Asia
Leaders of 2 Koreas exchange letters of hope amid tensions
The leaders of the rival Koreas exchanged letters expressing hope for improved bilateral relations, which plummeted in the past three years amid a freeze in nuclear negotiations and North Korea’s accelerating weapons development.
North Korea’s state media said leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday received a personal letter from outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in and replied on Thursday with his own letter appreciating Moon’s peace efforts during his term.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Friday their exchange of letters showed their “deep trust.”
Moon in his letter to Kim acknowledged setbacks in inter-Korean relations but insisted that their aspirational vows for peace during their summits in 2018 and an accompanying military agreement aimed at defusing border area clashes remain relevant as a foundation for future cooperation.
Moon also expressed hope for a resumption of nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang and for Kim to pursue cooperation with Seoul’s next government led by conservative President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, Moon’s spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen since a series of North Korean weapons tests this year, including its first flight-test of an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017 in March, reviving the nuclear brinkmanship aimed at forcing the U.S. to accept it as a nuclear power and to remove crippling sanctions.
Also Read: North Korea tests new weapon bolstering nuclear capability
South Korea’s military has also detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before Kim’s first meeting with then-President Donald Trump in June 2018, a possible indicator that the country is preparing to resume nuclear explosive tests.
Staking his single presidential term on inter-Korean rapprochement, Moon met Kim three times in 2018 and lobbied hard to help set up Kim’s meetings with Trump. But the diplomacy never recovered from the collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting in 2019 in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.
Kim has since vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent to counter “gangster-like” U.S. pressure and sped up his weapons development despite limited resources and pandemic-related difficulties.
North Korea also severed all cooperation with Moon’s government while expressing anger over the continuation of U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which were curtailed in recent years to promote diplomacy with the North, and Seoul’s inability to wrest concessions from Washington on its behalf.
KCNA said Moon wrote in his letter to Kim that he will continue to support efforts for Korean reunification based on their joint declarations for inter-Korean peace issued after their meetings in 2018.
Kim and Moon shared views that “inter-Korean relations would improve and develop as desired and anticipated by the (Korean) nation if the (North and the South) make tireless efforts with hope,” KCNA said.
South Korea’s next leader could take a harder line toward Pyongyang. Yoon, who takes office May 10, has rejected pursuing “talks for talks’ sake” with North Korea and vowed to bolster Seoul’s alliance with Washington and resume their full-scale military exercises to counter the North’s nuclear threat.
Analysts say North Korea is also likely to escalate its weapons demonstrations in coming weeks or months to force a reaction from the Biden administration, which has been focused on Russia’s war on Ukraine and a rivalry with China.
Also Read: North Korea fires ballistic missile in extension of testing
The administration’s actions on North Korea have so far been limited to largely symbolic sanctions imposed over a series of missile tests this year and offers of open-ended talks that were quickly turned down by Pyongyang’s leadership.
There are views in Seoul that Washington is slipping back to the Obama administration’s “strategic patience” policy of ignoring North Korea until it demonstrates seriousness about denuclearization, although that approach was criticized for neglecting a gathering nuclear threat.
Biden’s special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, traveled to Seoul this week for meetings with senior South Korean officials and said they agreed on the need for a strong response to counter North Korea’s “destabilizing behavior.”
After maintaining a conciliatory tone for years, Moon’s government objected more strongly to North Korea’s weapons tests this year, criticizing Kim’s government for ending its self-imposed suspension of long-range missile testing and urging a return to diplomacy.
Seoul has also accused North Korea of destroying South Korean-owned facilities at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort where they ran tours together until 2008. Kim in 2019 called the South Korean facilities there “shabby” and ordered them destroyed, though the work was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
India condemns US lawmaker's Kasmir visit
India has condemned a prominent US lawmaker's visit to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is currently on a four-day tour of neighbouring Pakistan. She has already called on Pakistan Premier Shahbaz Sharif and his predecessor Imran Khan. But her visit to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir has irked India.
"If such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home that may be her business, but violating our territorial integrity in its pursuit makes this ours," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told the media in Delhi on Thursday.
Read: FM questions quality of US HR report on Bangladesh
Kashmir has for long been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan, with both staking claim to the disputed territory. Both the countries have fought at least three major wars over the disputed territory in the past 70 years.
The 39-year-old lawmaker represents Minnesota in the US House of Representatives.
Gaza violence intensifies as Jerusalem clashes resume
Israel’s air force and Palestinian militants traded fire across the Gaza frontier early Thursday as clashes erupted again at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, worsening an escalation that has been eerily similar to the lead-up to last year’s Israel-Gaza war.
The violence along the Gaza front, fueled by the unrest between Israeli police and Palestinians in Jerusalem, appears to be the heaviest-cross-border fighting since last year’s 11-day war and comes despite efforts to prevent a repeat. A rocket fired from Gaza this week shattered a months-long period of calm that followed the war.
Palestinian militants fired two rockets toward Israel from the Gaza Strip late Wednesday and early Thursday, and Israeli aircraft hit militant targets in the seaside, Hamas-ruled enclave. One rocket landed in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, a frequent target, and another fell short and landed in Gaza, the Israeli military said. The launches set off air-raid sirens across parts of southern Israel, disrupting the quiet of the Passover holiday week.
Early Thursday, Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip, local media reported. Social media posts by activists showed smoke billowing in the air. The Israeli military said the airstrikes were aimed at a militant site and the entrance of a tunnel leading to an underground complex holding chemicals to make rockets.
The military later said its planes attacked another Hamas compound after an anti-aircraft missile was fired from Gaza. It said the missile failed to hit its target and no injuries or damage were reported.
The latest Israeli-Palestinian tensions boiled over after a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, which then sparked days-long, sometimes lethal, arrest raids by the military in a flashpoint West Bank city and spread into daily clashes in Jerusalem. This year, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has coincided with Passover, a time of heightened religious observances and visits by large numbers of people to Jerusalem.
Read: Sri Lanka police open fire at protesters; 1 dead, 13 injured
Israeli police said dozens of masked protesters holed up in the Al-Aqsa Mosque early Thursday, sealed the doors and began throwing rocks and firecrackers. Police said they attempted to disperse the Palestinians using “riot dispersal means,” without elaborating, and that forces did not enter the mosque itself.
A Palestinian official from the Waqf, which administers the site, said large numbers of police used stun grenades to clear out the site. He said police also fired stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets against Palestinians who had sealed themselves inside the mosque. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident with the media.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 20 people were injured, one critically.
Similar clashes have taken place throughout the week, while fiercer ones broke out at the site earlier this month, wounding more than 150 Palestinians and three police officers.
The Palestinians have accused Israeli police of using excessive force at the holy site, and Palestinian social media have been filled with videos showing Israeli forces striking what appear to be unarmed Palestinians, including women. Police say Palestinians instigate the violence and have released their own videos showing young Palestinian men throwing rocks and fireworks toward the security forces. Police say the Palestinians are desecrating their own shrine and putting others at risk.
Jordan, which administers the Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Thursday held an emergency meeting of a regional committee over what it called “illegal Israeli policies and measures” in Jerusalem.
The committee includes member countries who have recently normalized ties with Israel, including the United Arab Emirates. The country’s top diplomat, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid spoke by phone Thursday. Al Nahyan called for stability according to the United Arab Emirates’ state-run WAM news agency.
Read: Surprisingly low Shanghai COVID death count spurs questions
A U.S. State Department delegation is also in the region in a bid to secure calm.
The scenes of rocket fire and repeated violence in Jerusalem recall the run-up to last year’s war. Last year, the violence also spread to mixed Jewish-Arab cities, which hasn’t happened in the current wave of unrest.
On Wednesday, hundreds of flag-waving Israeli ultra-nationalists marched toward predominantly Palestinian areas around Jerusalem’s Old City, a demonstration of Israeli control over the disputed city seen as a provocation by Palestinians. Last year’s war erupted during a similar march, when Gaza militants, declaring themselves the guardians of Jerusalem, fired a barrage of rockets toward the holy city.
Those events, along with other developments, led to an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas that killed over 250 Palestinians and 14 people in Israel, causing extensive damage in Gaza.
This year, Israeli police closed the main road leading to the Damascus Gate of the Old City and the heart of Muslim Quarter. After some pushing and shoving with police, the marchers rallied near the barricades, waving flags, singing and chanting.
Israeli nationalists stage such marches to try to assert sovereignty over east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in 1967, along with the West Bank and Gaza, and annexed in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians seek an independent state in all three territories and consider east Jerusalem their capital.
The hilltop shrine in the Old City is the emotional ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the center of previous rounds of violence. Known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, it is the third holiest site in Islam. It is also the holiest site in Judaism, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site of their biblical temples.
Israel says it is maintaining a decades-old status quo at the site, which prevents Jews from praying there. But during the Passover holiday this year, visits by Jews have skyrocketed and in some cases Jews have been praying at the compound. Palestinians view the visits, under police escort, as a provocation and possible prelude to Israel taking over the site or partitioning it.
For Palestinians, the mosque compound, administered by Muslim clerics, is also a rare place in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem where they have a measure of control.
Palestinian militant groups in Gaza — the ruling Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad — have positioned themselves as defenders of the Jerusalem holy site. On Wednesday, Hamas said Israel would bear “full responsibility for the repercussions” if it allowed the marchers “to approach our holy sites.”
British PM arrives in India
British Premier Boris Johnson on Thursday arrived in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat on a two-day India visit, a tour expected to give fresh impetus to the proposed bilateral free-trade agreement.
"It’s fantastic to be in India, the world’s largest democracy," Johnson tweeted after his flight landed at the international airport in the city of Ahmedabad this morning.
Also read: 10 killed in India road accident
"I see vast possibilities for what our great nations can achieve together. Our powerhouse partnership is delivering jobs, growth and opportunity. I look forward to strengthening this partnership in the coming days," he wrote.
From the airport, the British PM went to Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and tried his hand at spinning the charkha.
"It is an immense privilege to come to the Ashram of this extraordinary man, and to understand how he mobilised such simple principles of truth and non-violence to change the world for the better," he wrote in the visitor's book at the ashram.
On Friday, Johnson is slated to meet PM Modi in Delhi where both the leaders are expected to discuss trade, defence and Indo-Pacific, among other issues.
Also read: 14 arrested after communal violence in Indian capital
Speaking to reporters on the plane on his way to India, the British PM said, "I have always been in favour of talented people coming to this country."
"We are short to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people in our economy and we need to have a progressive approach and we will," he added.
Chinese credit card processor rebuffs Russian banks: Report
China’s credit card processor has refused to work with banks in Russia for fear of being targeted by sanctions over its war on Ukraine, cutting off a possible alternative after Visa and Mastercard stopped serving them, according to the Russian news outlet RBC.
UnionPay’s decision affects Sberbank, Russia’s biggest commercial bank, and smaller institutions, RBC reported Wednesday. It cited five unidentified sources in large Russian banks.
Also read: China looks to learn from Russian failures in Ukraine
Mastercard and Visa suspended operations in Russia after the United States and other governments imposed trade and financial sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s government for its attack on Ukraine.
Sberbank and another institution, Tinkoff Bank, announced they were looking at switching to UnionPay, which is operated by Chinese state-owned banks. UnionPay is one of the biggest global payments processors but does almost all its business in China.
American officials have warned that governments or companies that try to undermine sanctions will face consequences. RBC said UnionPay wanted to avoid such “secondary sanctions.”
Also read: China renews calls for peace talks to end Russia-Ukraine war
Chinese President Xi Jinping's government has called Russia its “most important strategic partner” and criticized sanctions on Moscow. But Chinese companies and banks appear to be complying with trade and financial restrictions.
Other banks cited by RBC include Alfa Bank, VTB, Otkrytie and Promsvyazbank.
Surprisingly low Shanghai COVID death count spurs questions
Lu Muying died on April 1 in a government quarantine facility in Shanghai, with her family on the phone as doctors tried to resuscitate her. She had tested positive for COVID-19 in late March and was moved there in line with government policy that all coronavirus cases be centrally isolated.
But the 99-year-old, who was just two weeks shy of her 100th birthday, was not counted as a COVID-19 death in Shanghai's official tally. In fact, the city of more than 25 million has only reported 25 coronavirus deaths despite an outbreak that has spanned nearly two months and infected hundreds of thousands of people in the world’s third-largest city.
Lu’s death underscores how the true extent of the virus toll in Shanghai has been obscured by Chinese authorities. Doctors told Lu's relatives she died because COVID-19 exacerbated her underlying heart disease and high blood pressure, yet she still was not counted.
Interviews with family members of patients who have tested positive, a publicly released phone call with a government health official and an internet archive compiled by families of the dead all raise issues with how the city is counting its cases and deaths, almost certainly resulting in a marked undercount.
The result is a blurred portrait of an outbreak that has sweeping ramifications for both the people of Shanghai and the rest of the world, given the city’s place as an economic, manufacturing and shipping hub.
Also read:Shanghai reports 1st deaths from current COVID-19 outbreak
An Associated Press examination of the death toll sheds light on how the numbers have been clouded by the way Chinese health authorities tally COVID-19 statistics, applying a much narrower, less transparent, and at times inconsistent standard than the rest of the world.
In most countries, including the United States, guidelines stipulate that any death where COVID-19 is a factor or contributor is counted as a COVID-related death.
But in China, health authorities count only those who died directly from COVID-19, excluding those, like Lu, whose underlying conditions were worsened by the virus, said Zhang Zuo-Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“If the deaths could be ascribed to underlying disease, they will always report it as such and will not count it as a COVID-related death, that’s their pattern for many years,” said Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong’s medical school.
That narrower criteria means China's COVID-19 death toll will always be significantly lower than those of many other nations.
Both Jin and Zhang said this has been China’s practice since the beginning of the pandemic and is not proof of a deliberate attempt to underreport the death count.
However, Shanghai authorities have quietly changed other standards behind the scenes, in ways that have violated China’s own regulations and muddied the virus’ true toll.
During this outbreak, Shanghai health authorities have only considered virus cases where lung scans show a patient with evidence of pneumonia as “symptomatic,” three people, including a Chinese public health official, told the AP. All other patients are considered “asymptomatic” even if they test positive and have other typical COVID-19 symptoms like sneezing, coughing or headaches.
This way of classifying asymptomatic cases conflicts with China's past national guidelines. It's also a sharp change from January, when Wu Fan, a member of Shanghai’s epidemic prevention expert group, said that those with even the slightest symptoms, like fatigue or a sore throat, would be “strictly” classified as a symptomatic case.
Further adding to the confusion, the city has overlapping systems to track whether someone has the virus. City residents primarily rely on what's called their Health Cloud, a mobile application that allows them to see their COVID-19 test results. However, the Shanghai health authorities have a separate system to track COVID-19 test results, and they have the sole authority to confirm cases. At times, the data between the systems conflict.
In practice, these shifting and inconsistent processes give China's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “wiggle room” to determine COVID-related deaths, said the Chinese health official, allowing them to rule out the coronavirus as being the cause of death for people who didn’t have lung scans or positive test results logged on their apps. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.
In response to questions about Shanghai's COVID-19 figures, China’s top medical authority, the National Health Commission, said in a fax that there is “no basis to suspect the accuracy of China’s epidemic data and statistics.” Shanghai’s city government did not respond to a faxed request for comment.
Statements from the authorities are little comfort to the relatives of the dead. Chinese internet users, doubting the official figures, have built a virtual archive of the deaths that have occurred since Shanghai’s lockdown based on firsthand information posted online. They have recorded 170 deaths so far.
Chinese media reports on the unrecorded COVID-19 deaths have been swiftly censored, and many criticisms of Shanghai’s stringent measures expunged online. Instead, state media has continued to uphold China's zero-COVID approach as proof of the success of its political system, especially as the world's official death toll climbs past 6.2 million.
Also read: Shanghai quarantine: 24-hour lights, no hot showers
Earlier this month, doubts over the data burst into public view when a Shanghai resident uploaded a recording of a phone conversation he had with a CDC officer in which he questioned why city health authorities told his father he had tested positive for COVID-19 when data on his father’s mobile application showed up as negative.
“Didn’t I tell you to not look at the Health Cloud?" said the official, Zhu Weiping, referring to the app. "The positive cases are only from us notifying people.”
Others skeptical of the data include relatives of Zong Shan, an 86-year-old former Russian translator who died March 29. Despite testing positive and being moved to a government quarantine facility, online test results showed Zong supposedly was negative for COVID-19 on the day of her death.
“My relative, like most of the other people in Shanghai who were notified as positive, all reported negative results” on the Health Cloud app, one of Zong's relatives said, declining to be named for fear of retribution.
Zong was taken to a government quarantine facility from the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital on March 29, and died there that night. The family was told by hospital staff she was being transferred after she tested positive for COVID-19. But they didn't think the virus was the biggest threat to her health — rather, it was the dearth of nursing care at the quarantine facility. Zong needed to be fed liquids and couldn't eat without assistance.
She had been in stable condition before the transfer, said a relative. When the family asked for the cause of death, doctors didn't give a clear answer.
“They gave me very vague answers. One minute they said it was stroke, then they said this was also just a hypothesis,” said the relative. “But on one point, they were very clear, they said it had nothing to do with COVID. Her lungs were clear.”
Lu, who was also transferred from the Donghai hospital, would have celebrated her 100th birthday April 16; her relatives had ordered a cake and gotten permission to host a small celebration Thursday. But when she tested positive, the family made mental preparations for her death, acknowledging she had lived a long life.
But the strange thing, a relative said, was the night before she died, the doctor had specifically called the family to let them know Lu was now testing negative for COVID-19. Ultimately, the doctor said she died because the virus had worsened her underlying illnesses, said the relative, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue.
Further, the family knew of another patient from the same hospital, a neighbor, who died the day after being transferred to a quarantine facility on March 25 and also had not been counted.
Jin, the Hong Kong virologist, noted the potential political benefits of Shanghai's low official COVID-19 death toll.
“They might claim this is their achievement, and this is is their victory,” Jin said.
China looks to learn from Russian failures in Ukraine
With its ground troops forced to pull back in Ukraine and regroup, and its Black Sea flagship sunk, Russia’s military failings are mounting. No country is paying closer attention than China to how a smaller and outgunned force has badly bloodied what was thought to be one of the world’s most powerful armies.
China, like Russia, has been ambitiously reforming its Soviet-style military and experts say leader Xi Jinping will be carefully parsing the weaknesses exposed by the invasion of Ukraine as they might apply to his own People’s Liberation Army and his designs on the self-governed island of Taiwan.
“The big question Xi and the PLA leadership must be asking in light of Russian operations in Ukraine is whether a military that has undergone extensive reform and modernization will be able to execute operations that are far more complex than those Russia has undertaken during its invasion of Ukraine,” said M. Taylor Fravel, director of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Russia’s armed forces have undergone an extensive process of reform and investment for more than a decade, with lessons learned in combat in Georgia, Chechnya, Syria and its annexation of Crimea helping guide the process. The Ukrainian invasion, however, has exposed weaknesses from the top down.
Experts have been collectively stunned that Russia invaded Ukraine with seemingly little preparation and lack of focus — a campaign along multiple, poorly-coordinated axes that has failed to effectively combine air and land operations.
Soldiers have been running out of food, and vehicles have been breaking down. With losses mounting, Moscow has pulled its bloodied forces away from the capital, Kyiv, to regroup. Last week, the guided-missile cruiser Moskva sank after Ukraine said it hit the ship with missiles; Russia blamed the sinking on a fire on board.
“It’s very hard to see success at any level in the way that Russia has prosecuted the campaign,” said Euan Graham, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies based in Singapore.
Also Read: China-renews calls for peace talks to end Russia-Ukraine war
President Vladimir Putin, who has been closely involved in Russia’s military reform, did not even appoint an overall commander for the operation until about a week ago, apparently expecting a quick victory and grossly misjudging Ukrainian resistance, Graham said.
“It’s a very personal war on his part,” Graham said. “And I think the expectation that this would be a cakewalk is obviously the biggest single failure.”
Putin’s decisions raise the question of whether he was given accurate assessments of the progress of military reform and Ukrainian abilities, or was just told what he wanted to hear.
Xi, also an authoritarian leader who has taken a personal role in China’s military reform, could now be wondering the same, Fravel said.
“Xi specifically may also wonder whether he is receiving accurate reports about the PLA’s likely effectiveness in a high intensity conflict,” he said.
China has had no recent major conflict by which to gauge its military prowess, having fought its last significant engagement in 1979 against Vietnam, said David Chen, a senior consultant with CENTRA Technology, a U.S.-based government services firm.
“The wakeup call for (China’s) Central Military Commission is that there are more unknown factors involved in any such campaign than they may have anticipated,” Chen said.
“Russia’s experience in Ukraine has shown that what may seem plausible on paper at the Academy of Military Science or National Defense University becomes much more complicated in the real world.”
Xi, the son of a revolutionary commander who spent time in uniform himself, began undertaking military reforms in 2015, three years after assuming leadership of the Central Military Commission.
Total troop strength was reduced by 300,000 to just under 2 million, the number of officers cut by a third and a greater emphasis given to non-commissioned officers to lead in the field.
China’s military has a tradition of respect for initiative from lower-ranking soldiers dating from its revolutionary origins, said Yue Gang, a Beijing-based military analyst. By contrast, Russian forces in Ukraine have shown weaknesses where decisions have had to be made on the front lines, he said.
“Chinese soldiers are encouraged to put forward their thoughts and views when discussing how to fight,” Yue said.
China’s seven military districts have been reorganized into five theater commands, the number of group armies reduced and the logistics system reorganized to boost efficiency. The ratio of support to combat units was increased and a greater emphasis placed on more mobile and amphibious units.
Xi has also sought to end rampant corruption in the military, going after two former top generals shortly after taking power. One was sentenced to life in prison and the other died before his case was concluded.
China’s military is highly opaque and outside the purview of civilian judges and corruption investigators, so it’s difficult to know how thoroughly the organization has been exorcised of practices such as the selling of commissions and kickbacks on defense contracts.
For Xi, the military’s primary mission remains to protect the ruling Communist Party, and he has followed his predecessors in fighting back hard against efforts to have the military shift its ultimate loyalty to the nation.
Xi’s overriding political focus could mean the lessons he draws from the Ukraine conflict are off base, Graham said.
“Xi Jinping will always apply a political solution because he’s not a military specialist or an economic specialist,” Graham said. “I think the military lessons have to go through a political filter, so I’m not sure that China will take the lessons that are abundant and on show for everyone to see.”
The stated goal of China’s military reform is to “fight and win wars” against a “strong enemy” — a euphemism widely understood to refer to the United States.
China has pumped huge amounts of money into new equipment, has initiated more realistic training exercises with force-on-force scenarios, and sought to reform its fighting doctrine by studying American engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Gen. David Berger, the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, said in a forum in Australia last week that Beijing would be watching the Ukraine conflict closely.
Also Read: Russia hits Ukrainian cities pours more troops into war
“I don’t know what lessons they will learn but ... they’re focused on learning, without a doubt, because they’ve been doing that for the last 15 years,” he said.
Berger stressed the need for strong coalitions in the Pacific as a way to keep China’s ambitions toward Taiwan in check.
China claims Taiwan as its own, and controlling the island is a key component of Beijing’s political and military thinking. In October, Xi again reiterated that “reunification of the nation must be realized, and will definitely be realized.”
Washington’s longstanding policy has been to provide political and military support for Taiwan, while not explicitly promising to defend it from a Chinese attack.
Like Putin’s assessment of Ukraine, Xi’s China does not appear to believe that Taiwan would try to put up much of a fight. Beijing routinely blames its problems with the island on a small group of hardcore independence advocates and their American supporters.The entirely state-controlled Chinese media, meanwhile, draws on the imagined narrative that Taiwan would not willingly go to battle against what it describes as their fellow Chinese.
Now, the quick response by many nations to impose tough, coordinated sanctions on Russia after its attack on Ukraine, and the willingness to supply Ukraine with high-tech weaponry could make Xi rethink his approach to Taiwan, Fravel said.
With “the rapid response by advanced industrialized states, and the unity they have demonstrated, Xi is likely to be more cautious over Taiwan and less emboldened,” he said.
Conversely, the Ukraine experience could prompt China to accelerate its timetable on Taiwan with a more limited attack, such as seizing an outlying island, as a real-world test of its own military, Chen said.
“A sensible course would be to mature the PLA’s joint institutions and procedures through ever more rigorous exercises,” Chen said.
“But as the world has witnessed, a central leader with a specific ambition and a shortening timeline may short-circuit the process in reckless fashion.”
Sri Lanka police open fire at protesters; 1 dead, 13 injured
Sri Lankan police opened fire Tuesday at people protesting new fuel price increases, killing one and injuring 13 others, in the first shooting by security forces during weeks of demonstrations over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Fifteen police personnel were also admitted to a hospital with minor injuries after clashes with protesters.
Police confirmed they shot at the protesters in Rambukkana, 90 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of Colombo, the capital, and they declared a local curfew afterward. Police spokesman Nihal Talduwa said the demonstrators were blocking railway tracks and roads and had ignored police warnings to disperse. He said protesters also threw rocks at police.
Dr. Mihiri Priyangani of the government hospital in Kegalle said 14 people were brought there with suspected gunshot wounds and one had died. Three others had undergone surgeries and were being monitored. The police in the hospital had minor injuries, possibly from being hit by stones, she said.
Read: Sri Lankan PM says president’s powers will be reduced
Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, with nearly $7 billion of its total $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment this year. A severe shortage of foreign exchange means the country lacks money to buy imported goods.
U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung and U.N. Resident Coordinator Hanaa Singer-Hamdy urged restraint from all sides and called on the authorities to ensure the people’s right to peaceful protest.
Chung called for an independent investigation into the shooting.
Sri Lankans have endured months of shortages of essentials such as food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine, lining up for hours to buy the very limited stocks available.
Fuel prices have risen several times in recent months, resulting in sharp increases in transport costs and prices of other essentials. There was another round of increases at midnight Monday.
Thousands of protesters continued to occupy the entrance to the president’s office for an 11th day Tuesday, blaming him for the economic crisis. At night, the crowd outside his office in Colombo held up their phones as illumination during a vigil condemning the shooting in Rambukkana.
Sri Lanka’s prime minister said Tuesday that the constitution will be changed to clip presidential powers and empower Parliament, as protesters continued to demand that the president and his powerful family quit.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament that the power shift is a quick step that can be taken to politically stabilize the country and help talks with the International Monetary Fund over an economic recovery plan.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the prime minister’s brother, concentrated power in the presidency after being elected in 2019.
“While looking for solutions to the economic problems, it is important that we have political and social stability in the country,” Prime Minister Rajapaksa said, adding that restoring more power to Parliament will be a start to the reforms.
The Rajapaksa brothers are likely to retain their grip on power even if the constitution is amended, since they hold both offices.
Read: Pakistan’s new Cabinet sworn in at presidency in Islamabad
President Rajapaksa acknowledged on Monday that he made mistakes which had led to the crisis, such as delaying an appeal to the IMF for help and banning agrochemicals with the aim of making Sri Lankan agriculture fully organic. Critics say the ban on imported fertilizer was aimed at conserving the country’s declining foreign exchange holdings and badly hurt farmers.
Both the president and prime minister have refused to step down, resulting in a political impasse. Opposition parties have rejected the president’s proposal of a unity government, but have been unable to put together a majority in Parliament and form a new government.
In a Cabinet reshuffle Monday, the president appointed many new faces and left out four family members who had held Cabinet and non-Cabinet posts, in an apparent attempt to please the protesters without giving up his family’s grip on power.
Finance Minister Ali Sabry met with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Washington and requested a rapid financing facility for countries facing urgent balance of payment crises, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
It said Georgieva told Sabry that India had also backed Sri Lanka’s request for the facility.
Later, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met with Sabry and assured him of India’s support for Sri Lanka’s economic recovery, the ministry said.
Sri Lanka has also turned to China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel.
Pakistan’s new Cabinet sworn in at presidency in Islamabad
The Cabinet of Pakistan’s newly-elected prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, was sworn in Tuesday during a brief ceremony.
Acting President Sadiq Sanjrani administered the oath to the 34 ministers at the white marble palace known as the Presidency in the capital, Islamabad. Sharif also attended the ceremony. His election April 11 ousted former prime minister Imran Khan.
Read: Sharif sworn in as Pakistan’s new PM after week of drama
Sharif’s former political rivals are also part of his coalition government.
The portfolios for the ministers are expected to be announced later Tuesday.
Among prominent lawmakers who were inducted into the Cabinet is Khawaja Mohammad Asif, a former defense minister and a member of the Pakistan Muslim League party. Several politicians from the party of former President Asif Ali Zardari are also part of the Cabinet, including Khursheed Shah and Sherry Rehman.
Read: Sri Lankan PM says president’s powers will be reduced
Sharif ousted Khan through a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament. Khan lost the grip on power after being deserted by his party allies and a key coalition partner earlier this month.
Since then, Khan has demanded new elections at rallies, saying the new government was imposed under a US conspiracy, a charge Washington has denied, and which the new government in Pakistan says was a pack of lies.
Sri Lankan PM says president’s powers will be reduced
Sri Lanka’s prime minister said Tuesday the constitution will be changed to clip presidential powers and empower Parliament as protesters continued to call on the president and his powerful family to quit over the country’s economic crisis.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament that the power transfer will be one of the quick steps that can be taken to politically stabilize the country and help talks with the International Monetary Fund for an economic recovery plan.
“While looking for solutions to the economic problems, it is important that we have political and social stability in the country,” Rajapaksa said, adding that reverting to a constitutional status with more powers to Parliament will be start to the reforms.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is the prime minister’s brother, concentrated more powers in the presidency on being elected to the office in 2019.
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Thousands of protesters were occupying the entrance to the president’s office for a 11th day Tuesday, holding him responsible for the economic crisis.
President Rajapaksa on Monday admitted that he made mistakes like delaying going to the IMF for help and banning agrochemicals with the aim of converting Sri Lanka’s agriculture to fully organic, leading to the crisis.
However, both the president and prime minister have refused to step down, resulting in a political impasse. Opposition parties have rejected the president’s offer to join a unity government, but they are unable to hold a majority in Parliament and form a new government.
In a Cabinet reshuffle Monday, the president appointed many new faces and left out four family members who held Cabinet and non-Cabinet ministries in what seemed an attempt to please the protesters without giving up his family’s grip on power.
The Rajapaksa brothers are likely to retain their same grip on power even if the constitution is amended, since they hold both offices.
Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy, with nearly $7 billion of its total $25 billion in foreign debt due for repayment this year. A severe shortage of foreign exchange means the country lacks money to buy imported goods.
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People have endured months of shortages of essentials like food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine, lining up for hours to buy the very limited stocks available.
Last week, the government said it was suspending repayment of foreign loans pending talks with the IMF. Finance Minister Ali Sabry and officials left for talks with the IMF on Sunday. The IMF and World Bank are holding annual meetings in Washington this week.
Sri Lanka has also turned to China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel.