CANBERRA, Australia — An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monarch is not needed as the country’s head of state as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday.

Indigenous independent Senator Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.

“You committed genocide against our people,” she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”

King Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese while security officials stopped Senator Thorpe from approaching.

“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe yelled as she was ushered from the hall.

Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, also told the king it was time for his role to end.

“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing stands still.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British king as Australia’s monarch, noted that even supporters of a republic were honored to attend a reception for the Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.

“People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed and that’s just the republicans,” Dutton quipped.

Australia’s six state government leaders underscored the political divide on the country’s constitutional relationship with Britain by declining invitations to attend the reception. All six would prefer an Australian citizen was Australia’s head of state. They each said they had more pressing engagements on Monday, but monarchists agreed the royals had been snubbed.

Charles used the start of his speech to thank Canberra Indigenous elder Auntie Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the king and queen.

“Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s moving Welcome to Country ceremony, which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, and all First Nations peoples who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.

“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” Charles added.

Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded to have been the consequence of disagreement about how a president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.

Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the subject during his current three-year term in government. But it is a possibility if his center-left Labor Party is reelected at elections due by May next year.

Charles was drawn into Australia’s republic debate months before his visit.

The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to Charles in December last year requesting a meeting in Australia and for the king to advocate their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March to say the king’s meetings would be decided upon by the Australian government. A meeting with the ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.

“Whether Australia becomes a republic is … a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.

Earlier Monday, Charles and Camilla laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.

The memorial estimated 4,000 people had turned out to see the couple.

Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to a scaled-down itinerary. It is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022. It is the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II traveled to the distant nation in 2011.

Charles and Camilla rested the day after their arrival late Friday before making their first public appearance of the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.

Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet hundreds of people who gathered under clear skies flying Australian flags. 

On Wednesday, Charles will travel to Samoa, where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
…

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday he was seeking a strong reaction from countries who have acknowledged that North Korea is becoming more involved in Russia’s more than 2-1/2-year-old war against Ukraine.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said there was ample satellite and video evidence that North Korea was sending not only equipment to Russia, but also soldiers to be prepared for deployment.

“I am grateful to those leaders and representatives of states who do not close their eyes and speak frankly about this cooperation for the sake of a larger war,” he said. “We expect a normal, honest, strong reaction from our partners on this.”

Zelenskyy said greater North Korean involvement could only be harmful to everyone.

“Unfortunately, instability and threats can significantly increase after North Korea becomes trained for modern warfare,” he said.

“If the world remains silent now and we have to engage soldiers from North Korea on the front line in the same way we have to defend ourselves from (Iranian) Shahed drones, this will certainly benefit no one in the world and only prolong the war.”

North Korea’s actions, he said, meant “in effect yet another country entering the war against Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy last week accused North Korea of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send thousands of troops to help Moscow’s war effort. South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday North Korea had dispatched 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday he could not confirm reports that North Korea has sent troops to Russia ahead of a possible deployment, but said such a move would be concerning, if true. NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Thursday there was no evidence of Pyongyang’s presence at this stage.

The involvement of North Korean regular troops to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be a serious escalation of the war, France and Ukraine’s foreign ministers said at a joint press conference in Kyiv on Saturday.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand lawmakers unanimously voted Wednesday to exempt victims of domestic violence from a mandatory two-year separation period before divorce can be sought.

The required cooling-off period before a couple in New Zealand can file for divorce — during which they must also live apart — is the longest among no-fault divorce laws in comparable countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada and most states in the U.S. 

Wednesday’s change means a victim of domestic violence can seek dissolution of a marriage or civil partnership as soon as a protection order against the spouse is granted. Lawmakers said in speeches at Parliament in Wellington that some survivors had told them the long reflection period made leaving an abusive relationship difficult and increased the chance they would return to a violent partner. 

“Two years holds the tie. It binds the victim to their abuser,” said Deborah Russell, the lawmaker who sponsored the bill. “That should not be the case.” 

All 123 members of parliament voted for the change, in a rare show of political unity. 

Lawmakers cited New Zealand’s domestic violence figures, which are widely considered one of the country’s most entrenched and thorny social problems. Police figures for the year ending in June 2023 show that more than 177,000 family harm investigations were recorded in the country of 5 million people, a 49% increase since 2017. 

Some said more law changes were needed to ensure those leaving violent marriages were not rushed through property division or custody agreements while emotions were high. Others suggested more forms of evidence that abuse had taken place should be accepted. Currently, a formal protection order must be granted before an expedited divorce is allowed. 

New Zealand has permitted no-fault divorce, in which a couple need not state a reason for splitting, since 1980. 

In neighboring Australia, a couple must separate for 12 months before divorcing but they can choose to remain under the same roof. 

The U.K. introduced no-fault divorces in 2022, with a 20-week waiting period. Until then, couples had to cite a reason, including infidelity or abuse, to be granted a dissolution. 

All 50 U.S. states allow for no-fault divorce, with some requiring separation periods — most shorter than New Zealand’s. In recent years, conservative commentators and lawmakers in a handful of states have urged reversals of no-fault divorce laws. 

Lawmakers credited three women, all survivors of abusive marriages, with prompting New Zealand’s shift. 

Ashley Jones had approached her local member of Parliament, Chris Bishop, after leaving an abusive marriage in 2020 and later took a petition to Parliament on the matter. It took more than 1,000 days after she left her husband for Jones to be granted a divorce, she said in 2023. 

“We get a lot of grief in this place, probably sometimes fairly, about being fixated on things that don’t actually matter that much,” Bishop told Parliament on Wednesday. “But this matters, this legislation matters and this issue matters, and today we’re doing something about it.”
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JAKARTA, indonesia — Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto on Sunday will take over as president of the world’s third-largest democracy after sweeping the country’s election with policies like free meals for school children and with the outgoing leader’s son as his running mate.

The 73-year-old former special forces commander won the February 14 contest with nearly 60% of the vote and has spent the past nine months building a formidable parliamentary coalition.

Prabowo will officially become Indonesia’s eighth president Sunday morning after he is sworn in during a ceremony at Indonesia’s parliament, flanked by outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Prabowo, who unsuccessfully ran for the presidency twice before, is expected to give a speech to lawmakers at the parliament’s upper house after the swearing-in and before heading to the presidential palace.

He will be joined by his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 37, the eldest son of Jokowi.

As they make their way to the palace, they will be greeted by thousands of supporters expected to throng Jakarta streets that are lined with posters of the incoming leader.

Prabowo and Gibran are expected to stop at seven stages that have been set up along the way between parliament and the palace, Nusron Wahid, a Prabowo aide, told reporters Friday.

Jokowi supporters are also expected to attend the celebrations and bid farewell to Indonesia’s outgoing leader.

After two terms and a decade in power, Jokowi has left an indelible mark on the nation of 280 million, presiding over a period of strong economic growth and massive infrastructure development.

Critics say, though, his rule has been marked by a rise in old-time patronage and dynastic politics, and they warn about diminished integrity in courts and other state institutions.

Indonesian police and military have put in place strict security measures, deploying at least 100,000 personnel across the city, including snipers and anti-riot units.

Prabowo is expected to meet with foreign dignitaries, including about 20 heads of state, later Sunday at the presidential palace, said Hasan Nasbi, the head of the presidential communications organization.

China said it is sending Vice President Han Zheng to the inauguration. The delegation from the United States is being led by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

During his campaign, Prabowo billed himself to voters and investors alike as the “continuity candidate.”

He has set a target to accelerate economic growth to 8% from a current rate of 5%, pledged to make Indonesia self-sufficient in production of staples, and signaled a more active role on the global stage.

Past allegations against Prabowo of involvement in the kidnapping of student activists and human rights abuses in Papua and East Timor, however, have also raised concern about Indonesia’s trajectory of democracy, human rights advocates say.

Prabowo has always denied the allegations that led to his dismissal from the military in 1998, the same year Indonesia broke free from the decades-long authoritarian rule of former President Suharto. 
…

BANGKOK — Southeast Asia is bearing the mounting brunt of U.S. trade curbs aimed at stemming the forced labor of ethnic minority Uyghurs in China, with billions of dollars in blocked exports, the latest U.S. trade figures show.

Economists and human rights experts ascribe the heavy hit the region is taking to global supply chains shifting to reroute exports from China through Southeast Asia and to China’s persistent dominance in key commodities.

With both powerful forces at play, Southeast Asia is “caught in the middle,” Jayant Menon, a senior fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told VOA.

The United States has detained $3.56 billion worth of imports in all since its Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA, took effect in mid-2022, according to recent figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Some 86% of those, more than $3 billion worth, arrived from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Only $395 million arrived directly from China.

The act forbids imports of any products made in whole or in part in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region, the Uyghurs’ historic homeland, presuming they have been made with forced labor. While many of the shipments are eventually allowed to enter the United States, the burden is on the importer to secure their release by proving the products are produced without forced labor, a process that can take months.

The United States and other governments have accused China of genocide over its treatment of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs for subjecting them to not only forced labor but mass surveillance and detention, religious persecution and forced sterilization — all denied by Beijing.

Xinjiang is a major source of some commodities crucial to the global supply chain, including 12% of the world’s aluminum, more than a third of the polysilicon for solar panels and 90% of the cotton produced by China, according to the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region, a global network of rights groups.

Many of those supply chains now flow through Southeast Asia for reasons beyond just the UFLPA, said Nick Marro, principal Asia economist and global trade lead analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“For years, multinational companies — both Chinese and non-Chinese owned — have been pouring investment into Southeast Asia to construct supply chains aimed at dodging U.S. tariffs,” he told VOA.

While far from the only reason for the influx, he said, “shifting some production chains to Vietnam or Thailand, for example, can obfuscate whether a good might originally be produced in China.”

“This isn’t necessarily a fool-proof strategy,” Marro said. “U.S. trade authorities are very sensitive to illegal transshipments and other efforts aimed at circumventing U.S. duties. But for some supply chains, cracking down on these activities can be challenging — especially for products like cotton, which is notoriously difficult to trace.”

Evolving supply chains now require looking beyond exports arriving directly from China to catch what’s made there, said Menon, a former lead economist for trade with the Asian Development Bank.

“Increasingly there’s production and value addition in multiple countries,” he said. “Simply looking at goods that emanate from Xinjiang to the U.S. will not capture the intended objective.”

Of the slightly more than $3 billion worth of exports the United States has detained from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam because of the UFLPA, the vast majority, $2.96 billion, have been electronics, including solar panels.

Louisa Greve, global advocacy director for the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, ascribes that to the surge of investment from Chinese solar panel makers into Southeast Asia starting more than a decade ago.

“We don’t know of any Uyghurs working in Southeast Asia in solar, but we do know where the polysilicon has to come from. That’s the issue,” she told VOA. “It’s about the components.”

Greve added that the Southeast Asian countries and companies involved in importing and incorporating that polysilicon into the solar panels they help make and export also risk being complicit in the state-sponsored forced labor that goes into producing it in China.

“Thirty-five percent of the world’s polysilicon, or solar-grade polysilicon, is coming from China. It’s up to every manufacturer, like the plants that are actually making solar panels in Southeast Asia … to say, ‘We have to be responsible for the raw materials that we’re using,’” she said.

Menon asserted the UFLPA could benefit low-wage countries less tainted by forced labor than China by driving more business their way, but he said that Southeast Asia will still struggle to wean itself off Chinese supplies.

“China is still the hub or the center of ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] supply chains. That hasn’t changed. There’s been some reconfiguration taking place, but by and large, China’s not going away,” he said.

Menon said that “blunt” trade tools like the act can also hurt the countries in the middle of those supply chains by driving existing production and investment away, leaving local workers with less work or fewer jobs.

“This [act] is quite a big move, quite a massive measure, and so I’d be surprised if it doesn’t have some impact in moving production around,” he said. “If you ban imports in this way, inevitably there will be some shifts that move production in a way that tries to circumvent those bans.”

Marro said the same pressures that drove companies to “de-risk” by moving production from China to Southeast Asia years ago could yet prove a “double-edged sword.” While the shift has boosted Southeast Asia’s economies, the costs may mount as the United States and others start taking a harder look at countries helping China evade their trade curbs.

Even with only 11 months of the 2024 fiscal year reported, U.S. customs figures show the UFLPA blocked more imports from Southeast Asia over the past year than the year before.

Marro said enforcement efforts were at a “very real risk” of picking up but added that geopolitics could also intervene.

“As much as U.S. officials want to crack down on Chinese tariff circumvention, there’s an equal effort to avoid isolating Southeast Asia when it comes to the U.S.’s increasingly hawkish strategy towards China,” he said. “This balancing act will characterize the future of U.S. policy to the region.”
…

KAMIMOMI, Japan — In the remote village of Kamimomi in Japan’s western Okayama prefecture, a small group of rice farmers began their most recent harvest in sweltering heat, two weeks sooner than usual.

The prefecture is called “the Land of Sunshine” because of its pleasant climate, but farmers working among the paddy fields and ancient rice terraces say that climate change is hurting the harvest of rice, long a cornerstone of Japan’s diet.

“Last year, an exceptional heat wave took the water out of the rice, which became small and thin,” rice farmer Joji Terasaka said. “So I am worried about that this year because it will be just as hot.”

This year Japan experienced its hottest July on record, with temperatures reaching 2.16 Celsius higher than average, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The globe has seen a 1.2 C rise in average temperature since preindustrial times, and scientists agree that warming needs to be capped at 1.5 C to stave off the worst effects of climate change. That includes even more powerful heat, storms and irreversible ice melt.

Last year, Japan recorded a poor rice harvest nationwide because of exceptionally hot weather. Ministry data showed the country’s private-sector rice inventory fell to 1.56 million tons in June, the lowest level since records began in 1999. Last year was the hottest on record globally, though it’s feared that this year may top it.

The drop in harvest in Japan was partly to blame for this year’s widespread summer rice shortage, according to officials. There were empty shelves in supermarkets, and some retailers are still enforcing purchase limits of one rice bag per customer.

“Perhaps people think that an increase of one degree Celsius in average temperature isn’t much. But it’s quite a big change for plants and crops,” says Yuji Masutomi, a researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo.

Masutomi said the rising temperatures not only influence the growth cycle and yield of rice, but also hurt the quality of the grain.

When temperatures rise above 27 C, the buildup of starch inside rice grains is reduced. That causes the crop to take on a chalky appearance, and its value is reduced.

At least a fifth of rice farms have reported a drop in quality from rising temperatures, according to a farming ministry report last year.

“Not only is the appearance not good; people say the taste drops too,” Masutomi said.

For farmers in Kamimomi, there’s another problem with working under exceptional heat. The average age of agricultural workers in Japan is nearly 69, among the oldest in the world, and older people are especially vulnerable to heatstroke.

Toshimi Kaiami led a community project in Kamimomi that involved reviving some of the paddy fields abandoned because of the aging population.

“There are no longer any successors,” says Kaiami. “We are heading toward extinction.”

The community project divides labor among Kamimomi’s farmers. But preparations for the harvest coincided with the hottest months of the year — April to September.

“It takes a half year to produce rice. The heat and the work that we have to endure during that time is really tough,” said rice farmer Mitsumasa Sugimoto, 77.

To deal with climate change, the government is promoting the adoption of heat-resistant rice variants, including Sai no Kizuna, which was developed by a research center in Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo.

Research organizations around the world have worked to produce more resilient strains of essential food like rice while introducing more heat and drought resistant grains like sorghum or millet.

“Last year and this year have been extremely hot, but even in those conditions, Sai no Kizuna maintained a certain level of quality,” said Naoto Ohoka, who manages rice breeding at Saitama’s Agricultural Technology Research Center.

“Its other characteristic is that it is very delicious.”

The center cultivates more than a thousand types of rice strains, and through cross-pollination officials assess and select the best performers to develop new varieties.

Sai no Kizuna was developed in 2012 to better withstand heat, a trait that has become more widely recognized recently as Japan sees hotter summers. The strain also stands up well against typhoon wind and certain pests and diseases.

Researchers want to develop more resilient strains against heat as temperatures are projected to continue rising. Masutomi recommends that variants tolerant of temperatures up to 3 degrees Celsius higher should be introduced across Japan by the 2040s.

But it’s a long process. It can take up to 10 years to develop a new variant. Once it’s approved for the market, farmers must then be convinced to switch to the new strain.

The most widely grown variety is Koshihikari, which is less heat resistant. Even so, older farmers have shown a reluctance to switch to other varieties. Farming ministry data show that only around 15% of Japanese paddy fields have adopted heat resistance variants.
…

washington — A group of Republican lawmakers is demanding a federal investigation into the U.S. consulting firm McKinsey over its work with the Chinese government and state-owned enterprises, even as the company reportedly is revamping its China business to reduce risks. 

A letter — signed by Representative John Moolenaar of Michigan, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa — asks the Justice Department to investigate whether McKinsey’s $480 million contracts with the Defense Department comply with federal law when the consulting firm also advised China’s national and provincial governments and state-controlled businesses. The three accuse McKinsey of misrepresenting its relationship with the Chinese government. 

“McKinsey’s activities pose a serious risk to U.S. national security and may have failed to meet McKinsey’s obligations under federal law,” according to the letter dated Thursday. 

McKinsey declined to comment on the letter but has in the past defended its practices in China. It has said it follows the “most rigorous and comprehensive client service policy in our industry.” 

The consultancy also has said it does not work for the ruling Chinese Communist Party or the central government but mainly with multinationals and private Chinese businesses.   

The lawmakers’ scrutiny over McKinsey’s dealings with Beijing comes as the U.S. and China are becoming increasingly competitive, prompting American politicians to reexamine business ties to ensure Beijing and its military would not get stronger with U.S. help. Beijing also has grown wary of American companies.   

The Biden administration has imposed export controls to block China’s access to advanced computer chips and limited U.S. investments in China in areas such as microelectronics, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence. Last month, a Republican congressional report raised red flags that partnerships between American and Chinese universities could aid Beijing in developing critical technology for military advances.   

U.S. companies, which have built experience in China over the past several decades, are readjusting to the new geopolitical reality. This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that McKinsey has cut back on government-linked clients in China and reduced the workforce there by nearly 500 people, or about a third. 

The letter by Republican lawmakers accused McKinsey of helping China “rapidly develop its military and economy” through its consulting services. It said McKinsey failed to disclose its work with the Chinese government while acquiring U.S. defense contracts, which amounted to more than $480 million since 2008 and granted McKinsey “access to classified or otherwise sensitive national security data.” 

Bob Sternfels, McKinsey’s global managing partner, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on investigations in February that “we’ve never worked for the Chinese Communist Party or the central government in China, to the best of my knowledge.” 

The letter asserted that McKinsey may have misrepresented its relationship with the Chinese government, citing public information and documents. 
…

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Analysts expect a departure in style and substance from Prabowo Subianto, set to be inaugurated Sunday as Indonesia’s eighth president, compared to predecessor Joko Widodo.  

“Prabowo will be a foreign policy president and have a hands-on approach in dealing with foreign policy matters,” said Fadli Zon, his longtime political party confidant and the chairperson of the House Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation.  

“Just look at his style of diplomacy. He has personally met global leaders of large countries even before he is inaugurated.” 

Former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who led Indonesia from 2004 to 2014, has made a similar prediction. 

“Pak Probowo, ‘you are on the right track’ and have become ‘foreign policy President,’ he wrote in Indonesian on the social media platform X following Probowo’s remarks at the Shangri-la Dialogue 2024 forum in Singapore earlier this year. “Good luck and carry on!” 

Indonesia held the rotating G20 presidency under Widodo and spearheaded diplomatic initiatives for peace in Myanmar as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last year. Widodo was also the first state leader to visit Ukraine and Russia after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. 

Widodo nevertheless mostly focused on domestic affairs and has never attended the United Nations General Assembly. Most of Indonesia’s foreign diplomacy was led by Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.  

Prabowo has visited more than 20 countries in the last six months as defense minister, and he met with state leaders in China, Japan, Australia, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. He is the first president-elect to have gone on an overseas tour to strategic global partner countries before assuming office.  

Associate Professor Teuku Rezasyah from Bandung’s Padjajaran University said this indicates he will be active internationally and is interested in building support and trust with global leaders early on. 

While these meetings highlighted defense issues, the sessions included wider bilateral and geopolitical issues.   

Prabowo, who lived in several countries in his youth, speaks English, Dutch, German and French.   

Indonesia as influential middle power 

Calvin Khoe, lead analyst at FPCI Research & Analysis, wrote in an East-West Center Asia-Pacific Bulletin that “Indonesia enjoys several comparative advantages that empower it as an activist nation and differentiate it as a middle power.” He added that Prabowo “will strive to make Indonesia an even more influential middle power.”  

Khoe pointed out that in a Newsweek interview, Prabowo said Indonesia “must become more assertive in its foreign policy, bilaterally or multilaterally through its engagement in the U.N., OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation], ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and more responsive to shaping the geopolitical realities of our region.”  

However, Dinna Prapto Raharja, founder of Jakarta-based Synergy Policies, said she expects Prabowo to show less enthusiasm for ASEAN than Widodo, who had said the Southeast Asian bloc was the cornerstone of his foreign policy. 

“So, for somebody who is quick and pragmatic like Prabowo, I think he would not have enough patience to go through the nook and crannies of ASEAN. We’ve seen in the past 10 years how limited ASEAN resources can be to actually make impact at the state level. 

“ASEAN at the people-to-people cooperation, I think will remain important. But I think he will want to take shortcuts to ensure timekeeping is more efficient.” 

Resolving Israeli-Palestinian conflict 

Prabowo has made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a signature issue, indicating at the recent International Conference on Gaza in Jordan and the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that Indonesia will support, contribute and facilitate all efforts toward a two-state solution. 

These efforts may include the deployment of peacekeeping troops, air assets and a hospital ship, along with medical personnel to run a field hospital in Gaza. 

Dinna said Probowo’s best prospects for impacting the conflict lie with the International Criminal Court and the U.N. Security Council.  

“We’ve seen how Middle Eastern countries, since the Abrahamic Accord, has been split to different standings,” she said. 

“So, if Indonesia wants to be quick, one of the most effective steps it can take is through multilateral forums. Indonesia can also develop caucuses in different agencies to build stronger voices, and also consult the secretary-general, who I’m sure is very much frustrated with the situation.”  

Balancing global superpowers 

On other issues, Khoe said Prabowo has appealed to China and the United States to be responsible global powers, arguing that the two global powers can co-exist, cooperate and collaborate. 

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia during the campaign, Prabowo committed himself to the principle of good-neighbor diplomacy, which stresses the importance of building a network of strong friendships with all countries in the region to ensure stability and economic growth.  

In terms of Indonesia’s relations with China, Dinna said that Indonesia will continue to collaborate with China, Indonesia’s largest trading partner and a major investor in the country. 

Prabowo is expected to remain cautious, however, regarding China’s aggressive posture in the South China Sea. China’s nine-dash line, which it claims to delineate its ancient fishing grounds, overlaps with Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone near Indonesia’s Natuna islands.

“I think, first and foremost, he would also make sure that he attends all the meetings and negotiation forums. This time he is not going to just send the foreign minister,” Dinna added. 

“I think this is what’s going to be different between him and Joko Widodo. He is going to make sure he can talk in person with [Chinese President] Xi as president. He is also a very confident man in approaching other major countries interested in keeping the South China Sea safe.” 

Although Prabowo has traveled the globe in recent months, he has yet to visit the United States. Observers say he is likely to wait for the U.S. presidential election results before he decides to do so.

Reuters reported that 36 state leaders will attend Prabowo’s inauguration. The United States is sending a six-person delegation led by U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and including Admiral Samuel Paparo, the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
…

The Chinese government has been acting to restrict travel outside the country by ordering some teachers, civil servants and executives of state-owned enterprises to hand in their passports.

Analysts say that under President Xi Jinping, Beijing is reinstating some internal controls not seen since the era of communist China’s founder, Mao Zedong.

Hong Jingfu, a professor in the political science department at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University, told VOA Mandarin the Chinese Communist Party’s confiscation of the passports aims to prevent foreign infiltration and secrets from being leaked.

Hong said the CCP is also worried that as people’s confidence in the economy slows, they will become less loyal to Xi’s regime and China’s system, and that personnel and capital will flee the country.

Hong said Xi is taking China back to the Mao era path of “internal control and external defense,” of closing the country to the outside world, because the CCP fears sharing the fate of its Soviet counterpart, which collapsed in 1991.

“Under the so-called overall national security concept, his demand for security is constantly rising, which, in fact, is ironically highlighting that China’s so-called ‘four self-confidences’ Xi promotes is [just] more lying and boasting,” Hong said.

Former Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2011 announced the so-called “Three Self-Confidences,” promoting China’s socialist path, theories and system. Xi in 2016 added a fourth one, socialist culture, as a way of cementing his authority and pushing for more communist and nationalist propaganda in education.

The Financial Times reported October 6 that since last year, an increasing number of schoolteachers and public sector employees in China have been required to hand in their passports, and those already abroad have been told to avoid contact with “foreign, hostile forces.”

Chinese authorities have always regarded “instilling loyalty in students” as a top priority. The FT reports the passport controls aim to prevent teachers from being “ideologically polluted by foreign forces” and spreading ideas that are deemed ill-suited for the country.

It’s not the first time in modern China that authorities have seized the passports of large categories of key workers. Radio Free Asia reports authorities ordered teachers to hand in their travel documents as early as 2018.

A university professor surnamed Li in China’s southeastern, coastal Fujian province, who didn’t want to give his full name due to the sensitivity of the issue, told VOA Mandarin that his university since 2019 has required teachers at the rank of associate professor and above to hand in their travel documents.

Even retirees are required to hand in their passports and entry and exit documents, he said, and department heads will only get them back five years after retirement.

Li said if a professor wants to travel abroad, they must report to their supervisor the country they are going to, the number of days they will be there, the purpose of the trip and the source of funds before they can get their passport back.

Li said the university also requires that passports be turned back in within five working days after returning from abroad.

The school did not give them a detailed explanation for the policy, said Li, telling its staff only that it’s to ensure that the teaching, research and management work “maintains normal order” and is in line with the “spirit of the relevant documents of the superiors.”

Legal authority for Chinese universities to require custody of passports and travel documents appears to be dubious. Article 16 of China’s Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Law on the Administration of the Exit and Entry of Chinese Citizens states that no organ, organization, enterprise, institution or individual other than the public security organ, the original document-issuing authority, the people’s procuratorate, or the people’s court may revoke or confiscate people’s identification documents.

Observers told VOA Mandarin the practice increased significantly after Xi came to power in 2012. The Chinese government last year tightened restrictions on private overseas travel by civil servants and employees of state-owned enterprises, including banning overseas travel, vetting overseas relations, and strengthening approvals and confidentiality training.

Li believes his university’s policy was prompted by government fears that teachers may leak sensitive research information or fail to return to China at all.

Hong, of National Cheng Kung University, says the control of passports also aims to keep middle-class people from leaving the country in order to restore consumer confidence and consumption levels.

China’s economic downturn has led to a drop in consumer confidence and spending among the middle class that Beijing has tried to reignite with a series of stimulus measures.

But Hong said the CCP’s passport controls are restricting economic activities and discouraging international exchanges that could help grow the economy.

“Actually, you are accelerating your so-called internal disintegration because there is no way to solve your internal contradictions,” he said.

Despite the increasing number of passports reported seized, analysts say it’s impossible for China to close off as much as it was under founding leader Mao, when everyone needed permission to travel abroad and being granted a passport was rare.

Wang Jian, a commentator living in the U.S. who used to work for the Hong Kong Economic Times, Ming Pao Daily News and Sing Tao Daily News, told VOA Mandarin that since China’s reform and opening up after Mao died in 1976, there is no way to close the country as it depends on exporting products and importing raw materials.

“China’s current foreign trade model has determined that China’s door cannot be closed,” he said.  “Second, the Chinese people [would] not accept it.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese authorities implemented strict controls on movement, including travel abroad, and stopped issuing new passports for nearly three years to try to control the spread of the virus.

The restrictions led to rare public protests against authorities known as the “White Paper Movement.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Retired General Prabowo Subianto will be sworn in Sunday as the president of Indonesia, the world’s third-biggest democracy with the largest economy in Southeast Asia.

The following is a summary of Prabowo’s policy pledges:

Boosting growth

Prabowo has set a target to accelerate economic growth to 8%, from 5% now, by developing industries that process Indonesia’s rich natural resources and relying on the economic impact of his flagship programs, such as giving students free school meals.

Prabowo will be open to foreign investment, his aide has said, such as by offering investors management of airports and seaports.

Prabowo, currently defense minister, also plans to raise funds by selling carbon credits overseas to fund green projects that will create jobs, an adviser told Reuters.

Energy and food security

Central in Prabowo’s campaign pledge was to make Indonesia self-sufficient in production of staples, as well as to cut the country’s reliance of fuel imports.

In his current role as defense minister, he oversaw the “Food Estate” project, clearing swamps to make way for cassava planting.

This project will be expanded, creating 3 million hectares to cultivate rice, corn and soybeans. That is roughly the size of Belgium.

Some of the agriculture products will be made into bioethanol.

Prabowo has also made preparations to increase the mandatory blending of palm oil-based biodiesel to 50% by next year, up from currently 35%, to reduce gasoil imports. Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer of palm oil.

Free, nutritious school meals

Prabowo’s most well-known campaign promise is the $28 billion “Free Nutritious Meals” program providing food for 83 million children and pregnant women to fight stunted child growth.

Considered by some economists as costly, the program has sparked concerns from rating agencies and investors that the new government would move away from the prudent fiscal management seen under his predecessor.

Prabowo and his aides have pledged to manage the government’s budget responsibly, defending the program as necessary for long-term human development. The program would be rolled out in stages starting from January 2025.

Tax policy

Prabowo has set a target to increase government revenue-to-GDP ratio to 23% from about 12%, promising to do so using improved technology and without raising tax rates.

During campaigning, he said he was considering setting up a new tax collection agency modeled on the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, but it was unclear if this would be pursued.

The former special forces commander would review the possibility of lowering corporate income tax to 20% from 22%, according to media reports citing his adviser, though this would depend on its impact on revenues.

It also remains to be seen whether Prabowo would raise the value-added tax (VAT) rate to 12% from 11% on January 1, 2025, an unpopular plan that has been set in motion by the current administration.

Future of new capital city

Outgoing leader Widodo has made the $32 billion project to move Indonesia’s capital 1,200 kilometers away from sinking Jakarta to Nusantara, on Borneo island, his main legacy project.

Prabowo has publicly said he would continue building the city, even as he acknowledged the project might take years to complete.

However, members of Prabowo’s coalition have privately raised doubts about the capacity of the state budget to fund both the new capital and the nutrition program, sources told Reuters.

Foreign policy

Prabowo has said his presidency will continue Jakarta’s long-held foreign policy of non-alignment, promising to maintain good ties with world powers without choosing sides.

In a sign he will be more active on the global stage, Prabowo has traveled extensively since winning the election, meeting leaders from countries like Australia, China, France, Japan, Russia and neighboring nations in Southeast Asia.

Last year, at a gathering of security officials from many countries, Prabowo as Indonesia’s defense minister proposed a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Months later, he took swipe at the European Union’s deforestation rules, saying Europeans forced Indonesians to cut down forests when Indonesia was a Dutch colony, in a seminar explaining his foreign policy stance.
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washington — As North Korea escalates tensions on the Korean Peninsula, a new debate has ignited in Seoul over whether South Korea should have the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel — a step that would allow for the extraction of a fissile material that can be used to build nuclear weapons.    

According to the South Korean Embassy in Washington, Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Hyun-dong said last Friday that his government will work with the new U.S. administration that will be inaugurated in January to strengthen nuclear cooperation, including a discussion of the need for nuclear reprocessing in South Korea. 

Cho was responding to a question posed by one of a group of Korean lawmakers who were visiting the embassy for an annual parliamentary audit.     

The debate comes as North Korea ramps up its nuclear weapons programs and saber-rattling rhetoric.  

On Thursday, North Korea’s state media said Pyongyang has “clearly defined South Korea as a hostile country” through a revision of the constitution during a parliamentary meeting last week. Two days earlier, the North blew up the northern section of roads that once linked it with South Korea.    

Going nuclear 

South Korea faces growing internal calls to develop its own nuclear weapons. Some South Koreans argue that their country should at least have the nuclear reprocessing right — just as Japan, another key U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific region does — so South Korea could be ready to build nuclear arms as soon as it decides to do so.  

Nuclear reprocessing refers to the separation of spent nuclear reactor fuel into potentially reusable nuclear materials and other nuclear waste. The process helps managing radioactive waste more sustainably while extracting plutonium that can be used for nuclear weapons.  

Under the U.S.-South Korean Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation, signed in 2015 to replace a prior nuclear pact, South Korea’s nuclear reprocessing is subject to further negotiation with the U.S.

On the other hand, Japan has the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel at its facilities under the U.S.-Japan nuclear cooperation agreement.  

In a response to a VOA inquiry, the South Korean Foreign Ministry stressed that Cho’s remark reflected the need to come up with measures to manage high-level radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuel. 

“The South Korean government continues to seek ways to manage high-level radioactive waste such as spent nuclear fuel,” a spokesperson for the South Korean Foreign Ministry told VOA’s Korean Service via email on Wednesday.  

The spokesperson said securing the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel is “an issue that should be carefully resolved by comprehensively taking into account various factors such as sensitivity, in terms of nuclear nonproliferation and economic feasibility.”  

“The current South Korea-U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement took effect in 2015 and is valid until 2035, and we intend to continue to upgrade peaceful nuclear cooperation between South Korea and the U.S. while faithfully implementing the agreement,” the spokesperson added.  

The U.S. stressed that it has a long-standing policy to limit the spread of enrichment and reprocessing capabilities around the world.    

“The U.S. strives to promote civil nuclear cooperation globally to advance our principles for the highest standards of safety, security, and non-proliferation,” a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed response on Thursday to a VOA Korean inquiry.  

“The ROK and the United States have maintained a mutually beneficial relationship through nuclear cooperation for decades, including our two countries having maintained close cooperation to fulfill our duties in the global community to ensure the highest levels of safety, non-proliferation and security for the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” the spokesperson said. ROK stands for Republic of Korea, the country’s formal name. 

Proliferation concerns   

U.S. experts say it is highly unlikely that Washington will give consent for Seoul to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, as that would pose a greater challenge to the nonproliferation regime.   

“I understand that South Koreans may perceive that it isn’t fair that the U.S. supported Japan’s reprocessing but not South Korea’s reprocessing of spent nuclear reactor fuel,” Toby Dalton, co‑director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in an email Wednesday to VOA Korean.   

“However, it is important to understand that the U.S. agreed to Japanese reprocessing in the 1970s, at a time when the U.S. had a policy more favorable to reprocessing.”    

Dalton said the current U.S. policy “does not support reprocessing anywhere, largely because of the proliferation risk.” 

“So, in the U.S. view, this is less an issue of fairness than of timing — Japan made a request before the U.S. policy change,” Dalton said. “South Korea’s interest in reprocessing came much later.” 

Robert Einhorn, a former special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control at the State Department who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told VOA Korean via email Wednesday, “Some South Koreans are now advocating indigenous reprocessing and uranium enrichment programs, not primarily for civil nuclear energy reasons, but to provide an option to produce the fissile material needed for nuclear weapons.    

“It is understandable that the ROK seeks to strengthen deterrence against the growing North Korean nuclear threat, but Seoul and Washington are already pursuing the most effective way of countering that threat — strengthening the U.S.-ROK alliance and reinforcing the U.S. extended nuclear deterrent, including by giving South Koreans a much more important role in the planning and execution of that deterrent,” Einhorn said.   

Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, told VOA Korean via email Wednesday that reprocessing nuclear waste would bring South Korea a step closer to being able to pursue its own nuclear weapons capability. 

That would be “something the U.S. opposes, given the likelihood of a nuclear arms race in the region if South Korea has nuclear weapons,” he said.    

“Occasional hints by ROK officials of South Korea’s interest in developing nuclear weapons and the advocacy by some ROK National Assembly members for the ROK to develop a latent nuclear weapons capability are probably unnerving U.S. policymakers and will likely stiffen their opposition to allowing reprocessing by the ROK,” said Evans Revere, who served as acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, in an email Wednesday to VOA Korean.  
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washington — The United States on Thursday announced fresh sanctions targeting Chinese and Russian entities for their role in designing, building and shipping attack drones that have resulted in mass casualties in Ukraine.

The sanctions target two Chinese entities, Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co., Ltd., and Redlepus Vector Industry Shenzhen Co Ltd (Redlepus), Russian entity TSK Vektor and TSK Vektor’s General Director Artem Mikhailovich Yamshchikov.

A senior administration official told reporters Thursday that the entities were involved in developing the Russian Garpiya series long-range attack drones, producing them in China and shipping them directly to Russia.

“The Garpiya, designed and produced in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in collaboration with Russian defense firms, has been used to destroy critical infrastructure and has resulted in mass casualties,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

“Today’s action is part of our continued effort to disrupt attempts by PRC-based and Russia-based entities and individuals to support Russia’s acquisition of advanced weapons technology and components. We will continue to impose costs on those who provide support to Russia’s military-industrial base.”

The senior administration official said the U.S. has warned Beijing in the past about the network, contradicting Chinese statements that they are not aware of such networks.

Two Chinese firms are directly “involved in producing and shipping things that are unmistakably part of Russia’s war against Ukraine and are going unmistakably to an actor that the West has already identified and sanctioned as being part of the Russian military industrial base,” said the official.

Since 2022, the U.S. has sanctioned close to 100 entities based in China and Hong Kong. The majority of them are part of the supply chain of dual-use items – components or goods that can be converted by Russia into military items that are then being deployed against Ukraine.

However, Thursday’s sanctions were the first to hit Chinese entities “directly developing and producing complete weapons systems in partnership with Russian firms.”

Also Thursday, the U.K. announced its largest package of sanctions against Russia’s “shadow fleet of oil tankers” – ships that supposedly knowingly operate in defiance of Western sanctions.

London said 18 more shadow fleet ships will be barred from U.K. ports, bringing the total number of oil tankers sanctioned to 43.

Sanctions working

In response to VOA’s question, the official said that Western sanctions are working.

“This is having a direct impact on their economy. It’s having a direct impact on their ability to get war material. It’s having a direct impact on the quality of goods that they are achieving,” the official said.

A second senior administration official said Moscow is feeling “unprecedented external pressure” on its trade and investment projects with China. Growing trade ties between the two countries, though, indicate “they are continuing to innovate and circumvent which is why we are also moving out on sanctions and other tools.”

China says it is not providing weapons for Russia. Beijing maintains it handles its export of dual-use items in accordance with laws and applies strict controls on drone exports.

The sanctioned companies’ transactions are “incompatible” with Beijing’s statements, the second official said. “If China is serious about that commitment, we are asking them to take action to shut down this network.”

Beijing has said in the past it “firmly opposes unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law or authorization of the U.N. Security Council.”

Every month, Beijing exports to Russia more than $300 million of those so-called dual-use items that have both commercial and military applications, according to an analysis of Chinese customs data by the Carnegie Endowment think tank.

Ties have grown between Moscow and Beijing. On Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced plans for expanded cooperation during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, summit in Islamabad, Pakistan. The SCO was founded by Russia and China in 2001 to counter Western alliances.

VOA’s Paris Huang and Henry Ridgwell contributed to this story.
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