China’s health authorities have said the Covid wave is past its peak, with rapid decline in both severe cases and deaths in hospitals, but experts remain wary of the government’s official data. According to China’s Center for Disease Control (CDC), the number of critically ill patients in hospital peaked in the first week of January, then rapidly declined by more than 70%. The number of deaths also reached its highest level that week, the data said. Prof Chi Chun-huei, director of the centre for global health at Oregon University, said…
Day: January 26, 2023
Biden Extends Program Allowing Hong Kongers to Stay in US
washington — The Biden administration on Thursday granted a two-year stay of deportation for Hong Kongers in the U.S. who left amid what the administration calls a “significant erosion of human rights and fundamental freedoms” as Beijing tightens its control over the special administrative region. “The United States is committed to a foreign policy that unites our democratic values with our foreign policy goals, which is centered on the defense of democracy and the promotion of human rights around the world,” read the memorandum signed by President Joe Biden. “Offering…
Opium production in Myanmar nearly doubles over past 2 years under junta, UN finds
Opium production in Myanmar has nearly doubled since the military coup two years ago, a U.N. report found Thursday, reversing years of declines, as farmers devote more land to growing poppies amid economic turmoil and disruptions. Estimated potential opium production surged 88% to 790 metric tons in 2022 after having fallen to 400 metric tons in 2020 from 870 metric tons in 2013, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime found. The area of poppy cultivation, meanwhile, expanded 33% to more than 40,000 hectares from a year earlier. Production increases…
Lao government seeks to rein in external debt by cutting new projects
The Lao government has come up with a plan to try to reduce the country’s crushing external debt this year by eliminating investments in new state projects that are not profitable and by inspecting out-of-scope projects that will not generate tax revenue, though few details about the plan are known. Central government officials made the decision during their second meeting of the year on Jan. 20, but they did not release any statements afterwards about what they discussed. The move comes as the landlocked Southeast Asian country tackles one of…
Third-Generation Toyota CEO to Step Down in April
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda announced Thursday during a webcast that he will step down from his position and transition to chairman of the board on April 1. Replacing him is 53-year-old Koji Sato, the current chief branding officer. The grandson of the founder of the company, Toyoda has been CEO since 2009. He says he faced “crisis after crisis” when he took over, including the global recession, the catastrophic 2011 earthquake in Japan, and a recall scandal that prompted him to apologize before the United States Congress. He is expected…
Muay Thai or Kun Khmer? Crisis over name of event at Southeast Asian Games averted
Thailand called off its threat to boycott a kickboxing event at this year’s Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia after the two countries resolved a dispute over the name of a sometimes violent sport that the host country calls “Kun Khmer” but which Thais call “Muay Thai.” The dispute over the proper name for the sport, which involves punching, kicking and jabbing one’s knees into an opponent’s stomach, has raged for years. Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand, and the sport is widely known around the world by that…
Biden extends deportation protections for Hongkongers
U.S. President Joe Biden has extended by two years a rule that has allowed Hong Kong residents already in the United States to remain instead of being deported back to the Chinese territory. The Deferred Enforced Departure exemptions for Hong Kong residents were introduced in August 2021 and were set to expire on Feb. 5, according to a memorandum from the White House, which said the decision was in line with “our democratic values.” “Offering safe haven for Hong Kong residents who have been deprived of their guaranteed freedoms in…
Iran Boosts Cheap Oil Sale to China Despite Sanctions
Facing crippling economic sanctions, inflation and widespread social unrest, the Iranian government has boosted oil sales to China at a highly discounted price. Iran does not publish statistics about its oil sales, but analysts say Tehran has increased oil exports to more than 1.2 million barrels per day over the past three months. Iranian oil reaches the Chinese market through a camouflaged system of delivery that the Iranian regime has perfected over the past several decades of Western sanctions. “[The] Iranian regime is now very experienced in bypassing sanctions that…
UN condemns Vietnam’s detention of environmental activist
The United Nations has condemned Vietnam’s 2018 arrest and detention of Nguyen Ngoc Anh, a 43-year-old environmental activist and farming engineer who was charged with conducting “anti-State propaganda.” The U.N.’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions called on the Vietnamese government to immediately release the activist and take corrective actions, saying his detention violated international conventions that Vietnam is party to. The U.N. entity also focused on the arbitrary nature of his detention, and the conditions Anh faces while in prison. Prior to his arrest, Nguyen Ngoc Anh would post stories…
Hong Kong political journal editor arrested in China on ‘illegal business’ charge
A chief editor of a Hong Kong-based political magazine who went missing in September has been arrested on suspicion of “running an illegal business,” Radio Free Asia has learned. Chen Zhiming, a former editor at the People’s Daily Press who moved to Hong Kong to set up the Exclusive Characters political magazine specializing in in-depth interviews with influential people, stopped updating his social media accounts from around Sept. 21, 2022, Germany-based poet Yang Lian said. “Shocked to learn that Chen Zhiming, editor-in-chief of Hong Kong’s [Exclusive Characters] magazine has been…