Day: August 3, 2023

Russia requested munitions from North Korea, says US

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Receive free War in Ukraine updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest War in Ukraine news every morning. Russia’s defence minister used a recent visit to Pyongyang to request an increase in North Korean arms supplies, the White House said on Thursday. Sergei Shoigu vowed to strengthen military ties with North Korea on a visit to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean war armistice last week, during which he attended a military parade and a weapons exhibition. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby…

Seiichi Morimura, 90, Who Exposed Japanese Wartime Atrocities, Dies

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Seiichi Morimura, who wrote a searing exposé of the Japanese Army’s secret biological warfare program in occupied China, describing how it forcibly infected thousands of prisoners with deadly pathogens, died on July 24 in Tokyo. He was 90. The announcement of his death by his publisher, Kadokawa, was cited in Japanese media. Mr. Morimura detailed the atrocities committed by the Japanese program — called Unit 731 — in a widely sold book, “Akuma no Hoshoku,” or “The Devil’s Gluttony” (1981). Among the horrors he described were vivisections performed without anesthesia…

China crams for World Bank business survey

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Receive free Chinese business & finance updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Chinese business & finance news every morning. If there is one thing China takes seriously, it is a test. From the ancient keju civil service exam to today’s ultra-competitive gaokao university entrance exam, a high ranking has been vital to success. That might help explain Beijing’s latest obsession: acing the World Bank’s ease of doing business index, the world’s premier ranking of countries as investment destinations, which is being revamped and…

2 US Navy Sailors Charged With Providing Sensitive Military Information to China

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SAN DIEGO —  Two U.S. Navy sailors were charged Thursday with providing sensitive military information to China — including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material. The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it wasn’t clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the…

Rohingya Refugees Wary as China Develops Plan for Repatriation   

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Rohingya refugees living in squalid and sprawling camps in Bangladesh are casting a skeptical eye on a Chinese initiative to facilitate their return to Myanmar, where they were subjected to a campaign of murder and burning by the same military forces that now rule the country. “We want to return home. However, under this pilot scheme, the Myanmar military will confine us in camps. They won’t allow us to go back to our homes and villages,” Aung Myaing, a Rohingya relief volunteer at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar,…

Japan, Ethiopia to Work on Black Sea Grain Deal Resumption

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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  —  Japan’s foreign minister, following a one-on-one meeting Thursday with Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister, expressed hope their two nations would work together on the resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, making his first visit to Ethiopia, said he shared concerns about the impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on food security in Africa. following a one-on-one meeting with Ethiopia’s Demeke Mekonnen. “Japan deplores the termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative by Russia, and Japan hopes to work together with Ethiopia towards…

New Zealand must boost military spending as Pacific power struggle intensifies, review finds

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New Zealand needs to spend more on its military and strengthen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific to help meet the challenges of great power rivalry and climate change, the government said amid an ongoing defence review. Launching the country’s first ever national security strategy, defence minister Andrew Little said New Zealand faced more geostrategic challenges than it had in decades. The inaugural security strategy underscores how China’s rise is upending old norms and behaviours even 9,000km (5,592m) away in Wellington. “An increasingly powerful China is using all its instruments…

China eases entry visa and hukou rules in all-out push to save the economy

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He Wenlin, the ministry’s deputy head of research, said the changes were designed to promote the “free movement” of people, vehicles, information and data, and officials would strive to turn into guidelines into action by the end of this month. 01:49 Premier Li Qiang plays up China’s economic prospects at World Economic Forum’s ‘Summer Davos’ A central plant of the package is for authorities to lower the bar for individuals to obtain an urban hukou, or household registration, to enable more skilled rural residents to live and work in cities.…

FirstFT: US sailors passed military secrets to China, prosecutors say

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Receive free US-China relations updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest US-China relations news every morning. Good morning. Two US Navy sailors have been arrested and charged with passing sensitive military information to the Chinese government in exchange for thousands of dollars in payments, prosecutors in California said on Thursday. Jinchao Wei, who worked as a machinist’s mate at a naval base in San Diego, has been charged with sending photos and videos of an amphibious assault ship to an unnamed Chinese intelligence officer,…

Missing trafficked Lao teenager determined to be alive in Myanmar casino

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A missing Lao teenager trafficked to Myanmar to work and who was beaten by Chinese men in a Chinese-owned casino in Myanmar earlier this week has been found alive, her mother told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. The girl, whose name is being withheld to protect her from further harm because she is still in Myanmar, is one of dozens of teenagers and youths from Luang Namtha province in Laos who have been trafficked to neighboring Myanmar. Many have ended up in a place the workers call “Casino Kosai” in…