Day: April 1, 2024

Villagers near proposed canal in Cambodia worry and wait

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Prek Takeo, Kandal Province, Cambodia —  Sok Srey is prepared for the Mekong River to rise in June, when its water spills into the Takeo, a small river or prek in Khmer, abutting the land she’s occupied with her family for almost a quarter of a century. She is not prepared for what might happen to her family if a proposed China-funded canal connecting the Gulf of Thailand with inland tributaries of the Mekong River like the Takeo. “I don’t have any clear information yet. I just heard that they…

China’s military to hold live-fire exercise on Myanmar border as fighting continues

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The Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday confirmed that its army and navy would take part in the drill, which spokesman Tian Junli said was aimed at testing the forces’ capabilities of “rapid manoeuvre, precise destruction, three-dimensional sealing and control and joint strike”. “Troops in the theatre are always prepared to respond to various emergencies and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, border stability and the safety of people’s lives and property,” Tian said, according to a statement on the command’s official WeChat account. The PLA last…

Tech war: updated US semiconductor export restrictions raise demand in China for Nvidia’s RTX 4090 graphics card

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“The demand for high-end graphic cards remains very robust, especially after the export curbs imposed by the US government,” said Cai Zhaojie, a vendor at Huaqiangbei in the Futian district of tech hub Shenzhen, southern Guangdong province. The Biden administration last Friday revised sweeping export controls it implemented last October, making it harder for the mainland to have access to advanced AI processors, semiconductor-manufacturing equipment and even laptop computers built with those chips, according to a Reuters report. The revised rules will take effect on April 4. “After news of…

North Korea fires ballistic missile says South Korean military

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seoul, south korea —  North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, the South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday. The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang’s state media said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a successful test of a solid-fuel engine for a “new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile.” Japan also said it “appeared” North Korea had fired the missile, Kyodo news agency reported, adding that the country’s coast guard believed the missile had fallen.…

Thailand’s same-sex marriage bill moves to Senate

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Bangkok, Thailand —  The Thai Senate will debate a bill Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage, as the kingdom moves towards becoming the first Southeast Asian country to recognize marriage equality. Thailand has long enjoyed an international reputation for tolerance of the LGBTQ community, but activists have struggled for decades against conservative attitudes and values. The lower house easily approved the law last week and the legislation now moves to the country’s unelected Senate, which is stacked with conservative appointees named by the last junta. Senators will discuss the bill, which…

South Korea’s Yoon vows not to back down in face of doctors strike

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SEOUL, South Korea —  South Korea’s president vowed Monday not to back down in the face of vehement protests by doctors seeking to derail his plan to drastically increase medical school admissions, as he called their walkouts “an illegal collective action” that poses “a grave threat to our society.” About 12,000 medical interns and residents in South Korea have been on strike for six weeks, causing hundreds of canceled surgeries and other treatments at university hospitals. In support of their action, many senior doctors at their teaching schools have also…

807 suspected scammers arrested in Myanmar-China joint operation

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Yangon, Myanmar —  More than 800 people suspected of being cross-border scammers were arrested in a joint police operation by Myanmar and China, the junta and Beijing’s embassy in Yangon said Monday. Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar, staffed by citizens from China and other countries who are often forced to work swindling their compatriots in an industry analysts say is worth billions. Beijing — a major ally and arms supplier of Myanmar’s isolated junta — has repeatedly asked the military to crack down on such operations. Chinese law enforcement…

‘Very bad idea’: US-China full-scale trade war unlikely but soft-power gap will persist, top scholar says

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For the Open Questions series of interviews with global opinion leaders, Josephine Ma speaks with Joseph Nye, a former US assistant secretary of defence. Nye is university distinguished service professor, emeritus and former dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and has been ranked among the top 100 global thinkers. He discusses China’s soft-power challenges, its economic and technological hurdles, the state of relations between Beijing and Washington, and the chances of an armed conflict breaking out. You are most well known in China for your book on…

France presses China on trade, Ukraine ahead of Xi Jinping visit

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beijing —  The French foreign minister pressed China on trade issues and the war in Ukraine on Monday ahead of a planned visit to France by Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this spring. Stéphane Séjourné, in talks with his counterpart Wang Yi in the Chinese capital, largely echoed positions that have been laid out by European leaders, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on a visit to Beijing last week. “The rebalancing of our economic partnership is a priority, as it is for our European partners,” Séjourné said at a…

Ex-Taiwanese president visits China to build social, cultural links

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TAIPEI, Taiwan —  Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is visiting China to help build social and cultural links on a trip that might include a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping despite heightened tensions. Ma left Taipei with a student group Monday on an 11-day trip that underlines continued interactions in education, business and culture despite Beijing’s threat to use military force against the self-governing island democracy to achieve unification. Toward the end of his second term in 2015, Ma held a historic meeting with Xi in Singapore, which has…