Author: Chin@Strategy

US security or Chinese trade? East Asian countries want both

Chin@Strategy

We can further get a sense of the dual-track nature of the US-China rivalry by looking to East Asia, with states similarly navigating both tracks to maximise their interests. Last May, a senior US State Department official attempted to play up America’s trilateral relationship with South Korea and Japan “in the face of regional threats”, emphasising that it is “critical for shared security”. High-level trilateral meetings were held regularly throughout 2022, notably on the sidelines of the Nato summit (June), UN General Assembly (September) and the East Asia Summit (November).…

Rights group calls on Cambodia to shutter rehab center described as ‘hell on earth’

Chin@Strategy

Cambodia should immediately shutter a state-run rehabilitation center authorities operate as an extrajudicial detention facility, a local rights group said Thursday, citing reports of detainee abuse and deaths amid what have been described as hellish conditions. Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, or Licadho, called on Cambodia’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation to close the Prey Speu Social Affairs Center outside of the capital Phnom Penh over what he said were years of human rights abuses. Not doing…

How China Tries to Bamboozle the United Nations

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement In recent days, the China watching community has been consumed with talk of a surveillance balloon that crossed over the continental United States before being shot down off the country’s coast. Beijing has insisted that the balloon was “civilian” and “meteorological” in nature – and just happened to float over many of the United States’ most sensitive nuclear sites. Of course, while many questions remain unanswered, experts have pointed out that the balloon was indeed most likely made for surveillance. According to the U.S. government, the balloon was part of…

US chip packaging firm Amkor closes its Shanghai plant for a week amid global market downturn

Chin@Strategy

Amkor currently operates a factory covering an area of 170,000 square meters and employs about 5,300 people in Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone. Headquartered in Arizona, Amkor focuses on designing and developing a number of package formats and technologies and testing services, which require the company to stay close to clients. Advertisement Its Shanghai factory is one of 20 production facilities and research centres in eight countries, including mainland China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Portugal. The company was listed on Nasdaq in 1998. Amkor entered China in 2001…

Cambodia’s Hun Sen Receives Support Pledges on China Visit

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen received multiple assurances of Chinese economic and political support during a meeting Friday in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “(China) firmly supports Cambodia in safeguarding national sovereignty and security, firmly supports Cambodia in steadily advancing major domestic political agendas and economic and social development, and resolutely opposes external forces interfering in Cambodia’s internal affairs,” Xi was quoted as telling Hun Sen by China’s official Xinhua News Agency. China will also encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in Cambodia, help in the construction of…

Rights Groups Warn of More Torture, Executions in Myanmar as Martial Law Spreads

Chin@Strategy

BANGKOK —  Rights groups are warning of a likely rise in arbitrary arrests, torture and executions by Myanmar’s military regime after the junta’s move last week to place swaths of the country that are home to millions of people under martial law. The junta declared martial law in 37 of Myanmar’s 330 townships on February 2, a day after marking the two-year anniversary of the military’s overthrow of a democratically elected government, by extending emergency rule across the country for six more months. It adds to the 12 townships the…

Australian intelligence agency advised departmental discretion on using Chinese equipment 14 months ago

Chin@Strategy

An Australian intelligence agency declared a year ago it was up to government departments whether to use equipment from Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua, despite a new bipartisan push to remove such devices. The advice from the Australian Signals Directorate was published in late 2021, at a time when the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was defence minister. This week the opposition called for action as it circulated new figures showing that at least 913 Hikvision and Dahua devices – including CCTV systems – were installed at more than 250 government…

International Media Grapples With Characterizing Myanmar Opposition Government

Chin@Strategy

Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government recently raised the argument that it has been mischaracterized by the international news media. Kyaw Zaw, a spokesperson for the NUG president’s office told VOA Wednesday in a statement the NUG is not an exiled government because most senior leaders, including the acting president, as well as the prime minister and many cabinet members, still live and work in Myanmar. International news organizations, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, BBC and Al Jazeera have referred to the NUG as “the exiled government,” “the…

HRW Urges Sanctions on Chinese Official

Chin@Strategy

Human Rights Watch is urging the British government and the European Union to “investigate and appropriately sanction” a visiting top Chinese official from Xinjiang. Erkin Tuniyaz, the Chinese Communist Party deputy secretary in Xinjiang and chairman of the Xinjiang government, is scheduled to attend meetings next week in London and on February 21 in Brussels. HRW said in a statement Friday that crimes against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are rampant in Xinjiang. “The UK and EU should not be drawn into meetings with senior Xinjiang officials so that China…

China, Still Trying to Play Down Balloon, Finds It’s Getting Harder to Do

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — Since the spy balloon saga started, China has tried to play down the incident and prevent it from further inflaming relations with the United States. But as American alarm and accusations have mounted, that strategy is increasingly coming under strain — forcing China into an awkward, at times self-contradictory position. Beijing has continued to maintain that the United States is overreacting to what China called a civilian vessel gathering mainly meteorological data, though the US says it has found evidence of surveillance equipment. But as Washington has begun…