The number of major Australian cities heading into lockdown due to the growing presence of the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 has risen to four. Authorities in the eastern state of Queensland imposed a three-day lockdown for the capital, Brisbane, and other neighboring regions that took effect Tuesday evening, while in Western Australian state, the capital Perth entered a four-day lockdown. The cities of Darwin, the capital of Northern Territory state, and Sydney in New South Wales state are already under lengthy lockdowns.   At least 150 newly confirmed coronavirus cases across Australia have been traced to a Sydney airport limousine driver who had been transporting international air crews. A transit worker is seen wearing a face mask inside a mostly empty city center train station during a lockdown in Sydney, Australia, June 29, 2021.Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 due to aggressive lockdown efforts, posting just 30,560 total confirmed cases and 910 deaths, according to 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. Health officials are now offering the AstraZeneca vaccine to all adults under 60 years of age, lifting a restriction imposed due to concerns of a rare blood clotting condition that has been blamed for at least one death.  Adults under the age of 60 had only been able to receive the two-shot Pfizer vaccine, which is in far less supply than the AstraZeneca shot. Delta variant gains ground The delta variant of COVID-19, which was first detected in India, has now been identified in more than 80 countries and continues to spread rapidly across the globe.  FILE – Pedestrians walk past a sign warning members of the public about a “Coronavirus variant of concern,” in Hounslow, west London, Britain, June 1, 2021.Portugal, Spain and Hong Kong have announced new restrictions on travelers from Britain, where nearly 95% of its COVID-19 cases are of the delta variant.  The United States on Monday raised its travel advisories to Liberia, Uganda, Mozambique and Zambia and United Arab Emirates to Level 4 — “Do not travel” — due to their increasing rates of COVID-19 infections. Bangladesh is preparing to impose a strict one-week lockdown due to a wave of new COVID-19 infections.  The government announced Monday that soldiers, police and border guards will be deployed to enforce the lockdown, which takes effect Thursday and mandates that most of its 168 million residents remain indoors, except for those who work in Bangladesh’s critical garment industry or other essential services. Tens of thousands of migrant workers are scrambling to evacuate the capital, Dhaka, before the lockdown goes into effect.   The country reported a record-high 119 coronavirus related deaths on Monday.   COVID-19 vaccine updates A handful of new studies is providing welcome news in the fight against COVID-19. A new study conducted by scientists at Oxford University suggests that mixing the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines in a two-shot regimen will provide a higher level of immunity against the disease than both doses of AstraZeneca, regardless of the order they were given.   FILE – A nurse fills a syringe with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a health care center in Seoul, Feb. 26, 2021.A separate Oxford study shows a third dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced a strong immune response.  The vaccine, which was developed jointly by AstraZeneca and Oxford, is given as two doses between four and 12 weeks apart. The study involved 90 volunteers in Britain who received a third dose of AstraZeneca after participating in the initial clinical trial last year.  Meanwhile, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said Monday in a study published in the journal Nature that the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna may protect a person against the disease for years. The study suggests that people who received either of the vaccines, which were developed through the messenger RNA technology, may not have to receive a booster shot.   Dr. Ali Ellebedy, the study’s lead researcher, said a person’s immunity is still highly active even 15 weeks after receiving the first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.  He said a person’s immunity typically declines after one or two weeks after vaccination.  Dr. Ellebedy said the study did not consider the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but he said he expected the immune response from that vaccine to be less durable than those produced by the mRNA vaccines.  As of early Tuesday, there are 181.3 million confirmed COVID-19 infections around the world, including 3.9 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.  The United States leads both categories with 33.6 million confirmed cases and 604,114 deaths. India is second in the number of total infections with 30.3 million, followed by Brazil with 18.4 million.  The positions are reversed in the number of fatalities, with Brazil in second place with 514,092 and India in third with 397,637.  
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The United States said it looks forward to this week’s trade talks with Taiwan as the two economies continue to strengthen bilateral trade ties, despite China’s objection.   After a five-year pause, the U.S. and Taiwan will resume talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) council meeting Wednesday.  “Taiwan is a leading democracy and major economy and a security partner,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Monday during a briefing. “And we will continue to strengthen our relationship across all areas, all the areas we cooperate, including on economic issues. We’re committed to the importance of the U.S.- Taiwan trade and investment relationships.”  In Beijing, Chinese officials voiced their opposition. “China has all along opposed any U.S. attempt to elevate relations in essence or engage in official interactions with Taiwan in any form,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a recent briefing.    In a statement, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan will continue its close economic and trade relationship with the U.S., further “exploring cooperation in areas of mutual interest” through talks under TIFA.  Taiwan is the 10th-largest trading partner of the U.S., and the U.S. is Taiwan’s second-largest trading partner.    The U.S. has maintained a robust cultural, commercial and unofficial relationship with Taiwan after Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979.  US Encourages Closer Ties with Taiwan Without Changing ‘One China’ PolicyThe State Department announced new measures to encourage US government engagement with Taiwan that reflects a “deepening unofficial relationship””Our support for Taiwan is rock solid,” Psaki said, adding the U.S. is concerned about China’s “attempts to intimidate others” in the Indo-Pacific region.    “We’ve also been clear publicly and privately about our growing concerns about China’s aggressions toward Taiwan. The P.R.C. has taken [an] increasingly [coercive] course of action to undercut democracy in Taiwan. We will continue to express our strong concerns to Beijing in that regard,” she added. In 1994, the U.S. and Taiwan signed TIFA, which served as a platform to advance bilateral trade and investment interests. Since then, 10 rounds of trade talks have taken place. It stalled after 2016 as the U.S. focused on trade talks with China.   VOA’s Steve Herman contributed to this report.
 
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Behind roadblocks and hundreds of police in the Chinese capital of Beijing on Friday, fireworks resembling the national flag bloomed over the city as part of secretive and tightly choreographed rehearsals for the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party.
Beijing has shut down traffic, decked streets in patriotic flower arrangements and national flags, and ramped up surveillance and security this week in preparation for the centenary event on July 1.
The covert rehearsals represent the final stages of a yearlong planning effort, designed to glorify party history and cement domestic loyalty to China’s socialist system.
“Without the Communist Party, there is no new China,” read new propaganda posters throughout the city.
Plans for the event haven’t been fully revealed, though state media and government agencies have hinted at a large-scale theatrical event in Tiananmen Square. A performance is scheduled for Monday at the Bird’s Nest stadium, built for the 2008 Olympics.A police officer wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus stands guard near masked Chinese paramilitary officers preparing for their duties near rows of seats setup on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, June 28, 2021.The anniversary has been preceded by a clampdown on potential dissident activity, including a spate of arrests this year under a law banning the defamation of national heroes, and an online venue for citizens to report “historical nihilists,” a phrase referring to those sharing unsanctioned versions of party history.
Upgraded security and its attendant disruption aren’t unusual ahead of major political events in the capital, but the fanfare has taken on added importance amid new political challenges to the party at home and abroad.
“It comes down to legitimacy. … What you’re sitting through in those events is an extended performance for the benefit of the domestic public to basically legitimize an unelected government. Which is why, in short, these things are so important,” said Graeme Smith, a fellow in the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University specializing in Chinese politics.Chinese women take a selfie with a floral decoration with the words “Without the Communist Party, There would be no new China” in Beijing, June 28, 2021.No room for error
On June 23, residents in the old-style hutongs in Beijing awoke to find alleys decked out in a coordinated display of Chinese national flags, visible by almost every doorway.
Beginning in May, teams dressed in orange work uniforms became a common sight throughout the city, upgrading roadside decor and creating elaborate floral arrangements made up of 2.3 million seedlings and potted plants, according to state media.
At the same time, security organs have ramped up surveillance and other restrictions.  Last week, police officers went door to door in Beijing’s central Dongcheng district checking house registrations and confirming the number of people living at each address, people in the neighborhood told Reuters.
A Dongcheng police official told Reuters that such visits were “normal inspections.”
People on a citywide list of residents suffering from mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, received house calls and phone checks from authorities, a common practice ahead of major political events, according to two people who received the calls and a doctor who said many of their patients had been contacted.
The Beijing city government did not reply to a request for comment.
Four merchants on China’s top e-commerce site, Taobao.com, told Reuters they had been banned from shipping items including gas bottles and other flammable products to Beijing residents beginning in June. Taobao’s owner, Alibaba, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
“It’s like having an enormous birthday party and not wanting your embarrassing neighbors to spoil it,” said Smith, adding that propaganda around so-called “sensitive days” on Beijing’s calendar can also serve as a warning to potential dissidents.
Throughout China, local state-run institutions, including hospitals, schools and military units, will hold special events marking the anniversary, including political education sessions and party history exhibitions.
“The whole army will transform the political enthusiasm radiated by the celebrations into practical actions to advance the cause of strengthening the country and the army in the new era,” Ren Guoqiang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said June 23.
Censorship of China’s already tightly controlled cyberspace has intensified.
Two people working at the Tianjin-based censorship unit of social media firm ByteDance Ltd. and one Beijing-based censor for Chinese search engine Baidu.com said they had received new directives in recent months on removing negative commentary about the anniversary. Neither company immediately replied to requests for comment.
“There’s no room for error,” said one ByteDance staffer, who declined to be named because they are not permitted to speak to foreign media.
As of Friday, patriotic fervor on display in Beijing’s streets was largely mirrored online. Despite tight censorship, however, a small number of netizens griped over the road closings and costly events that are closed to the public.
“My family has lived in Beijing for several generations. I have become accustomed to this,” said one commenter on the social media site Weibo.com, venting concerns about pollution from the mass firework displays. “This city has sacrificed too much for politics.”
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Australia is facing a smaller and older population as a result of coronavirus, according to a landmark government study that is published every five years. The Fifth Intergenerational Report is forecasting slower population growth in Australia due to falling levels of immigration and a sharp decline in the fertility rate.    The reports are published every five years. They forecast the outlooks for the economy and the budget over the next four decades.   Modeling has suggested that the economic legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic is going to be felt for many years to come. It has highlighted the ballooning costs of health care as the population ages.   By 2060, there will be just 2.7 people of working age for every person aged over 65 in Australia, compared to the current level of four people, which puts a greater strain on public finances.  The taxes of working-age people help to support the essential services for a growing cohort of older Australians.   The government has said its challenge was to fund aged care services while “maintaining a sustainable tax burden” on workers.   Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.   “What this Fifth Intergenerational Report does show is that the Australian economy continues to grow, that we have debt increasing but it remains sustainable and low by international standards, but that we do have a major challenge ahead of us, namely the aging of the population, the longer-term impacts of COVID and the need for Australia to boost productivity,” Frydenberg said.Twenty-five million people live in Australia.  The Fifth Intergenerational Report has predicted that number will to grow to about 39 million by 2060, which is less than previous estimates.     It is the first time that long-term population projections have been revised downwards.  It means the Australian economy will be smaller and the community will be older than previously anticipated.    Migration has boosted economic growth and can reduce the impact of an aging population, but Australia closed its international borders in March 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19 and immigration has all but stopped.  Even when travel restrictions are eased, the government says migration levels will take years to recover.  Girls born in Australia between 2017 and 2019 can expect to live 85-years, or about 4 years longer than boys. 
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Pressure from China over a festering maritime sovereignty dispute has added momentum to Malaysia’s drive for a more modern air force including the purchase of 36 new aircraft, analysts believe. Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense issued a notice June 22 saying that it would accept bids for light combat aircraft and trainers for the air force. The three-month open tender for an initial 18 aircraft fits into the Malaysian Royal Air Force’s broader modernization effort. A plan dubbed Capability 55 calls for getting another 18 aircraft of the same type by 2025 plus six unmanned aerial systems to improve maritime patrols. The air force’s pursuit of new hardware follows a navy modernization made public in 2017. Analysts said at the time the fleet upgrades would help monitor for Chinese vessels in the contested, resource-rich South China Sea.Malaysia Buying Chinese Ships to Protect its Waters From China, Others

        Malaysia’s deal to buy Chinese naval ships and step up patrols against any intrusions from China underscores the complexity of relations between the two countries and signals growing concern over national defense.Officials from the Southeast Asian country, with a coastline stretching from the Sulu Sea westward to the Indian Ocean, said in November they would get four littoral mission ships made in China.Littoral mission ships are relatively small vessels designed in the past for stealth combat near…

Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry protested earlier this month over 16 Chinese warplanes that were picked up by radar 111 kilometers off the coast of Borneo Island located in the South China Sea.Malaysia Accuses Chinese Military of Violating its AirspaceMalaysia to lodge formal protest with Chinese envoy over “intrusion”   China’s flyby raised the urgency of bringing aircraft up to date in Malaysia, experts in the Southeast Asian country say. “That incident highlights the need for Malaysia to have more modern patrol aircraft, if anything,” said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “I think in general our air force equipments are really outdated.”   China’s activity by itself didn’t prompt the air force overhaul but can hardly be overlooked, said Shariman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia.   “It’s China but it’s not China,” he said. “It’s the long-term thing. It’s (been) in the plan for some time already.” British-made Hawk aircraft in the air force today are “platforms for defending the sovereignty of our nation’s air space” despite their age of 25 years at the time, chief General Tan Sri Affendi Buang said in 2019 via a Malaysia-based Sun Daily news website report.   Hawks lack the payload of more modern planes, Lockman said. The aircraft model is often used for training rather than formal missions, as well. Malaysia sent Hawks to intercept the 16 Chinese planes this month to monitor their flight path. Malaysia entered a prolonged standoff in November with China over a disputed tract of sea, also near Borneo, known for undersea fossil fuel reserves. Malaysia is the more aggressive driller for oil and gas in waters where the standoff took place. Beijing claims about 90% of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, which extends from Borneo north to Hong Kong. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam call parts of the sea their own, and Taiwan claims most of it. Claimants prize the waterway for fisheries and fossil fuel reserves. China is the most militarily advanced of the six governments. The others resent China’s landfilling of small islets in the sea over the past decade for military use and passing vessels through waters they call their own. Beijing cites historical usage records to back its claims including in the exclusive economic zones of other states such as Malaysia.   “It appears that the biggest conventional challenge that the Malaysian military faces from now is China’s growing presence in the form of an increasing number of naval and coast guard vessels and the Chinese newly built installations in the South China Sea,” said Fabrizio Bozzato, senior research fellow at the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute.   Malaysia’s defense ministry will probably look at buying the new aircraft from Europe, India, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, according to analysts and defense media reports. Citizens in Malaysia may chafe at the bill, however, Lockman said. They would expect the government to keep pumping money into stimulus as COVID-19 caseloads prolong a severe lockdown. “Spending on stuff made abroad is not exactly a popular thing,” he said. 
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North Korean state television has acknowledged Kim Jong Un’s apparent weight loss, even admitting that the leader’s health is a subject of concern in Pyongyang. The admission was broadcast during an interview with a North Korea resident on state-run Korean Central Television, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. “The people were most heartbroken to see the respected general secretary looking thinner,” the resident said in the interview broadcast Friday. “Everyone is saying that they are moved to tears.” The comments were included in an unrelated KCTV report featuring street interviews with residents expressing opinions on a variety of topics, including a recent cultural performance.  The report did not mention what, if any, health issues Kim was experiencing. Analysts said, though, that it still appears important that Pyongyang is acknowledging his changed appearance. “Minimally, someone decided that Kim’s visible weight loss would be the elephant in the room — the now palpably much slimmer elephant in the room — if they DIDN’T mention it, as everyone is talking about it. You can’t not notice it,” Aidan Foster-Carter, a veteran, Britain-based Korea specialist, told VOA in an online message. The 37-year-old’s health has often been the subject of intense speculation, most recently after he appeared on state TV looking much trimmer than he had several weeks before. 
 
Though Kim’s new physique was apparent in his thinner face and baggier clothes, one news outlet found a way to possibly confirm the weight loss by comparing state media images of the leader’s $12,000 IWC Portofino Automatic watch.   NK News, a Seoul-based news outlet, concluded that the length of the watch’s strap past the buckle was longer in recent state media images than those published in November.   Rumors about Kim’s health intensified last year after he skipped a major public birthday celebration for his late grandfather, North Korea’s founding leader. Since then, Kim has been absent from state media for several extended periods of time without explanation.  FILE – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Changrindo defensive position on the west front, in this undated picture released by North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA), Nov. 25, 2019.Kim, a frequent cigarette smoker, appears much heavier than when he took power in 2011. Last year, South Korea’s spy agency reported Kim weighed over 136 kilograms.  Rumors about Kim’s health also circulated in 2014, when he was absent from public view for several weeks. He eventually resurfaced using a cane; state media cryptically said he had experienced “discomfort,” but did not elaborate. Kim is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea. His father, Kim Jong Il, died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 69. Although his death was unexpected, he had appeared sickly at the end of his life.  “There is a big difference between how his dad looked in his final years — clearly shrunken in a not good, ill sort of way — and the new svelte Kim Jong Un. From what I’ve seen he looks better than before,” Foster-Carter said. Although media discussion about Kim’s weight often takes a light-hearted or mocking tone, his health situation is important, since he exercises authoritarian rule over a nuclear-armed country that may not have a succession plan in place. Kim Jong Un’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, appears to have gained influence in recent years, but it is not clear whether she would be a part of any succession plan.FILE – Kim Yo Jong, right, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, helps Kim sign joint statement following the summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse in Pyongyang, Sept. 19, 2018.Earlier this month, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported that the ruling North Korean Workers’ Party recently created a de facto second-in-command position. It reported that Jo Yong Won, a close aide to Kim, appears to have been elected to the position.  
The developments come amid tough times in North Korea. Earlier this month, Kim acknowledged his country faces a “tense” food situation.  North Korea went into a severe coronavirus lockdown in January 2020, cutting off almost all contact with the outside world and even restraining trade with its economic lifeline, China. The KCTV comments about Kim’s health could be part of a domestic propaganda campaign designed to show that Kim is “tightening his belt” during hardship, says Peter Ward, a Seoul-based Korea specialist and PhD candidate at the University of Vienna. “But I doubt he lost weight because of that,” Ward added. “The fact that the media is talking about it means the authorities understand it’s a major story inside the country,” he says. “And they want the people to speak in specific ways about it. Call it the North Korean version of message discipline, if you will.”  
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For the second time in as many days, anti-government protesters took to the streets of Bangkok demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-O-Cha.Saturday’s demonstrations came two days after protesters gathered by the thousands outside parliament and Cabinet offices to mark 89th anniversary of Thailand’s transition from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one. Thursday’s gatherings were the first anti-government rallies since the Southeast Asian country’s most drastic resurgence of COVID-19 infections triggered lockdowns in April.Hundreds turned out again Saturday in violation of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions to apply more pressure on the government.“We would like to get a new government to control Thailand. We need to change the constitution first and then we change all the system. We have to rewrite again,” said Witsaruj, 34, who told VOA he regularly participates in the demonstrations. “I think the power of the people [can] make the change. If we have a meaningful vote, then we can restart Thailand. Democracy is the power of the people.”Police stand in line blocking road access during anti-government protests in Bangkok, Thailand, June 26, 2021. (Tommy Walker/VOA)Pandemic procedures criticizedProtesters have voiced their disapproval of the government’s handling of the pandemic and vaccine rollout. Some were seen carrying signs criticizing the Chinese-made Sinovac as hundreds of police were on standby, barricading roads to government offices.By evening, longtime political activist Jatuporn Prompan led his Thai Mai Thon (Impatient Thais) camp toward Cabinet offices before rerouting in the face of street blockades, shortly after which the enthusiastic but peaceful protesters settled outside Thailand’s Rajamangala University campus. Speakers, addressing crowds on makeshift podiums, took turns criticizing the administration, with some labeling Prayuth a dictator.A Thai police officer stands beside a barricade during anti-government protests in Bangkok, Thailand, June 26, 2021. (Tommy Walker/VOA)The rally ended a few minutes past 10 p.m. local time with no major incident, but Jatuporn called for more rallies with bigger numbers next week.Kan Sangtong, who works as an observer with Amnesty International Thailand & iLaw as part of a human rights project, told VOA that he expected similar protests.“I think it will be peaceful,” he said. “They cannot be aggressive, because they know they don’t win. But they just have the motivation and the heart.”Unpopular figurePrayuth Chan-O-Cha, formerly the leader of the Thai military, seized power in the 2014 coup. He was elected prime minister in 2019 in disputed elections. He has the backing of the monarchy and a Senate he helped appoint but remains unpopular with many young Thais.The Thai protests erupted in August last year, directly criticizing the role of the monarchy and of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and demanding a reduction in their political powers.Thousands took to the streets, sometimes leading to violence and skirmishes between protesters and riot police, with authorities deploying tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds.This week’s protests, however, were a signal to Thai leaders that the youth-led movement for political reforms hasn’t stalled despite numerous charges against many of its activist leaders, including allegations of defamation of the monarchy. Thailand lèse-majesté law carries up to 15 years in prison per conviction for insulting or defaming prominent royals.Activists threaten to drive toward riot police during heated protests outside the Government House, Bangkok, Thailand, June 26, 2021. (Tommy Walker/VOA)In an attempt to fix economic woes, Prayuth recently vowed in a televised broadcast to reopen the country to tourism, which constitutes an estimated 12% of the nation’s gross domestic product, by October.Despite the economy being hit hard in 2020, the International Monetary Fund projects Thailand’s economy to grow by 2.6% in 2021. A partial reopening of Thailand’s tourism sector will begin next week, as Phuket, the popular island hot spot, is set to welcome fully vaccinated international visitors starting July 1.Thailand has documented more than 236,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 1,800 deaths since the pandemic began, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, which says more than 8.9 million vaccination doses have been administered within its borders.This report includes information from Reuters.
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Cui Tiankai, the 69-year-old career diplomat who has served as China’s ambassador to the United States since April 2013, is getting ready to go home.American analysts mostly give Cui high marks for how he represented his country — or at least its government — during his eight-year tenure. But they also question the degree to which he or any Chinese diplomat has been able to influence decision-making in Beijing.Winston Lord, former U.S. ambassador to China, and Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, are among those who say Cui has been a highly effective diplomat.“Ambassador Cui Tiankai has done an outstanding job in my view, during a very difficult period,” Lord said in a phone interview from his home in New York.Skilled, respectedThe fact that Cui remained in his post for so long attests to his skill and the respect in which he is held, Lord said. “He’s been very strong in defending Chinese interests, of course, but he’s always done so with a sense of trying to encourage some sort of dialogue, even though we’ve got some sharp disagreements.”Glaser attended some events Cui hosted at the Chinese Embassy. When asked about the senior diplomat’s mannerisms at those functions, she recalled that “sometimes he was gracious, sometimes he used tougher language when that was appropriate — he’s a very good diplomat, and he adjusts his messaging based on the prevailing situation in the U.S.-China relationship.”FILE – China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai walks past the closed-door morning session of U.S.-China talks in Anchorage, Alaska, March 19, 2021.When Cui took up his post, FILE – Attendees masked to curb the spread of the coronavirus sit near a screen showing China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai at the Lanting Forum on improving China-U.S. relations, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, Feb. 22, 2021.The Chinese ambassadors, meanwhile, “probably are going to have a more difficult time,” he said. “It’s a lot more difficult politically for the [Chinese] ambassador here to go back to Beijing and say, ‘Look, you’re making a mistake,’ or that the American point of view is not unreasonable.”David Stilwell, who served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from June 2019 until January, said Cui’s dilemma has its roots in the political culture in Beijing.“I feel sorry for Ambassador Cui; he’s been between a rock and a hard place for the last eight years,” Stilwell said in a phone interview from Honolulu. “As the man on the ground in D.C., he was responsible for telling Beijing what to expect from the new administration.” Stilwell was referring to hardened stance towards the Chinese government adopted by the administration led by President Donald Trump.Criticism ‘not tolerated’However, “suggesting that General Secretary Xi [Jinping] needed to change course, to compromise, would be tantamount to criticism,” Stilwell continued. “In the cult of personality that surrounds Xi Jinping, criticism is not tolerated.”Stilwell said that he imagined “Cui saw the train wreck that was coming but couldn’t do anything to stop it, nor could he get out of the way.” By “train wreck,” Stilwell said he was referring to the perception in Beijing of the drastic downturn in bilateral relations.“From where I sat, it was long overdue course correction,” he said.
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China’s government on Friday criticized U.S. curbs on imports of solar panel materials that might be made with forced labor as an attack on its development and said Beijing will protect Chinese companies but gave no details of possible retaliation.
The U.S. customs agency said Thursday it will block imports of polysilicon from Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., which might use forced labor as part of a Beijing campaign against ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region in the northwest. Imports from six other Chinese suppliers of raw materials and components for solar panels also are to be restricted.  
Washington is using “human rights as a disguise” to “suppress the industrial development of Xinjiang,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian.
“The United States doesn’t care at all about the Xinjiang people,” Zhao said. “Their real plots and sinister intentions are to mess up Xinjiang to contain China.”
Chinese officials reject accusations of forced labor and other abuses against predominantly Muslim groups in Xinjiang. They say detention camps in which as many as 1 million people are held are for job training and to combat radicalism.
The U.S. move is a potential hurdle for President Joe Biden’s ambition to promote solar power. Hoshine is one of the biggest global suppliers of polysilicon, a material used to make solar panels.
Zhao said Beijing will “take all necessary measures” to protect its companies but gave no details. Chinese spokespeople have made similar comments in response to earlier U.S. trade sanctions, usually followed by no official action.  
The U.S. customs agency said an investigation found evidence that workers in the Xinjiang polysilicon industry were intimidated and threatened and their movement restricted.  
Direct imports from Hoshine into the United States over the past 2 1/2 years totaled about $6 million while finished goods that include material from the company were about $150 million, according to the U.S. government.
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The first national study of its kind has found “consistent links” between racism and poor mental and physical health of Aboriginal Australians. The study has found that discrimination is associated with elevated rates of depression, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.This is the first time Australian researchers have found a connection between discrimination and health.  Racism has been linked to higher rates of depression, heart disease and diabetes in Indigenous communities.Almost 60% of respondents to the Australian National University study said they have faced prejudice in their everyday lives. It corrodes self-belief and their “cultural wellbeing,” the study said.Alcohol dependence is another visible symptom of racism, according to the academics.They analyzed data from more than 8,000 Indigenous Australians between 2018 and 2020.One of the authors, associate professor Raymond Lovett, said the impact of discrimination on health is profound.“If people experienced even a small amount of discrimination and racism, then we saw a very high reporting of those poorer outcomes,” he said. “And then, when we looked at the really severe end about experiencing a lot of this kind of discrimination, those outcomes were multiplied even further, which tells us that, you know, the more you experience the more of an impact it has.”Life expectancy for Aboriginal Australians is about eight years less than non-Indigenous people. Rates of unemployment and imprisonment are also disproportionately high.Campaigners also claim racism is one reason why large numbers of Aboriginal children are removed from their families by child protection officials.  Reports have said they are almost 10 times more likely to be taken into state care than nonAboriginal children.Indigenous activist Ray Minniecon said parents are invariably bereft when judges order their children be taken away.“The hardest and most harrowing thing that you can feel is, you know, when our mothers and fathers come out of that particular court and then their kids are gone and they cannot get them back, and they have got no power,” he said. “They are just powerless, and they are just sitting in the streets there on the gutter and we just can sit there and cry with them and that is all we can do.”The Australian government has said there have been “heartening improvements” in “key areas” of First Nation health and education, but it has acknowledged that much more needs to be done.Australia’s original inhabitants make up about 3% of Australia’s population and have a history dating back an estimated 65,000 years.
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Workers and residents in Sydney were ordered to stay home for a week on Friday, as authorities locked down several central areas of Australia’s largest city to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19.Sixty-five COVID-19 cases have been reported so far in the flare-up linked to a limousine driver infected about two weeks ago when he transported an international flight crew from Sydney airport to a quarantine hotel.But authorities have since identified scores of potential infection sites visited by thousands of people across central Sydney, including the city’s main business district.Authorities have been alarmed by instances of people passing on the virus during fleeting encounters in shops and then quickly infecting close family contacts.Premier Gladys Berejiklian of New South Wales state, which includes Sydney, called it the “scariest period” since the pandemic broke out more than a year ago.On Friday, she ordered anyone who lived or worked in four central Sydney neighborhoods to stay home for at least a week, only venturing out to purchase essential goods, obtain medical care, exercise or if they are unable to work from home.The restrictions included central business district workers over fears that commuters were potentially spreading the virus into other parts of the city, Berejiklian said.”We’ve done better than expected in terms of contact tracing and getting on top of all those links,” she said.”But what this does is make sure that we haven’t missed any chains of community transmission.”An earlier ban on Sydneysiders leaving the city was also extended until next Friday, as traces of the virus were detected in sewage in the far-flung outback town of Bourke, about nine hours drive northwest of Sydney.It was a dramatic development for a city that had returned to relative normality after months of recording very few local cases.Australia Medical Association President Omar Khorshid chided New South Wales authorities for not taking tougher action, including locking down the entire Sydney metropolitan region, home to some 5 million people.”The Delta virus is different; it is being transmitted far more easily,” Khorshid told media in Canberra. “Sydney has not faced this before.”Korshid warned that although the economic impact of a lockdown was hard, a wider outbreak could be “catastrophic” for the whole country.It is the latest in a string of snap “circuit-breaker” lockdowns across major cities around Australia, with most cases linked to returning travelers held in hotel quarantine.Australia has been among the world’s most successful countries in containing COVID-19, with more than 30,000 cases and 910 deaths in a population of about 25 million.
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U.S. President Joe Biden called the shuttering of Hong Kong’s independent Apple Daily newspaper a “sad day for media freedom in Hong Kong and around the world,” blaming China for “intensifying repression.”“Through arrests, threats and forcing through a National Security Law that penalizes free speech, Beijing has insisted on wielding its power to suppress independent media and silence dissenting views,” Biden said in a statement.He accused Beijing of denying Hong Kong “basic liberties and assaulting Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic institutions and processes.”The parent company of the Hong Kong-based pro-democracy Apple Daily announced Wednesday that it would shut down the publication this week.The decision to close Apple Daily came nearly a week after more than 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s offices and arrested its chief editor, Ryan Law, and four other executives with the newspaper and its publisher, Next Digital. Authorities then froze $2.3 million of its assets, leaving the company unable to pay its staffers.Law and Chief Executive Officer Cheung Kim-hung have been charged with colluding with a foreign country and have been denied bail.Apple Daily and its publisher, Next Digital founder and owner Jimmy Lai, 73, have been the target of Hong Kong authorities since China imposed a strict national security law last June in response to the massive and sometimes violent anti-government protests in 2019.The newspaper’s offices were raided last August after Lai was arrested at his house on suspicion of foreign collusion.Lai is serving a 14-month prison sentence for taking part in separate unauthorized assemblies in 2019. His assets in Next Digital were frozen by the government last month.Hong Kong authorities have cited dozens of articles published by Apple Daily it says violated the security law, which targets anyone authorities suspect of carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces.
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