Monthly Archives: February 2012

Walongchung border closure

By Martin Saxer | February 26, 2012

The Himalayan Times reports that the border crossing near Walongchung in Eeaster Nepal has been closed for the coming months.

The Chinese administration has banned Nepalis from entering Tibet from Taplejung border. Tashi Sherpa of Olangchungola said today that Chinese police had recently informed them not to come Tibet for four months. He also said that the reason behind the prohibition in the entry to Tibet has not been cited.

Locals of northern part of Taplejung suspect that China might have blocked the border for Nepalis as March 20 was the day when Dalai Lama had left Tibet and that there maybe some anti-Tibet activities aimed for the day. Nepal Police of Olangchungola said that they have not been formally informed about the closure of the border.

This is not the first time, when the Chinese government had imposed an embargo on Nepalis. Earlier, around this time the Nepalis have been informed not to enter Tibet for four months.

Let’s see if this is an isolated case of wether all of the remote border crossings are going to be shut down in anticipation of potential protests over the coming months.

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Farming in Tajikistan and Afghanistan

By Martin Saxer | February 23, 2012

Mark Vinson for The Jamestown Foundation (via Asia Times online) on a Chinese agricultural project in Tajikistan:

Chinese officials have pledged US$2 million of direct investment, including new technology and technical assistance in an effort to revitalize the land, which in recent years has become non-arable through poor management. According to the agreement, the Chinese will only be allowed to sell crops produced on that land in Tajik markets.

Sounds like a reasonalbe deal. However, Tajikistan has handed over more then 1,000 square km of disputed territory to China last year and there is a strong opposition against the current deal. Critics suspect that the companies coming in will privilege Chinese workers:

Faromarzi Fosil, a Tajik journalist, in an article entitled, “Tajiks go to Russia and Chinese come to Tajikistan?” expresses this sentiment, “It is clear that Chinese companies [in Tajikistan] give privileges to their fellow countrymen. What should the people of Tajikistan do? And another question: if the Chinese and other foreigners build all the roads, power plants, companies, and farms then why do we even need our own ministries?”

Similar Chinese investments in the agricultural sector have recently been announced in Afghanistan. The plan is to refurbish and old, unfinished irrigation system. Farid Behbud (Pukhtoonistan Gazette) writes:

The Chinese-initiated project would irrigate thousands of hectares of farmland in Parwan and neighboring Kapisa and Kabul provinces, said some local people.

The logic in both cases is that poor management and poor infrastructure diminish agricultural output. That might well be the case. What I wonder, however, is whether and how both projects approach existing local systems of water rights.

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More on Detained Pilgrims

By Martin Saxer | February 21, 2012

Tibetan pilgrims returning from the Kalachakra initiation in India at the beginning of January have faced various difficulties (see previous posts here and here). Now, it seems that many of them are still in detention and subjected to political reeducation. Apparently, many of the pilgrims are government officials. Tendar Tsering reports for Phayul:

“The Chinese government has warned Tibetan officials in Chinese occupied Tibet of serious actions and harsh punishments if they failed to return home before February 15,” Kalsang Gyaltsen, a Member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile said.

According to Human Rights Watch this may be the first time since the 1970 that such a large number of lay people are being detained.
Between 7,000 and 8,000 pilgrims had received the permission to leave the country for Nepal and the authorities must clearly have known where they were heading for. Most seem to have had passports and valid Nepalese visas.

A number of them also traveled directly to India using visas issued by India, indicating that on this occasion the Chinese authorities had not placed restrictions on travel to India in Tibetans’ passports, as in the past. There is no known regulation banning Tibetans from attending the teachings, and the returnees undergoing re-education have not been accused of any crime, such as carrying illicit documents or crossing the Chinese border without permission.
There are no reports so far that any of the estimated 700 ethnic Chinese from China who attended the Dalai Lama’s teachings in Bihar have been detained on their return to China, suggesting that the detainees are being selected because of their ethnicity.

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Conference programme online

By Martin Saxer | February 21, 2012

THE ART OF NEIGHBOURING: OLD CROSSROADS AND NEW CONNECTIONS ALONG THE PRC’S BORDERS

Jointly organized by the Asian Migration Cluster and the Open Cluster, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Date: 1–2 March 2012
Venue: Asia Research Institute Seminar Room, National University of Singapore – Bukit Timah Campus, Tower Block, Level 10, 469A Bukit Timah Road

What does China’s rise mean for those who live along its borders? Reflecting on the PRC’s strategies to foster trade, secure access to natural resources, and prevent unrest in its own borderlands, this workshop is concerned with the ways in which people’s lives and futures are affected by living along the borders. As rising China (the nation, the notion, the buzzword) channels aspirations, triggers fears and creates opportunities, “neighbouring” becomes a crucial skill in the borderlands – a skill that includes evading, openly opposing, making use of, or renegotiating the border situation.

In the first half of the 20th century, the fuzziness of erstwhile frontier zones was replaced with the sharp contours of nation-states. Political and military conflicts between the PRC and its neighbouring states brought many long-established trans-border relations to a halt. More recently, new stimuli of economic growth and material prosperity readily impelled a momentum of “opening up”. As ancient crossroads emerge as zones of contact and translation again, borderland communities actively engage with new possibilities; they also become targets of new regulatory regimes to “manage” the flows of people and goods across the borders.

This workshop aims to explore the ways in which the closure and re-opening of the PRC’s borders condition the myriad realities of making as well as being China’s neighbours through peace and turmoil. By theorizing “the art of neighbouring”, this workshop seeks to develop an alternative perspective on border practices and strategies, as well as new understandings of the relations between nations, territories, geo-political positionalities, and historical connections.

Programme and Abstracts

Please click here for the updated Programme & Abstracts.

Photograph Exhibition

The workshop is accompanied by a small photo exhibition at the main venue. Three photographers show a selection of images that portray the diversity, the transformations, the vulnerability and the resilience of these border zones.

Registration

Admission is free. Kindly register early as seats are available on a first come, first served basis.
We would gratefully request that you RSVP to Valerie Yeo e-mail: valerie.yeo@nus.edu.sg indicating your name, email, designation, organization and contact number.

Contact Details

Workshop Convenors
Dr Martin SAXER arijms@nus.edu.sg
Dr ZHANG Juan arizj@nus.edu.sg
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

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Rebels, Resources, Religion

By Martin Saxer | February 3, 2012

It is sometimes difficult to follow and make sense of the events in the conflict between the Kachin army and government troops in northern Burma. The Democratic Voice of Burma reports that

Burmese soldiers have been withdrawn from conflict zones in Kachin state as both sides push for ceasefire talks, but reports from nearby Shan state suggest extra battalions have been deployed to guard the lucrative China-backed Shwe pipeline.

After the decision to halt construction of the Mytsone dam, the Shwe oil and gas pipelines is the most important piece of Chinese investment in Burma. The two pipelines are currently under construction and the first gas is expected to flow in April 2013. According to the report, the project will eventually account for around 6 percent of China’s total energy needs.
ChinaAID, a US-based Christian NGO, reports that around 40,000 refugees from the conflict zone have crossed the border to Yunnan. The NGO cites a pastor:

For many years, Burmese Christians who do business and have relatives in Yingjiang have regularly attended our church services.  And brothers and sisters here also frequently travel to Burma to visit relatives and friends. In fact, we and they are as close as flesh and blood.

ChinaAID calls out to “to brothers and sisters in China and overseas” for prayers and financial assistance.
At the same time, the Yunnan International Power Investment Co. invests in a new church, as Pal Nyiri notes in his blog:

Yunnan International Power Investment Co., a daughter of China State Grid, inaugurated a Baptist church at the resettlement village built for villagers resettled from the site of the now-suspended Myitsone Dam. Does that mean that those already resettled will stay where they are?

Rebels, (Christian) religion, and (energy) resources – an all important triangle.

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Andrew Marshall on the the Mekong incidents

By Martin Saxer | February 1, 2012

In October 2011, a Chinese cargo vessel was attacked on the Mekong. Thirteen sailors died. Initial reports blamed Naw Kham, the legendary pirate and drug lord. Later it seemed that a unit of Thai special forces was arrested for their alleged involvement. A special report by Andrew Marshall (Reuters) now reveals that nothing is clear yet. The Thai soldiers have not been charged with any crime (they are still on duty) and USD 6 million worth in Methamphetamine pills was found on board the ship.

If you are interested in the story of a modern day freshwater pirate, the business in meth as opposed to opium, the Shan rebels, and the role of a Chinese casino and Special Economic Zone, read this fascinating piece.

Here is a teaser:

Opium and heroin are no longer the Golden Triangle’s only products. Since the late 1990s, secret factories in Shan State have churned out vast quantities of methamphetamine. This highly addictive drug is known across Asia in pill form by the Thai name yaba (“crazy medicine”) and in its purer crystalline form as ice or shabu.
It is now the top drug in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime reported in 2011. Naw Kham’s rise coincided with this explosion of meth use, which transformed the ill-policed Mekong between Myanmar and Laos — Naw Kham’s patch — into one of Southeast Asia’s busiest drug conduits.
Every year hundreds of millions of Myanmar-made methamphetamine pills are spirited across the river into Laos or down into Thailand. The trade is worth hundreds of millions of dollars — enough to corrupt poorly paid law enforcement officials across the region.
Narcotics are not the Mekong’s only contraband.
Other lucrative goods include: endangered wildlife such as tigers and pangolins; weapons, stolen vehicles and illegal timber; and, in the run-up to this month’s Tet celebrations, thousands of dogs in filthy cages bound for restaurants in Vietnam.
There is human contraband too. Illegal migrants from Myanmar and Laos are bound for Thailand’s booming construction or sex industries, while a constant stream of North Koreans journey across southern China and through Laos to surrender to the Thai authorities, who obligingly deport them to South Korea.

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