China on Monday released a lengthy white paper to chronicle what it called a hard-won fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in the past five months – a report that has mostly won acclaim from its people.In the 37,000-word document, however, China said little about its early response to the coronavirus outbreak. Several accounts of what happened in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global pandemic when the outbreak began, have run contrary to what whistleblower doctors had said, according to analysts. China claimed the virus was first reported in Wuhan in December.The analysts added that the document is nothing but a tool for China’s official narrative in a global propaganda campaign to shift blame and is far from convincing to the global community.Lengthy white paperA medical staff attends a patient with pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Jan. 22, 2020.“China has long been trying to skirt responsibility and repeatedly denied any cover-up. And from China’s own statistics [in the paper], you can tell that they are still trying to cover things up,” Twu Shiing-jer, Taiwan’s former health minister, told VOA.The report sheds no light on how China dealt with the outbreak before December 27, 2019 – almost one-and-a-half months after government records allegedly showed that the country’s first confirmed case could be traced back to mid-November, Twu said.The global pandemic, which has killed nearly 400,000 people, could have been avoided had China notified the World Health Organization one month earlier in early December, he said.China’s refusal to reflect on its mistakes, especially fallacies during the initial cover-up stage, won’t help scientists inside and outside of China map out concrete measures that will prevent new diseases, Twu added, saying China’s lies keep piling up in the paper.More lies?In the first chapter of the paper, titled, “China’s Fight Against the Epidemic: a Test of Fire,” China said it had asked Wuhan residents to wear masks and made public disclosure of the disease as early as December 31, even though it waited until Jan. 20 to confirm the nature of the virus’s human-to-human transmission.Chinese coronavirus whistleblower, Dr. Li Wenliang, whose death was confirmed on Feb, 7, 2020, is shown in his protective mask, at the Wuhan Central Hospital, China.But words of two Chinese whistle-blower doctors Ai Fen and Li Wenliang of Central Hospital of Wuhan suggested otherwise.Dr. Ai once told local media that she was asked by hospital authorities to shut up and her colleagues in the emergency room were discouraged from putting on protective masks or suits until late January.Police in Wuhan also reprimanded Dr. Li, along with his seven colleagues, for spreading rumors on January 3 after they raised the alarm about the virus. Li succumbed to the disease on Feb 7, leaving behind his last words that “there should be more than one voice in a healthy society.”At a press briefing to release the white paper, Xu Lin, minister of the State Council Information Office, denied any cover-up, saying, “Such accusations are groundless, unreasonable and a show of disrespect for science.”High cure rateOther highlights of the report included that China boasted a cure rate of 94.3 percent as its death toll stood at 4,634 out of a total of 83,017 confirmed patients, as of the end of May.China also said all patients were given free treatment, which cost the government some $190 million for its nearly 59,000 inpatients, while traditional Chinese medicine was found effective in treating 92 percent of COVID-19 patients.China also gave itself credit for having sent a total of 29 medical expert teams to 27 countries and offered help to 150 nations and four international organizations.Some Chinese netizens appeared to fully embrace the official narrative in the government’s white paper.Nationalist sentimentsOn Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social microblogging site, nationalistic comments such as, “I love China. A great nation with great people” or “China puts lives before anything. U.S. capitalists put votes before anything,” were posted.Other Weibo users, however, expressed criticism.One user asked, “Have we forgotten what happened in Wuhan in the initial stage? Is it too early to take credits?” Another wrote, “Do you think the world will believe in Chinese officials when they say there’s no cover-up and delay in response?”Ross Feingold, a Taipei-based political analyst, said the document only serves China’s record of its response to COVID-19 and a document for its politicians, diplomats and state media to refer to when defending China.He said it has little effect on the world’s perception about China.“This kind of messaging is not going to change the trajectory of public policy in the United States whether it is increasing bipartisan consensus within the Democrats or Republicans, industry [and] other stakeholders about how to approach relations with China,” said Feingold. 
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The coronavirus outbreak is dashing hopes in Vietnam that its lead role in a regional bloc of countries this year will help resolve a sticky maritime sovereignty dispute with China.   Vietnam is chairing the 10-member country Association of Southeast Asian Nations through 2020, a once-per-decade opportunity for each bloc member. The association better known as ASEAN sometimes uses statements and talks to pressure Beijing over its South China Sea claims. ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam dispute some of the Chinese claims. Vietnam is the most outspoken.   But online meetings of the type that ASEAN members have held this year to date, due  to coronavirus concerns, are unlikely to produce diplomatic momentum, scholars say. In-person meetings build more trust, in turn generating more deals, and any events that do take place will focus more on responses to the coronavirus pandemic rather than on geopolitics, they believe.   FILE – Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, left, and his staff prepare documents ahead of the Special ASEAN summit on COVID-19 in Hanoi, April 14, 2020.“It’s different if you have a face-to-face meeting compared to an online meeting,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. “Even if there’s a face-to-face meeting, I think the mindset of these ministers would be on this pandemic rather than the South China Sea.”   ASEAN dealmaking thrives on sideline meetings, scheduled breaks and other unrecorded sessions that are common at “live” events, said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.  “You don’t have the option of side meetings, or informal sessions,” Batongbacal said, referring to online events. “All the online meetings I’m sure will be recorded, so it will be very formal, so it’s going to be difficult for them to try to settle things off the record.” The chair rotates to a different country each year, and chairs have power to set the year’s ASEAN agenda. Normally foreign ministers meet in mid-year and heads of state gather toward the end of each year to approve deals. Vietnam’s ASEAN role coincides with its U.N. Security Council presidency this year, giving it extra clout in foreign affairs.   Lack of of face-to-face meetings will sideline Vietnam’s “agenda” to ease the maritime dispute with China  said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.  It would also spare China the sometimes  uncomfortable task of addressing a tough agenda.   Vietnam had hoped this year to strengthen relations with ASEAN’s “external partners” and expand the network, writes Frederick Kliem, a visiting fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.   In the same spirit, Kleim writes in a paper as posted to a Vietnamese government website last month, Vietnam wanted to work on securing consensus among ASEAN nations when the bloc deals with outside countries. Action toward China in the past has faltered because Chinese allies such as Cambodia and Laos won’t go along.   ASEAN and China are due by next year to finish a code of conduct for the disputed 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. The code would set aside sovereignty differences and establish steps for handling mishaps between vessels, but no one’s sure whether the code will be binding or what tracts of sea it will cover.   Claimant countries value the South China Sea for its fisheries, shipping lanes and undersea energy reserves. China is the most militarily powerful.   The chair seldom pushes obviously “controversial” measures, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. For that reason, he said, the code of conduct has been pending for about a decade. “That actually is a very good illustration of the ASEAN dilemma,” Oh said.   FILE – ASEAN defense ministers and Dialogue Nations defense ministers pose for a group photo during a meeting on Nov. 18, 2019, in Bangkok, Thailand.As chair in 2010, Vietnam led the first ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus and let the United States join ASEAN’s East Asia Summit. The “plus” refers to Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States.   Vietnam’s chief hope for South China Sea progress this year may be its participation as a “plus” member among a group of four Western-allied countries, Nguyen said. The group called the Quad Plus held two video conferences in March on COVID-19 remedies and economic impacts from the disease.   The quad countries — Australia, India, Japan and the United States — normally take action to keep the South China Sea open internationally rather than letting China tighten its grip. 
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Humanitarian aid groups operating in southern Bangladesh are bracing for a potential worst-case scenario now that COVID-19 is spreading in Rohingya refugee camps. Considerable progress has been made to improve the treatment available. But as Dave Grunebaum reports, if there is a major outbreak medical teams may be forced to ration health care. 
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a meeting of the politburo of the country’s ruling Workers Party, where economic projects including the chemical industry were discussed, state news agency KCNA said on Monday. The two-day meeting comes at a time of economic uncertainty amid the global COVID-19 pandemic that is putting additional pressure on the North’s economy, already battered by international sanctions aimed at stopping its nuclear program. The meeting discussed “crucial issues arising in further developing the self-sufficient economy of the country and improving the standard of people’s living,” KCNA said. The 13th political bureau meeting repeatedly stressed that the chemical industry is “a major thrust front of the national economy,” it said. “He stressed the need to give top priority to increasing the capacity for producing fertilizer,” KCNA said, citing Kim. After weeks of intense speculation about his health, KCNA reported Kim attended the opening of a fertilizer plant on May 1. The meeting also emphasized construction of residential houses as a way to better North Korean’s standard of living. “Pointing out in detail the issues that have to be urgently settled to ensure living conditions of citizens in the city, the Supreme Leader stressed to take strong state measures for ensuring the living conditions of people including the construction of dwelling houses,” KCNA reported. Kim has made an unusually small number of outings in the past months, with his absence from a major holiday prompting speculation about his condition, as Pyongyang has stepped up measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. While North Korea says it has no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, South Korea’s main intelligence agency has said an outbreak there cannot be ruled out. 
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Australia is disputing Chinese government advice given to Chinese citizens urging them not to travel to Australia because of what Beijing calls a surge in racism during the coronavirus pandemic. The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the warning, insisting there was a “significant increase” in racist attacks on “Chinese and Asian people” in Australia.China is Australia’s biggest trading partner, but there is friction in the relationship. Australia’s recent call for an international investigation into COVID-19, which is widely thought to have originated in Wuhan, China, infuriated Beijing. Despite denials on both sides, bans and tariffs imposed on Australian agricultural products were seen by analysts as retaliation by China. There was also criticism of Australia’s early February decision to ban travelers from mainland China because of concerns over the spread of the virus. Australia has since closed its borders to all foreign nationals.In a further worsening of bilateral ties, authorities in Beijing are urging Chinese tourists not to travel to Australia because of fears of racism over the coronavirus, citing “an alarming increase” in violence against Asian people.This is strongly denied by officials in Canberra.“It is a rather moot point because there [is] no traveling happening between China and Australia, but let me say this: Australia is a very welcoming country, and we are certainly mindful of the fact that we have [a] 149.7 billion [Australian] dollar [$104 billion] trade with China,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said. “We are very mindful that we need to exercise respect. Anybody from China who is in Australia is most welcome to be here.”However, anecdotal evidence has suggested that Chinese-Australians and other Asian migrants have suffered racism because of the pandemic. Some have said they have faced increased hostility both online and in shops since the outbreak began. Cellphone videos appear to support some of the allegations. A young Asian boy was reportedly bullied at school in Australia by other students who demanded he be tested for the virus. A Chinese family in Melbourne says their home was targeted by racists three times in a week.Canberra’s relationship with China was already tense even before COVID-19 because of allegations of Chinese interference in Australia’s domestic affairs and cyber espionage.Australia will not want to see the situation get any worse.Australia’s income from tourism and education has relied heavily on demand from China. Official advice urging Chinese citizens to avoid travel to Australia could inflict more damage on two sectors already damaged by the pandemic. 
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Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday in cities far from the United States to express their anger over the death of George Floyd, a sign that the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality is resonating with wider calls over addressing racism in Asia, Australia and Europe.In Berlin, where police said 15,000 people rallied peacefully on the German capital’s Alexander Square, protesters chanted Floyd’s name and held up placards with slogans such as “Stop police brutality” and “I can’t breathe.”Floyd, a black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck even after Floyd pleaded for air while handcuffed and stopped moving. International protests started last weekend and were scheduled for this weekend from Sydney to Seoul and London to Naples.  Several thousand demonstrators in Paris defied a protest ban — issued because of the coronavirus pandemic — and assembled within sight of the U.S. Embassy, kept back by imposing barriers and riot police.Among the crowd in the French capital was Marie Djedje, 14, a Parisian born on July 14, the French national day.”I was born French, on the day when we celebrate our country. But on a daily basis, I don’t feel that this country accepts me,” she said, holding up a sign that read “Being black is not a crime.”The teenager said that emerging from France’s virus lockdown and seeing officers on patrol again drove home how scared she is of the police and how she has steeled herself for a life of overcoming obstacles.”I know that because of my skin color I’m starting out with a handicap, for example, if I want to get a flat or go to a top school,” she said. “I know I’m going to have to fight twice as hard as the others. But I’m prepared.”In central London, tens of thousands staged a rally outside Parliament Square, invoking Floyd’s memory as well as people who died during police encounters or indifference in Britain. Some protesters ignored thickening rain clouds and later headed toward the U.K. Home Office, which oversees law enforcement and immigration, and to the U.S. Embassy.Many dropped to one knee and raised their fists in the air outside the gleaming embassy building south of the River Thames. There were chants of “Silence is violence” and “Color is not a crime.”The majority of those marching wore masks and other face coverings, and appeared to make an effort to adhere to social distancing guidelines by walking in small groups.A young woman wears a face mark as people gather at the Alexander Platz in Berlin, Germany, June 6, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis.An estimated 15,000 people also gathered in the heart of Manchester, England, and another 2,000 people joined in a demonstration in the Welsh capital of Cardiff.Andrew Francis, 37, a black man from London, said there’s “a lot of frustration due to racial discrimination, and we want change for our children and our children’s children’s to be able to have equality within the U.K., the U.S., all around the world.”Francis, who wore a face covering, said he wasn’t worried about the coronavirus and said the fight for racial equality was “more important” to him.Floyd’s death has sparked significant protests across the United States, but it has also struck a chord with minorities protesting discrimination elsewhere, including demonstrators in Sydney who highlighted indigenous Australians who died in custody.Peaceful rallyA rally there appeared orderly as police handed out masks to protesters and other officials provided hand sanitizer, though officers removed an apparent counterprotester carrying a sign reading, “White Lives, Black Lives, All Lives Matter.”  In Brisbane, the Queensland state capital, organizers said about 30,000 people gathered, forcing police to shut down some major downtown streets. The protesters demanded to have Australia’s Indigenous flag raised at the police station.Indigenous Australians make up 2% of the the country’s adult population, but 27% of the prison population. They are also the most disadvantaged ethnic minority in Australia and have higher-than-average rates of infant mortality and poor health, as well as shorter life expectancies and lower levels of education and employment than other Australians.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 15 MB720p | 33 MB1080p | 61 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIn South Korea’s capital, Seoul, protesters gathered for a second straight day to denounce Floyd’s death.Wearing masks and black shirts, dozens of demonstrators marched through a commercial district amid a police escort, carrying signs such as “George Floyd Rest in Peace” and “Koreans for Black Lives Matter.””I urge the U.S. government to stop the violent suppression of [U.S.] protesters and listen to their voices,” said Jihoon Shim, one of the rally’s organizers. “I also want to urge the South Korean government to show its support for their fight [against racism].”Chris Trabot, who works for Paris City Hall, said Floyd’s death last week triggered his decision to demonstrate Saturday for the first time in his life.Born in the French territory of Martinique, Trabot said he first experienced racism as a child when he moved with his family to mainland France and got into frequent fights with white kids who mocked his skin color.  As an adult, he says, he’s been targeted with racial abuse during ID checks. Recently, his 9-year-old daughter has told him of being a target of racism, too, with schoolmates mocking her hair.  Concern for childrenJessica Corandi, a Paris Metro driver, said she cried when she saw the video of Floyd’s treatment by Minneapolis police. The 37-year-old said her three young girls have started to notice people looking at them strangely on the streets of Paris, which she believes is because they are black.Protesters outside the U.S. Consulate in Naples chanted “Freedom!” and “No justice, no peace, [expletive] the police,” in English and Italian, as they clapped and carried handmade signs and a big banner printed with “Black Lives Matter” and a clenched black fist.In Italy, racist incidents have been on the rise in recent years with an influx of migrants from Africa and the growth of anti-migrant sentiment.Police said 20,000 people rallied against racism in Munich, while thousands more took part in protests in Frankfurt and Cologne.In Berlin, Lloyd Lawson, who was born in Britain but raised in Germany, said he had faced racism his entire life.  “The killing and these violent physical things that have happened is only just the top of it,” said Lawson, 54. “That’s why you’ve got to start right from the bottom, just like an iceberg.”
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Tens of thousands of people have marched through Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, to protest the deaths of indigenous people in police custody.  The rally went ahead after organizers overturned a court decision that had ruled it unlawful.  Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had urged people not to attend protests across the country because of the risk of spreading the coronavirus.The authorities wanted to stop the rally in Sydney on health grounds, fearing that large crowds would increase the risk of coronavirus infections.    The New South Wales Supreme Court Friday said the march would be unlawful, but that decision was challenged and overturned.  That meant protesters were immune from prosecution if they breached public health orders.  In New South Wales state, gatherings of more than 500 people are illegal under social distancing laws. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian had urged demonstrators to stay away.“We do not want anybody flouting the health orders.  The health orders are there for a reason and in New South Wales we would not ever want to be in a position where people are denied that expression of freedom, but do it in a different way,” said Berejiklian. “We cannot have thousands and thousands of people gathering together, and it only takes a couple, one or two people, to have the virus.”    Those pleas were ignored by tens of thousands of people in Sydney, who marched in solidarity with protesters in the United States.  They also wanted to highlight aboriginal deaths in custody, as well as the treatment by the police and the criminal justice system of Australia’s indigenous people.  They make up about a third of prison inmates, but just 3% of the country’s population. Aboriginal elder Rhonda Dixon-Grosvenor. “We have a right to gather on our country,” said Dixon-Grosvenor. “We have a right to speak and a right to express ourselves as human beings.”The crowds held a minute’s silence to remember George Floyd, an African American man who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in the United States.There were other large rallies in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.  They were reportedly almost entirely peaceful and without incident.
Rally organizers handed out masks and gave hand sanitizer to demonstrators.   
Australia has had 7,250 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 102 people have died from the virus.
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China is advising its citizens not to visit Australia, citing racial discrimination and violence against Asians, in what appears to be Beijing’s latest attempt to punish the country for advocating an investigation into the coronavirus pandemic.A notice issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism late Friday said there has “been an increase in words and deeds of racial discrimination and acts of violence against Chinese and Asians in Australia, due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.”“The ministry advises Chinese tourists to raise their safety awareness and avoid traveling to Australia,” the notice said.As part of its perceived retaliation, China has already effectively ended imports of Australian barley by putting tariffs of more than 80 percent on the crop, accusing Australia of breaching World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing barley production and selling the crop in China at below production costs. That came a week after China banned beef imports from Australia’s four largest abattoirs over labeling issues.Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham on Tuesday said the country did not want a trade war,but said China “has made errors of both fact and law” in applying WTO rules, adding that there was no evidence that Australia was engaged in dumping of products.Australian has been among countries pushing for an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and responses to it. Beijing has denied its measures against Australian beef and barley were related to those calls.WHO to launch independent probeThe World Health Organization has bowed to calls from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the virus, which was first found in China late last year. The evaluation would stop short of looking into contentious issues such as the origins of the virus.Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingye’s has told Australian media that the country might face a Chinese boycott of its tourism and exports of wine, beef and other goods if the government pressed for a coronavirus inquiry.China is the No. 1 market for Australian beef, accounting for about 30 percent of exports. It’s also the biggest foreign buyer of Australian barley.Beijing has regularly used access to its huge market to punish governments from Norway to Canada in political disputes. Chinese officials routinely refuse to confirm a trade disruption is related to a political clash but make it clear Beijing wants concessions.    
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South Korean police on Friday prevented a Christian activist group from sending aid and Bibles to North Korea, the latest evidence Seoul intends to prevent cross-border distributions that have angered Pyongyang.Voice of the Martyrs Korea, a Seoul-based nongovernmental organization, had planned to float about 500 bottles — filled with rice, vitamins and Bibles — into the North from South Korea’s western coast.The activists were met by about two dozen local police officers, unidentified plainclothes officials, and local residents, who blocked a road near the intended launch site.A day earlier, North Korea lashed out at conservative activists who for years have floated giant balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said North Korean defectors often involved in such activities are “riff-raffs,” “human scum” and “mongrel dogs.”  FILE – Kim Yo Jong, right, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, helps Kim sign joint statement following the summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse in Pyongyang, Sept. 19, 2018.Unless Seoul prevents the launches, she said, North Korea could scrap an inter-Korean agreement to reduce military tensions, and it would completely withdraw from other cooperation arrangements.Within hours, South Korea’s left-leaning government, which desperately wants to improve ties with the North, said it would push for legislation to ban the launches.The announcement raised concerns about violations of freedom of expression. Many also accused South Korea of being too accommodating to the North.”It’s surprising to hear the South Korean government sound so compliant to Pyongyang immediately after Kim Yo Jong issued threats to Seoul and cast aspersions on defector and human rights groups,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.”[South Korean] President Moon [Jae-in]’s pro-engagement party may control the National Assembly, but legislation to effectively restrict freedom of expression in order to protect the Kim regime from embarrassment would be met with a conservative backlash domestically and criticism from human rights NGOs internationally,” he added.Both conservative and liberal South Korean governments have at times blocked activists from sending provocative leaflets into the North.The materials often criticize North Korea’s human rights record and sometimes include items of value, such as dollar bills or USB flash drives loaded with South Korean dramas.Usually, officials have cited national security considerations to prohibit the launches. In 2014, North Korean border guards tried to shoot down some of the balloons, resulting in an exchange of gunfire with the South.Mixed messagesBut South Korean officials this week have given varying justifications for their opposition. The leaflet distribution, they said, not only causes tensions but also creates environmental pollution and upsets local residents.They also have cited a 2018 inter-Korean agreement in which both sides agreed to stop tension-causing activities, including distribution of leaflets, along their border area.Eric Foley, CEO of Voice of the Martyrs Korea, displays a bottle filled with rice, vitamins, and a Bible, which he was prepared to send to North Korea, in Seoul, South Korea. June 5, 2020. (William Gallo/VOA)The police who blocked Friday’s launch cited objections from locals, who said they were concerned the move could heighten inter-Korean tensions.”They were stopping the launch on the grounds that the property owner changed his mind and no longer wanted to permit access,” said Pastor Eric Foley, CEO of Voice of the Martyrs Korea.It is not clear how the locals knew to show up with police, since the group had not publicized their activities ahead of time. However, Foley said he notified authorities the night before of his intended launch.The Voice of the Martyrs Korea did not intend to launch balloons. Instead, the NGO planned to toss plastic bottles into the water, allowing sea currents to carry the items into the North.The group’s bottles are viewed as less provocative than the actions of many groups, since they do not contain any anti-North Korea materials. Foley concedes, though, North Koreans could be punished if caught in possession of a Bible.North Korea’s constitution in theory guarantees freedom of religion. But in reality, all religious activity is tightly regulated, and religious activities outside of state control are treated as a national security threat.Inter-Korean tensionFoley and other activists say they have no plans to stop the launches. He did say he was concerned because this is the first time one of his bottle launches had been blocked.It is not clear what type of activities South Korea’s government intends to outlaw or what the punishment would be for violating the rules.The Moon government has long discouraged actions that create inter-Korean tensions, especially as Seoul’s outreach to Pyongyang has become endangered.The leaders of North and South Korea held three summits in 2018, signing a series of statements meant to decrease tension and expand cooperation.But progress on implementing the agreements has stalled, in large part because of the lack of progress in North Korea’s nuclear talks with the United States.In recent months, North Korea has escalated its verbal attacks on the South, accusing Seoul of prioritizing its relationship with Washington over Pyongyang.  
 
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Thousands gathered in Australia’s capital on Friday to remind Australians that the racial inequality underscored by George Floyd’s death was not unique to the United States.The Canberra rally that attracted 2,000 demonstrators comes before larger rallies are planned for Australia’s most populous cities on Saturday, with authorities concerned about maintaining social distancing.Police were on Friday seeking a court order banning a rally in Australia’s largest city, Sydney, because of the pandemic risk while a state government leader urged demonstrators not to attend a rally in Melbourne, the second largest city.Matilda House, an elder of the Ngambri-Ngunnawal family group who are the traditional owners of the Canberra region, said: “Australians have to understand that what’s been going on the United States has been happening here for a long time.”Australia must move beyond a colonial attitude “that blacks are only here to be walked on, trodden on and murdered,” House said in the first speech of the rally.A demonstrator who interrupted House, arguing that the rally’s focus should be on “what’s happening in the United States” rather than Australia’s colonial history, was shouted down in a heated confrontation with several protesters. The demonstrator eventually followed the crowd’s advice to leave.The crowd was majority-white in a majority-white city. Organizers handed out masks and hand sanitizer. Most protesters attempted to keep the recommended 1.5-meters social distancing until the speeches began and people drew closer. Public gatherings are limited to 20 in Canberra, but police did not intervene.One of the protesters, Wendy Brookman, a teacher and member of the Butchulla indigenous people, said Australia should not accept more than 430 indigenous Australians dying in police custody or prison in the past three decades.”We’re not here to jump on the bandwagon of what’s happened in the United States,” Brookman said. “We’re here to voice what’s happening to our indigenous people.”One of the protesters’ signs “I can’t breathe,” drew a parallel between Floyd’s death in Minnesota on May 25 and the Australian indigenous experience.
They were among the last words of both Floyd and Aboriginal man David Dungay, who died in a prison hospital in 2015 while being restrained by five guards.Dungay’s mother Leetona Dungay said she planned to march in Sydney on Saturday regardless of whether the New South Wales state Supreme Court rules the rally illegal.”The correctional services officers and the doctors and nurses put my son under the ground, and I’m going to walk on it for my march,” she told SBS News, her voice rising to a yell. “Just like George Floyd.””We’re not going to stop. We’re going to march. We don’t care what any act of law tells us what to do. Coz those acts of laws are killing us,” she added.
Nigerian-born Oluwatobi Odusote, 16, and her school friends Jan Usha, 17, and Rhyse Morgan, 16, held a red, black and yellow indigenous flag during the protest.”I thought that if America is taking a stand to save black lives, then we should help save the Aboriginal l lives here in Australia, too,” Odusote said.
Usha, who is of Nigerian and Asian background, described the rally as “great” because Australia rarely addresses racism through protest.Morgan, who is of European heritage, said “if we’re all not equal, then no one benefits.”Indigenous Australians are 2 percent of the Australian adult population but 27 percent of the prison population.Australia’s indigenous people are the most disadvantaged ethnic minority in Australia. They have higher-than-average rates of infant mortality and poor health, as well as shorter life expectancy and lower levels of education and employment than other Australians.
 
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The United States accused China on Thursday of breaking its commitment for democracy in Hong Kong, hours after the city’s legislature passed a law making it a crime to disrespect China’s national anthem. “Unfortunately, we have seen over the past several weeks, action after action … where China is once again showing the world that they break their promises, that they have empty commitments and they never, never intend to keep their word,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told VOA. “So, we remain very concerned at the State Department. U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus attends a press briefing by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department in Washington, Dec. 11, 2019.“We just hope that the world now sees Chairman Xi (Jinping) for who he is and now sees the Chinese Communist Party for who they are,” she said. Hong Kong’s mostly pro-Beijing legislature overwhelmingly voted to pass the anthem law. It carries a penalty of up to three years in prison and a maximum fine of $6,450 for those who insult the anthem — “March of the Volunteers” — in public or playing and singing it in a distorted or disrespectful way. Ortagus noted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently was unable to certify to the U.S. Congress that Hong Kong is autonomous from China after China announced its intention to impose national security controls over the territory, which she called “a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong.” The new U.S. rebuke of China came as thousands of people gathered Thursday night in Hong Kong in defiance of a police ban on such crowds to remember the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. The crowd cheered as speakers denounced the Chinese decision to impose the national security laws on the city. They also observed a minute of silence for the Tiananmen victims, ending it with loud chants of “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Wang Dan, Su Xiaokang, Liane Lee, Henry Li and other student leaders and survivors of the Tiananmen Square protests, June 2, 2020. (Mike Pompeo, Twitter)Ortagus said that earlier this week, Pompeo met with Tiananmen survivors, the first time a sitting U.S. secretary of state had done so. “I think that that action speaks very, very loudly to the entire world,” she said. “Secretary Pompeo and I were hosting these Tiananmen survivors. And the pictures, the stories were harrowing. And we promise to continue to tell their story to the world. It won’t be forgotten. We remember Tiananmen.” She also accused Beijing of trying to foment discord in the U.S. over the nights of protests against the death of George Floyd, a black man who died last week while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “We know that they are trying to take this opportunity to make comparisons to try to sow discord in the U.S.,” Ortagus said. “But you know there’s a major difference,” she said. “Obviously, we have freedom of the press here. Obviously, we have freedom to assemble. And the United States will continue those fundamental rights, which Chinese citizens, if they tried to enjoy the same rights, they would be cracked down on, the way they have in Hong Kong, and the way they were in Tiananmen Square.”  
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As China tightens its control over Hong Kong, activists in the city defied a police ban and broke through barricades Thursday evening to mark the 31st anniversary of the crushing of a democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
With democracy all but snuffed out in mainland China, the focus has shifted increasingly to semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where authorities for the first time banned an annual candlelight vigil marking the anniversary of the 1989 crackdown.
Police cited the need for social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak and barricaded sprawling Victoria Park to prevent people from gathering there. Beijing is taking a tougher stance following months of anti-government protests last year, in what activists see as an accelerating erosion of the city’s rights and liberties.
“We all know the Hong Kong government and the Chinese government really don’t want to see the candle lights in Victoria Park,” said Wu’er Kaixi, a former student leader who was No. 2 on the government’s most-wanted list following the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed when tanks and troops moved in on the night of June 3-4, 1989, to break up weeks of student-led protests that had spread to other cities and were seen as a threat to Communist Party rule.
“The Chinese Communists want us all to forget about what happened 31 years ago,” Wu’er told the AP in Taiwan, where he lives. “But it is the Chinese government themselves reminding the whole world that they are the same government … doing the same in Hong Kong.”
China did not intervene directly in last year’s protests, despite speculation it might deploy troops, but backed the tough response of the Hong Kong police and government. It then announced last month at the annual meeting of its ceremonial legislature that it would impose national security laws on Hong Kong, circumventing the city’s legislature and shocking many of its 7.5 million residents.
Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students had gathered in 1989, was quiet and largely empty on Thursday. Police and armored vehicles stood guard on the vast space. Few pedestrians lined up at security checkpoints where they must show IDs to be allowed through as part of mass surveillance nationwide to prevent any commemoration of the event.
As has become customary, many dissidents were placed under house arrest and their communications with the outside world cut off, according to rights groups.  
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson offered the government’s standard defense of the 1989 crackdown.  
“The Chinese government has made a clear conclusion about the political disturbance that occurred in the late 1980s,” Zhao Lijian said. “The great achievements that we have achieved … have fully demonstrated that the development path China has chosen is completely correct, which conforms to China’s national conditions and has won the sincere support of the Chinese people.”  
Despite the ban on the candlelight vigil, Hong Kong was bracing for possible “pop-up” protests of the type that raged around the city last year and often led to violent confrontations between police and demonstrators.  
Thousands have been arrested in the demonstrations, which were sparked by proposed legislation that could have allowed suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements of China that organizes the annual vigil called on people to light candles at 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) and planned to livestream the commemorations on its website.  
Alliance Chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and several other members of the Hong Kong Alliance gathered at Victoria Park at 6:30 p.m. (1030 GMT, 6:30 a.m. EDT), dressed in black shirts with the Chinese characters for “truth” emblazoned on the front. They lit candles and urged the public to do the same later on to mourn victims of the massacre and show their support for the democratic cause in China.  
Lee then led the group of about 15 members in a candlelit procession around the park, shouting slogans including, “Stand with Hong Kong.”
“We have been doing this for 30 years, we have the right to do this, this is a peaceful procession,” he said, stating that it would be “absurd” if this behavior is criminalized.
The group later removed one of the barricades surrounding the park, and entered it to continue their procession.
On Thursday, the Hong Kong legislature passed a law making it a crime to disrespect China’s national anthem. The pro-democracy opposition, which sees the law as an infringement of freedom of expression, boycotted the vote.
“The Hong Kong government tried to please or show loyalty to Beijing and ban our gathering even before the national security law comes in. But we are determined,” Lee said at a kiosk set up by the group to distribute flyers in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district near the park.
“The ban comes amid an alarming acceleration of attacks on the autonomy of Hong Kong and the undermining of the rights and freedoms of the Hong Kong people guaranteed under Hong Kong and international law,” Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, said in a statement.
Other vigils, virtual and otherwise, were planned elsewhere, including in Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy whose government called again this year for Beijing to own up to the facts of the crackdown.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted criticism of China and Hong Kong for banning the vigil earlier this week before meeting with a group of Tiananmen Square survivors at the State Department.
Zhao, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said, “We urge the U.S. to abandon ideological prejudice, correct mistakes and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in any form.”
China has released the last of those arrested for directly taking part in the Tiananmen demonstrations, but others who seek to commemorate them have been rearrested for continuing their activism.
 
They include Huang Qi, founder of the website 64 Tianwang that sought to expose official wrongdoing. Reportedly in failing health, he is serving a 12-year sentence after being convicted of leaking state secrets abroad. 
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