BEIJING — China’s military on Saturday condemned the transit of two German navy ships through the Taiwan Strait saying it increased security risks and sent the “wrong” signal, adding that Chinese forces monitored and warned the vessels.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own, says it alone exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction over the strait. Both the United States and Taiwan say the strait — a major trade route through which about half of global container ships pass — is an international waterway.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said the passage of the two ships — a frigate and a supply vessel — was “public hyping,” and that its navy and air forces monitored and warned them throughout.

“The German side’s behavior increases security risks and sends the wrong signal. Troops in the theater are on high alert at all times and will resolutely counter all threats and provocations,” it said in a statement.

China’s embassy in Germany said in a separate statement it had lodged “representations” with Berlin, saying Taiwan belonged to China, a position the democratically elected government in Taipei strongly rejects.

“The question of Taiwan is not a matter of ‘freedom of navigation’, but of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.

The Taiwan Strait is Chinese waters “and there are no so-called ‘international waters’ at all,” the embassy added.

China urges Germany to avoid any “interference” that would jeopardize the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations, it added.

Taiwan’s government says only the island’s people can decide their future.

U.S. warships sail through the strait around once every two months, drawing the ire of Beijing, and some U.S. allies like Canada and Britain have also made occasional transits.

China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, has over the past five years stepped up military activities around the island, including staging war games.

On Saturday, Taiwan’s coast guard said it had again sent ships to monitor and warn away four Chinese maritime police vessels sailing in restricted waters near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, which sit right next to China’s coast.

The Chinese ships have continued to provoke and damage peace in the strait, and the coast guard is determined to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty upholding the principles of no provocation, no conflict and no show of weakness, it said.

Calls to China’s defense ministry seeking comment went unanswered. 
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BEIJING — Starting next year, China will raise its retirement age for workers, which is now among the youngest in the world’s major economies, in an effort to address its shrinking population and aging work force.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s legislature, passed the new policy Friday after a sudden announcement earlier in the week that it was reviewing the measure, state broadcaster CCTV announced.

The policy change will be carried out over 15 years, with the retirement age for men raised to 63 years, and for women to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs. The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work.

“We have more people coming into the retirement age, and so the pension fund is (facing) high pressure. That’s why I think it’s now time to act seriously,” said Xiujian Peng, a senior research fellow at Victoria University in Australia who studies China’s population and its ties to the economy.

The previous retirement ages were set in the 1950’s, when life expectancy was only around 40 years, Peng said.

The policy will be implemented starting in January, according to the announcement from China’s legislature. The change will take effect progressively based on people’s birthdates.

For example, a man born in January 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 7 months in August 2032, according to a chart released along with the policy. A man born in May 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 8 months in January 2033.

Demographic pressures made the move long overdue, experts say. By the end of 2023, China counted nearly 300 million people over the age of 60. By 2035, that figure is projected to be 400 million, larger than the population of the U.S. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had previously projected that the public pension fund will run out of money by that year.

Pressure on social benefits such as pensions and social security is hardly a China-specific problem. The U.S. also faces the issue as analysis shows that currently, the Social Security fund won’t be able to pay out full benefits to people by 2033.

“This is happening everywhere,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But in China with its large elderly population, the challenge is much larger.”

That is on top of fewer births, as younger people opt out of having children, citing high costs. In 2022, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that for the first time the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of the year than the previous year, a turning point from population growth to decline. In 2023, the population shrank further, by 2 million people.

What that means is that the burden of funding elderly people’s pensions will be divided among a smaller group of younger workers, as pension payments are largely funded by deductions from people who are currently working.

Researchers measure that pressure by looking at a number called the dependency ratio, which counts the number of people over the age of 65 compared to the number of workers under 65. That number was 21.8% in 2022, according to government statistics, meaning that roughly five workers would support one retiree. The percentage is expected to rise, meaning fewer workers will be shouldering the burden of one retiree.
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Taipei, Taiwan — An expected visit to Hawaii by the head of China’s Southern Theater Command next week will come just days after a high-ranking Pentagon official attended a defense conference in Beijing.

The visits, analysts said, are part of an effort to expand high-level exchanges between the U.S. and China and boost top-level military-to-military communication. It is unclear, though, how much the exchanges will do to help avoid miscommunication and keep tensions in the Indo-Pacific under control, they added.

Earlier this week, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Sam Paparo, and the head of the PLA, or People’s Liberation Army, Southern Theater Command, General Wu Yanan, held a video call for the first time in years.

The Chinese defense ministry said the two commanders had an “in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern” while Paparo urged the Chinese military “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond.”

Wu is expected to attend a defense conference held by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii next week, U.S. defense officials have confirmed to VOA.

Meanwhile, Michael Chase, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, is holding defense policy coordination talks with Chinese defense officials while attending the annual Xiangshan Security Dialogue held in Beijing this week.

A meeting that took place on the sidelines of the Xiangshan forum was designed to “underscore the United States’ shared vision for the region,” according to a U.S. Department of Defense readout Thursday.

The Biden administration has been working to restore communication between Chinese and American militaries since the U.S. president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California last November.

Chase’s visit to Beijing this week and Wu’s expected reciprocal visit next week follow a first meeting between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, last month.

During that meeting, Zhang said maintaining military security is “in line with the common interests of both sides” and Sullivan highlighted the two nations’ shared responsibility to “prevent competition from veering into conflict or confrontation.”

Some analysts see a potential for further communication and engagement between the two militaries.

“I won’t rule out the possibilities that Beijing and Washington may look to establish a hotline between the two militaries, and whether that mechanism could be extended to the theater command level remains to be seen,” Lin Ying-Yu, a military expert at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone.

While the resumption of top-level communication allows Beijing and Washington to avoid miscalculations, other experts say it is unclear whether China and the U.S. can establish a more sustainable mechanism to cope with potential crises.

“While having contact and knowing your interlocutors are positive things during non-crisis times, the real test is whether these contacts can hold back any unintended escalation when incidents happen,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

Chong said since theater commanders from the U.S. and China oversee implementing rather than formulating policies, it is unclear whether the latest development can become established protocols.

“If there’s a persistence of [maintaining military-to-military communication], then it would suggest that it has become a policy,” he told VOA by phone.

Tensions remain high over contentious issues

Tensions remain high between China and the U.S. over a range of issues, including the repeated collision between Chinese and Philippine vessels near disputed reefs in the South China Sea and Beijing’s increased maneuvers in waters and airspace near Taiwan and Japan.

During the Xiangshan forum, Lieutenant General He Lei, the former vice president of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, characterized the Philippines’ attempt to safeguard its territorial claims in the South China Sea as “a unilateral change of the status quo” while accusing the U.S. of undermining security across the Taiwan Strait by selling weapons to Taiwan.

“The Chinese people and the People’s Liberation Army will never allow any external forces to interfere in China’s internal affairs or invade China’s territory,” he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN in an interview.

Some analysts say there are limits to what military-to-military communications can do to ease tensions over what are essentially political disagreements.

“The military tension is only a manifestation of their political differences over Taiwan and the South China Sea, so if their disagreements are not resolved, the military tension is very unlikely to see a permanent resolution,” Yun Sun, China program director at the Stimson Center in Washington, told VOA by phone.

With less than two months until the U.S. presidential election, Chong in Singapore said Beijing and Washington’s recent efforts may be an attempt to lay the foundation for bilateral military-to-military communication to be continued after the November election.

“On the Democrat side, if some of the current team stays [after November], perhaps we would see this momentum continue,” he told VOA.

“On the Republican side, things are a bit messier, because you have those who prefer the isolationist approach, those who advocate a containment approach in Asia, and people who talk about competing against China to win,” Chong added.

Sun said if Donald Trump wins the election in November, Beijing will expect instability in bilateral relations and be prepared for the military relationship to be affected.
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HANOI, Vietnam — The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported.  

Flood waters from the swollen Red River in the capital, Hanoi, were beginning to recede, but many neighborhoods remained inundated and farther north experts were predicting it could still be days before any relief is in sight.  

Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday, starting a week of heavy rains that have triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in Vietnam’s mountainous north.  

Across Vietnam, 103 people are still listed as missing and more than 800 have been injured.  

Most fatalities have come in the province of Lao Cai, where a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu on Tuesday. Eight villagers turned up safe on Friday morning, telling others that they had left before the deluge, state-run VNExpress newspaper reported, but 48 others from Lang Nu have been found dead, and another 39 remain missing.   

Roads to Lang Nu have been badly damaged, making it impossible to bring in heavy equipment to aid in the rescue effort.  

Some 500 personnel with sniffer dogs are on hand, and in a visit to the scene on Thursday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised they would not relent in their search for those still missing.  

“Their families are in agony,” Chinh said.  

Coffins were stacked near the disaster site in preparation for the worst, and villager Tran Thi Ngan mourned at a makeshift altar for family members she had lost.  

“It’s a disaster,” she told VTV news. “That’s the fate we have to accept.”  

In Cao Bang, another northern province bordering China, 21 bodies had been recovered by Friday, four days after a landslide pushed a bus, a car and several motorcycles into a small river, swollen with floodwaters. Ten more people remain missing.  

Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.  

The effects of the typhoon, the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades, were also being felt across the region, with flooding and landslides in northern Thailand, Laos and northeastern Myanmar.  

In Thailand, 10 deaths have been reported due to flooding or landslides, and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra flew to the north on Friday to visit affected people in the border town of Mae Sai. Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation warned of a continuing risk of flash floods in multiple areas through Wednesday, as new rain was expected to increase the Mekong River’s levels further.  

International aid has been flowing into Vietnam in the aftermath of Yagi, with Australia already delivering humanitarian supplies as part of $2 million in assistance.  

South Korea has also pledged $2 million in humanitarian aid, and the U.S. Embassy said Friday it would provide $1 million in support through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.   

“With more heavy rain forecast in the coming days, USAID’s disaster experts continue to monitor humanitarian needs in close coordination with local emergency authorities and partners on the ground,” the embassy said in a statement. “USAID humanitarian experts on the ground are participating in ongoing assessments to ensure U.S. assistance rapidly reaches populations in need.”  

The typhoon and ensuing heavy rains have damaged factories in northern provinces like Haiphong, home to electric car company VinFast, Apple parts suppliers and other electronic manufacturers, which could affect international supply chains, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a research note.  

“Though 95 percent of businesses operating in Haiphong were expected to resume some activity on September 10, repair efforts will likely lower output for the next weeks and months,” CSIS said. 
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Taipei, Taiwan — Chinese authorities have rolled out new propaganda efforts aimed at countering Western narratives about the human rights situation in the northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet.

In recent weeks, they have continued to invite foreign vloggers to visit Xinjiang, home to millions of Uyghur people, a majority Muslim ethnic minority group. Also this month, China inaugurated an international communication center to produce content portraying some “positive developments” in Tibet, such as Tibetan people’s growing income.

Since 2017, the United States, United Nations, European Parliament and rights organizations have condemned China for interning up to 1 million Uyghurs, forcing hundreds of thousands of Uyghur women to go through abortion or sterilization, and forcing Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang to work in factories, which prompted the United States to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act in 2021.

In Tibet, human rights organizations and Western countries, including the U.S., have accused the Chinese government of erasing the Tibetan language and culture through compulsory Chinese language education for Tibetan children, forcing hundreds of thousands of rural Tibetans to relocate to urban areas and replacing the name “Tibet” with the Romanized Chinese name “Xizang” in official documents.

Taiwan said on September 5 it knows of reports China has been recruiting Taiwanese influencers to visit Xinjiang and help promote a more positive narrative about the region through their videos.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees cross-strait exchanges, said it was still looking into the recent surge of Xinjiang-related content produced by Taiwanese influencers and urged them to avoid violating an anti-infiltration law by accepting payment from Beijing.

Taiwanese Youtuber Potter Wang claimed in June that the Chinese government had been inviting Taiwanese influencers on paid trips to China to produce content. His claims prompted several Taiwanese YouTubers who have recently published videos about Xinjiang to deny receiving payment from Beijing.

In response to warnings from Taiwanese authorities, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Beijing welcomed “Taiwan compatriots” to visit China and enjoy “the magnificent mountains and rivers, taste the various kinds of food, experience the local customs, and share what they have seen and heard.”

Apart from inviting Taiwanese influencers to visit Xinjiang, Beijing has been inviting foreign journalists and vloggers to visit Xinjiang since the start of 2024.

In several reports, China’s state-run tabloid Global Times said these foreigners learned about “Xinjiang’s latest economic achievements, religious freedom, and ethnic integration” following visits to local industry, religious venues and residential homes.

Some experts say Chinese authorities usually impose tight control over foreign influencers’ itineraries in Xinjiang to ensure the content they produce is aligned with the positive narrative that Beijing aims to promote, which is contrary to existing foreign media reports about mass internment of Uyghurs, forced labor of ethnic minorities or harsh birth control programs.

“Foreign influencers usually spend time in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, and visit places like the Grand Bazaar, where they will try local food and watch dance performances that could seem to suggest that cultural forms of the Uyghur people are protected,” said Timothy Grose, a professor of China Studies at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana.

In addition to showcasing aspects of Uyghur culture, Grose said, foreign influencers’ Xinjiang videos will often portray Uyghurs being employed and local signs containing Chinese and Uyghur characters.

“Beijing believes this is an effective strategy [to counter existing international narratives about Xinjiang] if they are indirectly controlling the types of pictures that are exported out of Xinjiang,” he told VOA by phone.

By flooding social media platforms with Xinjiang content produced by these foreign influencers, Grose said, the Chinese government is trying to reach and influence casual viewers, especially younger audiences, with no deep knowledge about China or Xinjiang.

“These casual viewers don’t have expertise in China, so they won’t know where to find signs of oppression in the videos since they are unfamiliar with the Uyghur culture or China’s ethnic policy,” he said.

Since China is directly or indirectly filling social media platforms with content aligned with their preferred narrative for Xinjiang, Grose said, it will be difficult for academics, activists, and journalists to counter Beijing’s propaganda efforts with content that reflects the reality in the region.

Telling the Tibet stories

Beijing has also launched a new initiative to “tell the Tibet story well.”

On September 2, several local and central Chinese government agencies inaugurated an “international communication center” in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, that aims to enhance Beijing’s ability to promote its preferred narratives about Tibet.

During a roundtable event focusing on “building a more effective international communication system for Tibet-related issues,” French writer Margot Chevestrier, who works for China’s state-run China International Communications Group, said that many young Chinese people are affected by “biased reporting” on global social media and that these misunderstandings often stem from “misleading reporting by some media or individuals.”

The new international communication center will “enable more people at home and abroad to know Tibet, understand Tibet, and love Tibet,” according to China’s state-run China News, an online news website.

Some analysts say the communication center may serve as a centralized institution to “coordinate” Beijing’s propaganda efforts focusing on Tibet.

“Since there doesn’t seem to be as much propaganda efforts on Tibet as on Xinjiang, Beijing might be thinking how they can use this tactic,” said Sarah Cook, an independent researcher on China and former China research director at nonprofit organization Freedom House.

Cook said the amount of propaganda effort that China dedicated to Xinjiang and Tibet shows that these two issues are of a high priority for Beijing.

“While Tibet and Xinjiang are their priorities, the tactics that the Chinese propaganda apparatus deploys are similar, including spreading disinformation through fake accounts, restricting foreign journalists’ access to certain places, and suppressing information that contradicts their preferred narrative,” she told VOA by phone.

Since its propaganda efforts have been seemingly successful, Grose said, Beijing will continue to employ the same set of strategies to challenge existing facts about the situation in Xinjiang and Tibet.

To push back against Beijing’s campaigns, he said, Xinjiang and Tibet-focused groups should try to increase their presence on social media platforms and create more “captivating and moving” visual content that is “properly contextualized” but can influence young audiences.

Additionally, Cook said it’s important for individuals concerned about the situation in Tibet and Xinjiang to work with like-minded research groups and expose the different propaganda campaigns that China is pushing.

“They can try to produce short videos informing people of Beijing’s tactics,” she said.
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Singapore — Pope Francis on Thursday urged political leaders in Singapore, a leading global financial hub, to seek fair wages for the country’s million-plus lower-paid foreign workers.

In likely the last major speech of an ambitious 12-day tour across Southeast Asia and Oceania, the 87-year-old pontiff expressed concern for Singapore’s rapidly aging population and its migrant workforce, centered in the construction and domestic services industries.

“I hope that special attention will be paid to the poor and the elderly … as well as to protecting the dignity of migrant workers,” the pope said in an address to about 1,000 politicians and civil and religious leaders.

“These workers contribute a great deal to society and should be guaranteed a fair wage,” he said.

There were 1.1 million foreigners on work permits in Singapore who earned less than S$3,000 ($2,300) per month as of December 2023, including 286,300 domestic workers and 441,100 workers in the construction, shipyard and process sectors, government data shows.

Many of the migrant workers come from nearby countries such as Malaysia, China, Bangladesh and India. Many also come from the Philippines, a majority Catholic country.

A Singapore NGO that provides services for migrant workers, Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, welcomed the pope’s remarks, saying they were in “full agreement” with his call for fair wages.

Singapore’s workforce ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Concern for migrants has been a common theme for Francis. Earlier on his trip, he asked leaders in Papua New Guinea to work for fair wages as that country becomes a major target of international companies for its gas, gold and other reserves.

‘Example to follow’

Francis’ speech came after private meetings with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the country’s parliament building, where the pope was presented with a white orchid plant, a new hybrid that was named in his honor.

Francis praised Singapore’s efforts to confront climate change, calling them a model for other countries.

Singapore’s government says rising sea levels due to global warming could have major implications for its low-lying coastline and it is planning to spend S$100 billion ($77 billion) over the course of the century on the issue.

“Your commitment to sustainable development and the preservation of creation is an example to follow,” the pope said. Francis, who has prioritized trips to places never visited by a pope, or where Catholics are a small minority, is only the second pope to visit Singapore, following a brief 5-hour layover by the late John Paul II in 1986.

Singapore, with a population of 5.92 million, is plurality Buddhist, with about 31% of people identifying with that faith. The Vatican counts about 210,000 Catholics in the country, although that number is higher if foreign workers are included.

There are also strong Muslim, Hindu and Taoist communities, and Francis praised Singapore as “a mosaic of ethnicities, cultures and religions living together in harmony.”

Hong Kong presence

Francis celebrated a Mass the Vatican said drew some 50,000 people to Singapore’s national sports stadium, a venue that has also hosted performers such as Taylor Swift, who played six concerts there in March.

People queued outside the stadium, under tight security measures, at least five hours before the start of the event.

Connie Rodriguez, a Filipino Catholic in Singapore, said it was “overwhelming” to see the pope. “You really feel so blessed,” she said.

Francis toured the stadium at the beginning of the event in a white golf cart decorated with the Vatican seal. He greeted dozens of schoolchildren, babies, and disabled people. He also took a few selfies.

Among those who attended the Mass, which featured a prayer in Mandarin, were Catholics who traveled from Hong Kong for the event, including the territory’s archbishop, Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan.

The Vatican is currently renegotiating a controversial deal with China over the appointment of Catholic bishops in the country, which is up for renewal in October.

Francis’ 12-day tour has also included stops in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor. He returns to Rome on Friday.

($1 = 1.3039 Singapore dollars)
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MANILA/BEIJING, — The Philippines will stick to its position on Sabina Shoal, it said on Thursday, even while exploring ways to ease tension in the area during “frank and candid” talks with China on managing disputes in the key waterway of the South China Sea.

The Southeast Asian nation’s sustained presence at the feature, aiming to monitor what it suspects to be China’s small-scale reclamation activities has angered Beijing, turning the shoal into their latest flashpoint in the contested waters.

During Wednesday’s meeting of officials in Beijing, China vowed to “firmly uphold its sovereignty” and reiterated a demand for the immediate withdrawal of a Philippine coast guard ship anchored at the shoal since April.

“I reaffirmed the Philippines’ consistent position and explored ways to lower the tension,” Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro said on X, posting a picture of her handshake with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong.

“We agreed to continue discussions on areas of co-operation, especially on hotline mechanism, coastguard cooperation, and marine scientific and technological co-operation.”

The two had a frank and candid exchange of views, the Philipine foreign ministry said in its statement.

The Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef, and Manila as Escoda Shoal, lies 150 km west of the Philippine province of Palawan, well within its exclusive economic zone.

The two nations have traded accusations of intentional ramming of each others’ vessels in a series of clashes last month, just after reaching a pact on resupply missions to a beached Filipino naval ship in the Second Thomas Shoal.

China claims sovereignty over most of the China Sea, overlapping into maritime zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

In 2016 the Hague arbitration tribunal voided China’s expansive and historical claims, a decision Beijing rejects.

The Philippine navy has said it has recently monitored 207 Chinese vessels, including ‘maritime militia boats’ within the country’s EEZ, with dozens observed near Sabina Shoal.
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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea Thursday morning, South Korea’s military said, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to put his nuclear force fully ready for battle with its rivals. 

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a brief statement that the launch took place off North Korea’s eastern coast but gave no details, such as how far the weapon traveled. 

Japan’s prime minister’s office also alerted on its X account that North Korea had launched a suspected ballistic missile, but it did not provide details. 

The launch was North Korea’s first public weapons firing in more than two months. On July 1, North Korea claimed to have tested a new tactical weapon capable of delivering a “super-large” 4.5 ton-class warhead. 

In a speech Monday, Kim said he would redouble efforts to make his nuclear force fully ready for combat with the United States and its allies. He said North Korea faced “a grave threat” because of what he called “the reckless expansion” of a U.S.-led regional military bloc that is now developing into a nuclear-based one. 

Kim has made similar vows numerous times, but his latest threat came as outside experts believe North Korea will perform a nuclear test explosion or long-range missile test-launches ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. 

Last week, North Korea also resumed launches of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea. 

Since 2022, North Korea has significantly accelerated its weapons testing in a bid to perfect its capabilities to launch strikes on the U.S. and South Korea. The U.S. and South Korea have responded by expanding military drills that North Korea calls invasion rehearsals. 

Last month, Kim had held off from missile tests or other provocative military demonstrations as the United States and South Korea conducted large-scale summertime military exercises. North Korea issued statements berating the allies for raising tensions. 
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SEOUL/NEW DELHI — Samsung Electronics, the world’s top maker of smartphones, TVs and memory chips, is cutting up to 30% of its overseas staff at some divisions, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. 

South Korea-based Samsung has instructed subsidiaries worldwide to reduce sales and marketing staff by about 15% and the administrative staff by up to 30%, two of the sources said. 

The plan will be implemented by the end of this year and would impact jobs across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, one person said. Six other people familiar with the matter also confirmed Samsung’s planned global headcount reduction. 

It is not clear how many people would be let go and which countries and business units would be most affected. 

The sources declined to be named because the scope and details of the job cuts remained confidential. 

In a statement, Samsung said workforce adjustments conducted at some overseas operations were routine, and aimed at improving efficiency. It said there are no specific targets for the plans, adding that they are not impacting its production staff. 

Samsung employed a total of 267,800 people as of the end of 2023, and more than half, or 147,000 employees, are based overseas, according to its latest sustainability report. 

Manufacturing and development accounted for most of those jobs and sales and marketing staff was around 25,100, while 27,800 people worked in other areas, the report said. 

The “global mandate” on job cuts was sent about three weeks ago, and Samsung’s India operation was already offering severance packages to some mid-level employees who have left in recent weeks, one of the direct sources said. 

The total employees who may need to leave the India unit could reach 1,000, the person added. Samsung employs some 25,000 people in India. 

In China, Samsung has notified its staff about the job cuts that are expected to affect about 30% of its employees at its sales operation, a South Korean newspaper reported this month. 

Big challenges 

The job cuts come as Samsung grapples with mounting pressure on its key units. 

Its bread-and-butter chip business has been slower than its rivals in recovering from a severe downturn in the industry that drove its profit to a 15-year low last year. 

In May, Samsung replaced the head of its semiconductor division in a bid to overcome a “chip crisis” as it seeks to catch up with smaller rival SK Hynix in supplying high-end memory chips used in artificial intelligence chipsets. 

In the premium smartphone market, Samsung is facing stiff competition from Apple and China’s Huawei, while it has long lagged behind TSMC in contract chip manufacturing. And in India, which earns Samsung around $12 billion in annual revenue, a strike over wages is disrupting production. 

One of the sources familiar with the plans said the job cuts were being made in preparation for a slowdown in global demand for technology products as the global economy slows. Another source said Samsung is seeking to shore up its bottom line by saving costs. 

It was not immediately clear if Samsung will also cut jobs in its headquarters in South Korea. 

One of the sources said Samsung would find it difficult to lay off workers in South Korea because it was a politically sensitive issue. Conglomerate Samsung Group, of which the electronics giant is the crown jewel, is the country’s biggest employer and plays a key role in its economy. 

Job cuts could also stir labor unrest at home. A South Korean workers’ union at Samsung Electronics recently went on strike for several days, demanding higher wages and benefits. 

Shares in Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s most valuable stock, are trading at their lowest level in 16 months on Wednesday, as some analysts cut their profit estimates for the company recently, citing a weak recovery in demand for smartphones and personal computers.
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Taipei, Taiwan — As China is set to host bilateral talks with the Philippines this month, their South China Sea dispute is expanding from sea to air, increasing the risk of military confrontation, analysts warn.

The Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an article warning that “China-Philippines relations stand at a crossroads” over the South China Sea dispute.

The warning came after Filipino Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo told reporters at a diplomatic reception on September 4 that Beijing will host the next round of the Bilateral Consultative Mechanism meetings designed to manage differences between the two countries.

Manalo did not say on which date the talks would start this month but expressed hope the two countries would discuss an incident in late August when coast guard ships from both sides collided at a disputed shoal. Both countries blame the other for the collision, though video released by the Philippine coast guard appears to show the Chinese coast guard ship ramming their vessel, BRP Teresa Magbanua.

It was the second such collision of their coast guard ships in August at the disputed atoll.

Vincent Kyle Parada, a former defense analyst for the Philippine Navy and a graduate student at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, says the frequency of the sea clashes is pushing the two sides to expand their operations to the air.

“Over the past few weeks, China has been actively working to disrupt resupply missions to the ship and crew, to the point that after one such failed attempt, the Philippine government announced that essential supplies reached critical levels,” he told VOA Mandarin. “Manila did manage to resupply BRP Teresa Magbanua through a helicopter, signaling this potential shift.”

Parada added, “This potential shift from maritime to aerial resupply emissions in the future is obviously a risk because China has also been escalating aerial operations in the South China Sea.

“Beijing would increase its aerial presence in the Spratlys and send fighter jets to its artificial islands for extended deployments. I think the goal there really would be to make aerial resupply emissions an incredibly dangerous policy option for Manila. That way, it limits Manila’s ability to sustain a long-term presence in the disputed territories.”

According to the latest data from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has lodged 176 diplomatic protests with the Chinese government, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, putting it in conflict with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and researcher at Xuanyuan (Hong Kong) Science and Technology Exchange Center, says any Chinese military moves in the airspace over the South China Sea are due to what he calls “illegal expansion” by the Philippines.

“Whether it’s Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas Shoal or Sabina Shoal, these are all China’s sovereign territories,” he told VOA Mandarin, repeating Beijing’s claims. “If the Philippines wants to conduct patrols or resupply by air, this in itself is violating the security of China’s airspace, and China will inevitably take certain measures to intercept it.”

An article published on September 2 by the Beijing-based think tank South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative says since 2024, the Philippines has “repeatedly dispatched military aircraft to invade the islands and reefs of Spratly Islands and Macclesfield Bank” and also sent military aircraft to carry out airdrops and replenishment missions over the sea, indicating that “air intrusion is becoming another major path for the Philippines to cause trouble in the South China Sea.”

The article warned that if the Philippines insists on carrying out an “air invasion,” China will have to take corresponding measures, and “once there is friction or even collision, the consequences will be much more serious than the collision with a ship.”

Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow and director at the Division of Defense Strategy and Resources in Taiwan, says China is more likely to take coercive actions in the air, making it difficult for the Philippines to defend its sovereignty.

“China may first take measures to interfere, as it does with the United States and Australian military aircraft, and it will scatter thermal flares to interfere so that Philippine helicopters may not be able to get close,” Su told VOA Mandarin. “It may use jets to create turbulence, meaning it uses air from the jet tail to interfere with the Philippine helicopter when it’s flying.”

Su says Beijing is taking more aggressive interception actions, which greatly increase the risk of accidental conflict.

“The number of Chinese ships has increased. Second, coupled with the previous conflict between China and the Philippines in the sea, which caused injuries to Philippine coast guards, and now it threatens to use stronger means against the Philippine so-called aircraft, so it is moving the definition of gray zone operations closer to the direction of war.”

Philippine National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro in August said the Philippines plans to purchase 40 new multirole fighter jets and mid-range missiles to strengthen its territorial defense, Reuters reported.

The U.S. in July repeated its commitment to the Philippines’ security after China’s increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea. US reiterates ‘ironclad’ commitment to Philippines amid China actions in South China Sea.

Parts of the disputed South China Sea are believed to be rich in oil and gas, and the waters are an important transit point for trillions of dollars in annual shipping.

The Hague-based intergovernmental Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 unanimously ruled that China’s claim to almost all the South China Sea had “no legal basis,” which Beijing rejected.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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JAKARTA, INDONESIA — During his three-day visit to Indonesia last week, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, urged Indonesians to live up to the promise represented by the nation’s own motto — “Unity in Diversity.”

While praising Indonesia’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, Francis also warned in an address following a meeting with President Joko Widodo that the diversity of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation can also lead to conflict.

Francis emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue to eliminate prejudices and build mutual respect. “This is indispensable for meeting common challenges, including that of countering extremism and intolerance, which through the distortion of religion attempt to improve their views by using deception and violence,” Francis said.

Indonesia’s statistical agency says that 87% of the country’s 280 million people are Muslim. However, 2.9% of the total population is Catholic, making its Christian community the third largest in Asia after the Philippines and China.

Indonesia’s struggle against religious intolerance

Despite legal guarantees of religious freedom, which includes a Religious Harmony bill signed into law in 2006, research by Human Rights Watch indicates a flare-up of religious intolerance.

Examples include the imprisonment of Jakarta’s Christian governor for blasphemy in 2016, violence against religious minorities; and problems faced by some Christian groups seeking to secure building permits for churches.

Novi from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, a Catholic, who traveled to Jakarta to witness Pope Francis’ visit to Istiqlal Mosque, hopes the visit can encourage a revival of religious tolerance in the country.

“I’m really sad when I hear news reports saying that churches faced difficulties in setting up a church and require approval of the majority from the surrounding community and municipal and provincial office,” she said.

In 2006, a group of religious and community leaders established the Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB), dedicated to protecting religious harmony, including making recommendations to the mayor or regent on the construction of any new house of worship.

But according to Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesian researcher at Human Rights Watch, the forum has been politicized over the years.

In hopes of quelling religious intolerance, Minister of Religious Affairs Yaqut Cholil Qoumas said a new presidential regulation is being developed that will no longer allow the FKUB to recommend the establishment of a house of worship. That right will remain with the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Andreas Harsono of the Human Rights Watch sees this as a “step in the right direction.”

“The FKUB recommendations are proven to be the most damaging of the 2006 regulations on religious harmony. The religious harmony regulation basically makes the so-called majority have veto power over the minorities in Indonesia. It’s turning Indonesia into an intolerant Muslim-majority country,” he said.

Halili Hasan, executive director of the SETARA Institute, agrees with abolishing the FKUB’s right to recommend. He added that FKUB has not been able to prevent and handle various violations of freedom of religion and belief.

SETARA Institute is a think tank that advocates for democracy and human rights in Indonesia and releases an annual report on the condition of freedom of religion and belief.

The report in 2023 listed at least 65 places of worship that experienced disturbances throughout that year, ranging from objections to the construction of a house of worship to the sealing off of places of worship. That compares to 50 such incidents in the previous year.

Still, the Ministry of Religious Affair’s Religious Harmony Index survey for 2023 found a steady increase in religious harmony from 2020 to 2023. The index was scored from 0 to 100, with 100 being the most harmonious. The national score for 2023 was 76.02, the highest score recorded in the last five years.

Eli Trisiana is a Muslim and government civil servant who came to see Pope Francis.

“We need to hold a heart-to-heart dialogue with those deemed religious intolerant,’’ Eli Trisiana said. ‘’We cannot deal with them using violence. I think that is the best method to solve differences of opinion. In Islam there are verses taught to us that reconcile with non-believers, which is “unto you your religion and unto me my religion.”

Interfaith dialogue

During an interfaith dialogue at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, 87-year-old Pope Francis met with representatives of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions — Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Protestantism and Catholicism — along with a representative for traditional beliefs.

Francis and the grand imam of the Istiqlal Mosque, Nasaruddin Umar, signed a “Human Fraternity” document declaring their commitment to interfaith harmony. The document calls for religious leaders to overcome two serious crises faced by the world: dehumanization and climate change.

The grand imam said he won’t let this signing be in vain and that he plans to follow up with a future plan of action that supports interfaith dialogue and true religious harmony.
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