Two former government officials in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang have been sentenced to death on charges involving separatism.Wang Langtao, the vice president of Xinjiang’s higher people’s court, told reporters Tuesday that Sattar Sawut and Shirzat Bawudun have both been granted a two-year reprieve on their sentences.  Such sentences are usually commuted to life imprisonment.Sattar Sawut, a former education official, has been convicted of incorporating ethnic separatism violence, terrorism and religious extremism into Uyghur-language school textbooks. UN Human Rights Group ‘Deeply Concerned’ Over China’s Treatment of UyghursThe group is calling for unhindered access to conduct investigations and encouraging business to scrutinize their supply chains for evidence of forced labor products; China denies the allegations of rights violationsShirzat Bawudun, a former head of Xinjiang’s regional justice department, has been convicted of colluding with members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which has been listed as a terrorist group by the United Nations, as well as carrying out “illegal religious activities at his daughter’s wedding.”Beijing has launched a sweeping security campaign in Xinjiang that has led to the detention of more than one million minority Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minority Muslim groups in Xinjiang.  The Chinese government says the detainees are taught job skills and deradicalized from anti-Beijing sentiments, a stance strongly disputed by the United States, which has denounced the treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide.   China’s Treatment of Uighurs is Genocide, Canadian Parliament Says The move puts pressure on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to follow suitA State Department spokesman said Tuesday the United States will hold talks with allies about a possible boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang, as well as its stifling of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.US, EU, Britain, Canada Impose Sanctions on Chinese Officials Over Uyghurs China promptly retaliates with sanctions on European officials
…

John Kerry, in Asia on his first trip as the special presidential envoy for climate, is urging cooperation between the U.S. and China, and everyone else, on climate change because “no one nation can solve this problem by itself — impossible. Each of us needs everybody else at the table to make this happen.” FILE – Then-Secretary of State John Kerry, left, talks with China’s Special Representative on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua prior to the opening of the COP21 conference in Le Bourget, Dec.12, 2015.Former U.S. Secretary of State Kerry will not meet China’s climate czar Xie Zhenhua on this outing, although the two know each other from previous interactions.  Xie is a central figure in Beijing’s plan to eliminate carbon emissions by 2060 and its chief negotiator at the 200-country-strong FILE – Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden looks at an array of solar panels during a tour at the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth, N.H., June 4, 2019.Biden is planning a two-day virtual summit with world leaders on April 22 and 23. The White House website says: “The Leaders’ Summit on Climate will underscore the urgency — and the economic benefits — of stronger climate action. It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow.”  Biden’s recent $2 trillion infrastructure proposal includes an investment of $35 billion into clean technologies and $174 billion on overhauling the country’s electrical vehicle market.  Meanwhile, China’s investment in clean energy reached $83.4 billion in 2019. “The magnitude of the challenge is the most difficult problem facing both; the financial costs and disruption to people’s lives involved in changing Chinese and U.S. energy policies is enormous,” said the Hudson Institute’s Weitz.  Obstacles to climate partnershipBut sharp differences on human rights and trade are creating obstacles for possible cooperation on climate issues between the two superpowers.  “China and the U.S. are entering into an era of increasingly open competition, criticism, and rivalry in a variety of spheres — economic, diplomatic, technological, and possibly military — which make any kind of cooperation harder to achieve,” Carsten Vala, a political science professor at Loyola University Maryland, told VOA Mandarin.  “The toughest things are, no doubt, China’s increasing assertiveness in international relations,” he said. “That stance derives from the Chinese Communist Party leadership’s belief that it handled the COVID-19 pandemic better and survived the global economic slowdown better than Western countries, along with projections that its economy is predicted to rival that of the United States in the next two decades.”  This has made China’s top leaders “less willing to compromise,” he added.  Turner, of the Wilson Center, agreed. “The Chinese and U.S. administrations are navigating some tough disagreements on trade and human rights, etc., which does not leave much political space for climate collaboration/diplomacy,” she said.  Yet she pointed out that Chinese-U.S. cooperation on climate and clean energy is not accomplished only by the national governments because “there is still subnational, research, and NGO climate collaboration happening between the two countries.”
…

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said a quarantine-free travel “bubble” with trans-Tasman neighbor Australia will start on April 18. It will allow unrestricted movement between two countries that have managed to contain the virus through strict lockdowns and international border closures.New Zealanders have been allowed into most parts of Australia since October, but travel the other way was banned. New Zealanders who did make the journey across the Tasman Sea also faced a mandatory two-week stay in hotel quarantine on their return. Those arrangements will soon change. New Zealand authorities say that just before midnight local time on April 18 a so-called travel “bubble” allowing unrestricted movement will start between the two countries. Authorities believe the risk of transmission of COVID-19 from Australia to New Zealand is low. At a press conference in Wellington, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the travel plan was the only one of its type anywhere. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks at a news conference on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Wellington.“I can confirm that quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will commence in just under two weeks’ time,” she said. “This is an important step forward in our COVID response and represents an arrangement I do not believe we have seen in any other part of the world. That is safely opening up international travel to another country while continuing to pursue a strategy of elimination and a commitment to keeping the virus out.” However, travel between Australia and New Zealand could be disrupted should future outbreaks of COVID-19 infections be detected. Officials have said that flights would be suspended from any Australian state or territory if authorities there ordered a local lockdown. To be eligible to travel to or from New Zealand on a quarantine-free flight, passengers must not have returned a positive coronavirus test result in the previous 14-days. They must also not be waiting for the results of a test taken during that period. FILE – A man crosses a mostly empty city center street as people in Greater Brisbane have been ordered into lockdown as authorities try to suppress a growing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cluster in Brisbane, Australia, March 30, 2021.New Zealand has recorded 26 deaths related to COVID-19 since the pandemic began, while about 2,500 infections have been detected, health authorities say. Australia has recorded just over 29,000 coronavirus cases, and 909 fatalities. Both countries have closed their international borders to most foreign nationals. They have allowed citizens and permanent residents to return home, but they face 14-days in mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense when they arrive. Australia and New Zealand have both embarked on mass coronavirus vaccination programs. 
 
…

China is taking a page out of the Kremlin’s playbook and is seeking to highlight America’s faults and weaponize the culture wars and identity politics currently buffeting the West, according to disinformation analysts.Much like the Kremlin and state-owned Russian media, Chinese propagandists are focusing on the problems of racial injustice and income inequality in the U.S. and Western Europe — a move to distract attention from Beijing’s own rights abuses, including the internment of more than a million ethnic Muslim Uyghurs, analysts say. “Civil unrest in the United States following police violence against African Americans has been used to counter criticism of police abuse against [pro-democracy] protesters in Hong Kong,” according to a recent study by the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based think tank.  FILE – Protesters march near the skyline of Hong Kong, July 7, 2019. China’s central government has dismissed Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters as clowns and criminals while bemoaning growing violence surrounding the monthslong demonstrations.”China’s disinformation efforts are becoming more sophisticated,” added Dexter Roberts, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Asia Security Initiative and author of the report, “China’s Disinformation Strategy.”Sarah Cook, research director for China and Hong Kong at Freedom House, a New York-based institute that conducts research on democracy and human rights, has also noted in a column in the think tank’s latest “China Media Bulletin” that Beijing’s disinformation tactics are maturing and becoming more sophisticated. She said recent studies indicate collectively that “significant human and financial resources are being devoted to the disinformation effort, the overall sophistication and impact have increased, and linkages between official accounts and fake accounts are more evident, rendering plausible deniability by the Chinese government more difficult.”She added, “When China-linked networks of social media bots and trolls appeared on the global disinformation scene in 2019, most analysts concluded their impact and reach were fairly limited, particularly in terms of engagement by real users and relative to more sophisticated actors in this realm, like the Russian regime. As many China watchers anticipated, that assessment now seems to be changing.”FILE – A resident wearing a mask against coronavirus walks past government propaganda poster featuring Tiananmen Gate in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, Apr. 16, 2020.Chinese messaging on social media sites reflects Beijing’s growing focus on racial politics in the U.S. Last month, Beijing published a report about human rights violations and the treatment of racial minorities in the United States, arguing that “racism exists in a comprehensive, systematic and continuous manner.” Ethnic minorities in the U.S. have been “devastated by racial discrimination,” the Chinese communist government said. The report, issued by China’s State Council Information Office, said the coronavirus epidemic in America had spun out of control, worsening inter-ethnic conflicts and social divisions, adding, “It further added to the human rights violations in the country.”For years, the Chinese government deflected most allegations of human rights abuses by saying outside powers, as well as the Western media, should stop meddling in China’s “internal affairs.” Now, analysts say, Beijing’s strategy is more confrontational and seeks to turn the tables on the West, copying the tactics of the Kremlin.  Just days before China’s report was issued, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan sparred in Alaska with their Chinese counterparts at the first U.S.-China talks of Joe Biden’s presidency. FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken, accompanied by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, talks to the media after a closed-door morning session of U.S.-China talks in Anchorage, Alaska, March 19, 2021.In his opening remarks, Blinken raised Washington’s “deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States, [and] economic coercion of our allies.” The U.S. officials said China’s actions threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability. “That’s why they’re not merely internal matters, and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today,” he added in his short opening remarks during a media photo opportunity. Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign affairs chief, replied with a 17-minute lecture. He complained about “U.S. interference in China’s internal affairs” but also raised rights issues in America.  “China has made steady progress in human rights. And the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights,” he said. Blinken responded, “What we’ve done throughout our history is to confront those challenges openly, publicly, transparently. Not trying to ignore them. Not trying to pretend they don’t exist. Not trying to sweep them under a rug.”The harsh Chinese rhetoric underscored Beijing’s increasingly forward-leaning strategy in the information wars.  It’s in line with what has been termed China’s “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy, which started to emerge in 2020 after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi instructed his country’s envoys to be more assertive in representing Beijing’s interests overseas and vocal in defending the Chinese Communist government from criticism.   The tone and temper of Chinese diplomacy has sharpened dramatically, with Chinese envoys in Western capitals exhibiting a truculence that Western officials say is a far cry from what was seen during the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, who ruled as China’s paramount leader from 1978 until retirement in 1992.   Traditionally considered among the more reserved of the world’s ambassadors, China’s envoys have had a makeover, prompting an international backlash for what their critics say is an effort to spread fake news, doctored images and false equivalencies between Western failings and Chinese government policy.
…

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry on Monday reported a new incursion by China’s air force into the island’s air defense identification zone, made up of eight fighter jets and two other aircraft, one of which flew through the strategic Bashi Channel.Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained over the last few months of repeated missions by China’s air force near the island, concentrated in the southwestern part its air defense zone near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.Late last month Taiwan reported 20 Chinese aircraft were involved in one such incursion.In the latest incident, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said four Chinese J-16 and four J-10 fighters were involved, as well as an early warning plane and anti-submarine aircraft, the latter of which flew to the south of Taiwan through the Bashi Channel that connects the Pacific to the South China Sea.Taiwan’s air force sent up a combat air patrol and warned the Chinese aircraft away, the ministry added.There was no immediate response from China’s Defense Ministry, but the flights coincided with other Chinese military activity to Taiwan’s north.Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the Chinese aircraft carrier the Liaoning, accompanied by five escort ships, had transited the Miyako Strait on their way to the Pacific.Though China’s air force has not flown over Taiwan itself, the flights have ramped up pressure, both financial and physical, on the island’s air force to ensure its aircraft are ready to go at any moment in what security officials describe as a “war of attrition.”China views democratic Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.While Taiwan’s air force is well trained, it is dwarfed by that of China’s. 
…

Faced with government efforts to completely cut internet access, some Myanmar pro-democracy activists are turning to radio to reach the public, other activists and the military since the February 1 coup that brought the junta to power. Federal FM Radio went live April 1 at 90.2 MHz. Its targeted broadcasting days are on Thursdays and Sundays. The unlicensed radio station aims to inform audiences about events throughout the country while educating listeners about federalism – that is, having a national and state government, as opposed to authoritarian, military rule. A founding member of the program who asked not to be named for security reasons told VOA the broadcast is a new way for people to listen to updated news within the country, without military propaganda.  “When the internet is cut off, the federal radio will be the means of communication and to communicate with each other,” he said.  The station will deliver information to pro-democracy leaders on the ground, and the leaders will be able to use the station to speak to the public, he added. It will be one of “the powerful weapons” against the military government, he said.  “One is to educate, to inform about federalism, to major cities like Yangon,” he said. The first listeners will be in Yangon with plans to expand to the entire nation.  Local and international news will be initially broadcast in Burmese with plans to broadcast in other languages. The organizers say the broadcast is a community, non-profit program made up of volunteers.  One report says that the station will also broadcast messages intended to persuade members of the military to defect.  According to a state-run newspaper report, Myanmar’s Military Council has declared it will “take action” against the program, claiming it’s not a licensed broadcasting organization.  The junta has already stripped five independent media companies of their licenses.Myanmar Military Strips Five Media Companies of Licensesrmed men raid offices and confiscate documents; one editor arrestedOrganizers acknowledge there are clear dangers involved. “We have a high risk for our producers and technicians and citizen journalists, so we try to work, like evasively,” he said. The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a board formed to represent the elected lawmakers of the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) party, has put forth a Federal Democracy Charter, an interim constitution to replace the country’s 2008 constitution that keeps the military as a dominant force in the government.  While the move is widely seen as symbolic, the goal may be to woo the nation’s armed ethnic militias to join forces with the pro-democracy movement.  
Veteran activist Moe Thway recently told VOA that members of the public expect a nationwide civil war.Myanmar Activist: People ‘Expecting’ Civil War Veteran activist Moe Thway rose to prominence during 2007 Saffron RevolutionThe broadcasting of Federal FM Radio will be a form of objection to the coup, according to one announcer. “The ultimate goal is toward federal democratic union for our new Myanmar,” the announcer said. “This Federal FM radio is one of the strikes.” Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, gained independence in 1948 from Britain, but most of its modern history has been governed under military rule. In 2015, the National League for Democracy party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the country’s first open democratic election. But in last November’s general elections, the military contested the results and made unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud. On February 1, the military, also known as Tatmadaw, removed the NLD government and detained de facto leader Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, who are now facing several charges.  Since the coup, widespread pro-democracy resistance has been met with bullets, armored vehicles and airstrikes. Martial law has also been imposed in several areas. Thousands of people have been detained and more than 550 killed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPPB), an independent non-profit organization formed by exiled political prisoners from Myanmar. 
…

Demonstrations against military rule continued in Myanmar Sunday, with many protesters using Easter eggs to aid their movement.Eggs bearing slogans such as “Spring Revolution” and “We Must Win” as well as drawings of a three-finger salute were in the hands of thousands of protesters across Myanmar Sunday, in a nod to the Christian holiday.Protesters began taking to the streets after the February 1 coup by the military, in which de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other government leaders were arrested.  Hundreds of people have been killed in violent crackdowns on protests over the past two months, according to media and other accounts. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Myanmar, has tallied 557 deaths and more than 2,750 arrested since the protests began.5 Die in Myanmar Protests as Junta Cracks Down on Online Critics Security forces again opened fire on pro-democracy protesters, media sayOn Sunday, protests drew thousands into the streets in Yangon and Mandalay, among other cities. Local news outlets reported that security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the city of Pyinmana in central Myanmar, killing at least one person.In Naypyitaw, the capital, police fired on protesters on motorbikes, killing two men, the Irrawaddy news site reported. One man was killed earlier in the northern town of Bhamo, the Myanmar Now news outlet said.Police and a spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.During his Easter Sunday address, Pope Francis acknowledged the young people of Myanmar, praying for those “committed to supporting democracy and making their voices heard peacefully, in the knowledge that hatred can be dispelled only by love.”Sunday’s so-called “Easter Egg Strike” is one of many themed protests over the past two months, including a “Flower Strike” in which protesters laid flowers in public places to honor victims of security forces. And a “Silent Strike” that left the streets of the country deserted.“Easter is all about the future and the people of Myanmar have a great future in a federal democracy,” said Dr. Sasa, the United Nation international envoy for the ousted civilian government, on Twitter. A member of the Christian minority in what is largely a Buddhist nation, Sasa uses only one name.   “May this Easter bring the new hope and strength to United States of Myanmar,” he tweeted. Our people’s creativities, braveries and courages are the future of Myanmar. Easter is all about the future, the people of Myanmar has great future in federal democracy, May this Easter bring the new hope and strength to United States of Myanmar.(Photo: CJs)/Easter Egg Strike pic.twitter.com/PwKLhIQT2W— Dr. Sasa (@DrSasa22222) April 4, 2021The junta, which had been turning off internet service at night, told internet service providers last week to shut down wireless broadband service until further notice, according to Ooredoo, one of several providers to report the move Thursday.Myanmar Junta Orders Shutdown of Internet, Providers Say Defiant protesters use alternative communications technology as they continue to march, observe strikes  This internet shutdown was condemned by several dozen U.N. member countries via a statement written by Lithuania, France and Greece.
 
Protesters have used the internet and their cellphones to publicize violent acts by security forces against protesters and to organize against military rule.
…

Flash floods and landslides from torrential rains have killed at least 23 people and displaced thousands in eastern Indonesia, while several people were still missing, the country’s disaster agency, the BNPB, said Sunday.Mud from surrounding hills hit almost 50 houses in Lamenele village shortly after midnight Saturday, BNPB spokesperson Raditya Jati said. The village is located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province.“Dozens of houses were buried in mud in Lamanele village,” Raditya said in a statement. “Residents’ houses [were] washed away by the flood.”Raditya said extreme weather was expected to continue this week.In the city of Bima in the province of West Nusa Tenggara, the rising waters after nine hours of downpour overflowed the dams in four subdistricts, submerging almost 10,000 houses and killing at least two people, Raditya said. In neighboring East Timor, a landslide killed eight people on the outskirts of Dili, the capital, state news agency Tatoli reported.Seasonal flash floods and landslides kill dozens annually in Indonesia. Forty people died in two landslides in West Java province January. 
…

A Taiwan court on Saturday released on bond the manager of a construction site whose truck authorities believe caused a train accident that killed at least 51 people.The crash Friday was Taiwan’s worst rail accident in seven decades. An express train hit the truck that had slid down a bank beside the track from the building site. The site’s manager is suspected of having failed to properly engage the truck’s brake.The train, with almost 500 people aboard, was traveling from Taipei, the capital, to Taitung on the east coast when it derailed in a tunnel just north of the city of Hualien. Forty-one people were in hospital Saturday, from among the 188 reported injured.Rescue workers remove a part of the derailed train near Taroko Gorge in Hualien, Taiwan, April 3, 2021.Prosecutors had applied to a court to detain the manager on charges of causing death by negligence, a justice ministry official told reporters Saturday.But a court in Hualien released the manager, Lee Yi-hsiang, on a bond of T$500,000 ($17,525), although it restricted him from leaving Taiwan for eight months and said he had to stay in Hualien.The court said that while the truck’s fall into the path of the train possibly resulted from negligence, there was “no possibility of conspiracy.”Yu Hsiu-duan, head of the Hualien prosecutors office, said the office was not pleased with the decision. “The court said there was no reason to keep him in custody,” she told reporters.Lee’s court-appointed lawyer declined to comment to reporters as he left the court.Lin Jinn-tsun, head of the Justice Ministry’s Prosecutorial Affairs Department, said the department had lodged an appeal against the decision to release Lee on bond.Meanwhile, victims’ relatives visited the accident site Saturday afternoon to mourn the dead, some crying out “Come back!” and bringing personal belongings with them, like dolls.The youngest person confirmed to have died was a 6-year-old girl, the oldest a 79-year-old man, according to a government-issued casualty list.Rescue workWorkers have begun moving the train’s rear portion, which was relatively unscathed because it had stopped away from the collision site. Other mangled sections remained in the tunnel, where fire department official Wu Liang-yun said more bodies were likely to be found.”We’re still carrying out rescue work,” he added.In this photo released by her office, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visits those injured in Friday’s train derailment, at a nearby hospital in Hualien, Taiwan, April 3, 2021.President Tsai Ing-wen visited hospitals in Hualien to speak to family members and survivors, thanking ordinary people and nongovernment groups for their efforts to help.”This shows the good side of Taiwanese society,” she said.The government has ordered flags flown at half-staff for three days in mourning.The de facto French Embassy in Taipei confirmed that one of its citizens had died in the crash.Taiwan’s transport ministry said two U.S. citizens were among the dead, while two Japanese, an Australian and a Chinese citizen were among the injured.In a rare sign of goodwill from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences over the crash, state news agency Xinhua said.The accident happened at the start of a long holiday weekend. The train was packed with tourists and residents going home for the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day to clean the graves of ancestors.Taiwan has no domestic travel curbs as the COVID-19 pandemic is well under control, with only 43 active cases in hospitals.Taiwan’s worst train crash, in 1948, killed an estimated 64 people.  
…

A flagship Chinese research organization recently said U.S. military forces had an unusually intense presence in the South China Sea last year as Washington sought to check Beijing’s maritime expansion.  
 
“The intensity, in terms of the scale, number and duration of the U.S. military activities in the region in 2020 was rarely seen in recent years,” the March 12 report, An Incomplete Report on US Military Operations in the South China Sea in 2020, said.
 
“To begin with, military forces deployed to the South China Sea were of large scale and long duration,” according to the report, issued by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative.
 
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii confirms 10 warship passages into the sea last year following 10 in 2019. Just five were logged in each of the two years before 2019. In July, the U.S. Air Force also acknowledged sending a B-52 Stratofortress bomber to join two aircraft carriers in a South China Sea exercise. Command spokespersons would not answer a request for comment on whether 2020 was an unusual year overall.   
 
Analysts say U.S. forces effectively slowed China’s militarization of the sea as well as any ambitions to expand or capture islets. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam vie with Beijing’s claims to the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway. China has the strongest armed forces among regional powers, prompting other claimants to look toward the United States for support.
 “The reality is of course [China] would like to carve out a sort of sphere of influence and a sort of a buffer zone and the U.S. is of course trying to break through both of these,” said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs specializing in Southeast Asia.
Beijing cites historical usage records to back its claims to about 90% of the sea, which is prized for fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. China has alarmed the other Asian claimants by developing contested islets for military infrastructure and sending its ships into their exclusive economic zones.
 
Washington does not have a claim to the sea but keeps an eye on China as a rival superpower and potential threat to U.S. allies such as Taiwan and the Philippines. Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration ramped up Navy ship passages, called freedom of navigation operations, to show the South China Sea is open internationally, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has said.
 
U.S. military activity is not new but might have reached a new high last year because Trump was “gung-ho against China,” Oh said. The Trump administration sparred with Beijing over trade and technology sharing, as well as China’s geopolitical reach. Current U.S. President Joe Biden has followed Trump’s South China Sea strategy since taking office in January.Why Biden Sends Warships to the South China Sea, Just as Trump Did The US government has carried out one “Freedom of Navigation Operation” in the contested Asian waterway since February and sent two more close to it Southeast Asian claimants to the sea, all militarily weaker than China, welcome the U.S. maritime presence but worry that too much of it will prompt China to sustain its own, said Shariman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia.
 
“It is both a deterrent as well as a way for China to say, ‘look we are there because of the Americans,’” Lockman said.
 
Last April, a U.S. warship joined one from Australia to flex “muscle in sensitive waters near China’s survey ship in the South China Sea to show that they had Malaysia’s back and provoke a China-Malaysia ‘standoff,’” the March 12 report says.
 
China will keep building up its position at sea but will not be able to stop the U.S. activity, analysts say.
 
“In Beijing, they know very well that the U.S. and its allies have the naval supremacy Indo Pacific-wise and also in the South China Sea, and they know very well that an incident would have very serious consequences,” said Fabrizio Bozzato, senior research fellow at the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute.  
 
China will still deter the Southeast Asian states from exploring for gas or oil, keep the sea open for Chinese fishing fleets and consider landfilling more semi-submerged reefs, Oh forecast.
 
“In summation, China will complain vocally, continue with its military buildup, deploy new and more modern forces there, but they will not be able to do much to oppose the freedom of navigation operations by the U.S., its allies and other U.S.-aligned powers,” Bozzato said. 
…

The United States, South Korea and Japan agreed in high-level security talks Friday to work together to keep up pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.In a joint statement after a day of talks, U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and his Japanese counterpart, Shigeru Kitamura, and South Korea’s national security adviser, Suh Hoon, reaffirmed their commitment to address the issue “through concerted trilateral cooperation towards denuclearization.”The three countries also agreed on the need for full implementation by the international community of U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea, “preventing proliferation, and cooperating to strengthen deterrence and maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said.The national security advisers also discussed the value of working together to address other challenges, such as COVID-19, climate change and promoting an immediate return to democracy in Myanmar, the statement said.The talks held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, were the most senior-level meeting among the three allies since Biden took power Jan. 20, and it came against a backdrop of rising tensions after North Korean missile launches last week.Biden, whose administration is finalizing a review of North Korea policy, said last week the United States remained open to diplomacy with North Korea despite its ballistic missile tests, but warned there would be responses if North Korea escalates matters.The White House has shared little about its policy review and whether it will offer concessions to get Pyongyang to the negotiating table to discuss giving up its nuclear weapons.However, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that denuclearization would remain at the center of policy and any approach to Pyongyang will have to be done in “lockstep” with close allies, including Japan and South Korea.Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, held three meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but achieved no breakthrough other than a pause in nuclear and intercontinental ballistic tests. Biden, a Democrat, has sought to engage North Korea in dialogue but has been rebuffed so far.Pyongyang, which has long sought a lifting of international sanctions over its weapons programs, said last week the Biden administration had taken a wrong first step and revealed “deep-seated hostility” by criticizing what it called self-defensive missile tests.A U.S. official briefing before the talks said the North Korea review was in its final stages and “we’re prepared now to have some final consultations with Japan and South Korea as we go forward.”Joseph Yun, who was the U.S. special envoy for North Korea under both former President Barack Obama and Trump and is now at the United States Institute of Peace, said the policy options were obvious: “You want denuclearization, and you want to use your sanctions to get to denuclearization.””But how to make the first step, so that at least North Korea is persuaded not to do anything provocative. That’s the challenge.” he said.Some proponents of dialogue are concerned that the Biden administration has not highlighted a broad agreement between Trump and Kim at their first meeting in Singapore in 2018 and warn this could make it difficult to build trust.Asked whether that agreement still stood, the official said: “I understand the significance of the Singapore agreement,” but did not make clear to what extent the issue would be part of the Annapolis talks.The three officials were also expected to discuss a global shortage of semi-conductor chips that has forced U.S. automakers and other manufacturers to cut production.
…

Myanmar’s military junta ordered an internet shutdown in the country Friday that was met by defiance among anti-government protesters. Undaunted by the shutdown and the government’s deadly crackdowns on demonstrators that have killed hundreds since the February 1 coup, protesters continued to march, observe strikes and use communications technology that operates without network connections. Local wireless broadband internet services said they were ordered to shut down until further notice by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The government previously shut down mobile phone cellular networks and most of the military-controlled media outlets in the Southeast Asian country.  People take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Win Yay township, in eastern Myanmar’s Karen state, in this handout photo from the Karen Information Center taken on April 1, 2021, and released to AFP on April 2, 2021.Protesters have used the internet and cellphones to publicize violent acts that security forces have perpetrated against peaceful protesters and to organize against military rule. The government did not announce the internet shutdown or explain its order to providers. On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council repeated its call for the immediate release of all detainees in Myanmar, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, and an end to violence. In a statement late Thursday, the council expressed its deep concern for the “rapidly deteriorating situation” in Myanmar and strongly condemned the use of lethal force by security forces and police against peaceful pro-democracy protesters and the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including women and children. The council also called on the military “to exercise utmost restraint” and on all sides “to refrain from violence.” The Security Council also reiterated the need for full respect for human rights and the pursuit of “dialogue and reconciliation in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar.” Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, was charged Thursday with breaking a secrets law that dates to the country’s colonial days, her lawyer said. It is the most serious of the charges leveled against her by the military since the February 1 coup. Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, among other members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, have been detained since the coup. She has been accused of breaking COVID-19 protocols and having in her possession six handheld radios. Her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, told Reuters Thursday that Suu Kyi, three of her cabinet ministers and Sean Turnell, an Australian economic adviser, were charged a week ago under the secrets law. If convicted, they face up to 14 years in prison. Suu Kyi appeared via video for the Thursday hearing and appeared to be in good health, said Min Min Soe, another of her lawyers.  A spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls from Reuters seeking comment. Anti-coup protesters were back on the streets Thursday, some symbolically burned copies of the country’s constitution as a group of deposed lawmakers announced a new civilian government to run counter to the ruling military junta. Reuters, citing media reports, said two more protesters were killed. A supporter of the Karen National Union (KNU) holds a sign supporting the Committee for Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), in this handout photo from the KNU Doo Pla Ya District taken and released to AFP on April 2, 2021.The rebel government, dubbed the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, is made up of members of deposed NLD government who were elected in November but not allowed to take their seats after the military detained Suu Kyi and replaced the civilian government.  The CRPH also announced a new federal constitution to replace the one drafted by the military in 2008, which brought democracy to Myanmar after five decades while still maintaining the army’s power and influence in any civilian government. The CRPH-drafted constitution was written to meet the longstanding demands of Myanmar’s regional ethnic groups, who have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy. The junta’s violent crackdown against pro-democracy opponents across Myanmar has expanded in recent days against ethnic rebels, who are siding with the protesters. The military launched airstrikes against ethnic Karen rebels in eastern Myanmar in response to rebel attacks on military and police stations. The airstrikes prompted thousands of people to flee through the jungle and over the border into neighboring Thailand.  A Karen migrant living in Thailand holds her one-month-old baby in Mae Sam Laep town on the Thai side of the Salween river in Mae Hong Son province on April 2, 2021, across from where Myanmar refugees earlier attempted to cross the Thai border.The junta, which had been turning off internet service at night, told internet service providers to shut down wireless broadband service until further notice, according to Ooredoo, one of several providers to report the move Thursday. This internet shutdown was condemned by several dozen U.N. member countries via a statement written by Lithuania, France and Greece. The countries condemned “the use of internet shutdowns to restrict access to information and the apparent specific targeting of local and international journalists,” said the statement of the three European countries, co-presidents to the U.N. Group of Friends to Protect Journalists. The worsening situation prompted Christine Schraner Burgener, the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, to warn the Security Council Wednesday that “a bloodbath is imminent” and of an increasing “possibility of civil war” in the country if civilian rule is not restored. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nongovernmental organization, estimates that 536 people have been killed by the junta since the peaceful protests began, including more than 100 protesters — many of them women and children — last Saturday during the annual Armed Forces Day celebration. More than 2,700 have been arrested, charged or sentenced.  The U.S. State Department has ordered all nonessential personnel and their family members to leave Myanmar as the military’s bloody crackdown against anti-coup demonstrations continues. 
…