RFA Unplugged

Archive for April, 2007

Interview with Mia Farrow on China, Darfur and the Olympics

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zViGbEtRSg] Here are some extracts from a much longer interview aired by RFA’s Mandarin service (ZH) on April 25. The interviewer is Shen Hua. You can hear the audio in English here for the next seven days: Q: How did you make the connection between being an actress and getting involved in the political problems [...]

Torch song for Tibet: Everest protesters detained

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J9rUC1m8e8] I got up this morning to find this interview in my Inbox from RFA’s Tibetan service, with Kristen Westby, a Students From a Free Tibet protester at the Everest base camp. Other news media already had the story, but we did a news release because our interview with the protester is strong, and the [...]

Interviews: Mass abortions in Guangxi

Where: Baise city, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region When: Tuesday April 17, 2007 What: Mass abortions reported UPDATE: More interviews from RFA’s Mandarin service: “They gave her the injection at 11 a.m. the previous day and she had the abortion at about 6 p.m. the following day. When the baby was born we could see it [...]

Burma loses national treasures to smugglers

BURMESE: Antiques Smuggling (03/23/07)   Announcer: An antique dealer, based in Myawaddy, said that lately antiques from Pagan, Nyaung Oo, Pintaya, Myauk Oo, Mandalay, and Amarapura are the majority of those smuggled to the border. That antique dealer said that, even though people say there are many antique smugglers in Burma, the number of dealers [...]

Newsdesk: More land protests in Guangdong and Sichuan

This is a brief summary from RFA’s Cantonese service, and I have linked to the original stories in Chinese/Cantonese: Chengdu roadblock: Several hundred villagers in Chengdu, Sichuan province protested against the government land grabbing by blocking the traffic for two days. One villager was detained but later released under villagers’ pressure. (Interviews with a villager [...]

Mo Shaoping on the 'harmonious society'

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB0jRCu854Q] This clip was uploaded to YouTube by Duowei News, which appears to be an overseas Chinese-run news Web site[ZH]. Here is an English translation of the comments by Mo Shaoping, a Chinese lawyer well-known for defending political prisoners and representing clients in high-profile civil rights cases, like Gao Zhisheng’s. All the way through, he [...]

Picture story: Prostrating Tibetan monk halfway to Dharamsala

A Tibetan Buddhist monk from the Amdo-speaking region of China’s Sichuan province is just over half way through his journey to Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan lamas, too, worry about young people these days

Here are some extracts of interviews with top Tibetan religious leaders carried out by the Tibetan service recently, translated and introduced by Karma Dorjee. It appears to show a common theme among the more venerable members of society in any culture; that young people are a cause for concern: Karma writes: Taking the opportunity afforded [...]

Iraqis observed Cambodian elections

Iraqi Delegates Observe Communal Council Elections in Cambodia By Huy Vannak, Radio Free Asia Phnom Penh—Senior officials from prominent Iraqi political parties holding seats in parliament visited Cambodia on an official mission to observe the communal council elections, and to learn about the democratic process in Cambodia.

Hu Jia's trip to Hong Kong

Here is the direct transcript of an interview with Hu Jia broadcast recently by the Cantonese service. You can read more about Hu in English here. He did in fact return to China on March 31: Mandarin: Interview with Hu Jia (03/22/07) Reporter: Christie Christie (C): During an interview with our station’s Cantonese Service on [...]