The European delegation to Vietnam and the Canadian and U.K. Embassies have urged Vietnamese authorities to halt the execution of death row inmate Le Van Manh, whose family was told this week to make preparations to receive his body after his sentence is carried out. In a joint statement, posted to the E.U. delegation’s Facebook page on Thursday, the diplomatic missions noted that Le Van Minh, 42, has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence since he was sentenced for rape and murder in 2005 and dismissed the death penalty as an acceptable…
Month: September 2023
Over 1,000 Myanmar workers entering China daily under new permit
About 1,400 migrant workers are entering China from Myanmar every day from the northern Shan state trading hub of Muse after a seven-day permit was recently authorized by Beijing, local residents told Radio Free Asia. Most of the migrants are from villages in Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay and Shan that have been recently devastated by the civil war, and are in desperate need to earn money, aid workers said. They do menial jobs like gardening or factory work for seven days, and then return home, they said. “People are rushing for…
China’s Lending to Africa Hits a Low, Study Shows
johannesburg — As China marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of its global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), new data show lending to Africa has fallen to its lowest level in almost two decades. A paper released this week by researchers at Boston University’s Global China Initiative said the pandemic, domestic economic woes, a policy shift and concerns about African debt were among the reasons lending in 2021 and 2022 dropped below $2 billion for the first time since the inception of the BRI. In 2000-22,…
Transiting Taiwan airport, Chinese activist seeks political asylum
Refusing to board a flight to China while in transit through Taiwan, Chinese dissident Chen Siming said Friday he is seeking political asylum because he would be imprisoned for his political activism should he venture back to China. Chen, an outspoken activist who recently published an open letter commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre — a banned topic in China — had flown into Taipei from Bangkok on Friday morning, and refused to board his connecting flight to Guangzhou, in southern China,. He remained stuck in the transit lounge of Taiwan’s…
Arizona Governor: Taiwan Firm’s Semiconductor Plant Back on Schedule
Earlier this year, Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC announced that it was delaying the opening of a computer chip plant in the U.S. state of Arizona because of a shortage of specialized workers. But during a visit to Taiwan this week, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs told officials that the project is back on schedule and should have no further delays. From Phoenix, Arizona, Levi Stallings has our story. Voice of America
Lao PM visits China’s Guangxi to boost farm exports
Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone has pledged to increase agricultural trade and investment with southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which borders Vietnam, state media reported. The move is part of a broader goal to expand overall trade ties, investment and tourism, which occurred during a trip last week to the China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, Guangxi’s capital, Lao media reports said. Laos is struggling to shore up its flailing economy, which has been battered by soaring inflation and a steady depreciation of the kip against the U.S. dollar and other…
The west’s Modi problem
On September 10, Narendra Modi led Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak, Justin Trudeau and other world leaders on a morning wreath-laying visit to Rajghat, a New Delhi memorial to India’s slain independence hero Mahatma Gandhi. The spectacle, on day two of the G20 summit, of the Indian prime minister leading the world’s most powerful people, either barefoot or slippered and wearing shawls, produced striking images that reinforced both Modi’s image domestically and India’s ascent globally as a diplomatic and economic power. But behind the scenes, a conflict was brewing that within a…
Chinese dissident who held Tiananmen Square vigils flees to Taiwan
A Chinese dissident known for regularly commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square has fled to Taiwan where he pleaded for help in seeking asylum in the US or Canada. In a video posted online on Friday, Chen Siming said he was in the transit area at Taoyuan international airport to escape Chinese political persecution. “The Chinese police’s stability maintenance methods directed towards me were becoming more and more cruel and crazy,” he said in his post. “They detained me at will without following legal procedures,…
US to Provide $116 Million in Aid to Myanmar, Bangladesh
The U.S. has committed to providing an additional $116 million in aid to people impacted by humanitarian crises in Myanmar, Bangladesh and the surrounding region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday that the package aims to provide critical resources to nearly one million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, many of whom fled genocide in Myanmar, and to more than a million of their Bangladeshi hosts. According to ACLED, an international data mapping group, Myanmar in 2022 was by far the worst country in terms of…
Beijing says it would welcome a visit by US senators next month
Beijing said it would welcome a proposed visit to China next month by US senators, seeing it as an opportunity to “inject positive energy” into bilateral relations. “China welcomes people from all walks of life in the United States, including members of the Congress, to visit China so as to have a better understanding of China, promote exchanges between the two countries, and inject more positive energy into the China-US relationship,” Liu Pengyu, spokesman for China’s Washington embassy, said on Thursday. The office of US Senator Mike Crapo, Republican of…