Analysts are raising concerns that a Chinese update to its maritime traffic law will help Beijing tighten control over disputed Asian seas by legalizing interception of foreign vessels and authorizing fines against their operators. The standing committee of the National People’s Congress voted April 29 to amend the Maritime Traffic Safety Law, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.The revised law, as spelled out clause-by-clause in the Xinhua report, says foreign vessels passing through waters under Chinese jurisdiction should obtain permission first. China’s State Council and other government departments may take “necessary measures” to stop the passage of foreign ships into “territorial waters,” the law says. It cites traffic safety and environmental protection as reasons.Ship’s crews under the law are to do their part to protect the marine environment and captains will be responsible for emergency responses to anyone on board suspected of having an infectious disease, Xinhua added.Violators of the law can be fined up to about $47,000.Chinese officials probably intend to use the law selectively to make foreign vessels leave the contested South China Sea or discourage them from getting near it, experts say. China already uses its coast guard, fishing fleets and island-building activity to fortify its claim over 90% of the sea.“I just see this as a continuing part of China’s policy of asserting its sovereign jurisdiction over the South China Sea, constantly putting pressure on claimant states and trying to drive a wedge between them and the U.S.,” said Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor from the University of New South Wales in Australia. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea that stretches from Hong Kong south to Borneo. The waterway is rich in fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves.U.S. warships passed into the sea 10 times last year to reflect Washington’s view that the sea is open internationally, irritating China each time. The United States has no claim in the sea, but analysts say the Southeast Asian states and Taiwan look to Washington for support as its superpower rival China expands its navy. Experts: China Christens 3 Warships to Tighten Control in Disputed Sea, Warn USThe navy under the People’s Liberation Army deployed three battle warships last week, State media call the addition “unprecedented” and say it represents the rapid development of the navy More broadly, Chinese leaders see the revised law as part of a “salami slicing” strategy to assert South China Sea claims, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. They will invoke the law “selectively” and in “some cases” against Southeast Asian vessels, he forecast. Beijing has increasingly turned to domestic laws to bolster its offshore interests. The government bans fishing in the northern part of the disputed sea in the middle of each year to protect fishing stocks, for example, and in January it approved a Coast Guard Law that authorizes firing on foreign vessels. Chinese authorities have boarded foreign boats before, Thayer said.“Increasingly China will use domestic laws to enforce its internal jurisdiction within the South China Sea,” Vuving said. China, which cites historical records to ground its maritime claims, landfills small islets for military use to bolster its claims further. Fishing fleets from Vietnam and the Philippines use much of the South China Sea. Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam tap the same waterway for undersea energy reserves. Revisions to the maritime safety law will add support for Chinese claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, where the government contests a chain of islets with Japan and Taiwan, said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank.Any effort to “support legitimacy” by stopping foreign-registered boats, however, will increase friction with the rival claimants, he said. “I don’t think they are going to deliberately stop foreign ships, but they certainly will calculate risks and interests in order to conduct [the] necessary measures,” Yang said.
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China says it is suspending further meetings in an economic dialogue with Australia in the latest sign of worsening relations.Experts called the move largely symbolic because the last meeting of the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue framework took place four years ago.Australian business leaders, though, say they believe Thursday’s suspension is a new low in the bilateral relationship.Chinese state media said Australia disrupted economic cooperation through such actions as banning Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G telecommunications network. China also accused Canberra “of a Cold War mindset and ideological discrimination.”Beijing’s decision will formally stop contact between key trade officials. Ministerial collaboration between the two governments had already been suspended for more than a year.  In Canberra, Trade Minister Dan Tehan said he was disappointed and remained open to dialogue and “engaging at the ministerial level.” Opposition Labor leader Anthony Albanese also urged both sides to sort out their differences. “This is unfortunate,” Albanese said. “We do need dialogue with China.  It cannot be just on their terms, though.  It has got to be on both countries’ terms and so this is regrettable.” China is, by far, Australia’s biggest trading partner, but tensions have intensified in recent years.  Canberra’s 2018 Huawei decision infuriated Beijing. That hostility escalated last year after disputes over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, national security and human rights.China later imposed trade sanctions on valuable Australian exports, although Australian exports of iron ore – a key ingredient in steel making – have not been affected. Last month Canberra cancelled two agreements between China and the state of Victoria. Tim Harcourt, an economist at the University of Technology Sydney, however, says he believes the relationship must improve.“Australia needs China and China needs Australia,” Harcourt said. “China has incredible dependency in energy security as we mentioned with iron ore particularly with Brazil out of action at the moment with COVID and also food security and a need for infrastructure.  So, in some ways, yes, you know both countries are dependent on each other, hence the complementarity.  Yes, you do want the relationship to get on more of an even keel as it used to be.  [It is] not perfect and very different systems, very different values, but at least workable I think, you know, is the equilibrium you want to reach.”Tensions between Australia and China comes as the G-7 group of nations has called on Beijing to respect fundamental rights and freedoms.China has been accused by the United States and some European countries of violating the human rights of its minority Muslim population in Xinjiang province, armed threats against Taiwan and economic coercion. 
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Public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is bound by its charter to be editorially independent and immune from political influence.But a new series, in which Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam interviews political leaders about reforms, is being criticized as testing the limits of that independence.Chief Executive Lam presented the first of the programs, “Get to Know the Election Committee Subsectors,” on April 28. In the series, she discusses political reforms for Hong Kong that have been widely viewed as controversial.Journalists and experts have said it “falls into the realms” of a propaganda campaign.RTHK insiders told VOA that the Hong Kong government’s Information Services Department commissioned the production, with episodes to be shown on RTHK channels. Episodes uploaded to YouTube include a line in Chinese at the end saying it was produced by the regional government, media reported.At least two RTHK members whom VOA spoke with described the TV segments on the government-funded broadcaster as “one-sided” and “like propaganda.”Focus on new reformsThe show focuses on a major revamp to Hong Kong’s political system that Beijing approved in March. The reforms will bring a reduction in directly elected seats; an increase in pro-Beijing voices to the city’s mini-parliament, the Legislative Council; and a stricter vetting process by a special committee for potential candidates. The latter is viewed by critics as an effort to shut out the opposition and “redefine” democracy. Beijing-Led Electoral Reforms for Hong Kong Redefine ‘Democracy,’ Critics SayRevamp increases pro-Beijing voices in semiautonomous city’s legislatureOne senior staff member within RTHK, who asked for anonymity out of concern for reprisal, told VOA that the “editorial independence is really at stake” at the public broadcaster, despite the protections listed in The Charter of Radio Television Hong Kong. “What would breach the charter is the obvious, a biased view of the reformed Legislative Council election plan … because apart from making herself the only host of the program, what is more problematic is that she only invited people who unanimously praised the whole review as something positive,” the staffer said.”She never acknowledged anything against, for example, criticisms with the decrease in democratic elements of the proposal, and also how what should have been a broad election of people of equal opportunity is less and less possible under the new scheme,” the staff member said.A spokesperson for the broadcaster was cited in reports saying that the show is in line with the charter’s mandate to promote a sense of citizenship and national identity.Local media have reported that 40 episodes will be broadcast in total, with two segments aired each day.So far, Lam has interviewed pro-establishment political figures discussing the recent political reforms, the RTHK staffer said. “I think at least in the whole series, you have to present all those voices in the society. But what we’ve heard (so far), is one-sided,” they added. Lam has responded to wider criticisms and concerns, saying on RTHK that the station has no new role and is still a public broadcaster. She added that it should continue to be “objective, fair and of course support the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” (SAR).  On her Facebook page, she said the show will include “guests from different sectors” to “help us to better understand the purpose of improving the SAR electoral system and the representation of individual Election Committee subsectors.”Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said Lam’s show “is not an entirely new phenomenon” globally. “Leaders who do not want their views publicly challenged have sought to cut out the press as the middleman to get their message across,” Mahoney said via email. “It is a way of bypassing accountability and undermining a vital function of an independent press in a democracy, namely the right to ask questions of officials and leaders and hold them to account on behalf of the public.” The announcement of Lam’s new program has epitomized a radical shift in RTHK’s broadcasting output in recent months. It comes after Hong Kong government officials appointed RTHK’s new director of broadcasting, Patrick Li, in February.  Li, a career administrative officer with no prior media experience, has since axed at least 10 shows after raising concerns over what he deemed partiality.  Eric Wishart, a journalism lecturer and press freedom co-convener at Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club, told VOA, “(They canceled) programs because they say they’re partial, not balanced, and then Carrie Lam goes on, hosts a show to promote the electoral reforms in Hong Kong. At first glance, I would question the independence of that particular programming.” VOA reached out to the new broadcasting director Li via email for comment but did not receive a response.One freelance journalist, who works at RTHK and asked for anonymity to avoid causing harm or reprisal to their colleagues, told VOA they decided to quit the broadcaster after a project they had worked on was canceled.”I think there is no more room for investigative reporting,” the journalist said.’A removal of history’ The broadcaster has also deleted from social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook thousands of posts containing RTHK’s archived footage. RTHK says it is removing content older than 12 months.”It’s a removal of history. Some of our colleagues even compare it to burning entries in a library,” the RTHK senior staff member said.RTHK launched its first radio broadcast in 1928 under the British Hong Kong Government but soon became an independent entity. By the 1990s, RTHK was producing web, television and radio content.But with waves of political unrest in the city since 2019, RTHK has been in the spotlight. Several shows have been suspended because of government criticism.Media have reported how an interview with now self-exiled activist Nathan Law was removed from the RTHK website following reports that Law was wanted for questioning by the Hong Kong authorities. RTHK radio channels have recently begun playing China’s national anthem, March of the Volunteers, daily on RTHK radio channels, a move widely viewed as an effort to promote “patriotism” in the city.  The broadcaster also followed mainland China’s decision to stop relaying BBC World Service radio broadcasts. And earlier this month, RTHK said it would not renew the contract of Nabela Qoser. The journalist was under investigation following complaints over her confrontational questioning of Lam during the height of the anti-government protests in 2019.
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As India sets new daily records in COVID-19 deaths and infections, some experts see the humanitarian crisis as an opportunity for other nations to counter China’s vaccine diplomacy elsewhere.Three of the nations that make up the Quad — U.S., Australia and Japan — are expected to assist the fourth, India, after U.S. President Joe Biden promised April 26 to provide New Delhi with the China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying gestures during a press conference in Beijing on Dec. 10, 2020.China has denied it is engaged in vaccine diplomacy, and it says it is supplying “vaccine aid,” This handout photo taken on May 3, 2021, shows Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte receiving a dose of China’s Sinopharm to battle the COVID-19 coronavirus at Malacanang Palace in Manila.The partnership allows Quad leaders to take “shared action necessary to expand safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in 2021” and “work together to strengthen and assist countries in the Indo-Pacific with vaccination, in close coordination with the existing relevant multilateral mechanisms including World Health Organization (WHO) and COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access),” according to a statement the White House released March 12.Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, thinks that the partnership will need to be modified “given that it was dependent on Indian vaccine manufacturing capacity. India will, understandably, prioritize vaccines for its domestic population.”Ideally, such partnerships should be fully coordinated with COVAX and WHO to maximize impact, Adalja said in an email to VOA Mandarin. However, Joe Thomas Karackattu, assistant professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India, where he focuses on Sino-Indian relations and China’s foreign and economic policy, told VOA Mandarin via email that COVID-19 relief cannot become a strategic turf war.”All countries have to work together,” he said. “If the Quad delivers on the pitch for the ‘Quad Vaccine Partnership’ … it might cement a longer-term foundation for the Quad to coordinate on multilateral cooperation, but that necessarily does not automatically translate into an organic and systematic modus vivendi in strategic affairs.” On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it supports waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. South Africa and India had proposed the waiver, which is opposed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a group that includes vaccine makers such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” wrote U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.This is a monumental moment in the fight against #COVID19. The commitment by @POTUS Joe Biden & @USTradeRep@AmbassadorTai to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of 🇺🇸 leadership to address global health challenges. pic.twitter.com/3iBt3jfdEr— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 5, 2021 While a waiver could remove obstacles to ramping up the production of vaccines in developing countries, crafting the waiver may take time because it will require approval from all 164 members of the World Trade Organization.Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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The largest section of the rocket that launched the main module of China’s first permanent space station into orbit is expected to plunge back to Earth as early as Saturday at an unknown location.Such rocket sections — discarded core, or first stage — usually reenter soon after liftoff, normally over water, and don’t go into orbit as this one did.China’s space agency has yet to say whether the core stage of the huge Long March 5B rocket is being controlled or will make an out-of-control descent. Last May, another Chinese rocket fell uncontrolled into the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa.Basic details about the rocket stage and its trajectory are unknown because the Chinese government has yet to comment publicly on the reentry. Phone calls to the China National Space Administration weren’t answered Wednesday, a holiday.However, the newspaper Global Times, published by the Chinese Communist Party, said the stage’s “thin-skinned” aluminum-alloy exterior will easily burn up in the atmosphere, posing an extremely remote risk to people.The U.S. Defense Department expects the rocket stage to fall to Earth on Saturday.Where it will hit “cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry,” the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday.No plans to shoot it downSecretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Thursday that the U.S. military had no plans to shoot it down.White House press secretary Jen Psaki at a Wednesday briefing said the U.S. Space Command was “aware of and tracking the location” of the Chinese rocket.The nonprofit Aerospace Corporation expects the debris to hit the Pacific near the equator after passing over eastern U.S. cities. Its orbit covers a swath of the planet from New Zealand to Newfoundland.The Long March 5B rocket carried the main module of the Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony,” into orbit on April 29. China plans 10 more launches to carry additional parts of the space station into orbit.The roughly 30-meter-long (100-foot) rocket stage would be among the biggest pieces of debris to fall to Earth.The 18-ton rocket that fell last May was the heaviest debris to fall uncontrolled since the former Soviet space station Salyut 7 in 1991.China’s first space station, Tiangong-1, crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2016 after Beijing confirmed it had lost control. In 2019, the space agency controlled the demolition of its second station, Tiangong-2, in the atmosphere.In March, debris from a Falcon 9 rocket launched by U.S. aeronautics company SpaceX fell to Earth in Washington state and on the Oregon coast.
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Indonesia began imposing a previously announced ban on domestic travel on Thursday as it sought to contain the spread of the coronavirus during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, when millions normally travel to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month. Police officers were deployed across the capital city of Jakarta on Thursday to check documents and prevent travelers without special permission from leaving the city. They were enforcing a ban on travel by air, land, sea and rail announced in April and due to be in place May 6-17. Millions of people in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation traditionally “mudik” or return home to visit their families for the celebrations. But senior health officials have expressed concern about the emergence of new and more virulent coronavirus mutations across Indonesia, including two cases this week of the B.1.617 variant, which was first identified in India late last year and is ravaging the country. Highways are empty as Indonesia bans travel ahead of Eid al-Fitr, May 6, 2021.Indonesia has seen the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Southeast Asia. Despite the risks, some people still tried to dodge the rules early on Thursday, with police saying on Twitter that several individuals had tried to leave the capital city by hiding out on the back of a vegetable truck. “I will still try to return home because this has become a tradition even though we have not gone home for two years already,” said 44-year old Basuki Riyanto, who was contemplating how to get to Central Java province on Thursday. “I will try to go ahead regardless of the conditions if there is a closure.” Indonesia has reported a total of 1,691,658 confirmed coronavirus cases and 46,349 COVID-19 deaths. Earlier this week, the country’s health minister said the first two cases of the Indian variant had been identified in Jakarta. Some 13 cases of the B.117 variant first detected in the United Kingdom were previously discovered in the country. The risk of a spike in COVID-19 infections is weighing on Indonesia’s economic outlook this year. Household consumption, the biggest component in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), shrank in the first quarter of 2021. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy slumped 0.74% year-on-year in the January-March period, contracting for a fourth consecutive quarter, official data showed on Wednesday. 
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Pfizer and BioNTech will donate their COVID-19 vaccine to athletes training for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said Thursday. Doses are expected to be delivered later this month, which would be in time for the athletes to be fully immunized for the games, starting July 23. “We are inviting the athletes and participating delegations of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games to lead by example and accept the vaccine where and when possible,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement. Last month, the IOC announced a similar deal to distribute Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines to Chinese athletes prior to both the Tokyo Summer Games and the Beijing Winter Games. Most countries have yet to approve Chinese vaccines for emergency use. How the Tokyo Games will be held is still in question as Japan is reportedly considering extending its coronavirus state of emergency, Reuters reported. 
 
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Prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has been sentenced to 10 additional months in prison for taking part in an unauthorized assembly last year to commemorate the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
 
The 24-year-old Wong is already serving a 13-and-a-half-month sentence for organizing an unauthorized protest in 2019. He was sentenced Thursday along with fellow activists Lester Shum, Jannelle Leung and Tiffany Yeun, who received sentences of between four and six months.
 
Wong was also among 47 activists charged under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law for taking part in unofficial primary elections last July to pick candidates to run in legislative elections. They were then postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.   
 
China has banned any public observance of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, when Chinese military tanks and troops raided Tiananmen Square to break up weeks of student-led protests. But Hong Kong traditionally held large vigils to mark the event under its Basic Law, which granted the city certain freedoms not allowed on the mainland, including the right to assembly.   
 
Last year’s event was banned for the first time, with police citing the pandemic and security fears following huge and often violent pro-democracy protests that engulfed the financial hub in the last half of 2019.   
 
Hong Kong authorities have increasingly clamped down on the city’s pro-democracy forces since Beijing imposed the new national security law last June in response to the 2019 demonstrations.  
 
Under the law, anyone in Hong Kong believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.    
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More than 200 civil society and human rights groups from around the world have called on the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo against Myanmar, in hopes of preventing the military from carrying out more murders and atrocities.“The U.N. Security Council’s failure to even discuss an arms embargo against the junta is an appalling abdication of its responsibilities toward the people of Myanmar,” Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, told reporters Wednesday in a call with some of the groups that signed the letter. “The council’s occasional statements of concern in the face of the military’s violent repression of largely peaceful protesters [are] the diplomatic equivalent of shrugging their shoulders and walking away.”The council has issued four statements of concern since the military launched a coup on February 1, ousting the civilian-led government and detaining several of its members in a dispute over who won the November elections. On April 24, regional bloc ASEAN convened a summit on the situation, issuing a five-point communique.More than 760 civilians killedBut the generals in Myanmar have ignored both bodies and continue to use violence to try to suppress the protests, as well as attacks, including airstrikes, on armed ethnic groups. Rights monitors say more than 760 civilians have been killed, including 51 children, and more than 4,600 others have been arrested in the ensuing crackdown.“The Burmese military has proven that they are immune to the condemnations, and therefore only tangible actions in this situation are going to help,” said Myra Dahgaypaw, managing director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. Myanmar is also known as Burma.This handout from Kachinwaves taken May 5, 2021, shows people attending the funeral of Wai Phyo, also known as Thiha Thu. He was shot dead during a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations against the military coup, in Hpakant, Myanmar.Britain holds the portfolio for Myanmar on the 15-nation council but has hesitated to circulate a draft resolution among members, fearing a Chinese and Russian veto, diplomats and advocates say. Instead, they have tried to keep the council united behind the statements, which require consensus, but have not improved the situation.“The longer this goes on, where the council is obviously unwilling to adopt a resolution or to even debate a resolution for fear of veto, sends a signal of impunity,” said Lawrence Moss, senior U.N. advocate at Amnesty International. “At this point, the Myanmar military must know there has been no resolution, because the U.K. is unwilling to table one.”FILE – Protesters hold homemade pipe air guns during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, April 3, 2021.At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, who represents the civilian government, reiterated his call for an immediate global arms embargo, as well as other measures against the military.“We are all living under fear,” Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun told U.S. lawmakers.U.N. Special Rapporteur for Myanmar Tom Andrews has been calling for an arms embargo since the start of the crisis, and U.N. Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener has urged targeted sanctions.China has a lot at stake in Myanmar. It shares an 1,800-kilometer border with the country and has investments there. Stability is in Beijing’s interest, but it has hesitated to rein in the generals, calling for more diplomacy despite its growing concerns.FILE – Anti-coup protesters run to avoid military forces during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, March 31, 2021.“And then with further escalation of the tension, there will be more confrontation,” China U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters this week of what an escalation could mean. “And with more confrontation, there will be more violence. And with more violence, there will be more casualties. And then we may go further down the wrong direction. It may also mean a chaotic situation in Myanmar — even a civil war.”Military hardware suppliersAmnesty International’s Moss said a number of countries provide military hardware and training to Myanmar, including China, which supplies combat aircraft, surveillance drones and armored vehicles. Russia provides combat aircraft and attack helicopters. Ukraine has supplied armored vehicles and is involved in the joint production of them in Myanmar. Turkey has sold shotguns and cartridges to the military, while India has supplied armored vehicles, troop carriers and even a submarine.“The arms embargo will not solve all the problems that Burma has,” said Dahgaypaw of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. “But I also know it will significantly increase the safety of the people on the ground, including the ethnic and religious minorities.”
 
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Leading industrial nations came out in support of Taiwan’s observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), leading into Attendees leave the G-7 foreign ministers meeting at Lancaster House in London, Britain, May 5, 2021.Taiwan said it is grateful for the G-7’s strong support.  “#Taiwan thanks all G7 FMs and the EU for voicing such a strong support in the Communique for our meaningful participation in #WHO & #WHA. #LetTaiwanHelp and contribute to the global health system,” Taiwan’s main representative office in the U.S. said in a tweet.  #Taiwan thanks all G7 FMs and the EU for voicing such a strong support in the Communique for our meaningful participation in #WHO & #WHA. #LetTaiwanHelp and contribute to the global health system.https://t.co/vsfTEY6PSm— Taiwan in the US (@TECRO_USA) May 5, 2021Officials from Australia, India, South Africa, South Korea and Brunei are also joining the G-7 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting as guests in London.  “We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. We reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions and undermine regional stability and the international rules-based order, and express serious concerns about reports of militarization, coercion and intimidation in the region,” said the communique, which was released after the meeting. The statement comes as China steps up military activities, sending aircraft into Taiwan’s air space.   “It is very consequential that democracies are speaking with one voice on an important occasion like the G-7 to underscore their support for Taiwan’s participation” in the World Health Organization, said Bonnie Glaser, Asian program director at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.Other analysts said Wednesday’s G-7 communique underscores the deep and abiding concern Western countries plus Japan have about China’s increasingly coercive activities in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Let’s also not lose sight of the fact that the G-7 statement included references to China’s bad behavior in places like Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet, which certainly won’t sit well with Beijing either,” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation.
The move is seen as an open rebuke to China. The Beijing government has been blocking Taiwan’s representation at WHO meetings after the self-ruled democracy elected Tsai Ing-wen, a China skeptic, as Taiwan’s president in 2016 and again in 2020. FILE – Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung holds a news conference about Taiwan’s efforts to get into the World Health Organization (WHO) in Taipei, Taiwan, May 15, 2020.Delegates from Taiwan had attended the World Health Assembly as nonvoting observers from 2009 to 2016, during a period of relatively warm ties between Beijing and Taipei. Non-member states and territories can participate in the WHA as observers.  On Monday, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, repeated Beijing’s opposition to invite Taiwan to the WHA sessions later this month.  “It is our clear position and firm position that the U.N. is an organization composed of sovereign member states, and Taiwan is not qualified for any participation in these organizations,” Zhang said when he was asked if Taiwan should be allowed at the WHA as an observer. “Beijing’s actions to block Taiwan from participating in the WHO are counterproductive” and do not serve the interests of the broader international community, Glaser told VOA on Wednesday. A senior U.S. official told reporters that Taiwan has “a lot of experience” in fighting the spread of the coronavirus, which “can help all of us, and it just seems really self-defeating to exclude them.” In Washington, Democratic and Republican members of Congress have spoken up in recent weeks to support Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly.   Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, a Democrat, said in a tweet that “Beijing’s efforts to shut Taiwan out of the international community hinder pandemic recovery & response.” Menendez called on the Senate to pass a bipartisan bill “championing Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly.” Beijing’s efforts to shut Taiwan out of the international community hinder pandemic recovery & response. The Senate must pass my bill with Sen. @JimInhofe championing Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly. #LetTaiwanHelphttps://t.co/jAitel0Iih— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) April 27, 2021Republican Senator Jim Risch, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, denounced WHO for sidelining Taiwan in the last four years “despite its vast expertise & successful handling of #COVID19.” “I hope that in 2021, this will not be the fifth. #LetTaiwanHelp, & we will all be better for it,” Risch said in a tweet. The @WHO sidelined #Taiwan for the last four meetings of the #WorldHealthAssembly despite its vast expertise & successful handling of #COVID19. I hope that in 2021, this will not be the fifth. #LetTaiwanHelp, & we will all be better for it. https://t.co/oFcz5M9gTx— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) April 27, 2021 
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An Olympic test event to evaluate COVID-19 safety protocols for the upcoming Tokyo Games has won praise from the head of the world governing body of track and field.
 
Organizers of Wednesday’s test marathon race in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo pleaded with the general public not to attend the event, even deploying staff along the route with signs that read “please refrain from watching the event from here.” The few athletes who took part in the race had to undergo strict testing protocols before and after entering Japan, and were largely restricted to their hotel rooms unless they were training.
 
World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe said the organizing committee demonstrated “the highest level of capability” to stage the marathon and race walk events in Sapporo.  The events were originally supposed to be staged in Tokyo, but were moved to avoid the city’s hot summer temperatures.   
The delayed Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 to August 8.  Organizers postponed the games for a year when the novel coronavirus began spreading across the globe.
But with Tokyo and other parts of Japan under a state of emergency to quell a surge of new COVID-19 infections, recent public opinion polls show an overwhelming majority of Japanese believe the Olympics should be postponed again or cancelled.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized a shipment of 3.97 million nitrile disposable gloves estimated to be worth about $518,000 from Malaysia’s Top Glove Corp. on indications they were made by forced labor, it said Wednesday.CBP on March 29 issued a forced labor finding based on evidence of multiple forced labor indicators in the world’s largest medical glove maker’s production process.It had initially banned products from two of Top Glove’s subsidiaries in July but extended the ban to all the manufacturer’s products made in Malaysia in March.The indicators included debt bondage, excessive overtime, abusive working and living conditions, and retention of identity documents, the CBP said in a statement.The agency then directed personnel at all U.S. ports of entry to begin seizing disposable gloves produced in Malaysia by the glove maker.”CBP continues to facilitate the importation of legitimate PPE needed for the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring that the PPE is authorized and safe for use,” said Cleveland Area Port Director Diann Rodriguez, referring to personal protective equipment.Top Glove said last month its glove production has been affected because of the U.S. ban, and it announced last week it had resolved all indicators of forced labor in its operations, citing a report by the ethical trade consultancy it hired.
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Dozens of Taiwanese Star Wars fans gathered on the top floor of the nation’s tallest building Tuesday to salute their favorite movie, while stressing the importance of wearing face masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.Fans dressed in full Star Wars costumes held mock lightsaber battles and posed for pictures on the 89th floor of the Taipei 101 financial building for what has become an annual observance of what has become known as international Star Wars Day.Organizer of the event Makoto Tsai told reporters he also wanted the “opportunity to introduce interesting places of Taiwan to the world,” because International Star Wars Day, “is an event watched by all the Star Wars fans in the world.”Tsai said their annual event was cancelled last year because the pandemic was at its worst in Taiwan. He said while COVID-19 is largely contained in Taiwan, he is aware that much of the world is continuing to struggle with it.He said he wanted to use his Taiwan gathering to show the world the importance of wearing a mask to fight COVID.“Every character today, including those who wear a helmet, is wearing a mask. I hope to show Star Wars fans of the world that even in Taiwan, we all have to wear the mask. And I hope the pandemic goes away soon.”May the 4th has become the unofficial international “Star Wars Day” over the years, as a play on the famous catch phrase of the movie, “May the force be with you.” Media reports trace the international origins of the day to 1979, when Britain’s Conservative Party won elections there and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher first assumed her office.The party reportedly took out a newspaper advertisement congratulating the day she took office — May the 4th — saying “May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations!”Reports say a copy of the original advertisement has yet to be found, so the story has not been officially verified. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the Group of 7 industrialized nations have vowed to end the 10-year civil war in Syria. My @G7 counterparts and I reaffirmed our commitment to a political resolution for ending the conflict in Syria,” Blinken tweeted as he and other G-7 members attended their first in-person meetings in two years. My U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is greeted on arrival by Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab at the start of the G-7 foreign ministers meeting in London, Britain, May 4, 2021. (Ben Stansall/Pool via Reuters)Blinken met with Raab on Monday and said regarding China the goal is not to “try to contain China or to hold China down.” “What we are trying to do is to uphold the international rules-based order that our countries have invested so much in over so many decades to the benefit, I would argue not just of our own citizens, but of people around the world including, by the way, China,” Blinken told reporters.  Raab said the United States and Britain are also looking for constructive ways to work with China “in a sensible and positive manner” on issues including climate change when possible.    U.S. President Joe Biden has identified competition with China as his administration’s greatest foreign policy challenge. In his first speech to Congress last week, he pledged to maintain a strong U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific and boost U.S. technological development.     Last month, Blinken said the United States was concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the western Pacific by force.   Elsewhere in the region, the United States said it is ready to engage diplomatically with North Korea to achieve the ultimate goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, following the completion of a months-long U.S. policy review on North Korea.    “What we have now is a policy that calls for a calibrated practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with North Korea, to try to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies and our deployed forces,” Blinken said Monday.     Raab said Britain and the United States “share the strategic paradigm,” and both countries will support each other’s efforts.    On Friday, the Biden administration announced it completed the review of North Korean policy, expressing openness to talks with the reclusive communist nation. Biden is also expected to appoint a special envoy for North Korean human rights issues.    North Korea lashed out at the United States and its allies on Sunday in a series of statements, saying recent comments from Washington are proof of a hostile policy.  North Korea Slams Biden’s New Approach to DiplomacyUS policy remains ‘hostile,’ North says A statement by Kwon Jong Gun, head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s North America Department, warns that Pyongyang would seek “corresponding measures” and that if Washington tries to approach relations with Pyongyang through “outdated and old-school policies” from the perspective of the Cold War, it will face an increasingly unaffordable crisis in the near future.    “I hope that North Korea will take the opportunity to engage diplomatically and to see if there are ways to move forward toward the objective of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. And so, we will look to see not only what North Korea says but what it actually does in the coming days and months,” the top U.S. diplomat added.    Blinken’s remarks followed his separate meetings with Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, where the foreign ministers pledged U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral cooperation toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.  The G-7 ministerial talks are laying the foundation for a summit of leaders from those countries in June, also in Britain.          In addition to Britain and the United States, the G-7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Australia, India, South Africa, South Korea and Brunei are also taking part in this week’s talks.      After the G-7 meetings, Blinken is scheduled to travel to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other senior government officials.      State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that Blinken will “reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.”Chris Hannas   contributed to this report. 
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Taiwan, largely spared from the global coronavirus pandemic since it began last year, is grappling with a small but still uncontained outbreak that appeared last month. Since April 20, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center has confirmed infections of 10 pilots working for the Taiwan-based international carrier China Airlines and eight relatives of pilots. At the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, which is next to the island’s chief international airport, four employees, three of their family members and a hotel contractor have been diagnosed since April 29. On Tuesday, the command center reported two new COVID-19 cases, both airline employees. Authorities expect it will take another week or two to determine how wide the outbreak has spread. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told a news conference Sunday the cluster does not qualify yet as a “community outbreak” but cautioned people to follow guidance on avoiding infections. “Until May 17 we will be in a period of high-level alert, so please everyone cooperate,” Chen told a Tuesday news conference. Command center officials have disclosed the movements of people who were recently infected so anyone who might have crossed paths can be tested for the virus. Potential infection spots include buses, convenience stores and restaurants in northern Taiwan including the capital Taipei, Centers for Disease Control deputy director Luo Yi-jun said. The command center says hundreds of contacts and potential contacts of the 24 patients confirmed through Monday had already been tested for infection. “Two days before these people showed symptoms, they were infectious, so this outbreak poses a very big challenge to the whole community,” said Chiu Cheng-hsun, vice superintendent at Linkou Chang Gung Hospital’s pediatric respiratory department. “Right now, there’s an extremely high risk, an extremely high chance, of a community [caseload].” Any more COVID-19 cases pegged to the airline, or the hotel should show up within the month, Chiu said. A wider outbreak would be Taiwan’s first runaway caseload since COVID-19 began gripping the world in early 2020. FILE – People wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus shop ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, in Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 9, 2021.Most people in Taiwan, population 24 million, are keeping their hands clean, wearing masks and disinfecting their surroundings, health professionals in Taiwan say. But they show few signs of changing their lifestyles otherwise. “I think the general Taiwanese public at this moment probably doesn’t believe Taiwan overall is so dangerous or so dire, and they’re not on such high alert, because Taiwan was a good student over the past last year, like it performed well,” said Wu Chia-yi, associate professor in the National Taiwan University College of Medicine’s nursing faculty. But she said some people feel “depressed” or “anxious,” especially if in a hospital and exposed to patients’ blood. People around Taiwan should step up disease prevention habits, such as mask wearing and hand washing, that might have slacked before the recent outbreak, Chiu said. The command center said last week it is exploring whether pilots of foreign-registered airlines set off the Novotel cluster. “Novotel teams are fully cooperating and following protocols and measurements as advised by the local authorities,” Novotel said in a statement. “Meanwhile, our focus is to closely monitor the progress of our staff members and guests who are currently under quarantine. The safety and wellbeing of our staff and guests are our absolute priority.” China Airlines has not answered requests for comment.Taiwan’s success in warding off COVID-19 has allowed people to keep working and going out as usual. The government controlled the virus spread in early 2020 through inspections of inbound aircraft, strict quarantine rules and rigorous contact tracing. Taiwan has logged a cumulative 1,153 cases with 12 deaths. The most recent localized outbreak occurred in December when an infected Eva Airways pilot sparked cluster of four people. Those cases prompted a wave of event cancellations and new restrictions on inbound pilots. Almost all other cases since the start of the pandemic are Taiwan residents returning from overseas. On Tuesday, the command center said it would step up disease controls by restricting bedside visits to hospital patients. Hospitals are tightening their own precautions, particularly in emergency rooms. 
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The chairman of one of South Korea’s biggest dairy companies has resigned over a scandal in which his company was accused of deliberately spreading misinformation that its yogurt helps prevent coronavirus infections. While stepping down as the company’s head, Hong Won-sik and other members of his family will retain their commanding share in Namyang Dairy Products. Namyang financed research it aggressively promoted through the media and a symposium it funded last month that claimed its Bulgaris yogurt drinks were effective in lowering the risk of coronavirus infections. Namyang’s stock price rose temporarily before the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety sued the company for false advertising, saying the research was dubious and never involved any animal testing or clinical trials. Police searched Namyang’s Seoul headquarters last week. Namyang’s CEO, Lee Kwang-bum, also offered to resign following a public uproar. “I express my sincere apology for causing disappointment and anger to our country’s people with the Bulgaris-related controversy at a time when the nation is undergoing a hard time because of COVID-19,” Hong said, tearing up. He said he will take “all responsibility” by stepping down as chairman and promised not to pass on management rights to his children, which is a much-criticized practice at South Korea’s family-owned businesses. 
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The first phase of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has started in Papua New Guinea, as infection numbers continue to rise. Experts say Australia’s nearest neighbor is also fighting a sea of misinformation and concerns over the safety of vaccines. Experts say misinformation about COVID-19 is spreading even faster in Papua New Guinea than the disease. Conspiracy theories and other falsehoods have found fertile ground online. Adding to a sense of mistrust are deeply held beliefs in sorcery. Aid workers have reported that the family of a health worker in Papua New Guinea, who tested positive for the virus, was tortured by relatives fearful of unexplained illness.  Jonathan Pryke is the director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based research organization. He says hoaxes spread on social media about the novel coronavirus add to the confusion.  “Facebook is where you get all of your information from, and Facebook is just seeding misinformation and misinformation is spreading faster than the virus in that country,” Pryke said.The World Health Organization reported 11,206 COVID-19 cases and 115 deaths Tuesday in Papua New Guinea. Pryke believes the true scale of pandemic in the Pacific island nation is far worse because of a lack of testing and patients with symptoms refuse or fear retaliation from within their communities, preventing them from seeking treatment. Prior to the pandemic, sorcery-related violence against victims has been rampant in the country according to news reports. “The official statistics do not look as serious as the true picture is and, you know, there is a lot of data points you can look at that display just how serious this is. We have had a sitting member of parliament die; we have had two judges die. It is bad. It is a health system that is so stretched to breaking point that it really cannot handle the shock. We are seeing this crisis play out in front of our very eyes,” Pryke said.The pandemic has been felt differently across the Pacific. Some countries have, so far, escaped unscathed. According to the World Health Organization, Tonga has not recorded any infections since the pandemic began. Samoa has had just a single confirmed case, and three cases have been recorded in Vanuatu. Fiji has recorded more than 100 coronavirus infections and two people have died, WHO reported. A mass inoculation program is underway in French Polynesia. So far, there have been almost 19,000 cases detected and 141 deaths in the past 15 months. However, it is reopening its international borders only to vaccinated travelers from the United States, who have already tested negative for COVID. The U.S. territory of Guam has reported its latest figures with 7,700 infections and 136 deaths due to the pandemic. Currently, Guam has a 14-day quarantine period in place for all passengers entering through air or sea.  
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New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday the country will form a “travel bubble” with the Cook Islands, allowing quarantine-free travel between the two nations beginning on May 17.  
At a news press briefing in Wellington, Ardern said the two nations were able to make the arrangement since they both showed a strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand’s national rate of infection is below two percent.
One-way quarantine-free travel from the Cook Islands to New Zealand has been permitted since January.
Last month New Zealand and Australia began a similar arrangement for quarantine-free travel.  Travelers to each country cannot be awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test, cannot have had a positive result in the previous 14 days and cannot be experiencing symptoms.
Ardern also said New Zealand would help the Cook Islands with their COVID-19 vaccine rollout, supplying enough Pfizer-BioNTech doses to immunize their entire population.
The Cook Islands, about 3,200 kilometers northeast of New Zealand, depend heavily on New Zealand tourists for their economy.
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The Philippine foreign minister on Monday demanded in an expletive-laced message on Twitter that China’s vessels get out of disputed waters, marking the latest exchange in a war of words with Beijing over its activities in the South China Sea. The comments by Teodoro Locsin, known for making blunt remarks at times, follow Manila’s protests for what it calls the “illegal” presence of hundreds of Chinese boats inside the Philippines 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). “China, my friend, how politely can I put it? Let me see… O…GET THE F— OUT,” Locsin said in a tweet on his personal account. “What are you doing to our friendship? You. Not us. We’re trying. You. You’re like an ugly oaf forcing your attentions on a handsome guy who wants to be a friend; not to father a Chinese province…,” Locsin said. China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Chinese officials have previously said the vessels at the disputed Whitsun Reef were fishing boats taking refuge from rough seas. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion of ship-borne trade passes each year. In 2016, an arbitration tribunal in The Hague ruled the claim, which Beijing bases on its old maps, was inconsistent with international law. In a statement on Monday, the Philippine foreign ministry accused China’s coast guard of “shadowing, blocking, dangerous maneuvers, and radio challenges of the Philippine coast guard vessels.” Philippine officials believe the Chinese vessels are manned by militia. On Sunday, the Philippines vowed to continue maritime exercises in its EEZ in the South China Sea in response to a China  demand that it stop actions it said could escalate disputes. As of April 26, the Philippines had filed 78 diplomatic protests to China since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, foreign ministry data shows. “Our statements are stronger too because of the more brazen nature of the activities, the number, frequency and proximity of intrusions,” Marie Yvette Banzon-Abalos, executive director for strategic communications at the foreign ministry, said. Duterte for the most part has pursued warmer ties with China in exchange for Beijing’s promises of billions of dollars in investment, aid and loans. While the Philippine leader still considers China “a good friend,” he said last week: “There are things that are not really subject to a compromise.”  
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there are growing differences with China over its human rights record, but said those differences will not ultimately define Wellington’s relationship with its largest trading partner. In a speech Monday to the China Business Summit in Auckland , Prime Minister Ardern said it has not escaped anyone’s attention that as Beijing’s role in the world evolves, “the differences between our systems — and the interests and values that shape those systems — are becoming harder to reconcile.” The prime minister said her government has raised “grave concerns” with China over its treatment of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province and its tightening grip on semi-autonomous Hong Kong.Uyghurs and other members of the faithful pray at the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, as seen during a government organized trip for foreign journalists, April 19, 2021.Ardern’s stern remarks comes weeks after Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta expressed reluctance to expand the role of the Five Eyes intelligence security alliance to criticize China’s human rights record. The Five Eyes alliance includes Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. New Zealand’s previous reluctance to openly criticize China is in stark contrast to Australia, which is engaged in a tense diplomatic and trade dispute over Canberra’s call for an international probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in China in late 2019.   
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview that aired Sunday that China had recently acted “more aggressively abroad” and was behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways.”Asked by CBS News’ “60 Minutes” if Washington was heading toward a military confrontation with Beijing, Blinken said: “It’s profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to, to get to that point, or even to head in that direction.””What we’ve witnessed over the last several years,” he added, “is China acting more repressively at home and more aggressively abroad. That is a fact.”Asked about the reported theft of hundreds of billions of dollars or more in U.S. trade secrets and intellectual property by China, Blinken said the Biden administration had “real concerns” about the IP issue.He said it sounded like the actions “of someone who’s trying to compete unfairly and increasingly in adversarial ways. But we’re much more effective and stronger when we’re bringing like-minded and similarly aggrieved countries together to say to Beijing: ‘This can’t stand and it won’t stand.'”The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment on Blinken’s interview.On Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration said China had fallen short on its commitments to protect American intellectual property in the “Phase 1” U.S.-China trade deal signed last year.The commitments were part of the sweeping deal between former President Donald Trump’s administration and Beijing, which included regulatory changes on agricultural biotechnology and commitments to purchase about $200 billion in U.S. exports over two years.Blinken arrived Sunday in London for a G-7 foreign ministers meeting, and China is one of the issues on the agenda.In the interview, Blinken said the United States was not aiming to “contain China” but to “uphold this rules-based order — that China is posing a challenge to. Anyone who poses a challenge to that order, we’re going to stand up and — and defend it.”Biden has identified competition with China as his administration’s greatest foreign policy challenge. In his first speech to Congress last Wednesday, he pledged to maintain a strong U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific and to boost U.S. technological development.Blinken said he speaks to Biden “pretty close to daily.”Last month, Blinken said the United States was concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the western Pacific by force.The United States has a long-standing commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to ensure that self-governing Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and to sustain peace and security in the western Pacific, Blinken said.Taiwan has complained over the past few months of repeated missions by China’s air force near the island, which China claims as its own.
 
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Thailand’s southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia have been the center of an insurgency since 2004. Over 7,000 people have been killed — mostly civilians — caught up in the fighting between shadowy Malay-Muslim rebels and Thai security forces. But a new generation is determined to reclaim a space from violence. Vijitra Duangdee reports for VOA from Pattani.
Camera: Black Squirrel Productions
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Bound by unconditional love for their children and anger at the Thai state, the mothers of pro-democracy protesters detained for weeks without bail for allegedly defaming the royal family are keeping vigils outside the prison where their loved ones are being held.  The vigils come as Thailand’s turbulent political landscape is rocked once more by a youth-driven protest movement demanding reforms to the entire power structure, including the previously untouchable monarchy, headed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Protests which drew tens of thousands late last year fizzled after key leaders were arrested, many under multiple charges of breaking the lèse-majesté law, better known as “112,” the harsh defamation measure which protects the palace from criticism. Each conviction under Section 112 of the Thai criminal code carries between three and 15 years in prison. The 10 core leaders have been held without bail, but more than 70 others have been charged with the offense since late last year, the youngest just 16 at the time he was charged. Rights groups say the law has been wielded like a hammer against protesters who revealed the fault lines between young and old, conservative and progressives in Thai society. “They have weaponized the law against my son,” said Sureerat Chiwarak, mother of one of the most vocal protest leaders, Parit Chiwarak – better known by his nickname “Penguin” — who faces more than a dozen charges under the law. Penguin, 23, has been held since February — but was transferred to a hospital over the weekend after a hunger strike which is entering its eighth week. “Even though he’s yet to be proven guilty by a court… they have killed his future. But as mothers, we can’t stop; we won’t sit around and watch them be jailed,” she told VOA News. On Friday, she shaved her head in protest outside a court, demanding bail from a legal system she says has kept her son in pretrial detention without justification. The next day, she joined four other mothers outside Bangkok’s remand prison, standing in front of life-size cardboard cut-outs of their children for a symbolic 112 minutes, with a large sign tied to the prison fence reading, “Give us our children back.” They shared hugs, clasped hands and wore t-shirts with photos of their children, touching acts of solidarity as the mass protests are reduced to hundreds by fear of the law as well as a recent rebound of the coronavirus. The group has been dubbed the “Ratsamoms” — the People’s Mothers —  a spinoff from the Ratsadon People’s Movement, which has been protesting at courts and jails since March. “I don’t want my child to feel lonely,” said Suriya Sithijirawattanakul the mother of Panussaya (nicknamed “Rung”) the bespectacled 23-year-old who ignited the reform movement in August last year when she took to the stage with 10 demands including that the powers of the monarchy be kept within the constitution. “She’s been in jail for a long while now and she’s also on hunger strike. She deserves to be out on bail.” Power struggle Thailand is a divided kingdom.  To royalists, led by the government of former army chief turned premier Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the youth movement overstepped the mark by calling out the monarchy. They revere the palace and cast the institution as above the political fray, although it runs the country in partnership with a military which has set back democracy movements with 13 coups since 1932. The lèse-majesté law had not been wielded since King Vajiralongkorn, Thailand’s immensely wealthy monarch, came to the throne in 2019. In November, Prayut warned protesters that he would “use every law” to squash a movement which demanded the palace abide by its constitutional role and decouple its support from the military. With the protest leaders facing months or years in detention, some observers say their mothers may be one of the final keys to reigniting the public conscience.    “At the end of the day it’s just these mums who come out with no conditions, who will give everything for their kids,” Amornrat Chokepamitkul, an opposition MP who joined Saturday’s action at the prison. “I think they’re going to become a source of power for the movement,” the lawmaker said.   
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Thousands of anti-coup protesters marched in Myanmar Sunday, calling for a “spring revolution” with the country in its fourth month under a military regime.Cities, rural areas, remote mountainous regions and even rebel-controlled border territories have been in uproar since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup.The junta has aimed to suppress dissent through a brutal crackdown involving mass arrests and an escalating death toll.Demonstrations kicked off early in commercial hub Yangon as activists called for a show of force and a “spring revolution”.Youths gathered on a street corner before marching swiftly down the streets in a flash mob — dispersing soon after to avoid clashing with authorities.People protest in Hlaing Township, Yangon, Myanmar, May 2, 2021, in this still image from a video.”To bring down the military dictatorship is our cause!” they chanted, waving a three-finger salute of resistance.In eastern Shan state, youths carried a banner that read: “We cannot be ruled at all.”Local media reported that security forces were chasing protesters down and arresting them.”They are arresting every young person they see,” a source in Yangon told AFP, adding that he was hiding at the time.”Now I am trapped.”Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup during “Global Myanmar Spring Revolution Day” in Taunggyi, Shan state, May 2, 2021.Bomb blasts also went off across different parts of Yangon on Sunday. Explosions have been happening with increasing frequency in the former capital, and authorities have blamed it on “instigators.”Bloodshed across the countrySo far, security forces have killed 759 civilians, according to local monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.The junta — which has labelled the AAPP an unlawful organization — says 258 protesters have been killed, along with 17 policemen and seven soldiers.Violence erupted again on Sunday by 10 am in Shan state’s Hsipaw township, when security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least one.”He was shot in the head and died immediately,” said one protester, who said he rushed to hide his friend’s body in case authorities tried to take it away.”They are asking for his dead body, but we will not give them… We will have his funeral today,” he told AFP.In northern Kachin state, security forces also fired on protesters, even flinging grenades into the crowd.A 33-year-old man was shot in the head, a fellow demonstrator told AFP, adding that many others were wounded in the attack.”They all had to be treated at a hidden area. They could not go to the hospital for treatment or they would have been arrested,” the protester said. Urban centers have become hotspots for unrest, especially in Yangon, where residents share videos of security forces beating up civilians on the streets.Night raids and arrests are also common, with informers reporting to authorities about people suspected to be aiding the anti-coup movement.Mourners attending the funeral, April 29, 2021, of Felix Thang Muan Lian, a night security guard at a gas station who was shot by security forces on his way to work in Dedin in western Myanmar’s Chin state. (Credit: Chin World)State-run newspaper Mirror Daily reported that a woman accused of supporting an underground parallel government opposing the junta was sentenced by military tribunal to seven years in prison with hard labor.She had been arrested in Yangon’s North Dagon Township — which is currently under martial law — after police had raided her home and searched her Facebook and Telegram messaging apps.Airstrikes in the eastThe junta’s violence against civilians has drawn the ire of Myanmar’s myriad ethnic armies — many of whom have been battling the military for decades in the country’s border regions.Among the most prominent opponents is the Karen National Union (KNU), which has admitted offering shelter to fleeing activists in the territory they control along Myanmar’s east.Clashes have ramped up in Karen state between the KNU’s fighters and the military, which has responded with serious artillery power and airstrikes in towns next to the Thai border.Thai authorities announced that the Myanmar military fired rocket offensives from the air to a KNU base on Saturday, and grenade launchers and sporadic gunfire could be heard throughout the day from the kingdom’s bordering Mae Hong Son province.A letter was sent last week to Myanmar counterparts calling for the military to “increase caution on airstrikes to avoid it falling into Thai territories”, said Sunday’s statement from Mae Hong Son province.”[This] could cause danger to Thais living on the border and affect the good relationship,” it said.So far, more than 2,300 Myanmar nationals have crossed over for refuge.Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified the putsch by saying it was done to defend democracy, alleging electoral fraud in November’s elections, which Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide.  
 
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