Asia Pacific Forum

On this episode of Asia Pacific Forum: Anti-Asian Violence and Discrimination in the Coronavirus Era, International Criminal Court Opens Door to Investigating US War Crimes Charges, MoMA Divest Disrupts Iraq War Art Exhibit, and Confronting the Danger of Environmental Activism in the Philippines with Spirit Questing.

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With the establishment of the United States as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of Americans are feeling the impact of the crisis. But many in Asian American communities are also facing hatred directed towards those perceived to be responsible because the president and other public figures have played up the fact that the virus emerged in China.

We speak with Professor Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University about his work monitoring anti-Asian violence and discrimination in the coronavirus era, including the website Stop AAPI Hate where individuals can report hate incidents.

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As the Trump administration scrambles to broker a deal with the Taliban that will allow the US to reduce its military presence in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court is providing victims of that war one last chance to seek justice. The ICC's Appeals Chamber reversed an earlier decision by the Court's Pre-Trial Chamber, which had blocked the ICC Prosecutor from initiating a formal investigation into human rights violations and related crimes against humanity. Because the investigation would involve many US officials, the Trump administration, not surprisingly, sought to pressure the ICC and stonewall the investigation. The new ruling from the Appeals Chamber gives a greenlight for the investigation to go forward. Though the US has historically ignored and refused to comply with the ICC, the human rights lawyers involved in the case hope that moving forward with the ICC process will strike a blow against the near total impunity that many US officials have enjoyed up till now.

At the Museum of Modern Art's PS1 Space in Queens, a group of activists from the MoMA Divest campaign staged a demonstration at a controversial exhibit featuring artists' reflections on the Iraq War, titled Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2011. The group delivered the demands of many artists and activists calling for divestment from morally corrupt enterprises such as private prison companies, and the defense contractor Constellis Holdings, formerly named Blackwater, which was heavily involved in the Iraq war. The protesters had intended to tear up the works of one of the artists, Ali Yass, who had asked for his artwork to be destroyed as a statement of protest. In the end, MoMA managed to remove Yass's works before the protesters had a chance to get to them on March 1, but they found a workaround.

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At the start of the year, the Philippines faced the looming threat of a Taal volcano eruption and was the first country outside of China to experience a death as a result of the coronavirus. And when it comes to making lists, there is no shortage of mentions of the Philippines when it comes to both climate change and the dangers of being an environmental activist. The Global Climate Risk Index ranks the Philippines as the second most affected by climate-related disasters out of 181 countries and Global Witness ranked the Philippines and Brazil as the most murderous country for land and environmental defenders. I spoke to Peachie Dioquino Valera, a Philippines based environmental activist, Futures Learning Advisor for Center for Engaged Foresight, and member of the Spirit Questors. Valera offers a ground-level perspective of the dangers of being a land and environmental defender in the Philippines, the link between environmental justice, corporate greed, illegal mining and logging, and the need for nature elementals rights. We hear about Valera's unique activism to confront extrajudicial killings in the country through spirit questing.

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Hong Kong is now entering its sixth month of protests, chaos in the streets and vicious police crackdowns. What began as a revolt against an extradition bill that would have allowed people to be plucked from the island to face justice in the mainland's authoritarian legal system, has now become a massive and volatile social uprising. Will the movement for full universal suffrage be answered by Beijing, will the local government unravel under public pressure, and what role does Hong Kong and its sovereignty play in the emerging political landscape surrounding so called Greater China?

Click to listen to part 1: we speak with writer and activist Wilfred Chan of the Lausan Collective about the protest movement and the Hong Kong diaspora.

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Wilfred Chan, writer and activist, Lausan Collective

Although labor has not been at the forefront of the current wave of protests, throughout the uprising, there have been pockets of labor unrest, including general strike last summer, and strong undercurrent of class tension threads through the mass mobilization in the streets.

We speak with L.H. Au of Workercom, and Wong Yu-loy, Organising Coordinator of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions about the role that organized labor plays in Hong Kong's current political landscape.

A version of this segment originally aired on Dissent Magazine's Belabored podcast.

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L.H. Au, Workercom

Wong Yu-loy, Organising Coordinator of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions

Hong Kong's migrant domestic workers, known as helpers are ubiquitous,yet politically invisible. An emblem of every proper middle class home, they do the work that enables Hong Kong's neoliberal economy to flourish, but often at the cost of their personal autonomy and their basic human rights.

We speak with Joanna Bowers, the creator of the documentary The Helper, which explores the experiences of Hong Kong's migrant underclass.

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Joanna Bowers, filmmaker, The Helper

Cecilia Lim, New York based community artist and organizer discusses ancestral memory and the fight for climate justice from as a filipina in diaspora. APF Radio also talked with Joanna Pruett, a Native-Hawaiian-Chinese woman living in New York about answering the call to defend Mauna Kea and building ohana in New York City.