The Malaysian government’s surprise state of emergency, declared this week to help beat back a surging coronavirus outbreak, may be more of a bid by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to preserve his slipping grip on power, some analysts say.The country’s constitutional monarch, Al-Sultan Abdullah, declared a nationwide state of emergency for the first time in over 50 years on Tuesday at Muhyiddin’s request.Malaysia counted a record 3,309 new COVID-19 cases the same day, in the midst of its worst wave of infections since the pandemic began. The country of 32 million has logged more than 144,000 cases in all to date, over half of them since early December. Pedestrian wear face masks on a shopping district in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jan. 14, 2021.Viral imperativeIn a televised address on Tuesday, Muhyiddin said the outbreak was pushing Malaysia’s health care system to the breaking point. He insisted the emergency declaration was not a coup but added that it would allow the police and military to have extra powers to fight the pandemic.”I implore you to remain calm during the emergency period, as well as all politicians, youths, non-governmental organizations and all levels of society to work as one to fight the pandemic. Hopefully we can level the infection curve and ease the strain on the health care system,” he said.Opposition parties were quick to dismiss the emergency as a ploy to save Muhyiddin’s teetering administration, however, and some analysts say they may be right.The proclamation suspends parliament and blocks any elections until August 1. It also gives Muhyiddin and his cabinet the power to introduce new laws on their own.“It’s more about holding on to power, but the mechanism would not have been possible without the pandemic being there,” said Bridget Welsh, an honorary research associate with the University of Nottingham’s Asia Research Institute in Malaysia.The king appointed Muhyiddin prime minister in late February after a sudden shift in political alliances brought down the seated government, ushering in a new ruling bloc of parties without a general election.FILE – Malaysia opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim speaks to media members.Popular opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim also claimed in September to have cobbled together the support of a majority of lawmakers to wrest control from Muhyiddin, but he has yet to prove it.Power play“The catalyst clearly was staying on,” Welsh said of the emergency proclamation.“The sense is that they need to move away from having to constantly be destabilized, so they’re relying on the levers that can potentially give them the space to stay in office. But …the narrative that they’re using is that this will help them with COVID.”Wong Chin Huat, a political scientist at Malaysia’s Sunway University, agreed.“If really you just need to have a bit of extra power, if the current law doesn’t allow you, you can always convene the parliament just to pass through all those,” he said.FILE – Malaysia?s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin speaks during opening remarks for virtual APEC Economic Leaders Meeting 2020, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nov. 20, 2020.“This is not a situation where the whole country is in chaos. So the real reason [for] all this is really for him [Muhyiddin] to keep his power, so that the prime minister doesn’t have to face parliament, and to have a free hand to run the country until the emergency is over.”Others are more cautious.Adib Zalkapli, a director with Malaysia-based consulting firm Bower Group Asia, said it was too soon to brand the emergency order a power grab but added that the narrative that it was could gain traction.“Given the influence of UMNO and also the popularity of the opposition front, in terms of the numbers in parliament and all, it’s a perception that the prime minister has to address. He has to show in his actions moving forward that the emergency declaration is fully about COVID-19,” he said.Gloves offThe government has yet to use its new emergency powers or spell out exactly what dictates could be on the way.Non-government groups have started to raise alarms that those powers may be abused.In a statement Wednesday, Malaysia’s Center for Independent Journalism warned that the emergency order foreshadowed a crackdown on government critics.“People are hoping that they don’t do that, but the problem is that they’re worried that they might because the basic institutional powers protecting democratic governance and providing for checks and balances in the system have been removed,” said Welsh.Muhyiddin’s critics say the space for free speech has been shrinking since he took office, pointing to the spate of investigations police opened last year on journalists, rights workers and lawmakers questioning his government’s tactics.Welsh believes Muhyiddin’s team has nonetheless allowed “a fair amount of openness” on social media and beyond. But she said it may yet be tempted to use its new emergency powers for ill if it fails at using them for good, as promised, to bring the pandemic under control.“The problem is, for any politician in any country, that when they’re not able to deliver on that, they rely on the levers of power,” she said.And with the usual checks and balances now swept aside, she added, “they have those levers at their disposal.”
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Author: SeeEA
South Korea’s High Court Upholds Prison Sentence of Ex-President Park
South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld former President Park Geun-hye’s 20-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
The 68-year-old Park was impeached by lawmakers in 2016 after revelations she and a close confidante received millions of dollars in bribes from South Korea’s powerful conglomerates triggered weeks of massive protests demanding her dismissal.
Her impeachment and removal from office was upheld the next year by the Constitutional Court. She was also separately indicted on charges of illegally taking funds from three former intelligence chiefs that were siphoned from the agency’s budget.
Park has also been convicted in a separate case of illegally meddling in her party’s nomination process ahead of the 2016 parliamentary elections, which added an additional two-year prison sentence, meaning she could remain in prison until 2039.
Park, the daughter of South Korea’s late dictator Park Chung-hee, was elected the country’s first female president in 2013. She has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Her downfall was the latest in a string of convictions involving former South Korean presidents who were mired in scandals either during or after presidencies.
The head of President Moon Jae-in’s ruling Democratic Party has suggested a pardon for Park and Lee Myung-bak, another jailed former president, as a gesture of national unity.
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As WHO Begins COVID-19 Probe, Speculation, Tensions Abound
After months of negotiations and accusations that China was obstructing an independent investigation, a team of World Health Organization experts has landed in Wuhan, China, where they will try to uncover the origin of the coronavirus that has killed nearly 2 million people globally.Chinese state media on Thursday reported the arrival of the WHO team, composed of researchers from top universities around the world, including experts in animal science and epidemiology. The 15-member team will spend about a month in China. At the insistence of Chinese authorities, the scientists will spend their first two weeks in quarantine.A bus carrying members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic leaves Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Jan. 14, 2021.Its goals are to discover how the virus emerged, how it transferred to humans, and how such outbreaks can be prevented in the future. Those tasks won’t be easy; it has been more than a year since COVID-19 was first detected, with the initial outbreak linked to a Wuhan market selling wild animals for food.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.Their task will also be tricky from a diplomatic and political perspective. Though China has promised to give WHO officials adequate access, Beijing has often become defensive and sought to deflect blame for the devastation brought by the global pandemic.There have also been repeated delays in the arrival of the WHO experts. Earlier this month, the team was held up because of a visa issue that Chinese officials later attributed to a “misunderstanding.”Those delays continued Thursday. The WHO reported that two of its scientists are still in Singapore completing COVID-19 tests. Although it said all team members “had multiple negative PCR and antibody tests for COVID-19 in their home countries prior to traveling,” two members tested positive for IgM antibodies, which the body produces as its first response to a new infection. It is not clear when the two scientists will arrive in China.More than 120 countries have called for an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, with many governments accusing Beijing of not doing enough to contain its spread. Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump has been especially outspoken, frequently speaking of the “China virus” and demanding the United Nations hold Beijing accountable.Won’t assign blameBut several members of the WHO team, as well as other officials in the global health agency, say their mission is not to assign blame.“This is not about finding China guilty or saying ‘it started here, give or take three meters.’ This is about reducing the risk. And the media can help by avoiding Trump style finger-pointing,” WHO team member Fabian Leendertz, a biologist at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, told The Guardian newspaper.“Let this mission and let other missions be about the science, not about the politics,” WHO Health Emergencies Program chief Mike Ryan said at a Monday press briefing.” We are looking for the answers here that may save us in [the] future — not culprits and not people to blame.”China for months rejected calls for an international probe. In July, China and the WHO finally agreed on a framework for the investigation. As part of that plan, China insisted on allowing its scientists to do the initial research, including testing sewage and blood samples and interviewing the earliest known coronavirus patients.“It’s not like nothing’s been happening for the last 12 months. There’s a lot that’s been happening and a lot of evidence that’s been generated. So one of the tasks of the WHO team is to go to China and meet with the scientists and to look at the evidence,” said professor Archie Clements, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Australia’s Curtin University.So far, China has not revealed publicly what its scientists have found. But many experts hope the WHO team will gain access to that data during the trip.“A big part of this investigation is actually around developing relationships with people. Having that personal contact. Being able to ask questions privately in a safe environment. Building rapport. Having the sort of open-ended conversations that may bring out things that you hadn’t previously anticipated might be important,” Clements said.But WHO officials have cautioned the team may not conclusively trace the exact origin of the virus. That’s in part because, experts say, viruses change very quickly.Virus originThe coronavirus was first discovered in late 2019 in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province. Many experts believe the virus had long been present in bats but was transferred to humans via another wild animal sold at the Wuhan food market.FILE – An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in Wuhan, China, April 17, 2020.Some U.S. officials, including Trump, have suggested the virus may have accidentally emerged from the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology, one of China’s top research labs that had been studying bat coronaviruses for years. U.S. officials have offered no proof of that hypothesis.China has been criticized for initially downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak and attempting to silence those who tried to speak out.Perhaps most notably, Li Wenliang, a doctor at the Wuhan Central Hospital, was investigated and chastised by police for “spreading rumors” after he tried to warn fellow medical professionals about the disease. Li later died of the virus.FILE – People attend a vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, in Hong Kong, Feb. 7, 2020. Li, who got in trouble with authorities for sounding an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak, died Feb. 7, 2020, after being infected.China also imposed strict controls on domestic conversation about the outbreak. A recent investigation by The Associated Press found that Chinese scientists have been barred from speaking to reporters and that the publication of any data or research must be approved by a task force managed by China’s Cabinet, under direct orders from President Xi Jinping.In recent months, Beijing has repeatedly suggested the virus did not originate in China. Many state media reports now claim COVID-19 may have emerged in Italy, suggesting it was brought to China via frozen seafood. (The WHO says it is “highly unlikely that people can contract COVID-19 from food or food packaging.”)A team of Chinese scientists recently argued the virus originated in the summer of 2019 in India. In March, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official offered an unfounded theory the U.S. military may have brought the epidemic to Wuhan.With disinformation and speculation abounding, many public health experts hope the WHO team will soon be able to offer some credible answers.“What I would hope is that politicians, global leaders, give the investigative team some space to do their job, which is a scientific task,” Clements said. “It isn’t a political investigation.”
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Hong Kong Police Arrest 11 in Pro-Democracy Activists’ Escape Attempt
Hong Kong police have arrested 11 people on suspicion of helping 12 pro-democracy activists who attempted to flee to Taiwan by speedboat last year.News outlets in Hong Kong said eight men and three women between the ages of 18 and 72 were detained Thursday. Among those arrested were Daniel Wong, a well-known human rights lawyer and pro-democracy supporter. Wong posted on his Facebook page early Thursday morning that police had arrived at his apartment to arrest him.The 12 activists were arrested in August by the Chinese coast guard while trying to escape to Taiwan. During a court hearing in the southern city of Shenzhen late last month, eight of them were sentenced to seven months in prison on a charge of illegally crossing a border, while two others were convicted of organizing an illegal border crossing and sentenced to two years and three years in prison.Two juveniles who were also arrested on the ill-fated journey were sent back to Hong Kong after pleading guilty to illegal border crossing.Many pro-democracy activists have fled to Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by China, out of fear they would be punished for their activities, especially under the harsh new national security law approved by the Chinese central government in June.Thursday’s arrests come a week after more than 50 pro-democracy activists were arrested in the biggest crackdown under the new law, which was enacted in response to the massive and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations that engulfed the financial hub in the last half of 2019.Under the new law, anyone in Hong Kong believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.Western governments and human rights advocates say the measure effectively ends the self-autonomy guaranteed under the pact that switched control of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997.
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Asia’s Poultry Farmers Battle Bird Flu Outbreak
Asia’s chicken farmers are confronting the region’s worst bird flu outbreak in years, with the deadly virus affecting farms stretching from Japan to India, roiling some poultry prices and showing no signs of easing.More than 20 million chickens have been destroyed in South Korea and Japan since November. The highly pathogenic H5N8 virus last week reached India, the world’s No. 6 producer, and has already been reported in 10 states.While bird flu is common in Asia at this time of year due to migratory bird flight patterns, new strains of the virus have evolved to become more lethal in wild birds, making countries on flight pathways particularly vulnerable, say experts.”This is one of the worst outbreaks ever in India,” said Mohinder Oberoi, an Indian animal health expert and former advisor to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).”There’s a lot of disease in crows and ducks. People are scared of the disease in crows. They know they fly far and think they’ll infect their poultry or even people.”The Asian outbreak comes as Europe suffers its worst bird flu outbreak in years, and follows on the heels of COVID-19, which hurt poultry sales early on in some places amid false disease concerns but is now driving up demand due to more home cooking. Chicken prices in India fell almost a third last week as wary consumers, increasingly nervous about disease since the pandemic, steered clear of the meat.Bird flu cannot infect people through poultry consumption, and the H5N8 virus is not known to have ever infected humans, but consumers are still fearful, said Uddhav Ahire, chairman of Anand Agro Group, a poultry company based in the western city of Nashik.Live chicken prices are already as low as 58 Indian rupees ($0.79) a kilogram, below the cost of production, he said.In South Korea and Japan, no market impact has been seen yet, officials said, with stronger demand for chicken meat for home cooked meals during lockdowns having a greater effect on prices.Virus evolutionThe rapid and wide geographic spread of the latest outbreaks make this one of the worst waves in Asia since the early 2000s.In Japan, where outbreaks have been reported from Chiba near Tokyo to more than 1,000 kilometers away in Miyazaki on Kyushu island in just two months, fresh cases are still occurring.”We can’t say risk of the further spread of bird flu has diminished as the migration season for wild birds will continue till March, or even April in some cases,” said an animal health official in the agriculture ministry.The H5N8 viruses detected in Japan and Korea are very similar to those that spread through Europe in 2019, which in turn evolved from viruses that were prevalent in 2014, said Filip Claes, head of the FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases.A different variant circulating in Europe since late 2020 is also causing significant damage.The new strains are causing more harm now that they are more lethal in wild birds, said Holly Shelton, influenza expert at Britain’s Pirbright Institute.”It’s quite clear that this virus has established itself in the wild bird population and so now there’s a greater propensity for it to spill over back into poultry farms,” she said.A compulsory flu vaccination for poultry in China has protected the region’s top producer, even though the virus has killed wild swans there.Indonesia, Asia’s No. 2 producer, is only a temporary transit point for wild birds, reducing its risk of infection, said Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rassa, director of animal health at the Agriculture Ministry.Still, the country has banned live bird imports from countries with H5N8 and set up a surveillance system for early detection of the virus, he said.With no major bird flight pathways over Southeast Asia, countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have so far been spared H5N8 outbreaks but face risks from the movement of people and goods.”It will keep spreading until another virus comes along to replace it,” said Shelton.
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US Bans Imports of Cotton, Tomato-Based Products From China’s Uighur Region
The U.S. said Wednesday it would stop importing cotton and tomato-based food products from China’s Uighur region as part of a pressure campaign against the Communist Party for allegedly using forced labor from detained Uighur Muslims. The ban, announced by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a Washington news conference, applies to raw fibers, apparel and textiles made from cotton grown in the Xinjiang region of northwest China.The area is a major supplier of cotton worldwide, so the ban could have significant effects on global commerce. The Trump administration previously banned imports from individual companies linked to forced labor in the region. The Worker Rights Consortium, which includes labor and human rights groups, estimates the U.S. ban affects about 20% of the global cotton supply.Some manufacturers have expressed opposition to a region-wide order, contending it can penalize legitimate producers and because it can be difficult to ensure tainted raw materials do not enter the supply chain.About $9 billion worth of Chinese cotton goods were imported into the U.S. last year, according to the Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade. The office said only about $10 million in tomato products entered the U.S. last year from China.In a joint statement, the American Apparel & Footwear Association, National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders Association, and the United States Fashion Industry Association applauded the move.“The companies we represent remain outraged by the reports of forced labor in the XUAR – and reports that Uyghurs are being trafficked to other regions – and have long made eradicating forced labor in our supply chains a top operational and public policy priority,” the statement said.“Today’s announcement matches our members’ accelerated commitment in this region,” the statement continued. “We look forward to working with the new Congress and new administration to build on today’s announcement by developing and implementing a holistic approach that provides all stakeholders a clear, effective, and enforceable path forward on reaching our shared goal – ending forced labor and the larger campaign of oppression it fuels.”
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Indonesia Suspends Dive Search for Crashed Jet’s Cockpit Recorder
Indonesia on Wednesday temporarily suspended a search by divers for the cockpit voice recorder of a Sriwijaya Air that crashed with 62 people on board shortly after takeoff.The search in the Java Sea had to be halted due to bad weather that whipped up waves of up to 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) in height, officials said.Earlier on Wednesday, divers retrieved more debris and a damaged Identity card of one of the victims, Navy official Abdul Rasyid told reporters on board the Indonesian navy ship Rigel.Indonesia Retrieves ‘Black Box’ from Crashed Sriwijaya PlaneBlack box found off coast of Jakarta; officials say cockpit recorder will likely be found soon; plane went down Saturday with 62 people on board Divers retrieved the plane’s flight data recorder (FDR) from the seabed on Tuesday and officials said they had also found the beacon that was attached to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR).A remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) will be deployed to scour the seabed on Wednesday, Abdul said, adding that the search had been made more complicated because no pings were now being emitted after the beacon detached from the CVR.”We have the ROV that will confirm the location again and tomorrow we will dive and comb that location again,” he said.Military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said on Tuesday he had “high confidence” of finding the recorder soon.The Boeing 737-500 jet crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday four minutes after takeoff from Jakarta’s main airport.Investigators will rely heavily on the two black boxes to determine the cause of the crash.Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) expects to download the FDR data within two to five days.The FDR contains about 25 hours of data on eight tracks and the CVR has 30 minutes of conversation, according to the final report on a similar model of a Boeing 737 which crashed in 2008.A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will be traveling to Jakarta in coming days to help with the investigation.The KNKT’s initial findings showed the plane’s engine was running when it hit the water, based on the damage seen on jet parts retrieved from the sea.Indonesia’s transport ministry said on Tuesday the plane, which was grounded during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, had passed an airworthiness inspection on Dec. 14 and had returned to service shortly after.
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Taiwanese Health Official Warns Against Reliance on Coronavirus Vaccines
The Taiwanese health official credited with leading one of the world’s most successful COVID-19 control efforts is warning people globally to keep up their guard against coronavirus even as vaccines emerge.Governments will face challenges in distributing vaccine shots to their populations, leading to an “imbalance” between those who are protected and those still at risk, Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told VOA on Monday. Coronavirus caseloads worldwide have not yet reached their all-time peak, he added.Chen’s government has kept the Taiwan COVID-19 caseload at just 838 across a population of nearly 24 million, among the populous world’s lowest rates, due to strict quarantine rules and tracing of sick people’s contacts.Customers wear protective masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease while shopping at a market in Taipei, Taiwan, Jan. 10, 2021.The flu killed no one in Taiwan over the final two months of 2020 when most people were wearing masks, down from 87 deaths from the flu in the same period of 2019, he said. Enterovirus cases dropped, too, added Chen, who plans to recommend continued facemask use in Taiwan after Covid-19 outbreaks ease.“Putting on a facemask isn’t that hard, especially in the winter when it’s cold outside anyway,” he said. “It’s useful for stopping Covid-19 as well as other respiratory diseases.”Control over COVID-19 at home won’t open a door to Taipei’s long-sought participation in the World Health Organization, from which it is barred by political rival China and its allies. But Chao Chien-min, dean of social sciences at Chinese Culture University in the capital, says it has given the island a welcome glow overseas.“I think Taiwan’s role has been big and its volume loud throughout this COVID-19 incident period, and whether in the WHO or in whatever forum, Taiwan’s epidemic control success will be mentioned,” Chao said. “So for Taiwan, there’s that effect.”But an infected airline pilot and two coronavirus cases in a Taiwan hospital since Dec. 22 have put Taiwan on high alert. Migrant workers coming in from infected countries such as Indonesia may carry the virus too, said Wu Chia-yi, associate professor in the National Taiwan University College of Medicine’s nursing faculty.“Because we import Indonesian labor, I think this group of people in Taiwan is a potential risk and a high risk,” Wu said. “So if you ask me whether Taiwan has future risk, I think we still have potential risk of outbreak from the imported cases.”
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China’s Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine Less Effective than Initially Thought
Late-stage trials in Brazil show the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinovac to be 50.38% effective, nearly 30 percentage points below the initial results released last week. Instituto Butantan, the São Paulo-based research institute responsible for developing the vaccine and conducting trials in the country, announced last week the vaccine had a 78% overall efficacy, while offering total protection against severe cases. The new trials, which involved 12,508 volunteers, have shown that Sinovac continues to be 100% effective in blocking severe cases. “This is an efficient vaccine,” Instituto Butantan Chief Researcher Ricardo Palacios said during a press conference Tuesday. “We have a vaccine that is able to control the pandemic through this expected effect, which is the decrease in the disease’s intensity.” The results come at a moment in which President Jair Bolsonaro’s government has been criticized for the delay in rolling out the vaccine. Neighboring countries, such as Chile with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Argentina with Russia’s Sputnik V, started their vaccination campaigns weeks ago, while Brazil still does not have a concrete immunization plan a week after the country surpassed 200,000 COVID-19 deaths. Last week, Bolsonaro’s government closed an exclusive deal with Instituto Butantan for 100 million doses to be distributed by the end of 2021. The vaccine, however, still needs the approval of the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA). Instituto Butantan has included the new results in its emergency request for approval, initially filed Friday. ANVISA requires a 50% effective rate for vaccines, the same percentage recommended by the World Health Organization.
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WHO Scientists Will Arrive in China This Week to Begin Probe of Corovanirus Origins
China says a team of scientists from the World Health Organization will arrive this week in Wuhan to begin its investigation of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday that the 10-member team will leave from Singapore this Thursday and fly directly to Wuhan, the central city where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. The virus eventually spread to nearly every corner of the globe, leading to more than 1.9 million fatalities out of nearly 91 million infections.
China has sought to change the narrative over the virus’s origins, with officials eagerly pushing theories that it first emerged in other nations.
Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of WHO’s emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva Monday the agency is simply “looking for the answers here that may save us in the future. Not culprits and not people to blame.”
Ryan said if blame exists, “we can blame climate change. We can blame policy decisions made 30 years ago about everything from urbanization to the way we exploit the forest,”
A health expert affiliated with WHO has said that expectations should be “very low” the mission will lead to a conclusion about the origins of the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness.
The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the original outbreak’s extent, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticized its terms, which allowed Chinese scientists to do the first phase of preliminary research. President Donald Trump has accused the agency of being a puppet of China.
The WHO team’s journey to Wuhan comes a week after Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment with China’s failure to grant final permission to the delegation to enter the country, although the plans had been jointly arranged between the two sides.
Beijing dismissed Tedros’s criticisms, calling the delay a “misunderstanding.”
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Britain Cuts Business Links to Chinese Province Xinjiang
The British government Tuesday announced it will set out new rules for companies to try to prevent goods from China’s Xinjiang Province from entering the supply chain following allegations of forced labor and other abuses.Speaking to Parliament, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said there was far-reaching and “harrowing” evidence of forced labor among Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang after the United Nations estimated at least 1 million of them and other minorities were held in an internment camp.Raab said other abuses include forced sterilization, extrajudicial internment, political reeducation, extensive and invasive surveillance targeting minorities, and systematic restrictions on Uighur culture, education and religion. China denies the charges, saying it has “deradicalized” Xinjiang and that the region has not had a terrorist attack in four years.Raab said the government must take action to make sure British businesses “are not part of the supply chains that lead to the gates of the internment camps in Xinjiang.”He said Britain would create more robust guidance for due diligence on sourcing, toughen the Modern Slavery Act to include fines, bar from government the contracts of any companies that do not comply to procurement rules, and launch a Xinjiang-specific review of export controls.Raab also said the United Nations needed access to China’s Xinjiang region to verify allegations of forced labor and other human rights violations.Raab said Britain wants a “positive and constructive” relationship with China, but “we won’t sacrifice our values or our security.”
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Indonesia Retrieves ‘Black Box’ from Crashed Sriwijaya Air Plane
Indonesian authorities have retrieved one of the black boxes from a Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea at the weekend, a navy spokesman said on Tuesday.
The recording device was being transported to Jakarta’s port, spokesman Fajar Tri Rohadi told Reuters. Local television footage had earlier showed a white plastic box holding the device aboard a speed boat.
It was not immediately clear if it was the plane’s flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder that had been recovered.
Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi and other officials were due to hold a news conference later on Tuesday.
The Boeing 737-500 plane with 62 people on board plunged into the Java Sea on Saturday, four minutes after taking off from Jakarta’s main airport.
Earlier on Tuesday, more human remains were found at the crash site, as well as personal effects such as wallets containing identification cards.
The plane was headed on a domestic flight to Pontianak on Borneo island, about 740 km (460 miles) from Jakarta, before it disappeared from radar screens.
It was the second major air crash in Indonesia since 189 passengers and crew were killed in 2018 when a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX also plunged into the Java Sea soon after taking off from Jakarta.
The jet that crashed on Saturday is a largely different design. Once the flight data and cockpit
voice recorders are recovered, Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has said it expects to be able to read the information in three days.
With few immediate clues on what caused a catastrophic loss of control after take-off, investigators will rely heavily on the flight recorders to determine what went wrong.
The Sriwijaya Air plane was nearly 27 years old, much older than Boeing’s problem-plagued 737 MAX model. Older 737 models are widely flown and do not have the stall-prevention system implicated in the MAX safety crisis.
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Malaysian King Declares State of Emergency Amid Rising COVID-19 Infections
Malaysia’s king has declared a national state of emergency as part of an effort to curb the growing numbers of novel coronavirus infections. The royal palace announced Tuesday that King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah issued the decree after meeting with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. King Abdullah had rejected a request by Prime Minister Muhyiddin back in October to issue a similar order due to the COVID-19 pandemic The emergency order suspends parliament until August 1 and gives the prime minister’s government broad authority to enact laws. In a televised address, Muhyiddin attempted to assure the nation that the state of emergency was “not a military coup” and that no curfew would be enforced during that period. He had issued a two-week lockdown for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, and five surrounding states Monday as the number of total COVID-19 cases has grown over 138,000, including 555 deaths, with the number of daily new cases rising to well over 2,000 in recent weeks. The emergency also gives the embattled prime minister a reprieve from growing calls in parliament for a special election. Muhyiddin has been prime minister since February, when he was chosen by King Abdullah after then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad unexpectedly resigned and his government collapsed. Muhyiddin’s politically divided ruling coalition has left him with a shaky hold on power. The United Malays National Organization, the coalition’s largest party, has threatened to withdraw support from the prime minister. And veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim met with the king back in September and said he gave him the names of 120 members of the 222-seat parliament who are ready to defect from the prime minister’s razor-thin coalition.
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In Japan, Worshippers Take Frosty Plunge Against COVID-19
In Japan, an annual Shinto ritual of soul purification this year included prayers for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing guidelines forced a much smaller gathering than in previous years, but as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, believers still turned out – and stripped down – for the annual observance.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi
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Hong Kong Protesters Outraged by Beijing’s Comparison of US Capitol Siege to Storming of Legislature
As the shocking scenes at the U.S. Capitol building unfolded last week, residents of Hong Kong, nearly 13,000 kilometers away, were reminded of the chaos at their own Legislative Council on July 1, 2019.It also was an unprecedented moment, and a turning point, for the pro-democracy protests in the city were then just one month old.July 1 is a significant date in the Chinese city. It’s the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China by Britain in 1997 and has attracted annual rallies since. But in 2019, there was a different reason people were taking to the streets. They were challenging a controversial bill that would allow extradition of Hong Kong residents to mainland China for trial. Demonstrations had been gathering momentum since June.As street protests ensnarled government buildings that day, groups of activists splintered off from the masses, headed towards the Legislative Council, the city’s top political chamber.The demonstrators eventually entered the complex by breaking glass walls and metal doors, as local police refrained from confrontation. Protesters swarmed the chamber, waved both the Union Jack, Britain’s national banner, and the old colonial Hong Kong flag.Slogans were spray-painted, and furniture and pro-Beijing portraits were damaged, but it was reported that protesters made efforts to protect cultural objects and literature.According to the president of the Legislative Council the total damage was about $5 million. Overall, 13 people were arrested, 15 were injured, and there were no fatalities.FILE – Protesters try to break into the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong where riot police are seen, during the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China, July 1, 2019.Beijing and its supporters, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, condemned the events at the Legislative Council as “riots,” with the narrative focusing on “violent protesters” who vandalized the complex. Despite the rhetoric, a week later, Lam gave in to pressure and announced the extradition bill was “dead.”But the pro-democracy protesters felt they had made statement, attempting to maintain Hong Kong’s limited democracy, and resisting the city’s continuous slide into China’s authoritarian system.Even today, water barriers still surround the government complex as a vivid reminder of the day’s historic events.Hong Kong was to have been under a “one country, two systems” agreement until 2047, made between Britain and China prior to the handover of the city in 1997. This allows Hong Kong to enjoy limited autonomy and democracy. But Hong Kongers have complained these freedoms are being eroded by Beijing.Beginning in June 2019, street demonstrations surged through the former British colony for six consecutive months, often turning violent. In June 2020, Beijing enacted a national security law on Hong Kong, prohibiting subversion, success, and foreign collusion, with violations of the law freely interpreted.Since Wednesday’s chaos in Washington, Chinese Communist Party officials and those affiliated have made public comparisons between the incidents at both the U.S. Capitol and the Legislative Council.U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.Hua Chunying, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson tweeted a video clip of events on 1 July 2019 in Hong Kong with a title “Mobs storm Hong Kong’s Legislative Council” in an apparent jibe towards Washington.Qingqin Chen, the chief reporter for China’s state-affiliated media Global Times, tweeted: “When Trump supporters storm Capitol, they are called as ‘mob’ but we’ve seen exactly the similar scenario happened in #HongKong #LegCo in 2019.”The linking of the two incidents has raised an uproar on social media, with residents and reporters in Hong Kong angrily insisting the incidents are not comparable.Self-exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law, who graduated from Yale University, tweeted about such comparisons.“It’s the WRONG comparison. Several scenes on 1st July 2019, one of the monumental days of the protest movement, can help you tell the differences,” he said.The tweet continued: “The protesters had a very clear understanding of what they were targeting, they only damaged the symbols representing the authoritarian regime.” Law added, “The protesters who entered the building were civilized and well-mannered. They were fighting for a better society and social justice. They were demanding an unelected government to implement a fair and open electoral system.”FILE – Journalists film a protester defaceing the Hong Kong emblem inside the meeting hall of the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, July 1, 2019.Several pro-democracy protesters within Hong Kong also spoke to VOA, giving their reaction.Twenty-seven-year-old Hong Kong resident Aaron — who asked that only his first name be used, for fear of being arrested — said “Beijing has always played a game of ‘whataboutism’ when it comes to international politics. Trying to deflect their own internal events but pointing out the failings in other countries.”Aaron added: “From a distance, I can see that a casual observer will be quick to draw comparisons between the two while failing to understand the nuance between people protesting a non-democratic single-party government like that of Hong Kong and China and protesting a legitimate democratic electoral result like in the U.S.”For the Hong Kong protester, “there isn’t even a democratic process to scrutinize,” Aaron told VOA.Another Hong Kong resident, Anson – who asked that his real name not be used — said it’s “absolutely ridiculous” both incidents have been compared and the comments by China “highlights their narrow view of democracy.”Anson told VOA, “The so-called ‘storming’ of the LegCo occurred as a reaction to an unjust bill issued by the Hong Kong government to further hinder the advancement of basic human liberties in Hong Kong. The U.S. Capitol siege was in reaction to (a) legitimate and democratic election. The simple difference is the people of Hong Kong were not even given a chance to decide for their futures, so they were forced into action.”
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China Denounces End of US Restrictions on Contacts with Taiwan Officials
China is vowing to counter a decision by the United States to lift self-imposed restrictions on contacts between U.S. diplomatic officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, while maintaining the unofficial relationship between the two democracies.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to the self-ruled island as “a vibrant democracy and reliable partner of the United States” in a statement Saturday announcing the eased restrictions. US State Department Ends Restrictions on Contacts with Taiwan Officials Pompeo says Taiwan is a ‘reliable’ and ‘unofficial’ partner “The United States government maintains relationships with unofficial partners around the world, and Taiwan is no exception,” Pompeo said as he declared that all previous “contact guidelines” issued by the State Department involving Taiwan to be “null and void.”The announcement comes after the Taiwan Assurance Act, requiring the State Department to reassess such restrictions on U.S. relations with Taiwan, became law in December 2020.Taiwan and China have been separately ruled since the 1949 end of China’s civil war, when Chaing Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong’s Communist forces and settled on the island. China still claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force to unite the two sides.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing Monday that China will allow no interference in its reunification efforts with Taiwan, and that any actions in that direction would be met with firm countermeasures, although he did not spell out any specifics.For years, most high-ranking U.S. military officials and senior American officials were banned from traveling to Taiwan to avoid upsetting Beijing. Top Taiwanese officials, including Taiwan’s president, vice president, and ministers of foreign affairs and of defense, have been prevented from coming to Washington.“Decades of discrimination, removed. A huge day in our bilateral relationship. I will cherish every opportunity,” said Taiwan’s envoy to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim in a tweet.Decades of discrimination, removed. A huge day in our bilateral relationship. I will cherish every opportunity. https://t.co/kR29OLLcFh— Bi-khim Hsiao 蕭美琴 (@bikhim) January 9, 2021The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s representative office in the U.S., said in a statement that the State Department’s actions to further bilateral engagements “reflect the strength and depth of our relationship.”“We are grateful to the State Department, as well as members of Congress from both parties for passing the Taiwan Assurance Act, which had also encouraged this review,” the office said.Some analysts said it’s the right move but question the timing.”Taiwan is an important unofficial partner, a major economic and security partner, making robust engagement a vital U.S. national interest. Arbitrary restrictions on engagement harm U.S. interests and belittle our Taiwan friends, at no gain to either, and potential harm to both,” said Drew Thompson, a former U.S. defense official and now a senior research fellow at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Thompson added, however, “a blanket statement such as this, abrogating all of the guidance in place for years, without replacing it with a new framework simply reflects the chaos we are currently seeing in Washington. It is a good thing badly done, four years too late, that can be reversed with little effort in a few weeks. “US Lifts Ban on Official Contacts with Taiwan. So, Who’s Coming?After four years of warming toward Taiwan, despite China, U.S. President Donald Trump’s government throws out pro-China rules that have limited visits between senior-level officialsBonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told VOA Saturday “if these restrictions hampered the U.S. from promoting the relationship in a way that serves U.S. national interests, the Trump administration should have done this much earlier. It is against our traditions to make policy decisions in the waning days of an administration.”Others said the latest move will force Taiwan policy higher up on the agenda of the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.Euan Graham, a senior fellow from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, referred in a tweet to “the prim correctness around Taiwan nomenclature, all the do’s and don’ts (and they were mostly don’ts),” adding, “Always in fear of a tongue lashing from the PRC representative at Asian security conferences. I would happily bid goodbye to all that.”Other countries more so. The prim correctness around Taiwan nomenclature, all the do’s and don’ts (and they were mostly don’ts). Always in fear of a tongue lashing from the PRC representative at Asian security conferences. I would happily bid goodbye to all that. https://t.co/zSVp8ScJXc— Euan Graham (@graham_euan) January 10, 2021“These changes are long overdue, and the Trump administration ideally would have made them sooner. Beijing seeks to coerce, isolate, and eventually control Taiwan. The United States must counter these efforts by Beijing, and more robust U.S. bilateral interactions with Taiwan are an important part of that,” said Bradley Bowman who is a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.“The incoming Biden administration should also examine self-imposed limitations related to U.S. military training and exercises with Taiwan,” Bowman said.Pompeo’s Saturday statement follows a previous announcement that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft will visit Taiwan from January 13 to 15.The announcement was met with strong opposition from Beijing. Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, accused the U.S. of violating Beijing’s one-China “principle” and warned that the U.S. will pay a “heavy price for its wrongdoings.”The U.S. says its long-held One China policy is “distinct” from Beijing’s One China principle, under which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) asserts sovereignty over Taiwan. The U.S. has never accepted CCP’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan and has refrained from taking a position on sovereignty over Taiwan.
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Indonesian Navy Attempts to Recover Flight Recorders of Crashed Jetliner
Indonesian navy divers began searching Monday for the flight recorders from the passenger jet that crashed Saturday in the Java Sea.Sriwijaya Air Flight SJ182 disappeared from radar just four minutes after taking off from Jakarta en route to Pontianak, the capital of the West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, carrying 62 passengers and crew, including 10 children.Search and rescue crews on Sunday pinpointed the location of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, known as “black boxes, after locating debris from the crashed plane.Indonesian Authorities Locate Black Boxes from Sriwijaya Air Passenger Plane Passenger jet crashed with 62 on boardFlightradar24, the flight tracking service, said the Boeing 737-500 jetliner “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute.”Divers have already recovered remains of several people on board the plane, along with various pieces of debris, including landing gear, wheels and one of the plane’s turbine engines.Bambang Suryo Aji, an official with Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters Saturday the debris will be sent to the National Commission on Transportation Safety.At least 53 naval vessels and 2,600 rescue personnel are taking part in the recovery operation.Saturday’s crash is the latest entry in Indonesia’s troubled aviation sector, which has been plagued by safety concerns. A series of deadly crashes, including the 1997 crash of a Garuda jetliner that killed all 234 people aboard, and the 2014 crash of an Indonesian AirAsia jet in the Java Sea that killed 162 people, prompted both the United States and the European Union to ban Indonesian airlines from entering their respective airspaces for several years.Saturday’s crash was the first since a Lion Air jet crashed into the Java Sea soon after takeoff in 2018, killing all 189 passengers and crew. That plane was a Boeing 737 MAX, the same model that was involved in another deadly crash several months later in Ethiopia. Both crashes were blamed on a faulty automated flight control system that led to the grounding of the entire 737 MAX fleet.The Boeing 737-500 plane that crashed Saturday had been in operation for 26 years.
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North Korea’s Kim Gets New Title in Symbolic Move at Congress
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was given a new title, “general secretary” of the ruling Workers’ Party, a post held by his late father and grandfather, state media reported Monday, a largely symbolic appointment apparently aimed at bolstering his authority amid growing economic challenges at home.The party’s ongoing congress, the first in kind in five years, announced Kim’s new title during its sixth-day session Sunday. A congress statement said Kim “has gloriously realized the historic mission to complete the country’s nuclear build-up plan,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.The new title is largely seen as a symbolic move as Kim has already been the party’s top leader. During a 2016 party congress, he was named party chairman, largely the equivalent of general secretary held by his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung. Before the 2016 congress, Kim Jong Un had led the party with the title of first secretary.Since taking power in late 2011, Kim has taken up a slew of top posts and established the similar absolute power enjoyed by his predecessors. The two late North Korean leaders have kept posthumous titles — Kim Jong Il remains “eternal general secretary” and Kim Il Sung is “eternal president.”On Sunday, state media said the congress had determined to change the party’s Executive Policy Council into the Secretariat. The decision would lead to party officials relinquishing current titles such as chairman and vice chairman and start using old titles such as secretary or vice secretary.The congress is being held as Kim faces what appears to be the toughest moment of his nine-year rule because of multiple blows to his country’s already-fragile economy caused by pandemic-related border closings that have drastically reduced external trade, a series of natural disasters and U.S.-led sanctions.During the congress, Kim Jong Un vowed to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and build more sophisticated weapons systems to cope with what he calls intensifying U.S. hostile policy. He also admitted a previous five-year economic development plan failed and disclosed a new development that focuses on building a stronger self-reliant economy.
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Indonesian Authorities Locate Black Boxes from Sriwijaya Air Passenger Plane
Indonesian aviation authorities said Sunday they had located the two black boxes from the Sriwijaya Air passenger plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta Saturday. Speaking to reporters, Soerjanto Tjahjanto, head of Indonesia’s transport safety agency said that divers would look for them, hoping to retrieve them soon. The devices contain recordings of cockpit voice and flight data could help officials understand why the Boeing 737-500 with 62 people on board crashed. An official with Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, Bambang Suryo Aji, confirmed earlier that wreckage had been found from the Sriwijaya Air passenger plane. Aji said the discovery of wreckage was first reported by the local post command on Lancang Island and that the debris would be sent to the National Commission on Transportation Safety. A crisis center has been set up at the Jakarta International Container Terminal JICT-2 in Tanjung Priok Harbor. Some material from the wreckage, including body parts and victims’ belongings were sent to the center and has been forwarded to the Indonesian Police Hospital. Jakarta Police spokesperson Yusri Yunus told VOA, “We really hope that the closest relatives could come to the hospital. They should take DNA test to confirm the body parts that we have found. We also asked them to bring the medical record, such as dental record, or perhaps a tattoo.” VOA radio affiliates in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, reported that some family members came to Supadio Airport to find out more information regarding the plane. Some family members could not hide their sorrow and were seen crying and screaming at the crisis center’s staff. Flight SJ182 was en route to Pontianak, the capital of the West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, the Transportation Ministry said. Flightradar24, the flight tracking service, said the Boeing 737 “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.” Minister of Transportation Budi Karya said the plane took off at 2:36 p.m. local time Saturday but four minutes later air traffic control could no longer contact it. “Within seconds the plane disappeared from the radar,” he added. Indonesian navy and air force sources told VOA that at least seven ships had been deployed to location, while some aircraft ready to be operated from Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi and Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta Sunday morning. The airline’s chief executive, Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, told reporters that the plane’s takeoff was delayed 30 minutes because of heavy rain. A local fisherman identified only as Mahyudin on Pancang Island near the location where contact was lost with the plane said in an interview with VOA that “some fishermen told me they hear a loud bang, like an explosion, in the sea around 2:30 or 2:40 p.m.
Isabela Cocoli, Wayne Lee and Fern Robinson contributed to this story.
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Australia, US, UK, Canada Criticize Hong Kong Mass Arrests
The foreign ministers of Australia, the United States, Great Britain and Canada issued a joint statement Sunday expressing “serious concern” about the arrest of 55 democracy activists and supporters in Hong Kong last week.The arrests were by far the largest such action taken under a national security law that China imposed on the semi-autonomous territory a little more than six months ago.“It is clear that the National Security Law is being used to eliminate dissent and opposing political views,” the four foreign ministers said.The Chinese and Hong Kong governments say the law is needed to restore order in a city that was rocked in 2019 by months of often violent anti-government protests demanding greater democracy.Most of those arrested last week had taken part in an unofficial primary for a legislative election that was later postponed. Authorities allege the primary was part of a plot to take control of the legislature in order to paralyze government and force the city’s leader to resign.The 55 have not been charged, and all but three have been released on bail pending further investigation. Convictions could disqualify them from running for office.The four foreign ministers said the next legislative election should include candidates representing a range of political opinions. Only half the city’s legislature is elected by popular vote.“We call on the Hong Kong and Chinese central authorities to respect the legally guaranteed rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong without fear of arrest and detention,” they wrote.The statement was signed by Marise Payne of Australia, Francois-Philippe Champagne of Canada, Dominic Raab of the U.K. and Mike Pompeo of the United States.Separately, Pompeo announced Saturday that the U.S. is voiding longstanding restrictions on how its diplomats and others have contact with their counterparts in Taiwan, a self-governing island that China says should be under its rule.The actions on Taiwan and Hong Kong will undoubtedly anger China, which views such moves as foreign interference in its internal affairs.The Trump administration, which is in its final days, is also sending Kelly Craft, its ambassador to the United Nations, to Taiwan later this week. China has sharply criticized the upcoming visit, while the Taiwan government has welcomed it.
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At Least 11 Dead in Indonesia Landslides
Indonesian officials say at least 11 people are dead and 18 others injured in back-to-back landslides in Sumedang regency, West Java, Saturday night.“The first landslide happened due to heavy rain and unstable soil condition in that area,” Raditya Jati, an official with Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), said in a statement. “A subsequent landslide occurred when some search and rescue personnel were evacuating victims in the first landslide area.”Search and rescue workers are among the dead.The search and rescue effort will resume Sunday, carried out by a joint team of military, police and local disaster agency workers, who are waiting for heavy equipment to arrive to aid in the operation.The landslides also cut off a bridge and several roads in the area.Saturday’s heavy rain triggered landslides in several areas in West Java, including Garut and Sumedang.Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency is forecasting heavy rain, lightning and strong winds Sunday and Monday.The peak months of the rainy season in Indonesia are in January and February.
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Indonesian Official Confirms Debris Found From Missing Plane
An official with Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency has confirmed that debris from a Sriwijaya Air passenger plane carrying 62 people was found after contact was lost shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.The rescue agency’s Bambang Suryo Aji said the discovery of wreckage was first reported by the local post command on Lancang Island and that the debris would be sent to a national transportation safety agency.At a virtual press conference Saturday, the head of the safety agency, Soerjanto Tjahjono, said he was still gathering all information and “will start searching for the black box tomorrow morning.”VOA radio affiliates in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, reported that some family members had come to Supadio Airport to find out more information regarding the plane and that a crisis center had been set up. Some family members could not hide their sorrow and were seen crying and screaming at the center’s staff.Bound for PontianakFlight SJ182 was en route to Pontianak, the capital of the West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, the Transportation Ministry said.Flightradar24, a flight tracking service, said the Boeing 737 “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.”“The missing plane is currently under investigation and under coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Committee,” government spokesman Adita Irawati said in a statement.Minister of Transportation Budi Karya told reporters the National Search and Rescue Agency and the military had deployed ships to search for the plane.The minister said the plane took off at 2:36 p.m. local time Saturday, but four minutes later air traffic control could no longer contact it. “Within seconds the plane disappeared from the radar,” he added.Indonesian navy and air force sources told VOA that “at least seven ships have been deployed to location, while some aircraft ready to be operated from Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi and Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta tomorrow morning.”The airline’s chief executive, Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, told reporters that the plane’s takeoff had been delayed 30 minutes because of heavy rain.’Loud bang’A local fisherman identified only as Mahyudin on Pancang Island near the location where contact was lost with the plane said in an interview with VOA that “some fishermen told me they hear a loud bang, like an explosion, in the sea around 2:30 or 2:40 p.m.“It was raining and quite dark. They came home around 3.30 p.m. and as soon as I got their report, we call local police. They [fishermen] also saw plane debris near their boat.” He added that local police had set up emergency tents on the Island.Wayne Lee and Fern Robinson contributed to this report.
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Pompeo Lifts ‘Self-imposed Restrictions’ on US-Taiwan Relationship
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday said he was lifting restrictions on contacts between U.S. officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, a move likely to anger China and increase tensions between Beijing and Washington in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s presidency.China claims democratic and separately ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and regularly describes Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in its ties with the United States.While the United States, like most countries, has no official relations with Taiwan, the Trump administration has ramped up backing for the island country, with arms sales and laws to help Taiwan deal with pressure from China.In a statement, Pompeo said that for several decades the State Department had created complex internal restrictions on interactions with Taiwanese counterparts by American diplomats, service members and other officials.”The United States government took these actions unilaterally, in an attempt to appease the communist regime in Beijing,” Pompeo said in a statement.”Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions,” he added.The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States in Washington, which serves as Taiwan’s unofficial embassy, said the move showed the “strength and depth” of the United States’ relationship with Taiwan.Craft to visitThe U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, will visit Taiwan next week for meetings with senior Taiwanese leaders, prompting China on Thursday to warn they were playing with fire.Chinese fighter jets approached the island in August and September during the last two visits — first by Alex Azar, U.S. secretary of health and human services, and second by Keith Krach, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.The United States is Taiwan’s strongest international backer and arms supplier, and the U.S. is obliged to help provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.”The United States government maintains relationships with unofficial partners around the world, and Taiwan is no exception. … Today’s statement recognizes that the U.S.-Taiwan relationship need not, and should not, be shackled by self-imposed restrictions of our permanent bureaucracy,” Pompeo said.
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Indonesian Government Begins Investigation Into Missing Plane
Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry says Sriwijaya Air lost contact with one of its passenger planes Saturday carrying 62 people shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.Flight SJ182 was en route to Pontianak, the capital of the West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, the ministry said.Flightradar24, the flight tracking service, said the Boeing 737 “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.”“The missing plane is currently under investigation and under coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Committee,” government spokesman Adita Irawati said in a statement.Indonesian Plane Missing Shortly After TakeoffMore than 50 people onboardIndonesian Minister for Transportation Budi Karya told reporters the National Search and Rescue Agency and the military deployed ships to search for the plane. The minister said the plane took off at 2:36 p.m. local time but the air traffic controller could no longer contact it four minutes later. “Within seconds the plane disappeared from the radar,” he added. Indonesian navy and air force sources told VOA that “at least seven ships have been deployed to location, while some aircraft ready to be operated from Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi and Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta tomorrow morning.” The airline’s chief executive, Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, told reporters that the plane’s takeoff was delayed 30 minutes because of heavy rain. A local fisherman identified only as Mahyudin on Pancang Island near the location where contact was lost with the plane said in an interview with VOA that “some fishermen told me they hear a loud bang, like an explosion, in the sea around 2:30 or 2:40 p.m.
“It was raining and quite dark. They came home around 3.30 p.m. and as soon as I got their report, we call local police. They [fishermen] also saw plane debris near their boat.” He added that local police set up emergency tents on the Island. An official with the search and rescue agency, Bambang Suryo Aji, confirmed that debris from the plane had been found after initial reports from the local post command on Lancang Island. He said the debris will be sent to the National Commission on Safety Transportation.In a virtual press conference, the head of the National Commission on Safety Transportation, Soerjanto Tjahjono, said he is still gathering all information and “will start searching for the black box tomorrow morning.”VOA radio affiliates in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, report that some family members have come to Supadio Airport to find out more information regarding the plane and a crisis center has been set up. Some family members could not hide the sorrow and were seen crying, and screaming at the center’s staff.Wayne Lee and Fern Robinson contributed to this story.
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