JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s anti-graft court sentenced a former agriculture minister to 10 years in prison Thursday after finding him guilty of corruption-related extortion, abuse of power and bribery involving ministry contracts with private vendors.

The case has tarnished President Joko Widodo’s credibility in fighting corruption. Five other members of Widodo’s Cabinet have been sentenced to prison terms in corruption cases, casting a shadow over his efforts to clean up government while his term will end in October.

The court in the capital, Jakarta, ruled that the former Cabinet minister, Syahrul Yasin Limpo, was guilty of abusing his power by enriching himself and other officials. It also ordered him to pay a $18,500 fine and said he would be subject to another four months’ imprisonment if he fails to pay.

“The defendant has legally and convincingly been proven guilty of corruption,” presiding Judge Rianto Adam Pontoh said. “He wasn’t a good example as a public official, what he has done is counter the government’s efforts to fight corruption and enriched himself by corruption.”

Limpo had been arrested last October by the Corruption Eradication Commission, known as the KPK. He has denied wrongdoing.

Several ministry officials testified during the trial that secretariats, directorates general and agencies within the ministry were required to give up 20% of their budgets to Limpo, as though they were indebted to him, and he threated their jobs if they rejected his demands. Vendors and suppliers were also asked to set aside money to fulfill the then-minister’s demands, the trial revealed.

Limpo used the money on luxurious cars, gifts and apartments, charter private jets, family parties and gatherings, and for religious observances and pilgrimages. Limpo also used the bribes to disburse humanitarian aid for disaster victims and to his Nasdem political party.

Prosecutors, who sought 12 years imprisonment for Limpo, said the politician accepted a total of $2.7 million between January 2020 and October 2023.

In their indictment, prosecutors accused Limpo of ordering his two subordinates, Kasdi Subagyono and Muhammad Hatta, to collect the illicit money. They were each sentenced to four years in prison in separate cases.

During the trial, Limpo said he was the victim of political persecution and felt that he had been slandered by his subordinates in his ministry who feared being replaced or removed from their position.

“I never received any information about their objection to any of my orders,” Limpo said. “If they think it’s wrong, they should consult and discuss with me first.”

Widodo campaigned in part on a pledge to run a clean government in a country that ranked 115th out of 180 nations in the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International.

Limpo, a former South Sulawesi governor, is the second politician from the Nasdem Party to face recent prosecution. Johnny G. Plate, a former communication minister, was sentenced to 15 years in prison over $533 million in graft of the construction of mobile phone transmission towers in remote parts of the country.

Corruption is endemic in Indonesia and the anti-graft commission, one of the few effective institutions in the country of nearly 270 million people, is frequently under attack by lawmakers who want to reduce its powers.

The KPK has arrested around 250 members of the local parliament, as many as 133 regents and mayors as well as 18 governors, 83 members of the national parliament and 12 ministers since the institution was founded in late 2003.
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BEIJING — Top Chinese officials gather in Beijing on Monday, with all eyes on how they might kickstart lackluster growth at a key political meeting that has traditionally seen officials unveil big-picture economic policy changes.

The world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a real estate debt crisis, weakening consumption, an aging population and geopolitical tensions overseas.

President Xi Jinping will oversee the ruling Communist Party’s secretive Third Plenum, which usually takes place every five years in October, though Beijing has offered few hints about what might be on the table.

State media in June said the delayed four-day gathering would “primarily examine issues related to further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization,” and Xi last week said the CCP was planning “major” reforms.

Analysts are hoping those pledges will result in badly needed support for the economy.

“There are many hopes that this Third Plenum will provide some new breakthroughs on policy,” Andrew Batson of the Beijing-based consultancy Gavekal Dragonomics told AFP.

“China’s government has struggled to execute a successful economic strategy since emerging from the pandemic,” he added.

But he said he did not expect a “fundamental departure from the course Xi has already laid out,” in which technological self-sufficiency and national security outweigh economic growth.

And the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, warned on Monday that “reform is not about changing direction and transformation is not about changing color.”

Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, said the meeting was “intended to generate and discuss big, long-term ideas and structural reforms instead of making short-term policy adjustments.”

The Third Plenum has long been an occasion for the Communist Party’s top leadership to unveil major economic policy shifts.

In 1978, then-leader Deng Xiaoping used the meeting to announce market reforms that would put China on the path to dazzling economic growth by opening it to the world.

And more recently following the closed-door meeting in 2013, the leadership pledged to give the free market a “decisive” role in resource allocation as well as other sweeping changes to economic and social policy.

Growth figures expected

This year’s conclave will begin the same day China is due to release its growth figures for the second quarter.

Experts polled by AFP expect China’s economy to have grown, on average, 5.3 percent year-on-year between April and June.

Beijing has said it is aiming for 5% growth this year — enviable for many Western countries but a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years drove the Chinese economy.

Authorities have been clear they want to reorient the economy away from state-funded investment and instead base growth around high-tech innovation and domestic consumption.

But economic uncertainty is fueling a vicious cycle that has kept consumption stubbornly low.

Among the most urgent issues facing the economy is a persistent crisis in the property sector, which long served as a key engine for growth but is now mired in debt, with several top firms facing liquidation.

Authorities have moved in recent months to ease pressure on developers and restore confidence, such as by encouraging local governments to buy up unsold homes.

Analysts say much more is required for a full rebound as the country’s economy has yet to bounce back more than 18 months after damaging COVID-19 restrictions ended.

“Short-term stimulus is badly needed to boost the teetering economy,” Nomura’s Ting said.

But, he added, “major steps towards market-oriented reforms might be limited this time.”
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Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s defense ministry said Thursday it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft around the island in a 24-hour window, a record-high this year, a day after it said Beijing was conducting exercises in nearby waters.

China claims self-ruled democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to bring it under its control.

Thursday’s record follows Taipei, a day earlier, spotting Chinese aircraft around the island that it said were headed to the western Pacific for exercises with the PLA aircraft carrier Shandong.

“66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) today,” the defense ministry said in Thursday’s statement.

Fifty-six of the aircraft crossed the sensitive median line bisecting the Taiwan Strait — a narrow 180-kilometer waterway separating the island from China.

The ministry added it had “monitored the situation and responded accordingly.”

An illustration it released showed some of the aircraft came within 61 km of Taiwan’s southern tip.

The year’s previous record was in May, when Beijing sent 62 military aircraft and 27 naval vessels around Taiwan.

That occurred in the middle of war games Beijing launched on the heels of the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing regards as a “dangerous separatist.”

Military expert Su Tzu-yun said China’s latest show of force was a reaction to recent political developments, including Washington’s new de facto ambassador to Taiwan meeting with and expressing support for Taipei during a meeting with Lai on Wednesday.

“Beijing puts pressure on Taiwan in order to express its displeasure at the support it enjoys,” said Su of Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research. 

Taiwan defense minister Wellington Koo on Wednesday noted that the Shandong had not passed “through the Bashi Channel,” the area off Taiwan’s southern tip where Chinese ships typically transit en route to the Pacific Ocean.

Instead, it “went further south through the Balingtang Channel towards the Western Pacific,” he said, referring to a waterway just north of the Philippines’ Babuyan Island, about 250 kilometers south of Bashi.

Neighboring Japan on Tuesday confirmed that four PLA navy vessels, including the Shandong, were sailing 520 kilometers southeast of Miyako island.

“Fighter aircraft and helicopters” had been seen taking off from and landing on the Shandong,” it said.

The Philippines’ military public affairs chief said they had received reports of a China-Russia exercise taking place in the Philippine Sea but did not comment about the Shandong directly.

Tensions between Manila and Beijing have grown following a series of escalating confrontations over the hotly disputed South China Sea.
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washington — A U.S. plan to boost its Pacific air power is seen by analysts as an effort to reinforce deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and counterbalance China’s attempt to gain dominance in the region.

The U.S. Air Force plans to upgrade more than 80 fighter jets stationed at Japanese bases over the next several years as part of a $10 billion program to modernize its forces there.

The Defense Department announced the plan last week, saying it aims to enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance and bolster deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.

“This is a necessary upgrade that has been planned for some time. And combined with Japan’s own investments, it will help maintain some degree of air power balance between the allies and China’s progress in air force modernization,” said James Schoff, senior director of the U.S.-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA.

“Without it, the credibility of U.S. deterrent capacity would be much weaker, which could cause Beijing to doubt U.S. seriousness about protecting the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and prompt more aggressive Chinese behavior,” Schoff said.

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said it spotted 37 Chinese aircraft near Taiwan on Wednesday as they headed to the Western Pacific for drills with the Shandong aircraft carrier.

Chinese jets and warships have frequently made dangerous maneuvers around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a part of its own territory.

Former U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander John Aquilino told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that China could soon have the world’s largest air force.

China is currently the third-largest air power in the world, behind the United States and Russia.

China’s rapid military modernization efforts have led it to possess more than 3,150 aircraft, of which about 2,400 are combat aircraft, including fighters, strategic and tactical bombers, and attack aircraft, according to the Pentagon’s 2023 report on China’s military power.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Monday that “U.S.-Japan relations should not target or harm other countries’ interests and should not undermine regional peace and stability.”

Upgrade designed to help defend Japan

In addition to protecting Taiwan, the upgrade — which includes the advanced F-35 jets — also will help U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) deter North Korea and defend Japan’s Southwest Islands, said James Przystup, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Japan has a territorial dispute with China over what it calls the Senkaku Islands and what China calls the Diaoyu Islands.

Japan and Russia also have a dispute over islands off Hokkaido, which Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia calls the Kuril Islands.

The U.S. aircraft upgrade plan is to modify several deployed F-35B jets stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi prefecture south of Hiroshima.

The Misawa Air Base in Japan’s northern Aomori prefecture will see 36 F-16 aircraft be replaced with 48 F-35A jets.

Aircraft will be rotated

At Kadena Air Base in Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, 48 F-15 C/D jets will be replaced with 36 new F-15EX jets. During the upgrades, fourth- and fifth-generation tactical aircraft will be dispatched on a rotational basis, according to the Pentagon.

“The upgrades will provide qualitative and quantitative boosts to the USFJ inventory, which will also enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance’s readiness against China, North Korea and Russia,” said Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative.

“Benefits will be seen not only in aerial operations but also guarding U.S. and Japanese capabilities for naval and amphibious operations. The platforms are not simply about technological superiority for combat, but also more advanced electronic warfare capabilities to penetrate weaknesses of China, North Korea and Russia,” he said.

China often conducts joint air drills with Russia over the waters near South Korea and Japan. In December, Chinese and Russian jets entered South Korea’s Air Defense Identification Zone, prompting Seoul to scramble fighter jets in response.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said, “Russia has been conducting some combined operations with China on a limited basis recently, so if Russia operates in the Indo-Pacific, it will certainly indicate these systems will contribute to the defense of U.S.-allies’ interests.”

Maxwell said U.S. bases in Japan give the U.S. “a lot of operational flexibility to be able to deal with multiple contingencies, either on the Korean Peninsula or in the South China Sea, or really, anywhere in Asia.”

Okinawa is about 740 kilometers (459.8 miles) from Taiwan and 990 kilometers (615.1 miles) from South Korea’s southern port city of Busan. Kadena, which the U.S. calls “the keystone of the Pacific,” is the largest U.S. installation in the Indo-Pacific.

Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who served as special assistant to the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy during the George W. Bush administration, said rotating aircraft presence at Kadena during the upgrade transition helps the U.S. disperse them in case of an attack.

“Kadena Air Base is under greater threat than it’s been in decades,” from a range of Chinese capabilities, both ballistic and cruise missiles, he said. “There are a couple of options for how to deal with that. One is for the U.S. to disperse its forces more so that if there was an attack, there would be less concentration of U.S. forces.”
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