The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has warned in a statement that the global COVID vaccination rate “must increase rapidly and protection measures upheld, if we are to win the race against more transmissible, and potentially more deadly, variants.” 

“At least three quarters of people in most countries want to be vaccinated worldwide, in the face of emerging new variants, according to new survey data,” IFRC said. “However, despite lofty rhetoric about global solidarity, there is a deadly gap in the global plan to equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines. Only around a quarter of the world’s population have received at least one dose of the vaccine. This number drops dramatically in low-income countries, where only 1% of people have received one dose.  And some countries are yet to start mass vaccination campaigns.”  

A group of human rights advocates is calling for humanitarian aid for Myanmar’s “crippling COVID-19 crisis.”

Myanmar

The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar said in a statement that the country is experiencing “a massive third wave of COVID-19″ and is “in urgent need of help.”  It called on the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and “other actors” to deliver assistance “directly to the people now.”

Yanghee Lee, of the advisory council, in a statement, accused the country’s junta of “weaponising COVID-19 for its own political gain by suffocating the democracy movement and seeking to gain the legitimacy and control it craves – and has so far been denied – by deliberately fueling a humanitarian disaster and then co-opting the international response.”  

Millions of children did not receive their basic vaccinations last year as the world sought to bring the COVID-19 outbreak under control, leaving the youngsters vulnerable to preventable diseases like polio and measles.

The World Health Organization said in a recent statement that “23 million children missed out on basic vaccines through routine immunization services in 2020 – 3.7 million more than in 2019.”

Up to 17 million children, the WHO said, “likely did not receive a single vaccine during the year, widening already immense inequities in vaccine access.”

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Multiple disease outbreaks would be catastrophic for communities and health systems already battling COVID-19, making it more urgent than ever to invest in childhood vaccination and ensure every child is reached.”

“This is a wake-up call,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.  “We cannot allow a legacy of COVID-19 to be the resurgence of measles, polio and other killers.” 

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Friday that there are more than 189 million global COVID cases. Worldwide more than 4 million people have died from COVID-19.  

More than 3.5 billion vaccines have been administered, according to Johns Hopkins.
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U.S. President Joe Biden, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among Pacific Rim leaders gathering virtually to discuss strategies to help economies rebound from a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will chair the special leaders’ meeting Friday of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

But the pandemic and vaccine diplomacy have proved to be divisive issues among members of a forum that says its primary goal is to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

Biden spoke by phone with Ardern on Friday ahead of the leaders’ retreat and discussed U.S. interest in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region, a White House statement said.

“They also discussed our cooperation on and engagement with Pacific Island nations,” the statement said.

The Biden administration has put a premium on tending to relations with allies in the Pacific early in his administration.

One of his first high-profile acts of diplomacy as president was hosting a virtual summit with fellow leaders of the Quad – Australia, India and Japan – a group central to his efforts to counter China’s growing military and economic power. And he hosted Suga and South Korea President Moon Jae-in for the first in-person foreign leader meetings of his presidency. South Korea is an APEC member and India is the only country in the Quad that is not.

Biden plans to use the virtual APEC retreat to talk to leaders about his administration’s efforts to serve “as an arsenal of vaccines to the world” in the battle against COVID-19 pandemic and how members of the alliance can collaborate to bolster the global economy, according to a senior Biden administration who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. has donated 4.5 million vaccine doses to Indonesia, 2 million to Vietnam, 1 million to Malaysia, and 3.2 million doses will soon be delivered to the Philippines. The White House says donations to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea, will also soon be delivered. Laos and Cambodia are the only countries among those eight vaccine recipients that are not APEC members.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the “important meeting” came at a critical time as the world was facing a resurgence in COVID-19 infection numbers and international cooperation against the pandemic had entered a new stage.

“We hope all parties can uphold the vision of an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future, carry forward the Asia-Pacific partnership, send a positive message of fighting the coronavirus with solidarity and deepen economic recovery and cooperation,” Zhao said.

Suga will speak about his determination to hold a safe and secure Olympics when the games start in Tokyo on July 23, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said.

Suga will also emphasis Japan’s determination to secure fair access to vaccines for all countries and regions to support the global effort toward ending the COVID-19 pandemic, and Tokyo’s vision to expand a free and fair economic bloc, Kato said.

Ardern said APEC’s first leaders’ meeting outside the usual annual summits “reflects our desire to navigate together out of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis.”

“APEC economies have suffered their biggest contraction since the Second World War over the past year, with 81 million jobs lost. Responding collectively is vital to accelerate the economic recovery for the region,” said Ardern, whose South Pacific island nation has been among the most successful in the world in containing the virus.

The pace of a global vaccine rollout and conditions attached to international vaccine deals are vexed issues among APEC members.

The United States has been accused by some of hoarding vaccines. Biden came up well short on his goal of delivering 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the rest of the world by the end of June as a host of logistical and regulatory hurdles slowed the pace of U.S. vaccine diplomacy.

Although the Biden administration has announced that about 50 countries and entities will receive a share of the excess COVID-19 vaccine doses, the U.S. had shipped fewer than 24 million doses to 10 recipient countries by July 1, according to an Associated Press tally.

Taiwan, an APEC member that China claims as a renegade territory, has accused Beijing of tying the delivery of coronavirus vaccines to political demands. The government of the self-ruled island says China has intervened to block vaccine deliveries to Taiwan from fellow APEC members Japan and the United States.

China has accused Australia of interfering in the rollout of Chinese vaccines in former Australian colony Papua New Guinea. Both Australia and Papua New Guinea are also APEC members.

Sino-Australian relations plummeted last year when Australia called for an independent investigation into the origins of and responses to the pandemic.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who will also join the meeting, said in a statement now was a “critical time for Australia to engage with regional partners to promote free trade facilitation, in particular for vaccines and essential goods; build momentum for strengthening the multilateral trading system; and secure a sustainable and inclusive recovery.”

China said that by May it was providing COVID-19 vaccines to nearly 40 African countries, describing its actions as purely altruistic.

The vaccines were donated or sold at “favorable prices,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said.

The online leaders’ meeting that is chaired from the New Zealand capital Wellington and straddles 11 time zones comes before the scheduled annual summit in November.

New Zealand’s pandemic response has been among the most effective in the world and the isolated nation of 5 million people has recorded just 26 COVID-19 deaths. But its vaccination campaign has been far slower than in most developed countries.

Ardern said leading a regional response to the pandemic was one of New Zealand’s highest priorities when it took over as APEC’s chair from Malaysia in an annual rotation among the 21 members.

“I will be inviting discussion on immediate measures to achieve more coordinated regional action to assist recovery, as well as steps that will support inclusive and sustainable growth over the long term,” she said. “APEC leaders will work together to get through the pandemic and promote a sustainable and inclusive recovery, because nobody is safe until everyone is safe.” 
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An American journalist detained in Myanmar since May remains in prison following another virtual court appearance Thursday as he faces allegations of working to foment dissent against the country’s military government.   Danny Fenster, who is the managing editor of the website Frontier Myanmar, is being held for allegedly violating section 505-A of the country’s penal code.If he is found guilty, he could face up to three years in prison.“Nothing to report,” his brother Bryan Fenster, told the website Deadline Detroit following Thursday’s appearance. “There’s no indication when they will charge, if they will charge and what evidence they have,” he said.He also told the local digital news publication the family was worried about a new wave of COVID-19 hitting the country.  Bryan told Deadline Detroit he’d “heard prison guards and personnel are getting sick and are on leave.”In an email to cable channel CNBC, a State Department spokesperson wrote, “We are concerned with rising COVID-19 infection rates in Burma and urge the military regime to release Daniel now in light of declining public health conditions.”Another hearing is scheduled two weeks from now.“We remain deeply concerned over the continued detention of U.S. citizen Daniel Fenster, who was working as a journalist in Burma. We have pressed the military regime to release Daniel immediately and will continue to do so until he returns home safely to his family,” the State Department wrote, according to CNBC.Fenster was arrested May 24 at Yangon’s airport as he tried to leave the country.Another American journalist, Nathan Maung, who was detained in March for allegedly violating 505-A, was released Monday and left the country.Two Myanmar journalists were jailed for two years under the law, The Associated Press reported in June.The military took power February 1, overthrowing the civilian government and detaining de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other high-ranking officials.Since the coup, widespread protests have rocked Myanmar, many of them turning violent as government officials cracked down. Hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed by government troops and police since the coup.The U.S. has sanctioned military leaders, some of their family members and other businesses in the country.   The U.S. has also called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy Party, ousted President Win Myint, and protesters, journalists and human rights activists it says have been unjustly detained since the coup.   Military officials claimed widespread fraud in last November’s general election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide, as justification for the February takeover. The fraud allegations have been denied by Myanmar’s electoral commission.
 
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Indonesia, the world’s fourth-largest nation, is the latest hotspot for the fast-moving, highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19.  The nation reported more than 54,517 new coronavirus infections Wednesday, a new single-day record, along with 991 deaths. Hospitals on Java island are overflowing with infected patients and residents scrambling to find oxygen tanks to treat family members isolating at home. Indonesia’s rising daily COVID-19 rates have begun to outstrip that of India, where the variant was first detected.  India endured a disastrous outbreak earlier this year, with a peak of more than 400,000 daily cases in early May, now down to about 40,000.  The Associated Press says about 1.5 million doses of the two-dose Moderna vaccine are set to arrive in Indonesia from the United States Thursday, coming on the heels of three million doses that arrived Sunday.  Only 15 million of the country’s 270 million people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Lockdown in Victoria state, AustraliaThe delta variant outbreak continues to wreak havoc in Australia, where officials in the southern state of Victoria imposed an immediate five-day lockdown Thursday as the number of new cases there rose to 18 in just over two days. Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said the state’s six million residents, including its capital Melbourne, will only be able to leave home for medical reasons, essential work, school, grocery shopping, exercise and getting vaccinated. The lockdown is Victoria state’s third lockdown this year and its fifth since the start of the pandemic.   
 FILE – Essential workers walk past a ‘Heroes Wear Masks’ sign on the first day of a seven-day lockdown as the state of Victoria looks to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Melbourne, Australia, May 28, 2021.“We would prefer that we didn’t have to deal with these issues, but this is so infectious, this is such a challenge that we have, we must do this,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne. “You only get one chance to go hard and go fast.” The latest stay-at-home order for Victoria state comes a day after neighboring New South Wales state extended the current lockdown for its capital, Sydney, for another two weeks.  People wait outside a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination center at Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney, Australia, July 14, 2021.The lockdown was first imposed on June 26 after a Sydney airport limousine driver who had been transporting international air crews tested positive for the variant. More than 800 people have since been infected, including 97 new infections reported Wednesday.  Two people have died in the current outbreak.  Sydney’s five million residents are only allowed to leave home for work, exercise, essential shopping or medical reasons, while schools and many non-essential businesses are closed.  Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 through aggressive lockdown efforts, posting just 31,513 total confirmed cases and 912 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. But it has proved vulnerable to fresh outbreaks due to a slow rollout of its vaccination campaign and confusing requirements involving the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the dominant vaccine in its stockpile.  Overall, Australia has administered over 9.4 million doses of vaccine to its population of more than 25 million people, or less than 10%, according to Johns Hopkins.  The current worldwide toll from the COVID-19 pandemic now stands at 188.4 million confirmed infections, including over 4 million deaths. 
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Search teams were trying Thursday to rescue 14 construction workers trapped by an overnight flood in a tunnel being built in southern China.The cause of the 3:30 a.m. flood in the city of Zhuhai is under investigation, the city’s emergency management department said in an online post.A command center was set up, and the rescue teams were mobilized from several city agencies.Zhuhai is a coastal city in Guangdong province near Macao at the mouth of the Pearl River delta.It was one of China’s early special economic zones when the ruling Communist Party started opening up the economy about 40 years ago.
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Chen Yun, a Chinese student at the University of Melbourne, has always been curious about different political systems. After she arrived in Australia, she started posting on social media about the push for democratic reforms in China.Then came the harassment. She started receiving emails warning that she should be “careful” because if she returns to China, someone would “give her a lesson.”“I thought I could talk about whatever I want after coming here. I thought I could show my support for democracy but I didn’t expect I actually don’t have that freedom,” she told VOA Mandarin, asking to use a pseudonym due to fear of retaliation by the Chinese government.Chen’s experience is not unique. Following the deterioration of relations between Canberra and Beijing over the past two years, there has been growing concern in Australia about China’s influence on higher education, and whether it has undermined academic freedom on campus.The concern was echoed in a recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The report, titled “They Don’t Understand the Fear We Have,” pointed out that pro-democracy Chinese students and scholars enrolled in Australian universities have experienced harassment and intimidation if they speak out in classes and on campus.  “Pro-democracy students from mainland China and Hong Kong experience direct harassment and intimidation from Chinese classmates—including threats of physical violence, being reported on to Chinese authorities back home, being doxed online, or threatened with doxing,” the report said, adding these threats can occur both in person and online. Doxing, also known as doxxing, is publicly identifying or publishing private information about a person to punish them or for revenge.  According to the report, the Chinese embassy and its consulates in Australia encourage students to report on activities by their classmates that might pose a threat to China’s national security. The Chinese embassy in Canberra did not respond to VOA Mandarin’s request for comment on the HRW report.For Wu Lebao, 38, the monitoring has led to stress, anxiety, and real impact on his daily life.Wu is a mathematics student at the Australian National University. He started to participate in pro-democracy movements in China before arriving in Australia and has been harassed by the secret police when he’s in Beijing.  “Yet the nightmare continues here,” Wu told VOA Mandarin by phone.“At first it’s just verbal attacks online, but since last year, I’ve been receiving messages from someone, who claimed that he/she knows which dorm I’m in,” Wu said. “I would receive text messages at midnight, saying someone would ‘come and get me.’ Honestly, I think this person lives in the same building as me, whenever I speak out on our online group, he/she soon responds with some kind of harassment.””Now I couldn’t really sleep at night,” he said.Many Chinese students who want to keep a low profile said they find themselves self-censoring to avoid being reported by their classmates to Chinese authorities. Many of the students who spoke with VOA Mandarin said they had heard rumors, but had no evidence, that students received payment for reporting other Chinese students or teachers.  Yang Xin, who is in the fourth year of his studies, told VOA Mandarin via phone that he needs to be careful about what he says in class to make sure it cannot be interpreted as “not patriotic enough.” He asked to use a pseudonym to avoid government retaliation.“There was this discussion on Taiwanese culture. I personally find Taiwanese culture unique and fascinating but I didn’t say that in the classroom,” he said. “Why? Because I know that will be framed as pro-Taiwan independence. Then I might be questioned when I go back to China and even my relatives might be impacted.”For Yang, the worst part is not knowing who’s watching him. “It creates a lot of anxiety and fear, because anyone around you could be the one that’s reporting you to the authorities,” he said.According to Australia’s Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), as of April 2021, there are over 150,000 students from mainland China studying at Australia’s universities, where they represent close to 30% of all international students.“University officials are acutely aware of the financial impact full fee-paying international students have on their institutions and how reliant they have become on their fees, which accounted for 27 percent of total operating revenue for the Australian university sector by 2019,” according to HRW. U.S. colleges and universities have been similarly dependent on Chinese students, according to World Education News * Reviews.More than half, or 62% of Chinese students returned home during the COVID-19 pandemic and switched to online learning. This posed new challenges to faculties at universities, according to HRW, as “Course material designed for Australian campuses was now being accessed by students behind the ‘Great Firewall’ of China, which posed new and difficult security risks for students and academics alike. Despite this, many academics said their university had not offered any official guidance on teaching Chinese students remotely and the security considerations.”American sociologist Salvatore Babones is an associate professor at the University of Sydney where he focuses on China’s global economic integration. He said restrictions hinder his students in China.If he assigns work that requires using sources from major media like the BBC or the New York Times, “it’s illegal for the students in China to access those media. So it makes it very difficult for them to do their work. I can’t require them to use credible sources when the credible sources are blocked,” he told VOA by phone.Babones added that in order to protect students in China, he had allowed them to use sources readily available to them even though the material sometimes doesn’t meet the academic requirements of his class.It’s a predicament well understood by Kuo Mei-fen, a lecturer at the Department of Media and Communications at the Macquarie University in Sydney who switched to online teaching last year.“There are a few students who are taking online courses in China. Some of them don’t talk at all in class, while others are speaking in line with the Chinese official tones,” she told VOA Mandarin via phone. “I think there’s a consensus among us teachers not to put too much pressure on Chinese students during these online classes, because that might put them in danger.”
 
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As the Delta variant spreads in record numbers in Indonesia, hospitals are overwhelmed. The situation is forcing many residents to care for sick families themselves. VOA’s Ahadian Utama reports.Producer: Eva MazrievaAhadian Utama contributed to this report. 
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With the majority of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition in jail facing myriad charges against individuals and associated groups, authorities’ attention has turned to the city’s civil society organizations, experts say. When Hong Kong’s national security law went into effect last year, it acted as a catalyst for authorities to arrests dozens of high-profile activists following the anti-government protests in 2019. The law prohibits things such as secession and foreign collusion, and those convicted of breaking it can be punished with up to life imprisonment. But the fear of the law alone is now affecting the city’s top civil society groups. The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Movements of China is facing its most difficult period to date after announcing it will reduce its number of staff to minimize any security threats. Richard Tsoi, the group’s secretary, is one of the seven who are resigning from their posts. He told VOA the decision was made to reduce the risk for future prosecution, with the alliance operating at a minimum. It will work with volunteers to do some of the work of the full-time staff members who are leaving. The risk to the volunteers would not be great, Tsoi said. “We will definitely continue the operation of the Hong Kong Alliance, we will not surrender. But we think we should at least try to reduce the number of our leadership, our committee members. Basically now, seven out of the 14 committee members will resign. We are hoping to reduce the potential harm to us. With lesser manpower and resources but definitely will continue to see how we deal with the situation in the future,” Tsoi said. The organization was founded two weeks before June 4, 1989, when China’s People’s Liberation Army violently cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing unknown numbers. The alliance today is known for assembling Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil commemoration. But authorities have banned the memorial for the last two years, citing the coronavirus pandemic. The current chairman, veteran activist Lee Cheuk Yan, is in jail. But speaking to VOA in 2020, Lee said it would be “very difficult” for the annual vigil to be legally approved again. “It’s not [just] the Tiananmen Square vigils, it’s everything that have attraction for the masses,” he said at the time. Like Lee, the Hong Kong Alliance’s vice-chairman, Albert Ho, also is serving a jail sentence. Both pleaded guilty to participating in an illegal assembly during Hong Kong’s 2019 protests. Tsoi was one of two people who received suspended sentences by a Hong Kong court in May. The remaining eight were given immediate jail terms, including Lee and Ho, as well as media mogul Jimmy Lai.Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists Sentenced for 2019 Protests Ten defendants sentenced, eight given immediate jail terms for their roles in one of Hong Kong’s most chaotic street protests Lai, 73, was the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily that was forced to close in June after 26 years of publication after national security authorities arrested company executives for suspected foreign collusion and froze the company’s financial access. 
 
Chow Hang-tung, the vice-chairwoman for the Hong Kong Alliance, said she is well aware their organization, like the media, is being targeted. 
 
“Apart from media I think they want to target civil society organizations, NGOs and all these political parties and groups. … A lot of people are saying the Civil Human Rights Front or us [Hong Kong Alliance] are the authorities’ next target,” she told VOA. Chow spoke to VOA hours before police arrested her on June 30, following allegations she was inciting assembly ahead of the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain back to China. She remains in custody.Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activist Arrested Again Police superintendent tells local media that Chow Hang Tung’s arrest ‘in accordance with the law’ Political analyst Joseph Cheng, formerly of Hong Kong but now in Australia, told VOA in a phone call that civil society groups now face more pressure than in previous years because of the national security law. 
 
“The members, the leaders feel very threatened. There is a concern that staff members working for such groups are in danger,” Cheng said. 
 
He added their reduction of staff numbers reflects Hong Kong’s declining freedoms under the security law.  
 
“In a way, this is very much related to the national security law. The joint alliance (Hong Kong Alliance and the Civil Human Rights Front) insists on using one of the slogans, maintaining one of the principles to terminate one-party dictatorship, and this has been interpreted against the national security law. As a result, there is a distinct danger the members will be prosecuted,” Cheng said. 
 
And he added that civil society groups are going to find it very difficult to operate today in Hong Kong. 
 
“You have to be politically correct to engage in associations. And this demand for political correctness has become very strict,” Cheng added. 
 
It comes after more than half of the 400 elected district councillors across 18 Hong Kong districts quit their posts following a recently implemented oath-taking law that targets “unpatriotic” civil servants. Pledging alliance deemed mandatory to lawmakers and government officials until the new law came into effect in May of this year. 
 
During the height of the anti-government protests in November 2019, the District Council elections saw a landslide victory for the pro-democracy opposition. Although local councillors are usually assigned to improving community welfare, the election results were deemed to be an unofficial referendum supporting the city’s large democratic movement. Nearly 3 million people voted, which is slightly less than half of the 7.5 million population in Hong Kong. 
 
Under the “one country, two systems” agreement signed by Britain and China in 1997, after the city was transferred back to Chinese rule, Beijing promised that Hong Kong would retain a “high degree of autonomy” until 2047.  
 
After 2019’s anti-government protests, Beijing implemented the national security law for Hong Kong that came into effect on June 30, 2020. Among other things, it prohibits secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and its details can be widely interpreted. 
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When His Holiness the Dalai Lama turned 86, he observed his birthday by promising to continue serving humanity and advocating for the environment. Celebrations worldwide marked the day. ICYMI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama celebrated his 86th birthday, promising to serve humanity and protect the climate in a virtual address from India’s northern hill town of Dharamsala From the library of Qinghai Normal University, Xining. The script is “Dearest person in exile, the heart-to-heart years will never disappear and change no matter how bumpy the road far away.” (Social media)Other images and footage from Tibet showed Tibetans marking the day creatively. One man wore a sweater with the number “86” embroidered across the back. VOA Tibetan contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington via phone and email for a comment on the birthday observations but did not receive a response. Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 and has since lived in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala. More than 140,000 Tibetans live in exile, mostly in India. More than 6 million Tibetans live in the Tibet Autonomous Region and other autonomous prefectures in neighboring Chinese provinces.Chinese authorities have long banned photographs of the Dalai Lama and expression of public devotion to the spiritual leader.  China accuses him of seeking to separate Tibet from China.   The Dalai Lama repeatedly has said he seeks greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence from China.  Sharing photographs of the Dalai Lama and his teachings and talks in defiance of Chinese law has resulted in Tibetans being arrested in Tibetan regions. China has responded to international condemnation of Beijing’s alleged human rights violations in Tibet by saying its actions “are China’s internal affairs, and the outside world should not interfere,” as A young Tibetan draws a portrait of the Dalai Lama in a post from Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Qinghai province. The caption is “Leader of world peace, very happy birthday to you.” (Social media)The ban on references to the Dalai Lama is part of the effort by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to bring Tibetans into the Chinese mainstream, by restricting the Tibetan language and culture, according to the U.S. State Department, in a 2020 report on religious freedom. The “Sinification” of Tibetan language and culture, coupled with Beijing’s investment in infrastructure in the region, suggests “China Wants to Build a Tibet With More Wealth and Less Buddhism,” according to a Bloomberg headline. Xinghua, a media outlet controlled by the CCP, reported in February that since 2012, China has built roads that have connected 95 percent of the township-level administrations and 75 percent of the incorporated villages in the Tibet region. 
 
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The White House announced Tuesday that first lady Jill Biden will lead the official U.S. delegation at the Tokyo Olympics on July 23 without her husband, U.S. President Joe Biden.
News of her trip comes days after Tokyo officials, upon consultation with Olympic officials, decided to hold the Olympic games without fans, after recent surges in COVID-19 cases prompted the Japanese government to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and the surrounding area.
 
White House Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a recent briefing that a White House advance team had been sent to Tokyo to assess the feasibility of Jill Biden’s visit. Last week, she said that despite the increase in coronavirus cases, the president still supports U.S. athletes traveling there for the competition.
 
The trip will be the first lady’s first solo international trip since her husband took office. She previously accompanied the president on his trip to Britain for the G-7 leaders’ summit and has kept a busy domestic travel schedule in recent months as part of the administration’s efforts to encourage vaccinations. 
Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters news services.
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Japan will make additional donations of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan and other Asian neighbors this week, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tuesday. Japan will ship 1 million doses each to Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam on Thursday as part of bilateral deals with those governments, Motegi told reporters. An additional 11 million doses donated through the COVAX sharing scheme will be sent this month to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, Laos, Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as various Pacific Island states, he said. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry expressed thanks for the gesture, particularly at a serious stage in Japan’s own coronavirus battle. Japan has donated about 3.4 million doses to Taiwan in a show of support for the Chinese-claimed island. “The friendship between Taiwan and Japan is unwavering,” the Taiwan ministry said in a statement. “The Foreign Ministry once again thanks our partners in freedom and democracy for their warm assistance and strong support.” In a statement, Vietnam said it would receive a million doses from Japan on Friday in Ho Chi Minh City, where it is fighting its largest outbreak yet after months of successful containment. “It is encouraging that a number of richer countries have made generous pledges and donations of vaccines to countries in Asia in recent weeks,” said Alexander Matheou of aid group the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “We need to speed up the delivery of these lifesaving doses so that we can get them into people’s arms, giving us a genuine shot at containing this pandemic once and for all.” Taiwan has complained that Chinese interference blocked its deal this year to secure vaccines from Germany’s BioNTech, charges Beijing has denied. Since then, vaccine donations have rolled into Taiwan. Taiwan’s relatively small domestic COVID-19 outbreak has generally been brought under control, except for a few sporadic community infections. Japan has pledged $1 billion and 30 million doses to COVAX. Motegi said on Tuesday the AstraZeneca doses made in Japan were approved by the World Health Organization on July 9 for use in COVAX.  
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The United States called out genocide and atrocities happening in six countries —Myanmar (also known as Burma,) China, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria and South Sudan — as part of a report highlighting how the U.S. government is using financial, diplomatic and other measures to try to stop them. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday released an Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about the release of the 2021 Congressional Report Pursuant to the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act at the State Department in Washington, July 12, 2021.”We’ll use all of the tools that are at our disposal, including diplomacy, foreign assistance, investigations in fact-finding missions, financial tools and engagements, and reports like this one, which raise awareness and allow us to generate coordinated international pressure and response,” Blinken added.In January, Blinken affirmed that China was committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region. The State Department continues to restrict visas for Chinese officials believed to be responsible for detaining or abusing Muslim minorities.The U.S., European Union, Britain and Canada had sanctioned two Chinese officials for their involvement in the human rights abuses. Dozens of Chinese companies have also been added to the U.S. Entity List for their roles in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.  The prevention of a genocide is not only a moral responsibility but also an obligation under international law, said some experts, while noting some limitations. FILE – A perimeter fence is constructed around what is officially known as a vocational skills education center in Dabancheng in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, Sept. 4, 2018.”Acts of genocide are crimes of universal jurisdiction in U.S. federal courts. No matter where the crimes of genocide were committed, the perpetrators can be tried in U.S. federal courts,” Gregory Stanton, the founding president of FILE – A woman leans on the wall of a damaged house that was shelled as federal-aligned forces entered the city, in Wukro, north of Mekele, capital of Tigray, March 1, 2021.In March, Blinken called atrocities committed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region acts of ethnic cleansing. The U.S. is restricting certain nonhumanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, as well as placing new defense trade controls on that country.”Both reviews are ongoing. We’re bringing together the facts, the legal assessments, and both are being very actively considered,” said the top U.S. diplomat on Monday when asked about the U.S. government’s decision on whether to call atrocities committed in Tigray and in Burma (against Rohingya) crimes against humanity or genocide. But Genocide Watch’s Stanton criticized the State Department, saying its lawyers have blocked declarations that genocide had been committed in many other countries.  “For three months during the Rwandan genocide, they refused to call it genocide. They are still blocking recognition that genocide was committed against the Rohingya in Burma. They are blocking recognition that genocide is being committed against Christians in Nigeria,” Stanton told VOA in an email on Monday.   The Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 was signed into U.S. law on January 14, 2019. The law requires updates on the U.S. government’s efforts to prevent and respond to atrocities based on a global assessment of ongoing atrocities and countries at risk of atrocities.  
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