Asian markets are mostly higher Tuesday on the eve of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the next U.S. president.   The Nikkei index in Tokyo climbed 1.3%.  Sydney’s S&P/ASX index ended 1.1% higher.  Seoul’s KOSPI index soared 2.6%, and the TSEC in Taipei closed up 1.7%.   In late afternoon trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is 1.8% higher, while Mumbai’s Sensex has risen 1.2%.   Shanghai’s Composite index finished the trading day down 0.8%.   Janet Yellen, Biden’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, is expected to tell the Senate Finance Committee in her confirmation hearing Tuesday that more federal aid will be needed to help the nation’s economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,838.00, up 0.4%.  U.S. crude oil is up 0.1%, selling at $52.41 per barrel, and Brent crude is selling at $55.13, up 0.5% After taking the day off Monday in observance of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday, all three major U.S. indices are trending higher in futures trading.   
…

your ad here

China says it will impose sanctions on U.S. officials who have engaged in what it described as “nasty behavior” over dealings with Taiwan.  Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying issued the vow Monday during a daily briefing with reporters in Beijing, without mentioning any specific individuals or what actions would be taken against them.    China has vowed to counter a decision made by outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued on FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a briefing to the media at the State Department in Washington, Nov. 10, 2020.Beijing’s anger was further stoked when Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, spoke directly to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen after calling off a planned trip to the island.   Beijing considers the democratically-ruled island as part of its territory despite their break since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communist forces drove Chaing Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces off the mainland to Taiwan. Washington officially switched formal diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but the Trump administration has angered China as it increasingly embraced Taiwan both diplomatically and militarily since taking office in 2017. China stepped up military flights into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar traveled to Taiwan in August and State Department Undersecretary Keith Krach arrived a month later. 
…

your ad here

At least 84 people are now confirmed dead from a powerful earthquake that struck Indonesia’s Sulawesi island last week.
 
Raditya Jati, a spokesman for the government’s disaster management agency, says 73 people died in the city of Mamuju and 11 others were killed in the neighboring city of Majene.  More than 800 people have been injured in the disaster, including more than 250 seriously hurt.   
 
Rescue teams are desperately searching for scores of residents who may be trapped in the rubble of residential and commercial buildings that collapsed when the 6.2 magnitude quake struck Friday morning south of Mamuju. Their efforts have been complicated by dozens of aftershocks.   
 
Health officials are racing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the more than 19,000 displaced residents in the affected areas.  
…

your ad here

U.S. curbs against Chinese officials and companies suspected of helping Beijing extend its reach in a disputed, resource-rich Asian sea will do little to reduce China’s maritime influence and could indirectly increase it, analysts believe. The government of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a ban on travel to the United States by officials in the military, the ruling Communist Party and major state-owned enterprises. Washington believes they have used coercion on countries with claims to the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea. In December the U.S. government placed 60 Chinese companies, including offshore oil giant CNOOC, on a trade blacklist that stops them from receiving certain types of American technology. Last week Washington barred American investors from holding shares in nine Chinese firms with suspected ties to The People’s Liberation Army, including the world’s third biggest smartphone developer, Xiaomi. These penalties, along with others that the Trump administration has used to stop Chinese maritime activities, will hardly dislodge Beijing from the disputed sea, scholars say. They say the targeted people and companies can keep drilling for oil, supplying the military and building infrastructure in the tropical waterway. FILE – An oil platform operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is seen in the sea off China’s southernmost Hainan province, March 23, 2018.China wouldn’t let them stop, said Wang Wei-chieh, Taiwan-based analyst and co-founder of the FBC2E International Affairs Facebook page.   “Historically, CCP’s (Chinese Communist Party) policy toward sovereignty issues or territorial issues, they never step back from it, so they will definitely keep their focus on this region,” he said. “They won’t step back because of these economic sanctions.”   The U.S. orders will have no material effect on either the Chinese government or the targeted companies that work in the South China Sea, the analysts say.  “The South China Sea reclamation and building activities will fully engage some of these construction and engineering companies,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “I think it’s a win.”  Beijing claims about 90% of the South China Sea and cites historic usage records to back its position. China has used its technological and military superiority over the other claimants to develop islets in the sea, which stretches from its southern coasts to the island of Borneo.    Officials from Beijing could be offering more aid and investment now to the other maritime claimants in case other countries side with the U.S. view that China has used coercion, some experts believe. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest Chinese claims to the sea that’s coveted for fuel and fisheries. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday in Manila his government would donate COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines and help it through post-pandemic economic recovery. China had pledged $24 billion in aid to the Philippines in 2016, but citizens of the Southeast Asian country have griped that the money is flowing in too slowly.  A Chinese-invested joint venture announced in late December it had agreed to develop and operate the largest fishing complex in Brunei.  “I think, at best for some countries, it will be seen as ways to generate leverage in their discussions with China, and it could complicate how they manage the relationship between them and China and then between them and the United States.” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines. China might be keen now to offer “concessions” or “favors”, Batongbacal. He said the minister’s visit to the Philippines was aimed at finalizing incomplete deals.   The U.S. placed restrictions last month on Chinese entities and officials that help China “bully other nations” in the sea, the U.S. State Department said last month. Washington makes no claim but looks to Southeast Asia and Taiwan to help keep China in check.  Trump has targeted China over trade, technology sharing and consular issues as well as its maritime expansion.   U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is not expected immediately to overturn rules approved by Trump. He will eventually negotiate with China over the South China Sea rather than taking “unilateral” action, Wang forecast. 
…

your ad here

Indonesian rescue teams have pulled more bodies from the rubble of residential and commercial buildings toppled by a strong earthquake that hit Sulawesi island last week, killing at least 78 people, authorities said on Sunday.More than 800 people have been injured. Thousands of others were left homeless.The 6.2 earthquake, with an epicenter 36 kilometers south of West Sulawesi province’s Mamuju district and at a depth of 18 kilometers, struck after 2  a.m. on Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Indonesia earthquake locator map, Jan. 15, 2021 (Credit: USGS)Rescue teams, aided by heavy equipment, have worked around the clock searching for survivors in the hardest-hit city of Mamuju and the neighboring district of Majene.Power supplies and telephone service have improved since Friday, aiding rescue operations.On Thursday, a 5.9-magnitude undersea quake struck the same region, damaging several homes but causing no casualties.Earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis are common in Indonesia due to its location on the “Ring of Fire,” which is one of the world’s most seismically active areas.In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that followed in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 4,000 people.In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indian Ocean and triggered a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in the region, most of them in Indonesia. 
…

your ad here

A Taipei think tank and observers in Taiwan say China is trying to influence residents with “cognitive warfare,” hoping to reverse opposition to Beijing’s desired takeover of Taiwan so it can be accomplished without having to go to war.Taiwanese attitudes have been drifting away from the mainland, especially among the younger generation, whose members see themselves “born independent” with no ties to China.China’s effort, these analysts say, includes tactics ranging from military intimidation and propaganda to misinformation spread by its army of online trolls in a bid to manipulate public opinion. They say the complexity and frequency of the effort puts Taiwan on a constant defensive.“Its ultimate goal is to control what’s between the ears. That is, your brain or how you think, which [Beijing] hopes leads to a change of behavior,” Tzeng Yi-suo, director of the cybersecurity division at the government-funded Institute of National Defense and Security Research in Taipei, told VOA.Campaign intensifies amid COVIDCognitive warfare is a fairly new term, but the concept has been around for decades. China has never stopped trying to deter the island’s separatists, according to Tzeng, who wrote about the Chinese efforts last month in the institute’s annual report on China’s political and military development.Liberal democracies such as Taiwan, that ensure the free flow of information, are vulnerable to cognitive attacks by China, while China’s tightly controlled media and internet environment makes it difficult for democracies to counterattack, according to Tzeng.China’s campaign has intensified since the outbreak of COVID-19, using official means such as flying military jets over Taiwan, and unofficial channels such as news outlets, social media and hackers to spread misinformation. The effort is aimed at dissuading Taiwan from pursuing actions contrary to Beijing’s interests, the report said.China has used these tactics to attack Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration, undermine support for democracy and fuel Taiwan’s social tensions and political divide, it said.The South China Situation Probing Initiative, for example, a project run by Najing University in China, has disseminated information about Chinese military activities in the region through its Twitter account, but some of the posts have been found to be false, apparently aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s public and weakening Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party government’s resolve, according to the report.Tzeng said China’s efforts didn’t work in Taiwan’s presidential election last January, when Tsai won a landslide victory. The island’s growing anti-China sentiments – seem further strengthened by disapproval of China’s brutal suppression of pro-democracy Hong Kong protests.China “set out to [actively] promote the island’s reunification with the mainland, its identity as ethnic Chinese or favorable views toward the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. But now all it can hope for is to curb Taiwan’s [growing] pro-independence sentiments” – a trend Beijing has found it difficult to contain, he said.Tzeng added that he believes China is biding its time and experimenting with new tactics, which it hopes will succeed in influencing the island’s future elections.For example, the report said that China’s Communist Party is believed to have played a role in hacking Tsai’s office in May to discredit her. Reporters covering her office at the time claimed to have received minutes of internal meetings from an anonymous email account, which accused the president of corruption. Tsai’s administration responded by saying that the documents had been doctored and contained fabricated content.Taiwan should, Tzeng said, stay alert and establish a comprehensive fact-checking system to prevent fake news and misinformation from subverting public opinion.Taiwan should also “work with regional and global liberal democracies to establish a common defense mechanism” as China’s influencing attacks have a global outreach and aren’t limited to Taiwan. They constitute the most serious challenge facing democratic societies today, Tung Li-wen, former head of the ruling DPP’s China affairs department, wrote in a 2019 essay.Chinese citizen journalist and blogger Zhou Shuguang, who now lives in Taiwan, said many Chinese have taken to the internet to spread China’s narrative. Two groups of such online promoters of China’s narrative are known as “Little Pink” and “50 Cent Party,” The groups, he said, have formed China’s sizable army of online trolls to spread fake news, for example, rumors about Tsai’s academic background. Despite repeated clarifications, many kept circling rumors that the president’s 1984 doctorate degree from the London School of Economics was fake.A 2016 study, led by Harvard University data scientist Gary King, found that 50 Cent Party produced 488 million “fake” social media posts a year to distract other internet users from news and online discussions painting the Communist Party in a negative light.Global propaganda campaignChina has also been aggressive in expanding its global propaganda campaign to “tell China’s story well” and disrupt democracy, said Huang Jaw-nian, an assistant professor of National Chengchi University in Taipei, who specializes in media politics.“[China] is running its global propaganda campaign by expanding its state media abroad and deploying a strategy called ‘borrowing a boat out to sea,’ that is, buying up foreign news outlets [with better credibility]… The media buyouts are, in some cases, made by pro-Beijing businesspeople,” who will likely spin coverage to curry favor with China, Huang told VOA.However, Li Zhenguang, deputy director of Beijing Union University’s Institute of Taiwan Studies, flatly denied that China has launched any efforts against Taiwan or Tsai’s administration.“She [Tsai] is putting a feather in her own cap. She is a nobody to China. I find the accusations nonsense. Why on earth does China want to attack her?” he told VOA over the phone, refusing to elaborate.      
…

your ad here

Several pro-democracy activists in Thailand were arrested as protests Saturday unexpectedly returned to Bangkok’s streets, defying an emergency law imposed during a fresh COVID-19 outbreak to rally against a royal defamation law being wielded against their movement. 
The main groups maaking up the Rasadorn (the people) movement have formally declared a hiatus to the major street rallies that rocked the kingdom, demanding sweeping reforms of Thai politics and the once-untouchable monarchy.
 
But pockets of protesters have switched from major scale rallies to smaller flash mobs and publicity stunts targeting the royal defamation law, section 112 of the Thai penal code.
 
The law carries a penalty of between three and 15 years per charge for “insulting, defaming or threatening” the monarchy and is loathed by Thailand’s pro-democracy movement, which views it as a political weapon. More than 40 protesters so far have been charged under the law.  
 New Year, New Charges as Thai Protesters Slapped with Royal Defamation ChargesAuthorities made their 38th arrest of a pro-democracy activist in recent weeks under tough lèse majesté law as authorities crack down on unprecedented protest movementThe new guerrilla tactics have included draping banners mocking the lèse-majesté law in shopping malls and from bridges, swapping national flags with the “112” insignia, and taking a live goat covered by a “112” blanket to a police station.  
 
Authorities have been left red-faced by actions that normally bounce across social media before any arrests can be made.
 
But Saturday morning, Police Chief Suwat Changyodsuk warned of tougher action to stamp out the new tactics.
 
“Police will use force if necessary,” he said. “What happens, happens.”
 
A few hours later, dozens of police moved in as activists attempted to unfurl a roll of paper 112 meters long at the busy Victory Monument roundabout so passersby could write their objections to the draconian law.
 
One of the messages said “112 meters of the government’s shame,” though it was quickly torn up as police officers poured into the area.
 
A young protester was filmed as he was held in an arm lock and dragged into a police van by several officers. Another was detained at the scene also for breaking the emergency decree imposed to control the COVID-19 situation, lawyers said.
 
Shortly afterwards, anti-riot police canvased an area several kilometers away, where a protest faction called the Liberating Guards had gathered to challenge the arrests.
 
Scuffles with police ensued and video showed a minor explosion from a so-called ping pong bomb, which apparently was thrown toward a group of advancing riot police.
 
Five more protesters were arrested, according to advocacy group iLaw.
 
Until this latest round of skirmishes, the protests had been largely peaceful. There are fears of increasing violence, though, unless there is de-escalation by the government in a country where stalemates on the street often end in bloodshed.
 
“There has not been any sign of compromise from the Thai state whatsoever,” said Sasinan Thamnithinan of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), which represents many of the detained protesters.
 
“People will not stop taking to the streets. Everything that the state is doing or not doing is forcing people to take to the streets because they don’t listen.”
 Next act
 
Thailand is a deeply divided country.
 
Many citizens are royalists, fiercely loyal to the monarchy and hurt by the protesters’ actions, who they blame for unjustly bringing the palace—Thailand’s apex institution—into the country’s messy politics.
 
Premier Prayuth Chan-O-Cha, an ex-army chief who seized power in a 2014 coup, warned in November he would bring “all laws” against anyone who attacked the monarchy.   
 
At least 42 key activists have been charged since for alleged crimes, from mocking the king’s fashion choices to questioning his preferred residency in Germany.
 
The protesters, a youth-focused reform movement galvanized through social media, emerged as a force early last year.
 
They have posed an unprecedented challenge to Thailand’s conservative royalist establishment with their articulate and non-violent opposition to the ruling class.  
 
They want the government of Prayuth Chan-O-Cha to resign, a new constitution to be written to reduce the military’s political power, and for the monarchy, led by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, to be contained firmly under the constitution.
 
Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932, but 13 coups by the palace-aligned army have given the monarchy an outsized role in politics.
 
The royal defamation law had for decades smothered debate about the monarchy, but the protesters have crashed through that taboo, publicly raising issues around the king’s power and financial and personal probity.  
 
None of the protesters’ demands have yet been met, seeding speculation their movement may be running out of momentum after months on the streets.
 
But late Saturday, the Rasadorn issued a rallying cry on Facebook: “Our movement is not dying down as many would have you believe.
 
“Prayuth and his clan haven’t gone anywhere, the constitution is still not written by the people, and the monarchy is still above the constitution. Get ready for a big show.”
…

your ad here

The Chinese Communist party has intensified an assault on all human rights throughout China, and those interacting with the regime should do so in the knowledge they are interacting with ‘a criminal state’, says a new report from the human rights commission of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party.From the incarceration of millions of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang province, to the brutal crackdown on protests and democracy in Hong Kong, there has been a massive deterioration in the human rights situation in China the past five years, according to the author of the report, Benedict Rogers, co-founder of the commission.Relatives of Missing Uighurs Learn Their Fate Years Later VOA recently talked to five of those diaspora Uighurs whose family members vanished years ago in internment camps in the Xinjiang region “The regime has developed in recent years new tools of repression, in particular, endemic slave labor, the development of surveillance technologies to create essentially an Orwellian surveillance state, the use of televised forced confessions, the implementation of new laws that allow within the so-called legal system for arbitrary detentions and disappearances, and the continued widespread use of torture and forced organ harvesting,” Rogers told a virtual press conference Wednesday.The report, titled ‘The Darkness Deepens: The Crackdown on Human Rights in China 2016-2020’, has been endorsed by several Conservative lawmakers, including the chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee Tom Tugendhat, two former foreign secretaries and the last British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten.It calls for the Britain-China relationship to be “reviewed, recalibrated and reset.”Leaked Data Shows China’s Uighurs Detained Due to Religion A newly revealed database exposes in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Emer, his three sons, and hundreds of others in Karakax County: their religion and their family tiesThe British Conservative Party report also accuses Beijing of increasing repression in Tibet, and grave violations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1997 upon the handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese control through the imposition of a National Security Law in 2020.The report describes endemic, systematic, widespread torture; the use of forced televised confessions; forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience; slave labor on a huge scale, which helps to supply 83 global brands; the creation of a surveillance state; and increasing influence at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions aimed at silencing criticism.Chinese DenialsBeijing has denied accusations of gross human rights abuses and has repeatedly called for Britain and other Western countries to avoid interfering in its internal affairs.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 12 MB480p | 17 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 45 MB1080p | 90 MBOriginal | 685 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioAt a news conference January 11 in Beijing, officials denied the country is conducting forced sterilizations or has imprisoned millions of Uighurs. “In the process of carrying out the family planning programme in Xinjiang according to the law, it is forbidden to carry out illegal activities such as late term induced labor, forced birth control and forced pregnancy examination,” said Xu Guixiang, the deputy director-general of the Communist Party Publicity Department of Xinjiang.  “Whether or not people of all ethnic groups take contraceptive measures and what kind of contraceptive measures they take are all decided by individuals at their own will, and no organization or individual can interfere. There is no problem of compulsory sterilisation.”Elijan Anayat, a spokesperson of the regional Xinjiang government, denied Uighurs were being held in re-education camps. “All the students who participated in learning of the national common language, legal knowledge, vocational skills and de-radicalisation education have graduated. With the help of the government, they have achieved stable employment, improved the quality of life and lived a normal life. At present, there is no education and training centre in Xinjiang,” Anayat said.*/

/–>/
Embed” />CopyListenChinese Persecution of Uighurs‘Knock on the door brings fright’Among those contributing to the British report was Rahima Mahmut, a Uighur from Xinjiang province. After witnessing the massacre of dozens of protesters in 1997 in her home city of Ghulja, known as Yining in Mandarin, she fled to Britain. Mahmut told VOA she last spoke to her family in 2017, when her brother finally answered the phone after several attempts.“When I asked him why no one is answering the phone, he said, ‘They did the right thing.’ And then he said, ‘We leave you in God’s hands. And please leave us in God’s hands, too.’”Mahmut says people in Xinjiang are living under constant terror.“A knock on the door brings fright to anyone. Because you just think that, ‘have they come to me? Are they here to take me away?’ I don’t know how to describe my feelings, you know, each time when I read these articles, the details of what is happening to the people: mass rape, sterilization, tearing apart families.”It’s been just five years since Chinese President Xi Jinping was given a full state visit to Britain, including a banquet at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth. Then British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed a ‘golden era’ of relations with Beijing.However, the relationship has soured rapidly in recent years following concerns over China’s military expansion in the South China Sea, its crackdown on political freedoms in Hong Kong, concerns over unfair trade practices, Britain’s ban on the use of Huawei equipment in the rollout of 5G technology, and the deteriorating human rights situation within China.Britain has proposed the formation of a ‘D10’ grouping of leading democracies to counter authoritarian regimes such as China, a suggestion welcomed by fomrer Hong Kong legislator Nathan Law, who was jailed for leading pro-democracy protests and now lives in exile in London.“The world should prioritise human rights over trade and we should act before it is too late. Democracies have to act in an orchestrated and coordinated way in order to preserve our values,” Law told the press conference on the launch of the report.At UN: 39 Countries Condemn China’s Abuses of Uighurs  At meeting of UN committee on human rights, Western nations call on Beijing to respect human rights, particularly those of religious, ethnic minorities Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this week announced new restrictions on trade with companies based in Xinjiang province.“Our aim, put simply, is that no company that profits from forced labour in Xinjiang can do business in the UK and no UK business is involved in their supply chains,” Raab told lawmakers Tuesday.“We must take action to make sure that UK businesses are not part of the supply chains that lead to the gates of the internment camps in Xinjiang, and to make sure that the products of the human rights violations that take place in those camps don’t end up on the shelves of supermarkets that we shop in here at home week in, week out.”The British move follows the United States’ recent ban on cotton and tomato imports from Xinjiang over concerns of slave labor. Report: Coerced Uighur Labor Could be China’s New StrategyAustralian group’s report contends as many as 80,000 Uighurs have been ‘forcefully’ sent from their homeland region of Xinjiang to work in factories in other parts of ChinaUighur exile Rahima Mahmut wants the West to go further and declare the persecution of the Uighurs as genocide. “[Britain says] that genocide has to be decided in court, not by politicians. But then we know very clearly, we cannot pursue the U.N. route because China has a veto power,” Mahmut told VOA.
…

your ad here

A strong earthquake with a magnitude 6.2 hit Indonesia’s Sulawesi island Friday, killing at least 34 people, destroying residential and commercial buildings and triggering landslides, local authorities said.More than 600 people were injured, and many others were trapped in the rubble of collapsed homes and other buildings, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said in a statement.The earthquake, with an epicenter 36 kilometers south of West Sulawesi province’s Mamuju district and at a depth of 18 kilometers struck at 2:18 am local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said.Rescue teams were searching for more than a dozen patients and staff trapped in the rubble of a flattened Mamuju hospital.Landslides occurred in three locations and blocked a main road connecting Mamuju to the Majene district, a spokesperson for the disaster agency said.The Indonesian Red Cross announced its rescue teams were searching for survivors in the rubble and providing first aid. 
 
 “This is a most tragic earthquake and our specialist teams have been working through the night to help people amid the rubble,” adding that “these hours are critical for saving lives,” Sudirman Said, the organization’s secretary general said.On Thursday, a 5.9-magnitude undersea quake struck the same region, damaging several homes but no casualties.Earthquakes, volcanos and tsunamis are common in Indonesia due to its location on the “Ring of Fire,” which is one of the world’s most seismically active areas.In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that followed in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 4,000 people.In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indian Ocean and triggered a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in the region, most of them in Indonesia.
…

your ad here

North Korea has unveiled what it says is a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, the latest apparent development in its fast-advancing weapons program.Several of the SLBMs rolled through Pyongyang’s central Kim Il Sung Square during a nighttime military parade, state media said Friday.Using typically flowery language, the state-run Korean Central News Agency called the missile the “world’s most powerful weapon.” North Korea also showed off a new short-range missile during the parade.Wearing a shiny black leather jacket and fur hat, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the Thursday event, which marked the end of a major multiday meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party.It is North Korea’s second military parade in about three months. At an October parade, North Korea showed off its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, which appears designed to overwhelm U.S. missile defenses.The parades are a reminder that Pyongyang continues to develop new nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities despite economic hardships brought on by the coronavirus and international sanctions.Submarine-launched missiles would add an unpredictable component to North Korea’s arsenal. They are mobile, potentially increasing the range of North Korea’s ballistic missile arsenal. They are also easier to hide.Analysts say the new SLBM, labeled Pukguksong-5, appears bigger but looks similar to the Pukguksong-4, which was unveiled at the October parade. But some caution the latest missile may still be under development.“The appearances (of the two missiles) have few differences, so it is highly likely a mock-up — not the real missile,” said Kim Dong Yub, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, in a Facebook post.The rapid development of SLBM technology is puzzling to some defense experts, who point out North Korea does not currently have a functional submarine capable of shooting ballistic missiles while submerged.“The only thing that makes sense to me is that these developments are setting the stage for a solid fuel ICBM. To me that has to be the end game here,” tweeted Vipin Narang, a nuclear specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Kim has promised to develop an ICBM using solid fuel, which would make it more easily transportable and take less time to prepare for launch.The North’s Pukguksong family of missiles are thought to use solid fuel.North Korea last tested an SLBM in October 2019, when it fired the Pukguksong-3 from an underwater platform. Neither the Pukguksong-4 or 5 have been tested, but some fear that could soon change.“Instead of shooting one, they’re showing it to us. And they’re basically telling us what they intend on doing. So, the next obvious step is to demonstrate,” said retired South Korean lieutenant general Chun In-bum, an expert on North Korea’s weapons program.North Korea in August 2019 published photos of Kim inspecting a ballistic missile submarine being built at the Sinpo South Shipyard, though it is not clear how close it is to completion.“What we know for sure is that North Korea is continuing with its nuclear program now to include a submarine-launched ballistic missile with nuclear warheads,” Chun said.“And with that capability they will either have a second-strike capability (the ability after being struck by a nuclear missile to strike back) or to intimidate the United States and its policies toward the Korean Peninsula,” he said.But not everyone agrees with that assessment.“Given North Korea’s resource limitations and the challenges involved in developing such a capability, it is likely a long way from the ability to produce even a single nuclear-powered submarine – much less the infrastructure and expertise necessary to engineer, build, train, and operationally deploy a submarine force capable of continuously holding the continental United States at risk,” Markus Garlauskas, the former U.S. National Intelligence Officer for North Korea, and former U.S. official Bruce Perry said in October.ICBM test coming?North Korea could instead decide to soon test another weapon, such as the massive new ICBM it rolled out in October, analysts warn.Kim said a year ago he no longer feels bound by his self-imposed pause on nuclear and long-range missile tests, raising fears of a return to major tensions on the Korean peninsula.Such a move would be a major foreign policy test for incoming U.S. President Joe Biden. Biden has said he won’t rule out meeting Kim face-to-face, but has suggested that would only come as part of broader, working-level negotiations.North Korea has for months boycotted nuclear talks, frustrated at the U.S. refusal to relax sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump met Kim three times during his presidency, but the meetings did not lead to North Korea giving up any of its nuclear weapons.
…

your ad here

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has promised to provide Myanmar with 300,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, according to the website of State Counselor and de facto head of state Aung San Suu Kyi.The site said Wang also pledged during a visit to Naypyitaw this week that China will maintain momentum on a number of bilateral projects.Wang’s visit Monday came as part of a Southeast Asia tour extending through Saturday that includes Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines. This was Myanmar’s first diplomatic visit since last year’s election, in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party secured a majority of seats in the legislature.It was Wang’s fifth visit to Myanmar since the NLD first won elections in 2015.  He participated in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit here a year ago, when the two countries signed more than 30 bilateral agreements.  China, Myanmar Sign Dozens of Infrastructure DealsDeals reached as Myanmar faces global criticism for targeting minority Rohingya MuslimsA day before the latest visit, Myanmar and China signed a memorandum of understanding to conduct a feasibility study on a 650-kilometer railway project to link Mandalay — Myanmar’s second-largest city — with Kyaukphyu, a major city in Rakhine state.The project is essential to Chinese efforts to gain direct access to the Indian Ocean, including a deep-sea port and the start of a pair of 700-kilometer oil and gas pipelines running from the border with China’s Yunnan province.China Draws Myanmar Closer with Visit from President XiNew deals emphasize China’s tightening links to MyanmarPolitical analysts in Myanmar said that the reasons for this visit were to congratulate the NLD on the election victory, to implement the MOU agreements signed during Xi’s visit, and to supply Myanmar with COVID-19 vaccines. Pandemic diplomacyKhin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadita Institute, a Yangon advocacy organization, told VOA that China wants to sell COVID-19 vaccines to Myanmar before other countries do. “Myanmar first ordered a lot of COVID-19 vaccines from India,” he said, “But, China wants to sell them first.” Myanmar’s embassy in Beijing released a statement December 31 saying Chinese vaccines would arrive early this year.  According to the statement, Ambassador Myo Thant Pe met with officials from China National Pharmaceutical Group and Sinovac Biotech, Chinese vaccine producers which received emergency-use approval from Xi’s government in June. The Chinese government and investors have donated medical aid to Myanmar during the pandemic. As of January 12, Myanmar had more than 200,000 reported COVID-19 cases and more than 2,800 related deaths. Biggest creditor, second-largest investorChina is Myanmar’s biggest creditor. Myanmar owes 40% of its $10 billion foreign debt to China. It invests in almost every state and region of Myanmar, mostly in the power sector, which accounts for 57% of total Chinese investment. Many rights groups have raised human rights concerns over China’s investment in Myanmar.More than 50 civil society organizations sent an open letter to Xi during his visit to Myanmar in January of last year. The organizations demanded that Xi review Chinese investment projects and to follow international standards regarding respect for historical and cultural locations, and implementation of a fair border trade policy that doesn’t favor Chinese buyers or sellers.The issue came up because of complaints at the low prices Chinese buyers were willing to pay for Myanmar fruits and vegetables.Equality Myanmar, a human rights organization based in Myanmar, was one of the 52 organizations that addressed an open letter to Xi.Aung Myo Min, the organization’s director, told VOA that Chinese investors “have weaknesses in following the rules and regulations.”“That’s why we are always monitoring Chinese investment companies with human rights concerns,” he said.  Wang also met in Naypyitaw with Min Aung Hlaing, the commander in chief of Myanmar’s army, known as the Tatmadaw, which is guaranteed 25% of the seats in the parliament. Myanmar’s chief commander raised allegations about the election, which renewed the NLD’s mandate to form the government.  Military officials said Min Aung Hlaing and Wang had discussed “flaws in voter lists” that made “the election unjust.” 
…

your ad here

China has reported its first COVID-19 death in eight months amid a surge in the northeast as a World Health Organization team arrived in Wuhan to investigate the beginning of the pandemic. The death, reported Thursday, raises the country’s death toll to more than 4,600, a relatively low number resulting from the country’s stringent containment and tracing measures.  China has imposed various lockdown measures on more than 20 million people in Beijing, Hebei and other areas to contain the spread of infections before the Lunar New Year holiday in February.  The relatively low number of COVID-related deaths in China has raised questions about China’s tight control of information about the outbreak. A worker in protective coverings directs members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team on their arrival at the airport in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, Jan. 14, 2021.The investigative team arrived Thursday after nearly a year talks with the WHO and diplomatic disagreements between China and other countries who demanded that China allow a thorough independent investigation.  Two members of the 10-member team were stopped in Singapore after tests revealed antibodies, while the rest of the team immediately entered a 14-day quarantine period in Wuhan before launching their investigation. FILE – The Wuhan Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, where a number of people fell ill with a virus, sits closed in Wuhan, China, Jan. 21, 2020.The coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world, resulting in nearly 2 million deaths and more than 92 million cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.  Officials said Thursday that infections in the northeastern Heilongjiang province have surged to their highest levels in 10 months, nearly tripling during that period.  Elsewhere in Asia, Japanese authorities have expanded a state of emergency to stop a surge in coronavirus cases.  Coronavirus infections and related deaths have roughly doubled in Japan over the past month to more than 310,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The emergency was initially declared a week ago and was expanded to cover seven new regions. The restrictions are not binding, and many people have seemed to ignore requests to avoid nonessential travel, prompting the governor  to voice concern about the lack of commitment to the guidelines.  FILE – A lab technician works during research on coronavirus, COVID-19, at Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical in Beerse, Belgium, June 17, 2020.The world appears to be on the verge of another effective COVID-19 vaccine. A study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine found that an experimental vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson generated a strong immune response in both young and elderly volunteer participants in early-stage trials.   Unlike the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one dose, making it easier to both transport and refrigerate for long periods of time.  The vaccine is currently undergoing late-stage trials involving 45,000 volunteers.  Johnson & Johnson is expected to seek emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sometime next month.  The company has signed a $1 billion contract with the U.S. government to provide up to 100 million doses of the vaccine once it is granted approval. 
…

your ad here