A strong earthquake hit off the coast of eastern Japan on Saturday, injuring dozens of people and triggering widespread power outages, but there appeared to be no major damage and no tsunami warning was issued.The earthquake had a 7.3 magnitude and its epicenter was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60 km (36 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It shook buildings for some time after it hit, shortly after 11:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).Houses and offices in the capital Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers away, also swayed and shook. No tsunami warning had been issued, the meteorological agency said.At least two dozen people were injured, according to reports from the Kyodo news agency.A Reuters cameraman on location in Fukushima said his 10th floor hotel room shook for some time. One man at the hotel was taken to hospital after falling and hitting his head on a door, the cameraman said.Although injured, the man was still able to walk, the cameraman said.Television footage also showed broken glass from shop fronts.Some 950,000 households were initially without power, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told a briefing carried on public broadcaster NHK. The blackouts appeared to be concentrated in northeast Japan, including Fukushima and neighboring prefectures.There were no irregularities at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants, or at the Kahiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, owner Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said.The utility also said there was no change in the radiation levels around its plants.Kato said there were no irregularities at the Onagawa nuclear facility.The quake hit off of Fukushima just weeks before the 10th anniversary of a quake on March 11, 2011 that devastated northeast Japan and triggered a massive tsunami leading to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century – one centered at the Daiichi facility.Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
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The European Union on Saturday called on China to reverse its ban on the BBC World News television channel imposed in apparent retaliation for Britain’s pulling of the license of state-owned Chinese broadcaster CGTN.The EU said in a statement that Beijing’s move further restricted “freedom of expression and access to information inside its borders,” and violated both the Chinese constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The statement also said that Hong Kong’s announcement that its public broadcaster would also stop carrying BBC broadcasts added to the “erosion of the rights and freedoms that is ongoing” in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory since the imposition last year of a sweeping new national security law.”The EU remains strongly committed to safeguarding media freedom and pluralism, as well as protecting the right to freedom of expression online and offline, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information without interference of any kind,” the statement said.BBC Banned from Broadcasting in China Country’s broadcast regulator says network has ‘undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.’ While Britain is no longer in the EU, it remains a member of the Council of Europe, which oversees a 1989 agreement linking broadcasting licenses. Britain, the U.S. and foreign correspondents based in China have also expressed dismay over the BBC ban.China’s move Thursday was largely symbolic, because BBC World was shown only on cable TV systems in hotels and apartment compounds for foreigners and some other businesses. However, it comes against the backdrop of growing conflict between Beijing and Western governments over a slew of issues ranging from human rights to trade and the COVID-19 pandemic in which Chinese criticisms over foreign media coverage have played a prominent role.China’s National Radio and Television Administration said BBC World News coverage of the country violated requirements that news reporting be true and impartial, reflecting complaints over BBC reports about the government’s initial response to the virus outbreak in China. Other complaints were over allegations of forced labor and sexual abuse in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, home to Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. The EU statement specifically linked the ban to BBC reporting on those topics.It wasn’t clear whether BBC reporters in China would be affected. Last year, Beijing expelled foreign reporters for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times amid disputes with the Trump administration and complaints over media criticism of the ruling Communist Party.Britain’s communications watchdog, Ofcom, revoked the license for CGTN, China’s English-language satellite news channel, on Feb. 4, citing links to the Communist Party, among other reasons.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Ofcom acted on “political grounds based on ideological bias.”Losing its British license was a major blow for CGTN, which is part of a global effort by the party to promote its views and challenge Western media narratives about China, into which it has poured enormous resources. CGTN has a European operations hub in London. 
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Opponents of Myanmar’s military coup sustained mass protests for an eighth straight day on Saturday as continuing arrests of junta critics added to anger over the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.Thousands assembled in the business hub, Yangon, while protesters took to the streets of the capital Naypyitaw, the second city Mandalay and other towns a day after the biggest protests so far in the Southeast Asian country.”Stop kidnapping at night,” was among the signs held up by protesters in Yangon in response to arrest raids in recent days.The United Nations human rights office said on Friday more than 350 people, including officials, activists and monks, have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup, including some who face criminal charges on “dubious grounds.”Anger in Myanmar has been fueled by videos showing more arrests of government critics — including a doctor who was part of the civil disobedience movement. Some arrests have taken place during the hours of darkness.Internet memes captioned “Our nights aren’t safe anymore” and “Myanmar military is kidnapping people at night” have circulated widely on social media.The government did not respond to requests for comment on the arrests.The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group for political prisoners, voiced concern.”Family members are left with no knowledge of the charges, location, or condition of their loved ones. These are not isolated incidents, and nighttime raids are targeting dissenting voices. It is happening across the country,” it said in a statement.The army said it had seized power because of alleged fraud in a November election that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party had won in a landslide. The army’s complaints were dismissed by Myanmar’s electoral commission.Transition haltedThe coup halted a tentative transition to democracy that began in 2011 after nearly half a century of isolation and stagnation under military juntas.Suu Kyi, for decades the standard bearer of the fight for democracy in Myanmar, faces charges of illegally importing and using six walkie-talkie radios found in a search of her house.The 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Friday calling on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi and other officials from detention and refrain from using violence on protesters.Thomas Andrews, the U.N. rights investigator for Myanmar, told a special session of the rights council in Geneva that the U.N. Security Council should consider imposing sanctions and arms embargoes.The U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Geneva told the council the United States stands “with the people of Myanmar in calling for the immediate restoration of the country’s democratic institutions.”Myint Thu, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told the session that Myanmar did not want “to stall the nascent democratic transition in the country,” and would continue international cooperation.The United States this week began imposing sanctions on the ruling generals and some businesses linked to them.Airline staff, health workers, engineers and schoolteachers were among groups that joined the protest marches on Saturday, and which have rallied to a civil disobedience campaign that has shut down a swath of government business.”We are preschool teachers, Every child our future, We don’t want dictatorship,” read one banner.The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said thousands of people had joined pro-military demonstrations in parts of Myanmar on Friday. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report.The junta remitted the sentences of more than 23,000 prisoners on Friday, in observance of Union Day, saying the move was consistent with “establishing a new democratic state with peace, development and discipline” and would “please the public.” On Feb. 12, 1947 the country, then known as Burma, became a unified nation.
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North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs are an urgent priority for the United States and Washington remains committed to denuclearization of the country, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.The Biden administration’s lack of direct engagement with North Korea should not be seen as an indication that the challenge posed by its weapons programs was not a priority, department spokesperson Ned Price said.”It in fact very much is,” he told a regular briefing.North Korea continued to make progress in its nuclear and missile programs in recent years “which makes this an urgent priority for the United States and one that we are committed to addressing together with our allies and partners,” Price said.”And … the central premise is that we remain committed to denuclearization of North Korea,” he said.Price said the lack of direct engagement to date was “a function of us making sure that we have done the diplomatic legwork, that we have been in close contact, in touch with our partners and allies,” aiming for a coordinated approach.The Biden administration, which took office last month, says it is conducting a full review of North Korea policy in consultation with allies, particularly South Korea and Japan, following former President Donald Trump’s unprecedented engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which failed to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.A confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Monday said North Korea developed its nuclear and ballistic missile programs throughout 2020 in violation of international sanctions, helping fund them with some $300 million stolen through cyber hacks.President Joe Biden’s top Asia official, Kurt Campbell, has said the administration must decide quickly on how to approach North Korea and not repeat an Obama-era delay that led to “provocative” steps by Pyongyang that prevented engagement.Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who discussed North Korea with his South Korean counterpart on Thursday, has said additional sanctions could be used in coordination with allies to press North Korea to denuclearize.Biden called Kim a “thug” during his election campaign and said he would only meet him “on the condition that he would agree that he would be drawing down his nuclear capacity to get there.”
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Officials attending an emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on the crisis in Myanmar are denouncing the military coup last week that toppled the country’s democratically elected government.The U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called this a moment of great peril for the people of the Southeast Asian country.   Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday, he said the world must unite with the people and not allow what he calls the “illegal and reprehensible” actions of the Myanmar military against its own people to stand.   Andrews said the response of police and security forces to peaceful protests is becoming increasingly violent, and there is growing evidence of Myanmar’s security forces using live ammunition against protesters, which violates international law. A demonstrator is detained by police officers during a protest against the military coup in Mawlamyine, Myanmar, Feb. 12, 2021. (Than Lwin Times/Handout via Reuters)Arbitrary detentions and intimidation also are on the rise, he said, adding that the military junta reportedly has detained 220 government officials and members of civil society since the coup.  They include the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and President Win Myint. “We need more than a statement on a piece of paper,” Andrews said. “We need real action from the United Nations … I urge this body, the United Nations and all member states to make at least four core demands of the military junta of Myanmar. That they release unconditionally all who have been detained; that they end the persecution and prosecution of the people of Myanmar for exercising their basic human rights.”   Andrews also called on the junta to stand down immediately so the elected government can begin its work. He said there must be an end to impunity, and the military leadership must be held accountable for its actions. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada al-Nashif agreed that this crisis, as well as previous ones, have been born of impunity. “Long-standing lack of civilian control over the military, its disproportionate influence in the country’s political and economic structures, and ongoing failure to genuinely account for crimes committed by the security forces over decades, have combined to compromise Myanmar’s democratization and, indeed, its development,” al-Nashif said.   However, Myanmar’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Myint Thu, was not swayed by these arguments. He told the Human Rights Council that his government was compelled to take action following election irregularities, adding that this was done in accordance with the state’s constitution.   Myanmar is undergoing an extremely complex and delicate democratic transition, the ambassador said. He added that the government is looking forward to a better understanding of the country’s situation, and to constructive engagement from the international community. 
 
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ripped into the performance of his Cabinet and fired a senior economic official he appointed a month ago, saying they’d failed to come up with new ideas to salvage an economy in decay.The report by state media on Friday comes during the toughest period of Kim’s nine-year rule. The diplomacy he had hoped would lift U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear program is stalemated, and pandemic border closures and crop-killing natural disasters last year deepened the damage to an economy broken by decades of policy failures, including a crippling famine in the 1990s.The border closure caused trade volume with China, the main source of support for North Korea’s economy, to drop by 75% in the first 10 months of the year. Raw materials shortages caused factory output to plunge to its lowest level since Kim took power in 2011, and prices of imported foods like sugar quadrupled, according to South Korea’s spy agency.Economic perfect stormSome analysts say the current challenges may set up conditions for an economic perfect storm in the North that destabilizes markets and triggers public panic and unrest.The current challenges have forced Kim to publicly admit that past economic plans hadn’t succeeded. A new five-year plan to develop the economy was issued during the ruling Workers’ Party congress in January, but Kim’s comments during the party’s Central Committee meeting that ended Thursday were rich with frustration over how the plans have been executed so far.During Thursday’s session, Kim lamented that the Cabinet was failing in its role as the key institution managing the economy, saying it was producing unworkable plans while displaying no “innovative viewpoint and clear tactics.”He said the Cabinet’s targets for agricultural production this year were set unrealistically high, considering limited supplies of farming materials and other unfavorable conditions. Targets for electricity production were set too low, he said, showing a lack of urgency when shortages could stall work at coal mines and other industries.”The Cabinet failed to play a leading role in mapping out plans of key economic fields and almost mechanically brought together the numbers drafted by the ministries,” the KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying.The KCNA also said that O Su Yong was named as the new director of the Central Committee’s Department of Economic Affairs during this week’s meeting, replacing Kim Tu Il who was appointed in January.10.1 million people food insecureDuring the January party congress, Kim Jong Un called for reasserting greater state control over the economy, boosting harvests and prioritizing the development of chemicals and metal industries. He also vowed all-out efforts to bolster his nuclear weapons program in comments that were seen as an attempt to pressure the new Biden administration.To truly revive the economy, analysts say, the country needs to invest heavily in modern factory equipment and technology, and to either import more food or improve farm productivity: a U.N. assessment in 2019 found that 10.1 million people, or 40% of the population, were food insecure and in urgent need of assistance. The border closure has hindered updates on the situation, but output of staple grains had plateaued since surging a few years ago, when farmers were allowed to retain more of their harvests instead of handing them entirely over to the government.The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that nearly half of North Koreans are undernourished.The metal and chemical industries are crucial for revitalizing stalling manufacturing, which has been decimated by U.N. sanctions and disrupted imports of factory materials amid the pandemic. However, most experts agree that North Korea’s new development plans aren’t meaningfully different from its previous ones that lacked in substance.South Korean intelligence officials say there are also signs that the North is taking dramatic steps to strengthen government control over markets, including suppressing the use of U.S. dollars and other foreign currencies.Such efforts might compel people to exchange their foreign currency savings for the North Korean won. They demonstrate the government’s sense of urgency over its depleting foreign currency reserves, analysts say.
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The United States on Thursday announced new sanctions against Myanmar, also known as Burma, more than a week after the country’s military overthrew the democratically elected government.The U.S. Treasury said it had sanctioned 10 individuals and three organizations “who played a leading role in the overthrow of Burma’s democratically elected government.”“The sanctions are not directed at the people of Burma,” the Treasury statement said.The sanctions were pursuant to an executive order President Joe Biden signed earlier in the day.The Myanmar military’s overthrow of the government has led to five days of widespread street protests.“As protests grow, violence against those asserting their democratic rights is unacceptable, and we’re going to keep calling it out,” Biden said Wednesday. “The people of Burma are making their voices heard.”FILE – A police officer holds a weapon during clashes with protesters rallying against the military coup and demanding the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Feb. 9, 2021.The United Nations and other organizations have expressed concern about the use of force against protesters. Major rights groups have renewed calls for international corporations to break ties with military-linked enterprises and have urged governments to impose targeted sanctions on the generals and their business interests.Military leaders have placed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, other officials of the civilian government and the National League for Democracy party (NLD), and activists under arrest. Curfews have been enforced and gatherings restricted.The coup reversed a nearly decadelong move toward democracy after five decades of military rule. The military claims the November election won by Suu Kyi’s NLD was fraudulent.  
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Cambodia’s government has decided to suspend its two-week military exercise with China next month, citing a need to cut spending amid the coronavirus pandemic, despite claims by the opposition that it did so to avoid angering the new administration in Washington.Speaking to RFA’s Khmer Service last week, Defense Minister Tea Banh said the fourth annual “Golden Dragon” exercise will be canceled this year due to heavy flooding in 2020 that devastated the country’s infrastructure and food supply. He also pointed to the country’s ongoing battle with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and “several other problems” the government still needs to resolve.The joint exercise, originally scheduled for March 13-27, sees around 3,000 Cambodian and Chinese troops take part in live ammunition drills—including training on the use of tanks, armored vehicles, and demining equipment—at the 70th Brigade Military Training School in Kampot province’s Chum Kiri district. Ties between the two countries have strengthened in recent years amid growing Western criticism of Cambodia’s human rights record.“We are dealing with these difficulties. [The flooding] severely affected the well-being and livelihood of the people and is expected to result in more poverty and hardship,” Tea Banh said. “So, based on this, we have suspended the military exercise.”In October last year, tropical storms brought torrential rains that inundated much of Cambodia, triggering flooding that destroyed bridges and roads, affected hundreds of thousands of people in 19 provinces, and left nearly 40 dead.Cambodia, to which China has pledged to deliver 1 million doses of its Sinopharm vaccination, has seen a total of 476 COVID-19 cases since January 2020 and no deaths. The drills were held last year despite widespread concerns about potentially infected Chinese soldiers bringing the virus into the country—concerns that were dismissed at the time by Tea Banh.This week, social development researcher Seng Sary told RFA that Cambodia’s decision to suspend the Golden Dragon exercise was “long overdue” because the nation is not involved in any conflicts.“Exercises are part of strengthening the capacity of the military, but at this stage it is good that we are suspending them due to national budget constraints,” he said.US-Cambodia relationsHowever, Eng Chhai Eang, deputy president of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party dismissed Tea Banh’s claims, saying that in previous years, “all the expenses for military exercises were paid by China.”Speaking to RFA from self-imposed exile, he said he believes that the exercises were suspended this year because U.S. President Joe Biden has just taken office and Cambodia needs to appear more neutral, rather than titling towards China, before Washington’s foreign policy approach becomes clearer.“[Prime Minister] Hun Sen’s government has suspended the Golden Dragon exercise, not because of COVID-19, but more a matter of foreign policy,” he said.US, China Face Off Over Legacy in Cambodia

        Almost half a century ago, the U.S.-backed Gen. Lon Nol led a coup in March 1970, overthrowing Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk while the monarch visited Moscow.Sihanouk took refuge in Beijing until 1975, when brutal Khmer Rouge guerrillas leading a resistance movement against Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic captured Phnom Penh on April 17 and took over the country.Sihanouk initially supported the Khmer Rouge regime and was installed as head of state by the communists but resigned in 1976. 

Cambodia has grown isolated from Western aid donors and trade partners since its Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017, paving the way for Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party to win all seats in a 2018 election seen as unfree and unfair.After the CPP’s election victory, Beijing offered its full support of Hun Sen’s government, and Cambodia has increasingly backed China in its international affairs, including in disputes with Association of Southeast Asian Nations nations over its territorial claims in the South China Sea.Chinese investment has flowed into Cambodia in the form of real estate, agriculture and entertainment, but Cambodians regularly chafe at what they say are unscrupulous business practices and unbecoming behavior by Chinese residents, and worry that their country is increasingly bending to Beijing’s will.Despite the suspension of military exercises, China has continued to provide military assistance to Cambodia, which observers fear is more likely to be used by Hun Sen to solidify his own hold on power than to benefit the nation.Chinese vaccineOn Wednesday, Cambodia began to roll out its vaccination program using the 600,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine delivered to the country by China on February 7, despite concerns by members of the public who noted that the injection has yet to be endorsed by the World Health Organization.Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen gestures during a handover ceremony at Phnom Penh International Airport, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Feb. 7, 2021.Hun Sen posted a comment on Facebook thanking Beijing for the donation and urging Cambodians to disregard the vaccine’s origin.“Finally, Cambodia obtained vaccines for Cambodians—this is because of China and Cambodia’s solid as steel relationship,” he wrote.“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chinese state, military, and people—especially President Xi Jinping—who provided this aid to Cambodian people.”Hun Sen’s comments came after his sons Hun Manet and Hun Manit, their wives, and his son-in-law Sok Puthivuth received Sinopharm vaccinations. His son Hun Many and son-in-law Dy Vichea did not receive injections based on a Ministry of Health statement that people with health conditions should not be given the Sinopharm vaccine.Additionally, top officials, ministers, secretaries of state, deputy secretaries and provincial governors, as well as many senior officers were also vaccinated Wednesday at five separate sites around the country.Hun Sen did not get vaccinated, claiming that it was “inappropriate” at his age of 68.On Facebook, the prime minister dismissed concerns about the source of the vaccine.“I would like to send a message to compatriots inside and outside of the country: Please don’t worry which country the vaccine is coming from or what brand it is,” he said.“We should be happy that we have a vaccine because it is not sold like fish in the markets,” he added, noting that many people living in developed nations have yet to receive an inoculation.Public concernsOn Tuesday, a member of the Cambodian Association of Independent Civil Servants, who asked not to be named, told RFA that some civil servants are reluctant to receive the Sinopharm vaccine because it has yet to be recognized by global experts, including the WHO.Similarly, Vorn Pov, president of the Independent Association of Informal Economy, said that the country’s poor are afraid of the vaccine and suggested that Cambodia has the luxury of waiting for a better-quality injection because the country hasn’t been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus to date.“Our situation does not seem to involve as many deaths as some neighboring countries, so I think we should wait for endorsement from the WHO before we begin injecting people,” he said.Um Sam An, former CNRP lawmaker for Siem Reap province, called Hun Sen’s comments “dangerous.”“Hun Sen doesn’t care about the well-being and the lives of the Cambodian people. Instead, he provided Cambodians as a case study for Chinese vaccines,” he said.Secretary general of the Federation of Cambodian Intellectual Students, Kien Ponlok, said Hun Sen should be “more responsible,” suggesting the prime minister is more eager to please China than help his own country.Yong Kim Eng, executive director of the People’s Center for Development and Peace, called on the government to provide information about the types of vaccines that are given to the people for the sake of transparency.Another 400,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine will be delivered by China at a later date and Hun Sen has said he expects Beijing to deliver more than 1 million doses in total. 
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India and China are pulling back troops from a disputed border in the Himalayas marking a key breakthrough in easing their worst military standoff in decades.     Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament Thursday that troops would begin disengaging from the strategic Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh that became a flashpoint between the Asian giants.    “Our sustained talks with China have led to agreement on disengagement on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake,” Singh said. He said the pact “envisages that both sides will cease their forward deployments in a phased, coordinated and verified manner.”    A screenshot from a video shows the disengagement process between Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army from a contested lake area in the western Himalayas, in Ladakh region, India, Feb. 11, 2021. (Indian Army/Reuters TV/via Reuters)The Indian statement follows an announcement by the Chinese Defense Ministry that both armies had begun “synchronized and organized disengagement” on the southern and northern shores of the lake.     The accord was reached after multiple rounds of military and diplomatic negotiations. The pullback from Pangong Tso Lake will be followed by disengagement from other areas, Singh said.     The standoff was sparked last May when India accused Chinese troops of coming deep into territory patrolled by Indian soldiers in the Pangong Tso lake area and erecting tents and guard posts. China said its troops were operating in its own area and accused Indian border guards of provocative actions.    The standoff intensified after 20 Indian soldiers were killed and several others were wounded in a brutal hand-to-hand combat when troops from both sides fought with crude weapons such as stones and clubs last June.   In the following months, both countries deployed tens of thousands of soldiers, fighter aircraft and heavy artillery along icy Himalayan slopes.     “Our aim is to maintain peace and tranquility at LAC [line of actual control]. Last year, what China did, impacted peace at the border,” Defense Minister Singh told parliament.     Large stretches of the roughly 3,800 kilometer-long India-China border in the Himalayas are disputed, with both sides claiming large swathes of each other’s territory. The boundary dispute has simmered since they fought a war in 1962 and negotiations have failed to resolve the issue. Following the tense standoff, both sides had bolstered forces all along the border.     Analysts in New Delhi have welcomed the disengagement but warn that the deep strain in ties caused by the months-long standoff is likely to persist.“It was an important step and will hopefully build confidence,” says Harsh Pant director of studies at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “But we will continue to see greater volatility along the disputed border. The biggest challenge is that there is no trust now and that trust deficit will define future engagement.”     FILE – Indian soldiers walk at the foothills of a mountain range near Leh, the joint capital of the union territory of Ladakh, June 25, 2020.India, analysts say, will continue to build deeper ties with countries like the United States as it seeks to counter what it sees as a more aggressive China.     “If anything, this crisis with China has reinforced that India needs to leverage its partnership with like-minded countries like the U.S. much more robustly,” says Pant.     Earlier this week, in a telephone conversation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to strengthen Indo-Pacific security through the Quad grouping that is seen as a way to push back against China’s growing assertiveness in the region. The Quad consists of India, United States, Japan and Australia.             
 
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Opium production in Myanmar, the world’s second-largest cultivator of the poppies that are the base ingredient for heroin, has dropped, according to a United Nations study released Thursday, as “Golden Triangle” drug lords focus on the more lucrative synthetic drug trade.Myanmar’s lawless borderlands are home to fertile growing ground for poppies, but the area under cultivation has been in retreat, according to the annual survey by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.Around 405 metric tons of opium were produced in Myanmar last year, about half the amount recorded in 2013.Instead, the drug trade of the Golden Triangle — a corner of remote, hilly land that cuts into Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and China — is dominated by methamphetamine production. The drug is available both as the “yaba” — “crazy drug” in Thai — pills, in which the meth is mixed with caffeine, and the highly addictive crystallized version known as “ice.”“Opium production is down 11 to 12% on the previous year,” Jeremy Douglas, UNODC Southeast Asia and the Pacific Regional representative told VOA Monday.“This decline is intimately linked to the surge of synthetic drugs.”Farmers are also earning significantly less from raw opium — a collapse in income worsened by the pandemic — and are therefore turning away from it, the report added, while the government eradicated around 2,000 hectares of poppy fields.However, the report said Myanmar “remains the major supplier of opium and heroin in East and Southeast Asia, as well as Australia,” a region of around 3 million users consuming around $10 billion of the drug each year.The money still helps drive a drug economy for crime groups who are interwoven with the patchwork of armed ethnic militias operating in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state and eastern Shan state, where drug laboratories process heroin alongside meth.Myanmar’s opium production “still has a clear impact on the conflict situation,” the report added.“There has long been a connection between drugs and conflict … a corrosive political economy and facilitates continued militarisation, ultimately helping sustain civil conflict,” it said.Meth moneyMeth, though, is where the real money is to be made. Golden Triangle drug labs continue to pull in huge volumes of precursor chemicals and churn out record amounts of the yaba and ice, flooding neighboring countries and beyond with the drug.Thailand’s latest seizure figures for 2019 show police netted nearly 400 million yaba pills and about 17 metric tons of ice.Drugs are making the meth lords of Asia extremely rich. It is impossible to quantify their illegal take, but some estimates reach up to $70 billion a year, money Thai drug police say is laundered across the region into property, construction, casinos and cryptocurrency.Yet, until recently the figures at the top of the crime pyramid remained shadowy figures, who avoid the spotlight and body count left by their more infamous Latin American peers.That changed last month when Tse Chi Lop, the alleged leader of one of Asia’s biggest drug syndicates, was arrested in the Netherlands.He is being prepared for extradition to Australia, where a 10-year investigation has him pegged for allegedly running a notorious syndicate called The Company, believed to be behind the sprawling meth trade of the Asia-Pacific.In Thailand, seizures of yaba pills and ice hit records annually and have not stopped despite the pandemic’s restrictions on movement.This week 1.3 million yaba pills were found by Thai authorities left on a bank of the Mekong River in the northeast of Thailand, along the border with Laos, a sign of flourishing cross-border trade.The drugs pour through long, open borders with Myanmar and Laos into a kingdom which is both a large meth market as well as a storage and transit point for shipments south to Malaysia and as far as Japan and Australia.In Bangkok, users and addiction counselors say the trend has long since moved from opiates to synthetic drugs as prices plummet.Fifteen years ago, a gram of ice would cost 2,200 to 3,500 baht, compared to 800 baht — $27 at current exchange rates — a former ice addict told VOA, requesting anonymity. “That means virtually anyone can buy it,” he said.At his drug clinic Shaowpicha Techo, a drug rehabilitation counselor at a Bangkok health clinic, said 80% to 90% of patients use meth and other synthetic drugs, “while patients addicted to naturally occurring substances like opium and kratom have gone down,” he added, referring to mild narcotic derived from a Southeast Asian plant.
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Thai pro-democracy protesters returned to Bangkok’s streets Wednesday for a thunderous “pots and pans” rally against the arrest of their leaders and as an act of solidarity with mass protests against a military coup in Myanmar.Protests in Myanmar after the February 1 military coup began with acts of civil disobedience, including the beating of pots and pans, to drive away “evil” — a custom now enacted nightly targeting the army that toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.Wednesday evening, thousands of Thai protesters fighting their own pro-democracy battle used the same method of dissent against a government stacked with generals that is struggling to find answers to the economic damage caused by COVID-19.“The pots-and-pans theme is inspired by Myanmar,” said protester Napasin Treelayapewat, 16. “But it’s also a symbolic gesture from the Thai people to show that they’re starving, because pots and pans to some are tools to earn a living. And now, they have nothing left.”Myanmar nationals living in Thailand display pictures of detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest against the military coup in Bangkok, Thailand, Feb. 10, 2021.Thailand and Myanmar share a long, porous frontier. Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants send remittances home from jobs in the Thai kingdom, which has Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.Thailand’s second wave of COVID-19 was blamed on Myanmar migrants, who illegally crossed the border for work.Political bondsBut to the defiant, Generation Z protesters in both countries, there are tight, political bonds — forged over the internet — and a shared enmity toward armies that refuse to let democracy take root.Thailand’s pro-democracy protests began last year, calling for the resignation of the government of ex-army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the drafting of a new constitution and reform of the once-untouchable monarchy.Thailand’s military has carried out 13 coups since the kingdom became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, and only one elected civilian government has been allowed to serve its full term in the last 30 years. Prayuth carried out a coup in 2014.Several key leaders were detained this week for defaming the army-backed monarchy — a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.Protesters in downtown Bangkok carried placards reading “No 112” in reference to the criminal code provision on royal defamation.’What about us?’As night fell, scuffles broke out with authorities at a police station where the leaders were being held.“The Myanmar protests have showed us how politically conscious they are,” Thai protest leader Attapon Buapat told the crowd outside the police station. “What about us? Can Thai people be as conscious as this?”The Thai government has not condemned the coup on its borders by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.Instead, Prayuth on Wednesday told reporters that “Thailand supports the democratic process. The rest is up to him [Min Aung Hlaing] to see how to proceed.”Police hold shields in formation as pro-democracy protesters demanding the release of pro-democracy activists march in Bangkok, Thailand, Feb. 10, 2021.In the gap between military-led governments, the neighboring protest movements have struck up an online conversation, borrowing symbols and sharing tips and support over social media.“We were inspired to use the three-fingers salute by the Thai protests,” May, 25, a protester in Yangon, told VOA by telephone Wednesday, referring to the “Hunger Games” salute popular with Thailand’s pro-democracy movement.Their protest reflexes — from the virtual world of memes to the use of hard hats and umbrellas against water cannons on the streets — were also honed through a hashtag (#MilkTeaAlliance) that binds Asia’s young pro-democracy movements from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Thailand and now Myanmar.Information sharing”We retweet each other … and Hong Kong people share useful information:  how to trend massively; how to protest and get media attention; how to use apps to avoid police tracing our conversations,” May said, giving a nickname only for security reasons.Myanmar’s street movement flared shortly after the coup by the Tatmadaw — as Myanmar’s military is known — which swept away the landslide election victory of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party (NLD).But an unintended consequence of Myanmar’s movement is the reinvigoration of Thailand’s anti-authoritarian protesters, who are formally banned from gathering under security laws during the pandemic, and had broadly been dormant until the Myanmar coup.”Stories, photos and footage of people standing up for their rights in Myanmar have emboldened Thailand’s pro-democracy movement,” said Thai political commentator Voranai Vanijaka. “It says we are not alone in this fight.”   
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The United States is imposing consequences on the leaders of the coup in Myanmar, President Joe Biden said Wednesday, reiterating that the military must relinquish power it seized “and demonstrate respect for the role of the people” as “expressed in their November 8 election.”The U.S. government, Biden said, “is taking steps to prevent the generals from improperly having access to the $1 billion in Burmese government funds.” He has also approved an executive order “enabling us to immediately sanction the military leaders that directed the coup, their business interest, as well as close family members.”A first round of targets will be identified this week, the president explained in remarks about the situation in Myanmar, also known as Burma.“We’re also going to impose strong export controls for freezing U.S. assets that benefit the Burmese government, while maintaining our support for health care, civil society groups and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly,” Biden said.Gregory Poling, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of the announcement, “We haven’t seen the actual list of targets, but I think it’s the right approach.”Anti-Coup Protests in Myanmar Continue Despite Increasing Crackdown One female protester gravely injured by a gunshot; security forces raid headquarters of ousted leader Aung San Suu KyiThe Myanmar government’s February 1 overthrow of the country’s democratically elected government has prompted widespread street demonstrations there against the takeover for five consecutive days.“As protests grow, violence against those asserting their democratic rights is unacceptable, and we’re going to keep calling it out,” the U.S. president said in several minutes of remarks in the White House auditorium. “The people of Burma are making their voices heard.”Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez welcomed the actions Biden announced.“As I’ve said before, there must be real consequences if Aung San Suu Kyi and the rest of Burma’s elected leaders are not immediately freed and allowed to resume their rightful place at the head of a civilian government,” Menendez said in a statement.The United States is ready to impose additional measures if the situation worsens, Biden indicated.After Biden finished speaking, State Department spokesman Ned Price amplified the president’s warning of further potential action.“Importantly, as protests grow, Burma’s military leaders need to know that violence against those who peacefully assert their democratic rights will not be tolerated,” Price told reporters. “The United States will take note of those who stand with the people of Burma, at this moment of crisis.”Calls to corporationsThe United Nations and other organizations have expressed concern about the use of force against protesters. Major global rights groups have renewed calls for international corporations to break ties with military-linked enterprises and have urged governments to impose targeted sanctions on the generals and their business interests.“Additional possible sanctions on the military family members could actually bite more than the generals themselves, because it’s not as if the generals have a lot of international assets, but they do have a lot of kids who have been given crony contracts over the years who run businesses,” Poling told VOA.The CSIS analyst brushed off concern that tighter sanctions from the West could drive Myanmar’s military leaders closer to China, which is already the largest investor in the country’s economy.U.S. sanctions “are not going to make them get over their distrust of China and suddenly flock to Beijing,” Poling said. “The military has no love for Beijing, and the generals are going to do what they think is right for themselves and their perceived mission for Burma.”Military leaders have placed democratic leader Suu Kyi and other officials of the civilian government and the National League for Democracy party (NLD), as well as activists, under arrest. Curfews have been enacted and gatherings restricted.The coup reversed a nearly decadelong move toward democracy after five decades of military rule.  The military claims the November election won by Suu Kyi’s NLD was fraudulent.Nike Ching at the State Department  contributed to this report. 
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