Day: December 12, 2022

Taiwan considers extending TikTok ban to private sector

Chin@Strategy

Taiwan may extend the ban on Chinese video-sharing service TikTok to the private sector after banning the app from being installed and used in government offices and on public devices over security concerns. Taiwanese media reported that the Executive Yuan Council, or the Cabinet, has formed an inter-ministerial task force which held its first meeting last week to “discuss countermeasures” against security risks posed by Chinese social media platforms. Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) called the world’s most downloaded app and its Chinese version Douyin, both owned by Chinese…

Fiji election 2022: what’s happening, why does it matter and will the vote be peaceful?

Chin@Strategy

Fiji will hold a national election on Wednesday 14 December, the third since its leader Josaia Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama came to power in a coup he instigated in 2006. The poll will mark the country’s third democratic elections under the constitution that was implemented in 2013. What is happening? Bainimarama is seeking to extend his prime ministership by another four years. However, Fijian opposition parties believe they are in with a chance to topple the ruling FijiFirst party for the first time in nearly 16 years. Voters will cast their…

Activist Tran Bang faces additional investigation into propaganda claims

Chin@Strategy

Vietnamese war veteran and activist Tran Van Bang (known as Tran Bang) faces a further investigation into Facebook posts that authorities claim contained anti-State propaganda after the People’s Procuracy disagreed with police recommendations. Bang is being held at a detention center in Ho Chi Minh City following his arrest on March 1 and has told his family he needs urgent medical treatment. He has been charged with “making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State.” Two of his lawyers said the Ho Chi Minh…

Myanmar’s UN Ambassador Reportedly Renewed for Another Year Despite Junta’s Opposition

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Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun is the permanent representative of Myanmar to the United Nations; however, the diplomat does not represent the country’s ruling military junta. Kyaw Moe Tun was appointed to his position in 2020, months before the military overthrew the elected civilian government in February 2021. The military junta tried to fire him from his post, but he refused to leave, and so far, the United Nations General Assembly Credentials Committee has refused to recognize the military’s appointee. He is also backed by Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), established…

Australia to Limit Gas and Coal Prices to Ease Spiraling Bills

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SYDNEY —  Australia plans to limit coal and gas prices for a year to ride out the worst of the global energy crisis. Official figures have shown that typical household power bills in Australia have risen 20 to 30% in 2022. The price caps are designed to help pensioners, the unemployed and low-income families. Regulating the market could see some Australian household energy bills fall by more than $150 next year. Tony Wood, the energy program director from the Grattan Institute, an independent research organization, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.…

In FTX Collapse, Binance Sees a Chance to Become the New Face of Crypto

Chin@Strategy

Mr. Zhao founded Binance after a brief career in finance, including a stint at Bloomberg, where he built trading software. He created the exchange when he was living in Shanghai. But soon after, the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance from operating in the country, and many of the company’s employees fled. Mr. Zhao maintains an active presence on Twitter but isn’t always easy to track down, having moved between Japan, Singapore, Lithuania, Malta and Dubai. Binance’s lack of a fixed headquarters is in keeping with the trend of…

Ketamine bust prompts calls for greater enforcement oversight in Cambodia

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Cambodian authorities in the resort town of Sihanoukville seized nearly 1 ton of ketamine over the weekend in the latest high-profile drug bust in this country, prompting calls from civil society groups for more transparency and stricter enforcement of measures used to target drug crimes. The Sunday afternoon raid by a joint force of gendarmes and police on a rented warehouse yielded 34 large containers of the powerful anesthetic known recreationally as “Special K,” National Authority for Combating Drugs Secretary General Meas Vyrith told RFA Khmer. The seized ketamine, which…

Amid surging inflation, Lao lawmaker calls for hike in civil servants’ wages

Chin@Strategy

A member of the Lao National Assembly has called on the government to raise salaries for low-paid state workers amid a surge in inflation in the country, one of many economic problems facing one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries. Inflation accelerated to 38.5 percent in November, the highest level in 23 years, with the prices for water, electricity and health care all climbing rapidly. The cost of transportation, cell phone service and entertainment are all rising too.  Prices of food and nonalcoholic drinks are up nearly 43%, while clothing and…

China-led team reveals secrets from one of the deepest places on Earth

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The marine vehicle that took the researchers deep down into the trench was the Fendouzhe, or Striver, a deep-sea, three-person submersible that made it to the bottom of the Mariana Trench – the deepest oceanic trench on Earth – in 2020. Peng, who studies deep-sea geology and geochemistry, collected rock samples during his dive and hopes their findings can help scientists better understand the movement of tectonic plates at the bottom of the ocean. Advertisement “We were all thrilled. It seemed like a pretty cool opportunity because it’s not easy…

Xi Jinping and China’s Censorship Trap

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Advertisement Of the COVID-19 protest slogans that have emerged across China since last month, the most eye-catching have been “Chinese Communist Party, step down” and “Xi Jinping, step down,” which were chanted by young people in Shanghai. Later, these chants spread all over the world. For the first time, a large number of Chinese protesters collectively chanted slogans requesting the sole ruling party and its top leader resign. Not even 1989, the year of China’s pro-democracy movement, witnessed such influential political appeals, let alone the two decades of mercantilism following…