Researchers in Australia have developed new microscopic lasers that have a range of potential medical, surgical, industrial and military uses.   Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) say “nanolasers” promise to be even more powerful than conventional technology. The technology uses laser light instead of electronics and is an approach called photonics. Nanolasers, they say, need only a small amount of energy to start shining. Instead of using mirrors that reflect light, the team has created a device that traps energy and prevents it from escaping. That power is harnessed and builds into a “strong, well-shaped” beam. Researchers say this overcomes a well-known challenge of nanolasers — “energy leakage.”   The project is a collaboration with academics at Korea University, and is published in the journal Nature Communications. The lead researcher is professor Yuri Kivshar, who says the beams would act like a torch, or flashlight, to guide a surgeon.   “Why do we need [it] smaller? Imagine you are doing [a] kind of operation inside of body [sic] and you are using optical fiber. So, optical fibers introduced inside of body will see only light, which inside there is basically nothing, so you need a kind of torch. This torch will lighten the place which you need to work on and that will be a kind of real torch effect,”  he said.Academics have said that while their nanolasers are not the smallest ever developed, they are among the most efficient and powerful.   According to the ANU study, the energy threshold at which the laser starts to work is about 50 times lower than any previously documented nanolaser.    The physicists believe the technology could have a range of applications in small devices, including hair removal, laser printing, night-time surveillance and the illumination of delicate surgery inside the body.   
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A powerhouse in global trade, China has more shipping ports at home than any other country. Key investments add about another 100 ports in at least 60 nations. And Beijing is looking for more. Earlier this month, operations at Israel’s port of Haifa, one of the largest maritime transport hubs in Mediterranean, were handed over to China’s state-run Shanghai International Port Group to run for the next 25 years. Another gigantic Chinese shipping company, COSCO Shipping, is poised to expand its footprint in Europe by taking a stake in the port of Hamburg. Negotiations have been reportedly going well, and a deal is expected soon. If COSCO succeeds, it would be the company’s eighth port investment in Europe.   The state-owned company’s previous investment involves the acquisition of Greece’s Port of Piraeus, one of the world’s most important shipping centers located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. COSCO bought 51% of the port’s operating company in 2016. After a Greek court gave the go-ahead last month, COSCO now can raise its stake in Piraeus to 67%.   The Chinese government does not have an official platform summarizing the overall data for China’s overseas port projects, but publicly available information shows that Beijing now has a foothold in at least 100 ports in 63 countries. According to data published on the COSCO official website, as of June this year, the group has operated and managed 357 terminals in 36 ports around the world. Its port portfolio has stretched from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, Europe and the Mediterranean. In addition, China Merchants Group, another major port developer and operator in China, says on its website that the company completed “equity acquisition of eight high-quality ports in Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean last year alone, expanding the group’s global port layout to 27 countries, 68 ports.” China’s global port expansion means Beijing now has investments in more than 100 ports in 63 countries.In a recent opinion piece published by the Daily Mail, former British Defense and International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox and former U.S. National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane noted that China now owns 96 ports around the world. Some of these are at key locations for maritime trade, “giving Beijing strategic dominance without having to deploy a single soldier, ship or weapon.” In 2013, China for the first time surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest trading nation. That same year, Chinese president Xi Jinping proposed a strategic framework of what has been dubbed the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) – the sea route part of the broader Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).  The specific trade route of MSR connects China to Southeast Asia, Africa, and even Europe by sea. Chinese companies are now owners of all of the major ports along the route. Dr. Sam Beatson, of King’s College London, says it makes sense for China to be engaging in these deals given the volume of containers China continues to deliver at accelerating rates of growth. “China’s ports, shipping and maritime trade industry is strategic in part because of its massive size and global role, not only the huge numbers it employs and its role as a national industry that has championed the growth of many of China’s largest coastal cities,” he told VOA.Key Chinese shipping routes along the country’s new maritime “silk road”The most Mahanian country Over a century ago Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, one of the most influential American writers of his day, designated seaports as one of three pillars of sea power. His writing argued that Britain’s control of the seas was critical for its emergence as a dominant global power. The view heavily influenced American policymakers. “Since the Cold War, China has bought into the Mahanian construct wholesale,”  James R. Holmes, the J.C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College told VOA. “It is safe to say he’s more popular in China today than anywhere else in the world.” Reports by official Chinese media in recent years show that since 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping has visited a port almost every year, including the visit to the port of Piraeus in 2019, where China’s MSR and BRI connect and a project that Xi personally pushed for with Greek leaders multiple times, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. China experts believe that establishing ports in geo-strategically important countries, including those that are located near maritime chokepoints, are central to Beijing’s global strategy. “These port linkages allow Beijing to exert political influence not only in the country hosting the port, but in many cases the surrounding countries as well,” Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA. Holmes, a former U.S. Navy officer, noted prosperity is the top priority for any government. And Beijing’s port investments mean it can hold a large portion of a country’s prosperity hostage, compelling its leadership to take political stances agreeable to the Chinese Communist Party. “So, seaports are a critical enabler for China’s bid for commercial, diplomatic, and military influence.” King’s College’s Beatson, who lecturers on China-related business and finance, pointed out that among all the deals, “neither governments nor companies within countries seem to want to block control of their ports by companies from China – I highlighted this in 2017 I think when pointing out the role of China Merchant Group in ownership of Houston and Miami ports through the joint venture with France’s Terminal Links.”Beijing either controls or has major investments in all 15 of the world’s top 15 ports ranked by container volume.As commercial ports could be used for military purposes, analysts have long been concerned about the security implications of ports controlled by Beijing. China’s first overseas military base was established at the port of Djibouti situated at the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. “China’s militarization of its port project in Djibouti serves as a warning vis-à-vis Beijing’s port interests in other countries, such as Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Burma, among others,” said Singleton.  One of the thorniest issues between the U.S. and Israel in recent years has been the Chinese takeover of Haifa Port, place where the Sixth Fleet of the US Navy docks. Washington feared that the port would provide an opportunity for Chinese surveillance. Dr. Eyal Pinko, a former Israeli intelligence officer pointed out that the port can easily be used to collect naval intelligence. “You can track the whereabouts of ships and communications. Once you own and operate the port site, these are very easy to do. You can do whatever you want. You are the landlord there,” he told VOA in a telephone interview. 
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Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will sign a cooperation deal with the main opposition bloc Monday aimed at ensuring the stability of his new government.Under the accord between Prime Minister Ismail and veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Ismail has agreed to a set of reforms including new laws to prevent party defections, limiting the prime minister’s term to 10 years, and lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.The agreement also ensures bipartisan agreement on every bill that is introduced in parliament, input from the opposition on a national recovery council, and an assurance that the opposition leader receives the same pay and privileges as a Cabinet minister.Ismail became Malaysia’s third prime minister in three years when he was appointed prime minister by King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah last month to succeed Muhyiddin Yassin. Muhyiddin resigned after conceding he had lost the majority of lawmakers. Ismail served as deputy prime minister under Muhyiddin.The king selected Muhyiddin as prime minister in March 2020 after then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s ruling coalition had collapsed a month earlier. But Muhyiddin was beset by constant challenges to his leadership within his fragile coalition and rising anger over his government’s poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The country of 32 million is suffering the highest rate of new daily COVID-19 cases per 1 million people in Southeast Asia, with 1.9 million total infections and 20,711 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Muhyiddin’s tenuous grip on power began unraveling when a group of lawmakers with the United Malays National Organization, the largest party in the coalition, withdrew their support. UMNO, once Malaysia’s long-serving ruling party dating back to the country’s independence in 1957, has a handful of politicians facing corruption charges, including former Prime Minister Najib Razak.Muhyiddin’s 17-month tenure as prime minister is the shortest in Malaysian history.(Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.)  
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North Korea has conducted its first missile test in about six months. The long-range cruise missile being tested could give Pyongyang another way to evade its neighbors’ missile defenses, say analysts.  The “newly-developed long-range cruise missiles” flew 1,500 kilometers over North Korean territory before successfully hitting their targets, North Korean state media reported Monday.  The reports did not say how many missiles were tested, but said the tests occurred Saturday and Sunday. Pictures posted in North Korean state media showed one of the cruise missiles being fired from a five-canister, road-mobile launcher that appeared to be parked on a highway.  Several analysts said the missile appeared visually similar to the U.S. Tomahawk, a nuclear-capable cruise missile with a range of about 1,600 kilometers.  The cruise missile test appears to be less provocative than a long-range or intercontinental ballistic missile launch, which would involve technology that could target the mainland United States. But the launch will still serve as a test for U.S. President Joe Biden, who has said he is open to both diplomacy and additional economic pressure on North Korea. Designed to evade U.S. and South Korean officials, who usually detect and report North Korean missile tests shortly after they occur, did not publish statements until after the North Korean state media announcement.  In a statement, the U.S. military said it was aware of the reported launches and is monitoring and consulting closely with its allies and partners. “This activity highlights DPRK’s continuing focus on developing its military program and the threats that poses to its neighbors and the international community,” the statement read.  In a statement to VOA, South Korea’s military confirmed the launch, saying it is conducting a “detailed analysis in close coordination with South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies.” It is North Korea’s first known missile launch since March, when it also appeared to test cruise missile technology. That test was only confirmed by U.S. officials after the first reports of the test appeared in The Washington Post.North Korea Conducts First Launch of 2021 Test is routine, US officials insist Cruise missiles are harder to detect than the ballistic missiles typically launched by North Korea, since they fly at a relatively low altitude and can be controlled in-flight. “This is another system that is designed to fly under missile defense radars or around them,” Jeffrey Lewis, an expert in nuclear nonproliferation with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said on Twitter. Nuclear-capable? North Korean state media referred to the cruise missiles as “strategic,” implying a nuclear capability. Some defense experts are not sure whether that statement reflects current or eventual capabilities. “While you could say the missile will be nuclear capable, there is no known North Korean warhead for it yet,” said Melissa Hanham, an affiliate with the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation. Hanham stressed that she has not yet conducted analysis to estimate the size of the missile, but it does not appear North Korea has a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on it.  “They are certainly claiming to have a new cruise missile with a range and look similar to the U.S. Tomahawk,” Hanham said.  A range of 1,500 kilometers would mean that the new North Korean cruise missiles could reach all of South Korea and most of Japan. Latest test The missile represents another lethal component in North Korea’s missile arsenal, which has significantly expanded since 2019, when Pyongyang resumed major weapons tests.  Since then, North Korea appears to have test-fired at least five types of new missiles — mostly short-range ballistic missiles also designed to evade its neighbor’s defenses.  North Korea has not conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile or nuclear test since 2017, though Pyongyang has at times hinted it may do so. In January 2020, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced he no longer felt bound by his self-imposed moratorium on long-range ballistic missile and nuclear tests.  That moratorium was put in place during the diplomacy between Kim and former U.S. President Donald Trump.  Trump repeatedly downplayed North Korea’s short-range launches. Biden, too, in March, shrugged off North Korea’s cruise missile test, calling it “business as usual.”  Biden has not yet responded to the North’s latest test.  Under United Nations Security Council resolutions, North Korea is prohibited from any ballistic missile activity. Although those resolutions do not mention cruise missile technology, some analysts say the latest tests could still receive a tough U.S. response, given the missiles’ possible nuclear capability.  “If that is the case, then the test is deserving of an international effort to strengthen sanctions,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.  Stalled talks Negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea broke down in 2019 over disagreements on how to pace sanctions relief with steps to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.  The Biden administration has repeatedly said it is open to resuming talks with North Korea, but for now North Korea’s focus appears elsewhere. For the past year and a half, North Korea has imposed a strict pandemic lockdown, sealing its borders, cutting imports, and restricting domestic travel. 
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The Philippines will get more aid and investment from China, Chinese officials say, as analysts believe assistance given so far has failed to meet Filipinos’ expectations and Beijing doesn’t want the Southeast Asian country to depend too much on the United States, China’s rival.“China is willing to work with the Philippines to implement more cooperation projects and allow the people in both countries to benefit more from bilateral cooperation,” the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry said in an August 27 statement issued after a tele-summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.According to the statement, Xi added that his country’s cooperation with the Philippines would “make more contributions to regional peace and prosperity.”  After Duterte and Xi met in Beijing in 2016, auguring a new Sino-Philippine friendship, China pledged $24 billion in aid that was expected to speed infrastructure renewal work in the relatively poor Southeast Asian country. China was already known for building infrastructure across Eurasia as a way to open trade routes.China has offered several billion dollars’ worth of investment in Philippine railways among other projects, helped the country explore for undersea oil, sent COVID-19 vaccines and donated arms to fight Muslim rebels who periodically attack government positions in the archipelago’s southernmost islands.Many Filipinos, though, believe this support has fallen short of Beijing’s original pledge, especially against the backdrop of a festering South China Sea maritime sovereignty dispute that exploded in March when 220 Chinese fishing vessels moored at a contested islet, analysts in Manila say.Chinese ‘Flotilla’ in Contested Waters Further Sours Once-Upbeat RelationsManila concerned over presence of 220 finishing boats near a reef in the Spratly Islands, demands their removal“It’s kind of like maybe the Chinese side really wanting to make sure that the bilateral relations will remain stable and maintain the current momentum going forward – avoid disruptions,” said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in Metro Manila.Xi discussed aid with Duterte the tele-summit and pledged on the call to help further with infrastructure projects and COVID-19 relief.Duterte said in a statement that day he looks forward to China’s “continued support for landmark projects,” including flood control work, a railway north of Manila and two key bridges.Some earlier Chinese-funded projects are still in the pipeline or may be stalled by Philippine bureaucracy, Rabena said.Aid as pledged in 2016 was seen then as part of China’s bid for friendship with the Philippines, a historic U.S. ally. Duterte pushed back against Washington in the early part of his six-year presidential term as he pursued a multicountry foreign policy but pivoted back this year by lifting an order to cancel the U.S.-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement of 1999.Philippines Says US Visiting Forces Agreement to Remain in EffectDuterte retracts termination letter sent last yearDuterte’s renewed support for that agreement probably worries China, Rabena said.“You could say that the relationship between the two countries[China and the Philippines] [is] not as quiet and rosy as they were in the past five years,” said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.U.S. forces regularly train their Philippine counterparts to fight in the South China Sea, if needed, and the Visiting Forces Agreement gives U.S. troops easy access to the Philippines.Beijing claims about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, overlapping waters the Philippines and four other governments also claim.Chinese officials point to documents dating back more than 1,000 years as support for their maritime claim. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam cite a United Nations convention to back their own. Taiwan claims most of the sea as well. Claimant governments prize the sea for fisheries, fossil fuel reserves and marine shipping lanes.Most Filipinos questioned Duterte’s overtures to China that began in 2016, according to a poll two years later by the Quezon City-based research organization Social Weather Stations.“Assuming Beijing even follows through on any of its supposed aid pledges, the Filipino public and military are strongly pro-American and would most likely resent Xi Jinping trying to buy them off,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York.Duterte, who must step down in mid-2022 due to term limits, wants China to keep its aid pledges partly to give him the “political capital” to endorse a successor in next year’s election, Rabena said. 
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Some of Australia’s biggest media companies have lost a legal battle with a former youth detainee over allegedly defamatory comments posted about him on their Facebook pages. The high court has found the media groups are legally responsible as “publishers” for third parties’ comments on their Facebook pages.Dylan Voller was held in youth detention in Australia’s Northern Territory.  His treatment  was the focus of a 2016 television documentary, which led to a wide-ranging inquiry into the mistreatment of inmates.  Images of him shackled to a chair wearing a spit hood sparked outrage. They also prompted some Facebook users to make allegedly defamatory remarks about him on the media companies’ pages online.As a result, Voller wants to sue several Australian media companies.The case has been held up by a separate legal dispute over whether the outlets were the publishers of users’ comments.The High Court, Australia’s highest court, Wednesday found they were because in setting up a public Facebook page and posting content, the media groups had allowed and encouraged comments from the platform’s users.The judges said it did not matter that the companies deleted the messages after becoming aware of them.A spokesperson for Australia’s Nine Network, which is one of the companies involved, said, “we are obviously disappointed with the outcome as it will have ramifications for what we can post on social media in the future.” Voller’s lawyer, Peter O’Brien, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Voller is relieved the long legal fight, or “stoush,” in Australian parlance, is over.“I spoke to Dylan this morning.  He is obviously elated at the decision.  It has been a long legal stoush.  People who might be vulnerable to social media mob attacks – they  are protected.”The High Court decision clears the way for Voller to continue his legal action against high-profile newspapers – The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian – and others, including broadcaster Sky News.The defamation case will continue later in the New South Wales state Supreme Court.  A trial there will decide whether the Facebook comments did, in fact, defame the former youth detention inmate. 
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Japan’s defense ministry said on Sunday that a submarine believed to be from China was spotted in waters near its southern islands, as maritime tensions persist in the Pacific.Japan’s navy on Friday morning identified a submerged vessel sailing northwest just outside territorial waters near Amami Oshima island, part of Kagoshima prefecture, the ministry said in a statement. A Chinese destroyer was also spotted in the vicinity.Tokyo has complained of numerous intrusions by Chinese vessels of its territorial waters and near disputed islands in recent years. China has often reacted angrily to U.S. ships sailing through disputed areas of the South China Sea in what Washington calls displays of freedom of navigation.Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, visiting Vietnam during a Southeast Asia trip, said those two countries should refrain from unilateral actions regarding the South China Sea that could complicate and magnify disputes.Saturday’s announcement said Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force identified the vessels in a contiguous zone, which is outside territorial waters where vessels are required to identify themselves. Still, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi instructed his staff “gather information and maintain vigilant surveillance with a sense of urgency,” the statement said.Officials at the Chinese Embassy could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday.The submarine continued underwater westward in the ocean near Yokoate Island, the ministry said. 
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China is criticizing a process called the “Uyghur Tribunal,” a quasi-judicial effort by opponents of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities designed to publicize evidence of alleged human rights abuses. At a September 9 news conference in Beijing, China’s FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8, 2020.“It has nothing to do with law, justice or truth, and is just another farce staged to smear and attack Xinjiang,” Zhao told the press, calling the tribunal members clowns.  The “tribunal” heard from 38 witnesses in its first round of hearings in June in Church House, London. That event focused on alleged rights abuses in China’s northwest region of Xinjiang. The second set of hearings is scheduled from September 10 to 13, according to the organizers.  Led by Sir Geoffrey Nice, a prominent lawyer and expert in international criminal law, the nine “jurors” include academics, medical and business practitioners, diplomats and lawyers, according to Nick Vetch, vice chair of the tribunal.  A six-member team of lawyers is helping to collect and present evidence. They are British, French, German, Iranian and Maltese nationals. By year’s end, the jurors plan to issue a “verdict” regarding China’s actions in Xinjiang. “[It’s] not possible for the allegations made against the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to be considered in a formal court such as the International Court of Justice, and it has not been dealt with by states, and therefore it is left to the citizens to seek and answer these questions of such gravity,” Vetch told VOA.  Some countries such as the U.S. as well as rights organizations like Amnesty International accuse China of genocide and crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.  FILE – Chair of the panel Geoffrey Nice gives the opening address on the first day of hearings at the “Uyghur Tribunal”, a panel of UK-based lawyers and rights experts investigating alleged abuses against Uyghurs in China’s  Xinjiang region, in London, June 4, 2021.Among other things, they point to arbitrary detentions of an estimated 1 million people and to reports of forced labor and involuntary sterilization.    China denies abusing Uyghurs, saying they are being given vocational training and language skills. Beijing says people in Xinjiang are free to choose their work.  In December 2020, the FILE – Police officers stand at the outer entrance of the Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, April 23, 2021.According to Hamid Sabi, the head of the six-member team of lawyers, the body was set up at the request of Dolkun Isa, WUC president.  China was invited on numerous occasions to take part in the process but organizers received no response.  “We do not present a case for or against China,” Sabi told VOA. “The tribunal members and the counsel team are the same as the June hearing.”   Foreign Ministry’s Zhao called WUC a separatist organization and Isa a terrorist listed by the Chinese government. “These so-called ‘chair’, ‘experts’ and ‘witnesses’ have deplorable track records and are habitual liars,” Zhao charged, “who have become a laughingstock in the international community long time ago.”   Isa, a witness during the first round, confirmed to VOA Mandarin that the tribunal had been established following his request but maintained that it is independent.  “The tribunal acts wholly independently, although the WUC closely supports the hearings by arranging Uyghur witnesses and translation, among other things,” Isa said.  Teng Biao, a Chinese human right lawyer in the U.S. and an expert witness at the tribunal’s second hearings, said the Chinese Communist Party always tries to discredit the witnesses and survivors to cover up truth. The Uyghur Tribunal, he said, “plays a very significant role to at least disclose the truth and the nature of the crime.”  
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China last month inaugurated a new trade route via ship, road and rail running through Myanmar in keeping with Beijing’s dogged building spree across the Southeast Asian country to reach the Indian Ocean and points west.Analysts say it is one more strand in the ever-expanding web of transportation channels pulling China and Southeast Asia closer under the banner of Beijing’s sprawling Belt and Road Initiative while boosting China’s sway across the region.Whether the new route actually pays off, they add, may hinge on whether and when new rail lines are laid across Myanmar, a challenge made tougher by the violent turmoil the country has tipped into since its Feb. 1 coup.Ties that bindThe Chinese Embassy in Myanmar announced the opening of the route after a successful test run with a post to its Facebook page.The trip started out by ship from Singapore to Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial hub, where it continued by road to the country’s border with China at Chinshwehaw, on the border with China’s Yunnan province. The cargo then finished the last leg of the journey over a new rail line from the border to Chengdu, the capital of China’s central Sichuan province.The embassy called it a new route for Beijing to the Indian Ocean and “an important breakthrough in strengthening China-Myanmar trade relations.”Bryan Tse, Myanmar analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, told VOA the project, “as with many of similar nature in Southeast Asia, will help strengthen trade ties between China and the region, and thus increase Chinese influence there.”Li Mingjiang, a China policy expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the new train tracks in China upgrade a trade route that has existed for years and will complement the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, a cornerstone of Beijing’s BRI.The corridor already features twin oil and gas pipelines bisecting Myanmar from the Bay of Bengal in the west to its border with China in the east, passing through Mandalay along the way. A deep-water port where the pipelines hit the coast is under construction. China’s plans also envision a high-speed rail line and expressway tracing the same path as the pipes, with an offshoot running south from Mandalay to Yangon, on the Andaman Sea.Critically for Beijing, the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea both open onto the Indian Ocean. That gives China’s oil and gas imports from the Middle East an alternative to passing through the chokepoint of the Malacca Strait near Singapore, a potential liability in the event of a conflict.Off the railsWith the rail line from the China-Myanmar border to Chengdu now up and running, China says the new trade route through Myanmar via Yangon will shave weeks off the time it takes to move goods between the Indian Ocean and Sichuan.Li, though, said the overland stretch through Myanmar by road makes for a tight bottleneck and will probably prove impractical for anything but specialty, high-value goods.“It’s too slow, and also in terms of volume it’s quite limited, and that’s going to be a major constraint,” he said.According to the analyst, the only real fix is for China to convince Myanmar to start laying new rail lines across Myanmar itself.“That’s the only way, but for a long time Myanmar has been not very supportive of such ideas. Even if Myanmar eventually agrees to this proposal, it will take time to build,” Li said, a few years at least.Until then, he added, the volume of goods China can move over the new trade route through Yangon will also do little to address Beijing’s “Malacca dilemma.”Facing loud opposition from locals along the proposed path of the tracks who fear losing their land for little or no compensation, Myanmar has only reluctantly agreed to China’s requests for feasibility studies.Tse said concerns over feasibility and cost have added to the delays.“Many joint projects have thus far suffered the same fate, and there are not many reasons to expect this to change for the better given the significantly poorer geopolitical and macroeconomic policy environment the [Myanmar] junta now finds itself in,” he said.Already hobbled by the pandemic, Myanmar’s economy has taken another big hit since the military toppled the country’s democratically elected government in February. Fitch Solutions, an international ratings agency, expects Myanmar’s economy to contract at least 20% this year.Tse said the new trade route as it stands could give the economy a boost, but not enough to “move the needle.”Trading favorsKhin Khin Kyaw Kyee, who follows China-Myanmar relations at Myanmar’s Institute for Strategy and Policy, a local think tank, expects even less from the new route.A handful of officials and well-connected companies may well cash in on logistics fees, she said, “but in terms of the ordinary … people and Myanmar as a country, I’m not sure whether we will be getting a lot of benefits.”What ordinary people need at least as much as infrastructure upgrades, she said, were better bilateral trade policies to help even the playing field with China and to formalize the large volume of informal cross-border trade now exposed to the whims of local officials.Khin Khin Kyaw Kyee added that the new trade route also has to contend with the uptick in fighting the coup has sparked between the military and armed rebel groups vying for territory on Myanmar’s fringes, some of them near the very stretch of the China-Myanmar border the route crosses.Since the coup, rights groups say Myanmar’s security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians and arrested thousands more in their bid to put down all forms of resistance to the junta, from protests to neighborhood militias and a civil disobedience movement. The U.S. and other Western countries have responded with a series of sanctions targeting senior military officials and their vast business interests.China and Russia, though, both major arms suppliers to Myanmar, have helped shield the junta from more coordinated international pressure at the United Nations.By embracing the new trade route, Khin Khin Kyaw Kyee said, the junta sees one more opportunity to keep China on its side.“At this point what they are all thinking is to woo China, to please China, so that they will get more diplomatic protection in the international community,” she said. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke for 90 minutes in their first talks in seven months on Thursday, discussing the need to avoid letting competition between the world’s two largest economies veer into conflict.The U.S. side said the “proof will be in the pudding” as to whether the stalemate can be broken with relations between the superpowers languishing at their lowest point in decades.A White House statement said Biden and Xi had “a broad, strategic discussion,” including areas where interests and values converge and diverge. The conversation focused on economic issues, climate change and COIVD-19, a senior U.S. official told reporters.”President Biden underscored the United States’ enduring interest in peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and the world and the two leaders discussed the responsibility of both nations to ensure competition does not veer into conflict,” the statement said.Occasional high-level meetings since Xi and Biden’s first call in February have yielded scant progress on a slew of issues, from human rights to transparency over the origins of COVID-19.During the ensuing months, the two sides have lashed out at each other almost constantly, often resorting to vitriolic public attacks, slapping sanctions on each other’s officials and criticizing the other for not upholding their international obligations.Chinese state media said Xi had told Biden that U.S. policy on China imposes “serious difficulties” on relations, but added that both sides agreed to maintain frequent contact and to ask working-level teams to increase communications.”China and the United States should … show strategic courage and insight, and political boldness, and push Sino-U.S. relations back to the right track of stable development as soon as possible,” the state media report said, citing Xi.Asian currencies and share markets strengthened on Friday, as investors speculated that the call could lead to some thaw in relations between the two most important trading partners for economies in the region.’Proof will be in the pudding’The Biden administration, preoccupied by a chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, has signaled that ending America’s longest war will give U.S. political and military leaders the space to focus on more pressing threats stemming from China’s rapid rise.But Beijing has been quick to seize on the U.S. failure in Afghanistan to try to portray the United States as a fickle partner and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said last month that Washington should not expect China’s cooperation on that or other issues if it was also trying to “contain and suppress” China.The senior U.S. administration official told reporters before the call that Washington had been disappointed that Chinese officials appeared only willing to read talking points during recent high-level talks, and that the U.S. side saw the leaders’ call as a test of whether direct engagement with Xi could end what has become a stalemate in ties.”This is about seeing if there is an ability to engage more substantively than we’ve been able to … the proof will be in the pudding,” the official said following the call, describing the tone as candid but respectful.But the official also acknowledged that the United States’ ability to change China’s behavior may be limited, and that Washington must largely focus on shoring up the U.S. competitiveness and rallying partners and allies.Successive U.S. administrations have complained that Beijing has sought to use endless dialogue as a delaying tactic and frustration with this tactic ultimately led to Washington ending an annualized U.S.-China dialogue mechanism.Even so, the official said Biden had not planned to raise the prospect of U.S. retaliatory action or “costs” if China refused to cooperate on a range of issues, including on COVID-19 origin investigations. Beijing denies the U.S. accusation that it hasn’t cooperated with investigations into the source of the pandemic.The U.S. official said it would “take time” and a “training period” for the Biden administration to convince Chinese leaders – who are themselves preparing domestically for an important Communist Party congress next year – that Beijing’s stance would not pay dividends.”We also think that essentially Beijing’s actions are quieter than their words,” the official said. “Their responses to our actions have actually been largely symbolic and frankly their hard-line rhetoric isn’t really working.”
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North Korea has been banned from the 2022 Beijing Winter Games after the  International Olympic Committee suspended the isolated regime for not participating in this year’s Tokyo Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach announced the decision Wednesday in Lausanne, telling reporters North Korea was the only nation that failed to send a team to Tokyo, which violated their obligations under the Olympic charter.   Pyongyang refused to send a team to Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tokyo Olympics were held under a state of emergency imposed due to the growing rate of infections in the Japanese capital and throughout Japan.  Bach said the North Korean Olympic Committee will not receive any financial support during the suspension, but added that the IOC reserves the right to consider any North Korean individuals who qualify for the Beijing Olympics, and to even reconsider the duration of the North’s suspension. North Korea participated in the 2018 Winter Olympics that were staged in Pyeongchang in rival South Korea.   Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence-France Presse.  
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North Korea held a nighttime military parade early Thursday, state media announced, but does not appear to have shown off any ballistic missiles or other advanced weaponry.  The North held the parade after midnight to mark the 73rd anniversary of the country’s national founding, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended the parade, sporting a tan, Western-style suit and a slimmed-down physique.  The 37-year-old leader, whose health has been the subject of constant speculation in Western media, has lost a significant amount of weight in recent months.  State media did not say whether Kim delivered any remarks at the event. It also did not mention whether any ballistic missiles were unveiled at the parade.  Instead, the parade featured small artillery, fire trucks, and rows of individuals wearing what were described as domestically produced orange hazmat suits, complete with hoods and gas masks, according to still images shown by state media. It is the third North Korean military parade in about a year and the first since U.S. President Joe Biden took office. Some analysts see the move as a possible way to pressure the U.S. amid stalled nuclear talks, though it is thought to be less provocative than a major weapons test.  Paramilitary parade held to mark the founding anniversary of the republic at Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang, Sep. 9, 2021.North Korea has rejected the Biden administration’s repeated offers to resume talks and has recently threatened a return to tensions, after Washington and Seoul held annual joint military drills. North Korean state television has not broadcast footage of the parade. Analysts rely on such footage to assess such parades, since no international media or foreigners are typically allowed to attend. In the past, North Korean state television has delayed such reports for up to a day, before airing carefully produced parade footage. The North’s last military parade was in January, when it unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile. At an October parade, it rolled out its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, which appears designed to overwhelm U.S. missile defenses.  All three parades were held at night, providing more dramatic shots of missiles, other weapons, and rows of goose-stepping soldiers.  North Korea often holds parades on major political anniversaries, both to demonstrate its latest military developments and to bolster domestic solidarity.  “We shouldn’t overinterpret foreign policy or negotiating signals from a parade that’s primarily aimed at domestic political audiences,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “North Korean society is under tremendous stress because of decisions made by the Kim regime. So, the parade is intended to show strength and serve as a quarantine morale booster,” he said. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, North Korea has enacted one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, nearly completely closing its borders, cutting off trade, and restricting domestic travel. It says it has detected no coronavirus cases, though few analysts believe that.  The lockdown has come with a major economic cost. Kim has repeatedly warned of food shortages, at one point even seeming to compare the situation to North Korea’s devastating 1990s famine. 
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