The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed economic sanctions on a Chinese company that operates in Cambodia, citing its land seizure and displacement of families to make way for a $3.8 billion luxury gambling and lifestyle project.The Dara Sakor Seashore Resort, developed by the Chinese company Union Development Group (UDG) in unspoiled Koh Kong province, includes an international airport and a port for cruise ships that “credible reports” suggested could be used by the Chinese military.The company describes the undertaking as part of FILE – The airport construction site is seen in the area developed by China company Union Development Group at Botum Sakor in Koh Kong province, Cambodia, in 2018.The U.S. has alleged that UDG operated as a Cambodian entity under the aegis of Gen. Kun Kim, a close ally of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen. He allegedly used the military’s right to seize land for its needs to move local people off the area UDG wanted for its resort project.In its statement to Fresh News, the company defended Kun Kim, saying “During the relocation, UDG respected and followed Cambodian law and lease terms by working with inter-ministerial commission without committing any wrongdoings through General Kun Kim.”The U.S. sanctioned the senior general, his wife and two children on December 9, 2019, for “his involvement in corruption,” according to the Treasury. Kim was allegedly using his influence and network to benefit Chinese companies in Cambodia.“After falsely registering as a Cambodian-owned entity in order to receive land for the Dara Sakor development project, UDG reverted to its true ownership and continued to operate without repercussions,”  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday.“We will not tolerate these actions against innocent people and will always stand with the Cambodian people,” Pompeo tweeted soon after the sanction announcement.On Wednesday, the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh posted FILE – Baby clouded leopards, born early in March 2015, at the Olmense Zoo in Olmen, Belgium, April 16, 2015. Clouded leopards are among the animals that reside in Botum Sakor National Park in Cambodia.“This is a partial justice,” said Mu Sochua, vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party. “The real justice is to give our farmers and fishermen their land, but at least they’ve received partial justice now. At the same time, this demonstrated that the U.S. joins us in demanding an end to impunity, which means taking those perpetrators to face justice, if not in our court system, but under the U.S. system.”The U.S. alleges that Cambodia uses development project such as UDG to expand its sphere of influence in the world, especially through its Belt and Road Initiative. The U.S. raised the alarm last year after media reports quoted the Cambodian government spokesperson, Phay Siphan, as saying that Dara Sakor could be converted to host military assets.“A permanent PRC military presence in Cambodia could threaten regional stability and undermine the prospects for the peaceful settlement of disputes, the promotion of maritime safety and security, and the freedom of navigation and overflight,” the statement from the Treasury Department said.Phay Siphan said he never acknowledged that the UDG project could be retooled as a Chinese military base.“I reject the report that implicated my name in it,” Phay Siphan told VOA Khmer. “It’s shameful because I’ve never said that.”  In July 2019, he told Bloomberg, “Dara Sakor is civilian ⁠— there is no base at all. It could be converted, yes, but you could convert anything.”Expanding influenceCPP spokesperson Sok Eysan also asserted that the government wanted to create an economic zone in the Dara Sakor area, and had no intention of the facilities becoming a military base for any superpower.“Cambodia does not seek to be a military power,” Sok Eysan said. “We only want to ensure a sustainable economy to feed 16 million people. … Therefore, we’re trying our best to develop the country. We do not want war to come to Cambodia.”Cambodia has allied with China as Beijing is expanding its sphere of influence in the region without many challenges from competing powers other than the U.S.Under President Xi Jinping, China has sought to expand its political, military, cultural, and economic dominance through bilateral aid and mega development projects like the Belt and Road Initiative that includes the Dara Sakor Seashore Resort.Ro Vannak, a geopolitical expert and the co-founder of the Cambodia Institute of Democracy, believes that a U.S. sanction on a Chinese company in Cambodia is part of Washington’s strategy to curb China’s emergence as a regional power.“The sanction on a Chinese company in Cambodia is a sign that makes Cambodia uneasy,” said Ro Vannak. “This means that once superpowers start to compete, push, and splash water at each other, smaller countries that rely on them economically, especially on China, would find their reputation and economic growth is affected.”This report originated with VOA’s Khmer Service. Men Kimseng reported from Washington, D.C., Hul Reaksmey and Aun Chhengpor reported from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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China sent almost 20 warplanes into Taiwan’s airspace in an unusually large show of force as a response to a senior U.S. official’s visit to the self-governing island.  Eighteen Chinese military aircraft, including two H-6 strategic bombers and fighter jets, crossed the so-called median line on Friday morning, according to a statement from Taiwan’s defense ministry: “The military scrambled fighters and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the activities.”  Keith Krach, U.S. undersecretary for economic affairs, arrived in Taiwan on Thursday to attend a memorial service for former President Lee Teng-hui. He is the highest-level official from the U.S. State Department to visit Taipei in decades.  Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, left, takes a selfie with Keith Krach, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, in Taipei, in this photo provided by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 18, 2020.Beijing condemned the visit, vowing “China will make necessary responses in accordance with the development of the situation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Thursday.  China also sent military aircraft across the median line when U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar visited Taipei last month. However, previous crossings into Taiwanese airspace had not involved so many warplanes approaching from multiple directions at once.  A report by Taiwan’s defense ministry showed a map of the flight paths of Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait midline, and a picture of missiles being loaded onto an H-6 bomber.   “PLA Friday drills not warning, but rehearsal for Taiwan takeover,” a headline by China-backed newspaper Global Times said Friday. “In fact, the Friday exercise is a landmark in the struggle across the Taiwan Straits.”   Michael Hunzeker, a professor at George Mason University’s School of Policy and Government, said it is likely that Beijing is also trying to convince Washington that these kinds of high-profile visits aren’t risk free. By conducting such provocative military exercises, “there’s always the chance for an accident or a collision that could spark a crisis that both sides would find hard to control,” Hunzeker told VOA in an email.  US-China relations Krach’s visit comes as U.S.-China relations are at their lowest point in decades. Washington this week further angered China by announcing more arms sales to Taiwan. The planned trade deal would involve as many as seven major weapons systems, including drones, sea mines and missiles able to strike targets deep inside Chinese territory.  In recent months, prominent American foreign policy experts have been calling for an end to strategic ambiguity, a policy shift that most would have considered outlandish or extreme not so long ago.   On Thursday, a congressman from Wisconsin, Tom Tiffany, introduced legislation calling for the U.S. to resume formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and end the “one China policy,” a cornerstone of U.S.-China relations for more than 40 years.  “The nature of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship is clearly shifting,” said Hunzeker, a Marine Corps veteran. While it is unlikely these recent developments will lead Xi Jinping to authorize an attack on Taiwan in the immediate future, “we cannot dismiss the risk of miscalculation or accidental escalation entirely,” Hunzeker said. 
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The violent death of a Tibetan commando soldier who belonged to an Indian special forces unit near the China-India border has provided the public with rare insight into the operations of a little-known elite force. Tibetan soldier Nyima Tenzin, 53, a company leader in the Special Frontier Force (SFF) under the Indian army, died in a land mine blast in late August, near the site of border tensions with Chinese troops. Another junior soldier was critically injured in the same explosion. Few details are publicly known about the covert force that was set up soon after a war between India and China in 1962. The Indian government hasn’t published any official count of the size of the force, although some experts estimate its strength at around 5,000 to 10,000 men. FILE – Indian soldiers walk at the foothills of a mountain range near Leh, the joint capital of the union territory of Ladakh, June 25, 2020.Considered an elite force in the India army, the SFF takes its orders directly from the Indian prime minister. It is based in Chakrata, nearly 700 kilometers from Ladakh, a key friction point in the current India-China border conflict. US trainingTenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan writer and activist in Dharamshala, told VOA that the force was trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the 1960s. “At that time, the main purpose of the group was to fight the PLA across the border,” he said. The Tibetan troops obtained weapons and equipment as well as training from the CIA, he said. The U.S. government pulled the CIA out of the training program following then-Republican President Richard M. Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Yet the SFF kept receiving training from the Indian army to prepare for any potential conflict in the region. Over the years, the Indian government has deployed the SFF in various military operations. SFF soldiers have successfully waged wars for India starting with the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh against Pakistan. During the Kargil War in 1999, SFF soldiers captured Tiger Hill from the rival Pakistani soldiers, leading to India’s victory. The Reuters news agency quoted Amitabh Mathur, a former Indian government adviser on Tibetan affairs, as saying he wasn’t surprised the Indian government decided to deploy the SFF troops this time, as they were “crack troops, especially in the context of mountain climbing and high-altitude warfare.” ‘Ultimate dream of Tibetan soldiers’Within the Tibetan community, grieving has begun over Nyima’s death. His coffin has been draped with Indian and Tibetan flags in a refugee colony in Choglamsar, a village in India’s Ladakh region. According to Tsundue, many of the soldiers mourning the loss of Nyima simply want to return to their remote Himalayan homeland. FILE – Indian soldiers pay their respects during the funeral of their comrade, Tibetan-origin India’s special forces soldier Nyima Tenzin, in Leh on Sept. 7, 2020.“With the current border conflict, they might have a chance to fight against China and drive Chinese troops out of Tibet,” he explained. “This is the ultimate dream of Tibetan soldiers. They hope to fight the Chinese and play an important role in the fight for Tibet’s independence.” VOA reached out to the Tibetan Government in Exile for comments. Karma Choeying, spokesperson for the Central Tibetan Administration, said the administration “does not comment on this matter.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Wednesday said she did not know whether Tibetans were fighting for India, but urged caution. “We are firmly opposed to any country, including India, supporting the secession activities of Tibetan pro-independence forces or providing them with any assistance or physical space,” she said. This story originated in VOA’s Mandarin service.
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China said Friday it was conducting military exercises near the Taiwan Strait, as a top U.S. diplomat visits the self-ruled island in a move that has angered Beijing.Relations between the United States and China are at their lowest point in decades, with the two sides clashing over a range of trade, military and security issues, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.Keith Krach, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, landed in Taipei Thursday for a three-day visit, the highest-ranking State Department official to visit in 40 years.At a press conference on Friday, a Chinese defense ministry spokesman said Beijing was “holding actual combat exercises near the Taiwan Strait” when asked how it would respond to the visit.”This is a legitimate and necessary action taken to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in response to the current situation in the Taiwan Strait,” Ren Guoqiang told reporters.Ren also warned that the Chinese military had “sufficient ability” to counter any external threat or challenge from Taiwan separatists.Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory, to be absorbed into the Chinese mainland — by force if necessary.China’s Communist leadership baulks at any recognition of Taiwan — which has been ruled separately from China since the end of a civil war in 1949 — and has pursued a decades-long policy of marginalizing the democratic island.Ren accused the United States of “frequently causing trouble” over Taiwan, which he said “is purely China’s internal affairs, and we won’t tolerate any external interference”.According to Taipei’s defense ministry, 18 Chinese aircraft — including bombers and fighters — entered Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Friday and also crossed the so-called median line that divides the Taiwan Strait.The ministry said Taiwan’s military “scrambled fighters, and deployed air defense missile system to monitor the activities”.”We hope the other side can exercise restraint and not… heighten conflicts between the two sides. These military intimidations have caused resentment among the Taiwanese people,” it said in a statement.In recent weeks, Taiwan has reported a sharp rise in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its ADIZ.Chinese jets also made a brief incursion across the midline of the strait separating the two sides in August, as US health chief Alex Azar made his country’s highest-level visit to Taiwan since 1979 — the year Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.Washington’s increased outreach to Taiwan under President Donald Trump has become yet another U.S.-China flashpoint.The U.S. said Krach was visiting Taiwan to attend Saturday’s memorial service for late president Lee Teng-hui, who died in July aged 97.  On Friday, Krach met with foreign minister Joseph Wu to discuss various bilateral issues and exchange view on future collaborations, according to Taipei authorities. He is also scheduled to join President Tsai Ing-wen for dinner at her official residence.China has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since Tsai came to power in 2016, as she refuses to acknowledge its idea that the democratic island is part of “one China”.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s office Wednesday denied a claim made this month by the international rights group Human Rights Watch that drug-related killings by the country’s police have grown substantially during the anti-coronavirus shutdowns.The advocacy group said in a September 8 report that extrajudicial killings, a hallmark of Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs, rose 50% from April, when lockdowns began, through July, compared to the previous four months.The claim raises questions about how that’s possible and resurrects one of the country’s stickiest issues during an already tough pandemic.Human Rights Watch says 155 people were killed by law enforcement from April through July, up from 103 December to March. The anti-drug campaign has caused the death of at least 5,810 suspected dealers and users during police operations since 2016, the group says.’Gross distortions’Duterte’s office Wednesday called the report “gross distortions” based on “unqualified and unverified data.”The presidential office rebuttal of the Human Rights Watch statement does not offer competing data for the April-July span but says the government is committed to “lawful enforcement operations” during the pandemic.“We reject sweeping allegations of state-sanctioned extra judicial killings that have resurfaced with unfounded allegations,” the presidential office statement says.Data on killings come from public government records, Human Rights Watch says.“Sadly, the Presidential Communication Operations Office spin doctors are apparently more interested in scoring political points than making a factual argument,” the rights group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, told VOA Thursday.“It’s frankly absurd to disparage Human Rights Watch’s analysis while failing to provide any evidence of any factual mistake on our part,” he said.’They think they can get away with it’Killings may have risen during shutdowns as police take more control of the streets to enforce stay-home orders, analysts in the Southeast Asian country say. Any excess police force would be more likely to go unnoticed because fewer people go outside overall, they add.“They are empowered now even more than before – they can effect arrests of quarantine violators,” said Renato Reyes, secretary-general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabayan alliance of leftist causes. When it comes to any police killings, he said, “they think they can get away with it, because nobody’s looking and the whole environment is militarized.”In Metro Manila, an urban mass of 12.9 million that includes the Philippine capital, drug dealers would be particularly obvious because of the myriad police checkpoints set up to enforce stay-home orders, said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in Metro Manila.“Because there are so many checkpoints now in Metro Manila, it’s easier to find these people,” Rabena said. “There’s increased police visibility, so along the way they might have encountered these drug mules.”The advocacy group’s findings shed new light on an issue that dogged Duterte earlier in his now-4-year-old presidency. The tough-talking leader who once pledged to eradicate drug crimes within six months had drawn rebukes from Western government and United Nations officials because of reports that police were killing suspects without trial.’People identified as leftists’As his popularity rose at home on perceptions that the anti-drug campaign had made streets safer, Duterte lashed out at opponents overseas, including former U.S. President Barack Obama. In 2017, the Philippine leader toned down the anti-drug crackdown following domestic protests over the killings of teenagers.Stepped up stay-home patrols, coupled with an anti-terrorism act that was finalized in July, give police more leeway to kill not only drug suspects, said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman.They’re going after “people identified as leftists” and supporters of the country’s communist movement, she said. The Communist Party of the Philippines maintains a militia that occasionally kills soldiers.“It means that some of the major programs or policies or the government still continue even during the pandemic,” Atienza said.Lockdowns in Metro Manila relaxed in August, although malls and restaurants accept fewer people than before the pandemic, and Filipinos under 20 or over 60 years old are still asked to stay home.The Philippines has reported more COVID-19 cases than other Southeast Asian countries because of weak social distancing practices. The total caseload stood at 276,289 as of Friday. 
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Thailand’s military-backed prime minister warned protesters on Thursday against heightening COVID-19 risks as they planned large anti-government demonstrations for the weekend.  
 
Demonstrators have held two months of near-daily rallies to demand former junta leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s removal and changes to a constitution they say were designed to extend military dominance after an election last year.  
 
Prayuth, a former army chief who says he was fairly elected, said in a televised speech that he understood the grievances but urged demonstrators to put “COVID first” for now.  
 
“When you gather in mobs, you are creating an enormous risk of new infections. And with that, you also create enormous risk to the livelihoods of tens of millions of fellow Thais,” he said.  
 
“Your protests delay economic recovery because you affect business confidence, and you affect the confidence of tourists to return to our country when we are ready to receive them.”  
 
Thailand has not seen a local coronavirus transmission for 14 days since Sept. 3, when a prison inmate tested positive after over 100 days of no new local cases.  
 
Foes say Prayuth is exploiting the health situation.  
 
“COVID is the government’s last card, the only trick left up its sleeve, to undermine the legitimacy of the protests,” said Anusorn Unno, a protester and lecturer at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.  
 
Protest leaders expect tens of thousands to gather at that university on Saturday and march to Government House on Sunday.  
 
The university said last week it would not allow the gathering on its campus. Police also said marching to Government House could break a law prohibiting large gatherings near restricted sites.  
 
The demonstrations, though largely peaceful, have revived memories of more than a decade of intermittent unrest and protracted street rallies that culminated in a 2014 coup led by Prayuth against the government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
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Hong Kong political activists reportedly fleeing toward Taiwan by speedboat have put Taiwanese aid agencies and organizations in a bind over how to offer support — both parties want to resist China — despite a ban on illegal entry and the absence of a legal guarantee of asylum, lawmakers and experts say.   China wants to unite with a reluctant, self-ruled Taiwan and bring under control Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters, who have run up against police as well as a new security law during the past year. Concerns of a continued crackdown has motivated some Hong Kong activists to flee.   In July, Taiwanese news outlet China Times said Taiwan’s coast guard had stopped a boat carrying five Hong Kong political activists. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council would not comment Monday on the case but said the government had a “humanitarian mechanism” in place.    Last month another Hong Kong speedboat, with 12 aboard, was stopped by Chinese maritime authorities while it was apparently heading toward Taiwan, the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong said.   Of the Hong Kong people granted residency in Taiwan since January 2019, none came illegally by sea, Taiwanese ruling party legislator Lo Chih-cheng said. Weather makes crossing the Taiwan Strait risky in a small craft, he said, and the coast guard is sure to spot any intruding boat.   If they reach land, though, help isn’t far off. Nongovernmental groups in Taipei have aided other political refugee seekers since June 2019, when Hong Kong’s mass anti-China protests erupted.    “I think Taiwan hopes that free world countries including Taiwan will do their most to help persecuted Hong Kong citizens, but when doing this we don’t need to beat a big drum and don’t even need to put government in the lead,” Taiwanese ruling party lawmaker Wang Ting-yu said in an interview September 10  with VOA.   Other Hong Kong activists have already reached Taiwan through “unofficial” channels, Wang said, and sometimes with help from entities Taiwan. Those supporters encourage activists to come safely and without compromising Taiwan’s own security, he said. They are vetted as well to ensure they are political victims, he said.   Some nonprofits doing this kind of work are “putting themselves in danger,” Wang said.    Wang would not specify the channels used, the entities involved or the vetting process for fear of tipping off Chinese officials.   Hong Kong political activists are particularly considering Taiwan now because the June 30 Hong Kong national security law allows for life prison sentences for the more severe crimes associated with the street protests. China has administered Hong Kong, a former British colony, since 1997.   For the activists, Taiwan is close, is ethnically Chinese, and has democratic self-rule. The two are about 700 kilometers apart by water. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, but the two sides have been separately ruled since the 1940s.   The Taiwan government discourages illegal entry but has said it will consider political asylum requests, case by case, for Hong Kong citizens already here.   “The government has emphasized multiple times Taiwan supports Hong Kong’s freedom and democracy, but Taiwan is also a law-driven society,” said Chiu Chui-cheng, spokesman for the Mainland Affairs Council. “Based on considerations of safety and risk, it absolutely won’t encourage illegal entry,” he said.   Chen Ming-tong, head of Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council, and Katharine Chang, chairwoman of Taiwan–Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council, attend opening of Taiwan-Hong Kong Services and Exchanges, July 1, 2020.Taiwan lacks an asylum law, like those in Europe or in the United States, that would spell out conditions for letting Hong Kong people stay for political reasons. In July, though, the government opened an office to help Hong Kong citizens apply for residency.   Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has spoken in favor of Hong Kong’s democracy activists and against China. FILE – Students from Hong Kong and Taiwan display placards reading “Bad laws of China’s national security” during a protest outside the Hong Kong’s Taipei office on May 28, 2020.Taiwan should encourage more Hong Kong citizens to come as Taiwan university students supported financially by the government, said Joanna Lei, CEO of Chunghua 21st Century Think Tank in Taiwan. Many protesters are university student age.   “I think that’s the easiest way and that doesn’t involve changing laws or doing anything in respect to the immigration law,” she said. “It’s a very simple way to do it.”   The Taipei-based Chi-nan Presbyterian Church has offered aid to Hong Kong activists over the past year, Pastor Huang Chun-sheng said.    Once the activists reach Taiwan, the church works with other nonprofits to get the new arrivals help extending their stays, securing residency permits, paying medical bills and finding homes, Huang said.  
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The World Trade Organization ruled Tuesday that some U.S. tariffs against China broke international trading rules, a conclusion that exacerbates U.S.-WTO tensions and drew immediate backlash from Washington.  
 
A WTO panel said that “China has demonstrated that the additional duties apply only to products from China and thus fail to accord to products originating in China an advantage granted to the like product originating in all other WTO Members.”
 
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said the ruling was “fair and objective,” and hoped the U.S. would comply.  
 
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer criticized the ruling, saying the WTO panel report “confirms what the Trump administration has been saying for four years: the WTO is completely inadequate to stop China’s harmful technology practices.”  
 
He also said its decision shows that the WTO provides no remedy for such misconduct, adding that the ruling would not have any effect on the U.S. China Phase I trade deal that was reached earlier this year.  
 
The Trump administration has accused China of intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers and imposed tariffs on more than $200 billion in Chinese goods in 2018. China subsequently applied retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.  
 
Gary Hufbauer, an economist with the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA that the ruling means both sides have violated global trading rules.  
 
“As widely expected, the panel ruled that US Section 301 tariffs violate several WTO articles. By implication, the Chinese retaliatory tariffs violate the same articles,” he said.  
 
Several members of Congress criticized the WTO for being influenced by China.  
 
Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, told VOA that China has never complied with WTO rules.  
 
“It’s like a lot of organizations that China has been able to have influence on, because they never comply with anything they agree to…so we have keep doing what we do and hold them accountable,” he said.  
 
Earlier in the day, he criticized WTO’s decision on Twitter, saying the ruling is “another evidence of a world organization cowering to the Chinese Communist Party.”The @wto’s decision to side with Communist China & ignore clear evidence of their unfair trade practices is another example of a “world” organization cowering to the Chinese Communist Party.I applaud the Administration for continuing to fight for American workers & businesses. https://t.co/RKJ5Xd7taY— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) September 15, 2020 
Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said on Twitter that the decision shows that the WTO is “outdated, sclerotic, and generally bad for America.” He added the U.S. “should withdraw and lead the effort to abolish it. “More evidence that the WTO is outdated, sclerotic, and generally bad for America. USA should withdraw and lead the effort to abolish it https://t.co/GvOL0pWRVm— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 15, 2020Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, told VOA that the report is “concerning,” and the U.S. needs to “look into it.”
 
The WTO panel recommended the United States bring its measures “into conformity with its obligations”, but also encouraged the two sides to work to resolve the overall dispute.
 
However, Hufbauer said neither the U.S. nor China is likely to remove its tariffs as a consequence of the ruling.
 
“Both the U.S. and China are ignoring rules they agreed in the WTO. However, since the Appellate Body is now dysfunctional, the WTO is no longer able to impose penalties for breaking the rules,” he said. “This is a further blow to the WTO as an institution governing international trade.”
 
The WTO’s policing ability rests on its seven-judge Appellate Body, which reviews arbitration rulings. However, Washington has refused to replace judges whose terms expired, leaving the body without enough members to perform its functions.  Yi-Hua Lee contributed to this report.
 
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A judicial inquiry in Australia continues to probe failures in the nation’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine system for returning travelers.  The inquiry has heard that security breaches almost certainly sparked a deadly second wave of infections in the state of Victoria, which is at the center of Australia’s coronavirus crisis.  Foreign nationals were banned from Australia when its international borders were closed in March.  But many thousands of citizens and permanent residents have been allowed to fly home, where they face a mandatory 14-days in hotel quarantine. In Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, the system has been chaotic.  Members of a judicial inquiry heard that breaches in security at two hotels allowed infected passengers to spread the disease into the community, causing a second wave of COVID-19. Instead of using soldiers to secure the hotels like in other parts of the country, Victoria used private security guards.  Many allegedly were poorly-trained and ill-equipped.    Victoria’s emergency management commissioner, Andrew Crisp, has told the investigating panel he thought private companies could do the job. “I guess in terms of a view I thought they would have been a suitable and appropriate workforce to use in the hotel.  I have worked a lot with private security and the thinking was that well-trained, well-supervised private security in this type of role would have been efficient and effective,” he said.They weren’t.  The hotel quarantine fiasco in Victoria is considered by many to be Australia’s greatest failure in the pandemic, so far.  Senior government, police and health officials, including state premier Daniel Andrews, are scheduled to give evidence before the inquiry. FILE – Police check details of residents in the Melbourne central business district in Australia’s worst-hit Victoria state, Aug. 9, 2020, as the city struggles to cope with COVID-19 pandemic.Victoria has accounted for about 75 percent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases across Australia, and most of its fatalities.  The state capital, Melbourne, is under some of the world’s toughest coronavirus lockdowns until at least the end of the month.  Restrictions, including a night-time curfew, will only be eased when the rate of daily new infections falls to consistently lower levels.   Authorities have said the trend is heading in the right direction.  They are confident lockdown measures will be gradually eased before the end of November. Beyond Melbourne, in regional Victoria, disease-control directives will be eased significantly on Wednesday because infection rates have declined.  Many personal freedoms, big and small, are being restored.   Stay-at-home orders will no longer apply, people can sit in a restaurant to dine and children’s sports can resume.  Limits, though, will still apply to social gatherings.  Australia has had almost 27,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 800 people have died. 
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In Malaysia, the coronavirus pandemic has led to an increase in the number of food deliveries. But frequent accidents are raising questions about delivery driver safety. Dave Grunebaum has the story. Camera: Dave Grunebaum  
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A high-profile virtual summit among Chinese and EU leaders this week has spurred some influential Europeans to rethink their continent’s relationship with Beijing, and especially whether economic considerations have been overemphasized at the expense of human rights.Monday’s digital get-together — led by Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor and current EU President Angela Merkel — concluded with several vague commitments to “enhance mutual trust, seek mutual benefits on a win-win basis and uphold multilateralism,” according to China’s Xinhua news agency.But German politicians and news organizations were asking hard questions about Europe’s relationship with China even before the start of the talks, which had been planned pre-pandemic as a gala affair in the German city of Leipzig. The summit also included European Council President Charles Michel and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.“How do we position ourselves towards #China? Is China only a huge market or do we as the EU want to play a role in shaping the world order?” Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee, asked in a tweet hours before the meeting began.Today the Member of the Greens Party Reinhard Buetikofer arrives for talks on Nov. 19, 2017 in Berlin.“There are at least as many German lawmakers, German members of parliament that are strongly supportive of human rights, in particular human rights in China, as you’ll find in the U.S. Congress,” said German Green Party legislator Reinhard Buetikofer, head of the EU’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, in a telephone interview.Gyde Jensen, representing Germany’s northernmost region in the Bundestag, is just such a lawmaker. Considered a rising star, the 31-year-old chair of the parliament’s human rights committee proudly pins a photo of herself with a Hong Kong activist on her Twitter account  and believes Germany should keep Huawei out in its 5G plans.Seit über eineinhalb Jahren fordert die @fdpbt stärkere Einhaltung von Völkerrecht und #Menschenrechten in #Hongkong. Gestern habe ich @nathanlawkc getroffen und die Auslandsreise von #WangYi Revue passieren lassen.Unser Fazit: #CCP hat falsch gepokert – 🇪🇺 steht zusammen. pic.twitter.com/gEhXuBlD4P— Gyde Jensen (@GydeJ) September 3, 2020Prominent members of the academic community have lent their voices to the cause.“German governments, both past and present, have consistently prioritized trade with China over other enlightened German national interests, for example democracy and human rights,” said Andreas Fulda, a German social and political scientist who launched a petition in May calling for a reappraisal. We need to talk about Germany. Let’s start with an inconvenient truth: German governments, both past and present, have consistently prioritized trade with China over other enlightened German national interests, for example democracy and human rights. 1/16https://t.co/NcuRAAXGAH— Andreas Fulda (@AMFChina) May 26, 2020For too long, foreign trade promotion has topped Germany’s policy configurations toward China, Fulda said in an email interview. Corporate voices have been over-amplified in public discourse while “for decades hyp[ing] the significance of the Chinese market” in order to justify trade and investment “with an authoritarian China.”China, for its part, likes to remind Europeans of the economic advantages of the relationship. Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Beijing conspicuously announced that the German auto industry continued to reap profits in China, while business interests elsewhere have been pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic.“German car giants increased their sales in China, with Mercedes-Benz seeing a 21.6 percent increase in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, even as its sales in Europe dropped by 31.5 percent during the first half of the year,” said a September 9 article published in the Global Times, an arm of Chinese state media.Germany, for its part, declared China as its top single-country export destination in the second quarter of this year, surpassing the United States.Some Chinese netizens suggested that Beijing’s increased purchases from Germany were part of a strategic move to secure Berlin’s friendship. Otherwise, one wrote, European nations “would all follow the footsteps of the Czech Senate leader” who recently led a delegation to Taiwan.Senate President Miloš Vystrčil led an 89-member Czech delegation to Taipei on a trip described as honoring the spirit of Vaclav Havel, the first democratically elected Czech president following the disintegration of the Soviet bloc 30 years ago.“My view is that if we focus on money, we will lose [both] our values and money,” Vystrčil said prior to embarking on the journey. 
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Marine experts are planning to rescue humpback whales that have been recorded for the first time in crocodile-infested waters in the Kakadu national park in tropical northern Australia. It is thought the giant sea mammals took a wrong turn during one of nature’s most epic migrations. The humpbacks should be starting their long journey to Antarctica from breeding grounds off Western Australia’s remote north coast. Instead, a small group – thought to be two adults and a large juvenile – were spotted in the East Alligator river in the Kakadu national park, east of Darwin on September 2.  It is famous for its world heritage Aboriginal rock art and for its crocodiles. Never have migrating whales been recorded in the area.  Experts believe one of the humpbacks has returned to the sea, and plans are being made to coax the others to follow. This could involve using the noise from boat engines to gently move them down the river towards Van Diemen’s Gulf that leads to the open waters of the Timor Sea off northern Australia. Whale calls and songs might also be used to try to move the humpbacks back into safer waters. Scientists also hope to fit satellite tracking devices to the mammals.  Dr. Carol Palmer, a senior dolphin and whale scientist at the Northern Territory government, says it was extraordinary to see the humpbacks so far inland. “We went up the East Alligator (river), we were turning around, we went up about 30kms and then as we were just moseying on down, what did we see the humpback whales.  Everyone, including myself, we were just really shocked.  It is something that has never been recorded before,” Palmer said.Tens of thousands of humpback whales migrate up and down Australia’s east and west coasts each year. This migration from Antarctica begins around April, when the giant mammals head north to breed. They start heading south in September and November. Scientists have not yet explained why a small group wandered so badly off-course, ending up in crocodile-infested waters in the Northern Territory.  Saltwater crocodiles are the world’s largest reptiles. They are aggressive and dangerous but are thought to pose little danger to the whales unless the humpbacks become stranded on a sandbank.   
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