Washington — Japan has grounded its fleet of V-22 Osprey aircraft again after an incident last Sunday where one of the hybrid helicopter-aircraft tilted unexpectedly and hit the ground while trying to take off.

The V-22 was taking part in the joint U.S. military exercise Keen Sword and carrying 16 passengers, including three U.S. service members. During takeoff it “became unstable as it swayed from side to side, and the left wing, the lower part of the aircraft came into contact with the ground and part of the aircraft was damaged, so the flight was aborted,” Japan’s Ground Self Defense Forces said in a statement.

It was the first major incident involving Japan’s V-22 fleet since a U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command Osprey crash last November off the coast of Japan killed eight service members and led to a monthslong grounding of the entire fleet for both Japan and the U.S.

The aircraft resumed flight operations earlier this year, but the Osprey’s use remains controversial particularly in Okinawa, where residents have questioned its safety record.

The Osprey in last Sunday’s incident was able to land and no one was injured, however Japan will keep its fleet of more than a dozen V-22s grounded while it investigates the incident, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani told reporters last week.

“We believe there is no safety problem with Ospreys, although ensuring flight safety is a prerequisite for aircraft operations,” Nakatani said.

The Pentagon’s V-22 joint program office is supporting Japan’s investigation into the incident, spokesperson Neil Lobeda said Saturday.

The V-22 was operating on the Japanese island of Yonaguni during the joint exercise Keen Sword. Yonaguni is only 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Taiwan.
…

seoul — North Korean state media released a white paper Sunday accusing South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol of exposing his country to the danger of nuclear war through his policies toward the North. 

The document, compiled by North Korea’s Institute of Enemy State Studies and released by state news agency KCNA, criticized Yoon’s “reckless remarks” about war, abandoning elements of an inter-Korean agreement, engaging in nuclear war planning with the United States, and seeking closer ties with Japan and NATO. 

“It’s ever-worsening military moves resulted only in the paradoxical consequences of pushing [North Korea] to stockpile its nuclear weapons at an exponential rate and further develop its nuclear attack capability,” the paper said. 

Yoon, a conservative, has taken a hard line on North Korea, which has forged ahead with developing its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions. 

His administration blames North Korea for raising tensions with weapons tests and providing military aid and troops to aid Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

Pyongyang has been taking steps to sever inter-Korean ties, redefining the South as a separate, hostile enemy state since Kim Jong Un declared it a “primary foe” early this year and said unification was no longer possible. 

North Korea blew up sections of inter-Korean roads and rail lines on its side of the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas last month, and satellite imagery shows it has since built large trenches across the former crossings. 

The two Koreas are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. 

The two Koreas also have clashed over balloons of trash floated since May from North Korea. Pyongyang has said the launches are a response to balloons sent by anti-regime activists in the South. 

Sunday’s white paper also listed Yoon’s domestic political woes, including scandals involving his wife, which have driven his approval ratings to record lows. 
…

Tokyo — Nearly 200,000 people in western Japan were urged to evacuate Saturday as authorities warned of landslides and floods, while the remnants of a tropical storm trickle over the country.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said “warm, moist air… was causing heavy rainfall with thunderstorms in western Japan” partly due to Kong-rey, which was downgraded to an extratropical low-pressure system from a typhoon.

The city of Matsuyama “issued the top-level warning, urging 189,552 residents in its 10 districts to evacuate and immediately secure safety,” a city official told AFP.

While the evacuation was not mandatory, Japan’s highest-level warning is typically issued when it is extremely likely that some kind of disaster has already occurred.

Forecasters warned that landslides and floods could affect western Japan on Saturday and eastern Japan on Sunday.

Due to rain, Shinkansen bullet trains were briefly suspended between Tokyo and southern Fukuoka region in the morning before resuming on a delayed schedule.

Kong-rey smashed into Taiwan on Thursday as one of the biggest storms to hit the island in decades.

It claimed at least three lives and injured 690 people, according to the National Fire Agency, which added a migrant worker death to the toll on Saturday.

The storm knocked out power to 957,061 households, 27,781 of which were still in the dark as of Saturday.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
…

tokyo — Hello Kitty turned 50 on Friday. Befitting a pop icon at midlife, the bubble-headed, bow-wearing character’s fictional birthday has brought museum exhibits, a theme park spectacle and a national tour. And that’s just in Japan, her literal birthplace but not the one listed in her official biography. 

Confused? Welcome to the party. If there’s one thing about Hello Kitty, it’s that she’s proven adaptable and as much a study in contrasts during her long career. She — and Kitty is a she, according to the company that owns her — may have been conceived as a vessel for the feelings of others, but some women see an empowering symbol in her mouthless face. 

“Shrewd” is how Mika Nishimura, a design professor at Tokyo’s Meisei University, describes the way Hello Kitty conquered the worlds of commerce, fashion and entertainment. As a tabula rasa open to interpretation, the non-threatening creation was the perfect vehicle for making money, she said. 

“American feminists have said she doesn’t say anything and acquiesces to everyone. But in Japan, we also see how she may appear happy if you’re happy, and sad if you’re feeling sad,” Nishimura told The Associated Press. “It’s a product strategy that’s sheer genius. By being so adaptable, Kitty gets all those collaborative deals.” 

The character’s semicentennial is evidence of that. Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company that holds the rights to Hello Kitty’s name and image, kicked off the festivities a year ago with an animation account on TikTok, Roblox games and an avatar for the social networking app Zepeto. 

There have been anniversary editions of merchandise ranging from pet collars, cosmetics and McDonald’s Happy Meals to Crocs and a Baccarat crystal figurine. A gold coin pendant with the image of Hello Kitty holding the number 50 is selling for about 120,000 yen ($800), while a Casio watch costs 18,700 yen ($120). 

But first, more on the origin story. 

Unlike Mickey Mouse and Snoopy, Hello Kitty didn’t start as a cartoon. A young Sanrio illustrator named Yuko Shimizu drew her in 1974 as a decoration for stationery, tote bags, cups and other small accessories. The design made its debut on a coin purse the next year and became an instant hit in Japan. 

As Hello Kitty’s commercial success expanded beyond Asia, so did her personal profile. By the late 1970s, Sanrio revealed the character’s name as Kitty White, her height as five apples tall and her birthplace as suburban London, where the company said she lived with her parents and twin sister Mimmy. 

“The main theme of Hello Kitty is friendship. When I first created it, I made a family of which Kitty was a part. But then Hello Kitty started to appear in other settings as the character grew,” Shimizu told the BBC in June. “Sanrio put a lot of effort into building the brand into what it is today.” 

At some point, Sanrio designated Kitty’s birthday as November 1, the same as Shimizu’s. Her background was embellished with hobbies that included playing piano, reading and baking. Her TV appearances required co-stars, including a pet cat named Charmmy Kitty that made its debut 20 years ago. 

But Hello Kitty’s 40th birthday brought an update that astonished fans. Sanrio clarified to a Los Angeles museum curator that Kitty, despite her feline features, was a little girl. A company spokesperson repeated the distinction this year, renewing debate online about the requirements for being considered human. 

“She is supposed to be Kitty White and English. But this is part of the enigma: Who is Hello Kitty? We can’t figure it out. We don’t even know if she is a cat,” art historian Joyce S. Cheng, a University of Oregon associate professor, said. “There is an unresolved indeterminacy about her that is so amazing.” 

Part of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of “kawaii,” which is Japanese for “cute” but also connotes a lovable or adorable essence. Sanrio recruited Shimizu and other illustrators to create “kawaii” characters at a time when cute, girlish styles were popular in Japan. But the word is used often in Japanese society, and not only to describe babies and puppies. 

An elderly man, something as innocuous as an umbrella, a subcompact car or a kitchen utensil, or even a horror movie monster can get labeled “kawaii.” By Western standards, the idea may seem embarrassingly frivolous. But it’s taken seriously in Japan, where the concept is linked with the most honorable instincts. 

The complexity of “kawaii” may help explain Hello Kitty’s enduring appeal across generations and cultures, why Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne released a song titled “Hello Kitty” a decade ago, and why Britain’s King Charles wished Hello Kitty a happy 50th birthday when he hosted Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at Buckingham Palace in June. 

Although Hello Kitty may seem to embody the self-sacrificing woman stereotype, it’s revealing that three women have served as the character’s chief designers at Sanrio. Yuko Yamaguchi, who has held the role since 1980, is credited with keeping the character both modern and timeless, giving Kitty black outfits or false eyelashes as trends dictated but never removing the bow from her left ear. 

“Hello Kitty, this cultural object, has something to tell us about the history of women in East Asia, and how East Asian women modernized themselves and became professional citizens in a modern society,” the University of Oregon’s Cheng said. 

Sanrio has come up with hundreds of creatures, all adorable and cuddly, but none with the lasting power of Hello Kitty. Forget the understated wabi-sabi aesthetic historically associated with Japan. A chameleon-like cat-girl who reflects unabashed kitsch is the cultural ambassador of a consumer-crazed, happy-go-lucky nation. 

“It’s the anti-wabi sabi, wanting to be as flashy and as bling-bling as possible, like Lady Gaga. In your face, but that’s actually part of the genius, too. It’s powerful,” Cheng said. 

Leslie Bow, a professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that while many Asian and Asian American women see Hello Kitty as a symbol of defiance, the protective, caretaking instinct aroused by “kawaii” isn’t without power. 

“We take care of our siblings, our babies, our pets, because we are in control. We control their actions. And so that is also the dark side of cute,” Bow said. 

Sanrio has taken advantage of the character’s adaptability by allowing relatively unrestricted use of her image in return for a licensing fee. 

Just about anything goes for the wee whiskered one, from a growing global empire of Sanrio-sanctioned Hello Kitty cafes to an “augmented reality” cellphone app that shows Kitty dancing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, London’s Big Ben and other tourist landmarks. 

On the unsanctioned side, Hello Kitty even has shown up on guns and vibrators. 

During a presentation earlier this year in Seoul, Hello Kitty designer Yamaguchi said one of her unfulfilled goals was finding a way “to develop a Hello Kitty for men to fall in love with as well.” But she’s still working on it. 

“I am certain the day will come when men are no longer embarrassed to carry around Hello Kitty,” entertainment news site Content Asia quoted Yamaguchi as saying. 
…

When the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on three companies belonging to Denis Postovoy on Wednesday, it was yet another move to break up what U.S. authorities say was an international scheme to violate sanctions.

A month earlier, on September 16, law enforcement officials arrested the 44-year-old Russian national in Sarasota, Florida.

He was charged with conspiring to violate sanctions on Russia, commit smuggling, commit money laundering and defraud the United States.

According to the indictment, Postovoy used an international network of companies to export dual-use microelectronic components from the United States to Russia –– potentially spare parts for military drones used in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.

Postovoy is not the first Russian charged with violating U.S. export controls. But he is one of the few who allegedly did it from inside the United States.

Using court documents and open-source information, VOA pieced together Postovoy’s history, revealing a story involving international trade, criminal charges in two countries, a U.S. startup and Florida real estate.

Postovoy pleaded not guilty to all the charges. If convicted, he could face decades in prison.

Postovoy is in pretrial detention and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not respond to a VOA request for comment. When VOA reached Postovoy’s wife by phone, she hung up. She did not respond to questions sent to her on the WhatsApp messenger app.

According to the latest court filings, Postovoy’s case was transferred to the U.S. District Court in Washington.

American charges

After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the U.S. significantly expanded restrictions on the export of microelectronics to Russia.

The Department of Justice has accused Postovoy and several unnamed co-conspirators of using a network of companies under their control in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Russia to violate those sanctions.

It claims Postovoy misrepresented the buyers and destinations of the goods, routing them through Hong Kong, Switzerland, Turkey and Estonia.

“As alleged, he lied about the final destination for the technology he was shipping and used intermediary destinations to mask this illegal activity,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves stated in a press release. “Fortunately, our skilled law enforcement partners at HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and our dedicated attorneys unraveled the plot.”

The prosecution states that Postovoy’s clients included the Russian company Streloi Ekommerts and other unnamed firms. According to the indictment, the contract with Streloi was completed before the company was added to the U.S. sanctions list in December 2023.

An investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty found that Streloi actively helps Russia circumvent Western export restrictions.

Another recipient of the microelectronics, according to an invoice included in the case materials, was the Russian technology company Radius Avtomatika.

Neither company responded to emailed questions from VOA.

It is unclear whether the microelectronics Postovoy allegedly exported were ultimately used in drones, but one court document states that the people he contacted were members of Russia’s military-industrial complex.

Hong Kong story

Originally from Novosibirsk, Russia, Postovoy had lived in Hong Kong since at least 2010 with his wife — a Ukrainian citizen from Crimea — and their three children.

Shipping records indicate his companies were involved in exporting goods from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, to Russia. Prosecutors allege that after the U.S. expanded its sanctions, some of this activity became illegal.

When the DOJ announced Postovoy’s arrest, it also listed the names of his companies that it said were involved in the alleged scheme. Aside from the Russian-registered firm Vektor Group, all the others were in Hong Kong: Jove HK Limited, JST Group Hong Kong and WowCube HK Limited.

All are now under U.S. sanctions, except for WowCube HK Limited.

Its appearance in the indictment provoked a rapid response from Cubios, another company previously associated with Postovoy. It produces the WOWCube gaming console, wich looks like a Rubik’s cube with multiple screens.

Just a day after Postovoy’s arrest was announced, Cubios publicly denied any connection to WowCube HK Limited.

“Neither Cubios nor any of its officers, directors, managers or employees … have any connection to the HK Entity whatsoever. We do not own, operate or are in any way affiliated with the HK Entity,” the company said in a statement on its website.

The startup also said that Postovoy “falsely listed himself as a VP of the Company” on LinkedIn.

In fact, Postovoy was previously Cubios’ vice president for production, according to archived versions of its website.

Ilya Osipov, CEO of Cubios, told VOA that a mutual friend introduced him to Postovoy.

“I was looking for someone who could help with production in China — they gave me Denis,” he wrote in a message to VOA.

According to Osipov, Postovoy became a business partner and made important contributions to prototypes and test batches of the WOWCube. Later the company decreased cooperation with him.

Although Postovoy did not have an official position, Cubios allowed him to call himself the vice president of production “for business purposes,” Osipov told VOA.

He claimed that Postovoy founded the Hong Kong firm without Cubios’ permission. It was planned to become a distributor of the consoles in Asia, but that never happened, Osipov said.

Coming to America

In 2022, Postovoy and his family moved to Sarasota, Florida, where Cubios’ headquarters is.

According to Osipov, Postovoy said the move was motivated by a desire to raise children in a Western country and concerns about increasingly strict Chinese control of Hong Kong.

American prosecutors see a different motivation.

In a response to U.S. federal investigators included in the case materials, Hong Kong police said Postovoy was charged on March 1, 2022, with money laundering — a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison and a fine of up to $643,000.

According to the email, Postovoy was scheduled to appear in court on March 4 but left Hong Kong the day before.

Hong Kong police did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

By June 2022, Postovoy’s wife purchased a house in southeastern Sarasota.

Sarasota County property records indicate the house was valued at around $980,000. A mortgage covered $680,000 of the cost.

In August 2023, Postovoy bought another house, in the new Rivo Lakes gated community in Sarasota. According to purchase documents, it cost $1.13 million. In September, he transferred it to a trust controlled by his wife.

On the same day, his wife transferred the house to another trust and later sold the property.

According to a U.S. magistrate judge, Postovoy’s decision to transfer the second house into a trust was likely an attempt to conceal his ownership.

He “did not list his home — which is valued at nearly a million dollars and held in the name of a trust controlled by his wife — on his financial affidavit submitted to this Court,” the judge wrote in a decision not to grant Postovoy bail.

This may not be the only attempted cover-up in the case: Russian company records indicate that, in December 2023, a man named Dmitry Smirnov replaced Postovoy as owner of his Vektor Group company.

VOA’s Cantonese Service contributed research to this story.
…

TOKYO — Japan and the European Union announced a sweeping new security and defense partnership in Tokyo on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hailed it as a historic and “very timely” step.

Borrell and his Japanese counterpart, Takeshi Iwaya, unveiled the pact to develop cooperation on joint military drills, the exchange of information related to the defense industry and space security, among other matters.

“I am extremely pleased to be here with Minister Iwaya to announce the conclusion of this security and defense partnership between the European Union and Japan,” Borrell said.

He called it the “the first agreement of this nature” the EU has made with an Asia-Pacific country, describing it as “historical and very timely.”

“We live in a very dangerous world” and “given the situation in both of our regions, this political framework deepens our ability to tackle emerging threats together,” Borrell told reporters.

He did not mention China, but Japan has previously called its neighbor its greatest security challenge as Beijing builds up military capacity in the region.

After the Tokyo talks, Borrell heads to South Korea, where concerns about North Korea will top the agenda.

The United States has said thousands of North Korean troops are in Russia readying to fight in Ukraine.

Pyongyang also test-fired one of its newest and most powerful missiles on Thursday, demonstrating its threat to the US mainland days ahead of elections.

Defense industries

The text of the EU-Japan Security and Defense Partnership, seen by Agence France-Presse, said they would promote “concrete naval cooperation,” including through activities such as joint exercises and port calls, which could also include “mutually designated third countries.”

It also said the EU and Japan would discuss “the development of respective defense initiatives including exchange of information on defense industry-related matters.”

Japan, which for decades has relied on the United States for military hardware, is also developing a new fighter jet with EU member Italy and Britain that is set to be airborne by 2035.

The agreement on industrial cooperation could “turbo-charge collaboration, such that joint defense projects between Japanese and European firms funded through EU mechanisms may be on the cards,” analyst Yee Kuang Heng of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy told AFP.

Japan is ramping up defense spending to the NATO standard of 2% of GDP by 2027, partly to counter China, which is increasing military pressure on Taiwan.

Beijing claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who could head a minority government after a disastrous general election last week, has said that “today’s Ukraine could be tomorrow’s East Asia.”

Ishiba has also called for the creation of a NATO-like regional alliance with its tenet of collective security, although he has conceded this will “not happen overnight.”

The same warning was issued by Ishiba’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida, who was hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden for a state visit in April at which the allies announced plans to boost their defense partnership.

On Friday, Borrell and Iwaya also “exchanged an instrument of ratification for Japan EU Strategic Partnership Agreement, or SPA,” Iwaya said, referring to a separate, previously agreed-upon pact.

“This SPA will formally enter into force on January 1 next year. It will be a legal foundation to strengthen the Japan-EU strategic partnership into the future,” Iwaya said.
…

BEIJING — Typhoon Kong-rey weakened to a tropical storm overnight and was forecast to bring heavy rain and high winds to Shanghai and other parts of China’s east coast Friday.

The storm crossed Taiwan at typhoon strength the previous day, bringing down trees and causing landslides that covered roads and damaged houses. Two people died and more than 500 others were injured.

As workers and residents cleared up fallen trees and scattered scaffolding, a ride-hailing driver recounted a harrowing tale of being trapped in his vehicle after a huge tree uprooted and smashed into the passenger compartment Thursday night in Taipei, the capital city.

Elsewhere in Taiwan, authorities in the east coast province of Hualien said they had restored contact with a Czech couple feared missing. The two had pitched a tent in Taroko National Park and were in good condition, according to the official Central News Agency.

Kong-rey, which is a Cambodian name, was heading northeast along the Chinese coast with winds of 83 kph and could make landfall in Zhejiang province before veering back out to sea, the National Meteorological Center said.

The passing storm is expected to affect Shanghai and parts of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, with torrential rain of 10 to 12 centimeters possible in some areas.

Zhejiang and neighboring Fujian province suspended multiple ferry routes ahead of the approaching storm.

In Taiwan, light rain fell Friday morning in the capital of Taipei, while island-wide, schools and offices had largely reopened and public services were mostly restored.

The typhoon passed north of the Philippines earlier in the week, prompting fresh evacuations just days after devastating Tropical Storm Trami killed at least 145 people the previous week.

Intense rainfall caused in part by Trami also killed seven people in China’s Hainan province as the storm passed by the island, which is known for its beach resorts, off the country’s southern coast. 
…

Paekon Township, Myanmar / WASHINGTON — In a crowded church filled with mourners on September 6, a young high school teacher sat among friends, her face streaked with tears as she gazed at the makeshift shrouds covering the small bodies laid out before her.

Among them were her students — children she had taught, known and cared for deeply.

“I couldn’t recognize some of them,” she whispered to me, her voice trembling.

The previous night, the war refugee camp where she lives in Myanmar’s Paekon Township, near the Karenni and Shan state borders, had been transformed into a scene of unimaginable loss. The ruling junta had dropped two 500-pound bombs on the camp, killing 10 people, seven of them children.

The attack unfolded just before 9 p.m. local time, as families were settling in for the night. The ominous hum of a military plane filled the air, circling over the camp. Shouts of “Run! Run!” echoed as people scrambled for safety, but there was barely time to react.

The teacher described the chaos, recounting how, on its second pass, the plane released a bomb that tore through makeshift shelters filled with families.

“The children were covered in blood, wandering aimlessly in the dark,” she said, her voice heavy with grief. “Some were hit directly — only their small hands were visible. It was horrific.”

On the ground, scattered amid the rubble, lay textbooks and notebooks filled with the handwriting of the students — evidence of lives interrupted and dreams shattered. Pages written by those young hands lay torn and trampled, a haunting reminder of the futures lost in the blast.

Throughout the night, Karenni Armed Revolutionary Forces and camp officials worked tirelessly to rescue survivors and tend to the wounded, but the losses were devastating.

In the dim light of the following morning, the teacher’s sorrow echoed through the crowd of mourners, each bearing the weight of lives cut short.

“There is no safe place, no demilitarized zone,” she told me. “We cannot live like this, in constant fear.”

State symbolizes hope

Karenni State, known as Kayah, a beautiful mountainous region in eastern Myanmar, has become a powerful symbol of resistance and resilience in the country’s fight for democracy and federalism.

Nestled along the border with Thailand, Karenni is home to a diverse ethnic community with a distinct cultural heritage. Decades of conflict with Myanmar’s military regimes, beginning with Karenni’s fight for independence in 1957, have left the region deeply scarred. Yet its people push forward, determined to build a self-governing future and protect their land.

Reaching Karenni involved a challenging three-week journey, crossing from Thailand along rugged mountain roads while carefully avoiding junta outposts. Travel was only possible in areas controlled by Karenni resistance forces, who provided protection along the way.

Eventually, I reached Demoso, a town about 138 miles from Naypyidaw, the junta’s military-built capital. In Demoso, where electricity is rare, residents depend on generators and Starlink for internet, though outages are frequent. Artillery fire and airstrikes echo through the hills, a constant reminder of the relentless conflict gripping the region.

Despite these challenges, local leaders have forged ahead with efforts to establish a self-governing administration, train young resistance fighters and rebuild communities. Their successes have made them a model for other ethnic states in Myanmar striving for a future grounded in democracy and federalism.

‘Feels like retaliation’

The day after the airstrike, survivors and community members gathered at a Catholic cathedral about a 20-minute drive from the refugee camp to mourn the 10 lives lost in the junta’s assault.

Inside the church, the bodies of six children lay surrounded by grieving friends and neighbors; outside, makeshift graves marked the final resting places of others who had perished in the attack. The crowd gathered in silence, their faces clouded with sorrow as they paid their last respects.

A Catholic priest who also volunteers as a health worker voiced his suspicions about the timing of the bombing.

“The junta’s soldiers are dying in battles at the front. Just days ago, their chairman, Min Aung Hlaing, visited Loikaw and was fired upon,” he said.

“This [bombing] feels like retaliation against innocent refugees who had no way to defend themselves,” he said, his voice filled with quiet anger.

‘No time to run’

As I spoke with the survivors, their tragic stories weighed on me. I met a 14-year-old girl with severe injuries to her face and thigh when I visited a makeshift hospital whose exact location cannot be disclosed for security reasons.

Her younger brother, just 2 years old, had been hit in the head and could not be saved. “We were all sitting in our tent. I heard the plane but had no time to run,” she said.

Two sisters, both young students, lay nearby with broken bones and deep wounds. Their parents had sent them to the camp to protect them from the fighting.

I spoke to another seriously injured patient, the wife of a police officer who was injured in an earlier bombing that same morning. Her husband, standing next to her, told me, “They dropped two bombs on the building, then opened fire with machine guns. My wife is four months pregnant, and we lost the baby.”

Junta denies responsibility

At Dosei Middle School, located west of Demoso, the principal described to me the devastating attack on February 5 that leveled all three of the school’s buildings.

“The school, once filled with the lively shouts of students, fell silent within minutes as the sound of an approaching plane grew louder,” she recounted. “The roar of bombs exploding was quickly followed by the rattle of machine gunfire, leaving the classroom lifeless — the last refuge of four middle school students. There was no time to reach a bomb shelter.”

She added, “The elementary school children were incredibly lucky — they were outside for physical activities when the junta’s jet dropped bombs on the other side of the building. Otherwise, every child, including my youngest daughter, who studies here, would have been buried beneath the rubble.”

The junta consistently denies responsibility for civilian deaths caused by airstrikes in Karenni. Following the jet attack on February 5, the junta’s information team stated, “There were no Tatmadaw [Myanmar army] flights in Demoso Township on that day.”

Since the military seized power on February 1, 2021, Karenni State has become a battlefield, with civilians trapped between junta forces and Karenni resistance fighters.

Just one day before the September 5 airstrike, General Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Loikaw to meet with his troops. In response, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force fired artillery toward Loikaw. The following night, junta forces shelled northern areas of Demoso, forcing families to flee again.

Pleas for protection

Throughout Karenni State, survivors echo the same plea — a desperate call for protection from relentless airstrikes and shelling. The Interim Executive Council of Karenni State, or IEC, condemned the bombing as “unprovoked violence” targeting civilians, including children.

At the site of the attack, the head of the Interior Department of the IEC expressed his outrage:

“I absolutely condemn this. It’s pure bullying — a brutal act of violence that I cannot accept. This is Karenni territory, where our people live and work. The damage is not only to property but to lives.”

The principal of Dosei Middle School also made a heartfelt appeal for action by the international community, including a halt to the sale of jet fuel to the junta and for stronger international pressure to stop the use of airstrikes against civilians.
…

bangkok — A recent attack on a Chinese consulate in Myanmar reflects growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the country fed by Beijing’s support of the ruling junta, experts say. 

On October 18, the Chinese consulate in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, was struck by a small explosive device. Reports say the building was damaged but there were no casualties. 

It was the first attack was on a Chinese diplomatic facility in Myanmar since anti-China riots in Yangon in 1967. 

In a statement to journalists, the nation’s military authorities said the blast damaged tiles on the roof of the two-story building and that they were seeking to identify and arrest the “terrorists” who were responsible.  

Two weeks later, no one has been caught and no group has claimed responsibility, but anti-China sentiment exists, experts say. 

Ye Myo Hein, a visiting senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace and global fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, said strong anti-China sentiment has been brewing since Myanmar’s military seized power on February 1, 2021. 

“Immediately following the coup, the public perceived China as supportive of the junta, resulting in strong anti-Chinese sentiment among the general population,” he told VOA. 

Anti-Chinese sentiment grows 

Myanmar has been in chaos since General Min Aung Hlaing and his military forces overthrew the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Backers of the ousted government have joined forces with various ethnic armies to resist the junta’s rule. 

China distanced itself from the junta for a time, but recently renewed its support. When it did, Ye Myo Hein said, anti-Chinese sentiment began to rise again.  

“It is difficult to determine who was responsible for the attacks on the Chinese consulate, but if China continues its pro-junta stance, it will likely face growing public animosity,” he said. 

The military has been sanctioned and condemned by the U.S. and Western countries, but it has retained some support from countries such as China and Russia.   

“Whoever was behind the consulate bombing, it suggests that there are multiple strands of anti-Chinese anger, against the support for the regime and against the perceived support of China for the Kokang occupation of Lashio,” David Scott Mathieson, an independent analyst with more than two decades of experience focusing on Myanmar, told VOA.   

Kokang, which is in northern Myanmar’s Shan State, sits on the border with China. It is home to 90% ethnic Chinese and is an important trade route between the two countries. 

In the past year, three allied pro-democracy ethnic groups have captured the city from Myanmar military forces. Beijing negotiated a cease-fire between the allied brotherhood and the junta in January but it was short-lived. 

China did succeed in getting the ethnic groups to assist in a crackdown on Chinese crime rings in northern Shan state that had been targeting Chinese citizens with online scams. 

China now appears to be backing both sides of the conflict. But with rebel forces capturing more territory over the past year, Beijing is showing its concern over the rapid deterioration of the junta’s position. 

In late July, after ethnic groups captured Lashio, a town in the northeast, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw. 

China also recently closed its borderlands and key trade routes under the control of Myanmar’s rebel groups, Reuters reported. 

One Chinese national who lives in Myanmar told VOA’s Mandarin Service that he believes the consulate attack was not a terrorist incident, but an expression of dissatisfaction with China.  

He added that since the coup, there have been protests against China’s government in various parts of Myanmar. In March 2021, several Chinese factories in Myanmar were burned and destroyed during mass protests against the coup. 

“China has to take this rising public anger very seriously, as it could potentially descend into violence in urban areas and against Chinese nationals and economic assets, but also Myanmar-Chinese communities as well,” Mathieson told VOA this week. 

“Has Beijing really thought through all these dilemmas? Or is its cynically arrogant support for the SAC at such levels the Chinese leadership don’t care about consequences?”  

The SAC is short for the State Administration Council, a reference to the junta. 

History of supporting military

Over the last three decades, Beijing has supplied the Myanmar military with major arms. The military has used those arms to crush those opposing their rule, with nearly 6,000 people killed, according to rights groups.   

China is also Myanmar’s biggest trade partner and has invested billions into the country’s oil and gas sector.  

“Since the junta is widely despised, Beijing’s support for it will almost certainly fuel anti-Chinese sentiment,” Ye Myo Hein said. 

Nevertheless, diplomacy is continuing between the two regimes, as Myanmar junta boss Min Aung Hlaing is expected to pay a return visit to China in November. 

VOA reporter Katherine Michaelson contributed to this report.   
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Papua New Guinea on Thursday declared a boycott of next month’s UN climate summit, branding the global warming negotiations a “waste of time” full of empty promises from big polluters.

While plenty have criticized the annual COP summit in the past, it is rare for any government to so totally dismiss the UN’s premier climate talks.

“There’s no point going if we are falling asleep because of jet lag because we’re not getting anything done,” Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told AFP ahead of November’s COP29 summit in Azerbaijan.

“All the big polluters of the world promise and commit millions to assist in climate relief and support. And I can tell you now it’s all going to consultants.”

The island of New Guinea is home to the third-largest expanse of rainforest on the planet, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and has long been celebrated as one of the “lungs of the earth.”

Impoverished, flanked by ocean, and already prone to natural disasters, Papua New Guinea is also considered to be highly vulnerable to the unfolding perils of climate change.

“COP is a total waste of time,” Tkatchenko said.

“We are sick of the rhetoric as well as the merry-go-round of getting absolutely nothing done over the last three years.”

“We are the third-biggest rainforest nation in the world. We are sucking up the pollutants of these major countries. And they are getting away with it scot-free.”

‘Talk fest’

The COP summit in 2015 hammered out the landmark Paris Agreement, under which almost every country in the world has agreed to slash emissions to limit soaring global temperatures.

But subsequent gatherings have been dogged by growing criticism, stoked by a perception that big polluters are using their sway to limit further climate action.

Meanwhile, adaptation funds set up through COP to help developing nations have been accused of sluggish bureaucracy that fails to grasp the urgency of the crisis.

Civil society groups banded together last year to urge a boycott of the COP summit hosted by the United Arab Emirates, claiming the meeting would “greenwash” the petrostate’s poor climate credentials.

Underwhelmed by proposed emissions cuts, dozens of African nations led a temporary walkout of developing nations during the 2009 COP talks in Copenhagen.

And Ukraine has pressed its allies to avoid this year’s summit if Russian leader Vladimir Putin shows face.

But Papua New Guinea is among the first nations to have voiced such a full-throated call to boycott the COP summit altogether.

“Why are we spending all this money going to the other side of the world going to these talkfests,” said Tkatchenko.

‘No traction’

Papua New Guinea is one of five Pacific nations involved in a pivotal International Court of Justice case that will soon test whether polluters can be sued for neglecting their climate obligations.

Low-lying Pacific nations such as Tuvalu could be almost entirely swallowed by rising oceans within the next 30 years.

Tkatchenko said the decision to pull out of COP talks had been applauded by others within the Pacific bloc.

“I’m speaking up on behalf of the smaller island states that are worse off than Papua New Guinea. They were getting no traction and acknowledgement at all.”

Papua New Guinea would instead seek to strike its own climate deals through bilateral channels, said Tkatchenko, flagging that negotiations were already under way with Singapore.

“With like-minded countries like Singapore, we can do 100 times more than COP.

“They have a big carbon footprint, and we would like to think about how they can work with Papua New Guinea to fix that up.”

A key meeting ahead of COP29 ended in frustration earlier this month, with countries making little progress on how to fund a new finance deal for poorer nations.

COP — or conference of parties — is the top United Nations climate change conference, an annual summit in which nations look to determine legally binding climate commitments.
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Vienna — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico begins a six-day visit to China Thursday that includes a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and stops in the central city of Hefei and Shanghai to attend the opening ceremony for this year’s China International Import Expo. 

Analysts say China is hoping to use the visit to strengthen ties with Slovak’s prime minister who is an ally of Viktor Orban and, like Hungary’s leader, has been critical of Russian sanctions and the EU’s support of Ukraine. 

Since coming to power, Fico has been interested in a more pro-China foreign policy. His trip to China, which was scheduled for June, was aborted due to an assassination attempt in May and has not been possible until now.

Fico is the longest-serving prime minister since the founding of the Republic of Slovakia in 1993.

Since first taking office in 2006, Fico has stepped down twice between 2010 and 2012 and between 2018 and 2023. In 2018, he resigned and gave way to his political ally, Peter Pellegrini, because of a political crisis sparked by the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.

After Pellegrini’s defeat in the 2020 parliamentary elections, the Ordinary People and the Independent Personalities Party formed a new coalition government. During this period, Slovakia pushed for a more pro-Taiwan and values-oriented diplomatic line, which drew resentment in Beijing.

In the 2023 parliamentary elections, Fico won again and returned to power.

The Fico government advocates an “all-azimuth” foreign policy, including strengthening cooperation with Russia and China. In addition to this year’s trip to China, Fico plans to visit Russia next year to attend the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Matej Šimalčík, executive director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, told VOA the so-called “all-azimuth” foreign policy is a euphemism that means “to engage in economic relations with any country, without taking any considerations for political values, human rights, or security considerations.” 

Šimalčík said, “Fico’s government has also markedly toned down the scope of interactions with Taiwan, with some of his close political allies being outright proponents of PRC’s [China’s] interpretation of the ‘One-China Principle,” which holds that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

Filip Šebok, head of the Prague office at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, said, “Fico has many times declared he does not want ‘Brussels’ to dictate Slovakia on these issues, and for him, it is a way to boost his credentials in leading a ‘sovereign’ Slovak foreign policy, despite criticism.

“Actually, domestically, it is good for Fico to claim he is doing something that is opposite to what is the Western mainstream, as he can maintain the support of his electorate. It is also a way to differentiate from the previous government, which was hawkish on Russia, and on China to some extent as well.”

Analysts say that Fico’s visit to China also serves an economic purpose.

Pavel Havlíček, a research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Fico is seeking partnerships and investments from countries outside of Europe.

“Among them, Russia and China are playing a special place, as was repeatedly mentioned when — for example — referring to the plan of the Slovak government to restore economic relations with Russia after the war.

“In the case of the PRC, the Slovak government is seeing investments and enhanced relations, too, to compensate for the lack of economic growth.”

Šebok said the Slovak government has pledged to focus more on supporting economic engagement, such as boosting Slovak exporters or attracting investments in Slovakia.

“The government has, for example, increased the number of economic diplomats around the world and also opened new embassies in Asia or Africa explaining them mostly as a way to boost economic diplomacy,” Šebok said.

“In this perspective, China is presented as a major economic partner, and Fico will be leading a relatively large business delegation to China. Fico specifically wants to engage China in PPP [public private partnership] projects for the reconstruction/construction of transport infrastructure around the country.”

Fico plans to work with China to promote large-scale infrastructure projects in Slovakia, including the reconstruction of roads and bridges, the expansion of the railway between the capital Bratislava and the city of Komárno, the completion of the Bratislava highway bypass and the construction of a hydroelectric power plant.

In the recent vote on European tariffs on electric vehicles from China, the Fico government voted against it.

“Slovakia, through the Volkswagen plant, has exported a large number of cars to China,” Šebok said. “It is particularly exposed to Chinese retaliation to EU tariffs on Chinese EV imports, as China directly hinted that it might target large engine vehicles from the EU, which are exported from Germany and Slovakia.

“What is paradoxical is that tariffs on Chinese EVs can actually be also indirectly good for Slovakia, as they can push more Chinese EV producers to set up manufacturing in Europe as a way to avoid tariffs,” he added.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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taipei, taiwan — China and Russia are deepening cooperation in Antarctica in a trend that analysts say could undermine marine conservation efforts and disrupt the long-standing status quo in the resource-rich region.

China and Russia were accused of collaborating to block key proposals that would establish new marine protected areas and revise the krill fishery management plan in the Southern Ocean, during the annual conference of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Australia last week.

The commission was established in 1982 and is a part of the Antarctic Treaty System, which establishes the legal status of Antarctica and comprises four different treaties.

CCAMLR focuses on preserving marine life and other resources in the Antarctic. The commission has 26 members, including China, Russia, the United States, Australia and the European Union.

Any member state can veto a proposed measure, and Russia and China have repeatedly used that power to block proposed conservation efforts by the council over the years.

Some member states said every proposed measure at this year’s conference, including the establishment of four new marine protected areas and an extension of existing krill management measures, was blocked by China or Russia or both.

“Most concerning was the failure of some members to support the extension of existing krill management measures while the harmonization process is progressed,” a spokesperson of the Australian Antarctic Division told VOA in a written response.

“This is a backwards step for CCAMLR and puts krill, and the ecosystems and predators it supports, at risk,” the spokesperson added. Krill are small shrimp-like crustaceans that play a crucial role in the marine food chain.

Limit on krill fishing

The measure that CCAMLR member states hope to preserve is the mechanism that limits krill fishing in a protected area near the Antarctic Peninsula to no more than 620,000 tons.

Another 620,000 tons of fishable krill are redistributed across several subareas to prevent overconcentration of krill fishing in one area.

The measure needs to be renewed annually during the CCAMLR meeting with the approval of all the commission’s member states. Analysts said China’s and Russia’s move to block the rollover of the krill measure will affect the sustainability of a crucial food source for species such as penguins, seals and whales.

“If there’s too much krill fishing in one small region of Antarctica, it will restrict the amount of food available to the seal and penguin populations,” Tony Press, an expert on Antarctic affairs at the University of Tasmania, told VOA in a video interview.

In his view, other countries within CCAMLR should try to collectively challenge China’s and Russia’s decisions to block the proposed conservation measures through diplomatic means or decide to implement the proposed measures without involving Beijing or Moscow.

“Other countries could decide that Russia and China’s behaviors mean they would have to start implementing decisions among themselves,” Press said.

Experts say China and Russia refuse to support the proposed measures because they think setting up more marine protected areas will lead to more areas in the Antarctic becoming unavailable for use or development.

“They think once a marine protected area is adopted, it creates a snowball effect and generates more support behind the development of additional marine protected areas, which both countries think could lead to all marine living resource exploitation in the Southern Ocean being completely prohibited,” said Donald Rothwell, professor of international law at Australian National University.

Lynda Goldsworthy, a research associate at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, said one of China’s objectives in increasing its fishery footprint in the Southern Ocean is to “increase geopolitical influence in the Antarctic region.”

But since Russia is not as invested in the Southern Ocean as before, Goldsworthy said its decision to block marine conservation efforts in Antarctica is driven by an attempt to challenge the rules-based world order.

“Russia is playing the disruptor and [the objections] are part of their global disruption approach,” she told VOA by phone.

The Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian Embassy in the U.S. have not responded to VOA’s request for comments. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Australia also have not responded to requests for comments from VOA.

CCAMLR successfully established two marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean in 2009 and 2017, but no new zones have been established since then. The four new zones proposed during the 2024 meeting would increase the protected area in the Southern Ocean to 26%.

Antarctic status quo

The deepened cooperation between China and Russia in Antarctica comes as Beijing expands its presence across the continent. In February, China inaugurated a new scientific research station near a U.S. research station. The development raises concerns among some security analysts that China may collect intelligence or develop its dual-used capabilities through the station.

China’s increased presence in Antarctica has allowed Beijing to more boldly assert its agenda in some regional bodies such as CCAMLR, said Press.

China’s behavior at last week’s conference “is a reflection of their confidence because they are now a party with a significant presence in the Antarctic,” he told VOA.

“A lot of what they [China and Russia] are doing points to the idea that the actions they take now are to ensure there are no curbs on any future actions they might take,” Press added.

Goldsworthy said the growing synergy between China and Russia in Antarctica could create potential challenges for the Antarctic Treaty System.

“There had been blockages for the protection of penguins on the Antarctic continent, and I do think both Russia and China are positioning themselves for [mineral mining] when or if the current mining ban is lifted,” she told VOA.

While Beijing and Moscow have been consistently blocking CCAMLR’s proposals, Rothwell said it is unclear whether that trend has “totally infected decision-making within the Antarctic Treaty,” which designates the continent as a demilitarized zone for peaceful purposes and scientific research.

Even if China and Russia can’t easily challenge the treaty, Rothwell said that China “will find it advantageous to align itself with Russia,” in order to fulfill its aspirations to exercise control and influence in Antarctica.

Goldsworthy added that if China and Russia maintain their “combative approach” in the Antarctic Treaty System, which includes CCAMLR, it could turn “a safe and secure region” into a “much less peace-oriented” continent.
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