Taiwan is looking to Southeast Asia as a pipeline to fill its shortage of high-tech talent. The numbers of foreign students coming to the island has been growing, especially from Vietnam and Indonesia. VOA Mandarin’s Peh Hong Lim reports from Hsinchu, Taiwan. Adrianna Zhang contributed.
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Category: East
East news. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise. The practice of praying towards the East is older than Christianity, but has been adopted by this religion as the Orient was thought of as containing mankind’s original home
Amid China tensions, India delivers supersonic cruise missiles to Philippines
New Delhi — India has begun delivery of supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines as the two countries tighten defense and strategic ties amid rising tensions between the East Asian nation and China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea.
The BrahMos missiles are being acquired by the Philippines under a $ 375 million deal signed in 2022.
“Now we are also exporting BrahMos missiles. The first batch of this missile is going to the Philippines today,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday at an election rally.
India and Philippines have ramped up defense cooperation as concerns over an increasingly assertive China deepen in both countries.
Tensions between the Philippines and China have escalated over the past year as Beijing, citing historical rights, presses its claims to areas inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone. Efforts to resolve New Delhi’s four-year long military standoff with Beijing along its disputed Himalayan border have made little headway.
In New Delhi, analysts say India wants to be part of a larger pushback against China in the South China Sea as concerns rise over Beijing’s territorial ambitions.
“BrahMos missile delivery to the Philippines is in itself not a game changer. But the idea is that we are part of a broader coalition of countries including the U.S. trying to build up the muscle and shore up the security of smaller countries like the Philippines. It is what we call lattice work strategy,” according to Sreeram Chaulia, dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs.
Tensions between Philippines and Beijing have ratcheted up following recent confrontations between the coastguards and other vessels of the two countries.
China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, deploys coastguard vessels to patrol what it deems are its waters – besides Philippines, Beijing also has maritime disputes with countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The missiles being supplied by India are produced under a joint venture with Russia. They are a shore-based, anti-ship system with a range of 290 kilometers. Under the deal, India will supply three versions of the missile system, according to domestic media reports in New Delhi.
Philippine National Security Council assistant director general, Jonathan Malaya, told reporters in Manila that the missiles will be deployed by the Philippine Marines.
“This adds an important and practical layer of deterrence for the Philippines amidst its limited military resources vis-a-vis China,” Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at the Department of International Studies, De La Salle University, Manila told VOA in emailed comments. He said the missiles will “bolster its coastal defence to more effectively exercise its sovereignty and sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea at a time when China has been relentlessly pursuing its expansionist ambitions against international law.”
Analysts say building defense cooperation with the Philippines also signals that New Delhi is now moving beyond the Indian Ocean to contribute to maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
During a visit to Manila last month, Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reiterated “India’s support to the Philippines for upholding its national sovereignty.”
Asserting that both countries have a “very deep interest” in ensuring a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific Ocean, his Philippine counterpart, Enrique Manalo, said that “it’s in this region and it is in this context that we are having extensive discussions regularly on defense cooperation, security cooperation.”
An Indian coast guard ship visited the Philippines during the Indian minister’s visit. The two countries are also expected to hold more joint naval drills.
“India is also a close security partner of Manila’s key strategic partners, such as the U.S, Japan, and Australia. This makes it even more practical for the Philippines to strengthen ties with India,” pointed out Don McLain Gill.
India had for many years been hesitant about exporting the BrahMos missiles, believing that advanced defense cooperation with countries like the Philippines with which China has disputes would rile Beijing, but analysts say New Delhi has reversed course. India has also been steadily building military ties with Vietnam, which is also embroiled in maritime disputes with China.
“As our dispute with the Chinese is not settling, there is a clear change of mind on the part of the Indian government and it has decided to assist the security needs of countries like the Philippines in a very concrete way,” said Chaulia. “From our point of view, this helps to send a clear signal to the Chinese that they cannot be arming our adversaries like Pakistan with advanced weapons and defense technology and expect that we will not reciprocate.”
The delivery of the missiles to the Philippines marks India’ s first export of the missile systems. India, which imports most of its own arms, is a marginal exporter of military equipment, but has been trying to build a defense industry.
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DNA database to help fight against illegal wildlife trafficking
SYDNEY — Scientists from Australia and the United Kingdom are developing genomic sequencing technology to save parrots caught in the illegal wildlife trade.
They say their forensic methods are similar to a database used by INTERPOL, the international police organization.
Parrots are among the most trafficked birds in the illegal international wildlife trade.
By using samples from feathers or a speck of blood, researchers from the Australian National University and King’s Forensics in the United Kingdom are working to build a genetic database of threatened bird species.
They hope to create a DNA library that would help authorities track illegal trade routes and reveal the origin of animals seized from smugglers.
The research team says the genomic techniques are like those of INTERPOL’s I-Familia database, which is used to identify people based on international genetic kinship matching.
George Olah of the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University’s College of Science told that threatened species of parrots need urgent protection.
He said generally, the illegal wildlife trade is the fourth most lucrative crime in the world.
“Like organized crime after arms trafficking, drugs and human trafficking,” he said. “Parrots are really prevalent in that trade that is in numbers of live animals. They are the most traded bird.”
Olah said genetic databases will be able to identify the source of smuggled birds.
“This would help, you know, local law enforcement agencies to better focus their limited budgets to these hotspots,” he said. “So, if you could work out that most of the trade in animals are coming just from a few islands, or from a specific region, then they can focus on that to actually break the chain.”
Olah will travel to Indonesia next month to meet with local authorities and researchers. He says the illegal parrot trade is rife in the Indo-Pacific nation.
Scientists say that in addition to being a threat to biodiversity, wildlife trafficking is an international public health issue because of its role in spreading zoonotic diseases.
The National Institutes of Health in the United States says these are “a disease or infection that can be transmitted naturally from vertebrate animals to humans or from humans to vertebrate animals. More than 60% of human pathogens are zoonotic in origin.”
your ad hereMyanmar’s figurehead vice president, holdover from Suu Kyi’s government, retires
BANGKOK — Myanmar’s Vice President Henry Van Thio, who served in the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and then continued in the position after the military ousted her to seize power in 2021, is stepping down for unspecified health reasons, state media said Monday.
State television MRTV announced Monday night that 65-year-old Van Thio had been allowed to retire from his post for health reasons in accordance with the constitution but did not provide any details of his health or say who, if anyone, will replace him.
Van Thio, a member of Myanmar’s Chin ethnic minority and a former army officer, was named second vice president in 2016 when Suu Kyi’s party started its first term after winning the 2015 general election in a landslide. Her National League for Democracy party governed Myanmar with overwhelming majorities in Parliament from 2015 to 2021, before being overthrown by the military.
Van Thio was the only member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party to stay on as a member of the National Defense and Security Council after the military seized power from the elected government of Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The council, established under a previous military government, is the highest constitutional government body responsible for security and defense affairs and is nominally led by the president. However, in practice, it is controlled by the military. Its membership is made up of the top military chiefs and cooperative politicians.
It played a key role in the February 2021 military takeover when the president in Suu Kyi’s government, Win Myint, was detained with her, and First Vice President Myint Swe, a member of a pro-military party became acting president. The move allowed the council to be convened, declare a state of emergency and hand over power to military chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
Although the army claims it took power constitutionally, legal scholars generally describe its action as illegal. It has renewed the state of emergency several times.
Van Thio has played no apparent active role in the military government aside from helping to provide it with the veneer of constitutional rule.
He almost completely disappeared from public view until his first known attendance at the National Defense and Security Council meeting in July last year, when the state of emergency was extended for the fourth time. He was absent from the council’s earlier meetings to extend emergency rule, with bad health cited as the reason. He was reportedly treated in hospital in January last year because he suffered a serious head injury in a fall at his residence in the capital, Naypyitaw.
A few days after last July’s council meeting, the National League for Democracy announced it had expelled him from the party because of his attendance at the meeting. The party in March last year was dissolved by the military government, whose legitimacy it doesn’t recognize, for failing to meet a registration deadline.
Suu Kyi’s party boosted its majority in the November 2020 election, but in February 2021, the army blocked all elected lawmakers from taking their seats in Parliament and seized power, detaining top members of Suu Kyi’s government and party, except Van Thio and Myint Swe.
The army said it staged its 2021 takeover because of massive poll fraud, though independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.
The army takeover was met with widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.
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China ups pressure on Taiwan, opens new air routes
Taipei, Taiwan — Analysts say China’s recent opening of two new air routes, with flight paths near two outlying islands controlled by Taiwan, is but the latest move in a broad campaign Beijing has rolled out ahead of the inauguration of Taiwan’s president-elect, Lai Ching-te.
Lai, a member of Taiwan’s pro-sovereignty Democratic Progress Party, was elected in January and will be sworn into office on May 20.
Su Tzu-yun, a military analyst at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, says Beijing has been using a combination of cognitive warfare, economic coercion, and gray zone operation measures against Taiwan. Gray zone operations involve using irregular tactics without resorting to open combat.
“China’s latest efforts to increase pressure on Taiwan is both part of its pressure campaign against Taipei and its response to recent international support for Taiwan, such as the reiteration of maintaining the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait by the U.S., Japan, and other G7 (Group of Seven leading industrialized) countries,” Su told VOA in a phone interview.
In a statement on April 19, China’s civil aviation regulator announced it had started using two west-to-east flight paths from the coastal cities of Xiamen and Fuzhou. The new air routes, known as W122 and W123, will connect to what is called the M503 air route, and they will operate alongside existing flight paths to the Taiwanese islands Kinmen and Matsu, which operate regular flights to and from Taiwan’s main island. The M503 route runs alongside the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which once served as an unofficial border between China and Taiwan.
During a daily press conference on April 19, the Chinese Communist Party’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the move aims to relieve pressure caused by flight delays by activating the two new routes.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China added that Beijing also plans to “further optimize” the airspace around Fuzhou airport in the southern Fujian Province starting May 16, four days before Lai’s inauguration.
Shortly after Lai was elected in January, Beijing unilaterally canceled flight paths for the M503 route and opened new west-to-east air routes from three coastal cities.
Beijing views Lai as an advocate of Taiwan independence. China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to unite the island with the mainland.
In response to the April 19 announcement, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said Beijing’s decision could create serious flight safety risks since the distance between China and Taiwan flight paths is only two kilometers (1.1. nautical miles) at its nearest point. Taipei says it will demand that any aircraft using the new air routes turn back.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which oversees cross-strait relations, said Taipei’s criticism is “a malicious hype” aimed to “create an illusion” that Beijing is “squeezing its space.
Redefining the status quo
Since the new air routes initiated by Beijing run very close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, some experts say China is trying to redefine the status quo across the Taiwan Strait based on its terms.
The median line has served as an unofficial demarcation between Taipei and Beijing for decades. China and Taiwan split amid a civil war in 1949.
The decision to unilaterally initiate new air routes “is part of Beijing’s attempt to demonstrate that it sets the rules in what it regards as its internal matters,” according to J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior adviser with the International Republican Institute’s Countering Foreign Authoritarian Influence team.
Cole said that when the M503 air route was first announced in 2015, Beijing agreed to adjust flight paths following negotiations with the Taiwanese government under the China-friendly Kuomintang, or KMT party. “Beijing moved away from unilateralism after protests by Taipei and after negotiations with the KMT-led government,” he told VOA in a written response.
But as Taiwan prepares to inaugurate the third consecutive administration under the Democratic Progressive Party next month, Cole said Beijing “is no longer in the mood for negotiation and is unilaterally implementing flight paths.”
“It denies Taiwan’s agency by refusing to negotiate with Taipei,” he added.
No-fly zones
Military analysts say Beijing’s decision to start using the contested air routes could increase the likelihood of Chinese civilian aircraft flying to the east side of the Taiwan Strait median line, where there are four designated no-fly zones.
“Taiwan’s Air Force uses those no-fly zones to monitor activities in the airspace along the median line of the Taiwan Strait,” said Chieh Chung, a military researcher at Taiwan’s National Policy Foundation.
In his view, Beijing’s new flights paths would increase the difficulty for the Taiwanese Air Force to track activities by Chinese civilian or military aircraft in the no-fly zones.
“China is trying to use the frequent incursion of Chinese civilian aircraft into the no-fly zones designated by the Taiwanese government to challenge the rules set by Taipei,” he told VOA by phone.
In addition to opening new air routes and announcing new trade measures against Taiwanese imports, Beijing increased the number of military aircraft it deployed to areas near Taiwan over the weekend.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 21 Chinese military aircraft and seven Chinese naval vessels operating around Taiwan between April 20 and April 21. At least 17 Chinese military aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
With less than a month until the inauguration of Taiwan’s new government, some analysts believe Beijing’s pressure campaign will continue. Cole at the International Republican Institute says Taipei “must remain alert, retain the moral high ground, and avoid any form of activity that could be exploited by Beijing to justify retaliation.”
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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North Korea fires missiles off east coast, South Korea, Japan say
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea fired “several” ballistic missiles on Monday toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said.
A Japanese government alert and its coast guard also said North Korea had fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile.
The projectile appeared to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone area, the NHK broadcaster said.
Japan’s NTV broadcaster said the projectile was a short-range ballistic missile, citing a Japanese government official.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North launched what it suspected to be several short-range ballistic missiles from near its capital, Pyongyang, without providing further details.
The reports of the launch came as South Korea said its top military officer, Admiral Kim Myung-soo, had hosted the commander of U.S. Space Command, General Stephen Whiting, on Monday to discuss the North’s reconnaissance satellite development and growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
After a summit between the two countries’ leaders in September, North Korea has been suspected of supplying arms and munitions to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, although both deny that claim.
The North is believed to be preparing to launch another spy satellite, after successfully putting a reconnaissance satellite in orbit in November.
North Korea said last week that it had fired a strategic cruise missile to test a large warhead, and a new anti-aircraft missile.
Earlier in April, the North fired a new hypersonic missile as part of its development of solid-fueled missiles for all ranges of its arsenal.
The North has defied a ban by the United Nations Security Council on developing ballistic missiles, rejecting Council resolutions as infringing on its sovereign right to defend itself.
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Philippines, US launch annual joint military drills
Manila, Philippines — Thousands of Filipino and American troops will kick off joint military exercises in the Philippines on Monday, as Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region raises fears of a conflict.
The annual drills — dubbed Balikatan, or “shoulder to shoulder” in Tagalog — will be concentrated in the northern and western parts of the archipelago nation, near the potential flashpoints of the South China Sea and Taiwan.
China claims almost the entire waterway, a key route for international trade, and also considers self-ruled Taiwan to be part of its territory.
In response to China’s growing influence, the United States has been bolstering alliances with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Philippines.
Washington and Manila are treaty allies and have deepened their defense cooperation since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022.
While the Philippines is poorly armed, its proximity to the South China Sea and Taiwan would make it a key partner for the United States in the event of a conflict with China.
“The purpose of armed forces, why we exist, is really to prepare for war,” Philippine Colonel Michael Logico told reporters ahead of the drills. “There’s no sugarcoating it … for us not to prepare, that’s a disservice to the country.”
The Philippine coast guard will join Balikatan for the first time, following several confrontations between its vessels and the China coast guard, which patrols reefs off the Philippines’ coast.
The joint drills involve a simulation of an armed recapture of an island in Palawan province, the nearest major Philippine landmass to the hotly disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The same exercise will be held in the northern provinces of Cagayan and Batanes, both less than 300 km (180 miles) from Taiwan.
Like last year, there will be a sinking of a vessel off the northern province of Ilocos Norte.
Other training will concern information warfare, maritime security, and integrated air and missile defense.
The United States has deployed its Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) guided missiles to the Philippines for Balikatan, but Logico said the weapons would not be used in the drills.
China’s foreign ministry has accused the United States of “stoking military confrontation,” and warned the Philippines to “stop sliding down the wrong path.”
‘It matters for regional stability’
The exercises, which will run until May 10, will involve around 11,000 American and 5,000 Filipino troops, as well as Australian and French military personnel.
France will also deploy a warship that will take part in a joint exercise with Philippine and U.S. vessels.
Fourteen countries in Asia and Europe will join as observers.
For the first time, the drills will go beyond the Philippines’ territorial waters, which extend about 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) from its coastline, Logico said.
“Balikatan is more than an exercise; it’s a tangible demonstration of our shared commitment to each other,” Lieutenant General William Jurney, commander of U.S .Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, said in a statement.
“It matters for regional peace,” he said. “It matters for regional stability.”
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Flooding expected in China’s Guangdong, threatening millions
BEIJING — Major rivers, waterways and reservoirs in China’s Guangdong province are threatening to unleash dangerous floods, forcing the government Sunday to enact emergency response plans to protect more than 127 million people.
Calling the situation “grim,” local weather officials said sections of rivers and tributaries at the Xijiang and Beijiang river basins are hitting water levels in a rare spike that only has a one-in-50 chance of happening in any given year, state broadcaster CCTV news said Sunday.
China’s water resource ministry issued an emergency advisory, CCTV reported.
Guangdong officials urged departments in all localities and municipalities to begin emergency planning to avert natural disasters and promptly disperse disaster relief funds and materials to ensure affected people have food, clothing, water and somewhere to stay.
The province, a major exporter and one of China’s main commercial and trading centers, has seen major downpours and strong winds for several days, in a weather pattern which has also affected other parts of China.
12 hours of rain
A 12-hour spell of heavy rain, starting from 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) Saturday, battered the central and northern parts of the province including the cities of Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Jiangmen, where rescue workers have been dispatched.
More than 45,000 people have been evacuated in Qingyuan, according to state media, and some power facilities in Zhaoqing were damaged, cutting power to some places.
Overall in Guangdong, 1.16 million households lost power due to the heavy rains, according to state-backed media.
About 1,103 schools in Zhaoqing, Shaoguan and Qingyuan will suspend classes Monday, Chinese state radio said.
“Please look at Zhaoqing’s Huaiji county, which has become a water town. The elderly and children at the countryside don’t know what to do with power outages and no signal,” said one user on the popular social media site Weibo.
‘It rained like a waterfall’
Raging flood waters swept one vehicle down a narrow street in Zhaoqing, a video released by Hongxing News showed.
“It rained like a waterfall for an hour and a half on the highway driving home last night,” said another Weibo user. “I couldn’t see the road at all.”
Authorities in Qingyuan and Shaoguan also suspended ships from traveling through several rivers, with maritime departments dispatching forces to be on duty and coordinate emergency tugboats and emergency rescue vessels.
Many hydrological stations in the province are exceeding water levels, weather officials warned, and in the provincial capital Guangzhou, a city of 18 million, reservoirs have reached flood limits, city officials announced Sunday.
Data showed 2,609 hydrological stations with daily rainfall greater than 50 mm (1.97 inches), accounting for about 59% of all observation stations. At 8 a.m. Sunday, 27 hydrological stations in Guangdong were on alert.
In neighboring Guangxi, west of Guangdong, violent hurricane-like winds whipped the region, destroying buildings, state media video footage showed. Some places have also experienced hailstones and major flooding, CCTV said.
In another video, rescuers could be seen trying to save an elderly person clinging to a tree half-submerged in flood waters.
As of 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT), 65 landslides were recorded in the city of Hezhou located in Guangxi, state media reported.
Weather forecasters are expecting heavy rain through Monday in the Guangxi region, Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.
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Chinese FM visits Cambodia, Beijing’s closest Southeast Asian ally
PHNOM PENH — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Cambodia on Sunday for a three-day official visit to reaffirm ties with Beijing’s closest ally in Southeast Asia. His visit is the last stop on a three-nation regional swing that also took him to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
He is visiting amid foreign concerns about two big Chinese-funded projects in Cambodia — a planned canal and a naval base — that critics allege could aid Beijing’s strategic military interests in Southeast Asia.
China is Cambodia’s most important ally and benefactor, with strong influence in its economy. That is illustrated by numerous Chinese-funded projects — particularly infrastructure, including airports and roads, but also private projects such as hotels, casinos and property development. More than 40% of Cambodia’s $10 billion in foreign debt is owed to China.
Wang is scheduled to have separate meetings with Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, Hun Sen, now serving as president of the Senate after serving for 38 years as Cambodia’s head of government until he stepped down last year to be succeeded by his son. Wang was also granted a royal audience with King Norodom Sihamoni.
Hun Manet has shown no sign of deviating from his father’s pro-Beijing foreign policy. In August 2023, Wang visited Cambodia just days after Hun Sen announced he would step down as prime minister in favor of his eldest son.
Beijing’s support allows Cambodia to disregard Western concerns about its poor record on human and political rights, and in turn Cambodia generally supports Beijing’s positions on foreign policy issues such as its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Cambodia has recently reiterated its determination to go ahead with the Chinese-financed 180-kilometer (112-mile) long, $1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal project across four provinces in the southern part of the country to connect the capital, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand.
The plan has raised concern from neighboring Vietnam, where some scholars speculated the 100-meter (330-foot) -wide and 5.4 meter (18-foot) -deep canal could make it easier for China to send military forces southward, close to Vietnam’s southern coast. There are often frosty relations between Vietnam and its massive northern neighbor China, which aggressively claims maritime territory claimed by Hanoi and in 1979 staged a brief invasion.
The United States has also weighed in on the project, appealing for transparency on the part of Cambodia’s government. Wesley Holzer, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Phnom Penh, was quoted as telling VOA that “the Cambodian people, along with people in neighboring countries and the broader region, would benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water management, agricultural sustainability, and security,”
Hun Manet, speaking Thursday to government officials and villagers in southern Takeo province, dismissed the Vietnamese concern and vowed to push forward with the project, which he said would provide a huge benefit to Cambodia.
China also is involved with another project causing foreign concern, its Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, which the United States and some international security analysts say is destined to serve as a strategic outpost for Beijing’s navy.
The Ream base initially attracted attention in 2019 when The Wall Street Journal reported that an early draft of an agreement seen by U.S. officials would allow China 30 years’ use of the base, where it would be able to post military personnel, store weapons and berth warships.
Hun Sen in response repeatedly denied there was such an agreement, pointing out that Cambodia’s constitution does not allow foreign military bases to be established on its soil and declared that visiting ships from all nations are welcome.
The base is situated on the Gulf of Thailand, adjacent to the South China Sea, where China has aggressively asserted its claim to virtually the entire strategic waterway. The U.S. has refused to recognize China’s sweeping claims and routinely conducts military maneuvers there to reinforce its status as international waters.
On Dec. 7, two Chinese naval vessels became the first ships to dock at a new pier at the base, coinciding with an official visit to Cambodia by China’s top defense official.
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Corruption still seen as a concern in Vietnam despite death sentence
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM/WASHINGTON — While this month’s death sentence in a multibillion-dollar Vietnamese fraud case may show the power of Hanoi’s antigraft campaign, interviews in recent days showed continuing concerns over political impunity in Vietnam and vulnerability and corruption in the country’s poorly paid public sector.
Meanwhile, two of those interviewed expressed doubts the sentence would actually be carried out.
On April 11, Truong My Lan, the 68-year-old chairwoman of real-estate firm Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group was given the death sentence for embezzling $12.5 billion, leading to damages that have now reached $27 billion, as well as well as 20 years each for bribery and violating banking regulations. She was also ordered by the court to return $27 billion to Saigon Commercial Bank, or SCB, for taking out bad loans over 11 years.
In 2012, Lan merged three banks into SCB. Although Vietnamese law prohibits anyone from owning more than 5% of the shares of any bank, prosecutors said that through proxies and thousands of shell companies Lan indirectly owned 91.5% of SCB.
Nguyen Hong Hai, senior lecturer at VinUniversity in Hanoi, said Lan’s sentence shows the government’s effort to impart a public message.
“We have to put it in the context of the ongoing blazing furnace anticorruption campaign launched by the Party in 2016,” Hai told VOA on April 16.
“They want to send a clear message to the public that they really want to clean up society and they are determined to combat corruption.”
A 38-year-old bank clerk in Ho Chi Minh City struck a similar chord in an April 17 written message, telling VOA that the verdict helps to restore faith in financial institutions.
“Lan and her people have used the banking system to take the money for their own purposes,” he wrote in Vietnamese. “A quick verdict helped to gain back people’s trust.”
Corruption said likely widespread
However, Zachary Abuza, Southeast Asia expert and professor at the National War College in Washington, said corruption is likely widespread in Vietnam’s banking sector and despite the sentences meted out, high-level officials escaped implication.
The country’s Communist Party “definitely circled the wagons and made sure that some lower-level party officials and regulators were held responsible, but it didn’t go any higher,” he told VOA on April 12.
“It definitely should have gone higher,” he added.
During the trial, 85 individuals were punished in addition to Lan, with sentences ranging from probation to life imprisonment. Do Thi Nhan, the head banking inspector of the State Bank of Vietnam, was given a life sentence for accepting a $5.2 million bribe to cover up SCB’s wrongdoing.
Hai in Hanoi said authorities are likely implicated in Lan’s corrupt business practices and more officials may be revealed.
“In any corruption case, they are somehow involved with authorities and government officials particularly when it comes to a very huge corruption case like this one that involves real estate and the banking sector,” Hai said.
“Maybe more investigations will be conducted. … The authorities have not yet said that it’s the end of the case,” he said.
Systemic bribery
Part of the cycle of corruption that led to Lan’s scam is the low pay of public sector workers, making them vulnerable to bribery, said Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
Giang told VOA on April 17 that the monthly salary for the government’s top role of general secretary is approximately $1,000, mid-level officials make about $400, and those entering the public sector out of college do not make enough to live without accepting bribes or taking on side jobs.
“People who just start working for the state, they get about $150 a month,” Giang said. “If you get this kind of salary you cannot survive in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.”
The government is trying to address the issue by increasing public sector salaries by 30% starting July this year. Although the move shows a “strong political will,” Giang said he worries it will not be enough to stop entrenched corruption with salaries starting at such a low level.
“We have 2.5 million bureaucrats,” he said. “There’s a lot of people on the state payroll and basically when you have too many people and a very small cake it is impossible to give everyone the share that they wish to have.”
Sentence may not be carried out
Meanwhile, it may be that Lan’s death sentence will not actually be carried out, even though its imposition signals a serious government attitude toward corruption.
Ha Huy Son, the director of the Ha Son Law Company in Hanoi told VOA April 11 that he expected appellate courts would commute Lan’s death sentence.
Lan’s death sentence “conveys the message that authorities are not lenient on economic crimes incurring consequential losses,” he said, adding that Vietnamese courts “have made it a norm” that if embezzlement case defendants compensate more than three-fourths of the losses incurred, their sentences will be commuted.
In addition, he said. It can take up to 20 years for a death sentence to be carried out, and Lan is almost 70.
Le Quoc Quan, a dissident and lawyer living in exile in the U.S. state of Virginia predicted to VOA April 11 that Lan would not be put to death, saying that while the death sentence is needed “to placate public sentiment, which is boiling over corruption,” it can “also serve as a bargaining chip to force Lan to compensate.”
“Truong My Lan being alive and well is good for recovering losses. Dead Truong My Lan serves nothing,” Quan said.
Le Nguyen of VOA’s Vietnamese Service reported from Washington.
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Apple pulls WhatsApp and Threads from App Store on Beijing’s orders
HONG KONG — Apple said it had removed Meta’s WhatsApp messaging app and its Threads social media app from the App Store in China to comply with orders from Chinese authorities.
The apps were removed from the store Friday after Chinese officials cited unspecified national security concerns.
Their removal comes amid elevated tensions between the U.S. and China over trade, technology and national security.
The U.S. has threatened to ban TikTok over national security concerns. But while TikTok, owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, is used by millions in the U.S., apps like WhatsApp and Threads are not commonly used in China.
Instead, the messaging app WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, reigns supreme.
Other Meta apps, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger remained available for download, although use of such foreign apps is blocked in China due to its “Great Firewall” network of filters that restrict use of foreign websites such as Google and Facebook.
“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns,” Apple said in a statement.
“We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” Apple said.
A spokesperson for Meta referred to “Apple for comment.”
Apple, previously the world’s top smartphone maker, recently lost the top spot to Korean rival Samsung Electronics. The U.S. firm has run into headwinds in China, one of its top three markets, with sales slumping after Chinese government agencies and employees of state-owned companies were ordered not to bring Apple devices to work.
Apple has been diversifying its manufacturing bases outside China.
Its CEO Tim Cook has been visiting Southeast Asia this week, traveling to Hanoi and Jakarta before wrapping up his travels in Singapore. On Friday he met with Singapore’s deputy prime minister, Lawrence Wong, where they “discussed the partnership between Singapore and Apple, and Apple’s continued commitment to doing business in Singapore.”
Apple pledged to invest over $250 million to expand its campus in the city-state.
Earlier this week, Cook met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi, pledging to increase spending on Vietnamese suppliers.
He also met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Cook later told reporters that they talked about Widodo’s desire to promote manufacturing in Indonesia, and said that this was something that Apple would “look at.”
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Taiwan to discuss with US how to use new funding
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s defense ministry said Sunday it will discuss with the United States how to use funding for the island included in a $95 billion legislative package mostly providing security assistance to Ukraine and Israel.
The United States is Taiwan’s most important international supporter and arms supplier despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
Democratically governed Taiwan has faced increased military pressure from China, which views the island as its own territory. Taiwan’s government rejects those claims.
The defense ministry expressed thanks to the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the package on Saturday, saying it demonstrated the “rock solid” U.S. support for Taiwan.
The ministry added it “will coordinate the relevant budget uses with the United States through existing exchange mechanisms and work hard to strengthen combat readiness capabilities to ensure national security and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan has since 2022 complained of delays in deliveries of U.S. weapons such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as manufacturers focused on supplying Ukraine to help the country battle invading Russian forces.
Underscoring the pressure Taiwan faces from China, the ministry said Sunday morning that during the previous 24 hours 14 Chinese military aircraft had crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait.
The median line once served as an unofficial border between the two sides, which neither military crossed. But China’s air force now regularly sends aircraft over it. China says it does not recognize the line’s existence.
On Saturday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said China had again carried out “joint combat readiness patrols” with Chinese warships and warplanes around Taiwan.
China’s defense ministry did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours Sunday.
The island’s armed forces are dwarfed by those of China’s, especially the navy and air force.
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Australian researchers develop prototype device to devour carbon dioxide to make electricity
Sydney — Australian researchers have built an electrical generator that consumes carbon dioxide, generates electricity and admits no exhausts. They say the technology could create a new industrial-scale carbon capture method.
Scientists say too much carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the atmosphere is main driver of warming temperatures.
Researchers at the University of Queensland have created a generator that consumes carbon dioxide and produces electricity.
The carbon-negative “nano-generator” has been built by the university’s Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation.
The prototype device uses what is known as a poly amine gel to absorb carbon dioxide to create an electrical current.
The design team acknowledges the technology needs further development and refinement but believes it could help to significantly curb global CO2 emissions.
Zhuyuan Wang from the University of Queensland told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the concept has great potential.
“We actually just finished the proof of concept that proves this can work but the current power density and efficiency is not high enough to compete with other energy sources, like solar panel[s], like the wind turbine,” he said.
The Queensland researchers hope their prototype could have industrial applications to help, for example, power plants reduce their emissions, as well as smaller units for use at home.
Carbon capture and storage techniques are used by the oil and gas sector to try to offset its emissions of greenhouse gases. Current methods involve harnessing CO2 produced by power companies, for example, and then burying it deep underground where it becomes trapped in rock formations. There are several large-scale CO2 burial sites in the United States.
However, the Climate Council, an Australian advocacy organization, claims that carbon capture and storage technology “has not been trialled and tested – anywhere in the world – at the scale required to tackle the climate crisis.”
Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation, states that “emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels make the largest contribution to climate change.”
Australia is the world’s 14th highest emitter, contributing just over 1% of global emissions. It has, however, some of the world’s highest per capita emissions. Coal and gas generate much of Australia’s electricity, but solar and wind are leading an energy transformation.
The Climate Council states that almost a third of Australia’s energy is renewable and will soon reach 50%.
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2 Japanese navy helicopters carrying 8 crew believed crashed in Pacific
Tokyo — Two Japanese navy helicopters carrying eight crewmembers were believed to have crashed in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo during a night-time training exercise, and rescuers were searching for the missing, Japan’s defense minister said.
The two SH-60K choppers belonging to the Maritime Self Defense Force and carrying four crew each, lost contact late Saturday near Torishima island in the Pacific about 600 kilometers (370 miles) south of Tokyo, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters.
One of the eight crewmembers was recovered from the waters, but his or her condition was unknown. Officials were still searching for the other seven.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, Kihara said, adding that officials are prioritizing the rescue operation.
The MSDF deployed eight warships and five aircraft for the search and rescue of the missing crew. They recovered fragments believed to be from one of the SH-60Ks, Kihara said.
“We believe the helicopters have crashed,” he said.
The helicopters, twin-engine, multi-mission aircraft designed by Sikorsky and known as Seahawk, were on night-time anti-submarine training in the waters, Kihara said. One lost contact at 10:38 p.m. (1338 GMT) after sending an emergency signal. The other aircraft lost contact about 25 minutes later. One belonged to an air base in Nagasaki, and the other at a base in Tokushima prefecture.
The SH-60K aircraft is usually deployed on destroyers for anti-submarine missions.
Saturday’s training only involved the Japanese navy and was not part of a multinational exercise, defense officials said. They said no foreign aircraft or warships were spotted in the area.
Japan, under its 2022 security strategy, has been accelerating its military buildup and fortifying deterrence in the southwestern Japanese islands in the Pacific and East China Sea to counter threats from China’s increasingly assertive military activities. Japan in recent years has extensively conducted its own naval exercises as well as joint drills with its ally the United States and other partners.
Saturday’s apparent crash comes a year after a Ground Self-Defense Force UH-60 Blackhawk crashed off the southwestern Japanese island of Miyako, leaving all 10 crewmembers dead. In January 2022, an Air Self-Defense F-15 fighter jet crashed off the northcentral coast of Japan, killing two crew.
Japan’s NHK public television said no weather advisories were issued in the area at the time of Saturday’s crash.
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US ponders trade status upgrade for Vietnam despite some opposition
Washington — U.S. officials are considering a request from Vietnam to be removed from a list of “nonmarket” economies, a step that would foster improved diplomatic relations with a potential ally in Asia but would anger some U.S. lawmakers and manufacturing firms.
The Southeast Asian country is on the list of 12 nations identified by the U.S. as nonmarket economies, which also includes China and Russia because of strong state intervention in their economies.
Analysts believe Hanoi is hoping for a decision before the November U.S. election, which could mean a return to power of Donald Trump, who during his previous term as president threatened to boost tariffs on Vietnam because of its large trade surplus with the United States.
Under the Trump administration, the Department of Treasury also put Vietnam on a list of currency manipulators, which can lead to being excluded from U.S. government procurement contracts or other remedial actions. The Treasury, under the Biden administration, removed Vietnam from this list.
On the eve of President Joe Biden’s September visit to Hanoi, where he and Vietnamese Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong elevated the U.S.-Vietnam relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
Vietnam formally asked U.S. Department of Commerce to remove it from the list of nonmarket economies on the grounds that it had made economic reforms in recent years.
The Biden administration subsequently initiated a review of Vietnam’s nonmarket economy (NME) status. The Department of Commerce is to issue a final decision by July 26, 270 days after initiating the review.
“Receiving market economy status is the highest diplomatic priority of the Vietnamese leadership this year, especially after last fall’s double upgrade in diplomatic relations,” said Zachary Abuza, a professor at National War College where he focuses on Southeast Asian politics and security issues.
He told VOA Vietnamese that the Vietnamese “are really linking the implementation of the joint vision statement to receiving that status.”
The U.S. is Vietnam’s most important export market with two-way trade totaling more than $125 billion in 2023, according to U.S. Census data. But Washington has initiated more trade defense investigations with Vietnam than with any other country, mainly anti-dumping investigations. Vietnam recorded 58 cases subject to trade remedies of the U.S. as of August 2023, in which 26 were anti-dumping, according to the Vietnam Trade Office in the U.S.
Vietnam has engaged a lobbying firm in Washington to help it win congressional support for a status upgrade. A Foreign Agents Registration Act’s statement filed to the U.S. Department of Justice shows that Washington-based Steptoe is assisting the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and supporting the Vietnamese government in “obtaining market economy status in antidumping proceedings.”
“I understand why Vietnamese are lobbying,” said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“One reason is U.S.-Vietnam relations have come so far, and to hold the non-market [status] is a little bit disingenuous because most of the countries that have this status are countries like China, Russia, North Korea, who are not so friendly with the United States. So I think [the U.S. recognition of Vietnam as a market economy] would be a sign that relations have improved.”
US election key
Both Abuza and Hiebert believe that Vietnam is pushing hard to secure the upgrade before the November U.S. election that could bring Trump back into office.
“Trump began an investigation of Vietnam’s dumping just before the end of his administration. He may again start that process,” said Hiebert, who was senior director for Southeast Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before joining CSIS.
But Vietnam’s campaign faces opposition from within the U.S.
More than 30 U.S. lawmakers in January sent joint letters to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo urging the Biden administration not to grant market economy status to Vietnam. They argued that Vietnam did not meet the procedural requirements for a change of status and that granting Hanoi’s wish would be “a serious mistake.”
The U.S. designated Vietnam as a nonmarket economy in 2002 during an anti-dumping investigation into Vietnamese catfish exports. Over the past 21 years, the U.S. has imposed anti-dumping duties on many Vietnamese exports, including agricultural and industrial products.
In a request sent to Raimondo to initiate a changed circumstances review, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said that over the past 20 years, the economy of Vietnam “has been through dramatic developments and reforms.” It said 72 countries recognize Vietnam as a market economy, notably the U.K., Canada, Australia and Japan.
‘Unfairly traded Chinese goods’
U.S. manufacturing groups have expressed opposition to Vietnam’s request, arguing that Vietnam continues to operate as a nonmarket economy. In comments sent to Raimondo, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AMM) said that Vietnam “cannot reasonably be understood to demonstrate the characteristics of a market economy.”
“There’s still heavy intervention by the governing Communist Party [of Vietnam],” said Scott Paul, president of AMM. “There’s a lot of indication that China may be using Vietnam as a platform to also export to the U.S., which is obviously concerning to firms here,” he said.
In a letter dated January 28, eight senators wrote “Granting Vietnam market economy status before it addresses its clear nonmarket behavior and the severe deficiencies in its labor law will worsen ongoing trade distortions, erode the U.S. manufacturing base, threaten American workers and industries, and reinforce Vietnam’s role as a conduit for goods produced in China with forced labor.”
Many Chinese products have been found to be disguised or labeled as “Made in Vietnam” to avoid U.S. tariffs since Trump launched a trade war with China in 2018. Vietnam has promised to crack down on the practice.
Abuza pointed out what he called a contradiction in U.S. policy.
“Vietnam is too important to the United States economically in terms of trade and foreign direct investment, and we cannot look to Vietnam for supply chain diversification out of China if it doesn’t have market economy status.”
Hiebert said the U.S. “should do this and get moving” as Vietnam is “one of the U.S.’ best friends in Asia and Southeast Asia and help stand up to China.”
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About 1,300 people from Myanmar flee into Thailand after clashes break out in key border town
BANGKOK — About 1,300 people have fled from eastern Myanmar into Thailand, officials said Saturday, as fresh fighting erupted at a border town that has recently been captured by ethnic guerillas.
Fighters from the Karen ethnic minority last week captured the last of the Myanmar army’s outposts in and around Myawaddy, which is connected to Thailand by two bridges across the Moei River.
The latest clashes were triggered in the morning when the Karen guerillas launched an attack against Myanmar troops who were hiding near the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, a major crossing point for trade with Thailand, said police chief Pittayakorn Phetcharat in Thailand’s Mae Sot district. He estimated about 1,300 people fled into Thailand.
Thai officials reported people had started crossing since Friday following clashes in several areas of Myawaddy.
The fall of Myawaddy is a major setback for the military that seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021. Myanmar’s once-mighty armed forces have suffered a series of unprecedented defeats since last October, losing swathes of territory including border posts to both ethnic fighters, who have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades, and pro-democracy guerrilla units that took up arms after the military takeover.
The clashes, involving drone attacks from the Karen forces and airstrikes by the Myanmar military, had subsided by noon Saturday compared to the morning, but Mae Sot police chief Pittayakorn Phetcharat said he could still hear sporadic gunshots. He said Thai authorities would move people fleeing into a safer area.
Footage from the Thai border showed Thai soldiers maintaining guard near the bridge with sounds of explosions and gunshots in the background. People with children waded across the river with their belongings and were received by Thai officials on the riverbank. Several are seen taking shelter in buildings along the riverbank on the Myanmar side.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday that he was closely monitoring the situation at the border.
“I do not desire to see any such clashes have any impact on the territorial integrity of Thailand and we are ready to protect our borders and the safety of our people. At the same time, we are also ready to provide humanitarian assistance, if necessary,” he wrote.
In March, Thailand delivered its first batch of humanitarian assistance to Myanmar for about 20,000 displaced people.
Nikorndej Balangura, a spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, told reporters on Friday that Thailand is currently working to expand its aid initiative.
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Political accord evades Myanmar’s resistance groups despite battlefield bonds, gains
BANGKOK — As rebel forces across Myanmar continue making major gains against the country’s military regime on the battlefield, resistance groups are working behind the scenes to plan for the government they want to take the junta’s place.
It is not clear that the effort will succeed, and if it does not, some analysts fear a political vacuum if the junta-led government should fall.
At a so-called People’s Assembly in January 2022, nearly a year after the military seized power, upwards of two dozen resistance groups endorsed a two-part charter laying out their vision for a new order that would loosely bind Myanmar’s states together as a democratic and federal — or “union” — government.
Since then, though, they have been struggling to agree on just what a federal union should look like and how to build it, analysts following the talks tell VOA.
“What has propelled them thus far is this least common denominator that everyone buys into: a federal democratic system,” Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington told VOA in recent days.
“But once you actually get down to brass tacks and try to define what that is, everyone all of a sudden gets cold feet and doesn’t want to attach their names. I think everyone is still kind of waiting this out, seeing what else they can get,” he said.
Some of Myanmar’s states are home to large ethnic minority populations, which together account for roughly a third of the country’s 54 million people. Rebel armies among the minorities, dubbed ethnic armed organizations, or EAOs, have been fighting Myanmar’s ethnic Burman-dominated military for control of parts of those states for decades. They have been demanding a federal union that gives their states more autonomy for just as long.
The new charter is a bid to answer their call, but it remains vague on how the federal and state governments would share power in a new Myanmar.
The charter calls the states “the original owners of sovereignty” and says the union “shall consist of member states which have full rights to democracy, equality and self-determination.” It adds that the specific powers of the union and of the states “shall be determined,” without elaborating.
Where the power lies
Among the EAOs, debate over the charter has mostly focused on how much power each state may want to grant the union or keep for itself, said Ying Lao of the Salween Institute for Public Policy, a Myanmar think tank.
Another key player in the talks is the so-called National Unity Government, an alliance of civilian resistance groups including some of the mostly Burman lawmakers ousted by the 2021 coup. Disputes over the charter between the EAOs and NUG are deeper and “ideological,” Ying Lao said, about where political power in Myanmar actually lies.
As the EAOs see it, she said, that power rests with the states, and the union “has only the powers that they are willing to share with the union. That’s the kind of federalism they are looking for. But for the Bamar [Burman] political elite, they claim that sovereignty rests with the country, which is the union of Burma, and that the states have the powers that the union is willing to share with them.”
That dispute is echoed in the concerns some groups have with the charter’s second half, or Part 2, which lays out a rough roadmap for shifting to the full-fledged federal union envisioned in Part 1. It says the lawmakers ousted by the coup would serve as an interim legislature and sets no time limit.
Analysts tell VOA that minority groups say that hews too closely to the centralized, Burman-dominated government they have been struggling for decades to replace. When it came time to endorse that part of the charter at the 2022 People’s Congress, they said, some of the groups that endorsed Part 1 abstained.
In the final days of a second People’s Congress held earlier this month for resistance groups to keep planning for a future government, the NUG and ousted lawmakers pulled out. They claimed the event had gotten out of hand and that the issues some of the groups were raising were out of bounds.
The NUG includes ethnic minority officers and takes pains to stress its inclusive credentials. Ying Lao said its actions, however, are reinforcing the impression among some that Burman elites still dominate.
Many minority groups feel a faction of the NUG “still has this Burma-centric, or what they call a chauvinistic mindset,” Kim Jolliffe, an independent Myanmar analyst and researcher, told VOA.
“They support the [charter], but they don’t fully have trust in the process, that it’s really going to be implemented,” he said.
Less talk, more action
Many of Myanmar’s EAOs, including a few of the most powerful, are not even taking part in the charter talks, or are doing so only at arm’s length.
Some are not waiting for the details to be worked out either, and they have started building whole new governments on their own in their home states.
Armed and civilian ethnic Karenni groups in Kayah state were the first to declare an interim government replacing the military regime across their state in June. The Arakan Army EAO has been building its own government as well across the parts of Rakhine state it has battled to reclaim from the junta. Resistance groups elsewhere are following suit.
“A lot of the [EAOs], they’re saying now, we’re not going to get bound up in any more debates about the [charter], we’re just going to build our states, and we’re going to come together and then we’ll decide what needs to be shared as a union of equals,” Jolliffe said.
Working out the details “is going to be very messy,” Abuza said. He noted he also worries that both the EAOs and NUG, which has its own network of militias fighting the Myanmar military across the country, will want to concede less politically as they gain ground against the junta on the battlefield.
The junta may still be far from defeat. It continues to hold Naypyitaw, the capital, and main cities, and has the edge in funds and firepower. But the military is widely loathed and overstretched and has now lost control of most of Myanmar’s borders.
Should the junta lose or collapse before the EAOs and NUG work out their political differences, analysts like Abuza and Jolliffe say they worry about a federal power vacuum and the problems that could cause.
Ying Lao is more sanguine. She says Myanmar has “never really existed” as a functioning union with a central government that meets the needs of its states, and it could continue to muddle along without one.
“Not getting that functioning federal union anytime soon, for the people on the ground, the situation will only get worse and worse. But whether this country will remain intact, I’m sure it will,” she said. “But no one will have any real power in the country. … It’s going to be chaotic, for sure.”
Ingyin Naing in Washington contributed to this report.
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Reproductive rights elusive 1 year after Japan’s approval of abortion pill
Osaka, Japan — Wider access to abortion in Japan has largely remained elusive a year after the historic approval of medical abortion pills.
In April last year, lawmakers approved the use of the two-step abortion pill — MeFeego Pack — for pregnancies up to nine weeks. Before that, women in the East Asian nation could only receive a surgical abortion in private clinics by designated surgeons that often charge as much as $370.
Financial strain aside, women were often required to provide proof of spousal consent to receive an abortion, making it nearly impossible for them to make the decision on their own. Reports showed that even for single women, doctors still asked for permission of a male partner before agreeing to perform such surgeries.
Despite the approval of the abortion pill, only 3% of all clinics with abortion services in Japan provide them a year after the pill’s approval, according to Kumi Tsukahara, independent researcher of reproductive health and rights, “and none of them have a Maternal Body Protection Law (MBPL) designated doctor,” Tsukahara told VOA News.
Under the MBPL, the controversial requirement for spousal consent before a doctor can prescribe oral abortion medication still exists — it’s the same condition for gaining permission for a surgical abortion.
“Unfortunately, there are no signs of change with regard to either,” the expert said.
In contrast to countries with better abortion access, Japan’s approved abortion pills cannot be administered more than once — sometimes, multiple tries are necessary — and the pregnant women will still need to resort to surgical abortion that involves a serious risk to their health.
Since such surgeries are only allowed in private clinics and are considered profitable by designated doctors, they often charge the same price or higher for abortion pills as for a surgical abortion. Neither measure is covered by Japan’s national health system.
“The high prices and low affordability depending on individual doctors, the inaccurate information given by doctors who cannot use drugs to guide people to conventional surgical procedures, the unjust situation and the state’s failure to respond, and the women are disempowered to have a sense of entitlement on their part,” Tsukahara explained.
Abortion rights activist Kazuko Fukuda, who spearheads a grassroots movement to push for women’s rights to end pregnancies in Japan, echoed the sentiment.
“The abortion rights [in Japan] didn’t improve,” Fukuda told VOA News. “Of course, this [approval of oral abortion] was better than nothing, but conservative politicians went against such pills before the approval. … It’s mandated that women have to stay in hospitals that provide beds until the end of the abortion, but designated private clinics don’t usually have beds.”
Women in Japan are banned from taking abortion pills at home. They must be in hospitals and take the pills in front of the doctors as authorities fear that they might resell them. If violated, these women can be subject to imprisonment for up to a year.
Male-dominated political scene
Abortion is still a big taboo in politics, and real rights improvement will go a long way, Fukuda added.
“News of women being arrested for giving birth alone and abandoning them is still very common — we hear that just a few days ago. … The government should repeal the criminalization of abortion. [Things don’t work] as doctors are still afraid of being sued so they require signatures from boyfriends to prescribe abortion pills.”
Last year, Japan started a study, selling morning-after pills over the counter without prescription. However, the study suffers limited availability in many cities. Girls under 15 are not allowed to purchase them, and those ages 16 to 18 must be accompanied by a parent to buy the pills.
Both experts VOA spoke with say that the information and availability of these contraceptive pills doesn’t appear high in online searches — the usual method for the targeted group to look for contraception.
Japan ranked among the lowest of developed countries in a March report this year by the World Bank in terms of women’s rights.
Currently, women account for less than 10% in Japan’s lower house of parliament and 27% in the upper house. In local politics, only 15% of women are on the front line. The gender pay gap in Japan reached 40%, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Women’s issues like abortion access or contraceptive measures are often not viewed as priorities for female politicians.
“In the male-dominated politics, a lot of women have to become more conservative and look strong to be accepted so it’s really hard for women to liberal or supportive in this kind of thing [abortion and contraception in the parliament],” Fukuda said.
Women blamed for low fertility rate
Social stigma connected to abortion remains strong as Japan blames women for its low fertility rate. The country hit a record low number of births last year.
“The Japanese government has attributed the ‘decreasing number [fertility rate] to ‘women who don’t give birth,’ women are made to feel socially guilty for trying to choose not to give birth. Of course, such an issue construction is itself highly biased and misogynistic,” said researcher Tsukahara.
Fukuda said that the government’s support of favorable reproductive policies stops with women who don’t want babies.
“Anything against that [wanting babies] is not supported at all. Many people think that ‘contraception’ is a taboo and even taking [morning after] pills can expose to judgment as a promiscuous woman. It’s not easy for women to talk about it.”
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Japan, China bicker over Beijing’s actions in Indo-Pacific
washington — China is challenging Japan’s latest analysis of the threat posed to the Indo-Pacific region by Beijing as a hyped-up threat and false accusation.
In the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s annual Diplomatic Bluebook that was published Tuesday, China’s military moves are described as posing “the greatest strategic challenge,” according to Japanese media. An official English version has not been published.
The Bluebook reportedly condemns China’s actions in the South China Sea and its attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Sea.
At the same time, according to Japanese media, it says for the first time since 2019 that Japan seeks to build “a mutually beneficial relationship” with China “based on common strategic interests.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian rejected Japan’s criticisms at a news briefing on Tuesday. “Japan has resorted to the same old false accusations against China and hype of ‘China threat’ in its 2024 Diplomatic Bluebook,” he said.
He continued: “We urge Japan to change its wrong course of actions, stop stoking bloc confrontation, truly commit itself to advancing a strategic relationship of mutual benefit with China and work to build a constructive and stable China-Japan relationship fit for the new era.”
Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said, “Japan’s concerns about Chinese behavior, both military and paramilitary, have been intensified for the last few years due to the acceleration of Beijing’s aggressive behavior in East and South China Sea.”
She continued, “In addition, Tokyo has been put on alert about Beijing’s increasingly hostile and aggressive rhetoric and behavior toward Taiwan.”
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin could meet in early May in Hawaii, according to a Thursday report by The Japan Times citing unnamed Japanese officials.
Kihara and Austin would discuss setting up a proposed allied command and control structure and a body to identify kinds of weapons the two countries will develop and produce together, said the report. These plans were announced April 10 at a bilateral summit in Washington.
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) announced on Tuesday that it will conduct a naval deployment including six surface ships, submarines, and two air units starting May 3 to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The deployment includes visits to more than a dozen countries including the U.S., the Philippines, India, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Marshall Islands, Fiji and Palau. It is meant “to strengthen cooperation with the allied partner navies through conducting exercises,” said JMSDF.
Daniel Sneider, lecturer in international policy and East Asia Studies at Stanford University, said even as Tokyo is building its defenses and is concerned about Beijing’s assertiveness and especially its relations with Moscow, its mention in the Diplomatic Bluebook of wanting to build relations with Beijing reflects Tokyo’s balanced approach toward China.
“The Bluebook reflects a balance between, on one hand, some degree of warning the Chinese off doing things that disrupt the order” in the region “and, on the other hand, making it clear that Japan really is not interested in some type of full-scale confrontation with China,” including economic warfare, said Sneider.
As to China, it tends to see “any attempts on the part of the Koreans and the Japanese to engage and improve relations as a sign of weakness,” continued Sneider.
China, Japan and South Korea plan to hold trilateral talks in May for the first time since 2019. They will meet in Seoul ahead of a Washington-Seoul-Tokyo trilateral summit expected in July.
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