Á

[Triển]

Phong trào Trà Sữa.

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Asia's 'Milk Tea' activists give cross-border support for democratic change

An online solidarity movement is bringing together democracy activists throughout Asia for a fight against authoritarianism. But how much difference can a popular hashtag actually make?


The Milk Tea Alliance is nurturing transnational solidarity with protests such as this one in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 8

Solidarity between pro-democracy advocates has been gaining momentum across Asia in the last couple of months, both in cyberspace and in the streets.

The informal Milk Tea Alliance unites like-minded political activists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Myanmar.

Although their agendas at home vary, protesters clashing with riot police in Myanmar can relate to Thais demanding reform of the monarchy. Hong Kongers contesting Beijing’s National Security Law, meanwhile, can resonate with Taiwanese resisting Chinese mainland encroachment.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University, told DW that the growing transnational movement "has aligned the aspirations of young demographics across Asia, favoring democratic norms and values against authoritarianism in their countries and beyond."

How did the Milk Tea Alliance come about?

In recent months, young pro-democracy activists in Asia have shown how online activism can morph into collective international action by sharing tried-and tested protest tactics.

The pan-Asian coalition started out in April last year as a humorous hashtag after a Thai actor retweeted a photo that categorized Hong Kong as an indedendent country.

Fervent Chinese nationalists lashed out at the outspoken Thai Twitter users, only to have their comments deflected with self-deprecating humor.

Netizens in Hong Kong and Taiwan quickly chimed in on the online spat, and the three nations formed an anti-China front. They dubbed themselves the Milk Tea Alliance — after the popular East and Southeast Asian beverage.

Though it initially emerged as a pushback against China’s dominance in the region, the movement has since widened to represent a larger struggle but with one common cause: fighting authoritarianism.

Myanmar joins the club

Myanmar's youth have also taken to the streets to protest against the military's seizure of power in a coup on February 1. Some of the protesters are the latest members of the cross-border network pushing for democracy.

"For many young protesters, joining the Milk Tea Alliance alongside other Asian youth represents a rejection of the closed and authoritarian society the military maintained for decades through violence and terror," Ronan Lee, a visiting scholar at the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London, told DW.

More than 50 people have been killed and nearly 1,500 people have been arrested since the Myanmar army ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group.

The Myanmar military — which ruled the country from 1962 for almost five decades — had expected that it would be able to quell the unrest by arresting key politicians and notable activists. However, "this time Myanmar's protests have far more leaders than the military expected and continue [to demonstrate] even after a thousand arrests," Lee noted.

"Diversified leadership structures learned from the Milk Tea Alliance have helped Myanmar’s protesters frustrate military efforts [to crack down on protests]," he added.

From hashtag to pan-Asian movement

In one of the latest displays of transnational solidarity, activists across Asia took to the streets at the end of February in support of Myanmar demonstrators.

Some also answered calls from pro-democracy campaigners to hold online protests by posting photos of themselves showing the three-finger salute — a gesture borrowed from The Hunger Games film trilogy and a symbol of resistance shared with the Thai pro-democracy movement.

"Today we witnessed transnational solidarity across #MilkTeaAlliance. It is no longer just a hashtag. You made it a movement," tweeted the Milk Tea Alliance account on February 28.

Pursuing a democratic future

As authorities continue to crack down on prominent pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and Thailand, prospects of any major political shift in the region appear slim.

Professor Thitinan says while the Milk Tea Alliance holds opportunities for further growth, the movement will need stronger coordination efforts to stand up to authoritarian forces.

"The Milk Tea Alliance has potential to catch on as a significant political force across Asia as the younger generations grow up and have more means to carry on political activities. But this requires leadership, coordination, and organization," Thitinan told DW.







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[ốc]

The Milk Tea Alliance is nurturing transnational solidarity with protests such as this one in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 8

Có một lần mất mát mới thương Rohingya.

[Triển]

"Shoot me instead"

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Nữ tu Công Giáo quỳ trước cảnh sát Miến Điện, xin ngưng giết chóc
Mar 9, 2021 cập nhật lần cuối Mar 9, 2021

MYITKYINA, Miến Điện (NV) – Một nữ tu Công Giáo mới đây đã quỳ xuống trước các cảnh sát viên tại một thành phố ở vùng Bắc Miến Điện, khẩn khoản xin họ đừng bắn vào người biểu tình phản đối quân đội đảo chánh cướp chính quyền.

Nhưng cố gắng của vị nữ tu này sau cùng cũng không chặn được đổ máu, theo bản tin của hãng thông tấn Reuters hôm Thứ Ba, 9 Tháng Ba.


Nữ tu Ann Rose Nu Tawng quỳ xin cảnh sát chớ bắn vào người biểu tình ở Myitkyina. (Hình: Myitkyina News Journal/AFP/Getty Images)

(coi nữa)

[Triển]

Nguyên tử mệnh

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Japan marks a decade since Fukushima nuclear disaster

Environmental groups say the crippled nuclear plant's decommissioning effort is hopeless. Some local people fear it is not safe to return to communities that were beneath the radioactive plume.


Workers walk near the reactor buildings at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 1, 2021

As Japan prepares to mark the 10-year anniversary of the most destructive natural disaster in its recorded history and the nuclear accident that it triggered, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has expressed confidence that efforts to decommission the site are on schedule.

Anti-nuclear campaigners are critical of that position and insist that Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan to complete the decommissioning of the three reactors that suffered meltdowns has "no prospect of success and is delusional," while people living in areas that were directly beneath the plume of radioactivity in March 2011 say their lives have been changed irreparably and forever.

The crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant followed the magnitude-9.1 Great East Japan Earthquake on the afternoon of March 11, 2011. The quake, the fourth most powerful anywhere in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900, caused a series of tsunami waves that in places reached more than 40 meters high and bore down on the coast of northeast Japan.


Screengrab obtained on March 15, 2011, shows an explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant

'People shouldn't be told that it's safe to come back'

The tsunami broached the nuclear plant's sea defenses and flooded the lower parts of four of the site's six reactor buildings, causing the failure of emergency generators required to keep water pumps circulating cool water for the reactors. The overheating of the reactor cores caused three of the units to suffer meltdowns, with operations of the fourth unit suspended for maintenance at the time of the disaster.

In the days after the accident, the government ordered the evacuation of more than 154,000 people living in surrounding towns and villages. Plans were also quietly drawn up for the evacuation of a vast swathe of the north of Japan in the event that one or more of the reactor chambers was breached and released vast amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.

That scenario never came to pass, although the Fukushima accident is still classed as the second most serious nuclear accident in history, behind the Chernobyl disaster, and experts estimate that around 18,000 terabecquerels of radioactive caesium-137 were released into the Pacific Ocean, along with varying amounts of strontium, cobalt, iodine and other radionuclides.

Nobuyoshi Ito ignored requests from the authorities to leave his home on the outskirts of the town of Iitate after the disaster a decade ago. He insisted that he was already old, that the radiation would be unlikely to impact his longevity and that he needed to remain to serve as a human test subject.

Now 76, he has spent the last decade monitoring radiation levels in the surrounding hills, as well as in crops that he grows and wild fruit and vegetables.

"Three years ago, they lifted the evacuation order and they have been encouraging people to return ever since," he told DW. "I've been recording the radiation levels since the accident and they have certainly gone down, but the soil here will be contaminated for years to come. People should not be told that it's safe to come back because I do not believe it is."

Complex nuclear decommissioning project

Akira Ono, the head of the Fukushima site and chief decommissioning officer, said in an interview this week that there is no need to revise the target of completing work to render the reactors safe, which has been set at between 2041 and 2051.

"We will stick to the 30-to-40-year finishing target and will compile a timeline and technology and development plans accordingly," he told the Associated Press.

That is despite new revelations that levels of cesium on the primary containment chambers of two of the reactors are far higher than previously believed, which will further complicate the decommissioning work. Also, much remains to be discovered about the melted fuel that fell out of the core to the base of the containment chambers of the three reactors.

And even though no nuclear decommissioning project of the scale of Fukushima has ever been attempted before and, in some areas, the technology has yet to be developed to enable the work to be completed, TEPCO intends to press ahead with its efforts and is due to release an updated roadmap of its efforts before the end of March.

A decade of deception and delusion?

Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist for Greenpeace East Asia, insists there is no likelihood of TEPCO's schedule being met and that the authorities are continuing to ignore the risks to people's lives.

"Successive governments during the last 10 years … have attempted to perpetrate a myth about the nuclear disaster," he said in a statement to DW. "They have sought to deceive the Japanese people by misrepresenting the effectiveness of the decontamination program and ignoring radiological risks.

"At the same time, they continue to claim that the Fukushima Daiichi site can be returned to 'greenfield' status by mid-century," he said. "The decade of deception and delusion on the part of the government and TEPCO must end. A new decommissioning plan is inevitable, so why waste more time with the current fantasy?" he asked.

According to research conducted by Greenpeace, just 15% of the 840 square kilometers (324.3 square miles) identified as being most contaminated from the nuclear fallout has been decontaminated, while the towns of Namie and Iitate, which the government announced were safe for evacuees to return to, still have radiation above safe levels.

Burnie said a "fundamental rethink in approach and a new plan" for the decommissioning of the site is required. The least bad choice, Greenpeace believes, is to keep all material that has been contaminated with radiation on site indefinitely, including the nuclear fuel debris, "if it is ever retrieved."

"Fukushima Daiichi is already and should remain a nuclear waste storage site for the long term," he concluded.

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[Triển]

Hơn 6500 người thiệt mạng, chủ hãng cỏ Hòa Lan tẩy chay Qatar.

[Triển]

Tân chính phủ cũng lò dò đến sụp bẫy của bé mập.

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Kim Jong Un's sister slams the US and South Korea

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North Korean dictator, lashed out at Washington as top US diplomatic and military representatives are set to visit Seoul.


Kim Yo Jong (l) is in charge of handling Pyongyang's ties with Seoul

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's influential sister lambasted the United States and South Korea, state media reported on Tuesday, in a broadside aimed at coinciding with the arrival of top US officials in Seoul.

With the US and South Korea starting joint military drills near the North Korean border last week, Kim Yo Jong said she was aiming to "warn the new US administration of trying hard to spread the smell of gunpowder on our land from across the ocean."

"If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step," the KCNYA reported her as saying in a statement.

North Korea questions linger

The statement comes a day before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are due to arrive in Seoul for their first talks with South Korean counterparts. The pair will also visit Tokyo as part of their four-day trip.

The timing of Kim's comments seems designed to ensure that North Korea will be at the top of Blinken and Austin's agenda.

On Monday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the White House had made efforts to communicate with the North Korean government but that the United States' overtures had yet to yield a response.

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Thousands flee into Thailand following Myanmar air strikes


Karen villagers gather in the forests as they hide from military airstrikes in the Deh Bu Noh area of the Papun district, north Karen state, Myanmar, Sunday, March 28, 2021. - Copyright Free Burma Rangers via AP

Thai authorities along the country's northwestern border braced themselves on Monday for a possible influx of more ethnic Karen villagers fleeing new airstrikes from the Myanmar military.

Myanmar military aircraft carried out three strikes overnight on Sunday into Monday, according to Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian relief agency that delivers medical and other assistance to villagers. The strikes possibly injured one person but caused no apparent fatalities, a member of the agency said.

Earlier on Sunday, an estimated 3,000 people crossed the river dividing the two countries into Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province following two days of aerial attacks.

Video shot that day shows a group of villagers, including many young children, resting in a forest clearing inside Myanmar, having fled their homes. They carried their possessions in bundles and baskets.

In Sunday’s previous attacks, Myanmar military aircraft dropped bombs on a Karen guerrilla position in an area on the Salween River in Karen state’s Mutraw district, according to workers for two humanitarian relief agencies.

Two guerrillas were killed and many more were wounded in those attacks, said a member of the Free Burma Rangers.

On Saturday night, two Myanmar military planes twice bombed Deh Bu Noh village in Mutraw district, killing at least two villagers.

The attacks may have been retaliation for the Karen National Liberation Army, which is fighting for greater autonomy for the Karen people, attacking and capturing a government military outpost on Saturday morning.

According to Thoolei News, an online site that carries official information from the KNU, eight government soldiers including a second lieutenant were captured in the attack and 10 were killed, including a lieutenant colonel who was a deputy battalion commander. The report said one Karen guerrilla had been killed.

The tension at the frontier comes as the leaders of the resistance to last month’s coup that toppled Myanmar’s elected government are seeking to have the Karen and other ethnic groups band together and join them as allies, which would add an armed element to their struggle.

The airstrikes mark an escalation in the increasingly violent crackdown by the Myanmar government against opponents of the Feb. 1 military takeover.

At least 114 people across the country were killed by security forces on Saturday alone, including several children — a toll that has prompted a U.N. human rights expert to accuse the junta of committing “mass murder” and to criticise the international community for not doing enough to stop it.

The Security Council is likely to hold closed consultations on the escalating situation in Myanmar, U.N. diplomats said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. The council has condemned the violence and called for a restoration of democracy, but has not yet considered possible sanctions against the military, which would require support or an abstention by Myanmar’s neighbour and friend China.

The coup, which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule. It has again made Myanmar the focus of international scrutiny as security forces have repeatedly fired into crowds of protesters.

As of Sunday, at least 459 people have been killed since the takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which has tallied deaths it was able to verify. The true toll is thought to be higher.

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[Triển]

Ngoại trưởng Mã Lai bợ đ* "đại ca":

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Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein
said to Chinese counterpart Wang Yi:

You’re my big brother. Wang Yo said, we are brothers. Deal.

(coi nữa)

[Triển]

Taiwan says European countries helping with submarine project


TAIPEI (Reuters) - European countries are providing help for Taiwan’s indigenous submarine project, the island’s defence ministry said, in a rare admission that the sensitive programme is not getting assistance solely from the United States.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has worked for years to revamp its submarine force, some of which dates back to World War Two. It is no match for China’s fleet, which includes vessels capable of launching nuclear weapons.

The U.S. government in 2018 gave the green light for U.S. manufacturers to participate in the programme, a move widely seen as helping Taiwan secure major components, though it is unclear which U.S. companies are involved.

In a statement late Friday, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry denied a report in U.S.-based publication The National Interest, which cited Taiwanese news reports from 2019, that North Korea had discussed helping Taiwan with the submarines.

“In the development of our submarines there has never been, there is not now and will never be any contact with North Korea; assistance is all provided by important countries in Europe and the United States,” it said, without giving details.

European countries are generally wary of allowing arms sales to Taiwan due to fear of angering China, though in 2018 Taiwan said it was talking to a company based in the British territory of Gibraltar about the new submarine fleet’s design.

Two of Taiwan’s four active submarines were built in the Netherlands in the 1980s, though the country subsequently refused to sell further ones to the island.

France has also sold Taiwan frigates and fighter jets. Taiwan said last year it was seeking to buy equipment from France to upgrade the ships’ missile interference system.

State-backed CSBC Corporation Taiwan began building the new submarines last year, aiming to deliver the first of the eight planned vessels in 2025.

Taiwan’s defence minister said last month it that the United States had approved the export of sensitive technology to equip the fleet.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard

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Japan and Germany to hold first '2 plus 2' dialogue talks in April - Yomiuri


TOKYO (Reuters) - The foreign and defence ministers of Japan and Germany are looking to hold a “2 plus 2” dialogue online in mid-April, the daily Yomiuri reported on Monday.

The “2 plus 2” talks will be the first among the two countries, and they are expected to discuss ways to defence and a “free and open Indo-Pacific” in face of an increasingly assertive China, the report said, citing multiple unidentified sources.

Although the exact schedule is not yet confirmed, the two parties are looking to speak on April 16, the Yomiuri also said.

Countries such as the United States and Japan have become increasingly alarmed as China takes an increasingly aggressive foreign policy approach in the Indo-Pacific region.

A German frigate expected to set sail for Asia in August will become the first German warship to cross the South China Sea since 2002 on its return journey.

Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Kim Coghill

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