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JAKARTA, INDONESIA — During his three-day visit to Indonesia last week, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, urged Indonesians to live up to the promise represented by the nation’s own motto — “Unity in Diversity.”

While praising Indonesia’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, Francis also warned in an address following a meeting with President Joko Widodo that the diversity of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation can also lead to conflict.

Francis emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue to eliminate prejudices and build mutual respect. “This is indispensable for meeting common challenges, including that of countering extremism and intolerance, which through the distortion of religion attempt to improve their views by using deception and violence,” Francis said.

Indonesia’s statistical agency says that 87% of the country’s 280 million people are Muslim. However, 2.9% of the total population is Catholic, making its Christian community the third largest in Asia after the Philippines and China.

Indonesia’s struggle against religious intolerance

Despite legal guarantees of religious freedom, which includes a Religious Harmony bill signed into law in 2006, research by Human Rights Watch indicates a flare-up of religious intolerance.

Examples include the imprisonment of Jakarta’s Christian governor for blasphemy in 2016, violence against religious minorities; and problems faced by some Christian groups seeking to secure building permits for churches.

Novi from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, a Catholic, who traveled to Jakarta to witness Pope Francis’ visit to Istiqlal Mosque, hopes the visit can encourage a revival of religious tolerance in the country.

“I’m really sad when I hear news reports saying that churches faced difficulties in setting up a church and require approval of the majority from the surrounding community and municipal and provincial office,” she said.

In 2006, a group of religious and community leaders established the Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB), dedicated to protecting religious harmony, including making recommendations to the mayor or regent on the construction of any new house of worship.

But according to Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesian researcher at Human Rights Watch, the forum has been politicized over the years.

In hopes of quelling religious intolerance, Minister of Religious Affairs Yaqut Cholil Qoumas said a new presidential regulation is being developed that will no longer allow the FKUB to recommend the establishment of a house of worship. That right will remain with the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Andreas Harsono of the Human Rights Watch sees this as a “step in the right direction.”

“The FKUB recommendations are proven to be the most damaging of the 2006 regulations on religious harmony. The religious harmony regulation basically makes the so-called majority have veto power over the minorities in Indonesia. It’s turning Indonesia into an intolerant Muslim-majority country,” he said.

Halili Hasan, executive director of the SETARA Institute, agrees with abolishing the FKUB’s right to recommend. He added that FKUB has not been able to prevent and handle various violations of freedom of religion and belief.

SETARA Institute is a think tank that advocates for democracy and human rights in Indonesia and releases an annual report on the condition of freedom of religion and belief.

The report in 2023 listed at least 65 places of worship that experienced disturbances throughout that year, ranging from objections to the construction of a house of worship to the sealing off of places of worship. That compares to 50 such incidents in the previous year.

Still, the Ministry of Religious Affair’s Religious Harmony Index survey for 2023 found a steady increase in religious harmony from 2020 to 2023. The index was scored from 0 to 100, with 100 being the most harmonious. The national score for 2023 was 76.02, the highest score recorded in the last five years.

Eli Trisiana is a Muslim and government civil servant who came to see Pope Francis.

“We need to hold a heart-to-heart dialogue with those deemed religious intolerant,’’ Eli Trisiana said. ‘’We cannot deal with them using violence. I think that is the best method to solve differences of opinion. In Islam there are verses taught to us that reconcile with non-believers, which is “unto you your religion and unto me my religion.”

Interfaith dialogue

During an interfaith dialogue at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, 87-year-old Pope Francis met with representatives of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions — Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Protestantism and Catholicism — along with a representative for traditional beliefs.

Francis and the grand imam of the Istiqlal Mosque, Nasaruddin Umar, signed a “Human Fraternity” document declaring their commitment to interfaith harmony. The document calls for religious leaders to overcome two serious crises faced by the world: dehumanization and climate change.

The grand imam said he won’t let this signing be in vain and that he plans to follow up with a future plan of action that supports interfaith dialogue and true religious harmony.
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SINGAPORE — An Australian think tank that tracks tech competitiveness says China is now the world leader in research on almost 90% of critical technologies. In a newly released report, the research group adds there is also a high risk of Beijing securing a monopoly on defense-related tech, including drones, satellites and collaborative robots — those that can work safely alongside humans.

Analysts say the huge leap forward for China is the result of heavy state investment over the past two decades. They add that despite the progress, Beijing is still dependent on other countries for key tech components and lacks self-sufficiency.

The report from the government-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI, released last Thursday, says China led the way in research into 57 out of 64 advanced technologies in the five years from 2019-2023.

ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker ranks countries’ innovation capabilities based on the number of appearances in the top 10% of research papers. It focuses on crucial technologies from a range of fields including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cyber and defense.

The report found that “China and the United States have effectively switched places as the overwhelming leader in research in just two decades.”

China led in only three of the 64 technologies between 2003 and 2007 but has shot up in the rankings, replacing the U.S., which is now a frontrunner in just seven critical technologies.

Josh Kennedy-White is a technology strategist based in Singapore. He says China’s huge leap is a “direct result of its aggressive, state-driven research and development investments over the past two decades.”

He adds that the shift toward China is “particularly stark in fields like artificial intelligence, quantum computing and advanced aircraft engines, where China has transitioned from a laggard to a leader in a relatively short period.”

ASPI also determines the risk of countries holding a monopoly on the research of critical technologies. They currently classify 24 technologies as “high risk” of being monopolized — all by Beijing.

Ten technologies are newly classified as “high risk” this year, with many of them linked to the defense industry.

“The potential monopoly risk in 24 technology areas, especially those in defense-related fields like radars and drones, is concerning in the current and future geopolitical context,” Tobias Feakin, founder of consultancy firm Protostar Strategy, told VOA.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to boost his country’s advanced manufacturing capabilities with the ambitious “Made in China 2025” initiative.

The policy, launched in 2015, aims to strengthen Beijing’s self-reliance in critical sectors and make China a global tech powerhouse.

Xi, according to Feakin, views advanced technologies as “strategic priorities for China’s development, national security and global competitiveness.”

He adds that technologies are seen as a “central component of China’s long-term economic and geopolitical goals.”

Beijing’s ambitions are being closely watched in Washington, with the Biden administration working to limit China’s access to advanced technology.

Last week, the U.S. introduced new export controls on critical technology to China, including chip-making equipment and quantum computers and components.

That announcement came shortly after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan made his first ever visit to Beijing. He met with Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Sullivan told reporters that Washington “will continue to take necessary action to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine national security.”

The continued efforts to curb China’s chip industry mean that Beijing must look further afield for advanced technology.

“Even though it leads in areas like artificial intelligence and 5G, China still depends on Taiwan, the U.S. and South Korea to produce high-end semiconductors”, Kennedy-White told VOA.

Describing this as China’s Achilles’ heel, Kennedy-White says the lack of self-sufficiency in the semiconductor industry could “stunt Beijing’s progress in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and military applications.”

As China continues its dominance in critical technology research, questions have been raised over exactly how the country is making these breakthroughs.

Last October, officials from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) issued a joint statement accusing China of stealing intellectual property. U.S. FBI director Christopher Wray described it as an “unprecedented threat.”

Kennedy-White, managing director of Singapore-based venture catalyst firm DivisionX Global, agrees with this assessment. He says China’s jump up the ASPI rankings is “not entirely organic.”

“There is a correlation between China’s rise in certain technologies and allegations of intellectual property theft,” he added.

ASPI also recommends ways for other countries to close the gap on China. It advises the AUKUS alliance of Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. to join forces with Japan and South Korea to try to catch up.

The report also highlights the emergence of India as a “key center” of global research innovation and excellence.

The South Asian nation now ranks in the top five countries for 45 out of the 64 technologies that are tracked by ASPI. It’s a huge gain compared with 2003-2007, when India sat in the top five for only four technologies.

Feakin says countries across the Asia-Pacific “will benefit from leveraging India’s growing technology expertise and influence.”

It will also provide a counterbalance to “overdependence on China’s technology supply chain,” he added.
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washington — More than a year after China’s former foreign minister, Qin Gang, disappeared from public view, raising a host of questions, the Chinese government remains silent on his whereabouts.

A new report this week from The Washington Post, citing two former U.S. government officials, suggests Qin has been spared any jail time and now is nominally holding a low-ranking position at a publishing house under the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Earlier reports speculated that he was sentenced to life in prison or had died from suicide or torture.

Some are skeptical about the Washington Post report, while others see it as evidence of uncertainty and impermanence within the political system directed by the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP.

According to Sunday’s Washington Post report, Qin, 58, now works, at least on paper, for the World Affairs Press, a state-owned publishing house under the Foreign Ministry.

One of the former officials said Qin is “not going to jail, but his career is over.”

Before he disappeared from public view in July of last year, Qin was the youngest foreign minister since the founding of the CCP. A leading theory among Chinese political analysts is that Qin was removed because he had an affair with Fu Xiaotian, a prominent Chinese television journalist, and that the pair had a child born out of wedlock in the United States.

Some reports suggested that the Chinese government suspected Fu of sharing state secrets with foreign intelligence agencies, but these rumors have never been confirmed. Like Qin, Fu disappeared from public life for more than a year ago.

During a top-level political meeting in July, the Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee, the CCP agreed to Qin’s request that he be removed from his post as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chinese state media reported. That followed an official announcement in February that said Qin had resigned as a parliamentary deputy.

A reporter from The Washington Post recently visited the bookstore of the World Affairs Press in Beijing, but employees there told the newspaper that they had not heard that Qin worked at the publishing house. A staff member who answered the phone said she did not know if the news was true. China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Some observers pointed out that the Washington Post’s report is based on an anonymous source who has left office, and the authenticity still needs to be verified.

Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, said on social media platform X, “The rumors of Qin Gang moving to World Affairs Press have been around for months. Sources are U.S. ex-officials and I don’t know what they do. But @nakashimae & @cdcshepherd are top reporters.”

Charles Smith, an encryption security expert, said on X that he doesn’t believe the article, which “even notes the ‘bookstore’ employees have never seen Qin. … He’s on an extended fishing vacation.” His tweet was accompanied by an image of a skeleton fishing underwater.

Last December, online news outlet Politico reported that Qin had been arrested for undermining national security and was tortured to death or committed suicide.

Yen-Ting, an X user who frequently comments on China’s social and political issues, tweeted, “It’s almost poetic justice, a ‘Wolf Warrior’ reduced to selling books while the regime’s whispers suggest he’s paid off the hook rather than locked up. This is China’s way of dealing w/ its wayward wolves: not through the claws of justice but by shoving them into obscurity.”

Kalpit A. Mankikar, a fellow in the Strategic Studies Program with the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, tweeted, “Once seen as Stalin’s heir, Soviet politician Georgy Malenkov fell from grace and was banished to Kazakhstan to manage a power plant. In #China, ex-foreign minister Qin Gang seems to have rehabilitated at a Party-run bookshop, says @washingtonpost.”

The Washington Post report also quoted current and former U.S. officials who had dealt with Qin as saying he lacked the diplomatic skills of his experienced colleagues to break out of the “Wolf Warrior” model.

One example is that Qin appeared to threaten the U.S. with China “erasing” Taiwan Strait’s median line, in a heated exchange with U.S. officials amid former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.

American columnist James Pinkerton tweeted a reader’s online comment on the Washington Post report.

The reader Paul Messina said, “I believe that now that the Chinese economy is falling apart, Xi has realized that this ‘Wolf Warrior’ tactic has actually exacerbated the fall of Chinese industry. Besides aggravating the West, particularly the United States with this nonsense, it has led to multiple Western corporations leaving China, permanently closing their doors and factories in search of friendlier nations to do business.

“Vietnam and other nations have greatly benefited. Thus this idiot actually decreased the CCP’s prestige in the world. I believe that this is why his new ‘career’ is librarian. Xi made a big mistake with his ‘Wolf Warrior’ attitude towards the world. I believe that he now realizes this fact.”

Liu Jianchao, the head of the International Liaison Department of the CCP Central Committee, who is relatively moderate in terms of rhetoric and image, is considered a possible candidate to succeed Wang Yi as the next foreign minister.

According to The New York Times, as China is already seeking to soften its image in the U.S. and Europe and improve relations with some of its neighbors, appointing Liu may mean China is abandoning its “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Bangkok/Surin, Thailand — Rural voters may have permanently turned away from the Shinawatra family and its Pheu Thai party, former loyalists warn, after Thailand’s dominant political clan welcomed a fresh cohort of conservative one-time rivals into its coalition Cabinet.

These include prominent royalists who have backed coups and deadly crackdowns on the Red Shirt protest movement, which emerged to protest a 2006 coup that deposed then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Tycoons and royalist generals have fought for two decades for control of the country’s politics and the economic spoils.

In that time, political violence has claimed the lives of scores, if not hundreds, of people in clashes between rival factions. Red Shirts paid the highest price during a 2010 army crackdown on their rallies in Bangkok.

Rivalry at the top has been set aside — for now — by a government led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of divisive billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who still wields vast influence over Thai politics despite having no formal role.

Now, many Red Shirts say they feel abandoned by Thaksin, a figurehead they once adored.

“I used to feel sorry for Thaksin for all the things the establishment did to him and his family. But now that they’ve betrayed us, I’m heartsick,” said Napassorn Boonree, 61, a Red Shirt from Ubon Ratchathani, recalling the 2010 crackdown by security forces on demonstrators in Bangkok. “People died for [the Shinawatra family], but they no longer care for us. Now we see their true colors. They’ve done everything all along only for their own gain.”

Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s government has a new mission: to defeat the new reform movement which won the last polls in 2023 and has become the biggest threat to the political and economic interests of the establishment since Thaksin himself won his first election in 2001.

The Move Forward Party was blocked from taking control of the government and subsequently dissolved by a court ruling. Its key executives were banned from politics.

But it has been rebranded as the People’s Party and is determined to win the 2027 election.

Too late for Pheu Thai?

Thaksin’s daughter, Thailand’s youngest premier at age 38, is due to give her first policy briefing on September 12.

She is expected to announce a timeframe for cash handouts of 10,00 baht ($295) to 50 million citizens alongside debt-reduction plans, hoping to renew faith in Pheu Thai among a poor, rural base who once voted unquestioningly for any Shinawatra candidate.

But it may be too late.

Red Shirts “will express their disappointment at the ballot box,” predicted Thida Thavornseth on Thai TV, describing the “merger” between Pheu Thai and its former enemies as the same as a business deal between tycoons.

In any case, Paetongtarn’s government first must survive to contest the next polls.

Coming into office after the shock court dismissal of predecessor Srettha Thavisin in an ethics probe last month, Paetongtarn will have to deal with powerful establishment enemies accumulated by her family over the years.

“Having Shinawatra as a last name is always a danger. … The name is synonymous with political conflict in modern Thai history,” said Stithorn Thananithichot, director of the Office of Innovation for Democracy at King Prajadhipok’s Institute.

Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 coup, and the administration of his sister Yingluck was taken out by the army in 2014. Srettha last month joined a growing list of Shinawatra-backed premiers to be picked off by the conservative courts.

“We are seeing enemies becoming allies against a bigger threat — [the] People’s Party. The conservative elite has no other option than to use Thaksin’s service,” Stithorn told VOA.

But Paetongtarn has “to move fast,” he warned, to prove her government can win over an electorate burned by the seeming betrayal of their shifting alliances.

A by-election on September 15 for a seat vacated by a banned Move Forward member may provide an early test of Pheu Thai’s popularity.

Money problems

Throughout villages of northeastern and northern Thailand, household debt is commonly sky high, and many working-age adults have migrated to cities or overseas for jobs that pay more than farm work. The COVID pandemic sank Thailand’s most vulnerable deeper into financial trouble.

Previous Shinawatra governments gave generous farm subsidies, better education and access to basic healthcare and were rewarded with landslide poll victories in 2001, 2005 and 2011.

Former Red Shirt Singthong Chaichuay says he is so tired of Thailand’s political turmoil that principles no longer matter. He just wants a better quality of life for the country’s poorest.

“Thai people are very forgiving, and if our country is really moving forward, then I don’t have a problem which side Pheu Thai joins, even if it is with former enemies,” the 61-year-old told VOA from his village in Surin, near the Cambodian border.

“Whoever can make our lives better is the answer for us now.”

But there is a divergence with younger people. In the 2023 election, they voted in vast numbers for Move Forward, taking seats from Pheu Thai across what was once home ground for Shinawatra-linked lawmakers.

“During Thaksin times, it was the golden era for farmers. Everyone was driving new tractors, the price of rice was also high,” said Chatupat Sriwong, 31, who like many of her peers leaves her young child to be raised at home while working abroad.

“Fast forward to today … and we’re developing very little here. My only focus now is to make money and that means working overseas because there’s no way I can do that here.”
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