A prosecutor at the International Criminal Court on Monday requested an investigation into the Filipino government’s crackdown on drug-related crime.Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said an initial probe into the issue started in February 2018 “determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed” in the Philippines between July 1, 2016, and March 16, 2019.The Philippines withdrew from the ICC on March 16, 2019, because of the ICC’s initial probe.Despite the withdrawal, Bensouda, whose nine-year term as a prosecutor ends this week, said the court still has jurisdiction, as the alleged crimes took place while the Philippines was still a member.She said the initial investigation “indicates that members of the Philippine National Police, and others acting in concert with them, have unlawfully killed between several thousand and tens of thousands of civilians during that time.”She also said prosecutors investigated allegations of “torture and other inhumane acts, and related events” dating back to Nov. 1, 2011.Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte defended the government’s anti-drug policies when he announced its withdrawal from the ICC, saying it was “lawfully directed against drug lords and pushers who have for many years destroyed the present generation, specially the youth.”ICC judges have 120 days to decide whether to move forward on Bensouda’s request.
 
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday he is willing to provide COVID-19 vaccine aid to North Korea if the isolated country agrees. Moon made the remarks during a joint news conference with Austrian counterpart Alexander Van der Bellen following a summit meeting in Vienna on Monday. Moon told reporters if South Korea becomes a regional hub for COVID-19 vaccine production, “North Korea will surely become one of the countries for [vaccine]  cooperation. If North Korea agrees, we will actively proceed with vaccine aid to North Korea. The U.S. government is also actively supporting humanitarian aid to North Korea.” At a joint news conference in Washington last month, U.S. President Joe Biden said he and Moon remained deeply concerned about the situation with North Korea. Biden said he would deploy a new special envoy to North Korea to help renew relations.  In his comments Monday, Moon said Biden’s announcement “sent a strong message that he wants talks with North Korea. We are hoping that North Korea responds to this.” Moon also said that Biden expressed his support for inter-Korean talks and cooperation, which Moon said he believes could help lead to new talks between the U.S. and North Korea. According to the Associated Press, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said in recent speeches that a combination of COVID-19, economic sanctions and natural disasters has the country facing one of its worst ever situations. Moon and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz met Monday with reporters following bilateral talks. The Korea Herald reported that Moon’s visit was the first to the country by a Korean leader since the two nations established formal ties in 1892. Moon arrived Sunday following the G-7 summit in Britain. 
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China has denounced the communique issued Sunday at the end of the G-7 summit that criticized Beijing over its human rights record.
 
The G-7 statement called on China to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang, and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration,” referring to the 1997 agreement that switched control of the financial hub from Britain to China.   
 
Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses against the minority Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, including the detention of more than one million Uyghurs into detention camps, widespread government surveillance and forced birth control.  
 
The Chinese embassy in London issued a statement accusing the G-7 leaders of interfering in its internal affairs, and according to Reuters, vowed to “resolutely fight back against all kinds of injustices and infringements imposed on China.”
 
The statement also said an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was first detected in China’s central city of Wuhan in late 2019, should not be “politicized” in response to the G-7’s demand for “a timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based” second probe by the World Health Organization.    
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For 14 years, a Khmer classical dance troupe in northern Cambodia has distinguished itself with its embrace of spirituality. But the impact of the coronavirus pandemic may end the troupe’s livelihood and spiritual identity, as VOA’s Chetra Chap reports.
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Conservationists have praised efforts by Australian authorities to drastically reduce the amount of plastic waste and eliminate some disposable coffee cups. The New South Wales state government wants to ban many common plastic items, including straws, drinks stirrers and cutlery, as well as polystyrene cups in a bid to protect the environment and reduce waste.    Lightweight plastic shopping bags could be eliminated within six months of new laws being passed.  The reforms could be approved by lawmakers this year. Other products will be phased out at different times depending on the availability of, for example, paper and bamboo alternatives.    Officials have estimated the measures will stop about 2.7 billion items of plastic from ending up in the environment and oceans over the next 20 years.    New South Wales Environment Minister Matt Kean has warned that the world is on track to have more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.    He told Australian television that the changes would help protect the community.  “No-one wants to be wading through plastics when they go to the beach, let alone be consuming it in their food and water, and that is what we are doing at the moment. Every day in New South Wales people are consuming over 2,000 bits of plastic. That is the equivalent of a credit card of plastic they are ingesting every week and it is largely because of the pervasiveness of single-use plastics across our environment. So, we believe that we can do something about that. Do something about it where there are alternatives available and when it does not add to cost and that is what I am looking to see,” Kean said.  In Western Australia, the state government has also announced ambitious plans to tackle waste. By the end of this year, it will ban a range of items, including single-use plastic bowls, plates, straws, polystyrene food containers and thick plastic shopping bags.  Polystyrene packaging and takeaway plastic coffee cups and their lids will be outlawed in 2022.  It is estimated that Australians throw out about a billion coffee cups each year.  The World Wildlife Fund Australia said the state governments in New South Wales and Western Australia are in a “race to the top” in waste measures and that the reforms were “a terrific outcome for the environment.”   But conservationists have warned that Tasmania and the Northern Territory were the only Australian jurisdictions “without a plan to ban problem single-use plastics.” Also, in a few weeks, it will be illegal for companies to export certain waste plastics from Australia under tough new rules. 
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The trial of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will hear its first testimony in a junta court Monday, more than four months after a military coup.  Near daily protests have rocked Myanmar since the generals’ putsch removed her government in February, ending a 10-year experiment with democracy.The mass uprising has been met with a brutal military crackdown that has killed more than 850 people, according to a local monitoring group.The junta has brought an eclectic raft of charges against the Nobel laureate, from illegally accepting 11 kilograms of gold to breaking a colonial-era secrecy law.On Monday, her defense team will cross-examine witnesses over charges she improperly imported walkie-talkies and flouted coronavirus restrictions during last year’s elections that her National League for Democracy won in a landslide.  Her lawyers — who have been allowed to meet with her just twice since she was placed under house arrest — have said they expect the trial to wrap up by July 26.Hearings for the case will take place every Monday.If convicted of all charges, Suu Kyi, 75, faces more than a decade in jail.”We are hoping for the best but prepared for the worst,” Khin Maung Zaw, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, told AFP ahead of the hearing in the capital Naypyidaw.A separate case is scheduled to start on June 15, where she is charged with sedition alongside ousted president Win Myint and another senior member of the NLD.Cloistered iconSuu Kyi spent more than 15 years under house arrest during the previous junta’s rule before her 2010 release.Her international stature diminished following a wave of military violence targeting Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s marginalized Muslim Rohingya community, but the coup has returned Suu Kyi to the role of cloistered democracy icon.On Thursday, she was hit with additional corruption charges of illegally accepting $600,000 in cash and around 11 kilos of gold.Her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw dismissed the new charges — which could see Suu Kyi hit with another lengthy prison term — as “absurd”.”There is an undeniable political background to keep her out of the scene of the country and to smear her prestige,” he told AFP last week.”That’s one of the reasons to charge her — to keep her out of the scene.”Myanmar has plunged into a “human rights catastrophe” since the coup, the UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Friday, adding that the military leadership was “singularly responsible” for the crisis.Bachelet also slammed the sweeping arrests in the country of activists, journalists and opponents of the regime, citing credible sources saying at least 4,804 people remain in arbitrary detention.Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified his power grab by citing alleged electoral fraud in the November poll won by Suu Kyi’s NLD.The junta has previously said it would hold fresh elections within two years, but has also threatened to dissolve the NLD.
 
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At least 12 people were killed and 39 seriously injured Sunday after a gas line explosion tore through a residential neighborhood in central China.Responders to the early morning blast in the Hubei province city of Shiyan sent more than 150 people to hospital, according to a statement on the city’s official social media channel.The statement said rescue efforts were continuing but gave no word on the cause of the explosion.Stall keepers and customers buying breakfast and fresh vegetables at a food market were the major victims when the explosion hit shortly after 6 a.m., according to state media reports.Images showed rescuers climbing over broken concrete slabs to reach those trapped inside.The blast appeared similar to one that occurred in the northeastern port of Qingdao in 2013, in which 55 people were killed when underground pipelines ripped open following a leak.The Shiyan explosion came a day after eight people died and three others were injured when toxic methyl formate leaked from a vehicle at a chemical handling facility in the southwestern city of Guiyang.Frequent deadly accidents are usually traced to weak adherence to safety standards, poor maintenance and corruption among enforcement bodies. Those responsible are often handed harsh punishments, but high demand and the desire for profits often trump such concerns.Among the worst accidents was a massive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and police officers. The blast was blamed on illegal construction and unsafe storage of volatile materials.
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Rallies rang out in dozens of cities across the globe Saturday to commemorate two years since pro-democracy activists surrounded Hong Kong’s legislature in a failed effort to thwart passage of a national security law.The law has dramatically expanded Beijing’s control of the semi-autonomous city. It’s passaged triggered months of anti-government protests and a violent crackdown by state security forces.Activists and political figures from 20 countries participated in the global campaign for Hong Kong, held across more than 50 cities, including several in the U.S., U.K, Canada and Australia. Virtual events were also scheduled in cities such as Bangkok and Taipei, due to the COVID-19 restrictions.Ted Hui, a pro-democracy activist and former Hong Kong legislator who fled the city after facing at least nine charges, called the rallies a “firm message” that Hong Kongers “have not given up.”On Saturday, Hui told VOA that he had shared with a crowd in his adopted home of Sydney “how I made my determination to devote myself to the movement, a lifelong mission in life.””I asked them to make more steps forward, keep the spirits high and preserve our Hong Kong identity to make our movement long and sustainable,” Hui, 39, said.In Germany, Hong Kong political and digital rights activist Glacier Chung Ching Kwong, who is also in self-exile, addressed gatherings in Berlin.“In two years, all the people I have worked with are either in jail or in exile,” she told the crowd. “The fear is real.”‘Sad and angry,’ yet ‘vigilant’The 24-year-old founder of Keyboard Frontline said, “We are all sad and angry, but we are also vigilant to not let this costly ordeal become a force that clouds us, limits our thinking and undermines the movement or the reason to fight for freedom and democracy at the first place.”“Hong Kong, as we know it, is dying, but the new Hong Kong is yet to be born,” part of her speech read.Outside the Chinese Consulate in Gothenburg, Sweden, demonstrators held Hong Kong pro-democracy banners and put posters on lampposts, photojournalist Dennis Lindbom, who attended the event, said.Nine cities were scheduled to hold events in Britain. At the Marble Arch in London, politician Sir Iain Duncan Smith addressed hundreds of protesters on stage with a flurry of British Hong Kong flags in the background.“You are the great people. Not people like me or politicians, it is your determination to stand for freedom,” the British MP said.Last year the British government offered up to 3 million Hong Kong residents the opportunity of residency, via the British National Overseas passport scheme.Protests were also scheduled to take place in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., on Saturday.In Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protests remain banned, muted demonstrations were held despite a heavy police presence, resulting in few arrests. Online calls to gather at Causeway Bay, a sprawling shopping district and key battleground during demonstrations in 2019, largely went unheeded.But according to local reports, the Hong Kong police had deployed at least 1,000 officers to counter any demonstrations. As the evening drew to a close, no large crowds had materialized as police officers remained, performing stop-and-search operations while cordoning off streets in the area.The political group Student Politicism was due to hold a pop-up booth in the residential district of Mong Kok — another flashpoint amid the months of unrest in 2019 — but its organizers Wong Yat-Chin and spokesperson Alice Wong were both arrested on Friday for allegedly inciting others to participate in illegal assembly leading up to the event.Wong Yat-Chin was only detained last week during a small demonstration to mark the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing on June 4.Earlier in the day, high-profile activist Agnes Chow was released from prison. Chow was sentenced to 10 months in jail in December a day before her 24th birthday, following her guilty plea to charges over her involvement in an unauthorized assembly in June 2019.Chow served over six months of her sentence and when released on Saturday, looking slightly worn and thinner than usual, declined to speak to the scrum of media waiting as she made her way home in a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “You are doing so great.”But the activist later posted on social media that she had endured “half a year and twenty days of pain” and that she intends to have a good rest following her release.Chow, 24, may face another jail term stemming from a separate arrest under the national security law in August 2020 for which she has yet to face charges.National security lawThe national security that triggered the 2019 protests, which eventually passed in 2020, dramatically expands Beijing’s control of the semi-autonomous city, prohibiting things such as secession and subversion, putting an end to major street demonstrations. The legislation carries maximum punishments of life imprisonment and even allows Beijing to take over “serious” cases that can still include extradition to mainland China.Since ratification, authorities have cracked down on dozens of pro-democracy activists, who have been either been arrested or jailed while others have fled the in self-exile.On June 12, 2019, Hong Kong riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the huge crowds.Footage of the clashes intensified public anger and fueled what became an increasingly violent movement calling for full democracy that raged for several months.Huge crowds rallied week after week in the most serious challenge to China’s rule since Hong Kong’s 1997 handover from the United Kingdom.Beijing’s leaders continue to dismiss calls for democracy, portraying protestors as stooges of “foreign forces” trying to undermine China.Some information is from AFP. 
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet says armed conflict is intensifying and spreading across parts of Myanmar in opposition to the military coup in February and could result in the heavy loss of life.Violence and gross human rights abuse continues to escalate against civil society opposed to the military takeover of the country’s democratically elected government.Rather than efforts to de-escalate the crisis, U.N. rights chief Bachelet says the military leaders are building up troops in key areas. That is happening primarily in areas with significant ethnic and religious minority groups, including Kayah State, Chin State and Kachin State.Myanmar Communities Take Up Arms to Resist JuntaPeaceful protests against the junta are giving way to scattered firefights, targeted killings and a spate of bombings, raising fears of a sweeping civil warThe high commissioner’s spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, says state security forces continue to use heavy weaponry, including airstrikes against armed groups and civilians, as well as civilian objects, including Christian churches. “Credible reports indicate that security forces have used civilians as human shields, shelled civilian homes and churches … and they have blocked humanitarian access, including by attacking humanitarian actors,” said Shamdasani. “Already, more than 108,000 people have fled their homes just in Kayah State over just the last three weeks. Many into forest areas with little or no food, water, sanitation or medical care.”Shamdasani says the high commissioner’s office has received credible reports that military armed forces have occupied, fired upon, and damaged hospitals, schools, and religious institutions in military action.She says at least 860 people reportedly have been killed by security forces since protests erupted against the military coup on February 1.“Meanwhile, sweeping arrests of activists, journalists and opponents of the regime have continued across the country, with credible sources indicating that at least 4,804 people remain in arbitrary detention,” said Shamdasani. “The high commissioner is deeply troubled by reports of detainees being tortured, and of collective punishment of family members of activists.”High Commissioner Bachelet says Myanmar’s military has a duty to protect civilians. She says the international community must demand that it stop the outrageous use of heavy artillery against civilians and civilian objects and hold Myanmar’s leaders responsible for their actions.She notes in just over four months, Myanmar has gone from being a fragile democracy to a human rights catastrophe. She adds the military leadership is responsible for the crisis and must be held to account.
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Guns and ammunition bought under Thai police and army discount plans and siphoned into the black market have been seized by Thai customs on the Myanmar border, stoking fears of a new illicit arms trade driven by Myanmar’s post-coup collapse into chaos.Myanmar’s army seized power from the civilian government Feb. 1, setting off a chain reaction of protests, bloody crackdowns and a revival of dormant conflicts with ethnic militias across the country.As democracy activists flee to jungle camps to train in armed resistance, Thai border officials fear the conflict next door is spurring a cross-border gun trade.On May 27 Thai customs seized 27 guns — including pistols, semiautomatic M12s, M4 rifles and telescopic sights — and 50,000 rounds of ammunition, in a truck attempting to cross into Myanmar at the Mae Sai border crossing in western Thailand.“The majority of the seized guns are ‘welfare guns,’” Somsak Tangcharoentam, the Mae Sai customs director told VOA, referring to the so-called welfare guns list, a fluid online catalog of guns available to the police and military, and other government officials, at a discount.“They’re guns that can be bought legally by government officers, police and soldiers, so their price is lower than the market value,” he said.Thai customs officials arrested Kyaw Phoy, a Myanmar national, and Jam Namwong, who had a Thai identification card but who is a member of the Shan ethnic group, living on both sides of the border, according to a customs press release.“This is the first time that we’ve found guns at the border, usually it’s only drugs and counterfeit goods,” Somsak said.Although it does not manufacture its own weapons, Thailand is awash with guns.A key route for weapons to reach the black market is the welfare list, which is aimed at law enforcement and other government officials, but loopholes allow the guns to seep into the black market, officials have told VOA.“If you want to buy a rifle, all you have to say is that you’ll need it for sports. The deadlier the weapon, the harder obtaining the license is, but you can pay your way in,” an army captain said, requesting anonymity.“These ‘welfare guns’ are mostly for war and conflict zones and they’re 30% to 70%  cheaper than market price.”Open bordersOn March 28, border officials at Mae Sai seized over 100 hand grenades en route via courier to Tachileik, across the border in Myanmar.Like the May gun haul, the shipment was found after random checks at an official border post in an area with a long, unpoliceable frontier with Myanmar.“You can see the pattern,” a senior Thai police source at Mae Sai, also refusing to be named, said.“It’s the second time in a few months and we’re worried this route might be used to fight the conflict in Myanmar,” he said.Even before the coup, Myanmar’s borderlands were blistered by ethnic insurgencies, funded by drug trafficking and racketeering in ungovernable zones packed with casinos, prostitution and other illicit businesses.The army’s unexpected February power grab has pitched Myanmar into chaos, fragmenting delicate alliances with rebel groups reigniting fighting between ethnic militias and the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military.In addition, scores of young, urban protesters made desperate by the violence of Myanmar’s army, have headed to the jungle camps near the Thai border to undergo military training.Their aim is to return to the cities, where peaceful protests have taken on an increasingly militant edge to fight back against soldiers who have been firing indiscriminately at demonstrators, killing, by best estimates, well over 800.To fight Myanmar’s army, they will need a supply of weapons — readily available from neighboring Thailand, where the coronavirus pandemic has crushed the economy.“The crisis in Myanmar will almost certainly act to revive an arms black market in Thailand,” said Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst for Jane’s Defense publications.“Handguns for use in areas of urban conflict will be in great demand and given the depressed economic conditions that Thailand is now facing there will be no shortage of gun owners ready to sell weapons they are licensed to hold,” he said.Meanwhile the “incentive” for government officials to sell licensed guns “onto the black market will be even greater,” he added.Border officials in Mae Sai say they are stepping up patrols, but there is realistically little they can do to stop the supply, given the size of the border.“We are under pressure” from Myanmar to stop the illegal cross-border arms trade, the police source in Mae Sai said, although there is a limit on what they can do.“We’re on the border and we are separated by just a few meters and a shallow stretch of water,” the source said.
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An Aboriginal mother in Australia will take a human rights claim over her son’s 2015 death in custody to the United Nations.“I can’t breathe,” were among the last words spoken by David Dungay Jr.Video shown at an Australian inquiry into his death six years ago documented his final moments. He was struggling to breathe as he was held face down by a group of guards at Sydney’s Long Bay jail and injected with a sedative. The 26-year-old Indigenous man was being restrained by officers trying to stop him from eating biscuits because of fears he could fall into a diabetic coma.The inquest later found that none of the guards should face disciplinary action. No criminal charges have ever been filed over Dungay’s death.His mother, Leetona Dungay, and a team of high-profile lawyers have argued Australia violated her son’s human rights and failed to protect his life.Having campaigned vociferously in Australia, they are taking their case to the United Nations, filing a complaint with its Human Rights Commission.Leetona Dungay says the U.N. must be told about a “crisis” in Australia’s criminal justice system.“I will not stop until I get justice for my son,” she said. “My heart bleeds for him every day. The so-called justice system in my country, Australia, has failed; failed me, my son, my family and my people. I am going to keep fighting until we live in the country where Black lives matter.”Leetona Dungay’s legal team is also seeking to put pressure on the government in Canberra over its record on Indigenous deaths in custody.Aboriginal Australians are among the most incarcerated people in the world.They make up about 3% of Australia’s population, but almost a third of prison inmates.While Indigenous prisoners do not die at a greater rate than non-Aboriginal people in custody, they are vastly overrepresented in the criminal justice system.Since a historic inquiry into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991, at least 474 Indigenous people have died behind bars.Australia’s Attorney General’s Department has said that 78% of the royal commission’s 339 recommendations had been fully or mostly implemented. However, those statistics are disputed by some Aboriginal organizations.
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Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was released from jail Saturday after serving more than six months for taking part in unauthorized assemblies during massive 2019 anti-government protests that triggered a crackdown on dissent in the former British colony.Chow, 24, was greeted by a crowd of journalists as she left the Tai Lam Center for Women. She transferred from a prison van to a private car without making any remarks.Only a small group of supporters were on the scene, an apparent reflection of the government’s threats to jail those it deems in violation of a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory a year ago.The legislation has resulted in the arrests of leading democracy activists including Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai, who are serving prison terms. Others have sought asylum abroad. Critics say China is now routinely violating commitments it made to preserve freedoms promised to Hong Kong for 50 years following the handover to Chinese rule in 1997.Chow came to prominence while still a student during the 2014 “umbrella movement” calling for universal suffrage, alongside Wong and Nathan Law, who was granted political asylum in Britain in April.She has a large following in Japan, frequently visiting the country and posting on Twitter in fluent Japanese.The 2019 protests began as peaceful marches against proposed legislation that could have seen criminal suspects sent to China to face possible mistreatment and unfair trials. Though the legislation was withdrawn, protests swelled to demand universal suffrage and an investigation into police abuses, becoming increasingly violent as demonstrators responded to harsh police tactics.China fought back with the national security law, which has snuffed out dissent in the semi-autonomous territory. Defenders say it intends to ensure those running the city are Chinese patriots committed to public order and economic development.China also overhauled Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to give pro-Beijing delegates an overwhelming majority. Hong Kong’s media outlets are now almost completely dominated by pro-Beijing business groups and even independent booksellers have become rare. The national security law has also given authorities broad powers to monitor speech online, making it difficult to organize opposition gatherings or even express views critical of the government or Beijing.An annual candlelight vigil for victims of the bloody suppression of the 1989 pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was canceled for the second time this year. Hong Kong censors this week were also given the power to ban films that endanger national security, prompting concerns that freedom of expression is being further curtailed in a city once known for its vibrant arts and film scene.Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who is under U.S. sanctions, has been the face of the crackdown on dissent, although she is believed to be acting entirely on orders from Beijing, whose Communist Party leaders have long regarded Hong Kong as a potential incubator of opposition that could spread through the country.
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U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration said it will announce an infrastructure financing mechanism for low- and middle-income countries, designed to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative.The initiative, called “Build Back Better for the World,” will be launched Saturday with partners at the G-7 Summit in Cornwall, England. It will be “values driven, transparent and sustainable,” according to a senior administration official.”We believe we will beat the BRI by offering a higher-quality choice and we’ll offer that choice with self-confidence about our model that reflects our shared values,” a second senior administration official said.The official said the “B3W” initiative, as it is called by its acronym, aims to mobilize the private sector to invest and fulfill tens of trillions of dollars of infrastructure financing needs in the developing world, while meeting labor, environmental and transparency standards.Timeline unclearThe timeline, structure and scope of the financing vehicle, as well as the size of actual funding to be committed by the U.S., is still unclear.The administration official said the hope is that with G-7 partners, the private sector and other stakeholders, the U.S. will catalyze “hundreds of billions of dollars” in infrastructure investment for low- and middle-income countries “soon.”“It’s fair to ask whether this is going to be actually new funding, new capacity to build infrastructure in the region, or is this a repurposing and repackaging of resources that are also available,” said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.To expand its sphere of influence, Beijing is known to give BRI loans to countries for projects that are not considered creditworthy by established international lenders.“That raises the question of whether this new program is going to be less risk averse,” Daly said, noting that if these projects were bankable, lenders such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank would fund them already.Forced laborSino-U.S. tensions are set to be raised further as Biden lobbies G-7 partners to come out with a strong statement and concrete actions against what his administration calls Chinese use of forced labor, including of Uyghurs from Xinjiang.Humanitarian organizations say that Beijing has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other Chinese minorities from Xinjiang and forced them to work under harsh conditions in factories across the country. Those factories are in the supply chains of many global brands, they add.“We believe these practices are an affront to human dignity and an egregious example of China’s unfair, economic competition,” the administration official said. He said Biden’s statement will send a “wakeup call” that the G-7 is serious about defending human rights and will work together to eradicate forced labor from consumer products.In February, several members of the U.S. House of Representatives reintroduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, legislation that would, among other things, require financial disclosures from U.S. publicly traded businesses about their engagement with Chinese companies and other entities engaged in serious human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.It is unclear how much support for these initiatives Biden would receive from G-7 partners, some of whom have deeper economic ties with Beijing.
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The top U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong said the imposition of a new national security law had created an “atmosphere of coercion” that threatens both the city’s freedoms and its standing as an international business hub. In unusually strident remarks to Reuters this week, U.S. Consul-General Hanscom Smith called it “appalling” that Beijing’s influence had “vilified” routine diplomatic activities, such as meeting local activists, part of a government crackdown on foreign forces that was “casting a pall over the city.” Smith’s remarks highlight deepening concerns over Hong Kong’s sharply deteriorating freedoms among many officials in the administration of President Joe Biden one year after China’s parliament imposed the law. Critics of the legislation say the law has crushed the city’s democratic opposition, civil society and Western-style freedoms. FILE – Hanscom Smith, the U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and Macau, attends a meeting in Hong Kong, China, May 17, 2021.The foreign forces issue is at the heart of the crimes of “collusion” with foreign countries or “external elements” detailed in Article 29 of the security law, scholars say. Article 29 outlaws a range of direct or indirect links with a “foreign country or an institution, organization or individual” outside greater China, covering offenses from the stealing of secrets and waging war to engaging in “hostile activities” and “provoking hatred.” They can be punished by up to life in prison. “People … don’t know where the red lines are, and it creates an atmosphere that’s not just bad for fundamental freedoms, it’s bad for business,” Smith said. “You can’t have it both ways,” he added. “You can’t purport to be this global hub and at the same time invoke this kind of propaganda language criticizing foreigners.” Smith is a career U.S. foreign service officer who has deep experience in China and the wider region, serving in Shanghai, Beijing and Taiwan before arriving in Hong Kong in July 2019. He made his comments in an interview Wednesday at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Hong Kong after Reuters sought the consulate’s views on the impact of the national security law. In a response to Reuters, Hong Kong’s Security Bureau said that “normal interactions and activities” were protected, and it blamed external elements for interfering in the city during the protests that engulfed Hong Kong in 2019. “There are indications in investigations and intelligence that foreign intervention was rampant with money, supplies and other forms of support,” a representative said. He did not identify specific individuals or groups. Government adviser and former security chief Regina Ip told Reuters it was only “China haters” who had reason to worry about falling afoul of the law. “There must be criminal intent, not just casual chat,” she said. Smith’s comments come as other envoys, businesspeople and activists have told Reuters of the chilling effect on their relationships and connections across China’s most international city. Private investigators say demand is surging among law firms, hedge funds and other businesses for security sweeps of offices and communications for surveillance tools, while diplomats describe discreet meetings with opposition figures, academics and clergy. Fourteen Asian and Western diplomats who spoke to Reuters for this story said they were alarmed at attempts by Hong Kong prosecutors to treat links between local politicians and foreign envoys as potential national security threats. In April, a judge cited emails from the U.S. mission to former democratic legislator Jeremy Tam as a reason to deny him bail on a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. Tam, one of 47 pro-democracy politicians charged, is in jail awaiting trial; his lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. FILE – Lawmakers Jeremy Tam and Alvin Yeung of the Hong Kong Civic Party speak in front of a row of riot police officers during a demonstration against a proposed extradition bill in Hong Kong, China, June 12, 2019.”It’s appalling that people would take a routine interaction with a foreign government representative and attribute something sinister to it,” Smith said, adding that the consulate did not want to put anyone in an “awkward situation.” In the latest ratcheting up of tensions with Western nations, Hong Kong on Friday slammed a U.K. government report that said Beijing was using the security law to “drastically curtail freedoms” in the city. Hong Kong authorities also this week lambasted the European Union for denouncing Hong Kong’s recent overhaul of its political system. ‘Tough cases’ loomAlthough local officials said last year that the security law would affect only a “tiny minority” of people, more than 100 have been arrested under the law, which has affected education, media, civil society and religious freedoms among other areas, according to those interviewed for this story.Some have raised concerns that the provisions would hurt the business community, a suggestion Ip dismissed.”I think they have nothing to worry about unless they are bent on using external forces to harm Hong Kong,” Ip said. “I speak to a lot of businessmen who are very bullish about the economic situation.” Retired judges familiar with cases such as Tam’s said they were shocked at the broad use of foreign connections by prosecutors. One told Reuters he did not see how that approach would be sustainable, as the government accredits diplomats, whose job is to meet people, including politicians. Hong Kong’s judiciary said it would not comment on individual cases. Smith said Hong Kong’s growing atmosphere of “fear, coercion and uncertainty” put the special administrative region’s future in jeopardy. “It’s been very distressing to see this relentless onslaught on Hong Kong’s freedoms and backtracking on the commitment that was made to preserve Hong Kong’s autonomy,” he said. 
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The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give two-year terms on the powerful 15-nation Security Council to five countries.    Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates all ran unopposed for available seats in their regional groups, and each secured the necessary two-thirds majority required of the secret ballots cast.They will begin their terms on Jan. 1, 2022.The council deals with issues of international peace and security.  It has the power to deploy peacekeepers to trouble spots and to sanction bad actors.  New members bring different experiences, perspectives and national interests to the council and can subtly affect dynamics among its members.The council currently has several Middle Eastern crises on its agenda, including the Israeli-Palestinian situation and conflicts in Libya, Syria and Yemen.Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group and a long-time U.N. watcher, says the United Arab Emirates may play a role in those areas and elsewhere.“The UAE has a lot of influence not only in the Middle East but in the Horn of Africa, and other council members will hope the Emiratis will use their influence to help stabilize countries like Sudan and Ethiopia,” Gowan said.Gowan notes that Albania is a country that has “seen the U.N. fail awfully in its region in the past.”The U.N. failed to stop the Balkan war of the early 1990s, leading to NATO bombing in 1995. Then in 1999, Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians fought Serbs to gain independence.“Albania’s main interest on the U.N. agenda is of course still Kosovo, but the Security Council only has very limited influence there now,” Gowan told VOA. UAE Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh noted that the council’s work does not end when resolutions are adopted.“The UAE will be part of the coalition that speaks to strengthen the results-oriented nature of the council as much as possible,” she said, adding that the council is most effective when it is united.But in recent years, diverging views, particularly among its permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — have stymied action on urgent issues. “The Security Council’s record on recent crises has been pathetic,” Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA.    “Whether it involves war crimes in Gaza, massive human rights abuses in Myanmar, or atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the most you can usually expect is the occasional statement of concern — and that’s if you’re lucky,” he said.  The countries elected Friday will replace exiting members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam on Jan. 1.    They will join the five other current non-permanent members: India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway, and the five veto-wielding permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.   
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Education authorities in China’s eastern Jiangsu province have suspended a plan to merge independent colleges with vocational institutes after student protests led to a violent confrontation with the police.Such protests are rare in China because authorities tightly control mass movements to maintain social stability.The Jiangsu students attending independent colleges, and their parents, see the merger as devaluing their attainment. They view a bachelor’s degree from an independent college as worth more in China’s highly competitive job market than a so-called professional bachelor’s diploma from the less prestigious vocational colleges, according to a Communist Party-controlled media outlet, the Global Times.What the Global Times described as “the merger fiasco” originated in May 2020, when China’s Education Ministry announced a plan to restructure independent colleges by merging them with vocational schools.Yang Dali, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told VOA Mandarin that the government’s calculation is driven by two factors: Most Chinese students want to attend college to advance their job opportunities, and the country is experiencing a lack of skilled blue-collar workers. Government figures show the number of working-age people is decreasing, a demographic change that is due in part to population controls such as the now-abandoned one-child policy.On June 4, the Education Ministry announced that it would enforce the merger in 13 independent colleges, including five from Jiangsu Province.The next day, students from five independent colleges gathered on their campuses to protest. On June 6, more independent college students protested on their campuses. Video showed there were physical conflicts between the police and the students at Nanjing Normal University’s Zhongbei College in Danyang. VOA Mandarin reported students there were injured. Chinese students clash with police over plans to force private colleges to merge with vocational schools. At one school in eastern China, students detained the college dean for 30 hours and tried to prevent police from getting close to him. pic.twitter.com/5oTQXYBdlW— Radio Free Asia (@RadioFreeAsia) June 8, 2021According to a Danyang police announcement on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, students had “illegally detained the dean of the college, surnamed Chang, for more than 30 hours.”Also, students had “shouted verbal abuse and blocked law enforcement”, according to the police statement. “To uphold the campus order and safety of relevant individuals, the police took necessary measures to [free] the individuals who are trapped, and they were immediately sent to the hospital,” the police department said. Social media clips showed police using batons and pepper spray on students.On the evening of June 7, Jiangsu’s education department announced it was suspending the merger after “thousands of students submitted a petition against the plan for fear of losing their competitiveness in the job market,” reported the Global Times. And early on June 8, all five colleges in Jiangsu posted the suspension of merger plans on their official Weibo accounts.  Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces also announced the suspension of planned mergers, after protests in colleges in Zhejiang Province, including Zhejiang University of Technology Zhijiang College, Zhejiang Gongshang University Hangzhou Business School, and Hangzhou Dianzi University Information & Technology College.VOA contacted education authorities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang about the protests but did not hear back.Teng Biao, a Chinese human rights lawyer who is a visiting professor at the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights at the University of Chicago, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview that after the protests, Chinese authorities are taking a step back to “maintain stability.” According to Chinese Ministry of Education, the country will have more than 9 million college graduates in 2021, and more than 10 million in 2022.The merger suspension “is just a concession on the surface. In fact, the Chinese Communist Party’s first consideration is not the rights of students, but the need to maintain stability, especially with CCP’s centenary coming up,” he said of the July celebrations. “There’s no guarantee that they will not go after these students afterwards.”The official media outlet reported that five students it interviewed on Tuesday said they want the merger terminated, not just suspended.According to the BBC, “independent colleges are co-funded by universities and social organizations or individuals. Students who do not get the required exam scores to enter university can apply to these institutions, where they can still graduate with a university degree – but at higher tuition costs.”In 2020, the admissions score for Nanjing Normal University was 603, while the score for the affiliated Zhongbei College was 326, the Global Times reported. The annual tuition for Nanjing Normal University is $780. Zhongbei College charges $2,474.The Global Times said that if independent colleges merge with vocational schools, the students’ diplomas will become “professional bachelor’s degrees” rather than bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degrees. The degrees currently granted by independent colleges are considered superior to vocational degrees in China’s highly competitive job market.According to the Global Times, the Ministry of Education said on Sunday that the independent colleges will still offer general bachelor’s degrees for their current students, as was promised when they enrolled.Yang told VOA Mandarin that the frustration of students and their parents at these independent colleges are understandable.”They are paying more to get bachelor’s degrees. Now the authorities want to change their degrees halfway without consulting these students,” he said in a phone interview. “In short, they didn’t take the students’ interests into consideration during the policy-making process.”
 
“To be honest, sometimes a college graduate won’t necessarily have a better time looking for a job compared to a skilled worker,” Yang told VOA Mandarin. “I think the government wants to strengthen vocational education and maintain China’s advantage in skilled workers.” 
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Hong Kong censors are to vet all films for national security breaches under expanded powers announced on Friday, in the latest blow to the financial hub’s political and artistic freedoms.Authorities in semi-autonomous Hong Kong have embarked on a sweeping crackdown to root out Beijing’s critics after huge and often violent democracy protests convulsed the city in 2019.A new China-imposed security law and an official campaign dubbed “Patriots rule Hong Kong” has since criminalized much dissent and strangled the democracy movement.The latest target is films. In a statement on Friday, the government said the Film Censorship Ordinance had been expanded to include “any act or activity which may amount to an offense endangering national security”. “When considering a film as a whole and its effect on the viewers, the censor should have regard to his duties to prevent and suppress acts or activities endangering national security,” states the new guidance, which is effective immediately.It also cites “the common responsibility of the people of Hong Kong to safeguard the sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China.” The move sparked concerns that Chinese mainland style political censorship of films had now arrived in Hong Kong. “This new censorship will make it even harder for local filmmakers in Hong Kong to use their democratic rights to create art and challenge unjust power structures,” Oscar-nominated director Anders Hammer told AFP. Hammer, a Norwegian national, received an Oscar nod for his documentary about Hong Kong’s democracy protests “Do Not Split”.”It’s two years since the pro-democracy protests started and I’m saddened to see another serious example of Beijing’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s civil liberties,” he added.Culture controlsFilms are rigorously vetted on the Chinese mainland and only a handful of Western films or documentaries ever see a commercial release each year.Hong Kong’s Film Censorship Authority has traditionally employed a much lighter touch. Historically, the city has boasted a thriving film scene and for much of the latter half of the last century, Cantonese cinema was world-class.In more recent decades, slick mainland Chinese and South Korean blockbusters have come to dominate the regional film scene. Hong Kong still maintains some key studios, a handful of lauded directors and a thriving indie scene.But there are growing signs authorities want to see an increase in mainland-style controls over the cultural and art scenes in Hong Kong.Over the past week, health officials have conducted spot checks on a protest-themed museum and a separate exhibition, stating that neither had the correct licenses. The museum had been operating for years without issue. In March, an award-winning documentary about Hong Kong’s massive pro-democracy protests was pulled hours before its first commercial screening after days of criticism from a pro-Beijing newspaper. It said the film’s content breached the new national security law.Earlier this year a university cancelled a prestigious press photography exhibition that featured pictures of the 2019 protests, citing security concerns. And M+, a multi-million-dollar contemporary art museum expected to open soon, has said it will allow security officials to vet its collection for any security law breaches before it opens to the public later this year.A government spokesperson said film censors would strike a “balance between protection of individual rights and freedoms on the one hand, and the protection of legitimate societal interests on the other”.
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Communities across Myanmar are forming armed bands with mostly crude guns and explosives in an increasingly violent resistance to the military junta that toppled the country’s democratically elected government more than four months ago, raising fears of a sweeping civil war.Dominated by Myanmar’s ethnic Burman majority, the military has been at war with an evolving cast of ethnic minority armies fighting for autonomy on patches of land along the borders since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.The Feb. 1 coup has drawn the fighting deeper into the country and pitted the military against ethnic Burmans as well, as peaceful protests against the junta give way to sporadic firefights with police and soldiers, assassinations of suspected junta collaborators and bombings in the face of the military’s bloody crackdown.On the brinkThe Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Myanmar advocacy group based in Mae Sot, Thailand, claims the junta has killed more than 850 civilians in its bid to put down the resistance, although the junta disputes the figure.Reacting to the bloodshed, United Nations officials have been warning since early April that Myanmar might tip into full-blown civil war.Those fears are echoed by Myanmar’s so-called National Unity Government, a shadow administration pulling together ousted lawmakers, ethnic minorities and protest leaders to challenge the new junta.“Every village in the country, every town in the country, every city in the country, every tribe … [is] on the edge of defending themselves, because no one as human being are just [going] to wait and be killed without any defense,” NUG spokesperson Dr. Sasa, who goes by one name, told VOA recently.“Why do we say civil war? It’s not just against one group and one group. It will be one group [the junta] against … hundreds of groups, or even thousands of groups,” he said.The new armed bands sprouting up across the country go by many names, usually a “defense force” or “civil army” affixed to their city, state, or region. No one knows exactly how many there are.The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S. research organization that tracks conflict-related violence, counted nearly 70 such groups as of late May, about 20 of them active. A local think tank, The Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security, says some 120 civil defense groups have declared themselves since the coup but it cannot tell how many of them are real.A rising tideWhat is clear is that the level of violence across Myanmar is rising along with their numbers.ACLED has counted 270 attacks on civilians in the second quarter of the year to date, up 72% from the quarter before. It has also counted 578 explosions and 533 battles so far this quarter, up more than 640% and 250%, respectively.The Myanmar Institute’s executive director, Min Zaw Oo, said he and his team have counted attacks targeting the military regime and suspected collaborators in 66 towns and cities in the past two weeks alone. The vast majority have used homemade bombs, and include a sharp rise in assassinations, mostly targeting local ward administrators accused of feeding information to the junta.Min Zaw Oo said the administrators are members of the local communities and the main points of contact most citizens have with the state.“The opposition forces see them as the pillar of the regime’s governance, so they’re targeting them,” he said.A spokesperson for the junta could not be reached for comment.In Chin State, on Myanmar’s western border with India, denizens of the capital city of Hakha have formed the Chinland Defense Force, pooling their single-round “tumi” rifles once used for hunting game, and some basic explosives know-how employed for fishing or breaking rock in more peaceful days.A member of the group said seeing their friends and neighbors shot, arrested and tortured by the junta left them no choice.‘One way left’“We cannot accept [this] kind of terrorism,” the young man said, requesting anonymity for his safety. “We were thinking [of] various ways to protest and also express our voice, but there is only one way left, which is [why] we are right now holding weapons.”He claimed the group has killed more than 30 police and soldiers in and around Hakha since early May and that the group has lost five of its own to the junta’s forces. He feared worse to come.“It’s highly likely that we might experience the … very intense civil war, because the feeling and the fear of … people have exploded in terms of hating the military activities against the innocent civilians,” he said.The young man said he and the others have steeled themselves for the fight.“I am afraid that we might lose our loved people from day by day. However, if it is necessary, I think their bravery will be rewarded,” he said. “I’m worried, but I think sometimes it is necessary and we have to sacrifice.”On May 5, the NUG announced the launch of a People’s Defense Force to resist the junta and help persuade the generals to cede power. The aim is to pull together the myriad new groups under one umbrella as a forerunner to a planned Federal Union Army that will one day incorporate the country’s ethnic forces as well.At arm’s lengthSasa said the NUG was communicating and coordinating with the new armed groups “as much as possible” but would not elaborate on who or what the PDF actually consists of. He conceded it was impossible to connect with all the groups amid the turmoil and that for the time being they would have to run on their own resources.Min Zaw Oo sees little sign of much coordination either between the new armed groups and the NUG or among the groups themselves.“Some of them are linked to the NUG, some are not necessarily, but that could change in the future,” he said. “What we are observing right now is still very loosely affiliated and loosely coordinated.”He said the armed resistance away from the borderland strongholds of the ethnic armies would struggle to survive for long without some centralized chain of command. With little training and only the most modest munitions, he said they were also unlikely to tip Myanmar into a wider civil war, unless another country chose to arm them.Min Zaw Oo said Myanmar’s immediate neighbors India, China and Thailand would not do so, prizing stability in the country — or the closest thing to it — above all else.Some of Myanmar’s ethnic armies have made common cause with the NUG in its aim to oust the junta and even opened their jungle redoubts to protesters from the cities for a crash course in guerrilla warfare. However, Min Zaw Oo said they have been reluctant to arm them, either because they can’t spare the weapons or fear incurring the military’s full wrath and firepower if they do.Without a substantial and steady supply of artillery and modern weapons to the new armed groups, he said, “the low-intensity violence and clashes may continue to some extent, but we may not see the larger outbreak of … civil war.”
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An Australian official says a Sri Lankan Tamil family that had unsuccessfully sought asylum and was then held on a remote Indian Ocean island cannot be resettled in New Zealand or the United States, as earlier suggested.“Please help us to get her out of detention and home to Biloela.” Priya Nadesalingdram pleads on social media for her daughter’s freedom as the 3-year-old recovers from sepsis and pneumonia. The pair was flown to a hospital in Perth, leaving another daughter and the children’s father on Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.The Tamil family was denied asylum by the Australian government in 2018 and have been held for more than three years. The government has said they have no right to stay in Australia. They were taken from their home in the state of Queensland and sent to a Christmas Island detention center in 2019.Earlier this week, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews suggested at a press conference they could be resettled in the United States or New Zealand.Opposition Labor leader Anthony Albanese told a news conference this week their treatment had been appalling.“These young girls are Queenslanders,” he said. “They should be brought home. The idea that we are looking for other nations to take them is quite frankly breathtaking. They should be granted visas based upon the ministerial discretion.”Andrews has now said the Tamil family can’t be resettled in another country because resettlement arrangements with New Zealand and the U.S. apply only to official refugees.The Australian government won’t compromise tough immigration laws that allow for the indefinite detention of so-called unlawful noncitizens — those without a valid visa.Andrews says the measures have stopped migrants risking their lives trying to reach Australia by boat.“It is not a case of being mean,” she said. “We are very strong as a government in our policy in relation to our border protection. These are longstanding policies and, quite frankly, I am not going to have people die trying to come to Australia by sea on my watch. So, let’s not forget the history. We know that more than 1,200 people actually died trying to get here. Now, having said that I am assured by Border Force that they are doing everything they can to make sure that that particular family is well accommodated on Christmas Island.”The two children were born in Queensland after their parents arrived by boat from Sri Lanka nearly a decade ago.Legal efforts to stop their deportation continue.
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Communities across Myanmar are forming armed bands with mostly crude guns and explosives in an increasingly violent resistance to the military junta that toppled the country’s democratically elected government more than four months ago, raising fears of a sweeping civil war.Dominated by Myanmar’s ethnic Burman majority, the military has been at war with an evolving cast of ethnic minority armies fighting for autonomy on patches of land along the borders since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.The Feb. 1 coup has drawn the fighting deeper into the country and pitted the military against ethnic Burmans as well, as peaceful protests against the junta give way to sporadic firefights with police and soldiers, assassinations of suspected junta collaborators and bombings in the face of the military’s bloody crackdown.On the brinkThe Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Myanmar advocacy group based in Mae Sot, Thailand, claims the junta has killed more than 850 civilians in its bid to put down the resistance, although the junta disputes the figure.Reacting to the bloodshed, United Nations officials have been warning since early April that Myanmar might tip into full-blown civil war.Those fears are echoed by Myanmar’s so-called National Unity Government, a shadow administration pulling together ousted lawmakers, ethnic minorities and protest leaders to challenge the new junta.“Every village in the country, every town in the country, every city in the country, every tribe … [is] on the edge of defending themselves, because no one as human being are just [going] to wait and be killed without any defense,” NUG spokesperson Dr. Sasa, who goes by one name, told VOA recently.“Why do we say civil war? It’s not just against one group and one group. It will be one group [the junta] against … hundreds of groups, or even thousands of groups,” he said.The new armed bands sprouting up across the country go by many names, usually a “defense force” or “civil army” affixed to their city, state, or region. No one knows exactly how many there are.The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S. research organization that tracks conflict-related violence, counted nearly 70 such groups as of late May, about 20 of them active. A local think tank, The Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security, says some 120 civil defense groups have declared themselves since the coup but it cannot tell how many of them are real.A rising tideWhat is clear is that the level of violence across Myanmar is rising along with their numbers.ACLED has counted 270 attacks on civilians in the second quarter of the year to date, up 72% from the quarter before. It has also counted 578 explosions and 533 battles so far this quarter, up more than 640% and 250%, respectively.The Myanmar Institute’s executive director, Min Zaw Oo, said he and his team have counted attacks targeting the military regime and suspected collaborators in 66 towns and cities in the past two weeks alone. The vast majority have used homemade bombs, and include a sharp rise in assassinations, mostly targeting local ward administrators accused of feeding information to the junta.Min Zaw Oo said the administrators are members of the local communities and the main points of contact most citizens have with the state.“The opposition forces see them as the pillar of the regime’s governance, so they’re targeting them,” he said.A spokesperson for the junta could not be reached for comment.In Chin State, on Myanmar’s western border with India, denizens of the capital city of Hakha have formed the Chinland Defense Force, pooling their single-round “tumi” rifles once used for hunting game, and some basic explosives know-how employed for fishing or breaking rock in more peaceful days.A member of the group said seeing their friends and neighbors shot, arrested and tortured by the junta left them no choice.‘One way left’“We cannot accept [this] kind of terrorism,” the young man said, requesting anonymity for his safety. “We were thinking [of] various ways to protest and also express our voice, but there is only one way left, which is [why] we are right now holding weapons.”He claimed the group has killed more than 30 police and soldiers in and around Hakha since early May and that the group has lost five of its own to the junta’s forces. He feared worse to come.“It’s highly likely that we might experience the … very intense civil war, because the feeling and the fear of … people have exploded in terms of hating the military activities against the innocent civilians,” he said.The young man said he and the others have steeled themselves for the fight.“I am afraid that we might lose our loved people from day by day. However, if it is necessary, I think their bravery will be rewarded,” he said. “I’m worried, but I think sometimes it is necessary and we have to sacrifice.”On May 5, the NUG announced the launch of a People’s Defense Force to resist the junta and help persuade the generals to cede power. The aim is to pull together the myriad new groups under one umbrella as a forerunner to a planned Federal Union Army that will one day incorporate the country’s ethnic forces as well.At arm’s lengthSasa said the NUG was communicating and coordinating with the new armed groups “as much as possible” but would not elaborate on who or what the PDF actually consists of. He conceded it was impossible to connect with all the groups amid the turmoil and that for the time being they would have to run on their own resources.Min Zaw Oo sees little sign of much coordination either between the new armed groups and the NUG or among the groups themselves.“Some of them are linked to the NUG, some are not necessarily, but that could change in the future,” he said. “What we are observing right now is still very loosely affiliated and loosely coordinated.”He said the armed resistance away from the borderland strongholds of the ethnic armies would struggle to survive for long without some centralized chain of command. With little training and only the most modest munitions, he said they were also unlikely to tip Myanmar into a wider civil war, unless another country chose to arm them.Min Zaw Oo said Myanmar’s immediate neighbors India, China and Thailand would not do so, prizing stability in the country — or the closest thing to it — above all else.Some of Myanmar’s ethnic armies have made common cause with the NUG in its aim to oust the junta and even opened their jungle redoubts to protesters from the cities for a crash course in guerrilla warfare. However, Min Zaw Oo said they have been reluctant to arm them, either because they can’t spare the weapons or fear incurring the military’s full wrath and firepower if they do.Without a substantial and steady supply of artillery and modern weapons to the new armed groups, he said, “the low-intensity violence and clashes may continue to some extent, but we may not see the larger outbreak of … civil war.”
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An executive order signed by President Joe Biden this week dropped a Trump-era measure that barred Americans from downloading TikTok and several other Chinese smartphone apps. But analysts say the order also broadens the scrutiny of foreign-controlled technology.Biden’s move replaced three Trump administration executive orders that sought to ban downloads of TikTok and WeChat and transactions with eight other Chinese apps. The FILE – A counter promoting WeChat, a product of Tencent, for reading books for the blind is displayed at a news conference in Hong Kong, March 18, 2015.”This means that TikTok may have to go through another review, and any decision won’t be easily challenged in court,” he added. “This is the start of Round 2, and TikTok may not get off as easily this time.”When asked during a briefing Wednesday if the White House still intended to ban TikTok or WeChat, an administration official told reporters that all apps listed on the revoked executive orders would be reviewed under the new process and criteria.Key order standsJulian Ku, a law professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, told VOA that Biden had maintained one of Trump’s most important executive orders. Trump signed the “Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain” order in May 2019, declaring a national emergency posed by foreign adversaries “who are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services.”Biden is “not revoking the basic framework, which is that the U.S. government should be trying to prevent transfer of personal data to a foreign adversary,” Ku told VOA in a phone interview. “He reserves the right in theory to come back and go after those companies or other companies that would potentially be threatening the personal data of America.”Both TikTok and WeChat did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.TikTok, a social networking app for sharing short, user-produced video clips, and WeChat, an app that includes messaging, social media and payment platforms, both collect extensive data on their users. The core concern is that the Chinese government will be able to access this data and potentially leverage it for espionage or blackmail. U.S. officials also worry that the heavy censorship of these apps will result in biased political opinions and increased spread of misinformation.A Ban on WeChat and TikTok, a Disconnected World and Two Internets Some policy analysts from America’s closest allies welcome the latest hardline approach by the Trump AdministrationThe American Civil Liberties Union applauded Biden’s move but warned against “taking us down the same misguided path by serving as a smokescreen for future bans or other unlawful actions” with the requirement of a new security review. The rights group considered the Trump-era bans a violation of First Amendment rights.BREAKING: The Biden administration has revoked Trump-era executive orders that targeted TikTok and WeChat and violated our First Amendment rights.— ACLU (@ACLU) June 9, 2021Senator Josh Hawley criticized Biden’s move, calling it a “major mistake.”It “shows alarming complacency regarding China’s access to Americans’ personal information, as well as China’s growing corporate influence,” he said on Twitter.This is a major mistake – shows alarming complacency regarding #China’s access to Americans’ personal information, as well as #China’s growing corporate influence https://t.co/AP8KswDHNW— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 9, 2021Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said in Thursday’s daily briefing that the revocation of Trump-era bans was “a step towards the right direction” and that officials hoped to see Chinese companies “treated fairly.”
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A deadly second wave of the novel coronavirus has hit India’s remote areas, many of which had not been affected by the first wave last year. Anjana Pasricha looks at the impact of the pandemic in the mountain villages in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.Camera: Rakesh Kumar 
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Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, opposition politicians in Cambodia are regrouping and forming new parties ahead of local commune elections to be held next year and general elections in 2023.  
 
Among them are “rehabilitated” past lawmakers from the illegal Cambodian National Rescue Party and the former prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who spent three years recovering from a car accident that kept him off of the 2018 ballot.
 
Last month, former CNRP acting president Pol Horm and senior leader Phan Chansak were “politically rehabilitated” after submitting separate letters of request to the Interior Ministry. Their inclusion will help legitimize elections often derided as rigged by free speech advocates. Phan Chansak has said he will join the Cambodian reform party.  Pol has not declared his intentions.
 
Analysts said the desertions were not expected to stop opposition CNRP leaders such as Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua, who live in self-exile, campaigning against Prime Minister Hun Sen from abroad.
 
However, Gavin Greenwood, an analyst with Hong Kong-based security firm A2 Global, said their persistent efforts — including promises to return and lead a popular rebellion — were unlikely to have much of an impact.
 
“Cambodia has gone, I think in global terms, it’s gone pretty dark,” he said.
 
He said Sam Rainsy, who faces arrest, was incapable of returning from Europe after airlines bowed to the Cambodian government and refused him passage.
 
Exiled CNRP figures are unable to generate “a great deal of interest in their countries of exile which would embarrass or in any way affect Hun Sen’s position,” he said.
At least 22 of the banned CNRP politicians have been rehabilitated since mid-April, enabling them to campaign and contest elections for other political outfits, including Hun Sen’s long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party.  
 
They were among 118 opposition officials banned from politics for five years when the Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in late 2017, allegedly for attempting to overthrow the government after refusing to accept election results in 2013 amid unsubstantiated allegations the poll was rigged.
Since then, hundreds of CNRP supporters have been detained and are before the courts in mass trials, with human rights activists accusing Hun Sen of establishing a dictatorship.FILE – Sam Rainsy, self-exiled founder of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and its deputy president, Mu Sochua, speak to members of the media in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nov. 12, 2019.In response the European Union withdrew trade perks afforded Cambodia under its Everything But Arms policy.
 
Last week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Cambodia in five years, meeting with Hun Sen and CNRP leader Kem Sokha, who is awaiting trial in Phnom Penh for treason.
 
Sherman pressed the government to reopen civic and political space — which along with independent journalism has been severely curtailed — before the commune and national elections.
 
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said he was not surprised arrests were leading to defections, adding Hun Sen had “always offered a way out,” particularly for CNRP politicians who defected to Hun Sen’s CPP.
 
“That if someone, who they pressure with repression and harassment and in some cases arrest, is willing to go to the CPP then all is forgiven,” he said.
 
Robertson added this was a “logical extension” of a pressure campaign mounted against the CNRP inside Cambodia.
 
“The government is quite clearly trying to wipe out the CNRP,” he said.
 
“I think that they are trying to eliminate any vestige of it. They are certainly trying to uproot all their networks and they’re even prepared to arrest or imprison people, or have people throw their hands up and join the CPP,” he said.
 
The CPP won all 125 seats contested at the 2018 ballot, after the CNRP was dissolved. Some 20 parties contested that poll, but human rights groups claimed 16 of them were merely CPP proxies.
 
Another three opposition outfits — the Khmer Will Party, League for Democracy Party and the Grassroots Democracy Party — all failed to have any impact.
 
A new list of political parties, including the Cambodian Reform Party, the Khmer Conservative Party and the Cambodian Nation Love Party — all formed from the ranks of former CNRP members — risks splitting opposition votes further, prompting speculation that a coalition could be formed.
 
Analysts said the return of Ranariddh to the political fray could bolster the chances of any political party, outside of the CPP, winning at least some seats at the national polls in 2023.FILE – Prince Norodom Ranariddh (R) greets party’s members during a Funcinpec party congress, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 19, 2015.According to the government-friendly Khmer Times his royalist Funcinpec party is committed to a merger with the Khmer National United Party and to challenging the CPP.
 
The Khmer National United Party was established in 2016 by former Funcinpec members upset by their party’s dismal performance over the previous decade and complaints of fraud and corruption.
 
However, analysts said, none were likely to pose a real threat to the ruling elites.  
 
“All Prime Minister Hun Sen really has to do is not do anything egregious to the opposition and he does, it seems, to be quite clever in terms of how they’ve dealt with the opposition members to date,” Greenwood said.
 
Another independent analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the CPP still commands intense loyalty, particularly in the countryside, because it ended a 30-year war in 1998 and none of the political parties can match the CPP in terms of party machinery and reach.
 
The government also expects to bolster its support by holding the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year and the Southeast Asian Games in May 2023, two months before the national election.
 
“Cambodia has been run as a kleptocracy for decades and at times it has passed the democratic tests and at times it’s failed. At the moment the CPP holds all the cards,” the analyst said.
 
“This country has been a one-party state since the 2018 election and that is unlikely to change but the inclusion of more political parties will at least add some legitimacy to the next elections,” he said.
 
 
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At least nine people were killed and eight others injured Wednesday when a five-story building collapsed and fell onto a busy street in Gwangju, located about 270 kilometers southwest of the capital, Seoul.The building collapsed as it was being demolished, with tons of debris falling on top of a passenger bus that was driving past the demolition site. All the dead and injured were aboard the bus at the time. Officials with the Gwangju fire department say the reason for the collapse was unclear. South Korea has had challenges in addressing its bad safety record in terms of infrastructure.A department store collapse killed more than 500 people in 1995, and a bridge collapse in 1994 killed 49 people.  
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