Archive for ‘rejecting’

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05/08/2019

Hong Kong protests: Police and protesters fight running battles

Police in Hong Kong have been fighting running battles with activists in a third consecutive day of protests, after a call for a general strike caused widespread disruption on Monday.

Protesters blocked roads and paralysed train services at peak times on a day of action across the city.

More than 200 flights were cancelled as the protests entered their ninth week.

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has pledged to restore law and order, rejecting calls for her resignation.

Initially the demonstrations, which began on 9 June, focused on a controversial extradition law, which would have allowed the transfer of suspects to mainland China. However, the protests have now become a wider challenge to Beijing’s authority.

Ms Lam warned that Hong Kong was “on the verge of a very dangerous situation”.

Media caption Protests take place in Hong Kong for the ninth weekend – for and against the authorities

In her first media address in two weeks, Ms Lam said the protesters’ actions had challenged the principle of “one country, two systems” – the extra freedoms granted to Hong Kong when it was returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

She also accused activists of using the extradition bill as a cover for their real goals.

“We continue to allow these violent protesters to make use of the [extradition] bill to conceal their ulterior motives,” she said. “Those ulterior motives are going to destroy Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (C) speaks during a press conference in Hong Kong on August 5, 2019Image copyright GETTY IMAGES

The Chinese foreign ministry said no one should underestimate China’s resolve to safeguard the stability of Hong Kong, Reuters news agency reports.

What happened on Monday?

Police fired tear gas at several locations as protesters rallied into the night, setting fires and besieging police stations. In the North Point district, which has a reputation for pro-Beijing sympathies, men wielding long poles clashed with demonstrators before falling back.

More than 80 people were arrested, in addition to the 420 detained since 9 June. In that time, police said they had used more than 1,000 tear gas canisters and 160 rubber bullets.

Protest leaders had called for a general strike. While many people made it to work, in some areas protesters blocked trains from leaving stations and scuffled with commuters. Several lines of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) were suspended for a time, and the Cross-Harbour Tunnel was also blocked.

One video circulating on Twitter reportedly showed a car in the district of Yuen Long forcefully hitting a barricade set up by protesters, injuring one person.

It is not clear how many joined the strike, but tens of thousands of protesters were out on the streets. Several shops and businesses were closed, including international fashion retailers like Topshop and Zara.

Hong Kong airport, one of the busiest in the world, said travellers should check its website and seek updates directly from the airlines.

Most of the cancelled flights were with local carriers Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Airlines.

“The Airport Authority advises passengers… to proceed to the airport only when their seats and flight time have been confirmed,” the airport said in a statement.

What’s behind the Hong Kong protests?

The protests were initially sparked by a controversial bill that would allow China to extradite suspects from Hong Kong to the mainland.

Critics said it would undermine the territory’s judicial independence and could be used to target those who spoke out against the Chinese government.

Although the bill has now been suspended, demonstrators want it fully withdrawn.

Their demands have broadened to include an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality, Ms Lam’s resignation, and the dropping of riot charges linked to the protests.

Last week, more than 40 activists appeared in court charged with rioting. If convicted, they could be jailed for up to 10 years.

The Chinese army has so far stayed out of the dispute, but China’s top policy office in Hong Kong has previously condemned the protests, calling them “horrendous incidents” that have caused “serious damage to the rule of law”.

Unease rose last week when China’s army in Hong Kong posted a video on Chinese social media network Weibo showing soldiers conducting anti-riot drills.

Media caption The video shows a soldier using a loudspeaker to warn protesters
Source: The BBC

Posted in "one country, two systems", Beijing's authority, calls, Carrie Lam, Cathay Pacific, controversial, extradition law, fight, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Airlines, Hong Kong's leader, judicial independence, law and order, Mainland China, North Point district, pledged, Police, protesters, protests, rejecting, resignation, restore, running battles, suspects, Topshop, transfer, Uncategorized, Weibo, Zara | Leave a Comment »

31/07/2019

Pentagon rejecting recruits over Chinese relatives and other foreign ties – despite need for foreign language skills

  • Some of those weeded out had been recruited under programme to use immigrants’ vital skills
  • New vetting process has delayed enlistments by years, turning more than 1,000 recruits into unlawful immigrants with expired credentials
The Pentagon needs recruits with foreign language skills. Photo: Washington Post
The Pentagon needs recruits with foreign language skills. Photo: Washington Post
In the past month, the Pentagon booted two Chinese recruits from the enlistment process because of their dead grandfathers, who had lived very different lives.
One recruit’s grandfather, whom he never met, served in China’s Communist Party military. Another recruit was removed from the programme after drilling for three years because of the polar opposite – Zicheng Li’s grandfather fought against, and was tortured by, Communist Party agents, defence officials wrote.
Screening documents obtained by The Washington Post detailing reasons that these and other foreign recruits were removed from the military reveal a pattern of cancelled enlistments and failed screenings for rather innocuous fact-of-life events and, often, simply for existing as foreigners.

Immigrant enlistees have been cut loose for being the children of foreign parents or for having family ties to their native country’s government or military.

I’m shocked and numb. They use anything they can to kick us outZicheng Li, US Army recruit

In some cases, they have relatives who served in militaries closely allied with the United States. Those removals raise questions about the Pentagon’s screening process and why it has weeded out precisely the recruits defence officials said they needed.

The Pentagon programme they were recruited under embraced a simple idea: the military would enlist immigrants to make use of strategic language and medical abilities in short supply among US-born troops, designating the skills of immigrants a national security imperative.

The programme was even named in that fashion – Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or Mavni, which enlisted more than 10,400 foreign-born troops in the past decade, with the promise of fast-tracked naturalisation that would take weeks. Speakers of Mandarin, Russian, Arabic and other languages have been in demand by defence officials.

But then denials began to quicken since stricter screening was instituted in late 2016, a lawyer for immigrant recruits said, pointing to family ties as a common reason.

He’s an illegal Chinese immigrant – and a US soldier on Mexico border

Li, who arrived in Minnesota from China in 2012 to study aerospace engineering, said that his US Army enlistment processing had crawled since February 2016. In that time, he attended drills as a selected reservist and received his uniform and an ID card that grants him access to army installations.

Then this month, after three years of waiting, an enlistment denial justification letter arrived in his postbox, containing two sentences about family history.

Li told investigators that his since-deceased grandfather’s torture decades ago by Chinese Communists prompted worry of reprisals if the Chinese government learned of Li’s enlistment.

“You revealed that you fear for your family’s safety,” officials wrote in a letter, saying his suitability for enlistment was adverse, documents show.

A new citizen pledging allegiance to the United States at a naturalisation ceremony in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP
A new citizen pledging allegiance to the United States at a naturalisation ceremony in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP

“I’m shocked and numb,” Li said. “They use anything they can to kick us out.”

The new vetting process has delayed enlistments by years, and the wait has turned more than 1,000 recruits – who enlisted as legal immigrants with visas – into unlawful immigrants whose credentials expired as their screenings tumbled into bureaucratic limbo.

The Pentagon has acknowledged in court filings that none of the thousands of recruits who later naturalised from the programme have been charged with espionage-related crimes, though one Chinese recruit has been accused of failing to register as a foreign agent. The new vetting procedures did not play a role in his detection, court filings said.

It is unclear how many immigrant recruits have been turned away as recruits or discharged as soldiers in recent months. In a spate of lawsuits alleging misconduct and violation of equal protection laws, the Pentagon has reversed decisions and halted discharges.

Chinese women join US Army to obtain green cards

Defence officials have not offered public insight into how the vetting works or what kind of oversight exists. The results are typically explained in one or two sentences.

Another Chinese-born recruit, who declined to provide his name out of fear of reprisal to his family by the Chinese government, said he was denied enlistment last month because his father and grandfather served in the Communist military, though the report about his relatives’ positions was inaccurate, he said.

His grandfather died before the recruit was born.

“I don’t know what’s the harm for me to finish my contract and gain my citizenship,” he said.

The US has recruited more than 10,000 foreign-born troops in the last decade. Photo: US Army via Reuters
The US has recruited more than 10,000 foreign-born troops in the last decade. Photo: US Army via Reuters

Mavni screening can be “time-consuming due to our limited ability” to verify information from home countries, said Jessica Maxwell, a Pentagon spokeswoman. She declined to address questions about the process itself and whether screeners adjust expectations of foreign ties if they are screening foreign-born recruits.

She also declined to say how many Mavni recruits are still waiting for their screening to finish, citing litigation and privacy limitations.

Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer who has represented Mavni recruits, including Li, said the Pentagon has scuttled millions of dollars and years of time to produce unclear reasons why it separates immigrants the Defence Department itself determined it needed.

“This is what they come up with? Your grandfather served in a foreign army before you were born?” Stock asked. “What is the threat to national security? They can’t articulate it here.”

New Pentagon chief’s mission: confront foreign threats, manage Trump

Other rejections point to speculative or seemingly benign information for immigrants living typical lives.

“You revealed that you maintain routine contact with your father and mother who are citizens of and reside in China,” said one document.

An Indian-born recruit was cut loose after an investigation determined that family members “work for or have worked for the Indian army”, according to one document, even thought India and the United States share a defence relationship.

Recruits from South Korea, a key US defence ally, have been penalised because their fathers are required by conscription to serve, Stock said.

Maxwell declined to say why a family member’s involvement in a friendly military would raise suspicions.

Zicheng Li is hoping to become a Hercules pilot. Photo: EPA
Zicheng Li is hoping to become a Hercules pilot. Photo: EPA

Another enlistee was rejected for “multiple wire transfers” through US banks, though the screening review did not describe the nature of the transfers or whether they were unlawful.

One recruit, a Chinese doctoral student, was turned away because a screener with no medical experience said that the recruit had Asperger syndrome – on the basis that the screener once observed a family member with autism, The Post previously reported.

Potential persecution of Li’s family could be aided by the US military itself. US Army recruiters inadvertently exposed the private information of hundreds of Chinese-born recruits, heightening the risk that Chinese government officials would target their families, a lawmaker said.

Pentagon poised to report on US military’s dependence on China

Those disclosures and enlistment delays have forced several recruits to apply for US asylum protection, including Li while he fights the army’s determination that he is unsuitable for service.

Li said he wants to bring his family to the United States. Until then, he has taken a rather American path: he helps design grain enclosures and spreaders for a farm equipment company in Minnesota, with an eye to eventually transitioning from the US Army to the Air Force.

Li said he hopes to become a pilot, perhaps for the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.

Fighters can be flashy, he said. But the Hercules can get him more time in the cockpit on missions across the world.

Source: SCMP

Posted in aerospace engineering, C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, Chinese relatives, Chinese women, Communist Party agents, Communist Party military, despite, Fighters, foreign language skills, foreign ties, green card, Hercules pilot, indian army, Indian-born recruit, Mexico border, Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or Mavni, Minnesota, need, Pentagon, recruits, rejecting, South Korea, The Washington Post, Uncategorized, United States, US Army | Leave a Comment »

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