Tokyo — A Japanese business executive who was detained in Myanmar for more than a month has been released after being convicted of violating rice pricing rules, officials said Tuesday.

Hiroshi Kasamatsu, a director of the Myanmar supermarket Aeon Orange, was in custody in Myanmar since his June 30 arrest for selling rice at prices above the official regulations. Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that the Japanese national was convicted of violating law related to daily necessities and service. He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined about $150.

Kasamatsu was freed Monday afternoon, said Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesperson for the Myanmar’s ruling military council.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said it was unclear if Kasamatsu would stay in Myanmar or return to Japan. He was released from custody and is in good health, it said, but declined to give further details.

Rice is vital in Myanmar, a country struggling to stabilize its economy as civil war disrupts efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, triggering nonviolent protests that have evolved into armed resistance.

Aeon Orange is a part of Japan’s retail giant Aeon group, and operates several supermarkets in Myanmar. Aeon said it had no immediate comment.

Kasamatsu was among a number of foreign executives arrested on similar allegations in Myanmar.

The state-run Myanmar Alin newspaper reported in early July that the arrests for allegedly overpricing rice — from 31% to 70% over official prices set by the Myanmar Rice Federation — involved 62 suspects, 102 warehouses, 53 supermarkets and superstores, 25 mills and seven other shops in major cities.

Japan has historically maintained friendly ties with Myanmar. Compared with many Western nations, it took a softer approach toward Myanmar’s military government over its poor human rights record and undermining of democracy. Tokyo has not imposed economic sanctions though it does not acknowledge the legitimacy of the current government and urges restoration of democracy, and limits Japanese aid to humanitarian purposes.
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beijing — Engineers sent China’s biggest-yet cargo drone on a test run over the weekend while a helicopter taxi took to the skies on a soon-to-open 100-km route to Shanghai, laying new milestones for the country’s expanding low-altitude economy.

Packing a payload capacity of 2 metric tons, the twin-engine aircraft took off on Sunday on an inaugural flight, state media said, citing developer Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co., for a trip of about 20 minutes in southwestern Sichuan province.

China’s civilian drone makers are testing larger payloads as the government pushes to build a low-altitude economy, with the country’s aviation regulator envisioning a $279-billion industry by 2030, for a four-fold expansion from 2023.

The Tengden-built drone, with a wingspan of 16.1 meters and a height of 4.6 meters, is slightly larger than the world’s most popular light aircraft, the four-seat Cessna 172.

The trial run followed the maiden flight in June of a cargo drone developed by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the leading aerospace enterprise.

The AVIC’s HH-100 has a payload capacity of 700 kilograms and a flight radius of 520 km. Next year, AVIC plans to test its biggest cargo drone, the TP2000, which can carry up to 2 tons of cargo and fly four times farther than the HH-100.

China has already begun commercial deliveries by drone.

In May, cargo drone firm Phoenix Wings, part of delivery giant SF Express, started delivering fresh fruit from the island province of Hainan to southern Guangdong, using Fengzhou-90 drones developed by SF, a unit of S.F. Holding 002352.SZ.

Cargo drones promise shorter delivery times and lower transport costs, Chinese industry insiders say, while widening deliveries to sites lacking conventional aviation facilities, such as rooftop spaces in heavily built-up cities.

They could also ferry people on taxi services.
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Beijing — China supports Iran in defending its “sovereignty, security and national dignity,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told Iran’s acting foreign minister in a phone call Sunday, according to a statement by China’s foreign ministry. 

In the phone call, Wang repeated Beijing’s denunciation of the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, saying the attack violated Iran’s sovereignty and threatened regional stability. 

Iran and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the covert strike that killed Haniyeh. 

Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility for the killing, which has fueled concern that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was turning into a wider Middle East war. 

Iran has vowed to “harshly punish” Israel over the assassination. 

Wang told Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting foreign Minister, that the killing of Haniyeh had “directly undermined the Gaza cease-fire negotiation process and undermined regional peace and stability,” China’s foreign ministry said. 

“China supports Iran in defending its sovereignty, security and national dignity in accordance with the law, and in its efforts to maintain regional peace and stability, and stands ready to maintain close communication with Iran,” Wang was quoted as saying. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday nominated Abbas Araqchi as the country’s foreign minister. Araqchi had been Iran’s chief negotiator in nuclear talks from 2013 to 2021. 
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BEIJING — Chinese authorities are chasing unpaid taxes from companies and individuals dating back decades, as the government moves to plug massive budget shortfalls and address a mounting debt crisis.

More than a dozen listed Chinese companies say they were slapped with millions of dollars in back taxes in a renewed effort to fix local finances that have been wrecked by a downturn in the property market that hit sales of land leases, a main source of revenues.

Policies issued after a recent planning meeting of top Communist Party officials called for expanding local tax resources and said localities should expand their “tax management authority and improve their debt management.”

Local government debt is estimated at up to $11 trillion, including what’s owed by local government financing entities that are “off balance sheet,” or not included in official estimates. More than 300 reforms the party has outlined include promises to better monitor and manage local debt, one of the biggest risks in China’s financial system.

That will be easier said than done, and experts question how thoroughly the party will follow through on its pledges to improve the tax regime and better balance control of government revenues.

“They are not grappling with existing local debt problems, nor the constraints on fiscal capacity,” said Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. “Changing central and local revenue sharing and expenditure responsibilities is notable but they have promised this before.”

The scramble to collect long overdue taxes shows the urgency of the problems.

Chinese food and beverage conglomerate VV Food & Beverage reported in June it was hit with an 85 million yuan ($12 million) bill for taxes dating back as far as 30 years ago. Zangge Mining, based in western China, said it got two bills totaling 668 million RMB ($92 million) for taxes dating to 20 years earlier.

Local governments have long been squeezed for cash since the central government controls most tax revenue, allotting a limited amount to local governments that pay about 80% of expenditures such as salaries, social services and investments in infrastructure like roads and schools.

Pressures have been building as the economy slowed and costs piled up from “zero-COVID” policies during the pandemic.

Economists have long warned the situation is unsustainable, saying China must beef up tax collection to balance budgets in the long run.

Under leader Xi Jinping, the government has cut personal income, corporate income, and value-added taxes to curry support, boost economic growth and encourage investment — often in ways that favored the rich, tax scholars say. According to most estimates, only about 5% of Chinese pay personal income taxes, far lower than in many other countries. Government statistics show it accounts for just under 9% of total tax revenues, and China has no comprehensive nationwide property tax.

Finance Minister Li Fo’an told the official Xinhua News Agency that the latest reforms will give local governments more resources and more power over tax collection, adjusting the share of taxes they keep.

“The central government doesn’t have a lot of responsibility for spending, so it doesn’t feel the pain of cutting taxes,” said Cui Wei, a professor of Chinese and international tax policy at the University of British Columbia.

The effectiveness of the reforms will depend on how they’re implemented, said Cui, who is skeptical that authorities will carry out a proposal to increase central government spending. That “will require increasing central government staffing, and that’s an ‘organizational’ matter, not a simple spending matter,” he said.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Cui said.

Sudden new tax bills have hit some businesses hard, further damaging already shaky business confidence. Ningbo Bohui Chemical Technology, in Zhejiang on China’s eastern coast, suspended most of its production after the local tax bureau demanded 500 million yuan ($69 million) in back taxes on certain chemicals. It is laying off staff and cutting pay to cope.

Experts say the arbitrary way taxes are collected, with periods of leniency followed by sudden crackdowns, is counterproductive, discouraging companies from investing or hiring precisely when they need to.

“When business owners are feeling insecure, how can there be more private investment growth in China?” said Chen Zhiwu, a finance professor at the University of Hong Kong’s business school. “An economic slowdown is inevitable.”

The State Taxation Administration has denied launching a nationwide crackdown, which might imply past enforcement was lax. Tax authorities have “always been strict about preventing and investigating illegal taxation and fee collection,” the administration said in a statement last month.

As local governments struggle to make ends meet, some are setting up joint operation centers run by local tax offices and police to chase back taxes. The AP found such centers have opened in at least 23 provinces since 2019.

Both individuals and companies are being targeted. Dozens of singers, actors, and internet celebrities were fined millions of dollars for avoiding taxes in the past few years, according to a review of government notices.

Internet livestreaming celebrity Huang Wei, better known by her pseudonym, Weiya, was fined 1.3 billion yuan ($210 million) for tax evasion in 2021. She apologized and escaped prosecution by paying up, but her social media accounts were suspended, crippling her business.

The hunt for revenue isn’t limited to taxes. In the past few years, local authorities have drawn criticism for slapping large fines on drivers and street vendors, similar to how cities like Chicago or San Francisco earn millions from parking tickets. Despite pledges by top leaders to eliminate fines as a form of revenue collection, the practice continues, with city residents complaining that Shanghai police use drones and traffic cameras to catch drivers using their mobile phones at red lights.

Outside experts and Chinese government advisers agree that structural imbalances between local and central governments must be addressed. But under Xi, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, decision-making has grown more opaque, keeping businesses and analysts guessing, while vested interests have pushed back against major changes.

“They have a hermetically sealed process that makes it difficult for people on the outside to know what is going on,” says Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Beijing has been reluctant to rescue struggling local governments, wary it might leave them dependent on bailouts. So, the central government has stepped in only in dire cases, otherwise leaving local governments to resolve debt issues on their own.

“In Chinese, we have a saying: You help people in desperate need, but you don’t help the poor,” said Tang Yao, an economist at Peking University. “You don’t want them to rely on soft money.”

Economists say intervention may be required this time around and that the central government has leeway to take on more debt, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of only around 25%. That’s much lower than many other major economies.

Accumulated total non-financial debt, meanwhile, is estimated at nearly triple the size of the economy, according to the National Institution for Finance and Development and still growing.

“This is a huge structural problem that needs a huge structural solution that is not forthcoming,” said Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. “There’s really no way around this. And it’s getting worse, not better.”
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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and China traded accusations Saturday following an encounter between their aircraft over a contested area of the South China Sea.

The Philippine military strongly condemned “dangerous and provocative actions” by China’s air force, while the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, said it acted in a professional and legal manner.

It is the first time the Philippines has complained of dangerous actions by Chinese aircraft, as opposed to navy or coast guard vessels, since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022.

Two Chinese air force aircraft executed a dangerous maneuver and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine air force aircraft conducting a routine patrol over the Scarborough Shoal Thursday morning, the military said in a statement.

It “endangered the lives of our personnel undertaking maritime security operations recently within Philippine maritime zones,” said Philippines armed forces chief Romeo Brawner, adding that the Chinese aircraft interfered with lawful flight operations and violated international law on aviation safety.

The Philippine aircraft, “despite repeated warnings from China, insisted on illegally intruding into the airspace of Huangyan Island,” disrupting training activities, the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese PLA said Saturday.

China’s naval and air forces carried out identification, tracking, warning and expulsion in accordance with the law, it said.

“The on-site operation was professional, abided by norms, legitimate and legal,” the PLA said, urging the Philippines to stop what it called infringement and provocation.

Filipino fishermen frequent the Scarborough Shoal, one of two flashpoints in a longstanding maritime rivalry with China. Beijing Wednesday organized a combat patrol near the shoal, which Manila calls Bajo de Masinloc and China seized in 2012 and refers to as Huangyan island.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual shipborne commerce, including parts also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

China rejects a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that Beijing’s expansive claims had no basis under international law.

The Philippines in May accused Chinese fishermen of destroying the environment at Scarborough by cyanide fishing, harvesting giant clams and other protected creatures, and scarring coral reefs, which China denied.
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WUHAN, China — Liu Yi is among China’s 7 million ride-hailing drivers. A 36-year-old Wuhan resident, he started driving part-time this year when construction work slowed in the face of a nationwide glut of unsold apartments.

Now he predicts another crisis as he stands next to his car watching neighbors order driverless taxis.

“Everyone will go hungry,” he said of Wuhan drivers competing against robotaxis from Apollo Go, a subsidiary of technology giant Baidu 9888.HK.

Baidu and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declined comment.

Ride-hailing and taxi drivers are among the first workers globally to face the threat of job loss from artificial intelligence as thousands of robotaxis hit Chinese streets, economists and industry experts said.

Self-driving technology remains experimental but China has moved aggressively to green-light trials compared with the U.S which is quick to launch investigations and suspend approvals after accidents.

At least 19 Chinese cities are running robotaxi and robobus tests, disclosure showed. Seven have approved tests without human-driver monitors by at least five industry leaders: Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX and SAIC Motor 600104.SS.

Apollo Go has said it plans to deploy 1,000 in Wuhan by year-end and operate in 100 cities by 2030.

Pony.ai, backed by Japan’s Toyota Motor 7203.T, operates 300 robotaxis and plans 1,000 more by 2026. Its vice president has said robotaxis could take five years to become sustainably profitable, at which point they will expand “exponentially.”

WeRide is known for autonomous taxis, vans, buses and street sweepers. AutoX, backed by e-commerce leader Alibaba Group 9988.HK, operates in cities including Beijing and Shanghai. SAIC has been operating robotaxis since the end of 2021.

“We’ve seen an acceleration in China. There’s certainly now a rapid pace of permits being issued,” said Boston Consulting Group managing director Augustin Wegscheider. “The U.S. has been a lot more gradual.”

Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Waymo is the only U.S. firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares. It has over 1,000 cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix but could grow to “thousands,” said a person with knowledge of its operations.

Cruise, backed by General Motors GM.N, restarted testing in April after one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian last year.

Cruise said it operates in three cities with safety its core mission. Waymo did not respond to a request for comment.

“There’s a clear contrast between U.S. and China” with robotaxi developers facing far more scrutiny and higher hurdles in the U.S., said former Waymo CEO John Krafcik.

Robotaxis spark safety concerns in China, too, but fleets proliferate as authorities approve testing to support economic goals. Last year, President Xi Jinping called for “new productive forces,” setting off regional competition.

Beijing announced testing in limited areas in June and Guangzhou said this month it would open roads citywide to self-driving trials.

Some Chinese firms have sought to test autonomous cars in the U.S. but the White House is set to ban vehicles with China-developed systems, said people briefed on the matter.

Boston Consulting’s Wegscheider compared China’s push to develop autonomous vehicles to its support of electric vehicles.

“Once they commit,” he said, “they move pretty fast.”

‘Stupid radishes’

China has 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers versus 4.4 million two years ago, official data showed. With ride-hailing providing last-resort jobs during economic slowdown, the side effects of robotaxis could prompt the government to tap the brakes, economists said.

In July, discussion of job loss from robotaxis soared to the top of social media searches with hashtags including, “Are driverless cars stealing taxi drivers’ livelihoods?”

In Wuhan, Liu and other ride-hailing drivers call Apollo Go vehicles “stupid radishes” – a pun on the brand’s name in local dialect – saying they cause traffic jams.

Liu worries, too, about the impending introduction of Tesla’s TSLA.O “Full Self-Driving” system – which still requires human drivers – and the automaker’s robotaxi ambitions.

“I’m afraid that after the radishes come,” he said, “Tesla will come.”

Wuhan driver Wang Guoqiang, 63, sees a threat to workers who can least afford disruption.

“Ride-hailing is work for the lowest class,” he said, as he watched an Apollo Go vehicle park in front of his taxi. “If you kill off this industry, what is left for them to do?”

Baidu declined to comment on the drivers’ concerns and referred Reuters to comments in May by Chen Zhuo, Apollo Go’s general manager. Chen said the firm would become “the world’s first commercially profitable” autonomous-driving platform.

Apollo Go loses almost $11,000 a car annually in Wuhan, Haitong International Securities estimated. A lower-cost model could enable per-vehicle annual profit of nearly $16,000, the securities firm said. By contrast, a ride-hailing car earns about $15,000 total for the driver and platform.

‘Already at the forefront’

Automating jobs could benefit China in the long run given a shrinking population, economists said.

“In the short run, there must be a balance in speed between the creation of new jobs and the destruction of old jobs,” said Tang Yao, associate professor of applied economics at Peking University. “We do not necessarily need to push at the fastest speed, as we are already at the forefront.”

Eastern Pioneer Driving School 603377.SS has more than halved its instructor number since 2019 to about 900. Instead, it has teachers at a Beijing control center remotely monitoring students in 610 cars equipped with computer instruction tools.

Computers score students on every wheel turn and brake tap, and virtual reality simulators coach them on navigating winding roads. Massive screens provide real-time analysis of driver tasks, such as one student’s 82% parallel-parking pass rate.

Zhang Yang, the school’s intelligent-training director, said the machines have done well.

“The efficiency, pass rate and safety awareness have greatly improved.”
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Washington — The Philippines and Vietnamese coast guards conducted their first joint drills Friday in firefighting, rescue, and medical response in Manila Bay, off the west coast of Luzon, the Philippines’ main island, leading into the South China Sea.

This exercise represents the first such joint activity between the coast guards of the two countries amid ongoing territorial disputes with each other and, more significantly with China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea as its own.

The drills featured a simulated search and rescue operation and the use of water cannons to repel a mock threat.

According to Jay L. Batongbacal, a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law, the strengthened relations and security cooperation between Vietnam and the Philippines serve as a significant counter to China’s increasingly expansionist and assertive actions in the South China Sea.

“Since both [countries] carry these activities out fully in accordance with international law, it should be seen as a stabilizing factor and deterrent to Chinese aggression, and at the same time stand for asserting and maintaining international law,” Batongbacal told VOA.

Strategic shifts

Although the Philippines and Vietnam face overlapping sovereignty disputes with China in the South China Sea, Batongbacal views this first-ever Philippines-Vietnam exercise as a key demonstration of how claimant countries should interact.

“It is a demonstration of what is possible between claimants who are sincere in their declarations to cooperate and improve relations, temporarily setting aside the disputes and maintaining the status quo,” Batongbacal said. “So even if they do not have active and direct cooperation, their activities contribute to maintaining the regional balance of power because of their common goals and converging interests.”

Vietnam in late June said it was open to discussing overlapping claims with the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, the Philippine government has adopted a more assertive stance on the South China Sea, differing from his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. This shift has heightened maritime tensions with China as Beijing has sought to assert its claims to the region.

In mid-June 2024, the Philippines accused Chinese coast guards of boarding a Philippine navy vessel near Second Thomas Shoal, confiscating equipment, and causing a severe injury to a Philippine sailor.

Just ahead of the joint exercise with Vietnam, the Philippines conducted multilateral maritime exercises with the U.S., Australia, and Canada on August 7-8.

The exercises aimed at “safeguarding the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea,” according to a joint statement.

Additionally, the Philippines and Japan held their first joint exercises in the South China Sea on August 2, despite Beijing’s repeated warnings to “extraterritorial states” against interfering in the region.

Chinese response

China’s Foreign Ministry has not yet commented on the Philippines-Vietnam joint drills but Tuesday spokesperson Mao Ning repeated Beijing’s claim, “It is the Philippines, not China, that is creating problems in the South China Sea.”

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced on August 7 that its Southern Theater Command had conducted air and sea combat patrols near Scarborough Shoal— an area with a long-standing sovereignty dispute between China and the Philippines.

According to Ding Duo, deputy director of the Institute of Marine Law and Policy at the China Institute of South China Sea Studies, Beijing is likely to respond with measured concern to the Vietnam-Philippines joint exercise despite the ongoing disputes over territorial sovereignty and maritime boundaries.

“The venue for the Vietnam-Philippines joint exercise is Manila Bay, and the scale of the exercise is relatively small,” Ding said. “Its defensive nature suggests that China will probably view it as a routine instance of bilateral security and military cooperation among regional nations.”

Ding said China aims to prevent Vietnam-Philippines cooperation from growing into a broader alliance that could challenge its interests.

“I believe China may use diplomatic or party-to-party channels to address military security concerns and mitigate the risk of potential miscalculations,” Ding said.

Beijing has been stepping up its friendly military engagements and exercises with Hanoi, as the two sides have sought to reduce historic tensions in the South China Sea.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported on August 7, the Vietnam people’s navy’s guided-missile frigate 015 Tran Hung Dao arrived at Zhanjiang, a naval port in southeast Guangdong province for a visit.

The PLA stated that the visit would include “ship tours, deck receptions, cultural exchanges, joint exercises, and other activities” aimed at “improving mutual understanding and trust between the Chinese and Vietnamese navies and further strengthening the friendship between the two naval forces.”

Four ships from the Chinese and Vietnamese navies in June held a two-day joint patrol exercise in the Gulf of Tonkin between Vietnam and China, which Chinese state media said was their 36th such drill.

China and the Philippines have tried to improve their relations since the June clash.

Chinese and Filipino officials in a July 2 meeting in Manila agreed to reduce tensions and even consider cooperation between their coast guards.

Regional impact

Nonetheless, analysts say this first joint exercise between Hanoi and Manila is likely to carry significance beyond its immediate scope.

Nguyen Khac Giang is a visiting scholar at the Vietnam Studies Program at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“I think that is important because although this is only a search and rescue exercise and not a military drill, I think it will signal further collaboration between the two countries in the future, including military exercises and other activities in the region. So I think it’s very important for both countries going forward,” Nguyen told VOA.

Nguyen highlighted that Vietnam and Indonesia successfully concluded negotiations on their exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea at the end of 2022. He suggested that if Vietnam and the Philippines can use this joint exercise to address their overlapping border issues, it could represent the potential for Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) claimants in the South China Sea to enhance cooperation and collectively address challenges posed by China.

“Because China always wants to divide and conquer, they want to negotiate with each country individually because it will give them better leverage,” Nguyen said.

However, Nguyen noted that if ASEAN countries like Vietnam and the Philippines can work together, it would strengthen their ability to counter Chinese influence not only in terms of military presence in the South China Sea but also on diplomatic and economic fronts.
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Sydney — Australia Friday called a new nuclear technology agreement with the United States and Britain a “very significant step down the … path” toward a nuclear-powered fleet of submarines. Australia struck the deal Monday, aimed at allowing transfer of nuclear equipment and technology for the country’s proposed fleet. It is the latest advance in the 2021 AUKUS security pact linking the three countries.

The agreement, described by U.S officials as another significant “AUKUS milestone,” is a further step to giving Australia the technology and hardware to build, run and maintain nuclear-powered submarines.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, who is also the deputy prime minister, signed the latest part of the trilateral accord in the United States Monday. He called the agreement “a key foundational document.”

Under plans unveiled in San Diego, California, last year, Australia intends to spend up to $242 billion over the next 30 years to first buy second-hand Virginia-class submarines from the United States and then develop a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines using technology from Rolls Royce.

Marles told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Friday the AUKUS pact is taking an important step forward.

“This agreement is the legal underpinning for that technology to be provided to Australia, for ultimately the nuclear equipment to be provided to Australia. So, that is both the Virginia Class submarines from the United States [and] the nuclear reactors from Rolls Royce that will form part of the submarines that we build in Australia,” he said.

The AUKUS accord is widely seen as a counter to China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Beijing has said the security pact undermines peace and stability.

China accused Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of fueling military confrontation when the AUKUS accord was signed in 2021.

The alliance has been criticized by former Australian Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating, who have said the deal would erode the country’s sovereignty.
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TOKYO — Nagasaki marked the 79th anniversary of its atomic bombing at the end of World War II at a ceremony Friday eclipsed by the absence of the American ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to invite Israel.

Mayor Shiro Suzuki, in a speech at Nagasaki Peace Park, called for nuclear weapon states and those under their nuclear umbrellas, including Japan, to abolish the weapons.

“You must face up to the reality that the very existence of nuclear weapons poses an increasing threat to humankind, and you must make a brave shift toward the abolition of nuclear weapons,” Suzuki said.

He warned that the world faces “a critical situation” because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accelerating conflicts in the Middle East.

The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed 70,000 people, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.

Speaking at Friday’s ceremony, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reiterated his pledge to pursue a nuclear-free world. His critics, many of them atomic bomb survivors, or hibakusha, say it’s a hollow promise as Japan relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella while building up its own military.

At 11:02 a.m., the moment the plutonium bomb exploded above the southern Japanese city, participants observed a moment of silence as a peace bell tolled.

More than 2,000 people, including representatives from 100 countries, attended Friday’s ceremony. But ambassadors from the U.S. and five other Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. — and the European Union were absent. Their governments sent lower-ranking envoys in response to Suzuki’s decision not to invite Israel.

They said that treating Israel like Russia and Belarus, which also were not invited, was misleading.

U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel instead attended a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo honoring the Nagasaki atomic bombing victims, joined by his Israeli and British counterparts, Gilad Cohen and Julia Longbottom.

“We are obviously in Tokyo but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to think and to reflect and to remember” what happened 79 years ago in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Emanuel said.

Suzuki denied that his decision to exclude Israel was political, and said he feared that possible “unforeseeable situations” such as violent protests over the war in Gaza might disrupt the ceremony. Suzuki, whose parents are hibakusha, said the Aug. 9 anniversary is the most important day for Nagasaki and must be commemorated in a peaceful and solemn environment.

Emanuel disagreed.

“I think it was a political decision, not one based on security, given the prime minister’s attendance,” which required high security, Emanuel told reporters.

He said excluding Israel drew “a moral equivalency between Russia and Israel, one country that invaded versus one country that was a victim of invasion,” and that “my attendance would respect that political judgment, and I couldn’t do that.”

Cohen, in a statement on the social media platform X, expressed his “gratitude to all the countries that have chosen to stand with Israel and oppose its exclusion from the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony. Thank you for standing with us on the right side of history.”

The anniversary comes shortly after the United States and Japan reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to provide “extended deterrence” under its nuclear umbrella for Japan amid growing tension in the region. That is a shift from Japan’s previous reluctance to openly discuss its protection under the nuclear umbrella as the world’s only country to have suffered atomic attacks.
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MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine court has ordered the country’s corporate regulator to restore the license of Rappler, a media firm led by Nobel laureate Maria Ressa who reported on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

The Court of Appeals, in a decision dated July 23 that was seen by Reuters on Friday, had voided orders and decisions of the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to shut down the online news site.

The Securities and Exchange Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The SEC in 2018 rescinded the operating license of Rappler for violating foreign equity restrictions on domestic media when it sold depositary rights to a foreign entity. The decision was upheld in 2022.

The appellate court said the SEC “acted with grave abuse of discretion” in revoking Rappler’s certificate of incorporation.

Rappler had previously argued the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic arm of EBay founder Pierre Omidyar, was a silent investor. Omidyar cut ties by donating the depository receipts to Rappler’s staff.

Rappler was founded by Ressa, won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian investigative journalist Dmitry Muratov in a decision widely seen as an endorsement of free speech rights that had come under fire worldwide.

Ressa is currently on bail after being convicted in 2020 in a cyber libel case. She has appealed the decision to the country’s top court. 
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washington — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s landmark three-day visit to Central Asia, beginning Friday, is poised to challenge the existing geopolitical balance in the region.

The Central Asia + Japan group will hold its inaugural summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, where Kishida, supported by a delegation of 50 Japanese business leaders, will unveil a strategic $2 billion economic support package.

During the August 9-12 trip, Kishida is also scheduled to visit Uzbekistan and Mongolia.

Japan’s foreign ministry said on X that the meeting marks the 20th anniversary of the Central Asia + Japan Dialogue, though it is the first such meeting at this level. “The friendships built over these last two decades will form the foundation for further cooperation & partnerships for decades to come,” the posting said.

Experts say that as Central Asia’s natural resources and its strategic roles in trade and security attract global interest, Japan is seeking to counter Russia’s and China’s dominance in the region with alternative models for trade and governance.

“The visit shows Japan’s desire somewhat to counter, or perhaps more realistically, to mitigate the historically closer economic engagement with Central Asian countries that Russia and China have had,” said Koichi Nakano, professor of political science at Sophia University in Japan.

“But it would seem unrealistic to think that Japan can quickly ‘flip’ them to its side by ditching their close ties with Russia and China in economic and security terms,” he told VOA.

In the five post-Soviet Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — China is the leading exporter, boosted by its Belt and Road Initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Meanwhile, Russia exerts substantial influence through energy exports, labor migration and regional security, particularly via the Collective Security Treaty Organization and its military presence in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

China hosted a summit with Central Asian leaders in May 2023, followed by a high-level meeting organized by the European Union in June. The United States and Germany then held their own summit in September.

Japan has maintained diplomatic relations with Central Asian countries since their independence in the early 1990s. In August 2004, Japan established the regional framework called the Central Asia + Japan Dialogue. Subsequently, other countries, including the U.S., India and South Korea, have initiated similar diplomatic frameworks with the region.

Cautious alliances

According to Nakano, Central Asian countries are cautious about being dominated by Russia and China.

“But now that the tension between Japan, on the one hand, and Russia and China, on the other hand, is rising, there is a stronger reason for Japan to boost its ties with the Central Asian countries,” Nakano said.

Those tensions have escalated because of Japan’s support for Western sanctions against Russia and disputes over the Kuril Islands. Japan’s concerns about China’s military activities have also strained relations.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday issued a statement criticizing the Tokyo-led summit as “Japan’s attempts to penetrate Central Asia.”

“We have no doubt that our partners from Central Asia, with their wisdom, will be able to distinguish approaches in favor of mutually beneficial cooperation from plans to reduce their countries to the position of a neocolonial appendage of the Western camp,” she said in the statement.

“We hope that the destructiveness of such a prospect and the serious costs of losing full-blooded ties with Russia are quite obvious to them.” 

Domestic motives

Hiromoto Kaji, professor at Aichi University in Japan, said that while the new summit framework with Central Asia might seem like a foreign policy move, it is actually driven by Japan’s internal political factors.

“The new cooperation framework that Prime Minister Kishida has now proposed does not fundamentally change the policy objectives. Rather, Prime Minister Kishida may be seeking to establish ‘a diplomatic legacy’ in preparation for the upcoming LDP [Liberal Democratic Party] presidential election,” Kaji told VOA.

Kishida’s LDP will hold elections in September to choose its next party president.

Tsuyoshi Nojima, a professor at Daito Bunka University in Japan, said Japan enjoys a higher level of goodwill in Central Asia and the Middle East than the United States.

“In Asia, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia are all competing for influence — one in Southeast Asia and one in Central Asia. Japan is effectively helping the U.S. manage relationships with Central Asian countries,” Nojima told VOA.

Democratic engagement

Anders Corr, publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, says Japan’s summit in Central Asia is a positive development that could introduce greater democratic influence in the region.

“The summit is focused on bringing Japanese diplomacy and businesses to the region, which will assist in democratic influence efforts through economic incentives,” Corr told VOA.

Corr also said democracies will need to solidify any gains in the region through a combination of business incentives and sanctions aimed at addressing authoritarianism and human rights abuses.

“Such incentives and disincentives can only be reliably based upon the economic and military strength and unity of the democracies more broadly as they face off against increasingly belligerent autocracies, including Iran, that surround Central Asia,” Corr said. 

After more than 30 years of independence, citizens in Central Asian countries at varying levels continue to face restrictions on press freedom, civil liberties and political rights as they endure authoritarian practices.

Chung-Hsi Tu of VOA Mandarin contributed to this report. 
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