A Cambodian court has charged seven top opposition politicians with plotting armed rebellion for planning to return from self-imposed exile to seek a government change through mass peaceful protests.The Phnom Penh Municipal Court also warned that anyone who supported the plans of the Cambodia National Rescue Party to oust the government would also be risking a long prison term.The court’s announcement is the latest salvo in a political battle that has heated up after opposition leader Sam Rainsy announced plans to return from more than three years of exile on Nov. 9 to seek a “restoration of democracy.”The opposition party was dissolved by the courts ahead of last year’s general election, ensuring that an increasingly authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen continued his four decades in power.
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Indonesia is seeing its largest protests in two decades, amid a wave of public anger at a proposed overhaul of the country’s criminal code and a controversial move to weaken an anti-corruption body.Tens of thousands have protested this month nationwide, including in the capital, Jakarta, where police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse student protesters outside the parliament building Tuesday.Many are upset at a proposal that would outlaw or strengthen existing restrictions on abortion, sex outside marriage, blasphemy, and insulting the president or other symbols of government.Others are angry at the passage of recent legislation that threatens to diminish the independence of, and strips key powers from the country’s respected Corruption Eradication Commission.Separately, at least 30 people were killed this week during an outbreak of anti-government protests in the eastern region of Papua, where there has long been a low-level insurgency.Students occupy the parliament building in Padang, West Sumatera, Indonesia, Sept. 25, 2019. Clashes between protesters and police occurred in several cities as students protested a new law that critics say cripples an anti-corruption agency.Challenge for the presidentThe developments amount to a major challenge for President Joko Widodo, who is set to begin his second five-year term in October after easily winning re-election in April.“It’s very serious,” says Devi Asmarani, Jakarta-based founder and editor of The Magdalene, an online feminist magazine.Widodo has long wanted to revise Indonesia’s criminal code, which was set up by the country’s former Dutch colonial rulers. His past attempts to do so have failed.“The whole purpose was to make the criminal code more Indonesian, because it was a legacy of the Dutch colonial era,” Asmarani says. “But instead we came up with something that criminalizes everything.”Most international headlines have focused on aspects of the bill that would outlaw sex outside marriage, and how that may impact popular international tourist destinations, such as Bali.But the proposal, which contains more than 600 articles, could impact a large section of Indonesian society.Plainclothes police officers arrest a student protester during a rally in Makassar, South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, Sept. 26, 2019. Students rallied across the country against a new law that critics say cripples the anti-corruption agency.Women, gender minoritiesHuman Rights Watch called the draft criminal code “disastrous not only for women and religious and gender minorities, but for all Indonesians.”It is likely to disproportionately affect women and criminalize same-sex conduct, something Indonesia has never done, said the rights group’s Indonesia researcher, Andreas Harsono.Under the proposal, couples who have premarital sex could receive up to a year in prison. Unmarried couples who live together face up to six months in jail. Abortions would be outlawed in most circumstances.Lawmakers this week delayed the proposal after Widodo bowed to public pressure, saying more input was needed. But some fear the bill could be passed by the next session of parliament.FILE – Student protesters throw stones to riot police as a toll gate burns during a protest outside the parliament in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 24, 2019.Bill pauses, protests continueProtests have continued even after the bill was paused. In Jakarta this week, hundreds of protesters and dozens of police officers were injured when protesters tried to break into the parliament building, officials said.The protests are the largest Indonesia has seen since 1998 when mass demonstrations led to the resignation of Suharto, the military leader who had ruled the country for three decades.Some protesters now accuse the government of risking a return to Suharto’s oppressive “New Order.”The protester demands have recently widened to include an end to what they call “militarism” in Papua, the stoppage of man-made forest fires that have spread a toxic haze throughout Southeast Asia, the release of political prisoners, and other wider democratic reforms.FILE – Former Indonesian dictator Suharto sits in his home in Jakarta, Oct. 24. 2006.Reforms in jeopardySince Suharto’s downfall, Indonesia has undertaken a series of reforms. Observers say those reforms are now threatened by a combination of political polarization and the influence of and response to political Islam.“There is no question Indonesian politics have moved in a more illiberal direction in recent years,” says Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Singapore.“That is partly down to the cynical use of Islamist movements by opposition politicians to stir discontent with (Widodo),” he says. “But it is also because of actions that Jokowi himself and his appointees have taken to suppress dissent,” he said, using a nickname for the president.Widodo is seen by some as being aligned with the political elites from the Suharto era. His attempt to revise the criminal code has also received support from some conservative Muslim groups.It is those dual forces — the old, established bases of power combined with the long-simmering forces of political Islam — that pose a major threat, Asmarani says.“And I think these two forces are even more powerful when they’re married,” as with the current effort to revise the criminal code, she says.
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The announcement this week that U.S. President Donald Trump will face an impeachment inquiry led by House Democrats will greatly complicate Trump’s efforts to rewrite global trade agreements, experts say, as both his foreign counterparts and domestic political allies assess his chances of political survival.“This is a giant cloud over the administration’s ability both to conduct foreign affairs and to get legislation passed,” said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.An impeachment proceeding will likely dominate the attention of lawmakers in Washington, experts say, making it difficult to see how the administration’s trade initiatives that require congressional approval will get passed.It will also set foreign governments — most notably China, which has another round of trade talks with the U.S. scheduled for next month — scrambling to assess the president’s chances of finishing out his current term, much less winning reelection in 2020.FILE – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and other U.S. officials meet with China’s Vice Premier Liu He and other Chinese officials in Washington, Feb. 21, 2019.How the situation will ultimately resolve itself remains so unclear that most experts contacted by VOA were unwilling to speculate.Lester Ross, the partner-in-charge of the WilmerHale law firm’s offices in Beijing, said only, “Political vulnerability of the leader of any government is likely to weaken such leader and country’s diplomatic and negotiating leverage.”Another trade attorney, asked what he thought the impact of an impeachment inquiry would be on the president’s multiple ongoing trade initiatives, responded by emailing a Trump pushes trade agendaThe uproar didn’t stop Trump from trying to make progress on his trade agenda. On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed an agreement that would lower Japanese agricultural tariffs and U.S. industrial tariffs, and establish new rules for digital trade between the two countries.Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump pose with a joint statement the two leaders made during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 25, 2019.Speaking to reporters, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer characterized the agreement as “hugely important, particularly for American agriculture and for digital farmers,” and said it vindicates the president’s approach of negotiating trade deals bilaterally, rather than joining multi-nation pacts.The limited nature of the agreement, which was negotiated as a precursor to a larger deal, meant that it could take place without the approval of Congress. However, the impeachment proceeding makes the prospect of a larger deal, which would require lawmakers’ assent, less likely.The looming impeachment inquiry might mean that the deal Trump inked with Abe is his last trade success for the foreseeable future.His attempt to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took the form of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, has been hung up in the House of Representatives for months.Lighthizer said failure to pass the bill would be a “catastrophe” for the U.S. economy, and expressed confidence that it would be enacted.“On the merits, this is demonstrably good for the people of the United States. And I think, for that reason, it will pass,” he said. “I believe in the system, and I think we’re going to have a bilateral win. And I think it’s going to be good for the economy, for the American people, for Republicans, but also good for the Democrats.”But its approval by Congress, already FILE – Magazines featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump on the trade war are on sale at a roadside bookstand in Hong Kong, July 4, 2019.In a speech to the U.N. on Tuesday, Trump did not moderate his position, describing Chinese trade practices in harsh language. He said that since being admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2001, “Not only has China declined to adopt promised reforms, it has embraced an economic model dependent on massive market barriers, heavy state subsidies, currency manipulation, product dumping, forced technology transfers, and the theft of intellectual property and also trade secrets on a grand scale.”Trump’s strategy in imposing an escalating series of tariffs has been to force China to the negotiating table in a weakened position, hoping to wring concessions from Beijing. But the specter of impeachment, experts said, will force Chinese leaders to reassess both Trump’s ability to follow through on future threats and the viability of any deals struck with a leader who may not be in office much longer.With Republicans in control of the Senate, the prospects of Trump actually being ousted in an impeachment trial are highly unlikely. Yet there is no way of knowing how an impeachment proceeding will impact the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.“Their question will be, ‘If we do a deal with Trump, will the new administration led by a Democrat — if a Democrat is elected — then just want to come back to the table with more demands?’” Hufbauer said. “And if that’s going to be the prospect, why not just hold off the big concessions until 2021?”Lighthizer, while expressing optimism Wednesday about upcoming talks with China, seemed to concede that continuation of the status quo is both a possibility and an outcome that the administration wouldn’t regret.“My instructions are, ‘If you can get a great deal for the American people, do it. If you can’t, we have a perfectly adequate situation,’” he said.FILE – China Shipping Company containers are stacked at the Virginia International’s terminal in Portsmouth, Virginia, May 10, 2019.Hufbauer, who recently traveled to China and will be returning there next month, said that he believes Chinese officials were already “resigned” to the idea that there would be no settlement of the trade fight in the near term.
“I think their goal is to keep it from getting worse,” he said.Trump’s moves on trade have been unpredictable in the past, and it’s far from clear whether he will see more benefit in further disrupting trade relations with China or in easing them.Hufbauer said he sees at least the possibility that circumstances will lead both Trump and China to see benefit in some sort of de-escalation.“Some gestures in October are certainly possible, but they would be modest gestures,” he said. “I would not rule out that he, in this October meeting, pulls out some olive branches, and that the Chinese pull out some olive branches.” 
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Scores of protesters chanted slogans outside a stadium in Hong Kong where embattled city leader Carrie Lam held a town hall session on Thursday aimed at cooling down months of demonstrations for greater democracy in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.The community dialogue with 150 participants, selected randomly from over 20,000 applicants, was the first since massive protests began in June sparked by an extradition bill that the government has now promised to withdraw.Protesters have refused to stop demonstrating until other demands including direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability are met.Riot police carried equipment including shields, pepper spray and tear gas canisters into Queen Elizabeth Stadium in the Wan Chai area. Authorities also set up X-ray machines and metal detectors to ensure participants did not bring banned items inside such as umbrellas, helmets and gas masks — gear used by protesters.Protesters gather outside Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong, Sept. 26, 2019, chanting slogans outside the venue as embattled leader Carrie Lam began a town hall session aimed at cooling down months of pro-democracy demonstrations.The security measures came as hundreds of students and others formed human chains at roads near the stadium, chanting slogans expressing their demands. Some protesters later marched outside the stadium and continued chanting slogans as the dialogue began.In her opening remarks, Lam expressed hope that the two-hour dialogue would help bring change for a better Hong Kong. The session, broadcast live, was the first in a series of dialogues toward reconciliation, she said.Critics called the dialogue a political show to appease protesters before major rallies planned this weekend ahead of China’s National Day celebrations on Oct. 1.“This is not just a PR show but aimed to bring change” so Hong Kong can be a better country, Lam said. She said the dialogue was to identify deep-seated economic and social problems that contributed to the protests, now entering a fourth month.The protests have turned increasingly violent in recent weeks as demonstrators lobbed gasoline bombs at government buildings, vandalized public facilities and set street fires, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannons. More than 1,500 people, including children as young as 12, have been detained.The extradition bill, which would have allowed some criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial, is viewed by many as an example of growing Chinese interference in the city’s autonomy under the “one country, two systems” framework introduced when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, center on the stage, attends a community dialogue at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong, Sept. 26, 2019.Many protesters say the dialogue is meaningless if the government refuses to accept their remaining demands.“To Hong Kong people, it’s a joke,” said Bonnie Leung of the Civil Human Rights Front, which has organized several massive rallies. “If she really wants to communicate with Hong Kong people, all she has to do is to open her door, we are right outside.”The Front has received police approval for a rally on Saturday and has applied for another major march on Oct. 1. Police banned the last two rallies planned by the group, but protesters turned up anyway and the peaceful gatherings later degenerated into chaos.China has accused the U.S. and other foreign powers of being behind the riots.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang warned on Thursday warned the U.S. Congress to halt work on a bill that proposes economic sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials found to have suppressed democracy in Hong Kong.The foreign affairs committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the Hong Kong Human Rights Acts on Wednesday, setting the stage for votes in both chambers.Geng said at a daily briefing in Beijing that the move was an endorsement of Hong Kong’s radical forces, and accused Washington of seeking to “mess up Hong Kong and contain China’s development.”“We will forcefully fight back against any U.S. attempt to harm China’s interests,” he said. 
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It’s been a bad year for dengue fever, a painful, debilitating virus that is surging in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam and other nations.  There is no cure for dengue, which is spread by mosquitos. However, scientists are enlisting a bacteria in the fight against dengue because they think will make it harder for mosquitos to spread the often deadly dengue virus. VOA’s Jim Randle has our story.
 
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The Marshall Islands confirmed it was maintaining diplomatic ties with Taiwan on Wednesday, a welcome show of support for President Tsai Ing-wen who has seen two other Pacific nations drop ties in favor of China in a matter of weeks.The neighboring Solomon Islands and Kiribati decided to recognize China earlier this month, dropping self-ruled and democratic Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own province with no rights to state-to-state relations.The small developing nations lie in strategic waters that have been dominated by the United States and its allies since World War II, and China’s moves to expand its influence in the Pacific have angered Washington.’Profound appreciation’In a statement, the Marshall Islands said it had adopted a resolution to show its “profound appreciation to the people and government of Taiwan.””We’ve all seen China’s attempts to expand its territory and footprint, and this should be of great concern to democratic countries,” President Hilda Heine said.The Foreign Ministry in Taiwan, which has denounced China for luring its allies with promises of easy loans, expressed “deep thanks” for the message of support and pledged to further deepen cooperation with the Marshall Islands.In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said cooperation was warmly welcomed and had brought the Pacific island nations real benefits.”Anyone who understands the situation and is not prejudiced can see this very clearly,” he told a daily news briefing, when asked about Heine’s criticism of China’s role.Ties to 15 countriesSelf-ruled Taiwan now has formal relations with only 15 countries, many of them small, less developed nations in Central America and the Pacific, including Belize and Nauru.Seven countries have dropped Taiwan as a diplomatic ally since 2016, when Tsai took office. So the show of support from the Marshall Islands will provide some relief for her ahead of presidential elections in January.Last week parliament in the tiny South Pacific country of Tuvalu elected a new prime minister, making a change that analysts say could give China a chance to further undermine Taiwan in a region that has been a pillar of support.Having retained his seat at a general election earlier this month, Tuvalu’s pro-Taiwan leader Enele Sopoaga had been expected to keep the premiership, but the 16-person parliament instead selected Kausea Natano.Taiwan’s embassy in Tuvalu said that its ambassador there, Marc Su, met Natano and Foreign Minister Simon Kofe on Tuesday, having met with all members of the new Cabinet late last week.It did not provide details of their conversations.
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China urged President Donald Trump on Wednesday to listen to developing countries and oppose bullying after the American leader criticized its trade status at the United Nations.A foreign ministry spokesman called on Trump to “meet China halfway” in settling trade disputes.
 
The two governments are locked in an escalating tariff war over complaints about Beijing’s trade surplus and technology ambitions. It threatens to tip the global economy into recession.Trump complained Tuesday that the World Trade Organization improperly gives China preferential treatment. He was referring to complaints China, the No. 2 global economy and biggest trader, is abusing the leeway given to developing countries to subsidize exports or delay opening markets.The United States should “listen to developing countries’ calls for rapid development, opposition to bullying and suppression and aspirations for peace and stability,” said the Chinese spokesman, Geng Shuang.China has insisted it has the right to pursue development in response to complaints by Washington and other trading partners that its industry plans violate Beijing’s market-opening commitments and are based on stealing or pressuring companies to hand over technology.U.S. and Chinese negotiators are due to meet in October for a 13th round of talks aimed at ending the trade war. There has been no sign of progress since talks deadlocked in May. “The United States should see China’s development with an open, inclusive and win-win attitude and meet China halfway to control differences on the basis of mutual respect,” Geng said.
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The United States led more than 30 countries on Tuesday in condemning what it called China’s “horrific campaign of repression” against Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang at an event on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly that was denounced by China.In highlighting abuses against ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in China, Assistant Secretary of State John Sullivan said the United Nations and its member states had “a singular responsibility to speak up when survivor after survivor recounts the horrors of state repression.”Sullivan said it was incumbent on U.N. member states to ensure the world body was able to closely monitor human rights abuses by China and added that it must seek “immediate, unhindered, and unmonitored” access to Xinjiang for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR).Sullivan said Tuesday’s event was co-sponsored by Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, and was joined by more than 30 U.N. states, representatives of the European Union and more than 20 nongovernmental organizations, as well as Uighur victims.”We invite others to join the international effort to demand and compel an immediate end to China’s horrific campaign of repression,” he said. “History will judge the international community for how we respond to this attack on human rights and fundamental freedoms.”Paola Pampaloni, deputy managing director for Asia of the European External Action Service, said the EU was “alarmed” by the situation and also urged “meaningful” access to Xinjiang.”We are concerned about … information about mistreatment and torture,” she said. “China is always inviting us to the camps under their conditions, we are in negotiations right now for terms and conditions for free access.”Tuesday’s event focusing on Xinjiang came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump called for an end to religious persecution at another gathering on the sidelines of the gathering of world leaders, comments he reiterated in his speech to the assembly on Tuesday.Trump, who has been cautious about upsetting China on human rights issues while making a major trade deal with Beijing an overarching priority, did not mention the Uighur situation specifically, but said religious freedom was under growing threat around the world.”Americans will never .. tire in our effort to promote freedom of worship and religion. We want and support religious liberty for all.” he told the assembly on Tuesday.A spokesperson for the Chinese delegation to the high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly accused Washington of violating the U.N. Charter by criticizing China at Monday’s religious freedom meeting and Tuesday’s event.FILE – A Chinese police officer takes his position by the road near what is officially called a vocational education center in Yining in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, Sept. 4, 2018.The United Nations says at least 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in what China describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills.Sullivan said the United States had received “credible reports of deaths, forced labor, torture, and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment” in the camps.He said there were also many reports that the Chinese government forces detainees to renounce their ethnic identities as well as their culture and religion.Though U.S. officials have ramped up criticism of China’s measures in Xinjiang, it has refrained from responding with sanctions over the issue, amid on-again, off-again talks to resolve a bitter, costly trade war.At the same time, it has criticized other countries, including some Muslim states, for not doing enough or for backing China’s approach in Xinjiang.Rishat Abbas, the brother of Uighur physician Gulshan Abbas, who was abducted from her home in Urumchi in September 2018, told Tuesday’s event that “millions of Uighurs are becoming collateral damage to international trade policies, enabling China to continue to threaten our freedoms around the world, enable it to continue its police state.” U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has repeatedly pushed China to grant the United Nations access to investigate reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in Xinjiang.China’s envoy in Geneva said in June that he hoped Bachelet would visit China, including Xinjiang. Bachelet’s office said in June that it was discussing “full access” with China.
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Rights groups and IT industry advocates are calling on Thai lawmakers to amend a new Cybersecurity Act that they say gives the government virtually unchecked power to monitor online data.The law sailed through an appointed Parliament unopposed in February, in the final months of the military junta that seized power from an elected government in 2014. It took effect in May, after a tainted general election in March that returned coup leaders to power.Despite the return of civilian rule, dissidents hiding abroad have continued to disappear or be forced back to Thailand, opposition lawmakers have come under sustained legal pressure, and the government’s most vocal critics have suffered a spate of violent, unsolved attacks by armed gangs.”When we saw the Cybersecurity Act, we (were) like, ‘OK, it’s another tool that the government is going to misuse to silence human rights defenders, to silence human rights activists,'” said Emilie Pradichit, director of Manushya, a local rights group.The new law breaks cyber threats into three categories based on their level of risk or severity: non-critical, critical and crisis. It gives the government the authority to act on crisis threats without a court order and denies anyone targeted by the law in the cases of a crisis or critical threat the right to any appeal.FILE – A blocked website shows a notice from Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society with the message, “This website contains content and information that is deemed inappropriate,” Nov. 17, 2016, in Bangkok, Thailand.Critics also complain that the act offers vague definitions for each threat level or what counts as “national security,” leaving it open to abuse.In April, Manushya took the lead in bringing together rights groups, industry advocates and cyber experts to draw up a list of proposed amendments that might help check the government’s worst tendencies and safeguard online privacy. Among those who joined was the Asia Internet Coalition, which represents Google, Facebook and other industry leaders.Their report, released Monday in Bangkok, recommends dozens of changes. They include making a court order mandatory even in crisis cases, giving all targets the right to appeal, and setting up an independent and diverse oversight body to monitor the government’s work. The recommended changes would also force the government to provide evidence of a threat before it could act.”Without clear definitions and without monitoring and oversight of what the government is doing, they could seize any computer and could consider any threat as a crisis-level threat,” Pradichit said at a news conference.Bhume Bhumiratana, who advised the government in drafting the act, praised officials for making it one of the first laws in Thailand to attempt a separation of powers.The act sets up three committees to enforce the law, each with a different role. Bhume conceded that the upshot would be compromised by the fact that the committees will share some members, “but at least it’s a good concept,” he said.He also called the act a “blunt tool” that needed “sharpening,” but was still “liveable.”Arthit Suriyawongkul, co-founder of the Thai Netizens Network, disagreed.FILE – A Thai Buddhist monk talks on a mobile phone during a visit to Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Thailand, Sept. 17, 2019.He said the overlap between the committees made the promise of a separation of powers “practically impossible,” and that the exemption of the Cybersecurity Act from the purview of another new law, the Personal Data Privacy Act, only added to the risk of abuse.”In the end, the safeguard that we believed that’s going to be in place is actually not there anymore,” he said. “I think … we actually have a very, very legitimate reason to worry.”Thailand is the latest country in the region to introduce new laws to combat the growing threat from cyberattacks, many of them similarly rebuked for going too far, including Bangladesh and Vietnam.Kees Rade, the Netherlands’ ambassador to Thailand, who hosted the April meeting on Thailand’s Cybersecurity Act, said states had every right and reason to arm themselves against those threats.”What should always come first is the privacy of citizens, and also the political possibility for citizens to express their opinions,” he said.”And unfortunately, especially in this part of the world, we’ve seen recently that some states are really using all these instruments we have in terms of monitoring the internet to basically do exactly just that, which is limit the freedom of their citizens to express themselves.”Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia policy director for Access Now, a U.S.-based digital rights group, said cybersecurity laws worldwide could stand for improvement but that the best of them had at least one thing in common.FILE – People play online games at the Thailand Game Show 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 26, 2018.”The countries that have good national cybersecurity laws are ones where there is honest trust between government, law enforcement, civil society, including human rights activists — passing the most extreme human rights activists — and media,” he said. “And countries where that doesn’t happen, there’s a problem that needs to be addressed.”Thailand would seem to be among the latter.Pradichit told VOA that government officials were invited to April’s meeting, but none showed up. Having repeatedly failed to engage the government on the issue, she said those pushing to amend the Cybersecurity Act would work through opposition parties in Parliament.A lawmaker for the opposition Future Forward Party at Monday’s news conference said the party hoped to introduce bills amending the act and other laws when Parliament convenes in November.Getting the bills through could prove tough. The opposition parties hold just under half the seats in the House of Representatives. Any legislation that makes it out must also pass the Senate, which was wholly appointed by the military junta before it stepped down.Government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat could not be reached for this story. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, which is taking the lead on the Cybersecurity Act, did not reply to a request for comment. Calls to the head office went unanswered.  
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China called on Washington on Tuesday to cancel a planned meeting at the United Nations to discuss accusations of repression and mass detentions in its Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.The foreign ministry accused the Trump administration of slandering China and interfering in its affairs.
 
A deputy U.S. secretary of state, John Sullivan, is scheduled to lead a panel discussion on the “human rights crisis in Xinjiang” during this week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting.The United States, human rights groups and independent analysts say about 1 million of the 12 million members of Muslim ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang have been detained in internment camps. The Communist Beijing government says those are vocational training centers.
 
“We urge the United States to cancel the relevant meeting, stop making irresponsible remarks on the Xinjiang issue and stop interfering in the internal affairs of China in the name of human rights,” a foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said at a daily news briefing.On Monday, President Donald Trump said at a meeting on religious freedom held during the U.N. session that it was an “urgent moral duty” for world leaders to stop crimes against faith.On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Beijing of trying to erase Muslim cultures. He called on Central Asian governments to reject Chinese demands to send home ethnic minorities who might face repression.Pompeo made the comments in a meeting with the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.“The United States has repeatedly smeared and slandered China’s policy toward Xinjiang and interfered in China’s internal affairs under the guise of religion and human rights,” Geng said. “Now it made an even bigger mistake by holding the so-called discussion on the Xinjiang issue during the U.N. General Assembly.”The Xinjiang panel will feature “deeply personal stories of victims of China’s brutal campaign of repression” against Uighurs, Kyrgyz and other Muslim minorities, said a State Department announcement of the event.It said Sullivan “welcomes global partners in joining the call for China to end the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of the people of Xinjiang.”Geng defended Chinese policies as necessary to combat terrorism.
 
Beijing has blamed scattered incidents of violence in Xinjiang on a radical Muslim movement it says wants independence for the territory, though foreign governments and researchers say they see little evidence to support that.”The U.S. side has turned a blind eye to China’s efforts and achievements in combating terrorism and extremism,” Geng said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump “listened with interest” about New Zealand’s gun reforms introduced after the mass shooting in Christchurch, the Pacific country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday.New Zealand’s moves on gun control have won global praise, especially in the United States, where lawmakers favoring gun control and activists have struggled to address firearms violence despite back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio last month.Ardern, 39, met Trump, 73, at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in what was the first formal meeting between the two leaders.In this image made from video, people bring their guns to exchange for money in Christchurch, New Zealand, July 13, 2019.Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ardern said New Zealand’s gun buy-back and the process it had gone through was a big part of the 25-minute meeting, along with trade, tourism and what happened in Christchurch.”It was a conversation around our (gun) buy-back and the work we had done to remove military-style, semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles,” Ardern said in videos posted by media members traveling with the prime minister.”I sensed an interest,” Ardern said. “Obviously, we were able to move very quickly and with consensus and that stood out to the world. The fact that we had that political consensus among members of parliament. … I think that sparked interest amongst others.”New Zealand had near-unanimous support in parliament when it passed a law banning military-style semi-automatics in a first round of reforms within weeks of the mass shooting in Christchurch by a suspected white supremacist, in which 51 Muslim worshippers were slain.FILE – People visit a memorial site for victims of Friday’s shooting, in front of the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 18, 2019.The country launched a gun amnesty scheme. It also plans a second set of reforms, to be debated in its parliament on Tuesday.In the United States, Trump has discussed potential gun control legislation with lawmakers after a series of mass shootings in August that killed more than 30 people. Trump has said many areas were under discussion, including background checks.Ardern said she would not want to predetermine what their discussions means for the United States and the laws there, just noting that Trump “listened with interest.”The meeting between the two leaders was keenly watched, as Ardern is often contrasted with Trump for her views on issues including women’s rights, climate change and diversity.However, news media organizations were not invited to the meeting.Ardern has publicly rejected Trump’s view on the threat of white nationalism, and recently said she “completely and utterly disagreed” with his comments telling four minority U.S. congresswomen – three of whom were born in the United States – to go back to where they came from.Ardern also gave a keynote speech at the U.N. secretary-general’s Climate Action Summit. 
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At least 20 people were killed and dozens more injured as fresh unrest erupted in Indonesia’s restive Papua region Monday, with some victims burned to death in buildings set ablaze by protesters, authorities said.Papua, on the western half of New Guinea island, has been gripped by weeks of violent protests fueled by anger over racism, as well as fresh calls for self-rule in the impoverished territory.Sixteen people were killed in Wamena city where hundreds demonstrated and burned down a government office and other buildings, authorities said.”Most of them died in a fire,” said Papua military spokesman Eko Daryanto.”The death toll could go up because many were trapped in burning kiosks,” he added.Among the victims, 13 were non-Papuans and three were Papuans, Daryanto said, adding that a soldier and three civilians also died in provincial capital Jayapura, where security forces and stone-throwing protesters clashed Monday.The soldier was stabbed to death, while three students died from rubber bullet wounds, authorities said, without elaborating.About 300 people were arrested in connection with Monday’s protests, Daryanto said, adding that about 65 people had been injured.The clashes in Papua had quietened down in recent days, but flared up again as hundreds took to the streets — and houses and stores went up in flames.Monday’s protests in Wamena — mostly involving high-schoolers — were reportedly sparked by racist comments made by a teacher, but police have disputed that account as a “hoax”.Indonesia routinely blames separatists for violence in Papua, its easternmost territory, and conflicting accounts are common.Demonstrations broke out across the region and in other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago after the mid-August arrest and tear-gassing of dozens of Papuan students, who were also racially abused, in Indonesia’s second-biggest city, Surabaya.InsurgencyA low-level separatist insurgency has simmered for decades in Papua, a former Dutch colony, after Jakarta took over the mineral-rich region in the 1960s. A vote to stay within the archipelago was widely viewed as rigged.Earlier Monday, authorities said the situation had been brought under control in Wamena, while an AFP reporter there said Internet service had been cut.”Security forces have also taken steps to prevent the riots from spreading,” said National Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo.The airport in Wamena was shut Monday with some 20 flights cancelled due to the unrest, local media reported, citing an airport official.Indonesia has sent thousands of security personnel to Papua to quell the recent unrest, and dozens were arrested for instigating the earlier riots.At least five demonstrators and a soldier were killed, but activists say the civilian death toll is higher.Last week the military said a toddler and teenager were among three people killed in a gunfight between security forces and independence-seeking rebels. 
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