Banners calling the Philippines a "province of China" mysteriously appeared on bridges in Manila on Thursday, sparking fury on social media on what was the second anniversary of Manila's victory over Beijing in a landmark arbitration case.
Big protests in Vietnam's major cities in June 10th, over three proposed special economic zones (SEZs) that locals fear will be dominated by China:
As the media all take their orders from the Communist Party, the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and citizen-journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution including violence by plainclothes policemen. To justify jailing them, the Party is increasingly resorting to articles 88, 79 and 258 of the criminal code, under which “anti-state propaganda,” “activities aimed at overthrowing the government,” and “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state” are punishable by long prison terms. After hardliners got control of the party leadership, 2017 saw a marked increase in the level of terror, with many citizen-journalists either expelled or jailed in connection with their posts. Two women bloggers, Tranh Thi Nga and Me Nam, were sentenced to nine and ten years in prison respectively in 2017.