A stunning reversal by members of Taiwan’s leading opposition party — long seen as supporting friendly relations with Beijing — has given fresh impetus to Chinese calls for the use of military action to bring the self-governing territory to heel.“We must no longer hold any more illusions,” wrote Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of Hong Kong anti-government protesters attend a rally in support of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen outside the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan Jan. 11, 2020.Members of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) described the language in the bills as “unprecedented” from a KMT party that has long been seen by Beijing as a dialogue partner, with a shared vision of “one China” and unification as the eventual goal.It also came as a shock to influential voices on the mainland. While a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson sought to de-emphasize the matter by continuing to fault the DPP, others saw the latest development as a much more serious challenge.The Global Times’ Hu described the KMT legislators as “losers” who could no longer be counted on. “On the upside, those politicians’ treachery have helped the Chinese mainland see clearly what is happening on the island,” he wrote.The newspaper’s bellicose language, while unusual, was not unprecedented. Another influential Chinese commentator said at a policy forum late last year that “there is no need to view the threshold of reunification through force as that high.”Dai Xu, a former Chinese National Defense University professor, told the audience that “military approach and economic engagement serve equally as the ways and means to promote reunification with Taiwan.”A Chinese anti-submarine aircraft entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone on Tuesday, continuing a pattern of aggressive actions which Beijing says is aimed at deterring moves toward a declaration of independence for Taiwan. But the threatening actions have prompted rising resentment among Taiwanese and sympathy for the island in other nations.In a telephone interview from Taipei, analyst J. Michael Cole said growing skepticism of the mainland governance model and concerns about its increasingly aggressive moves have prompted more and more countries to be willing to “take a second look at Taiwan.”“For many years, countries have allowed Beijing to define for them what their ‘one-China’ policy is,” said Cole, a Taipei-based senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and author of several books on China and Taiwan. Now, he said, there are signs that more and more countries are beginning to define the policy for themselves.Our edited volume “Insidious Power: How #China Undermines Global #Democracy” is now available in paperback and Kindle on the Amazon store. #SharpPower#PoliticalWarfare#UnitedFronthttps://t.co/iP64QcFFdapic.twitter.com/zbq3zw2P8Y— J Michael Cole (寇謐將) (@JMichaelCole1) August 4, 2020Taiwan’s DPP-led government also seems to be testing the limits of Chinese forbearance.Hsiao Bi-khim, the first woman to serve as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, has an American mother and studied in the U.S. Photo taken on Oct. 19, 2016.Taiwan’s top diplomat in Washington, Hsiao Bi-Khim, recently began describing herself as “Taiwan Ambassador to U.S.” on her personal Twitter account, a title never previously used by Taipei’s envoy in the U.S. capital.“You can certainly put it in the context of warmer ties between the U.S. and Taiwan,” Cole said. “If we were in a period in which the U.S. is unhappy with Taiwan, State Department would have given [Hsiao] a call and say, please remove that.”Like other analysts, Cole does not expect Washington to abandon its longstanding “one China” policy any time soon, but he does see the United States and other nations becoming more willing to engage openly with Taipei.Taiwan is seeing many more visits by academics and officials from different countries, he said. “This is the re-adjustment that we’re seeing.”“China is big, Taiwan is small; without international support, China will continue to push Taiwan into a corner,” said Gerrit van der Wees, a former Dutch diplomat who currently teaches the history of Taiwan at George Mason University.
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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
KMT Reversal Adds Fresh Chinese War Threat Against Taiwan
A stunning reversal by members of Taiwan’s leading opposition party — long seen as supporting friendly relations with Beijing — has given fresh impetus to Chinese calls for the use of military action to bring the self-governing territory to heel.“We must no longer hold any more illusions,” wrote Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of Hong Kong anti-government protesters attend a rally in support of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen outside the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan Jan. 11, 2020.Members of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) described the language in the bills as “unprecedented” from a KMT party that has long been seen by Beijing as a dialogue partner, with a shared vision of “one China” and unification as the eventual goal.It also came as a shock to influential voices on the mainland. While a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson sought to de-emphasize the matter by continuing to fault the DPP, others saw the latest development as a much more serious challenge.The Global Times’ Hu described the KMT legislators as “losers” who could no longer be counted on. “On the upside, those politicians’ treachery have helped the Chinese mainland see clearly what is happening on the island,” he wrote.The newspaper’s bellicose language, while unusual, was not unprecedented. Another influential Chinese commentator said at a policy forum late last year that “there is no need to view the threshold of reunification through force as that high.”Dai Xu, a former Chinese National Defense University professor, told the audience that “military approach and economic engagement serve equally as the ways and means to promote reunification with Taiwan.”A Chinese anti-submarine aircraft entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone on Tuesday, continuing a pattern of aggressive actions which Beijing says is aimed at deterring moves toward a declaration of independence for Taiwan. But the threatening actions have prompted rising resentment among Taiwanese and sympathy for the island in other nations.In a telephone interview from Taipei, analyst J. Michael Cole said growing skepticism of the mainland governance model and concerns about its increasingly aggressive moves have prompted more and more countries to be willing to “take a second look at Taiwan.”“For many years, countries have allowed Beijing to define for them what their ‘one-China’ policy is,” said Cole, a Taipei-based senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and author of several books on China and Taiwan. Now, he said, there are signs that more and more countries are beginning to define the policy for themselves.Our edited volume “Insidious Power: How #China Undermines Global #Democracy” is now available in paperback and Kindle on the Amazon store. #SharpPower#PoliticalWarfare#UnitedFronthttps://t.co/iP64QcFFdapic.twitter.com/zbq3zw2P8Y— J Michael Cole (寇謐將) (@JMichaelCole1) August 4, 2020Taiwan’s DPP-led government also seems to be testing the limits of Chinese forbearance.Hsiao Bi-khim, the first woman to serve as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, has an American mother and studied in the U.S. Photo taken on Oct. 19, 2016.Taiwan’s top diplomat in Washington, Hsiao Bi-Khim, recently began describing herself as “Taiwan Ambassador to U.S.” on her personal Twitter account, a title never previously used by Taipei’s envoy in the U.S. capital.“You can certainly put it in the context of warmer ties between the U.S. and Taiwan,” Cole said. “If we were in a period in which the U.S. is unhappy with Taiwan, State Department would have given [Hsiao] a call and say, please remove that.”Like other analysts, Cole does not expect Washington to abandon its longstanding “one China” policy any time soon, but he does see the United States and other nations becoming more willing to engage openly with Taipei.Taiwan is seeing many more visits by academics and officials from different countries, he said. “This is the re-adjustment that we’re seeing.”“China is big, Taiwan is small; without international support, China will continue to push Taiwan into a corner,” said Gerrit van der Wees, a former Dutch diplomat who currently teaches the history of Taiwan at George Mason University.
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India Races to Build Border Roads as Standoff With China Continues
India is racing to build a network of roads to its disputed border with China as a military standoff between the two countries that began in May drags into winter. These roads will connect to military bases in border areas and help swiftly deploy troops and equipment to Ladakh in the Himalayan mountains. But as Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, India’s rapid infrastructure development has fueled more friction with China.Producer: Jason Godman
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COVID-19 Forces Closure of Australia’s Beaches in Sydney
COVID-19 restrictions have forced beaches to close near Australia’s biggest city as scorching spring temperatures sent thousands of people to the coast. Beachgoers also were warned to stay away from Sydney’s most famous arc of sand at Bondi as it neared capacity. Heading to the coast is a quintessential Australian past-time. But warmer weather in the southern hemisphere is testing the nation’s plans to keep the coronavirus at bay. Visitor numbers are now limited, and two beaches south of Sydney were closed to avoid overcrowding. Swimmers also were told to avoid Bondi and Coogee, as thousands of people flocked to two of Sydney’s most popular arcs of sand. COVID-19 marshals and the police have been on patrol to ensure people stayed a towel-length apart. The authorities have said the public’s response has been encouraging.But beachgoers have had mixed opinions about the safety measures.Australia has recorded about 27,000 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, and 900 people have died. Most states and territories have managed to contain the coronavirus. Queensland has reported no new infections in the past day. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the community is heeding hygiene and distancing advice. “Once again I just want to congratulate Queenslanders for the great work that they have done. The results that we have had because of our health response has been because Queenslanders have listened. We have seen that time and time again, whether it is dealing with cyclones and natural disasters, whether it is dealing with bushfires, Queenslanders come together. It is an incredible story,” Palaszczuk said.Lockdown measures, however, still apply in the city of Melbourne. Residents can only leave home for essential activities. Health officials there have said that restrictions will ease later this month if infection rates continue to fall.
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Negative Views of China Soar Among World’s Advanced Democracies, Poll Finds
China’s international reputation has plunged sharply amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey of people in more than a dozen advanced democracies. In a telephone-based poll of upwards of 14,000 people in 14 countries between June and August conducted by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center, 61% of all respondents said Beijing had handled the COVID-19 outbreak poorly, compared to 37% who gave the Asian economic giant a favorable response. The negative views varied among each nation surveyed, with the highest numbers coming from Japan, Sweden and Australia, where more than 80% of those asked had an unfavorable opinion of China. Eighty-one percent of Australian’s disapproved of Beijing, compared to 57% in 2019, the sharpest increase of negative attitudes toward China among all nations. Tensions between Australia and Beijing have risen since Canberra called for an independent probe into the origins of the novel coronavirus outbreak, which was first detected last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Beijing has retaliated by imposing heavy tariffs on Australian barley and suspended Australian beef imports. Meanwhile, about 78% of all respondents had a negative view of Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying they had little or no confidence in Xi to do the right thing regarding global affairs. The other nations surveyed in the Pew Research poll include Britain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, and the United States.
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Facing Criticism Over COVID-19 and Xinjiang, Chinese Leader Talks Up Archaeology
As China faces global criticism over its initial handling of the COVID pandemic, “re-education” camps for ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, online censorship and more, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, used a high-level meeting to talk about a different topic: how archaeology should serve the interests of the ruling party.At a recent meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi said that “archaeology is of great socio-political and cultural significance.” He recommended developing China’s field of archeology to better understand the history of Chinese civilization, its origins and its contributions to humanity.Archaeology is not typically an important topic for national leaders. Some analysts argue that Xi is ultimately looking for ways to strengthen the authority of the ruling Communist Party among China’s own people.Foreign scholars have pointed out that Chinese archaeology has for decades been caught up in different social and political agendas. Nationalism has long influenced the kinds of research archeologists pursue, and how their discoveries are interpreted.Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen on a phone screen remotely addressing the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 22, 2020, at U.N. headquarters.Xia Ming, a political scholar at New York University, said that Xi’s current goal is to use archaeology as a tool to create a better international image of China and to mobilize a nationalist sense of pride when the entire world is confronting China because of the COVID-19 outbreak.”I think what Xi wants to say is that today if we can’t have the world, we can still make the world’s greatest civilization,” Xia said. “The center and the driving force of world civilization is not in the West at all. Not in the United States, but in China. Xi wants the Chinese people to have a sense of nationalistic pride.”He also noted that the push will help emphasize how all sciences and research fields serve the party.Xi is not the first Chinese president who has used archaeological discoveries to serve foreign policy.On Oct. 24, 2003, then-Chinese President Hu Jintao addressed the Australian Parliament on a state visit to Australia, noting that the friendly exchanges between the two countries have a long history, although they are far apart.”As early as the 1420s, China’s Ming Dynasty’s ocean-going fleet had been to Australia’s shores”, he said, emphasizing that China made a positive contribution to the economic and multicultural development of Australia.Xia said Hu used China’s archaeological findings to justify its approach to Australia in the past and to provide legitimacy for China’s continuing interest in the area. However, Xia said, China’s framing of their history was seen as offensive in Australia at the time.In a Feb. 18, 2011 photo, members of the media view an infant mummy discovered in the Tarim Basin in far western China, at the Secrets of the Silk Road exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.China watcher Gordon Chang argued that for the CCP, archaeology has never been a neutral and objective science but a tool to promote the party line. One example was how China used “archaeological evidence” to prove that the South China Sea is part of China.”China made the claim that these areas have been part of China from time immemorial. So, when you emphasize archaeology, you are emphasizing the continuity of Chinese civilization. So, therefore it is making the claim that all of these areas should be part of China,” he said. “Yes, it has everything to do with China’s territorial ambitions.”Other scholars see more personal motivations behind Xi Jinping’s archaeology push.Wang Juntao, China politics expert, said Xi’s emphasis on the subject is primarily aimed at justifying the legitimacy of his rule.He said that if Xi engages in dictatorship for himself, not the communist party, he must find reasons, basis and support from Chinese tradition. For most of recorded history, China was ruled by a succession of dynastic rulers, who exercised enormous power.
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To Understand Thailand’s Latest Pro-Democracy Movement, Go Back to 1976
Returning to Thammasat University 44 years after a massacre, Pojanee Theil describes Thailand as a country stuck in a loop.
Just a few hundred yards from the royal palace, the radical campus is once more the fulcrum of pro-democracy protests calling for sweeping reforms of Thai society and politics.
But as in the past, the military is refusing to let go of power, and the threat of a royalist establishment hangs heavy in the air.
“How could they have done this to other human beings?” laments 64-year-old Pojanee, a witness to the Oct. 6, 1976, events in which royalist mobs and security forces killed scores of students protesting at the return to Thailand of a hated general. “I’m right back where I was as a kid … and this country has gone nowhere since then.”
In 1976, left-wing protesters called for a new constitution and the ousting of Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn, a virulent anti-communist who had returned from exile.
This time, students at Thammasat have upped the ante.
They want a change of government, a new constitution and unprecedented reforms of the monarchy — an institution which has remained beyond public criticism, despite Thailand’s decades of political turmoil.
Outrage and sorrow were shared across generations on Tuesday’s anniversary, which marks one of the darkest days in Thailand’s bloody democracy struggle.
Among those gathering for a day of lectures and candle-lit memorials were many young people who have taught themselves about the bloody crackdowns, even though the suppressions were whitewashed from their school textbooks.
“The massacre should never have happened. It’s wrong,” said Punnapa, a 15-year-old high school pupil whose full name is withheld because of her age. She vowed to join the Thammasat law department when she is old enough.
“Only the law can bring change and justice,” she said.FILE – Police stand guard over Thai student protesters lying on a soccer field at Thammasat University, in Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 6, 1976.New generation fights old battles
The latest protests have revived a fading democracy movement.
“What’s special about this year’s commemoration is that we see the ‘New Gen’ are very engaged in the political history of their country,” former student leader and political veteran Chaturon Chaisang told the crowd. “These dark memories are a driving force for their movement.”
There have been no prosecutions for the shootings and lynchings of Oct. 6, many of which were captured in grisly TV footage showing piles of burning bodies and unarmed, half naked students forced to crawl on the campus football pitch under the boots of soldiers.
The bloodshed shaped the relationship between people and the state in modern Thailand, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
“Ever since, the Thai people have struggled to break a cycle of violence and impunity,” Robertson said.
The Thai government and military have so far tolerated the latest protests. But calls for reform of the monarchy have moved the protesters onto dangerous ground in a land where the army chiefs swear loyalty to the palace.
Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, with a charter constraining palace powers drafted by coup leader Pridi Banomyong. He founded Thammasat University two years later, the campus becoming a cradle of radical thought for the generations since.
But democracy has never stuck in Thailand. Governments routinely fall to coups led by an arch-royalist army. Only one elected leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, has ever completed a full term. He served from 2001 to 2006.
Thaksin, a hero to the rural poor but reviled by the royalist elite, was booted from power by the army, setting in motion 14 years of short-lived governments, political violence, army takeovers and economic malaise.
The youth protesters want to force out the current government of Prayut Chan-o-Cha, an ex-army chief who took power in another 2014 coup.FILE – Pro-democracy activists sleep in the historic field of Sanam Luang they occupied for an overnight protest rally in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 20, 2020.History repeating itself?
Thammasat is again the reference point in a country unable to escape its past.
“Let it be known that our Oct. 6 heroes did not die in vain,” said Anon Nampa a radical lawyer and one of the strongest voices calling for palace reform, at Tuesday’s memorial. “We promise to keep fighting, pushing into taboo territory.”
Super rich, protected by a lese-majeste law and the army, Thailand’s royal family has been off-limits to previous rounds of democracy protests. But Anon, and several other leaders of the creative youth-facing movement, have called for King Maha Vajiralongkorn to abide by the 1932 constitution.
He ascended the throne in 2016 and has since tightened his grip on the crown’s immense wealth and on special army units under his direct control.
The protest groups say they will unite on Oct. 14 in the heart of Bangkok for a peaceful mega-rally designed to test the breadth of public support for their movement.
To tip the government toward crisis, they will need a “mob” that is larger than the 30,000 or so who met in late September, Thai watchers say.
“I know that every time we organize a mob, flashbacks to traumatic memories come to mind,” said student and political activist Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul in front of the memorial to the Oct. 6 massacre.
“Will history repeat itself? We will do the best we can to protect everyone,” she said.
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After 6 Months Stranded, Easter Islanders Will Return Home
About 25 residents from remote Easter Island who have been stranded far from their loved ones for more than six months because of the coronavirus will finally be able to return home this week on a French military plane.
The group has been stranded on Tahiti in French Polynesia. Many arrived in March planning to stay for just a few weeks, but they got stuck when the virus swept across the globe and their flights back home on LATAM airlines were canceled.
A second group of about 15 Tahitians have also been stranded on Easter Island because of the flight cancelations.
French authorities announced Tuesday they would use an Airbus A400M Atlas turboprop to repatriate both groups in a flight that would take about six hours in each direction.
Also named Rapa Nui, Easter Island is a Chilean territory located midway between Polynesia, in the South Pacific, and South America.
The French state department said it launched the mission following a request from Chilean authorities, and it was being conducted in close coordination with the French embassy in Santiago, Chile. The plane is currently deployed with the French military in Tahiti.
The group of Easter Islanders had been begging authorities for help for months — in Spanish, in French, and in English. They had even written to Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. The Associated Press first wrote about their plight last month.
“I’m so happy!!!” said the group’s unofficial leader, Kissy Baude, in a WhatsApp message to the AP. “We are very happy and relieved to finally be able to return home and to know that the Tahitians stranded in Rapa Nui will also return home in the same mission.”
Baude thanked authorities in France, French Polynesia, Chile and Easter Island for putting the logistics in place, including airport management and a 14-day virus quarantine they will undergo at a health center when they arrive back on Easter Island.
Among those stranded is a 21-year-old mom who gave birth to her second son just a few days ago without her husband by her side, because he was back home. It was unclear whether she and her newborn would be ready to return home on Thursday’s flight.
Home to about 8,000 people, Easter Island is a tiny speck in the vast Pacific Ocean renowned for its imposing moai — giant heads carved from volcanic rock by inhabitants hundreds of years ago. For Easter Islanders, Tahiti has long been a stopping-off point, a connection to the rest of the world.
Until the virus struck, LATAM airlines ran a regular return route from Santiago, Chile, to Easter Island and on to Tahiti. LATAM said it suspended the route in March because of the virus and doesn’t have a timeline for restarting it. No other airlines offer a similar service.
“The resumption of this flight is subject to the development of the pandemic and travel restrictions in place,” the airline said in a statement last month.
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Pompeo Holds Talks With Asia-Pacific Counterparts in Tokyo
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is holding talks Tuesday in Tokyo with his counterparts from Japan, Australia and India that are aimed at strengthening a regional initiative to counter China’s growing assertiveness. The four top diplomats, including Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s Minister of External Affairs — dubbed in diplomatic circles as the Quad, will discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the creation of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific Initiative (FOIP) focused on economic and security cooperation. The four diplomats also will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as part of his first diplomatic effort since replacing Shinzo Abe last month, after Abe stepped down citing health issues.Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pose as they attend a meeting at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, Oct. 6, 2020.During a bilateral meeting with Motegi ahead of the Quad summit, Pompeo praised Prime Minister Suga as “a powerful force for good” serving as Abe’s chief spokesman and key ally during the former prime minister’s tenure, and he said Washington “has every reason to believe he will strengthen our enduring alliance in his new role.” Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell briefed reporters by phone Friday on Pompeo’s upcoming trip. Stilwell said Pompeo’s first stop will be Tokyo and lauded the timing because Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has just taken the helm. China has denounced the Quad as an attempt to contain its development. The visit comes at a low point for U.S.-China relations, and Pompeo has been a forceful and outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party and what he views as Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy. Tuesday’s quadrilateral meeting in Tokyo was to be Pompeo’s first stop on a three-nation tour of Asia that included Mongolia and South Korea, but those visits were canceled after President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last week and was briefly hospitalized. Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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US Secretary of State Pompeo Holds Talks With Asia-Pacific Counterparts in Tokyo
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is holding talks Tuesday in Tokyo with his counterparts from Japan, Australia and India that are aimed at strengthening a regional initiative to counter China’s growing assertiveness. The four top diplomats, including Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s Minister of External Affairs — dubbed in diplomatic circles as the Quad, will discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the creation of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific Initiative (FOIP) focused on economic and security cooperation. The four diplomats also will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as part of his first diplomatic effort since replacing Shinzo Abe last month, after Abe stepped down citing health issues.Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pose as they attend a meeting at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, Oct. 6, 2020.During a bilateral meeting with Motegi ahead of the Quad summit, Pompeo praised Prime Minister Suga as “a powerful force for good” serving as Abe’s chief spokesman and key ally during the former prime minister’s tenure, and he said Washington “has every reason to believe he will strengthen our enduring alliance in his new role.” Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell briefed reporters by phone Friday on Pompeo’s upcoming trip. Stilwell said Pompeo’s first stop will be Tokyo and lauded the timing because Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has just taken the helm. China has denounced the Quad as an attempt to contain its development. The visit comes at a low point for U.S.-China relations, and Pompeo has been a forceful and outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party and what he views as Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy. Tuesday’s quadrilateral meeting in Tokyo was to be Pompeo’s first stop on a three-nation tour of Asia that included Mongolia and South Korea, but those visits were canceled after President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last week and was briefly hospitalized. Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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Why US Arms Control Envoy Made a Beeline for Vietnam on Brief Asia Trip
Washington’s point person on arms control visited Vietnam, a Communist war rival five decades ago, for meetings about perceived threats from China because Vietnamese officials hold positions in key international bodies and align ever more closely with the West, experts say. U.S. presidential arms control envoy Marshall Billingslea met Vietnamese officials Thursday to discuss Chinese offshore expansion, including fears of a growing nuclear arsenal, he told reporters. The envoy had visited traditional U.S. allies Japan and South Korea on the same trip. “We know that the United States has recognized Vietnam’s strategic potential in Asia and that the strategic potential of Vietnam is increasing with the competition between the United States and China, so I should think a lot of discussion would be revolved around the larger balance of power in the region, including the South China Sea,” said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. Vietnam this year became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) negotiating bloc, attractions for the U.S. delegation, analysts say. Vietnamese leaders have opened already to other high-level U.S. visits, arms sales from Western ally India and ports-of-call by the Australian navy.The U.S. flag (L) flutters next to the Vietnamese flag in Hanoi, Vietnam June 1, 2015.“We have solicited their advice on how to use multilateral mechanisms because…when it comes to what the Chinese are doing, this is not simply about great power competition,” Billingslea told a telephone news briefing Friday. Vietnam, like the United States, resents Beijing’s expansion in the South China Sea. Chinese sovereignty claims to about 90% of the waterway overlap those of Vietnam, as well as Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines – all militarily weaker than China. The United States fought for 12 years against Vietnam’s Communist forces, which were on their way to taking over the Southeast Asian country’s south. U.S. forces pulled out in 1973 and Communist forces took over all of Vietnam in 1975. Today’s Communist officials in Hanoi still have a unique party-to-party relationship with China as well as access to North Korea, a fellow Communist state that has outraged U.S. officials. The U.S. may be looking to Vietnam for tips on how to approach North Korea at a series of Asian leadership meetings set for late 2020, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Vietnam, he said, would be able to size up the views of other ASEAN states and check in on Pyongyang. “The significance is that the U.S. sees Vietnam as a player that one can exchange ideas with, that can canvas the region of the ASEAN members but is at the U.N. as well and that has a relationship with North Korea that many other countries don’t have,” Thayer said. North Korea irks the United States by test-firing missiles near Japan and South Korea. Meetings in 2018 and 2019 between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un failed to stop the tests. U.S. arms control envoys seldom bring up their top agenda item, denuclearization, with smaller countries, Vuving said. Vietnam has missile defense systems but no nukes. It operates the world’s 22nd most powerful armed forces, according to the GlobalFirePower.com database. China was the chief talking point, Billingslea said on the media call Friday. “We are talking about a dangerous, revisionist power that is engaged…in a secretive nuclear weapons buildup and a massive missile production program,” Billingslea said. China has reneged on promises related to peace in the disputed sea, he added, and Beijing “challenges” freedom of navigation. The envoy linked North Korea to “a number of significant challenges with regard to nuclear weapons.” Chinese landfilling of disputed South China Sea islets – some for military use – through 2017 rattled the other five claimants, including an ever-outspoken Vietnam. Chinese vessels have passed through the ocean economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia this year. Claimant countries value the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea for its fisheries and energy reserves. Washington has no claims to the sea but wants to stop rival world superpower China from gaining too much control offshore, analysts have said. The U.S. government in 2016 lifted a wartime embargo on selling Vietnam lethal weapons. The envoy now sees Vietnam as “instrumental” in checking Chinese actions because of its serial protests to Beijing, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo. Billingslea probably wants Japan, South Korea and Vietnam to push back together against China, Nagy said. “I think that if they can get (Vietnam) on the same page of the book, that this will be important in terms of drawing the red lines such that China will cease, or pull back or stop being engaging in such provocative behavior in the Indo-Pacific region in general,” Nagy said.
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New South Wales Sees Ninth Day Without Locally Transmitted COVID Cases
Authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales said Sunday that there were no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours, marking its ninth day without any community transmission of the coronavirus. Neighboring Victoria, however, reported 12 new cases and one death in the same time frame.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported nearly 35 million global COVID-19 cases early Sunday with more than a million deaths.Muslims keeping a safe social distance perform Umrah at the Grand Mosque after Saudi authorities ease the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 4, 2020. (Saudi Press Agency/Handout via Reuters)Saudi Arabia on Sunday began allowing a limited number of Saudi citizens and residents to enter the Grand Mosque in Mecca, during the first phase of the reopening of Islam’s holiest site. The mosque has been shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic. On Saturday, India reached a grim milestone of more than 100,000 dead from COVID-19. It is the third country in the world to pass that mark, following the United States and Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University data.India’s Health Ministry reported 100,842 deaths, while the number of infections reached 6.47 million, adding nearly 80,000 new cases in one day.With winter approaching, and the Hindu festival of Diwali next month, the world’s second most populous country could see a jump in cases, health experts said.”We have seen some recent slowdown of the virus curve, but this may be a local peak, there may be another coming,” Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan told Reuters.She said that just over 7% of India’s 1.3 billion people have been exposed to the virus, meaning herd immunity is still far away. Herd immunity is reached when most of a population is immune to a disease.By the end of the year, Mukherjee said, 12.2 million Indians could be infected. The spread could be slowed, she said, through measures such as social distancing, face covering and hand washing.”So it will continue like a slow burning coil, that is my hope, and we have to play the long game to stop it from being a wildfire,” she told Reuters.EuropeMeanwhile, several European countries continue to struggle against a surge in cases, reporting record one-day increases.Russian officials said Sunday 10,499 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the previous 24-hour period. Russia’s Tass news agency said it was the first time since May 15 that the new caseload had exceeded 10,000. Britain reported 12,872 new cases Saturday. The government said the jump was partly the result of technical issues that had delayed the reporting of cases from September 24 to October 1.Even so, 12,872 is nearly twice the 6,968 cases reported Friday, and it smashed the previous biggest daily toll of 7,143, recorded Tuesday.France also set a new daily record of confirmed coronavirus infections Saturday — nearly 17,000 — about 5,000 more than it reported Friday. It now has nearly 630,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The number of deaths rose to 32,171, the third highest in Europe after Britain and Italy, also according to Johns Hopkins.Ireland reported 613 new cases, the most in a day since April when it was in lockdown, the acting chief medical officer said Saturday. Ireland, a nation of not quite 5 million people, now has more than 37,600 cases, Johns Hopkins said.Like most of Europe, Ireland has seen a steady increase in infections since the end of July and has tightened restrictions as a result, including banning all indoor restaurant dining and most trips in and out of the capital, Dublin.Solomon IslandsOn the other side of the world, the Solomon Islands has reported its first case of coronavirus. The Solomons had fought to remain free of the deadly virus, including closing its border in March.Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, speaking in a televised address, said a student who recently returned from the Philippines on a repatriation flight has tested positive after testing negative three times before boarding the plane.Sogavare reassured the archipelago that no lockdown would be needed and that the government would work to bring home 18 other students in quarantine in Manila.
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Russia Confirms Pollution off Far East Amid Concern About ‘Ecological Disaster’
Russia told residents Saturday to stay away from a pristine beach in the Far East because of unexplained water pollution that Greenpeace said was evidence of an “ecological disaster” that had caused some surfers to break into a fever and vomit.The cause of the pollution off the coast of the Kamchatka region was not immediately clear. Authorities said preliminary tests had found elevated levels of oil products and the chemical phenol, and Greenpeace told them to urgently find the source.”The only thing it is possible to say now is there are contaminative substances in the water. Final tests are not ready yet,” Kamchatka’s regional governor Vladimir Solodov said.Greenpeace suggested the pollution could have happened weeks ago.It said the pollution was noticed over the course of several weeks by people on Khalaktyrsky beach, a section of the Pacific coastline covered with black volcanic sand that is dozens of kilometers long and popular with tourists.’Negative consequences'”The water … has changed color and become unsafe for people’s health. For several weeks people who were in contact with the water have experienced negative consequences,” it said in a statement.After getting into the water, people have complained of sore throats, worsening eyesight, dry eyes, nausea, physical weakness, vomiting and fever, it said.Dead octopuses and other sea life could be seen washed up on the beach in videos posted on Instagram and reposted by Greenpeace. Reuters could not immediately confirm that the videos showed current environmental damage from the scene.”The fact that dead animals can be found along the entire coastline confirms the seriousness of the situation,” Greenpeace said.Local authorities said Saturday that they had inspected the beach and that the animals had washed up because of a storm.Earlier this week, the region’s acting natural resources minister, Alexei Kumarkov, said tests showed levels of oil products and phenol were 3.6 and 2.5 times higher than the norm.
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50 US Senators Push for Taiwan Trade Deal
Fifty Republican and Democratic senators signed a letter this week encouraging U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to begin formal negotiations on a comprehensive trade agreement with Taiwan.In the letter sent Thursday, the senators said, “As we look to advance our initiative for a free and open Indo-Pacific, we believe that now is the time to establish trade agreements with like-minded countries in the region.”As tensions have risen between Washington and Beijing over coronavirus, trade, human rights issues and Chinese espionage, many lawmakers are looking to strengthen ties with Taiwan.As one of the 11 largest U.S. trading partners, Taiwan contributed $76 billion to U.S. trade in goods and $18.5 billion in services in 2018, supporting an estimated 208,000 U.S. jobs, the U.S. lawmakers said in the letter.They also stressed that, to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific, U. S. needs to counter “China’s use of unfair trading practices and other policies to advance its economic dominance in the region.”“An agreement with Taiwan would help us accomplish this goal by building a network of like-minded governments dedicated to fair competition and open markets free from government manipulation and would serve as a signal to other nations that Taiwan is a viable partner that is open for business.”The senators urged the administration to prioritize a trade deal with Taiwan that “would promote security and economic growth for the United States, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific as a whole.”One authors of the letter, Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, wrote on Twitter that Taiwan is “an important partner of the U.S., and a model democracy in the Indo-Pacific.”Taiwan is an important partner of the U.S., and a model democracy in the Indo-Pacific. Today, I joined many Senate colleagues in encouraging @USTradeRep to prioritize a comprehensive trade agreement with #Taiwan. More here: https://t.co/Pl3sUTn98l— U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SenateForeign) October 1, 2020Others who signed the letter included Senators Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican; Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat.Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft also showed her support for closer U.S.-Taiwan relations.“Taiwan deserves the highest platform where it can share its remarkable innovation and expertise,” Craft tweeted while stating that the world needs Taiwan’s full participation at the U.N. in a wide range of fields, including public health and economic development.The world needs Taiwan’s full participation at the @UN, particularly with respect to matters that affect public health and economic development. It is a force for good, and a UN without Taiwan’s full participation is cheating the world. @TECRO_USA #AITpic.twitter.com/6kcUo4VkL2— Ambassador Kelly Craft (@USAmbUN) September 30, 2020As U.S. officials have reached out to Taiwan, Beijing has strongly opposed all official interactions between the two.Last month, after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, Chinese officials said they opposed all official interactions between the two, and denounced the trip.“We urge the U.S. … not to send any wrong signals to ‘Taiwan independence’ elements to avoid severe damage to China-U.S. relations,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.History on proposed trade dealsLast December, 161 U.S. lawmakers wrote to Lighthizer to express support for a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Taiwan. But Lighthizer told the lawmakers that Taiwan’s restrictions on U.S. imports of pork and beef were the main obstacle to further U.S.-Taiwan trade relations.Support for a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Taiwan began to increase after Taiwan’s president announced at the end of August an end to restrictions on imports of U.S. pork and beef containing ractopamine, but the USTR, which is in charge of U.S. foreign trade negotiations, remained quiet.U.S. officials have held several high-profile meetings with Taiwanese government officials in recent months.Keith Krach, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, visited Taiwan earlier this month, the second high-level visit by a U.S. official in the past two months.A day later, Craft had lunch with James K.J. Lee, director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, a meeting she called “historic.”Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Why Vietnam Is Asking Other Asian Countries to Help Squelch Fake News
A surge in fake news around Southeast Asia, particularly bogus COVID-19 information, has prompted leaders to explore a regional crackdown after a suggestion from a Vietnamese security official.Police agencies in the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries – which represent a total population of about 650 million from Myanmar to the Philippines – should improve cooperation to stop fake news among other cross-border crimes, a Vietnamese official said at a September 25 meeting with peers from around Southeast Asia.“I think the issue is something that ASEAN has been keeping tabs on, but perhaps I think the impetus for Vietnam’s call recently is due to the COVID-19 situation and the consequent infodemic,” said Harris Zainul, an analyst at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia.“We know that there has been a spike in false information related to COVID-19 ever since the pandemic had started and arrived in Southeast Asia, so perhaps Vietnam’s call should be viewed in that context,” Zainul said.The bloc member states signed a declaration in 2014 to encourage socially responsible media and four years later reached a consensus to minimize the harmful effects of fake news. Fake news is on the rise now, Nguyen Thanh Son, head of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security’s Foreign Relations Department, told the bloc’s Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime.Nguyen pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for the spread of fake news as well as other crimes, according to Asian media reports.In one case from an ASEAN member state, Philippine police arrested a woman in April after she said part of one province had 9,000 coronavirus cases when there were just over 6,200 infections nationwide.“In the guise of being authentic news, fake news can directly become accessible to every Filipino by just a click on Facebook and which eventually makes Filipinos believe of its authenticity without looking at whether such news is from credible sources or not,” said Henelito Sevilla, international relations professor at University of the Philippines. “Fake news undermines the efforts of the Philippine government especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic when It exposes wrong information.”In another typical case for the ASEAN region, the Singapore government rebutted in April via its official website as “NOT TRUE” rumors that the country’s supermarkets would restrict access based on customer identification card numbers. The website lists a string of fake news, followed by corrections.Southeast Asian governments normally counter false medical tips with correct information or “increase literacy,” said James Gomez, regional director at the Bangkok-based think tank Asia Centre. But when governments come under fire, he said, they tend to strike back against the purveyors of news.“Where they use these temporary laws or existing fake news laws is actually to go after their critics, especially criticism of how the different governments are handling the COVID-19 response,” Gomez said.In democracies such as the Philippines, stepped-up enforcement of fake news risks flouting the constitution, said Herman Kraft, a political science professor at University of the Philippines at Diliman. Still, he said, the government of President Rodrigo Duterte will be tempted to use any new enforcement mechanism against critics.“If it’s going to be an ASEAN thing, then that means taking action and labeling it as fake news against representations either in social media or in hate media that is actually associated with the left in particular in the Philippines,” Kraft said. “(This process) is something that I think the government might actually be interested in.”Fake news is normally a domestic issue rather than a trans-border one, Zainul said. But if leaders of the Southeast Asian bloc follow up Vietnam’s idea, they might develop a list of uniform guidelines for all member countries to follow, he said. The parties could increase sharing of information from one country that affects another, as well.Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam would be most eager of 10 member states, said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Vietnam particularly has a lot riding on the accuracy of news, he said. Free speech is unprotected legally, but Vietnamese officials – mindful of economic development – seldom block websites.“It’s part of Vietnam’s ongoing war against bloggers and social media because social media is considered extremely subversive and it subverts the image and authority of the Vietnamese Communist Party,” Chong said.
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Uighur Couple, Official’s Article Confirm China’s Ban on Islamic Marriage Vow
While more findings are surfacing about the destruction of mosques and shrines in the Xinjiang Muslim region of China, some Uighurs tell VOA that Chinese authorities have banned the Islamic marriage vow known as nikah in wedding ceremonies, a claim corroborated by an article previously written by a Chinese official.A Uighur couple in their late 20s, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, had to omit nikah during their wedding ceremony after lawfully registering and obtaining a marriage certificate issued by the local government in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang last fall.Nikah is a formal Islamic marriage vow. It is considered integral to a religiously valid Islamic marriage and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom and the bride. Verses from the Quran are read, and a religious scholar must be involved. The majority of Uighurs follow the Sunni denomination of Islam, and Islamic religious elements such as nikah play a significant role in their traditional marriage.“Even though we are granted religious freedom on paper [in the Chinese constitution], we were already fully aware that attempting to have the ritual would put us on the list [for detention],” the couple told VOA.“Having that [nikah vow] in weddings nowadays here [in Xinjiang] equals to being a religious extremist, which would land anyone involved in the ritual in reeducation or even a long prison sentence,” they said.Official affirmationIn an article posted in 2018 on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, Behtiyar Ablimit, a committee member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Poskam county in southern Xinjiang, attested to the government’s proscription of nikah, while contradicting Chinese official statements, which often emphasize that the religious rights of Uighurs are “fully respected” in Xinjiang.The article details the return of “four activities” to the secular world.The “four activities” referred to are wedding, funeral, naming and circumcision ceremonies.“With the return of the ‘four activities’ to the secular world, not only [Chinese Communist] Party members and public officials but also a lot of masses spontaneously reject the interference of religion on the ‘four activities,’ and they do not invite religious figures to their weddings, funerals, naming and circumcision ceremonies,” the article said.According to Tim Grose, a professor of China studies at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, the CCP has been restricting the religious elements of Uighur traditional ceremonies since the 2010s.“By monitoring and eliminating the religious elements of these rituals, the CCP can take another step in their efforts to secularize and therefore Sinicize the Uighurs,” Grose said, adding that the “four activities” provided Uighurs an opportunity to express their distinct ethno-religious identity.Nury Turkel, a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told VOA his organization was deeply concerned about the Chinese government’s ban on traditional Uighur marriage ceremonies.“As USCIRF noted in its 2020 annual report, these restrictions are part of the government’s campaign to forcibly assimilate Uighur Muslims into Han Chinese culture,” Turkel said, adding that USCIRF monitors such violations of religious freedom and informs the U.S. president, Congress and the rest of the U.S. government through its reporting.Destruction of religious sitesThe Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) last week released a report about the destruction of mosques and Islamic sites in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).The report, which used satellite imagery, estimated that approximately 16,000 mosques in Xinjiang (65% of the total) have been destroyed or damaged as a result of Chinese government policies.“An estimated 8,500 have been demolished outright, and for the most part, the land on which those razed mosques once sat remains vacant. A further 30% of important Islamic sacred sites (shrines, cemeteries and pilgrimage routes, including many protected under Chinese law) have been demolished across Xinjiang, mostly since 2017, and an additional 28% have been damaged or altered in some way,” the report said.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the ASPI’s report “nothing but slanderous rumors” against China, adding that “such a shoddy report has no credibility at all.”Rian Thum, a historian of Islam in China at the University of Nottingham, told VOA that the CCP sees threats to its control through racist and Islamophobic lenses.“Expressions of distinctive culture are treated as a threat, even more so when that culture is connected to Islam,” Thum said.Defending policies in XinjiangWhen faced with international backlash over the persecution of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang in recent years, including the detention of nearly 1.8 million in internment camps, Chinese authorities reject the accusations, saying it is running a “transformation-through-education centers” campaign in Xinjiang where it faces “threat” from extremism and terrorism.Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his government’s policy in Xinjiang has achieved great results, while hailing the CCP’s “unprecedented achievements” since 2014.“Practice has proved that the party’s strategy of governing Xinjiang in the new era is completely correct and must be adhered to for a long time,” Xi said during a high-level CCP meeting on Xinjiang policy in Beijing, according to Xinhua, a Chinese state-run news agency.Joanne Smith Finley, an expert on Uighur studies at Newcastle University, said the Chinese state has associated all forms of Uighurs’ Islamic practice, however peaceful and ordinary, with religious extremism.“The Chinese state under Xi Jinping has become increasingly Han-majoritarian and Han assimilationist since 2012. It has reconstructed the Uighur body, mind, language, religion and culture as an existential and biological threat to the Chinese nation,” she told VOA.
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Nuclear Arms Race, Weaponization of Outer Space High on US Disarmament Agenda
Efforts to rein in a potential nuclear arms race and the weaponization of outer space will be high on the United States agenda at an upcoming United Nations disarmament meeting. A hybrid meeting of the U.N. General Assembly First Committee, which deals with disarmament issues, will be held as part of the UNGA session in New York between October 6 and November 6.
Over the last 10 years, the United States reportedly has been trying to lessen the need for nuclear weapons as part of its strategic doctrine.
U.S. Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Robert Wood, says these efforts have not been matched by Russia and China. If this continues, he said, the U.S. will have to confront and respond to these two giant hegemonic, authoritarian powers.
“One of the things we are trying to do is to bring not only Russia to the table, but also China—to have a tri-lateral arms negotiation, to deal with not only strategic nuclear weapons, but non-strategic nuclear weapons, new systems that Russia is developing, because we think this is the direction we are going in the future,” he said.
Wood said both Russia and China are boosting their nuclear capabilities, and the United States will have to respond to that. He said China, which is the third largest nuclear power in the world, is expected to double its program over the next decade.
The U.S. ambassador said another area of concern is the potential weaponization of outer space and cyberspace by Russia and China. He said both governments have submitted a draft treaty to the Conference on Disarmament to ban weapons in outer space. He said that Washington opposes the so-called Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, or PPWT, because it is not possible to verify such a treaty.
“I think China and Russia pushing the PPWT is nothing more than propaganda for them. I do not think they have any interest in adhering to or implementing any kind of PPWT.… It is a really serious threat to, not just the United States’ way of life, but also other countries’ way of life,” he said.Wood said both Russia and China are continuing to develop anti-satellite systems that threaten the peaceful commercial use of outer space and also the many daily activities upon which nations around the world depend.
Wood is calling on Russia and China to sit down with the U.S. and other nations to develop some norms upon which all can agree.
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Alleged North Korean Sanctions Violations in DRC Draw Scrutiny
Business and banking dealings by North Koreans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo appear to violate numerous international sanctions, according to watchdog groups who say Pyongyang is taking advantage of the DRC’s lax bank system.
A report in August by Sentry, a Washington D.C.-based organization that tracks money which finances conflict in Africa found that in 2018 two North Korean businessmen traveled to the DRC on non-commercial visas, set up a construction firm, opened a bank account and were awarded contracts for numerous projects including building government-funded statues.
Investigators say the report shows that North Korea is seeking out parts of the world where it can operate secretly and obtain foreign currency otherwise unavailable to the secretive and internationally-isolated government.
“All of these different steps are important because that entire process is littered with a number of violations of U.N., E.U. and U.S. sanctions,” John Dell’Osso, senior investigator for Sentry told VOA. “And those sanctions specifically focus on preventing just the kind of activity we wrote about which is North Koreans setting up businesses, which would give them an opportunity to generate revenue and then allowing them to set up bank accounts that would enable them to transact in foreign currencies which are critical to the government in Pyongyang.”
Jean-Louis Kayembe wa Kayembe, director general at the DRC central bank and head of the monetary policy committee, declined comment when contacted by VOA. North Korean officials have not commented on the Sentry allegations or business dealings in the DRC.
The Sentry report says that upon arrival in the DRC, the men – Pak Hwa Song and Hwang Kil Su – established relationships with elected officials from the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, the former ruling party headed by ex-president Joseph Kabila.
Among the projects undertaken by the North Koreans was building a statue of Kabila’s father, ex-president Laurent Kabila in the southern city of Kamina. Another statute they built in the city depicts a leader from the Luba ethnic group.FILE – A trader displays Congolese currency bills on a street in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 3, 2012.Dell’Osso said the opacity of the contracts makes it impossible to know exactly how much the men were paid, but he said similar statues can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. He also said it is unproven whether DRC officials knew they were breaking the law by doing business with North Koreans, but the general leniency in the country reveals major problems.
“This wasn’t just a single foul-up, if you want to call it that. There was a series of foul-ups that enabled this activity to take place,” Dell’Osso said. “So even if the money had been small, we know that the North Koreans desperately try to get foreign currency and liquid funds that they can move back to Pyongyang. But the bigger question is what else might be going on here in the country and in what is the level of enforcement of sanctions overall in the DRC?”
In a recent event held by the Atlantic Council, Congolese banking system expert Floribert Anzuluni, the co-founder and coordinator of the FILIMBI for Citizens Movement, said the country is particularly vulnerable to this type of activity.
“I’m not surprised by the content of the report,” Anzuluni said. “Clearly a systemic problem. It’s the consequences of this systemic problem that the country is facing, which includes bad governance and, of course, corruption.”
Anzuluni said the DRC is one of the only countries in the world without a national identification system. Therefore, its banks are accustomed to taking alternate forms of ID, making it easy for foreigners to open accounts without scrutiny.
“If you cannot identify persons, how could you be able to identify the businesses that are run by a person?” Anzuluni asked. “So, the DRC is also one of the, let’s say the few countries, where a non-resident can open and hold an account without a rigorous control. So, the central bank is the one responsible for the situation.”
Since a large percentage of business in the DRC is conducted in foreign currency, the country relies on relationships with international banks to keep its economy moving.
“If the DRC were deprived of U.S. dollars — we’re not just talking about large mining companies that all of the sudden are facing a crisis, we’re talking about everyday people who are directly affected or indirectly affected,” Dell’Oss said. “And that would be catastrophic, particularly in a country that’s facing a lot of economic hardship right now.”
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Hong Kong Leader Praises New Security Law
Hong Kong’s leader said the city has returned to “stability” as thousands of security forces fanned out in the streets to put down any pro-democracy protests Thursday. During the traditional flag-raising ceremony Thursday to mark the anniversary of modern-day China’s founding in 1949, chief executive Carrie Lam praised the sweeping new security law imposed by Beijing that has chilled pro-democracy activity in the semi-autonomous city.“Over the past three months, the plain truth is…that stability has been restored to society while national security has been safeguarded,” Lam said about the law, which took effect in July.Police in riot gear blocked off parts of Hong Kong’s popular Causeway Bay shopping district in anticipation of a protest march called for by online activists. Under the new security law, anyone in Hong Kong believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.The new law was a response to the massive and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations that engulfed the financial hub in the latter half of last year. The protests have tapered off since authorities imposed restrictions on large outdoor crowds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Malaysia Palm Oil Producer Vows to Clear Name after US Ban
Malaysian palm oil producer FGV Holdings Berhad vowed Thursday to “clear its name” after the U.S. banned imports of its palm oil over allegations of forced labor and other abuses.The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade issued the ban order against FGV on Wednesday, saying it found indicators of forced labor, including concerns about children, along with other abuses such as physical and sexual violence.The action, announced a week after The Associated Press exposed major labor abuses in Malaysia’s palm oil industry, was triggered by a petition filed last year by nonprofit organizations.FGV said all the issues raised “have been the subject of public discourse since 2015 and FGV has taken several steps to correct the situation.”“FGV is disappointed that such decision has been made when FGV has been taking concrete steps over the past several years in demonstrating its commitment to respect human rights and to uphold labor standards,” it said in a statement.Malaysia is the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil. Together with Indonesia, the two countries dominate the global market, producing 85% of the $65 billion supply.Palm oil and its derivatives from FGV, and closely connected Malaysian-owned Felda, make their way into the supply chains of major multinationals. They include Nestle, L’Oreal, and Unilever, according to the companies’ most recently published supplier and palm oil mill lists. Several huge Western banks and financial institutions not only pour money directly or indirectly into the palm oil industry, but also hold shares in FGV.AP reporters interviewed more than 130 former and current workers from eight countries at two dozen palm oil companies — including Felda, which owns about a third of the shares in FGV. They found everything from unpaid wages to outright slavery and allegations of rape, sometimes involving minors. They also found stateless Rohingya Muslims, one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, had been trafficked onto plantations and forced to work.Many of the problems detailed by the U.S. CBP office mirrored those found by The AP. This included restriction of movement, isolation, physical and sexual violence, intimidation and threats, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abusive working and living conditions, excessive overtime, and concerns about potential forced child labor.FGV said Thursday it wasn’t involved in any recruitment or employment of refugees. It said it doesn’t hire contract workers. Migrant workers are recruited mainly from India and Indonesia through legal channels, it said. It said it ensures workers are not forced to pay any fees.As of August, FGV had 11,286 Indonesian workers and 4,683 Indian workers, who combined form the majority of its plantation workforce.The company said it is introducing the use of an electronic wallet cashless payroll system for its workers. It doesn’t retain workers’ passports and has safety boxes throughout all its 68 housing complexes for them to keep their passports safely.FGV said it has invested 350 million ringgit ($84 million) over the past three years in upgrading worker housing and provides medical benefits. Suppliers and vendors are required to comply with the company’s code of conduct, it said.“FGV does not tolerate any form of human rights infringements or criminal offense in its operations,” it said, adding it will act on any allegation of physical or sexual violence or intimidation.FGV said it has submitted evidence of compliance with labor standards to the U.S. CBP office since last year. It said it will continue its engagement “to clear FGV’s name, and is determined to see through its commitment to respect human rights and uphold labor standards.”
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China Uses Mental Illness to Discredit, Imprison Dissidents, Rights Observers Say
A few years ago, Dong Qiongyao, a woman from China’s Hunan province, streamed a protest from in front of a state-owned company where she denounced the Communist Party and splashed ink on a portrait of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping.Such protests are extremely rare in China, where the government punishes dissidents harshly to deter others. Authorities said the splashing of ink was a sign that Dong suffered from a “mental illness” and forcibly put her in a psychiatric hospital.The human rights website Minsheng Guancha has recorded 510 cases of dissidents being forced to go to psychiatric hospital across the country since December 2007.According to the website, the process of sending people to mental hospitals for medically unnecessary “treatment” is aimed at discrediting dissidents, activists and petitioners for their political beliefs, stigmatizing them as mentally unfit.Dong was released after four months in the facility. Her father said that when he saw her in January 2020 for the first time since her arrest, she was a completely different person. He said that her face was puffed up and her torso was bloated, she barely talked and said nothing when asked about what had happened to her.Then, earlier this year, Dong Qiongyao was sent back to the psychiatric hospital for two months. When she came out, her family said her condition had worsened. She now suffers from incontinence and screams at night, especially when it rains.“I only saw her once after she was released the second time,” her father, Dong Jianbiao, told VOA. “I wanted to take a photo of her with my phone, but she was scared and wouldn’t let me. Her mom said she talks nonsense at home and cries and screams a lot.”Her condition is suspected to stem in part from the side effects of the drugs she was given during her hospitalization.Dong Jianbiao maintained that his daughter doesn’t have the so-called “mental illness” that the authorities say she has.Punishing with forced hospitalizationsDeng Fuquan, a 51-year-old veteran who had been petitioning the government for many years over pension subsidies, was also sent to a psychiatric hospital last year for mandatory “treatment” for more than two months.Deng said that being held in a mental hospital made him very uncomfortable, even more so than in a detention center. Deng said he was surrounded by real psychiatric patients who were often tied up and electrocuted in pain and grief, making him stressed.He said that people show different symptoms after taking the pills the hospital gave them. Some of them would bloat and others would fall asleep.“I felt sleepy and a lack of energy after taking the pills,” Deng told VOA.Human rights website Minsheng Guancha, which tracks these tactics across China, says psychiatric hospitals also tie patients up and subject them to electric shocks, calling that “medical treatments” when they are actually torture.In 2013, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the Communist Party of China issued a new Mental Health Law of the People’s Republic of China in order to correct forced hospitalization for mental illness. The law states hospitalization for mental disorders should be voluntary.Minsheng Guancha said the situation improved when the law was passed, but some local authorities still send petitioners, dissidents and activists to psychiatric facilities, saying it is for convalescent purposes and permitted by the family members.China’s Ministry of Public Security held a national health hospital working meeting many years ago, stressing that in the treatment of mentally ill people, the hospital may not accept persons who are not mentally ill without the approval from the public security department.The rule sparked widespread backlash with criticism that the mental hospitals were being handed over to the public security authorities in order to continue to allow local authorities to use “mental illness” as a weapon against petitioners, activists and dissidents.
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Lawmakers Warn US Failing to Adapt to Growing Chinese Threat
U.S. lawmakers are sounding alarms about the threat from China, warning Washington has so far failed to keep up with Beijing as it emerges as a global power.The concerns, voiced in two separate reports Wednesday, criticize U.S. intelligence agencies and policymakers for clinging too long to the notion that increased trade and interaction with China would push Beijing to eventually align itself with Western values.Instead, the reports argue, the United States is struggling to push back as it faces a real danger of being replaced by China on the world stage.“The stakes are high,” according to a redacted report released by Democrats on the FILE – In this June 30, 2020 file photo, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, after a meeting at the White House in Washington.The House Intelligence Committee report, based on hundreds of hours of interviews with intelligence officials and reviews of thousands of assessments, criticized U.S. intelligence agencies for becoming overly focused on their counterterrorism mission and for failing to adapt to the threats of a changing world.“While the United States was busy engaging al-Qaida, ISIS [Islamic State] and their affiliates, offshoots and acolytes, Washington’s unchallenged dominance over the global system slipped away,” the report said.To better counter China and other emerging threats, the report said, U.S. intelligence agencies need to make better use of information commonly available on the internet, social media and elsewhere.The report also said U.S. intelligence officials need to pay more attention to nonimmediate, nonmilitary threats “such as global health, economic security and climate change.”And the report called for a greater focus on recruiting and mentoring what it described as “the next generation of China analysts.”“The good news is that we still have time to adapt,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff in a statement. “It’s my hope that the intelligence community will work hand in hand with the congressional oversight committees to make these necessary changes quickly.”Ranking Member Michael McCaul, R-Tex., questions witnesses during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, Sept. 16, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington.A second report released Wednesday, by Republican lawmakers, was no less damning, recommending more than 400 changes to Washington’s China strategy.”To preserve democracy and freedom around the world, the U.S. must act decisively with our allies to regain the initiative,” the China Task Force report warned.Chinese Communist Party ideology “is undermining the core principles of the international system and putting Americans’ safety and prosperity at risk,” it said. “Leniency and accommodation of the CCP and its oppressive agenda is no longer an option.”The report calls on policymakers to boost counterintelligence operations against China and to make sure that the U.S. medical and national security supply chains no longer need to reply on Chinese-made goods.It also recommends increased spending on defense to better counter Chinese nuclear capabilities as well as China’s growing conventional forces.“For more than 40 years, we have tried to bring them into the family of nations as a responsible partner, but they have refused to behave responsibly,” China Task Force Chairman Michael McCaul said in a statement.
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US Bans Palm Oil From Malaysian Company Amid Labor Abuse Allegations
The United States said Wednesday it has banned imports of palm oil from a large producer in Malaysia after an investigation uncovered alleged company labor abuses, including forced child labor and sexual and physical violence.
Shipments of palm oil and its products from FGV Holdings were banned immediately, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Trade, which said the ban was the result of a year-long Associated Press investigation.
FGV, which has long faced allegations of labor and human rights abuses, is the world’s largest crude palm oil producer and is closely linked to the Malaysian government’s Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).
Some of the alleged abuses occurred on Felda plantations, which produced palm oil that was traced to well-known food and cosmetics companies such as L’Oreal, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and Unilever.
FGV did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but the company said in recent statement that “Despite ongoing criticism and allegations against FGV, we will continue with our effort to strengthen our practices to respect human rights and uphold our labor standards.”
The investigation also exposed labor abuses in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. Together, the two countries produce about 85% of the world’s palm oil valued at $65 billion annually.
More palm oil is consumed worldwide than any other vegetable oil. It is an ingredient in about half of all products on supermarket shelves. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says global production of palm oil soared from 4.5 million metric tons in 1999 to 65.3 million today.
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Cambodian Garment Workers Fear For Their Future
The Cambodian government has allocated $1.2 billion to bolster an economy struggling with the withdrawal of some European trade perks and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Luke Hunt reports from Phnom Penh.David Potter and Ny Chann contrinbuted to this report.
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