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Islamabad — An anti-corruption court in Pakistan indicted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Tuesday on charges that he had received land as a bribe while in office.

The trial was conducted in a prison center near the capital, Islamabad, where Khan has been serving lengthy sentences since last August following convictions on multiple charges, including graft, leaking state secrets, and fraudulent marriage.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party condemned Tuesday’s indictment, saying the couple pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to them and dismissed them as frivolous, just like in all the previous convictions.

“Trials conducted behind prison walls, only meant to pave the way for miscarriage of justice, particularly in fabricated and politically motivated cases, only to keep Imran Khan behind bars,” said a PTI statement.

The latest corruption case centers on the non-profit charitable Al-Qadir University Trust, which Khan and his wife established months after he took office in 2018.

Prosecutors allege the trust was a front for the deposed prime minister to obtain the valuable land for the school from Malik Riaz Hussain, a major real estate developer and one of Pakistan’s wealthiest and most powerful businessmen.

The prosecutors say that in exchange for the land, Riaz received a favor from Khan.

They allege the quid pro quo involved the settlement of Riaz’s assets, set to be worth $240 million, in a money laundering case.

Riaz reached a deal with British authorities in December 2019 to surrender his assets to Britain’s National Crime Agency in an investigation related to “dirty money.” The British agency noted in its judgement that the assets were to be returned to the state of Pakistan, suggesting they were illegally laundered abroad by the property tycoon and his family.

The Khan government was not a party to the deal.

According to the prosecution, the former prime minister arranged for the money to be deposited into Pakistan’s Supreme Court account instead of the national treasury and that doing so allowed Riaz to partially pay off a large financial penalty that the court had imposed on his company in a separate case.

Prosecutors say the quid pro quo caused a loss of tens of millions of dollars to the national treasury, alleging Khan misused his authority as prime minister.

‘Flimsy’ allegations

In a Tuesday statement, the PTI rejected as “flimsy” allegations that Khan misused his authority and stated that the “land donated does not benefit Imran Khan in any way possible since it’s a charitable organization.”

The 71-year-old politician and his wife, Bushra Bibi, have both been convicted in one of the corruption-related lawsuits and sentenced to 14-year prison terms. He has appealed the convictions, which disqualify him from participating in national politics for 10 years.

The PTI said that Khan’s legal team has had “limited access” to the court proceedings and journalists, particularly those representing international media, were barred from covering Tuesday’s trial.

The cricket celebrity-turned-prime minister was ousted from office in 2022 through an opposition-led parliamentary vote of no-confidence. He has since faced scores of lawsuits, including for corruption, terrorism, and murder.

Khan and his party maintain that a conspiracy planned by the military at the behest of the United States had led to his ouster from office, charges rejected by Washington and subsequent governments in Islamabad.

The deposed leader denies any wrongdoing and alleges Pakistan’s powerful military has orchestrated the lawsuits to block his return to power.

PTI leaders, workers, and supporters have been subjected to a military-backed state crackdown for months in a bid to deter them from organizing political rallies or make them abandon Khan altogether.

His loyalist candidates won the largest number of seats in parliament in national elections February 8, despite the crackdown and multiple convictions in the lead-up to the vote, underscoring the incarcerated Khan’s growing popularity.

The results were marred by allegations of widespread electoral fraud, with several countries, including the U.S., calling for a full investigation into the irregularities.

The PTI maintains the rigging enabled the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party to form an alliance, which is set to create a minority coalition government later this week. The country’s Sharif and Bhutto dynasties lead the traditional ruling parties.
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Agriculture and industrial farming often conflict with Indigenous communities in Indonesia, a country with hundreds of ethnic groups. VOA’s Ahadian Utama met with the Orang Rimba people of Sumatra and has this report. Hafizh Sahadeva contributed.
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Colombo, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s national airline on Tuesday blamed a rat for grounding a plane for three days, sparking chaotic delays and fears it will scare off investors for the cash-strapped carrier.

The stowaway rodent was spotted enjoying the SriLankan Airlines Airbus A330 flight from the Pakistani city of Lahore on Thursday, triggering an aircraft search to ensure it had not chewed through critical components.

An airline official said the plane has now resumed flights, but that the grounding had an effect on the entire schedule.

“The aircraft was grounded for three days at Colombo,” an airline official said, declining to be named. “The plane could not be flown without making sure that the rat was accounted for. It was found dead.”

The state-owned airline, which had accumulated losses of more than $1.8 billion at the end of March 2023, has three other aircraft grounded for over a year out of a fleet of 23.

The carrier has no foreign exchange to pay for mandatory overhauling of the engines.

Aviation minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told reporters the errant rodent might scare off “the few investors” interested in taking over the debt-burdened airline.

Successive governments have attempted to sell it without success. A previous government offered the airline for one dollar, but there were no takers.

The International Monetary Fund, which bailed out Sri Lanka last year with a $2.9 billion loan spread over four years, has stressed that such state-owned enterprises are a heavy burden on the national budget.

The airline was profitable until a management agreement with Emirates was scrapped in 2008, following a dispute with then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The carrier had refused to bump fare-paying passengers and give their seats to 35 members of Rajapaksa’s family, who were returning from a holiday in London.

Ironically, one of the airline’s most profitable years was in 2001, when the Tamil Tigers separatist movement destroyed several aircraft in an attack — with the insurance payouts and the removal of excess capacity boosting its income.
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islamabad — Authorities in Pakistan detained a journalist Monday, the second within a week, while domestic access to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, remained disrupted for a 10th consecutive day.

The crackdown comes amid widespread electoral fraud allegations following parliamentary elections, fueling concerns about freedom of speech in a country known for throttling media.

Asad Ali Toor, an independent journalist with nearly 300,000 followers on X and more than 160,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, was taken into custody Monday evening by the Federal Investigation Agency, or FIA, his lawyer confirmed.

Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir said that the FIA’s cybercrime reporting center in the capital, Islamabad, had summoned Toor earlier in the day to join an inquiry into allegations that he was running a “malicious campaign” through social media platforms against top judges, including the country’s chief justice.

“[The] manner in which journalists in this country are being treated is appalling. Constitutional Courts must play their role 2 [sic] ensure fundamental rights are not brazenly violated in this manner,” the lawyer wrote on X.

The FIA or government officials immediately did not comment on Toor’s detention, which has outraged journalists and human rights activists.

“The assault on press freedom in Pakistan continues to strengthen as journalists are arrested simply for reporting, asking critical questions, & speaking truth to power,” Usama Khilji, a digital rights activist, said on X.

He noted that Toor was critical of some of the controversial rulings that Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa announced.

“Is the Supreme Court above criticism? Is the media’s role of accountability obsolete? Is this still a democracy?” Khilji asked.

Munizae Jahangir, a television talk show host and co-chairperson of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said they would stage a rally against the arrest and “for freedom of expression” in Islamabad on Tuesday.

“Arrest of @AsadAToor must be condemned. Criticism of judgments is not a crime & they are public property,” Jahangir wrote on X, adding that “it is a journalist’s duty and right to criticize” judgments and comment on court proceedings.

Last Thursday, police in the country’s most populous province of Punjab arrested Imran Riaz Khan in a late-night raid on his home, citing corruption charges. He denied any wrongdoing and told the judge during a Friday court hearing that he was being targeted for his critical reporting on alleged state-sponsored rigging in the national elections.

Khan returned home only recently after allegedly being detained and tortured for five months by Pakistani intelligence agency operatives. He has 5.6 million followers on X and 4.6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel.

X remains blocked

Meanwhile, X services remained restricted in Pakistan on Monday, 10 days after services were suspended amid allegations of massive rigging in the February 8 vote.

“Metrics show that X/Twitter remains restricted in #Pakistan into a tenth day, as the nation joins an exclusive set of countries that have imposed extended or permanent bans on international social media platforms,” Netblocks, a U.K.-based global cybersecurity watchdog, said on X.

Pakistan has experienced five internet service interruptions since the beginning of 2024, affecting its 128 million users, Surfshark, a Lithuania-based internet shutdown tracker, reported last week.

It said that three restrictions happened this month and were directly related to the parliamentary elections, while the remaining two happened in January during virtual campaign events organized by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s opposition, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party.

Many Pakistani users are skirting the restriction through virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allow users to hide online locations and identities.

“With reports of VPN restrictions coming to light as well, it seems that the country is prepared to take any means necessary to cut its citizens off from each other and the rest of the world,” said Lina Survila, the Surfshark spokeswoman.

Authorities shut down mobile internet services across Pakistan on election day and for several hours beyond, citing terrorism threats to the electoral process. The move, however, triggered domestic and international backlash and fueled vote-rigging allegations.

PTI alleged the communications blackout was carried out to manipulate final results, preventing its candidates from winning and enabling pro-military parties to gain the upper hand despite losing by big margins in initial projections.

The interim government has rejected the fraud charges and dismissed calls from several countries, including the United States and Britain, to fully investigate the allegations as an interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs.

 
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washington — Vietnam expects to increase its agricultural exports to China this year as the two countries have agreed to review regulations opening the market to greater quantities of poultry, fish and fruits.  

Pham Thi Huan, the founder of Ba Huan Corp. in Ho Chi Minh City, one of Vietnam’s largest poultry and egg suppliers, said she would welcome greater access to China’s market of 1.4 billion consumers.  

“My company has not exported chicken meat or eggs into China mainland. Lifting this ban will open doors to my company and many Vietnamese livestock farmers,” Pham told VOA Vietnamese by phone February 21.  

In 2023, livestock products accounted for only 1% of the $12.2 billion in agricultural, forestry and aquatic products exported to China, according to the official news outlet Vietnam Plus. Exports of milk and milk products account for 93% of the total export value of Vietnam’s livestock products to China, according to the minister of agriculture and rural development. 

Tran Thanh Nam, Vietnam’s deputy minister of agriculture and rural development,  announced after his five-day trip to China last month that China had agreed to consider lifting the ban on poultry imports from Vietnam, the official Vietnam News and Vietnam Agriculture reported on January 31.    

High demand for meat

Nam said that China’s consumer demand for meat products is worth about $400 billion annually, and there is great potential for exporting meat from Vietnam, China’s Xinhua reported. 

Nam’s working trip to Beijing and Guangzhou January 14-20 was aimed at boosting the two nations’ cooperation in farm produce import and export activities, he said.  

On January 16, Nam had separate meetings with Ma Youxiang, China’s vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs, and Zhao Zenglian, deputy chief of the General Administration of Customs,  to request that China open its market to Vietnamese products.   

China’s General Administration of Customs has agreed to a prompt completion of the documentation to sign three protocols, Nam said.  

These would cover the export of sustainably caught seafood, the export of farmed crocodiles, and the export of monkeys raised for scientific research from Vietnam to China, according to the website of Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.    

Also, the two nations reached a consensus on reopening China to Vietnam’s tropical rock lobsters, Nam said, adding that China is considering importing Vietnamese avocados and passion fruit as well.  

“Nam’s business trip [to] China will help flourish fruit, vegetable exports to China in 2024,” Dang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, who accompanied Nam to China, told VOA Vietnamese by phone on February 21.  

Active partners

Vietnam has been China’s largest trading partner among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations since 2016, with bilateral trade accounting for 25% of China’s total trade with the 10-member regional bloc in the first 11 months of 2023, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.   

The two neighboring countries have “large space for cooperation in the agricultural sector,” Xinhua reported on December 13.  

In the first 11 months of 2023, China imported 44.62 billion yuan or more than $6.2 billion worth of Vietnamese agricultural products, marking a year-on-year increase of 20.3%, according to the Xinhua report. 

In 2023, Vietnam’s livestock products constituted only 1% of the total agricultural, forestry and fishery export value to China, amounting to $12.2 billion, according to the International Trade Council.  

The ITC said this modest share was primarily attributed to Vietnam’s lack of official authorization for meat product exports to China, referring to China’s Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)-related import bans.    

For many years, many of Vietnam’s livestock products, including pork, beef, chicken and buffalo meat, have been subject to unofficial quotas at border crossings, also according to the ITC, which has 179 member nations.  These products have encountered assorted border-related obstacles, as well as heightened scrutiny and stricter control standards, according to the ITC.  

China is the biggest import market for Vietnam’s fruit, with the import turnover reaching $3.7 billion in 2023, up nearly 250% in value and 65% in market share compared with 2022, Vietnam media reported. 

Vietnam has 14 types of fruits and agricultural products officially licensed to enter China – dragon fruit, watermelon, banana, lychee, longan, rambutan, jackfruit, mango, mangosteen, durian and passion fruit, plus black jelly, sweet potato and bird’s nest – according to the official Vietnam Economy website and Voice of Vietnam.  

The watermelon agreement was signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Vietnam last December, in addition to five others, which had been included in previous protocols: mangosteen, black jelly, durian, banana and sweet potato.  

Dang said that the Chinese market is ripe for Vietnamese fruits and vegetables. He added that Chinese consumers favor Vietnamese durian products. If an agreement allowing export of frozen durian is signed, he estimates that the Chinese market “for fresh and frozen durian will bring in about $3.5 billion” to Vietnam. 
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Leaders from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau have been heavily lobbying Congress to restore funding to a vital agreement known as the Compacts of Free Association. The 7-billion-dollar 20-year deal guarantees U.S. exclusive access to these three key Pacific allies – and the right to turn others away – in exchange for critical economic aid. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports.
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The Ugandan government says about 30 Ugandans are stuck in Myanmar, being forced to work as online scammers. Officials say they were lured there by traffickers with the promise of a job and are now being held by gangs who run the scamming operations. Halima Athumani and Mukasa Francis have more from Kampala where they spoke with other Ugandans who managed to make it back home.
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ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s Taliban Monday carried out another public execution of a man charged with murder, defying international calls to stop the “inhuman” punishments. It was the third public execution within a week.

The Taliban Supreme Court said in an announcement that the execution had taken place in a sports stadium in Sheberghan, the capital of the northern Afghan province of Jowzjan. It said that government and judicial officials, as well as residents, were among the spectators.  

The executed person was found guilty of stabbing to death a young man in 2022. The statement said he was tried in three Islamic courts and subsequent appellate tribunals before the judicial “order of retaliation was issued and approved” in line with Islamic law of Sharia.

The punishment was enforced after the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, examined the ruling and endorsed it, the court said.

Last Thursday, the fundamentalist authorities carried out a double public execution at a football stadium in the southeast city of Ghazni, saying both men had been convicted of murder in separate cases.

That announcement outraged the United Nations and global human rights groups. They denounced the executions as against international law and called for ending them immediately,

“We oppose all executions as a violation of the right to life,” Amnesty International said in a statement in response to the double execution. It added that the protection of the right to a fair trial “remains seriously concerning” under the Taliban rule.

“It’s high time that the international community and the U.N. up the pressure on the blatant human rights violations by the Taliban and help ensure that international safeguards are respected in Afghanistan,” said Livia Saccardi, Amnesty International’s interim deputy regional director for South Asia.

The Taliban have executed five convicted murderers and flogged several hundred others, including women, in sports stadiums since regaining power in August 2021 and imposing their harsh interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan.

The de facto Afghan rulers have rejected criticism of their policies, saying the criminal justice system and governance at large are based on Islamic rules and guidelines.

The Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s rights to education and public life, barring female visitors from parks and gyms and forbidding girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade.

The international community has rejected the Taliban’s calls for granting their administration formal recognition, citing their treatment of Afghan women and other human rights concerns. 
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Tokyo — Japan’s moon lander has produced another surprise by waking up after the two-week lunar night, the country’s space agency said Monday.

The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down last month at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.

As the sun’s angle shifted, it came back to life for two days and carried out scientific observations of a crater with a high-spec camera, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

It went to sleep again as darkness returned and, since it was “not designed for the harsh lunar nights,” JAXA had been uncertain whether it would reawaken.

“Yesterday we sent a command, to which SLIM responded,” JAXA said on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

“SLIM succeeded in surviving a night on the Moon’s surface while maintaining its communication function!”

It said that communications were “terminated after a short time, as it was still lunar midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high.”

But it added: “Preparations are being made to resume operations when instrument temperatures have sufficiently cooled.”

SLIM, dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision landing technology, touched down within its target landing zone on Jan. 20.

The feat was a win for Japan’s space program after a string of recent failures, making the nation only the fifth to achieve a “soft landing” on the moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

But during its descent, the craft suffered engine problems and ended up on its side, meaning the solar panels were facing west instead of up.

The latest news comes after JAXA toasted a successful blast-off for its new flagship H3 rocket on Feb. 17, making it third time lucky after years of delays and two previous failed attempts.

Countries including Russia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates are also trying to reach the moon.

The first American spaceship to the moon since the Apollo era, the uncrewed Odysseus lander built by a private company and funded by NASA, landed near the lunar south pole on Thursday.

But its maker said the US spacecraft is probably lying sideways following its dramatic landing, even as ground controllers work to download data and surface photos from it.

Private Japanese firm ispace also attempted to land on the moon last year but the probe suffered a “hard landing” and contact was lost.
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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s government gave striking young doctors four days to report back to work, saying Monday that they won’t be punished if they return by the deadline but will face indictments and suspensions of medical licenses if they don’t.

About 9,000 medical interns and residents have stayed off the job since early last week to protest a government plan to increase medical school admissions by about 65%. The walkouts have severely hurt the operations of their hospitals, with numerous cancellations of surgeries and other treatments.

Government officials say adding more doctors is necessary to deal with South Korea’s rapidly aging population. The country’s current doctor-to-patient ratio is among the lowest in the developed world. 

The strikers say universities can’t handle so many new students and argue the plan would not resolve a chronic shortage of doctors in some key but low-paying areas like pediatrics and emergency departments.

Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said during a televised briefing Monday that the government won’t seek any disciplinary action against striking doctors if they return to work by Thursday.

“We want them to return to work by the end of this month, Feb. 29. If they return to the hospitals they had left by then, we won’t hold them responsible” for any damages caused by their walkouts, Park said.

But he said those who don’t meet the deadline will be punished with a minimum three-month suspension of their medical licenses and face further legal steps such as investigations and possible indictments.

Under South Korea’s medical law, the government can issue back-to-work orders to doctors and other medical personnel when it sees grave risks to public health. Refusing to abide by such an order can bring up to three years in prison or $22,480 in fines, along with revocation of medical licenses.

There are about 13,000 medical interns and residents in South Korea, most of them working and training at 100 hospitals. They typically assist senior doctors during surgeries and deal with inpatients. They represent about 30% to 40% of total doctors at some major hospitals.

The Korea Medical Association, which represents about 140,000 doctors in South Korea, has said it supports the striking doctors, but hasn’t determined whether to join the trainee doctors’ walkouts. Senior doctors have held a series of rallies voicing opposition to the government’s plan.

Earlier this month, the government announced universities would admit 2,000 more medical students starting next year, from the current 3,058. The government says it aims to add up to 10,000 doctors by 2035. 

A public survey said about 80% of South Koreans back the government plan. Critics suspect doctors, one of the best-paid professions in South Korea, oppose the recruitment plan because they worry they would face greater competition and lower income. 

Striking doctors have said they worry doctors faced with increased competition would engage in overtreatment, burdening public medical expenses.
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Vienna, Austria — An 84-year-old Austrian man who traveled to Afghanistan last year and was arrested there was released by the country’s Taliban rulers, the Austrian government said Sunday.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry in a statement identified the man as Herbert Fritz and said he arrived in Doha, Qatar from Afghanistan on Sunday afternoon. If necessary, he will be given medical treatment before continuing on to Austria, it said.

A spokeswoman for the Austrian Foreign Ministry told the Associated Press that the man had been held in a prison in Kabul.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer thanked the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his team for their “strong support in releasing one of our citizens from prison in Afghanistan.”

“It is only due to our trusted collaboration that this Austrian citizen will be able to return home to his daughter and grandchildren,” Nehammer said.

Qatar’s Foreign Affairs ministry released a statement on X expressing gratitude to the “caretaker government in Afghanistan” for releasing the Austrian.

“The State of Qatar has proven, regionally and globally, that it is a trusted international partner in various important issues, and it spares no effort in harnessing its energy and ability in the areas of mediation, preventive diplomacy, and settling disputes through peaceful means … ,” it said. 

Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported last year that an Austrian man had been arrested in Afghanistan and that he was a veteran far-right extremist and co-founder of a minor far-right party that was banned in 1988, the National Democratic Party. 

It said he had been in custody for a few weeks, since shortly after a far-right magazine published an article he wrote titled “Vacation with the Taliban” in which he gave a positive view of life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. According to the report, he was accused of spying and Austrian neo-Nazis made his case public via Telegram channels. 

The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking control of the country in 2021, despite initially promising more moderate rule. The Taliban seized Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war. 

According to Der Standard, the Austrian has been a keen traveler to dangerous locations, visiting Afghanistan in the 1980s and, a few years ago, visiting Kurds fighting against the Islamic State group in northern Syria. 

Austrian officials said Fritz arrived in Afghanistan last May but did not say where in the country he was detained. 
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Phnom Penh, Cambodia — Cambodia’s ruling party claimed a landslide victory in Senate elections on Sunday, setting the stage for ex-PM Hun Sen to officially return to politics after he stepped down last year.

After nearly four decades of hardline rule, Hun Sen handed power to his eldest son Hun Manet after national polls last July held without any significant opposition.

Hun Sen at the time made it clear that despite his resignation, he still intended to wield influence.

After polls closed Sunday afternoon, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) claimed they had swept the Senate, the country’s upper house.

Spokesman Sok Eysan said early results showed the “CPP won at least 50” of the 58 seats, and added, “obviously, he [Hun Sen] has won a seat.”

He confirmed the party would nominate the ex-PM as the president of the Senate — allowing him to act as head of state when the king is overseas — when it is expected to convene in April.

The National Electoral Committee is expected to take several weeks to publish official results.

Earlier, the 71-year-old lawmaker and chief of the ruling party had cast his ballot near his home in Takhmao city.

Four political parties, including Hun Sen’s ruling CPP, the royalist Funcinpec Party and two small opposition parties participated in the polls.

Of the 62-seat Senate, 58 seats are voted on by 125 MPs and more than 11,000 local administrators.

King Norodom Sihamoni appoints two senators, while the National Assembly appoints two others.

Most eligible voters are members of the CPP — who made a clean sweep of the Senate last election — making Hun Sen’s victory all but certain.

“This is a sign of the Hun family’s further consolidation of power,” said Sebastian Strangio, author of “Hun Sen’s Cambodia”, of the move to make Hun Sen Senate president.

“It is better to ensure that the position [does] not fall into a potential rival’s hands.”

Becoming president of the Senate would protect his son and prevent the family’s control being undermined, Strangio added.

Voters in the capital Phnom Penh seemed keen to see Hun Sen back in a position of authority.

“He has a lot of experience, so if he leads the Senate, our country will be prosperous,” commune chief Oeu Siphon told AFP.

The election follows lawmakers approving Hun Sen’s youngest son Hun Many as a deputy prime minister.

The government now includes a number of Hun Sen’s relatives, with several children of his allies also holding top jobs.

After coming to power in 1985, Hun Sen helped modernise a country devastated by civil war and genocide.

But critics say his rule has also been marked by environmental destruction, entrenched graft and the elimination of nearly all political rivals.

 
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Ōshū, Japan — Steam rose as hundreds of naked men tussled over a bag of wooden talismans, performing a dramatic end to a thousand-year-old ritual in Japan that took place for the last time. 

Their passionate chants of “Jasso, joyasa” (meaning “Evil, be gone”) echoed through a cedar forest in northern Japan’s Iwate region, where the secluded Kokuseki Temple has decided to end the popular annual rite. 

Organizing the event, which draws hundreds of participants and thousands of tourists every year, has become a heavy burden for the aging local faithful, who find it hard to keep up with the rigors of the ritual.  

The “Sominsai” festival, regarded as one of the strangest festivals in Japan, is the latest tradition impacted by the country’s aging population crisis that has hit rural communities hard.  

“It is very difficult to organize a festival of this scale,” said Daigo Fujinami, a resident monk of the temple that opened in 729.  

“You can see what happened today — so many people are here and it’s all exciting. But behind the scenes, there are many rituals and so much work that have to be done,” he said.  

“I cannot be blind to the difficult reality.”  

Aging population 

More than 1 in 10 people in Japan are 80 years old or older, and almost a third of its population is older than 65, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023.

The aging of Japan’s population has forced the closure of countless schools, shops and services, particularly in small or rural communities.  

Kokuseki Temple’s Sominsai festival used to take place from the seventh day of Lunar New Year to the following morning.  

But during the Covid pandemic, it was scaled down to prayer ceremonies and smaller rituals. 

The final festival was a shortened version, ending around 11 p.m., but it drew the biggest crowd in recent memory, local residents said.  

As the sun set, men in white loincloths came to the mountain temple, bathed in a creek and marched around temple’s ground. 

They clenched their fists against the chill of a winter breeze, all the while chanting “Jasso, joyasa.” 

Some held small cameras to record their experience, while dozens of television crews followed the men through the temple’s stone steps and dirt pathways. 

As the festival reached its climax, hundreds of men packed inside the wooden temple shouting, chanting and aggressively jostling over a bag of talismans. 

Changing norms

Toshiaki Kikuchi, a local resident who claimed the talismans and who helped organize the festival for years, said he hoped the ritual would return in the future.  

“Even under a different format, I hope to maintain this tradition,” he said. “There are many things that you can appreciate only if you take part.” 

Many participants and visitors voiced both sadness and understanding about the festival’s ending. 

“This is the last of this great festival that has lasted 1,000 years. I really wanted to participate in this festival,” Yasuo Nishimura, 49, a caregiver from Osaka, told AFP. 

Other temples across Japan continue to host similar festivals where men wear loincloths and bathe in freezing water or fight over talismans. 

Some festivals are adjusting their rules in line with changing demographics and social norms so that they can continue to exist — such as letting women take part in previously male-only ceremonies.  

Starting next year, Kokuseki Temple will replace the festival with prayer ceremonies and other ways to continue its spiritual practices. 

“Japan is facing a falling birthrate, aging population, and lack of young people to continue various things,” Nishimura said. “Perhaps it is difficult to continue the same way as in the past.” 
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HONG KONG — Dior has postponed a fashion show set to be held in Hong Kong next month, a city official confirmed Saturday, dealing a blow to the financial hub’s ambitions to boost its economy through major events.

Hong Kong is courting top international celebrities and brands in the hope of rebooting its reputation, which has been battered by years of social unrest and strict pandemic curbs. 

The Dior fashion show — meant to feature artistic director Kim Jones and the men’s autumn collection — was to be one of several “mega events” touted last month by Hong Kong’s culture, sports and tourism chief, Kevin Yeung, as part of the city’s drive to become an event capital. 

But Yeung’s office confirmed to AFP on Saturday that it had “just been notified” by organizers that the fashion show would not go ahead as scheduled on March 23. 

“Large-scale events are postponed from time to time, and we continue to welcome large-scale events to take place in Hong Kong,” a spokesperson for Yeung’s office said. 

Dior said the show had been “postponed indefinitely” without giving specifics, according to a company statement quoted by the South China Morning Post. 

According to the South China Morning Post, the event was expected to cost about $100 million ($12.8 million U.S.) and draw nearly 1,000 attendees.  

Louis Vuitton in November held its men’s pre-fall 2024 show in Hong Kong, led by creative director Pharrell Williams and drawing celebrity guests from China and South Korea. 

The much-hyped runway show was seen as a boon to Hong Kong’s international image and a sign of the luxury giant’s commitment to Asian markets. 
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TOKYO — Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. opened its first semiconductor plant in Japan Saturday as part of its ongoing global expansion.

“We are deeply grateful for the seamless support provided by you at every step,” TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said after thanking the Japanese government, local community and business partners, including electronic giant Sony and auto-parts maker Denso. The company’s founder, Morris Chang, was also present at the ceremony in Kikuyo.

This comes as Japan is trying to regain its presence in the chip production industry.

Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, or JASM, is set to be up and running later this year. TSMC also announced plans for a second plant in Japan earlier this month, with production expected to start in about three years. Private sector investment totals $20 billion for both plants. Both plants are in the Kumamoto region, southwestern Japan.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sent a congratulatory video message, calling the plant’s opening “a giant first step.” He stressed Japan’s friendly relations with Taiwan and the importance of cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

Japan had previously promised TSMC 476 billion yen ($3 billion) in government funding to encourage the semiconductor giant to invest. Kishida confirmed a second package, raising Japan’s support to more than 1 trillion yen ($7 billion).

Although TSMC is building its second plant in the U.S. and has announced a plan for its first in Europe, Japan could prove an attractive option.

Closer to Taiwan geographically, Japan is an important U.S. ally. Neighboring China claims the self-governing island as its own territory and says it must come under Beijing’s control. The long-running divide is a flashpoint in U.S.-China relations.

The move is also important for Japan, which has recently earmarked about 5 trillion yen ($33 billion) to revive its chips industry.

Four decades ago, Japan dominated in chips, headlined by Toshiba Corp. and NEC controlling half the world’s production. That’s declined lately to under 10%, due to competition from South Korean, U.S. and European manufacturers, as well as from TSMC.

The coronavirus pandemic negatively affected the supply of electronic chips, stalling plants, including automakers, with Japan almost entirely dependent on chip imports. This pushed Japan to seek chip production in pursuit of self-sufficiency.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation, Denso Corporation and top automaker Toyota Motor Corporation are investing in TSMC’s Japan plant, with the Taiwanese giant retaining an 86.5% ownership of JASM.

Once the two plants are up and running, they’re expected to create 3,400 high-tech jobs directly, according to TSMC.

Ensuring access to an ample supply of the most advanced chips is vital with the growing popularity of electric vehicles and artificial intelligence. Some analysts note Japan still leads in crucial aspects of the industry, as seen in Tokyo Electron, which manufactures the machinery used to produce chips.

Still, it’s clear the Japanese government is intent on playing catchup. Tokyo is supporting various semiconductor projects nationwide, such as those involving Western Digital and Micron of the U.S., and Japanese companies such as Renesas Electronics, Canon and Sumitomo.
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Islamabad — Access to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, remained restricted in Pakistan late Friday, a week after services were suspended following a high-level official’s declaration that he was involved in election rigging.

Netblocks, a cybersecurity watchdog, recorded the seventh day of service suspension. The platform was accessible intermittently during the week.

Since the beginning of the year, Pakistan’s nearly 128 million internet users have experienced service interruptions five times, according to Lithuania-based internet shutdown tracker Surfshark. The tracker recorded four restrictions last year and three in 2022.

“Pakistan’s internet censorship efforts have been alarmingly increasing, and 2024 may be a record year for the country regarding internet restrictions,” the statement said, quoting Surfshark spokeswoman Lina Survila.

Two of 2024’s five restrictions, targeting several major social media platforms like YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram, came in January. The disruptions occurred as the PTI party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, facing a state-backed crackdown, started online election events.

The other three restrictions were put in place as Pakistan held elections on February 8.

Pakistan shut down mobile internet services across the country on Election Day and for several hours beyond.

Authorities defended the highly controversial action as necessary to ensure election security.

Suspension of X

Facing the longest-running suspension of a social media platform in Pakistan this year, X became inaccessible across much of the country on February 17.

This came soon after Liaqat Ali Chatha, the commissioner of the Rawalpindi region, announced he had overseen large-scale election rigging. Pakistan’s elections commission quickly rejected his assertion and the official later walked back his confession in court.

Pakistan’s vote was marred by allegations of massive fraud. PTI, which won a plurality of parliament seats but fell well short of a majority, contends that its election mandate was stolen. Most other parties have also protested the results.

The caretaker government has rejected calls by the United States, United Kingdom and United Nations to probe reported election irregularities.

A pattern of restrictions

Freedom House, a global civil liberties observer, ranks Pakistan as “not free” in terms of internet freedom.

While X has only a few million users in Pakistan, the base is seen as politically active.

The power to censor or control free expression always lay with governments until about 10 years ago, said Saroop Ejaz, senior counsel in the Asia Division at  Human Rights Watch. “I think we are looking at an amplified version of that [public debate]. Twitter [now X] is an amplified version of that … it seems those in power are troubled by this.”

Many are skirting the restriction through virtual private networks that allow users to hide their identities and locations online.

“In this day and age, the concept of blocking something is almost gone, because there are VPNs and other platforms that allow users to access content. Restriction just becomes a source of embarrassment. … It creates a very negative image of Pakistan around the world,” said Asad Baig, founder of Islamabad-based  watchdog Media Matters for Democracy.

Expressing concern about restrictions on freedom of expression, U.S. State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller called on Pakistan on Wednesday to restore access to any restricted social media.

The provincial court in Pakistan’s Sindh province also ordered the government to restore access to X, during a hearing on the Election Day internet outage.

Surfshark, which also is a VPN provider, said that since February 18, new users of its circumvention services in Pakistan have increased up to four times compared with last month.

Investigating online speech

So far this year, Pakistani authorities have twice set up investigation teams to probe online speech.

A joint investigation team, or JIT, that was formed this week, comprising intelligence officials among others, will probe the ”malicious social media campaign attempting to malign the image of civil servants/government officials in connection with Elections 2024,” according to a government notice.

Speaking at a press briefing Thursday, Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said freedom of expression has limits.

The constitution “does not allow making insulting remarks against judiciary, military and brother countries,” he said, adding that those inciting illegal activities will be dealt with according to the country’s law.

Authorities arrested prominent Pakistani commentator Imran Riaz Khan late Thursday. Police sources told VOA’s Urdu Service that Khan was arrested for spreading religious hate. He was later charged with corruption.

 In the run-up to the elections, authorities formed a JIT in January to probe a “malicious campaign” against top judiciary on social media.

The Federal Investigation Agency sent notices to more than 100 journalists, commentators, politicians and activists accused of “spreading defamatory and false information against state institutions” and called them in for questioning.

The Supreme Court later stopped authorities from taking any action.

Naveed Nasim and Zia Ur Rehman from VOA’s Urdu Service contributed to this report.
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washington — A top U.S. official on North Korea held a video call this week with China’s envoy on Korean Peninsula affairs in which they discussed the growing military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, the State Department said Friday.

The U.S. senior official for North Korea, Jung Pak, and her Chinese counterpart, Liu Xiaoming, also addressed North Korea’s “increasingly destabilizing and escalatory behavior,” the department said in a statement.

It said the growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea was “in violation of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

Russia has long been party to U.N. sanctions on North Korea over the latter’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs but has stepped up ties with Pyongyang since invading Ukraine in 2022.

The United States has accused North Korea of supplying Russia with artillery shells and missiles used in Ukraine.

Moscow and Pyongyang deny the accusations but vowed last year to deepen military relations.

The State Department said the video call followed a February 16 meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Munich at which they “affirmed the importance of continued communication on [North Korea] issues at all levels.”

The Kremlin on Tuesday said Russian President Vladimir Putin had given North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a Russian Aurus limousine as a gift. On Friday, Washington imposed sanctions on the producer of the car as part of a sweeping round of sanctions against Russia over the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny and to mark the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

The sanctions and trade restrictions also targeted Chinese firms that the U.S. said were assisting Russia’s war.

Sino-U.S. relations have shown signs of improvement in recent months with steps to reestablish communication channels after ties sank to their lowest levels in decades.

But many points of friction remain, including U.S. sanctions on China over security and human rights issues. China said Wang told Blinken in Munich that these should be lifted.

The top U.S. official for arms control, Bonnie Jenkins, told an event on Thursday that Washington was keen for more talks with China on strategic stability and crisis management and that a more aggressive North Korea was not in Beijing’s interest.

She said she believed North Korea, which borders China, is keen to acquire fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment or materials and other advanced technologies from its cooperation with Russia.
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WASHINGTON — One works as a teacher. Others pretend to be students and shopkeepers. In Myanmar, their day jobs help mask their real profession as journalists.

With the space for independent journalism all but eliminated since the February 2021 military coup, some journalists still working inside Myanmar are using cover jobs as a form of protection.

The trend underscores both the resiliency of Myanmar media and the threats posed by the country’s military, analysts say.

Since the military overthrew the civilian-led government over three years ago, the junta has cracked down hard on independent media, with over a dozen outlets banned and even more journalists jailed.

The risky environment prompted entire outlets to flee into exile and forced some journalists to stop working entirely. But some reporters decided to stay in Myanmar, where they report underground at great risk to their safety.

“We can be arrested by the military at any time,” one journalist secretly working inside Myanmar told VOA. They requested anonymity for safety reasons.

“Since the coup, I have already told people around me that I will no longer work as a journalist,” said the reporter. Instead, they use the cover of being a student studying foreign languages.

Another journalist in Myanmar said they convinced people in their town “that I abandoned journalist work.” A job as a teacher helps hide that they still work as a reporter.

Like all the journalists inside Myanmar who spoke with VOA for this article, they requested their identity be hidden for safety reasons.

With a history punctuated by periods of military rule, Myanmar’s media already had a playbook for creative ways to continue reporting and stay safe.

The trend of cover jobs is the latest sign “that Myanmar journalists do not want to give up easily,” a journalist who fled Myanmar after the coup and is now based in Bangkok told VOA.

Despite being outside Myanmar, they requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

In 2023, Myanmar ranked second in the world in terms of the number of journalists jailed over their work, with at least 43 behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.

Journalists in Myanmar say they believe the arrests are intended to silence media.

“The junta wants the country to be in darkness, and they don’t want the world to know the real situation in the country,” the teacher-journalist said. “This is the reason why the junta tries to arrest journalists.”

The targeting of journalists parallels the military’s repression of the entire population. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says the military and its affiliated groups are responsible for over 4,500 deaths, and that more than 20,000 people are currently detained for resisting the coup.

Myanmar’s military did not reply to VOA’s request for comment.

Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, says media inside the country take big risks.

“Journalists literally take their lives in their hands to do their work in Myanmar,” Andrews told VOA shortly before the third anniversary of the coup.

“The level of courage and commitment demonstrated by journalists working in Myanmar is just stunning and inspiring,” he said.

As recently as January, a journalist named Myat Thu Tan was shot and killed while in military custody in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

A third journalist still inside the country said reporters “are the most wanted persons.”

That journalist, who also asked for anonymity, is pretending to be a student studying foreign languages.

Among the numerous challenges of working undercover is a sense of isolation. The fear of being discovered by the military means they sometimes don’t even talk to other reporters in the country.

“Local journalists live in silence, so it is difficult to know each other,” said one of the journalists, with a cover as a student.

Keeping a secret life for years at a time is also exhausting, experts say.

“They have to hide themselves from friends and family. They have to basically create an entire second life while trying to very subtly do their part in the revolution against the military,” Oliver Spencer, a Chiang Mai-based expert on press freedom in Myanmar, told VOA.

The journalists, however, say being able to keep reporting inside Myanmar makes it worth it. The journalist who works as a teacher said they get a better sense of public opinion.

“If there are no journalists in the country, the junta will surely do what they want,” they said.
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Budapest — Hungary continues to buy billions of dollars of Russian oil and gas annually, despite most other Western nations’ cutting of economic ties with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022. Budapest also has sought to strengthen ties with Beijing, bucking Western efforts to reduce dependence on China. 

It has led some to label the country as Russia and China’s “Trojan Horse” in the West. What’s behind Hungary’s warm relations with Moscow and Beijing? Many analysts say Hungary is seeking to exploit global tensions to its own advantage.

Russian oil    

The southern branch of the Druzhba or “Friendship” pipeline brings thousands of metric tons of Russian oil across Ukraine and directly to the state-controlled MOL refinery on the outskirts of Budapest daily.  

Russia was once the European Union’s largest energy supplier, but the bloc banned Russian oil imports after the Ukraine invasion. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic demanded exemptions, however, claiming that as landlocked countries they cannot quickly diversify supply. 

While Slovakia and the Czech Republic have sought to reduce dependency on Russian energy since the ban came into effect, Hungary has struck new preferential deals to boost supplies from Russia. It is now Moscow’s biggest energy customer in the EU, purchasing $343 million worth of oil and gas in January of this year alone. It is also building a new pipeline to take the Russian oil products into Serbia.

In addition, Russia is building the new Paks II nuclear power plant in Hungary, on the bank of the Danube River, south of Budapest.

Ukraine anger

Ukraine says Russia spends its energy revenue on weapons to kill Ukrainians. An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even accused Hungary of being complicit in alleged Russian war crimes through their energy deals with Moscow. “If you’ve seen the video where Russians cut the head off a Ukrainian soldier — the Hungarians are paying for the knife,” Oleg Ustenko, an economic adviser to Zelenskyy, told the Politico website last April, after Hungary signed a deal to boost gas imports from Russia. 

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto rejected criticism of the deals with Moscow.

“The security of Hungary’s energy supply requires uninterrupted transportation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel. To meet these three conditions, Hungarian-Russian energy cooperation must be uninterrupted. It has nothing to do with political preferences,” Szijjarto said at a press conference in April following the agreement.

Moscow ties

Hungary’s links with Moscow go far deeper than oil and gas. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly rejected Western calls to sever economic ties with Moscow. 

“Brussels’ strategy for Ukraine has failed spectacularly. Not only on the battlefield, where the situation is catastrophic, but also in international politics. We have said in vain that this war is a brotherly war of two Slavic nations, and not ours,” Orban said in his annual televised address February 17.  

Orban has criticized EU sanctions on Russia, blocked European Union financial assistance for Ukraine, and delayed ratifying Sweden’s accession to NATO. He has made Hungary the outcast of Europe, said analyst Peter Kreko.      

“No one has gone so far in demolishing democratic institutions, turning against the Western institution system and cultivating relationships with Russia and China,” Kreko told VOA.    

Chinese investment

China is financing a $3.8 billon high-speed railway from Budapest to the Serbian capital Belgrade, a flagship project of its Belt and Road Initiative. Hungary was among the largest global recipients of Chinese BRI investment in 2022.  

Critics say the government has prevented any oversight of the deals.

“There are arbitrarily designed and swiftly adopted regulations by parliament to prevent any insight or oversight in and over the Russian investment in the nuclear power plant or the Chinese investment into the railway track that is being developed from Belgrade to Budapest. These are major investments. In the Hungarian context these are unprecedented investments,” Miklos Ligeti, of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, told VOA.  

The Hungarian government rejects claims of corruption and says details of the investments were kept secret to secure a loan from the Chinese Export-Import Bank. Some 85% of the financing comes from China, according to Reuters.

Orban worldview

Hungary’s warm relations with Moscow and Beijing are based on a geopolitical assumption, Kreko said.    

“Where there is a new Cold War-type conflict emerging between China and the West. And Orban wants to play this bridge role between the two. And it’s also increasingly about a notion that the Western liberal democratic order is about to collapse, and we have to look for new models, be them in Russia, be them in China,” Kreko told VOA.

Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party have a large majority in parliament and are well ahead in the polls. 

“The chance of any governmental change is miniscule. It means that he really has a lot of time to deal with foreign policy. And he does not want only to be the prime minister of Hungary – he wants to be a world class player,” Kreko said, adding that Orban relishes being in the center of world attention.

“And this is partially one goal of his game. But the other goal of his game is — through veto, through obstruction — to have an influence on the processes, and he wants to be around the important negotiation tables.”

“He’s quite open about his negative attitude towards the EU, but I think it is increasingly [against] NATO, as well. So, he wants to weaken these institutions from within because he feels they pose a threat to his sovereign decision making,” Kreko said.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Public hospitals in South Korea will extend working hours, the prime minister said on Friday, while expanding use of telemedicine to alleviate growing strain on health care services after a mass walkout by thousands of trainee doctors this week.

Hospitals have turned away patients and canceled surgeries after about two-thirds of the country’s young doctors walked off the job to protest a government plan for more admissions to medical schools, prompting fears of further disruption.

“The operation of public medical institutions will be raised to the maximum,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told a disaster management meeting, saying such hospitals would stay open longer as well as on weekends and holidays to take in the overflow.

As the walkout entered its fourth day, the health ministry said it was allowing all hospitals and clinics to offer telemedicine services, such as consultations and prescriptions, until now available only on a limited basis.

More than 7,800 interns and resident doctors have walked out, the ministry added.

That is just a fraction of the country’s 100,000 doctors, but they have a key role in daily operations at teaching hospitals, where they can make up more than 40% of staff, as cost savings make them attractive for larger hospitals.

They perform crucial tasks in emergency rooms, intensive care units and operating rooms at large hospitals that treat patients referred to by smaller hospitals and private clinics.

Nurses warned they were being forced to carry out procedures in wards and operating theatres that are normally the preserve of trainee doctors.

“The primary responsibility of anyone in the medical profession is to care for the patients’ health and life,” said Tak Young-ran, the president of the Korean Nursing Association, urging the doctors to return to work.

The growing pressure on hospitals spurred the government to raise its health alert to “severe” from “cautious” on Friday, after emergency departments in the biggest hospitals have been squeezed since the protest began on Tuesday.

The protesting doctors say the real issue is pay and working conditions, not the number of physicians.

But the government plan aims to remedy a shortage of as many as 15,000 doctors expected by 2035, among one of the world’s fastest-aging populations, where physicians, too, are graying.

Senior doctors and the Korean Medical Association, which represents private practitioners, have stayed out of the walkout but held rallies urging the government to scrap its plan.

Another large rally is expected Sunday in Seoul, the capital.

The prime minister renewed a call to the young doctors not to tarnish by their actions the memory of their sacrifice and dedication during the COVID-19 pandemic that had won them the respect of the public.

He asked those in the medical community to stop “pushing young doctors” and said the government was always open to talks.

Many Koreans support the plan for more medical school admissions, with a recent Gallup Korea poll showing about 76% of respondents in favor, regardless of political affiliation.
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Taipei, Taiwan — China’s decision to increase gular patrols in waters near Taiwan’s outlying islands in recent days is an attempt to erode the long-standing status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and Taiwan must exercise caution in its response, some analysts have told VOA.

After two Chinese fishermen drowned fleeing a Taiwanese coast guard ship this month, China has increased pressure on Taiwan. Chinese coast guard officers boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat Tuesday, while Chinese coast guard vessels have repeatedly appeared in waters near Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen and Matsu islands, which are just a few kilometers from the Chinese mainland.

In response, Taiwan criticized Beijing for triggering panic with the abrupt inspection of the Taiwanese tourist boat and began deploying its coast guard vessels to monitor Chinese coast guard vessels’ activities or drive away Chinese boats that entered the restricted waters near its offshore islands.

While the events have not escalated into a major conflict across the Taiwan Strait, some observers say Beijing is trying to use the deaths to “create new facts” in the highly sensitive region and “upend rules of engagement” designed to prevent accidents.

“This is a willful, slow erosion of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, [and] it’s a demonstration by Beijing that it sets the rules and can change them unilaterally,” J Michael Cole, senior adviser on countering foreign authoritarian influence with the International Republican Institute in Taiwan, told VOA in a written response.

Since Beijing’s moves are tailored for the domestic Chinese audience, Cole said the Chinese government hopes to reinforce the impression that Taiwan cannot defend its sovereignty. Beijing’s actions “are meant to reinforce the notion that Taipei is powerless to set out rules and to defend the Republic of China’s sovereignty,” he added.

Characterizing recent Chinese coast guard activities actions as part of Beijing’s gray zone operations against Taiwan, which often involve the use of irregular tactics without resorting to open conflict, some analysts say these operations will likely become a “new normal” near Taiwan’s outlying islands.

“Since China is already deploying coast guard vessels to waters near the Senkaku Island, which is claimed by both Japan, China, and Taiwan, on almost a daily basis, we can expect China to conduct similar operations near Kinmen and Matsu Islands,” Su Tzu-yun, a military analyst at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA by phone.

So far, Taiwan has designated its coast guard to monitor and cope with the Chinese coast guard’s increased activities near the contested waters while Taiwan’s National Defense Ministry said there is no plan for the military to become directly involved in the dispute.

“Based on the principle of ‘no direct intervention and no escalation of the conflict,’ the Taiwanese military continues to monitor situations [in waters near the offshore islands] and we remain ready to assist the coast guard when necessary,” Deputy Director of the Taiwanese Defense Ministry’s Office of the Chief of Staff for Warfare and Plans Lee Chang-fu said during a daily press conference on Wednesday.

Cole in Taipei said that since Beijing is always searching for “reasons” to conduct gray zone operations near Taiwan, the Taiwanese government must exercise caution when figuring out its responses.

“Taipei must act carefully while laying out response plans to various contingencies,” he told VOA, adding that the need to strike a balance in its response may put Taiwan in an “uncomfortable position.”

In his view, a perceived lack of response by Taipei may be viewed domestically as the government’s inability to defend its sovereignty. On the other hand, Taiwanese authorities need to ensure their responses “don’t lead to recklessness,” Cole said.

“It’s a difficult balancing act, but one that Taipei has been learning to live with,” he said.

As Taiwan’s coast guard and navy have a coordinating mechanism dedicated to determining the level of response to China’s gray zone activities, Su said Taiwan will let its coast guard handle low-intensity threats posed by Beijing.

“Such practice is in line with international norms and will help Taiwan avoid becoming the aggressor in the cross-strait dispute,” he told VOA.

With less than three months until Taiwan’s new administration comes into power, some experts say Taipei needs to exercise extra caution in on cross-strait issues.

“Since Beijing may try to seek any opportunity to increase pressure on Taiwan, Taiwanese authorities need to remain restraint while ensuring they have the capabilities to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Shen Ming-shih, director of the Division of National Security Research at Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA by phone.

He said the pressing issue for Taiwan is to avoid letting the capsizing snowball into the first step of China’s pressure campaign against the island.

“If China decides to use the accident to escalate its pressure campaign against Taiwan, they might initiate a series of operations through different government agencies, including poaching Taiwan’s diplomatic allies or conducting another large-scale military exercise near Taiwan,” Shen added.

Against this backdrop, Cole said Taipei should consider sending a clear message to the world that recent events are not isolated incidents but part of a larger operation with “wider ramifications” for the region.

“Given the high potential for major escalation, it’s in the region’s interest to encourage Beijing not to engage in this kind of adventurism that could spark a serious conflagration,” he told VOA.
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United Nations —  The head of the embattled U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees warned Thursday that it is at a “breaking point,” and its ability to assist millions of Palestinians is “seriously threatened.”

“It is with profound regret that I must now inform you that the Agency has reached breaking point, with Israel’s repeated calls to dismantle UNRWA and the freezing of funding by donors at a time of unprecedented humanitarian needs in Gaza,” Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly.

Without new funding, he said UNRWA’s operations across the region will be severely compromised starting in March.

The General Assembly established the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, in 1949 to assist some 700,000 Palestinian refugees displaced in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that broke out after Israel became a state in May that year.

Today, it operates not just in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, but also in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, where there are large Palestinian refugee communities. Nearly 6 million Palestinians are eligible for UNRWA services, which include education and health care.

UNRWA has faced severe financial problems before, but after Israel presented information to Lazzarini last month alleging that 12 UNRWA staffers were involved in the October 7 terror attacks inside Israel, the agency faced its biggest crisis yet.

The staffers were immediately fired, and an internal investigation was launched. But in the aftermath, 16 donors, including top contributor the United States, suspended funding totaling around $450 million.

A second, independent review of UNRWA’s working methods and neutrality was ordered by the United Nations. Former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is heading it up and will present her group’s final report in April. She met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday to discuss their work.

“We will specifically clarify the mechanisms, the process in place, the structures and see if they ensure the neutrality as they should to the best of the power within UNRWA, and we also will look at how they have been implemented, of course, in practice, not only they’re fit for purpose, but how they are implemented,” she told reporters.

Tensions

Israeli officials have criticized UNRWA for years, alleging that Hamas uses its schools for terrorist activities and that they promote an anti-Israel curriculum. After the October 7 allegations, the rhetoric intensified.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a visiting group of U.N. ambassadors in Jerusalem on January 31, that UNRWA was “totally infiltrated with Hamas” and its “mission has to end.” 

Last week, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on social media platform X that, “UNRWA cannot be a part of Gaza’s landscape in the aftermath of Hamas.”

At the United Nations, Israel’s ambassador asserted on Tuesday, without offering any details or evidence, that 12% of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff members in Gaza are members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that at least 236 of them “are active terrorists in these organizations’ armed wings.”

“In Gaza, Hamas is the U.N. and the U.N. is Hamas,” Ambassador Gilad Erdan told a Security Council meeting, saying Hamas had a data center and tunnels under UNRWA headquarters in Gaza.

UNRWA’s Lazzarini said in his letter that his agency does not have “counterintelligence, police, or criminal justice capacities” and relies on Israel for this, even providing the government with its staff list.

He said Israel’s calls for UNRWA’s closure are not about the agency’s neutrality but are political.

“Instead, they are about changing the long-standing political parameters for peace in the occupied Palestinian territory set by the General Assembly and the Security Council,” he said. “They seek to eliminate UNRWA’s role in protecting the rights of Palestine Refugees and acting as a witness to their continuing plight.”

Palestinians want to preserve their “right of return” as a final status issue for negotiations with Israel over a two-state solution. If the refugee agency is eliminated, some fear it could have political implications.

Lazzarini appeared to link some of Israel’s campaign against UNRWA with the International Court of Justice’s decision on January 26 to issue provisional measures ordering Israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.

“Since the ICJ ruling, there has been a concerted effort by some Israeli officials to deceptively conflate UNRWA with Hamas, to disrupt UNRWA’s operations, and to call for the dismantling of the Agency,” he said.

The commissioner general said that included Jerusalem’s deputy mayor taking steps to evict the agency from the headquarters it has occupied for 75 years in East Jerusalem and the tabling of a bill in the Israeli Knesset to exclude UNRWA from U.N. privileges and immunities. He said visas for international staff have been limited to only one to two months, and an Israeli bank blocked an UNRWA account.

U.N. chief Guterres has said UNRWA is critical and irreplaceable.

“There is no other organization that has a presence in Gaza that is capable of being able to respond to the needs,” he told reporters earlier this month.

Most aid going into Gaza is delivered by UNRWA.

Ambassador Vanessa Frazier of Malta was one of the diplomats who visited Israel last month. She said her government will not stop funding the agency.

“UNRWA is the backbone of the entire humanitarian system throughout Gaza,” she told reporters. “If UNRWA fails, they will not be able to just simply to take the funding from countries [to other agencies] and do deliveries.”
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