Authorities in Myanmar and Thailand say they destroyed more than $2 billion in seized illegal drugs Friday to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. In Bangkok and in Thailand’s Ayutthaya province to the north, government officials incinerated 25 tons of confiscated drugs, including methamphetamine, “ice,” ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. National Police Lieutenant General Wisanu Prasarthong-osoth told the Reuters news agency drug dealers have not let the COVID-19 lockdown slow them down. He said they have resorted to sending drugs through the mail and other parcel delivery services.Policemen wearing personal protective equipment guard seized illegal drugs before burning them during a destruction ceremony to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking outside Yangon, Myanmar, June 26, 2020.In Myanmar’s capital, Yangon, the national police force burned $144 million worth of seized drugs. Confiscated drug stockpiles were also destroyed in Mandalay, Lashio and the Shan State capital, Taunggyi. The country remains the second biggest producer of heroin and the source of most of South East Asia’s methamphetamine, which is mostly produced in border regions outside the government’s control, authorities said. The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution in 1987 designating June 26 as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse. 
 
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is refusing to release Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou in exchange for two high-profile Canadians under arrest in Beijing. Meng is the chief financial officer of Huawei and is wanted by the United States accused of fraud. Nineteen former Canadian politicians and diplomats, including ex-foreign affairs ministers Lloyd Axworthy and Lawrence Cannon, sent a letter to Trudeau appealing to him to free Meng.  They wrote that it would give Canada the opportunity to “redefine its strategic approach to China.” “There is no question that the U.S. extradition request has put Canada in a difficult position. As prime minister, you face a difficult decision. Complying with the U.S. request has greatly antagonized China,” the letter says, according to the CBC.  But Trudeau said that “randomly arresting Canadians doesn’t give you leverage over the government of Canada. … We cannot allow political pressures or random arrests of Canadian citizens to influence the functioning of our justice system. So I respect these individuals, but they’re wrong.” Canadian authorities arrested Meng in Vancouver in 2018 on a U.S. warrant. She is out on bail. Shortly after her arrest, Chinese authorities detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, charging them with spying.  Their arrests infuriated Canada. Both are in a Beijing jail and have not had access to Canadian diplomats since January. Canada has also placed trade sanctions on a number of Chinese exports. The Trump administration wants to extradite Meng from Canada for trial. As chief financial officer of Huawei — one of the world’s largest manufacturers of smartphones — Meng is accused of lying to U.S. officials about Huawei’s business in Iran, which is under U.S. sanctions.  The U.S. has also warned other countries against using Huawei-built products, suspecting the Chinese government of installing them with spyware.  Both Meng and Huawei deny all the U.S. allegations.   
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Japan Defense Minister Taro Kono announced Thursday Japan had decided to scrap plans to deploy the U.S.-made land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense system that was intended to protect Japan from North Korean threats.The announcement came one week after Kono said the deployment was being suspended after it was discovered that the safety of the civilian community could not be guaranteed near the Mutsumi base in Yamaguchi, southwestern Japan, one of two sites for the proposed land-based missile defense system. The other unit was being planned in Akita in the north.  It had been discovered that, in the current design of the system, it could not be guaranteed rocket boosters from the missiles would not fall outside the base. Japan had promised it would never allow something like that to happen. But it said fixing the system would require a total redesign of, not only the software, but the hardware of the system, which would be too costly and time consuming.  At a Thursday news conference in Tokyo, Kono apologized for the inconvenience and said discussions would continue in Japan with the United States on how best to carry out the nation’s defense strategies.The Aegis Ashore defense system was aimed at bolstering the country’s capability against escalating threats from North Korea.
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Volvo from Sweden, Adidas from Germany, and Zara from Spain are all European companies that have increased their investment in Vietnam in recent years. Analysts expect that trend to deepen when the Vietnam-European Union trade deal approved earlier this month by Vietnam’s National Assembly takes effect this summer, particularly as companies seek to reduce their reliance on neighboring China.Vietnam is one of only a handful of nations forecast to see economic growth this year amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Much of that growth will result from foreign investment, including investment facilitated by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, or EVFTA. Governments from both sides have called it a “next-generation” deal because it not only decreases tariffs, but also contains language to hold companies to labor, environmental, and social standards.Sheng Lu, an associate professor in the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware, said the deal will benefit textile and garment makers in the Southeast Asian nation as tariffs come down.“EVFTA will provide a level playing field for Vietnam, which is expected to see a continuous robust growth of its apparel exports to the EU and gain additional market shares in the years to come,” Lu said in an analysis of the agreement. “Meanwhile, not eligible for any EU preferential duty benefit, apparel exports from China are likely to face intensified competition in the EU market after the implementation of EVFTA.”Investment has been seeping out of China because the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the U.S.-China trade war, has shown companies the dangers of pinning their supply chains on a single nation. When officials and consultants in Vietnam pitch it as the new destination for that investment, the EU trade agreement is one of the benefits they tout.Le Van Hanh, who advises companies interested in the Vietnam market through her work with the Vietnam office of AHK, German Chambers of Commerce Abroad, said the trade deal will eliminate 70 percent of tariffs between the two sides immediately, and 99 percent of tariffs in 10 years.“That sounds very great, right?” she said on the AHK podcast. “And furthermore, there are also commitments in services, public procurement, nontariff barriers, export duties, and a good regulatory package.”She described two German companies she has helped to relocate from China to Vietnam, including a textile manufacturer hit hard by new 25 percent U.S. tariffs. Moving to Vietnam was useful not just because of the tariffs, but also because many of the manufacturer’s suppliers were also moving there, she said.Her colleague, Bjorn Koslowski, said it is easier for European companies to move from China to Vietnam because both nations have a number of things in common, including Confucian values, an industrious work ethic, a drive for monetary success, and a drive to learn.“Many companies that invest here or do business with the Vietnamese, they are also convinced by the HR [human resource] quality,” he said. “Vietnam is very culturally similar to China and many companies have already worked with China.”Direct European investment in China peaked in 2012 and has been declining since, according to data compiled by Rhodium Group, a research firm, whereas investment into Vietnam has continued to rise. For instance, direct investment from Europe rose 27 percent from 2018 to 2019, according to Vietnam’s Planning and Investment Ministry.Some in China dismiss predictions that it will lose from Vietnam’s trade deal with the EU. Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Vietnam doesn’t have the scale to overtake China and the trade deal won’t suffice for EU companies to “decouple” from China.“Both the ‘takeover’ and ‘decoupling’ theories have been escalating in recent years, with China always passively involved,” Xu wrote in the Global Times, a newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, but he termed both theories “wishful thinking.”
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Coronavirus hospitalizations and caseloads hit new highs in over a half-dozen states as signs of the virus’ resurgence mounted, with newly confirmed infections nationwide back near their peak level of two months ago.  
After trending downward for six weeks, the U.S. caseload has been growing again for over a week, particularly in the South and West. Some 34,700 new cases were reported nationwide Tuesday, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The number was higher than any other day except April 9 and the record-setting date of April 24, when 36,400 cases were logged.
 
While new cases have been declining steadily in early U.S. hot spots such as New York and New Jersey, several other states set single-day case records Tuesday, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas. Some of them also broke hospitalization records, as did North Carolina and South Carolina.  
“The question of how we’re doing as a nation is: We’re not doing so well. How are we doing as a state? Not doing so well,” said Dr. Jeffrey Smith, the county executive in Santa Clara County, California, home to Silicon Valley. Nearly 5,600 people have died of the virus in California, the most populous state.VOA Graphic COVID-19 Cases June 2020Cases are also surging in some other parts of the world. India reported a record daily increase of nearly 16,000 new cases. Mexico, where testing rates have been low, also set a record with more than 6,200 new cases.
But China appears to have tamed a new outbreak in Beijing, once again demonstrating its ability to quickly mobilize its vast resources by testing nearly 2.5 million people in 11 days.
In the U.S., the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Congress that the next few weeks are critical to tamping down the surge and that people should avoid crowds or at least wear masks in them.  
Hours later, President Donald Trump rallied hundreds of young conservatives in a megachurch in Arizona as the state reported a record 3,600 new infections.
Ahead of the event, the Democratic mayor of Phoenix, Kate Gallego, made clear that she did not believe the speech could be safely held in her city, and she urged the president to wear a face mask. He did not. Trump has refused to wear a mask in public, turning it into a conservative-vs.-liberal issue.
In China, an outbreak that has infected more than 200 people in the capital this month appeared to be waning. China on Wednesday reported 12 cases, down from 22 the day before. Beijing reported seven new cases, down from 13.
Officials in Beijing said they tested more than 2.4 million people between June 12 and June 22. That’s more than 10% of the capital’s population of about 20 million.  
Authorities began testing people in and around food markets, then expanded the initiative to restaurant staff and the city’s 100,000 delivery workers. China also said it used data to find people who had been near markets for testing. It did not elaborate.
South Korea, which tamed its first wave of infections, is seeing another rise — this time in the Seoul region, where most South Koreans live. Authorities reported 51 cases Wednesday. The country has reported 40 to 50 new cases a day over the past two weeks.  
In India, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, the capital city of New Delhi is a rising concern, with the government criticizing its poor contact tracing and a lack of hospital beds. India has reported more than 450,000 cases of the virus, including more than 14,000 deaths.
Mexico reported nearly 800 new deaths on Wednesday. The country has recorded more than 190,000 cases and over 23,000 deaths, though officials acknowledge both are undercounts because of extremely low testing rates. Mexico has performed about half a million tests, or one for every 250 inhabitants.
In Europe, countries are both easing and increasing restrictions as the outbreaks evolve. Slovenia reintroduced mandatory use of face masks in public transportation and other enclosed public spaces after cases spiked in recent days, while Belgium said theaters and swimming pools could reopen next month. Infections there have nosedived over the past two months.  
In Africa, African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief John Nkengasong said the outbreak is “picking up speed very quickly,” with a steep increase in cases and deaths as more countries loosen lockdowns. Africa has seen nearly 325,000 cases and over 8,600 deaths.
Worldwide, more than 9.2 million people have been confirmed infected, and close to a half-million have died, by Johns Hopkins’ count.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suspended unspecified military action against South Korea, state media said Wednesday, an apparent reduction in tensions following weeks of threats from Pyongyang. At a preliminary meeting of the ruling party’s central military commission, Kim “took stock of the prevailing situation and suspended the military action plans against the south,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.   It is not clear exactly what steps Kim suspended and whether that means North Korea will now end its escalating campaign of provocations toward the South.  The moves surprised many in Seoul, where officials had been preparing for a possible extended downturn in relations. South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, June 15, 2020.A spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with Pyongyang, said Seoul was monitoring the situation and would continue to adhere to inter-Korean agreements.  North Korea is upset at the South for failing to move ahead with a series of 2018 deals related to economic cooperation and reducing military tensions. International sanctions against North Korea have prevented Seoul from fully implementing the deals.   This month, North Korea took several steps to roll back many aspects of those inter-Korean agreements, including by demolishing the two countries’ de facto embassy just north of the border. The North also threatened to redeploy troops in parts of the demilitarized zone, resume military exercises in the border area, and cut off all official lines of communication with the South Korean government.   
 
In addition, state media have warned that North Korean university students are preparing to float 12 million propaganda “leaflets of punishment” into the South via thousands of balloons. South Korean soldiers take part in a live fire exercise near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, June 23, 2020.Why now? 
 
The threats fit a familiar negotiating strategy for North Korea: escalate tensions in order to later de-escalate, possibly to receive concessions or restart diplomacy.  
 
But it’s not clear why North Korea would de-escalate now, since it received no obvious concessions from the South, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea specialist at King’s College London, said.  
 
“It does seem a bit early to de-escalate,” Pacheco Pardo said. “Clearly they weren’t getting anything from South Korea other than a stern response. So that could be a reason.”  
 
Last week, the South Korean military said the North will “definitely pay” if it conducts any military provocation. Good cop? Many of North Korea’s threats this month were delivered by Kim Yo Jong, the increasingly powerful sister of Kim Jong Un.   By making Kim Yo Jong the public face of the pressure campaign, North Korea may have been trying to preserve Kim Jong Un’s ability to eventually reverse course and improve relations with Seoul.   However, many analysts caution it’s too soon to say whether the North has fully changed course, in part because its latest statement said only that the military action had been “suspended,” not reversed.  
 
“The way it’s worded, it seems to be a wait-and-see approach before deciding on the next step; i.e., more de-escalation or re-escalation,” Pacheco Pardo said. As of midday Wednesday, North Korea had given at least two other signs de-escalation was on the horizon. 
 
After Kim’s announcement that military action had been suspended, two North Korean propaganda outlets, DPRK Today and Meari, removed several recent articles that were critical of the South.  North Korea also began removing propaganda loudspeakers it had recently reinstalled on the DMZ, according to South Korean media.  
 
For decades, the two Koreas used the loudspeakers to denounce each other’s governments, as part of a psychological warfare campaign. The speakers were removed in 2018 as part of the inter-Korean military tension-reduction agreements. 
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India and China have agreed to cool tensions along their disputed Himalayan border following their worst border clash in 50 years that left 20 Indian soldiers dead.Indian army officials said on Tuesday “there was mutual consensus to disengage” following marathon talks held the previous day between military commanders of the two countries. The officials told local media that the “modalities for disengagement from all friction areas in eastern Ladakh are being discussed and will be taken forward by both sides.”Large contingents of Indian and Chinese forces are confronting each other at three strategic points in eastern Ladakh, a barren icy desert in the Himalayas along their disputed border.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing, April 8, 2020.In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the two sides “agreed to take necessary measures to cool down the situation.”Zhao said that both sides “had a candid and deep exchange of views on the border management and control issue, agreeing to take the necessary measures to lower the temperature on the situation.”Neither China nor India has given any details of how they will deescalate, but the statements were the first signal that both countries have made some progress in bringing down tensions that had spiraled dangerously over the past week.Commentators in New Delhi, however, pointed out that the disputed Himalayan border between the two countries would continue to be volatile, as the bloody brawl on June 15 had breached agreements that they had reached over the last 25 years to maintain peace.“The elaborate series of confidence-building measures put in place since 1993 have collapsed. That was the regime through which border patrols and army commanders were able to interact to maintain peace,” says Manoj Joshi, a security expert at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “Now the whole thing has come apart. What happens next time you meet a Chinese patrol?” According to earlier agreements, Chinese and Indian border patrols, which are often in close proximity, were not allowed to use firearms during any confrontation. While the latest incident involved hand-to-hand combat, it was more brutal than any in the past and fought with rocks and clubs studded with nails.Indian officials have called it “premeditated and planned action by Chinese troops.” Beijing has blamed India for the incident.The two countries also face a mammoth task in resolving the fresh disputes that have erupted in recent weeks along what is known as the Line of Actual Control.Indian officials have demanded the restoration of the status quo after accusing Beijing of entering its territory. China on the other hand has laid claim to the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, where the clash between troops from the two sides took place.Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who took part in a virtual conference with his counterparts from Russia and China on Tuesday, underlined the need to “respect international law and recognize the legitimate interest of partners.”Jaishankar said that the meeting “reiterates our belief in the time-tested principles of international relations. But the challenge today is not just one of concepts and norms, but equally of practice.” 
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Vietnam has received favorable recognition worldwide for containing the spread of the novel coronavirus and reopening the nation’s economy, but that good news is small comfort for Tran Thi Hien, who collects scrap metal she can resell for cash. After the government announced a pandemic relief fund, she applied two times but says she has yet to hear back. Some suggested the reason for the delay is because she had to apply in her hometown. Others surmise that she was not in the eligible age range. Hien, 43, said the process was “too complicated” but held out hope. “The government’s support package is really a savior for independent workers like me,” she said. Even for a place like Vietnam, which reported zero coronavirus deaths and 349 cases, the pandemic hit the economy hard, with the impact falling hardest on laborers who live on meager subsistence wages. While white-collar employees could work at home or take paid days off in lockdown, those in the informal sector, such as Hien, must show up and do physical work if they’re going to afford food and housing. Supporters of the pandemic relief fund want to prevent a disconnect between the lofty goals of the aid package and the impact on citizens, particularly those in most need. Organizations, from Oxfam in Vietnam to the Pioneer Network for Ethnic Minority Voices, have stepped up with what they call “hotlines.” They compile feedback from people such as Hien and send it to labor and provincial agencies distributing the aid, as authorized in the state regulation, Decision 15/2020-TTg. Nguyen Thu Giang, executive director of Migrant Labor Action Network, or M.net, said she wants to help government agencies so they “can promptly compare, check and respond to people’s opinions, and at the same time make adjustments to policies or implementation methods, ensuring that Decision 15/2020-TTg is implemented, in a transparent and effective way.” The relief fund is worth close to $2.7 billion, though the ruling Communist Party has also tapped sister organizations to mobilize donations and volunteers, from the Youth Union to the Vietnamese Fatherland Front. Authors of a study of Vietnam’s COVID-19 response in Sustainability, a science journal, noted that the prime minister called on citizens to help “combat” the disease. “Responding to this call, one can easily see many images of bank transfer to the Vietnamese Fatherland Front on social media of Vietnamese people to support the government in the combat,” the study said. “On a larger scale, many enterprises, regardless of their size, also contributed to the national combat by donating their products such as masks, rice or milk, by donating their hotels for isolation wards—or most popularly—by donating cash.” Anti-poverty advocates are working to get as much of the aid money as possible to the most vulnerable in society. Oxfam in Vietnam said it is focused on the unemployed and the working poor, such as those who worked without contracts or were put on leave without pay during the pandemic. It also targets migrant workers such as Hien, who moved to the capital, Hanoi, from the nearby province of Nam Dinh. Many rural dwellers relocate to cities for better work opportunities but can’t access social services because they are not registered with local authorities.  Oxfam in Vietnam said it set up a hotline for the relief fund so that “no one is left behind.” “This initiative will create more opportunities for people to conveniently and confidently send feedback, from which the local government will have accurate, timely and quality information to provide better services,” Babeth Ngoc Han Lefur, Oxfam in Vietnam director, said.  
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While battling a new cluster of COVID-19 infections, authorities in Beijing have been quick to make use of geo-spatial information, collected through mobile tracking devices in people’s smartphones to identify and isolate potential virus carriers.
 
The technology, enabled by the device’s built-in global positioning system, has helped officials locate hundreds of thousands of people who might have been to the Xinfadi wholesale food market after late May — the possible ground zero of the latest coronavirus outbreak.   
 
As of Sunday, authorities have confirmed a total of 236 new COVID-19 patients and 22 asymptomatic patients, many of whom are related to the market, Beijing’s health commission said in a press statement Monday.
 
Prior to the latest outbreak, China had accumulated more than 83,000 confirmed cases countrywide in the past six months, government statistics showed.
 Geo-spatial data
 
Thanks to the location data, more than 700,000 people at risk of alleged exposure to the market were said to have been notified, given or arranged to be given tests just days after the Xinfadi market was closed on June 13, local media reported.FILE – A man holds up his smartphone to share health app data as a government worker notes down his phone number at a checkpoint in Beijing, China, April 29, 2020.That shows how aggressive Beijing has been in containing the diseases although it also raises concerns about privacy, says Charles Mok, a lawmaker and tech entrepreneur in Hong Kong.
 
Some observers have long expressed worries that China’s virus tracking practices and apps, including an existent “QR code,” may outlast its outbreak.
 
The health QR code, which is widely used by Chinese citizens with smartphones, has since February doubled as digital entry passes in and out of residential compounds or public places after having integrated one’s travel history.
 
“The problem is also with privacy concerns because the biggest worry is that once this [latest practice of using spatial data] is in place, it is very difficult to take away,” Mok told VOA in a phone interview Monday.
 Privacy concerns
 
As thorough as it can be, Beijing’s virus tracking policy in the past week appears to have gone overboard since those who weren’t in direct contact with potential virus carriers from the market also got swept up, Mok said.
 
The lawmaker suspected that the Chinese authorities may be conducting a social experiment to see what they can do with the data.FILE – People who had their cars’ license plates recorded near Xinfadi market, a new coronavirus cluster, wait in line for swab tests for the coronavirus, at a testing center in Beijing, China, June 17, 2020.On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social microblogging site, many residents in Beijing complained that they only passed by the market by car or by public transportation instead of setting foot into the market, but they still received text messages from the city government, which asked them to fill out a digital questionnaire before tests for virus were arranged.
 
Local media reported on Sunday that the city government in Beijing had completed testing of more than 2.3 million citizens, or around 10% of its population of 21 million.
 
Many say that they felt they had to comply with the city government’s instructions in order to ease their own minds as well.
 ‘Completely naked’
 
“Needless to say, we civilians are completely naked in front of the telecom operators,” one Weibo user commented, responding to other netizens’ complaints about a lack of privacy as a result of the government’s expansive virus tracking policy.
 
Another user wrote, “you’ve given up right to privacy when you started using the mobile phone.  Shall [telecom operators] make illegal use of your privacy [data], they can be prosecuted.  However, when personal safety is at stake, it becomes a way to control [the outbreak],” he added.FILE – Police and security personnel direct a photographer to refrain from taking pictures at a a cordon isolating a residential area near Xinfadi market, a new coronavirus hotspot in Beijing, China, June 20, 2020.That comment, Mok said, showed that Chinese people were becoming more and more tolerant of the government’s digital measures in stemming the epidemic.
 
It worries him, he said, because the Chinese government can easily find excuses in the future to extend its tracking policy for political reasons, and keep tabs on political dissidents.   
 No surprise
 
It comes as no surprise that China would find the technology useful in tracking potential virus carriers, as the government has long used technology to impose online censorship or block keywords on the Internet, said a tech professor from Taiwan, who specializes in mining geo-spatial data for commercial use.    
 
Combining the use of facial recognition and geo-spatial data, China has been successful in tracking citizens whose online comments were found to be critical of the government, the professor told VOA on the condition of anonymity given the matter’s sensitivity.
 
He said that many governments, including Taiwan’s, are using similar technology to help control the virus.  He added some have erected a virtual “electronic fence” to track the whereabouts of those under home quarantine.
 
But most governments are not as aggressive and invasive as China, which he said has shown little respect for individual’s privacy while accessing personal data, he added.
 
In lieu of regulations protecting personal information in China, telecom operators there also have little power in rejecting the government’s demand for personal information or exposing its misuse of private data, especially when the top management of many companies is politically connected, the professor added.
 
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Increasing numbers of cases of COVID-19 have forced the Australian state of Victoria to bring back tougher restrictions beginning Monday.  New infections over the past two days have been at their highest for two months.  A state of emergency has also been extended.                  Most of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases are linked to clusters, often within extended families.  Other larger groups of infections have been detected at two hotels in the city of Melbourne.  Community transmission of the virus, rather than those infections acquired overseas by citizens who then returned home, is of great concern to health officials.   They are advising Australians to stay away from six COVID-19 hotspots in the Victorian state capital, while residents are being urged to remain at home.   Authorities want to set up so-called ‘rings of containment’ around localized outbreaks.   In neighboring New South Wales, officials are recommending citizens reconsider travel to Melbourne.   Various lockdown measures have gradually been eased across Australia in recent weeks, but officials in Victoria are blaming complacency for a spike in cases.   Limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings have now been reintroduced.   Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews says the community still needs to be vigilant.     “It is unacceptable that families anywhere in our state can just because they want this to be over pretend that it is.  It is not over,” he said.  “We have even had people who have tested positive and have been told to go home and isolate, and instead they have gone to work.”   Police officers are to step up their enforcement of the restrictions on group gatherings, particularly in Melbourne.  Checks will also increase on people who have been told to self-isolate because they had tested positive for the disease or were a close contact of someone who had.   A positive test also prompted the cancellation of an Australian Rules Football match in Melbourne following the recent resumption of games.   Australia has recorded just over 7,400 coronavirus cases.  Most patients have recovered, but 102 people have died.   The country’s international borders were closed to foreign nationals in March.  Widespread testing and contact tracing have helped Australia mostly contain the virus, but strict lockdown measures have inflicted great damage to the economy. 
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China sent a survey vessel through waters claimed by its maritime sovereignty rival Vietnam this month to warn Hanoi against starting new energy exploration projects and filing any motions in an international court, observers say. Tracking tools showed China’s 105-meter-long, 58-person survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 4 moving toward Vietnamese waters on June 14, Radio Free Asia reported. The vessel passed three days later within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) of Vietnam’s coast – a country’s normal exclusive economic zone – the report said.    That movement follows the passage of another Chinese vessel near Vietnam in April and a standoff at sea last year.Chinese Ship Returns Near Vietnam BorderShip could escalate tensions while both nations are dealing with COVID-19 The Chinese government, the most powerful entity in a six-way South China Sea sovereignty dispute that includes Vietnam, hopes its ships discourage Vietnamese leaders from filing for world court arbitration as the Philippines did in 2013, analysts believe.  At the same time, China is warning Vietnam against any new undersea oil or gas exploration projects near a nine-dash line that Beijing uses to demarcate its maritime claims, analysts say.  “What I would see as recent moves, including the most recent one, I think is meant to signal to Vietnam to think twice before resorting to all sorts of these means to undermine Chinese interests, and that includes striking up new deals with other energy partners and all that,” said Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.   In November a deputy Vietnamese foreign minister cited arbitration and litigation as two possible measures against China.    Three years after Manila sued, a Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled against the legal basis for China’s nine-dash line. China dismissed the ruling but used aid and investment on its own to strengthen relations with rival maritime claimants. Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea.  Vietnam and China clashed at sea in 1974, 1988 and 2014, setting Hanoi apart from other sea claimants that seldom spark conflict. The first two incidents were deadly. In 2014 Vietnam charged China with ramming a Vietnamese fishing boat.  That incident along with upset over the placement of a Chinese oil rig sparked anti-Chinese rioting in Vietnam.  China, backed by the world’s third strongest military, claims about 90% of the South China Sea, prized for fish, energy and shipping lanes. China cites historical records to support its drilling, surveillance and island construction within the nine-dash line.   Vietnam and China are both looking for fossil fuel reserves under the seabed. China withdrew its vessels in October last year after four months of patrol near a gas-and-oil tract 352 kilometers southeast of Vietnam. Other oil explorers should take note of China’s survey vessel movement, suggested Euan Graham, senior fellow with the Singapore-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines actively seek undersea fuel, sometimes contracting projects to foreign drillers.   “I think it’s a part of an underlying strategy, which is to intimidate and harass all Southeast Asian exploration activity within the nine-dash line and to a point where it becomes economically unviable for foreign companies and even local companies to exploit, aware that China is going to make life that difficult with them,” Graham said. China may hope to nudge other claimants toward joint energy exploration, he added. Drilling contractors expect Vietnam to provide security during any projects, Koh said. They could ask Vietnam for a higher contract fee if they fear harassment, said Nguyen Thanh Trung, director of the Center for International Studies director at University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.  Vietnam had no rigs at an exploration tract along the Chinese boat’s reported mid-June route, Nguyen added. The country hopes to stay low-key for now as the ruling Communist Party prepares for its 2021 national congress, he said. An upset at sea would derail the event agenda. “Vietnam is making a compromise that it doesn’t want to confront China for the time being,” Nguyen said. “In the next year, the Vietnamese Communist Party congress will be convened, so anything that’s happening in the South China Sea may have a big impact, so that’s the reason why the Vietnamese government wants to put out the tension in the South China Sea.” 
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President Donald Trump held off on imposing tougher sanctions on Chinese officials blamed for a crackdown on China’s Uighur Muslim minority because of concern such measures would have interfered with trade negotiations with Beijing, he said in an interview published on Sunday.
 
“Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal. And I made a great deal, $250 billion potentially worth of purchases,” Trump was quoted as telling Axios Friday when asked why he had not enacted Treasury sanctions against Communist Party officials linked to repression in the Xinjiang region.
 
The United Nations estimates that more than a million Muslims have been detained in camps there. The State Department has accused China of subjecting Muslims to torture and abuse.
 
China has denied mistreatment and says the camps provide vocational training and help fight extremism.
 
U.S. officials previously told Reuters that since late 2018 they had weighed sanctions against Chinese officials over Xinjiang but refrained because of trade and diplomatic considerations.
 
Under a Phase 1 trade deal negotiated in 2019 that took effect in February, China agreed to buy at least $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services over two years.
Former national security adviser John Bolton alleges in a new book that Trump sought Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help to win reelection during a 2019 meeting by making agricultural purchases, and Trump also encouraged Xi to go ahead with building camps in Xinjiang. Trump has denied the accusations. The United States since last year has placed import restrictions on some Chinese companies and visa bans on unnamed Chinese officials linked to Xinjiang but has not imposed harsher Treasury sanctions.
 
Trump signed legislation last Wednesday calling for sanctions over Xinjiang, drawing threats of retaliation from China. He insisted, however, he had discretion to decide any application of the measures.  
 
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump said he would consider meeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and also suggested he has had second thoughts about his decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader.
 
“I would maybe think about that. … Maduro would like to meet. And I’m never opposed to meetings,” Trump told online news site Axios on Friday, a move that would upend his “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at ousting the Socialist president. He added, however, “but at this moment, I’ve turned them down.” 
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