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Asia in Review

No. 5, February/2020, 1

Brought to you by CPG

Dear Readers,

The AiR team is presenting you the first issue of 'Asia in Review’ (AiR) in February with the latest important events and developments in geopolitics and international relations as well as constitutional politics, law reform and governance in Asia.

I wish you an informative read.

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 

South Korea: Prosecution puts Presidential Office under pressure over 2017 mayoral election 

(dql) South Korea’s Presidential Office has come under pressure after an official was summoned last week by the prosecution over alleged involvement in a mayoral election scandal in 2017. The official, a secretary for civil affairs, is suspected to have played a behind the scene-role in setting up a corruption probe against the then mayor of the city of Ulsan of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party. 

The investigation led to his defeat against his contender of the ruling Democratic Party, a longtime friend of President Moon, who himself has been now indicted on charges of violating election laws, along with former officials of the Presidential Office accused of election meddling. Among them is the former Presidential Chief of Staff who denounced the probe against him as politically motivated. [Yonhap 1] [Yonhap 2] [KBS]

The government and the prosecution have been in conflict for months over the reform of the prosecution. Related bills were recently passed the parliament. [AiR No. 2, January/2020, 2]

In a latest development, the government announced its plan to get legislation of police reform bills passed in the first half of 2020 to establish a non-prosecution body to investigate corruption involving ranking public officials and to grant police more investigative power. [Korea Herald]

Japan: Laws on the way to expand workforce in rapidly aging society

(dql) In an attempt to increase the country’s work force amid a rapid aging of society [AiR No. 53, December/2019, 5], Japan's Cabinet approved bills which call on businesses to provide employees the opportunity to work until the age of 70 or even to scrap the retirement age. [Mainichi]

In a related development, the government released data according to which the number of foreign workers in Japan hit a record high in October 2019. With more than 1.6 million, the increase was up 13.6 percent from a year earlier. [Kyodo]

Mongolia: Amendment to Rome Statue of International Criminal Court ratified

(dql) Mongolia’s parliament last week passed a bill ratifying the 2010 Amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adding the definition of the crime of aggression and the conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction over this crime. [Aki Press]

Mongolia signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2000 and ratified it in 2002.  

Law and Politics in South Asia 

India: Violence against anti-CAA protesters

(ls) In the continued protests against India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), some incidents have turned violent. In New Delhi, a man fired gunshots at a protest against the law outside Jamia Millia Islamia University. The incident raises concerns that people siding with the government may try to take the law into their own hands to crush any dissent. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has rejected the protests and described the protesters as anti-nationals. Finance minister Anurag Thakur had encouraged supporters at a rally in New Delhi to chant slogans calling for traitors to be shot. [Reuters]

There have been at least three shooting attacks in New Delhi. The new law seeks to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants of all faiths from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan except Muslims. Thousands, especially students, have hit the streets since Parliament approved the law in December. [Bloomberg]

India: Political functionaries released from six months detention

(tk) After nine political functionaries had been released from detention in Srinagar last month, the Jammu and Kashmir administration released four more political functionaries of the National Conference (NC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday, after almost six months of detention. Over three dozen former Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) were among the political activists and office-bearers of various parties who have been detained in August when the government revoked the erstwhile state’s special status of the region. Still, 17 political functionaries remain detained. [The Times of India]

India: Abortion legislation to be eased

(ls) The Indian government has approved extending the legal abortion deadline to 24 weeks from 20. The measure still needs to be approved by parliament. Under current law, terminations after 20 weeks are not allowed unless a mother’s life is in danger. However, many women and girls, including high-profile child rape victims, have sought court permission for later abortions. [Reuters]

Despite government awareness campaigns, contraceptive use in India is not very popular. According to studies, 50% of pregnancies in six of the larger Indian states — Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh — are unintended. Responding to these numbers, the proposed law accepts failure of contraception as a valid reason for abortion not just in married but also in unmarried women. [Indian Express]

Court acquits 42 Christians in lynching case

(fs) 42 defendants were accused of murder in connection with the lynching of two Muslims mistaken for terrorists, after the twin suicide attacks on Youhanabad churches in 2015. Before Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a banned military group, claimed responsibility, two Muslim teenagers were captured by the mob and burned alive. After five years of custody, the anti-terror court in Lahore acquitted all suspects. The accused were given the benefit of doubt over the chaotic riot situation. For the duration of the process, the defendants received financial support from the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Pakistani Bishops' Conference. According to Christian Organization Open Doors, Pakistan ranks as the 5th worst country for Christians regarding persecution. [Anadolu Agency] [Open Doors]

Nepal Supreme Court demands better protection of Nepalis working abroad

(ls) In a decision in January, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to investigate cases of Nepalese workers who lose their lives abroad. The vast majority of such cases (about 1,000 per year) occur in Malaysia and Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar. The court issued an order against the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security and the Foreign Employment Promotion Board to include provisions regarding insurance and compensation to families in labor agreements with destination countries. Every day, about 1,600 Nepalese leave the country to work overseas. In many cases, they are subject to excessive recruitment fees, fraudulent jobs, abusive working conditions and mistreatment, and often have their passports withheld by employers. [South China Morning Post] [Himalayan Times]

Law and Politics in Southeast Asia 

Fake News: A different Corona Virus Battle 

(jk/fs) With the news heavily dominated by the Corona Virus outbreak this past week, a number of Southeast Asian governments have tried to reign in on rumours and fake news  related to the virus by using their respective "fake news legislations".

In Malaysia, the health minister went as far as saying that the spread of fake news had become more critical than the issue of the virus within the country. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on Wednesday conducted four separate raids that resulted the arrest of four suspected for posting and distributing false reports about the outbreak. They and two more suspects arrested earlier in the week, were subsequently detained under Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Act for sharing offensive and menacing content. If found guilty, they could face imprisonment of up to one year. [Channel News Asia] [South China Morning Post]

Singapore has issued several correction directions in the past week over false claims concerning the situation in Singapore, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Office said. One addressee was AB-TC City News, wrongly claiming the infection of five Singaporeans who had not been to China. Another one was the Facebook page of The States Times newspaper, objected to for reporting that the city-state had run out of masks. Another correction notice was issued over personal Facebook posts of citizens claiming the virus had been discovered at an MRT station and that it was closed for disinfection.  

The authorities also announced a lifting of POFMA temporary exemptions of general correction directions for major search engines and social media platforms due to the evolving situation of the Wuhan virus. These "can be issued to prescribed Internet intermediaries, telecoms and broadcast licensees, or newspapers, to get them to communicate a correction notice to all users in Singapore - not just the ones who access the falsehood - when a false statement has been conveyed and it is in the public interest to correct it."

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong supported the extensive use of the law and told reporters “Some of it, we know, is malicious and deliberate - people who are making up stories, people who are deliberately fomenting fear, uncertainty and doubt”. [The Straits Times]

In Thailand, the digital economy minister said that two were charged with violating the computer crimes act - which carries up to five years in prison - for false separate social media posts about the virus thus far. He said the ministry’s Anti-Fake News Center collaborated with the police in the arrest. [Khaosod English]

Thailand: media is outsourcing much of its coverage to Beijing 

(jk) Thai Channel 3 has announced this week a partnership with Chinese Xinhua News Agency to broadcast Xinhua coverage on the Coronavirus outbreak, leading to concern over fair and balanced reporting on the issue. Many other major Thai news-outlets already share large amounts of Xinhua content, which they get for free, making the deal at least financially attractive for the platforms. As the Thai Enquirer notes, however, the "dominance of Chinese content in Thai news long precedes the Coronavirus outbreak. Since 2019, Chinese media has been making tremendous inroads into Thai-language news and is beginning to make its appearance in English-language Thai newspapers."

News Media is a struggling industry in Thailand with two of its countrywide English language  newspapers in very deep water - The Nation and the Bangkok Post- and China is increasingly trying to influence the narrative aboard. [Thai Enquirer]

Thailand: Public commemorations of 1932 revolutionaries continue to be dismantled

(jk) A number of statues commemorating the 1932 revolt that ended absolute monarchy in Thailand were removed recently, raising the eyebrows of pro-democracy forces in the country and casting an eye back to 2017, when the removal and replacement of an 80-year-old bronze plaque in front of the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in Bangkok made headlines. [Channel News Asia] 

In 2018, a monument that commemorated a government victory over a pro-monarchy rebellion (Boworadet Rebellion) was removed without notice or explanation [Khaosod 1], and in 2019, the leaders of this rebellion were honoured by naming two halls in the army museum after them. [Khaosod 2]

Now, the National Defence College in Bangkok and an artillery base in Lopburi province removed a bronze statue of Thailand’s longest serving prime minister and integral part of the 1932 revolution, Field Marshal Pibulsongkram, and replaced it, in the latter case, with a portrait of late King Rama IX. [Khaosod 3, Khaosod 4]

Myanmar: Two Rohingya women killed after ICJ ruling 

(tk) Just two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Myanmar to take measures to protect Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state from genocide, [Asia in Review No. 4, January/2020] at least two Rohingya women were killed and eight other villagers were wounded after artillery shells hit a village in western Rakhine.

It remains unclear who fired the shells, but a senior official of Rakhine’s regional government believed it was fired from a nearby military battalion. He said, “whenever there is an incident in Muslim villages, we found it is due to the military”. Due to the just previously issued court order, he sees the incident as a clear message from the military that they are not accepting the ICJ ruling. [AA] 

Cambodia: Upcoming launch of digital currency

(fs) The National Bank of Cambodia reportedly plans to launch a peer-to-peer blockchain payment and money transfer platform, based on central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the next few months. 

If the “Project Bakong” gets launched as planned, it will be used for everyday purchases from users' mobile services via QR- based transactions, National Bank officials say. According to Phnom Penh Commercial Bank President Shin Chang Moo, with already eleven of the biggest national banks involved, “Bakong will create a financially inclusive ecosystems that all the stakeholders in the industry can benefit from.” For Cambodia, this is the first project of its kind. [Coindesk]

International Relations, Geopolitics and Security in Asia

China-USA relations: US House of Representatives passes Tibet bill

(dql) In the latest in a recent string of legislative moves critical of China’s human rights and religious policies, the US House of Representatives approved the Tibet Policy Support Act of 2019. The Act, which is now in the Senate for vote, demands that the succession of Tibetan Buddhist leaders to be solely in the hands of the Tibetan Buddhist community and free of interference from the Chinese government, and requires the US government to sanction under the Global Magnitsky Act Chinese officials who interfere in the process of recognizing a successor or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. The Act also bans new Chinese consulates in US territory until a US consulate is set up in Lhasa, the Tibet autonomous region's capital. [South China Morning Post] [congress.gov]

The move was strongly rejected by Beijing which demanded that Washington correct the mistake and stop interfering in China's internal affairs. [China Daily]

Earlier past November and December, the House had already passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which supports protesters in the special administrative region, and the UIGHUR Act, a legislation condemning Beijing for its mass internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. [AiR No. 50, December/2019, 2] [AiR No. 48, November/2019, 4]

China-European Union relations: Brussels refrains from Huawei ban in Europe

(dql) Defying US calls, the European Commission refrained from issuing an outright ban on the Chinese tech giant Huawei in Europe, but instead announced guidelines which leave each of the member states with ultimate responsibility for devising their own specific security measures.

The Commission announced in its guidance on 5G that the member states agreed “to assess the risk profiles of suppliers, to apply relevant restrictions for suppliers considered to be high risk including necessary exclusions for key assets considered as critical and sensitive,  and to have strategies in place to ensure the diversification of vendors.” [CNBC][European Commission]

The EU’s decision came shortly after Britain decided to allow Huawei to build up to 35 per cent of the “non-core” parts while blocking the company from taking part in the sensitive, or “core” infrastructure of the country’s 5G networks. [Wall Street Journal]

Japan sues South Korea over shipbuilding subsidies  

(dql) Japan filed a petition against South Korea with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over what it views as excessive subsidies to South Korea's domestic shipbuilding industry. Seoul dismissed the claims as groundless. [Japan Times]

Tokyo’s move adds to already heightened trade and political tensions over a dispute on compensation payments for South Korean victims of forced labour during the Japanese rule over the Korean peninsula 1910-1945. 

South Korea-USA relations: US threatens to put 9,000 South Korean military workers on leave 

(dql) Washington has geared up pressure on Seoul in the ongoing talks on cost sharing for the deployment of US soldiers in South Korea, as the US Forces Korea (USFK) has begun sending notice of potential furloughs to its nearly 9,000 South Korean employees. 

South Korea and the United States are engaged in tough negotiations over how much Seoul should pay this year and beyond for the upkeep of the 28.500-strong USFK under the cost-sharing deal, with the U.S. demanding about 5 billion USD from South Korea in 2020, an almost five-fold increase from the 935 million USD Seoul paid last year. [New York Times] [Wall Street Journal]

Pakistan: Number of terrorist attacks drops substantially

(ls) According to data from Pakistani think tanks, terror attacks in the country have decreased by more than 85% over the last decade. The number dropped from nearly 2,000 in 2009 to fewer than 250 in 2019. However, terror financing remains a problem. Last year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is affiliated with the OECD, said Pakistan had implemented only one item from a list of 40 measures to curb terror financing and money laundering. Being blacklisted by the FATF could have significant economic consequences for the country. [AP]

The U.S. State Department acknowledged Pakistan’s improving security situation in its latest travel advisory for the country. Despite the advice to “reconsider” travelling to Pakistan, it now notes that “Pakistan’s security environment has improved since 2014 when Pakistani security forces undertook concerted counter terrorist and counter militant operations.” The U.K .followed with easing its travel advice too. [Newsweek Pakistan] [Express Tribune]

Bangladesh: Situation of Rohingya children in refugee camps

(tk) After human rights organizations have been campaigning for the nearly half a million Rohingya children in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, the Bangladesh government now has announced it will offer schooling and skills training opportunities to Rohingya refugee children, who have already missed two academic years. The pilot program starting in April is supported by UNICEF and will initially enroll 10,000 Rohingya children up to the age of 14, where they will be taught in Burmese under Myanmar’s curriculum. Children older than 14 will get skills training. [Amnesty International] [Al Jazeera]

Meanwhile, a delegation from the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently visiting Bangladesh to assess the Rohingya crisis. ICC judges authorized the request to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya people in Myanmar. However, the current visit of the Prosecutor’s delegation is not part of the investigation, but to engage with relevant stakeholders and explain the judicial process and the status of the investigation to the public. [Prothom Alo]

Sri Lanka: A country at risk of conflict in ICG’s Watch List 2020

(tk) Sri Lanka has been identified as a country at risk of conflict or escalation of violence in the International Crisis Group’s early-warning Watch List 2020 among nine other countries worldwide. The report says that the new government has initiated fundamental changes to policies on ethnic relations, the legacy of a 26-year civil war, and the rule of law. It has the intention to abandon many key legislative achievements and policy commitments of the preceding government, including promises on post-war reconciliation, accountability and inclusive governance made to the UN Human Rights Council and to the EU. This policy shift partly rooted in the ethno-nationalism of Sri Lanka’s majorities, which threatens to increase ethnic and religious tension and dangerously weaken checks on executive and state power. [International Crisis Group]

Vietnam Orders Combat Training Jets From Russia

(jk) It was reported last week that Vietnam will buy 12 combat training aircraft from Russia, according to a US$ 350 million deal it has signed last year.  [The Moscow Times]

While Russia is the biggest arms supplier to Vietnam and to Southeast Asia, looking to increase its military footprint in the region (see e.g. Laos, Asia in Review No. 53, December/2019, 5), with the inclusion of China in a recent report on arms production and sales (see background reading), Russia has now dropped to third in the SIPRI rankings of the world's largest arms producers and sellers, behind the US and China. 

U.S.-Philippines tensions continue 

(jk) Asia in Review last week mentioned increasing tensions over political visa bans between the US and the Philippines after the US blacklisted a former Philippine national police chief, allegedly over of his participation in the drug war under President Duterte’s direction. [Asia in Review, No. 4, January/2020, 4]

Over the week, the situation has remained tense. Duterte has threatened to terminate a key defence agreement, the Visiting Forces Agreement, and said he would not allow his cabinet ministers to visit the US at this time, unless Washington “corrected” the visa denial. [The New York Times] In addition, he has hinted at "toning down US- Philippine relations" and skipping the US-ASEAN summit, to which US President Donald Trump invited ASEAN leaders earlier last month. [South China Morning Post] [Asia in Review, No. 3, January/2020, 3]

Myanmar - US relations: Trump imposes immigration restrictions

(tk) On Friday, President Trump added Myanmar along with five other countries to a list of immigration restrictions as his latest move to reduce immigration – a top campaign promise – as he pushes forward on reelection efforts. 

All six countries have substantial Muslim populations, and the Muslim minority from Myanmar of course, is still fleeing genocide. Last year, nearly 5,000 Burmese refugees arrived in America, many of them hoping to reunite with family. 

While immigrant visas will be banned, non-immigrant visas can still be granted and according to officials the ban won’t apply to refugees. The proclamation will take effect later in February.

According to an official, the restrictions are “the result of these countries’ unwillingness or inability to adhere to certain baseline identity management information-sharing and national security and public safety criteria that were established by the department in 2017 at the president’s request.” In opposition to the move, US House of Representatives' Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that “President Trump and his administration’s continued disdain for our nation’s national security and our founding ideals of liberty and justice dishonor our proud immigrant heritage and the diversity that strengthens and enriches our communities.” [The New York Times] [BuzzFeedNews]

Background Reading

Is “insurgent constitutionalism” the new form of Indian constitutionalism?

(ls) In an interesting opinion piece published by The Wire, the author argues that, for the first time in the history of the Indian republic, it is not jurists and lawyers who are interpreting the constitution, but street protests. He argues that popular struggle on the streets, campuses, squares, towns and cities, tea shops, clubs and assemblies has found novel ways to bring back the question of justice. The author terms this form of constitutionalism “insurgent constitutionalism”. [The Wire]

China passes Russia as second largest arms producer and dealer in new study 

(jk) China has overtaken Russia to become the world’s second-largest arms producer, according to revised research for the year 2017 published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) last week. Additionally, China's four listed defence industry companies exceeded sales of the top ten Russian companies in 2017, making China also the second largest seller of arms. 

The research includes four Chinese companies for which credible financial information is available and with that reveals a new scale of the Chinese arms industry. [SIPRI]

SIPRI had previously excluded Chinese arms companies from its annual ranking over a lack of transparency and arms sales and production figures it did provide used to rank significantly lower. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' China Power Project for instance, Chinese weapons exports  – based on older SIPRI data – pale in comparison to both the US and Russia. [CSIS, China Power Project] 

Conversely, the new report holds that "overall, the estimates in this paper provide quantitative evidence that the Chinese arms industry is among the largest national arms industries in the world. Based on arms sales, all four companies profiled would be ranked among the 20 largest arms companies globally, with three—AVIC, NORINCO and CETC—in the top 10. The arms sales of just these four Chinese companies indicate that China is the second-largest arms producer in the world, behind the USA and ahead of Russia. However, there remains a need for more detailed research on the remaining six Chinese arms companies to offer a complete estimate of the Chinese arms industry." [Estimating The Arms Sales Of Chinese Companies]

Human rights in Asia-Pacific in 2019: Repression & resistance, Amnesty International says

(dql) According to Amnesty International's review of 25 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific, 2019 was a year of repression with governments across the region attempting "to uproot fundamental freedoms". But it was also a year of resistance as "people are fighting back" manifest for example in the Hong Kong protests, mass demonstrations in India against Modi, demonstrations in West Papua against racist and discriminatory treatment of Papuans, or marches in support of same-sex marriage in Taiwan. [Amnesty International] [The Guardian]

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