ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
December 7, 2015
Obama visits Asian refugee
center amid raging debate in U.S.
By Josh Lederman
The Associated Press
UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
— Pushing back against
efforts to bar Syrian refugees
from resettling in the United States,
President Barack Obama vowed his
country will be a welcoming place for
millions fleeing violence around the
world “as long as I’m president.”
Obama commented at a learning
center in the Malaysian capital that
serves the poor, including some
refugees. He met with boys and girls
wearing crisp white and black
uniforms and neckties as they sat at
tables and worked on painting and
puzzle projects.
Obama said the youngsters
“represent the opposite of terror, the
opposite of the type of despicable
violence we saw in Mali and Paris.”
Most of the children the president
met with are Rohingya, a Muslim
ethnic group. Tens of thousands of
Rohingya have fled Myanmar to
escape persecution by the country’s
Buddhist majority, with many ending
up in Malaysia, where Obama was
attending a regional economic
summit.
Obama noted that the world is
currently
focused
on
the
humanitarian tragedy in Syria,
where years of civil war have forced
K
BLOCKED AT THE BORDER. Anastasia Lin, Canada’s Miss
World contestant, poses for a photograph in Toronto. Miss World Canada
was barred from entering China to take part in this year’s pageant in
the southern island province of Hainan, a friend of the outspoken Chi-
nese-Canadian contestant said. Lin was prevented from boarding her
connecting flight in Hong Kong, Caylan Ford said in an e-mail. (Frank
Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Outspoken Miss World Canada
denied entry to China
By Kelvin Chan
The Associated Press
ONG KONG — Canada’s outspoken Miss World
contestant said she was barred from entering
China to take part in this year’s pageant and
accused Beijing of overreach in extending its campaign of
censorship even to beauty contests.
China-born Anastasia Lin said she was unable to board
her connecting flight from Hong Kong to the southern
island province of Hainan after a Chinese official told her
by telephone that she would not be granted a visa on
arrival.
Lin is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and
a follower of the Falun Gong meditation practice, which
was outlawed by China’s ruling Communist Party in
1999.
“If they start to censor beauty pageants — how pathetic
is that?” Lin said in Hong Kong.
Dressed in black leggings and a belted tan trench coat,
Lin was approached by several fellow travellers in the
Hong Kong airport arrival hall who wanted to take her
photo.
Lin, who moved to Canada from China when she was 13
years old, told a U.S. congressional hearing in July that
tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been
killed so their organs could be harvested and sold for
transplants. The 25-year-old actress also plays an
imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner in an upcoming
Canadian movie, The Bleeding Edge.
Lin said that after she won the Canadian title, Chinese
security agents visited her father who still lives in China
in an apparent attempt to intimidate her into silence.
Although she hadn’t received an invitation letter from
organizers, and therefore was unable to obtain a Chinese
visa, she said she decided to travel to China anyway in
hopes of obtaining a visa on arrival.
After landing in Hong Kong on a flight from Toronto,
Lin was told by airline staff at check-in that she needed to
speak to an official in Hainan’s provincial capital of
Sanya. She said the official, who identified himself only by
his surname, Chen, seemed to be attempting to verify her
identify. After telling her she wasn’t eligible for a visa, the
man refused to give a reason then abruptly hung up the
phone, she said.
“To prevent me from even stepping into Chinese
territory, I think this is what they’re trying to do. I really
don’t see where this insecurity comes from,” Lin told The
Associated Press. “I think that’s the real harm when
people watch this and learn a negative lesson. I hope
people see courage and hope in the story, not simply just
being denied.”
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PRESIDENTIAL VISIT. U.S. President Barack Obama, center, shakes hands with a girl while
touring the Dignity for Children Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Obama visited the center in
Malaysia that helps lower-income families, including refugees, casting a spotlight on the plight of
those fleeing violence and persecution from Myanmar to Syria. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
millions to flee to other countries to
escape the bloodshed. But he said the
world must not forget about some 60
million people who have been
displaced around the globe.
The November Paris attacks have
led U.S. lawmakers to seek to halt or
delay the resettlement of Syrian
refugees in the U.S. out of concern
that terrorists could try to slip in with
them and carry out similar attacks.
Obama has rejected that idea and
pledged to veto any bill sent to him to
block Syrians from entering.
Speaking of the children he had
just met with, Obama said: “Anybody
who had a chance to see those kids,
hopefully you understood the degree
to which they’re just like our kids.
They deserve love and stability and
protection.”
He said more and more countries
are recognizing that they need to do
more, vowing that “as long as I’m
president we are going to keep
stepping up.”
The refugees Obama met with have
all been cleared to come to the U.S.
and have been assigned to specific
cities, the White House said.
Japan probes mystery boats
carrying dead bodies off coast
By Mari Yamaguchi
The Associated Press
OKYO — They drift into seas
near Japan by the dozens
every year, ghostly wrecked
ships thought to come from
impoverished North Korea.
Japanese authorities say they are
investigating nearly a dozen wooden
boats carrying decomposing bodies
that were found off the country’s
northwestern coast over the past
month.
In most cases, the bodies are in
such bad shape after being at sea for
weeks that it’s been impossible to
determine their cause of death,
officials say.
On November 20, officials found 10
bodies in three boats off the coast of
Ishikawa prefecture. Two days later,
another wooden boat was found off
nearby Fukui prefecture with six
skulls, one nearly intact body with a
head, and various other bones and
remains, coast guard official Yuka
Amao told The Associated Press.
Coast guard officials said at least
11 shoddy fishing boats carrying the
bodies have arrived since late Octo-
ber. Most are carrying equipment,
nets, and signs written in Korean,
including one carrying a sign saying
“Korean People’s Army,” the North
Korean army.
The officials said they could not say
for certain, but the poor condition and
small size of the 33- to 40-foot-long
vessels are not typical of South Korea
or Japan, said coast guard
spokesman Yoshiaki Hiroto. He said
evidence suggests the boats are from
the Korean Peninsula, though he
T
GHOST SHIP. A ship of unknown nationality is seen in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, central Ja-
pan, after it was found in mid-November off Noto peninsula and was towed to shore. Japanese au-
thorities are investigating nearly a dozen wooden boats carrying decomposing bodies found drifting
off the northwestern coast over the past month. Coast Guard officials say they have found at least 11
shoddy boats carrying the bodies of unknown nationalities since late October. They have also found
fishing equipment and nets on board, as well as signs written in Korean, suggesting they may have
come from North Korea. (Kyodo News via AP)
declined to identify the country.
The recent spate of arrivals has
drawn attention, though similar
discoveries are not out of the
ordinary: dozens of such wrecked
boats drift toward Japan every year.
So far this year, 34 mystery boats
have drifted over, including the 11
found between late October and
November. Last year, Japan found 65
of them. In 2013, there were 80,
according to the coast guard.
The number tends to rise during
the fall and winter season because of
prevailing winds from the northwest,
Hiroto said.
In recent years, fishermen from
food-short North Korea have increas-
ingly forayed into Japanese waters
hunting squid, and some of the boats
found adrift have been carrying
squid-catching equipment. They are
usually ordered away when caught by
the Japanese coast guard since the
two countries lack a fishing agree-
ment.
Sometimes disabled North Korean
vessels are rescued with their crews
intact, and repatriated. In other
cases, fishermen have used their
ships to defect to South Korea.
The history of such drifting arrivals
goes back centuries, according to
historical accounts.
Associated Press writer Elaine
Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
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