Local authorities in Kon Tum province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region have destroyed a pagoda belonging to the independent Unified Church of Vietnam. Police and dozens of local officials from Plei Kan town and Ngoc Hoi district descended on the Son Linh Pagoda in the early hours of Tuesday morning. By 11 a.m. the pagoda had been completely demolished. The abbot, Thich Nhat Phuoc, was visiting another pagoda in Vung Tau province, some 600 kilometers (373 miles) south, at the time. His mother, Ngoc Luong, who lives about 10 kilometers…
Day: December 13, 2022
COVID Restrictions Lifted, China’s Businesspeople Hit the Road to Revive Export Economy
Hong Kong — Yiwu, a city in China’s Zhejiang province, produces more than half the world’s Christmas ornaments purchased by the billions of people who celebrate the holiday. China’s “zero-COVID” policy, coupled with global pandemic fears, dulled the local export-fueled year-round glitterfest. Christmas orders fell by 50% in 2020, according to the official Global Times with raw material costs and labor shortages hindering a recovery in 2021, which saw only a 10% to 20% increase in sales over the previous year. Then, faster than elves could hitch those nine reindeer…
Stick-wielding Chinese and Indian soldiers beat each other in minor border skirmish
Chinese and Indian soldiers bashed each other with sticks, jostling and hollering, at a disputed mountainous border near Chinese-controlled Tibet, the latest flare of violence between the two Asian giants. A video of the incident that went viral, taken from the Indian side, shows the Indian soldiers on higher ground shouting and wielding long sticks to beat a cluster of Chinese soldiers, some of whom used clubs to swing back. At one point, an Indian soldier picks up a couple bricks and throws them into the melee. After a few…
Myanmar junta bars overnight visitors from Yangon monasteries
Myanmar’s junta has prohibited Buddhist monasteries in the Yangon region from accepting overnight visitors as part of what it says is a bid to reduce crime. But monks are calling the move an insult to their religion. The Yangon Region Sangha Maha Nayaka Council, a group of senior monks that oversees the Buddhist clergy in Yangon, announced on Nov. 23 that overnight visitors would no longer be allowed in monasteries unless they obtain prior permission from authorities. Several departments under the junta had ordered the change because they accused overnight…
US, South Korea, Japan consolidate efforts against DPRK nuclear tests
Envoys of the United States, South Korea and Japan agreed Tuesday to consolidate efforts to ensure that North Korea does not dodge U.N. and other international sanctions as it pursues a nuclear and missile program, the officials said. Senior diplomats from the three allied nations met in Jakarta in the wake of missile launches by North Korean this year, including the firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that came down in Japanese waters a few weeks ago. At their fifth trilateral meeting on Tuesday, the Japanese envoy said the…
China has taken advantage of trade and human rights ‘delinking’ 20 years ago, say US lawmakers
The CECC currently comprises nine US senators and nine members of the House of Representatives, and – for the first time since 2014 – members of the presidential administration, for a total of 23 commissioners. Addressing the bipartisan commission on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that in its optimism about China’s ability to reform, the US government had given Beijing a “blank check” that led to big business prospering at the expense of small businesses and American workers. Advertisement “Delinking trade and human rights has not improved our trade…
Why Argentina’s Nuclear Power Project With China Has Stalled
Advertisement This February, China’s state-owned nuclear company, the China National Nuclear Corporation, committed itself to building an Argentine nuclear plant, Atucha III. Atucha III had experienced prior starts and stops during the three Argentine presidencies since its founding agreement in 2015. China’s commitment to the plant dovetailed with Argentine President Alberto Fernández’s February 2022 trip to China and Argentina’s subsequent insertion into China’s Belt and Road network. Taken together, this fast-paced cluster of China-Argentina collaboration appeared to suggest that Atucha III’s construction was suddenly likely, perhaps imminent. Yet in April,…
Taiwan-based social media star says departure blocked by China
A Taiwan-based political activist and social media influencer known for supporting the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party is being prevented from leaving China, she told her YouTube channel in a recent upload. The woman, who uses the handle “Lia the Anxious Housewife,” already has the right of permanent residency in democratic Taiwan after marrying a Taiwanese man. But the island’s labyrinthine immigration processes require all Chinese nationals to show documents issued in China proving that their household registration — which allows access to public services in a specific location —…
Malaysian court lifts stay on deporting 114 Myanmar nationals
A Malaysian court on Tuesday lifted a stay on the deportation of 114 Myanmar nationals, their lawyer said, as human rights groups expressed concern that they would be forced to return to their conflict-ridden country. Amnesty International and Access Asylum Malaysia urged the government to reconsider the mass expulsion, saying that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s new administration would look bad if it violated the non-refoulement principle. Lim Wei Jet, a lawyer appointed by Amnesty for the Myanmar nationals, said they would appeal the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s ruling. “We want…
China, Australia ‘natural partners’, ex-diplomat says, but are ‘rebalancing the equation’ after 50 years
“My own view for a very long time has been that the Americans cannot be objective about China because it’s communist, and they have a visceral dislike and distrust of communism.” Relations between Beijing and Canberra have been strained since 2020, resulting in China using a variety of trade and bureaucratic tools to also bar Australian goods, although tensions are seen to have eased, highlighted by a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last month. Advertisement According to Ambrose, an unrecognised influence that can damage…