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NORTHEAST ASIA
Pushing back against overreach
As Hong Kong authorities try to implicate dozens of other activists and rights defenders as co-conspirators in the trial against Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, an international coalition is now pushing back against what it called an “extraordinary act of territorial overreach.”
On Jan. 2, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a global group of legislators from at least 33 countries, challenged its members’ governments to impose targeted sanctions against both Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for the imposition of the national security law (NSL) now being used against Lai.
“Now another red line has been crossed and the ball is firmly in our court to ensure these words have meaning,” the group said. “Our governments must signal that we will not tolerate the export of Chinese Communist Party oppression, and must do so in a language Beijing understands.”
IPAC’s statement comes after government prosecutors named its executive director, Luke de Pulford, and IPAC Japan director Shiori Yamao, along with several human rights defenders and former U.S. officials, as Lai’s co-conspirators in “rebelling against China,” “slandering China’s policies,” and “interfering with Hong Kong’s judicial justice.”
Lai pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy with foreign forces under the draconian NSL when the trial opened last week.
IPAC said that this was the second time that Hong Kong authorities “threatened” their alliance members. In December 2020, Hong Kong requested Danish police to investigate then IPAC Danish Parliament co-chairs Uffe Elbæk and Katarina Ammitzbøll for their alleged involvement in helping bounty hunted Ted Hu, a former pro-democracy lawmaker, to flee Hong Kong.
Their situation seems to prove earlier fears that Lai and the other pro-democracy activists charged under the NSL for their political activities would not get a fair trial.
To date, only the United States has imposed targeted sanctions against Hong Kong officials who have “materially contributed to the failure” of China to fulfill its obligations under the Basic Law, which granted autonomy to Hong Kong and protects its residents’ fundamental freedoms.
Other countries like the United Kingdom, member states of the European Union, and Australia, which have similarly expressed concerns against those charged under the NSL, have yet to impose similar sanctions.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Relentless repression of the press
The plight of an ailing Vietnamese journalist now serving an 11-year sentence for spreading “anti-state propaganda” has brought to the fore anew the inhumane conditions endured by prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.
On Jan. 5, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of editor Le Huu Minh Tuan, a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), citing his health symptoms that were “very similar to colon cancer.”
Last Dec. 26, his family also told Radio Free Asia and The Vietnamese Magazine that Tuan – who is suffering from multiple diseases like ulcerative colitis, prolapsed hemorrhoids, diarrhea, among others – had been deprived of medical attention.
“The longer Tuan ails in prison, the greater the shame on Vietnam for its cruel treatment of imprisoned journalists,” Crispin said.
CPJ says Tuan is one of at least 21 journalists jailed in Vietnam as the Communist Party intensifies its crackdown against perceived enemies of the state. Rights groups were concerned that he might suffer the same fate as the over 300 political prisoners in the country since 2022, who are enduring horrid conditions like inadequate nutrition and medical care in detention camps.
One of them is Pham Doang Trang, also a journalist, who fell sick last year while serving a nine-year sentence for anti-state propaganda.
Tuan is one of three IJAVN members who were sentenced to a total of 37 years in prison for writing “anti-state propaganda,” which violated Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code. The other two are 55-year-old Pham Chi Dung, who received 15 years; and Nguyen Tuong Thuy, who received 11 years.
The repressive provision – which has been mainly used by Vietnam’s Communist Party against journalists and dissidents – could lead to jail terms of up to 20 years.
In its annual press freedom index, where Vietnam currently ranks 178th out of 180, Reporters Without Borders named Articles 117, 109, 117, and 331, which penalizes activities “aimed at overthrowing the government” or “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy,” as part of Vietnam’s “tailor-made legislative arsenal that allows it to imprison any news and information provider who proves troublesome.”
In 2022, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s working group on arbitrary detention also flagged Article 117 for its “vague, overbroad language provides no guidance as to what constitutes the elements of the offense.”
SOUTH ASIA
A plea for digital rights
Ahead of Pakistan’s elections this year, a digital rights group has called on political parties to champion digital rights issues in their election manifestos, including removing defamation as a criminal offense, pledging not to impose internet shutdowns, and preventing the misuse of cybercrime laws against freedom of expression.
These were put forward on Jan. 4 by the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), which argued that these issues were “crucial for a robust democracy (so) citizens (can) scrutinize the new government effectively.”
DRF’s call comes as Pakistan ranked among the world’s worst countries in 2023 in terms of digital rights as the military-run government continued to impose internet shutdowns and weaponize a 2016 law, the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), against journalists, human rights defenders, and perceived dissidents.
The group thus lobbied for the repeal of Sections 20 and 499/500 – which pertain entirely to criminal defamation – and for the amendment of vague and overbroad provisions governing online content moderation.
Specifically, DRF urged political parties to bring the country’s defamation laws in line with the U.N. Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 34 last 2011, which called on Pakistan to craft defamation laws “with care to ensure that they … do not serve, in practice, to stifle freedom of expression.”
Rights groups have long called for the decriminalization of defamation in Pakistan, a colonial-era remnant used mainly to target journalists and government critics. In 2022, for example, the Federal Investigation Agency arrested online journalist Mohsin Baig over a “baseless story with derogatory remarks” against Federal Minister Murad Saeed.
The same charges were brought against journalist Asad Ali Toor in 2020 for allegedly “spreading negative propaganda” and using “derogatory language” against the powerful Pakistani Army.
DRF also urged political parties to “make a firm commitment to prevent arbitrary internet shutdowns” such as what happened in May 2023, when the government suspended mobile broadband and blocked access to social media to quell resistance over the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
These shutdowns are not uncommon in other South Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, whose governments often restrict internet access to control information.
In 2022 India emerged as the country with the most number of shutdowns in the world for five straight years, according to Access Now.
GLOBAL/REGIONAL
Averting a new arms race
In the wake of a historic U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on “killer robots,” international watchdog Human Rights Watch urged the 152 supporting countries to push for a new international treaty banning and regulating these potentially devastating weapons.
In a statement on Jan. 3, HRW arms advocacy director Mary Wareham said the resolution’s wide support when it passed last Dec. 22 “shows that governments are prepared to take action, and they should move forward on a new international treaty without delay.”
“Technological change is rapidly advancing a future of automated killing that needs to be stopped,” Wareham said. “To safeguard humanity, all governments should support the urgent negotiation of a new international treaty to prohibit and restrict autonomous weapons systems.”
The Austria-led UNGA resolution acknowledged the “serious challenges and concerns” posed by lethal autonomous weapons systems, simply dubbed “killer robots” for their ability to select and attack targets based only on algorithms and artificial intelligence.
“Killer robots” were thrust into the spotlight after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2020, amid evidence that the Kremlin was using autonomous weapons to aid its war crimes. Israel is also believed to be using AI to target people in its ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip.
That this tech is now being used in ongoing armed conflicts has raised serious concerns among groups like Stop Killer Robots, which said humanity “would struggle to protect (itself) from machine decision-making in other areas of our lives.”
As expected, Russia was one of only four countries (including Belarus, India, and Mali) that voted against the resolution in late December, while China, Iran, Israel, Madagascar, North Korea, Niger, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Syria, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates abstained.
Of these countries, HRW noted, China, India, Iran, Israel, and Türkiye were actively researching and developing military applications of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics. Specifically, experts see a possible AI arms race between the U.S. and China as they battle for global and economic dominance.
Experts believe the stakes are higher for China, as its success in the robotics race could make a huge impact on its reunification agenda for Taiwan and ability to dominate its neighbors with whom it has a maritime dispute.
