As the Delta variant spreads in record numbers in Indonesia, hospitals are overwhelmed. The situation is forcing many residents to care for sick families themselves. VOA’s Ahadian Utama reports.Producer: Eva MazrievaAhadian Utama contributed to this report. 
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In less than two weeks, Courtney Frerichs will face off in Tokyo against some of the world’s fastest runners. But like every elite athlete preparing for the Summer Olympics, her focus is not only on preparing to compete. Frerichs, a middle-distance runner from the United States, is also using the final days of her training to make sure she complies with the elaborate set of rules meant to ensure the Tokyo Games don’t become a COVID-19 superspreader event.  “It’s a lot,” Frerichs told VOA in a recent phone call between training sessions in Portland, Oregon. “We’ve just been trying to review the protocols and everything to make sure that we’re checking all of our boxes and getting all the stuff done, just prior to arriving in Japan.” Frerichs, who is competing in the steeplechase event in Tokyo, is quick to point out that she understands why the rules are necessary. “But it certainly adds another level of stress to everything,” she said, laughing. “Like the Olympics wasn’t enough.” Athletes like Frerichs shrug off the suggestion that COVID-19 regulations, along with other precautions such as the absence of cheering fans, will hurt their performance. But one thing is certain: this Olympics will feel different than any other.  Do’s and don’ts The official rules for athletes are laid out in a 70-page “Playbook,” which basically reads like a gigantic bummer.  “You should eat alone as much as possible,” warns one A monorail runs between buildings ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 14, 2021, in Tokyo. The state of emergency will be in effect throughout the entire duration of the Olympics, which open on July 23.For athletes and officials, the planning must begin long before the Olympics. Certain rules, such as social distancing and regular health checks, apply for 14 days before they arrive in Tokyo. Athletes also must submit a detailed “activity plan,” explaining where they will be at every moment of every day.  Once an athlete’s competitions are complete, they are required to leave Japan within 48 hours.  “We come in, we have a job to do, and then we leave. I literally depart the next day,” Frerichs said. The ‘No Fun Olympics?’ Given the restrictions, and the fact the Games are being staged amid a global pandemic, some news outlets have labeled it the “no fun” or “cursed” Olympics.  “‘No Fun Olympics’ will be right,” predicts Jack Tarrant, a Tokyo-based freelance journalist. Two weeks before the Games, Tarrant says he’s witnessed “almost no enthusiasm at all” in Tokyo.  “There’s very little visually you see on the street, any sort of banners or welcoming signs for foreign visitors or athletes,” Tarrant told VOA. “It’s … very different from any other Olympics experience I’ve had.” Opinion polls for months have suggested most Japanese oppose holding the Games, which were delayed a year because of the pandemic. Concerns were heightened after a recent surge in COVID-19 infections, prompting a state of emergency in Tokyo.  As a result, Tokyo will host no public viewing areas for the Games. The capital will see no torch relay and will request that bars and restaurants refrain from serving alcohol.  That’s a sharp contrast from other Olympics, where celebration is a main component — even for athletes, notes Tarrant.  “There won’t be the usual time to unwind with the other athletes and have a well-deserved celebration after four, or in this case five, years of preparation,” he said.  There will perhaps be fewer chances for other types of recreation, too, organizers hope. At every Olympics since 1988, athletes have received condoms, in a tradition that began as an effort to prevent the spread of HIV. At this year’s Games, athletes will only receive condoms upon leaving the Olympic Village.  Business, not pleasure But David Gerrard, a former Olympic swimmer from New Zealand, tells VOA that the athletes’ focus will be on competition.  “Anybody who thinks these are going to be the ‘boring Olympics’ really has got the wrong idea of what the Olympics is all about,” said Gerrard, who will be working as a COVID-19 liaison officer in Tokyo.  “They’re not a meeting of people who want to sight-see or shop. They are an accumulation of the world’s best athletes who are there to do one thing and that’s to perform to the best of their ability,” Gerrard said.  Gerrard should know. He first competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. This will be the 11th Summer Olympics at which he has competed or attended. “Things will be very, very different” this year, he concedes. “But like the athletes, I’m not there for a holiday.”  Athlete performance But will the rules, and specifically the empty stadiums, mean athletes will lack the motivation needed to fuel spectacular performances? “Crowds are always a factor, no doubt,” Gerrard said. But crowds or not, athletes “will not underestimate the fact that they are at the Olympic Games competing against the world’s best, and I think they’ll focus accordingly,” he predicted. Another factor: a year and a half into the pandemic, athletes are now more accustomed to performing without fans and dealing with other COVID-19 precautions.  “There is certainly going to be a missing element,” said Frerichs, who feels the crowd was a factor in what she views as the best races of her career.  The challenge in Tokyo, she says, will be largely mental — “just trying to remember all the training days when it was just you and coach out there, and you got the job done,” she added.  Frerichs says in some ways she’s approaching the Games like a business trip.  “Which is definitely not how I envisioned it,” she said. “But that’s OK. I always revert back to just being grateful this is happening at all.”  
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Singapore’s tourism board said on Wednesday that a cruise ship operated by Genting Cruise Lines on a so-called cruise to nowhere had returned to the city-state after a 40-year-old passenger was suspected to have contracted COVID-19. “The passenger was identified as a close contact of a confirmed case on land, and was immediately isolated as part of onboard health protocols,” the tourism board said in a statement. It said the passenger took a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test onboard, tested positive and had been conveyed to a hospital for further testing to confirm the result. The passenger’s three traveling companions were identified and isolated, the tourism board said. They have tested negative for COVID-19 and further contact tracing was being done. All leisure activities aboard the Dream Cruises’ World Dream ship had ceased and passengers had been asked to stay in their cabins until test results are received and contact tracing was complete, the tourism board said. Genting did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ship left Singapore on Sunday for a four-day cruise, according to a media report. The global cruise industry has taken a major economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic, with some of the earliest big outbreaks found on cruise ships. Singapore, which has seen relatively few domestic COVID-19 cases, launched round-trips cruses on luxury liners in November, which have no port of call and last only a few days. Such cruises have become popular during the pandemic and are restricted to Singapore residents. 
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When His Holiness the Dalai Lama turned 86, he observed his birthday by promising to continue serving humanity and advocating for the environment. Celebrations worldwide marked the day. ICYMI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama celebrated his 86th birthday, promising to serve humanity and protect the climate in a virtual address from India’s northern hill town of Dharamsala From the library of Qinghai Normal University, Xining. The script is “Dearest person in exile, the heart-to-heart years will never disappear and change no matter how bumpy the road far away.” (Social media)Other images and footage from Tibet showed Tibetans marking the day creatively. One man wore a sweater with the number “86” embroidered across the back. VOA Tibetan contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington via phone and email for a comment on the birthday observations but did not receive a response. Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 and has since lived in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala. More than 140,000 Tibetans live in exile, mostly in India. More than 6 million Tibetans live in the Tibet Autonomous Region and other autonomous prefectures in neighboring Chinese provinces.Chinese authorities have long banned photographs of the Dalai Lama and expression of public devotion to the spiritual leader.  China accuses him of seeking to separate Tibet from China.   The Dalai Lama repeatedly has said he seeks greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence from China.  Sharing photographs of the Dalai Lama and his teachings and talks in defiance of Chinese law has resulted in Tibetans being arrested in Tibetan regions. China has responded to international condemnation of Beijing’s alleged human rights violations in Tibet by saying its actions “are China’s internal affairs, and the outside world should not interfere,” as A young Tibetan draws a portrait of the Dalai Lama in a post from Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Qinghai province. The caption is “Leader of world peace, very happy birthday to you.” (Social media)The ban on references to the Dalai Lama is part of the effort by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to bring Tibetans into the Chinese mainstream, by restricting the Tibetan language and culture, according to the U.S. State Department, in a 2020 report on religious freedom. The “Sinification” of Tibetan language and culture, coupled with Beijing’s investment in infrastructure in the region, suggests “China Wants to Build a Tibet With More Wealth and Less Buddhism,” according to a Bloomberg headline. Xinghua, a media outlet controlled by the CCP, reported in February that since 2012, China has built roads that have connected 95 percent of the township-level administrations and 75 percent of the incorporated villages in the Tibet region. 
 
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The U.S. government strengthened its warnings to businesses about growing risks of supply chain and investment links to China’s Xinjiang region on Tuesday, citing forced labor and human rights abuses there.
“Given the severity and extent of these abuses, businesses and individuals that do not exit supply chains, ventures, and/or investments connected to Xinjiang could run a high risk of violating U.S. law,” the State Department said in a statement.
Signaling broader U.S. government coordination on the issue, the Department of Labor and the U.S. Trade Representative joined in the issuance of the updated advisory, first released on July 1, 2020 under the Trump administration by the State, Commerce, Homeland Security and Treasury departments.
The new advisory strengthens the warning to U.S. companies, noting that they are at risk of violating U.S. law if their operations are linked even “indirectly” to the Chinese government’s “vast and growing surveillance network” in Xinjiang. The warning also applies to the provision of financial support by venture capital and private equity firms.
It also summarized previously announced actions taken by the Biden administration to address forced labor and other rights abuses in Xinjiang, including a U.S. Customs and Border Protection ban on solar equipment imports from the region, and sanctions on Xinjiang companies and entities.
The move follows an action on Friday in which the administration added 14 Chinese companies and other entities to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang.
The advisory said China’s government continues “horrific abuses” in Xinjiang and elsewhere “targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and ethnic Kyrgyz who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.”
China denies abuses and says it has established vocational training centers in Xinjiang to address religious extremism.
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Japan will make additional donations of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan and other Asian neighbors this week, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tuesday. Japan will ship 1 million doses each to Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam on Thursday as part of bilateral deals with those governments, Motegi told reporters. An additional 11 million doses donated through the COVAX sharing scheme will be sent this month to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, Laos, Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as various Pacific Island states, he said. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry expressed thanks for the gesture, particularly at a serious stage in Japan’s own coronavirus battle. Japan has donated about 3.4 million doses to Taiwan in a show of support for the Chinese-claimed island. “The friendship between Taiwan and Japan is unwavering,” the Taiwan ministry said in a statement. “The Foreign Ministry once again thanks our partners in freedom and democracy for their warm assistance and strong support.” In a statement, Vietnam said it would receive a million doses from Japan on Friday in Ho Chi Minh City, where it is fighting its largest outbreak yet after months of successful containment. “It is encouraging that a number of richer countries have made generous pledges and donations of vaccines to countries in Asia in recent weeks,” said Alexander Matheou of aid group the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “We need to speed up the delivery of these lifesaving doses so that we can get them into people’s arms, giving us a genuine shot at containing this pandemic once and for all.” Taiwan has complained that Chinese interference blocked its deal this year to secure vaccines from Germany’s BioNTech, charges Beijing has denied. Since then, vaccine donations have rolled into Taiwan. Taiwan’s relatively small domestic COVID-19 outbreak has generally been brought under control, except for a few sporadic community infections. Japan has pledged $1 billion and 30 million doses to COVAX. Motegi said on Tuesday the AstraZeneca doses made in Japan were approved by the World Health Organization on July 9 for use in COVAX.  
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China’s exports grew at a much faster pace than expected in June as solid global demand led by easing lockdown measures and vaccination drives worldwide eclipsed virus outbreaks and port delays. Imports growth also beat expectations, though the pace eased from May, with the values boosted by high raw material prices, customs data showed Tuesday. Because of Beijing’s efforts in containing the pandemic earlier than its trading partners, the world’s biggest exporter has managed a solid economic revival from the coronavirus-induced slump in the first few months of 2020. Exports in dollar terms rose 32.2% in June from a year earlier, compared with 27.9% growth in May. The analysts polled by Reuters had forecasted a 23.1% increase. “Exports surprised on the upside in June, shrugging off the impact of the temporary Shenzhen port closure and other supply chain bottlenecks,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics. China’s trade performance has seen some pressure in recent months, mainly because of a global semiconductor shortage, logistics bottlenecks, higher raw material and freight costs. All the same, the global easing of COVID-19 lockdown measures and vaccination drives appeared to underpin a strong increase in worldwide demand for Chinese goods. The strong shipment numbers last month underlined some solid factory surveys overseas. A measure of U.S. factory activity climbed to a record high in June, while Euro zone business growth accelerated at its fastest pace in 15 years.  The data also showed imports increased 36.7% year-on-year last month, beating a 30.0% forecast but slowing from a 51.1% gain in May, which was the highest growth rate in a decade. China’s customs administration spokesperson Li Kuiwen said the country’s trade may slow in the second half of 2021, mainly reflecting the statistical impact of the high growth rate last year. Li, speaking at a news conference in Beijing earlier in the day, also said that imported inflation risks were manageable, but China’s trade still faces uncertainties because of the global pandemic. “But overall we think China’s foreign trade in the second half still has hopes of achieving relatively fast growth,” he said. China posted a trade surplus of $51.53 billion for last month, compared with the poll’s forecast for a $44.2 billion surplus and the $45.54 billion surplus in May. China’s trade surplus with the United States swelled to $32.58 billion in June, Reuters calculations based on customs data showed, up from the May figure of $31.78 billion. Top officials from China and the United States started exchanges in June to address mutual concerns, while the Biden administration is conducting a review of trade policy between the world’s two biggest economies, ahead of the end of their Phase 1 deal at the end of 2021. Beijing has started to purchase corn from the United States in June, while it still falls well behind its pledge in Phase 1 deal to buy more agriculture products from the United States. 
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Taiwanese tech giants Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company announced Monday they will each donate five million coronavirus vaccine doses to the government in a deal with a China-based distributor. Taipei has been struggling to secure enough vaccines for its population, and its precarious political status has been a major stumbling block. As Taipei and Beijing accused each other of hampering vaccine deals, Foxconn and TSMC stepped in with a face-saving solution — buying the Pfizer-BioNTech doses from a Chinese distributor and donating them to Taiwan. “Me and my team feel the public anxiety and expectations on the vaccines and we are relieved to give the public an answer that relevant contracts have been signed,” Foxconn founder Terry Gou said in a post on his Facebook page. “Beijing authorities have not offered any guidance or interfered with the vaccine acquisition process,” he said, adding that the vaccines will be shipped directly by German firm BioNTech. Foxconn and TSMC, the world’s largest contract electronics and chip makers respectively, said they will spend $175 million each on the vaccines. Beijing’s authoritarian leadership views democratic self-ruled Taiwan as part of China’s territory and has vowed to one day seize the island, by force if needed. China tries to keep Taiwan internationally isolated, including blocking it from the World Health Organization. Taipei has been trying to secure Pfizer-BioNTech direct from Germany, but Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma has the distribution rights for China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Attempts to sign a direct deal made little headway, something Taiwan blamed on Beijing. In return, Beijing has accused Taiwan of refusing to deal with Fosun Pharma and politicizing its vaccine search. Fosun issued a statement late Sunday saying it had signed a deal with the Taiwanese firms to sell 10 million shots, to be donated to “disease control institutions in the Taiwan region.” In an interview with China’s Global Times — a state-run tabloid — Fosun Chairman and CEO Wu Yifang accused Taipei of “rule-breaking in the whole process.” No further elaboration was provided. Taiwan had only received 726,000 vaccine doses before the United States and Japan recently donated 2.5 million and 2.37 million doses, respectively. So far, just 14 percent of its 23.5 million people have been vaccinated, according to the health ministry. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung previously revealed that Taiwan and BioNTech were about to finalize a deal in January when the company suggested the words “our country” had to be taken out of a Taiwanese press statement. Chen said authorities agreed to replace it with “Taiwan,” but the deal remained stalled. The Chinese government reacts angrily at any attempts to recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. 
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China’s technology ministry Monday announced a three-year action plan to develop the country’s cyber-security industry, which it estimates will be worth more than $38 billion by 2023, according to Reuters. The new strategy by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is being unveiled as Beijing tightens its grip on the country’s technology sector, underscored by its regulatory probe of ride-hailing giant Didi Global.   The company was valued at $68 billion after its June 30 initial public offering, or IPO, on the New York Stock Exchange.   But Chinese regulators launched a cybersecurity review of the company and said new users would not be allowed to register during the review, sending Didi Global share prices tumbling. The Cyberspace Administration of China then ordered Didi’s app removed from domestic mobile app stores. The agency has also ordered two other tech-based companies, Uber-like trucking startup Full Truck Alliance and Kanzhun, which connects job seekers and hiring enterprises via a mobile app, to suspend user registrations and submit to security reviews, citing risks to “national data security.”   The two companies, like Didi Global, had also recently issued IPOs on U.S. stock exchanges.   Some information for this report came from Reuters, CNBC, and the New York Times. 
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The head of a Thai-based volunteer aid group, speaking from inside Myanmar, has described increasing attacks by that country’s military in the ethnic areas along the country’s borders with China and Thailand.Speaking to VOA by satellite phone Friday from northern Kayin state in Myanmar’s east, David Eubank, the head of the Free Burma Rangers, said since the February 1 coup,  Myanmar’s military has not only attacked urban protesters but is now carrying out increasing offensives on the country’s fringes.The United Nations said last month that almost a quarter of a million people have been driven from their homes and villages by post-coup violence, and that millions risk hunger in coming months.  Most of them are spread across the border areas, where ethnic minorities with standing armies have been fighting the military for autonomy for decades.  Eubank’s Free Burma Rangers sends hundreds of volunteers into Myanmar’s conflict zones with medical services and supplies — from rice to schoolbooks — for remote rural areas.‘The gloves came off’“Once the coup happened,” Eubank said, “it was like the gloves came off the Burma military. Not only did they begin to crush the people in the streets, as you’ve seen; they began to unleash their power on the ethnics, and that’s when we saw this huge uptick of attacks and displacement.” Myanmar is also known as Burma.When the military started attacking targets in northern Kayin after the coup, by air for the first time in decades, the area’s displaced population jumped tenfold from 4,000 to 40,000 by April, Eubank said.He estimated the airstrikes have killed about 20 civilians in the area and wounded some 40 more. He said that is fewer than those killed by the military’s ground forces in northern Kayin, which he puts at about 40, “but the psychological impact of the airplanes is just huge up here.”“Way past the killing that the airstrikes [caused] and damage they did has been the fear,” he said.Myanmar government officials could not be reached for comment. In the past the military has said it has only uses proportionate force against threats to state security.In the jungleEubank said most of the 40,000 have returned home in recent weeks as the airstrikes died down and most of the new troops the military moved in were pulled back, although skirmishes with forces of the Karen National Union, one of the country’s many armed ethnic groups, have kept up.He said the most intense fighting since the coup is in the northernmost state of Kachin, where the military has been losing ground to the Kachin Independence Army, another ethnic armed group.People take refuge in a jungle area in Demoso, Kayah state, June 3, 2021In the past few weeks, though, fighting has picked up most in the tiny eastern state of Kayah, also known as Karenni, where the military is up against smaller militias and new “people’s defense forces” of locals who have pooled their weapons to resist the junta. Fighting there has driven more than 100,000 people out of their homes, now the most in any state or region, Eubank, who has teams there, said.Those teams, he said, report soldiers looting villagers’ homes and firing into the jungle with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, both to keep any rebels at bay and to clear tracts of land of anyone else.“I’m looking at photos that my team sent right now. … I see wrecked houses. I’m looking at a destroyed church. I’m looking at a guy who was shot. I’m looking at pictures of IDPs [internally displaced persons] hiding in the jungle,” he told VOA.Heavy rains have only made it worse for those pushed into the jungle, he added, with many reduced to catching frogs and hunting squirrels to supplement their rice.Those who can, find caves, the rest make due under pitched tarps, or less, Eubank said.“Very often they fled out of the house with just what they could carry and maybe had a sheet of plastic over their shoulders. So maybe they’ll cut bamboo and make a frame, like a lean-to frame, and then lay banana leaves and other leaves over it to make a little shelter and huddle under that,” he said.“They live pretty rough. And then there’s no school, and they’ve got the clothes on their back. And if there’s hundreds of them on the same stream. then you have pollution problems and dysentery.”A looming crisisEubank said the military was also setting up checkpoints and sending out patrols to keep aid shipments from flowing from the plains into the hills  and rebel-controlled areas, where many of the displaced are taking shelter, checking people for everything from extra food and medicine to batteries and children toys.He said supplies were still getting in and that most of the newly displaced have enough rice right now and to last the next two to three months.Even those who have felt safe enough to return home, though, as in Kayin, are a month or two behind on their farming and coming back to overgrown fields that need extra work, he added. That could mean much less rice at harvest time.Some of those who have returned are also still under fire, he said.Eubank said he came across a woman in Kayin a few weeks ago being shot at with automatic and sniper rifles from the surrounding hills while planting her rice field. Determined to get the job done, he said, she gathered up her neighbors and together they finished the planting that night in the dark.The 100,000 still living rough in Kayah cannot even do that. Last month the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Thomas H. Andrews, warned of “mass death” among the displaced there from starvation, disease and exposure if the military continued to cut them off from critical supplies.Eubank said that could come to pass if more aid does not get in and if they cannot move to where they can find what they need to survive.“I think it’s a big risk if this goes on, especially for right now in Karenni,” he said. “We have these 100,000 people, and we’re moving literally tons of rice up there through a variety of means. But that’s not sure to meet all the needs. And if the Burma army continues the pressure against those 100,000, they’re going to have to move or they’re going to starve to death,” he said.The junta claims it toppled the country’s civilian government because it had ignored reports of widespread irregularities in last year’s general elections, in which the military’s proxy party was soundly defeated, but has shown no evidence to back it up. State media now run by the junta has blamed the crisis that has followed the coup on “dishonesty of democracy” in the election. 
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Olympic officials have barred spectators from the games amid spiking coronavirus cases in Japan.  Organizers have long said they will push forward with the Olympics, but experts say the highly transmissible delta variant should give them pause.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi  
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Australia’s defense minister on Sunday confirmed the end of his country’s involvement in the 20-year Afghanistan war, saying the troop withdrawal had taken place “in recent weeks.”   Australia announced in April that it would remove its remaining troops by September in line with the U.S. decision to end its military operations in the war-torn country.   Defense Minister Peter Dutton told Sky News that the country’s last 80 support personnel had left Afghanistan “in recent weeks.”   “That doesn’t mean we won’t be a part of campaigns with the United States… where we deem that to be in our national interest or in the interest of our allies,” he added. “For now, though, that campaign has come to an end.”   Australia had deployed 39,000 troops over the past 20 years as part of U.S.- and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and terrorist groups in Afghanistan, a mission that cost the country billions of dollars and left 41 Australian soldiers dead.   And while the country has not had a significant troop presence in Afghanistan since withdrawing combat personnel in late 2013, the war has taken a toll and fueled controversy at home.   Veterans groups have pressured the government into launching a formal inquiry into the high number of suicides among Afghan veterans and other ex-servicemen and women. The military and police are also actively investigating allegations that elite Special Air Services soldiers committed numerous war crimes in Afghanistan. 
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“Before the show, my mom asked me, ‘You’re performing tonight?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘This is what you’re gonna wear? … This outfit looks cheap. It doesn’t look fashionable. It doesn’t complement your body. The shirt looks like nobody’s going to marry you, ever. For you to show up on stage looking like this, I think it’s very disrespectful of your audience.’”“I said, ‘Mom, it’s a free open mic, this is all they deserve.’ “The whole room burst with laughter.Meet Alex Shi, a 31-year-old from China’s northeastern city of Changchun. On this summer night, she’s performing standup comedy at Paddy O’Shea’s, a popular Irish bar in central Beijing.As one of the few standup comedians performing in English in Beijing, Shi works at different venues, from high-end hotels like the Hyatt Regency Beijing Wangjing to bars tucked away in Beijing’s few remaining narrow traditional alleys, or hutong. A longtime freelancer in the communications industry, she now devotes most of her free time to comedy.Live standup comedy in Gulou, Beijing. (Ma Jing)Standup comedy began making inroads in China more than a decade ago, but it took off over the past few years as open mics and standup comedy competitions became hit shows on China’s tightly controlled internet, where they are known in Mandarin as talk shows.Even though the comedians can make audiences cry with laughter, the performers skirt topics that might draw official condemnation. Those limits may force them to focus on jokes about more universal topics, such as nagging mothers. “I think Chinese performers are better than those in the West. Why? Because there are no taboo topics in Europe and the United States. You can talk about anything you want,” said Chen Xi, a 41-year-old journalist in Beijing who asked VOA Mandarin to use a pseudonym in fear of attracting attention.“In China, you can’t tell political jokes. You can’t tell jokes that will ‘hurt others’ feelings.’ It’s really not easy for them to still be this creative.”Chinese audiences appreciate the effort. Tencent, the multiplatform Chinese company known globally for its game Fortnight, hosts Rock & Roast, an online standup comedy competition that has nearly 6 billion Tony Chou performing standup. (Zeo Niu)“I think the standup comedy scene in China today is like the environment in the ’80s and ’90s in the U.S.,” he told VOA Mandarin in a phone conversation. “Many people have poured into the industry because they think they can make money. Most of them are always in a rush to perform but not to create.”“For me, I love standup comedy because of the freedom, the freedom to say what I want to say,” Chou said.For Shi, most of her jokes are related to her relationship with her mom — how her mom urges her to get married, how her mom gets into her business, how her mom is nagging her every minute of every day. Compared with anything-goes Western standup comedians, Chinese comedians remain cautious about the topics they target, Shi said. “I think there’s an unwritten rule that we shouldn’t talk about anything that’s vulgar or too extreme,” she added.Shi believes that because she performs in English, the official censorship is not as intense. Yet in popular online comedy competitions, contestants must avoid crossing the red line that will draw official ire. In an episode of Roast! — a Chinese version of the American Comedy Central Roast — that aired on March 14 — former Chinese men’s football team captain Fan Zhiyi mocked the disappointing performance of the Chinese men’s basketball team in the 2019 Basketball World Cup, an event, held in China, that was a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.“I can pass the ball to others [with my feet]. You can’t even do it using your hands!” Fan quipped. A clip of his routine became a Chinese internet sensation, with over 200 million views on Weibo.Yet Fan also touched some nerves. On March 15, the day after the show aired, the government-controlled Xinhua News Agency published an article criticizing him for “hurting the feelings of basketball fans” and blasting the producers for “using him to raise ratings.” On March 16, the Chinese Football Association rolled out a code banning players from “openly inciting animosity.” And while the code did not include retired players, it seemed meant to warn everyone affiliated with the association. “Article 59 of the code indicates that players or officials who publicly incite others to hostility and violence will be severely punished. Violation of this provision will result in a minimum suspension of one month and a fine of at least 200,000 yuan (about $30,000),” reported China’s party-backed news outlet Global Times, referencing a report in the Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.On March 21, citing “insufficient time for editing,” the producers of Roast! canceled the second half of the sports edition.In April, Beijing authorities fined the organizers of a standup comedy show in a small Beijing theater 50,000 yuan, or $7,700, for “using vulgar terms in its performance which violate social morality,” according to the Global Times.“This is the first case in Beijing where a standup comedy show has been punished with fines for banned content, and it shows zero tolerance for this behavior, setting a precedent for the emerging standup comedy genre in China,” said the state-backed news outlet.Chou believes that standup comedy not only should be a performance but should also reflect the actor’s perception of social issues. “In the West, standup comedy has evolved for a long time. The art is down-to-earth yet profound,” he said. “You can touch lots of social issues in your content.“Yet in China, if you want a bigger audience, you have to move from clubs to online platforms or theaters,” he said. “Then you will have to deal with stricter censorship. “For a good Chinese standup comedian, if you ask him or her to go to the theater, it’s like asking an artist to perform on CCTV’s New Year gala,” said Chou, referring to “Chunwan,” the annual variety show extravaganza that has been one of the world’s most-watched TV shows since its first broadcast in 1983.Chou concedes there are financial considerations to being tapped for a broadcast that can turn a performer into a star. Yet as a comedian who maintains that freedom of speech is the soul of standup, accepting an invitation to the really big show means that “he or she will have to perform according to ‘the main theme of the era.’ ” And, said Chou, “That’s torture.”Lin Yang contributed to this report.
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The leaders of North Korea and China traded messages vowing to strengthen cooperation on the anniversary of their treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance between the two countries, North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported Sunday.In a message to China’s Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said their relationship was vital in the face of hostile foreign forces, while Xi promised to bring cooperation “to a new stage,” KCNA said.China has been North Korea’s only major ally since the two signed the treaty in 1961, and international sanctions imposed over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs have made it more dependent than ever on Beijing for trade and other support.”Despite the unprecedentedly complicated international situation in recent years the comradely trust and militant friendship between the DPRK and China get stronger day by day,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying in his message. DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.The treaty is defending socialism and peace in Asia “now that the hostile forces become more desperate in their challenge and obstructive moves,” Kim said.Xi’s message said he planned to provide greater happiness to the two countries and their people by strengthening communication with Kim and “by steadily leading the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries to a new stage,” KCNA said.
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China’s market regulator on Saturday blocked the merger of Tencent-backed game streaming platforms Douyu and Huya following an anti-monopoly investigation, as authorities ramp up scrutiny of some of the country’s biggest technology companies.Huya and Douyu — which provide videogame live-streaming services akin to Twitch in the U.S. — are two of the largest companies of its kind in China. Both count gaming firm Tencent among their investors.China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement that a merger between Huya and Douyu would give Tencent control over the merged entity.”From the perspective of different key indicators like revenue, number of active users, resources for streamers, the total share is very substantial, and the elimination and restriction of competition can be foreseen,” the statement said.Authorities have stepped up oversight of some of China’s largest technology firms over concerns of monopolistic behavior and unchecked growth, as well as how companies are collecting and using data from their millions of users.Last week, regulators ordered a cybersecurity investigation into ride-sharing platform Didi Global Inc. Food delivery platform Meituan is also under an anti-monopoly probe, and e-commerce giant Alibaba was fined a record $2.8 billion earlier this year for antitrust violations.The market regulator said that the decision to ban the merger between Huya and Douyu is the first instance of regulators prohibiting market concentration in the internet sector.The two companies first announced last October that they planned to merge, but market regulators later said that they would review the $6 billion deal.Tencent said it was notified by the regulator that the merger has been halted.”The company will abide by the decision, comply with all regulatory requirements, operate in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and fulfill our social responsibilities,” the company said in a statement Saturday.Earlier this week, Chinese authorities said they would also increase supervision of companies listed overseas.Under the new measures, regulation of data security and cross-border data flows, as well as the management of confidential data, will be improved.Authorities also plan to crack down on illegal activities in the securities market and will investigate and punish acts such as the fraudulent issuance of securities, market manipulation and insider trading.
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A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage.The strong quake hit 258 kilometers northeast of the city of Manado in North Sulawesi at a depth of 68 kilometers.Indonesia experiences frequent quakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.In January, more than 100 people were killed and thousands left homeless by a 6.2-magnitude quake that struck Sulawesi, reducing buildings to a tangled mass of twisted metal and chunks of concrete in the seaside city of Mamuju.A powerful quake shook the island of Lombok in 2018 and several more tremors followed over the next couple of weeks, killing more than 550 people on the holiday island and neighboring Sumbawa.Later that year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing. 
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Myanmar’s post-coup ruling State Administration Council has, since the last week of February, been arresting family members of dissidents in an effort to pressure the dissidents to turn themselves in, according to dissidents, lawyers helping those charged, and an official of the opposition National Unity Government.Family members of activists, politicians, and officials involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement, they say, have been arrested and imprisoned by SAC. Some, they say, were beaten and tortured by security forces for failing to provide information about dissidents who have evaded arrest.”Arresting innocent family members is a coercive act. We strongly condemn this,” Aung Myo Min, the NUG’s human rights minister, who has spent three decades defending human rights, told VOA June 30.VOA made repeated attempts to get a comment from the SAC for this report but was unable to do so.SAC security forces began arresting dissidents’ family members during the last week of February, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.  While there were only a few cases in February and March, according to the AAPP, more than 30 family members were arrested in April.The AAPP said that as of June 22, at least 85 family members of dissidents have been arrested since the Feb. 1 coup in Myanmar, with 29 released and 53 still in custody. The total includes 41 girls or women ages 2 to 75 years old.Tin Htut Paing, a well-known activist in Yangon’s working-class North Okkalapa township told VOA June 23 that his mother, Mi Ngal, both of whose sons are activists, was beaten and arrested by SAC forces May 2.According to Tin Htut Paing, who has been evading arrest and is in hiding, he heard from his father that his mother had been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment under the country’s legal code.“Although my mother had not committed any crime, was sentenced by the military court to a maximum sentence,” he said.“As North Okkalapa township is under military rule, no appeal can be lodged of the sentence handed down by the military court,” he said.Students protest against the February military takeover by the State Administration Council as they march in Yangon, Myanmar, July 7, 2021. The sign reads, ‘Hold spirit and fight. Defeat the dictatorship in any way you can.’“Imprisoning my innocent mother was a manifestation of the atrocities of the military,” Tin Htut Paing added.Another activist, Zarni Kyaw, told VOA three of his family members had been arrested because of his actions.Zarni Kyaw, 41, a protest leader, left his township in central Myanmar after an arrest warrant was issued for him. Three weeks later, soldiers came to his home and arrested his 80-year-old father, 49-year-old sister and 60-year-old uncle, he told VOA.“My dad is a retired military personnel and had served for Tatmadaw [the Myanmar military] for many years. But they don’t care and appreciate his service,” said Zarni Kyaw, who is now training with opposition Karen National Union forces.The whereabouts of family members arrested by the military council are not easy to find out. They were not sent directly to prison, but some were detained in military-owned buildings, and some faced lengthy interrogations at the detention centers, activists and lawyers say.  In some cases, other family members did not know where the detainees were being held until they were sent to prison after days of harsh interrogations, according to lawyer Zarli Aye.”Some of them were detained for more than a month during interrogation and then were sent to prison,” said Zarli Aye, a member of a “Lawyers for You” team formed in early March to provide free assistance for those arrested.”When we met with them [arrested family members] in prison, I was told they were forced to call the fugitives to persuade them to come back. Soldiers used various methods against the prisoners when they failed to follow what soldiers asked,” she said.  She said some were beaten and denied food and water for a period of days, and a young girl was threatened with rape.The lawyers’ group is assisting 20 arrested activists’ family members being held in Yangon’s Insein Prison, but no one has been convicted yet. All cases are being heard in special courts inside the prison, Zarli Aye said.While the law does not allow anyone to be held for more than 24 hours, since the coup, many people, including activists’ relatives, have been detained illegally for several days with no reason given. Zarli Aye also said these prisoners are not receiving a fair trial  after they have been charged.”They have been subjected to human rights abuses since before the trial. They were detained for several days without remand. They are not allowed to see family members and to receive food from outside, even after being sent to prison. Also judges impose restrictions on us during the court hearings. My questions to police officers who filed complaints in the case were rejected by judges very often,” Zarli Aye said.The SAC’s arrests of fugitives’ family members do not seem to be succeeding; activists feel sorry for those arrested but remain determined to continue their fight.Zarni Kyaw understands his three family members would be released if he surrendered for arrest but still plans to join the Karen National Liberation Army, the military branch of the KNU.“Joining the KNU and fighting with them is the best way to overthrow the military regime. I hope my father would agree with my decision,” he told VOA.Tin Htut Paing, the activist whose mother was arrested, has made a similar decision, saying that he expects the opposition to win and on that day, “those unjustly detained with my mother will be released.”  
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Vietnam enacted on Friday a two-week lockdown on movement in Ho Chi Minh City to battle a growing outbreak of the coronavirus.Hanoi also announced plans to vaccinate 50% of the population age 18 and older by the end of the year and set a goal of 70% of its population vaccinated by next March.”Vaccination against COVID-19 is a necessary and important measure to contain the disease and ensure socio-economic development,” the Health Ministry said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse.The country of 100 million had registered fewer than 3,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as of April. As of Friday, Vietnam had 24,810 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 104 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center.Vietnam has administered about 4 million vaccine doses, with about 240,000 people fully vaccinated – 0.25% of the population, according to Johns Hopkins’ Vaccine Tracker.The 9 million residents of Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s economic hub, are barred from gathering in groups larger than two people and are allowed to leave their homes for the next two weeks only in cases of emergency or to buy food or medicine.Meanwhile, Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said the South Pacific nation would make it compulsory for residents to become vaccinated against the coronavirus.”No jabs, no job — that is what the science tells us is safest and that is now the policy of the government and enforced through law,” Bainimarama said in a national address late Thursday, according to an AFP report.Fiji, which has a population of about 900,000, has been battling an outbreak of the delta variant of the coronavirus since April.Until April, Fiji had recorded no confirmed cases of the virus in a year, AFP reported. As of Friday, the country had recorded 8,661 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 48 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.The prime minister said all public servants would be forced to take leave if they failed to receive their first vaccination by Aug. 15 and would be dismissed if they failed to receive their second dose by Nov. 1. Private sector employees would need to have a first vaccination by Aug. 1 or face hefty fines and companies were threatened with being shuttered, the AFP report said.People wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus wait to receive the second dose of the vaccine as an elderly woman pleads with a policeman to let her ahead of others at a public health center in Hyderabad, India, July 9, 2021.So far, the nation has administered nearly 380,000 vaccinations, according to Johns Hopkins’ Vaccine Tracker.On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the Olympic Games would continue under a coronavirus state of emergency that bans spectators from all Tokyo-based venues. The arenas in surrounding Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba would also be inaccessible to fans.“Taking into consideration the impact of the delta strain, and in order to prevent the resurgence of infections from spreading across the country, we need to step up virus prevention measures,” Suga said.The Olympics run from July 23 to Aug. 8, and the capital’s state of emergency is scheduled for July 23 to Aug. 22, lifting before the Paralympic Games open on August 24. Olympic and Tokyo officials said spectator capacity for the Paralympics would depend on future nationwide infection rates.This ban deals a significant blow to Olympic organizers expecting $800 million in ticket sales, and to the Japanese government, which spent $15.4 billion on the games.Meanwhile, the SEA Games Federation announced Thursday this year’s Southeast Asian Games has been postponed due to an increase of new infections in Vietnam, the host country. The regional games were scheduled to be held in the capital, Hanoi, and 11 other locations from Nov. 21 to Dec. 2.As the world surpassed 4 million coronavirus-related deaths earlier this week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that millions more remain at risk “if the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire.”The head of the global body said in a written statement that most of the world is “still in the shadows” due to the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccine between the world’s richest and poorest nations and the rapid global spread of the more contagious delta variant of COVID-19.Guterres called for the creation of an emergency task force, composed of vaccine-producing nations, the World Health Organization and global financial institutions, to implement a global vaccine plan that will at least double production of COVID-19 shots and ensure equitable distribution through the COVAX global vaccine sharing initiative.“Vaccine equity is the greatest immediate moral test of our times,” Guterres said, which he also called a “practical necessity.”“Until everyone is vaccinated, everyone is under threat,” he added.The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Thursday reported 4,005,889 COVID-19 deaths out of 185.3 million total confirmed cases.The World Health Organization is urging nations to proceed with “extreme caution” as they ease or altogether end lockdowns and other restrictions in the face of a steady rise of new infections due to the delta variant.This report includes information from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Karmic fortune has arrived to the digital art market, with a kaleidoscopic splash of colors and the face of a revered Thai monk offering portable Buddhist good luck charms to tech-savvy buyers.Sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — virtual images of anything from popular internet memes to original artwork — have swept the art world in recent months, with some fetching millions of dollars at major auction houses.CryptoAmulets is the latest venture to chase the craze, with founder Ekkaphong Khemthong sensing opportunity in Thailand’s widespread practice of collecting talismans blessed by revered monks.”I am an amulet collector and I was thinking about how I could introduce amulets to foreigners and to the world,” he told AFP.Collecting amulets and other small religious trinkets is a popular pastime in Buddhist-majority Thailand, where the capital Bangkok has a market solely dedicated to the traders of these lucky objects.Their value can rise thousands of dollars if blessed by a well-respected monk.Despite being a digital format, Ekkapong wanted CryptoAmulets to have the same traditional ceremony as a physical piece, which is why he approached Luang Pu Heng, a highly regarded abbot from Thailand’s northeast.”I respect this monk and I would love the world to know about him — he is a symbol of good fortune in business,” he said.Luang Pu Heng last month presided over a ceremony to bless physical replicas of the digital amulets, which show a serene image of his face.He splashed holy water onto his own visage as his saffron-robed disciples chanted and scattered yellow petals on the altar where the portraits were mounted.’We just tried to simplify it’One challenge was trying to explain the concept of NFTs to the 95-year-old abbot, who assumed he would be blessing physical amulets.”It’s very hard so we just tried to simplify it,” said Singaporean developer Daye Chan.”We said to him that it’s like blessing the photos.”Transforming amulets into crypto art also means the usual questions of authenticity plaguing a talisman sold in a market are eliminated, he added.”There are so many amulets being mass produced… All the records could be lost and these physical items can be easily counterfeited,” Chan said.NFTs use blockchain technology — an unalterable digital ledger — to record all transactions from the moment of their creation.”For our amulet, even a hundred years later, they can still check back the record to see what the blockchain is,” Chan said.But founder Ekkaphong would not be drawn on the karmic effectiveness of digital amulets, compared to their real-life counterparts.”They are different,” he said.On the CryptoAmulets website online gallery, different inscriptions are written in Thai — “rich,” “lucky” or “fortunate,” for instance — around each of the tokens.They are priced on a tiered system in ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, and are currently selling for between $46 and $1,840.Sales have been slow ahead of Sunday’s purchase deadline, with only 1,500 tokens sold out of the 8,000 available, and with Thais making up most of the buyers.Thai chef Theerapong Lertsongkram said he bought a CryptoAmulet because of his reverence for objects blessed by Luang Pu Heng, which he says have brought him good fortune.”I have had several lucky experiences such as winning small lottery prizes… or being promoted on my job,” said Theerapong, who works in a Stockholm restaurant.”I did not know anything about NFTs before, but I made the decision to buy it as I respect Luang Pu Heng so much,” he told AFP.But fellow collector Wasan Sukjit — who adorns the interior of his taxi with rare amulets — has a harder time with the concept.”Amulets need to be something physical, something people can hold,” he scoffed.”I prefer the ones I can hang on my neck.” 
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Montenegro is weeks away from securing a deal to either swap or refinance with European and U.S. banks nearly $1 billion in debt owed to China, and it hopes to reduce the interest rate on the debt to below 1%, Economy Minister Jakov Milatovic told Reuters.
 
Montenegro borrowed $944 million from China in 2014 to fund a 41-km (25-mile) stretch of road, which foes of then-Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic dubbed the “Road to Nowhere,” saying it typified waste under his rule, an accusation he denied.  
 
Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic, who came to power in December, is seeking to reduce the cost of the Chinese debt, which has a 2% interest rate and reduce currency risk as the loan is denominated in U.S. dollars, Milatovic said.
 
“We are negotiating with a number of Western banks from Europe and the United States. We are for sure going to do it with the Western banks,” Milatovic, 35, said, adding that he was seeking an interest rate of “less than 1%” for the debt.
 
“There are two options: the first is to refinance, the second is to swap the loan, or the third option is to do part of the first one and part of the second one,” he said. “We believe we can get much better terms – I am very optimistic about it.”
 
Milatovic declined to name the European or U.S. banks but when asked how soon there could be a resolution, he said: “Soon – I think weeks.”
 
Reuters reported on June 11 that Montenegro was counting on European Union aid to ease its Chinese debt burden.
 
The Chinese loan was taken out in 2014 from the state-owned Export Import Bank of China with a six-year grace period and a 14-year additional maturity. The principal is already starting to be paid off.
 
A source with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters that Montenegro was likely to swap the debt and continue refinancing negotiations and then terminate the swap when the refinancing talks were successful.
 ‘Captured state’
 
Nestled on the shore of the Adriatic, Montenegro has for centuries tumbled with the vicissitudes of great powers, though after seceding from a state union with Serbia in 2006, Montenegro joined NATO in 2017 and hopes to be an EU member this decade.
 
Prime Minister Krivokapic, a 62-year-old former engineering professor, said Montenegro was for the first time in decades entering into a democratic transition toward what he cast as a Euro-Atlantic future along the lines of Luxembourg.
 
Krivokapic said his biggest challenge was to establish rule of law in Montenegro which he said had in essence been “captured” by criminals and ensnared in corruption for years. “International organized crime has been present in Montenegro and as a small country we cannot tackle this problem on our own,” Krivokapic said. “Zero corruption is the formula for the work of this government.”
 Tourism
 
Montenegro’s economy collapsed 15% in 2020, one of the biggest drops in Europe, as the COVID-19 pandemic cut off tourism.
 
“We are now seeing a strong recovery of our tourism sector,” Milatovic said. Tourism activity is around 70-80% of the 2019 level, with a full recovery of the sector expected by the end of 2022.
 
The government is forecasting the economy will grow 10.5% in 2021, with inflation of about 2%, and 2022 economic growth of 6-7%.
 
Krivokapic’s government inherited badly run state enterprises, so ministers are looking at the possibility of creating a professionally run national holding company to manage the assets, Milatovic said.
 
“This is something Greece did in its recovery period – this is the right way to go in order to privatize some of the assets and make some of the state-owned enterprises more efficient and at the end of the day provide a return on the assets for taxpayers.
 
“Some of the assets would be sold, some of them would be run by the holding,” he said. 
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At a time of global semiconductor shortages and rising trade tensions with China, U.S. officials are pledging to continue “strong, robust, and dynamic engagement” with Taiwan on economic and trade issues.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Taiwan’s biggest chip producer, accounts for more than half of the world’s supply of semiconductors. When it comes to highly advanced semiconductors, experts say Taiwan accounts for 92% of global supply. But U.S. officials say the trade relationship with the United States goes much further.A week ago, the U.S. and Taiwan resumed trade talks through the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council after a five-year pause.“Taiwan is one of our most important partners in the region. They’re also a very critically important economic and trade partner as our ninth largest trading partner,” said Matt Murray, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for trade policy and negotiations, during an interview on Wednesday.Murray told VOA the U.S. will continue trade talks with Taiwan under the framework of TIFA, along with working-level consultations under the so-called Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD) which was launched last November. Additional talks are focused on the resilience of global supply chains, including semiconductors.The following are excerpts from the interview. It has been edited for brevity and clarity.VOA: The U.S.-Taiwan trade talks resumed after a five-year pause. Is the U.S. now focusing on a bilateral trade deal with Taiwan? What is its implication to the ongoing review of U.S.-China trade policy?Matt Murray: We continue to go step by step and look for opportunities with Taiwan. My team is focused on three areas. One is the TIFA talk and resumption of that, which was successful last week. Another area that’s really important to us is the Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD,) which was launched by our former Undersecretary of State Keith Krach last November, and which we have continued at the working level these past several months.For example, in February, under the auspices of the EPPD, the United States and Taiwan held a very successful public-private partnership type seminar on semiconductor supply-chain, which I was able to participate in. And so those kinds of engagements have also been hugely important.And then third, we’ve been very focused on the supply chain issue more broadly and talking to our friends in Taiwan about ways that we can address common concerns over supply chain resilience. So, I think as we go step by step and move forward with Taiwan, you know, we’ll see eventually what some of the outcomes might be over time.We continue to be undergoing a review on our China economic policy, as well as our friends at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, who are focused on reviewing the Phase One trade agreement. And so, we want to continue to have the time to figure that out, but certainly it’s whatever we do going forward with respect to China, engaging with like-minded partners and allies is going to have to be critically important.I would say that engagement with Taiwan, with Japan, with Korea, with our European allies, Australia, and many others — that’s going to be really the key for us going forward.VOA: In February, you had a virtual meeting with Taiwan’s Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花), where the global automotive semiconductor shortage was discussed. What was your takeaway?Murray: Several takeaways. It’s held under the auspices of the EPPD where we were able to set up a supply chain seminar to focus on semiconductors. And I think, you know, as often is the case, we were arranging for that meeting to happen before we realized that there was going to be a crisis in terms of the shortages in the auto sector. So that supply chain seminar was more broad than that — it wasn’t just focused on the shortages in the auto sector, it was really about how we could collaborate with Taiwan, with the many companies in Taiwan, with government agencies there. And again, we set that up through, under the auspices of Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) and our American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to have that discussion.I think the key takeaway is that Taiwan is a really important partner, and they want to be a part of the solutions moving forward. So, whether that’s, you know, open communication with us on what’s available in the supply chain, what isn’t, where there might be issues coming forward, that’s really important. Whether that’s investments here in the United States, it’s also really important or whether that’s also coordinating with third countries and in the region, I think it is really important as we seek to address some of these disruptions to our supply chain that have happened over the last year.VOA:The global chip shortage — it is still a problem. Do you expect the situation to improve by the end of this year?Murray: I think there’s a lot of people in government and industry that are working very hard to make sure the problem does improve. I think one of the key things we found over the last six months is just how important it is to communicate about shortages, about where we might have problems or disruptions, because I think that the global supply chain particularly for semiconductors is so complex, it might start with wafer production in one economy but then move somewhere else for refinishing into another chip, then it ultimately goes into an auto part which ultimately goes into a car, but again it’s not just about the auto sector either.I mean, these are the same chips that also ultimately go into our phones or into the computers we use or into medical devices. And I think we’ve certainly seen, and the administration has been very clear about this, that semiconductors are very critically important sector, and that’s why it was one of the sectors identified in the 100-day report that was released by the White House on June 8th.VOA: As you mentioned, the Biden administration has issued a 100-day review on steps to strengthen critical supply chains. One of the recommendations is to use diplomatic tools, working with like-minded allies such as the Quad and the G-7, to facilitate resilient supply chains. What are the specifics? Can you unpack it for us?Murray: In the 100-day report, we identified four critical supply chains. One is semiconductors, another one is pharmaceutical APIs, another one is advanced capacity batteries, another one is critical minerals and critical materials. For each of those parts of the report, one U.S. government agency was designated as the drafter and then a lot of us then were able to contribute to those reports to look at what are some of the vulnerabilities in our supply chain, where are some of the opportunities that we could build a better supply chain, a more resilient supply chain. And so, we’ve taken those findings and we’ve gone out to a lot of our international partners just to share what we are finding out, what we are discovering, what we are learning, but also to hear from them, because every single government, every single country is going to have a slightly different twist or slightly different issue to deal with when it comes to supply chains.Ultimately, it’s going to be more of the multilateral organizations where we can have strong engagements on the margins to talk about supply chains, whether that’s the G-7, whether that’s the Quad, whether that’s the newly announced U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council or so many other different opportunities, and we want to take advantage of those opportunities because these are issues of shared concern, not just for the United States but around the world.VOA: You were the Economic Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. China has opposed any official contacts between the U.S. and Taiwan. Is promoting the U.S.-Taiwan trade relationship an irritant to the U.S.-China relationship?Murray: Well, I think we’ve been very clear historically to Beijing and the Chinese government what our approach to Taiwan is, and how we want to continue to have a relationship with Taiwan.Given my new role here as the deputy secretary for trade policy negotiations, clearly when we talk about Taiwan being our ninth largest trading partner, we need to have a strong, robust, dynamic, engagement with Taiwan about economic and trade issues. That — that’s very clear to us.Looking at the China issues both from the time I was in Beijing and now, we’re addressing those issues separately. We have to address our own economic and trade concerns with China, and we’ve done that through a number of different dialogues and negotiations over the years. I’ve been working on China off and on for more than 15 years, and, you know, it goes back to when China also joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, but we still have very serious concerns about China’s behaviors in terms of whether it’s intellectual property rights, or whether it’s forced technology transfer, or its lack of market access for U.S. and foreign companies.We have very strong concerns about the way China treats U.S. companies and other foreign companies when they’re in China. We have very strong concerns about China not living up to the commitments that it’s made — either to the international community or to us bilaterally. And so we want to address those with China and separately from anything that we’re doing with Taiwan.
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At least four lawsuits have been filed on behalf of U.S. investors after questions emerged about whether the Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Global Inc. had been warned by Beijing regulators to postpone its multi-billion-dollar initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The suits reflect rising concern over the political risk of investing in U.S.-listed Chinese companies.Labaton Sucharow LLP, a shareholder-rights law firm in New York, announced on July 6 that it was investigating claims on behalf of investors in Didi Global Inc. New York- based investor-rights law firm Rosen also has filed a class action lawsuit against Didi, “seeking to recover damages for Didi investors under the federal securities laws.”Two other law firms, Schall Law Firm in Los Angeles and Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, of Berkeley, California, have filed similar lawsuits in the past few days.“The key lies in whether Didi has received any oral or written warning from the Chinese government before the IPO,” Guo Yafu, founder and CEO of the New York investment advisory firm TJ Capital Management told VOA Mandarin. “If it had, Didi has a legal responsibility to disclose that information to the investors,” he told VOA Mandarin by phone Tuesday. Wei Cheng, a former employee of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba founded Didi, China’s version of Uber, in 2012. Since then, the ride-hailing company has expanded its business to about 4,000 cities in 15 countries, including China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama, Russia, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina. It has roughly 493 million active annual users and 15 million drivers.On June 30, Didi made its debut at $14 a share, which valued the company at $68 billion, making DiDi the largest IPO of a Chinese company listed on an American exchange since Alibaba raised $25 billion in 2014. Two days later, on July 1, Beijing announced it was launching a cybersecurity review of the company and said new users would not be allowed to register with the company during the review. Over the weekend, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), ordered Didi’s app removed from mobile app stores in China. The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter, reported Monday that Chinese regulators had advised Didi to postpone its U.S. listing and “urged it to conduct a thorough self-examination of its network security.” According to Reuters, Didi responded on Monday that it had no prior knowledge before its IPO that Beijing would launch an investigation of the company.When the NYSE opened Tuesday after the long July 4 holiday weekend, Didi shares were down on the CAC news, and by the close, $15 billion of book value had been erased. Shares of other major Chinese companies traded in the U.S. also fell on Tuesday.News of China’s investigation has raised concerns of the political risks that may adhere to U.S.-listed Chinese companies. Jesse Fried, a Harvard Law School professor of corporate law, told VOA Mandarin that under the current legal framework, there’s little U.S. regulatory agencies can do to protect U.S. investors from regulatory actions by China that might harm U.S.-listed Chinese firms.“In theory, the U.S. could bar China-based firms from listing in the U.S., but the SEC [U.S. Security and Exchange Commission] does not have the authority to do that as long as these firms provide adequate disclosure at the IPO,” he told VOA Mandarin via phone.“I doubt China cares about inflicting losses on U.S. investors, which is why it can behave very aggressively toward U.S.-listed firms,” Fried said. “If Didi were listed in China, Chinese regulators would be more careful about curbing Didi because they would be concerned about backlash from Chinese investors.”Apart from its crackdown on DIdi, Beijing also is investigating the online recruitment platform Kanzhun Ltd., which connects job seekers and hiring enterprises via a mobile app, and the Uber-like trucking startup, Full Truck Alliance Co. Both companies were listed in the U.S. recently. According to Bloomberg, there are as many as 34 Chinese firms seeking U.S. listings this year.The New York Times reported that by targeting companies like Didi, Beijing is “sending a stark message to Chinese businesses about the government’s authority over them, even if they operate globally and their stock trades overseas.””Chinese stocks are just too risky now,” said Guo. “Today [Beijing officials] target Didi, yesterday they targeted Alibaba. The Chinese government is sending a message that they are not happy about the flood of U.S. IPOs by Chinese tech companies.”He said Didi’s IPO will have a negative effect on Chinese companies that want to be listed in the U.S. in the future, adding, “Investors will likely think twice about whether they want to take the political risk posed by China’s efforts to control big data.”
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A United Nations investigator is calling for international coordinated action to stem abuse by Myanmar’s military leaders against its people.   In a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. special rapporteur lists measures for bringing the country’s generals into compliance with international human rights norms.  Human rights investigator Tom Andrews accuses the international community of failing the people of Myanmar.   In an impassioned speech to the U.N. council, he presented documented evidence of widespread, systematic attacks by the military junta against the people of Myanmar. Since the Junta’s overthrow of the country’s democratically elected government five months ago, he says military forces have killed about 900 people.  He says they have forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands, tortured many and arbitrarily detained nearly 6,000 people. “Some in Myanmar have lost hope that help from the international community will be forthcoming and have instead sought to defend themselves through the formation of defense forces and acts of sabotage, while some are reportedly targeting suspected junta collaborators and officials — and the junta’s pattern of the use of grossly disproportionate force in response will likely lead to an even greater loss of life,” he said.  FILE – Protesters react after tear gas is fired by police during a demonstration against the military coup in the northwestern town of Kalay, March 2, 2021.Andrews says the people of Myanmar desperately need the support of the international community to end this nightmare, yet he says little action has been taken beyond international protestations of condemnation, the imposition of sanctions by some nations and resolutions by U.N. bodies.The U.N. investigator is calling for the establishment of a so-called Emergency Coalition for the People of Myanmar.  The plan proposes a series of five key measures he says would impose significant costs on the junta.  First and foremost, he asserts cutting off the junta’s source of income could reduce its ability to attack its citizens.  Therefore, he is calling on nations to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar’s oil and gas industry. “Oil and gas sector revenues are a financial lifeline for the junta and are estimated to be close to what is needed for the junta to maintain the security forces that are keeping them in power,” he said.  “They should be stopped.  Second, an Emergency Coalition for the People of Myanmar could outlaw the export of arms to Myanmar military, as called for in last month’s General Assembly resolution.”   The plan also calls for the pursuit of universal jurisdiction cases and filing charges against Myanmar’s senior security officials.  Other measures include ensuring that humanitarian aid goes directly to the people of Myanmar, and the denial of any claims of legitimacy by the junta, such as the false claim that it is recognized by the United Nations. 
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New photos confirm North Korea has demoted a military leader in a reshuffle that left the ruling party’s top body dominated by civilians, possibly signaling leader Kim Jong Un’s focus on the economy and frustration with bureaucratic failures, analysts said.Last week, North Korea announced the latest in a series of leadership changes that may be the most significant reshuffle of top officials in years.State media has not given details of the personnel changes, but analysts believe they included demotions for those Kim blamed for causing an unspecified “great crisis” with coronavirus lapses amid economic problems and food shortages compounded by anti-pandemic border closures.Photographs published in state media on Thursday of Kim visiting his family mausoleum appear to confirm that Ri Pyong Chol, a top adviser who plays a leading role in North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs, has at least lost his position on the politburo Presidium.Ri, who sometimes wears his military uniform, was seen in the photos wearing civilian clothes and standing several rows behind Kim, indicating his new role is unclear.A new appointment in his place on the presidium did not appear in the photos, and with those standing next to Kim all civilians, it appeared the military had been “pushed down the pecking order,” said Ken Gause, a North Korea leadership specialist at CNA, a non-profit research and analysis organization based in the United States.The military dominates affairs in North Korea and there is no suggestion that will change in the long term, but the changes may signal that for the time being, Kim is unlikely to resume nuclear brinkmanship while he focuses on problems at home, Gause said.“The focus internally is on the economy, not the nuclear program,” he said.‘Rewire the regime’It was hard to determine Ri’s fate, let alone draw conclusions about what signal this is meant to send in terms of North Korea’s strategic weapons program, said Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst at the U.S.-based 38 North program, which studies North Korea, noting that he may be fully reinstated and even reclaim his presidium member title.The photos also suggest that Choe Sang Gon, a party secretary and director of the science and education department, lost his position in the politburo, while Kim Song Nam, International Department director, and Ho Chol Man, Cadres Department director, may have been promoted to full members, Lee said.Kim Jong Un has been frustrated by officials not accurately carrying out his directives or communicating information up to him, and the personnel changes may fit with broader efforts to “rewire the guts of the regime” by devolving authority — but not power — down the chain of command, Gause said.“Kim has tightened his inner circle around a group of technocrats and internal security personnel, the two sectors dedicated to making Juche run at the moment,” he said, referring to the North Korean ideology of self-reliance.“It is not a long-term plan, but temporary measure given the extraordinary circumstances the regime is facing.”Michael Madden, a leadership expert at 38 North, said that what looked like a demotion could often be part of a routine shuffle aimed at preventing any one official from building up too much of a power base, or an instance of reassigning a competent and trusted official to handle a particular problem in a more hands-on role.“Demotions are very common things in North Korea politics,” he said. “We need to keep in mind that things that look like demotions to us can in fact be something else.”
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