U.S. lawmakers are urging President Donald Trump to raise the issue of China's mass internment of Muslim ethnic minorities when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Argentina. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington.
Read More Trump Urged to Press Xi on China's Treatment of Uighurs : https://ift.tt/2Qw811U
South Korea's military says a North Korean soldier has fled across the countries' heavily fortified border to defect to the South.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff says South Korean soldiers escorted the defector to safety early Saturday after finding him moving south of the eastern side of the military demarcation line that bisects the Koreas.
The defection comes as the North and South Korean militaries push to reduce tensions across their border.
South Korea's Defense Ministry says the Korean militaries completed removing 20 front-line guard posts and land mines from a border area where they plan to start their first-ever joint search for remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday there were some good signs on talks with China ahead of his meeting with Xi Jinping on Saturday.
“We’re working very hard. If we could make a deal that would be good. I think they want to. I think we’d like to. We’ll see,” he said, adding his staff was preparing for the Saturday night dinner.
The founder of a Vietnamese rights group was sentenced Friday to two years and nine months in prison for spraying paint on Vietnamese flags and posting a photo of them on Facebook.
Huynh Thuc Vy, 33, was convicted of "desecration of the national flag" at a one-day trial at the People's Court of Buon Ho town in Vietnam's Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, the official Vietnam News Agency reported.
Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism.
Vy's lawyer could not be reached for comment. A court official declined to comment about the case, which was condemned by international rights groups.
She was found spraying white paint on two flags and erecting them on a street in the town during the National Day holiday last year, the report cited the indictment as saying.
The report said Vy posted a photo of the flags on Facebook with a comment saying "protesting the ceremony with red flags painted white."
Vy, the founder of the organization Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, regularly writes posts about human rights violations, including the persecution of ethnic minorities in the country, Amnesty International said.
"This ludicrous charge must be dropped as it is aimed solely at silencing a dedicated, peaceful human rights activist," the London-based rights group said ahead of the trial.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said by email: "What this sentence means is a young mother will be separated for years from her child simply for expressing views the government doesn't like."
Friday's trial is the latest in the Southeast Asian country's crackdown on dissent, in which several Facebook users have been jailed over anti-government comments.
Facebook, which is widely used in Vietnam and serves as the main platform for dissidents, did not immediately comment on the case. There was no immediate government comment on the case.
Vietnam said this month it wants 50 percent of its social media customers to use domestic social networks by 2020 and plans to prevent "toxic information" on Facebook and Google.
Earlier this month, the government released a long-awaited draft decree on guidelines to implement a cybersecurity law that global technology companies, including Facebook, and rights groups have said could undermine development and stifle innovation.
A gas leak at a plant owned by a ChemChina subsidiary caused a blast that killed 23 people and injured 22 this week in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, ChemChina said in a statement on Friday.
PVC producer Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co suffered a leak of vinyl chloride, which caught fire and caused a chain explosion that burned trucks and buildings, ChemChina said.
In the statement posted on its website, ChemChina apologized for the accident and said it reflected serious problems in its safety management systems.
Police have detained 15 people related to the company in connection with the blast, the Zhangjiakou government said in a statement posted on its official Wechat, a messaging platform in China.
Zhangjiakou, about 155 km (100 miles) northwest of Beijing, is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics along with the capital.
The National Administration for Work Safety Emergency Response said it would launch an inspection of all large-scale chemical plant plants in the wake of the last explosion, the official Xinhua news Agency reported.
Public anger over safety standards has grown in China in recent years after three decades of swift economic growth have been marred by accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires.
In August 2015, 165 people were killed in a chemical warehouse explosion in the port city of Tianjin. The government found that the disaster was causes by improperly or illegally stored hazardous materials.
China has vowed to improve industrial standards, but environmentalists say they fear oversight weaknesses persist, including an opaque production process for hazardous chemicals.
FIFA's ethics committee has imposed a four-year ban on a soccer official for accepting a bribe, reportedly from former presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam.
FIFA says Manuel Dende, former president of the Sao Tomean Football Association, is also fined 75,000 Swiss francs ($75,000).
FIFA gave no details about the charges Dende faced, of bribery and corruption plus accepting gifts.
Dende took a $50,000 cash gift from Bin Hammam, according to authors of "The Ugly Game" book about the now-banned Qatari official's dealings at FIFA.
In 2009, the book states, Dende asked Bin Hammam for $232,000 in his personal bank account to help build artificial pitches on his home island in west Africa.
Citing Bin Hammam correspondence, the book said $50,000 was eventually wired months later.
An Indonesian city has approved a bylaw to fine gay or transgender people up to 1 million rupiah ($70) for behavior that could "disturb public order" or be considered immoral, the city's deputy mayor said on Friday.
The regulation is the latest example of a rise in government and public hostility toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.
Homosexuality is not regulated by law in Indonesia, except in the conservative province of Aceh, but the country has seen a growing number of bylaws targeting LGBT people.
The council in the city of Pariaman in West Sumatra passed a regulation on Tuesday banning "acts that are considered LGBT", deputy mayor Mardison Mahyudin said by telephone.
The regulation, revising an existing public order bylaw, would be evaluated by the governor within 15 days, he said, adding that it was part of the city's effort to "eradicate LGBT".
"According to our customs, the Minang customs, we are against such acts and behavior," he said. The Minang are one of the main ethnic groups living that part of Sumatra island.
The regulation contains clauses to penalize LGBT people "who conduct activity that disturbs public order" or commit "immoral acts with the same-sex", according to a media report citing the bylaw.
Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the regulation was unconstitutional for being discriminatory.
"It's a local ordinance that has no grounds on Indonesia's constitution nor other national laws," he told Reuters.
"It's just another sign that Indonesia is increasingly having two legal systems: the constitutional one and the so-called Islamic sharia system."
A South Korean train entered to North Korea on Friday as the two countries began inspecting northern railways tracks they hope to relink with the south.
About 30 officials from each side will participate in an 18-day joint survey of railways tracks cut since the Korean War.
“We will maintain close consultation with related nations so that the project to connect the South and North's railways could proceed with international support,'' South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said during a ceremony at Dorasan Station near the border.
The Koreas, however, cannot proceed much further with the project without the removal of U.S.-led sanctions against the North.The U.S. has said the sanctions will remain until North Korea takes convincing measures toward full denuclearization.
The UN Security Council granted exemptions to sanctions last week, allowing the implementation of the cross-border infrastructure project.
Also on Friday, the North and South militaries completed removing 20 front-line guard posts and land mines from a border area where they plan to start their first-ever joint search for remains of soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to an official from Seoul's Defense Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The projects are among many agreements reached between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their three meetings this year, as part of a diplomatic initiative that eased tensions over the North's nuclear program.
Expectations are building over whether U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping can reach a deal to defuse tensions over trade disputes and security issues when the two meet during the G-20 summit later this week in Argentina. As State Department Correspondent Nike Ching reports, in the best case scenario, the meeting could lead to a reset of ties between the world's two largest economies.
Read More US, China Eye G-20 for Relationship Reset : https://ift.tt/2Q4nUNB
The Voice of America has dismissed the former chief of its Mandarin-language service and suspended another manager following a more than yearlong investigation into the abrupt termination of a live interview with a high-profile critic of the Chinese government.
The agency also said independent investigators found no evidence to support allegations the U.S. government agency caved in to pressure from the Beijing government and may have been infiltrated by a Chinese spy.
VOA Director Amanda Bennett announced the action in an emailed message to staff Thursday, saying the agency "has today removed one Mandarin Service employee and given a period of suspension to another."
Two other Mandarin Service staffers represented by a government employees union are awaiting a decision on disciplinary action. A fifth employee returned to work shortly after the incident. The Mandarin Service reaches 40 million people weekly in China.
Bennett declined in an interview to identify the individuals involved, saying it is a personnel matter. However, the long-suspended service chief, Sasha Gong, confirmed that she has been dismissed and another manager, Huchen Zhang, confirmed he has been suspended.
Gong, who has publicly accused the agency of cutting off the interview with Chinese businessman Guo Wengui because of pressure from Beijing, referred questions to her lawyer, Paul Kiyonaga, who said he and Gong will challenge the dismissal "using all available means of legal redress."
"This decision to fire her from VOA is a travesty for anyone who believes in the First Amendment, journalistic integrity and the independence of our federal agencies," Kiyonaga said.
Zhang said that under the terms of his suspension, he is prohibited from speaking to anyone at VOA.
Four investigations
In her message to VOA staff, Bennett said the personnel action came only after four separate investigations "all concluded the interview's termination was a result of VOA leadership's attempt to enforce previously agreed-upon journalistic standards. The investigations found no evidence to support allegations that pressure from the Chinese government, purportedly driven by 'spies' within VOA, had caused the termination."
One of those investigations was handled by the State Department's Office of Inspector General upon a request from members of Congress, and another was conducted by an award-winning professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. An outside counsel also supported the management position after a three-month investigation, and the fourth was conducted by VOA's security department.
Guo, a U.S.-based businessman, had already raised Chinese hackles at the time of the April 2017 interview with a series of dramatic allegations about corruption among highly placed Chinese officials and their families.
Bennett confirmed that China had sought to block the interview — which had been widely promoted in advance by the Mandarin Service — by calling VOA journalists in Washington and Beijing and lobbying for them to cancel it. China also issued an Interpol Red Notice for Guo's arrest shortly before the interview.
The interview, which was streamed live on social media, went ahead in spite of the warnings. But about 1 hour and 20 minutes into what had been promoted as a three-hour webcast, viewers saw the camera cut to a host, who drew a finger across his throat, and then the screen went dark.
Sabotage assertion rejected
Guo later denounced the decision, writing on his Twitter feed that it was the result of "pressure from various parties" and telling the South China Morning Post in an interview that the broadcast was sabotaged by a "liaison person" for Chinese intelligence within VOA.
VOA managers rejected the charge, saying the live webcast was cut because Gong and her staff had been told to limit it to one hour to reduce the likelihood of Guo making accusations that could not be vetted for accuracy or rebutted by the other side.
Bennett explained the decision to let the interview run live for one hour, saying, "Since it was already arranged, we didn't want to cancel it, but we wanted to minimize the opportunity for unprofessional behavior." Managers said the Mandarin staff were told they could record the final two hours for future use after proper vetting.
However, Kiyonaga argued that Gong was never ordered to cut short the interview. "In fact, VOA itself termed the cutoff of the interview the product of 'miscommunication' — not insubordination — in its own press release, issued shortly after the interview."
Bennett insisted in an interview that the order had been given, and an independent analysis by Mark Feldstein, an award-winning broadcast journalist, and Richard Eaton, chair of broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland, supported VOA management's decision.
The email quoted Feldstein as saying the Mandarin Service's failure to comply with instructions "was a colossal and unprecedented violation of journalistic professionalism and broadcast industry standards." Reached by email, Feldstein confirmed he was accurately quoted but declined to comment further before consulting with a lawyer.
Kiyonaga still maintained Thursday that it was "only after [China] launched an aggressive campaign to silence Guo Wengui that VOA management caved and began its efforts to curtail the length and content of this critically important interview," a decision he described as "a blatant affront to VOA's core mission to provide robust, unflinching reporting and information to its audience worldwide.”
State Department IG's report
But Bennett's message to staff said the State Department inspector general's report concluded "that the decision to curtail the Guo interview was based solely on journalistic best practices rather than any pressure from the Chinese government."
The internal security review "found no evidence to support" allegations that elements of the Chinese government had infiltrated VOA and compelled the interview to be censored or cut short, Bennett added.
Asked about those claims in the interview, Bennett said, "Any time you have allegations that a foreign power has infiltrated a U.S. government agency and directed its actions, that is a very serious matter, and we took it very seriously. ... We found no evidence whatsoever" that it is true.
Going forward, she said she hopes the agency's actions "will show that we are a professional news organization that follows best journalism practices, that doesn't back down, that corrects its mistakes, but if it is correct, stands behind its reporting. And that we expect professional behavior from every member of our staff."
Read More VOA Dismisses Mandarin Service Chief Over Interview With Chinese Exile : https://ift.tt/2ShRdJeThe Voice of America has dismissed the former chief of its Mandarin-language service and suspended another manager following a more than yearlong investigation into the abrupt termination of a live interview with a high-profile critic of the Chinese government.
The agency also said independent investigators found no evidence to support allegations the U.S. government agency caved in to pressure from the Beijing government and may have been infiltrated by a Chinese spy.
VOA Director Amanda Bennett announced the action in an emailed message to staff Thursday, saying the agency "has today removed one Mandarin Service employee and given a period of suspension to another."
Two other Mandarin Service staffers represented by a government employees union are awaiting a decision on disciplinary action. A fifth employee returned to work shortly after the incident. The Mandarin Service reaches 40 million people weekly in China.
Bennett declined in an interview to identify the individuals involved, saying it is a personnel matter. However, the long-suspended service chief, Sasha Gong, confirmed that she has been dismissed and another manager, Huchen Zhang, confirmed he has been suspended.
Gong, who has publicly accused the agency of cutting off the interview with Chinese businessman Guo Wengui because of pressure from Beijing, referred questions to her lawyer, Paul Kiyonaga, who said he and Gong will challenge the dismissal "using all available means of legal redress."
"This decision to fire her from VOA is a travesty for anyone who believes in the First Amendment, journalistic integrity and the independence of our federal agencies," Kiyonaga said.
Zhang said that under the terms of his suspension, he is prohibited from speaking to anyone at VOA.
Four investigations
In her message to VOA staff, Bennett said the personnel action came only after four separate investigations "all concluded the interview's termination was a result of VOA leadership's attempt to enforce previously agreed-upon journalistic standards. The investigations found no evidence to support allegations that pressure from the Chinese government, purportedly driven by 'spies' within VOA, had caused the termination."
One of those investigations was handled by the State Department's Office of Inspector General upon a request from members of Congress, and another was conducted by an award-winning professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. An outside counsel also supported the management position after a three-month investigation, and the fourth was conducted by VOA's security department.
Guo, a U.S.-based businessman, had already raised Chinese hackles at the time of the April 2017 interview with a series of dramatic allegations about corruption among highly placed Chinese officials and their families.
Bennett confirmed that China had sought to block the interview — which had been widely promoted in advance by the Mandarin Service — by calling VOA journalists in Washington and Beijing and lobbying for them to cancel it. China also issued an Interpol Red Notice for Guo's arrest shortly before the interview.
The interview, which was streamed live on social media, went ahead in spite of the warnings. But about 1 hour and 20 minutes into what had been promoted as a three-hour webcast, viewers saw the camera cut to a host, who drew a finger across his throat, and then the screen went dark.
Sabotage assertion rejected
Guo later denounced the decision, writing on his Twitter feed that it was the result of "pressure from various parties" and telling the South China Morning Post in an interview that the broadcast was sabotaged by a "liaison person" for Chinese intelligence within VOA.
VOA managers rejected the charge, saying the live webcast was cut because Gong and her staff had been told to limit it to one hour to reduce the likelihood of Guo making accusations that could not be vetted for accuracy or rebutted by the other side.
Bennett explained the decision to let the interview run live for one hour, saying, "Since it was already arranged, we didn't want to cancel it, but we wanted to minimize the opportunity for unprofessional behavior." Managers said the Mandarin staff were told they could record the final two hours for future use after proper vetting.
However, Kiyonaga argued that Gong was never ordered to cut short the interview. "In fact, VOA itself termed the cutoff of the interview the product of 'miscommunication' — not insubordination — in its own press release, issued shortly after the interview."
Bennett insisted in an interview that the order had been given, and an independent analysis by Mark Feldstein, an award-winning broadcast journalist, and Richard Eaton, chair of broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland, supported VOA management's decision.
The email quoted Feldstein as saying the Mandarin Service's failure to comply with instructions "was a colossal and unprecedented violation of journalistic professionalism and broadcast industry standards." Reached by email, Feldstein confirmed he was accurately quoted but declined to comment further before consulting with a lawyer.
Kiyonaga still maintained Thursday that it was "only after [China] launched an aggressive campaign to silence Guo Wengui that VOA management caved and began its efforts to curtail the length and content of this critically important interview," a decision he described as "a blatant affront to VOA's core mission to provide robust, unflinching reporting and information to its audience worldwide.”
State Department IG's report
But Bennett's message to staff said the State Department inspector general's report concluded "that the decision to curtail the Guo interview was based solely on journalistic best practices rather than any pressure from the Chinese government."
The internal security review "found no evidence to support" allegations that elements of the Chinese government had infiltrated VOA and compelled the interview to be censored or cut short, Bennett added.
Asked about those claims in the interview, Bennett said, "Any time you have allegations that a foreign power has infiltrated a U.S. government agency and directed its actions, that is a very serious matter, and we took it very seriously. ... We found no evidence whatsoever" that it is true.
Going forward, she said she hopes the agency's actions "will show that we are a professional news organization that follows best journalism practices, that doesn't back down, that corrects its mistakes, but if it is correct, stands behind its reporting. And that we expect professional behavior from every member of our staff."
Read More VOA Dismisses Mandarin Service Chief Over Interview With Chinese Dissident : https://ift.tt/2DTt1sD
A new study by longtime China experts in the U.S. has concluded that Beijing is engaging in an increasingly aggressive campaign to influence and shape perceptions about China held by American politicians, university scholars and students, as well as executives at major corporations.
"Except for Russia, no other country's efforts to influence American politics and society is as extensive and well-funded as China's," according to the report by Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the Asia Society's Center on US-China Relations.
The report, called "Chinese Influence & American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance," details a wide range of Chinese activities in the U.S. to "advance its influence-seeking objectives." It includes lobbying "influential civil society groups," but also accessing critical U.S. infrastructure and technology and engaging in "covert, coercive or corrupting" behavior, such as pressuring Chinese students studying on U.S. campuses to spy on other Chinese students at the same schools.
The report said China has, with the assistance of U.S. universities, established so called 110 Confucius Institutes on U.S. campuses, but the institutes are forced to use Communist Party-approved materials "that promote PRC Chinese viewpoints, terminology and simplified characters; the avoidance of discussion on controversial topics such as Tibet, Tiananmen, Xinjiang, the Falun Gong, and human rights in American classrooms and programs."
Now, however, some U.S. universities, including the University of Chicago and the Texas A&M system, have had second thoughts about the Confucius Institutes and have closed branches at their schools. The report said U.S. institutions should rewrite their contracts with China to eliminate a clause that stipulates Confucius Institutes must operate according to China's laws.
One of the report's authors, Orville Schell, said money flowing to U.S. universities "will not come with any explicit prohibitions, but implicit ones," that if the schools "want to get more [money], don't say this, don't say that," an effort aimed at "modulating and controlling what people say about it and how they view it."
The report said Hollywood, the film capital of the world, has been influenced by Chinese investment and now routinely makes films that portray China's government in a favorable light. It said that two decades ago, films such as "Red Corner," "Seven Years in Tibet," and "Kundun" addressed topics the Chinese government deemed sensitive. Hollywood studios now are teaming up with Chinese interests to produce such films as "The Martian," a hit in which the Chinese government saves the American protagonists.
"The rush of Chinese investment into the American film industry," the report concludes, "has raised legitimate concerns about the industry's outright loss of independence."
Schell said that after a year and a half of research, he and others came to the conclusion "that the relationship between the U.S. and China when it comes to influence is not reciprocal."
He said, "The open society of the United States gets used for Chinese purposes in myriad ways that are not available to Americans in China."
American universities have not been granted the same access in China as Beijing has received, and U.S. journalists are severely restricted inside China.
The report's conclusions echo those of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in a speech last month.
"Beijing is employing a whole-of-government approach," Pence said, "using political, economic and military tools, as well as propaganda, to advance its influence and benefit its interests in the United States."
The Hoover-Asia Society report comes as U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President XI Jinping have in recent months imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of exports flowing between the world's two biggest economies.
The two leaders are meeting Saturday night over dinner in Buenos Aires at the G-20 summit of the world's leading economies and could possibly reach a new trade agreement. But obstacles remain and agreement on a deal is uncertain.
Read More Study: China Engaging in Wide Campaign to Influence American Life : https://ift.tt/2DPwdps
A Philippine court found three police officers guilty on Thursday of killing a student they alleged was a drug dealer, in the first known such conviction under the president's deadly crackdown on drugs.
Regional Trial Court Presiding Judge Rodolfo Azucena Jr. ruled the officers murdered Kian Loyd delos Santos during a raid in Caloocan city's slums in the Manila metropolis last year. It rejected the policemen's claim that the 17-year-old fired back while resisting arrest.
The court sentenced the officers, Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz, to be imprisoned for up to 40 years without parole, although they can appeal. Aside from the prison term, the policemen, who appeared in court in handcuffs and yellow detainee shirts, were ordered to pay damages to Santos's impoverished family.
President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown, which has left thousands of suspects dead, reportedly in clashes with the police, has alarmed Western governments and U.N. rights experts and horrified human rights watchdogs.
The volatile president has stressed he does not condone extrajudicial killings, although he has repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death and has assured police he would back them up in ways that human rights watchdogs say have encouraged law enforcers to act with impunity.
"A shoot first, think later attitude can never be countenanced in a civilized society. Never has homicide or murder been a function of law enforcement," Azucena said in his ruling. "The public peace is never predicated on the cost of human life."
Duterte's government called the ruling "a triumph of justice" which disproved critics' assertion that the judiciary was a rubberstamp.
"As we have always stressed, the conduct of the government's anti-illegal drug campaign is based on accountability. Therefore, we do not — and we will never — tolerate unjustified police violence, brutality or killing," presidential spokesman and chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo told a news conference.
Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who has railed against the drug killings, said the court decision proved that extrajudicial killings under Duterte's crackdown were being committed by rogue members of the national police force.
"This is a light in the darkness," Hontiveros said in a statement. "Despite the gruesome climate of killing and impunity in the country, this verdict sends the message that there is hope and justice. And we will fight for more light and truth until the darkness cannot overcome them."
Hontiveros said the numbers of drug killings, which started to rise when Duterte took office in mid-2016 and launched his war against drugs, could not have reached "catastrophic levels if these killings did not have a sinister principle and policy behind them."
Duterte and police officials have repeatedly stated there was no state policy to kill drug suspects illegally. Duterte faces at least two mass murder complaints before the International Criminal Court, which he said would never acquire jurisdiction over him.
Delos Santos's killing on August 16, 2017, sparked an outcry and a televised Senate inquiry, and prompted Duterte to temporarily order a small anti-drug agency with only about a thousand men to oversee the campaign against illegal drugs. The crackdown had been previously led by the national police, which Duterte once described as "corrupt to the core."
The policemen claimed delos Santos was a drug dealer who fired at officers during the raid, but his family and witnesses testified in official investigations that he was shot in a dark alley near a creek as he pleaded for his life.
Witnesses pointed to evidence, including a village security video, which they said showed two of the police officers dragging away the teenager shortly before shots rang out and he was found fatally shot in the head, holding a pistol with his left hand although his parent said he was right-handed. The police officers testified in the Senate that delos Santos was not the man seen being dragged in the video, although several witnesses doubted the police statements.
The court cited witnesses who identified the three officers as the ones who accosted delos Santos at a small family store and dragged him to the end of an alley, where he was shot to death while ducking on the ground and covering his head with his hands.
The victim's mother, Lorenza delos Santos, said she was elated by the court decision because it cleared the name of her son and family.
"I am very happy because this is the resolution that proves my son is innocent and that he was never involved in drugs," she told reporters while fighting back tears.
Read More Three Filipino Policemen Convicted of Murder in Brutal Drug War : https://ift.tt/2rdMInq
China's science ministry on Thursday ordered that anyone conducting research in gene editing halt their activities.
The order came as organizers of a biomedical conference where a Chinese scientist defended his claim that he has created the world's first genetically-edited babies denounced his work as irresponsible.
The leaders of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing issued a statement Thursday on the last day of their conference in Hong Kong criticizing He Jiankui's claim as "deeply disturbing."
Dr. He spoke to the summit on Wednesday about his work in claiming to have used a gene-editing technology dubbed CRISPR to alter the DNA of twin girls born to an HIV-positive father to prevent them from contracting the virus that causes AIDS. The researcher first made the claim in an online video posted Monday.
Dr. He told his colleagues he conducted his research in secret. His work has not been independently verified, and Dr. He has not submitted his report to any scientific journals where it could be examined by experts.
In their statement Thursday, the summit's organizers said that even if "the modifications are verified, the procedure was irresponsible and failed to conform with international norms." Dr. He was supposed to speak before the summit again Thursday, but canceled his appearance.
He's claims has set off a firestorm of skepticism and criticism. The Southern University of Science and Technology, the university in the southern Chinese city in Shenzhen that employs him, says he has been on unpaid leave since February. The school denounced his research for violating "academic ethics and codes of conduct," and the Chinese government is urging local authorities to launch an investigation into He's work.
Genetic editing has the potential to remove inherited diseases from the gene pool, but scientists and ethicists worry it could be used to create so-called "designer babies." They also worry any genetic changes could lead to other genes being altered in unpredictable ways.
A U.S. congressman is calling on President Donald Trump to raise the issue of China's mass internment of Muslim ethnic minorities when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week.
Republican Congressman Christopher Smith co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China with Republican Senator Marco Rubio. The two lawmakers have proposed a bill in their respective chambers condemning the gross violations of human rights against the Uighurs in the remote western Xinjiang region. Beijing has faced growing international criticism over the incarceration of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minorities, which it claims is necessary to combat religious extremism.
But former detainees have described the facilities as political indoctrination camps where they were forced to condemn Islam and declare loyalty to the ruling Communist Party.
In an interview with VOA's Mandarin Service Wednesday, Congressman Smith said their legislation would call on President Trump to use the Global Magnitsky Act and sanction "individual perpetrators" for their actions against the Uighurs. "We are not talking about American values here, we are talking about universally recognized human rights to which the Chinese government has pledged itself to," Smith said.
Smith accused China of committing genocide against the Uihgurs, calling their actions "without precedent in modern times." He also scoffed at a threat that Beijing would retaliate if the U.S. imposed sanctions made this week by Cui Tiankai, China's ambassador to the U.S.
"It's about time we stood up for the Chinese people," he said, "because that's where our hearts, that's where our solidarity has to be with, not with a dictatorship that ruins lives."
President Trump and President Xi will attend the G20 summit that begins Friday in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Argentina this week for what some see as the most important meeting in years between the leaders of the world's two largest economies.
After months of bitter bickering between their governments over trade and security that has raised questions about the very future of a complex but economically pivotal relationship, the two leaders took a step back from the edge with an ice-breaking telephone call early this month.
They expressed optimism about resolving their damaging trade war ahead of the meeting on Saturday, but there have been few tangible signs of progress. They will be in Buenos Aires for the summit of the leaders of the 20 major economies.
Even so, differences among Trump's top advisers over China policy and his personal unpredictability and fondness for headline-grabbing moments mean it remains anyone's guess what the Trump-Xi meeting might bring.
What caused the trade war?
Trump railed against the massive U.S. trade deficit with China during his 2016 election campaign and after a year in office, with no sign of the gap narrowing, the U.S. president attacked the issue head-on.
Trump has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports to force concessions on a list of demands that would fundamentally change the two countries' terms of trade. China has responded with tariffs of its own on U.S. goods, targeting farm states that are an important part of Trump's political base.
Trump has threatened tariffs on another $267 billion worth of Chinese products, including cell phones, computers, clothing and footwear. And 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods are scheduled to rise to a more prohibitive 25 percent on Jan. 1, 2019 unless a truce is agreed.
Washington wants Beijing to act to reduce a $375 billion trade surplus by opening its economy to foreign competition, increasing protection for U.S. intellectual property, ending joint venture requirements that lead to technology transfers and cutting subsidies to state-owned industries.
It particularly wants to prevent exports to China of advanced technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics and has tightened rules on foreign investment in 27 sensitive sectors to stop Chinese deals.
The U.S. Justice Department recently charged China state-owned Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co with conspiring to steal trade secrets in what is expected to be the first of several similar cases to attempt to stop the flow of intellectual property into China.
U.S. officials say China has delivered a written response to U.S. demands for wide-ranging trade reforms, but they remain doubtful this will be enough to bring about a breakthrough when Xi and Trump meet.
How serious is the US-China security rivalry?
In the past 20 years China has grown rapidly to become arguably Washington's biggest security rival, with defense spending that now far outstrips former Cold War rival Russia. A hundred years after the end of World War One, some academics have even warned of another "Thucydides Trap" - a theory that sees a risk of rivalry between a rising and an established power spiraling into open conflict.
Recent years have seen a steady uptick in tensions, punctuated by U.S. naval and air patrols challenging China's extensive claims in the South China Sea and U.S. warship movements through the highly sensitive Taiwan Strait.
While the two sides have taken care to maintain military-to-military contacts, close encounters have raised fears that an accidental clash could escalate into an unexpected conflict - particularly over Taiwan, which Beijing considers a wayward province and a "red line" not to be crossed.
Trump added new uncertainty when he said the United States would quit a Cold-War era treaty with Russia that has prevented Washington from stationing ground-based intermediate-range missiles in Asia as well as Europe.
In what was billed as a major policy speech on Oct. 4, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence escalated Washington's trade-driven pressure campaign, highlighting Chinese military and industrial espionage activity and accusing China of "malign" efforts to undermine Trump in the Nov. 6 mid-term congressional elections. He offered no concrete evidence of that.
Is the current trend reversible?
White House insiders say there remain substantial differences within the Trump administration over how far to push China.
This division groups anti-China hardliner and trade adviser Peter Navarro, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and those who favor a complete reevaluation of the relationship on one side. On the other are pragmatists led by White House chief economist Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, concerned about the harm deepening friction could do to the U.S. economy and markets.
In Trump's "America First" rhetoric and persistent criticism of the damaging effect he says Chinese trade practices have on America, he has appeared to favor Navarro's school of thought. But he has also shown himself very aware of the immediately positive effects any indication of an improved mood with Beijing can have on U.S. financial markets and his ratings for handling of the economy at a time when he is under fire on other domestic fronts.
Read More What Underlies US-China Tensions Ahead of Crucial G-20 Meeting? : https://ift.tt/2KEluQ5
New Zealand's international spy agency on Wednesday halted mobile company Spark from using Huawei equipment in its planned 5G upgrade, saying it posed a "significant network security risk.''
The action follows a ban in Australia, where the Chinese telecommunications giant was blocked in August from rolling out Australia's 5G network due to security concerns.
In New Zealand, Huawei has previously helped build mobile networks. In March, Spark and Huawei showcased a 5G test site across the street from the Parliament, in a publicity move that was attended by then Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran.
The latest development could have diplomatic and economic implications for New Zealand, which relies on China as its largest trading partner but which is also part of the "Five Eyes'' security alliance that includes the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia.
China 'severely concerned' by move
At a daily briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China was "severely concerned'' over the decision.
"The economic and trade cooperation between China and New Zealand is mutually beneficial in nature,'' Geng said. "We hope New Zealand will provide a level-playing field for Chinese enterprises' operation there and do something conducive for mutual trust and cooperation.''
Huawei said in a statement it was looking into the situation and would actively address any concerns to find a way forward. It said the company was committed to developing trusted and secure solutions for its customers.
New Zealand was the first developed nation to sign a free-trade deal with China in 2008, and China buys billions of dollars of New Zealand's dairy exports each year, which are often used in making infant formula.
US report offered warning
New Zealand's previous conservative government had a close relationship with China. But over the past year under liberal Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand has pulled back somewhat, embracing a warmer relationship with Japan and putting resources into the Pacific, in part to counter China's growing influence there.
Huawei suffered a setback in the U.S. market in 2012 when a congressional report said it was a security risk and warned phone companies not to buy its equipment.
The private Chinese company was started by a former People's Liberation Army major in 1987.
Decision disappoints Spark
Spark is one of three main mobile network operators in New Zealand. The companies compete for customers over their own network of cell towers, using radio spectrum that is licensed from the government.
Spark said it is disappointed with the decision by New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau. But the company said in a statement it's confident it can still launch its 5G network by July 2020.
Spark said it had wanted to use Huawei 5G equipment in its planned Radio Access Network, which involves technology associated with cell tower infrastructure. The company said it has not yet had time to review the detailed reasoning behind the spy agency's decision, or whether it will take further steps.
The U.S. Navy sailed two ships through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, a move likely to upset China.
A destroyer and an oil ship made the journey.
This is the third time this year the Navy carried out what it calls a "routine transit."
"The ships' transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement. "The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows."
A U.S. official told the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, that Chinese ships were standing by and monitoring the American vessels but that both sides acted in a manner that was "safe and professional."
China protested earlier sailings as a challenge to its sovereignty. It regards Taiwan as part of mainland China. It has threatened military action if Taiwan declares independence, although the island has ruled itself since the Communists seized power in China in 1949.
The U.S. is obliged to come to Taiwan's defense if it is ever attacked.
Chinese photographer Lu Guang has gone missing during a visit to China's Xinjiang province.
Lu's wife Xu Xiaoli, who is in the United States, set up a Twitter account this week to spread information about the disappearance of the award-winning photojournalist, who covers sensitive issues in China, such as pollution, poverty, and AIDS.
Xu said Lu had been missing since Nov. 3 after disappearing during a trip to attend several photography events in China. He was expected to meet a friend in Sichuan on Nov. 5, but failed to appear. Xu says the wife of Lu's host in Xinjiang said he had been taken away by national security agents.
A friend of the couple, Chinese artist Wu Yuren, told VOA that Xu considered traveling to China to search for her husband. Wu said he managed to talk Xu into staying in the United States to publicize his disappearance.
"We were all very shocked," Wu told VOA's Mandarin service. "Ever since we came to the U.S., it's rare to hear about someone we know disappeared like this."
Wu said Lu may have fallen prey to media suppression in China. "He thought he had the experience of dealing with this," Wu said, "But he could not have imagined how bad the situation is now."
Xu told Radio Free Asia she has been calling officials in Xinjiang in search of word of her husband, but no one has picked up on the phone numbers published online.
Sophie Richardson, China director of Human Rights Watch, told VOA "the Chinese government has a long history of simply taking people whose views it doesn't like, literally off the grid and disappearing them."
She continued, "I think every time this happens, authorities diminish their claim that this country is governed by rule of law."
The Associated Press cites Chinese officials as confirming that Lu and a fellow photographer were taken away by Xinjiang state security agents.
Xinjiang has recently been the subject of international concern, after news reports spread word that China has constructed internment camps there to conduct "re-education" of Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic groups.
A representative for Amnesty International, Patrick Poon, told Radio Free Asia that international concern caused by those reports has influenced the Chinese government to try to shut down information coming from the area.
Lu is the winner of a number of photojournalism awards, including the World Press Photo, a National Geographic Photography grant, and China's highest domestic photography award. He holds a U.S. "green card" (permission to work in the United States) and in 2005 became the first photographer from China to be invited by the U.S. State Department as a visiting scholar.
VOA Mandarin service contributed to this report.
A Chinese researcher has publicly defended his claim he has created the world's first genetically-edited babies.
He Jiankui addressed a crowd of fellow scientists Wednesday at a biomedical conference in Hong Kong, two days after he posted a video online claiming to have used a gene-editing technology dubbed CRISPR to alter the DNA of twin girls born to an HIV-positive father to prevent them from contracting the virus that causes AIDS.
Dr. He said he conducted his research in secret. His work has not been independently verified, and Dr. He has not submitted his report to any scientific journals where it could be examined by experts. But he told his colleagues that he felt "proud...proudest" of his achievement.
His claims have set off a firestorm of skepticism and criticism. The Southern University of Science and Technology, the university in the southern Chinese city in Shenzhen that employs him, says he has been on unpaid leave since February. The school denounced his research for violating "academic ethics and codes of conduct," and the Chinese government is urging local authorities to launch an investigation into He's work.
Shortly after He's speech before the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, American biologist David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and a leader of the summit, called Dr. He's work "irresponsible" and a "failure of self-regulation by the scientific community."
Genetic editing has the potential to remove inherited diseases from the gene pool, but scientists and ethicists worry it could be used to create so-called "designer babies." They also worry any genetic changes could lead to other genes being altered in unpredictable ways.
Feeding a hungry planet is growing increasingly difficult as climate change and depletion of land and other resources undermine food systems, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said Wednesday as it renewed appeals for better policies and technologies to reach "zero hunger."
Population growth requires supplies of more nutritious food at affordable prices, but increasing farm output is hard given the "fragility of the natural resource base" since humans have outstripped Earth's carrying capacity in terms of land, water and climate change, the report said.
About 820 million people are malnourished. The FAO and International Food Policy Research Institute released the report at the outset of a global conference aimed at speeding up efforts to achieve zero hunger around the world.
"The call for action is very clear. It is possible in our lifetime and it is also realistic to end hunger and malnutrition," Inonge Wina, vice president of Zambia, told the gathering.
Food security remains tenuous for many millions of people who lack access to affordable, adequately nourishing diets for a variety of reasons, the most common being poverty.
But it's also endangered by civil strife and other conflicts. In Yemen, where thousands of civilians have died in airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition, the aid group Save the Children says 85,000 children under 5 may have died of hunger or disease in the civil war.
In Afghanistan, severe drought and conflict have displaced more than 250,000 people, according to UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.
FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva noted that the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world has risen to levels last seen a decade ago.
"After decades of gains in fighting hunger, this is a serious setback and FAO and the U.N. sister agencies, together with member governments and other partners, are all very concerned," Graziano da Silva said in a videotaped address to the conference.
Hunger is still most severe in Africa, but the largest number of undernourished people live in the Asia-Pacific region, the report said. It said good public policies and technology are the keys to improving the situation.
The FAO estimates that global demand for food will jump by half from 2013 to 2050. Farmers can expand land use to help make up some of the difference, but that option is constrained in places like Asia and the Pacific and urbanization is eating up still more land that once may have been used for agriculture.
Increasing farm output beyond sustainable levels can cause permanent damage to ecosystems, the report said, noting that it often causes soil erosion, pollution with plastic mulching, pesticides and fertilizers, and a loss of biodiversity.
China destroys 12 million tons of tainted grain each year, at a loss of nearly $2.6 billion, according to the report.
Residents in Seoul discovered how fragile their telecommunications system was this past weekend when a fire disrupted service for millions. The government and the provider vowed to implement changes to avoid a repeat of the event, but the system failure demonstrated a need for greater redundancy and preparation for future natural and technological disasters.
The fire affected customers of KT, the nation’s second largest telecommunications company. They found themselves unable to make calls, access the internet, complete ATM or credit card transactions, and watch television. Local media also reported an elderly woman died when she fell ill and her husband wasn’t able to reach emergency services during the service outage.
Lee Manjong, chairman of the Korean Association for Terrorism Studies and professor of the department of Law & Police at Howon University, told VOA that while it is nearly impossible to prevent widespread system outages, certain steps can be taken to avoid catastrophic failures.
“It is necessary to split the public safety net (fire, medical, and police emergency services) and make system backups (redundancies) compulsory,” he said.
Following the blaze, South Korea’s minister of Science and ICT (Information, Communications, and Technology), You Young-min, spoke to the CEOs of South Korea’s three major communication companies (SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+) to discuss their backup plans.
You said the companies “need to swiftly change their contract clauses on compensation issues and also need to come up with plans that would reroute traffic if such accidents, which shouldn’t happen again, happen.”
When asked for specifics on what steps the government planned on taking to prevent a similar event in the future, the ministry declined to offer specifics, stating that responsible parties would prepare fire prevention measures this year and set up a task force to implement recommendations.
Local broadcaster MBC also reported that telecommunication companies and the government held a 20-minute virtual natural disaster drill in May to simulate a system outage, but the simulation proved to be ineffective in real-world situations.
Interconnected services
The Seoul fire and resulting system outage demonstrated how interconnected services are in the 21st century.
“If a network is down, then it affects other networks such as finance, power, energy, and railway,” said Lee.
He said there are multiple ways the electronic infrastructure can be paralyzed. This includes physical damage, natural disasters, and cyber attacks. However, Lee notes disruptions caused by cyber incursions are more effective.
“Cyber attacks are more efficient as they can take place without access to the physical location of the target,” he said.
According to Lee, this is because the government is able to secure physical sites, so cyber-warriors choose “soft targets” connected through the Internet.
A distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack could be launched from the Internet and attack telecommunication networks. This type of attack floods a computer network with incoming data packets and overwhelms the system, effectively shutting it down. Lee said such attacks on telecom systems could wreak havoc and paralyze communication.
He cautioned that a successful cyber attack on South Korea’s technological infrastructure could yield “unimaginable” damage because of the country’s reliance on networked services.
Fire and recovery
Saturday’s fire struck an underground facility of KT, destroying telephone lines and fiber optic cables, taking about 10 hours to suppress.
Seoul authorities rate facilities on a scale from A to D. Buildings rated A, B, or C must have adequate fire prevention systems installed, while those receiving a D rating do not.
KT’s Ahyeon facility, where the fire took place, was one of 27 D-rated facilities belonging to the company. As such, fire scene investigators found there were no fire detectors or sprinkler system installed at the Ahyeon facility and only a single fire extinguisher present.
South Korea’s other telecommunication carriers utilize over 800 similar facilities throughout the country, none of which are required to have fire detection equipment or sprinklers installed.
Lee said government regulations must be altered to bridge the gaps to ensure that such facilities are required to have redundant services elsewhere in the event of a natural disaster or cyber attack.
Estimates are the blaze resulted in about $7 million in property damage. KT has announced it would compensate affected customers by awarding them a free month of service for their inconvenience. KB security expects that amount to total about $27.5 million.
In a text message to customers, KT said it was “deeply sorry for the inconvenience. We will adopt preventive measures such as safety inspections… to avoid a recurrence.”
Seoul officials told VOA the cause of the fire remains unknown and the investigation to determine its source could last a month.
Lee Ju-hyun contributed to this report.
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Torrential rain triggered flash flooding that turned streets into rivers in Sydney, Australia's biggest city, on Wednesday, causing major disruptions to the morning commute.
A spokesman for Ausgrid, the nation's biggest electricity network, said the storm had so far left 8,100 homes without power around Sydney and the central coast.
There was chaos on the roads, with at least five stranded motorists needing to be plucked from rising floodwaters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
“The storm is pretty intense in and around the airport,” a Sydney airport spokesperson said. “We are operating from a single runway so that means that there are delays and likely some flights will be cancelled.”
The central Sydney area had received 90 millimeters (3.5 inches) of rain, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and state emergency services received dozens of calls for help.
A series of storms was forecast to last through most of the day and ease in the evening, with strong winds continuing.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could reach a new trade deal between the world's two largest economies when they meet in Argentina this weekend, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Tuesday.
"The president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it," he said of Trump. But he cautioned that obstacles remain.
Kudlow said the two leaders must resolve the issues of "fairness and reciprocity" at the center of the dispute.
"China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations," he said. "Their responses have disappointed because ... we can't find much change in their approach."
The U.S. and China over several months have imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports arriving from each other's shores.
On Monday, Trump voiced doubts that a deal would be reached when he meets with Xi Saturday night in Buenos Aires on the sidelines of the G-20 summit of the world's largest economies.
Trump has threatened to impose more tariffs on Chinese exports if the two sides cannot reach what he considers fairer trading between the two countries.
Kudlow said "certain conditions have to be met. ... Intellectual property theft must be solved. Forced technology transfers must be solved."
He said Trump is "not going away" if no deal is reached.
"I hope they understand that," he added.
Authorities in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang have detained an award-winning documentary photographer who was on a trip there, his wife has said.
Lu Guang, 57, has been missing and presumed detained since Nov. 3, when he was in the regional capital, Urumqi, Lu's wife, Xu Xiaoli, said.
Xu said via her Twitter account late on Monday that Lu had been invited by a friend to Urumqi on Oct. 23, and had later traveled to Kashgar, in the south of the region, on Oct. 31.
But his family lost contact with Lu after he returned to Urumqi on the night of Nov. 3, and Xu later learned that her husband and a fellow photographer had been taken back to Kashgar by Chinese state security police, according to a statement pinned to her Twitter account.
Xu declined to comment further when contacted by RFA on Tuesday.
"Everything I know is in my statement, so there is nothing more to say," she said. "There has been no news. I have made a lot of calls to Xinjiang, to numbers I found online, but no one is picking up."
An employee who answered the phone at the Kashgar police department declined to comment in the absence of a missing-persons report.
"His family would need to report him missing to the local police department, and then it would be up to them to keep you informed," the employee said.
Suppressing information
Patrick Poon, China researcher for the London-based rights group Amnesty International, said Lu's sudden disappearance came as Beijing seeks to fend off mounting international criticism of its mass internment of Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic groups in "re-education" camps in Xinjiang.
"The situation in Xinjiang has indeed caused a lot of international concern, so the Chinese government is taking various steps to shut down the flow of information," Poon said.
"I don't know if the authorities are worried about something that Lu Guang photographed [in Xinjiang]," he said. "But they shouldn't suppress it in this way. It won't work, and the effect will be to increase public attention. We call on the international community to watch closely and request that the Chinese government ... release him immediately."
A U.S. green card holder who usually lived in eastern China, Lu has made a name for himself documenting the devastating environmental impact of China's industrialization since the 1990s.
He has been awarded a World Press Photo prize, the Henry Nannen Preis, the W. Eugene Smith Grant Humanitarian Photography Award, the National Geographic Photography Award, and the Dutch Prince Claus Award, as well as a China Photography Award.
Authorities nervous
Wang Longmeng, a political commentator living in France, said Lu's presence in Xinjiang most likely made the authorities there nervous.
"Why has such a well-known photographer been detained in Xinjiang? Maybe it has something to do with the current and highly repressive policies being implemented in Xinjiang right now," Wang said.
"They are building the biggest concentration camps in the world."
He added: "Maybe they were afraid of what Lu Guang would see and reveal on his trip; that he would let the international community know about what is going on in Xinjiang."
Beginning in April 2017, Uighurs accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.
China claims that it has sent an unspecified number of Uighurs influenced by "extremism" to these camps, but many prominent Uighur intellectuals, such as academics, professors, researchers, artists, singers, businessmen and religious leaders are also being detained.
While Beijing initially denied their existence, the Uighur chairman of Xinjiang’s provincial government, Shohrat Zakir, told China’s official Xinhua news agency last month that the facilities are an effective tool to protect the country from terrorism and provide vocational training for Uighurs.
Reporting by RFA’s Uighur service and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities.
Reported by Ng Yik-tung and Sing Man for RFA's Cantonese service, and by He Ping for the Mandarin service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
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The Maldives' Supreme Court on Monday canceled a 13-year jail sentence imposed on former president Mohamed Nasheed for a terrorism conviction, saying prosecutors had provided no evidence to prove his guilt.
Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, was wrongfully charged and the criminal court should not have proceeded to trial, the court said.
Under former leader Abdulla Yameen's administration, which jailed a number of opposition leaders on various charges, the Supreme Court had previously upheld the conviction in 2016.
Yameen lost power in the September presidential election to Nasheed's ally Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
Nasheed was found guilty of ordering the military to arrest and detain the Maldives' criminal court's chief judge in January 2012. He was convicted under terrorism charges in 2015 but the next year was allowed to go to Britain for medical treatment.
He was granted political asylum in Britain and lived there and in Sri Lanka during his three years in exile, during which he worked to garner international support for the opposition and to form the joint-opposition coalition which won the 2018 presidential election.
In Monday's ruling, the court said that Nasheed's terrorism conviction was based on false procedure as prosecutors had not submitted any evidence to prove his guilt.
"As the charges against Nasheed was brought without due process, any process that occurred under those charges are null and void," Chief Justice Ahmed Abdulla Didi said.
He was greeted by jubilant supporters when he emerged from the court building after the judgment was delivered.
"Especially today, I do not believe that my political career is over," Nasheed said as supporters cheered his release.
The arrest of the judge in 2012 triggered a crisis in which Nasheed has said he was forced to resign at gunpoint. His allies say he was ousted in a coup.
Yameen then became president in November 2013 in an election whose second-round runoff was cancelled when early results put Nasheed ahead. When the second round was re-run, Nasheed lost by a narrow margin and conceded defeat.
Nasheed has been critical of the Yameen administration's heavy Chinese debts and has promised to renegotiate all the Chinese projects. He was not allowed to contest the September election.
Chen Hong-zhi's notebooks are his life.
Nine years ago, Chen seriously damaged his hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with forming memories, in a traffic accident.
The 26-year-old has lost the ability to make and retain short-term memories. Instead, he painstakingly records his days in lined notebooks, crammed with entries in blue ink.
"I use the notebook to remember who I helped today, how much farm work I did, whether there was rain ... the notebook is my memory," said Chen, who lives with his stepmother, Wang Miao-cyong, 65, in a remote village in Hsinchu County, northwestern Taiwan.
"I once lost one of my notebooks. I was so sad that I was crying and asked my dad to help me find it."
Since his father died four years ago, Chen and his stepmother have lived on a government disability allowance and a small income they get from farming fruit and vegetables, which they barter with neighbors, some of whom call Chen "notebook boy."
Dr Lin Ming-teng, head of the psychiatry department at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, said Chen has made remarkable progress despite his extensive brain damage.
"From the X-ray, we can see a large part of his brain in black - these are the sections that were operated on after the traffic accident," Lin said.
"After losing such a substantial portion of his brain, it is quite amazing for him to achieve what he is doing now," Lin said, adding that Chen could only remember things he had done in the last five to 10 minutes.
Lin said the damage had also affected Chen's ability to receive and process information.
"This has an effect on his relationship with his mother, too, as sometimes his mother cannot get over the fact that he forgets things," Lin said.
Wang longs to go back to her hometown in Indonesia, but she feels she cannot leave Chen alone.
"If I leave, who will take care of my son? I can't imagine his future after I die."
For now, Chen's notebooks allow him to preserve some semblance of order in his life.
"October 26 go to Beipu alone, Chen clan organization, go find phone, go Catholic church, Citian Temple, 10:38 ZZZ," reads one poignant note about a day he spent searching for, and praying to find, his lost mobile phone.
Ten days later, he found his phone, documenting the find in his notebook, of course.
A French-American man has given up his attempt to swim across the Pacific Ocean after a storm broke the mainsail of his support ship, organizers said Monday.
Ben Lecomte, who had completed about 1,500 nautical miles (2,780 kilometers) of the 5,000-mile (9,260-kilometer) journey, called the premature end to the swim a deep disappointment.
"We"ve faced treacherous winds, rain and ocean swells that have forced us to alter our course, and the irreparable damage to the sail is an insurmountable blow," he said in a news release.
The announcement was made by Seeker, a San Francisco-based online science publisher that partnered with Lecomte and has been documenting his attempt.
Lecomte, of Austin, Texas, set out on June 5 from Japan"s Pacific coast and was swimming an average of eight hours a day. Violent storms had already forced him to interrupt the swim after 500 nautical miles and return to Japan in late July. The mainsail broke on November 10.
The damaged ship and Lecomte are slowly making their way to Hawaii. They are collecting data on plastic pollution in the ocean, one of the scientific aims of the swim.
A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.
If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.
A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.
Many mainstream scientists think it's too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation.
The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have — an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus.
He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was done.
There is no independent confirmation of He's claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts. He revealed it Monday in Hong Kong to one of the organizers of an international conference on gene editing that is set to begin Tuesday, and earlier in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press.
"I feel a strong responsibility that it's not just to make a first, but also make it an example," he told the AP. "Society will decide what to do next" in terms of allowing or forbidding such science.
Some scientists were astounded to hear of the claim and strongly condemned it.
It's "unconscionable... an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible," said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal.
"This is far too premature," said Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. "We're dealing with the operating instructions of a human being. It's a big deal."
However, one famed geneticist, Harvard University's George Church, defended attempting gene editing for HIV, which he called "a major and growing public health threat."
"I think this is justifiable," Church said of that goal.
In recent years scientists have discovered a relatively easy way to edit genes, the strands of DNA that govern the body. The tool, called CRISPR-cas9, makes it possible to operate on DNA to supply a needed gene or disable one that's causing problems.
It's only recently been tried in adults to treat deadly diseases, and the changes are confined to that person. Editing sperm, eggs or embryos is different — the changes can be inherited. In the U.S., it's not allowed except for lab research. China outlaws human cloning but not specifically gene editing.
He Jiankui, who goes by "JK," studied at Rice and Stanford universities in the U.S. before returning to his homeland to open a lab at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, where he also has two genetics companies.
The U.S. scientist who worked with him on this project after He returned to China was physics and bioengineering professor Michael Deem, who was his adviser at Rice in Houston. Deem also holds what he called "a small stake" in — and is on the scientific advisory boards of — He's two companies.
The Chinese researcher said he practiced editing mice, monkey and human embryos in the lab for several years and has applied for patents on his methods.
He said he chose embryo gene editing for HIV because these infections are a big problem in China. He sought to disable a gene called CCR5 that forms a protein doorway that allows HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to enter a cell.
All of the men in the project had HIV and all of the women did not, but the gene editing was not aimed at preventing the small risk of transmission, He said. The fathers had their infections deeply suppressed by standard HIV medicines and there are simple ways to keep them from infecting offspring that do not involve altering genes.
Instead, the appeal was to offer couples affected by HIV a chance to have a child that might be protected from a similar fate.
He recruited couples through a Beijing-based AIDS advocacy group called Baihualin. Its leader, known by the pseudonym "Bai Hua," told the AP that it's not uncommon for people with HIV to lose jobs or have trouble getting medical care if their infections are revealed.
Here is how He described the work:
The gene editing occurred during IVF, or lab dish fertilization. First, sperm was "washed" to separate it from semen, the fluid where HIV can lurk. A single sperm was placed into a single egg to create an embryo. Then the gene editing tool was added.
When the embryos were 3 to 5 days old, a few cells were removed and checked for editing. Couples could choose whether to use edited or unedited embryos for pregnancy attempts. In all, 16 of 22 embryos were edited, and 11 embryos were used in six implant attempts before the twin pregnancy was achieved, He said.
Tests suggest that one twin had both copies of the intended gene altered and the other twin had just one altered, with no evidence of harm to other genes, He said. People with one copy of the gene can still get HIV, although some very limited research suggests their health might decline more slowly once they do.
Several scientists reviewed materials that He provided to the AP and said tests so far are insufficient to say the editing worked or to rule out harm.
They also noted evidence that the editing was incomplete and that at least one twin appears to be a patchwork of cells with various changes.
"It's almost like not editing at all" if only some of certain cells were altered, because HIV infection can still occur, Church said.
Church and Musunuru questioned the decision to allow one of the embryos to be used in a pregnancy attempt, because the Chinese researchers said they knew in advance that both copies of the intended gene had not been altered.
"In that child, there really was almost nothing to be gained in terms of protection against HIV and yet you're exposing that child to all the unknown safety risks," Musunuru said.
The use of that embryo suggests that the researchers' "main emphasis was on testing editing rather than avoiding this disease," Church said.
Even if editing worked perfectly, people without normal CCR5 genes face higher risks of getting certain other viruses, such as West Nile, and of dying from the flu. Since there are many ways to prevent HIV infection and it's very treatable if it occurs, those other medical risks are a concern, Musunuru said.
There also are questions about the way He said he proceeded. He gave official notice of his work long after he said he started it — on Nov. 8, on a Chinese registry of clinical trials.
It's unclear whether participants fully understood the purpose and potential risks and benefits. For example, consent forms called the project an "AIDS vaccine development" program.
The Rice scientist, Deem, said he was present in China when potential participants gave their consent and that he "absolutely" thinks they were able to understand the risks.
Deem said he worked with He on vaccine research at Rice and considers the gene editing similar to a vaccine.
"That might be a layman's way of describing it," he said.
Both men are physics experts with no experience running human clinical trials.
The Chinese scientist, He, said he personally made the goals clear and told participants that embryo gene editing has never been tried before and carries risks. He said he also would provide insurance coverage for any children conceived through the project and plans medical follow-up until the children are 18 and longer if they agree once they're adults.
Further pregnancy attempts are on hold until the safety of this one is analyzed and experts in the field weigh in, but participants were not told in advance that they might not have a chance to try what they signed up for once a "first" was achieved, He acknowledged. Free fertility treatment was part of the deal they were offered.
He sought and received approval for his project from Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital, which is not one of the four hospitals that He said provided embryos for his research or the pregnancy attempts.
Some staff at some of the other hospitals were kept in the dark about the nature of the research, which He and Deem said was done to keep some participants' HIV infection from being disclosed.
"We think this is ethical," said Lin Zhitong, a Harmonicare administrator who heads the ethics panel.
Any medical staff who handled samples that might contain HIV were aware, He said. An embryologist in He's lab, Qin Jinzhou, confirmed to the AP that he did sperm washing and injected the gene editing tool in some of the pregnancy attempts.
The study participants are not ethicists, He said, but "are as much authorities on what is correct and what is wrong because it's their life on the line."
"I believe this is going to help the families and their children," He said. If it causes unwanted side effects or harm, "I would feel the same pain as they do and it's going to be my own responsibility."
Read More First Gene-edited Babies Claimed in China : https://ift.tt/2FIryrX
Police in Cambodia have arrested more than 200 Chinese citizens accused of defrauding people in China over the internet.
Gen. Y Sok Khy, director of the Interior Ministry's Department of Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime, said 36 women were among the 235 Chinese arrested Monday in three different villages in Takeo province, south of the capital, Phnom Penh.
Online scams by Chinese gangs that operate from foreign countries and target mainland Chinese are common throughout Southeast Asia and have been found as far away as Kenya and Spain. Cambodia has arrested and sent at least 1,000 Chinese and Taiwanese residents allegedly involved in such schemes to China since 2012.
The scams are carried out by making phone calls over the internet and employing deception, threats and blackmail against the victims.
A group of South Korean lawmakers landed on an islet disputed with Japan in the East China Sea on Monday, prompting a protest from Tokyo and straining ties at a time when stalled talks over North Korea's nuclear program call for close coordination.
Tokyo and Seoul have long been at loggerheads over the sovereignty of a group of islets called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean, which lie about halfway between the East Asian neighbors in the Sea of Japan, which Seoul refers to as the East Sea.
"This landing on Takeshima by a group of South Korean lawmakers was carried out despite Japan's advance protests and requests to call it off," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference.
"In light of our country's stance on sovereignty over Takeshima, this is by no means acceptable."
It was the lawmakers' second visit to the islands since August 2016, media said.
The two countries share a bitter history that includes Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula and the issue of "comfort women", a Japanese euphemism for South Korean women forced to work in Japanese military brothels in World War II.
South Korea last week shut down a Japan-funded foundation created under a 2015 deal between the Asian neighbors to settle compensation for the women.
South Korea vowed to pursue a more "victim-oriented" approach, but the move prompted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to warn South Korea that it was risking damaging ties by disbanding the fund.
South Korea's top court also ruled last month that Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp must compensate four South Koreans for their forced labor during the war, a verdict Japan denounced as "unthinkable".
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to work towards denuclearization at their landmark June summit in Singapore, but the agreement was short on specifics and negotiations have made little headway since.
The ruling party in Taiwan received a message this weekend to show more achievements, including engagement with the island’s old nemesis China, as the opposition camp swept midterm elections.
The Democratic Progressive Party of President Tsai Ing-wen lost all but six mayoral and county magistrate seats Saturday, the first electoral test of its two years in the presidency. Fifteen seats went to the opposition Nationalist Party, which wants closer ties with China. The ruling party advocates for more distance.
China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, causing decades of friction between the two sides.
“I think if this year, in 2018, if the Nationalists smoothly win Taiwan’s city and county elections, that has some warning effects on the party in power, to let them know they’ve made mistakes in the past two years,” said Taipei voter Hong Wei-chi, 40, a marketing specialist.
Tsai stepped down Saturday night as party chief, though retaining the presidency, to take what she described as “full responsibility” for the election losses. Her premier also offered to resign, and the Central Election Commission head quit over the slow processing of ballots.
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Some voters believe Tsai hasn’t done enough to lift Taiwan’s economy despite data that points to improvement, said Raymond Wu, managing director of political risk consultancy e-telligence in Taipei. Unemployment has fallen to 3.76 percent during Tsai’s term and the economy is forecast to grow 2.68 percent this year.
Others are turned off by the ruling party because it stands by statements and actions that others find problematic, said Gratiana Jung, senior political researcher with the Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute think tank in Taipei. “The elections are not just local, they’re about governing style,” Jung said. “There are people who have criticized the government’s way of communicating as being too arrogant.”
Voters interviewed ahead of the vote said they were looking for local leaders who could build major new infrastructure, stimulate the economy or help particular groups such as youth.
The Democratic Progressive Party formed in 1986 to resist the then-authoritarian rule of the Nationalists, and it now embraces a list of popular liberal causes. Taiwan democratized in the 1980s. Tsai’s flagships achievements to date include pension reform, active support for renewable energy over nuclear power and stronger ties with the United States – a counterbalance to China.
Relations with China
Voters expressed themselves Saturday in part because they want Taiwan’s government to engage China, though not necessarily on Beijing’s terms, said Chao Chien-min, dean of the social sciences college at Chinese Cultural University in Taipei.
The two sides have not talked since 2016 because Tsai rejects China’s precondition that each side sees itself as part of one country – a process informally known as the 1992 Consensus. China, angered by lack of dialogue, has flown military planes near Taiwan, scaled back group tourism and hobbled Taiwan's foreign diplomacy.
The Nationalists accept Beijing’s condition for talks, and when former president Ma Ying-jeou ruled from 2008 to 2016 the two sides signed more than 20 deals on trade, transit and investment.
But voters threw the Nationalists out of local offices in 2014 and the presidency in 2016 as they feared Ma had gotten too cozy with Beijing.
“The public wants you to go accept negotiations with mainland China so previous relations, for example the 20 agreements, can keep being executed, but you need to find your own way of doing it,” Chao said. “It doesn’t have to be the 1992 Consensus. You can find your own golden key.”
Tsai must mind members of her party who advocate formal independence from China -- more than today’s widely supported de facto autonomy and a red line for Beijing. China has claimed Taiwan since the civil war of the 1940s, when the Nationalists lost and rebased in Taipei.
Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Den-yih said after the elections Saturday his camp would keep advocating for stronger relations with Beijing.
Setback for same-sex marriage
Tsai’s party also lost ground Saturday for one of its causes, the legalization of same-sex marriage. Voters passed a referendum asking that marriage be restricted to one man and one woman despite draft legislation last year by ruling party lawmakers suggesting recognition of same-sex ties.
LGBT couples hope Taiwan will be the first place in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage, letting them share child custody and insurance benefits.
Christian groups and advocates of the traditional Chinese family structure stumped for Saturday’s referendum along with a separate ballot measure that suggests using a “different process” to protect same-sex unions, a likely reference to keeping the civil code's marriage wording as is.Both measures passed.
Their campaign may have raised fear among voters, said Shiau Hong-chi, professor of gender studies and communications management at Shih-Hsin University in Taiwan.
“They usually do not illustrate any concrete examples about why they are against (same-sex marriage) and they usually make up some facts like once the laws pass, you cannot call your father papa, you cannot call your mother mama,” Shiau said.
But the referendum is advisory only, and in May 2017 the Constitutional Court ruling ordered parliament to make same-sex marriage legal within two years. Legislators, though mindful of public opinion, are obligated to carry out the legal order.
Read More Taiwan Election Results Pressure Ruling Party to Take Action toward China : https://ift.tt/2AsnztsIt is the first major art museum in New York to close within recent memory. The museum had financial challenges and has faced accusations o...
