lanes began in mid-November.

More than a dozen commercial ships have been impacted by Houthi drones or missiles during that time. Those vessels have included an aid ship with grain bound for Yemen and at least one ship with cargo bound for Iran. One vessel carrying fertilizer, the MV Rubymar, sank over the weekend after is was damaged in a Houthi attack last month.

On Tuesday, the Houthis targeted the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Carney, which shot down bomb-carrying drones and one anti-ship ballistic missile, according to CENTCOM.

Some senators on Wednesday expressed a desire for more forceful action against Iran, the Houthis’ supplier of weapons, funding and intelligence needed to attack vessels.

“Why are we not sinking those Iranian ships if there’s an Iranian spy ship providing targeting information,” asked Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska.

Gen. Kurilla said that deterring Iran requires a “whole of government” effort.

Last month, the United States carried out a cyberattack against two Iranian military ships. A U.S. official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity to discuss covert operations said the Iranian spy ship MV Behshad was one of the targeted ships. It had been collecting intelligence on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis have said their attacks against international shipping lanes are carried out in solidarity with Hamas.

Hamas terrorists launched a brutal attack that killed hundreds of Israelis on October 7. Israel responded with an operation to root out Hamas in the Gaza Strip, an ongoing operation that has killed thousands.

Close calls

Shortly after the attack, Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria began a series of attacks against U.S. forces in the region. After more than 170 attacks that left dozens of service members injured, the militants flew a drone into Tower 22 air base in Jordan, killing three American service members and injuring dozens more.

Kurilla revealed on Thursday that U.S. forces had “several” close calls before the deadly Tower 22 attack, and that he had balanced the U.S. response options that he provided to the president against escalating the conflict.

Asked by Senator Roger Wicker, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, whether the militias in Iraq and Syria could have killed U.S. troops prior to the deaths in Jordan with “a little bit of extra luck,” Kurilla replied, “That is correct.”

“There were several incidents where UAVs (unidentified aerial vehicles) coming into a base hit another object, got caught up in netting, or other incidents where had they hit the appropriate target that they were targeting, it would have injured or killed service members,” he said.

VOA previously reported on one of these incidents that occurred in late October. A drone crashed into a barracks housing U.S. services members but failed to detonate, likely saving several lives, according to defense officials.

Threat from Afghanistan

As a result of the attacks on U.S. service members in the region and international shipping lanes, Kurilla said that the U.S. has had to divert intelligence and reconnaissance assets from Afghanistan to Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

He warned that the risk of an attack by violent extremists in Afghanistan on American and Western interests abroad is increasing, saying that Islamic State-Khorasan Province affiliates in Afghanistan and Syria “retain the capability and will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in as little as six months and with little to no warning.”

The general said such an attack would be more likely in Europe, as it would take “substantially more resources” to hit the U.S. at home.

U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. 
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Sweden Formally Joins NATO, Prompted by Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

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Sweden formally joined the NATO military alliance Thursday, a decision officials said was prompted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The announcement came as the alliance was conducting large-scale exercises above the Arctic Circle as a show of force and unity. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
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US Navy Looking to S. Korean, Japanese Shipbuilders to Revive American Shipyards

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washington — The United States is looking to Korean and Japanese shipbuilders to help revive its dormant naval shipyards and boost maritime competitiveness in the face of China’s accelerated naval buildup.

U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro toured shipyards in South Korea operated by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan and Hanwha Ocean on Geoje Island last week.

He encouraged top executives of the companies to establish subsidiaries and “invest” resources in integrating commercial and naval shipbuilding facilities in the U.S., said a statement by the Navy.

During a speech at Harvard University in September, Del Toro called for “new maritime statecraft” to prevail in an era of intense strategic competition.

South Korean shipbuilding is “an asset” to the U.S. “as China continues to aggressively pursue worldwide shipbuilding dominance,” said the Navy statement issued during Del Toro’s East Asia visit.

“In addition to our currently active shipyards,” it added, “there are numerous former shipyard sites around the country which are largely intact and dormant.”

Del Toro said during the tour that these are ready to be redeveloped to produce military and commercial ships.

Yokohama shipyard

Following his visit to South Korea last week, Del Toro traveled to Japan, where he toured Mitsubishi’s shipyard in Yokohama and discussed efforts to revive the U.S. maritime industry with leading shipbuilding executives, said the Navy in a separate statement.

Matthew Funaiole, senior fellow for the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said these meetings “underscore a strategic effort by the U.S. to bolster alliance and enhance technological and industrial cooperation” with its allies.

“China may be the world’s largest shipbuilder, but South Korea and Japan are number two and three, respectively,” continued Funaiole via email on Tuesday.

China has the largest number of naval vessels in the world, having overtaken the U.S. Navy in 2014. According to a Pentagon report published in October, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China has more than 370 battle force ships compared with the U.S. Navy’s 292.

The Pentagon report also said that China’s navy is expected to have 395 ships by 2025 and 435 by 2030.

According to the U.S. Naval Institute, China commands almost 50% of the global shipbuilding market, with South Korea and Japan following at nearly 30% and 17%, respectively. US capacity is only 0.13 percent.

“It is clear that the United States is having trouble producing ships – both surface ships and submarines – at numbers and costs that can keep up with China’s naval modernization,” said Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Defense Department official during the George W. Bush administration.

“One way to address this shortfall is to work more closely with allies and partners to try and field more vessels or to offload some of the maintenance responsibilities to other players,” he told VOA via email on Wednesday.

Protection against competition

But, Cooper said, the opportunities for collaboration “have to be balanced” against the opposition by U.S. shipbuilders that are protected from foreign competitors by the Jones Act.

That act, passed in 1920 in response to German U-boat attacks during World War I that crippled the U.S. Merchant Marine, requires that any vessel carrying goods between two U.S. points be built, owned and crewed by Americans and registered in the U.S.

Terence Roehrig, a professor of national security at the Naval War College, said the U.S. faces a lack of “shipbuilding capacity that can crank out the needed number of vessels at a cost that can be sustained.”

He continued via email on Tuesday: “It will be difficult for the U.S. to match the size of the PLAN but the United States retains advantages in technology and weapons systems along with certain classes of ships including aircraft carriers and submarines.”

Roehrig added that South Korean and Japanese investment could help the U.S. increase its capacity to keep up with China.

The U.S. Navy currently operates public shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia; Portsmouth, Maine; Puget Sound, Washington; and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Seven public shipyards closed from the 1960s to 1990s.

Seven shipyards owned by four contractors in the U.S. build warships for the Navy while China operates more than 20 shipyards to support naval shipbuilding, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

Funaiole said: “The gap in shipbuilding capabilities can be attributed to several factors, including China’s focused efforts on accelerating military modernization through dual-use applications, strategic prioritization of naval expansion to assert its maritime interests, and effective utilization of its commercial industrial capacity.”

He continued that the U.S. should warn its international partners about engaging with Chinese commercial shipbuilders.

“These entities often bolster China’s military through its Military-Civil Fusion strategy,” which aims to eliminate barriers among commercial, scientific and military sectors to enhance its defense.
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Former Delegates Call China’s People’s Congresses ‘Rubber Stamps’

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Washington — Ongoing plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) offer an annual refresher course in how democracy is practiced under the guidance of the Chinese Communist Party.

Known as the “Two Sessions,” the meetings of representatives chosen through what Beijing calls democratic elections started in Beijing this week with nearly 3,000 NPC delegates gathering in the Great Hall of the People.

The NPC is the largest legislature in the world and nominally the highest authority in China. But its delegates are chosen not through direct elections but by provincial people’s congresses or electoral colleges in 35 provinces or special jurisdictions. The only direct elections are at the county and township level.

By law, potential delegates to the people’s congresses can be nominated and recommended by voters and groups, but they must be approved by the CCP.

Lou Qinjian, spokesperson for the second session of the 14th NPC, said at a press conference on March 4 that the work of the NPC must follow “six important principles” that were proposed in 2021 by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CCP.

The first one is, “We must adhere to the leadership of the CCP” and “make the NPC a political organ that consciously adheres to the leadership of the CCP.”

Despite the party’s tight control over the selection of delegates, rare independents with dissenting views have managed to slip through at local levels. Several of them spoke to VOA about their experiences.

Huang Songhai, a former independent delegate in 2007 to the People’s Congress in from Poyang County, Jiangxi Province, told VOA that efforts to reform the process have been mostly frustrated.

“Our election is fake. Of course, we are making a little bit of progress. But basically, it is still fake,” Huang said.

Yao Lifa, a former delegate to the People’s Congress of from Qianjiang City, Hubei Province, ran as an independent candidate and was elected at the county level in 1998. He told VOA that in recent years, public enthusiasm for participation has declined.

“We have had elections so many times, but what is the outcome? What is the impact? What is the impact on society, our class, or me personally? I am not so satisfied, or even dissatisfied,” he said.

Yao said the space for independent electioneering, campaigning and volunteering for candidates is shrinking.

Wang Xiuzhen, who ran as an independent delegate for local People’s Congresses in 2011 and 2021, told VOA that authorities quash candidates who seek office without party nomination.

“After I ran, I was completely suppressed,” she said. “They took me from our community, from my home, to the countryside, to the suburbs. It’s like putting me under surveillance and house arrest. And then, I wasn’t allowed to come back from there until after the election.”

Wang said she has been placed under surveillance during the current Two Sessions “as if I’m a dangerous person, and always being watched. Now, they are watching me again. There are always people stationed in front of my house, and they follow me whenever I come out.”

Xi, who in 2022 became China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, proposed in 2019 what he called a “whole-process people’s democracy.”

The state-run People’s Daily said this process integrated “law-based democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight through a series of laws and institutional arrangements.”

Ye Jinghuan, who ran as an independent delegate in Beijing in 2021, told VOA that China’s whole-process people’s democracy needs great improvements, including in judicial independence, and that NPC delegates should have their own powers.

Now, “they exercise very little real power. The authorities set the tone first, and then everyone raises their hands [to vote on it] and that’s it,” she said.

Despite the lack of democracy, Ye is not giving up. She said elections are all about participation, and everyone must be willing to contribute to whatever progress can be made.
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LA Russians Send Letters to Support Female Political Prisoners in Their Homeland

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Imprisonment based on political dissent is especially difficult for women, says Nadya Tolokonnikova, a creator of Pussy Riot, and someone who spent 16 months in a Russian prison. The Russian diaspora in Los Angeles gathered to write letters of support to women incarcerated on political grounds in their homeland. VOA News reports from Los Angeles, California; Steve Baragona narrates.
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US Threatens Action Against Iran at Nuclear Agency Over ‘Stonewalling’

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VIENNA — The United States on Thursday threatened future action against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency if Tehran keeps “stonewalling” the U.N. nuclear watchdog by denying it the cooperation and answers it seeks on issues that include long-unexplained uranium traces. 

At a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, Washington again told Iran to cooperate with IAEA inspectors who for years have been seeking explanations from Tehran on the origin of uranium particles at undeclared sites. 

The United States has stopped short, for now, of seeking a resolution against Iran. Diplomats have cited the U.S. presidential election in November as a reason Washington has been reluctant to do that. Tehran bristles at such resolutions and often responds by stepping up its activities. 

“We believe we have come to the point that we and the broader international community must consider anew how to respond to Iran’s continued stonewalling,” the United States said in a statement to the board meeting. “We cannot allow Iran’s current pattern of behavior to continue.” 

It is now more than a year since the last board resolution against Iran, which ordered it to cooperate urgently with the investigation into the particles. Tehran dismissed the resolution as “political” and “anti-Iranian” even though only China and Russia opposed it. 

The United States and its three top European allies, Britain, France and Germany, again opted against seeking a resolution against Iran at this week’s meeting. But the United States said that if Iran did not provide the necessary cooperation soon, it would act. 

“It is our strongly held view that Iran’s continuing lack of credible cooperation provides grounds for pursuing further Board of Governors action, including the possibility of additional resolutions and consideration of whether Iran is once again in noncompliance with its safeguards obligations,” it said. 

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 deal under which major powers lifted sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities. After sanctions were reimposed, Iran expanded those activities far beyond the deal’s limits. 

It is now enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade and far above the deal’s cap of 3.67%. Western powers say there is no credible civil explanation for enriching to that level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without producing a nuclear bomb. 

Iran says that its aims are entirely peaceful and that it has the right to enrich to high levels for civil purposes.  

The United States said Iran should provide the IAEA with cooperation including access “for the purposes of collecting environmental samples … and it must begin to do so now.”  

If it did not, it would ask IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to provide a “comprehensive report” on Iran’s nuclear activities more wide-ranging than his regular quarterly ones, it said. 

“Then, based on the content of that report, we will take appropriate action in support of the IAEA and the global nuclear nonproliferation regime,” it said. 
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Ukraine’s Sea Drone Technology Gaining Significance

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukrainian officials say the Russian military patrol ship Sergey Kotov sank in the Black Sea after being targeted by Ukrainian-made sea drones. The reported hit is calling attention to drones as effective weapons to keep Russian forces from taking control of the Black Sea. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze gained exclusive access to the development and testing site of this cutting-edge drone technology. VOA footage and video editing by Vladyslav Smilianets.
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Gunmen in Nigeria Kidnap Dozens of Pupils From School, Parents Say

Posted on by SeeAF

KADUNA, Nigeria — Gunmen kidnapped dozens of school pupils in northern Nigeria on Thursday, residents and parents of the missing children said, in what would be the biggest abduction targeting a school since 2021. 

Police in Kaduna state did not immediately comment on the abductions, which happened shortly after morning assembly at the Local Government Education Authority School in the town of Kuriga. 

The number of pupils taken was not immediately clear. 

“As we speak, people are writing down the names of their children that have gone to the school today and are not back. It is after these statistics that we will know exactly the number” of missing, said Salisu Ahmed Kuriga, whose three younger brothers were missing. 

Parents said that on arrival at the school the gunmen started shooting sporadically before abducting dozens of pupils and disappearing into the bush. 

The school was housing primary and secondary school students.  

“We don’t know what to do, we are all waiting to see what God can do. They are my only children I have on Earth,” Fatima Usman, whose two children were among those abducted, told Reuters by phone. 

Another parent, Hassan Abdullahi, said local vigilantes had tried to repel the gunmen but were overpowered. 

“Seventeen of the students abducted are my children. I feel very sad that the government has neglected us completely in this area,” Abdullahi said. 

Kidnappings for ransom by armed men have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting daily lives and keeping thousands of children from attending school. 

The last major reported abduction involving school children was in June 2021 when gunmen took more than 80 students in a raid on a school in northwestern state of Kebbi.
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Power Company Says It Might Have Started Huge Texas Fire

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Houston, Texas — A power company said Thursday that its equipment may have sparked the largest wildfire in Texas’ history.

Xcel Energy — the parent of Southwest Public Service Company, which provides electricity to part of the state — said it was working with officials investigating the cause of the fire that charred more than 400,000 hectares (988,421 acres).

“Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire,” the company said.

Hundreds of homes are thought to have been destroyed in the fire, which is known to have killed at least two people and over 3,000 farm animals.

Xcel, which is facing at least one lawsuit, denied its equipment was improperly maintained.

“However, we encourage people who had property destroyed by, or livestock lost in, the Smokehouse Creek fire to submit a claim to Xcel Energy through our claims process,” the statement said.

The Washington Post reported the admission came after it saw evidence the grid in Texas was under stress in the hours before the fire broke out in strong winds on February 26.

The paper said Whisker Labs, a firm that monitors electricity supply grids, recorded 50 faults in the system.

These are typically logged when a power line has been toppled or has touched trees — events that typically result in the kind of sparks that can start fires in dry countryside.

It is not uncommon for U.S. power companies to be blamed for destructive wildfires.

Hawaii’s Maui County last year began legal action against the island’s electricity provider over the deadly fires that leveled the historic town of Lahaina.

Videos taken before the blaze ripped through the town, killing 100 people, apparently showed downed cables setting fire to vegetation.

In California, the almost 1-million-acre Dixie fire of 2021 began after power lines owned by Pacific Gas and Electric touched a tree.

A year earlier, the company pleaded guilty to more than 80 counts of involuntary manslaughter over the horrific Camp fire.
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Zimbabwe Responds to Narrowing of US Sanctions

Posted on by SeeUS

Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government criticized the modification of U.S. sanctions this week that renew measures against President Emmerson Mnangagwa and some senior leaders while removing others from the list.

U.S. Embassy officials said the new sanctions aim to improve Zimbabwe’s human rights record and reduce corruption.

Zimbabwe Information Minister Jenfan Muswere on Wednesday condemned the United States and called for an immediate and unconditional removal of what he called “illegal” sanctions.

“Government of Zimbabwe would like to dismiss any suggestions that this is a new development between Harare and Washington,” he said, noting that Mnangagwa has long been under U.S. sanctions.

“To this end, the government of Zimbabwe condemns the perpetuation of the heinous sanctions against Zimbabwe and their intended effect to decimate our economy,” Muswere said. “Consequently, we do not celebrate the current delisting of other key players. … Zimbabwe was never supposed to be under any form of sanctions from another nation in the first place.”

U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Laurence Socha on Wednesday said the Biden administration was committed to ensuring the sanctions are relevant, timely and targeting those closely connected to corruption and serious human rights abuses, including Mnangagwa.

“In Zimbabwe we continue to witness gross abuses of political, economic and human rights, Socha said. “The targeting of civil society and severe restrictions on political activity have stifled fundamental freedoms, while key actors, including government leaders, have siphoned off government resources for personal gains. U. S. sanctions are not on the country of Zimbabwe.”

Zimbabwe’s government blames sanctions for the country’s economic struggles since the early 2000s. Critics attribute the decline to corruption and bad policies by Harare.

Marvellous Kumalo, spokesperson for the rights group Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe, said, “We have never invited sanctions or celebrated their existence. We are happy now because the Harare administration has always blamed sanctions whenever they failed to deliver in terms of social-economic goods. So now we will keep them in check and see whether they will deliver.”

He continued, “We urge Zimbabwe’s government to revise their human rights record, their public corruption, issues to do with reforms. We will be happier if they institute reforms that make Zimbabwe a better country.”

Obert Masaraure, president of Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, said he hopes the new measures announced by Washington will do more than improve the economic picture.

“Zimbabwe keeps sliding back with respect to issues of human rights, democracy, holding credible elections,” he said. “We have also seen massive looting of our mineral wealth. All this has led to serious poverty among our people. Teachers are also affected; earning below the poverty datum line. That is why at least 4,000 are leaving the country annually to seek greener pastures.

“So, we hope that this [new] sanction regime can apply pressure on Harare so that it reforms and creates a governance architecture that carries the hopes and aspirations of our people,” he said. “That’s democracy.”

In announcing the modified sanctions, U.S. President Joe Biden also terminated the official U.S. state of emergency regarding actions and policies of the Zimbabwe government, which was first imposed in 2003 following reports of election rigging and human rights abuses.
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With Turkmenistan Gas Deal, Turkey Aims to Become Regional Energy Hub

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Turkey and Turkmenistan have agreed to work toward a major gas export deal, which analysts say takes Ankara closer to becoming a significant energy hub and eases Europe’s energy deficit. But they also warn that Moscow can yet thwart such aspirations. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Chinese Woman Detained on Spying Charges After Working for US Company

Posted on by SeeEA

Taipei, Taiwan — Family members say they are still seeking answers more than two months after China’s detention on spying charges of a Chinese citizen who had tried to help an American company find office space in the country.

Emily Chen, 50, was supposed to meet her husband, U.S. citizen Mark Lent, at Nanjing airport on December 29. She texted Lent that her plane had landed but never emerged from the airport, prompting Lent to initiate a frantic inquiry about her whereabouts.

“Her flight was supposed to land at 10:30 p.m. on December 29, but she still hadn’t shown up by midnight,” Lent told VOA by phone. “I contacted the airport police, and 20 minutes later, they told me that Emily had been taken away by state security officers.”

Four days after her detention, Chen’s son, who is also a Chinese national, received a notification from the Dalian state security bureau stating that Chen had been arrested on December 30 for illegally providing state secrets to overseas parties, a charge that could carry a sentence of 10 years or more.

“I know my wife and [spying on China] is not the kind of thing that she would do to her country,” Lent said. “She really cares about her country, and I seriously doubt the charges against her.”

Worried that Chen’s arrest may increase the stress on her son, who is in his early 20s and has mental health issues, Lent tried to take his stepson to Doha, Qatar, with him on February 9. However, when they were going through customs at the Shanghai airport, his stepson was banned from leaving China.

Lent told VOA that his stepson’s relationship with his father in China is strained and that he is still in Nanjing on his own.

Worked for US logistics company

Authorities in Dalian have not spoken publicly about Chen’s case, including her exact whereabouts. It is believed that Chen is being held under what is called residential surveillance at a designated location, or RSDL. The Dalian state security bureau hung up the phone when VOA tried to inquire about Chen’s case.

While there is no clear explanation for the spying charges against Chen, Lent believes her detention may be related to the work she did for an American logistics company in Dalian in 2023.

According to Lent, Chen spent four months working on behalf of Safe Ports, a company that describes itself as a global leader in supply chain management. “She was supposed to find them an office space,” he told VOA.

Safe Ports has previously done work for the U.S. Department of Defense, including supplying American troops in Afghanistan. While there is no confirmation that Chen’s detention is directly related to her work for Safe Ports, the company’s prior association with the U.S. Department of Defense and the sensitive nature of Dalian, which hosts a Chinese naval base, may have resulted in her arrest, some observers say.

Dalian is also where China constructed its first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong.

“Either what the company was doing, which they didn’t share, involves some potential espionage-related activities or her arrest is just a terrible overreach by the Chinese government that has gone out of proportion,” Peter Dahlin, the director of Madrid-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, told VOA by phone.

Neither Safe Ports nor the company’s CEO, Lucy Duncan, responded to multiple interview requests from VOA. However Duncan was quoted by The Guardian newspaper, saying that Chen’s work for Safe Ports was “purely administrative” and that she had no idea why Chen was detained.

Dahlin — who was himself previously held under RSDL — said the fact that Chen was arrested upon returning to China indicates that Chinese authorities “have been tracking” Chen’s activities “for a while.”

Since RSDL is typically used against individuals viewed as a threat to national security in China, Lent said until recently the family had received little information about Chen’s condition for weeks.

Over the past week, her family says, they have received several updates about Chen’s situation in detention, including a letter in which Chen said she “was fine” and a call from state security officers handling her case. According to Lent, the officer told Chen’s son that the investigation was ongoing.

“When [my stepson] talked to them, he seemed to think they were honest and that Emily was given everything she needed,” Lent told VOA, adding that the updates have made him feel more positive about Chen’s situation in detention.

Stepped-up security efforts

Chen’s detention comes as China doubles down on efforts to safeguard national security, passing amendments to laws such as the anti-espionage law and state secrets law and initiating raids against some foreign businesses, including some American due diligence firms.

In a recent interview, the U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns told “60 Minutes” that over the past year Chinese authorities raided at least seven American companies and arrested employees on suspicion of espionage.

Some analysts say Chen’s case is part of Beijing’s campaign to further securitize the country, efforts that ultimately will further reduce foreign businesses’ confidence in China.

“It’s becoming riskier for Chinese citizens to work for foreign companies because the Chinese government under Xi Jinping continues to securitize the country and initiate national-security related investigations against foreign companies,” Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, told VOA by phone.

In response to an inquiry about Chen’s case, the Chinese Embassy in Washington told VOA that it was unaware of the specifics of her detention but that China protects the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals “in accordance with the law.”

“China is actively advancing its high-level opening-up and making efforts to provide a world-class, market-oriented business environment governed by a sound legal framework,” Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson, wrote in response.

While the recent updates have eased some of Lent’s concerns about Chen’s conditions in detention, he said the case has caused serious financial and emotional damage to the family.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t break down over this because I love her very much,” he told VOA. “[While] I have so much confidence that she will eventually prevail on this, I still think it’s going to be a tough road ahead for her.”
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Senegal Court Confirms March 24 Election, Ending Weeks of Uncertainty

Posted on by SeeAF

DAKAR, SENEGAL — Senegalese presidential candidates faced a shortened race to election day on Thursday after the Constitutional Council confirmed the delayed vote would be held on March 24, kick-starting a competition that remains wide open.

Uncertainty over the date of the vote has gripped the West African country since early February, when the authorities’ thwarted bid to postpone the February 25 poll by 10 months provoked widespread protests and warnings of democratic backsliding.

Many hope the worst of the crisis is over after the council ruled on Wednesday that the vote must be held before President Macky Sall’s mandate expires on April 2, prompting him to schedule it for March 24 — a date the top court has now approved.

“Like all Senegalese people, today we feel relieved to have resolved this issue that was causing us a lot of divisions,” said doctor Mohamed Diop on a busy thoroughfare in the capital Dakar.

The new date leaves the 19 candidates little more than two weeks to canvas support. It also means that for the first time, campaigning will take place during the holy month of Ramadan, when many in the Muslim-majority country fast.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” said opposition candidate Thierno Alassane Sall in a statement on Thursday, expressing the hope the election would “allow us to close the painful chapter that has just passed.”

The ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar, or BBY, coalition’s candidate, Amadou Ba, sounded a confident note.

“From this evening onwards, I will be devoting myself fully to preparing for the presidential election … to ensure a victory in the first round,” he said in a statement late Wednesday.

There are no public election polls in Senegal, but Ba’s presidential prospects are far from certain.

Even before the postponement dispute, some within the BBY coalition questioned the first-time candidate’s low profile with voters compared with seasoned rivals. Meanwhile the authorities’ push to delay the vote could have undermined BBY’s already shaky support.

With a record number of candidates in the race, the chances are high none of them will win more than 50% of the vote and avoid a second-round head-to-head contest.

The recent political turmoil could also have played out in some candidates’ favor. An amnesty bill proposed by Sall to ease tensions and passed by parliament on Wednesday is likely to lead to the release from detention of Bassirou Faye, a candidate backed by popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.
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Sweden Set to Become NATO’s 32nd Member as PM Visits Washington

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WASHINGTON/STOCKHOLM — Sweden is expected to formally join NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced a complete rethink of its national security policy and the realization the alliance offered the best guarantee of safety.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is in Washington to hand over the final documentation, with the White House saying in a statement ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address that Sweden would join on Thursday.

“Having Sweden as a NATO Ally will make the United States and our Allies even safer,” the statement said.

The Swedish government said separately it would take the formal decision for the country to join NATO on Thursday.

For NATO, the accession of Sweden and Finland – which shares a 1,340 km border with Russia – is the most significant expansion for decades. It is also a blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin who has sought prevent any further strengthening of the alliance.

Sweden will benefit from the alliance’s common defense guarantee under which an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all.

“We have to face the world as it is not how we sometimes wish it were,” Kristersson said after Hungary became the last NATO member to ratify Sweden’s accession last week.

Sweden adds cutting-edge submarines and a sizable fleet of domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to NATO forces and would be a crucial link between the Atlantic and Baltic.

Russia has threatened to take unspecified “political and military-technical counter-measures” in response to Sweden’s move.

While Stockholm has been drawing ever closer to NATO over the last two decades, membership marks a clear break with the past, when for more than 200 years, Sweden avoided military alliances and adopted a neutral stance in times of war.

After World War II, it built an international reputation as a champion of human rights, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, successive governments have pared back military spending.

As recently as 2021, its defense minister had rejected NATO membership, only for the then-Social Democrat government to apply, alongside neighbor Finland, just a few months later.

While Finland joined last year, Sweden was kept waiting as Turkey and Hungary, which both maintain cordial relations with Russia, delayed ratifying Sweden’s accession.

Turkey approved Sweden’s application in January.

Hungary delayed its move until Kristersson made a goodwill visit to Budapest on Feb. 23, where the two countries agreed a fighter jet deal. 
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