Asia
In Xi's China, even internal reports fall prey to censorship
When the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019, reporter Liao Jun of China’s official Xinhua News Agency told conflicting stories to two very different audiences.
Liao’s news dispatches assured readers the disease didn’t spread from person to person. But in a separate confidential report to senior officials, Liao struck a different tone, alerting Beijing that a mysterious, dangerous disease had surfaced.
Her reports to officials were part of a powerful internal reporting system long used by the ruling Communist Party to learn about issues considered too sensitive for the public to know. Chinese journalists and researchers file secret bulletins to top officials, ensuring they get the information needed to govern, even when it’s censored.
But this internal system is struggling to give frank assessments as Chinese leader Xi Jinping consolidates his power, making it risky for anyone to question the party line even in confidential reports, a dozen Chinese academics, businesspeople and state journalists said in interviews with The Associated Press.
It’s unclear what the impact has been, given the secretive nature of high-level Chinese politics. But the risk is ill-informed decision-making with less feedback from below, on everything from China’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to its approach to the coronavirus.
“Powerful leaders become hostages,” said Dali Yang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Chicago. “They actually are living in cocoons: protected, but also shielded from information that they should be open to.”
The reports are classified as state secrets and include what would be considered staples of journalism in many other countries: corruption, strikes, public criticism, industrial accidents.
Newspapers, think tanks and universities across China each have their own classified reporting channel, sending intelligence to local and provincial officials.
But a few outlets, such as Xinhua and the state-controlled People’s Daily, supply intelligence directly to China’s rulers. Their confidential reports have toppled officials, changed policy, and launched government campaigns against poverty and waste.
The Communist Party calls internal reporting a secret weapon, acting as its “eyes and ears,” while propaganda acts as its “throat and tongue.”
Those who write internal reports are often thoughtful and critical, says Maria Repnikova, a Chinese media expert at Georgia State University.
They can face threats or intimidation, even when backed by the state, with officials taking extreme measures to block bad news from reaching their superiors.
Xi is intimately familiar with the power of this internal reporting system, said Alfred Wu, a former reporter who met Xi when he governed Fujian province. Xi cultivated ties with journalists from Xinhua and the People’s Daily, outlets with direct lines to Beijing — and the power to influence his career.
“He’d always mingle and socialize with journalists,” Wu said. “Xi’s street smarts helped him so much.”
After coming to power in 2012, Xi stifled dissent and launched an anti-corruption campaign that jailed rivals. The crackdown has made reporters more cautious about what they write in internal memos.
A Xinhua journalist famed for internal reports that helped take down a senior executive at a state company is now unable to publish, according to a close associate, because the risks are too big.
The internal reports system was also vulnerable to corruption. Officials and businesspeople manipulated it to lobby for their interests. In one incident, Shanxi province officials gave cash and gold ingots to reporters to cover up a mine accident that killed 38 people.
Xi’s crackdown has reined in corruption, but also sidelined many of Xi’s competitors and paralyzed low-level officials reluctant to act without clear permission from the top.
The government’s tightening grip on the internet under Xi is also warping the internal reports.
Decades ago, there were few ways for officials to know what ordinary people thought, making the reports a valuable channel of insight. But the internet “handed everyone their own microphone,” the People’s Daily wrote, resulting in an explosion of information that internal reports struggled to analyze.
The internet also posed a threat: Critics bonded online, organizing to challenge the state.
Xi tackled both issues. Under him, China beefed up big data analysis to harness the vast tide of information.
He also launched a campaign against “online rumors” and put millions of censors to work. One of the first to be detained was an investigative journalist accusing an official of corruption.
So while internal reports now draw heavily on online information, the internet itself has become strictly censored, which can distort the message sent to the top.
Electronic surveillance has also become pervasive under Xi, making it tougher for sensitive information to be shared, one current and one former state media journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to foreign media.
As a result, people withhold critical information — sometimes, with catastrophic consequences.
In the early days of the virus outbreak in Wuhan, Xinhua’s Liao reported the arrest of eight “rumormongers” for spreading “false information.”
In fact, they were doctors warning each other about the emerging virus in online chats. Her story discouraged others from speaking up, leaving the central leadership blind to the virus’ spread.
The information department of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, declined to comment. Xinhua did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment.
The virus story illustrates a paradox of the internal reports: The tighter controls are, the more valuable the reports become. But tighter controls also make it harder to find reliable information.
Interviews with Chinese academics suggest when it comes to decisions made by the top, there’s now little room for discussion or course correction.
Beijing’s public stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is clear: Under Xi’s “no limits” partnership with Russia, officials voice sympathy with Moscow’s grievances with the West, portraying the U.S. as a hypocritical bully and NATO as the aggressor.
But in private conversation, many Chinese foreign policy experts express views that diverge from the party line — a diversity of opinions that isn't being conveyed to China’s leaders, they say.
Many experts worry China has alienated Europe by standing with Russia. A landmark investment deal with the European Union looks all but dead, and Europe is increasingly aligning its China policy with the latter’s biggest rival, the United States.
One scholar took a calculated risk to get his views heard. Government adviser Hu Wei published an online essay in March criticizing the war and arguing Beijing should side with Europe.
Hu wrote publicly because he worried his bosses wouldn’t approve an internal report, according to Zhao Tong, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Even if the piece was censored, he reasoned, it might get the attention of senior officials.
More than 100,000 people viewed Hu’s essay online. Within hours, it was blocked.
Pakistani female journalist crushed to death at ex-PM Imran Khan's march
A female journalist was crushed to death Sunday in Pakistan while covering a political march led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a senior police officer said.
Sadaf Naeem, 36, a television journalist with Channel 5 in Lahore, was crushed to death after she slipped from the container truck Khan was traveling in, said Salman Zafar, assistant superintendent in Kamuke, one of the towns on the march's path.
Khan’s convoy was making its way through Punjab province toward Islamabad on the march's third day. The demonstrators were challenging Khan's successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his government, demanding snap elections. It was the practice of Khan's convoy team to invite a few journalists at a time onto the top of the truck to speak to Khan.
“Shocked & deeply saddened by the terrible accident that led to the death of Channel 5 reporter Sadaf Naeem during our March today," Khan said in a tweet. "I have no words to express my sorrow. My prayers & condolences go to the family at this tragic time. We have cancelled our March for today.”
Sharif also expressed his condolences to Naeem's bereaved family, announcing a roughly $20,000 donation to her relatives.
“Deeply saddened by the death of reporter Sadaf Naeem after falling from a long march container,” Sharif said in a tweet. “Cannot feel sad enough over this tragic incident. Heartfelt condolences to the family. Sadaf Naeem was a dynamic and hardworking reporter. We pray for patience for the family of the deceased.”
Naeem was the breadwinner for her family and had worked as a journalist for 12 years. Pakistani officials say they will bear the living costs and educational expenses of her two children, aged 17 and 21.
About 10,000 of Khan's supporters, many of them piled into hundreds of trucks and cars, left from Lahore on Friday.
The convoy’s journey, expected to be capped with an open-ended rally in Islamabad, could present a significant challenge to the new administration. The rally could potentially also turn violent if police move in to disperse Khan’s supporters.
Witnesses describe South Korean crowd surge as 'a hell'
In one moment, thousands of Halloween revelers crammed into the narrow, vibrant streets of Seoul’s most cosmopolitan neighborhood, eager to show off their capes, wizard hats and bat wings.
In the next, a surge of panic spread as an unmanageable mass of people jammed into a narrow alley in Itaewon. Toppled revelers were trapped for as long as 40 minutes, stacked on one another "like dominoes" in a chaotic crush so intense that clothes were ripped off.
A stunned Seoul was just beginning on Monday to put together the huge scope of the crowd surge on Saturday night that killed at least 153, mostly people in their 20s and 30s, including foreign nationals. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said it expected more deaths because there were more than 130 injured, many in serious condition.
Witnesses described a nightmarish scene as people performed CPR on the dying and carried limp bodies to ambulances, while dance music pulsed from garish clubs lit in bright neon. Others tried desperately to pull out those trapped at the bottom of the crush of people, but often failed because there were too many of the fallen on top of them.
“We were just stuck together so tightly we couldn’t even shift to call out and report the situation,” said one survivor, surnamed Lee. “We were strangers, but we held each others’ hands and repeatedly shouted out, ‘Let’s survive!’”
Read: Seoul Halloween stampede: Death toll climbs to 153
Kim Mi Sung, who works for a non-profit organization in Itaewon, told The Associated Press that nine out of the 10 people she gave CPR to eventually died. Many were bleeding from their noses and mouths. Most were women who dressed as witches or were in other Halloween costumes; two were foreigners.
“It was like a hell,” Kim said. “I still can't believe what happened.”
In this ultra-wired, high-tech country, anguish, terror and grief — as well as many of the details of what happened — are playing out most vividly on social media. Users posted messages desperately seeking friends and loved ones, as witnesses and survivors described what they went through.
“I thought I was dying," one woman said in posts on Twitter. "My entire body was stuck among everyone else, while people laughed from a terrace and videotaped us. I thought I would really die if I cried out. I stretched my hands out to (others) who were above me and I managed to get out.”
An unidentified woman in her 20s wept as she described the scene to the Yonhap news agency: “It looked like the graves of people piled upon one another. Some of them were slowly losing consciousness and others seemed to have already died."
A man, surnamed Kong, said he managed to escape to a nearby bar with his friends after the crush happened. He saw through the bar windows that people were falling on top of each other “like dominoes,” Yonhap reported.
When a 27-year-old office worker who gave only his surname, Choi, left the bar he'd been in during the crush, he saw dozens of police and paramedics. "It kind of looked like a war zone,” he said.
The bodies of 10 to 15 people were lined up in front of the King Kebab restaurant on the asphalt and were being covered up with blue tarps as he walked by.
“It looked like they were sleeping — eyes closed, mouth opened. They looked like mannequins,” Choi said.
Friends and family members gathered at a local government office to try to find news about the missing.
One Twitter user posted a series of messages asking for information about a 17-year-old friend who had gone to Itaewon to celebrate wearing a hairband that looked like cat ears.
Read: PM Sheikh Hasina shocked at tragic loss of lives in Seoul stampede
“I lost contact with her. She’s been a friend of mine for 12 years, and we were like family. Please help me,” the message said.
Even after the crush, witnesses said they saw some revelers not immediately making way for emergency vehicles, rescuers and police officers. One viral video clip on Twitter showing a crowd of young people dancing and singing near the carnage drew several insults from South Koreans.
Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, watched stunned as a dozen or more unconscious partygoers were carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters.
Fallas said police and emergency workers pleaded with people to step up if they knew how to give CPR because they were overwhelmed by the large number of injured.
“I saw a lot of (young) people laughing, but I don’t think they were (really) laughing because, you know, what’s funny?” Fallas said. “They were laughing because they were too scared. Because to be in front of a thing like that is not easy. Not everyone knows how to process that.”
India bridge collapse death toll rises to 141
Police in western India arrested nine people on Monday as they investigated the collapse of a newly repaired 143-year-old suspension bridge in one of the country's worst accidents in years, officials told AP.
At least 141 people, mostly women and children, died after the colonial-era cable bridge over a river collapsed in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Sunday evening.
The tragedy occurred in Morbi district of Gujarat, the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, around 6.45pm.
"The death toll has risen to 141, with the recovery of several bodies overnight. Over 180 others have been rescued and many of them hospitalised with serious injuries," a police officer told the media on Monday.
Over 500 people had thronged the bridge to perform religious rituals when it collapsed. The 140-year-old bridge was repaired and reopened to the public on October 26.
Read more: Bridge that collapsed in India reopened sans 'fitness certificate'
Seoul Halloween stampede: Death toll climbs to 153
South Koreans mourned and searched for relatives lost in the "hell-like” chaos that killed more than 150 people, mostly young adults, when a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.
It remained unclear what led the crowd to surge into the downhill alley in the Itaewon area on Saturday night, and authorities promised a thorough investigation. Witnesses said people fell on each other “like dominoes,” and some victims were bleeding from their noses and mouths while being given CPR.
Kim Mi Sung, an official at a nonprofit organization that promotes tourism in Itaewon, said she performed CPR on 10 people who were unconscious, mostly women wearing witch outfits and other Halloween costumes. Nine of them were declared dead on the spot.
“I still can’t believe what has happened. It was like a hell,” Kim said.
As of Sunday evening, officials said 153 people were killed and 133 were injured. Nearly two-thirds of those killed — 97 — were women. More than 80% of the dead were in their 20s and 30s, and at least four were teenagers.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said the death count could further rise as 37 of the injured people were in serious condition.
Witnesses said many people appeared not to realize the disaster that was unfolding steps away from them. Some clad in Halloween costumes continued to sing and dance nearby as others lay lifeless on the ground.
Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who went to Itaewon with expat friends, used his smartphone to film video showing unconscious people being carried out from the alley as others shouted for help. He said the loud music made things more chaotic.
“When we just started to move forward, there was no way to go back,” Fallas said. “We didn’t hear anything because the music was really loud. Now, I think that was one of the main things that made this so complicated.”
At least 20 of the dead are foreigners from China, Russia, Iran and elsewhere. There is one American among the dead, the Interior Ministry said in a release.
Authorities said thousands of people have called or visited a nearby city office, reporting missing relatives and asking officials to confirm whether they were among those injured or dead after the crush.
The bodies of the dead were being kept at 42 hospitals in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province, according to Seoul City, which said it will instruct crematories to burn more bodies per day as part of plans to support funeral proceedings.
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon for the country’s biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began. The South Korean government had eased COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
While Halloween isn’t a traditional holiday in South Korea — where children rarely go trick-or-treating — it’s still a major attraction for young adults, and costume parties at bars and clubs have become hugely popular in recent years.
Seoul’s marquee Halloween destination is Itaewon, near where the former headquarters of U.S. military forces in South Korea operated for decades before moving out of the capital in 2018. The expat-friendly district is known for its trendy bars, clubs and restaurants.
Witnesses said the streets were so densely clogged with people and slow-moving vehicles that it was practically impossible for emergency workers and ambulances to swiftly reach the alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a one-week national mourning period on Sunday and ordered flags at government buildings and public offices to fly at half-staff. Around 100 businesses in the Hamilton Hotel area have agreed to shut down their shops through Monday to reduce the number of partygoers who would come to the streets through Halloween day.
During a televised speech, Yoon said supporting the families of the victims, including their funeral preparations, and the treatment of the injured would be a top priority for his government. He also called for officials to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident and review the safety of other large cultural and entertainment events.
“This is really devastating. The tragedy and disaster that need not have happened took place in the heart of Seoul amid Halloween (celebrations),” Yoon said during the speech. “I feel heavy hearted and cannot contain my sadness as a president responsible for the people’s lives and safety.”
After the speech, Yoon visited the alley where the disaster occurred. Local TV footage showed Yoon inspecting the trash-filled alley and being briefed by emergency officials.
World leaders offered condolences, including Pope Francis.
“We pray the Risen Lord also for those — especially young people — who died last night in Seoul, due to the tragic consequences of a sudden crush,” Francis said after his Sunday’s Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, inviting the crowd to pray for the victims.
Among the 20 foreigners who died are four from China; three from Russia; two from Iran; and one each from Vietnam, Austria, Norway, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and the United States, the Interior Ministry said. It added the nationalities of the four other foreigners have not been confirmed.
The University of Kentucky issued a statement saying the victims included one of its students who was studying in South Korea this semester with an education abroad program.
Some local media said the tally of foreign dead rose to 26. France and Thailand each said one and Japan said two of their nationals had also died during the Itaewon disaster, but the South Korean Interior Ministry couldn't immediately confirm the reports.
The crowd surge was South Korea's deadliest disaster since 2014, when 304 people, mostly high school students, died in a ferry sinking.
The sinking exposed lax safety rules and regulatory failures. It was partially blamed on excessive and poorly fastened cargo and a crew poorly trained for emergency situations. Saturday’s deaths will likely draw public scrutiny of what government officials have done to improve public safety standards since the ferry disaster.
Nearly 100 dead, dozens missing as storm lashes Philippines
Nearly 100 people have died in one of the most destructive storms to lash the Philippines this year with dozens more feared missing in a mudslide-hit mountainside village, while more than a million others were swamped by floodwater in several provinces, officials said Monday.
At least 53 of 98 people who died — mostly in flooding and landslides — were from Maguindanao in the Bangsamoro autonomous region, which was swamped by unusually heavy rains set off by Tropical Storm Nalgae. The storm blew out of the country and into the South China Sea on Sunday, leaving a trail of destruction in a large swath of the archipelago.
A large contingent of rescuers with bulldozers and backhoes resumed retrieval work in southern Kusiong village in the hard-hit province of Maguindanao, where as many as 80 to 100 people, including entire families, are feared to have been buried by a boulder-laden mudslide or swept away by flash floods that started overnight Thursday, said Naguib Sinarimbo, the interior minister for a Muslim autonomous region run by former separatist guerrillas under a peace pact.
The government’s main disaster-response agency also reported 69 people were injured in the onslaught and at least 63 others remain missing.
More than 1 million people were lashed by the storm, including more than 912,000 villagers who fled to evacuation centers or homes of relatives. More than 4,100 houses and 16,260 hectares (40,180 acres) of rice and other crops were damaged by floodwaters at a time when the country was bracing for a looming food crisis because of global supply disruptions, officials said.
Sinarimbo said the official tally of missing people did not include most of those feared missing in the huge mudslide that hit Kusiong because entire families may have been buried and no member was left to provide names and details to authorities.
The catastrophe in Kusiong, populated mostly by the Teduray ethnic minority group, was particularly tragic because its more than 2,000 villagers have carried out disaster-preparedness drills every year for decades to brace for a tsunami because of a deadly history. But they were not as prepared for the dangers that could come from Mount Minandar, where their village lies at the foothills, Sinarimbo said.
“When the people heard the warning bells, they ran up and gathered in a church on a high ground,” Sinarimbo told The Associated Press on Saturday, citing accounts by Kusiong villagers.
“The problem was, it was not a tsunami that inundated them but a big volume of water and mud that came down from the mountain,” he said.
In August 1976, an 8.1-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami in the Moro Gulf that struck around midnight left thousands of people dead and devastated coastal provinces in one of the deadliest natural disasters in Philippine history.
Lying between the Moro Gulf and 446-meter (1,464-foot) Mount Minandar, Kusiong was among the hardest hit by the 1976 catastrophe. The village never forgot the tragedy. Elderly villagers who survived the tsunami and powerful earthquake passed on the nightmarish story to their children, warning them to be prepared.
“Every year, they hold drills to brace for a tsunami. Somebody was assigned to bang the alarm bells and they designated high grounds where people should run to,” Sinarimbo said. “Villagers were even taught the sound of an approaching big wave based on the recollection of the tsunami survivors.”
“But there wasn’t as much focus on the geo-hazards on the mountainside,” he said.
Bulldozers, backhoes and payloaders were brought to Kusiong on Saturday with more than 100 rescuers from the army, police and volunteers from other provinces, but they were unable to dig at a spot where survivors said the church lay underneath because the muddy mound was still dangerously soft, officials said.
The stormy weather in a large swath of the country hindered transportation as millions of Filipinos planned to travel over a long weekend for visits to relatives’ tombs and for family reunions on All Saints’ Day in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
Nearly 200 domestic and international flights were canceled, Manila’s international airport was briefly closed amid stormy weather and voyages in storm-whipped seas were prohibited by the coast guard, stranding thousands of passengers.
Floodwaters swamped many provinces and cities, trapping some people on their roofs. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed disappointment over the high casualty toll in a televised meeting Saturday with disaster-mitigation officials.
“We should have done better,” Marcos Jr. said. “We were not able to anticipate that the volume of water will be that much so we were not able to warn the people and then to evacuate them out of the way of the incoming flash floods.”
About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippine archipelago each year. It is located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region along most of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the nation one of the world’s most disaster-prone.
Bridge that collapsed in India reopened sans 'fitness certificate'
The cable bridge that collapsed in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Sunday evening, claiming some 91 lives, reopened barely four days ago "but without the mandatory fitness certificate".
The tragedy occurred in Morbi district of Gujarat, the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, around 6.45pm. Over 500 people had thronged the bridge to perform religious rituals at the time.
A senior civic body official told the local media that the colonial-era suspension bridge was closed for over six months for repairs and reopened to the public only on October 26.
Read: 91 killed in India bridge collapse
"It was opened to the public after the completion of the renovation work. But the local municipality had not yet issued any fitness certificate," chief officer of Morbi Municipality Sandeepsinh Zala said.
The state government was quick to accept responsibility for the tragedy and announce a five-member probe panel.
"Renovation happened last week. We are also shocked (at the tragedy). The state government takes responsibility for this tragedy," Brijesh Merja, a Gujarat minister, told the media.
At least 91 killed in India bridge collapse
At least 91 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 80 others injured after a colonial-era cable bridge over a river collapsed in the Indian state of Gujarat on Sunday evening.
The tragedy occurred in Morbi district of Gujarat, the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, around 6.45pm. The PM is currently on a three-day visit to the poll-bound state in western India.
"Over 500 people had thronged the bridge to perform religious rituals when it collapsed. So far, 91 bodies have been found. Over 80 people are being treated at nearby hospitals for injuries," a police officer told the media.
Local TV channels beamed footage of the rescue operations being carried out by the disaster management personnel in search of some 50 others said to be missing after plunging into the river following the tragedy.
It may be mentioned here that the bridge was repaired and reopened to the public barely a week ago.
Read: Halloween crowd stampede in Seoul leaves at least 151 dead
The state government was quick to accept responsibility for the tragedy and announce a five-member probe panel. "Renovation happened last week. The government takes responsibility for this tragedy," Brijesh Merja, a Gujarat minister, told the media.
Modi took to Twitter to condole the deaths. "I am deeply saddened by the tragedy at Morbi. Relief and rescue operations are on in full swing and all necessary assistance is being provided to the affected," he wrote.
The state government also announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh for the family of each deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. This was tweeted by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
Bridge and flyover collapses are not uncommon in India.
How AI is helping Japan convenience stores, supermarkets profit from reduced waste
It is 3pm. In-store computers at a convenience store chain in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward decide which food items should be discounted and by how much. Assorted sandwiches, one, 20 yen ($0.13) off, and crispy ham and lettuce sandwiches, three, 30 yen off, a display says.
Then a manager prints out price tags and goes about attaching them to items. Eight assorted sandwiches line the shelf, but only one, approaching its expiration date, is discounted.
More Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse data such as past sales figures to decide what discounts to apply to perishable products to boost sales and cut food waste, reports Kyodo News Plus.
Lawson Inc, one of Japan's largest convenience store chains, introduced a system in 2015 where AI at its head office advises store managers and experienced staff on product management at all stores.
To calculate how far to lower prices, the software considers a store's sales, delivery times and the local weather conditions to propose a price that gives the product the best chance at being sold.
Seoul Halloween stampede: World leaders offer condolences
World leaders expressed sadness and condolences after at least 151 people were killed in a crowd surge Saturday night in Seoul, South Korea.
The tragedy occurred in Seoul’s Itaewon district during Halloween festivities when a huge crowd surged into a narrow downhill alley. At least 82 others were injured in the South Korea’s deadliest accident in years.
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden sent their “deepest condolences” to the families of the deceased.
“We grieve with the people of the Republic of Korea and wish for a quick recovery to all those who were injured,” said President Biden in a tweet. “The United States stands with the Republic of Korea during this tragic time.”
Similarly, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the news from Seoul as “horrific” on Twitter.
“All our thoughts are with those currently responding and all South Koreans at this very distressing time,” Sunak wrote.
Itaewon’s international character was shaped by its proximity to a U.S. military garrison nearby. The area is still home to restaurants, bars and other businesses catering to the American community in Seoul.
U.S. Forces Korea, which commands the sizable American military presence in the country, expressed its condolences in a Facebook post.
“The Itaewon community has opened its arms to us for many years and is part of the reason our Alliance is so strong,” the command said, writing in English and Korean. “During this time of grief, we will be there for you just as you have been there for us.”
Leaders from countries including Japan, France, China and Singapore reacted with shock and sadness over the tragedy in Seoul.
“I’m hugely shocked and deeply saddened by the extremely tragic accident in Itaewon, Seoul, that took many precious lives, including those of young people with their future ahead of them,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a tweet.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron — who tweeted in both French and in Korean — offered support to Seoul residents and South Korea.
“France is with you,” he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed similar sentiments on Twitter, sending his “deepest condolences” to the people of South Korea “and wishing a fast and full recovery to those who were injured.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping also sent condolences to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, expressing condolences and shock over the stampede accident in Seoul, according to a statement by the Chinese foreign ministry. He also expressed condolences to the victims of the accident and their families.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said in a statement on Facebook that he was saddened by the accident in Seoul.
“I express profound sorrow over the passing of the victims, extend my deepest condolences to their families and wish for a speedy recovery to all those who were injured,” said Lee.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the “tragic events in Seoul come as a shock to all of us.”
“Our thoughts are with the numerous victims and their families,” Scholz said in a tweet. “This is a sad day for South Korea. Germany stands by their side.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she was “heartbroken” by the tragic news from Seoul.
“They were looking for a night of lighthearted Halloween festivities but instead found real horror and death,” said Baerbock. “My thoughts are with the victims, their friends and families, and those who still fear for their loved ones.”
Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob described the loss of lives as “tragic” and said it was “hard to imagine” the trauma and grief experienced by the families, loved ones and friends of those affected.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the people of South Korea during this difficult time, and I wish a quick and full recovery to all those who are injured,” she said.