Vietnam’s top leaders have resolved to become at least a middle-income country over the next five years, an about-face from abject poverty in the 1980s, by attracting more foreign investment in manufacturing. The Communist Party’s Central Committee wrapped up a plenary session October 8 held to chart macroeconomic goals, and a deputy planning minister said separately that Vietnamese people should earn around $5,000 per year on average by 2025, up from $2,750 now. Vietnam would reach that milestone — middle income or higher in World Bank terms — by extending 10-year-old economic reforms that now attract foreign investors to the country that’s seen as a manufacturing peer to world factory powerhouse China. Their investment creates jobs and raises incomes among Vietnam’s 97 million people. Vietnam is now lower middle-income. FILE – Employees make their way to work at the Samsung factory in Thai Nguyen province, north of Hanoi, Vietnam, Oct. 13, 2016. (Reuters)The government is likely to stimulate new wealth by improving infrastructure and offering incentives to investors for production of high-value electronics. Prized investors today include Intel and Samsung Electronics. “What they did 10 years ago and of course since then is already delivering, so I don’t want to say they don’t need to do anything else, but they’re very much on track because of the policies already in place,” said Rajiv Biswas, senior regional economist with IHS Markit, a London-based analysis firm, in Singapore.”That’s a key message … their goal is to become an upper middle-income country,” he added. Wars, embargoes and waning support from the former Soviet Union left most Vietnamese people in poverty in the 1980s. The government’s opening, launched in 1986, started to bring investment.Sky Nguyen, 24, a former self-employed guide for foreign tourists in Ho Chi Minh City, got a job working as a real estate sales manager and expects it to pay. He’s selling parcels in a 900-hectare coastal resort complex where investors from Singapore and the Netherlands have already made commitments. “Real estate for the entire Vietnam isn’t going down,” Nguyen said. “It’s getting up a little bit, slowly.” FILE – A customs officer wearing a protective mask, amid the coronavirus outbreak, walks past an empty border gate with China’s Dong Xing town, in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam, Aug 14, 2020. (Reuters)Nguyen quit tourism after Vietnam closed its borders in March to stop imported COVID-19 cases, leaving hotels and guides with little business. The resort investors are banking on an eventual tourism rebound. Business shutdowns due to the pandemic have cost jobs worldwide and lowered consumer demand, a hit to Vietnam’s factories that make garments, shoes and furniture for export. The economy will grow at just 2% this year, according to an official target, down from 6% or more every year since 2012. The Planning and Investment Ministry, however, has set a 2021 growth target of 6% to 6.5%. Documents from the party plenum and other political meetings this month don’t offer a detailed roadmap to 2025, but analysts believe they focus on post-pandemic recovery in 2021 followed by steps to raise wealth by luring foreign-invested factories that make high-value goods such as smartphones. Vietnam has kept its coronavirus infection rate at a relatively low total of 1,148 cases. “They are confident that they are going to have a positive growth rate,” said Frederick Burke, Ho Chi Minh City-based partner with the law firm Baker McKenzie. “They’ve got the coronavirus more or less under control, but the next stage is the challenging one.” Government officials will build more roads and airports to keep investment coming, Biswas said. FILE – Cars travel along a portion of a newly built expressway in Vinh Phuc province, which links Hanoi and the northern city of Lao Cai, Nov. 1, 2014. Vietnam expects to finish the road linking Hanoi to the southern Can Tho province by 2025. (AFP)By 2025, Vietnam is expected to finish its North-South Expressway, which will stretch from Hanoi in the north to the country’s southernmost Can Tho province, and the first phase of a new international airport that would take pressure off the one in urban Ho Chi Minh City, domestic news website VnExpress International reports. Manufacturers need quality infrastructure to ship in raw materials and ship out goods for export. Nearly 3,900 foreign investment projects were licensed last year with total registered capital of $362.5 billion, higher than Vietnam’s $260 billion GDP. To bring in more, the government will try to cut bureaucracy and local-level corruption, said Jack Nguyen, a partner at the business advisory firm Mazars in Ho Chi Minh City. Foreign chambers of commerce in Vietnam have urged the state to cut red tape, he said. “When you get to the lower-level officials there’s always going to be some sort of bureaucracy [and] petty corruption, but overall I think there’s a general desire from top government officials down just to try to make business for foreign investors as easy as possible,” he said.
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Category: East
East news. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise. The practice of praying towards the East is older than Christianity, but has been adopted by this religion as the Orient was thought of as containing mankind’s original home
China Reports Spike in US Surveillance Flights
A reported spike in U.S. military flights over the seas near China reflects Washington’s drive to understand and deter Chinese expansion in contested waters, analysts say.U.S. military surveillance planes flew off China’s coast 60 times in September, more than in July or August, according to Chinese state-backed research organization South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative’s website.When contacted by VOA, U.S. Army Maj. Randy Ready, a spokesperson for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, would say only that flight frequency near China has been consistent over time.Most sorties flew over the South China Sea, the organization’s website says. Beijing contests sovereignty over that resource-rich, 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea with five other Asian governments, and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in July that Washington would help other states resist Chinese expansion.U.S. air activity would back up Pompeo’s directive, said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York.Pompeo had called China’s actions at sea illegal, and any increase in flights this year “can be considered commensurate with the U.S. State Department’s July policy statement that specific PRC South China Sea claims are unlawful,” King said.American pilots probably feel an increased U.S. government concern about Chinese activity in the air and underwater, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.Pilots can track any Chinese submarines and “familiarize” themselves with the sea, Huang said. A particular point of interest, he said, would be the Luzon Strait, between Taiwan and the Philippines’ Luzon Island, because U.S. allies aren’t as strong at that South China Sea entry point as they are in the East China Sea, he said.’Exploitation, corruption and coercion’China alarmed other countries as it expanded in the sea from about 2010 through 2017 by landfilling tiny islets for military, civilian and resource exploitation purposes. It has more firepower than the other maritime claimants, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.Pompeo accused China’s governing Communist Party earlier this month of “exploitation, corruption and coercion” in its treatment of other countries. Beijing points to historic usage records as support for its claim to about 90% of the South China Sea.Of the U.S. flights that the Chinese research organization says passed offshore in September, it reports that two-thirds went to the South China Sea. Some planes were disguised as Malaysian or Philippine aircraft, the organization’s October 12 report online says. The report says the U.S. planes were sent to “spy” on China.Ready did not comment on the number of September flights or their motive beyond saying that flight frequency had been consistent.China is paying attention to U.S. missions because it wants the United States to think it couldn’t win an air war with China, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo. The United States has an advantage in combat and deployment experience, plus backup, if needed, from allies including Japan, South Korea and Australia, he said.Washington has to show its air power, Nagy said, because “I think China has tried to create the narrative that it can make any conflict with China extremely expensive for the United States.”American planes fly anywhere that it’s legal and continue their flights in Asia, Ready said.“While the scope of our operations varies based on the current operating environment, the U.S. has a persistent military presence and routinely operates throughout the Indo-Pacific, including the waters and airspace surrounding the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” he said.He called the air movement “a continued demonstration of our commitment to the region and our willingness to defend the freedoms enshrined in international law.”The command’s Twitter feed said in August that an MV-22B Tiltrotor aircraft was preparing to land on the USS New Orleans amphibious transport vessel. The mission promoted “interoperability with allies and partners” to “defend peace and stability” in a tract of ocean that includes the South China Sea.The U.S Navy’s P-8A Poseidon patrol planes, one type mentioned by the Chinese research organization, plays a “key role” in Asia, particularly on joint missions with other countries, the U.S. Naval Institute website said in 2018.Naval EP-3E Airborne Reconnaissance Integrated Electronic System II surveillance planes, another kind of aircraft cited by the Chinese organization, are the same type as one that China forced to land in 2001 as it flew just 130 kilometers offshore.Officials in Washington may see the September flights as routine, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.“What China would consider unusual might not be felt the same from the U.S. side,” he said.Southeast Asian countries that dispute China’s maritime claims “welcome” any increase in U.S. air movement, Oh added.Beijing will take no “actual action” against the U.S. surveillance planes aside from making statements, King forecast.
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Diaspora Uighurs Say China Confirms Deaths, Indictments of Missing Relatives Years Later
Some members of the Uighur community abroad say China is now officially announcing the indictments or deaths of family members who vanished years ago in internment camps in the Xinjiang region. VOA recently talked to five of those diaspora Uighurs who said they were either directly contacted by Chinese officials or learned through foreign missions, U.N. working groups, or Chinese government press conferences that their loved ones were either jailed on dubious charges or died of illnesses at the so-called reeducation camps. Abdurehim Gheni, 44, a Uighur living in the Netherlands, told VOA he lost contact with his family in Xinjiang in 2017. He said a letter to the Dutch Foreign Ministry from the Chinese Embassy said that two of his brothers, a niece and two brothers-in-law had been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 to 16 years for crimes such as disturbing social order. The embassy said the rest of his family were “living normally in society,” a claim Gheni, a naturalized Dutch citizen, said is far from reassuring. He has held one-man weekend demonstrations in Amsterdam since 2018 to protest the sudden disappearance of his family. He is not the only diaspora Uighur to receive news recently from the Chinese about missing family members. The Chinese Embassy in Ankara told Nursiman Abdureshid, 32, that her parents and siblings had been imprisoned for “terrorism” after they disappeared in mid-2017. She believes the embassy contact was the result of the active advocacy she has led since February to secure the release of her family. ‘Training’ Abdureshid left Xinjiang for Turkey in 2015 to pursue a master’s degree and has not returned to the region. She said she learned from friends and distant relatives that her entire family had been taken to “training.” FILE – Nursiman Abdureshid holds pictures of her parents and two brothers, in Istanbul in May. (Photo courtesy: Nursiman Abdureshid)”After repeated tweets and public pleas, I finally got a phone call from the Chinese Embassy on July 15 telling me that my parents and two brothers were sentenced ranging from 13 to 16 years and 11 months in prison,” she told VOA, adding that the embassy urged her go back to Xinjiang and ask local authorities for more details about the charges. “For any Uighur, going back to China means interrogation, plus detention, upon arrival until proven innocent,” Abdureshid said. China rejects international accusations of the mass detention of over a million Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang and claims the Uighurs are sent to “vocational training centers” to be “deradicalized” and to learn new work skills. Fatima Abdulghafur, a Uighur from Sydney, told VOA that her 67-year-old father disappeared in 2016. She learned later that he had been taken to internment camps. The 40-year-old permanent resident of Australia learned last month from the U.N.’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance that her father died of “severe pneumonia and tuberculosis” in 2018. FILE – Ghopur Hapiz, back row 2nd right, and Fatima Abdulghafur, front row 2nd left, are seen in Kashgar city in Xinjiang in this undated photo. (Photo courtesy: Fatima Abdulghafur)”I suspect the cause of my father’s death was not simply from natural illness but from the unbearable torture in the camps,” she told VOA. Some rights groups say Uighurs being held in internment camps are exposed to torture and forced labor. Outside the camps, they are placed under strict control, where religious practices are prohibited. International inquiries China has repeatedly ignored calls from independent rights groups to investigate the alleged abuses, calling criticism by other countries an interference in its domestic affairs. Sean Roberts, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, said China’s response to the U.N. inquiry is a signal that the country has become emboldened to use the international system selectively. “I would not be surprised to see additional responses to international inquiries of this type while the state continues to deny that it is violating the human rights of Uighurs, especially as China takes an increasingly prominent role in the U.N. Human Rights Council,” Roberts told VOA. Last week, China was elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council a week after 39 countries, including the United States, condemned Beijing for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. “We are gravely concerned about the existence of a large network of ‘political re-education’ camps, where credible reports indicate that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained,” German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said on behalf of the 39 countries at the U.N committee. China’s spokesperson, Hua Chunying, called the reports a failed attempt to smear China. “A small number of external forces, out of ulterior motives, carry out interference in the name of human rights,” Hua said. China’s contradicting accusations Subi Mamat Yuksel, a 32-year-old Uighur American from Manassas, Virginia, believes her outspoken activism forced the Chinese government to announce the whereabouts of her missing father, Mamat Abdulla. “I kept silent for almost three years, fearing that speaking up would endanger him,” she said. Her father, 72, was arrested before his planned trip to the U.S. in 2017. FILE – Subi Mamat Yuksel holds a photo of her father, Mamat Abdulla, in Virginia in April. (Photo courtesy: Subi Mamat Yuksel)Yuksel learned in 2019 that her father, a retired director of the Xinjiang Forestry Department, was accused of being “two-faced” and “colluded with separatist forces.” She said he was forced to write a letter from a detention camp asking her and her brother in the U.S. to return to China and apologize to the country. Xinjiang government spokesperson Elijan Anayt denied the claim and said Abdulla was sentenced to life in prison for bribery. “Her accusation was completely fabricated and aimed at misleading international opinion, to solicit support for her father and attack China’s policies on Xinjiang,” Anayt said in a news briefing in June. An Uighur woman from Europe, who asked VOA to conceal her identity to protect her family in Xinjiang, said she was surprised this year when a Chinese official from the Uighur region told her via video chat that one of her parents had been sentenced to a prison term of over 10 years, after having vanished for more than two years.”The official video-called me on WeChat and said that if I wanted my relatives to ‘lead normal lives,’ I’d better not publicize the imprisonment of my parent,” she said.
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Donors Pledge $600 Million for Ethnic Rohingya Who Fled Myanmar
The United States has announced nearly $200 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees who fled what the U.S. and others call ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State in Myanmar three years ago. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more on Thursday’s global donor conference.
Camera: Steve Sanford Producer: Mary Cieslak
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New Huawei Phone Comes at Crucial Time for Chinese Company
Huawei’s new smartphone has an upgraded camera, its latest advanced chipset and a better battery. What it may not have outside the Chinese tech giant’s home market is very many buyers.
Huawei, which recently became the world’s No. 1 smartphone maker, on Thursday unveiled its Mate 40 line of premium phones, a product release that comes at a crucial moment for the company as it runs out of room to maneuver around U.S. sanctions squeezing its ability to source components and software.
The Mate 40 could be the last one powered by the company’s homegrown Kirin chipsets because of U.S. restrictions in May barring non-American companies from using U.S. technology in manufacturing without a license.
Analysts say the company had been stockpiling chips before the ban but its supply won’t last forever.
“This is a major challenge to Huawei and it’s really losing its market outside of China,” said Mo Jia, an analyst at independent research firm Canalys. The latest U.S. restrictions mean it “100% has closed doors for Huawei to secure its future components.”
Executives said this summer that production of Kirin chips would end in mid-September because they’re made by contractors that need U.S. manufacturing technology. In a press preview this week ahead of the Mate 40’s launch, staff declined to answer questions on Huawei’s ability to source chips. The head of Huawei’s consumer business, Richard Yu, referred only briefly to the issue at the end of a virtual launch event Thursday.
“For Huawei, nowadays we are in a very difficult time. We are suffering from the U.S.
government’s third round ban. It’s an unfair ban. It makes (the situation) extremely difficult,” Yu said.
Huawei, which is also a major supplier of wireless network gear, is facing pressure in a wider global battle waged between the U.S. and China over trade and technological supremacy. The U.S. government’s efforts to lobby allies in Europe to not give it a role in new high-speed 5G wireless networks over cybersecurity concerns has been paying off, with countries including Sweden and Britain blocking its gear.
Huawei phones are not widely available in the U.S., but they’re sold in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The company climbed to the top of the global smartphone rankings this summer, knocking Samsung off top spot by shipping 55.8 million devices in the second quarter to gain a 20% share of the market, according to research firms Canalys and International Data Corp. But the performance was driven by strong growth in China while smartphone sales in the rest of the world tumbled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Analysts say it will be hard for Huawei to remain No. 1.
“Huawei’s in a tight spot,” said Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight. Along with the U.S. sanctions, it’s also hurt by slumping confidence in the brand that makes retailers less keen to stock its phones. “And sadly, I don’t think you’re going to see the Mate 40 performing particularly well outside of China.”
Huawei has a small but enthusiastic fan base in Europe, its biggest market outside China. But some users are turned off by the idea of sticking with the brand because of a related problem: recent models like the Mate 40, priced at 899 euros ($1,070) and up, can’t run Google’s full Android operating system because of an earlier round of U.S. sanctions.
Instead, they come with a stripped down open source version of Android, which doesn’t have Google’s Play Store and can’t run popular apps like Chrome, YouTube and Search.
Mark Osten, a 29-year-old architect in Preston, England, bought a Huawei P30 last year when the contract on his previous Samsung phone ended.
He says the camera is great but hesitates to recommend the brand to others because of the uncertainty.
“I just can’t imagine life without YouTube or Google,” said Osten.
To make up for losing Google services, Huawei has built its own app store and has been paying developers to create apps for it. Users can request apps that aren’t yet available, but it’s not something that appeals to Chloe Hetelle, a 35-year-old events organizer in Toulouse, France, who bought a Huawei P20 model two years ago after switching from an iPhone.
“I don’t want to request apps, I just want to have YouTube,” said Hetelle. “I’m not really keen on struggling to get something that I would have easily with another phone.”
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Japanese PM Meets With US Regional Military Command
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga ended his week of regional diplomatic visits Thursday with a meeting with the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Tokyo.
Suga exchanged a COVID-19-friendly fist-bump with Admiral Phil Davidson, as the two extended greetings with reporters before their talks began. Each expressed their gratitude for the partnership and cooperation in maintaining peace and security in the region.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is the largest, in terms of geography covered, of the six U.S. military commands around the globe. The command integrates all branches of the U.S. military to maintain security, and it protects U.S. interests in the region while coordinating with allies.
The meeting follows bilateral talks the new Japanese prime minister held earlier this week with his counterparts in Vietnam and Indonesia. The central theme of those meetings was cooperation in regional defense as a hedge against China’s ambitions in the region. Suga made agreements with both nations to export defense technology and equipment.
It was the first overseas diplomatic trip for Suga since becoming prime minister last month. He took the position after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stepped down for health reasons.
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Thai Prime Minister Lifts Week-Old State of Emergency
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has lifted a state of emergency he imposed one week ago but which failed to bring an end to months of protests seeking his ouster and reforms of the country’s constitutional monarchy.
The government announced the end of the emergency decree in a written statement Thursday, saying the situation had eased to the point where “government officials and state agencies can enforce the regular laws.”
Prayuth issued the state of emergency last week after tens of thousands of protesters marched on his office at Government House in Bangkok and vowed not to leave until he agreed to step down.
Despite the ban on public gatherings of more than four people issued in the decree, mass demonstrations continued in the Thai capital, prompting Prayuth to announce on national television Wednesday that he was planning to lift the state of emergency.
However, the protesters have promised to resume the demonstrations if he did not resign by Saturday.
Prayuth is a former army general who seized power in a 2014 coup that ousted the elected civilian government. He won election to the post last year, but protesters say the vote was rigged in his favor due to laws drafted by the military.
In addition to changes to the constitution, demonstrators are also seeking to reduce the influence of the Thai monarchy. The institution maintains a divine-like status among Thailand’s elite, and is protected by strict “lese majeste” laws that allow for imprisonment of anyone convicted of insulting the monarchy.
Earlier Wednesday, Thai courts reversed a decision to shut down Voice TV — a media outlet partly owned by the family of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Voice TV is one of four media outlets under investigation by the government for their coverage of the protest movement.
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COVID-19 ‘Right Under Control’ in Australia, Experts Say
As Australia’s most populous state eases more COVID-19 restrictions, experts say the nation has brought the epidemic “right under control.” One leading commentator says he “can’t find another country that has smashed the virus” as well as Australia.Life in much of Australia is beginning to resemble what it was before COVID-19.On Friday, more restrictions will be relaxed in the state of New South Wales. Places of worship will be allowed to have up to 300 people, while the capacity of gyms will also increase. Some 40,000 sports fans are expected to attend the final of the National Rugby League competition in Sydney on Sunday.Across Australia, a nation of 25 million people, there is cautious optimism that, for now, at least, the coronavirus is being contained. More than 27,400 COVID-19 cases and 900 deaths have been recorded since it was first detected in Australia in late January; 8.3 million tests have been carried out.Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said that the closure of Australia’s borders to foreign travelers in March has also been critical.“What we have seen is that around the country, we have done incredibly well and there are four defenses; our international borders, testing, which has been uniformly good around all of the states and territories, tracing, which has overwhelmingly been outstanding, with New South Wales the gold standard,” he said. “Victoria had real challenges, but it is improving, and I think that is a very important message, and the distancing.”International travel into and out of Australia is expected to remain restricted well into next year, although a so-called safe travel bubble is allowing New Zealanders to fly into New South Wales and the Northern Territory.Many Australians have watched on in disbelief and concern for family and friends as coronavirus cases surge again in other parts of the world.Raina McIntyre, a professor of biosecurity at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute, said the situation in the United States and United Kingdom is horrifying.“It is just thoroughly shocking,” McIntyre said. “When we think of pandemics, we don’t think that well-resourced, high-income countries are going to fall apart at the seams, but that is exactly what we have seen.”Some of the world’s toughest lockdown measures in the city of Melbourne could be eased next week as reported infections continue to fall. The Victorian state capital has been at the center of Australia’s COVID-19 emergency, but authorities are hopeful strict stay-at-home orders and other measures imposed for more than 100 days have worked.However, clusters of the disease continue to cause alarm. Health officials have sent text messages to about 140,000 people living in three Melbourne suburbs urging them to be tested after a student attended school while infectious with COVID-19.Australian officials concede that while the virus is mostly contained, success will only be celebrated when a safe and reliable global vaccine is available.
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US to Sell Air-to-Ground Missiles to Taiwan
The U.S. government announced approval Wednesday to sell $1 billion worth of advanced air-to-ground missiles to Taiwan as the island shores up its defenses against the threat from China. The State Department said it had agreed to sell 135 of the AGM-84H SLAM-ER missiles – precision-guided, air-launched cruise missiles – and related equipment. Also approved was the sale of six MS-110 reconnaissance pods for air reconnaissance, and 11 M142 mobile light rocket launchers, taking the value of three arms packages to $1.8 billion. The SLAM-ER missiles will help Taiwan “meet current and future threats as it provides all-weather, day and night, precision attack capabilities against both moving and stationary targets” on the ground or ocean surface, a statement said.China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, has stepped up pressure toward the island over the past year, sending attack and surveillance aircraft into its airspace and ships near its waters.Last week, Beijing released video of a military exercise simulating an invasion of a Taiwan-like territory featuring missile strikes and amphibious landings. While Taiwan has for decades fallen back on an implicit U.S. security guarantee, Washington has urged it to strengthen its own capabilities to resist an attack. But Washington also wants Taiwan to upgrade its armaments. “Whether there’s an amphibious landing, a missile attack, a grey zone-type operation, they really need to fortify themselves,” national security adviser Robert O’Brien said last week. “Taiwan needs to start looking at some asymmetric and anti-access area denial strategies … and really fortify itself in a manner that would deter the Chinese from any sort of amphibious invasion or even a grey zone operation against them,” O’Brien said. The sales announced Wednesday did not include the MQ9 Reaper combat drones, which Taiwan has reportedly requested.
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Top US Diplomat Vows No Change on US Policy in Taiwan Strait
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the State Department is not changing its Taiwan policy amid calls to depart from a long-standing strategic ambiguity in the Taiwan Strait.The top U.S. diplomat’s remarks come as some American experts and Taiwan’s envoy to the U.S., Bi-khim Hsiao, call for more clarity on America’s commitment to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, making explicit that the U.S. would respond to any Chinese use of force against Taiwan.In response to a question posed by VOA during a press conference, Pompeo said the U.S. policy toward Taiwan “hasn’t changed” and that Washington hopes “the Chinese Communist Party will choose to honor its commitments” to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”The United States does not seek any sort of military confrontation in Asia,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus told VOA on Wednesday, urging China to refrain from aggressive behaviors and honor the freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region.”We have seen this pattern of coercion and intimidation in the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign policy and, by the way, in which their military conducts themselves,” Ortagus said.Taiwan and China have been separately ruled since a civil war in the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists lost to Mao Zedong’s Communists and rebased on the island. China still claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force, if needed, to unite the two sides.The U.S. said its long-held “One China” policy is “distinct” from Beijing’s “One China” principle, under which the CCP asserts sovereignty over Taiwan. The U.S. never accepted or endorsed CCP’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan.The U.S. and Taiwan enjoy a robust unofficial relationship. The 1979 U.S.-China Joint Communique switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The relations between the U.S. and Taiwan have been governed by the Taiwan Relations Act passed by Congress in April 1979, under which the U.S. provides defense equipment to Taiwan.“Taiwan needs to start looking at some asymmetric and anti-access area denial strategies,” White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told an online Aspen Institute forum last week. “And really fortify itself in a manner that would deter the Chinese from any sort of amphibious invasion or even a gray zone operation against them.”For decades, the U.S. has been purposely ambiguous on whether it would intervene if China attacked Taiwan. Washington believes ambiguity not only keeps China guessing but also stops Taiwan from making potentially provocative moves.But amid soaring CCP threats against Taiwan, some leading foreign policy experts, including Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, argues the U.S. ought to move from a policy of strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity to deter a Chinese move against Taiwan.Here is the exchange in @ForeignAffairs in which we respond to 3 critics of our recent piece that argues the United States ought to move from a policy of strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity as the best means to deter a Chinese move vs. Taiwan. https://t.co/jFna7huJfl— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) September 24, 2020 “The purpose of strategic clarity is to avoid a conflict in the Taiwan Strait,” Haass said, because China’s coercive tactics and military buildup are eroding deterrence in the region.In Washington, others said while the U.S. should signal credibly that China would pay a heavy price for invading Taiwan, the U.S. cannot make its willingness to defend Taiwan unconditional.“If the United States extends an unqualified security commitment to Taiwan today, without the ability to make its threats credible, China could respond by mounting an attack,” wrote Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in an article recently published by Foreign Affairs.Glaser added the U.S. should reserve the latitude to judge whether Taipei’s policies are consistent with U.S. interests, and with the region’s peace and security.In Beijing, the government has long rejected in principle any foreign interference on Taiwan-related issues. Chinese officials have been urging the U.S. to end security ties with Taiwan.In a recent briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian demanded the U.S. “abide the ‘One China’ principle and provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, immediately cancel any plan for arms sales to Taiwan, stop selling arms to Taiwan, and sever its military ties with the island.””China will make a legitimate and necessary response in light of the development of the situation,” Zhao said Oct. 13.
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Thailand Protesters Demand PM Resign Within 3 Days
Thailand’s prime minister said Wednesday he may lift a state of emergency aimed at quelling pro-Democracy demonstrations, but protesters have given the leader a three-day deadline to resign.
“I am currently preparing to lift the state of severe emergency in Bangkok and will do so promptly if there are no violent incidents,” Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who seized power in a 2014 coup, said in an address to the nation Wednesday, without specifying any time-frame.
“We must now step back from the edge of the slippery slope that can easily slide to chaos,” he added.
But protest leaders said Wednesday they would organize fresh rounds of demonstrations if Prayuth does not resign within three days.
Thousands of protesters on Wednesday marched to the Democracy House, the prime minister’s residence, in defiance of a ban on gatherings of more than four people for the sixth day in a row.
Earlier Wednesday, Thai courts reversed a decision to shut down Voice TV — a media outlet partly owned by the family of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Voice TV is one of four media outlets under investigation by the government for their coverage of the protest movement.
Protesters have also called for changes to the monarchy —a seemingly untouchable institution in Thailand, where insulting royalty can result in criminal charges.
But scuffles broke out between protesters and pro-monarchy supporters last week, and crowds Friday were dispersed with water cannons. Demonstrations over the weekend and into Monday were largely peaceful.
The latest wave of protests began in February when the Future Forward Party, a progressive party largely supported by young Thais, was dissolved by court order.
Protests were then halted due to COVID-19 concerns, but regained energy in July, despite a ban on large gatherings.
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NYT Report: Trump Tax Records Show He Tried to Land China Projects
President Donald Trump spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
China is one of only three foreign nations — the others are Britain and Ireland — where Trump maintains a bank account, according to a Times analysis of the president’s tax records. The foreign accounts do not show up on Trump’s public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they are held under corporate names.
The Chinese account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC, which the tax records show paid $188,561 in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015.
In response to questions from The Times, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes” associated with efforts to do business there. He said the company had opened the account after establishing an office in China “to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia.”
“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Garten said. “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”
Garten would not identify the bank in China where the account is held.
China continues to be an issue in the 2020 presidential campaign, from the president’s trade war to his barbs over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. His campaign has tried to portray former Vice President Joe Biden as misreading the dangers posed by China’s growing power. Trump has also sought to tar his opponent with overblown or unsubstantiated assertions about Hunter Biden’s business dealings there while his father was in office.
As for the former vice president, his public financial disclosures, along with the income tax returns he voluntarily released, show no income or business dealings of his own in China. However, there is ample evidence of Trump’s efforts to do business there.
As with Russia, where he explored hotel and tower projects in Moscow without success, Trump has long sought a licensing deal in China. His efforts go at least as far back as 2006, when he filed trademark applications in Hong Kong and the mainland. Many Chinese government approvals came after he became president.
In 2008, Trump pursued an office tower project in Guangzhou that never got off the ground. But his efforts accelerated in 2012 with the opening of a Shanghai office, and tax records show that one of Trump’s China-related companies, THC China Development LLC, claimed $84,000 in deductions that year for travel costs, legal fees and office expenses.
The Times said Trump’s tax records show that he has invested at least $192,000 in five small companies created specifically to pursue projects in China over the years. Those companies claimed at least $97,400 in business expenses since 2010, including some minor payments for taxes and accounting fees as recently as 2018, the Times reported.
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Asian Markets Rise Wednesday as US Stimulus Bill Talks Continue
Asian markets rose Wednesday with renewed hopes that the Trump administration and House Democrats were close to a deal on a new coronavirus relief measure. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index finished 0.3% higher. The S&P/ASX index in Australia closed 0.1% higher. South Korea’s KOSPI index gained 0.5%, and the TSEC index in Taiwan rose 0.1%. The Shanghai Composite lost three points, but was unchanged percentage-wise. In late afternoon trading, both the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong and the Sensex in Mumbai are up 0.8%. In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,922.30 an ounce, up 0.3%. U.S. crude oil is selling at $41.26 per barrel, down one percent, and Brent crude is selling at $42.68 per barrel, down 1.1%. All three major U.S. indices are trending positively in futures trading.
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Japan, Indonesia Agree to Bolster Defense, Economic Ties
Japan and Indonesia on Tuesday agreed to accelerate defense and trade talks over mutual concerns about an increasingly assertive China across the Indo-Pacific region.Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the second stop of a four-day trip to Vietnam and Indonesia — his first trip abroad since taking office from Shinzo Abe in September.Promoting his “free and open Indo-Pacific” campaign for regional cooperation, Suga called to ease business travel restrictions between the pandemic-hit countries and coordinate defense efforts in the resource-rich South China Sea.’Accelerate talks’In order “to further advance security and defense cooperation between the two countries amid the changing regional situation,” Suga said at Bogor Palace near Jakarta, “we’ve agreed to hold a meeting of foreign and defense ministers at an early date and to accelerate talks over the transfer of defense equipment and technology.””I fully support the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, which Indonesia initiated, as it has a lot of fundamental commonalities with Japan’s free and open Indo-Pacific,” Suga said at a joint press briefing that followed the meeting.Joko then called strengthened Tokyo-Jakarta ties vital “amid an increasingly glaring rivalry between the world’s big powers,” an apparent reference to an intensifying confrontation between the United States and China.Indonesia is to receive a $470 million loan for medical supplies and equipment and to bolster its pandemic-hit economy. Japan will also make infrastructural support available.Defense agreementThe defense agreement makes Indonesia the 12th country to arrange such a deal with Japan after Vietnam, where Suga visited Monday. Other countries include the United States, Britain, Australia and the Philippines. Indonesia now is the latest country on Japan’s list to engage in ministerial talks after the two agreed to have their foreign and defense ministers meet at a later date.Suga is scheduled to meet Wednesday with Indonesians connected to Japanese companies and lay a wreath at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery before returning to Tokyo.Some information is from AP and Reuters.
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Chinese Activists Detained for Backing Former Tsinghua Professor
Authorities in Beijing have detained an outspoken publisher and her husband on suspicion of running an “illegal business operation” after she made public her support for former Tsinghua University scholar Xu Zhangrun, a critic of China’s leaders who is now under house arrest.Geng Xiaonan and her husband were taken away in September and have both remained in custody, a move observers said was taken to punish Xu, a legal scholar who has criticized President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power.Analysts told VOA that the continuing crackdown shows that authorities are targeting supporters of dissidents to isolate and neutralize their criticism.’Bridge’ linking generationsGeng Xiaonan is the founder of privately run publishing company Ruiya Books. Over the years, she has been quietly assisting liberal intellectuals such as former premiere Zhao Ziyang’s aide Bao Tong, who remains under house arrest for supporting the 1989 student demonstrators, and outspoken former Communist Party School professor Du Guang, among others.Recently, she called for the release of citizen journalist Chen Qiushi, who went into Wuhan to report from the then epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been missing since March.She’s also been ordering groceries for outspoken legal scholar Xu Zhangrun since his arrest in July. Xu is blacklisted by most online vendors in China.Most of her friends said that they believe it’s Geng’s support for dissidents that landed her in prison. Former Tsinghua professor Xu Zhangrun urged others to speak up for Geng’s release. “She is a brave woman. Let us speak up for her, voice our concern for her,” he posted on social media.Geng is also a friend of Cai Xia, who was expelled from China Party School and stripped of her pension in August over speeches she made criticizing the country’s direction under President Xi. Cai posted on Twitter that several employees of Geng’s company were also arrested. She said Xi’s repressive rule and persecution of dissidents has reached a new high.Hu Jia, a Chinese human rights activist, told VOA that Geng’s arrest shows that China is not only targeting critics, but also purging their supporters. They are trying to isolate the dissidents by cutting off their access to economic and legal aid, as well as blocking them from international attention.“Geng acts like a bridge. She’s good at connecting younger and older generation activists; all she did was communication and coordination,” Hu told VOA. “The party now starts to target people like her. Anyone who helps dissidents to contact journalists, lawyers, or offer help to their families will be prosecuted.”An example to othersBy detaining Geng, he said, the Chinese Communist Party is trying to set an example to others. “Her case shows that the CCP can arrest and prosecute you with charges completely unrelated to activism … there’s always a charge that they can ‘tailor’ for you,” he said.The General Office of the Chinese Communist Party in September released Opinions on Strengthening the United Front Work of Private Economy in the New Era, which requires strengthening ideological training for private business owners so they can be “politically correct.” The document aims at “enhancing the party’s leadership over private economy, and uniting private business owners closely around the Party.”Song Yongyi, a renowned scholar of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and a professor of history at California State University, told VOA that this kind of language is an implicit warning.Hu Jia, who has been under close surveillance by the state, said the pattern of charging people who support dissidents can have a chilling effect on China’s pro-democracy movement.“They are giving you fear,” he said. “So many people have been ‘disappeared,’ or invited to ‘drink tea,’ or just locked up.“Especially for the younger generation,” he added. “They are thinking twice before devoting themselves to activism.”
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Thai Parliament Recalled Amid Ongoing Protests
Thailand will recall its Parliament from recess to discuss ongoing pro-democracy protests in the country, the cabinet announced Tuesday.Lawmakers are expected to meet for a non-voting session October 26 to October 27, a move that embattled Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said he approved. Protests, largely led by students, have called for Prayuth’s resignation and several other changes to Thailand’s constitution.Protest leaders called for a day of rest Tuesday after six straight days of demonstrations, despite a ban on gatherings of more than four people.The Thai government also ordered the closing Tuesday of Voice TV, a network partly owned by the family of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Voice TV is one of four media outlets under investigation by the government for their coverage of the protest movement.FCC Thai, a press club of local and foreign journalists in Thailand, said in a statement Sunday it was “deeply concerned” about the investigation of news outlets in relation to the protests.Further to this morning’s developments, please find our statement on the police investigation of Thai media outlets below:#Journalismisnotacrime#saveสื่อเสรีpic.twitter.com/qAOM1wFuLY
— FCCThai (@FCCThai) October 19, 2020The protesters also have called for changes to the monarchy — a seemingly untouchable institution in Thailand, where insulting royalty can result in criminal charges.But scuffles broke out between protesters and pro-monarchy supporters last week, and crowds Friday were dispersed with water cannons. Over the weekend and on Monday, demonstrations were largely peaceful.The latest wave of protests began in February when the Future Forward Party (FFP), a progressive party largely supported by young Thais, was dissolved by court order.Protests were then halted due to COVID-19 concerns, but regained energy in July, despite a ban on large gatherings.
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Indigenous Australians Seek Damages For ‘Slavery-Like’ Wage Theft
Thousands of aboriginal Australians are expected to join a class action lawsuit that has been filed against the West Australian government for compensation for years of unpaid work. Historians have said that at the time the authorities knew the practice was a form of slavery. In the 19th and 20th centuries, indigenous children as young as four were forcibly taken from their families to work in mines, on farms and as domestic servants in Australia. Many received little or no wages, and some were paid only with bread and beef. Lawyers have said conditions were “akin to slavery.” Until the 1970s, wages earned by indigenous workers in Western Australia were paid to the state government, but rarely was the money passed on.
Lawyers have said as many as 10,000 workers and their descendants would be eligible to join the stolen wages class action lawsuit, which has been filed in Australia’s Federal Court.
Jan Saddler is the head of class actions at Shine Lawyers, a legal firm that is leading the court case.
“We have been talking to indigenous Western Australians who are well into their 70s and 80s. Those people have effectively been waiting all their lives to be properly compensated. They are actually waiting to receive their wages from the 1940s and the 1950s and they still have not been paid, and this is what that claim is all about,” she said.
Up until the late 1970s, Australia’s laws controlled every aspect of indigenous peoples’ lives — from buying clothes to whether they could marry. They also allowed wages to be withheld.
The Western Australian state government, which is being sued for compensation, has said it hopes a mediated settlement can be reached.
Multi-million-dollar reparation schemes have compensated indigenous workers in the states of Queensland and New South Wales. A previous restitution program in Western Australia limited claimants to payments of $1,400 and came with strict conditions. Campaigners said it was too restricted and did not go far enough to address the injustices of the past.
A federal parliamentary inquiry in 2006 tried to determine how much money may have been stolen from aboriginal Australians over the decades, but lawmakers found that wage theft was so widespread the amount was almost impossible to calculate.
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Asian Markets Mostly Lower as Hopes Fade for New US COVID-19 Relief Bill
Asian markets are mostly lower Tuesday as hopes for a new U.S. coronavirus financial relief package steadily fade among investors. The Nikkei index in Tokyo closed 0.4% lower. Sydney’s S&P/ASX index dropped 0.7%, while Taiwan’s TSEC index lost 0.3%. The KOSPI index in Seoul, however, gained 0.4%. In late afternoon trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is down 0.1%, Shanghai’s Composite is up 0.2%, and Mumbai’s Sensex is up 0.7%. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set a Tuesday deadline for a final agreement with the Trump administration over a new stimulus package. Pelosi said Monday the two sides have narrowed their differences, but remain far apart on some details. In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,905.30 an ounce, down 0.3%. U.S. crude oil selling at $40.84 per barrel, unchanged percentage-wise, and Brent crude is selling at $42.64 per barrel, also unchanged percentage-wise. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the political stalemate in Washington, all three major U.S. indices are trending positively in futures trading.
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China Is Stepping Up Its Control over Religion
China appears to be strengthening its censorship controls over Christian religious publications that are approved for distribution by the state.While the Chinese Communist Party outlaws many religious texts and other books considered subversive, it does allow some Christian groups to distribute religious literature that meets the requirements of the country’s censors.However just recently, according to Chinese Christians attend Christmas Eve mass at a Catholic church in Beijing, on Dec. 24, 2016.All-round suppressionThe Chinese authorities’ controls over Christians go beyond censoring religious publications. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of churches and large crosses that have been demolished by the state for alleged regulatory violations.Xu Yonghai, a pastor at a family church in Beijing, told VOA that since 2014, the Chinese Communist Party has been targeting government-approved churches.“During former President Jiang Zemin’s term, all the official churches are the Party’s assistants and had never been under pressure. But since 2014, the government starts to restrict both underground churches and official churches,” he said, adding that this shows China is tightening religious control and pushing communism.Pope Francis kisses a child with a group of faithful from Shanghai during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s square at the Vatican, May 22, 2019.Meanwhile, as the Vatican continues its engagement with the Chinese Communist Party, there are some Catholics who say the Church’s willingness to work with the authorities has not improved their own religious freedom, especially for believers who attend underground churches.This month the Vatican confirmed that the Holy See had approved an agreement with China on a process, which remains secret, for approving bishops in the country. The Vatican has defended the measure as necessary to growing the church there.But in China, there are Catholics who object.Mr. Zhang, a Catholic in China’s southwest Yunan Province, told VOA it is a betrayal on the part of the pope and that he believes it is a sin to negotiate and compromise on holy matters such as the appointment of bishops with the Chinese Communist Party.Pastor Xu said he understands the dilemma the Vatican faces.“I think they are well-intended because engagement means that more Chinese people will know about Christ,” he said. “Yet the situation in China is just so special.”Mr. Wang, a Catholic from China’s central Sha’anxi Province, said the pope’s action is “a betrayal to God.”FILE – In this Dec. 3, 2018, residents line up inside the Artux City training center in western China’s Xinjiang region. A U.S. envoy on religion has described China’s internment of 1 million Muslims as a “horrific situation.”Hajj travel restrictionsChina has been roundly condemned for its repressive crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang province, where at least 1 million Uighurs are being held in government detention camps. But the crackdown on Muslims goes beyond Xinjiang.This month, Beijing announced stricter rules for all Muslims in China who wish to visit Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage. The National Religious Affairs Administration issued a new set of rules last Monday, stating that all trips to Saudi Arabia must be arranged by the Islamic Association of China, an organization controlled by the communist party’s international outreach arm, the United Front Work Department.Independent personal pilgrimages are not allowed.The rules state “the association should educate hajj attendees on patriotic and safe behavior, strengthen the management of attendees, and prevent the infiltration of religious extremist thinking and behavior that endangers national security.”Meanwhile, some traditional temples are also being swept away by the CCP’s promotion of atheism.The Italy-based publication Bitter Winter, an online magazine that focuses on religious freedom and human rights in China, reported that in China’s Linzhou City in its central Henan Province, more than 90 folk temples were demolished and more than 100 temples rebuilt in a month.These temples of folk beliefs have been changed into elderly activity centers, farmers night schools, and volunteer service centers, etc.The city’s actions to rectify places of folk beliefs are considered a sign of local government’s political achievements.Netizens mocked that Chinese people are now living in the “Red Dynasty.” The prerequisite for all religious beliefs is to believe in the Red Religion first. “Regardless of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Taoism, they are all a “red family,” one netizen said.
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Rights Group Says North Korean Detainees Routinely Tortured and Degraded
North Korea’s pretrial detention system is characterized by systemic torture, degrading treatment and rampant corruption, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.The New York-based group shed light on the secretive country’s criminal justice system in an 88-page report released Monday, based on accounts by former detainees as well as former government officials who fled the country.Former detainees described that they were forced to sit still on the floor for days, heads down and with their eyes directed to the floor. They said if a detainee moved, guards would punish that person as well as give a collective punishment to all the detainees in a cell.Some female detainees reported sexual harassment and assault, including rape.’System is arbitrary, violent, cruel and degrading’“North Korea’s pretrial detention and investigation system is arbitrary, violent, cruel and degrading,” said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director.“North Koreans say they live in constant fear of being caught in a system where official procedures are usually irrelevant, guilt is presumed, and the only way out is through bribes and connections,” he added.There has been no comment from Pyongyang, and the North Korean government has repeatedly denied committing human rights abuses.The report was based on interviews with eight former North Korean government officials who fled the country and 22 former detainees — 15 women and 7 men — all who were in detention after 2011, when current leader Kim Jong Un took power.No names, just numbersFour government officials told the rights group that North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea considers detainees to be inferior human beings and refers to them by numbers instead of their names.Those interviewed described degrading treatment and unhygienic conditions, including very little food, insufficient floor space to sleep, and little opportunity to bathe. They said guards would demand bribes to unofficially allow family members to bring food.The report called on the North Korean government to “end endemic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” in pretrial detention and interrogation facilities.“The North Korean authorities should bring the system out of the dark ages by asking for international assistance to create a professional police force and investigative system that relies on evidence instead of torture to solve crimes,” said Adams.
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Japan Prime Minister Suga Travels to Vietnam for Bilateral Talks
In his first foreign trip since taking office last month, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was in Hanoi Monday for bilateral talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, reaching agreements on strengthening economic and security cooperation. Suga succeeds Shinzo Abe, who recently resigned, citing ill health.At a news conference following talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Suga announced an agreement for Japan to export military equipment to Vietnam, as China has been asserting its military presence in the region.Suga told reporters the agreement was a “big step in the field of security for both countries that we reached an agreement in principle on the transfers of defense equipment and technology.” The two leaders also agreed on the importance of maintaining peace, security and freedom of navigation, and overflight in the South China Sea.Vietnam welcomes Japan, a global power, to continue to actively contribute to regional and global peace, stability and prosperity,” Phuc said.Suga said the two countries had agreed to bolster their cooperation to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and reopen markets as soon as possible. “We agreed on restarting ‘business track’ travel, as well as passenger flights between the two countries today,” he said.Suga added that Japan would “advance the diversification of supply chains” without going into the details.After their talks, Suga visited the home of former Vietnamese Leader Ho Chi Minh and laid a wreath at his mausoleum. His first diplomatic trip continues with a stop in Indonesia.
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Thai’s Embattled PM Recalls Parliament amid Protests
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bangkok Monday for the fifth straight day, defying a ban on gatherings of more than four people and demanding the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha.Prayuth seized power in a military coup in 2014.The protesters, mostly students, have also called for changes to the monarchy — a seemingly untouchable institution in Thailand where insulting royalty can result in criminal charges.Demonstrations were held in three separate locations in Bangkok on Monday, with protesters brandishing a three-finger salute borrowed from the “Hunger Games” movies, which has come to symbolize the pro-Democracy movement.Prayuth recalled Parliament, currently in recess, on Monday to discuss how to reduce tension and quell the protests. He also cautioned protesters not to break the law, saying the government hoped for peaceful protests.But scuffles broke out between protesters and pro-monarchy supporters last week, and crowds on Friday were dispersed with water cannon. Over the weekend and on Monday, demonstrations were largely peaceful.The latest wave of protests began in February when the Future Forward Party (FFP), a progressive party largely supported by young Thais, was dissolved by court order. Protests were then halted due to COVID-19 concerns, but regained energy in July, despite a ban on large gatherings.
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China’s Economy Grows Nearly Five Percent in Third Quarter of 2020
China’s economy grew 4.9% for the three months between July and September, providing further evidence that the world’s second-largest economy is rapidly recovering from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. The 4.9% growth in the third quarter of 2020 was better than 3.2% posted in the period between April and June, according to figures released Monday by the government’s National Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, China’s industrial output rose 6.9% in September, while retail sales expanded 3.3% for the same month. The statistics bureau said last week that China’s exports rose 9.9% in September compared to a year ago, and a significant increase from the 9.4% figure posted in August. Analysts say the rise in exports was spurred by global demand for Chinese-made personal protective gear and other medical supplies to curb the spread of COVID-19. China’s economy was the first in the world affected by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which was first detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan.
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Thai Protesters Defy Ban on Large Gatherings
Thousands of demonstrators continued to protest Thailand’s prime minister in Bangkok Sunday, defying a ban on gatherings of more than four people.Protests, largely led by students, have persisted in the capital for months, calling for the resignation of Prayuth Chan-O-Cha, who seized power in a 2014 military coup.Demonstrations also were held in 18 cities around Thailand, the Bangkok Post reported.The movement suffered multiple setbacks over the past week, with dozens arrested after they flashed a pro-Democracy salute at the Thai queen’s motorcade. Authorities used water cannon to disperse crowds outside Bangkok’s central shopping district Friday, sparking outrage across the country.Emergency measures were put in place over the weekend to ban gatherings of more than four people, but protests have persisted.Demonstrators gathered near Bangkok’s Victory Monument Sunday, carrying signs and photos of those who were arrested. Protests were largely peaceful, but some reported that, upon trying to return home, they were barred from entering the central Asok sky train station. BTS Sky Train later confirmed that all its stations had been reopened.Prayuth won an election last year, but protesters say the vote was rigged in his favor due to constitutional laws drafted by the military. In addition to demanding reform of the country’s constitution, the demonstrators are seeking to reduce the influence of the Thai monarchy. The institution maintains divine-like status among Thailand’s elite, and it is protected by strict “lese majeste” laws that impose prison sentences on anyone convicted of insulting the institution.
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