The southern Chinese province of Jiangxi issued its highest flood warning on Saturday, predicting a big overflow from a lake that joins the Yangtze River as torrential rain continued to batter much of the country, state media said.The provincial government raised its flood-control response level to I from II, the People’s Daily said, the top of China’s four-tier scale, signaling disasters such as dam collapses or extraordinary simultaneous floods in several rivers.With downpours continuing to wreak havoc across swathes of China, several other cities along the Yangtze have issued their highest-level flood warnings, with parts of the river threatening to burst its banks because of the incessant rain.The Jiangxi authorities expect severe regional flooding in Poyang, state television said, which is China’s largest freshwater lake and joins the Yangtze near the city of Jiujiang.The level of the lake was rising at an unprecedented pace and had reached 22.65 metres by 9 p.m. Saturday (1300 GMT), above the record high set in 1998 and well over the alert level of 19.50 metres, the CCTV said.Jiangzhou county, an island in the middle of Asia’s longest river at the end of the lake, issued a call on social media for everyone from the town aged 18 to 60 to return and help fight the flood, citing a severe lack of hands to reinforce dams.As of 5 p.m. on Saturday, flooding had affected 5.2 million people in Jiangxi province since Monday, with 432,000 people evacuated. It had also damaged 4.56 million hectares of crops and toppled 988 houses, leading to direct losses of 6.5 billion yuan ($929 million), CCTV reported.China’s emergency management ministry said it had diverted assault boats, tents, folding beds and blankets to the province.China’s national observatory renewed its yellow alert for rainstorms on Saturday, warning of heavy weekend rain in places including Sichuan and Chongqing in the southwest, the central province of Hubei and Hunan province in the south.Authorities in Jiangsu province in the Yangtze Delta issued orange flood alerts on Saturday – the second-highest – saying huge, long-lasting volumes of water would pour from the river.
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Category: East
East news. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise. The practice of praying towards the East is older than Christianity, but has been adopted by this religion as the Orient was thought of as containing mankind’s original home
Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists Hold Council Elections
Pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong urged people to vote this weekend in informal primary elections to choose candidates who could run for legislative council seats in September.Members of Hong Kong’s opposition camp set up hundreds of polling booths Saturday, despite warnings from authorities that their actions could violate a new security law imposed by China.In addition to allowing security agents from mainland China to operate officially in Hong Kong for the first time, the law outlaws what Beijing describes as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.Beijing enacted the law on June 30 in response to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protest movement, sparking widespread concern that wide-ranging freedoms Britain granted to the semi-autonomous territory before returning it to China in 1997 will be crushed.Thousands of people lined up Saturday in the summer heat outside polling stations, one day after police searched the offices of a group involved in organizing the weekend election.The get-out-the-vote campaign is an informally organized effort to select democracy candidates who have the best chance of capturing legislative council seats during an official vote scheduled for September 6.Democracy candidates would need to win more than 35 of the 70 council seats to regain the power to block government proposals.Joshua Wong, a prominent pro-democracy activist who is running in the informal primary election, called on residents to cast ballots this weekend in resistance of China.The last formal popular vote in Hong Kong took place in November 2019 for lower level district council seats, resulting in landslide victories for many pro-democracy candidates.
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Taiwan Preps for Possible End to Landmark Trade Deal with China
China now has the chance to reconsider its 10-year-old Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with Taiwan, the biggest-ever trade pact between the two rivals, and a Chinese media outlet hints at the agreement’s demise.The agreement, cutting tariffs on about 800 items on both sides and heralding more to come, capped two years of trust-building between governments that had gotten along poorly for decades. Now though, analysts say, the trust is gone and Taiwanese exporters have learned to rely less on the Chinese market over the past decade. A Chinese media outlet says the deal will “expire” this year.The demise of the agreement would mark the biggest undoing of a China-Taiwan deal, upsetting Taiwanese who are part of a $149 billion trade relationship with China and cutting one of the few threads left in political relations between the two.“It’s rather hard to imagine that ECFA will be canceled but because China-Taiwan relations are very poor now and there’s no more of the earlier political foundation for negotiating ECFA,” said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.“So, if this matter perhaps gradually becomes reality, then for Taiwan society it definitely would become an extremely, extremely hot topic,” Huang said.The deal lacks a formal renewal deadline, but international trade agreement language suggests that agreement signatories anywhere take no more than 10 years to establish customs union or free-trade zones. Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade calls the 10-year idea nonbinding.China and Taiwan had agreed via ECFA to reduce more trade and investment barriers, but they never implemented further liberalization.The Chinese side is now hinting the deal may be ending, a media outlet says.“The trade agreement is about to expire at the end of September this year,” the state-run China Global Television Network said last month without elaborating.Withdrawal from the pact requires 180 days’ notice.Any renegotiation would be tough because China stopped formal dialogue in 2016 because Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen refused to describe both sides as one country. Her predecessor had agreed to call both sides “China,” allowing for talks that spawned the ECFA.China had seen the pact in 2010 as a way to bring the two sides closer – key to its unification agenda – by offering trade concessions. China eliminated tariffs on 539 Taiwanese imports while Taiwan cut tariffs on 267 Chinese products. Taiwanese farming, fishing, vehicle manufacturing, textiles and machinery industries benefited.The end of the ECFA would hurt just under 5 percent of Taiwan’s commerce with China, government officials have said.China wants to make “life more difficult economically” for Taiwan, said Derek Grossman, senior analyst with the Rand Corp., a U.S. research institution. Over the past four years Chinese military ships and aircraft have passed near Taiwan, which is 160 kilometers away, and Chinese tourist arrivals to Taiwan began tapering in 2016.Taiwan is ready in case China scraps the deal, analysts say. Tsai’s government is trying to expand trade with 19 other countries via its New Southbound Policy, a strategy aimed at expanding Taipei’s relations with countries in South and Southeast Asia, Grossman noted.“I think part of the reason for [the] New Southbound Policy was kind of this expectation that China would cut them off economically at some point plus not trying to get overly dependent on Beijing,” he said.Taiwanese entrepreneurs in many industries, including finance, depend on China less now than they did 10 years ago because of the Chinese internal issues such as China’s battle with COVID-19, said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia-Pacific economist with Natixis, a French financial services firm.“Unless [ECFA] can be renewed automatically, this thing might simply go,” Garcia said, as neither side would have an interest in pushing for it.
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WHO Experts Arrive in China to Probe COVID-19 Origins
An advance team from the World Health Organization (WHO) has arrived in China to prepare an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. The virus that causes COVID-19, which is believed to have started in animals before jumping to humans, first emerged in a since-shuttered wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. Two Geneva-based WHO experts, specialists in animal health and epidemiology, will meet their Chinese counterparts in Beijing on Saturday to “develop the scope and terms” of the inquiry, said Tarik Jašarević, a WHO spokesperson. “The objective is to advance the understanding of animal hosts for COVID-19 and ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans,” Jašarević told VOA. “That’s why we’re sending an animal health expert … to look at whether or not it jumped from species to a human and what species it jumped from,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a Friday press briefing in Geneva. “We know it’s very, very similar to the virus in the bat, but did it go through an intermediate species? This is a question we all need answered,” she said. The investigation comes at a politically sensitive time, as the administration of President Donald Trump begins the process of withdrawing the United States from the WHO, a move that could hurt the U.N. agency’s coronavirus pandemic response and reshape public health diplomacy. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, July 8, 2020.Trump has accused the agency of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8, 2020.“China took the lead in inviting WHO experts to investigate and discuss scientific virus tracing,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian. Beijing has been criticized internationally for a lack of transparency in its handling of the pandemic and its failures to report the outbreak to WHO officials in a timely fashion.According to WHO’s latest timeline of its response to COVID-19, it was first alerted to the virus by its own office in China, not by the Chinese government. In the chronology updated on June 30, WHO said its China office picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission from its website on cases of “viral pneumonia” on December 31, 2019. It also indicated that Chinese officials did not provide related information to WHO until January 3. That chronology appears to corroborate China’s account of the early days of the pandemic. A white paper released last month by China’s State Council Information Office said China began updating the WHO on a regular basis on January 3. Under WHO’s long-standing notifications requirements, member states are obligated to immediately inform the global health body of any event that may constitute a public health emergency within 24 hours of having carried out the assessment. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, attends the virtual 73rd World Health Assembly following the coronavirus disease outbreak in Geneva, May 18, 2020.WHO reported Friday that the total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide had doubled over the past six weeks. The U.N. agency reported 228,102 new cases, surpassing the previous biggest increase of 212,326 on July 4, with the U.S., Brazil, India and South Africa topping the list. Globally, more than 552,000 deaths and 12.2 million cases have been confirmed. “A strong focus on community engagement and the basics of testing, tracing, isolating and treating all those that are sick is key to breaking the chains of transmission and suppressing the virus,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at his regular briefing. This weekend’s meetings are expected to involve negotiations on issues including the composition of a fuller team of investigators. Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Otto Warmbier’s Parents Chase North Korean Assets in Eastern Europe
The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American student who died in 2017 shortly after being released from North Korean detention, want North Korea to suffer financially for their son’s death. They’re on a mission to track down and seize the North Korean government’s assets worldwide. In an interview with VOA’s Korean service this week, Fred and Cindy Warmbier said they have their eyes on North Korean activities in Eastern Europe. “The North Koreans continue to run illegal operations out of their embassies in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. These are illegal businesses, and we will work to close them down,” Fred Warmbier said. He added, “We anticipate that we would go and take a look at those situations and see if we could make a difference there. We just want to see what the laws are there and how people feel about the laws.” Fred Warmbier said the family is contemplating “creative” lawsuits against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his sister. Otto’s mother, Cindy Warmbier, stressed, “There are so many attorneys around the world willing to work with us.” Illegal use of diplomatic compound In its 2018 annual report, a U.N. panel of experts identified illegal uses of North Korean embassies worldwide. It is not clear whether any of those activities has been halted since the report was issued. The Warmbiers have claimed their son Otto, seen in this undated photo, was tortured by North Korea. (Photo courtesy of the Warmbiers)In Sofia, Bulgaria, local entities “Terra” and “Technologica” used the North Korean Embassy for multiple purposes, including rental for weddings and private events, according to the U.N. report. It said that in Warsaw, Poland, at least nine companies, most of which involved media, real estate and medicine, leased space within the North Korean Embassy compound. In Bucharest, Romania, two companies leased the North Korean Embassy and sublet the property to at least 27 other people and entities, the report said. The panel that monitors compliance with the sanctions on North Korea said the leasing of North Korean Embassy property is in violation of U.N. Resolution 2321 and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Shutting down hostel in Germany The Warmbier’s latest effort is the closure of a hostel on the North Korean Embassy’s premises in Berlin, Germany. In January, a Berlin regional court ruled that city authorities were justified in ordering the City Hostel Berlin’s closure. The order follows years of pressure from Fred and Cindy Warmbier, who made several visits to Berlin. “Cindy and I worked hard with them [the Berlin city government] to close this illegal business,” said Fred Warmbier. In December 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Fred and Cindy Warmbier were entitled to a $501 million payment from the North Korean government as compensation for the torture and death of their son Otto. FILE – American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 16, 2016.In May of this year, the court ordered the disclosure of information to the Warmbiers about $23 million in frozen North Korean assets at three U.S. banks. The protective order called on JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of New York Mellon to disclose relevant details. Exerting pressure Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Cindy Warmbier says she will continue to speak out so people will remember her son Otto, seen in this undated photo. (Photo courtesy of the Warmbiers)Joshua Stanton, an attorney in Washington who closely monitors the enforcement of sanctions on North Korea, said the U.S. Treasury Department has not been aggressive in enforcing sanctions against North Korea since May of 2018. In an interview Wednesday with VOA, Stanton said U.S. President Donald Trump stopped most Treasury enforcement actions ahead of his first summit with Kim Jong Un. But Stanton said private litigants like the Warmbiers can take the initiative to seize the North Korean funds. “To the extent that the Warmbiers are able to identify North Korean assets transiting through the United States, based on actions by the Treasury Department or the Justice Department to either freeze or forfeit North Korean assets, they can intervene and seize those assets in order to collect on the court judgments,” Stanton said. Stanton helped draft the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2016, and he does not represent the Warmbiers. The Warmbiers told VOA they want to turn their “tragic situation” into “something positive” through lawsuits against North Korea. “I believe you can change their behavior by enforcing the rule of law on Kim and his sister, and there are so many opportunities for this,” Fred Warmbier said. Otto Warmbier died at the age of 22, just days after being returned to the U.S. in a vegetative state after 17 months in captivity in the North. North Korea sentenced Warmbier to 15 years of hard labor, accusing him of an act of subversion on behalf of the U.S. government, allegedly for taking down a propaganda poster in a hotel.
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Arkansas Cotton Town Still Waiting for Chinese Textile Factory Announced in 2017
When the Chinese company Shandong Ruyi Technology Group announced in May 2017 that it would invest $410 million in a textile factory in the town of Forrest City, Arkansas, which would create 800 local jobs, Larry Bryant, then the mayor, said he “jumped with joy.” Three years later, however, “disappointment” is the refrain most commonly heard from locals. Kay Brockwell, CEO of the local consulting firm Future Focus Development Solutions, is the key coordinator for the project. She told VOA that Ruyi had sent a team from China to Forrest City to plan the initial project after announcing the investment in 2017. The team left six months later, saying they were “going back for meetings” … and never returned. Brockwell said that there has been no construction or renovation at the $6 million site since 2018. There are also no jobs for the town of 14,000 located on the Mississippi River Delta. “Everyone is tremendously disappointed. They were looking forward, we were looking forward to the boost it would be to the economy. We were certainly looking forward to the influx of 800 new jobs in the economy. And that just hasn’t happened,” Brockwell said. FILE – Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, center left, and Shandong Ruyi Technology Group Chairman Yafu Qiu sign a memorandum of understanding in Little Rock, Ark., May 10, 2017, for a $410 million facility the textile company plans to open in Arkansas.She said she has communicated with Ruyi only once in the past two years — when the vacant plant was damaged by a storm. When he met with Ruyi in November 2019, Arkansas’ Secretary of Commerce, Mike Preston, said that he was told the project might be “resized,” but that it would still move forward. Ruyi planned to send people to reevaluate the project in February 2020. But COVID-19 disrupted the plan. Preston said there is no project timeline now. But even prior to the pandemic, Ruyi was facing financial problems. “They had a liquidity issue and their access to capital was not what it was when they started the project,” Preston said. With the ambition of transforming itself into the LVMH of China, the company has been acquiring foreign fashion brands since 2010. The frequency and size of these acquisitions significantly increased since 2016, leaving the company with a heavy debt burden. As of June 2019, Ruyi’s debt load was RMB 34.1 billion ($4.7 billion), more than triple what it was in 2013, according to an article published by Vogue Business. The group has also suffered repeated downgrades by credit rating agencies and a sharp revenue decline in 2019. VOA has tried repeatedly to contact Ruyi’s headquarters in China via phone calls and emails, but hasn’t received any comment regarding the company’s future plan for the investment in Forrest City. Trade warThe U.S.-China trade war officially started shortly after the announcement of the investment plan in Forrest City. The U.S. imposed a 10% tariff on textile machinery products imported from China, and later increased the rate to 25%, while China imposed a 25% tariff on textile products originating in the United States. These tariffs represent a significant increase in costs for an Arkansas textile mill that needs to import textile machinery and equipment from China and re-export some of its products to China. The investment in Forrest City has become a microcosm of the trend of Chinese direct investment in the United States in recent years. Since the start of the U.S.-China trade war, China’s direct investment in the U.S. has plummeted from $29.72 billion in 2017 to $5.39 billion in 2018 and further to $4.78 billion in 2019, according to Rhodium Group. In addition to the immediate impact of the trade war, the Chinese government has tightened its controls of Outward Foreign Direct Investment in recent years, and the liquidity in China’s financial system has come under significant pressure. At the same time, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has stepped up its scrutiny of Chinese funds. Impact on communityUnder the plan announced in 2017, the textile mill in Forrest City was due to go into production by mid-2018, processing 200,000 tons of cotton per year and hiring workers locally at an average hourly wage of $15.75, nearly double the minimum wage in Arkansas at the time. Preston said the delay in the project has had a big impact on the local community. “There’s a lot of folks who would be willing to go to work today at the facility if it were open,” he said. “So it impacts those people that would be employed and working there, impacts the economy around there and the supply chain. Cotton growers would be selling the cotton into the facility and that whole community that would benefit from a facility like that up and running.” Nathan Reed is a local cotton farm owner. He had expected the textile mill to drive up the price of local cotton when it was completed and put into operation. “Because you don’t have the transportation cost through the mill. You know, maybe growing the speck of cotton that they need,” said Reed. “So they can get all the cotton they need right within a 30 mile radius of their factory. That definitely would, you would think, lead to more premiums placed on your crop.” Reed had also hoped that the investment from China would help alleviate poverty in the region. But China’s tariff increase has led to a sharp drop in demand for U.S. cotton, resulting in a 40% drop in prices. Cotton cultivation is different from other crops because of its long cycle and high degree of specialization. Cotton farmers who cannot plant other crops in their fields can only bite their teeth to endure losses, Reed said. Preston remained optimistic that Ruyi will eventually meet its investment commitments. He said the raw materials, supply chain and market demand that had attracted companies to invest in Arkansas “still exist.”
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Seoul Mayor Found Dead Friday; Suicide Suspected
South Korean police say Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was found dead early Friday, a suspected suicide.The body of 64-year-old Park was found near an entrance at the mountain Bugaksan in Seoul after just midnight, several hours after he had been reported missing Thursday.The day before, Park’s former secretary filed a sexual harassment claim.The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday a five-day funeral service will be held at Seoul National University Hospital.The Korea Herald said Park apologized to everyone, mainly his family, in a note found at his home.It is unclear whether an autopsy will be performed on Park, the first Seoul mayor to die in office.Seo Jung-hyup, first vice mayor for administrative affairs, will serve as mayor until an election is held next April.Park, who was serving his third and final term, was considered a potential presidential candidate.He is survived by his wife, as well as a son and daughter.
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North Korea Says It’s Not Interested in Another Trump-Kim Summit
North Korea says the chances are low for another summit with the United States, after President Donald Trump this week said he is open to meeting again with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, said another summit would “not be useful to us” unless the U.S. changes its approach to stalled nuclear talks, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday.“It is my personal opinion, but a summit between the U.S. and North Korea will not take place this year,” said Kim Yo Jong, who has recently taken on a more prominent leadership role in North Korea.However, she said the relationship between Trump and Kim Jong Un remains strong and has likely prevented “extreme provocations.””We have no intention of threatening the United States … if they don’t touch us and hurt us, everything will flow normally,” she added.FILE – Kim Yo Jong attends a ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019.Earlier this week, Trump said he was open to meeting again with Kim Jong Un. “I understand they want to meet, and we would certainly do that,” Trump said Tuesday in an interview with Gray TV.The comments were puzzling, because North Korea has said for months that it has no interest in resuming dialogue with the United States.North Korea is upset at the U.S. refusal to relax sanctions and provide security guarantees in exchange for limited steps to dismantle its nuclear program.”We are not saying we are not going to denuclearize, but we cannot denuclearize now,” Kim Yo Jong said, stressing any North Korean steps must be matched by corresponding U.S. ones.FILE – North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, right, walks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, in this picture taken June 12, 2018, and released from North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency.Trump and Kim have met three times, including in June 2018 in Singapore, where they signed a short statement agreeing to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”But the talks began to break down in February 2019 after the two sides failed to reach an agreement at a second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. FILE – This photo, taken Dec. 18, 2007, and released June 27, 2008, by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, shows the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear complex near Pyongyang, North Korea.At the Hanoi summit, Trump rejected North Korea’s offer to dismantle its prominent Yongbyon nuclear facility in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed on North Korea since 2016.In June 2019, Trump and Kim met briefly at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. The two sides also held working-level talks in Stockholm in 2019, but those negotiations quickly broke down.Speaking to reporters Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. continues “to work to establish dialogue and have substantive conversations” with North Korea.”We’re very hopeful that we can continue to have this conversation, whether that’s at the levels beneath the summit, or if it’s appropriate and there is a useful activity to take place, to have senior leaders get back together as well,” Pompeo said.”As for who and how and timing, I just don’t want to talk about that today,” he added.FILE – South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks in Gwangju, South Korea, May 18, 2020.Earlier this month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he would like to see Trump and Kim hold another meeting before the U.S. presidential election in November.Some analysts have questioned whether Trump has other priorities; with just four months to go until the election, Trump is trailing Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the polls. North Korea is not seen as a major issue in the U.S. election.However, if Trump could revive the North Korea talks, it could help highlight what White House officials had once heralded as a signature Trump foreign policy achievement.
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US Sanctions Four Chinese Officials Over Abuses in Xinjiang
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, including a member of the country’s powerful Politburo, accusing them of serious human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority, a move likely to further ratchet up tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The sanctions that include the Xinjiang region’s Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo and the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau were announced amid already-high tensions between Washington and Beijing over China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its tightened grip on Hong Kong.
“The United States calls upon the world to stand against the CCP’s acts against its own minority communities in Xinjiang, including mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, religious persecution, and forced birth control and sterilization,” a White House official said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, China denies mistreatment of the minority group and says the camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.
The sanctions are imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, a federal law that allows the U.S. government to target human rights violators around the world with freezes on any U.S. assets, U.S. travel bans and prohibitions on Americans doing business with them.
The sanctions were imposed on Chen, a member of China’s powerful politburo; Zhu Hailun, a former deputy party secretary of the region; Wang Mingshan, the director and Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau; and former party secretary of the bureau Huo Liujun.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement said he was also imposing further visa restrictions on Chen, Zhu, and Wang, barring them and their immediate family from the United States.
The U.S. Treasury Department said that Chen, the highest-ranking Chinese official to be hit with sanctions, implemented “a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and indoctrination program in Xinjiang, targeting Uighurs and other ethnic minorities” through the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
The United Nations estimates that more than a million Muslims have been detained in camps in the Xinjiang region.
China threatened retaliation after U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation in June with little fanfare, calling for sanctions over the repression of China’s Uighurs.
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Seoul Mayor Found Dead After Police Search
The mayor of Seoul has been found dead, South Korean officials said early Friday local time, after his daughter reported him missing the day before. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon speaks during a press conference at Seoul City Hall in Seoul, South Korea, July 8, 2020. Park Won-soon was found in northern Seoul, South Korea’s capital and largest city, near the last place his phone signal was detected. Park’s daughter told police that his phone was turned off, and that he left a message reminiscent of a will before leaving, according to the semi-official Yonhap News Agency.
Park’s daughter found the statement late Thursday afternoon local time.
South Korean media reported that Park did not show up for work Thursday. He also canceled all his meetings that day, including one with a presidential official, according to the Associated Press. About 600 police officers and firefighters searched the city for hours using drones and dogs.
No cause of death has been released thus far. One of Park’s former secretaries filed a sexual harassment complaint against him hours before he went missing, but no connection to his death has been confirmed.
The 64-year-old, a former human rights and democracy activist, became mayor of Seoul in 2011. Park was elected to two additional terms as mayor, considered one of South Korea’s most powerful political positions.
A member of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, Park was one of the country’s highest-profile politicians and had been widely seen as a possible presidential candidate in 2022, when the current president, Moon Jae-in, leaves office.
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At least 60 Dead as Rain Continues to Pound Central, Southwestern Japan
Emergency services and military troops in Japan were working Thursday to reach thousands of homes cut off by devastating flooding and landslides that have killed dozens and caused widespread damage in central and southwestern areas of the country.The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said rising floodwater on roads damaged by landslides had blocked access to more than 3,000 households, mostly in the hardest-hit Kumamoto Prefecture where fresh downpours were forecast.Authorities said since Saturday, the torrential rain has left at least 60 people dead across the affected areas. At a disaster task force meeting Thursday Japan’s prime minister, Abe Shinzo, said 130,000 workers are engaged in rescue and relief activities across eight prefectures including Kumamoto, Oita and Gifu. They include police, firefighters, coast guard members and Self-Defense Force personnel.So far, 59 rivers, including the Kuma River in Kumamoto Prefecture, overflowed, while at least 179 mudslides have occurred in 23 prefectures.The meteorological agency said “heavy rain will likely continue at least until Sunday in a wide area” of the country, calling for “extreme vigilance” regarding landslides and flooding in low-lying areas.Complicating rescue efforts has been the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed nearly 1,000 lives in Japan from more than 20,000 cases.The need to maintain social distancing has reduced capacity at shelters and many people have preferred to take refuge in their vehicles for fear of becoming infected. Japan is in the middle of its annual rainy season and often sees damaging floods and landslides during this period, which lasts for several weeks.
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Seoul Mayor Reported Missing, His Phone Off, Search Underway
The mayor of South Korean capital Seoul has been reported missing and police are searching for him on Thursday.
Police officers said they are looking for Mayor Park Won-soon at Seoul’s Sungbuk neighborhood where his mobile phone signal was last detected. They said Park’s mobile phone was currently turned off.
His daughter called police earlier Thursday and said her father has been unaccounted for, the police officers said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the matter.
They gave no further details. But Yonhap news agency reported Park’s daughter told police that her father left “a will-like” message before leaving their home earlier Thursday.
Yonhap said officers, drones and police dogs have been mobilized for Park’s search.
Kim Ji-hyeong, an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, confirmed that Park did not show up for work on Thursday because of unspecified reasons and canceled all his schedules, including a meeting with a presidential official at his Seoul City Hall office.
A longtime civic activist and human rights lawyer, Park was elected as Seoul mayor in 2011 and became the city’s first mayor to be voted into a third term in June last year. A member of President Moon Jae-in’s liberal Democratic Party, Park has been considered a potential presidential hopeful for the liberals in the 2022 elections.
Park has mostly maintained his activist colors as mayor, criticizing what he described as the country’s growing social and economic inequalities and the traditionally corrupt ties between large businesses and politicians.
During the earlier part of his terms, Park established himself as a fierce opponent of former conservative President Park Geun-hye and openly supported the millions of people who flooded the city streets in late 2016 and 2017, calling for her ouster over a corruption scandal.
Park Geun-hye was formally removed from office in March 2017 and is currently serving a decades-long prison term on bribery and other charges.
Seoul, a city with 10 million people, has been a new epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea since the Asian country eased its rigid social distancing rules in early May. Authorities are struggling to trace contacts amid surges in cases linked to nightclubs, church services, a huge e-commerce warehouse and door-to-door sellers.
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Myanmar Military Kills Civilians in Indiscriminate Attacks, Amnesty Says
The Myanmar military has killed civilians, including children, in indiscriminate bombings in the nation’s Rakhine and Chin states, Amnesty International said Wednesday.The human rights group said it has gathered new evidence indicating several villages were bombed in the Chin State in March and April, claiming the lives of more than a dozen people.Amnesty said the victims were mostly Buddhist, but that there were also some Christian minorities in Rakhine and Chin. It noted media reports have documented that Rohingya civilians were also targeted.Myanmar Avoids Helping Rohingya Minority Despite International Court Order, Observers sayA UN court is demanding the Southeast Asian country spare the Muslim minority from genocideThe alleged incidents occurred with conflict escalating in the states since attacks in January 2019 on several police posts in northern Rakhine by the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group.“While Myanmar authorities were urging people to stay at home to help stop COVID-19, in Rakhine and Chin states its military was burning down homes and killing civilians in indiscriminate attacks that amount to war crimes,” said Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Director Nicholas Bequelin. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.Vowing to “crush” the AA, the Myanmar military retaliated, leading to an escalation in violence and the displacement of tens of thousands of people, according to Amnesty.The rights group is urging the United Nations Security Council to launch a war crimes investigation into the attacks, which occurred in townships where the internet has been cut off since June 2019.Customary international humanitarian law considers an indiscriminate attack that results in civilian deaths a war crime.The Myanmar government has said the blackout was necessary to prevent the AA from using mobile internet connections to coordinate attacks on officials and incite hate. Only Maungdaw has regained mobile internet access since five of the nine townships had the blackout reimposed after it was temporarily lifted in February.Media access to Rakhine State is very limited. Foreign journalists can report from the area only after scheduling visits while accompanied by government representatives.The U.N.’s International Court of Justice is already investigating the Myanmar government over its treatment of the Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom fled Rakhine after a military crackdown nearly three years ago.The Myanmar government has said the suppression was a legitimate response to attacks by a small armed group of Rohingya fighters known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
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China Lawyer Crackdown Enters 6th Year with Fears for the Same Fate in Hong Kong
Thursday marks the anniversary of the start of a sweeping purge involving more than 300 rights lawyers and activists in China that began on July 9, 2015. The ongoing sweep known as the 709 Crackdown is named for the date.Prominent Chinese lawyers at home and abroad, who had been incarcerated or persecuted, told an online commemorative forum late Tuesday that the rule of law in China has continued to decline under the repressive rule of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Some said that many laws in China, including the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and basic legal rights, have been cast aside when they conflict with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) interests.Journalists take pictures and video over the water-filled barriers after an opening ceremony for the China’s new Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, July 8, 2020.Others expressed concern that their peers in Hong Kong may soon encounter a similar crackdown as China tightens its grip on the former British colony by extending its draconian rule by law there. ‘Knife to kill’“The law works as a tool for China to govern…that is, its knife to kill or leather rope to whip, so to speak,” Chinese rights lawyer Chen Jiangang, who fled to the United States last year due to China’s political persecution, told the online forum.“Chinese authorities are not subject to the law, which provides no protection to the ruled or the oppressed,” he added, referring to both the practice of law in China and a new security measure in Hong Kong. The security law, which went into effect about a week ago, criminalizes open protest. It was a response to the massive and often violent protests in the city last year. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam says the security law would help restore the city’s status as one of the safest in the world.China has also opened a national security office in Hong Kong.Police detain protesters after a protest in Causeway Bay before the annual handover march in Hong Kong, July. 1, 2020.Crackdown in Hong KongChen, moreover, expressed concerns that China is now empowered by law to extend what he calls “its reign of terror” to Hong Kong – an observation that many rights activists and legal experts in Hong Kong agreed about. “Under the CCP’s despotic rule, the sweeping arrests [of Chinese lawyers] since 2015 have never ceased to exist. And now a Hong Kong version of the 709 Crackdown is likely to emerge in the nearest future,” Albert Ho, chairman of Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, told the forum. Ho is among the 15 pro-democracy activists, whom the Hong Kong government accuses of organizing, taking part in or publicizing unauthorized assemblies during the mass protests ast year. While paying tribute to his Chinese peers for their efforts to seek justice, Ho said he foresees a similar fate or jail term for himself. But Ho pledged to never give up his calls on Beijing to redress its wrongs in crushing the June 4th student-led movement in 1989 or end its one-party rule. On that day, Chinese government troops moved in to crush a demonstration that had been growing on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Human rights groups believe several hundred to several thousand people were killed when tanks rolled through the square to quash the protest. Mainland China strictly bans commemorations of the event.During the forum, international rights groups called on governments of the world to probe into China’s continued purge of lawyers. Continued purgeAccording to Human Rights Watch China, a handful of Chinese rights activists and legal academics, including Xu Zhiyong and Xu Zhangrun, have been rounded up after respectively asking Xi to step down and being critical of his governance. FILE – A placard with a photo of legal scholar Xu Zhiyong is raised by a demonstrator protesting against a Chinese court’s decision to sentence him in prison outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, Jan. 27, 2014.To mark the human rights lawyer’s day, the forum organizer presented this year’s Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Award to Xu Zhiyong, founder of the social campaign New Citizens Movement, who was arrested in mid-February in Guangzhou, southern China, after criticizing Xi for mishandling the coronavirus crisis. And this year’s first-ever China Rule of Law and Human Rights Award was granted to Jerome Cohen, a law professor at New York University, for his contributions to China’s human rights activism.
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After Show of Military Might, China Offers to Restart S. China Sea Talks
China has agreed to restart talks with worried Southeast Asian countries on a maritime code of conduct to restore its image abroad after COVID-19 and months of reminders that it’s the waterway’s most militarily powerful country. Beijing said July 1 in a consultation with Southeast Asian leaders that it would resume negotiations on a code, pending since 2002, that would help ships avoid mishaps and resolve any accidents in the vast, crowded South China Sea. China and its negotiation counterpart the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has shunned the topic so far this year. Both sides grappled instead with the COVID-19 outbreak, which cast wary eyes on China as the disease’s origin. Also in the first half of the year, China flew military planes at least eight times over a corner of the sea near Taiwan and sent survey ships to tracts of the waterway claimed by Malaysia and Vietnam. Last week it held South China Sea military exercises with an apparent focus on amphibious assaults. “I think that the reason why China is offering the talks is because it feels very confident that it’s in a position of strength and it can shape the direction or the trajectory of the discussions and its counterparts are not in a strong position, because of coronavirus (and) because they haven’t any assets in the seas,” said Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo. ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam claim parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. China and Taiwan claim nearly all of it. Rival claimants value the waterway for its fisheries, shipping lanes and fossil fuel reserves. After doing little on the code for years, China and ASEAN agreed in 2017 to work on it again. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang estimated in 2018 the code could be wrapped up by 2021, but last year Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said via state media that it could happen even sooner. The COVID-19 outbreak, which hit China in February before coursing into Southeast Asia, has blocked progress on a code year to date, analysts believe. The last talks took place in October. China’s recent military activities and previous land reclamation for artificial islands in the sea give it more bargaining power as well as tarnishing its image elsewhere in Asia, scholars believe. Southeast Asian claimants particularly resent China for adding an estimated 3,000 acres of landfill into the sea and using some newly created islets for military installations. Why China Is Sure to Match US Aircraft Carriers in Disputed Asian Sea Chinese officials want to show Washington, the rest of Asia and their own people they’re at least as resolute as the US Navy Officials in Beijing hope at the same time to shed the image that it spread COVID-19 into Southeast Asia, where Malaysia and the Philippines among other countries have fought caseloads instead of focusing on their maritime claims, analysts say. “All these events have worsened China’s international image, so I think it may make sense for China to ask ASEAN to restart the code of conduct negotiations as a way to restore its image in the region,” said Le Hong Hiep, a fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. Coronavirus cases have topped 160,000 in Southeast Asia, with nearly 4,600 people dead. Chinese leaders probably expect the talks to go their way if moved online instead of in person to avoid any COVID-19 risk, Nagy said. Online talks make all comments formal, he said, sparing the informal sideline chats that Southeast Asian leaders hold when in person. China Uses Cabbage to Advance Disputed Asian Sea ClaimChinese navy just harvested crop it had grown using sand-based agricultural technology on tiny South China Sea islet The code of conduct represents a chance for rivals to cooperate as well as head off accidents. Filipino and Vietnamese fishing boats have sunk after run-ins with Chinese vessels over the past year. In 1974 and 1988, Vietnamese sailors died in clashes with the Chinese. But talks are expected to be tough, possibly leading to a deal without a clear geographic scope and lacking an enforcement mechanism, analysts believe. Either element could imply that no one country has a full sovereignty claim, a blow to governments facing nationalist populations at home. “It’s already 2020 and they still haven’t got to the meat of (the code) really,” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines. “We could end up with another very general document.” But he said the parties feel pressured to come up with some kind of code, eventually. “They have no choice but to keep on trying to negotiate this thing, it’s the only thing going between ASEAN and China and for either one to call it off completely would be seen as a failure,” Batongbacal said.
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Trump Says He’d Meet with Kim Jong Un Again
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is open to another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even as Pyongyang signals it is uninterested in resuming stalled nuclear talks.Trump made the comments Tuesday in an interview with Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren.”I understand they want to meet and we would certainly do that,” Trump said, later adding: “I would do it if I thought it was going to be helpful.”When Van Susteren, also a VOA contributor, asked if Trump thought such a meeting would be helpful, Trump replied: “Probably. I have a very good relationship with him, [so it] probably would be.”North Korea has twice in the past week said it is not interested in more talks with the U.S., insisting another summit would only benefit Trump’s domestic political situation.“Explicitly speaking once again, we have no intention to sit face to face with the U.S.,” said Kwon Jong Gun, a North Korean foreign ministry official, in an article in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Tuesday.On Saturday, senior North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui said the U.S. “is mistaken if it thinks things like negotiations would still work on us.””We do not feel any need to sit face to face with the U.S., as it does not consider the DPRK-U.S. dialogue as nothing more than a tool for grappling its political crisis,” Choe said.Earlier this month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he would like to see Trump and Kim hold another meeting before the U.S. presidential election in November.The issue is likely to come up Wednesday when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun meets in Seoul with South Korean leaders on how to advance the stalled nuclear talks.Biegun, the top U.S. negotiator on North Korea, last month said an in-person summit before the election is unlikely, in part because of coronavirus concerns.Some analysts have questioned whether Trump has other priorities; with just four months to go until the election, Trump is badly trailing Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the polls. North Korea is not seen as a major issue in the U.S. election.However, if Trump could revive the North Korea talks, it could help highlight what White House officials had once heralded as a signature Trump foreign policy achievement.Stalled talksTrump and Kim met for the first time in June 2018 in Singapore, where they signed a short statement vowing to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”Though the statement was less substantive than some past U.S.-North Korea agreements, many analysts and officials hoped that Trump and Kim’s unique “top-down” approach to the talks would pave the way for later progress in working-level negotiations.Hopes were high in February 2019, when Trump and Kim met for a second time in Hanoi, Vietnam. But that summit ended abruptly after the two men failed to agree on how to pair sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.In June 2019, Trump and Kim met briefly at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. In October, the two sides also engaged in working-level talks that quickly broke down. North Korea has since boycotted the discussions.North Korea is angry at the U.S. refusal to relax sanctions and provide security guarantees as part of a step-by-step denuclearization process. The Trump administration wants Pyongyang to first agree to give up its entire nuclear weapons program.Relationship strongTrump has repeatedly insisted his relationship with Kim remains strong and has portrayed his outreach to Kim as a success, even as North Korea resumed frequent short-range missile tests and other provocations.”Just so you understand, [it’s been] almost four years we’re not in a war. Almost anybody else would have been in a war. I get along, we talk, and let’s see what happens. But we’ve done a great job and haven’t been given the credit we deserve,” Trump told Van Susteren.Since Trump and Kim began talking, North Korea has refrained from nuclear and long-range missile tests but continues developing nuclear weapons. According to some estimates, North Korea now has enough material for about 40 nuclear bombs.Asked about North Korea’s continued nuclear weapons activity, Trump replied:“Well, we’ll have to see. There’s no delivery, et cetera, et cetera, as you know. Not yet. And at some point there might be. And we’ll have to have very serious discussions and thought about that, because there could be some time when something’s going to happen.”The complete interview will air Sunday on Gray TV’s Full Court Press program, but VOA obtained a transcript of Trump’s North Korea comments ahead of time.
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Hong Kong Protester Calculates Personal Toll After a Year of Activism
The lives of many Hong Kong protesters have changed radically over the past year, as China pushed new national security laws eroding Hong Kong’s freedoms. One protester, a 24-year-old woman who asked to be identified as “K,” told VOA how the political controversy has been a deeply personal struggle. A year ago, she lived comfortably with her parents and elder sister. Among three siblings, she was closest to her parents. But everything changed on Father’s Day last year. On June 16, 2019, 2 million people in Hong Kong took part in a march opposing China’s new Anti-Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, which was widely believed to expose Hong Kong citizens to political prosecutions from mainland China. K was among them. After the march, she went home and was criticized by her mother. “Growing up, I was the most filial one at home. But it was unfair to me that my mother accused me of not being a good daughter because I marched,” K said. Her sister sided with her parents, who thought the demonstrators undermined the stability of society. As the protests continued over subsequent weeks, the news became a source of endless arguments in the family. K began avoiding family dinners, dining out after work and returning home after everyone else was already asleep. She did not stop defending her political beliefs. She recalled telling her family, “You want me to be arrested and continue to support the police beating the public, and maybe the next victim is your daughter. Sooner or later you’ll see me in the papers, or in a funeral house.” Breaking point On July 21, the protest movement in Hong Kong took a turn when organized vigilantes wearing white and brandishing weapons attacked protesters. K’s family called the demonstrators “cockroaches” who should have been killed. She said that was a breaking point for her. “Now, it’s about right and wrong, black and white. You will inevitably get angry when a stranger says such harsh words. But when it’s your family who are so cold-blooded, it’s hard to accept that those who have taken care of you for years have lost their soul,” she said. K decided to move out. After finding a place to live, she returned home, packed her clothes and left quietly, without mentioning it to her family. One day while lying in bed, she suddenly wondered how she had ended up there alone. “My life had been very smooth. I was planning to work to a certain age, save enough money to buy a house with a boyfriend and get married. But now as I live alone, it’s not a problem to feed myself, but it’s impossible to save money for a house.” Still, she does not regret her decision. She even blocked her parents’ mobile phone numbers. This year, she was alone for the first time for the New Year’s holiday. Her mother collected traditional red envelopes filled with money for her and passed them to her through relatives. A handwritten note with blessings from her mother was inside an envelope. K burst into tears. “I wanted to be closer to my parents over the years because I knew they wouldn’t have a lot of time left to spend with us. My mother’s health also began to deteriorate. I hope there will be more opportunities to care for them. It was just earlier last year when I invited my mother to travel in Japan. I didn’t expect to cut off contact with my parents to take part in this social movement.” China’s National People’s Congress announced the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law last month. The sudden announcement prompted K to take to the streets again. “We often say that the dawn is coming, and we are liberating Hong Kong. It’s always darkest before dawn. We often say we are willing to perish together, and we expect such a dark day. We can only be reborn after perishing together.” It was the movement that showed K that Hong Kongers can be united. Sacrifice for freedom K said she was willing to give up her own future in exchange for Hong Kong’s, like many other Hong Kongers. “The sacrifice I’m making now is just a way to get freedom in the future, and I think it’s worth it. I can go on with the simple life I used to live, but I will lose my freedom. I wouldn’t be able to use Facebook. I wouldn’t be able to talk about politics. And there are more people who have sacrificed even their own lives and their own future.” K once believed that Hong Kong had an independent judicial system. But she now realizes that the entire Hong Kong government — the judiciary, executive and legislative branches — is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. “The only thing we should fight for now is Hong Kong’s independence.” She said she is working with a group of determined people who have not given up.“At least we have tried. No matter whether Hong Kong will finally be independent, in my mind, Hong Kong has become independent.” K has been trying to forgive her parents. She secretly asked neighbors to take care of her parents while she was away. She said while she would regret anything happening to her parents, there is little she can do to repair their relationship while the political struggle is so intense. Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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China, Afghanistan, Pakistan Seek ‘Orderly’ Foreign Troop Exit
China, Afghanistan and Pakistan are calling for a “responsible” withdrawal of U.S.-led international forces from Afghanistan to prevent what they say is “potential terrorist resurgence” in the conflict-torn nation.Top Chinese, Afghan and Pakistani foreign ministry officials issued the statement Tuesday at the end of the latest round of trilateral “strategic dialogue” the neighboring countries held via video link.“The three sides urged for an orderly, responsible and condition-based withdraw of the foreign troops from Afghanistan to avoid potential terrorist resurgence,” said a joint post-meeting statement.The discussions came as the United States presses the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency to quickly conclude a contentious prisoner swap to allow the start of the long-awaited negotiations between Afghan parties to the deadly conflict.An eventual peace deal would enable U.S. and allied forces to withdraw from the country by July 2021 under a February 29 landmark agreement between Washington and the Taliban to end nearly two decades of Afghan war, America’s longest. FILE – U.S. military advisers from the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade walk at an Afghan National Army base in Maidan Wardak province, Afghanistan, August 6, 2018.The U.S. military has pulled out several thousand personnel from Afghanistan since signing the pact, bringing the troop level to around 8,600. Washington, however, has stated that the drawdown of remaining troops will be “conditions-based,” and linked to whether the Taliban lives up to its counterterrorism pledges.The proposed intra-Afghan dialogue was originally scheduled for March, but controversies plaguing the prisoner exchange and increased Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces have been blamed for the prolonged delay.Afghan officials have freed about 4,000 insurgent prisoners but have linked the release of the remaining 1,000 to a reduction in Taliban violence and initiation of peace talks.The Taliban says it has set free 737 out of the promised 1,000 Afghan security personnel from its custody. The group maintains it is working to release the remaining Kabul detainees but will not engage in peace talks until all 5,000 Taliban prisoners are released. In Tuesday’s joint statement, China and Pakistan called for a reduction in violence and a humanitarian cease-fire, with both countries vowing to enhance cooperation with the Afghan government in support of “the peace reconciliation process, [and] the launch of intra-Afghan negotiations at an early date.”Beijing is credited with establishing the trilateral dialogue process to help Kabul and Islamabad ease bilateral tensions and enhance economic as well as security cooperation. “China will continue to play a constructive role in improving Afghanistan-Pakistan relations,” the statement said.“The three sides agreed to continue to strengthen counter-terrorism and security cooperation, combat the “East Turkistan Islamic Movement”, and all other terrorist forces and networks posing threats to our common security,” it noted while referring to an anti-China terrorist group.Leaders in Kabul and U.S. military commanders have long alleged the Afghan Taliban directs insurgent activities from sanctuaries on Pakistani soil, charges Islamabad rejects. The Trump administration, however, has hailed Pakistan for facilitating Washington’s talks with the Taliban and the eventual peace-building pact between the two adversaries.Pakistani officials insist insurgent fighters use communities hosting several million Afghan refugees in the country as hiding places. Islamabad repeatedly has called on the international community to help repatriate the refugee community to Afghanistan. The issue also came under discussions in Tuesday’s trilateral conference.“The three sides agreed that the return of Afghan refugees should be part of peace and reconciliation process and underlined the role of international community for a time-bound and well-resourced roadmap for the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland with dignity and honor,” said the statement.
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Australian Man Fights Off Poisonous Snake While Driving
Police in Australia report a truck driver in Queensland Tuesday managed to fend off a venomous snake he encountered in the front seat of his vehicle as he drove along the highway at more than 100 kilometers per hour.In their report, police say the 27-year-old driver – known only as Jimmy – was driving 123 kilometers per hour when they encountered him on the highway. He told the officers he used a seat belt and a knife to fight off the angry brown snake while he brought his vehicle to a halt.
He said in a statement that as he moved, the snake began wrapping itself around his leg and was striking at the driver’s seat between his legs. Jimmy told police he thought he had been bitten and was trying to reach the nearest hospital when they pulled him over.
The police called paramedics to the scene to check the driver, and they determined he had not been bitten but was suffering from shock.
Police found the snake dead in the back of the truck and confirmed it was an eastern brown, highly venomous and one of the deadliest snakes in the world.
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Australia’s Melbourne Locks Down Again Due to Coronavirus
The southern Australian city of Melbourne will be placed under a six-week lockdown due to a spike of new COVID-19 cases.
Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews announced Tuesday that residents will not be allowed to leave home unless going to work, school, medical appointments or shopping for food during the lockdown, which takes effect at midnight local time Wednesday. Restaurants and cafes will be limited to takeout and delivery orders, while hair salons and entertainment venues will be closed.
The measures were first imposed in March at the height of the coronavirus outbreak. The new lockdown order, which also applies to several communities near Melbourne, was imposed after Victoria state reported a record 191 new one-day cases of COVID-19 Tuesday.
“We know we’re on the cusp of something very, very bad if we don’t get on top of this,” Andrews told reporters.
Officials in Victoria and the neighboring state of New South Wales closed their shared border Monday after Melbourne reported 127 new coronavirus cases. Melbourne officials also imposed stay-at-home orders in at least 30 neighborhoods and a “hard” lockdown of nine public housing towers, home to over 3,000 residents, where 23 COVID-19 cases have been detected among 12 households.Police have been deployed outside the entrances of the public housing towers to enforce the lockdown, which was imposed without the residents being notified, leaving many without essential supplies.
According to U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University, Australia has reported 8,755 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 106 deaths, far below many other countries.
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India, China Begin Pulling Back Troops from Disputed Border
In the first sign that India and China are deescalating tensions along their disputed border, both sides have agreed to a “disengagement process” and pulled back troops from the site of a clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers in mid June. However analysts warn that resolving differences that have flared at different contested zones in the Himalayan ranges still pose a massive challenge and even though the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between their troops may end, the massive military deployment by the Asian rivals could continue. “It is going to be a live border for a long time because the Indian army cannot any longer afford to lower its guard,” said Bharat Karnad, a strategic affairs analyst at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. FILE – An Indian Army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, June 18, 2020.The decision by the Asian giants to reduce tensions in Ladakh followed a call between Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday. This is the second time the two countries have announced a disengagement — a similar step initiated in June collapsed days later when a deadly clash erupted between Indian and Chinese soldiers resulting in the worst border violence in five decades. Troops from both countries have moved back nearly two kilometers from the Galwan Valley to create a “buffer zone” and the Chinese have dismantled structures and tents erected in the area, Indian officials, who did not want to be quoted, have said. The pullback was reported after an Indian foreign ministry statement on Monday said both sides had agreed to “complete the disengagement process expeditiously” and work together to “avoid any incident in the future that could disturb peace and tranquility in border areas.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry also said progress had been made in measures for troops to disengage. However, Beijing has not given up the recent claims to the Galwan Valley, which India says is its territory. “The right and wrong of what happened at Galway valley is very clear,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday. “China will continue firmly safeguarding our territorial sovereignty as well as peace and tranquillity in the border areas.” Besides Galwan Valley, the two sides are embroiled in disputes along at least three other points in eastern Ladakh, where New Delhi has accused Beijing of transgressing into its territory — China has denied it. “The Chinese have built up a lot of physical facilities and structures in these areas. Are they going to give it up? I don’t think so,” says Karnad. “I am not sure there is going to be restoration of status quo ante. That is not going to happen.” FILE – A view of Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh region, July 27, 2019.Of particular concern to strategists is the Pangong Tso Lake, where India says Chinese troops have come about eight kilometers into its territory. A brawl that injured several soldiers from both sides in early May set off the current tensions between the Asian rivals and demands from New Delhi that Beijing restore the status quo along the border. There are concerns that Pangong Tso Lake will continue to remain a flashpoint. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Himalayan region of Ladakh, July 3, 2020. (India’s Press Information Bureau/Handout via Reuters)Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited troops posted in Ladakh and said his country’s commitment to peace should not be seen as a sign of weakness and the army stood ready to defend the country. Without referring to China, he also said “the era of expansionism is over.” Analysts say plummeting trust between the Asian rivals will pose a challenge to not just resolving their border disputes but also repairing their damaged ties. In an editorial, the Indian Express newspaper welcomed the de-escalation as a step in the right direction but pointed out that now the “hard slog is here: ensuring China keeps its commitment to peace and tranquillity in the border area.”
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At Least 50 Dead in Japanese Natural Disaster
At least 50 people on the southwestern island of Kyushu are dead after three days of torrential rains, floods and mudslides. The casualties include 14 residents of a nursing home for the elderly in Kumamoto, the region which has sustained the worst effects of the disaster. The nursing home was swamped by waters from the nearby Kuma River that overran its embankment, leaving residents who were wheelchair-bound trapped on the ground and unable to reach higher ground. At least a dozen people are missing. The disaster has washed out bridges and roads, prompting emergency crews to sail down flooded streets on rafts and inflatable boats to rescue residents trapped in their homes. Some residents were also rescued from the rooftops of their inundated homes by helicopter. Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Sunday that more than 40,000 members of the Self-Defense Force, along with local emergency first responders, were involved in search-and-rescue missions in Kyushu. More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate the Kyushu region.
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Facebook, Others Block Requests on Hong Kong User Data
Social media platforms and messaging apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Google and Twitter will deny law enforcement requests for user data in Hong Kong as they assess the effect of a new national security law enacted last week.Facebook and its messaging app WhatsApp said in separate statements Monday that they would freeze the review of government requests for user data in Hong Kong, “pending further assessment of the National Security Law, including formal human rights due diligence and consultations with international human rights experts.”The policy changes follow the rollout last week of laws that prohibit what Beijing views as secessionist, subversive or terrorist activities, as well as foreign intervention in the city’s internal affairs. The legislation criminalizes some pro-democracy slogans like the widely used “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time,” which the Hong Kong government has deemed has separatist connotations.The fear is that the new law erodes the freedoms of the semi-autonomous city, which operates under a “one country, two systems” framework after Britain handed it over to China in 1997. That framework gives Hong Kong and its people freedoms not found in mainland China, such as unrestricted internet access.Spokesman Mike Ravdonikas said Monday that Telegram understands “the importance of protecting the right to privacy of our Hong Kong users.” Telegram has been used broadly to spread pro-democracy messages and information about the protests in Hong Kong.”Telegram has never shared any data with the Hong Kong authorities in the past and does not intend to process any data requests related to its Hong Kong users until an international consensus is reached in relation to the ongoing political changes in the city,” he said.Twitter also paused all data and information requests from Hong Kong authorities after the law went into effect last week, the company said. It is reviewing the national security law to assess its implications.”Like many public interest organizations, civil society leaders and entities, and industry peers, we have grave concerns regarding both the developing process and the full intention of this law,” the company said in a statement.Twitter emphasized that it was “committed to protecting the people using our service and their freedom of expression.” Likewise, Google said in a statement that it too had “paused production on any new data requests from Hong Kong authorities” and will continue reviewing details of the new law.Social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp have operated freely in Hong Kong, while they are blocked in the mainland under China’s “Great Firewall.” Though social platforms have yet to be blocked in Hong Kong, users have begun scrubbing their accounts and deleting pro-democracy posts out of fear of retribution. That retreat has extended to the streets of Hong Kong as well. Many of the shops and stores that publicly stood in solidarity with protesters have removed the pro-democracy sticky notes and artwork that adorned their walls. Hong Kong’s government late Monday issued implementation rules of Article 43 of the national security law, which give the city’s police force sweeping powers in enforcing the legislation and come into effect Tuesday.Under the rules, platforms and publishers, as well as internet service providers, may be ordered to take down electronic messages published that are “likely to constitute an offence endangering national security or is likely to cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security.”Service providers who do not comply with such requests could face fines of up to 100,000 Hong Kong dollars ($12,903) and receive jail terms of six months.
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North Korea Rules Out Talks, as US Diplomat Visits Seoul
North Korea says it still has no interest in talks with the United States, amid efforts by South Korea to arrange another summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.“Explicitly speaking once again, we have no intention to sit face to face with the U.S.,” said Kwon Jong Gun, a North Korean foreign ministry official, in an article in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday.The statement was released hours before Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun, the top U.S. negotiator on North Korea, was set to land in Seoul for meetings focused on how to advance talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear program. The U.S.-North Korea negotiations broke down in February 2019 when Trump and Kim failed to reach a deal during a summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. Although the two sides held brief working-level talks in October, North Korea has since refused to hold any dialogue. Earlier this month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he would like to see Trump and Kim hold another meeting before the U.S. presidential election in November. Trump has said his relationship with Kim remains strong, but he has not recently commented on the chances of another summit. He may have other priorities; with just four months to go until the election, Trump is badly trailing Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the polls.Biegun last month said an in-person summit before the election is unlikely, in part because of coronavirus concerns. Senior North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui on Saturday dismissed the possibility of a fourth Trump-Kim meeting, suggesting another summit would only benefit Trump.Choe’s stance was “as clear as day,” according to the Tuesday KCNA statement, which also denounced South Korean efforts to mediate between Washington and Pyongyang. “Irony is that the South, which fails to manage its own business, came out to offer ‘a helping hand’ allegedly to solve the DPRK-U.S. relations, which are getting more and more complicated,” the statement said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name.“It is just the time for (South Korea) to stop meddling in other’s affairs, but it seems there is no cure or prescription for its bad habit,” the statement added. North-South relations, it warned, are “bound to go further bankrupt.”North Korea last month ramped up tensions against the South, destroying the two countries’ de facto embassy and cutting off official lines of communication.The moves were seen partly as an attempt to get Seoul to pressure Washington in the nuclear talks. However, the North’s motives became muddied after Kim last week abruptly suspended the pressure campaign without explanation. FILE – South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during a ceremony to mark the 101th anniversary of the March First Independence Movement Day in Seoul, South Korea, March 1, 2020.South Korea, whose left-leaning government desperately wants to improve ties with the North, has remained optimistic. Last week, Moon reshuffled his national security team, elevating officials who have experience reaching out to North Korea.Moon is expected to prioritize the revitalization of inter-Korean ties during the final two years of his presidential term. He likely hopes for a repeat of 2018, when his meetings with Kim helped pave the way for the Trump-Kim talks.North Korea is angry at the U.S.’s refusal to relax sanctions and provide security guarantees as part of a step-by-step denuclearization process. The Trump administration wants Pyongyang to first agree to give up its entire nuclear weapons program. North Korea is also upset at the South for failing to implement a series of 2018 agreements related to economic cooperation and reducing military tensions. The sanctions have prevented South Korea from moving ahead with the deals.
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