JAYAPURA, Indonesia — The woman carries bananas, yams and vegetables in a knotted bag on her head as she wanders through a market in a suburban area of Jayapura in eastern Indonesia. 

Even in the Papua capital and bigger cities of the province, a noken bag where people carry their daily essentials is a common sight. 

The distinctive bag, handcrafted from natural fibers like tree bark or leaves, is woven and knotted with threads of Papuan heritage. The U.N. cultural agency UNESCO recognized the traditional bag as needing urgent safeguarding in 2012 because there are fewer crafters making noken and more competition from factory-made bags. 

Crafter Mariana Pekei sells her handmade bags daily in Youtefa market in Jayapura, along with other women from her village. 

“It is difficult to craft from the tree bark,” Pekei said. 

They collect the raw materials from melinjo trees or orchids, facing dangers like mosquitoes in the forest. They then process the material into thread fibers, including by spinning the fibers together in their palms and on their thighs, which can cause wounds and scar their skin. 

“If it’s made of yarn, we can craft, knot it directly with our hands,” Pekei said. 

The price of noken depends on the material as well as the craftsmanship. A small bag can be made in a day, but the bigger ones require more creativity from the maker and more precision and patience. 

Sometimes, the noken is colored by using natural dyes, mostly light brown or cream with some yellowish brown. 

“Those are the color of Papuan people and the Papuan land,” Pekei said. 

With its seemingly simple yet intricate winding technique and the symbolism it holds, the noken has become a valuable item passed down from generation to generation. 

For people from outside Papua, noken are much desired and can be found easily at markets or souvenir stores. Despite the high transportation costs, crafters often journey from their remote villages to Jayapura, determined to sell their noken and share their craft with the city. 

But more than just a practical tool for carrying goods or souvenir, Pekei said that a noken serves as a powerful cultural symbol, representing the resilience, unity and creativity of the Papuan people.
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PHUKET, THAILAND — Plastic bottles and empty beer cans roll on the sea floor in the waters around Phuket in southern Thailand, while ever more garbage piles up on the island itself, a tourist hotspot better known for its pristine beaches and stunning sunsets.

In one corner of the island, trucks and tractors trundle back and forth moving piles of trash around a sprawling landfill, the final destination for much of the more than 1,000 tonnes of waste collected on Phuket every day.

In a matter of months, the landfill has grown so large it has replaced the previous serene mountain view from Vassana Toyou’s home.

“There is no life outside the house, (we) just stay at home,” she said. “The smell is very strong, you have to wear a mask.”

To cope with the stench, Vassana said she keeps her air conditioner and air purifiers switched on all the time, doubling her electricity bill.

Phuket, Thailand’s largest island, has undergone rapid development due to its tourism sector, a major driver of the Thai economy as a whole. Of the country’s 35.5 million foreign arrivals in 2024, about 13 million headed to the island.

“The growth of (Phuket) city has been much more rapid than it should be,” said Suppachoke Laongphet, deputy mayor of the island’s main municipality, explaining how a tourism and construction boom has pushed trash volumes above pre-COVID levels.

By the end of year, the island could be producing up to 1,400 tonnes of trash a day, overwhelming its sole landfill, he said.

Authorities are pushing ahead with plans to cut waste generation by 15% in six months, expand the landfill and build a new incinerator, he said, as the island strives to become a more sustainable tourist destination.

But increasing capacity and incinerators is only part of the solution, experts say.

“If you just keep expanding more waste incinerators, I don’t think that would be just the solution,” said Panate Manomaivibool, an assistant professor in waste management at Burapha University.

“They need to focus on waste reduction and separation.” 
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Washington — The United States has been ramping up its Indo-Pacific region air bases to ensure they are protected against attack, a spokesperson for the U.S. Pacific Air Forces told VOA this week, amid concerns over vulnerabilities they face in countries such as Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea against potential Chinese strikes.

“While we are continually improving our theater posture, warfighting advantage, and integration with allied and partners, Pacific Air Forces stands ready every day to respond to anything that poses a threat to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the spokesperson said.

“We continue to invest in infrastructure and technology to enhance the resilience and survivability of our bases and facilities across the theater including hardening airfields and buildings while investing in advanced security systems to protect our personnel and assets,” the spokesperson told VOA on Tuesday.

The Air Force was authorized with “$916.6 million to improve logistics, maintenance capabilities, and prepositioning of equipment, munitions, fuel, and material in the Indo-Pacific” through the fiscal 2024 Pacific Deterrence Initiative, the spokesperson added. The Pacific Deterrence Initiative is a set of defense priorities set up in 2021 by congress to support U.S. goals in the Indo-Pacific, primarily to counter China.

The comments were made in response to a report last week by the Hudson Institute claiming that U.S. aircraft at allied Indo-Pacific country bases could suffer major losses from Chinese attacks unless those bases are fortified.

If left unfortified, the U.S. air power in the region would be significantly reduced compared to China’s, according to the report, Concrete Sky: Air Based Hardening in the Western Pacific.

One of the reasons, according to the report, is that the U.S. is lagging behind China in the number of shelters that could hide and protect the aircraft from attacks.

China more than doubled the number of aircraft shelters since the early 2010s, having more than 3,000, according to the report. Across 134 Chinese air bases located within 1,000 nautical miles from the Taiwan Strait, China has more than 650 hardened aircraft shelters and nearly 2,000 nonhardened individual aircraft shelters.

A hardened shelter is a reinforced structure made of steel, concrete, and other materials to protect military aircraft from enemy strikes.

In comparison, the U.S. has added two hardened shelters and 41 nonhardened ones within 1,000 nautical miles of the Taiwan Strait and outside South Korea since the 2010s, continues the report.

This means if a war breaks out over Taiwan, U.S. aircraft could suffer more damage than China’s if they attacked each other’s bases in the region, which would prevent U.S. air operation for a duration of time, said analysts.

According to Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center’s Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Program, attacks on U.S. bases in the Pacific region, including Japan could “prevent the U.S. Air Force from conducting fighter operations for about the first 12 days of a conflict from U.S. bases in Japan.”

Grieco continued, based on her own report published by the Stimson Center, that Chinese missiles could also take out runways and aerial refueling tankers, rendering them unusable over a month at U.S. bases in Japan and over half week at U.S. military bases in Guam and other Pacific locations.

“It’s not possible to harden a runway or taxiway,” that is exposed as easy targets to destroy, disabling aircraft from taking off, she said. This begs the question of whether it is worth investing in hardening facilities, she adds.

The Hudson Institute report says within the 1,000 nautical miles of Taiwan, China has added 20 runways and 49 taxiways since the 2010s while the U.S. added one runway and one taxiway.

Unhardened airfields

Among U.S. air bases in allied countries of Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea, those in the Philippines are the least protected, Timothy Walton, one of the authors of the Hudson report, told VOA.

“In Japan, Kadena and Misawa Air Bases are the most fortified U.S. bases, while the remainder are largely unfortified,” said Walton, a senior fellow at Hudson’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology.

“In the Republic of Korea, the two U.S. Air Force bases, Osan and Kunsan, are hardened. Airfields in the Philippines are unhardened,” he said.

Grieco said the U.S. would mostly rely on its bases in Japan, Guam, and other Pacific locations as South Korea would “restrict the use of U.S. bases in its territory in a Taiwan contingency out of concern about North Korean aggression and to avoid a rupture with Beijing.”

U.S. Representative John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, and 13 other lawmakers underlined last year the importance of hardened shelters to protect against Chinese attacks.

In a letter sent to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro in May, they said, “U.S. bases in the region have almost no hardened aircraft shelters compared to Chinese military bases,” leading to U.S. air assets being “highly vulnerable to Chinese strikes.”

Aside from hardened shelters, analysts pointed to dispersing airfields as important.

Steven Rudder, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former commanding general of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, said, “When you look at the number of aircraft in the Asia Pacific, I am not sure that the ability to harden every single aircraft parking space would be as effective as a distributed force.”

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense researcher at Rand Corporation, said dispersing airfields are important against nuclear strikes.

Against conventional warhead missiles, shelters are “key to the protection,” said Bennett. “But if there’s a nuclear threat, you’ve got to have different airfields” as alternative locations to park and land aircraft and to provide logistic support such as fueling, maintenance, and repair, he said.

Bennett added the disparity in the number of aircraft shelters between the China and U.S. seems to stem from U.S. air superiority.

“What the U.S. Air Force tends to perceive is that we’ve got the ability to deal with the Chinese air force in an air-to-air combat” where China traditionally felt it would lose air-to-air combat against the U.S. and therefore wants to take U.S. aircraft on the ground before engaging in air while sheltering theirs heavily on the ground, Bennett said.

“The question becomes, as the Chinese aircraft get better and as they start fielding fifth generation fighter, will the U.S. need the ability to attack Chinese airfields with conventional weapons? I don’t think the Defense Department has considered it as one of important tasks,” Bennett said.
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The chief of the Indian army this week said that India is not yet looking to reduce troops at the India-China border in the winter season. The comment comes days after both countries agreed on six principles to ensure peace and stability at the border in a meeting in Beijing. But analysts believe a lack of trust and differences in strategic objectives would make the resolution process extremely difficult.  

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 

 
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Taiwan plans to spend $4.56 billion to boost its startup ecosystem and has set up a liaison center in Silicon Valley designated to attract American venture capital and talent to Taiwan. Liu Chin-ching, minister of the National Development Council of Taiwan, told VOA of the importance of the bridge between the U.S. and Taiwan, adding that the Taiwan government would support new tech sectors such as quantum computing, silicon photonics and next-generation drones. 

 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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South Korean authorities detained impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol early Wednesday. The move ends a weeks-long standoff over the current status of Yoon, who is being investigated for insurrection related to his short-lived declaration of martial law. More from VOA’s Bill Gallo in Seoul.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korean authorities are making a fresh effort to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, days after he evaded the first attempt to enforce a court-approved warrant with the protection of presidential security and military forces.

A team of investigators arrived before dawn Wednesday at the heavily fortified presidential compound in central Seoul. Yoon has been holed up there as he pushes against a government insurrection investigation related to his short-lived declaration of martial law.

Reports suggest authorities are prepared to use a much larger force — consisting of about 1,000 police officers — and more forceful tactics to detain Yoon than they did in their previous attempt nearly two weeks ago.

According to Yonhap News Agency, authorities are bracing for an operation that could last up to three days and may use loudspeakers for psychological warfare, as well as cranes and tow trucks to remove any barriers.

The presidential residence, which lies in a sprawling, hilly compound in the Hannam-dong neighborhood, has been fortified with extra barbed wire fencing and tightly packed buses and other vehicles that block the path to Yoon’s residence.

Despite the predawn hour and subfreezing temperatures, police estimate that 6,500 Yoon supporters were gathered in the area early Wednesday.

For weeks, the large street outside the compound has been filled with protesters — mostly supporters of the embattled conservative president, who has vowed to “fight to the end.”

According to Yonhap, some ruling party lawmakers formed a human chain early Wednesday outside the main entrance of Yoon’s residence to prevent his detention.

If Yoon is detained, authorities would have 48 hours to decide whether to file for a formal arrest warrant or release him. It would be the first time a sitting South Korean president has been taken into police custody.

Yoon was impeached last month following his declaration of martial law. The country’s Constitutional Court must uphold his impeachment for him to be removed from office.

Separately, Yoon faces a criminal investigation into insurrection and abuse of power but has defied multiple requests to appear for questioning as part of that probe.

Yoon’s lawyers have slammed the detention effort as politically motivated. They also argue that the court that issued the detention warrant had no jurisdiction to do so, and that the anti-corruption agency leading the investigation has no mandate to investigate the president for insurrection.

Earlier this week, South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, warned against the possibility of clashes between security forces, urging both sides to act in a “peaceful and restrained manner.”

The previous detention attempt on January 3 was suspended after a six-hour standoff, with the detention team citing the risk of violence.
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Bangkok — The recent abduction of a Chinese TV actor to Myanmar and his subsequent release is shedding new light on the lengths to which human traffickers operating online scam centers in the war-torn country will go to in order to lure would-be victims.

Chinese actor Wang Xing went missing on January 3, in Mae Sot, a city in northern Thailand, which borders Myanmar. Two days later his family reported him missing, and with growing cries on social media, the case prompted Thai and Chinese authorities to act.

Last week, on January 7, Thai authorities say they found Wang in Myanmar and brought him back to Thailand.

Thai police said Wang was trafficked across the Thai-Myanmar border and held captive at KK Park in Myawaddy, which is notorious for its illegal scam operations.

According to local media reports, Wang was lured to Thailand under the false pretense of a film audition. He received the job offer via social media platform WeChat. Wang flew to Bangkok and was transported to Myanmar.

Wang’s head was shaved. He was held captive and forced into training on how to perform online scams, according to media reports. He said there were 50 other Chinese nationals in similar circumstances.

After his rescue and return to Thailand, Wang, 31, flew to Shanghai on Friday.

Wang’s rescue has prompted others to speak out and according to state media in China, the families of some 174 individuals have been circulating a joint letter on Chinese social media asking for help. According to the letter, family members say their loved ones are trapped in northern and eastern Myanmar.

Experts say Wang’s case highlights the growing sophistication of the masterminds of scam operations.

“This is a very deliberate form of kidnapping, of hostage taking, that you’re seeing these scam syndicates now go about. The means of trafficking people into these compounds is increasingly changing,” Jason Tower, the Myanmar country director at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), told VOA.

“This shows how these criminal actors are adapting and going to greater lengths to lure people of a wide range of demographics into captivity, to either suck funds out of them directly or get them involved in forced labor criminality,” he said.

At least one other Chinese national, Wu Jiaqi, 21, was also rescued from captivity in Myanmar in recent days, local media report.

The targeting of Chinese citizens by criminal gangs in Southeast Asia has become a growing problem in recent years.

Chen, a Chinese national who withheld his full name for security concerns, toldRadio Free Asia in 2023 that he was a trafficking victim in a scam compound in Myanmar, and that there were at least 1,000 Chinese nationals also trapped, with scam bosses demanding $30,000 per individual for their release. 

Many illegal scam centers in Southeast Asia are linked with Chinese criminal networks operating in the region, experts say. Individuals from all over the world are lured into false business opportunities and forced into scam compounds.

A report in June by the United States Institute of Peace revealed that scam centers operating in Southeast Asia countries, including Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar have swindled billions of dollars. All three countries share borders with Thailand.

“This is becoming a greater and greater problem. These Chinese criminal syndicates are quite deeply embedded in all of Thailand’s neighboring countries, but they are in Thailand as well,” Tower added.

Nikorndej Balankura, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, said last week that combatting cross-border crimes is a national priority.

“Thailand has consistently emphasized the importance of regular cooperation to promote border peace and security and combat cross-border crimes, including illegal drug trafficking, human trafficking, cybercrime, telecom and online fraud. The Thai government attaches great importance to combatting cross-border crimes and considers it a national priority,” he told local media.

But Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Thai political scientist, told VOA that the fight against transnational crime needs more support from Thai law enforcement and officials.

“Thailand is the vortex and nexus of scam centers and other transnational crimes. It is also a country with endemic corruption and decayed institutions, particularly the police force,” he said.

Scammers are a big problem for China and telecom fraud has been a persistent concern in recent years with Beijing passing a telecom and online fraud law in December 2022.

Chinese authorities have increased public information campaigns and even tried to use draconian tactics to deter its citizens from visiting Southeast Asia, Tower said.

“In 2022, a narrative started to emerge that going to Thailand could result in getting trafficked into Myanmar and losing your kidneys,” he said. “Later on, you started to see that the police will make phone calls to people when they book tickets to ask them what they’re doing in Southeast Asia.”

The Chinese language movie “No More Bets,” released in August 2023, depicts Chinese tourists visiting an unnamed Southeast Asian country, only to be trafficked into a scam compound and forced into labor.

Benedikt Hofmann, the deputy representative Southeast Asia and the Pacific for the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime, said that despite warnings, individuals are still being fooled.

“We are still seeing a lot of this despite the massive efforts that have gone into raising awareness of the risks — things like the movie “No More Bets” really brought a lot attention to this — which really shows how effective these groups are in creating incentives for young people to go there,” Hoffman said.

Chinese tourism in Thailand could also be affected. Chinese nationals are the biggest visitors to Thailand, with more than 6 million arrivals in 2024.

But reports in Hong Kong say many tourists from China are cancelling their trips ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations which begin on January 27.

Thailand’s tourism bureau has attempted to reassure Chinese visitors, publishing a press release in Mandarin on January 10, stating that Thailand “attaches great importance to the safety of tourists.”

On Sunday, Thai and Chinese authorities held a high-level meeting to discuss strengthening cooperation in combatting transnational crime and human trafficking.

VOA reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok for comment on the case and growing concerns but did not receive a response.

Vincent Vichit-Vadakan, a Bangkok-based travel analyst, said he doesn’t believe the recent cases will have a long-term impact on Thailand as a tourist destination.

“Hopefully these high-profile cases will prompt Thai and Chinese authorities to find more effective ways to prevent criminals from using Thailand as a hub for their activities,” he told VOA.
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SEOUL, South Korea — The impeachment trial of South Korea’s suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol begins Tuesday, with the country’s Constitutional Court set to weigh whether to strip him of his presidential duties over a failed martial law bid.

Yoon’s Dec. 3 power grab plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades, after he directed soldiers to storm parliament in an unsuccessful attempt to stop lawmakers voting down his suspension of civilian rule.

He was impeached soon after and suspended from duty, but has gone to ground in his residence since, refusing summonses from investigators probing him on insurrection charges and using his presidential security team to resist arrest.

Lawmakers also impeached Yoon’s stand-in last month, putting the country in further political instability, and the current acting president has appeared unwilling to wade into the standoff, instead urging all parties to negotiate for a solution.

The trial’s first of five hearings is slated to begin at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT). The following sessions take place on Jan. 16, 21, 23 and Feb. 4.

The court will decide mainly two issues, whether Yoon’s martial law declaration was unconstitutional and if it was illegal.

“This impeachment case focuses solely on the martial law situation, so the facts are not particularly complex,” lawyer Kim Nam-ju told AFP.

“Since most of the individuals involved have already been indicted and the facts have been somewhat established, it doesn’t seem like it will take a long time.”

The court has up to 180 days from Dec. 14, when it received the case, to make its ruling on whether Yoon indeed violated the constitution and the martial law act.

Yoon’s legal team said he would not appear at the first hearing over purported safety concerns, saying he would be willing to appear at a later date if security issues were ironed out.

“Concerns about safety and potential incidents have arisen. Therefore, the president will not be able to attend the trial on Jan. 14,” lawyer Yoon Kab-keun told AFP.

The trial will continue in his absence if he does not appear.

Former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye did not appear for their impeachment trials in 2004 and 2016-2017, respectively.

Yoon’s lawyers have argued the court must utilize the full 180 days — specifically to examine what “led to the declaration of martial law.”

 

Separate to the trial, a joint team of investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) — which is probing Yoon over insurrection — and police are preparing a fresh attempt to arrest the president.

An earlier attempt failed after Yoon’s presidential guards blocked access to investigators.

If the new warrant is executed successfully, Yoon would become the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.

If eventually convicted in that case, Yoon faces prison or even the death penalty.

As media speculation rose that the second attempt would take place this week, the police, CIO and Yoon’s presidential security service met Tuesday to discuss the arrest warrant, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The CIO said it would “prepare thoroughly” for its second effort to arrest Yoon, with police reportedly preparing 1,000 investigators for the fresh attempt.

Meanwhile, Yoon’s guards have reinforced his Seoul compound with barbed wire installations and bus barricades.

On Tuesday Yoon’s chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said his office was “ready to consider all options for investigation or visits” to the sitting leader “at a third location.”

Yoon’s legal team has also sought to put pressure on police to avoid being involved in the arrest attempt, claiming officers would be in “in violation of multiple laws” if they cooperated with investigators.

Late Sunday, the CIO sent a letter to the defense ministry and presidential security service saying anyone blocking Yoon’s potential arrest “may face criminal charges” for obstruction and abuse of authority.
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Tokyo — A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 hit southwestern Japan on Monday, triggering public warnings to stay away from coastal areas because of a tsunami advisory, which was later called off.

There were no immediate reports of damage. Residents in some coastal areas were told to evacuate as a precautionary measure.

One man was slightly injured in Kyushu after falling down some stairs, NHK TV reported. Trains stopped running in Miyazaki Station, stranding passengers.

NHK said a tsunami, estimated to be as high as 1 meter, reached land within 30 minutes of the quake. The waters detected at Miyazaki Port measured 20 centimeters high, the reports said.

Tsunami advisories were issued for Miyazaki prefecture, where the quake was centered, in the southwestern island of Kyushu, as well as nearby Kochi prefecture in Shikoku island, shortly after the quake struck at 9:19 p.m. according to the agency. They were all called off shortly before midnight.

People were warned to stay away from the waters, including rivers. Agency official Shigeki Aoki told reporters that people should watch for landslides as well as falling objects in homes.

Aftershocks can strike over the next week, especially in the next two or three days, he said.

The quake, centered at a depth of 30 kilometers, shook a wide area in Kyushu, the southwestern main island, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

Japan is frequently hit by earthquakes because of its location along the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

NHK TV footage showed moving traffic and well-lit streets, meaning that electric power was still working. No problems were detected at the various monitoring posts for nuclear plants in the area.

Experts at the meteorological agency met late Monday to gauge how the latest temblor may be related to the so-called Nankai Trough quakes, but decided not to take any extraordinary measures for the time being.

The term refers to a wide region believed to be prone to periodic major quakes. A Nankai Trough quake off Shikoku in 1946 killed more than 1,300 people. The area was hit by a 7.1 magnitude quake in August last year.
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Seoul, South Korea — South Korea said it planned to improve the structures housing the antennas that guide landings at its airports this year after December’s fatal crash of a Jeju Air plane, which skidded off the runway and burst into flames after hitting such a structure.

The country’s transport ministry, which has been inspecting safety conditions at airlines and airports since the Boeing jet crashed at the southwestern Muan airport, announced on Monday the move to change the so-called “localizer” structures.

Seven domestic airports, including Muan, were found to have embankments or foundations made of concrete or steel that needed to be changed, the ministry said in a statement.

It added that it would prepare measures to improve the structures by this month and it aimed to complete the improvements by the end of 2025. It did not provide details of the planned improvements.

Aviation safety experts have criticized the placement of the embankment at Muan airport and said it likely raised the death toll of the crash, which killed 179 of the 181 people on board.

The government has also finished its inspection of six domestic airlines flying Boeing 737-800s, and found violations at some operators including exceeding the period of inspection pre- and post-flight, and non-compliance with procedures to resolve plane defects or passenger boarding.

The transport ministry declined to comment on whether Jeju Air was among the airlines where violations were found. A Jeju Air spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.

A special safety inspection of the country’s major airport facilities will also take place between Jan. 13-21, the ministry statement said.

The government also extended the shutdown of Muan airport to Jan. 19, the ministry said in a separate statement.
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Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) has recently spread widely across China, overwhelming hospitals and evoking memories of the COVID-19 outbreak. HMPV is not a new virus; it has been known for years and typically has a low mortality rate. Nevertheless, epidemiologists are calling for greater transparency about the spread of the virus to help contain infections. While the health care system is under strain, experts stress that there is no need for panic. They recommend the public follow basic protective measures, particularly during the Spring Festival travel period, to help curb further spread of the virus.

Click here to read the full story in Mandarin.
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