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Private land in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is being auctioned off by its owner, with strong interest from Chinese buyers, according to a lawyer responsible for the auction. Such a sale would likely cause geopolitical headaches for Norway and NATO because of Svalbard’s strategic location in the Arctic Ocean. Henry Wilkins has more.
Camera: Henry Wilkins
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Washington — In early 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a handful of citizen journalists emerged as voices from the epicenter.

Among them was Zhang Zhan, then a 36-year-old former lawyer who bravely chronicled the unfolding crisis in the city where the virus first surfaced.

Standing in front of a Wuhan train station in her final YouTube video on May 13, 2020, she voiced concerns about the human rights abuses she witnessed during the lockdown and criticized police involvement in enforcing containment measures.

Following “this last video,” she vanished, according to Jane Wang, a U.K.-based activist who launched the Free Zhang Zhan campaign.

“The date of her arrest should be 14th May, but it could have happened on the evening of the 13th, so we aren’t sure,” Wang told VOA. “The time she spent on the train escorted by police to Shanghai from Wuhan is in between.”

In December 2020, the Chinese government sentenced her to four years in prison for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

On Monday, Wang posted a 28-second video to X, formerly known as Twitter, in which Zhang confirmed her release from prison on May 13 and wished well to the people who were concerned about her well-being.

“Hello, everyone, I am Zhang Zhan. At five o’clock in the morning on May 13, the police brought me to my brother’s home in Shanghai. Thank you all for your help and concern for me. Hope everyone is well. I really don’t have anything to say,” Zhang said in the video.

The video came one week after Zhang was expected to be released from Shanghai Women’s Prison on May 13, but she did not publicly surface for several days. On May 17, the U.S. State Department issued a statement expressing concern about her disappearance after her apparent release.

“The United States has repeatedly expressed our serious concerns about the arbitrary nature of her detention and authorities’ mistreatment of her,” the State Department said at that time. “We reiterate our call for the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to respect the human rights of Ms. Zhang, including by immediately ending the restrictive measures that she and all journalists in the PRC face.”

The State Department urged China to ensure the safety and freedom of journalists in the country, emphasizing the importance of enabling them to report freely.

Additionally, the State Department’s recently released human rights report on China pointed out “serious restrictions” on freedom of expression and media, including criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others.” It also cited the arrest of “countless citizens” for allegedly “spreading fake news.”

Several other citizen journalists faced disappearances like Zhang’s and later were sentenced to prison for documenting the initial stages of the pandemic in China.

Any expression of views differing from the government on pandemic-related matters continues to be a sensitive issue in China, according to Lin Shengliang, founder of the China Human Rights Accountability Database.

“The Chinese authorities often resort to both soft and hard tactics to the parties involved in order to silence them,” Lin told VOA.

According to Li Yong, a Wuhan citizen who shared the U.S. State Department’s statement on Zhang in a WeChat group, the Chinese State Security forces warned him not to share information about Zhang.

“The local community’s state security officer said, ‘These posts are no longer allowed. Be silent. Things involving Zhang Zhan are not allowed [to be shared].’ Anyway, I promised not to post it again,” Li told VOA.

According to Li, he befriended Zhang when she came to Wuhan in 2020.

“I advised her to take a step back [in her criticism of the government]. But she was a person of faith and was more persistent at that time,” Li said.

According to Wang, the U.K.-based activist, Zhang is a “devoted Christian” who openly expressed her faith.

“Her church was shut down [four years ago] and banned from gathering before she went to Wuhan,” Wang said. “It’s a big question mark whether she [currently] is allowed to travel to another city or even attend a church gathering in Shanghai.”

Wang said that Zhang’s situation may change “dramatically” when and if the authorities decide to step up surveillance against her.

“Right now, guards are watching her apartment, and she is being followed everywhere, but she still can leave her flat and has her phone and WeChat account,” Wang said, citing a friend of Zhan’s, whose name she didn’t want to disclose for safety reasons. “The worst is for plainclothes [police] to break in and stay in the home, taking her phone away.”
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — China kicked off a two-day large-scale military exercise in the water and airspace around Taiwan on Thursday, emphasizing that it is “a strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence forces’” and “a stern warning” against provocation by external forces.

The Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army will conduct drills in the Taiwan Strait, the north, south, and east of Taiwan as well as in areas near Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen and Matsu islands, according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The drills, which involve the army, navy, air force, and rocket force of the Eastern theater command, will concentrate on joint sea-air combat readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, and joint precision strikes on key targets, Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Li Xi said.

Some analysts say the exercise is part of Beijing’s display of anger toward Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te, who took office Monday.

The military exercise is “meant to be a warning to both the Lai administration and Washington that it can and will continue to put the squeeze on Taiwan if Lai does not return to a more moderate tone and approach” to cross-strait relations, Amanda Hsiao, a senior China analyst at International Crisis Group, said.

However, despite the attempt to push the new Taiwanese government to soften its position, Hsiao said Beijing’s forceful response may have the opposite effect.

“Given the Lai administration’s deep distrust of Beijing and the domestic pressures they are currently facing, Taipei may hold even firmer to their cross-strait line,” she told VOA in a written response.

In response to the Chinese military’s announcement, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said Beijing’s “irrational provocation” will damage regional peace and stability and that it will take practical actions, including deploying Taiwan’s naval, air, and ground forces, to protect freedom and safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Some Taiwanese military analysts say the priority for Taiwan is to keep strengthening its defense capabilities and enhance Taiwan’s defense budget.

“The Chinese military exercise is part of Beijing’s long-term pressure campaign against Taiwan, so Taipei needs to ensure it has enough defense capabilities to withstand the growing pressure from Beijing and maintain peace in the region,” Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA by phone.

A firmer assertion of Taiwan’s sovereignty

China’s large-scale military exercise around Taiwan comes after Beijing criticized Lai for his “downright confession of Taiwan independence” through his inauguration speech Monday.

“The speech fully demonstrated that Lai is ‘a traitor to mainstream public opinion on the island and a disruptor of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,’” said Chen Binhua, the spokesperson of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which handles cross-strait relations.

He reiterated that “Taiwan independence is a dead end” and that attempts to pursue “Taiwan independence” through support from external forces will only backfire.

“However, in response to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities’ collusion with external forces to provoke and seek independence, we must counteract and punish them,” Chen said during a regular press conference on Tuesday, according to Xinhua.

During his inauguration speech on Monday, Lai urged Beijing to cease political and military intimidation against Taiwan and proposed that both sides could start cross-strait exchange through the resumption of tourism on a reciprocal basis or enrollment of degree students in Taiwanese institutions.

However, he also warned the Taiwanese people of China’s ambition to “annex Taiwan” and reiterated that “the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other.”

Hsiao, from the International Crisis Group, said what Lai said in the speech suggests a potential deviation from his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen’s more moderate approach to cross-strait relations.

“He didn’t reaffirm the conciliatory gesture that Tsai offered, that cross-strait relations would be conducted in accordance with the Republic of China’s constitution,” she told VOA.

During her inauguration address in 2020, Tsai said Taiwan would handle cross-strait affairs according to the Republic of China’s constitution and the Act Governing Relations between People of Taiwan and “the mainland area,” which she said had been the island’s consistent position to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. However, Lai didn’t reaffirm the same position in his inauguration speech on Monday.

In her view, while Tsai maintained some ambiguities in her characterization of cross-strait relations, Lai “appears resistant to doing so.” “He wants to state clearly and loudly that China and Taiwan are two separate states [and] his calculation may be that Tsai’s moderate approach didn’t pay off after all,” Hsiao added.

Some experts say since Thursday’s military exercise has been called the “Joint Sword 2024A,” this suggests that China could conduct more military exercises of the similar scale in the near future. “Since Beijing is extremely disappointed and even furious now, more strong responses will follow,” Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of political science at Bucknell University, told VOA in a written response.

During a speech on Thursday in the Australian capital Canberra, Deputy Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Lieutenant General Stephen Sklenka said China’s military exercises around Taiwan are “concerning” but not unexpected. He added that the Chinese military practiced maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait in 2023 that would be key to a potential invasion of the island.

Taiwan military analyst Su said China’s latest military exercise around Taiwan may create backlash for Beijing.

“Thursday’s exercise will only prove that China’s threat to Taiwan is real and it may convince like-minded democracies, especially the United States, to be more engaged in relevant efforts to deter Beijing from continuing such behaviors,” he told VOA.

Going forward, Hsiao said the dynamic between Taiwan and China “looks bleak.”

“[While] limiting the escalation of tensions is possible, it will require Beijing recognize that its pressures are unlikely to be effective and the Lai administration to see value in signaling a more moderate line,” she told VOA.

Additionally, Hsiao said she thinks Washington’s response may also affect cross-strait dynamics since there are no direct channels of communication between Beijing and Taipei.
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Washington, DC and Taipei, Taiwan — Former President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen left office May 20, passing the baton to her Democratic Progress Party’s (DPP) successor, Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai. 

Analysts say her time as leader of self-ruled Taiwan saw it gain international support for a peaceful Taiwan Strait despite an increasingly assertive China – a legacy they hope President Lai can maintain. 

Tsai was Taiwan’s first female leader and one of the few top female leaders in Asia and she ushered in some of the region’s most liberal laws on LGBTQ rights. Yet analysts say her foremost legacy will be the international attention and support she brought to Taiwan. 

Hung-Jen Wang, a professor of politics at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University, tells VOA that Tsai’s biggest achievement was her effectiveness in getting major nations to consider and confront the possibility of China using force against Taiwan and the global impact that would be caused by conflict in the Taiwan Strait.  

“President Tsai has made it clearer to everyone that the stability of the Taiwan Strait issue is not Taiwan’s issue, nor is it an issue of internal affairs between Taiwan and China, but (relevant to) everyone’s national interests,” Wang said. 

Since the 2021 Summit of the Group of Seven (G7) publicly used the phrase “the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” for the first time, the phrase has become an indispensable part of the joint communiqués of the G7 group of economically advanced democracies. The group is Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. 

Beijing claims Taiwan is a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary. 

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin has similarly claimed as part of Russia, and Moscow’s close ties with Beijing, have further underscored concerns that China could follow Russia’s lead in seizing territory by force. 

China has in the past couple years increased its cross-straits threats, including military exercises, sending scores of suspected spy balloons over Taiwan, and interfering in its election with threats. Tsai increased military spending and submarine development to better defend Taiwan if China attacks. 

Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, tells VOA history will be kind to Tsai, who took Beijing’s saber-rattling in stride. 

“I think that she has been stable, steady, pragmatic, (and) principled. She has helped create conditions that have allowed Taiwan to attract more support from the rest of the international community than at any previous time. And really sort of pushed back against the notion that Taiwan can be isolated and intimidated by Beijing,” Hass said, adding that he hopes that Tsai’s successor “will carry forward the legacy of what she has left off.”

Tsai and Lai both support Taiwan’s status quo. Though Lai has in the past been an outspoken supporter of Taiwan independence, he has in the last few years softened his tone. 

But Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Monday still denounced Lai as a “worker for Taiwan independence.” 

Michael Cunningham, a research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, said China didn’t see Tsai as moderate, either.

“China has refused to engage officially in talks, but she has been very pragmatic,” Cunningham told VOA. “In fact, all parties essentially have the same general approach to China now, which is to preserve stability, preserve de facto sovereignty. Don’t rock the boat, which is very important.” 

China has, however, engaged in talks with leaders of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, who blame Tsai and Lai for stoking cross-straits tensions with Beijing. 

During Tsai’s eight years in office, China convinced almost half of the nations that were recognizing Taiwan as a country to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Only 11, mainly small island nations and the Vatican, recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. 

Despite the lost recognition, analysts say Tsai successfully pushed trade and unofficial relationships that garnered more support for Taiwan’s status quo as a self-governing democracy. 

Cunningham told VOA Tsai managed to make Taiwan well-known on the international stage. “…And in that way, she’s done a great job for Taiwan diplomatically,” he said. “However, I hope President-elect Lai and his administration will be able to do a better job of holding on to the official diplomatic partners.”

Lai inherits a politically divided Taiwan with the KMT wanting to engage with China and weaken his presidency.

Despite the tensions, Yao-Yuan Yeh, a professor at the University of St. Thomas, told VOA in a phone interview that Taiwan has already chosen its future. 

“Tsai Ing-wen’s biggest effort in the past eight years has been to help Taiwan choose the side of the United States in the environment of confrontation between the United States and China,” Yeh said. “That is, Taiwan will stand on the same front as democratic countries in the future.”

Lai inherits an unprecedented third term in a row for the DPP, coming off of high ratings for his predecessor. 

The latest survey released by Taiwan’s TVBS Polling Center last week showed that Tsai’s policy satisfaction before leaving office was 42%, 19 percentage points higher than former KMT President Ma Ying-jeou’s 23% and 29 percentage points higher than previous DPP President Chen Shui-bian’s 13%. 

As for Tsai’s role after the presidency, Taiwanese media reports say she plans to organize an international think tank to continue advocating for Taiwan.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.

 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China last week underlined the burgeoning economic and geopolitical ties between Moscow and Beijing, amid Russia’s war on Ukraine. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, analysts say China could seek to exploit its relationship with a weakened and isolated Russia.
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The Biden administration last month announced $6.4 billion in direct funding to back South Korean tech giant Samsung’s new semiconductor cluster in central Texas. That means big changes for the town of Taylor. Deana Mitchell has our story
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WASHINGTON — Ahead of a trilateral summit involving South Korea, Japan, and China this weekend in Seoul, Washington said it expects the event to be an opportunity for its two allies to manage their relations with Beijing.

“The United States respects the ability of nations to make sovereign decisions in the best interests of their people,” said a spokesperson for the State Department.

“Just as the United States takes steps to responsibly manage our relationship with the PRC, so do our partners and allies,” the spokesperson continued in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on May 15. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is China’s official name.

The summit would come amid a heightened tension between Washington and Beijing over trade  and after China agreed with Russia to establish a “new era” partnership to create “a multipolar world order” during their summit last week.

The three East Asian countries are expected to hold their summit from May 26 to 27, but the official dates have not been announced. Chinese Premier Li Qiang is expected to attend in place of Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The meeting would be their first trilateral summit since December 2019.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on May 14 that Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul should be main drivers responsible for regional stability and security.

Pointing out what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said after a trilateral foreign ministers meeting in November, Pengyu said the three countries need to “address differences and disputes in peaceful ways” and “act as front runner of East Asia cooperation.”

Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing are planning to discuss trade and investment, peace and security, and science and technology, among other items and include in a joint statement their cooperation on economic issues and infectious diseases, according to the Japan Times, citing Japanese government sources Sunday.

Former U.S. officials said while it will be important for the three countries to meet and talk at the summit, differences that Seoul and Tokyo have with Beijing on North Korea are unlikely to be resolved.

“With China determined to establish a new China-centric regional order and because of Beijing’s open-ended support for the DPRK, we should not expect progress on this issue,” said Evans Revere, a State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea.

North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

“Nevertheless, it is important for South Korea and Japan to use this summit to convey their strong concerns,” Revere continued.

At a bilateral summit last week, Beijing and Moscow criticized Washington and its allies for their “intimidation in the military sphere” against North Korea.

 

Zhao Leji, who ranks third in the Chinese Communist Party, visited Pyongyang in April and agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to boost cooperation on mutual concerns. It was the highest-level talks the two countries had held in years.

The upcoming summit comes after trilateral cooperation was agreed among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo at their Camp David summit in August 2023 to strengthen their deterrence against North Korean threats and to defend a free and open Indo-Pacific against Chinese aggressions.

Joseph DeTrani, who served as the U.S. special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, said, “China will ask that the ROK and Japan not to align with the U.S. against China, an issue that wasn’t on the table in 2019.”

South Korea’s official name is the Republic of Korea (ROK).

DeTrani said Seoul and Tokyo will “try to get China to convince North Korea to cease providing arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine” and “to use its leverage” with Pyongyang “to halt ballistic missile launches.”

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, denied Pyongyang’s arms dealings with Moscow, according to state-run KCNA on Friday. The same day, North Korea launched a tactical ballistic missile, said KCNA. 

Gary Samore, who served as the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said the summit will become “an opportunity for communication” among Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing to avoid conflict, but the differences that grew among them since 2019 will not be resolved as South Korea and Japan “leaned in the direction of cooperating with the U.S.”

Eunjung Cho contributed to this report.

 
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Seoul, South Korea — Fragile South Korea-Japan ties are being strained yet again after South Korean politicians accused Tokyo of inappropriately pressuring a South Korean company to sell its stake in Line, the do-it-all social media app that has come to dominate digital life in Japan.

Line – which started as a messaging app but is now used for everything from bill-paying to video-sharing – is run by LY Corp., a Tokyo-based joint venture between South Korea’s tech giant Naver and Japan’s Softbank Group.

Japanese regulators have urged LY to reduce its dependence on Naver after the South Korean company experienced a cyberattack that resulted in a massive leak of data, including the personal information of Line users.

While the Japanese government’s recommendations to LY are not legally binding, analysts say such statements of “administrative guidance” carry significant weight in Japan’s business community. Naver itself has confirmed that it is considering “all possibilities,” including the sale of its stake in the company that controls LY.

Although Japanese officials say their actions are driven by information security concerns, South Korean politicians and commentators contend the moves are, at the very least, interference in a South Korean company’s foreign investment and, at worst, an infringement on South Korea’s digital sovereignty.

The dispute heightens political pressure on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has pursued closer ties with Japan, Korea’s former colonial ruler, but whose conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in legislative elections last month.

Yoon says closer cooperation with Japan is needed to deal with shared challenges, such as North Korea. But South Korea’s left-leaning opposition accuses Yoon of being too conciliatory, saying Japan should take further steps to make amends for its brutal 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.

Fierce backlash

Prominent South Korean politicians have pounced on the Line controversy to attack Yoon, framing it as another example of his “surrender diplomacy” and tying it to South Korea’s painful history with Japan.

In a Facebook post, Lee Jae-myung, head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, noted that the Japanese communication minister who issued the regulatory guidance is the descendant of a former top official who helped administer Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.

“While Ito Hirobumi [the ex-Japanese resident-general of Korea] plundered our national territory, his descendants are pillaging our cyber territory,” Lee said.

To protest what he says is Yoon’s weak response, Cho Kuk, a blunt-speaking former justice minister and head of the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, last week visited a group of islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan.

During a fiery speech, Cho accused the Yoon administration of “worshiping Japan” and said the South Korean president had allowed the country to once again become a Japanese colony.

Cho’s visit to the islands, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japan, set off a tense exchange between Japanese and South Korean officials.

After Japan’s foreign ministry lodged a formal protest saying the visit was “totally unacceptable,” South Korea’s foreign ministry dismissed the complaint and criticized Tokyo’s “unjust” claim over the islands.

The South Korean presidential office has vowed to respond “firmly and strongly” to any unfair measures against Korean companies, but lamented that some politicians are using the dispute to stoke “anti-Japan sentiment that damages the national interest.”

The Japanese embassy in Seoul did not respond to a request for comment.

Trilateral meeting

The dispute comes just ahead of an expected meeting later this month between senior leaders of South Korea, Japan, and China – the first such trilateral summit since 2019.

The Korea-Japan tension may be well-timed for China, which has criticized the expanded cooperation between South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

Analysts have said that China may use the meeting to drive a wedge between South Korea and Japan. But Jeffrey Robertson, a professor of diplomatic studies at Seoul’s Yonsei University, said China may conclude it has much to gain simply by re-establishing dialogue with Japan and South Korea — a meeting that excludes the United States.

“I don’t think China has to do anything to find cracks in the Japan-Korea relationship. I think those cracks are already present and pretty much filling up with water right now,” Robertson said.

Muted reaction in Japan

In Japan, the Line/Naver dispute has received relatively little attention, says Jeffrey J. Hall, a Japanese politics specialist at the Kanda University of International Studies.

“A lot of news outlets probably wouldn’t have even given it much attention if it wasn’t for politicians visiting Takeshima/Dokdo,” Hall said.

“In contrast, last year’s massive leak of LINE users’ personal information was treated as big news in Japan,” he added in a written exchange with VOA.

Yoon has vowed to continue good relations with Japan, but analysts say anti-Japan forces are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

“Japan is getting a small taste of things to come if the opposition wins the next presidential election,” Hall said.

Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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SYDNEY — Researchers in Australia and the United States say that a new artificial intelligence tool has allowed them to classify brain tumors more quickly and accurately.  

The current method for identifying different kinds of brain tumors, while accurate, can take several weeks to produce results.  The method, called DNA methylation-based profiling, is not available at many hospitals around the world.

To address these challenges, a research team from the Australian National University, in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute in the United States, has developed a way to predict DNA methylation, which acts like a switch to control gene activity.  

This allows them to classify brain tumors into 10 major categories using a deep learning model.

This is a branch of artificial intelligence that teaches computers to process data in a way that is inspired by a human brain.

The joint U.S.-Australian system is called DEPLOY and uses microscopic pictures of a patient’s tissue called histopathology images.

The researchers see the DEPLOY technology as complementary to an initial diagnosis by a pathologist or physician.

Danh-Tai Hoang, a research fellow at the Australian National University, told VOA that AI will enhance current diagnostic methods that can often be slow.

“The technique is very time consuming,” Hoang said. “It is often around two to three weeks to obtain a result from the test, whereas patients with high-grade brain tumors often require treatment as soon as possible because time is the goal for brain tumor(s), so they need to get treatment as soon as possible.”

The research team said its AI model was validated on large datasets of approximately 4,000 patients from across the United States and Europe and an accuracy rate of 95 percent.

Their study has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.
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DENPASAR, BALI, INDONESIA — Elon Musk and Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin launched SpaceX’s satellite internet service for the nation’s health sector on Sunday, aiming to improve access in remote parts of the sprawling archipelago.   

Musk, the billionaire head of SpaceX and Tesla TSLA.O, arrived on the Indonesian resort island of Bali by private jet before attending the launch ceremony at a community health centre in the provincial capital, Denpasar.   

Musk, wearing a green batik shirt, said the availability of the Starlink service in Indonesia would help millions in far-flung parts of the country to access the internet. The country is home to more than 270 million people and three different time zones.

“I’m very excited to bring connectivity to places that have low connectivity,” Musk said, “If you have access to the internet you can learn anything.”   

Starlink was launched at three Indonesian health centers on Sunday, including two in Bali and one on the remote island of Aru in Maluku.   

A video presentation screened at the launch showed how high internet speeds enabled the real-time input of data to better tackle health challenges such as stunting and malnutrition.   

Asked about whether he planned to also invest in Indonesia’s electric vehicle industry, Musk said he was focused on Starlink first.   

“We are focusing this event on Starlink and the benefits that connectivity brings to remote islands,” he said, “I think it’s really to emphasize the importance of internet connectivity, how much of that can be a lifesaver.”   

Indonesia’s government has been trying for years to lure Musk’s auto firm Tesla to build manufacturing plants related to electric vehicles as the government wants to develop its EV sector using the country’s rich nickel resources.   

The tech tycoon is scheduled to meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday, where he will also address the World Water Forum taking place on the island.   

Communications Minister Budi Arie Setiadi, who also attended the Bali launch, said Starlink was now available commercially, but the government would focus its services first for outer and underdeveloped regions.   

Prior to Sunday’s launch, Starlink obtained a permit to operate as an internet service provider for retail consumers and had been given the go-ahead to provide networks, having received a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) permit, Budi Setiadi told Reuters.   

SpaceX’s Starlink, which owns around 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting earth, is dominant in the satellite internet sphere.   

Indonesia is the third country in Southeast Asia where Starlink will operate. Malaysia issued the firm a license to provide internet services last year and a Philippine-based firm signed a deal with SpaceX in 2022.   

Starlink is also used extensively in Ukraine, where it is employed by the military, hospitals, businesses and aid organizations. 
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