Tokyo City Hall is developing dating app to encourage marriage, childbirth

tokyo — Called “Tokyo Futari Story,” the City Hall’s new initiative is just that: an effort to create couples, “futari,” in a country where it is increasingly common to be “hitori,” or alone. 

While a site offering counsel and general information for potential lovebirds is online, a dating app is also in development. City Hall hopes to offer it later this year, accessible through phone or web, a city official said Thursday. 

Details were still undecided. City Hall declined to comment on Japanese media reports that said the app would require a confirmation of identity, such as a driver’s license, your tax records to prove income and a signed form that says you are ready to get married. 

Marriage is on the decline in Japan as the country’s birth rate fell to an all-time low, according to health ministry data Wednesday. Last year there were 474,717 marriages, down from 504,930 in 2022, while births totaled 727,277, down from 770,759. 

The reports also said the app may ask for your height, job and education, but the official denied anything was decided. 

On the national level, the government has been trying to solve a serious labor shortage by promising cash payments for families with children and supporting child-care facilities. It’s also relaxed immigration policy over the years to encourage an influx of foreign workers. 

During the so-called “baby boom” era of the 1970s, Japan recorded more than 2 million births a year. Like many young adults around the world today, fewer Japanese are interested in traditional marriage or having children. 

There are concerns that Japanese workplace norms tend to lead to extremely long hours and rarely meeting people outside work. Some say raising children is expensive. 

Tokyo City Hall is also sponsoring events where singles can meet, couples can get counseling on marriage and lovers can have their stories of how they first met turned into comics or songs.

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US warns North Korea against providing Putin platform for war aims

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration this week warned North Korea against providing Russian President Vladimir Putin “a platform to promote his war of aggression” against Ukraine ahead of his possible trip to Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Putin to Pyongyang when he visited Russia in September, and preparations are being made for his trip, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry said without providing a specific date, Russian news agency Tass reported May 30.

Tass quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying preparations for Putin’s visit to North Korea as well as to Vietnam are at “an advanced stage.”

VOA contacted the Russian Embassy in Seoul, asking if dates are set for Putin’s visit to Pyongyang, but did not receive a reply.

There was speculation that Putin would visit North Korea after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May.

In response to Rudenko’s remarks about Putin’s trip to Pyongyang, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOA’s Korean Service Tuesday, “As Russia continues to seek international support to sustain its illegal and brutal war against Ukraine, we reiterate that no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.”

The spokesperson continued, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, that “deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

The spokesperson added, “The DPRK has and continues to provide material support to the Russian Federation for their aggression in Ukraine.”

Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, denied on May 17 that North Korea was engaged in arms dealings with Russia.

North Korean missiles have been turning up in Ukraine, indicating growing cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, according to a report released by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency on May 29.

The report shows the pictures of what it says is debris from a North Korean short-range ballistic missile found in Kharkiv in January that Russia used against Ukraine. Pyongyang has been providing ballistic missiles to Moscow since November in addition to shipping hundreds of containers full of ammunition to Russia in August, the report said.

About seven months after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia sought to purchase millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, the report said.

Experts said Putin’s trip to Pyongyang will allow him to boost military cooperation with North Korea that began when Kim visited Russia in September.

“Putin, who in the past has openly broached the prospect of bolstering military collaboration with Pyongyang, could use his time in the North to move — or at least discuss moving — arms and military technology agreements toward the finish line,” Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, said in an email.

“North Korean munitions have given him critical time to reconstitute Russia’s own domestic military production so Putin will attempt to keep the North Korean arms spigot flowing,” he continued.

Putin reportedly said Russia will continue to “develop” its relations with North Korea regardless of what others think when he met with the heads of international news agencies on the sidelines of theInternational Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

He also said North Korea’s nuclear issue will “gradually be resolved” if Pyongyang does not feel threatened and thanked South Korea for not directly providing weapons to Ukraine, according to Tass.

The same day, Putin warned that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to the West’s adversaries so they could strike Western countries in response to NATO allies, including the United States, allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack inside Russia.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said during a phone interview that Pyongyang is more likely to “act on its own interest” than to heed Moscow if asked to cause provocations on the Korean Peninsula or elsewhere.

Maxwell also said Putin’s possible visit to North Korea could be used as “a propaganda vehicle” for Moscow and Pyongyang.

They will try to “reinforce the reputation of both, especially in terms of alliances” and portray their causes — Russia’s war in Ukraine and North Korea’s threats against South Korea — as somewhat “legitimate” despite causing massive human rights abuses, Maxwell said.

Pyongyang described Putin’s war in Ukraine as “the sacred war of justice” by “the valiant Russian army” engaged in “the special military operation to annihilate neo-Nazis” in a statement released on May 16 by its state-run KCNA.

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Teacher using technology to overcome Pacific Islands education gaps

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, high school students who identify as Pacific Islanders have one of the highest dropout rates in the United States. But an immigrant teacher in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is aiming to change all that. VOA’s Jessica Stone has her story. Camera: Riya Nathrani

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Novo Nordisk braces for generic challenge to Ozempic, Wegovy in China

SHANGHAI, China — Novo Nordisk is facing the prospect of intensifying competition in the promising Chinese market, where drugmakers are developing at least 15 generic versions of its diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss treatment Wegovy, clinical trial records showed.

The Danish drugmaker has high hopes that demand for its blockbuster drugs will surge in China, which is estimated to have the world’s highest number of people who are overweight or obese.

Ozempic won approval from China in 2021, and Novo Nordisk saw sales of the drug in the greater China region double to $698 million last year. It is expecting Wegovy to be approved this year.

But the patent on semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Wegovy and Ozempic, expires in China in 2026. Novo is also in the midst of a legal fight in the country over the patent.

An adverse court ruling could make it lose its semaglutide exclusivity even sooner and turn China into the first major market where Novo is stripped of patent protection for the drugs.

Those circumstances have drawn several Chinese drugmakers to the fray. At least 11 semaglutide drug candidates from Chinese firms are in the final stages of clinical trials, according to records in a clinical trial database reviewed by Reuters.

“Ozempic has witnessed unprecedented success in mainland China … and with patent expiry so close, Chinese drugmakers are looking to capitalize (on) this segment as soon as possible,” said Karan Verma, a health care research and data analyst at information services provider Clarivate.

Front-runner Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene Engineering has already developed one treatment that it says has “similar clinical efficacy and safety” as Ozempic and applied for approval for sale in April. The company has not published efficacy data and did not respond to a request for information.

The company said in January that it expected approval in the second half of 2025, but it cautioned that it would not be able to commercialize the drug before Novo’s patent expires in 2026, unless a Chinese court makes a final ruling that the patent is invalid.

The Danish company’s semaglutide patent is expiring in China far ahead of its expiry in key markets such as Japan, Europe and the U.S. Analysts attribute variations in patent expiry timelines to term extensions Novo has won in specific regions.

Even more pressing for Novo is the China patent office’s 2022 ruling that the patent is invalid for reasons related to experimental data availability, which the company has challenged.

China’s top court said it was not able to say when verdicts are likely ready.

A Novo spokesperson said it “welcomes healthy competition” and was awaiting a court decision on its patent case. The spokesperson did not answer follow-up queries on the matter.

Other Chinese drugmakers who are running the final stages of clinical trials for Ozempic generics include United Laboratories, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, Huadong Medicine and a subsidiary of Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group.

CSPC said in May it expected approval for its semaglutide diabetes drug in 2026.

Brokerage Jefferies estimated in an October report that semaglutide drugs from United Laboratories will be launched for diabetes in 2025 and obesity in 2027. United Laboratories did not respond to a request for comment.

Impact on prices

The number of adults who are overweight or obese in China is projected to reach 540 million and 150 million, respectively, in 2030, up 2.8 and 7.5 times from 2000 levels, according to a 2020 study by Chinese public health researchers.

If shown to be as safe and effective as Novo’s, Chinese drugmakers’ products will increase competition and bring down prices, analysts say.

Goldman Sachs analysts estimated in an August report that generics could lead to a price reduction of around 25% for semaglutide in China. The weekly Ozempic injection costs around $100 for each 3mL dose through China’s public hospital network, Clarivate’s Verma said.

Novo acknowledges the intensifying competition.

“In 2026 and 2027 we might see a few more players showing up due to the clinical trials” in progress, Maziar Mike Doustdar, a Novo executive vice president, told investors in March, referring to the China market.

But he also questioned the capability of some of the players to provide meaningful volumes, adding, “We will watch it as we get closer.”

Novo also faces competition from internationally well-known firms, including Eli Lilly, whose diabetes drug Mounjaro received approval from China in May. HSBC analysts expect China’s approval this year or in the first half of 2025 for Lilly’s weight loss drug with the same active ingredient.

Eli Lilly did not reply to a request for a comment on Chinese approval of the drug, which in the U.S. is called Zepbound.

Supplies of both Wegovy and Zepbound remain constrained, but the companies have been increasing production.

Zuo Ya-Jun, general manager of weight loss drugmaker Shanghai Benemae Pharmaceutical, said a product being competitive would depend on distinguishing features such as efficacy, durability of the treatment and a company’s sales abilities.

“It will be a market with fierce competition, but who will be [the leader] is hard to say,” she said.

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US, allies warn China aggressively ‘headhunting’ Western fighter pilots

Washington — China’s military appears to be intensifying its efforts to recruit current and former Western fighter pilots, employing new and more intricate tactics to snare Western expertise. 

The United States and some of its closest intelligence partners issued a new warning Wednesday, cautioning the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is using private companies, including corporate headhunters, so that Western pilots are unaware of links to the Chinese military until it is too late. 

The end goal, according to the U.S. and its allies, is for China to better train its own fighter pilots while gaining insights into how Western air forces operate, something that could erode Western advantages or even give Chinese fighter jets a boost in case of a conflict. 

The bulletin issued by the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – known as Five Eyes – says the PLA is using private companies based in South Africa and China to target Western pilots for job offers with lucrative salaries. 

Other recruitment efforts include leveraging personal acquaintances, professional networking sites and online job platforms, according to the bulletin, which warns any links to the Chinese government or military are often hidden. 

“We’re issuing this joint bulletin today because this is a persistent threat that continues to evolve in response to Western countermeasures,” an official with the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) told VOA. 

“Like any illicit enterprise that seeks to conceal its activities, there have been efforts to incorporate entities [companies] in different locations under different names,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the rationale behind Wednesday’s bulletin.  

“There have also been variations in recruitment pitches and approaches,” the official added. “It’s critical that we keep our current and former service members informed about this threat, which is directly targeting them.” 

The Five Eyes bulletin said the Chinese recruitment efforts appear to be targeting current and former military pilots from Five Eyes countries as well as those from France, Germany and other Western nations. 

VOA has contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment.  

Concerns about Beijing’s pursuit of Western pilots and aviation expertise are not new. 

British defense officials were sounding alarms about Chinese efforts to recruit retired members of the British Royal Air Force through companies in South Africa as far back as October 2022.

Australian defense officials raised similar concerns a month later, warning that retired Australian military personnel had an “enduring obligation” to protect state secrets and “to reveal any of those secrets is a crime.”

Britain, Australia and the other Five Eyes members have also taken action to curtail Beijing’s efforts. 

The U.S. last year, for example, placed restrictions on 43 entities tied to Chinese efforts to recruit and hire Western fighter pilots. 

The targeted companies included a flight school in South Africa, a security and an aviation company founded by a former U.S. Navy SEAL with operations in the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Laos.

While such work may have diminished Beijing’s efforts, the U.S. and its intelligence partners warn China has responded aggressively, rolling out new recruitment efforts aimed not only at hiring former Western fighter pilots but hiring engineers and flight operation center personnel who also could give the PLA insights into the operations and tactics of Western air forces. 

Wednesday’s bulletin advises current and former U.S. military personnel approached with suspicious recruitment pitches to contact their individual military services or the FBI. 

Military personnel from other countries are encouraged to contact the appropriate defense agencies. 

“PLA recruitment efforts continue to evolve,” U.S. NCSC Director Michael Casey said in a statement Wednesday.  

The new warning “seeks to highlight this persistent threat and deter any current or former Western service members from actions that put their military colleagues at risk and erode our national security,” he added.

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Hundreds mark funeral of Myanmar general turned Suu Kyi ally

Yangon — Hundreds of mourners turned out Wednesday to pay their respects to a former Myanmar general turned democracy activist and confidant of Aung San Suu Kyi, in a rare sanctioned public gathering in the junta-controlled commercial capital.

Foreign ambassadors and senior figures in Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party were among those who attended the funeral in Yangon for Tin Oo, who died on Saturday aged 97.

Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year prison sentence imposed by a junta court.   

Tin Oo served as commander of the army under former strongman Ne Win, before being forced out for allegedly withholding information over a failed coup plot.

He co-founded the NLD with Suu Kyi in the aftermath of mass protests against a former junta in 1988, and went on to become one of her closest confidants.

The ambassadors of India and Singapore joined hundreds of other people paying their respects to Tin Oo, whose body was displayed in a glass-topped coffin draped with the NLD’s peacock flag.

A cortege of cars, one decked with wreaths and bearing Tin Oo’s portrait, carried the coffin slowly through the rain-washed streets to the Yay Way cemetery, where hundreds more mourners were waiting and soldiers kept watch.

While Suu Kyi was not allowed to attend, there was a bouquet of white roses at Tin Oo’s house with a card that said “from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

The cemetery is also home to the remains of Sein Lwin, a former home minister accused of leading a bloody crackdown on the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations.

Tin Oo was detained by the military in that crackdown, before being released.

He was arrested again along with Suu Kyi in 2003 after a pro-junta mob attacked their motorcade, killing dozens of people.

In 2017, the NLD stalwart suffered a stroke and in recent years receded from the political arena due to old age and poor health.

He avoided arrest in the sweeping crackdown that accompanied the 2021 coup, likely due to his advanced age, analysts say.

The NLD has been targeted in the junta’s bloody crackdown on dissent following its coup, with one former lawmaker executed in Myanmar’s first use of capital punishment in decades.

The junta dissolved the NLD in 2023 for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law, removing the party from polls it has indicated it may hold in 2025.

Suu Kyi’s closed-door trial in the military-built capital Naypyidaw was condemned by rights groups as a sham to shut her out of politics.

The Nobel laureate, 78, has largely been hidden from view since the coup and has reportedly suffered health problems. 

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Australia criminalizes distribution and creation of deepfake pornographic material

SYDNEY — The Australian government will introduce legislation Wednesday that will make it a criminal offense to create and share deepfake pornographic images of people without their consent.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said sharing such images is a damaging and deeply distressing form of abuse.

A deepfake is an image or video in which a person’s face or body has been altered to make it appear they are doing or saying something that never happened.

Deepfake pornography overwhelmingly affects women and girls.  Increasingly, it is being generated by artificial intelligence.

The Australian government said it will not tolerate such “insidious criminal behavior.” 

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said it’s a crime that can “inflict deep, long-lasting harm on victims.”

New laws being introduced Wednesday in Federal Parliament in Canberra create a new criminal offense that will ban the creation or sharing of digitally altered sexually explicit images without consent.

Offenders could be sent to prison for up to seven years.

Katina Michael is an honorary professor at the Faculty of Business and Law in the School of Business at the University of Wollongong.

She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that technology, including artificial intelligence, can help detect deepfake material.

“In essence, what we can do is detect deepfake videos,” she said. “They are literally special effects videos where the images have been manipulated frame-by-frame and, so, we can run videos through analyzers and digital platform providers can do that, social media providers can do that.”

She said while artificial intelligence facilitates the creation of deepfake pornography, it can also can be used as a deterrent.

Often celebrities are the victims of digitally altered material, but it is a crime that has affected many other people.

Earlier this year, fake images of the American singer Taylor Swift flooded the internet, with one sexually explicit image of the singer reportedly being viewed almost 50 million times.

The new legislation in Australia will only apply to deepfake sexual material depicting adults, with child abuse material continuing to be dealt with under dedicated and separate laws.

In April, Britain said it would bring in similar legislation to ban deepfake pornography.

In Australia, the new deepfake laws are part of a range of measures aimed at reducing violence against women and addressing the role that technology, including social media, plays in propagating degrading and misogynistic attitudes.

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South Korea, African countries sign agreements on minerals, exports

Seoul, South Korea — Nearly 50 deals and agreements have been signed during South Korea’s first summit with leaders from 48 African countries to cooperate in areas such as mining, energy and manufacturing, South Korea’s industry ministry said Wednesday.

Hyosung Corp, a South Korean conglomerate, signed a contract to supply electric transformers to Mozambique worth $30 million, the ministry said in a statement

The industry ministry also signed agreements to cooperate on critical minerals with Madagascar and Tanzania in order to secure supplies for industries such as batteries, it said. 

The 47 agreements with 23 African countries were made during the summit as Asia’s fourth-largest economy seeks to tap the minerals and the vast export market in Africa.

“Despite its enormous potential, Africa still accounts for only 1-2% of South Korea’s trade and investment,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol told a gathering of about 200 political and industry leaders from African countries and South Korea at a

business summit Wednesday.

“My hope is that mutually beneficial resource cooperation will be expanded,” Yoon said.

Yoon pledged on Tuesday that South Korea would increase development aid for Africa to $10 billion over the next six years, and said will offer $14 billion in export financing to promote trade and investment for South Korean companies in Africa.

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Arrests, detentions in Hong Kong on anniversary of 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown

Hong Kong — Hong Kong police arrested four people and detained five others Tuesday as authorities sought to stamp out commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in mainland China.

Police were out in force patrolling Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, where an annual candlelight vigil had been held until recent years.

As police patrolled the area, including the two closest subway stations, they did not hesitate to take away people who were publicly marking the anniversary.

Police late Tuesday said they made four arrests, including a 68-year-old woman who was chanting slogans, and suspected to have committed offenses “in connection with seditious intention,” which carries a sentence of up to seven years in jail under a new domestic security law – known locally as Article 23. Videos from local media showed a woman shouting “The people will not forget.”

Three other people were arrested, including a 24-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman for allegedly attacking police officers and disorderly conduct, and a 23-year-old man on assault charges for allegedly attacking two security guards. Police told VOA the two men arrested were a Swiss and a Japanese national.

Five other people were taken in for questioning over suspicion of disrupting public peace, but have been released, police said.

Officers led away an elderly man who had held up two handwritten posters listing democracy movements in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan alongside a poem commemorating June 4. The police action came even though he folded his papers after being warned he would be arrested for “disorderly conduct,” according to a French news agency reporter who tweeted about the incident.

Police told VOA they could not immediately provide information about this case, but he was reportedly released later.

Separately, diplomats from Western countries were seen walking outside the park on Tuesday evening, followed by throngs of press, according to Hong Kong Free Press.

Ahead of the anniversary, police detained performance artist Sanmu Chen in Causeway Bay, the busy Hong Kong shopping district where the park is located.

Before officers approached him, Chen wrote the Chinese characters “8964,” which refer to the date of the crackdown, with his finger in the air. He also mimed the Chinese traditional tomb sweeping ritual of pouring wine onto the ground to mourn the dead, according to local media Hong Kong Free Press.

He was released the same night, Hong Kong police told VOA.

Local media reported several other people, including an activist who shouted, “People will not forget,” were also taken away, while people searched and questioned a woman whose phone flashlight was turned on.

In the past week, eight people were arrested for allegedly posting “seditious” messages, reports say.

For years, the vigil in Victoria Park drew thousands of participants. At its height, 500,000 people gathered in remembrance of the crackdown, making Hong Kong the only place in China where June 4 commemorations could be held. For a time, it was also the world’s largest commemorative Tiananmen Square event.

The vigils, however, disappeared after Beijing imposed its 2020 national security law on Hong Kong in response to widespread and sometimes violent 2019 protests over a later-rescinded extradition bill. The measure would have allowed authorities to send suspected financial criminals to the mainland for trial.

The 2020 law criminalizes secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism. While the government credits it with restoring order, critics say it has curtailed Hong Kong’s freedoms, including the right to hold events like the vigil, that last major one of which was held in 2019.

2024 law

Planners of past vigils tell VOA that authorities remain worried large-scale events could still be used as a platform for broader protest. The government appears to have confirmed those concerns with this year’s passage of Article 23, a domestic security measure that expands on the national security law, criminalizing and expanding penalties for offenses including sedition, secession and subversion.

Addressing reporters on Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said “different people may use different excuses to hide their intentions.”

“It’s important we all bear that in mind, to be on guard all the time against attempts to cause trouble to Hong Kong, particularly disturbing public peace,” he said.

One-time vigil organizer Richard Tsoi, a member of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said Article 23 makes even small commemorations riskier.

“Now with Article 23, the penalty is higher … so the risk is higher,” said Tsoi, who served eight months in prison after defying the government’s ban on holding the vigil in 2020. The group disbanded the following year.

Some people, however, are commemorating privately. One activist posted a picture online of a wooden cross, flowers and a card with the words “People Will Not Forget” positioned by what appears to be Victoria Harbor.

So far, no one has been arrested for posting images, but local media reported a former district councilor’s display of candles in his shop was removed after a visit by plainclothes police officers.

The Tiananmen Square crackdown occurred when government troops fired on student-led pro-democracy protesters on June 4, 1989. Hundreds, possibly thousands, died.

At the park, one elderly man said there was no need to commemorate June 4.

“It was a tragedy, but it’s over; just let it go. Now the mainland and Hong Kong are doing so well. I hope they don’t organize any more protests; it was terrible for Hong Kong’s economy,” said the man. He declined to reveal his name because he considers the topic sensitive. “Wherever you live, you hope it is peaceful and stable.”

Asked if he was worried about the loss of Hong Kong’s freedom of expression, he said, “Everyone’s definition of freedom is different. You think freedom is like this. I think freedom is like that…. I need stability so that the economy is good and people can make a living.”

Farther away, a young mother described fond memories of participating in vigils as a teenager.

“It was very peaceful. It was to let us remember what happened,” said April, using a pseudonym to protect her privacy.

She now feels “helpless” about what had become of her beloved Hong Kong and “confused” about the events of the 2019 protests: who was in the wrong — violent protesters or police — and whether foreign influence was involved.

“I try not to think about it,” she said. “I used to support fighting for justice, but now I think I should just shut my mouth.”

Silence and lack of commemorations could mean future generations won’t know about Tiananmen — or at least not as much, Tsoi said. Since the end of the vigils, no place, not even democratic Taiwan, has been able to replace Hong Kong’s role in commemorating the crackdown.

“If this continues, people will forget this incident, the related history and the truth, especially the new generation,” he said, adding that Hong Kong textbooks have heavily redacted accounts of that historic event, and books on the topic have been removed from libraries and most bookstore shelves.

“I think the 1989 movement and June 4th is a major incident in … China’s modern history, which still affects today. There are still many unanswered questions, such as why the government decided at the time to clear the square, and how many people died,” Tsoi said. “Such a major incident shouldn’t be forgotten; it should be examined.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday expressed support for anyone reflects on the events of that one day in June of 1989.

“As Beijing attempts to suppress the memory of June 4, the United States stands in solidarity with those who continue the struggle for human rights and individual freedom,” he said.

Staff at the U.S. consulate and European Union office in Hong Kong lined windowsills with candles, which were visible after dusk.

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China: US nuclear weapons in South Korea would undermine its security

washington — China said it opposes a deployment of nuclear weapons to South Korea as it would pose danger to regional countries. Beijing was reacting to a report suggesting the United States should take such a measure to enhance deterrence against threats from North Korea. 

“If the U.S. deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Asia-Pacific region, it will be a dangerous move that will seriously threaten the security of regional countries and undermine regional peace and stability,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington. 

“We will continue to handle Korean Peninsula affairs based on their merits and our own position,” he said in a statement sent to VOA on Monday. The embassy spokesperson described China’s position on the Korean Peninsula as ensuring peace and stability and advancing political settlement that suits the common interests of all parties. 

The remarks were made in response to a report released May 29 by U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling for a major boost to U.S. military buildup and readiness against countries such as North Korea and China.

In the report, “Peace Through Strength,” Wicker suggested the U.S. explore new options, such as a “nuclear sharing agreement in the Indo-Pacific and re-deployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula.”    

He said these would “bolster deterrence on the Korean peninsula” as North Korea “continues to build more nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States and our allies in the Indo-Pacific.” 

In response to Wicker’s report, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Friday that “the United States does not assess returning nuclear weapons to the Indo-Pacific as necessary at this time” and “has no plans to forward deploy nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula.” 

The spokesperson continued, “U.S. security commitments to allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region are steadfast and U.S. extended deterrence commitments to the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Australia remain ironclad.”  

In 1991, the U.S. withdrew from South Korea its nuclear weapons, which had been stationed there since the late 1950s. The U.S. has been providing extended deterrence commitment to South Korea and Japan, which means the U.S. military would use its full range of capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend its allies.  

Washington and Seoul will hold their third Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) meeting next week in Seoul to discuss ways to enhance extended deterrence, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.   

The NCG was set up under the Washington Declaration announced in April last year when U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a bilateral summit in Washington.   

On Sunday, after the U.S., South Korean and Japanese defense chiefs met in Singapore, the three countries announced they will conduct their first trilateral, multi-domain exercises, dubbed Freedom Edge, this summer.   

Robert Peters, a research fellow for Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense at the Heritage Foundation, told VOA via email, “The United States should seriously consider redeploying nonstrategic nuclear weapons to [South] Korea” as they would help strengthen deterrence. 

Nonstrategic nuclear weapons refers to low-yield tactical nuclear weapons designed to be used on the battlefield. 

However, Thomas Countryman, who recently served as acting undersecretary of arms control and international security under the Biden administration, said “such a deployment would draw [South Korea’s] attention away from building conventional capabilities that are more essential to continued deterrence.” 

Out of 200 tactical nuclear weapons the U.S. has in its active inventory, 100 are located in Europe and the other 100 are stored as a strategic reserve in the U.S, according to Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation. 

“With the Russian aggression over Ukraine, it is hard to imagine the United States taking any significant number of weapons out of Europe,” said Bennett.   

“With China on the rise, the United States will be inclined to leave its strategic reserve in the United States and certainly not deploy it in South Korea where it could potentially be vulnerable to Chinese or North Korean interdiction,” he continued. 

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said, “The U.S. military opposes the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons or any nuclear weapons to [South] Korea, because they would be vulnerable to a North Korean attack.” 

Japan would not object to the U.S. deployment of nuclear weapons in South Korea “as long as they remain under U.S. control,” said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy. “It is only when South Korea develops its own nuclear weapons, would it potentially kick off an arms race in the region.” 

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Arrests, detentions at Hong Kong park on anniversary of 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown

Hong Kong — Hong Kong police arrested four and detained five others Tuesday as authorities sought to stamp out commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in mainland China.

Police were out in force patrolling Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, where an annual candlelight vigil had been held until recent years.

As police patrolled the area, including the two closest subway stations, they did not hesitate to take away people who were publicly marking the anniversary.

Officers led away an elderly man who had held up two handwritten posters listing democracy movements in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan alongside a poem commemorating June 4. The police action came even though he folded his papers after being warned he would be arrested for “disorderly conduct,” according to a French news agency reporter who tweeted about the incident.

Police told VOA they could not immediately provide information about this case, but he was reportedly released later.

Separately, diplomats from Western countries were seen walking outside the park on Tuesday evening, followed by throngs of press, according to Hong Kong Free Press.

Ahead of the anniversary, police detained performance artist Sanmu Chen in Causeway Bay, the busy Hong Kong shopping district where the park is located.

Before officers approached him, Chen wrote the Chinese characters “8964,” which refer to the date of the crackdown, with his finger in the air. He also mimed the Chinese traditional tomb sweeping ritual of pouring wine onto the ground to mourn the dead, according to local media Hong Kong Free Press.

He was released the same night, Hong Kong police told VOA.

Local media reported several other people, including an activist who shouted, “People will not forget,” were also taken away, while people searched and questioned a woman whose phone flashlight was turned on.

In the past week, eight people were arrested for allegedly posting “seditious” messages, reports say.

For years, the vigil in Victoria Park drew thousands of participants. At its height, 500,000 people gathered in remembrance of the crackdown, making Hong Kong the only place in China where June 4 commemorations could be held. For a time, it was also the world’s largest commemorative Tiananmen Square event.

The vigils, however, disappeared after Beijing imposed its 2020 national security law on Hong Kong in response to widespread and sometimes violent 2019 protests over a later-rescinded extradition bill. The measure would have allowed authorities to send suspected financial criminals to the mainland for trial.

The 2020 law criminalizes secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism. While the government credits it with restoring order, critics say it has curtailed Hong Kong’s freedoms, including the right to hold events like the vigil, that last major one of which was held in 2019.

2024 law

Planners of past vigils tell VOA that authorities remain worried large-scale events could still be used as a platform for broader protest. The government appears to have confirmed those concerns with this year’s passage of Article 23, a domestic security measure that expands on the national security law, criminalizing and expanding penalties for offenses including sedition, secession and subversion.

Addressing reporters on Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said “different people may use different excuses to hide their intentions.”

“It’s important we all bear that in mind, to be on guard all the time against attempts to cause trouble to Hong Kong, particularly disturbing public peace,” he said.

One-time vigil organizer Richard Tsoi, a member of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said Article 23 makes even small commemorations riskier.

“Now with Article 23, the penalty is higher … so the risk is higher,” said Tsoi, who served eight months in prison after defying the government’s ban on holding the vigil in 2020. The group disbanded the following year.

Some people, however, are commemorating privately. One activist posted a picture online of a wooden cross, flowers and a card with the words “People Will Not Forget” positioned by what appears to be Victoria Harbor.

So far, no one has been arrested for posting images, but local media reported a former district councilor’s display of candles in his shop was removed after a visit by plainclothes police officers.

The Tiananmen Square crackdown occurred when government troops fired on student-led pro-democracy protesters on June 4, 1989. Hundreds, possibly thousands, died.

At the park, one elderly man said there was no need to commemorate June 4. 

“It was a tragedy, but it’s over; just let it go. Now the mainland and Hong Kong are doing so well. I hope they don’t organize any more protests; it was terrible for Hong Kong’s economy,” said the man. He declined to reveal his name because he considers the topic sensitive. “Wherever you live, you hope it is peaceful and stable.”

Asked if he was worried about the loss of Hong Kong’s freedom of expression, he said, “Everyone’s definition of freedom is different. You think freedom is like this. I think freedom is like that…. I need stability so that the economy is good and people can make a living.”

Farther away, a young mother described fond memories of participating in vigils as a teenager.

“It was very peaceful. It was to let us remember what happened,” said April, using a pseudonym to protect her privacy.

She now feels “helpless” about what had become of her beloved Hong Kong and “confused” about the events of the 2019 protests: who was in the wrong — violent protesters or police — and whether foreign influence was involved.

“I try not to think about it,” she said. “I used to support fighting for justice, but now I think I should just shut my mouth.”

Silence and lack of commemorations could mean future generations won’t know about Tiananmen — or at least not as much, Tsoi said. Since the end of the vigils, no place, not even democratic Taiwan, has been able to replace Hong Kong’s role in commemorating the crackdown.

“If this continues, people will forget this incident, the related history and the truth, especially the new generation,” he said, adding that Hong Kong textbooks have heavily redacted accounts of that historic event, and books on the topic have been removed from libraries and most bookstore shelves.

“I think the 1989 movement and June 4th is a major incident in … China’s modern history, which still affects today. There are still many unanswered questions, such as why the government decided at the time to clear the square, and how many people died,” Tsoi said. “Such a major incident shouldn’t be forgotten; it should be examined.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday expressed support for anyone reflects on the events of that one day in June of 1989.

“As Beijing attempts to suppress the memory of June 4, the United States stands in solidarity with those who continue the struggle for human rights and individual freedom,” he said.

Staff at the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong lined windowsills with candles, which were visible after dusk.

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Children honor parents’ legacies as victims of 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown

Taipei, Taiwan — Thirty-five years after the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre captured the attention of a shocked world, the children of two victims of China’s 1989 violent crackdown against democracy honor their parents’ legacies.

Zhang Hongyuan, 25, is currently in the Netherlands seeking political asylum. He fled there in April 2023, after authorities in Wuhan of China’s Hubei province, threatened to arrest him for his public-interest activism. His advocacy followed the footsteps of his father, Zhang Yi, who was arrested 35 years ago when Chinese authorities put an end to public democratic rallies in Tiananmen Square and in many cities on June 4, 1989. He was then jailed for two years.

Zhang Hongyuan had started a career as a field engineer at the Dapu Power Plant in Meizhou city in Guangdong province. But he found himself on a different path in 2020, when he helped his father spread the word in Wuhan about the outbreak of COVID-19.

Later that year, he worked as a translator for a documentary by dissident visual artist Ai Weiwei. In 2022, Zhang Hongyuan recorded video footage in China of public protests against strict pandemic-related mass civilian lockdowns. His involvement in the White Paper Movement, as the citizens’ public expressions against the lockdowns became known, and another dissident, Yang Min’s, act of seeking asylum abroad prompted him to flee China on short notice 15 months ago.

Grace Fang, now 23, immigrated to the U.S. at age eight. She did not learn until she turned 11 or 12 that her father, Zheng Fang, had his legs crushed by a Chinese military tank during the Tiananmen Square violence.

Grace Fang graduated in 2023 from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Last June, she helped host a San Francisco Bay area event remembering the crackdown.

The Chinese government refers to the events at Tiananmen Square in June 1989 as a “counterrevolutionary riot” and downplays its severity. In China, discussion of the event in media or textbooks of the event is largely forbidden. The authorities regularly harass those at home or overseas who seek to keep the memory of the events alive.

Zhang Hongyuan told VOA he was raised in China by his father and forced to mature early, especially after Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. Zhang Hongyuan said authorities began to tighten control over the dissidents of the “1989 generation,” which included his father, Zhang Yi.

Frequent police surveillance, house searches and detention had an effect on Zhang Yi, which in turn had an effect on his son.

“When I was a minor, other people’s fathers went to the police station to pick up their sons, but I was a son who went to pick up my father. I did this a lot,” Zhang Hongyuan said.

“It was precisely these things that prompted me to realize the inhuman side of totalitarian rule at a young age,” he said, adding that it gave him the courage to echo the boy on bike during the Tiananmen movement, whose words became famous, and say, “It’s my duty and I have to do something.”

Zhang Yi was in Wuhan in 1989 and was attending public rallies in support of students nationwide when he was arrested on June 4. Zhang Yi spent two years in prison, convicted of assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic during that mid-1989 period of democratic expression.

“There was a big black spot on my father’s back,’’ Zhang Hongyuan said. “He showed it to me when I was in junior high school and said it was caused by the beating by the guards, as well as the humid environment in the detention center. From that time on, I really began to understand June 4.”

About 15 years ago, Zheng Fang and his daughter, Grace Fang immigrated to the U.S. He is now the president of the China Democracy Education Foundation in San Francisco.

Zheng Fang said he is proud that all his three daughters, including Grace who studied American environmental politics and earned a college degree, have a clear understanding of the Chinese Communist government. He told VOA that while Grace Fang has grown up to be an American, she understands the June 4 massacre first-hand and how China’s repression had impacted the Chinese people including her family.

Grace Fang told VOA that she admires her father, who is a ‘’hero’’ for standing publicly with the democratic movement in China in June 1989. But as someone who has fewer ties with China now, she can only help translate for her father during talks and presentations at which he shares his experience in China opposing state intimidation.

She said that while she is angered by what happened to her father, she has hope for the Chinese to have a better future.

“Although this historical event [June 4] was very cruel and the government was wrong in many ways, and the human rights situation [in China] was definitely not good, I no longer have hatred, and I just feel sad [about the truth] because I still hope that the Chinese people can have a better future,” Grace Fang told VOA.

She said it is important that young Chinese are aware of recent history in China, especially about the Tiananmen Square period, because they have the right to know the truth about their country and government.  

With hope, she said, that young Chinese in the future should have the opportunity to participate in their country’s social and political affairs and promote a more open and free China.

Adrianna Zhang from VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this story.

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Diaspora community holds Tiananmen commemorations despite crackdowns in Hong Kong, China

Taipei, Taiwan — Authorities in China and Hong Kong are tightening control over civil society as people in more than a dozen cities around the world commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on Tuesday.

Ahead of the anniversary, Hong Kong authorities arrested eight people over social media posts commemorating June Fourth, which the police claim were aimed at using “an upcoming sensitive date” to incite hatred against the Hong Kong government and contained seditious intentions.

Most prominent among those arrested is human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung, who has been detained since 2021 for organizing an annual Tiananmen Vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, which has been banned since Beijing imposed the controversial National Security Law on the former British colony in 2020.

Other individuals arrested by Hong Kong police include Chow’s mother and uncle and former members of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which used to organize the annual vigil and in which Chow served as vice chairwoman before its dissolution.

In addition to the eight people arrested for social media posts commemorating June Fourth, Hong Kong police detained performance artist Sanmu Chen Monday in the busy shopping district Causeway Bay, which was near Victoria Park.

Local media reports said Chen pretended to drink in front of a police van and write or draw in the air. This is the second year that Chen was detained by police on the eve of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Instead of the now-prohibited Tiananmen vigil, several pro-Beijing community organizations are holding a “food carnival” from June 1 to June 5 at Victoria Park, a move that some activists characterized as ironic.

In China, authorities sentenced former Tiananmen Student leader Xu Guang to four years in jail on April 3 for demanding that the Chinese government acknowledge the massacre and for holding a sign calling for government compensation in front of a local police station in May 2022.

Apart from Xu’s jail sentences, some family members of Tiananmen victims or former Tiananmen student leaders have also been put under strict police surveillance ahead of Tuesday’s anniversary, according to Human Rights Watch.

Chinese authorities have also censored a wide range of words, phrases, and even emojis due to their connection to the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Chinese activist Li Ying, who became a prominent source of news during China’s “white paper movement” in 2022, disclosed that Chinese authorities have banned the use of the candle emoji in China, which was commonly used for posts related to the Tiananmen Massacre.

Some analysts say the increased crackdown on civil society initiated by Hong Kong and Chinese authorities ahead of the Tiananmen anniversary reflects their attempt to remove memories related to the tragic event.

“The Hong Kong government is sending a message that June Fourth is a clear national security red line for Hong Kong and they want to make sure there is no commemoration or no memory of June Fourth in public,” Maya Wang, the interim China director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA by phone.

While the two national security laws that the Hong Kong government has implemented since 2020 have essentially outlawed public commemoration of June Fourth, Wang said some people in the city are still using veiled references to commemorate the event.

“June Fourth continues to be a collective memory among people in Hong Kong and you do see some of them make veiled references to the date by wearing black or through other gestures,” she said, adding that the effect of the authorities’ attempts to remove memories associated with June Fourth remains unclear.

A Christian newspaper in Hong Kong that used to release information about the Tiananmen vigils published an almost blank front page on Sunday as their response to the upcoming anniversary. Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Stephen Chow called for forgiveness and vaguely referenced the Tiananmen anniversary in an article he published. 

Despite the lack of public commemoration in China and Hong Kong, several cities around the world, including Tokyo, Paris, London, New York, Boston, and Taipei, have each organized events to commemorate the event, which occurred when government troops fired on student-led pro-democracy protestors on June 4, causing what are thought to be thousands of deaths. 

 

Zhou Fengsuo, a former Tiananmen student leader, told VOA that the dozens of commemorative events abroad play an important role in pushing back against the Chinese government’s efforts to erase memories related to the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

“When the Chinese government tries to intensify crackdowns on the commemoration of June Fourth, more people in the diaspora community feel compelled to help organize or participate in commemorations of the tragic event around the world,” he said in a phone interview.

Zhou has attended more than 20 Tiananmen commemorative events around the world this year and he said many events are organized or attended by young people or new immigrants from China.

“I met a lot of Chinese people at the June Fourth Memorial Museum in New York, and they are all actively participating in this year’s commemorative events,” he said.

As people around the world take part in commemorations of the Tiananmen Massacre, some activists say they remain hopeful that this decades-long tradition will be passed down to the next generation.

“I was encouraged to see a lot of young people, including Japanese people, take part in the June Fourth commemoration in Tokyo,” said Patrick Poon, a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, adding that young people’s involvement in the event made him believe the tradition will be continued.

Through the efforts to organize commemorations of the Tiananmen Square Massacre around the world, Wang at Human Rights Watch said the Tiananmen anniversary is helping to strengthen linkages among different groups in the diaspora community that focus on pushing back against the Chinese government’s crackdown on civil society.

“Through these linkages, there is a growing solidarity of resistance on the state,” she told VOA. 

 

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UN Security Council to discuss North Korea human rights

united nations — The U.N. Security Council will hold a public meeting in mid-June on human rights in North Korea while South Korea holds the council’s rotating presidency.

“Some countries have some reservations about human rights issues being discussed in the Security Council,” South Korean Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said in announcing the session on Monday. “We know their logic.”

Countries including Russia and China oppose human rights issues being discussed in the 15-nation council, which is tasked with maintaining international peace and security. They, and other like-minded countries, argue that human rights issues should be handled in designated U.N. fora, such as the Geneva-based Human Rights Council or the General Assembly committee that deals with rights issues.

They could call for a procedural vote to try to block the meeting, in which case at least nine of the council’s 15 members would need to support the session.

Hwang told reporters at a news conference launching Seoul’s June presidency that unlike other countries, North Korea’s human rights situation is part of the council’s official agenda.

“This is unique to North Korea, and there are some good reasons for it,” he said. The “DPRK human rights and humanitarian situation is closely interlinked with North Korea’s aggressive weapons — their aggressive WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and nuclear development.”

DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The council was last publicly briefed on the issue on August 17, 2023, by U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Türk, who said that many of the severe and widespread rights violations in North Korea are directly linked to the regime’s pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile technology.

In 2014, a U.N. Commission of Inquiry found that North Korea’s rights violations had risen to the level of crimes against humanity and included murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape and enforced disappearance, among other crimes.

Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have deteriorated in recent months. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he has given up on reunification with the South and designated it a foreign enemy state. He has also enshrined the country’s illicit nuclear program into its constitution.

Washington says North Korea is advancing its prohibited weapons program “at an alarming rate” and has launched more than 100 ballistic missiles since the beginning of 2022.

And in one of its more bizarre actions, last week Pyongyang sent balloons filled with trash and feces into the skies over South Korea, dropping them on busy streets.

Fed up, South Korea said Monday it will fully suspend a 2018 military agreement with the North that is aimed at lowering tensions. Seoul partially suspended the agreement last November to protest the launch of a North Korean spy satellite.

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From shophouses to shopping malls, Jakarta’s Chinatown mixes modern with traditional

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, many residents of Chinese descent still live and work in the city’s Chinatown, as they have for hundreds of years. It’s an area that continues to evolve as traditional shops compete with modern chains. VOA’s Ahadian Utama reports. (Camera: Ahadian Utama, Indra Yoga; Produced by: Ahadian Utama,)

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Seoul to fully suspend inter-Korean military deal over balloons

Seoul, South Korea — Seoul will fully suspend a 2018 tension-reducing military deal with nuclear-armed North Korea, the South’s National Security Council said Monday, after Pyongyang sent hundreds of trash-filled balloons across the border.

Seoul partially suspended the agreement last year after the North put a spy satellite into orbit, but the NSC said it would tell the cabinet “to suspend the entire effect of the ‘September 19 Military Agreement’ until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored.”

In the last week, Pyongyang has sent nearly a thousand balloons carrying garbage including cigarette butts and likely manure into the South, in what it says was retaliation for missives bearing anti-regime propaganda organized by activists in the South.

South Korea has called the latest provocation from its neighbor “irrational” and “low-class” but, unlike the spate of recent ballistic missile launches, the trash campaign does not violate UN sanctions on Kim Jong Un’s isolated government.

The North called off the balloon bombardment Sunday, saying it had been an effective countermeasure — but warning that more could come if needed.

The 2018 military deal, signed during a period of warmer ties between the two countries which remain technically at war, aims to reduce tensions on the peninsula and avoid an accidental escalation, especially along the heavily fortified border.

But after Seoul partially suspended the agreement in November last year to protest Pyongyang’s successful spy satellite launch, the North said it would no longer honour the deal at all.

As a result, Seoul’s NSC said the deal was “virtually null and void due to North Korea’s de facto declaration of abandonment”, anyway, but that abiding by the remainder of it was disadvantaging the South in terms of their ability to respond to threats like the balloons.

Respecting the agreement “is causing significant issues in our military’s readiness posture, especially in the context of a series of recent provocations by North Korea that pose real damage and threats to our citizens,” it said.

The move will allow “military training in the areas around the Military Demarcation Line,” it said, and also enable “more sufficient and immediate responses to North Korean provocations,” it added.

The decision will need to be approved by a cabinet meeting set for Tuesday before it takes effect.

Ties between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with diplomacy long-stalled and Kim Jong Un ramping up his weapons testing and development, while the South draws closer to major security ally Washington.

Block the balloons?

Seoul’s decision to jettison the 2018 tension-reducing deal shows “that it will not tolerate trash balloons coming across the border, considering international norms and the terms of the truce,” said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

“However, it could further provoke Pyongyang when it is impossible to physically block the balloons drifting southwards in the air,” he said.

“The safety of the citizens cannot be guaranteed with such actions while it can wait for the situation to cool down and seek ways to resolve it.”

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons were not found to contain hazardous materials, but had been landing in northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent area of Gyeonggi, which are collectively home to nearly half of South Korea’s population.

South Korean officials have also said Seoul would not rule out responding to the balloons by resuming loudspeaker propaganda campaigns along the border with North Korea.

In the past, South Korea has broadcast anti-Kim propaganda into the North, which infuriates Pyongyang, with experts warning a resumption could even lead to skirmishes along the border.

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China’s lunar probe could return with answer to origins of solar system

Beijing — China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe looks set to begin its historic journey back to Earth from the moon’s far side after collecting samples that scientists expect will help answer key questions about the early evolution of the solar system.

Chang’e-6, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, was launched on May 3 from the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.

The fully robotic probe landed on Sunday in a previously unexplored location in a gigantic impact crater called the South-Pole Aitken Basin, on the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth.

China’s previous Chang’e mission collected samples from the moon’s near side in December 2020, restarting global lunar material retrieval efforts after a gap of 44 years.

The uncrewed Luna 24 mission launched by the former Soviet Union in 1976 collected 170.1 grams of samples from Mare Crisium, or “Sea of Crises,” on the near side of the moon.

Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions, all crewed, collected 2,200 samples weighing a total of 382 kilograms, also from the side of the moon facing Earth.

James Carpenter, head of the European Space Agency’s lunar science office, said the samples collected by the Apollo missions from the moon’s near side suggested the South-Pole Aitken Basin on the far side was caused by an epoch of extremely heavy bombardment of the solar system, Earth and moon.

“This is a really core event in the history of the whole solar system, but there is some controversy about whether it happened or not,” he said.

“To understand that, you need to anchor those events, and that’s going to be done with samples from the lunar far side from the South-Pole Aitken Basin.”

 

Small window

After landing, Chang’e-6 had a 14-hour window to drill, excavate, and seal 2 kg of material, with the goal of being the first probe to bring back such samples from the moon’s far side.

This compares to the 21-hour window Chang’e-5 had in 2020. “Once it gets dark, once the sun goes over the horizon, the mission has to end, so there is a limited time window between landing, getting those samples, and getting off the surface again, so it’s quite an exciting mission because it has to be done quickly,” Carpenter said.

While China said it had improved the efficiency of its digging and drilling machines compared with 2020, the mission could still encounter snags at the sampling phase.

Chang’e-5 returned 1.73 kg of lunar samples, rather than the planned 2 kg, as the drill was only able to create a hole 1 meter deep, rather than 2 meters, after encountering impenetrable layers beneath the surface.

The Chang’e-6 samples will be transferred and sealed on a rocket booster atop the lander, which will launch back into space, dock with another spacecraft in lunar orbit and transfer the samples.

A landing in China’s Inner Mongolia is expected around June 25.

Throughout the probe’s journey, payloads from Italian, French, and Pakistani research institutes, as well as the European Space Agency, will collect data on questions pertaining to space and the moon, highlighting the growing international weight of China’s space program, which is competing with the United States to build a lunar outpost in the next decade.

Carpenter said there was “extremely strong” collaboration between European and Chinese scientists in analyzing the lunar samples brought back by Chang’e-5, and he hoped this would be repeated for Chang’e-6.

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Singapore’s historic Chinatown unites a modern megacity with its past

The island city state of Singapore has a majority-ethnic Chinese population. So why would the Southeast Asian nation have a Chinatown? Adam Hancock went to this historic district to find out. Camera: Lee Beng Seng.

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North Korea vows to stop trash balloons after sending hundreds over border

Seoul — North Korea said Sunday it would stop sending trash-filled balloons across the border into the South, saying the “disgusting” missives had been an effective countermeasure against propaganda sent by anti-regime activists.

Since Tuesday, the North has sent nearly a thousand balloons carrying bags of rubbish containing everything from cigarette butts to bits of cardboard and plastic, Seoul’s military said, warning the public to stay away.

South Korea has called the latest provocation from its nuclear-armed neighbour “irrational” and “low-class” but, unlike the spate of recent ballistic missile launches, the trash campaign does not violate UN sanctions on Kim Jong Un’s isolated regime.

Seoul on Sunday warned it would take strong countermeasures unless the North called off the balloon bombardment, saying it runs counter to the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War hostilities.

Late Sunday, the North announced it would stop its campaign, after scattering what it claimed was “15 tons of waste paper” using thousands of “devices” to deliver them.

“We have given the South Koreans a full experience of how disgusting and labor-intensive it is to collect scattered waste paper,” it said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The North said it will now “temporarily suspend” its campaign, saying it had been a “pure countermeasure.”

“However, if the South Koreans resume the distribution of anti-DPRK leaflets, we will respond by scattering one hundred times the amount of waste paper and filth, as we have already warned, in proportion to the detected quantity and frequency,” it said, using the acronym for the country’s official name.

Activists in the South have also floated their own balloons over the border, filled with leaflets and sometimes cash, rice or USB thumb drives loaded with K-dramas.

Earlier this week, Pyongyang described its “sincere gifts” as a retaliation for the propaganda-laden balloons sent into North Korea.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons had been landing in northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent area of Gyeonggi, which are collectively home to nearly half of South Korea’s population.

The latest batch of balloons were full of “waste such as cigarette butts, scrap paper, fabric pieces and plastic,” the JCS said, adding that military officials and police were collecting them.

“Our military is conducting surveillance and reconnaissance from the launch points of the balloons, tracking them through aerial reconnaissance, and collecting the fallen debris, prioritizing public safety,” it said.

South Korea’s National Security Council met Sunday, and a presidential official said Seoul would not rule out responding to the balloons by resuming loudspeaker propaganda campaigns along the border with North Korea.

In the past, South Korea has broadcast anti-Kim propaganda into the North, which infuriates Pyongyang.

“If Seoul chooses to resume anti-North broadcast via loudspeakers along the border, which Pyongyang dislikes as much as anti-Kim balloons, it could lead to limited armed conflict along border areas, such as in the West Sea,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Korean peninsula strategy at Sejong Institute.

In 2018, during a period of improved inter-Korean relations, both leaders agreed to “completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain,” including the distribution of leaflets.

South Korea’s parliament passed a law in 2020 criminalizing sending leaflets into the North, but the law — which did not deter the activists — was struck down last year as a violation of free speech.

Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong — one of Pyongyang’s key spokespeople — mocked South Korea for complaining about the balloons this week, saying North Koreans were simply exercising their freedom of expression.

The two Koreas’ propaganda offensives have sometimes escalated into larger tit-for-tats.

In June 2020, Pyongyang unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links with the South and blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border.

The trash campaign comes after analysts have warned Kim is testing weapons before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine, with South Korea’s defense minister saying this weekend that Pyongyang has now shipped about 10,000 containers of arms to Moscow, in return for Russian satellite know-how.

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Q&A: Former US official says China’s bullying boosts global support for Taiwan

washington — The White House sent an unofficial delegation to attend the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president on May 20. Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, was among the delegates. VOA spoke with Armitage about his trip to Taiwan, U.S. support for the self-governing island, China’s aggression in the region and its ties with Russia.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: During your visit to Taiwan, you met with the new president, Lai Ching-te, and other new government officials. What message did you bring to Taiwan? And what did you discuss there?

Richard Armitage, former U.S. deputy secretary of state: The obvious message we brought to Taiwan was a bipartisan support for Taiwan’s democracy. I had met Dr. Lai before. I had the opportunity to have dinner with him, discuss the situation in the region, and the pressures put forward by the mainland, and obviously also had lunch with [former President Tsai Ing-wen] where we could tell her how happy we were after her eight fantastic years of the presidency. And now she’s going to be free.

VOA: Three days after President Lai took office, China conducted the military drills encircling Taiwan and called them “a punishment for separatist acts.” How to interpret the military drills and China’s message?

Armitage: That type of exercise, punishment exercise, was expected. The inauguration speech of Lai was fantastic. And, in my view, Chinese probably understood one of the many things Dr. Lai said was China must quit intimidating Taiwan. And also, on the other hand, Lai said, we are open for dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and dignity, thereby putting Taiwan on the high road. And I think China was not expecting it, didn’t know quite how to respond. So, they did, as they usually do, by a heavy-handed bullying activity.

VOA: Given China’s growing military might and its proximity to Taiwan, what kind of position does it put the U.S. in in terms of defending Taiwan?

Armitage: Taiwan’s geographic position in the world is the definition of tyranny by proximity, and Taiwan has to live with this. But while China is busy bullying Taiwan, if you look around the world, more and more people are speaking up for Taiwan, even in the WHA [World Health Assembly]. Many people spoke up for Taiwan, I believe, more than ever before. China has not understood that the more China bullies Taiwan, the more international support comes to Taiwan.

VOA: Do you think Taiwan should upgrade its military assets? Or what kind of military assets do you think Taiwan should have to deter China’s aggression?

Armitage: First of all, Taiwan has to concentrate on what we’ve seen is effective in Ukraine – drones, things of that nature, sort of unconventional, asymmetrical warfare. Air defense, Patriot missiles, things of that nature. And hopefully, the monies that the U.S. Congress voted for Taiwan defense will be used wisely and well. But ultimately, Taiwan has to come up with a way to come up to 100% manning level for their soldiers. The report submitted to the LY [Legislative Yuan] by Taiwan this week shows Taiwan is at about 80% of their needs. So, I think, this means more and more women should come into the force. More and more Taiwan citizens have to be able to respect those who choose to serve for the defense of Taiwan.

VOA: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin recently visited China after he began a fifth term. How concerned are you about the deepening ties between Russia and China?

Armitage: I’m concerned. Because when I look at Russia and China, I also see North Korea and Iran. And facing those four in Asia is a new situation we haven’t had before. So, am I concerned? Yes. Am I overly concerned? No. My understanding is, Putin was not entirely pleased with what happened on his trip to Beijing. He didn’t get everything he wanted.

VOA: Do you hope that China can do more to actually help solve the conflict in the region?

Armitage: You’re talking about Ukraine? I certainly would like to see China live up to what should be her responsibility for an area of conflict that worries the whole world. But I don’t see China in a hurry to do it. China always says that “We always respect territorial integrity and sovereignty,” and here, Russia has violated the sovereignty of Ukraine, and China – silent.

VOA: The Philippines now is facing a more increasingly assertive China in its behavior and actions in the region. What do you make of China’s behaviors in the region?

Armitage: China, first of all, has always said, “No one’s going to have joint patrols to assist Philippines.” They were wrong. China has not clearly understood that in our mutual defense treaty between the United States and the Philippines, Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas reef, these are areas that fall under our responsibilities.

China has to be very careful. Look what’s happened in the last year: People who were not very interested historically, in security terms, in the Taiwan Strait have all of a sudden become very interested. Canadians, French, Germans, British and always the United States, we’re all patrolling around the area. It’s been brought about by China. It wasn’t brought about by the Philippines, wasn’t brought about by Taiwan. It wasn’t brought about by Japan. It’s because of the behavior of China.

VOA: Among all the areas of conflict, which area do you think poses the biggest threat to the U.S. leadership in the world?

Armitage: Probably the Russia attack on Ukraine, because we [the U.S.] are so invested in Ukraine. … But I think any foreign policy specialist in the U.S. would not try to rank things in order of importance. Our attention, our interests are global. And therefore, to put one situation above another is to invite problems in those areas that are not number one.

If you remember in 1950, our secretary of state famously said that Korea was outside the defense perimeter of the United States. And what happened? Several months later, North Korea invaded. So, I would say it’s bad business to try to put anything in an order.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

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