Davos, Switzerland — With Donald Trump back as US president with his confrontational style, Chinese, European and Ukrainian leaders are expected to defend global cooperation on Tuesday at the annual gathering of the world’s elites in Davos.

There will no doubt be a Trump-sized elephant in the rooms at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss Alpine resort. even if some leaders avoid saying his name — although the man will speak himself by video link on Thursday.

Trump returned to the White House on Monday, bringing with him a more protectionist administration and fears he will deliver on promises to slap heavy tariffs on China and U.S. allies including Canada and the European Union.

In his inaugural address, he vowed Washington will “tariff and tax foreign countries.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will kick the day off.

She appeared, in a post on X as she arrived in Davos, to give a taste of what to expect, defending the “need to work together to avoid a global race to the bottom” and wanting to “forge new partnerships.”

China, Ukraine

China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang — also a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s apex of power that rules the country — will speak immediately after von der Leyen.

China is taking a cautious approach to Trump. After Chinese President Xi Jinping’s conversation with Trump by phone on Friday, he said he hoped for a “good start” to relations with the new administration.

Although Trump said he would undertake sweeping trade penalties against China, he has also indicated he wants to improve ties — and even stepped in to reverse a U.S. ban of Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok on national security grounds.

Ukraine meanwhile is keeping a very close eye on what Trump’s second mandate will involve.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to call on world leaders and company executives to maintain — and even ramp up — their support for his country’s fight against Russia.

Zelenskyy on Monday said he is hopeful Trump will help achieve a “just peace.”

European ‘struggle’

Europeans are set to dominate the forum’s key speeches here on Tuesday.

Embattled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will address the forum, likely his last as leader ahead of elections next month. Also speaking on Tuesday will be conservative leader Friedrich Merz, the favorite to succeed him as German chancellor.

Europeans are fretting the most about Trump’s return while countries from Brazil to China and India to Turkey believe he will be good for their countries and global peace, according to a survey last week from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

The report accompanying the survey of over 28,500 people across 24 countries serves as a warning for European leaders to act cautiously.

“Europeans will struggle to find internal unity or global power in leading an outright resistance to the new administration,” the ECFR report’s authors said.

‘Better understand’ Trump

Middle East conflicts will also be high on the agenda as Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani speak in separate sessions during the first full day of the forum.

As a fragile ceasefire holds in the Israel-Hamas war, the forum will host a discussion on how to improve aid delivery to the Palestinian territory of Gaza and how to kickstart the reconstruction and recovery after heavy bombardment.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will also deliver a special address on Tuesday, as the African continent’s most industrialized country shows it is open for business.

Despite suggestions Trump’s return would overshadow the forum that began on the same day as his inauguration in Washington, WEF President Borge Brende said the president had brought fresh interest to the gathering.

“It has increased the interest in Davos because people feel they need to come together to better understand what’s on its way,” Brende told AFP in an interview.
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BEIJING — China issued its first national action plan to build a “strong education nation” by 2035, which it said would help coordinate its education development, improve efficiencies in innovation and build a “strong country.”

The plan, issued Sunday by the Communist Party’s central committee and the State Council, aims to establish a “high quality education system” with accessibility and quality “among the best in the world.”

The announcement was made after data on Friday showed China’s population fell for a third consecutive year in 2024, with the number of deaths outpacing a slight increase in births, and experts cautioning that the downturn will worsen in the coming years.

High childcare and education costs have been a key factor for many young Chinese opting out of having children, at a time when many face uncertainty over their job prospects amid sluggish economic growth.

“By 2035, an education power will be built,” the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that China would explore gradually expanding the scope of free education, increase “high-quality” undergraduate enrolment, expand postgraduate education, and raise the proportion of doctoral students.

The plan aims to promote “healthy growth and all-round development of students,” making sure primary and secondary school students have at least two hours of physical activity daily, to effectively control the myopia, or nearsightedness, and obesity rates.

“Popularizing” mental health education and establishing a national student mental health monitoring and early warning system would also be implemented, it said.

It also aims to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas to improve the operating conditions of small-scale rural schools and improve the care system for children with disabilities and those belonging to agricultural migrant populations.

The plan also aims to steadily increase the supply of kindergarten places and the accessibility of preschool education.
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BANGKOK  — Thailand’s plans to legalize online gambling are raising fears that criminal gangs will use the industry to move and launder their illicit proceeds as they have done with gambling operators in neighboring countries.

Prasert Jantararuangtong, Thailand’s minister of digital economy and society, said last week that a bill could be ready within a month. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, widely seen as a major force behind the current government, led by his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, avidly endorsed the idea as well last week.

The averred impetus for the push has been both economic and legal.

Thaksin claimed a regulated online gambling industry could net the government nearly $3 billion in annual revenue. By bringing an industry already operating in the shadows into the light, Prasert said the move could also drive out the criminals currently behind many of the betting sites.

“The goal is to regulate underground gambling operations, bringing them into the legal framework and ensuring proper taxation,” Prasert told reporters.

The push for online gambling is moving ahead as the government is preparing to legalize physical casinos inside integrated resorts featuring hotels, shopping malls and other entertainment. A related bill is due for debate in the National Assembly soon, after winning approval from the prime minister’s Cabinet on Monday.

Gambling in Thailand is currently restricted to betting on state-run horse races and an official lottery.

Many have been warning that expanding the scope of legal gambling in Thailand, especially online, is rife with risk.

Bringing underground gambling operations under government regulation can do some good, Benedikt Hofmann, deputy representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told VOA.

“But it also opens the door for ostensibly legitimate investments and use of the system by criminal actors for their illicit purposes, especially in a region rife with such actors. As we have seen in the Philippines, creating legal licensing and regulatory frameworks for gambling operators, like the POGO scheme, did not prevent the system from being taken over by highly problematic actors,” he said.

The Philippines launched POGO, the Philippines Offshore Gaming Operator, in 2016 to license online gambling operators, but shut down the program last year. In a state of the nation address in July, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the industry had morphed into a hotbed of cyberscamming, money laundering and human trafficking.

Hofmann said online gambling sites often spring up from physical casinos and can turbocharge their criminal activities.

“Taking advantage of the online space, these operations function around the clock and are theoretically accessible from anywhere in the world, so the reach and volume of both licit and illicit funds processed are much larger. They also offer easier ways to integrate crypto transactions and reduce customer touchpoints, making them highly attractive for money laundering,” he said.

In a 2023 report, the UNODC said Southeast Asia’s transnational crime syndicates had effectively turned the region’s casinos and online betting sites into their own shadow banking network, using them to move and launder tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars a year in earnings from illegal gambling, drug trafficking, cyberscams and other organized crime.

Besides the Philippines, many of those casinos and betting sites operate just across the border from Thailand in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Amanda Gore, director of the Center for Global Advancement and a forensic accountant who has investigated financial crime around the world, said Thailand’s neighborhood puts the country at high risk of having its own online gambling industry exploited.

“Because they’ve got the same sort of geographical issues … the drug trafficking, the organized crime; it’s all in that area. So, they’re going to have to be extremely strict, and if they’re not then it’s probably going to end up going the same way as the Philippines,” she told VOA.

Gore said the operators behind these online gambling sites often move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in search of the most permissive conditions, and warned that some of those recently shut out of the Philippines could look to Thailand next unless it passes strong laws and backs them up with strict enforcement.

“The key is going to be whether they have a strong enforcement presence behind those regulations and laws as well, because if they don’t, I think it’s going to be very, very vulnerable to the criminal groups in the region, particularly from the money laundering perspective,” she said.

Government officials have said they are aware of the risks and insisted they would only roll out the casinos and online gambling licenses with the necessary guardrails, but they have yet to provide any details.

Spokespersons for the prime minister’s office and the ministries of interior and digital economy and society did not reply to VOA’s requests for elaboration.

Rangsiman Rome, an opposition lawmaker in Thailand’s House of Representatives who chairs the committee on national security, told VOA that he supports the legalization of casinos and a limited online gambling industry in principle but believes the government is not yet up to the task of managing either safely.

“The current law, including law enforcement, is not enough to protect Thai society from the gray capital, the mafia or … money laundering,” he said. “Because now the money laundering already happens, it happens every day, and it looks like the Thai authorities don’t know how to stop this.”

Rangsiman said the government should give itself, lawmakers and the public more time to study and debate the pros and cons before pressing ahead, and that it should focus on rooting out the corruption in the agencies that would be tasked with enforcing any new laws on casinos and gambling first.

Thailand has arrested dozens of police officers for running or protecting underground gambling operations in recent years.

“We see a lot of corruption that happens in Thailand, so we have to fix this before we allow the casinos,” Rangsiman said.

Gore suggested Thailand study well-established gambling commissions such as the United Kingdom’s, which she said could offer useful lessons on how to sanction operators that fail to follow the rules.

The UNODC’s Hofmann said Thailand should also focus on making sure its regulators carefully vet casino investors and players, and consider foregoing online gambling and cryptocurrency payments altogether.

“Even then, risks will remain,” he said, “as we have seen with organized crime infiltrating casino sectors around the world.”
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JAYAPURA, Indonesia — The woman carries bananas, yams and vegetables in a knotted bag on her head as she wanders through a market in a suburban area of Jayapura in eastern Indonesia. 

Even in the Papua capital and bigger cities of the province, a noken bag where people carry their daily essentials is a common sight. 

The distinctive bag, handcrafted from natural fibers like tree bark or leaves, is woven and knotted with threads of Papuan heritage. The U.N. cultural agency UNESCO recognized the traditional bag as needing urgent safeguarding in 2012 because there are fewer crafters making noken and more competition from factory-made bags. 

Crafter Mariana Pekei sells her handmade bags daily in Youtefa market in Jayapura, along with other women from her village. 

“It is difficult to craft from the tree bark,” Pekei said. 

They collect the raw materials from melinjo trees or orchids, facing dangers like mosquitoes in the forest. They then process the material into thread fibers, including by spinning the fibers together in their palms and on their thighs, which can cause wounds and scar their skin. 

“If it’s made of yarn, we can craft, knot it directly with our hands,” Pekei said. 

The price of noken depends on the material as well as the craftsmanship. A small bag can be made in a day, but the bigger ones require more creativity from the maker and more precision and patience. 

Sometimes, the noken is colored by using natural dyes, mostly light brown or cream with some yellowish brown. 

“Those are the color of Papuan people and the Papuan land,” Pekei said. 

With its seemingly simple yet intricate winding technique and the symbolism it holds, the noken has become a valuable item passed down from generation to generation. 

For people from outside Papua, noken are much desired and can be found easily at markets or souvenir stores. Despite the high transportation costs, crafters often journey from their remote villages to Jayapura, determined to sell their noken and share their craft with the city. 

But more than just a practical tool for carrying goods or souvenir, Pekei said that a noken serves as a powerful cultural symbol, representing the resilience, unity and creativity of the Papuan people.
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PHUKET, THAILAND — Plastic bottles and empty beer cans roll on the sea floor in the waters around Phuket in southern Thailand, while ever more garbage piles up on the island itself, a tourist hotspot better known for its pristine beaches and stunning sunsets.

In one corner of the island, trucks and tractors trundle back and forth moving piles of trash around a sprawling landfill, the final destination for much of the more than 1,000 tonnes of waste collected on Phuket every day.

In a matter of months, the landfill has grown so large it has replaced the previous serene mountain view from Vassana Toyou’s home.

“There is no life outside the house, (we) just stay at home,” she said. “The smell is very strong, you have to wear a mask.”

To cope with the stench, Vassana said she keeps her air conditioner and air purifiers switched on all the time, doubling her electricity bill.

Phuket, Thailand’s largest island, has undergone rapid development due to its tourism sector, a major driver of the Thai economy as a whole. Of the country’s 35.5 million foreign arrivals in 2024, about 13 million headed to the island.

“The growth of (Phuket) city has been much more rapid than it should be,” said Suppachoke Laongphet, deputy mayor of the island’s main municipality, explaining how a tourism and construction boom has pushed trash volumes above pre-COVID levels.

By the end of year, the island could be producing up to 1,400 tonnes of trash a day, overwhelming its sole landfill, he said.

Authorities are pushing ahead with plans to cut waste generation by 15% in six months, expand the landfill and build a new incinerator, he said, as the island strives to become a more sustainable tourist destination.

But increasing capacity and incinerators is only part of the solution, experts say.

“If you just keep expanding more waste incinerators, I don’t think that would be just the solution,” said Panate Manomaivibool, an assistant professor in waste management at Burapha University.

“They need to focus on waste reduction and separation.” 
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Washington — The United States has been ramping up its Indo-Pacific region air bases to ensure they are protected against attack, a spokesperson for the U.S. Pacific Air Forces told VOA this week, amid concerns over vulnerabilities they face in countries such as Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea against potential Chinese strikes.

“While we are continually improving our theater posture, warfighting advantage, and integration with allied and partners, Pacific Air Forces stands ready every day to respond to anything that poses a threat to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the spokesperson said.

“We continue to invest in infrastructure and technology to enhance the resilience and survivability of our bases and facilities across the theater including hardening airfields and buildings while investing in advanced security systems to protect our personnel and assets,” the spokesperson told VOA on Tuesday.

The Air Force was authorized with “$916.6 million to improve logistics, maintenance capabilities, and prepositioning of equipment, munitions, fuel, and material in the Indo-Pacific” through the fiscal 2024 Pacific Deterrence Initiative, the spokesperson added. The Pacific Deterrence Initiative is a set of defense priorities set up in 2021 by congress to support U.S. goals in the Indo-Pacific, primarily to counter China.

The comments were made in response to a report last week by the Hudson Institute claiming that U.S. aircraft at allied Indo-Pacific country bases could suffer major losses from Chinese attacks unless those bases are fortified.

If left unfortified, the U.S. air power in the region would be significantly reduced compared to China’s, according to the report, Concrete Sky: Air Based Hardening in the Western Pacific.

One of the reasons, according to the report, is that the U.S. is lagging behind China in the number of shelters that could hide and protect the aircraft from attacks.

China more than doubled the number of aircraft shelters since the early 2010s, having more than 3,000, according to the report. Across 134 Chinese air bases located within 1,000 nautical miles from the Taiwan Strait, China has more than 650 hardened aircraft shelters and nearly 2,000 nonhardened individual aircraft shelters.

A hardened shelter is a reinforced structure made of steel, concrete, and other materials to protect military aircraft from enemy strikes.

In comparison, the U.S. has added two hardened shelters and 41 nonhardened ones within 1,000 nautical miles of the Taiwan Strait and outside South Korea since the 2010s, continues the report.

This means if a war breaks out over Taiwan, U.S. aircraft could suffer more damage than China’s if they attacked each other’s bases in the region, which would prevent U.S. air operation for a duration of time, said analysts.

According to Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center’s Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Program, attacks on U.S. bases in the Pacific region, including Japan could “prevent the U.S. Air Force from conducting fighter operations for about the first 12 days of a conflict from U.S. bases in Japan.”

Grieco continued, based on her own report published by the Stimson Center, that Chinese missiles could also take out runways and aerial refueling tankers, rendering them unusable over a month at U.S. bases in Japan and over half week at U.S. military bases in Guam and other Pacific locations.

“It’s not possible to harden a runway or taxiway,” that is exposed as easy targets to destroy, disabling aircraft from taking off, she said. This begs the question of whether it is worth investing in hardening facilities, she adds.

The Hudson Institute report says within the 1,000 nautical miles of Taiwan, China has added 20 runways and 49 taxiways since the 2010s while the U.S. added one runway and one taxiway.

Unhardened airfields

Among U.S. air bases in allied countries of Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea, those in the Philippines are the least protected, Timothy Walton, one of the authors of the Hudson report, told VOA.

“In Japan, Kadena and Misawa Air Bases are the most fortified U.S. bases, while the remainder are largely unfortified,” said Walton, a senior fellow at Hudson’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology.

“In the Republic of Korea, the two U.S. Air Force bases, Osan and Kunsan, are hardened. Airfields in the Philippines are unhardened,” he said.

Grieco said the U.S. would mostly rely on its bases in Japan, Guam, and other Pacific locations as South Korea would “restrict the use of U.S. bases in its territory in a Taiwan contingency out of concern about North Korean aggression and to avoid a rupture with Beijing.”

U.S. Representative John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, and 13 other lawmakers underlined last year the importance of hardened shelters to protect against Chinese attacks.

In a letter sent to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro in May, they said, “U.S. bases in the region have almost no hardened aircraft shelters compared to Chinese military bases,” leading to U.S. air assets being “highly vulnerable to Chinese strikes.”

Aside from hardened shelters, analysts pointed to dispersing airfields as important.

Steven Rudder, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former commanding general of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, said, “When you look at the number of aircraft in the Asia Pacific, I am not sure that the ability to harden every single aircraft parking space would be as effective as a distributed force.”

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense researcher at Rand Corporation, said dispersing airfields are important against nuclear strikes.

Against conventional warhead missiles, shelters are “key to the protection,” said Bennett. “But if there’s a nuclear threat, you’ve got to have different airfields” as alternative locations to park and land aircraft and to provide logistic support such as fueling, maintenance, and repair, he said.

Bennett added the disparity in the number of aircraft shelters between the China and U.S. seems to stem from U.S. air superiority.

“What the U.S. Air Force tends to perceive is that we’ve got the ability to deal with the Chinese air force in an air-to-air combat” where China traditionally felt it would lose air-to-air combat against the U.S. and therefore wants to take U.S. aircraft on the ground before engaging in air while sheltering theirs heavily on the ground, Bennett said.

“The question becomes, as the Chinese aircraft get better and as they start fielding fifth generation fighter, will the U.S. need the ability to attack Chinese airfields with conventional weapons? I don’t think the Defense Department has considered it as one of important tasks,” Bennett said.
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The chief of the Indian army this week said that India is not yet looking to reduce troops at the India-China border in the winter season. The comment comes days after both countries agreed on six principles to ensure peace and stability at the border in a meeting in Beijing. But analysts believe a lack of trust and differences in strategic objectives would make the resolution process extremely difficult.  

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 

 
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Taiwan plans to spend $4.56 billion to boost its startup ecosystem and has set up a liaison center in Silicon Valley designated to attract American venture capital and talent to Taiwan. Liu Chin-ching, minister of the National Development Council of Taiwan, told VOA of the importance of the bridge between the U.S. and Taiwan, adding that the Taiwan government would support new tech sectors such as quantum computing, silicon photonics and next-generation drones. 

 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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South Korean authorities detained impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol early Wednesday. The move ends a weeks-long standoff over the current status of Yoon, who is being investigated for insurrection related to his short-lived declaration of martial law. More from VOA’s Bill Gallo in Seoul.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korean authorities are making a fresh effort to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, days after he evaded the first attempt to enforce a court-approved warrant with the protection of presidential security and military forces.

A team of investigators arrived before dawn Wednesday at the heavily fortified presidential compound in central Seoul. Yoon has been holed up there as he pushes against a government insurrection investigation related to his short-lived declaration of martial law.

Reports suggest authorities are prepared to use a much larger force — consisting of about 1,000 police officers — and more forceful tactics to detain Yoon than they did in their previous attempt nearly two weeks ago.

According to Yonhap News Agency, authorities are bracing for an operation that could last up to three days and may use loudspeakers for psychological warfare, as well as cranes and tow trucks to remove any barriers.

The presidential residence, which lies in a sprawling, hilly compound in the Hannam-dong neighborhood, has been fortified with extra barbed wire fencing and tightly packed buses and other vehicles that block the path to Yoon’s residence.

Despite the predawn hour and subfreezing temperatures, police estimate that 6,500 Yoon supporters were gathered in the area early Wednesday.

For weeks, the large street outside the compound has been filled with protesters — mostly supporters of the embattled conservative president, who has vowed to “fight to the end.”

According to Yonhap, some ruling party lawmakers formed a human chain early Wednesday outside the main entrance of Yoon’s residence to prevent his detention.

If Yoon is detained, authorities would have 48 hours to decide whether to file for a formal arrest warrant or release him. It would be the first time a sitting South Korean president has been taken into police custody.

Yoon was impeached last month following his declaration of martial law. The country’s Constitutional Court must uphold his impeachment for him to be removed from office.

Separately, Yoon faces a criminal investigation into insurrection and abuse of power but has defied multiple requests to appear for questioning as part of that probe.

Yoon’s lawyers have slammed the detention effort as politically motivated. They also argue that the court that issued the detention warrant had no jurisdiction to do so, and that the anti-corruption agency leading the investigation has no mandate to investigate the president for insurrection.

Earlier this week, South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, warned against the possibility of clashes between security forces, urging both sides to act in a “peaceful and restrained manner.”

The previous detention attempt on January 3 was suspended after a six-hour standoff, with the detention team citing the risk of violence.
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Bangkok — The recent abduction of a Chinese TV actor to Myanmar and his subsequent release is shedding new light on the lengths to which human traffickers operating online scam centers in the war-torn country will go to in order to lure would-be victims.

Chinese actor Wang Xing went missing on January 3, in Mae Sot, a city in northern Thailand, which borders Myanmar. Two days later his family reported him missing, and with growing cries on social media, the case prompted Thai and Chinese authorities to act.

Last week, on January 7, Thai authorities say they found Wang in Myanmar and brought him back to Thailand.

Thai police said Wang was trafficked across the Thai-Myanmar border and held captive at KK Park in Myawaddy, which is notorious for its illegal scam operations.

According to local media reports, Wang was lured to Thailand under the false pretense of a film audition. He received the job offer via social media platform WeChat. Wang flew to Bangkok and was transported to Myanmar.

Wang’s head was shaved. He was held captive and forced into training on how to perform online scams, according to media reports. He said there were 50 other Chinese nationals in similar circumstances.

After his rescue and return to Thailand, Wang, 31, flew to Shanghai on Friday.

Wang’s rescue has prompted others to speak out and according to state media in China, the families of some 174 individuals have been circulating a joint letter on Chinese social media asking for help. According to the letter, family members say their loved ones are trapped in northern and eastern Myanmar.

Experts say Wang’s case highlights the growing sophistication of the masterminds of scam operations.

“This is a very deliberate form of kidnapping, of hostage taking, that you’re seeing these scam syndicates now go about. The means of trafficking people into these compounds is increasingly changing,” Jason Tower, the Myanmar country director at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), told VOA.

“This shows how these criminal actors are adapting and going to greater lengths to lure people of a wide range of demographics into captivity, to either suck funds out of them directly or get them involved in forced labor criminality,” he said.

At least one other Chinese national, Wu Jiaqi, 21, was also rescued from captivity in Myanmar in recent days, local media report.

The targeting of Chinese citizens by criminal gangs in Southeast Asia has become a growing problem in recent years.

Chen, a Chinese national who withheld his full name for security concerns, toldRadio Free Asia in 2023 that he was a trafficking victim in a scam compound in Myanmar, and that there were at least 1,000 Chinese nationals also trapped, with scam bosses demanding $30,000 per individual for their release. 

Many illegal scam centers in Southeast Asia are linked with Chinese criminal networks operating in the region, experts say. Individuals from all over the world are lured into false business opportunities and forced into scam compounds.

A report in June by the United States Institute of Peace revealed that scam centers operating in Southeast Asia countries, including Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar have swindled billions of dollars. All three countries share borders with Thailand.

“This is becoming a greater and greater problem. These Chinese criminal syndicates are quite deeply embedded in all of Thailand’s neighboring countries, but they are in Thailand as well,” Tower added.

Nikorndej Balankura, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, said last week that combatting cross-border crimes is a national priority.

“Thailand has consistently emphasized the importance of regular cooperation to promote border peace and security and combat cross-border crimes, including illegal drug trafficking, human trafficking, cybercrime, telecom and online fraud. The Thai government attaches great importance to combatting cross-border crimes and considers it a national priority,” he told local media.

But Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Thai political scientist, told VOA that the fight against transnational crime needs more support from Thai law enforcement and officials.

“Thailand is the vortex and nexus of scam centers and other transnational crimes. It is also a country with endemic corruption and decayed institutions, particularly the police force,” he said.

Scammers are a big problem for China and telecom fraud has been a persistent concern in recent years with Beijing passing a telecom and online fraud law in December 2022.

Chinese authorities have increased public information campaigns and even tried to use draconian tactics to deter its citizens from visiting Southeast Asia, Tower said.

“In 2022, a narrative started to emerge that going to Thailand could result in getting trafficked into Myanmar and losing your kidneys,” he said. “Later on, you started to see that the police will make phone calls to people when they book tickets to ask them what they’re doing in Southeast Asia.”

The Chinese language movie “No More Bets,” released in August 2023, depicts Chinese tourists visiting an unnamed Southeast Asian country, only to be trafficked into a scam compound and forced into labor.

Benedikt Hofmann, the deputy representative Southeast Asia and the Pacific for the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime, said that despite warnings, individuals are still being fooled.

“We are still seeing a lot of this despite the massive efforts that have gone into raising awareness of the risks — things like the movie “No More Bets” really brought a lot attention to this — which really shows how effective these groups are in creating incentives for young people to go there,” Hoffman said.

Chinese tourism in Thailand could also be affected. Chinese nationals are the biggest visitors to Thailand, with more than 6 million arrivals in 2024.

But reports in Hong Kong say many tourists from China are cancelling their trips ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations which begin on January 27.

Thailand’s tourism bureau has attempted to reassure Chinese visitors, publishing a press release in Mandarin on January 10, stating that Thailand “attaches great importance to the safety of tourists.”

On Sunday, Thai and Chinese authorities held a high-level meeting to discuss strengthening cooperation in combatting transnational crime and human trafficking.

VOA reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok for comment on the case and growing concerns but did not receive a response.

Vincent Vichit-Vadakan, a Bangkok-based travel analyst, said he doesn’t believe the recent cases will have a long-term impact on Thailand as a tourist destination.

“Hopefully these high-profile cases will prompt Thai and Chinese authorities to find more effective ways to prevent criminals from using Thailand as a hub for their activities,” he told VOA.
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SEOUL, South Korea — The impeachment trial of South Korea’s suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol begins Tuesday, with the country’s Constitutional Court set to weigh whether to strip him of his presidential duties over a failed martial law bid.

Yoon’s Dec. 3 power grab plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades, after he directed soldiers to storm parliament in an unsuccessful attempt to stop lawmakers voting down his suspension of civilian rule.

He was impeached soon after and suspended from duty, but has gone to ground in his residence since, refusing summonses from investigators probing him on insurrection charges and using his presidential security team to resist arrest.

Lawmakers also impeached Yoon’s stand-in last month, putting the country in further political instability, and the current acting president has appeared unwilling to wade into the standoff, instead urging all parties to negotiate for a solution.

The trial’s first of five hearings is slated to begin at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT). The following sessions take place on Jan. 16, 21, 23 and Feb. 4.

The court will decide mainly two issues, whether Yoon’s martial law declaration was unconstitutional and if it was illegal.

“This impeachment case focuses solely on the martial law situation, so the facts are not particularly complex,” lawyer Kim Nam-ju told AFP.

“Since most of the individuals involved have already been indicted and the facts have been somewhat established, it doesn’t seem like it will take a long time.”

The court has up to 180 days from Dec. 14, when it received the case, to make its ruling on whether Yoon indeed violated the constitution and the martial law act.

Yoon’s legal team said he would not appear at the first hearing over purported safety concerns, saying he would be willing to appear at a later date if security issues were ironed out.

“Concerns about safety and potential incidents have arisen. Therefore, the president will not be able to attend the trial on Jan. 14,” lawyer Yoon Kab-keun told AFP.

The trial will continue in his absence if he does not appear.

Former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye did not appear for their impeachment trials in 2004 and 2016-2017, respectively.

Yoon’s lawyers have argued the court must utilize the full 180 days — specifically to examine what “led to the declaration of martial law.”

 

Separate to the trial, a joint team of investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) — which is probing Yoon over insurrection — and police are preparing a fresh attempt to arrest the president.

An earlier attempt failed after Yoon’s presidential guards blocked access to investigators.

If the new warrant is executed successfully, Yoon would become the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.

If eventually convicted in that case, Yoon faces prison or even the death penalty.

As media speculation rose that the second attempt would take place this week, the police, CIO and Yoon’s presidential security service met Tuesday to discuss the arrest warrant, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The CIO said it would “prepare thoroughly” for its second effort to arrest Yoon, with police reportedly preparing 1,000 investigators for the fresh attempt.

Meanwhile, Yoon’s guards have reinforced his Seoul compound with barbed wire installations and bus barricades.

On Tuesday Yoon’s chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said his office was “ready to consider all options for investigation or visits” to the sitting leader “at a third location.”

Yoon’s legal team has also sought to put pressure on police to avoid being involved in the arrest attempt, claiming officers would be in “in violation of multiple laws” if they cooperated with investigators.

Late Sunday, the CIO sent a letter to the defense ministry and presidential security service saying anyone blocking Yoon’s potential arrest “may face criminal charges” for obstruction and abuse of authority.
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