A group of international environmental groups is calling on the Group of Seven to put pressure on Vietnam to release prisoner of conscience Dang Dinh Bach. The joint statement was issued on Jan. 24, marking one year since Bach was sentenced to five years in prison on a charge of “tax evasion.” The lawyer had been campaigning to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal. The statement’s signatories, including Global Witness and Friends of the Earth U.S., said the world’s leading industrialized nations can’t help Vietnam adopt cleaner energy sources while turning a…
Day: January 24, 2023
ByteDance primes short video app Douyin to challenge Meituan in on-demand local services amid China’s push to revive economy
That followed its move in August to start a collaboration with Ele.me, the Alibaba Group Holding-backed on-demand services provider, after introducing mini-program Xindong Waimai in 2021 to start food delivery trials in various cities. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Advertisement In January last year, Douyin acquired for an undisclosed amount Shanghai-based movie ticketing service Ytbfilm. It also partnered with local retailing giant Beijing Hualian Group to live-stream the marketing campaigns of the company’s supermarkets. Douyin did not respond to a request for comment. “[Douyin] is certainly a threat,…
New Zealand’s Chris Hipkins Sworn In as Prime Minister
Wellington, New Zealand — Labour leader Chris Hipkins was sworn in as New Zealand’s prime minister in a formal ceremony on Wednesday, following the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last week. The Labour Party elected former COVID-19 Response and Police minister Hipkins, 44, to lead the party and the country on Sunday. This comes after the surprise resignation of Ardern, 42, who said she had “no more in the tank” to lead the country. Hundreds gathered on the grounds of Parliament as Ardern left for the final time,…
China Covid: Coffins sell out as losses mount
Some 80% of the population – more than a billion people – have been infected since China scrapped restrictions in December, according to leading epidemiologist Wu Zunyou. Last weekend China reported 13,000 Covid-related deaths in less than a week, adding to the 60,000 deaths it has counted since December. BBC
Japanese Buddhists back selection of next Dalai Lama by Tibetans, not China
Japanese Buddhists say they believe Tibetans should determine the successor to the Dalai Lama in accordance with their Buddhist belief in the principle of rebirth, and that the Chinese government should have no say in the controversial centuries-old selection method. China, which annexed Tibet in 1951, rules the western autonomous region with an iron hand and says only Beijing can select the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, as stated in Chinese law. But Tibetans believe the Dalai Lama chooses the body into which he is reincarnated, a process that…
Antony Blinken likely to warn China against aiding Russia during trip to Beijing
“I’m not in a position to confirm some of the accounts you read but we would be concerned if we were to see not only the PRC itself engaging in this but … PRC companies doing this,” Price said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “Obviously there is close synergy, cooperation, coordination between the PRC government and companies operating in and out of the PRC, and in all of our conversations, we have emphasised to our PRC counterparts the importance that we attach to this,” he continued. “I suspect…
Conflict of Cultures Behind Deadly Riot at Chinese Factory in Indonesia
Tensions continue to simmer at a Chinese-owned nickel smelting facility in Indonesia after a deadly riot erupted on January 14. Analysts say the violence sheds light on the business practices of a Chinese company. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. Camera: Revi Limbong, Rendy Wicaksana, Rudini VOA
INTERVIEW: ‘We have been oppressed by unfreedom for a long time in China’
Nearly three years ago, former state TV host Kcriss Li was live streaming his arrest by state security police in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where he had gone to report as a citizen journalist on the emergence of the pandemic in 2020. “I’m suddenly being chased down by the state security police. The car they’re driving isn’t a police car,” Li tells the camera after being hassled and obstructed for days by local officials and security guards as he traveled around Wuhan reporting on the epidemic, including the…
Buddhist monk leading deadly pro-junta militias in Myanmar’s Sagaing region
An ultranationalist Buddhist monk is leading the charge against Myanmar’s armed rebellion in Sagaing region for the military regime, establishing a network of pro-junta militias using a combination of violent coercion and fear-mongering. While you won’t find him on any list of sanctions targeting the junta and its cronies for their repression of the country’s opposition, Warthawa is well known in Sagaing, where the military has faced some of the strongest resistance to its rule since its February 2021 coup. The stern-looking 40-year-old monk with broad shoulders and wide-set eyes…
Uncertainty Shrouds Myanmar Elections
A Myanmar junta spokesperson has told VOA’s Burmese service that there is uncertainty over whether general elections will be held this year, due to what he calls issues regarding voter registration and opposition attacks surging across the country. When pressed on the subject, Major General Zaw Min Tun, said, “I can’t say for sure right now. All I can only say is that we are working hard to hold the elections this year; however, there are various ‘subversive activities,’” he said in a telephone interview. Zaw Min Tun appeared to…