The Philippines, an old U.S. ally and more recent friend of China, is awkwardly bouncing one superpower off the other on its way to a neutral foreign policy that will give the Southeast Asian country benefits from both sides, specialists say.Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin told the Philippine-based ANC News Channel last week “we need the U.S. presence” in Asia. That remark follows years of anti-American thundering by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has also sought friendship with China since he took office in 2016.Like Asian neighbors such as Indonesia and Vietnam, the strategically located Philippines intends eventually to keep equal relations with both world powers, analysts believe. Asian countries with a neutral stance often get development aid and investment from China along with military support – to resist China — from the United States.Philippines Reinstates Pact with US MilitaryUS Welcomes the decision on the Visiting Forces AgreementFor that reason, scholars say, officials in Manila make statements that outsiders find conflicting.“It’s something like, when you say something bad against China you have to compensate it,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school.“It’s an ongoing show, I would say, so I would have to take [Locsin’s] pronouncements in that bigger context of this balancing game,” he said.The impoverished Philippines sees Beijing as a source of investment and development aid despite a decades-old dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea. Duterte resents U.S. presence in the country.However, Duterte’s military and much of the Philippine public want the country to keep close ties with the United States, especially as China gets stronger just offshore in waters claimed by Manila. “Duterte may still be extremely popular with Filipinos, but Beijing decidedly is not,” Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a February study. The Philippine defense community remains “extremely worried,” he added.China Launches 4 Missiles into South China SeaU.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper calls out China’s ’rule-breaking,’ and vows to protect Pacific norms   For Washington, the Philippines represents part of a Western Pacific island chain of political allies that work together as needed to stop Chinese maritime expansion. The United States and the Philippines have lived by a mutual defense treaty since 1951. China hopes strong ties with the Philippines will reduce U.S. clout in the South China Sea dispute, where the People’s Liberation Army has a lead over neighboring states. U.S. officials periodically warn Beijing to leave the South China Sea open for international use. Washington doesn’t claim the sea but periodically sends naval ships over to show that the waterway is still open.In 2016, China pledged $24 billion in aid and investment to the Philippines.A neutral foreign policy in the Philippines will come in hot and cold spurts aimed at both superpowers, scholars say. Duterte said in early August, for example, that he would avoid joining military exercises with the United States in the sea that his government disputes with China. In July and August, though, the Philippine navy participated in the multicountry Rim of the Pacific exercises that the U.S. government hosts every two years. Duterte notified Washington in February of his intention to terminate the 21-year-old Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, a pact that lets U.S. troops fluidly move in and out of the Philippines. Manila suspended that plan in June.The Philippines should eventually formulate a “more dignified” foreign policy so China and the United States know what to expect, said Enrico Cau, Southeast Asia specialist with the Taiwan Strategy Research Association. Manila need not worry about losing the support of either side, he said. China wants stronger relations in Southeast Asia, he said, while the U.S. hopes to keep its military toehold. Neither superpower has cut ties with a smaller country over strong ties with the other.“You take just an equidistant standing, which is constant, and that actually improves relations with everybody – also allows China and the United States to know what to expect,” Cau said.A cementing of foreign policy will wait until after the U.S. presidential election in November, said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Metro Manila-based advocacy group Institute for Political and Electoral Reform. The Philippines is not “moving in either direction” today, he said. Incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up military support for the five Asian governments that oppose Beijing’s expansion in the South China Sea over the past decade. It’s unclear whether challenger Joe Biden would continue that direction.
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The U.S. State Department has imposed a new set of restrictions on Chinese diplomats working in the United States.Under the new rules, which were announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, senior Chinese diplomats must get prior approval to visit college campuses or meet with local government officials, and to host any cultural events outside of the Chinese Embassy or consular posts if the audience is larger than 50 people.Pompeo also said the administration will require the Chinese government to properly identify all government-run social media accounts.Pompeo said the imposition of similar rules on American diplomats working in China was the reason for the restrictions on Chinese diplomats in the United States.“We’re simply demanding reciprocity,” he said.The Chinese Embassy in Washington issued a statement calling the move “yet another unjustified restriction and barrier” on their diplomatic and consular personnel.The new restrictions on Chinese diplomats in the United States is the latest sign of worsening relations between the world’s two largest economies. The two sides have clashed over numerous issues, including trade, technology, the new national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong, and China’s increasingly aggressive behavior toward Taiwan.
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At least one person was killed and more than 2,000 people evacuated to temporary shelters in South Korea as a powerful typhoon churned across the peninsula, authorities said Thursday.Typhoon Maysak — named after the Cambodian word for a type of tree — made landfall early Thursday in Busan on the southern coast, knocking down traffic lights and trees and flooding streets.A woman was killed after a strong gust shattered her apartment window in Busan, while a man in his 60s was injured when the wind toppled an outdoor refrigerator, crushing him.More than 2,200 people evacuated to temporary shelters and around 120,000 homes left without power throughout the night across southern parts of the country and on Jeju Island.Maysak was making its way up the eastern side of the peninsula into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, packing gusts of up to 140 kph.”The typhoon’s influence on our country will gradually weaken,” South Korea’s Meteorological Administration said, forecasting heavy downpours and strong winds in eastern areas.Maysak was forecast to make landfall again in North Korea at around 0300 GMT at Kimchaek, in North Hamgyong province.Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact in the North due to its creaking infrastructure, and the country is vulnerable to flooding as many mountains and hills have long been deforested.Pyongyang’s state media was on high alert, carrying live broadcasts of the situation.”The trait of this typhoon is that it has brought heavy precipitation,” said a news reporter for Korean Central Television in its early morning newscast, standing in an inundated street in the eastern port of Wonsan.”The total precipitation from 21:00 on September 2 to 6:00 on September 3 is 200 millimeters,” he added.Maysak is the second typhoon in a week to hit the peninsula.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week visited a farming region hit by Typhoon Bavi and expressed relief the damage was “smaller than expected.” 
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Two months after China’s national security law took effect in Hong Kong, the city is scrambling to adjust to a new normal.Government raids on newspapers began on August 10, when dozens of uniformed officers showed up the Apple Daily, a local newspaper. Early in the morning, they arrested Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media mogul and owner of Next Digital, the Apple Daily parent company, on charges of fraud and collusion with a foreign power, an offense prescribed by the new national security law.The move against Lai and Apple Daily came a week after the United States placed sanctions on Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong chief executive, and 10 other security and government officials for “undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly of the citizens of Hong Kong.”Next Digital’s CEO Kim-hung Cheung, CFO Royston Chow and COO Tat-kuen Chow were also apprehended. Lai and the executives were released on bail.Authorities issued a warrant for Mark Simon, Lai’s right-hand man and an American citizen who is now in the U.S. with his assets frozen in Hong Kong. Simon, who considers Hong Kong home after two decades of residency, said he wouldn’t return.”Hong Kong is my home of choice. In other words, I love Hong Kong. It literally depresses me to know that I can’t go back there for maybe quite a long time,” he told VOA Mandarin in an exclusive interview.Returning would mean legal troubles that Simon called “a distraction” for everyone, something he doesn’t want.Protests began last year over China’s extradition proposal. The legislation would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.Hong Kongers feared the bill would expose them to China’s politicized court system, where a trial almost always ends with a conviction.China’s Communist Party accused the U.S. and other Western countries of meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs.”Unfortunately, some Hong Kong residents have been hoodwinked by the opposition camp and their foreign allies into supporting the anti-extradition campaign,” said an English language editorial in the official China Daily, the day after hundreds of thousands had jammed Hong Kong’s streets on June 9, 2020, to protest against the extradition bill.But after the bill was withdrawn, the protests continued as Hong Kongers from all walks of life pushed for direct elections, among other pro-democracy elements such as a free press.Simon did not support Westerners participating in the demonstrations. He said he attended rallies to “keep an eye on” Lai, a man Simon described as a colleague, friend and family member after working for him for 20 years.“I think I went on about four or five of the marches that Jimmy’s been on in the last year or so in the fall, largely because we were getting a lot of reports that somebody was going to try to do something physical,” he said.He said the threats were not surprising as Lai was regularly under surveillance by unknown individuals and the pro-Beijing media.“Mr. Lai’s House has 24/7 people out there watching,” Simon said. “You might come over for a dinner party, you have your picture taken.”Increased surveillanceSimon said he was also watched. He responded by moving his family back to the U.S. to avoid being harassed.“I lived a life under heavy surveillance when I was in Hong Kong. I was followed on a fairly regular basis,” he told VOA Mandarin.This type of surveillance has intensified since the new law went into effect June 30, according to pro-democracy activists who have complained of being stalked by unknown individuals.Activists are increasingly fearful of being detained. Last month, Joshua Wong, founder of political party Demosisto, and Agnes Chow, also of Demosisto, were arrested, as was Andy Chan, a founder of the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party. Charges ranged from suspicion of “organizing unorganized assembly” and “knowingly participating in unauthorized assembly” to “attacking police.”More and more Hong Kongers have fled the city, among them the veteran pro-democracy activist Nathan Law.China’s marine police detained 12 people near Ninepin Islands on a speedboat headed to Taiwan on August 23. Authorities charged those on board with unlawfully crossing a national border, according to the Guangdong Coast Guard’s official account on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.Hong Kong activist Andy Li was among those arrested, according to local media, and the others arrested are believed to be Hong Kong activists.Meanwhile, Western governments are considering ways to help Hong Kongers.Last month, the British government updated its immigration guidelines. The new rules offer some 3 million British National Overseas passport holders from Hong Kong an extended visa-free residency before requiring the submission of an application for the new special visa that provides a pathway to citizenship.Hong Kong, which used to be a British colony, reverted to China in 1997. Hong Kongers born before then are eligible to apply for a British National Overseas passport.Simon believes that the U.S. government also has a moral responsibility to help those who want to leave Hong Kong.“We used to say the Jews who came over after World War II were Hitler’s gift to America. We received all these incredible talents,” he said. “The Hong Kong people that come to the U.S., or go to the U.K. or Australia, that’s Xi Jinping’s gift to the world.” 
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The Taiwan government released a new design Wednesday for its passport cover, and the island’s popularly known name “Taiwan” is noticeably amplified in a bold font to avoid a connection to China, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.  
 
In a reduced size, the island’s official name – “the Republic of China” (R.O.C.) – remains on the cover, which observers say helps de-escalate tensions with China.  
 
The official name, R.O.C., has made it difficult for its people to travel overseas since the start of the pandemic in January, as Taiwanese often are mistaken for Chinese, according to Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu.  
 
The government pushed the legislature to pass a motion in July, requesting that the Cabinet redesign the country’s passport cover and the insignia of China Airlines, Taiwan’s national carrier, to be more Taiwan-centric.
 Taiwan-centric passport  
 
Acting on the legislative motion, Wu said the new design puts Taiwan front and center on the cover while making only minimal changes.
 
“On the passport cover, the word Taiwan is enlarged and placed right above the word passport, which stresses explicitly it’s a Taiwan passport. It’s now crystal clear,” Wu told a press briefing Wednesday to introduce the new design.
 
Another change involves the island’s official name, which is largely downsized on the cover, but printed three times inside the ring circling the national emblem.
 
Taiwan first added its alternative name to the passport cover in 2003 when the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) swept into power, which was widely seen as a part of the party’s hidden agenda to push Taiwan toward de jure independence.Confrontations avoided
 
The re-designed passport cover suggests another step forward, although the DPP government apparently has made concessions by retaining the official name to avoid being engaged in ideological confrontations, said opposition KMT legislator Charles Chen.  Members of the media take photos of paper cut-outs of the old and new (R) Taiwan passport displayed in Taipei, Taiwan, Sept. 2, 2020.“I think the hidden agenda is no more hidden. But this step is rather small, a very tiny step. So, there’s a strong compromise in this design. If it really takes off the term, Republic of China, from the cover, wow, that’s [will be] a significant step,” Chen told VOA by phone.
 
That could provoke China, which sees Taiwan as a renegade province but so far, China’s response toward the new passport design appears to be measured.  DPP’s tricks
 
“Whatever tricks the DPP government is pulling, Taiwan remains an integral part of China – a fact that will never change,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, told a media briefing when asked to respond to Taiwan’s new passport design.
 
Domestically, the KMT’s Chen said the new design only serves the purpose of the DPP government to please its supporters since it won’t affect the way airport customs around the world handle Taiwan’s passport holders.  
 
There had been reports, however, that Taiwanese passport holders were barred from entering countries such as Indonesia, which refused entry of the Chinese people to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  
 
As a result, a poll in March released by the New Power Party (NPP) showed that nearly 75% of Taiwanese supported the idea of removing “Republic of China” from the country’s passports to draw a clear distinction between Taiwanese and Chinese.
 Genuine desire
 
NPP creative media director Jerry Liu said the government’s move to highlight “Taiwan” on the passport cover is positively welcomed, but not enough.
 
“If they just put the ‘Republic of China’ inside the passport, like the very first page of the passport, and on the cover, only show, then it will be just much better. And I’m sure the majority of Taiwanese people will appreciate that way,” Liu told VOA by phone.
 
Liu also urged the government to find ways to modify the island’s national emblem as it bears a striking resemblance to the KMT’s party emblem.
 
According to Liu, the party has kick-started a new passport cover design contest in the past few months. It says it has received more than 120 designs, which show mostly only “Taiwan” and images about Taiwan, such as a butterfly, a Taiwan deer or a Taiwan blue magpie on their proposed passport cover designs.
 
This underscores how much the local people desire to be identified as Taiwanese, instead of Chinese, Liu added.
 
Recent polls show that a record 83% of local people identified themselves as Taiwanese. 
   
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