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China punishes those who question ‘martyrs.’ A sleuth keeps track.

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China punishes those who question ‘martyrs.’ A sleuth keeps track.

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In China, don’t question the heroes.

At least seven people over the past week have been threatened, detained or arrested after casting doubt over the government’s account of the deaths of Chinese soldiers during a clash last year with Indian troops. Three of them are being detained for between seven and 15 days. The other four face criminal charges, including one man who lives outside China.

“The internet is not a lawless place,” said the police notices issued in their cases. “Blasphemies of heroes and martyrs will not be tolerated.”

Their punishment might have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for an online database of speech crimes in China. A simple Google spreadsheet open for all to see, it lists nearly 2,000 times when people were punished by the government for what they said online and offline.

The list — which links directly to publicly issued verdicts, police notices and official news reports over the past eight years — is far from complete. Most punishment takes place behind closed doors.

Still, the list paints a bleak picture of a government that punishes its citizens for the slightest hint of criticism. It shows how random and merciless China’s legal system can be when it punishes its citizens for what they say, even though freedom of speech is written into China’s Constitution.

The list describes dissidents sentenced to long prison terms for attacking the government. It tells of petitioners, those who appeal directly to the government to right the wrongs against them, locked up for making too loud a clamor. It covers nearly 600 people punished for what they said about COVID-19, and too many others who cursed out police, often after receiving parking tickets.

The person behind the list is a bit of a mystery. In an interview, he described himself as a young man surnamed Wang. Of course, if the government found out more about him, he could end up in prison.

Wang said he decided to compile the list after reading about people who were punished for supposedly insulting the country during celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, in October 2019. Although he is young, he told me, he remembers more freedom of expression before Xi Jinping became the Communist Party’s leader in late 2012.

“I knew that there were speech crimes in China, but I’ve never thought it’s so bad,” Wang posted in August on his Twitter account, where he writes in both English and Chinese. He wrote that he had become depressed after reading more than 1,000 verdicts.

“Big Brother is watching you,” he wrote. “I tried to look for the eyes of Big Brother and ended up finding them everywhere.”

The list, bluntly titled “An Inventory of Speech Crimes in China in Recent Years,” detailed what happened to those who questioned Beijing’s official account of the June clash between Chinese and Indian forces at their disputed border in the Himalayas. The Indian government said then that 20 of its soldiers had died. Last week, the Chinese government finally said four of its troops had died.

State-run media in China called them heroes, but some people had questions. One, a former journalist, asked whether more had died, a question of intense interest both in and out of the country. According to the notice the spreadsheet linked to, the former journalist was charged with picking quarrels and provoking trouble — a common accusation by the authorities against those who speak up — and faces up to five years imprisonment.

Crates of oranges are seen in front of a poster of Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a warehouse in central China's Hunan province on Jan. 12. | AFP-JIJI
Crates of oranges are seen in front of a poster of Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a warehouse in central China’s Hunan province on Jan. 12. | AFP-JIJI

Reading the list, it becomes clear how well Xi and his government have tamed the Chinese internet. People once thought the internet was uncontrollable, even in China. But Xi has long seen the internet as both a threat to be contained and a tool for guiding public opinion.

“The internet is the biggest variant we’re facing,” he said in a 2018 speech. “Whether we can win the war over the internet will have a direct impact on national political security.”

Liberal-leaning voices and media were among the first to be silenced. Then internet platforms themselves — the Chinese versions of Twitter and YouTube, among many others — were punished for what they allowed.

Now, Chinese internet companies brag about their ability to control content. Nationalistic online users report speech they deem offensive. Out of the seven people who were accused of insulting the heroes and martyrs, six were reported by other users, according to the police notices. In some ways, the Chinese internet polices itself.

China’s police, who are widely disliked for their broad powers to lock people up indefinitely, are big beneficiaries. According to the spreadsheet, people have been detained for calling the police “dogs,” “bandits” and “bastards.” Most are locked up for only a few days, but one man in Liaoning province was sentenced to 10 months in jail for writing five offensive posts on his WeChat timeline.

Petitioners are among those who suffer the most. In one case on the spreadsheet, a woman in Sichuan province whose son died suddenly at school and whose husband committed suicide was sentenced to three years in prison for charges that included spreading false information. The verdict listed the headlines of 10 articles she posted and the page views they garnered. The most got 1,615 views, while the least got only 18.

Perhaps the most depressing items are those about people who were punished for what they said about the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of the list is Dr. Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded Jan. 1, 2020, along with seven others for trying to warn the country about the coronavirus. He died in early February last year of the virus and is remembered as the whistleblower who tried to warn the world about the coronavirus outbreak. But the spreadsheet lists 587 other cases.

Posters in memory of late doctor Li Wenliang and other doctors are seen on a street near the Central Hospital in Wuhan, China, on the anniversary of Li's death on Feb. 7. | REUTERS
Posters in memory of late doctor Li Wenliang and other doctors are seen on a street near the Central Hospital in Wuhan, China, on the anniversary of Li’s death on Feb. 7. | REUTERS

Even cheesy skits by aspiring online influencers can be deemed offensive. Two men in northwestern Shaanxi province livestreamed a funeral they held for a sheep. In the video, one man cried over a photo of the sheep while the other dug the grave. They were detained 10 days for violating social customs.

The spreadsheet also highlights inspiring cases in which people spoke out to challenge authority.

In 2018, a 19-year-old man in the northwestern city of Yinchuan decided to test the newly passed law that prohibits questioning and criticizing heroes and martyrs. He posted on Weibo that two famous martyrs died meaningless deaths and that he wanted to see if he would be arrested, showing a lack of free speech in China. He was detained for 10 days and fined $70.

One man, Feng Zhouguan, criticized Xi and was charged with picking quarrels by the local police in the city of Xiamen. He was detained for five days but appealed after his release, arguing that the police had improperly interfered in a potential libel case between two individuals. The local police, he argued, are “not the military bodyguards or family militia of the national leader.” The court upheld the sentence.

Many people pay a steeper price.

Huang Genbao, 45, was a senior engineer at a state-owned company in the eastern city of Xuzhou. Two years ago he was arrested and sentenced to 16 months in jail for insulting the national leader and harming the national image on platforms like Twitter. He shared a cell with a large group and had to follow a strict routine, including toilet breaks. He and his wife lost their jobs, and he delivers meals to support his family.

“My life in the detention center reminded me of the book ‘1984,’” he said in an interview. “Many of the experiences are probably worse than the plots in the book.”

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North Korea Fires Several Cruise Missiles Towards Yellow Sea: Seoul Military

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North Korea Fires Several Cruise Missiles Towards Yellow Sea: Seoul Military
South Korea and U.S. soldiers stand guard during a ceremony marking the 63rd anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice agreement at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea, July. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday (Jan 24), Seoul’s military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state.

Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an “underwater nuclear weapon system” and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile.

“Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7am today,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

“The detailed specifications are being closely analysed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities,” it added.

Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept.

The latest launch comes as South Korea is conducting a 10-day special forces infiltration drill off its east coast, “in light of serious security situations” with the North, that runs until Thursday, according to the South’s navy.

“We will achieve our mission to infiltrate deep into the enemy’s territory and neutralise them completely under any circumstances,” the drill’s commander said in a statement.

“PRINCIPAL” ENEMY

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the South his country’s “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

Hours after the missiles were fired by Pyongyang Wednesday, Seoul’s defence minister said North Korea would face the end of its regime if it ever waged war.

“If the Kim Jong Un regime makes the worst choice to start a war, you must become the invisible force that protects South Korea and … eliminate the enemy’s leadership in the shortest possible time and end their regime,” Shin Won-sik said.

Shin made the remarks during his visit to an air force base operating the South’s advanced stealth fighter jets.

Recent months have seen a sharp deterioration in ties between the two Koreas, with both sides jettisoning key tension-reducing agreements, ramping up frontier security, and conducting live-fire drills along the border.

The North Korean leader Kim also said Pyongyang would not recognise the two countries’ de facto maritime border, the Northern Limit Line, and called for constitutional changes allowing the North to “occupy” Seoul in war, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

“OVERWHELMING RESPONSE”

In Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol told his cabinet that should the nuclear-armed North carry out a provocation, South Korea would hit back with a response “multiple times stronger”, pointing to his military’s “overwhelming response capabilities”.

At Pyongyang’s year-end policy meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of his country’s military arsenal ahead of armed conflict he warned could “break out any time”.

Earlier this month, the North launched a solid-fuel hypersonic missile, just days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the country’s tense maritime border with South Korea, which prompted counter-exercises and evacuation orders for some border islands belonging to the South.

Kim also successfully put a spy satellite into orbit late last year, after receiving what Seoul said was Russian help, in exchange for arms transfers for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

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AFP

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North Korea Fires Intermediate-range Ballistic Missile: Seoul Military

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North Korea Fires Intermediate-range Ballistic Missile: Seoul Military
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un labelled South Korea his country's "principal enemy" while on a tour of a major munitions factory earlier this week. (Photo: KCNA/KNS/AFP)

North Korea fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile on Sunday (Jan 14), Seoul’s military said, days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the tense maritime border with the South.

“Our military detected one suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang area towards the East Sea” at about 2.55pm (5.55am GMT), Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

The statement gave no further details, adding that authorities in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo were analysing the specifications.

“Our military maintains full readiness by closely sharing information related to the launched ‘North Korean missile’ with the US and Japan,” the JCS said.

Japan’s coast guard also confirmed a suspected missile launch by North Korea, citing information from the country’s defence ministry, and warning vessels to take care.

North Korea’s last missile test was of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which it fired into the East Sea on Dec 18.

The apparent test comes days after North Korea conducted a series of rare live-fire drills near the maritime border with the South, prompting counter-exercises and evacuation orders for some South Korean border islands.

Leader Kim Jong Un also earlier this week branded Seoul his “principal enemy” and warned he would not hesitate to annihilate the South, as he toured major weapons factories.

“The historic time has come at last when we should define as a state most hostile toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the entity called the Republic of Korea,” Kim was reported as saying on Wednesday by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), referring to the two countries by their official names.

Analysts said at the time that the shift was significant, signifying a shift in Pyongyang’s approach to Seoul into “ultra-hawkish mode”.

TIES WOEFUL

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in decades, after Kim enshrined the country’s permanent status as a nuclear power into the constitution and test-fired several advanced ICBMs.

Last year, Pyongyang also successfully put a reconnaissance satellite into orbit, after receiving what South Korea claimed was Russian assistance, in exchange for arms shipments for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Traditional allies, Russia and North Korea have recently boosted ties anew, with Kim making a rare overseas trip to see President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s far east in September.

Top Russian officials, including Moscow’s defence and foreign ministers, also visited North Korea last year, with the flurry of trips both ways fanning concern among Kyiv’s allies over the possibility of a potential arms deal.

KCNA said on Sunday that Pyongyang’s foreign minister would visit Russia this week.

In 2023, Kim test-fired a string of advanced ICBMs including a purported solid-fuel version.

At Pyongyang’s year-end policy meetings, Kim threatened a nuclear attack on the South and called for a build-up of his country’s military arsenal ahead of armed conflict that he warned could “break out any time”.

Pyongyang declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power in 2022 and has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons programme, which the regime views as essential for its survival.

The United Nations Security Council has adopted many resolutions calling on North Korea to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes since Pyongyang first conducted a nuclear test in 2006.

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AFP

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Indonesia’s Marapi Volcano Erupts Again, a Month After Deadly Incident

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Indonesia’s Marapi Volcano Erupts Again, a Month After Deadly Incident
Mount Marapi volcano spews volcanic ash during an eruption as seen from Nagari Bukik Batabuah in Agam, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, January 14, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Iggoy el Fitra/ via REUTERS

Indonesia’s Marapi volcano erupted on Sunday (Jan 14), with ash rising 1,300m from the peak six weeks after a fatal eruption, according to the country’s geological agency.

The volcano in West Sumatra province erupted at least twice by 3.37am GMT on Sunday, the agency said, urging the evacuation of people within 4.5km of the centre of the eruption, with the possibility of lava flows in rivers and valleys.

“In case there’s a rain of ash, we urge residents to also use masks in order to prevent respiratory illness,” the agency said.

Mount Marapi volcano spews volcanic ash during an eruption as seen from Nagari Bukik Batabuah in Agam, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, January 14, 2024, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Iggoy el Fitra/ via REUTERS

In December more than 20 people were killed after Mount Marapi, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes, erupted and spewed grey clouds of ash as high as 3km.

Indonesia straddles the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates.

Volcanic ash from Sunday’s eruption covered nearby houses, vehicles and evacuation tents set up by the local disaster agency, Reuters footage showed.

A number of residents went to health facilities for respiratory check-ups, and the authorities distributed masks.

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REUTERS

 

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Indonesia Temporarily Grounds Boeing 737-9 Max Jetliners After Alaska Airlines Incident

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Indonesia Temporarily Grounds Boeing 737-9 Max Jetliners After Alaska Airlines Incident
An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Max flies above Paine Field near Boeing's manufacturing facility in Everett, Wash., Monday, March 23, 2020, north of Seattle. A window panel blew out on a similar Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 Max seven minutes after takeoff from Portland, Ore., on Friday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Indonesia has temporarily grounded three Boeing 737-9 Max jetliners, following an incident last week in which an Alaska Airlines plane suffered a blowout that left a gaping hole in the side of the fuselage.

The three aircraft, grounded since Saturday, belong to the Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air. The decision was made by the country’s Transportation Ministry in coordination with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the safety and security of flight operations.

An emergency landing on Friday by the Alaska Airlines jetliner prompted U.S. federal authorities to ground some Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft. The FAA grounded all Max 9s operated by Alaska and United and some flown by foreign airlines for inspection. The inspections are focused on plugs used to seal an area set aside for extra emergency doors that are not required on United and Alaska Max 9s.

The grounded Lion Air planes use a mid-cabin emergency exit door that is different than the one on the Alaska Airlines’ plane involved in the incident, said Adita Irawati, a Transportation Ministry spokesperson.

Danang Mandala Prihantoro, a spokesperson for Lion Air, said the airline “has taken preventive steps” by grounding the planes and is “carrying out further inspections on the mid-cabin emergency exit door.”

In 2019, Indonesia temporarily grounded Boeing 737 Max 8 jets to inspect their airworthiness after a Lion Air plane of that model crashed in October 2018, killing all 189 people on board.

 

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North Korea’s Kim turns 40. But There Are no Public Celebrations of His Birthday

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North Korea’s Kim turns 40. But There Are no Public Celebrations of His Birthday
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. REUTERS

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40 on Monday with no announced public celebrations at home, after he entered the new year with artillery barrages into the sea and vows to expand his nuclear arsenal.

Since taking power in late 2011, Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, is believed to have established an absolute leadership similar to his predecessors. But his birthday has yet to be officially celebrated, unlike his late father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung. Their birthdays are two of the North’s biggest holidays and are marked with great fanfare, loyalty campaigns and sometimes massive military parades.

On Monday, North Korea’s state news agency published a lengthy article extolling Kim’s guidance of major construction projects in the past decade. It also reported Kim visited a chicken farm with his daughter the previous day. But it made no mention of his birthday.

Some observers speculate Kim may think he’s still relatively too young or needs bigger achievements to hold such lavish birthday festivities. Others say the lack of a public birthday bash may be related to his concerns about attention to his late Japan-born mother.

Kim’s headlong pursuit of a bigger nuclear arsenal has invited punishing U.S.-led sanctions, which together with border closures during the pandemic were believed to have badly hurt the North’s fragile economy. Kim has subsequently admitted policy failures as his vow that North Korea would “never have to tighten their belts again” remained unfulfilled.

“For Kim, it’s still probably politically burdensome to idolize himself as he’s still young and hasn’t accumulated much achievements,” said Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification.

Kim Yeol Soo, an expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said it will likely take some time for his birthday to become an official holiday because elderly members of the North’s ruling elite would still think he’s too young.

Birthdays are central to the mythology of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, who had ruled North Korea with a god-like status since the country’s founding in 1948.

Their birthdays — April 15 for Kim Il Sung, and Feb. 16 for Kim Jong Il — are typically celebrated with tributes to their giant statues, dance parties, fireworks and art performances. On some milestone birthdays, North Korea’s military holds huge parades with goose-stepping soldiers and powerful weapons capable of targeting the U.S. and South Korea.

Kim Il Sung’s birthday was designated as an official holiday in 1968 when he turned 56, according to a website run by South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea. Kim Jong Il’s birthday reportedly became an official holiday in 1982, when he turned 40.

North Korea has never formally commented on Kim Jong Un’s birthday. The only time Kim has been honored in public on his birthday was in 2014, when former NBA star Dennis Rodman sang “Happy birthday” before an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang. The Unification Ministry-run website states that Kim Jong Un was born on Jan. 8.

There are also views that Kim may be worried about bringing unwanted attentions to his mother, Ko Yong Hui, a Japan-born dancer who was known as his father’s third or fourth wife. Ko’s links to Japan, which had colonized the Korean Peninsula in the past, and the fact that she wasn’t Kim Jong Il’s first wife, are considered as disadvantageous for Kim’s dynastic rule.

“The fact his mother came from Japan is his biggest weak point that undermines his legitimacy of the Paektu bloodline,” Park Won Gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, said, referring to the Kim family’s lineage named after the country’s most sacred mountain.

“When Kim Jong Un’s birthday becomes an official holiday, he won’t still publicize details about his birth,” he said.

Despite no known public birthday events, experts believe Kim Jong Un faces little political challenge and is expected to intensify his run of weapons tests ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

In a key ruling party meeting in late December, Kim vowed to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and launch additional spy satellites to cope with what he called unprecedented confrontation led by the U.S. In the past few days, he had his troops fire artillery shells near the disputed sea boundary with South Korea, raising tensions with his rival.

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AP

 

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At Least 4 Dead in Suspected Train Arson in Bangladesh Before Election

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At Least 4 Dead in Suspected Train Arson in Bangladesh Before Election
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire on passenger train, before the general election in Dhaka, Bangladesh [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

At least four people, including a child, died in a suspected arson attack on a passenger train, police said on Saturday (Jan 6), the eve of a general election that the main opposition party is boycotting.

In addition to the deaths, eight were injured when the fire spread to four compartments of the Dhaka-bound Benapole Express around 9pm on Friday.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), boycotting for the second time in three elections, calls the polls a ploy by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League to legitimise a sham vote that will deliver her party a fourth straight term.

Hasina, refusing BNP demands to resign and cede power to a neutral authority to run the election, accuses the opposition party of instigating anti-government protests that have rocked Dhaka since late October and killed at least 10 people in the South Asian country.

Last month protesters set a train ablaze, killing four people during a countrywide strike called by the opposition.

Senior BNP official Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said Friday’s incident on the Benapole Express was “undoubtedly an act of sabotage and cruelty against humanity”, blaming the ruling party for it.

Awami League party leaders were not immediately available for comment.

The train fire in Dhaka’s Wari area was brought under control by seven firefighting units after about an hour, fire service official Shahjahan Sikder said.

“Investigation is underway, but it seems the train was deliberately set on fire,” said railway police official Ferdous Ahmed.

An official at the Wari police station said police suspected “sabotage” and would be able to confirm the cause of the fire only after the investigation.

The BNP has asked citizens to shun the poll and called a two-day strike in the country from Saturday.

About 800,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries are to guard polling booths on Sunday. Officials of the army, navy and air force have also been deployed across the country to maintain peace.

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REUTERS

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