President Joe Biden underscored U.S. support for Pacific island nations battling COVID-19 and the climate crisis on Friday as Washington tries to counter China’s expanded influence in the region.In a video message at the opening of a forum of 18 island nations from tiny Nauru to Australia and New Zealand, Biden reminded leaders of US vaccine donations to developing countries, made “without strings.”And he promised to lead in the climate change fight. “The Pacific Island nations know better than anyone that averting the worst effects of climate change is going to save lives.”It is the first time a U.S. president has addressed the forum, which is 50 years old this year.”The United States is a proud Pacific power and will continue to be an active, engaged partner in the region and a friend to all your countries,” he said.”A free and open Indo-Pacific is vital to each of our nations’ security and prosperity and to all our shared futures.”Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama welcomed Biden’s remarks and thanked him for “bringing America forcefully back to the right side of climate history.”There must be “zero excuses” for countries not setting 2050 net zero targets, he added.Regional power Australia has notably refrained from making such a commitment, much to the chagrin of Pacific islands that sit a few feet above sea level.On the eve of the forum, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin met with Palau’s president, Surangel Whipps, to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to the defense of the island nation.The pair agreed on the strategic importance of the Pacific islands region and the “critical role” of the US presence and investments in Palau, said Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby.Faced with dramatically improved Chinese military capabilities, the United States has moved to a model of cycling assets around the region and away from large bases, to make them more difficult to target.China has sought to gain influence in the region by bankrolling large infrastructure projects in some Pacific islands, leading to some concerns over the scale of the ensuing financial debts to Beijing.In Samoa, for example, plans for a major port project financed by China are in question after Fiame Naomi Mata’afa took office as prime minister last month suggesting it would push the island’s debt levels too high.The Fiji-based Pacific Islands Forum brings together Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. 
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The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday it has returned an additional $452 million stolen from Malaysia’s investment fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), bringing the total amount of money repatriated to the Malaysian government in the last five years to at least $1.2 billion.The funds had been laundered through international financial institutions in the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg, the Justice Department said in a statement.1MDB was created in 2009 to raise billions of dollars through global partnerships and foreign direct investment to “improve the well-being of the Malaysian people,” according to the Justice Department.Instead, senior 1MDB officials, associates and businessman Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low, are accused of embezzling more than $4.5 billion from the fund between 2009 and 2015, according to the Justice Department.In a scandal that shocked the financial world, prosecutors say the executives spent the pilfered money on luxury items such as expensive homes and properties in Beverly Hills, New York and London; a 300-foot superyacht; and fine art by Monet and Van Gogh. Some of the embezzled money was used to bribe foreign officials.Since 2016, the Justice Department says it has recovered more than $1.7 billion in assets stolen from the Malaysian fund. Efforts to recover additional assets linked to the corruption scandal continue, the department says.The scandal has entangled major financial institutions and high-level executives. Last year, New York-based Goldman Sachs agreed to pay more than $2.9 billion to settle civil and criminal charges brought in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and elsewhere.FILE – Former Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng, center, leaves Brooklyn Federal court with attorney Marc Agnifilo, right, May 6, 2019, in New York.In 2018, a federal grand jury in New York indicted Jho and former Goldman Sachs executive Ng Chong Hwa, also known as Roger Ng, on charges of conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB and conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials.Ng was extradited from Malaysia to the United States in 2019. Jho remains a fugitive.In June, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., returned a superseding indictment against Jho and Haitian American rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, accusing them of waging a back-channel campaign to stop the Justice Department’s investigation of the 1MDB scheme. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday offered an 18-month “safe haven” to thousands of Hong Kong residents to remain living in the U.S. rather than to face repression by being deported to the Chinese-controlled territory.Biden assailed Beijing’s 14-month crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and said it was in “compelling” U.S. foreign policy interests to allow Hong Kong residents to stay and work in the U.S.The precise number of people affected by the order was not immediately clear, but a senior Biden administration official said most of the 330,000 Hong Kong residents living in the U.S. are likely eligible to stay, excepting any people who have been convicted of serious criminal offenses.In his order, Biden said at least 100 opposition politicians, activists, and protesters have been detained by the Chinese during the last year on an array of allegations, while more than 10,000 individuals have been arrested for other charges in connection with anti-government protests.“The United States is committed to a foreign policy that unites our democratic values with our foreign policy goals, which is centered on the defense of democracy and the promotion of human rights around the world,” Biden said.“Offering safe haven for Hong Kong residents who have been deprived of their guaranteed freedoms in Hong Kong furthers United States interests in the region,” the U.S. leader added. “The United States will not waver in our support of people in Hong Kong.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. strongly opposes China’s use of its National Security Law “to deny basic rights and freedoms, assault Hong Kong’s autonomy, and undermine its remaining democratic processes and institutions.”“Given the politically motivated arrests and trials, the silencing of the media, and the diminishing the space for elections and democratic opposition, we will continue to take steps in support of people in Hong Kong,” Psaki said.Hong Kong is a former British colony, which returned to Beijing’s control in 1997.As the Chinese crackdown on dissent has continued, the U.S. last month imposed more sanctions on Chinese officials in Hong Kong. It advised businesses about the risks of operating under the national security law, which China implemented last year to criminalize what it considers subversion, secessionism, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces. 
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Just days after the Tokyo Olympics began, Japan started to see a sharp increase in coronavirus cases. On Thursday, the country topped 15,000 confirmed daily infections for the first time.  Medical experts are now debating whether and to what extent the Games are to blame for the outbreak, which officials warn is “extremely severe.”Protesters demonstrate in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo, Aug. 2, 2021. They were protesting against the Olympics and Paralympics held during the pandemic.Olympics organizers insist there is no link between the Games and the spike in cases. So far, only 353 Olympic-related individuals have tested positive. All visiting Olympics personnel, most of whom are vaccinated, are subject to a protective bubble meant to limit their interactions with the public.Many Japanese medical experts are not so confident about that assessment though. The main problem is not so much the Olympic bubble, they say, as it is the very presence of the Olympics themselves, which have sent mixed messages and weakened public vigilance.“I don’t think that the infections [of Olympics-related personnel] are directly related to the rapid spread of infections at all. But I think the fact the Olympics are being held has impacted people’s awareness,” Shigeru Omi, the government’s top medical advisor, told lawmakers this week.Japanese officials for weeks have warned residents to stay home and watch the Games on television, especially since fans are banned from nearly all events. That message has fallen flat for many Japanese, however, who can still be seen gathering in public places in Tokyo and elsewhere. “Many Japanese people find it ridiculous to follow orders to stay home. Japanese people don’t understand why they should stay home even though the Olympics are being held,” Norio Sugaya, infectious disease expert and doctor at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, told VOA. Sugaya is one of many medical professionals who opposed holding the Olympic Games in Japan. In the leadup to the event, polls suggested most Japanese also did not want the Games to go ahead, although opposition softened as they approached.Journos with European media who are visiting Tokyo for #Olympics coverage were seen carousing on outside stairs of a hotel where they were staying, in a possible violation of media protocols https://t.co/dQlMkFZesa— Tomohiro Osaki (@jt_osaki) July 29, 2021Many Japanese media reports have focused on journalists and Olympics athletes who did not adhere to protective bubble guidelines. There have also been concerns the guidelines are inadequate. For instance, some Japanese volunteers and other staff work all day inside the bubble before returning home.That, plus local reporters are working alongside journos who just flew in yesterday. Plexiglass doesn’t stop covid from infecting the guy sitting right next to you if you’re together for 8 hours a day.— Grace Lee (@graceleenews) July 29, 2021Omi, though, says he sees “absolutely” no connection between the Olympics infections and Japan’s recent surge. The main cause of Japan’s COVID-19 surge is the appearance of the Delta variant, according to Sugaya, which is much more contagious and causes more serious illnesses.Even as Japan’s infection numbers surge, its number of deaths is still relatively low. The country has reported only around 10 deaths per day during the spike. However, the number of seriously ill patients has doubled over the past two weeks, officials say, potentially leading to overcrowded hospitals. Japanese officials recently announced they would focus on hospitalizing only those COVID-19 patients who are seriously ill or at risk of becoming so. Others, they say, should isolate themselves at home.The government also expanded a quasi state of emergency to eight new prefectures Thursday. Under Japan’s pandemic prevention measures, many types of dining establishments are requested — not forced — to close early and not serve alcohol. An increasing number of experts question whether more restrictions are needed until Japan’s vaccine effort can progress.Japan started slowly on vaccines but has recently sped up. According to official numbers Thursday, 32% of Japanese have been fully vaccinated, while 45% have received a single shot.
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The delta variant is challenging China’s costly strategy of isolating cities, prompting warnings that Chinese leaders who were confident they could keep the coronavirus out of the country need a less disruptive approach.As the highly contagious variant pushes leaders in the United States, Australia and elsewhere to renew restrictions, President Xi Jinping’s government is fighting the most serious outbreak since last year’s peak in Wuhan. The ruling Communist Party is reviving tactics that shut down China: Access to a city of 1.5 million people has been cut off, flights canceled, and mass testing ordered in some areas.That “zero tolerance” strategy of quarantining every case and trying to block new infections from abroad helped to contain last year’s outbreak and has kept China largely virus-free. But its impact on work and life for millions of people is prompting warnings that China needs to learn to control the virus without repeatedly shutting down the economy and society.Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai doctor who became prominent during the Wuhan outbreak, suggested in a social media post that China’s strategy could change. “We will definitely learn more” from the ongoing outbreak, he said, calling it a stress test for the nation.“The world needs to learn how to coexist with this virus,” wrote Zhang, who has 3 million followers on the widely used Sina Weibo platform.China’s controls will be tested when thousands of athletes, reporters and others arrive for the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February. And the ruling party faces a politically sensitive change of leadership in late 2022, for which leaders want upbeat economic conditions.Last year, China shut down much of the world’s second-biggest economy and cut off almost all access to cities with a total of 60 million people — tactics imitated on a smaller scale by governments from Asia to the Americas. That caused China’s most painful economic contraction in five decades, but Beijing was able to allow business and domestic travel to resume in March 2020.The new infections, many in people who have already been vaccinated, have jolted global financial markets, which worry Beijing’s response might disrupt manufacturing and supply chains. The main stock indexes in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong sank Tuesday but were rising again Thursday.China needs to shift to creating barriers to infection within communities by stepping up vaccinations and quickly treating infected people while allowing business and travel to go ahead, said Xi Chen, a health economist at the Yale School of Public Health. He said country needs access to the full range of vaccines, including allowing in the shot developed by Germany’s BioNTech.“I don’t think ‘zero tolerance’ can be sustained,” said Chen. “Even if you can lock down all the regions in China, people might still die, and more might die due to hunger or loss of jobs.”But Beijing has shown no sign of abandoning its tactics.Disease controls must “be even faster, more firm, stricter, more expansive and ready,” He Qinghua, an official of the National Health Commission’s Disease Control Bureau, said at a news conference Saturday.The year’s biggest outbreak has tentatively been traced to airport employees who cleaned a Russian airliner on July 10 in Nanjing, northwest of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, according to health officials.Some travelers flew through Nanjing to Zhangjiajie, a popular tourist spot southwest of Shanghai in Hunan province, turning that city into a center for the virus’s spread. The disease was carried to Beijing and other cities in more than 10 provinces.On Tuesday, the government of Zhangjiajie announced no one was allowed to leave the city, imitating controls imposed on Wuhan, where the first virus cases were identified, and other cities last year.Flights to Nanjing and Yangzhou, a nearby city with 94 cases, were suspended. Trains from those cities and 21 others to Beijing were canceled. Jiangsu province set up highway checkpoints to test drivers. The government called on people in Beijing and the southern province of Guangzhou not to leave those areas if possible.In Yangzhou, children at two tutoring centers were quarantined after a classmate tested positive, according to Zhou Xiaoxiao, a university student there. She said some parts of the city were sealed.Eggs and some other food was scarce after shoppers cleared out supermarkets in anticipation of a lockdown, Zhou said. She said the government was delivering rice to households.“The price of vegetables has risen. That’s nothing to me. But to the kind of family whose life isn’t very good and who have no income, it’s very troublesome,” said Zhou, 20.The 1,142 infections reported since mid-July, many linked to Nanjing, are modest compared with tens of thousands of new daily infections in India or the United States. But they jolted leaders in China, which hasn’t recorded a fatality since early February.The outbreak poses “serious challenges to the country’s hard-won victory in the epidemic battle,” said the newspaper The Global Times, which is published by the ruling party’s People’s Daily.China has reported 4,636 deaths out of about 93,000 confirmed cases.So far, most of the people infected in Nanjing had been vaccinated, and few cases are severe, the head of the critical care unit at the hospital of the city’s Southeastern University, Yang Yi, told the Shanghai news outlet The Paper.She said that means “vaccines are protective” — though concerns remain that Chinese-made vaccines offer less protection than some others.Authorities have blamed Nanjing airport managers and local officials for failing to enforce safety rules and to detect infections for 10 days until July 20, after the virus spread.A 64-year-old woman who is believed to have carried the virus from Nanjing to Yangzhou was arrested Tuesday on charges of hindering disease prevention, police announced.Cleaning staff at Nanjing’s new international terminal mingled with co-workers in the domestic wing, when they should have been separated, according to news reports. The Russian flight was diverted due to bad weather from Shanghai, where airports are better equipped to handle foreign travelers.Still, the city of 9.3 million people is the second-biggest in eastern China after Shanghai and has more resources than many smaller cities.China needs to learn how to “allow the virus to exist” in areas with high vaccination rates and stronger health care, said Chen, the economist. He noted some areas have vaccinated at least 80% of adults.“I don’t think they are blind to this,” said Chen. “They should already be thinking about it.”
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Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asan Nations have appointed Brunei diplomat Erywan Yusof as its special envoy to military-ruled Myanmar.The 10-member regional bloc has tasked Erywan, his country’s second foreign minister, with the goal of mediating an end to the 7-month-old crisis that began when the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and her civilian government, just three months after her National League for Democracy party scored a landslide victory in general elections.The military junta claimed widespread electoral fraud as a reason for overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government. The takeover triggered anti-coup demonstrations across the country, which the military responded to by launching a brutal crackdown that has left more than 900 protesters and bystanders dead, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which tracks casualties and arrests in Myanmar.The chaos has been aggravated by the increasing numbers of coronavirus infections, which has overwhelmed Myanmar’s health care system.ASEAN has been pressured by the international community to lead efforts to bring an end to the violence in Myanmar, one of its member states.Myanmar’s ruling State Administrative Council said Sunday it has become a caretaker government and its leader, Min Aung Hlaing, is to be prime minister.The announcement came after Min Aung Hlaing repeated his pledge to hold multiparty elections at an unspecified future date.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 
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The Philippine government’s decision to restore its Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. military after 18 months of threats to scrap it shows that Beijing had not delivered enough to the Southeast Asian country to sustain a friendship or excite common Filipinos, analysts say. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced July 29 during U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Manila that he would continue the 22-year-old pact, commonly known as the VFA. Duterte had said since February 2020 that he planned to quit the deal.Philippines Says US Visiting Forces Agreement to Remain in EffectDuterte retracts termination letter sent last yearDuterte, who took office in 2016, had come to realize that China would not deliver on pledges made that year of $33 billion in aid and investment in the fast-growing, infrastructure-thirsty Southeast Asian archipelago, experts say.   A flap in March and April over 220 Chinese boats moored off a reef that’s disputed by the two countries further upset officials in Manila, reminding them of a broader maritime sovereignty dispute with Beijing, analysts say.   “Had China delivered more on its promises of infrastructure and investment, it could have given Duterte a more solid ground and a solid push to stay adamant on the VFA,” said Yun Sun, senior fellow and co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington. “It is widely observed that the Chinese promises never really transpired for Duterte.”   Just $4.7 billion of China’s pledges had reached Manila by early 2019, local media said that year.In Bid for Friendship Renewal, China Offers Philippines More Development MoneyFilipinos distrust China over a maritime sovereignty dispute and experts say Beijing just aiming for goodwill by offering to fund infrastructure projectsThe Visiting Forces Agreement provides for arms sales, intelligence exchanges and discussions on military cooperation. It allows U.S. troops access to Philippine soil for military exercises aimed at regional security and local humanitarian work. Those measures bolster a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries. The United States had governed the Philippines for more than five decades before granting its independence after World War II. For Washington today, the Philippines represents one in a chain of Western Pacific allies that can work together to check Chinese maritime expansion. Duterte probably agreed to keep the military pact in view of the early 2022 presidential election, Sun said. He’s allowed just one six-year term in office, but domestic media reports say his daughter Sara Duterte wants to run for the office. Most Filipinos, including the armed forces, prefer the United States over China, Quezon City-based research organization Social Weather Stations has said, based on opinion polls since 2016.   “I suspect his chief motivation in making peace with Washington, on his way out of office, is to cover himself politically at home should he ever want to run for anything again,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York. Duterte, a long-time anti-U.S. firebrand, ordered an end to the military deal after the U.S. government canceled a visa for a Filipino senator and former police chief who was instrumental in a deadly anti-drug campaign that generated outrage abroad. Last year, Duterte indicated he favored relations with China and Russia. Sino-Philippine relations today hinge largely on competing claims in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, which is rich in fisheries and undersea energy reserves. China has alarmed the Philippines among other Southeast Asian maritime claimant states over the past decade by landfilling islets for military installations.    The Sino-Philippine dispute eased in 2016 after Manila won a world arbitral court ruling against Beijing’s maritime claims and Duterte pursued a new friendship with China. Earlier this year, the Philippine government approached Washington about renegotiating terms of the VFA. Officials in Manila wanted the pact to guarantee U.S. help in defending Philippine maritime claims, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. U.S. officials since the presidency of Barack Obama have made verbal commitments only, Araral said.   “They always make assurances, but those assurances are not credible because they are not written in the VFA,” he said. “There’s got to be some clarity in the wording of the VFA itself.” The two sides did not indicate last week whether the agreement would be renegotiated.  Chinese media, which had covered the U.S.-Philippine pact’s pending termination, have gone mostly quiet since July 29, Sun said. The official Xinhua news agency reported the VFA reapproval last month and noted that Manila’s plan to cancel it had been suspended three times. Beijing is disappointed now, Sun said, as it was trying to “drive a wedge” between the United States and its allies.   Duterte’s salvaging of the agreement will help Washington coordinate allies in Asia, King said.  “Keeping the Visiting Forces Agreement in place, along with re-upping U.S. defense burden-sharing deals with South Korea and Japan earlier this year, gives the sense that U.S. President (Joe) Biden is getting America’s friends and allies onside as we (U.S.) square off with Beijing for influence and position in the region,” King said. 
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China’s diplomatic and strategic expansion into the South Pacific appears to have run aground – at least temporarily – in Samoa, where a Beijing-allied leader has been defeated in a history-making election.A three-month constitutional crisis was resolved in late July, when Samoa’s Supreme Court declared the office of prime minister had been rightfully won by the nation’s first female chief executive, 64-year-old Fiame Naomi Mata’afa.Among the top issues in the election, which narrowly unseated long-serving Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, was a pledge by Fiame to reconsider a Beijing-financed deal for a major expansion of the island’s seaport at Vaiusu Bay.FILE – This picture released by the Samoa Observer on July 27, 2021, shows Samoa’s new Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa holding her cabinet’s first meeting at the Government Building in Apia.Making good on her promise, Fiame promptly announced that she was shelving the $100 million project, saying the proposed expansion exceeded Samoa’s needs and would leave it with too much debt.The decision will send ripples far beyond the island republic of just over 200,000 people, according to James Fanell, former director of intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, who sees it disrupting Beijing’s efforts to woo island nations that recognize Taiwan at the United Nations and expand the reach of Beijing’s fast-growing navy.Reversal of trend“It reverses the trend of nations in the South Pacific aligning with the [People’s Republic of China], which Beijing had built up before COVID-19 in nations like Kiribati and the Solomon Islands that both switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the PRC [in 2019],” Fanell said in an interview.“The reversal of fortunes in Samoa could be a harbinger of more nations reversing course and rejecting the debt-trap model” offered by Beijing, he said.Fanell said the decision also portends “a delay or disruption” of Beijing’s SamoaCharles Edel, who served on the U.S. secretary of state’s policy planning staff from 2015 to 2017, said Fiame’s election also marked a political setback for Beijing, which had used its financial muscle to try to bolster the incumbent.”The idea that in the weeks before the election Beijing attempted to boost the incumbent’s political fortunes by rolling out a package of economic inducements, including refurbishment of a port at one-third of the cost and dangling a number of other strategic partnerships, seems to have had the opposite effect,” Edel told VOA.China’s aggressive economic expansion and “wolf warrior” diplomacy are increasingly rattling its Asian neighbors. At the same time, Edel said, “countries’ relations with China are becoming an election issue,” with voters scrutinizing leaders who are too close to Beijing.Plans snaggedThat in turn complicates China’s efforts to marginalize Taiwan at the U.N. by getting more small countries to abandon diplomatic relations with Taipei.“Beijing’s growing focus on the Pacific islands in recent years is directly related to its effort to erode and complicate the U.S. military presence and political influence in the region,” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based analyst.“This focus is also related to ongoing tensions with Taiwan, which counts among Pacific island nations [nearly] one-third of the number of countries that have official diplomatic ties with it,” he told VOA.FILE – Samoa’s then-prime minister, Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sept. 18, 2018.Chinese leader Xi Jinping has visited Pacific island nations twice since he became top leader in 2013, highlighting the level of attention his government gives to the region.Despite the setback in Samoa, Edel cautioned that the Pacific is vast, and given what he described as China’s “fluid and opportunistic” approach, Beijing will attempt to exploit other targets and opportunities.China’s strategyHe said China tends to carve out strategic advantages overseas through “incremental advances calculated not to trigger a significant response and actions intended to remain ambiguous until they are presented as a fait accompli.”“Beijing’s playbook in each case involves investment in a country’s critical infrastructure, acquisition of a significant piece of waterfront territory by a Chinese company, and assertions by Chinese officials that the activity is purely commercial or humanitarian,” he told VOA.“In actuality, the denials typically precede future actions toward Beijing’s true aims,” which are “military, political and economic,” he said.FILE – A worker holds a new officially approved map of China that includes the islands and maritime area that Beijing claims in the South China Sea, in May 2019 at a printing factory in Changsha in south China’s Hunan province.Edel said it helps to understand Beijing’s strategy in the South Pacific by examining what it has done closer to home in the South China Sea.“If you look through the lens of how Beijing operated in the South China Sea, their forceful seizure of land, buildup of facilities and militarization of those features with the deployment of military assets were intended to cast a threatening shadow over Southeast Asia’s politics and increase risks to the United States’ ability to access the region,” he said.”Similarly, if you begin having Chinese military facilities in some Pacific islands, that complicates the military planning, logistical staging needed for the United States to access the region. And it would be hard to imagine a Chinese military positioned across the Pacific that doesn’t shape the region’s politics.”Samoa, meanwhile, can be expected to present a new, highly independent face to its South Pacific neighbors, according to Cleo Paskal, an associate fellow at London-based Chatham House and a nonresident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies headquartered in Washington.Paskal told VOA that Fiame is “strong, independent, and she cares about her country and her people. She will stand up to Beijing. And for the same reasons she will also stand up to [New Zealand] and [Australia] when their plans for Samoa don’t align with hers.”The best thing for everyone in the region, Paskal said, is “strong, independent leaders who care about their people and countries and who align [with democratic nations] out of choice to make the region more secure and prosperous for all.”
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The World Health Organization says more than 700 health care workers and patients were killed, more than 2,000 injured, and hundreds of health facilities destroyed in countries of conflict between 2018 and 2020.A three-year analysis was carried out in 17 conflict-ridden countries and territories, including Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Mozambique, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Myanmar.New data show that health care continues to be under attack. So far this year, the World Health Organization has recorded 588 incidents in 14 countries with emergencies, causing 114 deaths and 278 injuries of health care workers and patients.   The WHO’s director of health emergencies interventions, Altaf Musani, says the impact of those health care attacks goes well beyond claiming lives. He says the ramifications are significant and alarming, especially considering the ongoing COVID-19 response.   “Their impact reverberates on health care workers’ mental health and willingness to report to work, equally, on communities’ willingness to seek health care, and also drastically reduces resources for responding to a health crisis, amongst others,”  Musani said. Musani says the ripple effect of a single incident is huge and has a long-lasting impact on the system at large. When health facilities are destroyed, he says, they need to be rebuilt.    When health care workers are killed or wounded, he says a vital work force must be reinforced. Building back those vital systems, he says, requires years of costly investment, years in which people in need are underserved.“During the pandemic, more than ever, health care workers must be protected, must be respected,”  Musani said. “Hospitals and health care facilities, including the transportation of ambulances should not be used for military purposes. Essential conditions for the continued delivery of vital health care must be given the necessary space.”   Musani notes any reduction in capacity will interrupt services and deprive vulnerable communities of urgent care.   The WHO is calling on all parties in conflicts to ensure safe working spaces for the delivery of health care services. It says people caught in emergency situations must be able to safely access care, free from violence, threat, or fear.
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It’s not unusual for the Olympic Games to attract controversy. Then again, not every Olympics is hosted by a country being accused of genocide. That’s what is creating waves upon the approach of the 2022 Winter Olympics, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports.Jesusemen Oni contributed to this report.
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Vice President Kamala Harris will focus on defending international rules in the South China Sea, strengthening U.S. regional leadership and expanding security cooperation during her trip to Vietnam and Singapore this month, a senior White House official told Reuters.Harris will be the first U.S. vice president to visit Vietnam as Washington seeks to bolster international support to counter China’s growing global influence.The U.S. official said Washington saw both countries as critical partners given their locations, the size of their economies, trade ties and security partnerships on issues such as the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. 
 Former U.S. foe Vietnam has been a vocal opponent of China’s South China Sea claims. Countries in the region largely welcome the U.S. military presence there in the face of China’s militarization of the waterway and its vast coastguard and fishing fleet.”We do not want to see any country dominate that region or take advantage of the power situation to compromise the sovereignty of others,” the White House official said.”The vice president is going to underscore that there should be free passage for trade, throughout the South China Sea, and no single country should disrespect the right of others.”The U.S. Navy has maintained a steady pattern of freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea and near Taiwan, but these appear to have done little to discourage Beijing. Harris’ trip will follow one by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week to Hanoi, where he sought to nudge forward steadily deepening security ties. FILE – U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang, left, inspects an honor guard in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 29, 2021. 
It will also follow high-level talks between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and senior Chinese diplomats last month that did little to ease deeply strained ties.This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will seek to reinforce the U.S. message that it is serious about engaging with Southeast Asia to push back against China by joining a series of regional meetings held virtually.Addressing a virtual session Tuesday of the Aspen Security Forum, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said high-level U.S. visits were “greatly valued” as they showed Washington knew it had substantial interests to protect and advance in the region.He expressed concern about deteriorating U.S.-China relations, however, and said many countries hoped to see this checked “because many U.S. friends and allies wish to preserve their extensive ties with both powers.””It’s vital for the U.S. and China to strive to engage each other to head off a clash, which would be disastrous for both sides, and the world,” he said.The White House official said the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinations and quality of vaccines would also be a top priority for Harris.Last month, Washington shipped 3 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam, bringing total donations to Hanoi to 5 million.Harris is due in Singapore on Aug. 22. She arrives in Vietnam on August 24 and departs on August 26.
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As Ameruddin Pora’s relatives gathered in his living room, shouting at the final of the Olympics badminton women’s doubles, he locked himself in his room to watch his daughter win Indonesia’s historic gold medal. Apriyani Rahayu, 23, and her veteran partner Greysia Polii picked up the badminton-mad country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo on Monday, and its first-ever Olympic medal in the women’s doubles. “Everyone was screaming with joy outside, I decided to lock myself up in my room so that I can focus (on) praying while watching the game alone, and Allah heard my prayers. She won the gold medal,” 63-year-old Pora told AFP on Tuesday a day after his daughter’s win. Her fellow Indonesians were also celebrating, taking to social media on Monday to hail the gold medal win, while President Joko Widodo said the victory was a gift for the country’s independence day that is slated for August 17. Pora said his daughter used the death of her mother, Siti Jauhar in 2015, as fuel for the momentous victory, a gift to the woman who inspired her rise to become a professional badminton player. One day before flying to Tokyo, Rahayu flew home to Konawe city in southeast Sulawesi island to visit her mother’s grave and to ask for a blessing from her father.  The badminton star’s relatives also came to Pora’s house to pray for her during the short home visit. “She has this tradition whenever she wants to attend a competition, she always returns home to meet her parents, asking me for a prayer,” he said. “Our prayers are finally answered by God.” As soon as Rahayu arrived in Tokyo, she called her dad on a daily basis to ask him to continue his prayers for her. He said his daughter’s success is thanks to a combination of those prayers and her own hard work. “Whenever she leaves the hotel heading to the venue, she always called me asking for prayers. I always tell her to be calm and leave everything to Allah,” he said. He had some advice for his daughter about securing more golds after her Olympic win: listen to your coaches and don’t become arrogant. “She is always a very motivated person. She never gets tired practicing,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t only pray for Rahayu, but also for Greysia. I pray for both. They made us proud.” 
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A report by U.S. Republican lawmakers says a “preponderance of evidence” proves the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a Chinese research facility — a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have not reached. The report, released Monday, also cited “ample evidence” that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists — aided by U.S. experts and Chinese and U.S. government funds — were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans, and such manipulation could be hidden. FILE – Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, speaks with members of the media outside of the White House, Oct. 16, 2019.Representative Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the report by the panel’s Republican staff. It urged a bipartisan investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that has killed 4.4 million people worldwide.  China denies a genetically modified coronavirus leaked from the facility in Wuhan where the first COVID-19 cases were detected in 2019, a leading but unproven theory among some experts. Beijing also denies allegations of a cover-up. Other experts suspect the pandemic was caused by an animal virus likely transmitted to humans at a seafood market near the WIV. “We now believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source,” said the report. “We also believe the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019.” The report cited what it called new and underreported information about safety protocols at the lab, including a July 2019 request for a $1.5 million overhaul of a hazardous waste treatment system for the facility, which was less than two years old. In April, the top U.S. intelligence agency said it concurred with the scientific consensus that the virus was not human-caused or genetically modified. U.S. President Joe Biden in May ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to accelerate their hunt for the origins of the virus and report back in 90 days. A source familiar with current intelligence assessments said the U.S. intelligence community has not reached any conclusion whether the virus came from animals or the WIV. 
 
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With worries of a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections overwhelming the country’s hospitals, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday that only seriously ill coronavirus patients or those at risk of becoming so will be admitted for treatment. Others infected with COVID-19 will have to isolate at home in order to try to make sure there are enough beds available. Japan is adding about 10,000 new cases per day, prompting the head of the Japan Medical Association to call Tuesday for a nationwide state of emergency. Residents wait at the observation area during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination session for those aged between 12 and 14, in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, China, Aug. 3, 2021. (China Daily via Reuters)In China, authorities said Tuesday all residents of Wuhan will be tested after the city recorded its first domestic infections in more than a year. The virus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019, and the city of 11 million people was put under a strict lockdown in January 2020 that lasted 76 days. As many countries worry about the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, South Korean health officials on Tuesday reported the country’s first two cases of a sublineage known as delta plus. Britain, Portugal and India are among countries that previously reported a few cases of delta plus infections. Hundreds of people line up to receive their second dose of vaccine against the coronavirus at the municipal ground in Hyderabad, India, July 29, 2021.The World Health Organization has said it is important to closely watch such changes in the virus that could be more resistant to drugs and vaccines, and for more genomic sequencing of COVID-19 tests for tracking and studying. Countries are also rushing to vaccinate their populations to drive down infections. Pakistan’s top health official reported Tuesday that the country had administered 1 million doses in one day for the first time. Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi began a partial lockdown on Saturday with a wave of cases putting pressure on its health care system. In Australia, authorities said a lockdown in Sydney could be allowed to expire at the end of the month if half of the city is vaccinated by then. Australian airline Qantas expressed less optimism Tuesday, saying it expects the restrictions in Sydney to be in place for at least two months and announcing furloughs for 2,500 of its 26,000 workers in Australia.    More restrictions in USIn the United States, more jurisdictions are requiring employees to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing as the country grapples with a rise of infections blamed on the delta variant.      FILE – People wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as the delta variant has led to a surge in infections, in New York City, July 30, 2021.Denver, Colorado, Mayor Michael Hancock announced Monday the city will mandate all city employees and private sector workers in high-risk settings to be vaccinated against the virus by the end of September.     New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said state health care workers, along with workers in corrections facilities or assisted living centers, must be vaccinated or face testing twice a week.     In New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo urged businesses to turn away unvaccinated customers. He said it is in businesses’ best interests because many customers want to know that the customer next to them is vaccinated.     The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that 70% of U.S. adults have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine. President Joe Biden had originally aimed to pass that milestone by July 4. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters.
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Many isolated tribes have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. One such tribe in Indonesia, the Baduy Tribe has been devastated economically. To survive, some members of the community have embraced a local taboo, as VOA’s Rendy Wicaksana reports.Camera:  Rendy Wicaksana  
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A Chinese official says all residents of the city of Wuhan will be tested for COVID-19 infections after the emergence of the first domestic cases there in more than a year. City official Li Tao made the announcement Tuesday at a news conference.  There were at least three new coronavirus cases recorded Monday in Wuhan and 90 nationwide. The virus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019, and the city of 11 million people was put under a strict lockdown in January 2020 that lasted 76 days. Some information in this report came from Reuters. 
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The United States said Monday that Myanmar’s junta was playing for time with a two-year election timeframe as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to encourage ASEAN to appoint an envoy. Blinken is participating virtually in a week of talks involving foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the latest bid by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to engage a region at the frontlines of U.S. competition with China. FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington, July 12, 2021.Ahead of the ASEAN talks, Myanmar’s military leader promised to hold elections and lift a state of emergency by August 2023, extending an initial timeline given when the military deposed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. The announcement is “a call for ASEAN to have to step up its effort because it’s clear that the Burmese junta is just stalling for time and wants to keep prolonging the calendar to its own advantage,” said a senior U.S. official, using Myanmar’s former name of Burma. “All the more reason why ASEAN has to engage on this and live up and uphold the terms of the five-point consensus that Myanmar also signed up to.” Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing attended an April meeting with ASEAN members on the crisis that led to the so-called consensus statement that called for an immediate end to violence and a regional special envoy. But the military leader later distanced himself from the statement, no envoy has been appointed, and more than 900 people have been reported killed in the six-month crackdown on dissent. ASEAN is not known for its collective diplomatic clout, and its meetings have frequently pitted the United States and China against each other as they seek influence. The U.S. official said Blinken would address Beijing’s “coercion” against ASEAN nations in the dispute-rife South China Sea and also highlight human rights concerns within China. FILE – United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin views the military honor guard at Camp Aguinaldo military camp in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Southeast Asia last week, where he focused on the South China Sea, saying Beijing’s claims had no basis in international law. Vice President Kamala Harris plans this month to visit historic U.S. partner Singapore as well as Vietnam, which has moved increasingly close to Washington despite war memories. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is expected to meet Blinken in person in Washington this week, while Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman earlier visited Indonesia and Thailand as well as Cambodia – often seen as the most pro-Beijing ASEAN nation. 
 
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A well-known Hong Kong pop singer and pro-democracy proponent was arrested Monday for performing songs at a political rally three years ago.
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption commission said Anthony Wong urged attendees at the rally to vote for pro-democracy candidate Au Nok-hin.
Au, who won, was also charged for promoting the show and saying Wong would perform. He has been in jail since March on other charges.
The anti-corruption commission said that providing refreshments and entertainment at a political rally was “corrupt conduct and a serious offense.”  
Wong, 59, was later released on bail. There has been no comment from him.
Wong has been a popular singer since the 1980s when he was one half of the Tat Ming Pair. He later went solo.
He backed the 2019 pro-democracy protesters, as well as the 2014 so-called Umbrella Revolution against what many saw as restrictive changes by the Chinese Communist Party in the way Hong Kong held elections.
After his support, Wong was banned from performing in China, and his music was deleted from streaming services.
Wong and Au were expected to appear in court on Thursday.
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The pandemic’s economic impact has led to bankrupt businesses and unemployment around the world. In Malaysia an increasing number of people are looking for cash quickly to keep their families and businesses afloat. But as Dave Grunebaum reports, many soon find themselves in over their heads dealing with debt and threats.Camera:  Dave Grunebaum    
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In six months, throngs of foreign media will arrive in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics. They may be welcomed by a wide-ranging Chinese government campaign to foment public anger against Western journalists, who have been increasingly harassed because of their reporting.  Chinese state media, diplomats, and other officials have conducted a months-long effort to stoke hostility toward reporters and outlets they accuse of spreading lies about China. Recently, Beijing has targeted the BBC, which has done extensive reporting on China’s reeducation camps for Uyghur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang.  FILE – Guard towers are seen along the perimeter wall of the Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, April 23, 2021.But reporters from many other publications have been caught in the fray. Last month, angry crowds surrounded and briefly detained a pair of German and U.S. journalists reporting on floods in the Chinese province of Henan. The locals accused the reporters of spreading anti-China rumors. Since then, several news outlets reported receiving death threats and other intimidating phone calls. Long thread: Yesterday FILE – Attendees wave Chinese flags during a ceremony at Tiananmen Square to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.Reflecting a newfound aggressiveness, Chinese officials have engaged in so-called “wolf warrior” diplomacy, which often uses insults and threats in an attempt to prove that China cannot be pushed around.  For international media, the environment has gotten so tense the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) last week warned the “physical safety of foreign journalists in China” was being “directly endanger[ed]” by rhetoric from organizations affiliated with China’s Communist Party. 1/ FCCC Statement on Harassment of Reporters Covering Henan Floods 7/27/2021The Foreign Correspondents Club of China is very concerned to witness the recent online and offline harassment of journalists covering devastating floods in the Chinese province of Henan this month.— Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (@fccchina) FILE – Protesters hold photos of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who are being detained by China, outside British Columbia Supreme Court, in Vancouver, March 6, 2019.Such fears have multiplied since 2018, when China detained two Canadians — academic Michael Kovrig and business consultant Michael Spavor — on spying charges. Many analysts see the move as little more than hostage-taking — a response to Canada’s detention of a prominent Chinese executive who allegedly violated U.S. sanctions. “It’s bad enough to have to worry you’ll be jailed in retaliation for whatever critical comments you made even years ago,” wrote James Mann, a former Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, in the ChinaFile report. “It’s much more unsettling to think you could be thrown in jail as a hostage simply because you hold an American passport, the way Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were thrown in jail as Canadian hostages, in retaliation for something my government did that the Chinese regime didn’t like,” he added. Chinese officials dismiss such fears, saying only those who break Chinese regulations should be worried. They also deny they are behind any media harassment, saying the outrage of Chinese citizens is organic — the result of “fake news” and biased coverage.  But as some journalists have pointed out, the outrage is probably not completely organic, since China’s “Great Firewall” prevents most Chinese from accessing the coverage of a multitude of foreign outlets, including the BBC, New York Times, and Voice of America. When WSJ, FT, Reuters and (briefly) NYT were able to run unblocked Chinese websites inside China, trust in foreign media was extremely highMaybe we should try that again and see what happens? https://t.co/G5EDykqUAy— Josh Chin (@joshchin) July 28, 2021Fears overblown? 
There’s reason to think that foreign journalists visiting for the Olympics won’t need to fear for their personal safety. Perhaps the biggest reason: China likely won’t want to attract bad press while it has the world’s attention. Additionally, if recent history is any indication, China prefers to expel rather than detain foreign journalists. At least 20 foreign journalists have been expelled or forced to leave China since last year, according to the FCCC. Some of the expulsions appear to be retaliation for U.S. restrictions on Chinese state media outlets.  Most of the journalists expelled from China reported on sensitive topics, such as China’s abuses against Uyghurs or its crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.  FILE – Journalists tour the Olympics Village for Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games, during a media tour in Zhangjiakou in northwestern China’s Hebei province, July 14, 2021.Many Olympics reporters, meanwhile, will focus on sports, possibly limiting the opportunity to offend Beijing. As at the Tokyo Games, they will also likely be kept in a protective pandemic bubble, greatly reducing their interaction with Chinese citizens.  “The ongoing pandemic will provide some rationalization of the measures taken to limit or restrict the sphere of reporting that the journalists can do,” predicts Lim Tai Wei, an associate professor who focuses on China and Northeast Asia at the National University of Singapore.  China may also pre-screen journalists applying to cover the Olympics, says Lim. “Those with a certain record may not be able to access the Games,” he says. But it’s possible that Beijing could be offended by details that some sports journalists may not even notice.  During the Tokyo Olympics, Chinese officials slammed NBC, the U.S. broadcaster, for not including Taiwan or the South China Sea on its map of China during the Olympics opening ceremony. China claims sovereignty of Taiwan, which is ruled by a democratic government that is extremely skeptical of Beijing. China also has overlapping territorial claims with several countries in the South China Sea.  Domestic legitimacy 
Some analysts have predicted China could pivot to a more accommodating tone toward international media in the leadup to the Olympics, noting Beijing may want to limit bad press.  But it’s more complicated than that, warns Lim, who says the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) faces enormous domestic pressure as it celebrates its 100-year anniversary. “In this year of commemoration, it is extremely difficult for the top leadership of the CCP to appear weak on any issue, particularly issues it considers to be related to domestic sovereignty,” he says. FILE – A giant screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping singing the national anthem during a flag-raising ceremony at the event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, July 1, 2021.Chinese President Xi Jinping is poised to rule the country indefinitely after he removed presidential term limits in 2018. Besides consolidating power at home, China under Xi has also taken a much more assertive approach toward China’s competitors.  “It has to appear strong and in control of the situation to gain legitimacy for the party,” says Lim. “And this is especially so given that the CCP and the country is now run by a strongman regime, possibly considered to be the most centralized and the strongest since the days of Mao.” 
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The Australian military began helping to enforce Australia’s strictest COVID-19 lockdown Monday, as a surge in delta variant cases in Sydney continued to cause problems.  About 300 troops have been sent to Australia’s largest city to help overstretched police monitor home quarantine for coronavirus patients, and potentially set up roadblocks. The troops will help the police on a door-to-door search to check if people who have contracted COVID are isolating, police commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters during a press conference.  Senior officials have said the soldiers will not be armed, and do not have special enforcement authority, but will be assisting the police. However, counsellors have said that the sight of the military in multicultural areas of Sydney could be distressing for some refugees and migrants. Carmen Lazar is a manager at the Assyrian Resource Centre in the Fairfield district of the city.Police look to stop an anti-lockdown protest as a COVID-19 outbreak affects Sydney, July 31, 2021.“It is not acceptable because (there) are people who have come from torture and trauma countries (where), you know, the government officials have always been intimidating and especially the police. You know, having the military patrolling a large multicultural community in south-western Sydney I do not think is ideal for these people because they have not committed any crime,” Lazar said.Sydney’s lockdown is scheduled to end on August 28, but delta variant infections continue to increase. The stay-at-home orders are the strictest imposed in Australia since the pandemic began. The orders also apply to regions to the north, south and west of Australia’s most populous city. Monday, authorities announced 207 new infections in the past 24-hours. A record number of 117,000 COVID-19 tests were also carried out in the same period. A lockdown in southeast Queensland, including the state capital Brisbane, has been extended until Sunday as authorities try to contain a delta outbreak. Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young is pleading for residents to stay at home. “This outbreak, unfortunately, is escalating, but I am very confident that with the strategies we have in place in Queensland, and with the cooperation of every single Queenslander, we will get through it. Do not leave home. We know that the delta variant of the virus is totally unforgiving. It really and truly spreads so rapidly,” Young said.Australia has recorded about 34,000 coronavirus infections and 924 deaths since the pandemic began. Just 19% of the population have been fully vaccinated. 
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South Korea said Monday it will keep pushing to improve ties and resume talks with rival North Korea, despite the North’s threat to rekindle animosities if Seoul holds its summertime military drills with the United States. On Sunday night, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the drills would seriously undermine efforts to restore mutual trust between the Koreas and becloud prospects for better ties if the training is launched as scheduled this month. Her statement raised a question about the sincerity of North Korea’s recent decision to reopen long-stalled communication channels with South Korea. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday the exact timing, size and other details of the drills haven’t been fixed and that they were the issues that must be determined by South Korean and U.S. authorities. Spokesman Boo Seung-Chan repeated his previous statement that Seoul and Washington are examining factors like the pandemic’s current status, diplomat efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and South Korea-U.S. military readiness. Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman at the Unification Ministry, said Seoul views the communication channels’ restoration as a starting point for restoring long-suspended ties between the Koreas. She said Seoul will steadily seek to resume talks with North Korea, but without haste. North Korea sees regular military drills between South Korea and the United States as an invasion rehearsal and often responds them with its own weapons tests. In the past few years, however, South Korea and the U.S. have canceled or downsized some of their training to support the now-dormant diplomacy on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis or because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inter-Korean ties flourished after North Korea reached out to South Korea and the United States in 2018 for talks on its nuclear program. North Korea later cut off ties with South Korea after its larger nuclear diplomacy with the United States stalled in 2019. Last Tuesday, the two Koreas restored their phone and fax lines after a 13-month hiatus, raising hopes of improved ties between the divided Koreas. But some experts say North Korea merely aims to use South Korea to let it convince the United States to make concessions before and when the stalled North Korea-U.S. nuclear diplomacy resumes eventually. 
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Myanmar’s ruling State Administrative Council said Sunday it has become a caretaker government and its leader, Min Aung Hlaing, is to be prime minister.The announcement came after Min Aung Hlaing on Sunday repeated his pledge to hold multiparty elections at an unspecified future date.In a televised address, exactly six months after toppling Myanmar’s elected civilian government, the senior general also said he was ready to cooperate with any special envoy appointed by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.Min Aung Hlaing has said before that any elections would take place at least a year after the Feb. 1 putsch.The military claims it ousted the ruling National League for Democracy because the party had ignored allegations that general elections in November 2020 were riddled with fraud. The NLD had won the poll in a landslide, drubbing the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, in a contest deemed mostly free and fair by local and international election observers.Since the coup, security forces have shot and killed more than 900 people and arrested thousands in a bid to quash protests and a stubborn civil disobedience movement opposed to the coup, according to the Assistance Associate for Political Prisoners, a rights group tracking the junta’s crackdown from neighboring Thailand.The military has also arrested dozens of NLD leaders, including de facto leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and put some on trial for sedition and other alleged crimes. Many more NLD members are in hiding in and outside the country.The regime has labelled the clandestine government the ousted lawmakers have helped set up in hopes of wresting control from the generals a terrorist group.Skepticism inside MyanmarInitial reaction to the announcement in Myanmar was mixed.Chan Lian, executive director of the Hornbill Organization, an election monitoring group, told VOA it seemed unlikely elections would be held in the next two years.“Historically, elections have been held for almost three decades after the previous military coup d’état,” he said.“It is hard for us to believe that it will be held in next two years,” he said, adding, “We can only believe it when the election date is announced.”He said he thinks “there would be very few political parties running in the upcoming election” if it were held by the military.Sai Nyunt Lwin, deputy chair of the Shan National League for Democracy, an ethnic opposition party, also was skeptical.“We do not have much trust what he [Min Aung Hlain] has said,” Sai Nyunt Lwin told VOA.“The Hluttaw [Myanmar’s parliament] was not convened after the 1990 election. When the 2010 election was held again, the top party leaders including NLD and SNLD were imprisoned. The election was not free and fair and not a credible election.“Now, the 2020 election result was annulled again. Our party does not accept cancelation of the election result. We still recognize the winning MPs of our party. The SNLD won 42 seats in the 2020 general election,” he said.Khin Zaw Win, the director of Tampadipa Institute, an advocacy group in Yangon, was also skeptical, saying, “It is unbelievable that the military will hold election in the next two years, adding that he does not believe ASEAN has the capacity to deal with Myanmar even if they appoint a mediator.Phe Than, a member of the Central Policy Affairs Committee of the Arakan National Party, an ethnic party in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, struck a similar chord.”It remains to be seen whether the situation to hold the election will be ready during these years,” he told VOA.Ethnic parties now find it hard to believe in the election, he said, since the military announced the cancelation of the 2020 election results. He said if Suu Kyi’s NLD does not run, allied parties will not run, adding, “In the absence of participation, the military will pretend to be trying to hold a general election. at that time, I think it is possible there will be a new type of coup by the military to retain power.”Nandar Hla Myint, however, spokesperson and general secretary of the military-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, was more positive.“We are confident that the chairman of the State Administrative Council will hold election as he pledges,” he said.“As a political party, we will contest the best in the election. The previous election results were annulled because it was not free and fair. It would not have been annulled if it had been handled with responsibility to the complaints of military and political party over election frauds.”NLD seen as the keyHervé Lemahieu, a Myanmar analyst with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, said the credibility of any elections the regime stages will rest on whether the hugely popular NLD, which has easily won every general election it has contested, is given a fair chance.He and other Myanmar watchers believe the junta is prosecuting the NLD’s leaders as a pretext, once they’re convicted, to ban the party outright.“Given that Min Aung Hlaing has already publicly said that he hopes to learn from the Thai experience, and that the amount of back-and-forth and consultations between [Thai Prime Minister] Prayut Chan-ocha and Min Aung Hlaing, there’s every reason to consider these next elections will be highly stacked in favor of the military and have conditions which will basically prevent the NLD or any … rebranded NLD from running, so it will not be free and fair,” he said.Prayut also seized power at the helm of a military coup in 2014 and became prime minister after 2019 elections that the opposition claims were rigged in his favor, an allegation Prayut denies.Lemahieu said any poll without the NLD’s full participation would be little more than “window dressing,” though some smaller parties might be convinced to run to at least give the semblance of a genuine contest.“The generals will hope that it will give them some added degree of credibility at least in the region, if not in the eyes of the West, that will be passable for ASEAN,” he said.“I would imagine that most self-respecting, well established pro-democracy opposition figures, if they’re not already in jail, would refrain from running,” he added. “But you would be left with a small list of fringe parties who probably would see that [election] as beneficial potentially to run in.”Lemahieu said an ASEAN envoy could help nudge the generals toward a fair contest if the bloc selects someone with well-established democratic credentials and lets them operate mostly independent of the group’s chair, which rotates among the 10 members every year. If the envoy changes with each new chair, he said, “it’s not a recipe for success.”Zsombor Peter in Bangkok contributed to this report.  
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Myanmar’s military ruler Min Aung Hlaing on Sunday promised new mult-party elections and said his government is ready to work with any special envoy named by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.He spoke in a televised address six months after the army seized power from a civilian government after disputed elections won by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party, which he described as “terrorists.”   
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