China’s Communist leaders will this week introduce sweeping new laws that codify social responsibilities for the country’s 1.4 billion citizens while also providing some modest new protections.

The preamble of what state media is calling China’s “declaration of rights” is expected to be passed by the close of the National People’s Congress (NPC) next Wednesday, paving the way for more detailed laws expected to be passed in 2020.

The changes are part of President Xi Jinping’s wider push to align the legal system with the country’s social and economic modernization and for some legal reformers, the code is a test of how far China will go in allowing civil liberties that might impinge upon state power.

“Civil law is the fundamental doctrine for a country’s legal system, the source of its basic essence,” Liang Ying, head of the NPC Legislative Affairs Research institute, told state media on Sunday.

“A foundational civil [law] system is an important sign of whether a country’s legal system is mature.”

Xi has made governing the nation by law a top priority of his tenure though he has drawn a line at allowing the courts to expand their power at the expense of the Communist Party’s control.

Since pledging to reform and open in 1978, China has been gradually shifting its legal system away from a socialist law towards something closer to a European-style legal system.

In 2011, China declared that “socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics” had been established, but officials themselves say China’s laws remains a work in progress.

Samaritans, property rights

The laws seek to address some of the legal issues that have gnawed at public consciousness in recent years, such as who is responsible for China’s abandoned children and elderly, or what protections cover so-called “Good Samaritans.”

China’s incomplete legal system was heavily criticized for an incident in 2011 when multiple passersby ignored a toddler knocked to the ground in a hit-and-run.

Shocked observers said the lack of clarity on civil rights leaves helpers at risk of liability when coming to the aid of strangers.

Reformers also hope the code will resolve the issue of guardianship for “left behind” children whose parents work away from home and “empty nest” elderly folk who are similarly abandoned by their children.

One issue that lawyers say remains mostly unresolved in the draft code is that of property rights.

Most Chinese homeowners do not legally own the land on which their homes are built. Instead, they lease the rights to use the property for a limited number of years from the government, an arrangement that creates uncertainty for buyers.

“Whether farmers or city folk, businessman or scientists, an inability to guarantee your own property in the way that other nations allow will impact social stability,” said Li Shu, a lawyer at Anli Law Firm in Beijing.

But Philip Cheng, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells in Shanghai, said a provision in the current draft requiring civil activities to be carried out in a “fair” and “reasonable” manner could help with certain property disputes.

It may, for example, allow companies and individuals to be paid market rates for land that is rezoned to produce new housing in major cities or make way for industrial development,

Limits of protection

Many legal experts say the latest draft of general rules that form the basis of the code falls short of enshrining sweeping private rights and makes little progress in key areas including property and civil liberties.

Another issue: how far the code will go in defending the rights of individuals, known as “personality rights,” a broad term Chinese legal experts use to talk about the basic rights each individual should enjoy.

Health, reputation, image, name and freedom are included, but the term is significantly narrower and de-politicized compared to human rights, according to Chinese academics.

Proponents of individual rights have called for a dedicated section of the code, while others worry granting too many private rights could lead to revolution.

The current scope of personality rights in the draft rules makes them “seriously imbalanced,” according to Xu Xianming, deputy chairman of the National People’s Legal Association, an advocate for more personal freedoms being included in the code.

“First, the list of rights is incomplete; second, the number of rights is insufficient; third, the civil rights system is curtailed,” Xu wrote last year in an essay for the official magazine of China’s parliament.

As China’s constitution cannot be cited in court, rights must be passed by parliament before can they be protected, Xu argued.

China’s constitution on paper promises freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly among others. In practice, however, such provisions are not considered legally actionable and the party’s right to govern as it sees fit takes precedent.

Liang Huixing, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has repeatedly warned that writing personality rights into the civil code might lead to a “color revolution” in China, referring to mass political movements in former Soviet Union states in the early 2000s.
…

Thousands of Afghans gathered at the Pakistani border to return home on Tuesday as Pakistan temporarily reopened two main crossings that had been closed last month after a wave of militant attacks.

The Torkham and Chaman crossings were to remain open through Wednesday for nationals from both countries with valid visas who want to return home, a measure intended to calm tensions and ease a backlog.

“I have a valid visa and I promise that I will never come back here. Please allow me go back to my country,” Matiullah Khan, 52, told The Associated Press as he and his family waited at a checkpoint.

Fayyaz Khan, a Pakistani official at Torkham, said large numbers of Afghans were returning home, along with smaller groups of Pakistanis, but that overland trade between the two countries has yet to resume.

Pakistan shut the crossings three weeks ago after a wave of suicide bombings that authorities said was linked to Islamic militants based in Afghanistan. The two countries have long accused each other of ignoring al-Qaida and other militants who operate along the porous, mountainous border.

Khairullah Azad, the deputy spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, urged Pakistan to restore normal movement at the crossings, saying the two-day reopening was insufficient for people living on both sides of the frontier.

The opening of the crossings came a day after Pakistan said a group of militants crossed over from Afghanistan and attacked several military posts, setting off clashes that killed six soldiers and 10 militants. It said it had complained about the attack to Kabul and called on Afghanistan to take action.

Meanwhile, at least two Pakistani soldiers and five militants were killed Tuesday in the northwestern town of Swabi during a raid on a militant hideout, the military said. It provided no further details, saying the fighting was still underway. The Pakistani Taliban claimed it attacked soldiers in Swabi.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his condolences over the “martyrdom” of soldiers and praised the armed forces for battling those who threaten the state.
…

A survey by the anti-graft group Transparency International shows that bribery and other forms of corruption are hindering poverty alleviation and hurting public health in Asia by channeling resources away from those who need them.

The survey, released Tuesday, estimated that more than 900 million people in the region had paid bribes in the past year to obtain basic public services like schooling and health care. 

Nearly seven in 10 Indians surveyed had paid such bribes. The heavy reliance of cash payments in corruption was a major factor driving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision in October to scrap as legal tender the 500- and 1,000-rupee notes that made up 86 percent of the country’s currency.

While the rate of corruption was much lower in many countries, such practices were found even in relatively law-abiding nations like Japan, where many surveyed said they believed the government was doing a poor job of preventing corruption.

Only one in five of the 21,861 people surveyed in 16 countries or territories said they believed corruption had declined, while about 40 percent believed it was increasing.

Nearly three-quarters of all Chinese said they believed corruption had grown worse recently, despite the ruling Communist Party’s perennial anti-graft campaigns. The issue remains a problem even in Hong Kong, which has a reputation for clean governance, and where a former leader of the city, Donald Tsang, was sentenced recently to 20 months in prison for misconduct. 

A similar proportion of South Koreans also took a dim view of their government’s handling of graft _ possibly reflecting widespread anger over an influence-peddling scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye and the indictment of Samsung’s de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong, on bribery charges.

Across the region, nearly a third of those surveyed had paid a bribe to a police officer in the previous year, while 22 percent had made such payments for schooling, and 18 percent paid them to access a public hospital.

Berlin-based Transparency International said it conducted the survey of randomly selected people between July 2015 and January 2017. 

The group urged government leaders to deliver on promises to substantially reduce bribery and corruption by 2030 made as part of their commitments to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

That requires increasing transparency of government operations and adopting a “zero-tolerance” policy, including in police forces viewed as widely corrupt, it said.
…

The U.S. deployed the first elements of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to South Korea Tuesday, one day after North Korea launched at least four ballistic missiles, three of which landed within 350 km of the Japanese mainland.

Last year, Washington and Seoul agreed to expedite the U.S. missile shield deployment in the face of North Korea’s accelerated testing and development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Continued provocative actions by North Korea, to include yesterday’s launch of multiple missiles, only confirm the prudence of our alliance decision last year to deploy THAAD to South Korea,” Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement.

Harris said the THAAD elements were deployed to honor alliance commitments to South Korea and to help defend U.S. troops in the region, U.S. allies and the American homeland.

The THAAD system could be operational as early as April, according the South Korean military.

Like the Patriot missile system, THAAD uses missiles to shoot down incoming missiles. THAAD is a battery of 48 missiles on mobile erector launchers that uses powerful radar and infrared technology to intercept missiles within a range of 200 km, while they are in their descent phase.

Kim Jong Un

The THAAD announcement came as North Korea’s state run news service, KCNA, said leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised the launch of the medium-range ballistic missiles Monday, three of which flew about 1,000 kilometers and landed only 300-350 km from Japan’s Oga Peninsula in the Akita prefecture.

KCNA said Monday’s missile launches were a part of a drill to test artillery capabilities to target U.S. military bases in Japan.

Pyongyang had earlier repeated its usual threats to take “strong retaliatory measures” after South Korea and the United States began annual joint military drills last week that test their defensive readiness against possible aggression from the North.

Trump offers support

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to South Korea’s acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn by phone after the missile launches, to reiterate U.S. support for its ally and reportedly emphasized the need to take strong measures to deal with North Korea’s continued breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

In 2006, the U.N. Security Council banned North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and has since imposed a number of increasingly severe economic sanctions on Pyongyang for continuing to violate these restrictions.

The Council will meet Wednesday at the request of the U.S. and Japan to discuss North Korea’s continued violations of Security Council resolutions. In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned North Korea’s most recent ballistic missile tests that he said, “seriously undermine regional peace and stability.”

Trump earlier called Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reaffirm the U.S. alliance with Japan and condemn North Korea’s tests as a threat to regional security.

“President Trump told me that the United States was with Japan 100 percent, and that he wanted his comments to be communicated to the Japanese people,” Abe said at his residence. “He said he wanted us to trust him as well as the United States 100 percent.”

THAAD opposition

China’s strong opposition to THAAD has sparked concerns in South Korea.

On Tuesday China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing remains resolutely opposed to THAAD.

Beijing objects to the advanced U.S. weapons system as an unnecessary and provocative military escalation, and says the powerful radar the system uses to track incoming missiles also poses a potential threat to China. 

The South Korean government is considering filing a complaint to the World Trade Organization against China for allegedly retaliating against some of its companies and canceling performances by Korean artists in response to the Seoul government’s decision to deploy THAAD.

In the last month, China has reportedly rejected applications by some Korean carriers to add charter flights between the two countries, ordered tour operators in China to stop selling trips to South Korea, and closed nearly two dozen retail stores belonging to the Korean Lotte Group.

“We will actively consider whether China’s action is in violation of the South Korea-China free trade deal, while stepping up efforts to minimize damage on South Korean industries,” said Lee Hyun-jae, chairman of the ruling Liberty Korea Party’s policy committee.

While the South Korean ruling party strongly supports THAAD as a vital national security measure, public support is divided and some opposition party leaders have come out against it.

Opponents point out THAAD’s limitations, that it cannot defend against a short range attack on the Seoul region, where nearly half the country’s population resides, and that in the event of a major attack THAAD’s 48 interceptor missiles will do little to stop the more than 1,000 missiles North Korea could fire.

And they argue that the limited military advantage is not worth the cost of damaging relations with China.

“To be honest, deploying THAAD will hurt both us and China. No one will gain anything from it. The starting point of THAAD is wrong, so we have to reconsider it completely. Otherwise, our future will be gloomy, chaotic and insecure,” said Lee Jae-myung, the Mayor of Seongnam City and presidential candidate with the opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

Carla Babb and Youmi Kim contributed to this report
…

Over the past five weeks, the public tributes to Ko Ni – a prominent legal adviser assassinated in Yangon on January 29 – have highlighted his many achievements.

The 63-year-old lawyer was a sharp legal mind, a tireless worker, a constitutional law expert and a staunch supporter of Myanmar’s transition to democracy after nearly five decades of military rule.

But the praise has glossed over his importance as a high-profile member of Myanmar’s Muslim community, one of its few remaining voices with any sway or influence in government circles.

While analysts have pointed to his work on reducing the military’s influence through changes to the constitution as the most likely motive for the murder, his death has also widened the gap between Muslims and political life in Myanmar, prompting reflection on the shrinking space for civic participation from religious minorities in the largely Buddhist country.

“I can say the whole Myanmar history, like before the independence, after the independence, and then also for the changes of the military regime and also the revolution, every sector, Muslims are involved,” said 29-year-old Kyaw Htut, who helped organize a memorial in Yangon on Sunday for both Ko Ni and taxi driver Nay Win, who was killed trying to stop the suspected assassin as he fled the scene. “But today, U Ko Ni’s assassination is, I think, it is the notice for all of the Muslims, okay, you better stop from our history. I feel like that. It is really bad.”

Though making up only about 4 percent of the population, Muslims in Myanmar have long played important roles in political life. A Muslim politician, Abdul Razak, was assassinated along with Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San, in 1947, and Muslims were active in the pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

But as the country opened up to the world in 2011, Buddhist nationalism flourished at the expense of religious minorities.

More than 120,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims were placed in camps in western Rakhine state after inter-religious violence in 2012 killed hundreds. As Myanmar’s democratic elections loomed in 2015, election officials rejected the candidacy of a previously elected Rohingya lawmaker, citing dubious citizenship grounds.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) bowed to pressure from nationalist groups by not fielding any Muslim candidates for parliament. Those who ran for other parties lost in the wave of support for the NLD.

Today tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh as Myanmar’s army rounds up anyone with ties to a little-known militant group that attacked a border post in October, killing nine. Rights groups have said abuses committed in the crackdown could amount to crimes against humanity, but Myanmar, which rejects the allegations, has resisted calls for an independent investigation.

As part of the investigation into Ko Ni’s murder, which is widely believed to have been motivated by politics rather than religion, authorities have arrested three people and are searching for a fourth suspect.

At the memorial on Sunday, which was held at the Royal Rose restaurant in Yangon, writer Htin Lin Oo, who spent more than a year in jail for a speech in 2014 deemed offensive to religion, commented on the slow erasure of Muslims from public life.

“In Buddhism, we have to pray for everyone, every single animal, even the water. But nowadays it’s sad to see that the nationalists want to remove U Ko Ni and U Mya Aye from the list of animals they have to pray for.”

Mya Aye is a Muslim member of the 88 Generation, a group of student activists who took part in the 1988 protests.

After the memorial, which involved several speeches, Rohingya activist Wai Wai Nu said Ko Ni’s murder – which she stressed was not directly tied to religion – was nevertheless an indirect “reminder” for the Muslim community that if you are outspoken, “you will be easily targeted.”

Wai Wai Nu herself has to be “strategic” in what she says online.

“Sometimes, I want to post something, I cannot. That can bring a lot of attention to you,” she said, adding that it can be the same for many other minority groups, not just Muslims.

But Aye Lwin, an interfaith advocate and one of the only Muslim members of an advisory commission on Rakhine State led by former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, said up and coming Muslim leaders could look at Ko Ni’s death another way, even as an “inspiration.”

“This will harden us,” he said. “Death cannot stop us.”
…