Month: November 2022

As protests continue in cities across China over the government’s harsh “zero-COVID” policy, a separate battle is taking place on social media sites within China and around the world; a fight that is testing the strength of China’s online censorship apparatus, known as the Great Firewall.

Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson said Chinese officials appear to be resorting to “low-tech approaches” to tamp down online speech even as the protesters have become more adept at getting their messages past government censors.

“Literally police stopping people on the streets, on public transportation, and forcing them to hand over their smartphones so that police can inspect them to see if they’ve got chats about the protests, if they’ve taken pictures or videos, or if they’ve sent these kinds of materials to other people,” she told VOA via Skype on Tuesday.

Some protesters in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are getting information out about the crackdown by using technology and other techniques to circumvent government censors who are believed to be using an automated system to help block prohibited content.

Over the weekend, researchers noted that outside of China, when people on Twitter tried to share tweets about the protests and the ensuing crackdown at the hands of police, Chinese language accounts intervened to block the information from spreading.

“Numerous Chinese-language accounts, some dormant for months or years, came to life early Sunday and started spamming the service with links to escort services and other adult offerings alongside city names,” according to The Washington Post.

Many Chinese citizens have been able to use virtual private networks – or VPNs – to get over the Great Firewall to post photos, messages, videos and other materials on platforms including Twitter.

Ji Feng, a former student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, told VOA that students with VPNs are “jumping over the great firewall,” to gain access to information.

Richardson says those postings have been “an extraordinary breach of the firewall” with Chinese authorities likely to crack down on VPN use.

“As of a few years ago, the use of unauthorized VPNs was criminalized,” she says. “And so we are expecting to hear that people will be prosecuted simply on charges of using that kind of technology.”

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that “videos and posts on Chinese social media about protests were deleted by the ruling party’s vast online censorship apparatus.”

Richardson expects a more complete assessment in the next few weeks of “the extent to which authorities will have used basic garden variety surveillance cameras, which are just legion across all urban Chinese areas now, to identify protesters, and possibly they’ll be used as a basis for prosecuting people who were doing nothing more than exercising their right to free speech.”

U.S. President Joe Biden drew enthusiastic applause from tribal leaders attending day one of a two-day White House Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, where Biden announced new policies for improving tribal consultation across federal agencies.

“Consultation has to be a two-way, nation-to-nation exchange,” he said. “Federal agencies should strive to reach consensus among the tribes, and there should be adequate time for ample communication.”

Tribes have long sought more inclusion in federal decision-making on policies in keeping with the U.S. Constitution and hundreds of treaties negotiated with the U.S. government between 1778 and 1871.

In 2019, however, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found some federal agencies did not respect tribal sovereignty or tribes’ relationship with the government and failed to adequately consult tribes on infrastructure projects impacting tribal natural and cultural resources.

Biden announced he had signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU), unifying consultation processes across the government agencies. It directs agency heads to keep public records on all consultations, summarizing all tribal concerns and recommendations and showing how tribal input is considered into the agency decisions.

Agency heads also must explain their reasoning if and when tribal suggestions are not incorporated into agency action.

“Tribal nations should know how their contributions influence the decision making,” Biden said, adding that the MOU will require all relevant federal agencies to participate in annual training on the tribal consultation process.

Managing environmental issues

Separately, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced several initiatives aimed at strengthening Washington’s relationship with 574 federally recognized tribes and boosting their sovereignty and economic development.

From wildfires and drought to the widespread loss of species and their habitats, climate change is “the challenge of our lifetime,” Haaland told tribal leaders attending the first in-person summit.

“If we are going to successfully overcome these threats, we must work together,” Haaland said.

To that end, the Commerce Department will join the Interior and Agriculture Departments by signing Joint Secretarial Order 3403. That order, issued in November 2021, is designed to ensure that federal agencies work with tribes to manage millions of hectares of federal lands, waters and wildlife.

“Today, the Departments of Interior and Agriculture are outlining a series of new steps to ensure tribes can participate in the stewardship of federal lands and waters,” Haaland said.

That includes, said Haaland, “producing a first of its kind report on the many existing legal authorities we have as agencies to advance co-stewardship with tribal nations as the United States works to honor our trust and treaty responsibilities to protect tribal sovereignty and revitalize tribal communities.”

Closing digital divide

A 2021 study by Arizona State University’s American Indian Policy Institute found that 18% of tribal reservation residents had no internet access and 33% were forced to rely on smartphones to access the internet.

Haaland announced that the Interior and Commerce departments will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Communications Commission to better coordinate in promoting wireless services on tribal lands and give tribes a voice in developing national broadband policy.

The Interior Department also will establish a new Office of Indigenous Communication and Technology to help tribal nations and communities manage, develop and maintain broadband infrastructure, as well as forge partnerships with the tech industry.

“All of these new tools will help strengthen our nation-to-nation relationship while ensuring that communities have the tools — both new and old — to reach true self-determination and move toward a more prosperous era for Indian country,” Haaland said.

Documenting boarding school histories

Haaland also announced the Interior Department, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, will in 2023 begin work on a permanent oral history project to document the experiences of students in the federal Indian boarding school system.

Following the discovery in 2021 of more than 200 sets of remains on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada, the Interior Department launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to study the impact of these boarding schools on Native American attendees, descendants and their families.

The department released the first volume of findings in May, reporting that between 1819 and 1969, the federal government operated 408 federal schools in 37 states.

Investigators have so far identified more than 1,000 other federal and non-federal institutions involved in educating and assimilating Native American, Native Alaskan and Native Hawaiian children. These included day schools, orphanages and standalone dormitories.

They report that the schools used “systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies” in their effort to Americanize Native children, giving them English names, banning their languages, cultural and spiritual practices.

“The federal Indian Boarding School Initiative is about more than reliving the trauma of our past,” Haaland said in her announcement Wednesday. “It’s about making sure that survivors of these brutal federal policies are seen and heard and that their stories are told to future generations.”

Christine McVie, the British-born Fleetwood Mac vocalist, songwriter and keyboard player whose cool, soulful contralto helped define such classics as “You Make Loving Fun,” “Everywhere” and “Don’t Stop,” has died at age 79. 

Her death was announced Wednesday on the band’s social media accounts. No cause of death or other details were immediately provided, but a family statement said she “passed away peacefully at hospital this morning” with family around her after a “short illness.” 

“She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure,” the band’s statement reads in part. 

McVie was a steady presence and personality in a band known for its frequent lineup changes and volatile personalities — notably fellow singer-songwriters Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. 

Fleetwood Mac started out as a London blues band in the 1960s and evolved into one of the defining makers of 1970s California pop-rock, with the combined talents of McVie, Nicks and Buckingham anchored by the rhythm section of founder Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass. 

During its peak commercial years, from 1975 to 1980, the band sold tens of millions of records and was an ongoing source of fascination for fans as it transformed personal battles into melodic, compelling songs. McVie herself had been married to John McVie, and their breakup — along with the split of Nicks and Buckingham — was famously documented on the 1977 release “Rumours,” among the bestselling albums of all time. 

Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. The group’s many other hit singles included Nicks’ “Dreams,” Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way” and McVie’s “Little Lies.” One of McVie’s most beloved works, the thoughtful ballad “Songbird,” was a showcase for her in concert and covered by Willie Nelson, among others. 

McVie, born Christine Perfect in Bouth, Lancashire, had been playing piano since childhood, but set aside her classical training once she heard early rock records by Fats Domino and others. 

While studying at the Moseley School of Art, she befriended various members of Britain’s emerging blues scene, and in her 20s joined the band Chicken Shack as a singer and piano player. Among the rival bands she admired was Fleetwood Mac, which then featured the talents of blues guitarist Peter Green, along with the rhythm section of Fleetwood and McVie. By 1970, she had joined the group and married John McVie. 

Few bands succeeded so well as Fleetwood Mac, against such long odds. Green was among the many performers who left the group, and at various times, Fleetwood Mac seemed on the verge of ending or fading away. More recently, Buckingham was kicked out, replaced on tour by Mike Campbell and Neil Finn. 

McVie herself left for years, only to return for good in 2014. 

 

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Russia has donated 260,000 metric tons of fertilizer it produced that was sitting in European ports and warehouses for use by farmers in Africa, the United Nations said Tuesday.

“This will serve to alleviate humanitarian needs and prevent catastrophic crop loss in Africa, where it is currently planting season,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters, welcoming the announcement.

He said a ship chartered by the World Food Program left the Netherlands on Tuesday carrying 20,000 tons of the fertilizer destined for the southeastern African nation of Malawi. Dujarric said it would take about a month to reach Beira, in Mozambique, and then would be transported overland to Malawi, which is a landlocked country.

“It will be the first of a series of shipments of fertilizer destined for a number of other countries on the African continent in the coming months,” Dujarric added.

Fertilizer crunch

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, world fertilizer prices, which were already inflated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, surged further, in part due to quotas Moscow imposed on its fertilizer exports, saying it wanted enough for its own farmers.

The U.N. said fertilizer prices have risen a staggering 250% since before the pandemic in 2019.

Russia is a top global fertilizer exporter. The disruptions, shortages and price increases that its quotas have contributed to have made fertilizer unaffordable for some smaller farmers. This could dramatically decrease their harvests, which could potentially lead to food shortages next year.

The World Food Program’s chief economist told VOA that developed and developing countries are dependent on fertilizer for half of their food production.

“Right now, with all that is happening, we are looking at essentially a shortfall of about 66 million tons of staple foods because of shortage of or unaffordability of fertilizer,” Arif Husain said. “I am talking about crops like wheat, corn, rice. Now, that 66 million tons of food, that is enough to feed 3.6 billion people for one month.”

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Russia has complained that Western sanctions are to blame for its decrease in fertilizer exports. But Western nations repeatedly stress that they do not sanction food or fertilizer products from Russia.

But some shippers, banks, insurers and other companies involved in the transport or purchase of Russian grain and fertilizer have been reluctant to do business with Moscow, fearing they could run afoul of the sanctions.

Diplomacy continues

A package deal signed in Istanbul on July 22 has made it possible for more than 12 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain to get to market from three of its Black Sea ports, while working to build confidence with the private sector in order to return to pre-invasion export levels of Russian fertilizers and grain.

“The U.N. is continuing intense diplomatic efforts with all parties to ensure the unimpeded exports of critical food and fertilizers from both the Russian Federation and Ukraine, that are exempt from sanction regimes, to the world markets,” Dujarric told reporters.

The deal, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was renewed on November 17 for an additional four months.

A protester ran onto the field Monday carrying a rainbow flag and wearing a blue Superman T-shirt that said, “SAVE UKRAINE” on the front and “RESPECT FOR IRANIAN WOMAN” on the back during a World Cup match between Portugal and Uruguay.

Security officials chased the protester down, and the flag was dropped on the field before the person was escorted off the field. The referee then picked up the flag and left it on the sideline, where it stayed for a few moments before a worker came and collected it.

The spectator was ushered away through a tunnel. It wasn’t immediately clear if the protester faced any charges or had been detained by police.

In the first week of the tournament in Qatar, seven European teams lost the battle to wear multicolored “One Love” armbands during World Cup matches. Fans also complained they weren’t allowed to bring items with rainbow colors, a symbol of LGBTQ rights, into the stadiums of the conservative Islamic emirate.

Qatar’s laws against gay sex and treatment of LGBTQ people were flashpoints in the run-up to the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East. Qatar has said everyone was welcome, including LGBTQ fans, but that visitors should respect the nation’s culture.

The incident occurred during the second half of the game at Lusail Stadium.

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Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari says the war between Russia and Ukraine is allowing arms and fighters to stream into the Lake Chad region, bolstering the strength of terrorist groups.

The Nigerian leader spoke Tuesday in Abuja to a summit of heads of state from the Lake Chad Basin Commission, or LCBC.

Buhari called for more vigilance and cooperation among the commission’s six member nations against the increased proliferation of weapons into the Lake Chad basin.  He said weapons meant for the Ukraine war and to combat terrorism in the Sahel are being diverted to West Africa and ending up in the hands of terrorist groups.

He didn’t specify who was diverting the weapons but said the development was threatening improved stability in the region, where a multi-national joint task force created by the LCBC has been fighting terror forces for years.

The Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Abuja did not respond to calls for comment.

The chairman of the Partnership Against Violent Extremism, Jaye Gaskia, agrees the war in Ukraine is a threat to security in the African region.

“The longer this war goes on, the more it opens up for all manners of groups to be entangled with it, if not directly through financial and funding, through building solidarity and the rest, the more that becomes a possibility, the more insurgent groups in the Sahel begin to find the theater of war in Ukraine as a veritable source,” said Gaskia.

Buhari said the multinational forces are planning fresh operations in region but noted that military operations must be backed with sustainable development.

However, the commission has been hit by financial crisis, with nearly every member struggling to meet yearly obligations for intervention programs.

Nigeria’s contribution to the pact has dwindled from about $2.4 million in 2017 to $315,000 in 2021.

More than 30 million people in the Lake Chad basin are affected by fighting and the impacts of climate change.

This week, Nigeria’s water resources minister Suleiman Adamu, who is also chairman of the commission’s council of ministers, called for more support.

“Unfortunately, the commission has been facing financial crisis due to the non-payment of financial contributions and arrears of contributions in line with approved budgets. There’s an urgent need to tackle and address this persistent challenge to ensure that the executive secretariat delivers on its mandate especially in implementing the Lake Chad Basin emergency development program. I’ll like to use this opportunity to encourage all of you to urgently look into this crucial issue and carry out the needed advocacy in your respective countries,” said Adamu.

Security analyst Patrick Agbambu blames global economic downturn for the financial problems and says it will have consequences on the fight against terrorism if allowed to continue.

“Countries around the world are currently experiencing financial downturn, the region is not exempted. Nigeria particularly is also experiencing that and it’s going to affect the intensity of the execution of the war,” he said.

Gaskia said the Russia-Ukraine war is making countries shift their priorities.

“With the war, which has also compounded the cost of living crisis, it therefore also means that financing and funding has to be shifted to other more immediate needs and this is probably going to go on for another year or two,” said Gaskia.

On Tuesday, President Buhari ceded the leadership of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, the president of the transitional military council of Chad.

China eased some of its pandemic rules on Monday but affirmed its “zero COVID” strategy even as protests erupted throughout the country against the restrictions, and some demanded the resignation of President Xi Jinping.

The government made no mention of the demonstrations, the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades, but the slight relaxation of the rules appeared aimed at quelling the demonstrations.

Chinese police were out in force in the streets of Beijing and Shanghai on Monday in an effort to prevent more protests against the government’s COVID restrictions.

In Hong Kong Monday evening, students at the Chinese University held a small-scale vigil to show support for protesters on the mainland.

Over the weekend, protesters shouted, “Lift the lockdown!” in a city in China’s western region, while across the country in Shanghai, the financial center, protesters held up blank sheets of white paper as a quiet show of dissent.

A Shanghai resident told VOA he no longer fears the spread of the infection because it has become normalized.

He said, “I just eat whatever I want to eat, and do whatever I want to do. What is there to worry about? It’s a cold. It’s normal.”

Others in Shanghai chanted, “Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!” in referring to the Communist Party. Police detained dozens of protesters, driving them away in police vans and buses, although the exact number was not clear.

At Peking University in Beijing, graffiti read, “We don’t want lockdown or control; we want freedom. We don’t want PCR testing; we want to eat.”

Xi’s “zero COVID” policy has sharply limited infections through stringent lockdowns that have disrupted everyday life in the country of 1.4 billion people. Protests erupting at locations around the country appear to indicate that many Chinese have grown weary of the lengthy quarantines and widespread testing.

The Beijing city government said Monday it would no longer set up gates to block people from entering apartment compounds where infections have been found. It, however, made no mention of a deadly fire last week in the western Xinjiang region that spawned protests over whether firefighters and victims trying to escape a building were blocked by locked doors and other anti-infection controls.

“Passages must remain clear for medical transportation, emergency escapes and rescues,” the China News Service quoted a city epidemic control official as saying.

The government blamed “forces with ulterior motives” for linking the fire to the strict COVID measures.

In Urumqi, where the deadly fire occurred, a witness to last week’s blaze told VOA on Monday that firefighters had difficulty entering the building because of the government’s anti-COVID policies.

“The fire exit door on the top floor was locked. Then they came down using the elevator to the first floor,” the witness, a Uyghur who asked to remain anonymous fearing Chinese government retaliation, told VOA.

“Unfortunately, that exit was also locked by the government officials because of the mask.”

People in Xinjiang use the word “mask to” refer to the Chinese government’s zero-COVID policy.

China’s government denies that firefighters had any difficulty accessing the building and has accused “forces with ulterior motives” for linking the fire to COVID-19 measures.

In addition to easing the rules in Beijing, officials in Guangzhou, the southern manufacturing and trade metropolis that is the biggest hotspot in China’s latest wave of infections, said some residents will no longer be required to undergo mass testing.

Officials in Urumqi and another city in the Xinjiang region in the northwest, said that markets and other businesses in areas deemed at low risk of infection would reopen this week, and public bus service would resume.

The “zero-COVID” policy aims to isolate every infected person and has helped China to keep its case numbers, as a percentage of its overall population, lower than those in the United States. As a result, millions of Chinese have been confined to their homes for up to four months.

On Monday, China recorded 40,437 new cases, while the U.S. figure on Sunday was 41,997.

Despite the protests and relaxation of some rules, the ruling party newspaper People’s Daily called for its anti-coronavirus strategy to be carried out effectively, indicating Xi’s government has no plans to change course.

“Facts have fully proved that each version of the prevention and control plan has withstood the test of practice,” a People’s Daily commentator wrote.

US reaction to China lockdowns

In Washington, the White House said the Biden administration supported peaceful protests.

“Whether it’s the people protesting in Iran or China or anywhere else around the world, nothing has changed about the president’s firm belief in the power of democracy and democratic institutions and how important that is,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

He said the Biden administration is monitoring the events in China closely.

The U.S. Mission in China said it has regularly raised concerns with the Chinese government about the COVID restrictions and their effect on Americans living in or visiting the country.

“We encourage all U.S. citizens to keep a 14-day supply of medications, bottled water, and food for yourself and any members of your household,” U.S. officials said.

In Washington, the U.S. National Security Council said it supports the right of Chinese people to peacefully protest the COVID restrictions.

“We’ve long said everyone has the right to peacefully protest, here in the United States and around the world. This includes in the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” a spokesperson said, adding, “We think it’s going to be very difficult for the People’s Republic of China to be able to contain this virus through their zero-COVID strategy.”

The State Department said the United States, rather than imposing a zero-COVID policy, is “focused on what works and that means using the public health tools, like continuing to enhance vaccination rates and making testing and treatment easily accessible.”

VOA’s Mandarin service also contributed to this report. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.

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