SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s government will take final steps to suspend the licenses of striking junior doctors next week as they refuse to end their weekslong walkouts that have burdened the country’s medical services, officials said Thursday.

More than 90% of the country’s 13,000 medical interns and residents have been on strike for about a month to protest the government’s plan to sharply increase medical school admissions. Their strikes have caused hundreds of canceled surgeries and other treatments at hospitals.

Officials say it is urgent to have more doctors because South Korea has a rapidly aging population, and its doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world. But doctors say schools can’t handle an abrupt, steep increase in students, and that it would ultimately undermine the country’s medical services.

The government has been taking a series of administrative steps required to suspend their licenses after they missed a government-set, February 29 deadline to return to work.

The steps include sending officials to formally confirm the absences of strikers, informing them of possible license suspensions and giving them chances to respond.

Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told a briefing Thursday that the government is expected to complete those steps for some of the striking doctors next week and will send them notices about its final decision to suspend their licenses.

Park earlier said that under South Korea’s medical law, the striking doctors could face at a minimum three-month suspensions and even indictments by prosecutors for refusing the government’s back-to-work order.

He urged the striking doctors to return to work immediately, suggesting those who end their strikes could receive softer punishments.

“They should return as soon as possible not only for patients but also for their future careers. This kind of exhaustive walkout from hospitals must not continue any longer,” Park said. “As we’ve said many times, we won’t treat those who return swiftly as equally as those who return late.”

It’s unclear whether and how many striking doctors would return to their hospitals at the last minute. According to Park, none of the strikers who were informed of their possible license suspension has responded.

Senior doctors at major university hospitals recently decided to submit resignations next week in support of the junior doctors. Still, most of them will likely continue to report to work. If they walk off the job, that would hurt South Korea’s medical services severely.

Two senior doctors, who lead an emergency doctors’ committee for the walkouts, were recently given government notices that their licenses would be suspended for three months for allegedly inciting the junior doctors’ walkouts.

The striking junior doctors account for less than 10% of South Korea’s 140,000 doctors. But in some major hospitals, they represent about 30%-40% of the doctors, assisting senior doctors during surgeries and dealing with inpatients while training.

The government aims to increase the country’s medical school enrollment cap by 2,000 starting next year, from the current cap of 3,058 that has been unchanged since 2006.

Wednesday, the government announced detailed plans on how to allocate those additional 2,000 admission seats to universities, a sign that it won’t back down its plan.

Officials say more doctors are required to address a long-standing shortage of physicians in rural areas and in essential but low-paying specialties. But doctors say newly recruited students would also try to work in the capital region and in high-paying fields like plastic surgery and dermatology. They say the government plan would also result in doctors performing unnecessary treatments due to increased competition.

Surveys show that a majority of South Koreans support the government’s push to create more doctors, with critics suspecting that doctors, one of the highest-paid professions in South Korea, worry about lower incomes due to the supply of more doctors.
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Geneva — Myanmar’s ruling junta “is losing” its war against a coalition of domestic forces but still remains highly dangerous, according to a U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in that country. 

“The tide is turning in Myanmar because of widespread citizen opposition to the junta and mounting battlefield victories by resistance forces,” said Tom Andrews, who presented his latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

At a briefing for reporters Wednesday, Andrews said the junta is losing territory, bases, and troops, and losing its capacity “to promote the fiction that it is in any way legitimate” or that it can unify the country by force. 

“The junta now controls less than half of Myanmar and has lost tens of thousands of troops to casualties, surrender, or defections since it launched its military coup over three years ago,” he said.

Andrews added that Myanmar’s military, “while desperate,” remains extremely dangerous and has escalated its punishing assault on the civilian population.

“The past five months have seen a fivefold increase in airstrikes against civilian targets,” he said, noting that the number killed or injured by landmines “more than doubled last year.”

Since the junta toppled the country’s democratically elected government on February 1, 2021, thousands of people have been killed, tens of thousands arbitrarily arrested and detained, and millions displaced.

In response, supporters of the ousted democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi have joined forces with a collection of ethnically based militias to fight against the brutalizing, repressive leadership, with increasing success.  

A terrible toll

The special rapporteur is calling on states to stop exporting the sophisticated, powerful weapons Myanmar is using to kill civilians, warning that the violence and chaos in Myanmar could spill over into the region and the wider world.   

“Thousands of desperate people continue to flee into neighboring countries.  Junta fighter jets have violated the airspace of Myanmar’s neighbors, bombs have landed across borders,” he said.

Underscoring the dangers of appeasing and supporting the junta, Andrews noted that criminal networks “have found a safe haven in Myanmar.”

“Myanmar is now the top opium producer in the world and a global center for cyber-scam operations that enslave tens of thousands and victimize untold numbers of people around the world,” he said.

The junta’s military crackdown and its abusive treatment of the civilian population have exacted a terrible toll.

The Burmese human rights organization The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates more than 4,500 people have been killed and over 26,000 arrested, most of whom remain detained.  

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, reports 2.7 million people have been displaced and 18.6 million people in Myanmar, including 6 million children, need humanitarian assistance.   

“When I began my service as special rapporteur, before the coup, that number was 1 million,” Andrews said.

‘The unfathomable’

To make matters worse, he said the junta has begun a program of forced military recruitment, “at times abducting young men on the street.” Others are going into hiding or fleeing the country.

“Particularly hard hit are the besieged members of the Rohingya community who are now being subjected to ongoing bombardment by junta forces.  But, unlike most in Myanmar, the Rohingya are prohibited from moving to safety,” he said.

“Now, the junta is trying to force young Rohingya to do the unfathomable — join the very military that is committing these relentless attacks and that committed genocide against their community, forcing hundreds of thousands over the border into Bangladesh.”

 

In August 2017, nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslims fled to Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh to escape persecution, violence, and serious human rights violations in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.  

They live in what is known as “the world’s largest refugee camp” in overcrowded conditions, with little access to education and no ability to earn an income, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and serious protection risks.   

The United Nations describes the Rohingya as “the most persecuted minority in the world.”  

Myanmar’s military junta has denied the Rohingya citizenship and sees them as foreign interlopers.

Andrews has called on the international community not to turn a blind eye to the horrors that are ongoing in Myanmar. He said strong, concerted international action is required to stop the killing of innocent civilians and bring down the illegitimate leaders.

He said impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar must end.  For that to happen, he said, “Those who are responsible for atrocity crimes in Myanmar must know that they will be held accountable.”

Myanmar was unable to respond to the special rapporteur’s report at the U.N. Human Rights Council because the United Nation does not recognize the de facto military rulers as a legitimate government.  
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SYDNEY — Human rights and trade sanctions dominated talks Wednesday between the Chinese and Australian foreign ministers in Canberra.

Analysts say that bilateral relations are stabilizing after years of friction over various geopolitical and trade disputes, but disagreements remain.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said there would be a “frank exchange of views” with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, ahead of Wednesday’s talks in Canberra.

Wang Yi is the most powerful Chinese politician to visit Australia since 2017.

During the talks, Wong said she raised the death sentence imposed on Yang Hengjun, a Chinese-born Australian democracy activist, insisting that “Australians were shocked at the sentence.”

Wong told reporters in Canberra that there were also discussions on human rights in China’s Xinjiang province, Tibet, and Hong Kong.

She said there would also be expanded dialogue in the future “in key areas such as the Pacific, climate and energy cooperation.”

Wong said the bilateral relationship needs to be carefully cultivated to prosper.

“A stable relationship between Australia and China does not just happen, it needs ongoing work, and this was the latest meeting in that process. As Minister Wang reflected in our meeting, it’s in both our interests that we have a mature and productive relationship,” she said.

Wang Yi told the news conference in Canberra that Wednesday’s talks had helped to dispel “doubts and boosting trust” and he hoped “that this sound interaction can continue further.”

China has previously voiced objections to Australia’s plan to build nuclear-powered submarines with the United States and Britain.

Australia and China have slowly rebuilt their diplomatic relationship.  It hit its lowest point in 2020 when Canberra called for an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus pandemic.  

Beijing was infuriated and saw it as a criticism of its handling of the pandemic.

Retaliatory trade restrictions followed, but earlier this month, Chinese authorities released an interim statement that high tariffs on Australian wine are no longer necessary. The tariffs could be lifted by the end of this month.  The duties were imposed in 2020 as tensions simmered between China and Australia over various geopolitical flashpoints.

Analysts have said the two countries are economically interdependent.  China’s demand for raw materials has underpinned Australia’s recent prosperity.

Australian iron ore and liquefied natural gas have been key drivers of China’s economic expansion.
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washington — International sanctions have contributed to the worsening of human rights in North Korea, according to the nongovernmental group Human Rights Watch, while the U.S. State Department, which supports the sanctions, said the regime is mainly to blame.  

The rights organization said United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea in 2016 and 2017 have “disrupted general cross-border trade” with China and reduced the ability of people to conduct informal market activities to sustain their livelihoods. The government-approved, quasi-private markets have been operating in North Korea since the late 1990s.  

The country’s draconian COVID-19 restrictions instituted in early 2020 aggravated conditions, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report published on March 7. 

The report, “A Sense of Terror Stronger than a Bullet,” said the U.S. should “take active steps to counteract sanctions ‘overcompliance’ by financial institutions and other actors, [which are] blocking legitimate and non-sanctioned transactions and humanitarian operations.”  

In response, a spokesperson for the State Department said, “The government of the DPRK bears ultimate responsibility for the suffering of its people, as it is choosing to divert scarce resources from humanitarian and economic needs towards its unlawful WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and ballistic missile program.” The spokesperson used the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

The spokesperson added in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on March 13: “We continue to support international efforts to provide critical humanitarian aid to the DPRK. We hope that the DPRK will soon open its borders to international humanitarian workers, whose aid efforts have been hindered by the DPRK’s border closures.” 

VOA contacted the North Korea mission at the United Nations for responses to the HRW report and the State Department comment but did not receive a reply.  

North Korea has not allowed international aid workers into the country since they left more than three years ago when the regime rolled out pandemic measures. But earlier this year, Pyongyang permitted some foreign countries to reestablish their diplomatic presence in the country.  

History of abuse

North Korea has a long record of systemically violating the human rights of its people including the use of torture, execution without fair trials and arbitrary detention, in addition to the denial of freedom of speech, religion, press and assembly, according to the United Nations.   

Residents obtain their necessities, including food, from informal markets called jangmadang. These emerged after the former Soviet Union fell and no longer provided aid to the country. North Korea’s socialist regime then cut off rations, its economy collapsed, and it entered a great famine.  

Most of the goods sold and bought at the markets are brought in from China, the largest trading partner of North Korea. The HRW report said the sanctions the U.N. Security Council passed in 2016 and 2017 reduced people’s ability to buy “already-limited food, medicines, and necessities” from these markets. 

Beijing enforced the sanctions at the time and instituted “new border restrictions” that impeded trade, according to the report.  

Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said Friday in an email to VOA, “North Korean sanctions do not target the people of North Korea.” 

He said U.N. sanctions were passed to prevent North Korea from developing and proliferating its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and to punish the North Korean elite in charge of those activities by ending their ability to make hard currency from abroad by exporting items the sanctions banned.  

The sweeping sanctions that were passed in 2016 and 2017 banned North Korean exports of seafood, textiles, agricultural products and minerals such as coal and iron.  

The restrictions were put in place in response to North Korea’s fifth and sixth nuclear tests and the launch of ballistic missiles, including Hwasong-14 and -15 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).  

Scarlatoiu said there could be “unintended negative side effects of sanctions possibly affecting the human security of North Koreans,” but it is “impossible” to make that determination without conducting a “fact-finding mission inside the country.”   

Report based on interviews, images

The HRW report says its findings are based on interviews with former North Korean traders, defectors with relatives still in the country, former North Korean government officials, journalists and activists with contacts inside the country and in China.  

The report says it also bases its assessments on satellite images of North Korea’s northern border, heavily fortified since early 2020. 

Marcus Noland, executive vice president and director of studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA on Friday via email that sanctions are not the primary problem with North Korea’s economy.

“The government’s self-isolation in response to the pandemic greatly reinforced the underlying problems,” he said.

At the same time, sanctions adversely affected North Korean people’s economic livelihood as some financial institutions are “uninterested” in making relatively small transactions that could expose them to legal risks, added Noland, who has written extensively on the North Korean economy.  
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SYDNEY — An annual university report said although Australia’s environmental scorecard deteriorated in 2023, the nation fared better than many other countries.

While 2023 was the hottest year on record globally, for Australia it was the eighth hottest year because of wet and relatively mild conditions.

The research is carried out each year by the Australia National University,  or ANU, and is contained in the Australian Environment 2023 Report.

Researchers use scientific information to give Australia a score out of 10. In 2023, it was 7.5, down from 8.7 the previous year.

The decline was mostly due to reduced rainfall compared to 2022.  They stress that the report card is not a reflection of the Canberra government’s policies, but a general assessment of the health of the environment.

Information about the weather data is used alongside satellite data on threatened species, biodiversity and water flows to calculate the annual score.

Australia’s biodiversity took a significant hit last year, according to the study. It states that a record 130 species were added to the Threatened Species List, compared with the average of 29 species added annually.

The university survey details how Australia’s population grew “rapidly” last year by 3.5%, its fastest growth in decades.

The study revealed that Australians are the world’s 10th worst greenhouse gas emitters per person, just after Saudi Arabia.

Professor Albert Van Dijk from the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment told VOA the country’s greenhouse gas emissions increased for the first time in five years – mainly because domestic air travel picked up after COVID.

“While our emissions per person are very slowly going down – a lot more slowly than in most, you know, industrialized countries, but they are going down slowly – but our population is growing so fast,” he said. “It is growing faster than our emissions are going down.  So, you know, we are not achieving the emissions reductions as a country that we need to achieve.”

Overall, the annual ANU report states that Australia is the world’s 15th largest emitter of greenhouse gases, contributing 1% of global emissions.

Van Dijk believes as a wealthy nation, Australia should be doing more to combat the impact of climate change.

“If you look at the uptake of electric vehicles, if you look at the use of renewables, we are still a laggard internationally,” he said. “We have got the 10th highest emissions per person globally; three times the global average, two times the average Chinese person.”

He said countries like the United Kingdom are doing more to reduce the emission per person.

“Australia needs to really step up its game. I think we should be very worried about the state of the environment globally, and especially about climate change.”

Australia’s government has for the first time legislated a target to cut carbon emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

 
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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a White House summit next month amid growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, provocative Chinese action in the South China Sea and differences over a Japanese company’s plan to buy an iconic American steel company.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement on Monday said the first-ever U.S.-Japan-Philippines leaders’ summit is an opportunity to highlight the countries’ “growing economic relations, a proud and resolute commitment to shared democratic values and a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

The three leaders have no shortage of issues to discuss.

The announcement came as North Korea’s state media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire drill of nuclear-capable “super-large” multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea’s capital. The North Korean claim followed the South Korean and Japanese militaries reporting on Monday that they had detected North Korea firing multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward waters off its eastern coast, adding to a streak of weapons displays that have raised regional tensions.

The U.S.-Japan relationship is facing a rare moment of friction after Biden announced last week that he opposes the planned sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan. Biden argued in announcing his opposition that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.”

Nippon Steel announced in December that it planned to buy U.S. Steel for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security.

Meanwhile, long-running Philippines-Chinese tensions have come back into focus this month after Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided in the disputed South China Sea.

The Chinese coast guard ships and accompanying vessels blocked the Philippine coast guard and supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal and executed dangerous maneuvers that caused two minor collisions between the Chinese ships and two of the Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said.

A small Philippine marine and navy contingent has kept watch onboard a rusting warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which has been marooned since the late 1990s in the shallows of the Second Thomas Shoal.

China also claims the shoal lying off the western Philippines and has surrounded the atoll with coast guard, navy and other ships to press its claims and prevent Filipino forces from delivering construction materials to fortify the Sierra Madre in a decades-long standoff.

Close U.S.-Philippines relations were not a given when Marcos, the son and namesake of the former Philippines strongman, took office in 2022.

But both Biden and Marcos have thrown much effort into strengthening the historically- complicated relationship between the two countries, with the two leaders sharing concerns about aggressive Chinese action around the region.

A U.S. appeals court in 1996 upheld damages of about $2 billion against the elder Marcos’ estate for the torture and killings of thousands of Filipinos. The court upheld a 1994 verdict of a jury in Hawaii, where he fled after being forced from power in 1986. He died there in 1989.

The elder Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972, a year before his term was to expire. He padlocked the country’s congressional and newspaper offices, ordered the arrest of many political opponents and activists and ruled by decree.

The younger Marcos made an official visit to Washington last year, the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years. The U.S. made the announcement of Marcos’ coming trip to Washington as Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Manilla.

Jean-Pierre said that in addition to the leaders’ summit Biden will hold one-on-one talks with Marcos. She said the leaders would discuss efforts to expand cooperation on economic security, clean energy, people-to-people ties, human rights and democracy.

Biden is set to honor Kishida a day before the leaders summit with a state visit. The White House announced the state visit in January.
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Seoul, South Korea — North Korea fired short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Monday for the first time in two months, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Seoul for a conference hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol on advancing democracy.

South Korea’s military said several short-range missiles flew about 300 kilometers (186 miles) after being fired between 7:44 a.m. and 8:22 a.m. from Pyongyang, the North’s capital, landing off the east coast.

It condemned the launches as a “clear provocation” and said it was sharing information on them with the United States and Japan.

Japan’s defense ministry said three missiles were launched and traveled about 350 kilometers, with a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the launches after his country’s coast guard also reported the firing of what it said appeared to be a ballistic missile and specified that it had already ended its flight.

Japan later said that it had detected what appeared to be a second ballistic missile launch by the North, and that both fell outside its exclusive economic zone area.

“North Korea’s series of actions threaten the peace and security of our region and the international community, and are absolutely unacceptable,” Kishida said, calling the launch a violation of U.N. resolutions.

North Korea’s military has been conducting exercises using conventional weapons in recent weeks, often personally overseen by the isolated state’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

The show of force by Pyongyang comes just after the militaries of South Korea and the United States finished 10 days of large-scale annual joint military drills last Thursday.

On Sunday, the South Korean military also mobilized marines, attack helicopters and amphibious assault vehicles in drills aimed at surging troop numbers to reinforce western islands near the sea border with North Korea. The North shelled the islands in 2010.

Blinken is among senior officials from around the world attending the Summit for Democracy conference, which opens on Monday. He will also meet his South Korean counterpart, foreign minister Cho Tae-yul.

The summit is an initiative of U.S. President Joe Biden aimed at discussing ways to stop democratic backsliding and erosion of rights and freedoms worldwide.

In its last ballistic launch on Jan. 14, North Korea fired what it said was an intermediate range hypersonic missile using solid fuel on to test new booster engines and a maneuverable warhead.

A month later, it launched multiple cruise missiles off its east coast, including what it said was a new anti-ship missile.
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Hanoi, Vietnam — Vietnam faces nearly $3 billion a year in crop losses as more saltwater seeps into arable land, state media reported Sunday, citing new research.

The damage would likely center on the Mekong Delta region, known as “Vietnam’s rice bowl,” because it provides food and livelihoods for tens of millions of people, research from the country’s environment ministry showed.

Saltwater levels are often higher in the dry season, but they are intensifying due to rising sea levels, droughts, tidal fluctuations, and a lack of upstream freshwater.

The resulting crop losses could amount to 70 trillion dong ($2.94 billion), state media VnExpress reported, citing new research from the Water Resources Science Institute, which is under the environment ministry.

The research found among the most impacted parts of the region would be the southernmost Ca Mau province, which could lose an estimated $665 million.

Ben Tre province could face roughly $472 million in losses, according to the study, which was presented Friday at a conference on water resource management.

“With the current scenario, fruit trees account for 29 percent of the damage in Mekong Delta, while crops account for 27 percent, and rice accounts for nearly 14 percent,” according to the findings.

“The fisheries industry accounts for 30 percent, equivalent to more than 21,000 billion dong ($840 million),” it added.

Greater losses were forecast for the region in the future, rising to over $3.1 billion, the study said.

Earlier this month, the Department of Water Resources warned saline intrusion could impact around 80,000 hectares of rice and fruit farms in the Mekong Delta.

Salt intrusion in the area between 2023-2024 was higher than the average, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

The delta suffered an unusually long heatwave in February, leading to drought in several areas and low water levels in the region’s canals.
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sydney — Voting takes place Saturday for Australia’s first state-based First Nations Voice to Parliament. The body will advise the South Australian government and lawmakers on Indigenous issues.

The state of South Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament will be a representative, elected body for the state’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and made up of members of those groups.

In October, Australians overwhelmingly rejected a national proposal to change the constitution to recognize First Nations people and create a body for them to advise the federal government.

In South Australia, officials have said it would give First Nations communities the chance to have their say at “the highest levels of decision-making … including to Parliament on matters, policies and laws that affect them.”

The state Parliament passed laws last year to set up the advisory body. South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said then that it was a powerful show of respect toward Australia’s First Nations people.

Unlike the defeated nationwide proposal, the South Australian Voice to Parliament will not be incorporated into the state constitution and so it could be scrapped by future governments.

South Australia Attorney General Kyam Maher told local media the body will advise the state Parliament on policies affecting First Nations Australians.

“It won’t have the power to vote in Parliament,” Maher said. “It won’t have the power to veto anything. But what it will have the power to do is not just give advice to Parliament but speak within our Parliament.”

Unlike other local, state and federal elections, where voting is compulsory, the South Australian Voice to Parliament ballot is voluntary and open only to about 30,000 registered Aboriginal voters.

Travis Nash, an Aboriginal voter, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he was looking forward to having his views heard by lawmakers in the state capital, Adelaide.

“We are going to be having country people representing country people,” he said. “The people that will be appointed is my neighbor, in a way, instead of going to Adelaide [where] when I talk to people they are in suits and expensive shoes.”

Supporters said the plan would unite Australia and help address disadvantage. First Nations Australians have a lower life expectancy than non-Indigenous people and suffer high rates of poverty, incarceration and unemployment.

Opponents of the national Indigenous Voice to Parliament said the idea was divisive and would create special “classes” of Australian citizens, in which some were more equal than others. The debate in South Australia has been muted because the State Voice does not involve changing the state’s constitution and the vote is only open to registered First Nations people.

First Nations people make up just over 3% of Australia’s population and nearly 2.5% in South Australia, according to official data.

Voters will choose from 113 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates for 46 positions.

Results are expected late this month, after the return of mail-in votes from remote areas.
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washington — A new, closer diplomatic relationship between Australia and Vietnam is drawing warnings from China against forming “exclusive circles” in the Indo-Pacific region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at Monday’s daily news briefing, “To advocate bloc confrontation and build exclusive circles goes against the trend of the times and the common aspiration of regional countries.”

Although Wang did not mention Vietnam or Australia by name, he was responding to a question posed by one of China’s official media outlets, Shenzen TV, about an agreement the two nations signed March 7.

Longtime observers of Vietnam’s diplomacy say Beijing’s response to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) reveals its unease with Hanoi’s push to upgrade ties throughout the region. 

In August, Vietnam signed a CSP with the United States, China’s rival.

A CSP is the highest level in Vietnam’s diplomatic hierarchy, a relationship Hanoi maintains with China, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. A CSP commits partners to cooperation on a wide range of concerns and typically contains a military dimension. 

A joint statement issued March 7 by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasized that the nations share a common vision of a peaceful, stable, independent and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

It also mentioned a joint commitment to the “settlement of disputes, including those in the South China Sea, by peaceful means without resorting to the threat or use of force, in accordance with international law.” China’s increasingly aggressive claim of sovereignty over those waters has met challenges from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Pham Thu Hang, spokesperson for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thursday at a news conference, “The upgrade of Vietnam-Australia relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is a natural development step and in line with the level of relationship between the two countries after more than 50 years of establishment and development, for the common interests and aspirations of the people of the two nations and for peace, stability, cooperation and prosperity in the region and the world.”

The Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to VOA’s request for a comment on Wang’s remarks. Instead, the ministry referred to Albanese’s statement from the day the CSP was signed.

“Australia and Vietnam share an ambitious agenda across climate change and sustainability, digital transformation and innovation, defense and security, economics and trade, and education,” he said, adding that the CSP reflects “our cooperation, our strategic trust and shared ambition for our region.”

“China is of course concerned,” said Ha Hoang Hop, an associate senior fellow with Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Research Institute. Speaking on the telephone with VOA Vietnamese from Hanoi on Monday, he said, “China may, in fact, be concerned that Vietnam may move closer to the United States and its allies. But China cannot be offended because Vietnam first aims to create a security balance.”

The CSP “is both beneficial for Vietnam and beneficial for our comprehensive strategic partners, including China. … The establishment of partnerships is not intended to create factions or cause trouble for countries in the region,” said Ha. “Everyone is aware that it only creates a better environment for development cooperation, and more broadly, ensuring peace and prosperity for the Asia-Pacific region.”

The agreement with Australia reflects Vietnam’s “bamboo diplomacy” as its ruling Communist Party tries to navigate rising regional and global tensions. The reference is to the bamboo plant’s qualities of adaptability and resilience. 

Vu Duc Khanh, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who follows Vietnamese politics, told VOA Vietnamese via email on Monday that although he can understand China’s reactions, he believes it is too early for Beijing to be overly concerned by Vietnam’s latest CSP. He pointed to Hanoi’s endorsement in December of China’s “community of common destiny” with objectives of “common development” and “common security.” 

“China’s comments [are] largely in line with its strategy of keeping Vietnam neutral,” said Vu Xuan Khang, a doctoral candidate at Boston College who specializes in international security.

“China does not want Vietnam to join any blocs made up of countries that China sees to be anti-China because Vietnam could then become a springboard for those countries to hurt Chinese interests,” Vu Xuan wrote to VOA via email on Monday.

“Vietnam thus needs to be careful and should not stoke too much Chinese suspicion to avoid unnecessary Chinese retaliations,” he added.

On March 9, the Vietnam News Agency quoted emeritus professor Carl Thayer of the Australian Defense Force Academy, University of New South Wales, as saying that upgrading bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will create opportunities for more in-depth discussions on various issues between Vietnam and Australia, noting that most Australians support strengthening this relationship, especially in the field of education.

Thayer believes that Australia will prioritize cooperation with Vietnam and promote dialogue, helping both countries to deal with future challenges such as climate change, economic instability, and competition between world and regional superpowers.
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