Tag: USA

Funding to counter China in the Pacific is now caught in the congressional battle in Washington over foreign aid and border security. The White House calls the package a “critical component” of its national security. And as VOA’s Jessica Stone reports, time is running out to lock in an economic and security relationship between the United States and three strategic Pacific Island nations. Camera: Yu Chen, Jessica Stone, Saqib Ul Islam Voice of America

Washington —  Western foreign policy experts are welcoming recent U.S. agreements to jointly tackle foreign disinformation with Seoul and Tokyo, saying they are needed to counter Chinese efforts to undermine liberal democracies through the spread of fake news. The U.S. signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday “to identify and counter foreign information manipulation,” according to a State Department statement. The agreement follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed with South Korea in Seoul on Friday to cooperate in their efforts to tackle foreign disinformation. The agreements,…

WASHINGTON —  David Panuelo, former president of the Federated States of Micronesia or FSM, has been in Washington lobbying lawmakers to approve legislation that he says Micronesia needs to counter Beijing’s political and economic pressure across the region. Panuelo spoke with VOA last week about what is at stake if Congress does not fund the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2023. The bill updates the agreement governing the relationships between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau and the FSM. House…

washington —  Henry Kissinger will be remembered in much of the world as a foreign policy genius who ushered China into the world community, driving a wedge between Beijing and its Cold War ally Moscow, and eventually transforming the world economy. In Southeast Asia, the Nixon-era national security adviser and secretary of state who died this week at age 100 is being remembered differently. The opening to China that Kissinger engineered sent a rippling effect to Thailand, which, former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun said, had trepidation for Communism. “A…

U.S. President Joe Biden will not be attending the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28. But U.S. diplomats will be there, interested in getting access to the critical mineral exports necessary to transition to green energy. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports. Voice of America

san francisco —  Human rights organizations and activists in the United States are calling for a congressional hearing in response to violent assaults on Chinese dissidents who protested against Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the APEC summit in San Francisco November 15-17. Pro-Xi welcoming groups and anti-Chinese government groups clashed in several locations in San Francisco ahead of and during the APEC summit, resulting in many injuries among anti-Chinese government protesters. Demonstrators opposing Beijing’s human rights violations and supporting independence for Taiwan were confronted by Xi’s supporters wielding with…