US cables chart China’s rise in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH – On December 18, 2009, Cambodian police rounded up 20 ethnic Uighurs from safe houses in the capital Phnom Penh, where they had arrived earlier in the year seeking political asylum. A day later, the group, which included two infants, was driven to the airport in a bus with shades drawn over the...
Myanmar Ethnic Clashes Put Spotlight on China
MAE SOT, Thailand — On June 9, deadly clashes broke out in northern Myanmar between the country’s army and the ethnic minority Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The fighting reportedly erupted after Myanmar’s military moved to secure the Tarpein Hydropower Project, a Chinese-built dam that came online in January. The plant, which sits on a tributary...
Escaping North Korea
The hundreds of North Koreans escaping into China each year are facing ever tougher border controls. Those caught face imprisonment and torture.
Siberian tigers under threat as ‘timber mafia’ devastate Russian forests
Criminal gangs are increasingly smuggling Russian timber into China for manufacture into baby cribs, picture frames and toilet seats sold in the west. Those trying to thwart them face violence and corruption. Sebastian Strangio reports from Vladivostok.
Russia’s Far East forest mafia
With Chinese demand for hardwood rising, large swathes of forests are being illegally logged. Corruption and fear are hampering a crackdown.
China, from Harbin to Beijing
Here is a gallery of photos from my recent trip to China, which took me from Harbin in northern Heilongjiang province to the Russian border and then back along the tip of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to Yanji, the capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (延边朝鲜族自治洲). The region, abutting the North Korean...
An unsafe house
Did Beijing’s economic assistance to Cambodia influence Phnom Penh’s deportation of 20 political refugees?
Chinese linked to filling of lake
CHINESE companies have been closely involved in the controversial development of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak since its inception, according to news reports and local rights groups, who said they became aware of the companies’ role after a research group from China visited the site last week.
China’s soft power hardens in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH – A DAY after Cambodian authorities spirited 20 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers out of the country on an unmarked charter flight, China’s Vice President Xi Jinping touched down at Siem Reap International Airport. During his three-day visit in late December, the Chinese leader signed an unprecedented US$1.2 billion in economic aid agreements with...
Asylum policy failed Uighurs, activists say
REFUGEE advocates have criticised a new sub-decree handing responsibility for asylum cases to the Ministry of Interior, two days after 20 Uighur asylum seekers were deported to China in the face of international protests. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said on Sunday that the sub-decree, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on...
Uighurs’ fate seen as stain on Kingdom
HUMAN rights activists have lashed out at the government’s deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China on Saturday, claiming it has committed a “grave breach” of international law under pressure from Beijing. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said that 20 Uighurs departed Phnom Penh International Airport at 9pm on Saturday aboard a chartered flight...
Cambodia balances East and West
PHNOM PENH – AT a ceremony last month marking the construction of the US$128 million Cambodia-China Prek Kdam Friendship Bridge in Kandal province, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the growth in aid and investment from China was boosting economic development and strengthening his country’s “political independence”. “China respects the political decisions of Cambodia,” he...
