ZHENGZHOU, China — On a film set that resembles the medieval castle of a Chinese lord, Zhu Jian is busy disrupting the world’s second-largest movie industry.

The 69-year-old actor is playing the patriarch of a wealthy family celebrating his birthday with a lavish banquet. But unbeknownst to either of them, the servant in the scene is his biological granddaughter.

A second twist: Zhu is not filming for cinema screens.

“Grandma’s Moon” is a micro drama, composed of vertically shot, minute-long episodes featuring frequent plot turns designed to keep millions of viewers hooked to their cellphone screens — and paying for more.

“They don’t go to the cinema anymore,” said Zhu of his audience, which he described as largely composed of middle-aged workers and pensioners. “It’s so convenient to hold a mobile phone and watch something anytime you want.”

China’s $5 billion a year micro drama industry is booming, according to Reuters’ interviews with 10 people in the sector and four scholars and media analysts.

The short-format videos are an increasingly potent competitor to China’s film industry, some experts say, which is second in size only to Hollywood and dominated by state-owned China Film Group. And the trend is already spreading to the United States, in a rare instance of Chinese cultural exports finding traction in the West.

Three major China-backed, micro-drama apps were downloaded 30 million times across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play in the first quarter of 2024, grossing $71 million internationally, according to analytics company Appfigures.

“The audience only has that much attention. So obviously, the more time they spend in short videos, the less time they have for TV or other longer-format shows,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of a Hong Kong-based marketing consultancy.

The leader in the space is Kuaishou, an app that accounted for 60% of the top 50 Chinese micro dramas last year, according to media analytics consultancy Endata.

Kuaishou vice president Chen Yiyi said at a media conference in January that the app featured 68 titles that notched more than 300 million views last year, with four of them watched over a billion times.

Some 94 million people — more than the population of Germany — watched more than 10 episodes a day on Kuaishou, she said. Reuters was not able to independently verify the data.

Initial episodes on such apps are often free, but to complete a micro drama like “Grandma’s Moon,” which has 64 clips, audiences may pay tens of yuan.

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is owned by internet technology firm Bytedance, is also popular with micro drama fans.

Alongside other major Chinese social media apps like Instagram-like Xiaohongshu and YouTube competitor Bilibili, it has announced plans to make more.

In the United States, micro drama platform ReelShort, whose parent company is backed by Chinese tech giants Tencent and Baidu, has recently outranked Netflix in terms of downloads on Apple’s U.S. app store, according to market researcher Sensor Tower.

“China discovered this audience first,” said Layla Cao, a Chinese producer based in Los Angeles. “Hollywood hasn’t realized that yet, but all the China-based companies are already feeding the content.”

‘Low-brow and vulgar’

Many popular micro dramas, including “Grandma’s Moon,” have narratives that revolve around revenge or Cinderella-like rags-to-riches journeys.

Tales of how circumstances at birth are deterministic and can only be changed by near-miracles have struck a chord with viewers at a time when upward mobility in China is low and youth unemployment high.

The micro dramas often “show people who one day are lower class and the next day become upper class — you get so rich that you get to humiliate those who used to humiliate you,” said a 26-year-old screenwriter known by her pen name of Camille Rao.

Rao recently left her poorly paid job as a junior producer in the traditional film industry for what she described as the more dynamic and less hierarchical world of micro dramas. She now writes and adapts scripts for the U.S. market.

“Social mobility is actually very difficult now. Many people perceive this as a social reality,” said Xu Ting, associate professor of Chinese language and literature at Jiangnan University.

This has fueled interest in stories about billionaires and wealthy families, she added: “Everyone desires power and wealth, so it is normal for these type of stories to be popular.”

In the U.S. market, by contrast, fantasy stories about werewolves and vampires are particularly popular, several creators told Reuters.

The boom in micro dramas in China has brought scrutiny from the Communist Party.

Between late 2022 and early 2023, the National Radio and Television Administration regulator said it organized a “special rectification campaign” during which it removed 25,300 micro dramas, totaling close to 1.4 million episodes, due to their “pornographic, bloody, violent, low-brow and vulgar content.”

As Chinese leader Xi Jinping promotes values such as loyalty to the Communist Party and heteronormative marriages, the state-owned China Women’s News outlet in April complained that some micro dramas “portray unequal and twisted marriage and family relationships as a common phenomenon” and “deviate from mainstream social values.”

In June, the government began requiring some creators to register micro dramas with NRTA. The regulator didn’t respond to Reuters’ questions for this story.

Key to the commercial success of these films are plot twists that keep people paying as they scroll while commuting or in line at a grocery store. Episodes often end with a hook — such as a boyfriend walking in on his partner with another man — and viewers have to pay for the next episode to find out what happened.

“The plot of these micro dramas is exaggerated,” said Zhu, the actor. “It has plot reversals, it’s nonsensical, so it catches people’s attention and a large audience wants to see them.”

Zhu is a lover of cinema and an avid fan of Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca.” Like many of his colleagues in micro dramas, he thinks the genre has limited artistic value. “I see it as fast food: a longer drama is a kind of sumptuous meal, and a micro drama is fast food.”

But its dedicated viewers disagree. Huang Siyi, a 28-year-old customer service agent, said she enjoyed watching romantic micro dramas because “the acting is good and the male and female leads are good-looking.”

“It’s easy to be obsessed with micro dramas,” she said.

Explosive growth

Vertical filming and distribution through social media apps mean micro dramas can be made with small overhead costs. Budgets for such films range from between $28,000 and $280,000, according to market researcher iResearch.

In the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, “Grandma’s Moon” is being made with a compressed budget and timeline. When Reuters visited the set in July, the filming day stretched until 2 a.m. The crew then moved to a new location and began shooting again at 7 a.m.

The show was shot in just six days, and Zhu, a muscular man with a wide smile and boundless energy, says he plays table tennis after hours to keep up with the young crew on set.

“We’d need to take two to three years to distribute one traditional TV series of film, but we only need three months to distribute a micro drama, saving us a lot of time,” said Zhou Yi, a showrunner at Chinese gaming giant NetEase, which also makes micro dramas.

As micro dramas gain in popularity, actors’ salaries have also grown. Leading roles used to pay $280 a day, said Zhu, adding that main actors in big productions can now make more than double the rate, though extras earn as little as $17 daily.

A retired railway employee who started acting in the 1970s in a theater troupe attached to the unit where he worked, Zhu now lives off his pension and occasional acting gigs.

Many Chinese micro drama producers have their eye on Western markets, where cultural exports from China have often struggled. NetEase last year started making productions for the U.S. that it distributes via an app called LoveShots; the made-for-export films aren’t typically available in China.

Micro dramas designed for the West are often made by production and acting crews in Los Angeles and shot on location. The scripts, which are in English, may also revolve around themes of wealth, cheating partners and miracles.

One of the latest micro dramas on LoveShots is about a woman who, after years of being paralyzed, miraculously regains her ability to move — and walks in on her husband cheating on her.
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SANBAGAWA, Japan — Benmou Suzuki’s dilapidated 420-year-old temple, located deep in the forest near a tiny Japanese mountain village, hardly looks like prized real estate.

Yet the monk was recently approached by two men, who said they were real estate brokers and wanted to know if he was interested in selling.

He suspects they weren’t really interested in the ornate building at the trailhead of a sacred mountain, but the special tax status that comes with running a religious property.

“There are people out there who want a temple, even a mountain temple like this. In fact, considering the value of the religious corporation status, this temple could fetch quite a lot of money,” said 52-year-old Suzuki.

As Japan’s population falls and interest in religion declines, there are fewer people to contribute to the upkeep of the country’s numerous temples and shrines. Suzuki’s Mikaboyama temple, for example, is located in Sanbagawa — an area a three-hour drive from Tokyo with only 500 residents and which also has three other Buddhist temples, one Shinto shrine and a church.

A surge in religious properties coming up for sale has Japanese authorities worried that prospective buyers are not interested in them for heavenly purposes. Rather they fear many are out to dodge taxes or possibly even launder money.

“It’s already a sense of crisis for us and the religious community,” said an official at Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, which oversees religious sites.

Cases of temple or shrine properties being extensively repurposed have triggered public outrage. In Osaka, a temple sold in 2020 was later razed and dozens of graves were relocated to make way for a property development. In Kyoto, a case about a temple that was demolished and turned into a parking lot made headlines this year.

Owning a temple, shrine or church recognized as a religious corporation in Japan can confer sizeable tax benefits. Businesses under such corporations that offer religious services such as funerals do not have to pay taxes while other non-religious businesses also enjoy preferential tax rates. A wide range of undertakings are allowed from restaurants to hair salons to hotels.

Japan had about 180,000 religious sites with corporation status as end-2023, according to the agency’s data. The number of so-called inactive corporations — such as those with no religious events for more than a year — jumped by a third to more than 4,400.

When monks or priests die without a successor, the overseeing religious group will usually appoint someone to take over or voluntarily relinquish the site’s corporation status.

However, there are around 7,000 religious sites that operate independently of these groups and are considered easy to acquire, according to the agency and specialist brokers.

The cultural affairs agency said it has stepped up efforts to dissolve the corporation status of inactive religious sites to stop them from being targeted by dubious buyers.

And when big earthquakes hit, often damaging temples and shrines, agency officials visit religious groups in those areas, warning them about falling prey to such buyers.

Last year, 17 religious corporations were voluntarily dissolved and six were ordered to dissolve. The agency said the number would increase this year and next year as it ratchets up scrutiny.

It might seem easier for Japan to change its laws to more strictly control the criteria for purchasing religious sites. But the agency said the government is wary about amending laws related to religion as that could be seen as impinging on religious freedom which is guaranteed by Japan’s constitution.

Reuters checks of six websites specializing in brokering the sale of religious properties showed hundreds on the market. Most are only obliquely described online with brokers saying sellers prefer to conduct sales as privately as possible.

Osaka-based broker Takao Yamamoto told Reuters interest is surging. A religious corporation license alone can fetch 30 million yen ($210,000), he adds. Some religious sites, especially those with profitable graveyards, are advertised for millions of dollars.

“Anyone can buy independent sites as long as you have money…even foreigners can buy them. Recently, a lot of Chinese people are trying to buy them,” Yamamoto said.

For his part, Suzuki says he has no intention to sell Mikaboyama temple and is working on ideas to raise funds to maintain it. “Temples are places for local people to gather and forge connections. We just can’t get rid of them,” he said. 
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CLAYMONT, Delaware — President Joe Biden told Indo-Pacific allies on Saturday that he believes China’s increasing military assertiveness is an effort to test the region at a turbulent moment for Beijing.

Biden’s comments were caught by a hot mic after he and fellow leaders of the so-called Quad delivered opening remarks before the press at a summit he’s hosting near his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. He said his administration sees Beijing’s actions as a “change in tactic, not a change in strategy.”

China is struggling to pull up an economy pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic and has seen an extended slowdown in industrial activity and real estate prices as Beijing faces pressure to ramp up spending to stimulate demand.

“China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region, and it’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia and the Taiwan Straits,” Biden told Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“At least from our perspective, we believe (Chinese President) Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimize the turbulence in China’s diplomatic relationships, and he’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space, in my view, to aggressively pursue China’s interest,” Biden added.

Starting with a trade war that dates back to 2018, China and the United States have grown at odds over a range of issues, from global security, such as China’s claims over the South China Sea, to industrial policy on electric vehicle and solar panel manufacturing.

The administration has repeatedly voiced concerns about Chinese aggression toward Taiwan and more recently on the frequent clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

At the summit, the leaders agreed to expand the partnership among the coast guards of the Quad nations to improve interoperability and capabilities, with Indian, Japanese and Australian personnel sailing on U.S. ships in the region. But U.S. officials would not say if those transits would include the contested South China Sea.

China also has longtime territorial disputes involving other claimants including Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. U.S. officials worry about China’s long-stated goals of unifying Taiwan with China’s mainland and the possibility of war over Taiwan. The self-ruled island democracy is claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.

The leaders in a joint declaration issued following their talks expressed “serious concern about the militarization … and coercive and intimidating maneuvers in the South China Sea.”

Biden last month dispatched his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, to Beijing for three days of talks with Chinese officials. Sullivan during that visit also met with Xi.

Both governments are eager to keep relations on an even keel ahead of a change in the U.S. presidency in January. And both sides have said they remain committed to managing the relationship, following up on a meeting between Xi and Biden in San Francisco last November.

The concerns about China were raised as Biden showed off a slice of his Delaware hometown to the leaders of Australia, Japan and India.

When Biden began his presidency, he looked to elevate the Quad to a leader-level partnership as he tried to pivot U.S. foreign policy away from conflicts in the Middle East and toward threats and opportunities in the Indo-Pacific. This weekend’s summit is the fourth in-person and sixth overall gathering of the leaders since 2021.

“It will survive way beyond November,” Biden told the leaders.

The president, who has admitted to an uneven track record as a scholar, also seemed tickled to get to host a gathering with three world leaders at the school he attended more than 60 years ago. He welcomed each of the leaders individually for one-on-one talks at his nearby home before they gathered at the school for talks and a formal dinner.

“I don’t think the headmaster of this school thought I’d be presiding over a meeting like this,” Biden joked to fellow leaders.

Albanese, Modi and Kishida came for the summit before their appearances at the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week.

“This place could not be better suited for my final visit as prime minister,” said Kishida, who like Biden, is set to soon leave office.

Earlier, the president warmly greeted Kishida when he arrived at the residence on Saturday morning and gave the prime minister a tour of the property before they settled into talks.

White House officials said holding the talks at the president’s house, which sits near a pond in a wooded area several miles west of downtown, was intended to give the meetings a more relaxed feel.

Sullivan described the vibe of Biden’s one-on-one meeting with Albanese, who stopped by the house on Friday, as “two guys — one at the other guy’s home — talking in broad strokes about where they see the state of the world.” He said Biden and Albanese also swapped stories about their political careers.

The Australian leader remarked that the visit had given him “insight into what in my view makes you such an extraordinary world leader.”

Modi also stopped by the house on Saturday to meet with Biden before the leaders gathered for their joint talks.

“There cannot be a better place than President Biden’s hometown of Wilmington to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Quad,” Modi said.

Biden and Modi discussed Modi’s recent visits to Russia and Ukraine as well as economic and security concerns about China. Modi is the most prominent leader from a nation that maintains a neutral position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 
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washington — President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida discussed diplomacy with China and their shared concerns over “coercive and destabilizing activities” in the South China Sea during a meeting on Saturday at the Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, the White House said. 

Biden and Kishida also reiterated their resolve to maintain peace across the Taiwan strait and commitment to developing and protecting technologies such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors, the White House said. 
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BANGKOK — Amid a reported surge in cross-border repression across Southeast Asia, rights advocates say Thailand is making promising but very slow progress rolling out an asylum program meant to protect the most vulnerable refugees.

They say many who might be eligible for the program are reluctant to apply for fear of exposing themselves to the police and that coming forward could backfire.

Thailand does not officially recognize refugees and deems anyone in the country without a valid visa or passport an illegal migrant. Last September, though, the government introduced a National Screening Mechanism to give “protected persons status” to those from other countries who can prove they are “unable or unwilling” to return home “due to a well-founded fear of persecution.”

Neither the Royal Thai Police – whose Immigration Bureau is leading the program  – nor the National Security Council or Foreign Affairs Ministry, which both participate, replied to VOA’s repeated requests for comment on the NSM, which took effect September 22 of last year.

At a meeting with aid groups last week, though, immigration officials said fewer than 10 people, including adults and their children, have been fully vetted and granted asylum under the program to date, participants from the aid groups told VOA.

They say officials said one applicant had been rejected and that about 200 were still having their claims assessed.

“In terms of implementation, it’s not proportionate yet with the overall population of asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand,” said Krittaporn Semsantad, program director for Thailand’s Peace Rights Foundation, after attending last week’s meeting.

“I’d say they’re … trying to do their best,” she said of the government. “However, there’s a lot of limitation.”

The United Nations estimates some 5,000 asylum seekers are living in Thailand, though rights groups say the true number is likely higher.

Human Rights Watch reported in May that Thailand had made itself increasingly dangerous for asylum seekers over the past decade through what rights groups claim is an arrangement with its neighbors to forcibly return each other’s dissidents, regardless of potential persecution, including arrest, torture and death.

In recent years, Thailand has arrested and forced dozens of dissidents and members of persecuted ethnic minorities back to their home countries, including China. A rights activist from Vietnam, Y Quynh Bdap, was arrested in Bangkok in June and is now on trial for possible extradition back to Vietnam, where he is wanted for fomenting a deadly riot he says he had nothing to do with.

Once accepted into Thailand’s new asylum program, refugees should be safe from a forced return home, but rights advocates say the NSM is moving far too slowly to cope with the need.

They say the screening commission is struggling to verify the biographies of applicants, has too few interpreters to bridge language barriers, and that many potential applicants still don’t know the program even exists. Those who do, they add, can be put off by having to be formally charged with an immigration offense to go through the process.

They say many also don’t trust the government to vet them fairly and fear that if their applications are rejected they could end up back in the countries they fled.

“They’re afraid that if they apply for NSM, they reveal themselves to the government, and if they [do] not meet the criteria of the NSM they will need to [be] deport[ed] back to their … home country,” said Tanyakorn Thippayapokin, policy advocacy coordinator for Asylum Access Thailand, who also attended last week’s meeting.

Advocates say as well that the eligibility rules are too narrow by barring legal migrant workers — who may also be asylum seekers who need protection — from applying, and that the power the rules give the government to reject applicants over unspecified national security risks are too broad.

By not having to explain the security risks, some worry, the government may turn worthy applicants down to either build or maintain good relations with neighboring countries.

Opposition lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang, who chairs the House of Representatives subcommittee on sustainable solutions for migrants in the country illegally, cited the case of the four dozen ethnic Uyghurs from China who Thailand has been holding in detention without charges since arresting them for illegal entry over a decade ago.

“When they [use] the justification of the national security concern, it can [mean] everything in this world,” said Kannavee, who worked for the United Nations refugee agency for over a dozen years.

“For example, the Uyghurs. If they said it is a national security concern, we cannot put the 48 cases of the Uyghur refugees who’ve been put in the immigration detention center [through] the NSM, it can be like that,” he said.

Krittaporn said she was told by immigration officials that the detained Uyghurs were eligible for the NSM, but she added that nongovernment groups have not been able to meet with them to check whether they have been given the chance to apply.

Advocates suggest the government do more to inform asylum seekers and refugees about the program, hire more interpreters, and scale back the share of security agency officials on the screening commission. Some suggest it also scrap the need for applicants to be formally charged.

As it is now, the program seems designed more for finding reasons to turn down applicants than to approve them, said Pornsuk Koetsawang, founder of Friends Without Borders, another local refugee aid group.

“The security agencies work for Thailand’s national security, not for protection of refugees, and they [refugees] worry that Thai security agencies … think that refugees are a threat,” she said. “That’s the thing that has been happening for the past few decades.”

Kannavee said transferring primary responsibility for the program from the police to the Interior Ministry would help give it a more humanitarian focus.  He says the program may yet collapse from all its faults, though, and has been working on legislation that would give Thailand an entirely new refugee program.

On the whole, though, most advocates say the NSM is at least a modest step in the right direction for Thailand and may still be able to spare some refugees from arrest and a forced return to the countries they have fled.

Once vetted and approved, said Tanyakorn, “they’re here legally at least and with the protection of the government authorities.” 
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed more than 19 months after being kidnapped by armed separatists in Indonesia’s Papua, authorities said on Saturday.

Mehrtens was freed and picked up by a joint team in the Nduga area and was undergoing health check-ups and a psychological examination in Timika regency, the Indonesian police said in a statement.

A faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), led by Egianus Kogoya, kidnapped Mehrtens on February 7, 2023, after he landed a small commercial plane in the remote, mountainous area of Nduga.

“We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Phillip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to talk with his family. This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones,” said New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

A range of New Zealand government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities and others toward securing Mehrtens’ release, Peters said in a statement.

Indonesian Brigadier General Faizal Ramadhani, head of Cartenz 2024 Peace Operations, said, “We are prioritizing approach through religious leaders, church leaders, traditional leaders and Egianus Kogoya’s close family to minimize casualties and maintain the safety of the pilot.”

Indonesian police said they would hold a press conference later Saturday.
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Washington — A U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea last year pleaded guilty to desertion on Friday as part of a plea agreement and was sentenced to 12 months of confinement, his lawyer said.

Because of good behavior and time served, the soldier was released, according to the lawyer.

Travis King was facing 14 charges related to him fleeing across the border from South Korea into the North in July 2023 while on a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, and for prior incidents.

But he pleaded guilty to just five — desertion, assault on a noncommissioned officer, and three counts of disobeying an officer — as part of a deal that was accepted on Friday by a military judge.

“The judge, under the terms of the plea deal, sentenced Travis to one year of confinement, reduction in rank to private (E-1), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge,” a statement from King’s attorney Franklin Rosenblatt said.

“With time already served and credit for good behavior, Travis is now free and will return home,” the statement said.

“Travis King has faced significant challenges throughout his life, including a difficult upbringing, exposure to criminal environments, and struggles with mental health,” Rosenblatt said. “All these factors have compounded the hardships he faced in the military.”

In a statement, the U.S. Army’s Office of Special Trial Counsel confirmed King’s guilty plea as part of a deal and said that “pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, all other charges and specifications were dismissed.”

“The outcome of today’s court martial is a fair and just result that reflects the seriousness of the offenses committed by Pvt. King,” prosecutor Major Allyson Montgomery said in the statement.

At the time of the incident, King had been stationed in South Korea, and after a drunken bar fight and a stay in South Korean jail, he was supposed to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings.

Instead, he walked out of the Seoul-area airport, joined a DMZ sightseeing trip and slipped over the fortified border where he was detained by the communist North’s authorities.

Pyongyang had said that King had defected to North Korea to escape “mistreatment and racial discrimination in the U.S. Army.”

But after completing its investigation, North Korea “decided to expel” King in September for illegally intruding into its territory.
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Taipei, Taiwan — A Taiwan court decided on Friday to retain capital punishment, but ruled its application should be “limited to special and exceptional circumstances.”

Democratic Taiwan has carried out 35 executions since a moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 2010, with the latest — that of a 53-year-old man convicted for setting a fire that killed his family — occurring in April 2020.

Campaigners against the death penalty have long argued that the practice, carried out by shooting an inmate in the heart from behind as they lie face-down on the ground, is an inhumane method of punishment.

The debate was brought to Taiwan’s Constitutional Court, which ruled Friday that it would retain the death penalty.

“However, the death penalty is a capital punishment after all, and its scope of application should still be limited to special and exceptional circumstances,” said chief justice Hsu Tzong-li during a lengthy readout of the court’s decision.

In a statement, the court said that while the right to life will be protected under Taiwan’s constitution, “such protection is not absolute.”

“The TCC emphasized that because death penalty was the most severe punishment and irreversible in nature, its application and procedural safeguard [from investigation to execution] should be reviewed under strict scrutiny,” it said in reference to the crime of murder.

However, “the judgement did not address the constitutionality of death penalty in general or imposed on other offences,” such as treason or drug-related offences.

The court also ruled that imposing the death sentence be “prohibited” for “defendants with mental conditions, even if their mental conditions did not influence their offense in the cases in question.”

Additionally, death row inmates “should not be executed if they had mental conditions to the extent that have impeded their competency for execution,” it said.

The court case had been brought by the 37 inmates currently on death row in Taiwan.

There are about 50 provisions in Taiwan’s criminal laws that stipulate capital punishment to be the maximum sentence, and executions are carried out without notice once all appeals have been exhausted.

In 2020, the Cabinet passed new procedures in its execution of death row inmates, allowing the condemned to hold final religious rites as well as leave a farewell voice or video message for their families.

Capital punishment remains popular in Taiwan, with a recent survey by the Chinese Association for Human Rights showing that 80 percent were in favor of keeping it.
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Brussels — The EU’s trade chief, Valdis Dombrovskis, said Thursday he had held “constructive” talks with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, as Beijing seeks a deal with Brussels to avoid steep tariffs on imported electric vehicles.

The meeting was held as divisions grow in Europe over the proposed tariffs, after Spain urged the EU last week to “reconsider” plans for duties of up to 36% on Chinese electric cars, joining Germany in opposition.

“Constructive meeting with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. Both sides agreed to intensify efforts to find an effective, enforceable and WTO (World Trade Organization) compatible solution,” Dombrovskis said on X.

Wang also spoke to businesses in the EV sector on Wednesday in Brussels after which he said China “will certainly persevere until the final moments of the consultations,” as quoted in a statement by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU.

The European Commission in July announced plans to levy import duties on electric vehicles imported from China after an anti-subsidy investigation started last year found they were unfairly undermining European rivals.

The EU wants to protect its automobile industry, a jewel in Europe’s industrial crown, providing jobs to around 14 million people.

The commission is in charge of trade policy for the 27-country bloc.

The tariffs are currently provisional and will only become definitive for five years after a vote by member states that is expected before the end of October.

China has angrily responded to the EU’s plans, warning it would unleash a trade war. Last month China also filed an appeal with the WTO over the tariffs.

Beijing has already launched its own investigations into European brandy and some dairy and pork products imported into China.

Dombrovskis told Wang that the probes were “unwarranted, are based on questionable allegations, and lack sufficient evidence,” the EU’s trade spokesperson, Olof Gill, said.

“(He) thus called for these investigations to be terminated and informed the Chinese side that the EU will do its utmost to defend the interests of its industries,” Gill added in a statement. 
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised successful tests of two types of missiles — one designed to carry a “super-large conventional warhead” and the other likely for a nuclear warhead, as he ordered officials to bolster his country’s military capabilities to repel U.S.-led threats.

The tests appear to be the same as the multiple missile launches that neighboring countries said North Korea performed Wednesday, extending its run of weapons displays as confrontations with the United States and South Korea escalate.

The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim oversaw the launch of the country’s newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile tipped with a dummy “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead.” It said the test-firing was meant to verify an ability to accurately hit a 320 kilometer-range target, suggesting it’s a weapon aimed at striking sites in South Korea.

KCNA said Kim also guided the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile, a word implying the weapon was developed to carry a nuclear warhead.

After the tests, Kim stressed the need to continue to “bolster up the nuclear force” and acquire “overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons, too,” according to KCNA. It cited Kim as saying that North Korea can thwart its enemies’ intentions to invade only when it has strong military power.

KCNA released photos of a missile hitting a ground target. South Korea’s military said later Thursday it assessed that the ballistic and cruise missiles fired by North Korea the previous day landed in the North’s mountainous northeastern region.

North Korea typically test-launches missiles off its east coast, and it’s highly unusual for the country to fire missiles at land targets, likely because of concerns about potential damage on the ground if the weapons land in unintended areas.

Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said North Korea likely aims to show it’s confident about the accuracy of its new ballistic missile. Jung said the missile’s high-powered warhead is meant to attack ground targets, but North Korea hasn’t acquired weapons that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground structures.

The Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 missile’s first known test occurred in early July. North Korea said the July test was successful as well, but South Korea’s military disputed the claim saying one of the two missiles fired by North Korea travelled abnormally during the initial stage of its flight before falling at an uninhabited area near Pyongyang, the capital. North Korea hasn’t released photos on the July launches.

North Korea has been pushing to introduce a variety of sophisticated weapons systems designed to attack both South Korea and the mainland U.S. to deal with what it calls its rivals’ intensifying security threats. Many foreign experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use its enlarged arsenal as leverage to win greater concessions in future dealings with the U.S.

Worries about North Korea deepened last week as it disclosed photos of a secretive facility to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. KCNA said that Kim, during a visit to the facility, called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” produce more nuclear weapons.

It was unclear whether the facility is at North Korea’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex. But it was the North’s first unveiling of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker in 2010.

In an analytical piece jointly written with another expert, Robert Carlin, that was posted Wednesday on North Korea-focused website 38 North, Hecker said the centrifuge hall shown in the recent North Korean photos was not the same one that he saw in November 2010.

Hecker and Carlin said they believe the new centrifuges provide “only a modest increased capacity,” although North Korea could increase enrichment capacity just by building more centrifuge plants.

In another joint analysis also posted Friday on 38 North, other experts said that the centrifuges shown in the photos are not the ones observed by Hecker but a more advanced design. They said the images send “a strong message that the country has ample capacity and continued will to expand its nuclear program.”
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Washington — A hearing to seek the release of imprisoned Americans in Beijing highlighted reasons for the U.S. to expand its list of U.S. citizens wrongly detained in China to prioritize their return.

Members of Congress and witnesses argued at a congressional hearing this week that the U.S. government should expand the list of Americans that it designates as being “unjustly detained” in China.

“More Americans should be considered to be unjustly detained by the State Department,” Representative Chris Smith, the chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, said Wednesday in opening remarks at the CECC hearing.

China is known for a justice system lacking transparency and arbitrarily detaining foreigners as well as its own citizens.

The State Department officially had three Americans listed as unjustly detained in China including American Pastor David Lin, who has now been released by Beijing, the State Department announced on Sunday. 

The other two are Kai Li and Mark Swidan. Li, a businessman from Long Island, was detained by China in 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 for espionage, which his family denies. Swiden, a Texas businessman, was detained in 2012 and convicted on drug-related charges in 2019. His supporters say there is evidence he was not in China at the time of the alleged offense.

Although estimates vary, human rights organizations assess that more U.S. citizens are wrongly detained in China. 

Dui Hua, a human rights group that advocates for clemency and better treatment of detainees in China, doubts about 200 Americans who are held under coercive measures in China and more than 30 who are barred from leaving the country.

The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, a group that seeks to free Americans held captive abroad, estimates that 11 U.S. nationals are wrongfully detained in China, including those subject to exit bans.

In the opening statement of his testimony, Nelson Wells, the father of detained American citizen Nelson Wells, Jr., lamented that “Nelson is not considered a political prisoner or held unjust” by the State Department.

Later, he added, “We tried to get Nelson’s name included” in the list and expressed his hope that the hearing will pave the way.

Nelson Wells, Jr., from New Orleans, was arrested in 2014 in China and sentenced to life on drug-related charges, which his family denies. His term was reduced to 22 years in 2019, and he will remain in prison until 2041.

The U.S. determines whether its citizens are detained “unlawfully or wrongfully” by either “a foreign government or a non-governmental actor” based on criteria set by the Levinson Act signed into law in 2020.

Such criteria “can include, but is not limited to, a review of whether the individual is being detained to influence U.S. policy, whether there is a lack of due process or disparate sentencing for the individuals, and whether the person is being detained due to their U.S. connections, among other criteria,” said a spokesperson for the State Department in a statement to VOA Korean on Tuesday.

“The Secretary of State has ultimate authority to determine whether a case is a wrongful detention. This determination is discretionary, based on the totality of the circumstances, and grounded in the facts of the case. We do not discuss the wrongful detention determination process in public,” the spokesperson continued.

A spokesperson for the Foley Foundation told VOA that it believes 11 Americans currently detained in China meet “the criteria for wrongful detention, as specified in Levinson Act.”

Its report, published in July, says China “remains the leading country in wrongfully detaining U.S. nationals,” based on the data collected by the Foley Foundation in the period from 2022 to 2024.

Sophie Richardson, a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, told VOA China’s practice of arbitrary detention is harmful to its culture and economy.

“It’s a big part of what is deterring people from going to the country,” including students who are interested in studying Chinese as well as business executives who are “concerned they might run afoul of certain kinds of data regulations and [be] arbitrarily detained,” said Richardson, a former China director at Human Rights Watch.

A record number of approximately 15,200 high-net worth individuals are expected to leave China in 2024, according to New World Wealth, a wealth intelligence firm, cited by the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report.

Harrison Li, the son of Kai Li, said, “The Chinese government clearly wants more Americans to travel to China, but as long as our loved ones are being held, as long as there are so many people at risk, then that travel warning must be escalated.”

The State Department currently advises Americans to “reconsider” traveling to the country “due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws,” including exit bans and wrongful detention. The next level of advisory would say “do not travel.”

Bob Fu, the founder and president of China Aid, a human rights group that advocates for religious freedom, told VOA that “increasing international isolation” felt by the Chinese Communist Party could have led it to the release of David Lin.  

He said the prospect for the release of other Americans would depend on “how much persistent pressure from the highest level of the U.S. government” is exerted on Beijing.

The State Department spokesperson told VOA Korean that the U.S. has raised the case of “other wrongfully detained Americans” in addition to David Lin and will “continue to push for the release of other Americans.”
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BANGKOK — A new report from Burmese activist groups is calling on French-based airline manufacturer Airbus to use its influence with Aviation Industry Corporation of China, or AVIC, to pressure the Chinese firm to end its arms sales to the Myanmar junta.

AVIC is one of the world’s biggest defense contractors, and the Chinese aviation firm supplies aircraft and weapons to Myanmar’s military junta that are being used in airstrikes in the war-torn country.

The report, which was released Monday, says Airbus has not only maintained but increased investment in companies controlled by the Chinese firm.

According to the report, Airbus is “heavily” invested in AVIC’s Hong Kong-listed holding company, AviChina, a strategic partner of AVIC China.

An Airbus spokesperson denies allegations that the company could be in violation of international sanctions.

In its report titled #AIRBUSTED How Airbus’ close partner AVIC is supplying arms to the Myanmar military and what Airbus should do about it, Justice for Myanmar, and Info Birmanie, a non-profit organization in Paris that focuses on Myanmar, say they have uncovered evidence that AVIC is continuing to supply aircraft and weapons to the Myanmar military, which they say have been used to commit war crimes throughout the country.

The report’s authors have called on Airbus to “use its leverage over AVIC and its subsidiaries so they halt all ongoing and planned transfers of military aircraft, arms and associated equipment to the Myanmar military,” as well as maintenance, training and technical support for the country’s air force.

“Because of these known risks, Airbus should conduct heightened due diligence on any current and future partnerships with AVIC and its subsidiaries and make that due diligence public,” the report said.

The report also called on Airbus to divest and end its relationship with AVIC if the company refuses to end its relationship and all business with Myanmar’s military.

Philippe Gmerek, a spokesperson for Airbus, told VOA in an email that the French airline manufacturer is compliant with sanctions on Myanmar and within international law with its relationship with AVIC.

“Airbus has not supplied defence products to Myanmar or its armed forces.  Airbus is committed to conducting its business ethically and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. This includes the delivery of defence products in accordance with export control laws and in full transparency and alignment with authorities and relevant stakeholders,” Gmerek said in the emailed statement.

He added that “Airbus’ relationship with Chinese companies, including AVIC, is fully compliant with all European and international laws and regulations, notably with regards to the existing arms embargo on China. As such, Airbus’ industrial and technology partnerships in China are exclusively focused on civil aerospace and services.”

AVIC, one of the world’s largest military contractors, has been under U.S. sanctions since 2020 and is listed by Washington as a potential national security threat because of its links to the Chinese military. Those sanctions prohibit any American organization or individuals from dealing with firms that have links to the Chinese PLA.

Myanmar has been in chaos since military leader General Min Aung Hlaing and his military forces overthrew the democratically elected government in February 2021.  

The coup sparked widespread armed resistance to military rule, led by ethnic armed groups and forces loyal to a civilian-led shadow government. Upwards of 5,600 people have been killed by the military and millions displaced since the coup, according to rights groups.

In a joint statement at the U.N. Security Council in February, France joined Britain, Ecuador, Japan, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United States in strongly condemning the military’s violent attacks on civilians in Myanmar, including its “continued use of indiscriminate airstrikes.”

The governments of France, Germany and Spain all hold major shares in Airbus through holding companies.

VOA reached out to Christian Lechervy, France’s ambassador to Myanmar, and AVIC for comment but has yet to receive a reply.

Johanna Chardonnieras, coordinator for Info Burmie, said the French government, among others, should act.

“The French, Spanish and German governments have a responsibility and a duty to act when Airbus’ partner and investee is linked to war crimes,” Chardonnieras said. “Today they have the opportunity to show their capacity for action, in line with their statements, values and sanctions.”

Yadanar Maung, the Justice for Myanmar spokesperson, called for the U.S. to take action should Airbus continue its business ties with AVIC.

“We call on the U.S. government to conduct due diligence on any business activities and links it currently has with Airbus and encourage U.S. citizens and entities to do the same. Airbus’ decision to continue its business relationship with AviChina should be subject to consequences, including restricting market opportunities in the U.S.,” she told VOA.

Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington who focuses on Southeast Asia politics and security, says the report could tarnish Airbus’ reputation, though it is unclear how much of an impact it could have beyond that.

“Airbus will obviously try to make the case that they only partner with AVIC in the commercial aircraft, but obviously there’s a lot of dual use technology,” Abuza said.

“The biggest hit to the firm is reputational damage. I am not sure Myanmar is a large enough issue, or it’s a priority for European leaders, or there’s a significant and politically powerful diaspora to demand changes,” he told VOA.

The U.S., Canada, Britain and the EU have all imposed a variety of sanctions on Myanmar’s military regime and its entities in recent years in a bid to end its violent crackdown.
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