BEIJING — China’s Communist Party must “turn the knife inward” to eliminate problems of discipline, including corruption, President Xi Jinping said, a new call to hunt down corrupt officials and those who corrupt them.

Since coming to power over a decade ago, Xi has cracked down on corruption involving party members, whether they were corrupt high-ranking “tigers” or lowly “flies” who failed to implement government policies.

But despite the sweeping crackdown, the party continues to be plagued by graft, particularly within the armed forces. Two former defense ministers have been purged from the party in the past two years for “serious violations of discipline,” a euphemism for corruption.

The party must take counter-measures against any interest group, organization of power, or privileged class from preying on or corrupting party members, Xi warned in a speech published on Monday by Qiushi Journal, a flagship party magazine.

“As the situation and tasks facing the party change, there will inevitably be all kinds of conflicts and problems within the party,” he said.

“We must have the courage to turn the knife inward and eliminate their negative impact in a timely manner to ensure that the party is always full of vigor and vitality.”

Xi’s call to “turn the knife inward” was part of a speech he gave at a major meeting with the party’s anti-graft watchdog on Jan. 8, but had not been disclosed previously.

The excerpts published on Monday suggest a renewed and wider push to instill discipline and hunt down officials seeking personal gain and those who lead them astray.

Last month, the defense ministry disclosed that an admiral who had served on the Central Military Commission, the country’s highest-level military command body, was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline.”

Last year, about 610,000 party officials were punished for violating party discipline, of which 49 were officials above the vice minister or governor level, according to statistics from the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
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Seoul, South Korea — North Korean state media KCNA on Monday reported on the South Korean parliament passing President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment vote Saturday.

Yoon was impeached in a second vote by South Korea’s opposition-led parliament over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, which shocked the nation.

KCNA had reported for the first time on Dec. 11 South Korea’s martial law crisis which was sparked on Dec. 3.

On Monday, KCNA did not offer much commentary, but called Yoon’s defiant televised remarks on Dec. 12 “a press statement spliced with lies and obstinacy” and noted the rally in front of South Korean parliament that called for Yoon’s impeachment.

It also noted media reports on various South Korean military and police officials’ suspension from duties and ongoing investigation into Yoon.

After the impeachment vote passed Saturday, South Korea’s acting defense minister, Kim Seon-ho, called on the military to maintain preparedness and ordered commanding officers to work promptly to stabilize their troop commands.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold an enclave in Russia’s Kursk region.
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Suva, Fiji — Seven foreigners including four Australians and an American have been hospitalized after drinking cocktails at a five-star Fiji hotel resort, health officials said Sunday. 

The hotel guests were taken to hospital on Saturday night suffering “nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms,” Fiji’s health ministry said in a statement. 

They fell ill after drinking a cocktail prepared at a bar in the luxury Warwick Fiji resort on the Coral Coast, about 60 kilometers west of the capital Suva, it said. 

A ministry spokesperson said the guests, aged from 18 to 56, included four Australians, one American and two foreigners who live in Fiji, whose nationalities were not given. 

All seven were initially taken to the nearby Sigatoka hospital. 

Due to the severity of their conditions, they were later transferred to the larger Lautoka Hospital on the island’s west coast, the ministry spokesperson said.  

Fiji police are investigating the incident. 

Australia’s foreign ministry said it was providing consular assistance to two families but declined further comment citing “privacy obligations.” 

Australian public broadcaster ABC said it understood a 56-year-old Australian woman was under constant surveillance in hospital and a 19-year-old female compatriot was suffering “serious medical episodes.” 

Two other Australian women aged 49 and 18 were in a critical but less serious condition, the ABC said. 

Fiji’s health ministry did not specify the cause of the illness but warned people to ensure drinks and food consumed during the holiday period were safe. 

In a separate incident in Laos last month, two Danish citizens, an American, a Briton and two Australians died of suspected methanol poisoning following what local media said was a night out in the town of Vang Vieng. 
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OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE, Democratic Republic of Congo — Scattered along the banks of the Ituri River, buildings cram together, cranes transport dirt and debris scatters the soil. The patches of trees are a scant reminder that a forest once grew there.

Nestled in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, the Chinese-run gold mine is rapidly encroaching on an area that many say it shouldn’t be operating in at all – the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, an endangered World Heritage site.

The original boundaries of the reserve were established three decades ago, by Congo’s government and encompassed the area where the Chinese company now mines. But over the years under opaque circumstances, the boundaries shrunk, allowing the company to operate inside the plush forest.

The reserve was already on the endangered list, amid threats of conflict and wildlife trafficking. Now the rapid expansion of the Chinese mines threatens to further degrade the forest and the communities living within. Residents and wildlife experts say the mining’s polluting the rivers and soil, decimating trees and swelling the population, increasing poaching, with little accountability.

“It is alarming that a semi-industrial mining operation is being given free rein in what’s supposed to be a protected World Heritage Site, that was already on the danger list,” said Joe Eisen, executive director, of Rainforest Foundation UK.

Spanning more than 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles), the reserve became a protected site in 1996, due to its unique biodiversity and large number of threatened species, including its namesake, the okapi, a forest giraffe, of which it holds some 15% of the world’s remaining 30,000. It’s part of the the Congo Basin rainforest — the world’s second-biggest — and a vital carbon sink that helps mitigate climate change. It also has vast mineral wealth such as gold and diamonds.

Mining is prohibited in protected areas, which includes the reserve, according to Congo’s mining code.

Issa Aboubacar, a spokesperson for the Chinese company, Kimia Mining Investment, said the group is operating legally. It recently renewed its permits until 2048, according to government records.

Congo’s mining registry said the map they’re using came from files from the ICCN, the body responsible for managing Congo’s protected areas, and it’s currently working with the ICCN on updating the boundaries and protecting the park.

The ICCN told The Associated Press that in meetings this year with the mining registry the misunderstandings around the boundaries were clarified and the original ones should be used.

An internal government memo from August, seen by AP, said all companies in the Reserve will be closed down, including Kimia Mining. However, it was unclear when that would happen or how.

The document has not previously been reported and is the first acknowledging that the current boundaries are wrong, according to environmentalists working in Congo.

Rights groups in Congo have long said the permits were illegally awarded by the mining ministry based on inaccurate maps.

Shifting boundaries and rules

Eastern Congo’s been beset by violence for decades and the Okapi Reserve’s endured years of unrest by local militia.

In 2012, in Epulu town, a local rebel group slaughtered several residents including two rangers, as well as 14 okapis, the latter were part of a captive breeding program.

The reserve’s also been threatened by artisanal — small scale — mining, by thousands of Indigenous peoples who live in and around the forest.

The Muchacha mine — the biggest in the reserve and one of the largest small and medium scale gold mines in the country — spans approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) along the Ituri River and consists of several semi-industrial sites. Satellite images analyzed by AP show consistent development along the southwestern section of the Reserve, since it began operating in 2016, with a boom in recent years.

Joel Masselink, a geographer specializing in satellite imagery, who previously worked on conservation projects in the forest, said the mining cadastral — the agency responsible for allocating mineral licenses — is using a version of the reserve’s maps in which the area’s been shrunk by nearly a third. This has allowed it to award and renew exploration and extraction concessions, he said.

The mining cadastral told the U.N. that the boundaries were changed due to a letter from the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the body in charge of protected areas in Congo, but didn’t provide a copy, said a report from U.N. experts. The ICCN told the AP it’s never seen the letter and the boundaries used should be the original ones.

Changing World Heritage Site boundaries needs to be approved by UNESCO experts and the World Heritage Committee, which analyze the impact of the modification, a spokesperson for the World Heritage Center told AP. The Center said no request to modify the Reserve’s boundaries had been made and that cases of boundary modifications to facilitate development were rare.

Civil society groups in Congo accuse some government officials of intentionally moving the boundaries for personal gain. “We all knew that Muchacha was within the reserve,” said Alexis Muhima, executive director of the Congolese Civil Society Observatory for Peace Minerals. He said the discrepancy over the park’s boundaries started when they realized the mine was producing large quantities of gold.

The U.N. report said mines are controlled by the military, and some members are under the protection of powerful business and political interests, with soldiers at times denying local officials access to the sites.

Residents, who once mined in the reserve, are infuriated by the double standard. “The community is worried, because the Chinese are mining in a protected area when it’s forbidden for the community,” said Jean Kamana, the chief of Epulu, a village inside the Reserve.

Despite being a protected forest, people still mined there until authorities cracked down, largely after the Chinese arrived. Kimia Mining grants limited access to locals to mine areas for leftovers, but for a fee that many can’t afford, say locals.

Muvunga Kakule used to do artisanal mining in the reserve while also selling food from his farm to other miners. The 44-year-old said he’s now unable to mine or sell produce as the Chinese don’t buy locally. He’s lost 95% of his earnings and can no longer send his children to private school.

Some residents told the AP there are no other options for work and have been forced to mine secretly and risk being jailed.

Losing land, animals and income

During a trip to the reserve earlier this year, Kimia Mining wouldn’t let AP enter the site and the government wouldn’t grant access to patrol the forest with its rangers.

But nearly two dozen residents, as well as former and current Kimia Mining employees from villages in and around the Reserve, told the AP the mining was decimating the forests and the wildlife and contaminating the water and land.

Five people who had worked inside Kimia’s mines, none of whom wanted to be named for fear of reprisal, said when the Chinese finished in one area, they leave exposed, toxic water sources. Sometimes people would fall into uncovered pits and when it rains, water seeps into the soil.

Employees and mining experts say the Chinese use mercury in its operations, used to separate gold from ore. Mercury is considered one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern by the U.N. and can have toxic effects on the nervous and immune systems.

One 27-year-old woman who worked as a cook for Kimia for six months and lives in Badengaido town, close to the mine, said the soil has become infertile. “(It’s) poisoned by chemicals used by the Chinese,” she said.

The AP could not independently verify her claim. However, a report from the University of Antwerp that researched the impact of conflict and mining on the Reserve said chemicals used to purify gold, such as mercury or cyanide, can enter the ecosystems and pollute the soil.

In the past, 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of peanut seeds would yield approximately 30 bags, but now it’s hard to get three, she said. The loss of income has made it challenging to afford school and medical care for her siblings.

Assana, a fisher who also worked in the mines and only wanted to use his first name, said it now takes four days to catch the same amount of fish he used to get in a day. While doing odd jobs for the company last year, the 38-year-old saw the Chinese repeatedly chop swaths of forest, making the heat unbearable, he said.

Between last January and May, the reserve lost more than 480 hectares (1,186 acres) of forest cover — the size of nearly 900 American football fields — according to a joint statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society and government agencies, which said it was concerned at the findings.

Aboubacar, Kimia’s spokesperson in Congo, said the company respects environmental standards and pays tax to the government for reforestation. Mining is a crucial revenue stream for Congo and it “can’t place a higher value on the environment than on mining,” he said.

Kimia is supporting the population and has employed more than 2,000 people, said Aboubacar.

Conservation is an uphill battle

Conservation groups are trying to protect the reserve, but say it’s hard to enforce when there’s ambiguity on the legalities.

“On the one hand, Congo’s law clearly states that mining is illegal in protected areas. On the other hand, if a mine is operating with an official permit, then that creates confusion, and that becomes hard to enforce on the ground,” said Emma Stokes, Vice President of field conservation for The Wildlife Conservation Society.

The internal memo, seen by AP, outlines discussions by a joint task force between the ICCN and Congo’s mining registry, which was created to try and resolve the boundary issue. The document said it will trigger the process of stopping all mining within the Reserve and integrate the agreed upon map from the joint commission into the mining registry’s system.

UNESCO’s requested a report from Congo by February, to provide clarity on what will be done to resolve the problem.

But this comes as little comfort to communities in the reserve.

Wendo Olengama, a Pygmy chief, said the influx of thousands of people into the Chinese-run mines has increased poaching, making it hard to earn money.

During the authorized hunting season, he could capture up to seven animals a day, eating some and selling others. Now it’s hard to get two, he said.

Sitting in a small hut beside his wife, as she bounces their 3-year-old granddaughter on her lap, the couple says they want the Chinese company to provide business opportunities, such as cattle raising and teach people responsible hunting.

“If the situation persists, we’ll live in misery,” said his wife, Dura Anyainde. “We wont have food to eat.”
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South Korean lawmakers have impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempt to impose martial law. In a vote Saturday, 12 conservative lawmakers joined opposition forces to impeach Yoon, whose powers will now be suspended until the country’s Constitutional Court decides whether to formally remove him from office. Here is more from VOA’s Bill Gallo in Seoul.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, a stunning fall from grace for a man who rose from political obscurity to the height of political power.

His decades of achievement could be on the verge of crumbling due to a single, baffling decision to send out troops under martial law over vague claims that one of Asia’s leading democracies was under threat.

The impeachment suspends Yoon’s presidential powers until the Constitutional Court determines whether to dismiss him as president or restore his powers. Yoon also faces investigations meant to find whether his December 3 decree amounts to rebellion, a crime that is punished by up to the death penalty in South Korea if convicted.

Yoon, a staunch conservative and longtime prosecutor, went from political novice to president of South Korea in 2022, ending five years of liberal rule that saw failed efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis and a slackening economy.

His time in office, however, was marked by near-constant friction with an opposition-controlled parliament, threats of annihilation from North Korea and a series of scandals involving him and his wife. Observers said he was impulsive, took criticism personally and relied too much on the advice of hardcore loyalists.

No one thing explained his attempt to shut down the mechanisms of a democratic nation over his claim that “anti-state forces” were acting under the influence of North Korea.

But there are strands in Yoon’s background, and especially in the intense acrimony with the liberal opposition and his hardline standoff with North Korea, that help illuminate the defining moment of his presidency.

A turbulent rise to top prosecutor

Despite 2½ years as president, Yoon’s career was overwhelmingly about the law, not politics.

Yoon, 63, was born in Seoul to two professors, and went to prestigious Seoul National University, where he studied law.

A major moment, according to Yoon, happened in 1980 when he played the role of a judge in a mock trial of then-dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who had staged a military coup the previous year, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. In the aftermath, Yoon had to flee to the countryside as Chun’s military extended martial law and placed troops and armored vehicles at various places including his university.

Yoon returned to the capital and eventually began a career as a state prosecutor that would last nearly three decades, building an image as strong-minded and uncompromising.

Prone to confrontation

But he also faced criticism that his personality was unsuited to high-level leadership.

“President Yoon isn’t well-prepared, and he does things off the cuff,” Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership, said. “He also tends to express his emotions too directly. The things that he likes and dislikes are easy to see, and he tends to handle things with a small group of his own people, not the majority of people.”

During a parliament audit in 2013, Yoon, then a senior prosecutor, said he was under pressure from his boss, who said he opposed Yoon’s investigation into an allegation that the country’s spy agency had conducted an illicit online campaign to help conservative President Park Geun-hye win the previous year’s election.

At the time, he famously said, “I’m not loyal to [high-level] people.”

He was demoted, but after Park’s government was toppled over a separate corruption scandal in 2017, then-President Moon Jae-in made Yoon head of a Seoul prosecution office, which investigated Park and other conservative leaders. Moon later named Yoon the nation’s top prosecutor.

A neophyte in politics

Yoon joined party politics only about a year before he won the presidency, abandoning the liberal Moon after an impasse over a probe of Moon’s allies. Moon’s supporters said he was trying to thwart Moon’s prosecution reforms and elevate his own political standing.

The 2022 presidential race was Yoon’s first election campaign.

Yoon beat his rival, liberal firebrand Lee Jae-myung, by less than 1 percentage point in South Korea’s most closely fought presidential election.

Their campaign was one of the nastiest in recent memory.

Yoon compared Lee’s party to “Hitler” and “Mussolini.” Lee’s allies called Yoon “a beast” and “dictator” and derided his wife’s alleged plastic surgery.

Domestic political strife

Yoon’s time as president was dominated by frustration and acrimony, much stemming from his narrow victory and his party’s failure to win control of parliament throughout his term.

When Yoon declared the state of emergency, he said a goal was to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces” in an apparent reference to the opposition Democratic Party.

In a fiery speech on Thursday, Yoon again defended his martial law decree and vowed to “fight to the end” in the face of attempts to impeach and investigate him. He called the Democratic Party “a monster” and “anti-state forces” that he argued has flexed its legislative muscle to impeach top officials and undermined the government’s budget bill for next year.

Claims of corruption also battered his approval ratings.

Yoon recently denied wrongdoing in an influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife. Spy camera footage in a separate scandal also purportedly shows the first lady, Kim Keon Hee, accepting a luxury bag as a gift from a pastor.

Choi said he thinks Yoon likely planned the “clumsy martial law” edict to divert public attention away from the scandals.

“He tried to massively shake up the political world,” Choi said. “But he failed. He likely believed there was no other option.”

North Korea lashed out at his hard line

If political squabbles and scandal set the tenor of Yoon’s domestic presidency, its foreign policy was characterized by a bitter standoff with North Korea.

Yoon early on in his presidency promised “an audacious plan” to improve the North’s economy if it abandoned its nuclear weapons.

But things turned sour quickly, as North Korea ramped up its weapons tests and threats to attack the South. North Korea eventually began calling Yoon “a guy with a trash-like brain” and “a diplomatic idiot.”

North Korea took that trash theme literally, sending thousands of balloons filled with garbage over the border, including some that made it to the presidential compound in Seoul at least twice.

Yoon’s mention of North Korea as a domestic destabilizing force reminded some of an earlier South Korea, which until the late 1980s was ruled by a series of strongmen who repeatedly invoked the threat from the North to justify effort to suppress domestic dissidents and political opponents.
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Jakarta, indonesia — Indonesia remains cautiously determined to join BRICS despite a threat from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to double tariffs on members of the Russia- and China-led bloc if it pursues its stated goal of establishing an alternative to the U.S. dollar in international trade.

At a parliament meeting this month with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, legislators expressed their concern about Trump’s threats.

“Although we are confident in expanding our diplomatic relations, Indonesia’s presence in BRICS may be considered as a departure from traditional trade relations with U.S. and the European Union,” said Sumail Abdullah, a ruling party legislator with a role in foreign affairs. “Don’t let this become a reality, because countries like Russia and China will certainly dominate BRICS.”

Foreign Minister Sugiono defended his decision to join BRICS, arguing that there are many benefits to being a member.

“Essentially, BRICS is a good platform that we can utilize as our vessel to discuss and bring forward the interests of developing countries. It is also an implementation of our independent and active foreign policy,” he told legislators at the December 2 session.

Sugiono stressed the importance of strengthening Indonesia’s economy by building food and energy security and developing downstream industries. Indonesia, he added, should be less reliant economically on other countries so it can better decide its own foreign policy.

Although the BRICS countries have made it a goal to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar as an exchange currency, Sugiono said the issue was not brought up during the October 2024 BRICS Summit in Russia.

However, the minister left the door open to reconsidering the decision in light of Trump’s threat.

“If we think there are things that could harm our national interests, then we can review our membership in BRICS. What is important is that our attempt to join any multilateral group is focused towards maintaining our national interests,” he told the legislators.

Indonesia’s journey to join BRICS

BRICS is a global economic cooperation organization that was formed in 2006 to focus attention on investment opportunities among its founding countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Indonesia expressed its desire to join the bloc at the October summit in Kazan, Russia, where Sugiono proposed several concrete steps to strengthen BRICS and Global South cooperation.

President Prabowo Subianto has repeatedly underlined his intention to befriend both China and the United States, saying Indonesia will not join any military bloc.

Teuku Rezasyah, a professor specializing in diplomacy and foreign policy at Universitas Padjadjaran, told VOA that joining BRICS places Indonesia in the geopolitical center between the rival power blocs.

“We’re not only close with the U.S., the European Union, but also getting closer with Russia and China. As a result, we have more bargaining power, which will benefit us,” he said at a national seminar.

Teuku argued that the shared BRICS vision, as laid out in a 2021 joint statement, calls for a restructured global political, economic and financial architecture with a reformed United Nations at its center. He said this vision reflects a contemporary world that is more equitable, balanced and representative.

Political benefits, challenges

Although Indonesia has been invited to become a BRICS member since 2022, it did not officially express its intention until this October. Indonesia is currently a BRICS partner country, a status that applies to 12 other countries, including fellow ASEAN states Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Teuku said the organization “is commonly understood as an attempt to form a geopolitical bloc capable of counterbalancing the influence of Western-dominated global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”

Muhsin Shihab, an expert adviser on institutional relations at Indonesia’s foreign ministry, said in November that by joining BRICS, Indonesia can increase its global clout and can help to shape the agenda of the Global South.

But Tobias Basuki, co-founder of Aristoteles Consults, a political consultancy and legal services firm, said in an interview with VOA that he doubted Indonesia would gain much from joining the bloc because most of its political and economic goals can be achieved through bilateral ties with the BRICS members.

Russia and China have more to gain from expanding the group’s membership, he said, adding that they “have their own agenda and interests, which are not necessarily always aligned with the Global South’s needs and interests.

“So by joining BRICS, you’re actually entering their playground. It may not give Indonesia the position that Prabowo wants to be as a bridge-maker between the two competing powers.”

Basuki said that “if Indonesia wants to be a leader of the Global South, then it’s better to revive the [Indonesia-led] Asia-Africa conference and Non-Aligned Movement, which already has 120 countries, a true reflection of a Global South alliance.”

Apart from joining BRICS, Indonesia is also seeking membership at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which signals its ambition to align with global standards of governance and economic openness.
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The arrests in Azerbaijan of several journalists, including staff at the independent Meydan TV, have been condemned by the international community, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Azerbaijani authorities have detained Meydan TV’s editor-in-chief, Aynur Elgunash, and four of her reporters. Also being held are freelancer Ramin Jabrailzada, who is known as Deko, and Ulvi Tahirov, deputy director of the Baku School of Journalism.

All are charged with smuggling foreign currency and have been ordered to be held for four months in pre-trial detention. The journalists denied the charges and said the criminal case is a result of their journalism work.

During the arrests, others were briefly detained and later released, according to local reports. Journalist Ahmad Mukhtar was placed in administrative detention on charges of petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police.

Blinken in a statement called on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release the journalists who he said were “arrested for their work on human rights.”

The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF, described the arrests as part of a strategy to silence critics of President Ilham Aliyev’s administration.

VOA reached out to authorities, but the calls went unanswered.

Jeanne Cavelier, who heads RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk, said the government has resumed its crackdown against journalists in the aftermath of COP29, the annual U.N. climate change conference that Azerbaijan hosted. 

The Meydan TV arrests again prove the regime’s “willingness to shamelessly target the individuals who dare to keep Azerbaijani citizens informed,” Cavelier said in a statement. She added that Azerbaijan has detained 13 other journalists in the past year.

RSF “calls on the international community not to turn a blind eye to these grave, systematic violations of fundamental rights,” said Cavelier.

Meydan TV in a statement described the arrests and questioning of its team as illegal.

“Since the day we began our activities, our journalists have been arrested, they and their families have been subjected to harassment, and they have been subjected to various pressures and threats. Journalists who cooperate with us have been illegally banned from leaving the country,” the statement said.

Bahruz Maharramov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, questioned the criticism of the arrests.

“If there are real suspicions based on valid, irrefutable evidence, why should any person’s profession prevent those suspicions from being investigated?” he said. 

“Why should we remain silent about the illegal actions of a mercenary network like Meydan TV, just because they are journalists? Where is the legality, where is the equality?” he told VOA.

Regular pressure

Meydan TV was founded in 2013 as an impartial and objective media organization. It has regularly faced pressure from the authorities, and in 2017 access to its website was blocked in the country. The network’s social media accounts have been hacked multiple times and their contents deleted.

Orkhan Mammad, an editor at Meydan TV, said that some of those detained were subjected to violence and that the authorities tried to forcefully extract statements from them.

“Ramin Deko had bruises under his eyes. He was left without a lawyer for a long time. When Aynur Elgunash’s house was searched, she was pinned against the wall, hit in the kidney region, and her computer was seized,” he said.

The lawyer for Tahirov, Bahruz Bayramov, told VOA that the assistant director of the Baku School of Journalism has no connection with Meydan TV.

“They were just family friends with Aynur Elgunash. A large amount of money was seized during a search at Tahirov’s house. However, Tahirov stated that the money belonged to his wife,” Bayramov said.

The money found was from her salary, the lawyer said.

Zibeyda Sadigova, who is representing another of the journalists, Natig Javadli, said that there was no basis for the arrest.

“We were not provided with the decision and protocols regarding the search of his home, so we were unable to review them. Natig said that his computers and phones were confiscated, but no money was found in the house,”  Sadigova said.

The lawyer said that Javadli has been in journalism for 30 years and that the arrest is related to that work. “They seized his passwords without a court order. He was subjected to psychological pressure,” the lawyer told VOA.

Lawyers representing the journalists have filed an appeal against the pre-trial detention.

Media crackdown

More than 20 journalists and media workers have been arrested in Azerbaijan since late 2023 on allegations of smuggling and other crimes.

Among those affected are journalists from Abzas Media, known for its corruption investigations, and the independent media outlet Toplum TV.

The editor-in-chief of Abzas Media, Sevinj Vagifgizi, was among the Anti-Corruption Champions honored by Blinken on Monday. 

“Vagifgizi has devoted more than a decade in exposing government abuses. She’s also the one awardee who is not with us this afternoon,” Blinken said during a ceremony.

He noted that Vagifgizi had returned to Azerbaijan in November 2023, “knowing that she might be arrested on arrival.” More than a year later, said Blinken, “she remains in detention.”

Azerbaijan’s government has rejected international criticism of the arrests, calling it an “interference in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs and the independence of the judiciary.”

Officials say that fundamental rights, as well as media freedom, are guaranteed. 

Local human rights organizations estimate that there are more than 300 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

The country ranks 164th out of 180 on the RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, where 1 reflects the best environment for media.

Ulviyya Guliyeva contributed to this report.   
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BEIJING — The former coach of the Chinese men’s national football team has received a 20-year-prison sentence for bribery, Chinese state media reported Friday.

Liu Tie, who once played in the English Premier League as a midfielder for Everton, was found guilty of “leveraging his positions” as head coach of the national football and national selection team to receive bribes of more than 50 million yuan (about $7 million), by a court in the city of Xianning in the central Hubei province.

Liu coached the Chinese men’s team between January 2020 and December 2021. He was also charged with taking bribes between 2015 to 2019, when he worked for local football clubs.

The investigation into Liu’s conduct began in November 2022. He pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption in March of this year.

His sentencing is the latest in a series of high-profile corruption cases involving Chinese football.

In March, the former president of the Chinese Football Association, Chen Xuyuan, was sentenced to life in prison for bribery. Earlier this week, three other CFA officials received prison sentences for bribery, according to state media.
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BANGKOK — Fleeing an arrest warrant issued by Myanmar’s junta, journalist Nyan Linn Htet moved to neighboring Thailand three years ago.

From there, the founder and managing editor at the Mekong News Agency has continued to provide coverage of issues affecting his home country.

But a new law being debated in the Thai parliament could damage the fragile existence that he and so many others in exile from Myanmar have.

The Association and Foundations Bill was proposed in the Thai parliament in October. If passed, it would require nonprofits to register with the Minister of Interior and to have of a minimum of 30 Thai staff members.

Noncompliance comes with fines of up to $3,000.

The draft bill is concerning for journalists like Nyan, who have been working from exile in Thailand since the February 2021 military coup.

Many registered their outlets as nonprofits, and do not have the capacity to comply with the law.

“The new draft bill is one of the challenges for our exiled media,” Nyan told VOA. “When it comes to making financial information available to Thai authorities, many local media can find it difficult to follow since they are currently operating with the financial support made by the donors or [nongovernmental organizations].”

Thailand’s government says the bill is needed to counter national security concerns. But analysts say it would give authorities expansive powers and could make the work of Myanmar’s exiled media more precarious.

Akarachai Chaimaneekarakate, an advocacy lead at Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, says the legislation could lead to interference in nonprofits, and would give authorities the power to dissolve organizations and put civil society organizations at risk of being deemed national security threats.

“The draft act on Association and Foundations is yet another attempt by the authorities to monitor and control the work of civil society organizations, many of which take the form of either an association or a foundation,” he told VOA by email.

Akarachai noted that the law would give authorities ”expansive powers” to close organizations on grounds such as “good morals of the people,” “public order,” or “national security.” Failure to submit an annual report or balance sheet within 30 days could also result in being closed.

Thailand is not alone in passing laws around foreign funding and national security.

“The Ministry of Interior and related national security agencies seem determined to follow the lead of authoritarian neighbors like Cambodia and Vietnam in severely restricting civil society organizations, regardless of the damage it does to Thailand’s reputation and its ability to operate as a regional hub for international agencies,” Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates, told VOA.

The Thai government “need to live up their progressive principles and face down this conservative threat against people’s civil and political freedoms,” he said.

Safe haven

Thailand, which has a 2,400-kilometer border with Myanmar, has seen thousands of people flee the conflict between opposition groups and junta forces.

When Myanmar’s military seized power, it revoked some broadcast licenses and detained dozens of journalists, including a VOA contributor. Fearing arrest or retaliation, many journalists fled.

In Thailand they found a temporary base, especially in border towns. But the threat of being sent back to Myanmar weighs heavily.

Strict paperwork and requirements make it hard for Myanmar nationals to get proper media visas. Not all of them have the necessary documentation after fleeing their homes, and some are wanted by the junta over their coverage.

Journalist Toe Zaw Latt says most exiled media chose Thailand because they had “nowhere else to go.” It offers better facilities including internet connection and communications as well as “easy access to the sources,” he told VOA.

The journalist said he believes it would be impractical for the media to operate further away. And if the legislation comes into force in Thailand, he predicts many will evade it.

“A lot [of journalists] will go undercover. I don’t think any media want to legally register under Thai law, simply because they don’t trust it, or [because it’s] very difficult,” he said.

In Nyan’s case, he says the majority of his 17-person team are based in Thailand.

“We can’t afford to move back to Myanmar since it is crystal clear that we are at risk of being arrested, tortured or even murdered unlawfully,” Nyan said.

Myanmar is one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, ranking second, only behind China. At least seven journalists have also been killed since the coup, according to data by the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.

Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative, described the draft bill as a danger for Myanmar media “that operate from Thailand and play crucial roles in supporting the many Myanmar journalists driven into exile since the 2021 coup.”

“Thai lawmakers should scrap this severe and wrong-headed legislation and allow Myanmar’s exile media organizations to continue functioning without fear of reprisal,” he told VOA via email.

Nyan fears that a reduction in active exiled Myanmar media in Thailand will pave the way for Myanmar state media to spread disinformation.

He says if the law comes into force and Myanmar media are forced to leave Thailand, it will mean there is only limited independent news in Myanmar.

“This will result in having military’s disinformation, misinformation or hate speech campaigns proliferated seriously,” he said. 
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WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers and diplomatic officials stressed the need for close cooperation among the United States, South Korea and Japan in response to the possible impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. 

The officials say that Yoon, who could be removed from office as soon as this weekend over a short-lived imposition of martial law that threw his country into turmoil, has played an important role in the informal U.S. alliance that Washington has forged in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Senator Jack Reed, who spoke to VOA Korean on Wednesday, said Yoon’s diplomacy has “strengthened South Korea vis-a-vis China and Russia and other emerging threats in the Pacific.”  

“The collaboration between South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia — that is probably going to do more to deter hostilities than anything else. So, that has to be maintained,” said Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

He emphasized that the presence of a significant number of U.S. forces in South Korea “keeps the North Koreans from doing something rash and very destructive to South Korea.” More than 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.

“That relationship — the United States and South Korea — I think, is made more formidable when Japan is also part of it, and the Philippines are also part of it,” Reed said. “And I think South Korean people have to recognize that we’re talking about their safety and security.” 

The embattled president has been criticized in his own country for pursuing a foreign policy that fostered closer relations with Japan, a country still reviled by many of his countrymen for its harsh colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.  

Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told VOA Korean that a strong relationship between South Korea and Japan is beneficial to the overall Indo-Pacific region, which faces the rise of China. 

“We know there’s been historic tensions for centuries between Japan and Korea,” Warner said. “I actually think that level of collaboration between America, South Korea and Japan is in the best interests of the region.”  

Andy Kim, who was sworn in this week as the first Korean American U.S. senator, told VOA Korean he hopes “people recognize the importance of ensuring that South Korea remains engaged in the region.”  

“I do think that the work that has been happening between the United States, South Korea and Japan is important, and I hope that whoever is the leader and whatever happens next in South Korea, that type of work continues,” said Kim, who expressed shock at Yoon’s declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.  

The South Korean president said his decision was aimed at “eradicating pro-North Korean forces and to protect the constitutional order of freedom.” Soon after his declaration, a majority of South Korean lawmakers voted to overturn the order. Yoon, who was legally obligated to comply with the vote, did so six hours after his original declaration. 

South Korean lawmakers pushed Dec. 7 to impeach Yoon for the failed martial law declaration. The resolution accused Yoon of putting South Korea on the brink of war by operating a foreign policy “hostile to North Korea, China and Russia, but centered on Japan.” The opposition-led attempt failed because a boycott by Yoon’s ruling People’s Party left the legislature short of the necessary quorum.   

Yoon now faces another impeachment vote, which he vowed Thursday to “fight to the end.”  

Representative Marilyn Strickland, who recently secured a U.S. House seat for a third term, called for “good relationships” with allies, when asked about the controversy.  

“If I think about the safety and the freedom of the entire Indo-Pacific region, it is better to have good relationships with our allies than to be at odds with each other,” she said in a Zoom interview Tuesday with VOA Korean.  

‘Disturbing signals’ 

U.S. diplomatic and security experts said Yoon’s declaration of martial law was clearly wrong but questioned whether an impeachment resolution should be based on his approach to international relations. 

“If you look back at the impeachment resolution, one of the paragraphs in that impeachment resolution directly attacked President Yoon for the trilateral partnership that he had established with Japan and the United States. That was very disturbing,” said Evans Revere, the former principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He spoke to VOA Korean on Monday via Zoom.  

Kenneth Weinstein, the Japan chair at the Hudson Institute, shared a similar sentiment. 

“It’s disturbing in the sense that if the South Korean opposition is going to run on an anti-American, anti-Japanese agenda, it sends disturbing signals to North Korea about alliance unity. It sends disturbing signals to China about alliance unity,” Weinstein said. 

“And frankly, it sends disturbing signals to the incoming Trump administration about what kind of government South Korea is likely to have if President Yoon is impeached.” 

Harry Harris, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea during the first Trump administration, told VOA Korean on Tuesday via email that the cooperation among the U.S., South Korea and Japan should continue. 

“I’ve spoken for a while now how important President Yoon’s outreach to Japan is, especially his meetings in the U.S. and Japan with former Prime Minister [Fumio] Kishida,” he said. 

The U.S. State Department has sidestepped questions on the controversy.  

“We continue to call for the full and proper functioning of the ROK’s democratic institutions and processes, in accordance with the constitution,” said a spokesperson for the State Department in an email to VOA Korean on Saturday. ROK, or the Republic of Korea, is the official name of South Korea.  

“The United States is committed to the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula,” the spokesperson said.  

VOA’s Joon Ho Ahn contributed to this report.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and other foreign leaders to his January 20 inauguration, but it is not known yet whether any of them plan to attend the ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News it was yet “to be determined” whether Xi will accept Trump’s invitation, which was extended in early November, shortly after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris for a new four-year term in the White House.

She did not name other world leaders who have been invited. Typically, foreign ambassadors to Washington and other diplomats have witnessed the peaceful quadrennial transfers of U.S. presidential power but not heads of government. State Department records dating to 1874 show that no foreign leader has attended a U.S. presidential inauguration.

But Leavitt said the invitations to the noontime outdoor ceremony in six weeks are “an example of President Trump creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just our allies but our adversaries and our competitors, too. He is willing to talk to anyone, and he will always put America’s interests first.”

If Xi travels to Washington, it could provide a first opportunity during Trump’s second presidential term for the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies to discuss contentious trade and military issues.

Trump has threatened to impose massive tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, partly to push Beijing to curb the deadly flow of fentanyl into the U.S. and to boost the sale of U.S. products in China.

The U.S. has imposed a January 19 deadline, the eve of the inauguration, for TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social media app or face a ban in the U.S. TikTok is fighting the ban in court; it lost a bid last week to block the ban but is appealing the case to the Supreme Court.

Trump on Thursday, during an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange, where he was ringing the bell to open the market, said he’s been “thinking about inviting certain people to the inauguration” without referring to any specific individuals.

“And some people said, ‘Wow, that’s a little risky, isn’t it?'” Trump said. “And I said, ‘Maybe it is. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.’ But we like to take little chances.”

The Kremlin separately on Thursday said President Vladimir Putin, at war with U.S.-supported Ukraine for nearly three years, has not received an inaugural invitation.

Since his election victory, Trump has met or talked with several world leaders, including visits with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Argentine President Javier Milei, at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida oceanside retreat.

In addition, Trump met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Britian’s Prince William in Paris last weekend at the reopening of the refurbished Notre Dame Cathedral, much of which was gutted by a fire five years ago.

“World leaders are lining up to meet with President Trump because they know he will soon return to power and restore peace through American strength around the globe,” Leavitt said.
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