Vietnam is considering a clampdown on performing artists who make what it considers to be ‘false statements’ online or offend public morality through their words and actions. Nguyen Thi Than Huyen, who works in the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information at the Ministry of Information and Communications, said her ministry has asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to come up with a series of punishments, including a ban on performing live, online or on radio and television, according to the Thanh Nien newspaper. Other sanctions being…
Day: December 22, 2022
Former Judge on China’s Top Court Suggests End to Prosecution of ‘Zero-COVID’ Violators
HONG KONG — A former judge of the Supreme People’s Court, the highest court in China, is calling for the suspension or revocation of cases against some 80 people found guilty of violating “zero-COVID” policy regulations since the advent of omicron, a less deadly variant that began spreading in December 2021. China implemented the zero-COVID policy in January 2020, the month after the virus was first detected in humans in Wuhan. Anyone convicted of obstructing the prevention and control of COVID-19 faced a prison sentence of three to seven years,…
TikTok’s parent company fires four workers for improper access of user data
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of popular video app TikTok, said on Thursday that some employees improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists and were no longer employed by the company, an email seen by Reuters shows. ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information earlier this year, and were aiming to identify potential connections between two journalists, a former BuzzFeed reporter and a Financial Times reporter, and company employees, the email from ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen said. The…
ByteDance Finds Employees Obtained TikTok User Data of 2 US Journalists
washington — ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of popular video app TikTok, said on Thursday that some employees this summer improperly accessed TikTok user data of two U.S. journalists and were no longer employed by the company, an email seen by Reuters shows. ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information and were aiming to identify potential connections between two journalists and company employees, said the email from ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen. The disclosure, reported earlier by The New York…
Elderly Covid Patients Fill Hospital Wards in China’s Major Cities
Chongqing, China — Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China on Thursday as the country battled a wave of COVID-19 cases. The virus is surging across the vast Asian nation in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing. And with cases soaring, Washington called on Beijing to share its COVID outbreak data, saying China’s caseload affects the world. Attached to a breathing tube under a pile of blankets, an old man racked with COVID-19 lay groaning on…
How accurate are China’s Covid death numbers?
The sudden end to China’s controversial zero-Covid strategy caught the country’s fragile health system unprepared, with hospitals scrambling for beds, pharmacies on the hunt for drugs and authorities racing to build special clinics. On Thursday, a senior World Health Organisation official said China may be struggling to keep a tally of Covid-19 infections as it experiences a big spike in cases. Experts say China could face more than a million Covid deaths next year. But despite evidence of overwhelmed hospital and crematoriums, China’s government has fewer than 10 Covid deaths…
Thai boat rescues Cambodian fisherman whose vessel sank in storm
A Cambodian fisherman was rescued after being found floating at sea with the bodies of three crewmates tethered to him with a rope after their boat sank off southern Thailand during a storm last weekend, Thai navy officials said Thursday. The fisherman, identified as Sia Soy, had been in the water for at least a day before another fishing boat rescued him off the coast of Songkhla province before transferring him to the navy’s care, officials said. A Royal Thai Navy patrol boat, Tor 992, brought Soy and the bodies…
More missing North Koreans amid colder weather and food shortages
As the temperature drops far below freezing in North Korea and food becomes more scarce, large numbers of people have gone missing, and sources told Radio Free Asia that some of them have either starved or frozen to death. Temperatures in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong have fallen to at least -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) and homeless people are increasingly at risk from the severe conditions, a resident of the province told RFA’s Korean Service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “We found a body…
Asia Fact Check Lab: Can ‘magical remedies’ cure COVID?
In brief China’s abrupt relaxation of its zero-COVID policy has contributed to a broad wave of infections that is overwhelming China’s healthcare systems and triggering a shortage of over-the-counter medicines. Amid a rush by Chinese to stock their medicine cabinets, social media and some merchants are touting “magical cures for COVID,” from canned peaches, baijiu alcohol, and garlic to controversial traditional Chinese medicines, such as Lianhua Qingwen Capsules. Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) found no scientific evidence that these popular products can cure patients with COVID. In fact, public health…
Cambodia sentences 36 opposition officials to prison terms on conspiracy charges
A court in Cambodia on Thursday sentenced 36 senior officials of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, most of whom have already fled the country, to between five and seven years in prison. The opposition officials were convicted of supporting party Vice President Mu Sochua in her plan to return to Cambodia from the U.S. as part of what the court said was a conspiracy to overthrow the government. The CNRP had been the country’s main opposition to Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party until late 2017. The Supreme Court…