This thread is getting attention, so I wanted to add a post-script: IMO, there are two reasons horrific treatment of the #Rohingya flies under the radar, both counter-intuitive in the west. 1) The concept of ethno-Buddhist hatred, which many find hard to credit, but is v real...
Exhibit A is Gen Manas, an amulet-wearing believer in Buddhist primacy, who saw Muslim Rohingya as subhuman in same way as, Exhibit B: diplomat Ye Myint Aung, who reject the idea that these dark-skinned "ogres" could possibly be connected to Myanmar scmp.com/article/669529…
Exhibit C is even more jarring: Aung San Suu Kyi. Yes, her with the Nobel Peace Prize, who tainted herself with genocide apologia, and sided with the militant ultranationalist Buddhist monks (also a thing) who sought to kill/expel the Rohingya nytimes.com/2019/12/11/wor…
Counter-intuitive aspect #2) This unfolded in places generally seen in the West and on Instagram as a free-and-easy Nirvana. Aspects of this Great Evil literally took place in plain view of frolicking Western tourists in bikinis and boardshorts. Look:
Those are Rohingya refugees, being rounded up by soldiers toting M-16s on the island of Similan Eight. These refugees ended up being cast adrift. They probably died. This was Dec 23, 2008, on the tourist island of Similan 8
The tourist who took these pics only contacted the SCMP after we had started reporting on what the Thai military was up to. How many others witnessed this and shrugged, happy in the belief that Thailand is the Land of Smiles?
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A thread: I've spent the past few weeks looking into China's '100 most wanted' corruption suspects, 40 of whom are at large. But I found their Interpol ‘red notices’ - the global wanted posters touted by Beijing - have vanished from view. All of them 2/ scmp.com/news/china/art…
I also discovered that one of the '100 most wanted', Liu Baofeng, was arrested after flying out of Vancouver in mid-2019, at height of Sino-Canada tensions over Meng Wanzhou. Extensive official reports of Liu's arrest, bizarrely, did not mention that he came from Vancouver 3/
But his arrest had nothing to do with Interpol, a Red Notice, or Canadian police intervention. Instead, Chinese officers broke him psychologically by visiting his parents and relatives “to preach laws and national policies”, freezing their finances and assets. 4/
This is it!! #MengWanzhou hearing in US federal court in Brooklyn begins!! She is appearing via video from Vancouver. She confirms her presence. Court gets off to an awkward start when judge calls her Ms Wang, and has to be corrected....
Judge explains she has been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. Meng says she understands the charges
"How do you plead to the charges?" MENG: "NOT GUILTY"
A thread ensues: Canada has a handful of federal electorates that are ethnic Chinese majority/near-majority seats, all clustered around Richmond BC & Markham ON. I've gone thru #Elxn44 numbers & all experienced a plunge in Tory support, large and remarkable in context IMO. 2/
The context is this: there was no big loss in Tory vote share across Canada (-0.5%), in BC (-0.7%) or Ontario (+1.9%). Where there were losses, the PPC often gained. Anyway. Here goes: /3
In Steveston-Richmond East (47% Chinese), Con vote share was -8.1% and Lib share +7.5%. A comfortable Tory win in 2019, now a comfortable Lib win. "But this seat often yo-yos," you say. Well sure, but let's look next door 4/