Malaysia’s new prime minister installed a tableau of advisers this month, not long after his shock appointment to become the country’s top leader. The new government marks a return of the party that ran Malaysia for five decades, which analysts say raises the specter it will abandon its drive against corruption, most notably through the 1MDB investigation.
 
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin began his term last week by naming dozens of new ministers and officials, including former bank executive Zafrul Aziz as finance minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob as senior minister for defense, and Annuar Musa as federal territories minister.
 
Most of the new officials are in the United Malays National Organization, or in coalition with UMNO, which ruled Malaysia for half a century until voters tired of corruption tossed it from power in 2018.  
 
“The shock 2018 election victory gave Mahathir [then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad] a clear mandate to clear up corruption, which had worsened under his predecessor, Najib Razak,” according to Gareth Leather, a senior Asia economist at Capital Economics.
 
Mahathir’s government was investigating Najib for allegedly using 1MDB, the state wealth fund, to help steal billions of dollars from Malaysians.
 
Mahathir’s term was surprisingly cut short in February, though, and with a new government now taking over, there is a risk that “bad habits” will re-emerge, Leather said.
 
“Corruption could also get worse,” he said.
 
Tellingly, Najib is more confident he’ll get a favorable result from the investigation now that the old guard from his UMNO party are back in office. Most notably, his cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein, a party faithful, returns, this time as foreign minister. And one of the key women investigating 1MDB, Latheefa Koya, will not be staying on as head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission under the new government.  
 
The scale of alleged theft via 1MDB was so vast that at least six countries have investigated it, including the United States. The U.S. Justice Department is in the process of returning some of the stolen funds to Malaysia. Aiding those investigations was one of Mahathir’s priorities while he was prime minister for the last two years. Now that he has lost his internecine battle to keep power, he is warning the U.S. to “think twice” about where those funds will end up.
 
When we took over, the DOJ was willing to give it to us because we overthrew the people who stole the money,” he told Reuters, which reported the U.S. is delaying the return of the funds. “Now, the people who stole the money are going to get back the money they stole.”
 
In addition to embezzlement, Najib was accused of locking up Malaysians who criticized his involvement in 1MDB and sacking officials who disagreed with him. He denies all charges against him.
 
Such intolerance for free speech must not return under the new government, said Amnesty International regional director Nicholas Bequelin. He noted the regime under Mahathir had made progress on relaxing limits on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.  
 
Bequelin is urging the current administration to continue the move toward transparency and accountability. “It would be disastrous,” he said, “for a new government to come into power and reverse this reform agenda.”
  
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Fearful of causing further harm to an economy laid low by the coronavirus epidemic, authorities in China have become a lot more lenient dealing with entrepreneurs breaking the law.   Entrepreneurs suspected of crimes ranging from forging VAT invoices to allowing drug use on their property have been let off with warnings to prevent any further drag on production or employment, according to local media reports.   This leniency contrasts with the harsh treatment meted out to private firms by courts over the past few decades, as many have found themselves on the wrong side of disputes with local governments and state-owned firms, according to legal experts.  “Not arresting and not prosecuting means firms can still operate, and still have leeway to be rescued,” said a court official in Zhejiang, a coastal province with a vibrant private sector.   Otherwise the firms could immediately collapse, he told Reuters, declining to give his name due to the sensitivity of the matter.   Shaoxing city in Zhejiang said it decided not to prosecute fourteen private companies in February to help with the return to work after the virus-induced shutdown, according to the state-owned China News Service.   The reason for opting against prosecution in one case was that nearly 70 workers would have lost their jobs.   Leniency has become the order of the day, though the central government has been calling for better treatment of private business for years.   “If it is possible to not arrest them, do not,” the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, China’s national agency in charge of prosecutions, said in February, urging enforcement officers to go easy on key personnel in errant firms.   Business operators who are not dangerous to society and who show remorse after giving themselves up should not be detained, said another document from the agency published last month.   Earlier this month, a Taiwanese factory manager and his company’s Taiwanese legal representative received a warning for conspiring to smuggle in Vietnamese workers into their plant in the eastern province of Fujian, according to a local government-backed paper. Had they been tried and convicted, they could have faced up to seven years imprisonment.   Authorities watching companies’ compliance with environmental regulations have also become more permissive.   The private sector accounts for 80% of urban jobs and most of China’s GDP, but many firms faced major disruptions to operations and cash flow during the lockdowns ordered to contain the epidemic.   As new infection rates subsided, authorities gave the all clear for industry to get back to work, but many companies are still wobbling back to life.   China’s factory production plunged at the sharpest pace in three decades in the first two months of the year, with the urban jobless rate hitting 6.2% in February, the highest since official records were published.   In China, private firms have been especially vulnerable to legal action. Local governments have sometimes characterized cases brought against companies for illegal fundraising, or contract fraud, as attacks on organised crime, say legal experts.   In one ongoing campaign, “obviously innocent people were arrested,” said Jiang Su, a law professor at Peking University. Jiang said the prosecutions were sometimes driven by police quotas and local protectionism.   China’s Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Security did not respond to faxed requests for comment.   
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Japan plans to widen travel warnings to much of Europe urging people avoid trips there as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, public broadcaster NHK said.
Japan will widen a level three advisory, which already applies to much Italy, to surrounding areas in Europe, NHK reported. That notice urges people to avoid all travel and asks Japanese resident there to prepare for possible evacuation.Other European nations including Germany, France and Norway, although not including Britain, will be subject to a level two advisory, which asks people to avoid non-essential travel, NHK said. 
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The Japanese man who killed 19 disabled patients in a brutal knife attack in 2016 has been sentenced to death by hanging.  Satoshi Uematsu was convicted and sentenced Monday in the Yokohama District Court of the rampage that also left 26 others wounded, making it the worst mass killing in Japan’s post-World War II era.  The 30-year-old Uematsu once worked as a caregiver at the residential center for disabled people, located just outside of Tokyo.  His lawyers contended their client’s judgement was impaired due to an overuse of marijuana, but Uematsu later claimed he was responsible for the attack, telling the court he wanted to get rid of people he believed were a burden on society.
 
Prosecutors say Uematsu was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after telling his co-workers of his plans, but was released after less than two weeks.  Judge Kiyoshi Aonuma dismissed the defense’s arguments, calling Uematsu’s actions “premeditated” and “extreme.”
 
The attack shocked a nation where violent crime is rare, but where the disabled are stigmatized and face persistent prejudice.  
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It has been more than a decade since 64-year old Khorn Khorn lost three hectares of land to a close ally of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The controversial senator Ly Yong Phat wanted the holding to expand a sugarcane plantation in Kampong Speu province.At her house in Sre Chrab village, about 10 kilometers from the land she lost, the mother of seven recounts how the loss affected her life: she couldn’t find work or make ends meet, her children dropped out of school, and she now has ever-growing debt, amounting to about $6,000, a substantial sum in a nation where the average annual income is   $1,680, according to 2019 government statistics.     “Before I lost the land, I had never been in debt,” Khorn Khorn said in an interview with VOA Khmer last week. “I am afraid that I could not pay it. I don’t know whether my son will be able to pay this month or not,” she said. “I am very concerned every day.”The sugarcane plantation was given to Ly Yong Phat as an economic land concession, a controversial land-lease program that resulted in thousands of land disputes across Cambodia. The decade-old plantation has been involved in According to terms of the settlement, the Australian bank would give villagers all the profits from the $40 million loan it gave Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar in 2011, under its Cambodian joint venture with the Royal Group. The bank has since exited the Cambodian market.But, 10 years after losing their land and homes, the affected villagers said that although they won the fight for compensation, it is unlikely to reverse the effects the land grab has had on their families.In addition to Khorn Khorn’s land, four of her seven children also lost their land, which their mother had given them. All told, the family lost 10 hectares of land.   That leaves Khorn Khorn with a small plot of land given to her by the local pagoda in an informal understanding. But, without any legal documentation, she remains vulnerable to losing the land.   “If I had the land, my children could keep studying, and they would not be laborers like they are now,” she said.Over the years, Khorn Khorn has attempted to do some farming and raise poultry to support herself and her children. What she earned was not enough, she said, to stop three of her sons from dropping out of school to enter the minimum-wage workforce, earning about $6 per day, to sustain the family.“[Previously] I did a little bit of rice farming; I raised pigs and cows by myself,” she said. That all stopped when she lost her land.Land ownership and the lack of titling has been a highly controversial issue in Cambodia, as small plots of land are often the only assets held by a majority of rural families. The government has exacerbated the issue with its willingness to hand over large swathes of land to private enterprises for agriculture and development projects, often at bargain rates.   For many Cambodians, farming on family land is an economic necessity, because there are few jobs in rural provinces. Eighty-five percent of Cambodia’s approximately 16 million people still depend on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods, according to government statistics. The land also gives people a sense of security, community and family.With almost no income, Khorn Khorn had to take out two loans for a combined $5,000 from Acleda, one of the country’s largest commercial banks, and AMK, a microfinance institution. Khorn Khorn often relies on her 20-year-old son, Vann Pros, to make the $180 monthly debt payments.   Local nongovernmental organizations Licadho and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut released a report last year highlighting human rights abuses linked to the profit-making microfinance sector, often resulting in Cambodians selling their land, migrating for work, and even putting their children in the workforce to pay these loans.The agreement with ANZ comes five years after a complaint filed against the bank with a little-known entity within Australia’s treasury department, the nonjudicial Australian National Contact Point  (ANCP). It oversees complaints about the behavior of Australian companies overseas based on guidelines for responsible corporate behavior set forth by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).Two rights groups, the local NGO Equitable Cambodia 
and the U.S.-based Inclusive Development International, filed the complaint on behalf of the 1,200 families. Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia, hoped that the compensation would help families rebuild their lives.But, while the resolution with ANZ was an acknowledgement of the bank’s failure in due diligence, Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar was still to be held accountable, he added.“This does not in any way replace Phnom Penh Sugar’s responsibility to fully compensate the communities for their damages,” Eang Vuthy said.While the government has remained quiet on the ANZ resolution, Ly Yong Phat told VOA Khmer last week that he had resolved any land issues at his plantations and that he was unperturbed by the Australian bank’s decision to pay compensation to the families.“It is the affair of ANZ company. I can’t say anything. They can do anything,” he said.Cambodian Land Management Ministry spokesperson Seng Loth could not be reached for comment.Soeung Sokhom, a representative of the affected families, said the government was equally accountable for its role in the hopeless situation many of the families have had to face after losing their land.He said the basic necessities of rural families, such as farmland, schooling and rice, had been taken away from his community members and, with little in the way of employment opportunities, driven many of them into debt.“The government always denies. If they want, they [can] solve this for us for a long time,” he said, adding that he lost 1.5 hectares of land. “They said there were no [rights] violations.”Khorn Khorn can see another generation of her family feeling the effects of the protracted land dispute. Her daughter Vann Saory lives nearby and is facing the same worries as her mother did a decade ago.Vann Saory, a mother of two, also has $5,000 in loans – again from Acleda and AMK – and struggles to find work. Swallowing her pride, she worked at Phnom Penh Sugar packing processed sugar for about $50 a week, before the company mechanized the production process.“I felt angry [working for the company],” she said. “But, I had to do it because I didn’t have money.” Vann Saory said she finds odd jobs to earn income for her two children. She is worried the day will come when she will have to pull her children out of school, much like her three brothers stopped their schooling years ago.“I am afraid that I can’t earn income anymore and they can’t go to study,” she said.Khorn Khorn has seen her family’s standard of living decline over the decade and hopes that the compensation they receive will provide some respite.   “It is late, but it will help lift the debt,” she said.
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Born and raised in the 1990s, Wuhan resident Tu Long once believed that as long as he didn’t make any politically sensitive remarks or do anything out of line, as long as he was the “obedient citizen” the government wanted him to be, his path would lead upward. Like the “self-serving elite,” as those who exploit China’s communist system to achieve their own goals are known, he would succeed. The coronavirus outbreak changed Tu Long. No longer does he want to belong to the “silent majority” of the prosperous. “I know this government acts like an asshole,” he said. “But I told myself not to care about it. You know, ‘Keep calm and carry on.’ ”  Tu Long agreed to be interviewed by the Voice of America, but he worries about his safety. Tu Long, which means dragon killer in Chinese, is a pseudonym. A boiling frog  Tu Long, 26, is different from other Generation Y Chinese who grew up behind the Great Firewall.  At age 11, he learned to “climb the wall,” or circumvent the internet censorship imposed by Beijing upon its citizens. He watched the “Frontline” 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre documentary, “The Gate of Heavenly Peace.” He went to Wikipedia to read the history of modern China that is banned by the government. He learned about an unfiltered China by reading reports from foreign media.  At age 15, he told his parents, “Mao Zedong is a butcher.”  “The Zhao family gets rich, we are just their fuels,” he said to his close friends. The “Zhao family” refers to Lu Xun’s novel, “The True Story of Ah Q” published a century ago. It’s used sarcastically by Chinese citizens to refer to dignitaries in China, such as the top bureaucrat, the rich, the cadres and their cossetted offspring. Tu Long’s parents warned him not to make such remarks outside the family. His friends urged him: study hard, make money, leave China as soon as you get a chance.  Tu Long had wanted to leave China ever since he was in elementary school. In middle school, in a bold move, he refused to join the Communist Youth League, because he didn’t want to “get aligned with their politics.”  But he came from an average family and his parents could not afford to send him abroad. At age 16, he realized that in order to survive in China, he had to make compromises. He needed to protect himself rather than throw eggs against rocks.  “OK, I don’t do those things you’re sensitive about,” he said, referring to the government’s social controls. “I’ll just follow your rules, alright?”  Tu Long’s dream was to become a journalist. He studied hard and was admitted to the top journalism school in China, where he soon realized his dream could not be achieved in China. “My school aimed to cultivate those who help control public opinions,” he recalled. “More than once, I heard my teachers bragging about how they managed to control public opinions.” After graduation, Tu Long found a well-paying job in the public relations department of a Beijing-based, Chinese-owned internet company. Income taxes were high and he could not afford to buy his own apartment in Beijing, but like a frog in ever-hotter water, as time went on, he felt that things weren’t that unbearable. He told himself, work a little harder, you will become one of the middle class.  He remained cautious, staying away from politics, only occasionally venting his dissatisfaction in a secretive way.On the WeChat social media app, for example, he would write: “A yellow bear is driving in reverse direction.” In the complex meme-driven language of China’s censored internet, a yellow bear refers to Winnie the Pooh, aka China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.It’s a metaphor for criticizing Xi for dragging the nation back to its Maoist past. Sometimes Tu Long would use Mao Zedong’s or Deng Xiaoping’s words ironically to criticize China’s 21st-century reality.  “We would deliberately say something while meaning the opposite,” he said. “We were called the yin-yang masters,” referring to the Taoist belief that the two complementary forces are present in all of life. Yin is passive and negative, of the earth and darkness while yang is active, positive, bright and of the sky.No longer silent The outbreak of the coronavirus changed everything. Tu Long said that if it weren’t for the fact that he knows how to “climb the wall” or that his overseas friends were telling him the truth, maybe he would have been cremated already.  Wuhan, the first of more than 200 Chinese cities that eventually restricted movement to some degree, was locked down January 23 by the government in an effort to contain the coronavirus. Tu Long used the time to think about what was happening, what he was seeing and how he was reacting.  “When they expelled the ‘low-end population’ [migrant workers] in Beijing, I said to myself, I worked very hard. I’m not part of the ‘low-end population,’ I would not be expelled. “When they built the concentration camps in Xinjiang [for the minority-Muslim Uighurs], I thought, I’m not an ethnic minority, I don’t have any religious beliefs, I would not be in trouble. “I sympathize with the suffering of Hong Kong people, but I thought I would not go on the street to protest [for democracy], so it has nothing to do with me,” he said. “This time it hit my hometown. Many people around me had already gotten sick, some had died, so I couldn’t stand it any longer,” he said. Citizen journalist Li Zehua made an impression on Tu Long.Li also belongs to China’s Generation Y. He graduated from the Communication University of China and landed a job at state-run China Central Television where he hosted a lifestyle program featuring farm products and cooking. He later quit to make his own videos. On February 6, Li arrived in Wuhan to report on the epidemic. As a citizen journalist, he visited local communities, funeral homes, train stations and an array of other places. Twenty days later, he was chased by guobao, or the state security police. His whereabouts remain unknown. After Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin, Li is the third citizen journalist to go missing while covering the Wuhan outbreak of COVID-19. Before his arrest, Li declared, “I don’t want to be dumb, I don’t want to shut my eyes. Why did I resign from CCTV? Because I hope more young people like me can stand up.” Those words inspired Tu Long who now says he refuses to remain silent any longer.  “This [outbreak] was covered up for more than a month,” he said, referring to the government’s actions. “Until today, not only did no [official] come out to apologize to the Wuhan people, they told us we should hate the United States, we should hate Japan, we should hate South Korea, we should hate Taiwan, and we should hate The Wall Street Journal. No one came out to take the responsibility. Our ‘great’ mayor Zhou Xianwang was even publicly praised by the central government a few days ago…so many people still haven’t been cured, but we’ve already made a funeral into a wedding party. It is absurd,” he said, using a saying critical of the perceived ability of the Chinese Communist Party to turn a disaster into an event for thankful celebration of its wise leadership.Testing humanity In addition to those in power, many ordinary Chinese disappointed Tu Long with their behaviors and remarks.For instance, one of his classmates tried to seek help online after his mother contracted the coronavirus and couldn’t find a hospital bed. Immediately the classmate was attacked by a group of “little pinky,” or fanatical Chinese nationalists, asking him to delete the message and labeling him a person “being controlled by foreign powers” for suggesting the nation could not care for all its people.These are the people who often tell Tu Long he is “being brainwashed by foreign media.”  “To be honest, what struck me the most is not the epidemic itself, but this test of humanity,” he said.  Tu Long said he has always told his friends overseas that they need to distinguish between the CCP, or Chinese Communist Party, and China and the Chinese people. Recently, however, he has been thinking, “No, actually those can’t be separated.”  “The majority of Chinese, myself included, are not innocent. We condone [the CCP leadership] to do evil, some even assisted them to do evil,” he said.  He added, “China is filled with an unusual optimistic atmosphere these days. I read [state media] reports saying the whole world owes China an apology. They even said without this coronavirus, we had no idea how great China is. “Wuhan is still sacrificing, still suffering, but these people jumped out to say, ‘Aiya, look how bad those foreigners are handling it. China handled it so much better!’ It’s horrible,” he said. Preparing to flee Tu Long has quit his job in Beijing. After the epidemic is over, he hopes to leave China. He said it’s not simply to study abroad or to emigrate, but rather, “I’m fleeing the country.”  A friend once said to him: If you want to live in China, you have to do either of these two things, and if you can do both, that’s the best: Number one, disregard your rationality. Number two, disregard your conscience.  Tu Long felt he could do neither.”As a survivor of the Wuhan epidemic, for the rest of my life, I have the obligation to speak for the dead.”
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Tensions between the U.S. and China may re-escalate after officials of both countries hurled verbal attacks at each other about the origin of the coronavirus, observers say.In his Thursday tweets, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), accused the U.S. of spreading the virus to the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak.The Chinese diplomat first posted a video clip in which Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told a congressional hearing Wednesday that some deaths from coronavirus have been discovered posthumously in the U.S.  Zhao then tweeted, “the U.S. CDC director was caught red-handed. When did patient zero emerge in the U.S.? How many people had he infected? What’s the name of the hospital?”An explanationFILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry new spokesman Zhao Lijian gestures as he speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Feb. 24, 2020.”It’s possible that the U.S. military brought the virus to Wuhan. The U.S. has to be transparent and make public its figures. The U.S. owes us an explanation,” he added.Zhao’s comments echoed a rumored conspiracy, widely circulated in China, that U.S. military personnel had brought the virus to China during their participation of the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan last October.That conspiracy theory followed suspicion raised by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton and others that the virus had originated from the Wuhan P4 lab, a high-security biochemical lab affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Cover-upFILE – National security adviser Robert O’Brien addresses media during a news conference in Berlin, Jan. 20, 2020.Zhao’s comments also came one day after U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien asserted an initial cover-up of the virus in China “cost the world community two months” and exacerbated the global outbreak.  In response to O’Brien’s claim, another MOFA spokesman, Geng Shuang, Thursday called it a “smear on the Chinese government and its people. It is immortal, irresponsible and of little help to the U.S.’s own fight against the outbreak.”  No scientists have determined the source of the virus.On Friday, the South China Morning Post newspaper cited China’s government records saying the first person suffering from the disease can be traced to November 17, although “patient zero” in China has yet to be confirmed. The government records cited by the newspaper could help scientists track the spread of the disease and perhaps determine its source, it added.Mixed reactionZhao’s comments drew a whirlwind of mixed reaction on Twitter.Some people, apparently from China, agreed with Zhao’s assessment, while others called him a “shame.””When will the U.S. stop escaping reality? This is outrageous,” Lin Shaojing wrote in response to Zhao’s tweet.Many more, however, disagreed.”A MOFA spokesman made such a conspiracy to confuse the public … Shame on you,” Heatherm Huang tweeted.”Why not look into the Wuhan P4 Lab? It’s possible that the lab leaked the virus to the downtown area. The lab needs to be transparent and make public its figures. The lab owes us an explanation,” he added.          Another Twitter user named Cheryl also questioned, “if it were the U.S. which spread the virus, why did you help cover it up, shift the blame to the bat and reprimand whistleblower doctors? Do you also wish the Chinese dead?”  The verbal attacks between officials of both governments will do nothing but harm U.S.-China relations, which are already bad, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.The professor said Zhao’s accusation is groundless and doesn’t make sense, although he said he doubted the U.S., caught up in its own fight against the virus, would respond.  Shifting blameZhao’s narratives likely suggest China is trying to shift the blame, since public resentment toward the leadership’s mishandling of the outbreak hasn’t subsided, he said.”So, one answer is to … certainly accusing the U.S. of being responsible of everything [so] as to call on the people to point to another threat and enemy for diversion of the people’s resentment,” Cabestan said.  Also, the Communist leadership is likely divided over how to ease public anger as state censors have recently eased their controls by having left some media reports critical of the government uncensored for a short period of time, according to the professor.  Those include a report about Ai Fen, director of Wuhan Central Hospital’s emergency department, who called herself the one giving out whistles as she is actually the first to sound the alarm by sharing a diagnostic report with colleagues including the deceased whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang.FILE – People attend a vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, in Hong Kong, Feb. 7, 2020. Li, who got in trouble with authorities for sounding an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak, died Feb. 7, 2020, after being infected.In the report, Ai spoke out against local authorities to detail how she was reprimanded and forced to shut up. But she regretted that she hadn’t been brave enough to speak up.    Meanwhile, Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, downplayed Zhao’s accusation, saying the U.S. government shouldn’t overreact to Zhao’s personal comments.”Up to date, the Chinese government hasn’t made any statements or, in any official occasions, accused the U.S. military of having had brought the disease to China. The Chinese government has never said so,” the professor said.”We’d rather believe that this gentleman made the comments in his personal capacity and through his personal Twitter account. His views thus are of no significance,” he added.Shi urged the U.S. government and its politicians not to be overly concerned, saying both countries should focus their efforts on fighting the disease and bolstering their own economies.   
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As he watches his troops firing rockets and artillery shells, one of the many things that marks North Korean leader Kim Jong Un out from the officers alongside him is his coronavirus mask: it isn’t there.Kim has overseen multiple military drills in recent weeks as Pyongyang mounts an all-out drive to prevent an outbreak of the disease that has swept around the world from neighboring China.Thousands have been quarantined and hundreds of foreigners, including diplomats, confined to their residences.State media constantly exhort citizens to obey health directives and publish images showing universal facemask use — except by the supreme leader.The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, mouthpiece of the ruling party, and official news agency KCNA have shown Kim supervising firing exercises from a trench, tent or shelter four times in the last two weeks.Every time he has had his face uncovered under a black fur hat, while all the officers next to him have worn black masks.The North carefully controls and calibrates imagery of Kim, and analysts said his uncovered features send an intended message.”He may want to show people that he is not afraid of the virus, that he is above infection,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, senior analyst with specialist site NK News.”It is consistent with the crux of North Korea’s leadership propaganda: that the Kim leadership is exceptional in every way.”There would be no sense he was contradicting the official virus guidance, she added: “North Koreans know that he is in an altogether different league.”Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, said an image of Kim wearing a mask could risk “undermining his charisma…  as if he is some sort of a coward, afraid of catching the virus for his own sake.”They aimed to project an image of Kim impervious to the coronavirus as the leader of the Paektu bloodline.”The “Paektu bloodline” is a term for the Kim family who have ruled the North for three generations.It references the sacred mountain seen as the spiritual birthplace of the Korean people, where the North’s founder Kim Il Sung is said to have fought Japanese occupiers during World War II.Kim was twice last year pictured riding a white horse up Mount Paektu in what was seen as a symbolic appropriation of his grandfather’s leadership image.The North often plays up physical and other similarities between the two men, and the fur hat Kim has been wearing in recent photos recalls old images of Kim Il Sung, including one reproduced on a stamp in 2013.”It looks like he is going for his grandpa’s fashion again,” said Lee.
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In recent tests, North Korea has been improving the firepower of its missiles that can target South Korea, making them ready to deploy on a battlefield, experts said.“North Korea has been enhancing its firepower, war-fighting capabilities over the past two years, flight-testing a number of new systems,” including the KN-25 missile and variants such as the KN-23 and KN-24, said Michael Elleman, director of the Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.Both systems “are capable of threatening targets in South Korea and are likely more accurate and lethal than the systems previously seen in North Korea,” he said.Compared with artillery positioned across the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone, Elleman said, the KN-25 missiles give Pyongyang the ability “to attack the South relentlessly in the opening hours or days of conflict.”North Korea’s launches on March 2 and March 9 included KN-25 missiles that the regime began testing on August 24.  FILE – A missile is fired during the test of a multiple rocket launcher in this undated photo released Aug. 25, 2019, by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency.North Korea tested similar missiles on July 31 and August 2, but they were smaller than the KN-25, Elleman said.New for North KoreaThe KN-25 is a long-range artillery rocket with a guidance system to control its flight path. Because it has a guidance system like a ballistic missile, the U.S. classifies the KN-25 as a missile. According to Elleman, the U.S. calls it “a close-range ballistic missile,” a type of short-range ballistic missile. North Korea described both launches earlier this month as “long-range artillery” drills.“The distinction between rockets and ballistic missiles is, really, kind of semantic at this point,” said Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  “We’re seeing more and more systems that don’t fit either category perfectly.”Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at California’s Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said, “The old distinction used to be between missiles, which were guided, and artillery rockets, which were not. “Most artillery rockets are now guided because electronics are so cheap,” he said.Adding guidance technology to a long-range artillery rocket is relatively new to North Korea, Elleman said.“The U.S. has been doing it for about 20 years,” he said.  “But it’s just been in the last five to 10 years that we’ve seen countries like North Korea and Iran adding guidance to what normally would be a large-diameter or long-range artillery rocket.”Although this technology may be new for Pyongyang, it is not a new strategic weapon. The country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, FILE – People watch a TV that shows a file picture of a North Korean missile for a news report on North Korea firing short-range ballistic missiles, in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2019.Testing for rapid firepowerIf classic FILE – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un uses binoculars while attending a drill by a unit of the Korean People’s Army, in this image released by the country’s Korean Central News Agency, Feb. 29, 2020.Wartime useElleman said firing the missiles in rapid succession suggests that the regime is testing them to be ready for wartime use.“That would suggest that they’re in the final phase of what they believe they need to do for full development,” Elleman said. “And these more recent launches were probably done under military exercises, and it was likely launched by actual troops as opposed to engineers that would be responsible for developing the system.”The tests were part of North Korea’s military drills during the regular winter training cycle.“They’re kind of firing them the way they would fire them during a wartime, during an operational scenario,” Elleman said. “These are war-fighting tools.”Xu Tianran, an analyst for the Open Nuclear Network program at One Earth Future, said, “This is especially important for North Korea as its armed forces cannot provide enough air cover for its assets on the ground.”Elleman said these missiles could load a warhead weighing from 300 to 400 kilograms.“So it’s a pretty big warhead. It can do quite a bit of damage,” Elleman said. “It will pretty much destroy almost any type of targets out to a distance of 20 meters” of its target.Because North Korea has not developed a technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead, these missiles cannot be used for nuclear weapons.“I have seen no evidence that they could make a nuclear payload that small,” Elleman said.Williams said the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would have hard time intercepting these missiles because they fly low and out of its coverage area. The Patriot long-range missile defense system could intercept an incoming KN-25, but there are  potential challenges.“The challenge is detecting [the KN-25], seeing it coming with enough time that you can respond, enough time that you can get a fix on it, plan your engagement, and fire your interceptor,” Williams said.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is being tested for the new coronavirus after meeting with Cabinet officials who were exposed to infected people and have now been self-quarantined, an official said Thursday.
    
Duterte has no symptoms of COVID-19 but wanted to make sure he is healthy and can continue to engage with the public, said Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, a former presidential aide who still accompanies Duterte to official functions.
    
“Considering that some Cabinet members we engage with regularly have been exposed to individuals who were tested positive for COVID-19 … it is just prudent for us to take precautionary measures in compliance with the advice of our health officials,” Go said.
    
Go, who was elected to the Senate last year, told reporters he and Duterte planned to be tested but did not elaborate.
    
At least six Cabinet members, including Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, have said they were exposed separately to COVID-19 patients and decided to self-quarantine. Several mayors and senators have also gone on home quarantine after coming into contact with patients.
    
Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said some finance officials who had been with Dominguez later held a news conference at a presidential palace briefing room. The press area was later disinfected, along with a media working area and presidential conference halls.
    
“Some members of the Malacanang press corps who covered the economic briefing also deemed it best to undergo self-quarantine,” Andanar said, referring to journalists covering presidential palace events.
    
Duterte’s elite presidential guards announced early this week that they will enforce a “no touch policy” for Duterte to protect him from the virus and screen politicians and dignitaries who get near him. But Duterte played down the restrictions and suggested that he was not intimidated by the disease.
    
“That protocol is foolish. I will shake hands,” Duterte said. “If God calls me now, I’ll go. I’m done. I’m the president now, the highest post anybody could reach.”
    
Duterte was to lead an inter-agency task force on the outbreak on Thursday and then announce possible new steps to fight the disease.
    
Health officials have confirmed 52 cases of the virus, and two people, a Chinese and a Filipino, have died.
    
The illness causes mild to moderate symptoms in most people but can be severe in the elderly and people with other health problems.
    
Duterte, 74, who took time off from work due to illness several times last year, postponed a trip to Boracay island on Thursday due to concerns over the virus, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said. He had planned to travel to the beach resort to promote domestic tourism amid a slump in arrivals of foreign tourists because of the pandemic.
    
Concerns over the outbreak have been complicated by fears that a water shortage in the Manila metropolis could worsen as the scorching summer season sets in.
   
 “How will we wash our hands if there’s no water?”  opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked.
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The death toll from the collapse of a coronavirus quarantine facility in east China rose to 29 Thursday as the final victim was recovered from the rubble, authorities said.Dozens of people were pulled alive from the wreckage of the six-story Xinjian hotel in the coastal city of Quanzhou, which collapsed Saturday night.More than 40 were injured in the accident, with 27 found dead in the rubble and two dying later from their injuries, according to state media.China’s emergency management ministry said the body of the final victim was recovered Thursday morning.The State Council has set up an investigation into the collapse, the ministry said.The building had been repurposed to house people who recently had contact with patients confirmed with COVID-19, the state-run People’s Daily newspaper reported.The hotel collapsed on Saturday night, with footage published by local media appearing to show the building’s facade crumbling to the ground in seconds, exposing the structure’s steel frame.A preliminary investigation found serious problems with its construction, the People’s Daily reported Wednesday, citing the deputy mayor of Quanzhou, Hong Ziqiang.The Associated Press reported that several people have been taken into custody as part of the investigation.
 
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The province at the center of China’s virus outbreak began allowing factories and some other businesses to reopen Wednesday in a show of confidence that Beijing is gaining control over the disease that devastated its economy.Chinese leaders are trying to revive business after the most sweeping anti-disease controls ever imposed shut down manufacturing, travel and other industries in late January, sending shock waves through the global economy.On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus emerged in December, in a sign China believes its crisis might be passing even as the United States and European governments tighten anti-disease controls.Manufacturers, food processors and other businesses in Wuhan that are essential to the national economy or providing daily necessities can resume operation, the Hubei provincial government announced. The city of 11 million people, about 700 kilometers (450 miles) west of Shanghai, is the manufacturing hub of central China.The changes are meant to “accelerate establishment of economic and social operation order, compatible with the epidemic prevention,” said a government statement. Companies that reopen are required to make “epidemic control” plans, inspect employees for signs of disease and keep workplaces disinfected.The statement said controls that have kept most people in Wuhan and surrounding cities in their homes for seven weeks will be eased to allow employees to go to work but movement will be tightly controlled.Companies in and around Wuhan that are reopening include makers of electric car batteries, pharmaceuticals, telecom components and Chinese-style liquor, according to news reports.Controls have been eased in other areas of China that are considered at low disease risk, but travel and other curbs still are in place. Factories are reopening, but automakers and other industries aren’t expected to return to normal production until at least mid-April due to disruption to supplies of components.A foreign ministry spokesman expressed confidence the impact on China’s economy is “temporary and limited.” He rejected suggestions companies should move operations out of the country or find foreign suppliers of components and raw materials to reduce the risk of future disruptions.“Factors and conditions that support the high-quality development of the Chinese economy have not changed,” said the spokesman, Geng Shuang.“With the recent progress China has made in domestic epidemic prevention and control, key industries including foreign-funded enterprises and leading enterprises have resumed work,” Geng said. “It is neither realistic nor wise to artificially cut off the global supply chain, nor even tout ‘transfer’ and ‘decoupling’ of the supply chain.”Also Wednesday, officials at a Cabinet meeting led by Premier Li Keqiang, China’s No. 2 leader, promised easier credit and other aid to help companies reopen, according to a statement read on the state TV evening news.The officials promised “relief policies will be equally enjoyed by domestic and foreign enterprises,” the statement said.More than 80,000 people in China have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. More than 61,000 have recovered.For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people who already have health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Most people recover in about two weeks, though those with more severe illness may take up to six weeks to recover.Most access to Wuhan was suspended on Jan. 23 in a dramatic effort to contain the outbreak. Residents were ordered to stay in their homes.Restrictions spread to cities with a total of 60 million people. The Lunar New Year holiday was extended to keep factories and offices closed. The government canceled group tours and closed shopping malls, restaurants and cinemas nationwide.That jolted global auto, smartphone and other brands that look to China as a manufacturing center and a major market.In high-risk areas of Hubei outside Wuhan, businesses that supply food and daily necessities, freight handling and some other services will be allowed to resume, the statement said. It did not say when restrictions on other industries might end.Even in low-risk areas, businesses such as cinemas, hair salons and karaoke bars “will not resume until the epidemic situation is resolved,” the statement said.In high-risk areas including Wuhan, people who are free of infection may use “point to point” transportation provided by the government or employers, the provincial government statement said.Public buses and subways will resume operating in low and medium-risk areas but Wuhan’s transit system will remain shut down, it said.Wuhan and nearby areas of Hubei are home to factories for global automakers and suppliers of components for electronics, smartphones and other industries. The province accounts for about 6% of China’s auto production.Groupe Renault, one of a number of global auto brands that operate factories in Wuhan with Chinese partners, said it tentatively plans to restart production on March 20 but is awaiting a final government decision.
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