Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with overseas Chinese representatives who are in Beijing to attend the ninth Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations and a plenary session of the board of directors of the China Overseas Friendship Association at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 28, 2019. Other Chinese leaders including Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, were also present at the meeting. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)
BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhua) — President Xi Jinping on Tuesday met with overseas Chinese representatives who are in Beijing to attend the ninth Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations and a plenary session of the board of directors of the China Overseas Friendship Association.
On behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, expressed a warm welcome and sincere congratulations to the representatives and extended greetings to overseas Chinese around the world.
Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan meets with Pakistani President Arif Alvi in Islamabad, Pakistan, May 26, 2019. Wang Qishan visited Pakistan from Sunday to Tuesday and held meetings with Pakistani President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan respectively on further strengthening bilateral relations. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
ISLAMABAD, May 28 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan visited Pakistan from Sunday to Tuesday and held meetings with Pakistani President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan respectively on further strengthening bilateral relations.
When meeting with the Pakistani president, Wang said China and Pakistan are “iron friends.” Throughout the past 68 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have always respected and supported each other on issues concerning each others’ core interests, forging the sincerest friendship.
In recent years, the development of China-Pakistan relations has kept a good momentum, with mutual political trust further enhanced, pragmatic cooperation continuously deepened and people-to-people exchanges growing more vigorous, Wang said.
He said the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has made concrete achievements and has become an important hallmark for China-Pakistan friendly cooperation in the new era, adding that his visit was meant for sending out a signal once more to peoples of the two countries and the world that China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic cooperative partners.
Wang said China is willing to strengthen the all-around cooperation with Pakistan in various sectors and at various levels, so as to make the friendship better benefit the two sides and forge a closer China-Pakistan community of shared future in the new era.
For his part, President Arif Alvi extended congratulations to the upcoming 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. He said Pakistan-China cooperation has become more important in current times. Pakistan is firmly committed to the one-China policy, firmly supports China in safeguarding the country’s core and major interests, he said.
Pakistan wishes to deepen cooperation with China in such areas including agriculture, tourism and trade, with a bid to promote the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership further ahead, said the president, who also expressed appreciation for China’s support to Pakistan and wished China to play a bigger role in international and regional affairs.
After their meeting, the Pakistani president conferred on Wang the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the country’s highest award for foreign leaders.
While meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Wang said the prime minister has visited China twice since taking office and reached important consensus with Chinese leaders on further pushing forward the development of bilateral relations.
China is ready to join hands with Pakistan to deepen high-level exchanges, boost strategic communication and pragmatic cooperation as well as closely coordinate in international and regional affairs between the two sides, Wang said.
Wang called on the two sides to work for high-quality CPEC development in the next phase, and make concrete progress in industrial park building and agricultural cooperation.
China will speed up the implementation of social and people’s livelihood projects of early harvest, and discuss the third-party cooperation in the CPEC development, he added.
The Chinese vice president called for strengthened people-to-people and cultural exchanges and collaboration so as to expand the public foundation for the China-Pakistan friendship.
Wang hoped that Pakistan will take effective measures to provide security guarantees for the cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.
Imran Khan, for his part, said that Pakistan adheres to the friendly policy towards China, admires the achievements of China’s reform and opening-up and stands ready to consolidate the traditional friendship with China.
Pakistan also hopes to learn from China in terms of state governance, and enhance exchanges and cooperation in the sectors of agricultural technology, special economic zone development, talent training and anti-corruption.
Noting that fruitful results have been reaped in the CPEC development, the Pakistani prime minister said that the CPEC has played an important role in promoting Pakistan’s economic development and improving people’s livelihood.
He said Pakistan has established a special committee to take charge of inter-department and inter-sector coordination and ensure personnel safety of Chinese institutions in Pakistan.
Pakistan will continue to enhance coordination with China in international and regional affairs so as to enrich bilateral all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.
After the meeting, Wang Qishan and Imran Khan jointly witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation agreements concerning agriculture, customs and disaster relief.
During his stay in Pakistan, the Chinese vice president also met with local leaders of the Punjab province, addressed the Friends of Silk Road Forum and visited Haier-Ruba Economic Zone.
Image copyright FACEBOOK/PAYAL TADVIImage caption Payal Tadvi was harassed and bullied, her mother says
Three doctors have been arrested in India’s Mumbai city amid allegations that their bullying of a young female colleague led her to take her own life. BBC Marathi’s Janhavee Moole and Pravin Thakre report.
“I used to say I am Dr Payal’s mother. But what do I say now?” Abeda Tadvi asks tearfully.
Her 26-year-old daughter, Payal, took her own life on 22 May after months of alleged harassment over her caste – she belonged to a Scheduled Tribe, a status given to historically disadvantaged tribes.
Payal’s family has accused three of her seniors at the medical college – all women – of bullying her in the months leading up to her death.
Police arrested the three accused women on Tuesday and are investigating the matter, deputy commissioner of police, Abhinash Kumar, told the BBC. But they have denied the allegations in a statement published by the ANI news agency, saying they were being “unjustly” accused and demanded a “fair probe” and “justice”.
Prior to the arrests, Nair hospital, where the women worked, had suspended them. The college had also launched an inquiry into the allegations.
Payal’s death has shocked her colleagues and friends, who have been protesting in front of the hospital and demanding justice on her behalf. And it has shown the persistence of caste discrimination in an unlikely place – a college in Mumbai, India’s financial hub and arguably its most urbanised city.
Payal was from Jalgaon in northern Maharashtra, the state where Mumbai is located. She married Salman Tadvi, who is a doctor in Mumbai, and moved to the city for a postgraduate medical degree.
She was studying to be a gynaecologist at Topiwala Medical College when she died. She had always wanted to be a doctor, her mother, Abeda, says. Her dream was to provide better healthcare for poor tribespeople.
She belonged to the Tadvi Bhil tribe, one of more than 700 Scheduled Tribes in India. Members of these tribes – who number around eight million, according to the last census in 2011 – are given “reservations” or quotas to rectify the wrongs of India’s enduring caste hierarchies.
Payal was admitted to the college under the quota for Scheduled Tribes. Abeda says she was so proud of her daughter who had achieved so much despite their caste status and how poor they were.
“They taunted her for every small thing”
Abeda says that Payal had told her about the harassment she was facing from three of her seniors.
“She said they taunted her in front of patients for every small thing. They insulted her with slurs, threw files at her face. She said they did not even allow her to eat her meals in peace.”
They also allegedly threatened to prevent her from practising medicine.
Image copyright TADVI FAMILYImage caption Payal (L) with her mother, Abeda
Abeda, who is being treated for cancer, would often visit Nair hospital, where Payal studied and practised because it is affiliated to her college.
She said she could rarely spend time with her daughter because she was always busy – so Abeda observed her from a distance.
“I saw the way she was being treated and decided to complain, but Payal stopped me,” she said.
Payal feared that such a complaint would hurt the careers of the three women – and that they would end up harassing her even more.
But in December 2018, Abeda and Salman finally spoke to other seniors and professors about the harassment Payal said she was facing.
They demanded that Payal be allowed to work with a different team. She was reassigned, Abeda says, and she appeared a little relieved after that.
But, according to Abeda, the harassment soon resumed and around 10-12 May, Abeda herself filed a written complaint. “But this time they didn’t take it seriously,” she alleges.
Ten days later, Payal took her own life.
‘It’s sad and tragic’
Her death has raised the alarm on the widespread prevalence of bullying in schools and colleges across India. “Ragging”, as it is euphemistically known, is banned but it continues. And students from lower castes often face the brunt of it.
Nair hospital has set up a committee to inquire into the allegations and it is expected to submit a report soon, Dr Ramesh Bharmal, dean of Topiwala college, told the BBC.
“It’s sad and tragic. We are extremely shocked. How does this happen? What could we have done and what should we do now? All this could have been prevented,” he adds.
Salman says that he met Dr Bharmal, who asked him why no-one had approached the dean’s office. Salman told him that they had talked to staff in Payal’s department and that they had followed the procedure.
“Why didn’t they do anything?” he asks.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Abeda has the same questions: “What else were we supposed to do? Don’t they know what is happening in their college? This was happening in front of their eyes. They should have looked into it.”
Dr Barmal says that the college and hospital do have a system to address complaints of harassment – this includes counselling for new students, a committee to investigate complaints and random checks by supervisors.
“I was not aware. Otherwise this would not have happened. Proper measures could be taken and this…could be avoided,” he adds.
‘She was my backbone’
At the house in Jalgaon, where Payal grew up, relatives and neighbours are all in mourning. And they are eager to speak of Payal. They remember her as intelligent, ambitious and hard working.
They said she was inspired to become a doctor because her younger brother was born with a physical disability that prevented him from walking; and that she always wanted to help people.
Abeda says what happened to Payal has made her wonder about other students from lower castes who are also pursuing a better future.
She thinks of her nieces and nephews, and other children from her tribe.
“Their parents now come to me and ask if they should ask their children to sit at home because they do not trust institutions to take care of them,” Abeda says.
“She was my backbone. She was a backbone for the whole community. She would have been the first female doctor from our tribe. But that dream will now remain unfulfilled.”
BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Education has asked universities to improve administration to boost scientific research.
In a circular, the ministry required simplifying procedures for reimbursement of expenses on research activities which include attending meetings, counseling, purchasing equipment and services, among others.
Internet-based reimbursement is encouraged and approval will also be streamlined, according to the circular.
It also demanded universities improve the system of appointing academic assistants and financial assistants for researchers, and allocate more funds to raise researchers’ bonuses.
The interference with scientific research must be reduced to a minimum, the circular said.
CHENGDU, May 27 (Xinhua) — Wang Yang, China’s top political advisor, underlined efforts to curb separatists, maintain normal religious practices and alleviate poverty during a visit to the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze in Sichuan Province from Saturday to Monday.
Efforts should be made to guide religious people to willingly uphold the Party’s leadership, promote patriotism and correctly understand the relations between the law and religious doctrines, said Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee.
He instructed local authorities to improve the management of temples and counteract infiltration by hostile foreign forces.
Wang also urged them to improve the quality of poverty relief projects, upgrade local infrastructure and public services and allocate more resources to the areas suffering absolute poverty.
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), meets with Veroljub Arsic, deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) — China’s top legislator Li Zhanshu Monday met with Veroljub Arsic, deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, here Monday, calling for closer bilateral ties.
Calling China and Serbia “sincere friends of each other,” Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership has been lifted to a new high under the guidance of the two heads of state.
Bilateral pragmatic cooperation has been at the forefront of the Belt and Road cooperation, Li added.
He called on both countries to consolidate traditional friendship, continue to firmly support each other on core interests and issues of major concern, set examples of political mutual trust, common development and people-to-people exchanges so as to build a closer community with shared interests and a shared future.
Li also called on the two legislatures to enhance cooperation in areas including legislation, supervision and governance in order to better implement the consensus of the two heads of state.
Arsic said the National Assembly of Serbia stands ready to intensify exchanges with the NPC and give full play to the cooperation committee between the legislatures of Serbia and China, to make new contributions to boosting practical cooperation between the two countries and friendship between the two peoples.
Technological and strategic barriers are also giving PLA Navy pause for thought, analysts say
Despite its massive military expansion, China still lags behind the US, observers say
China is keen to expand its naval fleet but doing so is a costly business. Photo: AFP
China is having to reassess its naval shipbuilding plans in the face of economic, technical and strategic challenges at home and abroad, according to military insiders.
While President Xi Jinping’s goal for modernising the military remains a priority, the nation’s top brass are mindful of the high costs of building a new generation of military ships, like aircraft carriers and destroyers.
Beijing has said repeatedly that the impact of its trade war with the United States would be bearable, but observers say the PLA Navy is under pressure to adjust its spending plans because of the uncertainty over the country’s economic outlook, as well as slower-than-expected technological and personnel developments.
“The escalating tension between China and the United States has reminded Beijing’s leaders that they need to be careful how much they spend on new warships,” a military source, who asked not to be named, told the South China Morning Post.
With all its hi-tech equipment an aircraft carrier can cost up to US$7.2 billion to build. Photo: Reuters
With an aircraft carrier, for instance, once the price of the hi-tech weaponry, control and communications systems, and fighter jets had been added to the basic cost of building the hull, it came in at about 50 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion), the person said.
Plans to build eight next-generation Type 055 destroyers, the largest of its class in China’s fleet with a displacement of more than 12,000 tonnes, also needed to be reconsidered, the source said.
Satellite images show progress on China’s Type 002 aircraft carrier
“Each Type 055 costs over 6 billion yuan to build, which is twice as expensive as a Type 052D, the navy’s current main warship,” he said.
But military experts said that it is not just the cost of building vessels that needs to be considered. Operating an aircraft carrier battle group at sea, which comprises the carrier, at least two destroyers, two frigates, several submarines and a supply ship, is hugely expensive.
Then there is the maintenance cost – aircraft carriers spend about half the year in dock undergoing checks and repairs – which puts another immense burden on the navy’s budget.
Despite the numbers involved, Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said Beijing planned to establish four aircraft carrier battle groups by 2030, with three combat-ready at any given time.
, a Soviet Admiral Kuznetsov class vessel bought from Ukraine in 1998 that went into service with the PLA Navy in 2012, and the Type 001A, the country’s first domestically developed carrier, and based on the Liaoning’s design.
Another source close to the navy said China also needed to develop more advanced carrier-based aircraft for its Type 075 helicopter ships and Type 002 aircraft carrier, the latter still in development.
“The Type 075 was supposed to be equipped with short take-off and vertical landing aircraft comparable to the US Navy’s F-35B stealth fighter, but China hasn’t yet mastered the technology,” the naval source said.
The F-35 series is the US’s most expensive weapons programme, with a projected cost of more than US$428 billion. Japan plans to buy more than 40 F-35Bs for its two converted Izumo-class multipurpose aircraft carriers.
Footage released of new aircraft carrier in sea trial
Unlike the Liaoning and Type 001A, whose flight decks have a “ski jump” that aircraft like the
use for take-off, the Type 002A carrier will be fitted with a catapult system. As a result, the PLA will have to develop a new fighter jet – comparable to the US Navy’s F-18 Super Hornet – to go with it.
“China may need 10 to 20 years to develop a new generation of carrier-based warplanes, meaning the J-15 is likely to be the main warhorse for some time, despite it still having engine and flight control problems,” the naval sources said.
China’s Type 001A aircraft carrier has a “ski jump” that aircraft like the J-15 fighters use for take-off. Photo: Imaginechina
China’s navy has expanded rapidly over the past three decades with annual defence spending rising at double-digit rates between 1989 and 2015 on the back of equally fast economic growth.
As of last year, the PLA Navy had more than 300 ships, compared with the United States’ 287, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
In the 2014-18 period, Beijing launched naval vessels with a total weight of 678,000 tonnes, or more than the French, German, Indian, Italian, South Korean, Spanish and Taiwanese navies combined, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
According to figures from Beijing, China State Shipbuilding Corporation has built 84 new warships over the past seven years, including four Type 055 destroyers, eight
Among other naval vessels, China has built four Type 055 destroyers over the past seven years. Photo: Reuters
Despite its prolific output, Beijing-based military expert Zhou Chenming said China still lagged behind the US in terms of its hardware and software technologies.
“A real ‘blue-water fleet’ is able to sail long distances on the high seas, but that requires a comprehensive logistics and support network that the PLA does not have,” he said.
“Beijing is capable of building giant warships with large displacements, but too much of their capacity is taken up by weapons and other equipment, which reduces the amount of space they have for fuel, which in turn limits their range and the amount of time they can remain on the high seas.”
Xi makes peace call as navy powers up for 70th anniversary
China’s advanced warships like the Type 055 and Type 052D had a maximum cruising range of about 6,000 nautical miles, shorter than their American counterparts, Zhou said.
“The Americans have pursued a global strategy and established many overseas naval bases, which allows their ships to make longer voyages and project their power on the high seas. China doesn’t have such an advantage,” he said.
“The PLA Navy has often been stretched, like when it took part in an anti-piracy mission in Somali waters in 2008 and the short range of its vessels was a big hurdle. That’s why
,” he said, referring to the military base set up by the PLA in the tiny African nation in 2017.
China established the maintenance and repair facility after the power system in one of its Guangzhou Type-052B destroyers failed during another anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden in 2010 leaving its crew stranded.
“As Beijing and Djibouti hadn’t formally established military ties at the time, it was the French navy that rescued the sailors on the Guangzhou,” the naval source said. “And that’s what inspired China to set up its own outpost in Djibouti.”
Song Zhongping, a former army officer and military analyst in Hong Kong, said that China’s navy still had a long way to go in operational terms if it wanted to compete with the US.
“America has the world’s largest blue-water navy and more than a century-long history, so its warships have already gone through several rounds of development,” he said.
“Also, US naval vessels are well versed in operating in battle group formation, which is something the Chinese are still learning how to do.”
Adam Ni, a China researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, said that as well as finding the money to build new warships and maintain its growing fleet, China’s naval chiefs had to balance other considerations.
“There are competing priorities, like maritime corps, naval aviation and submarines,” he said.
With so many demands on its budget, it made sense that the PLA Navy was rethinking its strategic, long-term goals, he said.
Earlier this year, the Jamestown Foundation, an American think tank, said China was planning to quadruple the size of its marine force from two brigades to eight, or about 40,000 troops in total. The military source confirmed that ambition but said that only four of the additional six brigades had been created to date.
“Establishing eight marine brigades is a long-term goal,” he said. “Most of the members of the four new [Marine Corps] brigades were transferred from the army’s amphibious unit.
The movement of amphibious troops from ground to naval forces is part of the PLA reforms launched by Xi in 2015, under which ground forces are being downsized and marine units expanded to protect China’s interests offshore.
Beijing calls for end to ‘provocative actions’ as US warship sails near disputed waters
But Lu Li-shih, a retired lieutenant commander from the Taiwanese navy, said the amphibious operations by ground forces were not the same as those carried out on the high seas. If the PLA marines wanted to compete with their American counterparts, they would have to improve their land, air and sea operational skills.
“If the PLA’s amphibious troops wanted to take back Taiwan by force, for instance, they wouldn’t need the giant Type 075 amphibious helicopter dock; the Type 071 would be good enough,” he said, adding that the Type 071 was the ideal platform for the navy to improve its high seas combat training.
Since last year, the PLA has used the Type 071 to send amphibious troops, naval aviation, missile and strategic support units to the Indian and Pacific oceans for joint open sea combat training, according to the military newspaper PLA Daily.
Each Type 071 vessel can carry 900 troops, as well as four Type 726 landing craft and two helicopters.
“The PLA Navy’s training in recent years shows it has been moving towards the development of integrated command systems to support future battle groups,” Lu said.
Coordination Council for North American Affairs becomes Taiwan Council for US Affairs, island’s foreign ministry says
Move signifies ‘firm and close relationship between Taiwan and the US’, President Tsai Ing-wen says
Taiwan has changed the name of its de facto embassy in the United States to better reflect ever-improving ties between the sides. Photo: EPA
Taiwan has changed the name of its de facto embassy in the United States to better reflect relations between the sides, which are at their strongest in decades, Taipei said on Saturday.
Once the necessary formalities have been completed, the agency formerly known as the Coordination Council for North American Affairs will be called the Taiwan Council for US Affairs, the island’s foreign ministry said.
“The new name better reflects the [agency’s] role in coordinating US-Taiwan affairs. It also symbolises the close and amicable relations between Taiwan and the United States,” it said.
Observers said the name change was significant as it appeared to drop the pretence that the council was non-diplomatic or political in nature.
The name change was possible because of the consensus between Taiwan and the US. Photo: CNA
Although Washington severed formal diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979 in favour of Beijing, the two sides retained unofficial relations that have grown ever-closer in recent years, including an increase in military exchanges and cooperation.
“The new name [was made possible] as a result of the consensus between Taiwan and the US,” the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post. “This is the first time the designations ‘Taiwan and the US’ have been used to refer to each other’s affairs office on an equal basis, signifying the firm and close relationship.”
Taiwan begins mass production of missile corvettes, minelayers
Taiwan had been forced to use the old title because of the “special historical background” related to the change in diplomatic allegiance 40 years ago, Tsai said.
Beijing, which considers Taiwan a wayward province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, has demanded that Washington observe the one-China policy by not officially recognising Taiwan or allowing it to use either “Republic of China” – the island’s official name – or “Taiwan” in the title of its representative offices in the US.
Washington also enacted the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 to prescribes relations with the island and includes a commitment to supply it with arms to protect itself.
“After continuous efforts and coordination by the two sides, and in 2019, the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, our office handling relations with the US is finally able to change its name,” Tsai said.
The American Institute in Taiwan relocated to a larger, purpose-built compound last month. Photo: Bloomberg
Presidential spokesman Alex Huang said the name change was due mainly to an improvement in relations between Taiwan and the US as a result of a greater cooperation on the promotion of regional peace and the Indo-Pacific security agenda.
“In the past few years, the US government has given Taiwan strong and firm support in terms of national security and participation in international events, as well as support from Congress and think tanks,” he said, referring to bills signed by US President Donald Trump that allow for exchanges between high-level officials and military personnel, and the approval of new sales of arms and logistical support to the island.
US official urges Pacific island nations to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan
Also, last week, Taiwan’s national security chief David Lee met US National Security Adviser John Bolton in Washington for the first talks of their kind since 1979, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported on Saturday.
Last month, the American Institute in Taiwan – the United States’ unofficial embassy in Taipei – relocated to a significantly larger, purpose-built compound, in yet another sign of improving relations.
US support for Taiwan has increased under Trump’s leadership as he regards Beijing as a hostile competitor, not only on trade, but also in military and global influence terms.
Tensions between Taipei and Beijing have flared since Tsai became president in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle. The mainland subsequently halted all official exchanges with the island and embarked on a campaign to squeeze its diplomatic allies around the world.
legalisation of same-sex marriage
would get the impression this was Asia’s first taste of marriage equality. They would be quite wrong.
While Taiwan may be the first jurisdiction in Asia to legalise the modern form of same-sex marriage, such unions have been recognised across the region in various guises for centuries.
It may be true that Asia does not have a great reputation among the
community, but it does have a rich history of acceptance of sexual and gender diversity – one that has largely been forgotten.
When Europeans first encountered Chinese society, they praised many aspects of it, from its efficient government to the sophisticated lifestyles of the upper-class. But they were shocked and repulsed about one aspect of Chinese society: the “abominable vice of sodomy”.
Opinion: Three lessons for Hong Kong from Taiwan’s LGBT journey
One Portuguese Dominican friar, Gaspar da Cruz, even wrote an apocalyptic tract which portrayed China as the new Sodom – beset by earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters due to their acceptance of that “filthy abomination, which is that they are so given to the accursed sin of unnatural vice”, that is, sodomy.
Southern China, in particular, was known for a widespread acceptance of homosexual relationships. Shen Defu, a Chinese writer during the Ming dynasty, wrote that it was common for men of all social classes in Fujian province to take male lovers. While men generally took on these lovers while maintaining respectable marriages to women, there were some men who took their lover-relationships to a quasi-marriage level. The older man would be considered qixiong (adoptive older brother) and the younger qidi(adoptive younger brother).
South Korean men take part in Taiwan’s annual LGBT pride parade in Taipei. Photo: AFP
Bret Hinsch, a professor of history in Taiwan, describes the ceremony based on the narration of a Chinese playwright, Li Yu (1610-1680): “Two men sacrifice a carp, a rooster, and a duck. They then exchange their exact times of birth, smear each other’s mothers with the blood of their sacrifices, and then swear eternal loyalty to one another.
The ceremony concludes with feasting on the sacrificial victims …. The younger qidi would move into the qixiong’s household. There he would be treated as a son-in-law by his husband’s parents. Throughout the marriage, many of which lasted for 20 years, the qixiong would be completely responsible for his younger husband’s upkeep.
The marriage would typically dissolve after a number of years so that the younger man could find a bride to marry to procreate and further the family lineage. The elder man was expected to pay the bride a price for the younger man.
These forms of gay “marriage” were prevalent enough in Fujian that there was even a patron deity of homosexuality, the rabbit. Many Han people from Fujian migrated to Taiwan starting in the 17th century; they now make up 80 per cent of the population.
Explained: gay rights, LGBTQ and same-sex marriage in Asia
Most literary accounts of homosexual relationships in China involve men, and there is a lively debate among scholars as to whether women enjoyed the same freedom.
Nevertheless, the most documented of female “quasi-marriages” are the “Golden Orchid Associations” in Guangdong. (Around 15 per cent of Taiwan’s population is Hakka, which historians trace specifically to Han migrants from Guangdong and surrounding areas.) The Golden Orchid Society was a movement based in Guangdong that lasted from the late Qing dynasty until the early 1900s. It provided a “sisterhood” alternative to women who did not want to get married for various reasons.
To announce her intentions, one woman would offer another gifts of peanut candy, dates and other goods. If the recipient accepted the gift, it was a signal she had accepted the proposal. They would swear an oath to one another, where sometimes one woman was designated “husband” and the other “wife”.
A couple kiss as they celebrate Taiwan’s legalisation of same-sex marriage. Photo: Reuters
Hinsch describes the ceremony in this way: “After an exchange of ritual gifts, the foundation of the Chinese marriage ceremony, a feast attended by female companions served to witness the marriage. These married lesbian couples could even adopt female children, who in turn could inherit family property from the couple’s parents.”
While these “marriages” are not equivalent to the same-sex marriages of today, they nevertheless are historical precedents for what is now happening in Taiwan.
And China is far from being the only country in Asia with a queer history – Southeast Asia’s LGBTQ history is even richer.
Why some members of Singapore’s LGBT community prefer life in the shadows
In the early modern period, marriages between two people of the same assigned sex but who identified as different genders, were fairly normal in many parts of Southeast Asia. We know this primarily from the records Europeans kept when they landed on Asian shores.
For instance, here is a letter by a Portuguese missionary, Antonio de Paiva, to his Catholic bishop in 1544 about his observations of the Bugis people in what is now
: “Your lordship will know that the priests of these kings are generally called bissus. They grow no hair on their beards, dress in a womanly fashion, and grow their hair long and braided; they imitate [women’s] speech because they adopt all of the female gestures and inclinations. They marry and are received, according to the custom of the land, with other common men, and they live indoors, uniting carnally in their secret places with the men whom they have for husbands …”
After this scandalised description, the author concludes with amazement that the Christian god, who had destroyed “three cities of Sodom for the same sin”, had not yet destroyed such “wanton people” who were “encircled by evil”.
Drag queens at a gay nightclub in Beijing. Despite its reputation, Asia has a long history of accepting diversity. Photo: EPA
Dating as far back as the 13th century, bissu have traditionally served as council to kings and guarded sacred manuscripts. They are considered a fifth gender within the Bugis’ gender-system: oroané (male men), makkunrai (female women), calabai (male women), calalai (female men), and bissu, who were neither male nor female (or both).
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Today, their ranks have thinned – in one area, the population has dwindled to just six people – but the tradition remains, and they still perform important blessings. Contemporary bissu are typically male-bodied individuals who adopt feminine and masculine elements in their appearance. Although in the past bissu were married men, today they are required to be celibate.
In pre-Islamic Bugis culture, bissu were accorded priestly honours and tasked with mediating between the gods and people precisely because of, not in spite of, their gender. According to professor Halilintar Lathier, an Indonesian anthropologist, Bugis culture “perceived the upper world as male and this world as female, and therefore only a meta-gender would be able to become an intermediary”.
This pattern of a “gender-expansive” priest able to marry others of the same sex recurs throughout Southeast Asia.
A transgender beauty contest in Pattaya, Thailand. Despite its reputation, Asia has a long history of accepting diversity. Photo: Handout
To the west of South Sulawesi is Borneo, a large island that contains all of Brunei and parts of Indonesia and
. Borneo is home to many indigenous communities, including the Iban. The Iban historically respected manang bali, who were typically male-bodied shamans who adopted feminine dress and demeanour, and who took men as their husbands. Manang bali were mediators and held roles of great ritual importance; they were typically wealthy village chiefs known for their healing arts.
West of Borneo is the Malay Peninsula, where there are records from the Malay Annals and Misa Melayu dating as far back as the 15th century about priests, called sida-sida, who served in the palaces of the Malay sultans. They were responsible for safeguarding women in the palace as well as the food and clothing of royalty, and overseeing ritual protocol. The sida-sida undertook “androgynous behaviour” such as wearing women’s clothing and doing women’s tasks. A Malay anthropologist in the 1950s, Shamsul A.B., recalls seeing male-bodied sida-sida in the royal palace in his childhood, who were believed by the population to either be celibate and asexual, or attracted to men. Michael Peletz, an anthropologist and author of Gender Pluralism in Southeast Asia, notes that based on the evidence, it is “highly likely” that sida-sida involved both male- and female-bodied people who were involved in transgender practices, and who engaged in sexual relationships with people of the same and opposite sex.
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, where pre-colonial communities were religiously led by babylan: women healers and shamans who were responsible for mediating between the gods and people. Male-bodied people (asog, bayog), sometimes considered a third sex, could also hold these roles so long as they comported themselves like women. A 16th century Spanish Catholic manuscript records asog in the following manner:
“Ordinarily they dress as women, act like prudes and are so effeminate that one who does not know them would believe they are women … they marry other males and sleep with them as man and wife and have carnal knowledge.”
Dancers perform at the Shanghai PRIDE opening party. Despite its reputation, Asia has a long history of accepting diversity. Photo: AFP
The Spanish priests saw these asog as “devil-possessed”, particularly because they habitually practised “sodomy” among one another. Due to the Chinese reputation for homosexuality and various Sinophobic attitudes, some even attributed the prevalence of sodomy to the Chinese, whom they said had “infected the natives” and introduced the curse to the “Indians”, although there is no evidence of this.
COLONIAL CURVEBALL
Although these examples relate to the religious arena, anthropologists believe the respect accorded to these ritual specialists were an indicator of a wider societal acceptance of gender and sexual diversity in Southeast Asia – an acceptance that began to be eroded through the introduction of world religions (particularly Christianity), modernity, and colonialism. For example, in Malaysia, Brunei,
, Myanmar and throughout the commonwealth, the British enforced a penal code that legislated against sodomy. More than half of the countries that currently legally prohibit sodomy do so based on laws created by the British.
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Similarly, after the Chinese were defeated by Western and Japanese imperialists, many Chinese progressives in the early 20th century sought to modernise China, which meant adopting “modern” Western ideas of dress, relationships, science and sexuality.
Concubinage was outlawed, prostitution was frowned upon, and women’s feet were unbound. It also meant importing European scientific understandings of homosexuality as an inverted or perverted pathology. These “scientific ideas” were debunked in the 1960s in the West, but lived on in China, frozen in time, and have only recently begun to thaw with the rise of LGBTQ activists in Asia.
A recent headline on the news from Taiwan read: “First in Asia: marriage equality comes to Taiwan”, as if the recent bill was an unprecedented “first” for Asia and that marriage equality – which, presumably, the headline writer associates with the West – has finally reached Asian shores.
But when we zoom out historically, it is evident that what happened in Taiwan is not so much a novel “breakthrough” for Asia. It is more a reconnection to its queer Chinese and Asian heritage, as well as a rejection of outdated Western ideas that it once adopted.
There is still much more work to be done to advance LGBT rights in Taiwan and the rest of Asia, but perhaps looking backwards in time can help us move forward.
Tsai meets leaders of 1989 pro-democracy movement to bolster credentials for protecting island’s democracy
An installation recreating the celebrated Tank Man photograph in Taipei’s liberty square. Photo: Reuters
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met a group of exiled Tiananmen protesters on Thursday, a move that further burnishes her credentials for standing up to Beijing.
She said the bloody crackdown on the student protesters in 1989 should remind Taiwan that it must firmly reject the “one country, two systems” formula put forward by Beijing for reunification to safeguard its sovereignty, freedom and democracy.
“We don’t want to mislead the other side into making a wrong judgment nor do we want to let down those who support democracy and freedom as a result of an ambiguous answer by a Taiwanese president,” Tsai told her visitors.
“There is no room for ambiguity or dodging when the ‘one country, two systems’ proposal was raised, and we must clearly state that this is not a proposal that we, who have enjoyed freedom, democracy and human rights, could accept.”
The group of mainland émigrés included former Tiananmen student leaders such as Wang Dan, Wang Juntao, Deng Biao, Zhou Fengsuo and Fang Zheng, who were visiting Taiwan for a three-day international forum held to mark the 30th anniversary of the crackdown.
At the start of the year Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed that the two sides should start cross-strait unification talks under the one country, two systems model used to reunite Hong Kong and Macau with the mainland – a model that Tsai flatly rejected saying the two cities had no real autonomy.
In a statement issued by the presidential office, Tsai also noted the different course Taiwan and mainland China had taken over the past 30 years, with the island developing a fully fledged democracy while Beijing has tightened its curbs on freedom of speech.
She also accused Beijing of infiltrating free societies and undermining others’ freedoms using disinformation or hi-tech and commercial weapons.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen says the 1989 killings highlight the importance of standing up to Beijing. Photo: EPA-EFE
In the meeting, Tsai sharply criticised Chinese Communist leaders for suppressing the pro-democracy student movement in 1989 and failing to restore the activists’ rights.
Teng Biao, one of the visitors, said it was the first time Tsai had set up a meeting with so many pro-democracy activists.
Despite her sharply worded comments, Tsai and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party have generally kept their distance from the Tiananmen exiles, some of whom support cross-strait unification.
Since the DPP’s first election victory in 2000, increasing numbers of people on the island have identified themselves primarily or exclusively as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, and events to mark the 1989 crackdown have dwindled.
On the 20th anniversary of the June 4 killing more than 200,000 people took part in a memorial event in Hong Kong, a sharp contrast to the handful of people who marked the event in Taiwan.
“I guess that might be because we no long cared that much about the [1989] incident over the years. June 4 is just a symbol we use to justify our push for further democracy in Taiwan,” said Chen Wei-ting, a former leader of the Sunflower movement that formed in 2014 to protest against a cross-strait trade deal with the mainland.
Analysts said Tsai hoped the Tiananmen anniversary would remind people of the need to reject the mainland’s overtures to protect Taiwan’s hard-won democracy.
“By reiterating her stand against one country, two systems, Tsai has built up her image as being the leader who is willing to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty despite mounting pressure from Beijing,” said Wang Kung-yi, a professor of political science at Chinese Culture University in Taipei.
Tsai, who is running for a second four-year term in January, has seen her approval rating rebound recently to around 40 per cent from a low of 20 per cent after the DPP’s humiliating defeat in last year’s local government elections.
The mainland-friendly Kuomintang made a string of gains at the DPP’s expense to punish it for unpopular labour and pension reforms and the economy’s poor performance.
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