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Asia in Review

No. 46, November/2019, 2

Brought to you by CPG

Dear Readers,

The AiR team is presenting you the second issue of ‘Asia in Review’ (AiR) in November updating you on the latest developments in geopolitics and international relations as well as constitutional politics, law reform and governance in Asia.

I wish you an informative read.

With the best wishes,

Henning Glaser

Director, German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG)

Webpage: www.cpg-online.de, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPGTU/

Main Sections

• Law and Politics in East Asia

• Law and Politics in South Asia

• Law and Politics in South East Asia

• International Relations, Geopolitics and Security in Asia

• Background Reading

Law and Politics in East Asia 

China/Hong Kong: First protest-related death

(dql) Marking the first protest-related death, a Hong Kong student died on Friday from injuries stemming from falling from a building during clashes between police and protesters earlier last week. [Washington Post]

Two other incidents during violent protests on Sunday and Monday in Hong Kong that left over 60 people injured further intensified the already volatile situation in the city. While an anti-government protester was shot by police, a pro-Beijing supporter was doused in a flammable liquid and set on fire after arguing with protesters. Both are in critical condition. [BBC] [South China Morning Post]

Likely to also further the tensions between authorities and protesters, seven pro-democracy lawmakers were either detained or notified of their pending arrest on charges of obstructing the local assembly during a raucous meeting over the now-withdrawn extradition bill in May. 

Hong Kong's pro-democracy lawmakers denounced the move an as act of political vengeance and white terror. Other critics claimed that the government is trying to foment fear and chaos aiming at the postponement of the District Council election which is set to be held on November 24 and in which pro-Beijing lawmakers are bracing for heavy defeats. [DW] [Hong Kong Free Press]

China set for its national crypto-currency?

(dql) China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) last week took off bitcoin mining or other virtual currency mining activities from a list of categories of industries to be eliminated in China. The new list will take effect from Jan 1, 2020. [Coindesk]

The move indicates the Chinese government’s shift towards the introduction of a state-controlled crypto currency in China. [Decrypt]

In a related development, Global Times reports that China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has broadened its pilot cross-border financing blockchain platform to cover 19 provinces and cities, up from nine since SAFE’s launch in March, with 6,370 transactions processed and 6.8 billion USD worth of loans issued as of October. [Global Times]

China: World Bank to cut funding for educational project in Xinjiang

(dql) The World Bank announced that it would scale back development work in Xinjiang following speculation that 50 million USD loan for a vocational education project granted in 2015 was linked to the funding of Muslim detention camps. While the World Bank said that its project review launched in August could not substantiate those claims, which were first made in a Foreign Policy magazine report, its decision to decrease the funding would be a precautionary measure, with the involved five schools coming under "enhanced supervision."

China has been facing international criticism over its treatment of the Uighurs in the tightly-controlled northwestern Xinjiang region with rights groups and experts claiming that over one million mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been interned in re-education camps in Xinjiang. [Channel News Asia]

South Korea to abolish elite high schools in 2025

(dql) In a drastic move aimed to reduce educational disparity and improve fairness in the country’s school system, South Korea’s Ministry announced that by 2025 elite high schools will be abolished and transformed into regular high schools. The Ministry’s decision is a response to longstanding criticism that elite schools significantly contribute to the widening disparity in education between wealthy and poor families. [Yonhap]

In a related development, the Ministry also announced a crackdown on alleged irregularities in the private education sector such as high-priced consulting services tailored for college admission. The Ministry said that 258 private education institutes will be inspected nationwide. [Korea Herald]

Mongolia: Hundreds of Chinese citizens detained in crackdown on cyber crime

(dql) Mongolian local authorities announced that 800 Chinese citizens have been arrested on various charges including illegal gambling, fraud, computer hacking, identity theft and money laundering. [Reuters]

Law and Politics in South Asia 

India's Supreme Court awards Hindus control of disputed religious site

(jk) India's Supreme Court has awarded Hindus control of a disputed religious site in the town of Ayodhya for the construction of a temple and given Muslims five acres of land "somewhere else" to build a mosque. The ruling upset many Muslims in the country who continue to face unfavourable treatment by a Hindu-dominant government in Delhi.

The case was described as a landmark verdict and led to heightened security alerts across the country. The ruling "settles" a decades-old dispute between Muslims and Hindus which, in 1992 led to the destruction of a Mosque that was built on the land in question by Hindu mobs,  triggering nationwide religious violence that killed about 2,000, mostly Muslim Indians. [South China Morning Post]

India: Supreme Court finds state government had "miserably failed" to protect the public from toxic fumes

(jk) The failure of dealing with or alleviating the toxic fume crisis in India's capital of New Delhi, which has been ongoing for more than two weeks now, has been heavily criticised by India's Supreme Court. It displays a "blatant and grave violation of right to life" and has led to a public health emergency causing school closures and flight cancellations in addition to the detrimental health effects on New Delhi's residents. [CNN]

India: farmers and manufacturers welcome PM Modi's move to reject RCEP trade deal

(jk) While many observers over the past week have focused on India and how they think it was a bad decision for India not to join RCEP [Asia in Review, No. 45, November/2019, 1], mainly for geopolitical reasons such as reduced influence in Asia and comparable to US President Trump's decision on the TPP withdrawal, India's farmers and manufacturers who were afraid of Chinese competition and feared a flooding of the Indian market with cheap Chinese imports largely celebrated the move. [Straits Times]

Maldives: Human Rights NGO banned over anti-Islamic report

(jk) The Maldives government that had “temporarily” shut down the country’s leading human rights organization, the Maldives Democracy Network (MDN), recently [Asia in Review No. 42, October/2019, 3] has now decided to fully ban the MDN.

The group had been criticised by hard-line Islamist groups, claiming that it had insulted Islam when it published a report on radicalisation on its website a few years ago, which has now been confirmed by the Islamic ministry and police the police. The NGO dissolution follows from breaking the 2003 associations law prohibiting NGOs from contradicting tenets of Islam or undermining religious unity. [Maldives Independent]

Bangladesh: Facebook post sparks protests against worker’s conditions in Saudi Arabia

(nl) In Dhaka, a Facebook video by a female worker from Bangladesh exposing a series of brutal violent abuses by employers in Saudi Arabia has gone viral and alerted many in Bangladesh to the issue. The woman said she fears for her life after facing a series of humiliating events including sexual assaults, imprisonment and withholding of food.

In a reaction to the video, people took to the streets to protest against worker’s conditions. Within this year alone, according to one charity, 48 female bodies have been repatriated to Bangladesh. [Aljazeera]

Sri Lanka likely to have new PM after presidential elections

(jk) With presidential elections fast approaching, it now looks very likely that the country will also have a new PM after the elections coming Saturday. Both leading candidates for the presidency, the opposition candidate Gotabhaya Rajapakse and PM Wickremesinghe's own party's candidate Sajith Premadasa have now publicly stated that they would appoint a new PM in case they win the election. Wickremesinghe is the leader of the United National Party, Sajith Premadasa's party, but his leadership is heavily contested. [Asia Times]

Law and Politics in Southeast Asia 

Cambodia: Opposition politicians stuck in Malaysia

(ls) The Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy landed in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, where he continues to reside for the time being. He had vowed to return to Cambodia on 9 November to rally opponents of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Previously, the Thai government, citing the ASEAN principle of non-interference, refused him to return to Cambodia via Bangkok. Meanwhile, police lined up at Cambodia’s Poipet border crossing with Thailand, where Rainsy had said he planned to cross into the country. [Channel News Asia] [Bangkok Post 1]

The co-founder of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) faces imprisonment in Cambodia for convictions on charges that he maintains are politically motivated, with charges on other offences pending. Hun Sen, whose government has arrested about 50 opposition activists in recent weeks, earlier characterized the plan by Rainsy and several colleagues to return and hold rallies as an attempted coup. [Bangkok Post 2]

Previously, also Mu Sochua, who was CNRP vice-president, arrived in Malaysia along with two other Cambodian activists. Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said his government had received a request from Cambodia to deport them but had yet to make a decision on this. [The Star]

At the same time, the Cambodian government lifted house arrest restrictions on opposition leader Kem Sokha, more than two years after he was charged with treason. He was arrested in 2017. In 2013, Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy had brought together rival opposition factions and posed an electoral threat to Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). [Reuters]

Pressure has been growing on the Hun Sen government to ease a crackdown on his opponents as the European Union considers whether to cut preferential trade terms under the Everything But Arms scheme.

Indonesia: Free-KPK passes put anti-corruption body’s authority in doubt

(nj) Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and several high-ranking politicians are to be excluded from future corruption investigations. They obtained a “free pass” providing this exemption under the revised anti-corruption law. The Constitutional Court is still reviewing the new legislation. Meanwhile, Widodo appears prepared to select the five members of the Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) supervisory council. The council is empowered to decide which cases the KPK will pursue and which it should drop. Many see the regulation as highly controversial since effective prosecution of corruption cases against government linked people could not be possible anymore. [The Jakarta Post]

The new law weakening the country’s anti-corruption body sparked months-long student violent protests across Indonesia. [AiR No. 40, October/2019, 1]

Indonesia: Two reporters killed over palm oil land dispute

(ls) Two Indonesian journalists have been found dead with multiple stab wounds near a plantation in Sumatra. They were mediating a land dispute between a palm oil company and residents. A local police chief said that investigators had found indications that the reporters’ deaths were related to their activism. The police arrested an oil palm plantation owner believed to be the mastermind behind the murder. [Voice of America] [Jakarta Post]

Malaysia: Five men sentenced to caning for attempted gay sex

(ls) Five Malaysian men have been sentenced to jail and canings by an Islamic court for attempting to have gay sex. The men were caught in a private apartment. Sodomy is a crime under Malaysia’s regular criminal code as well as under Islamic law, but it is rare for people to be found guilty of the crime. The country operates a dual-track legal system, with Islamic courts handling some matters for Muslim citizens. Critics say there is growing pressure on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Malaysia. [Malay Mail]

Philippines: Non-governmental groups labeled as communists

(ls) The Philippines’ armed forces have designated several non-governmental groups, including the local arm of Oxfam, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and an organization that advocates for women’s rights as fronts for “communist terrorism”. Such “red-tagging” has in the past often resulted in violent attacks and killings. The labeling practice was first introduced by Ferdinand Marcos, president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, as a way of targeting his critics and opponents, but succeeding governments have also produced their own list of communist enemies of the state. [South China Morning Post]

In a related development, dozens of activists have been arrested over the course of the last week. All those arrested were accused of undergoing firearms and explosives training to sow discord and destabilize the government. Leftist groups had backed President Duterte in the 2016 national elections but later withdrawn their support. [Straits Times]

Philippines: Duterte offers Robredo influential position in drug war

(nj/ls) The Philippines´ President Rodrigo Duterte offered one of his main critics, Vice-President Leni Robredo, a lead position in the “drug war”. Though several of her allies advised Robredo to turn down the position of a joint chair of a panel on illegal drugs, warning that it was a trap to ensure her embarrassment and failure, she accepted the role, referring to the chance to save lives. [Reuters]

Philippines: Alleged suicide bombers killed

(nj) On the Philippine island of Jolo, Sulu Province, two Egyptian nationals got killed in a gunfight with Philippine troops. They had been suspected of being involved in an attempted suicide bombing with links to an ISIL-aligned group. [Al Jazeera]

Thailand: Attack on checkpoint in deep south kills 15

(ls) In Thailand’s southern province of Yala, an attack on a security checkpoint resulted in the death of 15 armed volunteers, leaving five more injured. Military officials said the separatist group National Revolution Front (BRN) was behind the attack. [Khaosod English]

In response, a combined force of military rangers and policemen carried out a series of raids at several locations in Yala and Pattani. An announcement in the Royal Gazette allowed the director of the International Security Command, which is Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, to consider a curfew in eight districts, which if approved would take effect on Dec 1. [Bangkok Post]

International Relations, Geopolitics and Security in Asia

China and Europe: Xi Jinping’s visit to Greece, Macron in Beijing

(dql) Strengthening its foothold in Europe, China concluded with Greece 16 memorandums of cooperation during President Xi’s visit this week, including an agreement on state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) investing three billion USD over the next five years on the port of Piraeus, the entry and transhipment point for Chinese-manufactured goods to Europe. [Aljazeera]

During French President Macron’s visit to Beijing last week, China and France signed deals worth 15 billion USD covering among others areas of aeronautics, energy and agriculture. [South China Morning Post]

Meanwhile, China and the European Union also last week reached an agreement to expand protection of trade in high-end agri-food products to 100 products, up from 10 products which were protected under the GI agreement in 2012. Known as Geographic Indications (GI), the products within the agreement enjoy special protection from imitations and usurpation in order to preserve reputational links. European GI’s include among other wines, cheeses and whiskey, while Chinese GI’s cover products such as tea, ginger and spices. [Eureporter]

China: Advancing air force weapons

(dql) Citing a military source close to China’s PLAAF, the South China Morning Post reports on China’s new H-6N strategic bomber seen for the first time during the rehearsal to the 1 October military parade and believed to be capable of carrying CJ-100 supersonic cruise missiles or the WZ-8 supersonic stealth spy drone, expanding its maximum strike range to 6,000km. [South China Morning Post]

Meanwhile, China is continuing improving its supersonic J-10 fighter jets while at the same time developing the J-20 and other new fighter types. [Asia Times]

South Korea open to renewal of intelligence-sharing pact with Japan

(dql) Amid soured bilateral relations since decades, South Korea reaffirmed Sunday that the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan – the bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact – could be renewed. However, this would only happen on condition that the Japanese government will lift its restrictions on high-tech exports to South Korea which are seen by Seoul as a retaliatory measure against rulings of the South Korean Supreme Court ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation to victims of forced labor during Japan’s rule on the Korean peninsula 1910 to 1945. [Korea Herald]

The pact is set to expire next week. South Korea’s withdrawal would cause significant irritations within the security alliance between South Korea, Japan and USA amid growing tensions between Pyongyang and Japan after Prime Minister Abe was called an “idiot and villain” in response to his condemnation of Pyongyang's latest weapons test end of October. [Reuters]

Pakistan looking to increase arms exports

(jk) Pakistani government officials have stated that the country aims to significantly increase its weapons exports. Sale of defence equipment abroad (e.g. to Myanmar, Turkey or Nigeria) has gone up significantly in Pakistan over the past few years and experts say this is largely due to the progress its defence industry has been making since working together closer with China. Pakistan produces weapons at a much lower cost than many Western weapons producers, however the quality of their products is not uncontested. It looks to sell mostly to countries with more budget restraints. [Nikkei Asian Review]

Pakistan and China agree to move CPEC to natural resource sectors

(jk) China and Pakistan reportedly agreed that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will shift from infrastructure projects to resource exploitation, including copper, gold, or oil and gas. The move will anger forces in particular in Balochistan, where a sentiment persists that the state exploits the province and especially its resources without leaving it its fair share. [Business Standard]

EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement to enter into force this month

(ls) Singapore and the European Union announced last week that the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement will take effect on 21 November, about seven years after its conclusion. The city state thereby becomes the first Southeast Asian nation to activate a free-trade deal with the EU. The related Investment Protection Agreement, however, is still pending ratification by national parliaments in the EU after the European Court of Justice held that this was a necessary step. The proceedings in the ECJ were also the reason for the delayed entry into force of the FTA. [South China Morning Post]

Key elements of the Free Trade Agreements have been gathered on the European Commission’s website. [European Commission]

Earlier this year, also Vietnam and the EU signed a Free Trade Agreement and an Investment Protection Agreement. Both agreements are waiting for ratification.

U.S.-Indonesian defense relations under Prabowo

(nj) With Prabowo Subianto as Indonesia’s new Defense Minister, doubts have arisen over U.S.-Indonesian defense relations. The former Army lieutenant General was dismissed from the military for being allegedly involved in the kidnapping and torture of pro-democracy activists and atrocities during the occupation of East-Timor. As a consequence, it remains uncertain if Prabowo is eligible to enter the U.S. or not. In 2000, Prabowo wanted to travel to the U.S. to attend his son´s graduation in Boston, but he was denied a visa. [South China Morning Post]

Meanwhile, China has emphasized its interest in Indonesian maritime territory and abundant resources and aims to further deepen bilateral relations. [Antara News]

Indonesia and Laos to cooperate more closely on anti-drugs and human trafficking

(ls) Indonesia and Laos have signed an agreement to cooperate in the fight against transnational organized crimes, including drug smuggling and human trafficking. Both countries also commenced a joint capacity building and training program on transnational crimes and extradition. [Jakarta Globe]

Philippines stamping Chinese “Nine-Dash Line” passports again

(ls) The Philippines has resumed stamping Chinese passports with pages that display a map showing Beijing's expansive claim (the Nine-Dash Line) over the disputed South China Sea. In 2012, the Philippines had stopped stamping the passports during a months-long stand-off over a disputed shoal. Immigration officials were instead ordered to stamp a separate sheet of paper inserted into Chinese passports. The Philippines now cited "security concerns" for resuming the stamping and insisted that it was not a diplomatic retreat. [Straits Times]

Background Reading

Anti-dam movements in Southeast Asia

(ls) While several Southeast Asian governments view hydropower dams as national development projects to be promoted by decision makers and businesses, civil society organizations and communities often advocate for a counternarrative demanding greater responsibility of the investors. A piece in The Diplomat describes anti-dam movements in Thailand as well as transboundary approaches. [The Diplomat]

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