Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, who has been released on bail after his arrest Monday, said Thursday he has accepted imprisonment as his “destiny” and that the widespread support he has received proves his struggle for democracy is a worthy cause.Lai, 71, was one of 10 people arrested Monday for violating the national security law imposed by China on July 1. Among them, two were his sons, four were senior executives at Lai’s Next Digital company, and three were activists, including 23-year-old Agnes Chow. Local news reports say he was released on bail and that $6.5 million of his assets have been frozen.The arrest of Lai, a high-profile supporter of the pro-democracy movement, and the police raid on the Apple Daily newspaper owned by Next Digital this week have stoked widespread fears of the end of Hong Kong as a city where information and opinions are freely aired.Speaking in public for the first time since his release, Lai said in an Apple Daily live link Thursday morning that he had his moments of doubt when he was handcuffed and struggled to sleep on the floor in custody.“If I knew I would end up here, or eventually in prison, would I have changed myself?” he said has asked himself.“[But] my character is my destiny. Once I accepted my destiny, all of a sudden, I felt the grace of God, the blessing of God, and I was totally relieved. And I left myself to my destiny and accepted it,” said Lai, a Catholic.“It was such a wonderful feeling … culminating in such a situation. It was like God telling me, ‘Don’t fear, just do what you have to do, I’m with you,’” he said.He said he was overwhelmed by the public support for him and his paper.After Apple Daily’s office was raided by around 200 police officers, Next Digital’s share price more than doubled on Monday and rocketed five times again the next day to reach a six-year high.The paper said it printed 550,000 copies of Tuesday’s paper, compared with the usual run of around 70,000. People lined up in the early hours of Tuesday to buy the paper, which sold out across Hong Kong. Some bought multiple copies to leave on the streets for others.Lai said he was filled with emotion when he was released, to be greeted by supporters, who were shouting for joy. He said the images of 200 police officers raiding the newsroom have angered many as it was “a violation of the people’s belief in the freedom of the speech.”“It shows that people really support us, they give us so much comfort to be part of this community,” he said. “I was so touched. This has reaffirmed that whatever I’ve done wrong in the past, what I’m doing now is right. The message is: ‘Let’s go on!’”Likening freedom to oxygen, he said, “The oxygen is getting thin, we’re all choking, [but] we’re still taking care of each other and we keep resisting and fighting for the rule of law and freedoms.”Lai said he was relieved that he had not been taken to mainland China and the police who dealt with his case were Hong Kongers.However, as Lai’s charges included subversion and collusion with a foreign country, which are new offenses under the new national security law, analysts have warned that under the law’s Clause 55 and 56, he risks being sent to China for trial, and could be given the maximum, life imprisonment.After Lai’s arrest, the Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office accused him and his paper of being a mastermind behind protests in Hong Kong, using his media platforms to “fabricate and spread rumors and to incite and support violence,” and of providing financial support for anti-China and pro-independence forces.It called for “severe punishment” of those who “collude with foreign forces” and “act as their agents” to harm national security by “secession, subversion and infiltration.”Lai said China does not understand that Hong Kong’s best assets are the rule of law and its civil liberties, and that they are the foundation of its success as an international financial center. He conceded, though, that Hong Kongers are helpless against such a powerful country.“It’s a long fight, I agree. We cannot be radical, we cannot confront them face to face,” he said.  “We are just eggs and they’re the wall. We have to be flexible and innovative, and patient but to achieve [our goal], that’s the way.”Wiping away tears from time to time during the livestream, Lai said the international support meant “what we are doing is right.”“I am in my 70s and there was never a time when I felt so moved and so happy, knowing that I’ve been doing the right thing. I’m near the end of my life, it’s a very precious feeling,” he said.
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A new coronavirus outbreak that prompted New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to put the city of Auckland under a new lockdown is growing.Authorities in the northern city Thursday reported 13 new community infections, all of them connected to a family of four who tested positive for the virus, becoming the country’s new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 in 102 days. The new confirmed cases bring the total number of active new cases to 36, including one person who entered New Zealand from overseas.Prime Minister Ardern placed Auckland’s 1.6 million people under a three-day lockdown Tuesday, mandating that its 1.6 million citizens stay indoors except for essential trips.  Police checkpoints were established at the city’s borders to turn away anyone attempting to leave. Ardern has also ordered strict social distancing measures for the rest of the country.Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s health minister, said Wednesday that investigators are searching a cold storage facility where one of the infected people worked, on the chance the virus was imported, but other experts believe it was more likely it had been spreading in Auckland for weeks.The new outbreak has also prompted Ardern to delay the dissolution of parliament, a decision that could lead to the postponement of parliamentary elections scheduled for September 19.Medical workers dispose of trash bags containing hazardous biological waste into a pile outside the Hospital del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, which treats patients with COVID-19, in Veracruz, Mexico, Aug. 12, 2020.Among the world’s 20.6 million total confirmed infections, including nearly 750,000 deaths, New Zealand has one of the lowest numbers in either category, with just 1,589 cases and 22 deaths. Ardern imposed a strict nationwide lockdown in March in the outbreak’s earliest days and closed New Zealand’s borders to international travel, while introducing a widespread testing and tracing regime.In the United States, another collegiate athletic conference is postponing its fall sports schedule due to the pandemic. The Big East Conference announced Wednesday none of its 11 member schools will hold contests in men’s and women’s cross country track and soccer (football), and women’s volleyball and field hockey, after consulting with its internal COVID-19 task force.The decision by the Big East comes a day after the Big Ten and the Pac-12 announced they were calling off all of their fall sports competitions, including their lucrative schedule of American-style football games. The Big East does not participate in football.The Big Ten and Pac-12, along with the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big 12, make up the so-called “Power Five” major college athletic conferences, whose gridiron football programs are not only among the best in the nation, but also bring in billions of dollars in revenue from ticket sales and national television contracts.The prospect of any U.S. college football being played during the traditional fall season amid the pandemic was thrown into doubt well before the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their seasons. Three other conferences, along with a handful of independent college programs, have either postponed or canceled their football seasons. But the ACC, SEC and Big 12 said Wednesday they plan to carry on with their football seasons, although with a limited number of games.Meanwhile, one of the world’s top golf tournaments – The Masters – will be played this year with no spectators.It’s the third major U.S. golf match to be fan-free this year. The PGA Championship was played last week with no one watching from the sidelines. The U.S. Open, which was moved from June to September, will also have no spectators.The Masters is usually held every April at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. The club has been closed because of the coronavirus, and this year’s tournament has been postponed until November.
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At first glance, the videos conjure up visions of a secluded utopian paradise.In one, a young woman rides on horseback in the dewy landscape of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, picks lily magnolias while wearing in a red cape and then cooks a large spread of dishes with the blossoms.In another, she uses grape skins to dye white cloth, sews a flowing purple maxi-dress, and dances in her beautiful, spacious country house.Meet one of China’s most popular vloggers, Li Ziqi. Picking ingredients from her farm, constructing furniture by hand, and tending her adorable sheep and dogs, she performs the work of a farmer with the grace of a fairy and offers a romantic depiction of China’s country life.This rural dreamscape comes with some hardheaded analytics: She has over 26.3 million followers on China’s Sina Weibo, more than over 3.5 million followers on Facebook and She has 11.8 million subscribers on YouTube, where her last post, “The Life of Cucumbers” generated more than 10 million views in three weeks. Facebook and YouTube are blocked by China’s Great Firewall.Li is one of the few Chinese Internet celebrities whose popularity transcends borders. She has received high praise from China’s state media outlets for “showing the wonderful lives of Chinese people in the countryside,” who account for about 40 percent of its people.Experts who spoke to VOA say that China is trying to tap into its vast pool of talented cybercelebrities to generate soft power for the country. Yet they suggest the strategy is unlikely to be very successful because the actions of the Chinese Communist Party have generated mostly negative publicity outside of China. Soft power, a concept first introduced by Harvard University professor Joseph Nye, refers to a country’s appeal and attraction originated from its culture, political values, foreign policies and ways of life.Party approvalIn an interview with Goldthread, which explores trends and presents human interest stories from China, the 30-year-old said she started as a one-woman operation in 2015. Li said now she has a videographer and an assistant, but she “has full control of the content she wants to film.” The news outlet noted that they were not allowed to observe Li’s filming.Li’s main audience includes urban millennials, as her videos portray an appealing rural life for urban fantasies. Michel Hockx, a professor of Chinese literature at the University of Notre Dame, told VOA Mandarin that these videos would undoubtedly appeal Western audiences and Chinese-speaking communities worldwide.“For non-Chinese audiences, they might strengthen certain views of Chinese culture and Chinese tradition as “exotic and different,” he said.Along with praise from her fans in China and elsewhere, China’s official CCTV applauded Li for introducing Chinese culture to the world, telling China’s stories and showing “the confidence and wonderful lives of China’s youth.” All this falls in line with President Xi Jinping’s call issued two years ago to “to tell China’s stories well, present a true, multidimensional, and panoramic view of China, and enhance our country’s cultural soft power.”Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper published under the auspices of the official People’s Daily, reported Li lives a reclusive yet ideal Chinese pastoral life, adding which foreigners may liken to “a fairy tale.” The China Association of Young Rural Entrepreneurial Leaders, an organization with deep ties to the Communist Youth League, has invited Li to be their ambassador.Kingsley Edney, the author of Soft Power With Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds, said the fact that the state media are praising vloggers like Li sends a political signal.“The Chinese government would certainly see these celebrities as a potential resource, but one that needs to be harnessed and controlled,” he told VOA Mandarin.Stanley Rosen, a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Southern California, echoed Edney.“I think there is no question that the Party/government wants to co-opt these individuals for domestic and international purposes,” he told VOA Mandarin. “The latter is clear from the YouTube channel since YouTube is banned in China.”Han Li, an associate professor of literature at Rhodes College, pointed out that Li has a support team for her presence on the banned platforms, Facebook and YouTube. “That tells you she has government support,” she told VOA.Soft powerIn June, an article in The Diplomat magazine said suggested that individual content creators like Li are sensitive to viewer perceptions and present a softer, diversified, and apolitical side of Chinese society that better connects with international audiences.“Their success implies that China could tap into this vast pool of talented cyber celebrities to generate soft power for the country – in fact, this may have already started,” wrote author Jo Kim.Rosen said the Chinese Communist Party has tried to generate soft power through its culture in numerous ways, including films and Confucius Institutes, but has not been notably successful, particularly in the West.“Given all the negatives that stem from China’s actions in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, the South China Sea and elsewhere, the Party-state is looking for something to show the ‘soft side’ of China, through ordinary people, to show that Chinese people are just like people everywhere,” he said.Yet Rosen argued this strategy would be hard to be overly successful because the recent aggressive actions of CCP have generated negative publicity outside China.Since Xi came to power, the Chinese leader has stressed the importance of building a network to reach out to the international audience, and do a better job “telling China’s stories, conveying China’s voice and building cultural self-confidence.”Jonathan McClory, a globally recognized expert on soft power and government communications, said it’s hard for China to win the hearts of citizens from other countries in light of its authoritarian rule at home and aggressive foreign policies abroad.“While cultural soft power is best placed to draw people in for an initial ‘conversation’, (China’s) behavior in terms of domestic and foreign policy will carry the day in shaping global opinion of a country,” he told VOA.Edney said the biggest problem with China’s image is its political system. Meanwhile, almost all of the culture it promotes is traditional Chinese culture which is largely non-existent in today’s China.He recommended the Chinese authorities give these Internet celebrities a little space to promote their quirky interests or personalities, so it can help showcase the vibrancy of contemporary Chinese society to international audiences and give people a fresh view of the country.Edney continued, saying “Internet celebrities are not going to be able to make people ignore human rights abuses in China.” 
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Thailand’s King swore in six new cabinet officials Wednesday amid unprecedented student-led protests that have erupted in recent days denouncing the monarchy.  King Maha Vajiralongkorn called for “order and peace” during his remarks, but refrained from explicitly acknowledging the unrest. He blessed the new members, bestowing “good health and wisdom to have the strength to perform your duties according to your oaths.” The reorganization of the cabinet, which now includes banking executive Predee Daochai as finance minister and Supattanapong Punmeechaow as energy minister, comes as six ministers resigned last month, citing ruling party internal disputes.  FILE – Pro-democracy students raise a three-finger salute, a resistance symbol borrowed by Thailand’s anti-coup movement from the movie “The Hunger Games,” during a protest at Thammasat University near Bangkok, Thailand, Aug, 10, 2020.Dissent in Thailand has been growing steadily since 2016, when the current monarch ascended the throne after his father’s death. Over the past four years, he has enacted several security laws that restrict freedom of speech and criticism of the government.  Thailand is home to one of the world’s most punitive lèse-majesté laws, which punishes those who insult the monarchy with a maximum of 15 years in prison.  Many in the government view the students’ calls for more democracy radical and antithetical to Thai culture, which typically reveres the monarchy as semi-divine.  Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday that thousands of student protesters “went too far” after some issued a 10-point call for various reforms.  No student leaders have yet been charged under the lèse-majesté law, but two have been brought up on allegations of sedition and treason.  
 
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Australia is reporting a new single-day record 21 COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, along with 428 new infections.   The fatalities occurred in the southern state of Victoria, which has been battling a dramatic surge of new infections since late June that prompted authorities to impose strict lockdowns to control the spread of the virus.   A pedestrian wears a face mask as the city operates under lockdown in response to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Melbourne, Australia, Aug. 12, 2020. (AAP Image/James Ross via Reuters)Premier David Andrews says all the fatalities were mainly those between their 70s and 90s, with one woman over 100, and that 16 of them were linked to elder care facilities. Victoria state also posted 410 new infections Wednesday, breaking a run of three consecutive days of new infections below 400.   The remaining 18 infections reported Wednesday were in neighboring New South Wales, where authorities have reported a new cluster of infections at a private school in Sydney.   In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday she is delaying the dissolution of parliament, a decision that could lead to the postponement of parliamentary elections scheduled for September 19.  Ardern issued a lockdown Tuesday on the city of Auckland after a family of four tested positive for COVID-19.The family is the first new locally transmitted cases of coronavirus in 102 days. Health  authorities are working to trace the source of the new infections.  Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s health minister, says investigators are looking into the possibility the virus was imported by freight.   Sporting world impactedThe pandemic continues to have an effect on the sporting world, as two major U.S. college athletic conferences announced Tuesday they are postponing their upcoming fall (gridiron) football seasons.    Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said after consulting with the conference’s medical advisory board “it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.”   
 FILE – An empty Michigan Stadium is seen on the University of Michigan campus amid reports of college football cancellation, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 10, 2020.Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said the presidents and chancellors of all of the member schools agreed their individual programs “are a part of broader campuses in communities where in many cases the prevalence of COVID-19 is significant.”      The Big Ten includes such legendary collegiate football programs as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, while the Pac-12 conference, based primarily in the western United States, includes such traditional powerhouses as Stanford, the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).     In addition to football, the Big Ten says it is postponing all of its fall sports activities, including men’s and women’s track and field and American-style soccer. The Pac-12 said it will not hold any sports competitions for the remainder of 2020.   The two conferences, along with the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big 12, make up the so-called “Power Five” major college athletic conferences, whose football programs are not only among the best in the nation, but also bring in billions of dollars in revenue from ticket sales and national television contracts.     The prospect of any U.S. college football being played during the traditional fall season amid the COVID-19 pandemic was thrown into doubt well before the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their seasons.  Three other conferences, including the Ivy League, which represents such prestigious schools as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, have either postponed or outright canceled their football seasons.  Medical experts have expressed concern that otherwise young and healthy athletes could develop long term health problems if they contract COVID-19, including heart and lung damage.    President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Aug. 11, 2020, in Washington.But U.S. President Donald Trump has been one of the leading figures urging college football to begin its season as normal, telling reporters at the White House Tuesday the players are “young, strong people” who will be able to fight off the virus.       The pandemic has forced the National Basketball League and National Hockey League to resume their seasons in centralized locations, dubbed “bubbles,” where players and coaching staffs must remain during competition.  Major League Baseball’s shortened 60-game season has been marred with several players from the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals testing positive for COVID-19, forcing the league to postpone dozens of games and putting the truncated season at risk of being canceled.      
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