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SYDNEY — Six Chinese fishing boats were found to be violating Vanuatu’s fisheries law after being inspected by local police who were on board the first U.S. Coast Guard boat to patrol the waters of the Pacific Islands nation, Vanuatu police and officials said.

The infringements included failing to record the fish caught in logbooks, a fisheries official told Reuters, noting it was the first time in several years police could inspect Chinese boats that fish in Vanuatu’s exclusive economic zone and then offload their catch in other countries.

One of the Chinese vessels that police said had breached the law is owned by Chinese state-owned company CNFC Overseas Fisheries, which has a joint venture with Vanuatu’s government called Sino-Van, a Reuters review of ship registration details and company filings showed.

Yakar Silas, principal monitoring, control and surveillance officer with Vanuatu’s Fisheries Department, said penalty notices would be sent to several Chinese companies and their local agents in Vanuatu.

Most violations were by Chinese fishing fleets that fished Vanuatu waters but were based overseas, he said.

“The patrol gave the opportunity to inspect foreign vessels that are fishing in Vanuatu waters and not coming into port and offloading their catch into foreign ports, for example Fiji,” he added. “They are all Chinese vessels.”

The Chinese embassies in Vanuatu and Fiji, where some of the Chinese vessels are based, did not respond to a request for comment.

Sino-Van Director Zhang Junwei said in an email to Reuters that Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai is “supportive of the Sino-Van project.” The CNFC vessel depicted in U.S. Coast Guard photographs did not belong to the company’s Vanuatu branch, he added.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Harriet Lane patrolled Vanuatu waters for the first time last week. Last year, a Coast Guard vessel on patrol for illegal fishing was refused access to Vanuatu’s port.

China is Vanuatu’s largest external creditor, and Beijing and Washington are jostling for influence and security ties in the strategically important Pacific Islands region. Political instability in Vanuatu last year saw two prime ministers unseated in a matter of weeks.

A decade ago, CNFC formed a joint venture with Vanuatu’s government, promising to open a local tuna cannery to bring greater revenue to the economy beyond the license fees from foreign fleets that fish Vanuatu’s exclusive economic zone.

The cannery has not opened, and Sino-Van only sells frozen fish to the local market, a company director said.

Salwai and Chinese Ambassador Li Minggang visited Sino-Van on Feb. 27, the day after CNFC’s boat was boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard and police on Feb. 26.

A U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman confirmed the CNFC vessel, Zhong Shui 708, was among six Chinese vessels boarded by Vanuatu police who found infringements.

“The Vanuatu government will be the determining agency on what will happen with the violations,” the U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

Bianca Simeon, an inspector with the Vanuatu maritime police who boarded the fishing boats, said half of the boats inspected had violations. “They did not properly report the catch in their catch logs,” she told Reuters.
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The White House says it looks forward to working with the new Indonesian administration but stopped short of congratulating Prabowo Subianto on his apparent victory in Indonesia’s presidential election last month. Prabowo, for his part, has vowed to continue a policy that allows Jakarta to reap Chinese investments while maintaining security ties with Washington. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Taipei, Taiwan — China’s top leaders set an ambitious economic growth target of 5% for 2024 Tuesday, vowing to “seek progress while maintaining stability” amid a sluggish economy and weak confidence among investors and consumers. 

Delivering his first work report since assuming the second-most powerful position in China last October, Chinese Premier Li Qiang acknowledged that China faces an environment characterized by opportunities, risks, and challenges but emphasized that favorable conditions still outweigh unfavorable factors, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

In the face of weak economic growth worldwide and the lack of a solid foundation for China to stabilize its economic growth, Li said Beijing will continue to adopt “proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy” to cope with the long list of economic challenges.

According to Li, the Chinese government plans to issue about $139 billion in special treasury bonds over the next few years while offering support to debt-laden local governments and sticking with the strategy of “high-quality growth,” which focuses on driving growth through innovation. 

Li said China would mobilize resources across the country to “promote the construction of a modern industrial system, accelerate the development of new productive forces,” and allow innovation to drive economic growth, according to readouts on China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

Li’s speech comes as China faces a long list of economic challenges, including an ongoing real estate crisis, low consumer and household confidence, and weak external demand. While Li promised to expand domestic demand and increase efforts to attract foreign investment, some economists say that unless China initiates fundamental economic reforms, these plans may only be “policy slogans.”  

“A lot of the strategic industries in China are controlled by state-owned enterprises and their investment efficiency is quite low,” Wang Kuo-chen, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Chunghwa Institute for Economic Research in Taiwan, told VOA by phone. 

In his view, even if China tries to increase support for private enterprises, state-owned enterprises, or military enterprises continue to control strategic industries in the country, it will be difficult for the Chinese government to emerge from the current economic turmoil.  

“If Beijing doesn’t fundamentally change its economic model, it’ll be hard for China to implement new economic strategies such as high-quality development and new productive forces,” Wang told VOA.  

Despite the doubt expressed by some economists, other analysts say the Chinese government will continue to concentrate resources on technological innovation in the near future.  

“The whole government work report is focusing on modernization with Chinese characteristics and new productive forces,” Wang Hsin-hsien, an expert on Chinese politics at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, told VOA in a phone interview.  

He said a large part of Li’s speech focuses on technological innovation, which may also be Beijing’s response to the U.S.-led effort to restrict its access to some core technologies, such as advanced semiconductor chips. “These policy proposals have a lot to do with challenges that China faces internationally,” Wang said.  

Apart from the outline of Beijing’s economic measures over the next year, Li Qiang also highlighted the need for China to strengthen social security and services, including a comprehensive strategy to cope with its rapidly aging population and measures to tackle youth unemployment.

Since China’s National People’s Congress passed revisions to the state secrets law just days before the “Two Sessions,” Li reiterated the need for the Chinese government to “safeguard national security and social stability.” “[We should] the overall concept of national security while strengthening the national security system,” he said in the speech.  

Some analysts say Li’s speech shows that security remains the top concern for the Chinese government. According to statistics shared by Ruihan Huang, a senior associate at Chicago-based think tank MarcoPolo, the word security was mentioned 28 times in this year’s government work report, which is three times more than last year.

As Li doubled down on the importance of prioritizing national security in his speech, some experts told VOA that such a governance model imposes a cost on the Chinese economy. “When [a government] invests one unit more in security, in the short term, it at least means one unit less in something else, including in growth,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone. 

While some analysts describe Li’s speech and the content of China’s government work report as “unsurprising,” the Chinese government’s decision to cancel the premier’s press conference at the end of the annual legislative meeting is still a precedence-breaking move that reflects the diminishing power that the premier possesses under the current Chinese political system. 

The Chinese government “has redefined the role of premier as an implementer of decisions made by the Politburo, a top decision-making body, under the general secretary’s leadership,” Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, told VOA by phone. 

As the world now interprets the signals reflected through Li Qiang’s speech Tuesday, Chong in Singapore thinks the outside world’s perception of China will likely remain unchanged in the short term.  

“Ultimately, what investors want is certainty, and for there to be more certainty, there has to be more transparency in data and that compliance is straightforward to follow,” he told VOA. “While Li Qiang talks about confidence, the instruments that allow for confidence aren’t really there.”
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JAKARTA — Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, is overcrowded, polluted, prone to earthquakes and often described as the world’s fastest sinking city, due to groundwater extraction and climate change.

All that, plus the government’s interest in distributing opportunity and wealth more equitably among the nation’s 1,700 islands, contributed to President Joko Widodo’s announcement in August 2019 of plans to move the capital from the island of Java to the island of Borneo and create a smart, “sustainable forest city” — Nusantara.

Since then, Indonesian authorities have envisioned foreign investors bankrolling Nusantara, a $32 billion project.

Now, months before the first phase is scheduled to be unveiled on August 17, Chinese entities are emerging as one of the biggest blocks of investors in what is widely seen as Widodo’s legacy project, where work began in August 2022.

Singapore has shown the most interest, followed by Japan. Malaysia and China are tied for third place.

But submission of letters of interest is just the first step in a time-consuming process. The 260,000-hectare (642,474 acre) design is due for completion in August 2045, Indonesia’s 100th anniversary of independence from Dutch colonial rule.

The Nusantara Capital Authority (NCA) has used investment forums and meetings in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to reach investors. In October, Widodo said Beijing is set to become the largest foreign direct investor in Indonesia within two years, surpassing Singapore.

China has already invested in smart cities like Nusantara elsewhere in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar, according to a 2021 University of Kentucky study.

In Indonesia, Chinese investments have usually flowed into major infrastructure or industrial projects, such as the $7.3 billion Jakarta Bandung high-speed rail project, the Mentarang Induk Hydroelectric Project (MIHEP), which is affiliated with the Chinese state-owned enterprise PowerChina and will power the new capital and the controversial $11.6 billion facility on Rempang Island for Xinyi Glass, a giant Chinese-owned glass and solar panel manufacturer.

Disputes over who owns the land remain unresolved.

In a phone interview with VOA Indonesian, Andry Satrio Nugroho, an economist at Indonesia’s Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, warned that the government should be able to assure investors that there are no similar land disputes attached to Nusantara.

NCA has said the government is working to include Indigenous and local people in the land acquisition and development process.

Agung Wicaksono, NCA deputy for finance and investment, said they have received 345 letters of intent submitted by potential investors.

At a conference on sustainability hosted by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings in June 2023, Widodo introduced 300 development packages worth $2.6 billion to investors interested in building Nusantara. The Indonesian government offered incentives such as tax holidays for companies investing at least $647,000 in projects like airports, toll roads, hospitals, shopping malls and hotels.

“Under the PPP [Private-Public Partnership] scheme, the NCA is advancing with a Chinese consortium led by CITIC Ltd. to construct 60 residential towers in the capital,” Wicaksono said.

CITIC Ltd., one of China’s largest conglomerates, is 58% owned by CITIC Group, which U.S. Republican Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, called “one of China’s largest and most important Party-controlled financial conglomerates.”

Two Malaysian entities, Maxim and IJM, will also build residential property in Nusantara, according to the Indonesia Business Post.

Interest from China has also included a pitch from China Railways Construction Corporation to develop Nusantara’s transportation system, according to the official China Daily, which reported that “Chinese enterprises have already been helping realize Widodo’s plans.”

China Road and Bridge Corporation, China Communications Construction Indonesia, and China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corporation are bidding for parts of the toll highway to link the Balikpapan oil storage port with Penajam Paser Utara, where the new capital will be built, according to a September 4 report.

By law, Widodo cannot serve more than his two five-year terms. His successor is expected to bePrabowo Subianto, the top vote-getter in last month’s election, who backs the Nusantara move.

“Everything will be fine, no need to worry,” Widodo told potential investors at a Singapore meeting last year. “Your investment in Indonesia will continue to be safe, and [there will be] continuity in the development of Nusantara capital city.”
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BEIJING — China has scrapped one of the most widely-followed events on its economic and policy calendar, the premier’s post-parliament news conference, a move seen by some observers as a sign of the country’s increasingly inward focus and centralized control.

For three decades, during a period when China was opening up, the briefing had offered foreign investors and governments insights into how Chinese policymakers regard the challenges of managing what is now the world’s second-largest economy.

In a surprise announcement Monday, a spokesperson said China’s Premier Li Qiang will not brief the media at the close of this year’s annual parliamentary meeting, which begins Tuesday in Beijing.

Moreover, barring special circumstances, Li will hold no such annual press conferences for the remaining term of China’s parliament ending in 2027, National People’s Congress spokesperson Lou Qinjian said.

Since 1993, China’s premiers have met the media after the annual parliament gathering, taking wide-ranging questions from Chinese and foreign journalists in news conferences broadcast live globally.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, China had actively sought to elucidate its politics and policies in a bid to attract foreign investment and boost trade.

“China was heading towards an era of opening up. Now it is heading towards an era of isolation, as shown by the canceled premier news conference,” said Chen Daoyin, an independent political commentator who formerly taught at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

Lou said the premier’s news conference was canceled because there would be more briefings on diplomacy, the economy and the livelihoods of the people by government ministers during the weeklong parliament meeting.

The premier’s annual meet-the-press session used to be the highlight of the parliamentary meeting, because as the head of the State Council and the main person tasked to run economic policy, he was seen as speaking with more authority and more big-picture perspective than cabinet ministers.

At the close of the annual parliament session last year, Li sought to reassure the country’s private sector in his first media conference as premier.

While premiers generally toe the Communist Party line in their answers, some have in the past used the news conference to express views that struck a different tone.

For example, Li Qiang’s predecessor, Li Keqiang, said in 2020 that 600 million Chinese earned less than $140 per month, a revelation that stood in stark contrast with the official line that China had eradicated rural poverty.

Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist at the Australian National University, said that scraping the premier’s news conference is Beijing’s effort to further control the narrative about the state of China.

This does not mean that President Xi Jinping distrusts Li Qiang, the current premier, Sung said.

“This is consistent with their relations with Xi playing policy architect and Li playing Xi’s faithful policy implementer.”

“Willingly stepping away from the limelight is an act of loyalty,” Sung said.
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Hong Kong — In a newsroom, editors tell reporters to not touch politically sensitive stories. Reporters are told to put stories on hold until China’s foreign ministry comes out with its statement. Terminology that the government might frown upon is banned from news copy.

Such is the state of journalism, not just in China, but increasingly in Hong Kong, after a national security law was adopted by Beijing for the former British colony in 2020, according to local journalists.

“Sometimes we don’t feel like we’re journalists. We’re simply a part of the propaganda machine. We feel all the things we learned from journalism school are wasted because it’s not applicable anymore. The morale is really low,” said one local journalist who did not want to be named, to avoid retribution.

Once a model of press freedom in Asia, Hong Kong’s journalism scene has deteriorated since Beijing enacted the national security law, outlawing secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, according to journalists and surveys. They also indicate that self-censorship is becoming common, opposition voices are becoming rare, and caution reigns.

Prior to passage of the law in 2020, journalists could cover news largely as they liked, as if they were in a democratic country.

Now, many fear it will become even more difficult to be a journalist in the city if a proposed new security law – known as Article 23 – is adopted, without safeguards, especially a public interest defense clause, for journalists.

Article 23 would add treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference as offenses, and would expand the scope and penalties for existing crimes, including sedition.

Ronson Chan, chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association – the city’s oldest and largest association for local journalists – said many journalists are worried. He said since the Beijing-imposed national security law was passed, journalists constantly must consider the potential dangers of “crossing the redline,” especially because the government has not clarified what that line is.

“Every day, every moment, you have to consider when you speak anything about the government in some livestream program, what will happen to you,” said Chan, who is also the multimedia manager for local news website Channel C.

As of the end of last year, 156 people, including more than a dozen senior employees at newspapers including editors and editorial writers, have been arrested for security law or sedition offenses, although most are out on bail, according to online magazine ChinaFile.com, which tracks the arrests, charges and convictions. Two well-known news outlets – Apple Daily and Stand News – closed in 2021 following raids, arrests of senior employees, and freezing of their assets. Another – Citizen News – voluntarily closed soon after, to ensure the safety of its staff.

Some journalists have reported experiencing digital or physical surveillance, or both.

More recently, a reporter who has long covered China’s defense beat for Hong Kong’s English language newspaper, The South China Morning Post, became unreachable after a work trip to Beijing. Although her company later said her family confirmed that she was safe and needed to deal with a private matter, her disappearance has raised concerns that she might have been detained. The reporter, Minnie Chan, has not filed any stories since covering a defense forum in China in late October of last year.

Many journalists have also either left Hong Kong or the profession, Chan said. The number of Hong Kong Journalists Association journalist members dropped from 800 in 2019 to just 300.

While foreign media journalists, especially expatriates, have the protection of a foreign passport and backing from major world media organizations, including CNN and BBC, which have bureaus here, they risk losing their visa and right to continue reporting in Hong Kong if the authorities find problems with their reporting, said the Lee Williamson, president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club.

An FCC survey on press freedom last year found 65% of responding journalists said they had engaged in self-censorship either in the content of their reporting or by avoiding certain subjects, and 27% said they had self-censored considerably.

“I can’t speak of the motivations, but these numbers do speak to the anecdotal evidence that we do see every day in Hong Kong – journalists who are holding back because they want to make sure they are here tomorrow to continue telling the story of Hong Kong and mainland China,” Williamson said.

The survey also found 88% of the respondents said sources in Hong Kong had become less willing to be quoted or to speak to reporters about sensitive topics.

Perhaps affected on a greater level are local journalists, who may not have a foreign passport, whose long-term home is Hong Kong and who have seen local media organizations closed and their peers arrested.

Nonetheless, they are finding ways to continue their work.

“After the national security law was adopted, senior managers give you warm reminders about how our stories should be written. Certain terms cannot be used. For example, we could not use the words ‘record low turnout’ to describe the recent district council elections and could only say ‘turnout rate was as expected,’” said the journalist who requested anonymity. “They even put out a list saying who you cannot interview – such as pro-democracy activists.”

“No one wants to be the next Stand News, Citizen News or Apple Daily,” she said, referring to the three news outlets that have shut down.

Self-censorship is not only for self-protection, but to protect sources and colleagues as well, she said.

“It’s always a struggle. You got a good [quote] and it’s anti-government. You, your editor, your newsroom would have to make a decision: Do you want to put that person at risk? I don’t think so. Our job is to report the truth but at the same time, you cannot do any harm to anyone,” she said. “When colleagues write sensitive sentences, we censor them too. You don’t want them to get in trouble. It’s a struggle. You’re practicing self-censorship but you’re saving somebody.”

The result is that various media’s reports are similar, with the same kind of opinion and voices, she said.

There’s still space to scrutinize government policies and actions, but the journalist who requested anonymity said that was only for politically nonsensitive issues.

“It’s OK to quote someone saying firework displays are a waste of money since even a lawmaker said it … [but] all reporting on Article 23 has been very positive,” she said.

She said she plans to continue as a journalist despite the difficulties, pointing to the need for nonpolitical stories, and the appeal of “doing social impact stories such as those about NGOs working to help others,” which, she said were rewarding to do because readers become more interested in the NGOs after reading the stories.

“Society is not just about politics,” she said.

On the bright side, no more journalists have been arrested after the Apple Daily and Stand News arrests, Chan said.

He and Williamson agreed that what is encouraging is that there are still passionate journalists trying to report on issues in Hong Kong in the current environment.

“What I do believe in is the dedication and the talent of the journalists who are in Hong Kong, both those who were born here and those who have moved here, to continue to do their job in the face of hardship,” Williamson said.
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BANGKOK — Thailand’s Supreme Court on Monday cleared former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra of corruption in awarding a government contract during her time in office.

Yingluck, who ruled from 2011 until she was ousted in a 2014 military coup, was charged with malfeasance in a 2013 project worth over $6.7 million.

The ruling is the latest legal success for the powerful Shinawatra family after Yingluck’s brother Thaksin — a two-time premier also ousted in a coup — was freed on parole in February, six months into what was originally an eight-year prison sentence.

Yingluck and five others were accused of not running a proper bidding process to run the “Roadshow to Build the Future of Thailand,” a campaign to promote her government’s infrastructure projects.

Nine judges sitting in the kingdom’s top court ruled unanimously in favor of the former premier, saying they “found no intention” to benefit the two major media outlets that won the contract, according to a statement.

“The project was done according to the regulations,” the court statement said.

Yingluck, who has lived in self-imposed exile since 2017 to avoid a conviction in another case, was not present at the court but was represented by her lawyer.

“We received the mercy from the court to dismiss the case,” fellow defendant Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, a former deputy PM, told reporters outside of court.

“We are not corrupt,” he added.

Yingluck was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison in a graft case related to a rice-pledging scheme for farmers in 2011.

She still faces six more cases over alleged graft during her premiership.
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The United States is backing Lithuania in the face of what American officials describe as China’s “coercive behavior” after Vilnius recently became the first European country since 2003 to allow Taiwan to open a representative office.On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis met for talks at the State Department. The meeting followed a call on August 21 in which Blinken “underscored ironclad U.S. solidarity” with Lithuania in the face of China’s “coercive behavior.”“Lithuania and the United States are very strong partners in NATO. We stand together for collective defense and security. We stand against economic coercion, including that being exerted by China,” Blinken said Wednesday.Wednesday was the United Nations’ International Day of Democracy. Landsbergis said it’s “truly symbolic” that the NATO allies “reaffirm our commitment to defend democracy, liberty, human rights across the globe.”On this International Day of Democracy, we celebrate a system that responds to the will of the people, respects human rights, and benefits the many, not the few. We look forward to the upcoming #SummitforDemocracy to demonstrate #DemocracyDelivers.— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 15, 2021Members of Congress have also expressed support for Lithuania’s position on Taiwan. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez in a tweet praised “Lithuania’s courageous efforts to stand up for Taiwan, as well as democracy activists in Belarus, Russia and Cuba.” Menendez met with Landsbergis on Tuesday.Honored to meet my friend @glandsbergis and discuss Lithuania’s courageous efforts to stand up for Taiwan, as well as democracy activists in Belarus, Russia and Cuba. pic.twitter.com/F8L7EX18kd— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) September 14, 2021China has long had a policy of urging countries not to develop closer ties with Taiwan, and this week a spokesperson in Beijing pushed back against American officials’ characterization of Beijing’s tactics.“The label of coercion can never be pinned on China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a Tuesday briefing.“The U.S. should immediately stop ganging up with others to wantonly smear China and stop provoking confrontation and disputes. Such tricks wouldn’t work on China,” Zhao said.In July, Lithuania became the first European country to allow Taiwan, a self-governed democracy, to open an office in Vilnius with the name of “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.” Other nations often designate such offices with the name “Taipei Representative Office” or “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” to avoid offending China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory.The Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania is set to open this fall, marking the first time in 18 years that Taiwan has opened a new representative office in Europe. The last time Taiwan established a representative office in Europe was in 2003, with the name of “Taipei Representative Office in Bratislava, Slovakia.”Lithuania’s move has already led to repercussions and economic retaliation from China. In August, China’s government asked Lithuania to withdraw its ambassador to Beijing while recalling its own envoy to Vilnius. In a statement, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged “the Lithuanian side to immediately rectify its wrong decision, take concrete measures to undo the damage, and not to move further down the wrong path.”The Baltic Timesreported on August 22 that Beijing had stopped approving new permits for Lithuanian food exports to China. The report cited a Lithuanian official saying the country’s talks with China on export permits for feed, non-animal products and edible offal had stopped.China has also reportedly halted direct freight trains to Lithuania.A Lithuanian Railways spokesperson, Gintaras Liubinas, told Newsweek: “We have received information through our customers that several freight trains from China will not arrive in Lithuania at the end of August and in the first half of September. Meanwhile, transit trains pass through Lithuania in the usual way.”On September 3, Lithuania recalled its ambassador to China. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry expressed regret over China’s actions, but said the Baltic country is ready to develop mutually beneficial ties with Taiwan. The top EU diplomats in China also met to show solidarity with Lithuania Ambassador Diana Mickevičienė as she departed Beijing.@SecBlinken is meeting with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis @GLandsbergis Wednesday. In their 8/21 call, Blinken “underscored ironclad U.S. solidarity” with #Lithuania “in the face of the People’s Republic of #China’s coercive behavior,” per @StateDept#立陶宛https://t.co/1HqFO1f9HW— VOA Nike Ching 张蓉湘 (@rongxiang) September 15, 2021The meeting between the top diplomats of the United States and Lithuania follows Monday’s call between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė of Lithuania.Sullivan reaffirmed strong U.S. support for Lithuania as it faces attempted coercion from the People’s Republic of China, according to the White House.In another move to show solidarity with Lithuania, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa has urged the EU to stand with Lithuania against Chinese pressure. Slovenia holds the six-month EU presidency.Jansa said in a letter, dated Monday, that China’s decision to withdraw its ambassador to Lithuania over a dispute about Taiwan was “reprehensible” and would hurt EU-China ties, according to Reuters report.
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Hong Kong’s security chief called on Wednesday for the city’s main press association to disclose to the public who its members work for and how many of them are students, a day after he accused the group of infiltrating schools. 
 
The comments by Secretary for Security Chris Tang are likely to deepen concern over a crackdown on civil society in the Asian financial hub after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the former British colony last year. 
Tang, in an interview with the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao published on Tuesday, said the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA), was infiltrating schools to recruit students as journalists. 
 
The HKJA, responding to Tang, did not specifically mention the infiltration accusation but said that as of Wednesday it had 486 members and 56 of them were students. It does not disclose who its members work for. 
 
Tang defended his comments on Wednesday saying he was conveying “doubts held by many in society” about the press association. 
 
“I believe if they openly let the public know the information, it will clear their name,” Tang told reporters outside the city’s Legislative Council, referring to details about who the HKJA members work for. 
 
The media industry has seen profound changes since Beijing imposed the security law last year. 
 
Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a staunch critic of Beijing, is in jail and awaiting trial on national security charges. His pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily closed following police raids and the arrest of executives including its chief editor. 
Scores of civic groups and opposition parties have disbanded or scaled back operations over the past year, while some of their members have been arrested and jailed. 
 
The Professional Teachers’ Union, Hong Kong’s largest, disbanded this month after it was criticized by Chinese state media for “politicizing” education. 
The security law, imposed after months of at times violent pro-democracy protests, punishes what Beijing broadly refers to as subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism with up to life in jail. 
 
The Hong Kong government has repeatedly said the law is only aimed at a tiny group of “troublemakers” and all law enforcement actions against individuals or groups “have nothing to do with their political stance or background.” 
 
Hong Kong’s once-thriving media sector and vibrant civil society have long been features of the city that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with a promise of wide-ranging freedoms not guaranteed on the mainland.  
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North Korea test-fired two ballistic missiles Wednesday, its second launch in less than a week and latest apparent attempt to increase diplomatic pressure on the United States. The missiles were launched from a central inland area in North Korea and splashed into the sea off the country’s east coast, according to a text message from South Korea’s military.   Few other details were immediately available, including what kind of missiles were launched or how far they flew. Japan’s defense ministry said the projectiles did not enter Japanese territory and fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. In a statement, the U.S. military said it is aware of the launch and has assessed it does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or allies. However, the launch “highlights the destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s illicit weapons program, the statement issued by the Indo-Pacific Command said.  The launch comes two days after North Korea claimed to have test-fired a new long-range cruise missile. It was Pyongyang’s first known missile test in about six months.N. Korea Tests Long Range Cruise Missile Designed to Evade Defenses It’s the first North Korean missile test in six months Late last month, United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea appears to have recently restarted a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear site. The moves suggest North Korea is trying to increase its bargaining leverage with the United States, amid stalled nuclear talks, some analysts say. The North has often engaged in diplomacy after raising tensions via verbal threats or weapons tests.  The North’s latest launch coincided with a visit to Tokyo by Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to North Korea, who is meeting with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan.  On Tuesday, the U.S. envoy repeated Washington’s offer to restart talks without preconditions, saying the United States is ready to work with North Korea on humanitarian issues “regardless of progress on denuclearization.”  While U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has expressed a willingness to resume talks with North Korea, much of its focus has been elsewhere, such as the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and efforts to fight COVID-19. “North Korea is expressing its discontent toward the Biden administration which has remained in a very passive policy toward North Korea in the name of a cautious and collaborative North Korea policy,” said Bong Young-shik, a research fellow at Yonsei University’s Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul.  Another possible factor, Bong says, is South Korea’s upcoming presidential election. So far, the campaign has featured very little discussion about North Korea; instead, candidates have focused on the economy and COVID-19 policy. “North Korean leadership must have decided to increase the levels of the provocations as a way of getting more attention from all the relevant parties,” he added. In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country is preparing for “both dialogue and confrontation” with the United States.  A few months later, North Korea briefly reopened several lines of communication with the South, raising hopes that Pyongyang would enter a new phase of diplomacy. But the North cut the hotlines just days later, after South Korea and the United States went ahead with joint military drills that Pyongyang sees as a provocation. For most of this year, North Korea has focused on domestic problems, including natural disasters, pandemic prevention, and a food shortage. Because those crises still exist, some analysts expect North Korea may refrain from major provocations that would risk bringing further economic and diplomatic isolation.  
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Special envoys from the United States and South Korea met with their Japanese counterpart Tuesday in Tokyo for talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, following tests conducted by the rogue state Saturday and Sunday.Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea, and Noh Kyu-duk, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, joined Japan’s director-general for Asian and Oceanian affairs, Takehiro Funakoshi, for a meeting on how to address this latest development with North Korea.North Korea state media confirmed the nation tested “newly developed long-range cruise missiles” Saturday and Sunday. Cruise missiles fly at relatively low altitudes and can be guided in-flight. That allows them to fly under or around missile defense radars.Analysts say the missiles appeared visually similar to the U.S. Tomahawk, a nuclear-capable cruise missile with a range of about 1,600 kilometers. North Korea hinted the missile is nuclear-capable, though it’s not clear the North yet has a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on it.Regardless, the missiles represent another lethal component in North Korea’s arsenal, which has significantly expanded since 2019 when it resumed major weapons tests.As the three envoys addressed reporters before their talks, Kim said the recent events in North Korea are a reminder of the importance of close communication and cooperation among Japan, North Korea and the U.S.Noh agreed, saying it was good the three representatives can have a candid discussion on how to “engage with North Korea based on our shared understanding of the urgency of denuclearization.”In recent comments, Kim has indicated Washington remained open to diplomacy to deal with North Korean issues.Pyongyang has so far rejected those overtures, saying nothing has changed from the U.S., citing issues such as ongoing sanctions and joint military drills with South Korea.Some information for this report came from  the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. 
 
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