While more details are emerging about the alleged coercive labor of Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang region, some China observers say Beijing’s efforts are strategically calculated to change the traditional livelihood of rural residents by pushing them off the land into state-controlled wage-earner jobs.China last Thursday published Employment and Labor Rights in Xinjiang, detailing its “poverty alleviation efforts” that human rights groups have branded as forced labor.The white paper said that every year, from 2014 to 2019, government-run “vocational training” projects provided training sessions to an average of 1.29 million urban and rural workers, of which 451,400 were in southern Xinjiang where more than 80% of the local population are Uighurs. It claimed that of the 103,300 farmers and herders from southern Xinjiang’s Hotan prefecture, 98,300 of them found work thanks to the training program.FILE – Chinese flags line on a road leading to a facility believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, May 31, 2019.To increase the level of employment in the long run, the paper proposed to “change people’s outdated mindset” in the region. It further said that local authorities in Xinjiang have turned to a policy of encouraging “surplus rural labor” to work in or near their hometowns.According to Adrian Zenz, a senior research fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, the publication last week was the first official admission by China that its abuses of Muslim minorities included forced labor. The policy, he said, aims to convert Uighur pastoralists and farmers to wage laborers.”It puts them into closed labor environments where the state has far more control over them and often removes them from their families, promoting intergenerational separation and more state control over the next generation (which grows up in boarding schools),” Zenz told VOA.A similar policy has been implemented in Tibet, where thousands of residents dubbed “surplus laborers” were uprooted from their rural lands into state-run training centers.”In the first seven months of 2020, the region had trained over half a million rural surplus laborers through this policy. This scheme encompasses Tibetans of all ages and covers the entire region,” he said.Unlike Kazakh and Kyrgyz ethnics who mostly have nomadic lifestyles in Xinjiang, Uighurs are primarily identified with their settled peasantry and traditional handcraftsmanship.FILE – Watchtowers are seen on a high-security facility near what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan, in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, May 30, 2019.According to the 2000 Chinese government census, 80.56% of the Uighurs are considered rural population working as farmers and herders. The remaining 19.44% of them are urban dwellers with more diverse occupations ranging from traditional handcrafters and small-business vendors to restaurant owners and government employees.China since 2016 has faced international condemnation for cracking down on minorities in Xinjiang, and the detention of 1 million to 1.8 million of them under harsh conditions. Rights organizations say the indigenous people are also exposed to coercive birth prevention, political indoctrination, enforced disappearances, comprehensive surveillance and destruction of their cultural sites.The Chinese government, however, is rejecting the accusations, saying it is running a “transformation-through-education centers” campaign in Xinjiang. Chinese officials have called the camps “vocational training” facilities for people who were exposed to “ideas of extremism and terrorism.” In other occasions, the officials have said the camps teach the people skills needed to undertake new jobs.  US actionOn Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 406-3 in favor of the “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” a bill that bars all goods from Xinjiang because of coerced labor concerns. If enacted into law, the bill will put greater responsibility on companies to prove that their products have not been made with forced labor in a region that produces nearly 85% of China’s cotton.FILE – Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gestures for questions during the daily briefing in Beijing, July 23, 2020.”Xinjiang affairs are purely China’s internal affairs. The U.S. is in no position and has no right to interfere. The issue of ‘forced labor’ is a lie made by some institutions and people of the U.S. and some Western countries,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Wednesday.Wang said the bill is seeking to hamper the progress his government has made in the region while encouraging ethnic division.Demographic changeEthnic conflict between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang has been rising in recent years as Uighurs accuse the Chinese government of using economic development programs in Xinjiang to encourage a huge influx of majority Han migrants to the region. The proportion of Han in the region has reportedly risen from nearly 9% in 1945 to about 40% today, triggering among Uighurs the fear of a demographic change in their areas.FILE – A mural showing Uighur and Han Chinese men and women carrying the national flag of China decorates the wall of a home at the Unity New Village in Hotan, in western China’s Xinjiang region, Sept. 20, 2018.According to James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown University, many Uighurs were engaged in entrepreneurship in the past, including running small businesses in cities across Xinjiang or elsewhere in China. However, these options have been more difficult for them in recent years because of increased police persecution, discrimination in eastern Chinese cities, and being forced out of Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi.”The recent white paper is celebrating the fact that 70 years after taking over control of the region, the CCP now is attempting to train and employ poor people through internment and coercive means, having failed for decades to address discrimination against Uighurs by the Xinjiang Production Construction Corps (86% Han, 90% funded by Beijing) or provide free education to some of its poorest citizens,” Millward told VOA.Xinjiang Production Construction Corps (XPCC), or Bingtuan in Chinese, was founded in 1954 by the Chinese Liberation Army after the CCP took over Xinjiang in 1949. XPCC is a hybrid organization of military structure and business enterprise with independent administrative authority over a dozen cities, divisions and regimental farms in Xinjiang.The U.S. government this July announced sanctions on XPCC for its direct involvement in human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Washington also designated Chen Quanguo, the current first party secretary of the XPCC, along with two other former and current top commanders of the XPCC, for their connection to human rights abuse in the region.
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Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was arrested Thursday for taking part in a protest at the height of the city’s pro-democracy unrest last year, but he vowed to continue resisting China’s crackdown on dissent.
 
The arrest of the territory’s most high-profile dissident is the latest in a string of arrests of government critics and comes after China imposed a sweeping new national security law on Hong Kong in late June.
 
Wong was arrested for “unlawful assembly” over a 2019 demonstration against a government ban on face masks that was imposed before the coronavirus pandemic, his lawyer said.
 
The 23-year-old , who now faces three separate cases, said after being bailed that he was also held for violating the “draconian” anti-mask law, which has since been ruled unconstitutional.
 
Wong’s lawyer told AFP he was re-arrested when he reported to a police station concerning another case currently being tried.
 
“Wong is accused of participating in an unlawful assembly on October 5 last year, when hundreds marched to oppose an anti-mask ban the government rolled out,” lawyer Jonathan Man said.
 
A police spokesman confirmed a 23-year-old was arrested for “knowingly participating in unauthorised assembly” while violating the mask ban.
 
Wong told reporters after he was bailed: “No matter what happens, I will continue to resist and hope to let the world to know that how Hong Kongers choose not to surrender.”
 
At the time of the October 5 march, Hong Kong had already been battered by four months of increasingly violent pro-democracy protests.
 
The city had ground to a halt following a night of chaos in which hardcore protesters trashed dozens of subway stations, vandalised shops with mainland China ties, built fires and blocked roads.  
 
Hundreds of protesters, almost all masked, staged the unsanctioned demonstration through the popular shopping district of Causeway Bay, a day after the city’s leader Carrie Lam outlawed face coverings by invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century.
 
Under Hong Kong’s current anti-virus measures, face masks are now mandatory in all public places.
  Jailed twice
 
China’s security law, which was imposed in late June, was designed to stamp out the demonstrations and targets acts deemed to be secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion.  
 
Beijing has described it as a “sword” hanging over the heads of its opponents as it pushes to return stability. Critics say it has blanketed the city in fear, and UN rights experts warned its broad wording posed a serious risk to Hong Kong’s freedoms.
 
Wong – who spent most of his teenage years leading protests and has twice been jailed – recently told AFP he constantly wonders how long it will be before the police’s new national security unit comes for him.
 
The security law has already swept up two of his closest comrades.
 
Fellow former student leader Nathan Law has fled to Britain and is now wanted for national security crimes, according to Chinese state media.  
 
Agnes Chow — who has led protests alongside Wong since they were just 15 — is one of 22 people arrested under the new law so far. She has been released on bail.
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North Korea shot, killed, and immediately cremated a South Korean civilian official who went missing earlier this week near the two countries’ disputed western sea border, according to South Korea’s military.  Seoul’s National Defense Ministry said Thursday the man was questioned in North Korean waters, before being shot to death, doused with oil, and then set on fire by troops wearing gas masks, apparently all on orders from a superior. South Korean officials did not reveal how they knew those details, citing only “diverse intelligence.”     “Our military strongly condemns this brutal act and strongly urges the North to explain this and punish those responsible,” Lt. Gen. Ahn Young-ho of the South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told a press briefing. “We also warn North Korea that all responsibility for this incident lies with it.”  North Korea’s military has not responded to Seoul’s request for more information, according to South Korean defense officials. Pyongyang has not publicly commented on the incident.  The unidentified 47-year-old official, who worked for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, disappeared Monday while on duty aboard a patrol boat off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong. He was reported missing about 10 kilometers south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean sea border.   The circumstances of the man’s disappearance are not clear. South Korean military officials believe he may have been trying to flee to North Korea. The report did not say why the man would have defected to the North.  Past incidents  Earlier this week, South Korean police said they arrested a defector who was trying to return to North Korea via a military training site in the border town of Cheorwon.     In July, a 24-year-old man who had fled North Korea successfully swam back into the country, after being accused of rape in South Korea. That incident prompted the North to lock down a border area, ostensibly because of coronavirus concerns.    Earlier this month, the top U.S. commander in South Korea, General Robert Abrams, said North Korea had issued “shoot-to-kill” orders to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country from China.FILE – Visitors wearing masks to avoid the spread of COVID-19 fill out a form which is mandatory to get into a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 26, 2020.The coronavirus-related security zones were first reported by the Daily NK, a Seoul-based news website with sources in North Korea. The outlet said the new rules stipulated that anyone “breaking rules or disrupting public order near the border will be shot without warning.” The rules apply to all areas of the country, it said. Raises tensions    The shooting incident is awkwardly timed for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who this week used a video speech at the United Nations General Assembly to call for an end-of-war declaration between North and South Korea.   The left-leaning Moon, who desperately wants to improve ties with Pyongyang before he leaves office in 2022, has been trying to convince the North to return to the dialogue and cooperation that marked the beginning of his five-year term.  North Korea earlier this year cut communications channels with the South and blew up the two countries’ de facto embassy after complaining about South Korean activists who launched balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the border.   The two countries have been in a technical state of war, since their 1950s conflict ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.  Though tensions sporadically break out, deaths – especially involving civilians – are rare. The last time a South Korean civilian was shot dead in North Korea was in 2008, when a North Korean soldier killed a South Korean tourist who had wandered into a restricted area at a mountain resort.   
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Rescuers are trying to save scores of whales beached in the Australian state of Tasmania. Earlier this week, a pod of 270 pilot whales were found washed ashore.  Two hundred more were discovered a short distance away Wednesday.  The stranding of about 470 pilot whales on the west coast of Tasmania is the largest ever recorded in the state’s history.   Two hundred seventy animals were found washed up on sandbars Monday, prompting a rescue operation involving wildlife experts, the police and volunteers. They have managed to return some of the whales into deeper water and coax them back out to sea. It is a challenging task. Pilot whales can grow up to seven meters long and weight three tons.  But dozens of the pod discovered Monday have died, and Australian wildlife experts believe that most of the 200 whales found beached 10 kilometers away Wednesday have not survived.    Yet rescue efforts continue. Wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon says they are focusing on those animals with a realistic chance of survival. “We are going to basically take the animals with the best chance to start with and the ones that we (are) able to deal with.  So, some animals may be simply too big or in an unsuitable location to actually deal with,” Carlyon said.The coastline near Macquarie Harbor, near the town of Strahan, Tasmania, is a known whale-stranding hotspot. In 2011, about 20 sperm whales were beached there, and most died.    Experts have yet to understand why the mammals become marooned.  There are various scientific suppositions.  The whales use echo location to navigate, and one theory is that the whales may have been drawn in too close to the coast in search of food. Other theories have asserted that the Moon’s gravitational pull or perhaps military sonar could be responsible.   There is no definitive answer, and some marine experts believe that mass strandings of whales and dolphins in different countries could all have different causes.  The rescue mission in Tasmania could take days.  Experts say cool and wet weather will help keep the surviving whales alive, but they concede it is a race against time.  
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China aims to push back against the United States by reopening talks with 10 Southeast Asian nations on a code of conduct that would help prevent mishaps in a crowded, disputed Asian sea, political scholars say. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged in August that the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc resume talks with his country toward a South China Sea code of conduct, state-controlled news media in China said. Wang told a symposium in Beijing this month that negotiators should try to finish the code “at a faster pace,” China Central Television reported online. The minister’s calls followed charges from U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in July that Chinese claims in the sea are illegal and that Washington would help other countries that come under pressure from Beijing. China calls about 90% of the sea its own. FILE – Chinese vessels are pictured in disputed South China Sea, April 21, 2017.Beijing vies with sovereignty in tracts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea with bloc members Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.  Ignoring code of conduct talks – popular in Southeast Asia and pending since the negotiating parties reached a related framework deal in 2002 – would put China on the bloc’s bad side and endear it to the United States, scholars believe. Talks broke down in 2019. “The reason that I think the Chinese first agreed to the code of conduct was to block out the Americans, that the Chinese could say ‘we already established a track toward addressing the issues in the South China Sea, so the South China Sea is peaceful, and it is stable, so to the Americans, do not meddle,’” said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington. Backed by the world’s third strongest armed forces, China has upset Southeast Asian countries over the past decade by landfilling some of the sea’s tiny islets, sometimes for military use. Claimants prize the waterway for fisheries and undersea energy reserves. The U.S. government has no claim in the sea but bristles when its rival superpower China exerts too much control over it. Chinese officials worry about what the United States will do next, analysts believe. The two powers are already locked in trade, technology and consular disputes. “I think China now really wants to finalize the code of conduct because the South China Sea right now could reach a boiling point any time now,” said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in Metro Manila. “It’s really a major flashpoint between China and the United States, and China doesn’t want more tensions with the U.S.”  Southeast Asian countries are receptive now to both Beijing and Washington. But the Philippines, after a boat standoff with China in 2012, won world court arbitration against China in 2016 and Vietnam has considered filing its own case.Vietnam Weighs World Court Arbitration Against China if Maritime Diplomacy Fails Southeast Asian country would ask an international tribunal to rule on sovereignty disputes in resource-rich sea between them Countries that feel “hopeless” will “develop alternative channels to achieve what they want,” Sun said. China and the bloc better known as ASEAN agreed in 2017 to restart the talks and later set a completion goal of 2021. A code would be designed to prevent accidents that capsize fishing boats, a common occurrence, as well as deadly skirmishes such as the Sino-Vietnamese clashes of 1974 and 1988. Negotiations have stalled over the years largely because of code content that would touch on sovereignty disputes. For example, it’s unclear whether wording would cover mishaps near Chinese-controlled islets, make certain clauses legally binding and set up an enforcement body. Taiwan, a sixth claimant to the sea, is excluded from the code talks but still uses the waterway. ASEAN and China remain stuck on “details” in the code, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. But China figures that just the act of negotiating will keep Washington at bay, he said. “You could say it’s just an empty diplomatic move, but I think according to foreign relations that to negotiate is always better than not negotiating,” Huang said. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump called on the United Nations to “hold China accountable for their actions” in a speech to the world body’s General Assembly Tuesday.In a pre-recorded speech from the White House, Trump blamed the Chinese government for the global spread of COVID-19, which has now infected 31 million people worldwide and killed more than 965,000. “In the earliest days of the virus, China locked down travel domestically, while allowing flights to leave China and infect the world,” Trump said in his address. “The Chinese government, and the World Health Organization — which is virtually controlled by China — falsely declared that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.”  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 18 MB480p | 25 MB540p | 26 MB1080p | 80 MBOriginal | 112 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioChina and WHO, to which the president has cut funding from the United States, “falsely said people without symptoms would not spread the disease,” according to Trump. Trump’s speech was “unusually critical of China for a United Nations General Assembly speech by a U.S. president,” noted Julian Ku, a professor of law at Hofstra University. “By naming China as responsible for the spread of the virus and calling it the ‘China virus,’ President Trump is seeking global support to hold China responsible.” Ku told VOA that while he is skeptical Trump’s remarks will persuade anyone at the U.N. to take any measures, “it might increase the global pressure on China to cooperate more fully with international investigations of the origins of the pandemic and its spread.” In his recorded remarks, Chinese President Xi Jinping said any attempt to politicize the pandemic should be rejected, and WHO should be given a leading role in the international response to the coronavirus. No country has been hit harder by the coronavirus than the United States, with more than 200,000 deaths and 6.9 million reported infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. Trump has been harshly criticized for his handling of the pandemic, including from some former officials of his own administration. Trump defended the U.S. response, calling it “the most aggressive mobilization since the Second World War.” He told the U.N. General Assembly the United States “will distribute a vaccine. We will defeat the virus. We will end the pandemic. And we will enter a new era of unprecedented prosperity, cooperation and peace.” The pandemic has altered the annual event during which world leaders typically gather in New York and await their turn to address the Assembly.    Trump’s speech also included references to the recent U.S. brokering of economic cooperation between Serbia and Kosovo, and the deals his administration helped negotiate to normalize Israeli relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Trump also discussed efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan, where U.S. forces have been deployed since 2001. Plans are in place to reduce the troop level there to 4,500 by November.    “As we speak, the United States is also working to end the war in Afghanistan, and we are bringing our troops home.  America is fulfilling our destiny as peacemaker,” Trump said.  Another topic raised by Trump was Iran. The United States, in defiance of other U.N. Security Council members, declared it reimposed sanctions against Iran related to the 2015 international agreement on the country’s nuclear program.     Other signatories of the Iran nuclear deal have dismissed the U.S. action, arguing that since the Trump administration withdrew from the pact in 2018, it does not have the standing to utilize the snapback sanctions mechanism the Security Council approved.  More broadly, Trump’s address also included the promotion of his preference to prioritize U.S. interests over multilateral efforts, a theme he has stressed in previous annual addresses to the international organization. “For decades, the same tired voices proposed the same failed solutions, pursuing global ambitions at the expense of their own people. But only when you take care of your own citizens, will you find a true basis for cooperation,” he concluded. 
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A Chinese city on the border with Myanmar last week began testing thousands of residents for the coronavirus after two Myanmar migrants tested positive. In Ruili, a Yunnan province transit point on the porous 2,200-kilometer border, officials issued a lockdown order. Authorities rounded up many illegal migrant workers and sent them back to Myanmar. Medical worker in protective suit collects a swab sample from a woman for nucleic acid testing in the border city of Ruili, Sep. 16, 2020.Home quarantine for residents was scheduled to be lifted on Monday at 10 p.m. but cinemas, bars and internet cafes will remain shut, Reuters reported from the statement. That partial reopening will come a day after the Myanmar Health Ministry announced a stay-at-home order for the Yangon region effective Monday amid a record daily increase in new cases of COVID-19.  There are 44 townships in the Yangon region with a total population of more than 5 million people. On Monday, the health ministry said it had recorded 264 new coronavirus cases, with most of the recent new infections in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and commercial center. Myanmar has reported a total of 6,151 COVID-19 cases and 98 deaths as of Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The Ruili episode began on September 3, when a 32-year-old woman from Myanmar took her three children and two nurses across the border from Muse to Ruili and stayed at her sister’s home, according to one of China’s official news outlets, The Global Times.  Everyone in the sister’s residential area was tested, and all 1,185 results were negative. Authorities tracked down 190 close contacts and quarantined them, according to the report. 
 
While the virus appears to be under control in much of China, Myanmar has seen a recent spike in COVID-19 cases and the scare in Ruili resulted in the shutdown of all business operations and public transit with everyone required to wear masks in public places.  The lockdown made life difficult for many.  “Even though the border gate is not completely closed, there are very few trucks crossing the border,” Win Aung Khant, chairman of Muse Highway Truckers Association said. “Myanmar trucks are not allowed to enter or unload goods in … Ruili.  There are almost no Myanmar workers in Chinese side.”   Nang Aye Sein, spokesperson for the Lashio Chamber of Commerce, said agricultural and fishery export businesses were the most affected by the lockdown.  In a press conference on September 14, Yang Bianqiang, deputy director of the police department in Dehong Prefecture, where Ruili is located, said securing the border was difficult.  “There is no natural border between Ruili and Myanmar,” he said. “Citizens in Ruili and Myanmar speak the same language and visit each other very often. It is difficult to monitor their travels.”  The Myanmar and Yunnan border is infamous for its illicit activities in commodities such as jade, the number of illegal migrant workers who cross into China and the Chinese who cross into Myanmar to gamble in border town casinos.  In February, authorities on each side of the border in Ruili and Muse cooperated after five people believed to be infected with the coronavirus crossed from China into Myanmar.Wuhan Man, a Fugitive in Myanmar, Turns Himself in to Chinese PoliceUnidentified man who surrendered belonged to a group of five Wuhan residents who slipped across the border into Myanmar last week, according to authorities
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Multimillion-dollar fines are part of sweeping new changes to heritage laws to protect ancient Aboriginal sites in Western Australia. It follows the destruction by mining giant Rio Tinto earlier this year of two sacred rock shelters dating back 46,000 years, despite opposition from Indigenous groups.The draft legislation in Western Australia is called the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill 2020. It would replace outdated 50-year-old legislation and removes a contentious section that allowed the government to give irreversible consent to land users to destroy culturally significant sites.Traditional Indigenous groups are to be given a greater say in the protection of their land under the proposed measure. In the past, some have agreed to sacrifice sacred sites to help impoverished First Nation communities receive a share in mining revenue.In May, Rio Tinto, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, destroyed two ancient rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia’s Pilbara region as part of a new development. The Aboriginal caves were considered one of Australia’s most significant archaeological research areas. Indigenous leaders had strongly opposed development at the site.The outcry, including anger among company shareholders, was so intense that Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques and two senior executives were forced to quit.The new legislation was being drafted before the Juukan Gorge was damaged, and it promises a “modern approach to protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage.”Western Australian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ben Wyatt, says resources companies like BHP have already responded positively.“What is already happened as a result of the Juukan caves is that miners with significant locations have effectively ceased work, and you have seen BHP in particular announce that,” he said. “So, those sites of extreme significance are already being reconsidered by the miners, or land users and the traditional owner groups. We have also released our new, proposed legislation.”Should the legislation be approved by the Western Australian state parliament, fines of up to $7.2 million could be imposed for unauthorized damage to Aboriginal sites.But Robin Chapple, a Greens lawmaker, said the bill proposed a “new and complex system” that under-resourced Indigenous groups would struggle to properly review before an October 9 deadline for public submissions.The Kimberley Land Council, one of Western Australia’s biggest Indigenous organizations, said the proposed law “completely disregards Aboriginal people and their right to care for their heritage.” Tribal elders have demanded more legal protection for Aboriginal traditional owners, including the right to veto developments on their land.Public hearings continue Monday in a federal government inquiry in Canberra into the destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves. It is examining the failures by both government and businesses that allowed the site to be blown up to allow miners to dig out high-grade iron ore.The earth lies at the heart of Australia’s ancient Indigenous culture, thought to be some 65,000 years old. Land is considered the mother of creation, connecting Aboriginal peoples to their past, present and future. 
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Relatives of some of the 12 Hong Kong people arrested by China at sea last month demanded the city’s government check on their condition and ensure that lawyers appointed by the families and not the Chinese government can meet with them.The 12 were arrested on Aug. 23 for illegal entry into mainland Chinese waters after setting off from Hong Kong in a boat bound for self-ruled Taiwan.All were suspected of committing crimes in Hong Kong related to anti-government protests that erupted last year. Ten had been charged, released on bail and not allowed to leave the former British colony, and all are now being detained in neighboring Shenzhen.Relatives of some of the detainees held a news conference outside the Hong Kong police headquarters Sunday to express their frustration with local authorities.”We want our son back. … Even though we can’t visit him, at least give us a photo or letter from him to confirm that he’s there,” said the father of one detainee, Li Tsz Yin.The relatives also asked police “to give an account of the date, time, place and process of the arrest” and whether there were any injuries or casualties, and the Marine Department to release radar records of the day of the arrest.In a statement late Sunday, Hong Kong police said authorities had reviewed the marine traffic records from Aug. 23 and “did not find sign of any China coast guard vessels entering or staying in Hong Kong waters.” It said marine police records would not be released to the public.”Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) are now maintaining close communication with the mainland law enforcement department to obtain the latest update of the case and take timely follow-up actions. No further information has been received so far,” the statement said.Earlier, the detainees’ family members said the Hong Kong government “only shirked responsibility and confused the public with mere excuses.””However, up to now, the lawyers appointed by the families have been refused (the chance) to meet with the detainees. In other words, the conditions of the so-called arrested persons are still known only to the Chinese authorities,” a statement said.On Tuesday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam voiced discontent with the group being characterized by some as “democratic activists being oppressed,” saying they were running away from the law. Lam said they would have to be “dealt with” by mainland authorities but pledged to provide “feasible” assistance.Police in Shenzhen said last Sunday they were suspected of illegal entry, their first public comment on the matter. The same day, China’s foreign ministry labeled the group as “separatists.”
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Australia will allow more of its citizens stranded overseas by COVID-19 border controls to return home. The current weekly cap of 4,000 arrivals, who must go into mandatory hotel quarantine for 14 days, is to be increased by 1,500 by mid-October.COVID-19 travel restrictions have left tens of thousands of Australians unable to fly home. Limits have been imposed on the number of citizens and permanent residents allowed to return because authorities do not want to overburden the quarantine system. All travelers returning from overseas must spend two weeks under guard in a hotel as part of efforts to curb the virus.Under a new plan, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison late Friday,1,500 additional passengers will be allowed to come home by October 12. The plan was agreed to by the so-called national cabinet, made up of the prime minister, and state and territory premiers and chief ministers. The states of New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland will all accept an additional 500 people per week. The number of arrivals will gradually climb in coming weeks despite federal authorities’ desire that they be increased much sooner.Western Australian premier Mark McGowan, who was concerned over an earlier federal plan to double the state’s quota by September 28, said the system needs to be carefully managed.“The decision by the federal government to unilaterally double Western Australia’s international arrivals by the 28th of September in our view carried too much risk for our state,” he said. “Today we secured a new way forward, a unique agreement for Western Australia, one that is more sensible and more workable.”The pandemic has also brought fragmentation to the Australian federation of six states and two main territories. Many have closed their borders to Victoria, which is at the center of the nation’s coronavirus crisis, and neighboring New South Wales.Authorities say the measures are needed to protect public health, but the federal government believes the restrictions are heavy-handed and are stifling the economy’s recovery from the virus.Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein says he is hoping to lift his island state’s restrictions earlier than a previously set deadline of December 1.“The state controller, on the advice from public health, is looking at the possibility of bringing forward the date for easing our border restrictions with COVID-safe and low-risk states by the end of October, such as South Australia, WA [Western Australia] and the Northern Territory,” he said.Officials are also working to set up a so-called “travel bubble” to allow flights to resume with New Zealand. Both countries have closed their borders to foreign nationals, although citizens and permanent residents can return.COVID-19 was first diagnosed in Australia in late January. Almost 27,000 confirmed cases have been detected, and about 850 people have died. Most of the infections and fatalities have occurred in Victoria, although daily new case numbers are falling. The state capital, Melbourne, remains in lockdown for at least another week. 
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China issued new regulations Saturday on its proposed list of “unreliable entities,” measures that punish foreign companies that Beijing says endanger its national sovereignty and security.According to a statement issued by the commerce ministry on its website, the rules, which went into immediate effect, include a wide range of penalties, including restricting trade and visas for any company, organization or person that appears on what amounts to a blacklist.The news came one day after the U.S. Commerce Department issued an order that would restrict U.S. users’ access to Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat apps on Sunday. The move represented a sharp downward spiral in the unraveling of trade relations between Beijing and Washington.Security risksThe Trump administration argues the apps are security risks that gather data on American users. U.S. officials also say that because the apps are made by Chinese-owned companies, they are unable to protect that data from China’s authoritarian government.FILE – Icons for the smartphone apps TikTok and WeChat are seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, Aug. 7, 2020.In a separate statement Saturday, China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesman condemned the move against WeChat and TikTok, saying the government would take “necessary measures” to protect the legitimate interests of Chinese firms, without elaborating.The Chinese government first announced it would draw up its unreliable-entities list in May 2019 when the two countries were at the height of the trade war and the U.S. tightened restrictions over Huawei. Beijing has waited until now to finally announce the long-awaited rules of how the list will work.For domestic audienceDr. Frank Xie, an associate professor of marketing at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, said Beijing’s move is mainly a countermeasure to similar actions taken by the U.S., and it is aimed at its domestic audience.”China still relies heavily on American technology. It is still eager for U.S. companies to invest in the country,” Xie told VOA. “This kind of tit-for-tat escalation is only to show to its own people that the government did not succumb to American pressure.”While the regulation was announced, the Chinese Commerce Department has not named any specific companies or individuals that would land on the list.Liao Shiping, a professor at Beijing Normal University, told Chinese state media that the announcement did not mean China was closing up its domestic market. “Faced with the spread of protectionism and the continued worldwide decline of international investment, China is unswerving in continuing to expand liberalization,” Liao was quoted as saying.
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A former football player in Australia has been awarded a landmark $1 million insurance payment for brain damage he says was caused by the concussions he suffered when he was a professional athlete.  
 
Former Australian Football League player Shaun Smith said it was a “fluke” that he had included disablement in his insurance policy 25 years ago.
 
MLC Insurance found Friday that Smith had a “total and permanent disablement” because of the concussions suffered during his athletic career.  
 
The 51-year-old Smith says he is not able to work and has mental health issues.
 
He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he is “happy” that the ramifications of receiving concussions “have finally been recognized.”
 
While Smith’s payout paves the way for similar payouts for other athletes, the payments will not be available to them if they did not include disablement in their insurance policies.  
 
Analysts say the MLC finding, however, may lead former athletes to file class action suits.  
 
The U.S. National Football League paid out $1 billion to a group of retired players who said they had suffered brain damage as a result of the concussions they received when they were in the league. 
 
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