The Committee to Protect Journalists and a group of Southeast Asian lawmakers have called for the “active engagement” of the regional bloc ASEAN in protecting press freedom and the formation of an inter-parliamentary alliance to safeguard media rights in the region, which includes some of the worst offenders of press freedom.
As governments escalate efforts to intimidate reporters and control narratives, journalism — and democracy itself — is under threat, said CPJ and the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, a group of lawmakers working to improve rights in the region. In a joint statement on the eve of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, they also called for stronger protection mechanisms for reporters and the reform of repressive laws that criminalize journalism.
There were at least 52 journalists behind bars in Southeast Asia on December 1, 2024, CPJ’s latest annual globalprison census shows. They were mainly held in Myanmar and Vietnam, while one journalist was being held in the Philippines. The Philippines and Myanmar have also consistentlyranked among the top offenders where murderers of journalists go free.
Among candidates to be the next head of the Catholic Church, several prominent cardinals in Asia are thought to be under consideration.
Pope Francis passed away on Monday at the age of 88, concluding a 12-year papacy. A papal conclave is expected to convene at the Vatican within the next 15 to 20 days to elect his successor.
While the official appointment of a pope requires the votes of 90 out of 135 cardinals in the Vatican, prominent candidates span 71 countries, with several overseeing dioceses in Asia from Sri Lanka, South Korea, the Philippines and Myanmar. Any candidate from these countries would be the first Asian pope to sit in the Vatican.
The 76-year-old Charles Maung Bo, born in northwest Myanmar’s now-embattled Sagaing region, resided over the Lashio diocese in the country’s northern Shan state from 1986 until 2003, when he was appointed Archbishop of Yangon and later became a cardinal under the authority of Pope Francis in 2015.
Pope Francis celebrates a Mass with Cardinal Charles Maung Bo in Yangon, Myanmar, Nov. 28, 2017.(L’Osservatore Romano via AP)
Despite Catholics comprising just over 1% of Myanmar’s majority-Buddhist population, sources close to Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo said that the College of Cardinals may be looking at finding a candidate with a diplomatic and humanitarian-oriented approach similar to Pope Francis.
Charles Maung Bo became more prominent in 2021 following the country’s military coup when he called for a peaceful solution in the face of armed rebel movements across the country.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia in 2023, he referred to the population of Myanmar as “brothers and sisters,” calling on all sides to lay down their weapons.
“Guns beget more guns. Bullets beget more bullets. If violence is met with violence, it will only lead to more violence,” he said. “All of us, no matter which side we are on, all those who are armed, should lay down our weapons and be family.”
Sri Lanka’s Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, leads mass at the San Lorenzo In Lucino church in Rome March 10, 2013.(Chris Helgren/Reuters)
In Sri Lanka, another Buddhist-majority country, 77-year-old Malcolm Ranjith, who serves as the Archbishop of Colombo, the nation’s capital, is eligible for appointment.
Others have speculated that the next pope-elect may come from South Korea, where around 30% of the population is Christian, or the Philippines, a Catholic-majority country. Both have leaders in the Catholic church eligible for the Vatican.
Then-South Korean bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik talks during a news conference at the Holy See press office at the Vatican Oct. 11, 2018.(Max Rossi/Reuters)
South Korea’s 74-year-old Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik may be considered, given the Catholic church’s growth in the country in the last few decades and its large financial contributions to the Vatican. He was appointed to a role within the Vatican as Dicastery for the Clergy as a prefect in 2021 and as a cardinal in 2022.
The Philippines’ Luis Antonio Tagle, 67 years old, has often been compared to Pope Francis and named by experts as a favorite of the late pope for his humanitarian and progressive social views on issues such as migration and same sex marriage, but may prove to be too young for the conclave, who typically select a candidate in his 70s.
Pope Francis hugs Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (L) before blessing a mosaic of St. Pedro Calungsod’s image during a meeting with the Philippine community at the St Peter Basilica in Vatican Nov. 21, 2013.(Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)
As of 2025, there have been 266 popes recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, starting from St. Peter, considered the first pope, to Pope Francis, who became the 266th pontiff in 2013.
Historically, no pope of fully Asian descent has ever led the Catholic Church.
Discussions have been reignited around the possibility of a non-European pope – particularly from Asia – with reports suggesting that an Asian pope would carry deep symbolic and strategic significance, reflecting Catholicism’s rapid growth across the region and reinforcing the Church’s shift toward a more global identity.
As of the end of 2023, Asia was home to approximately 121 million Catholics, accounting for about 11% of the global Catholic population, which totals around 1.4 billion. This represents a growth of 0.6% from the previous year, indicating steady expansion in the region.
The Philippines and India remain the largest contributors to Asia’s Catholic population, with 93 million and 23 million Catholics respectively, together comprising over three-quarters of the region’s total.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese and Kiana Duncan for RFA.
Among candidates to be the next head of the Catholic Church, several prominent cardinals in Asia are thought to be under consideration.
Pope Francis passed away on Monday at the age of 88, concluding a 12-year papacy. A papal conclave is expected to convene at the Vatican within the next 15 to 20 days to elect his successor.
While the official appointment of a pope requires the votes of 90 out of 135 cardinals in the Vatican, prominent candidates span 71 countries, with several overseeing dioceses in Asia from Sri Lanka, South Korea, the Philippines and Myanmar. Any candidate from these countries would be the first Asian pope to sit in the Vatican.
The 76-year-old Charles Maung Bo, born in northwest Myanmar’s now-embattled Sagaing region, resided over the Lashio diocese in the country’s northern Shan state from 1986 until 2003, when he was appointed Archbishop of Yangon and later became a cardinal under the authority of Pope Francis in 2015.
Pope Francis celebrates a Mass with Cardinal Charles Maung Bo in Yangon, Myanmar, Nov. 28, 2017.(L’Osservatore Romano via AP)
Despite Catholics comprising just over 1% of Myanmar’s majority-Buddhist population, sources close to Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo said that the College of Cardinals may be looking at finding a candidate with a diplomatic and humanitarian-oriented approach similar to Pope Francis.
Charles Maung Bo became more prominent in 2021 following the country’s military coup when he called for a peaceful solution in the face of armed rebel movements across the country.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia in 2023, he referred to the population of Myanmar as “brothers and sisters,” calling on all sides to lay down their weapons.
“Guns beget more guns. Bullets beget more bullets. If violence is met with violence, it will only lead to more violence,” he said. “All of us, no matter which side we are on, all those who are armed, should lay down our weapons and be family.”
Sri Lanka’s Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, leads mass at the San Lorenzo In Lucino church in Rome March 10, 2013.(Chris Helgren/Reuters)
In Sri Lanka, another Buddhist-majority country, 77-year-old Malcolm Ranjith, who serves as the Archbishop of Colombo, the nation’s capital, is eligible for appointment.
Others have speculated that the next pope-elect may come from South Korea, where around 30% of the population is Christian, or the Philippines, a Catholic-majority country. Both have leaders in the Catholic church eligible for the Vatican.
Then-South Korean bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik talks during a news conference at the Holy See press office at the Vatican Oct. 11, 2018.(Max Rossi/Reuters)
South Korea’s 74-year-old Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik may be considered, given the Catholic church’s growth in the country in the last few decades and its large financial contributions to the Vatican. He was appointed to a role within the Vatican as Dicastery for the Clergy as a prefect in 2021 and as a cardinal in 2022.
The Philippines’ Luis Antonio Tagle, 67 years old, has often been compared to Pope Francis and named by experts as a favorite of the late pope for his humanitarian and progressive social views on issues such as migration and same sex marriage, but may prove to be too young for the conclave, who typically select a candidate in his 70s.
Pope Francis hugs Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (L) before blessing a mosaic of St. Pedro Calungsod’s image during a meeting with the Philippine community at the St Peter Basilica in Vatican Nov. 21, 2013.(Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)
As of 2025, there have been 266 popes recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, starting from St. Peter, considered the first pope, to Pope Francis, who became the 266th pontiff in 2013.
Historically, no pope of fully Asian descent has ever led the Catholic Church.
Discussions have been reignited around the possibility of a non-European pope – particularly from Asia – with reports suggesting that an Asian pope would carry deep symbolic and strategic significance, reflecting Catholicism’s rapid growth across the region and reinforcing the Church’s shift toward a more global identity.
As of the end of 2023, Asia was home to approximately 121 million Catholics, accounting for about 11% of the global Catholic population, which totals around 1.4 billion. This represents a growth of 0.6% from the previous year, indicating steady expansion in the region.
The Philippines and India remain the largest contributors to Asia’s Catholic population, with 93 million and 23 million Catholics respectively, together comprising over three-quarters of the region’s total.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese and Kiana Duncan for RFA.
BANGKOK – Chinese President Xi Jinping ramped up rhetoric of unity in the face of protectionism and shocks to the global order as he continued his Southeast Asian tour on Thursday amid a tariff war with the United States.
China is in need of allies after the imposition of 145% tariffs on its exports to the U.S., Washington’s restrictions on its semiconductors and other trade barriers. President Donald Trump’s administration says it is retaliating due to China’s trade surplus, its shipments of synthetic opioids and restrictions on U.S. investment.
“China stood steadfastly with Cambodia in its just struggle against foreign invasion and for national sovereignty and independence,” Xi said in comments published by Cambodia newspapers including the English-language Khmer Times, ahead of his arrival from Malaysia.
“Together, the two countries have shared the rough times and the smooth and consistently supported each other in times of need,” Xi said.
The Southeast Asian country was bombed by the U.S. during the 1954-74 Vietnam War and invaded by Vietnam in 1978, forcing out the genocidal Pol Pot regime that came to power in the aftermath of the Cold War era conflict.
China is the biggest investor in Cambodia, constructing roads, airports and ports. It is also the biggest exporter to the kingdom.
The theme of unity in the face of unnamed adversaries has been a recurring theme in the Southeast Asian tour, which began on Monday in Vietnam before moving to Malaysia, where Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim hosted Xi at a welcome dinner on Wednesday.
“In the face of shocks to global order and economic globalization, China and Malaysia will stand with countries in the region to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical and camp-based confrontation, as well as the counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism,” Xi said, without naming the camp it saw as its biggest threat.
Xi discussed green technology, artificial intelligence and a US$11.2 billion railway project during a meeting with the Malaysian king, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar on Wednesday, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
China is the biggest exporter to Malaysia and the country’s biggest investor. The same is true of Vietnam, where Xi signed 45 agreements on areas such as improved supply chains and a railway project.
China had been working on a decoupling strategy long before Donald Trump took up his second term as U.S. president this year. By 2023, nearly two thirds of its economic growth was driven by domestic consumption, World Bank data show.
“At the same time, China has pursued deeper economic integration with the rest of the world,” according to Lili Yang Ing, secretary general of the International Economic Association.
“The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, now the world’s largest trade bloc, exemplifies China’s pivot toward Asia,” she said.
“Beijing has also strengthened Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with ASEAN, South Korea, and several Middle Eastern economies, while negotiating new agreements in Africa and Latin America,” Ing said.
“These diversified trade and investment channels buffer China from U.S. pressure.”
Southeast Asian nations could also help in the face of America’s call on them to cut their trade surpluses and stop re-exporting Chinese goods as their own.
While Trump declared a three-month cut to 10% on “retaliatory tariffs” against Southeast Asian nations, they face a return to some of the highest U.S. tariffs in the world if trade talks are unsuccessful after those 90 days are up: 24% for Malaysia, 46% for Vietnam and 49% on Cambodian exports.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Stephen Wright.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Mike Firn for RFA.
BANGKOK – Chinese President Xi Jinping ramped up rhetoric of unity in the face of protectionism and shocks to the global order as he continued his Southeast Asian tour on Thursday amid a tariff war with the United States.
China is in need of allies after the imposition of 145% tariffs on its exports to the U.S., Washington’s restrictions on its semiconductors and other trade barriers. President Donald Trump’s administration says it is retaliating due to China’s trade surplus, its shipments of synthetic opioids and restrictions on U.S. investment.
“China stood steadfastly with Cambodia in its just struggle against foreign invasion and for national sovereignty and independence,” Xi said in comments published by Cambodia newspapers including the English-language Khmer Times, ahead of his arrival from Malaysia.
“Together, the two countries have shared the rough times and the smooth and consistently supported each other in times of need,” Xi said.
The Southeast Asian country was bombed by the U.S. during the 1954-74 Vietnam War and invaded by Vietnam in 1978, forcing out the genocidal Pol Pot regime that came to power in the aftermath of the Cold War era conflict.
China is the biggest investor in Cambodia, constructing roads, airports and ports. It is also the biggest exporter to the kingdom.
The theme of unity in the face of unnamed adversaries has been a recurring theme in the Southeast Asian tour, which began on Monday in Vietnam before moving to Malaysia, where Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim hosted Xi at a welcome dinner on Wednesday.
“In the face of shocks to global order and economic globalization, China and Malaysia will stand with countries in the region to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical and camp-based confrontation, as well as the counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism,” Xi said, without naming the camp it saw as its biggest threat.
Xi discussed green technology, artificial intelligence and a US$11.2 billion railway project during a meeting with the Malaysian king, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar on Wednesday, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
China is the biggest exporter to Malaysia and the country’s biggest investor. The same is true of Vietnam, where Xi signed 45 agreements on areas such as improved supply chains and a railway project.
China had been working on a decoupling strategy long before Donald Trump took up his second term as U.S. president this year. By 2023, nearly two thirds of its economic growth was driven by domestic consumption, World Bank data show.
“At the same time, China has pursued deeper economic integration with the rest of the world,” according to Lili Yang Ing, secretary general of the International Economic Association.
“The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, now the world’s largest trade bloc, exemplifies China’s pivot toward Asia,” she said.
“Beijing has also strengthened Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with ASEAN, South Korea, and several Middle Eastern economies, while negotiating new agreements in Africa and Latin America,” Ing said.
“These diversified trade and investment channels buffer China from U.S. pressure.”
Southeast Asian nations could also help in the face of America’s call on them to cut their trade surpluses and stop re-exporting Chinese goods as their own.
While Trump declared a three-month cut to 10% on “retaliatory tariffs” against Southeast Asian nations, they face a return to some of the highest U.S. tariffs in the world if trade talks are unsuccessful after those 90 days are up: 24% for Malaysia, 46% for Vietnam and 49% on Cambodian exports.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Stephen Wright.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Mike Firn for RFA.
BANGKOK – Vietnam’s economic growth will halve if sharply higher U.S. tariffs are implemented, an expert warned, highlighting the precarious situation for Southeast Asian countries despite a surprise 90-day reprieve from President Donald Trump’s tariff sledgehammer.
Southeast Asian nations face some of the highest tariffs threatened by Trump, which would burden even the region’s relatively wealthier countries such as Malaysia and Thailand. With limited options, many are offering concessions to the U.S. and avoiding retaliatory measures.
Vietnam, which sends about 30% of its exports to the U.S., is in a “precarious position,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, former head of political research at the Hanoi-based Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research.
If the threatened 46% tariff on Vietnamese exports is enacted, annual economic growth would drop to 3%-4% from about 8%, he told an online panel organized by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
“Half of our textiles and footwear is exported to the U.S.,” he said. A big rise in tariffs, Giang said, “could mean the mass layoff of millions of Vietnamese workers.”
“For Vietnam that would be very devastating because we are still in the period of development when we have to depend a lot on labor intensive manufacturing,” he said. “It could be very bad, not only for Vietnam’s economic development but also for stability.”
Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on higher tariffs for many countries hours after they were supposed to go into effect. At the same he raised tariffs on China to 145% after Beijing hiked its retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. to 84%.
U.S. President Donald Trump is handed a Vietnamese flag as he is greeted by students at the Office of Government Hall in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 27, 2019.(Leah Millis/Reuters)
Trump’s tariff shock therapy is purportedly aimed at encouraging a revival of American manufacturing, which fell as a share of the economy and employment over several decades of global free trade and competition from production in lower-cost countries.
Any changes could take years as many American corporations have made substantial investments in overseas production. Efficient manufacturing in the U.S., like elsewhere, also is reliant on components produced in other countries.
The impact of higher U.S. tariffs on Southeast Asian countries will be determined by how dependent each economy is on international trade and the U.S. in particular.
Some such as Vietnam have relied heavily on exporting to provide jobs and raise living standards and are reliant on both the Chinese and U.S. markets.
Other such as Myanmar, riven by civil war since 2021, have relatively little trade with the U.S., but business owners in the country told RFA that some industries and workers could still suffer.
“Myanmar’s exports are not that much going to the United States. However, what is being exported includes things like garments … as well as other finished goods such as bags and shoes,” said a business owner who didn’t want to be named. “These items will face some impact, although it’s relatively small.”
Indonesia, the biggest economy in Southeast Asia and the region’s most populous country with more than 270 million people, is insulated to a degree by its large domestic market and lower reliance on exports.
Malaysian exporters, meanwhile, are already discussing with U.S. customers how they can jointly absorb the cost of higher tariffs – which means both lower profits for the exporters already operating on thin profit margins and higher prices for American consumers.
The 46% tariff faced by Vietnam is the third highest among Southeast Asian countries and partly reflects U.S. accusations that Vietnam has become a conduit for Chinese manufacturers seeking to avoid U.S. tariffs on their goods.
Some administration officials have said one third of Vietnam’s exports to the U.S. are Chinese in origin. Research by Harvard and Duke universities, Giang said, shows the proportion is 2%-15%.
RFA Burmese contributed to this report.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Stephen Wright for RFA.
BANGKOK — An initiative to combat air pollution in Southeast Asia has suspended its work following U.S. President Donald Trump’s sudden halt to international aid – just as the peak season for health-threatening haze unfolds in the region.
The program, a collaboration between the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, NASA and the now shuttered U.S. aid agency, used satellite technology and geospatial data to help countries respond to cross-border environmental hazards such as agricultural land burning and forest fires. It also monitored and forecast air pollution.
The annual deterioration in Southeast Asia’s air quality began with a vengeance last month as toxic pollution shrouded cities such as Bangkok and Hanoi for a week.
UNICEF, the U.N.’s agency for children, this week released data that showed that poor air quality remains the largest cause of child deaths after malnutrition in East Asian and Pacific countries.
“The suspension of the project during the regional haze season is unfortunate and presents challenges,” the disaster center’s air pollution and geospatial imaging expert, Aekkapol Aekakkararungroj, told Radio Free Asia.
“The immediate consequence is that some of the planned activities, such as data integration and capacity-building efforts with local stakeholders, have been delayed,” he said. “This could potentially slow down the development and dissemination of tools that support timely decision-making and response strategies.”
The State Department said Jan. 26 it had paused all U.S. foreign assistance overseen by the department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, during a review to ensure projects are consistent with Trump’s foreign policy agenda.
The decision froze humanitarian programs worldwide — from landmine removal to HIV prevention — that are crucial to developing nations. Most of USAID’s thousands of employees have been put on leave from Friday, according to a notice that is now the only information on USAID’s website.
The U.S. also has announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, or WHO, and the Paris Agreement to limit the increase in average global temperature to less than two degrees Celsius.
Aekkapol said the disaster center is seeking funding from other international donors and if successful could resume its air pollution work within a few months.
“I am optimistic that our efforts to secure alternative funding and partnerships will help us regain momentum by April,” he said.
Collaboration with NASA would continue, he said.
Child deaths
Poor air quality is a health and economic burden worldwide that weighs particularly heavily on lower-income regions such as Southeast Asia.
Although deaths in Asia linked to air pollution have declined substantially over the past two decades due to better healthcare and reduced indoor use of fuels such as coal for cooking and heating, they remain at alarmingly high levels, UNICEF officials said at a press conference in Bangkok on Thursday.
Toxic air is linked to about 100 deaths a day among children under five in East Asia and the Pacific, UNICEF said, based on data compiled by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Use of dirty fuels for cooking and heating at home accounts for more than half of the deaths.
Fine particles in the atmosphere — the basis of Southeast Asia’s annual haze — from land burning and fossil fuel sources such as vehicle exhausts also are a culprit. Its accumulation over cities or the countryside can depend on weather conditions.
About two thirds of children in the region live in countries where particulate matter levels in the air exceed WHO guidelines by more than five times.
Progress over the past two decades in reducing child deaths from air pollution “represents truly what is possible if we can keep this trajectory going,” said Nicholas Rees, an environment and climate expert at UNICEF.
Maintaining the progress depends on factors such as political will, the strength of efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and the capacity of health systems, he told RFA.
“Without that, I fear progress will not only be slower in the years ahead, but we may even reverse some of the gains we have made,” he said.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Stephen Wright for RFA.
BANGKOK — Asian leaders sent their congratulations to Donald Trump on Tuesday, the day after his inauguration as the 47th U.S. president, though some expressed concern over a vow in his inauguration address to use tariffs to benefit Americans.
South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-Mok said he wanted a telephone conversation with the new U.S. president in the near future.
“We will work to arrange a call with President Trump soon and actively engage in high-level communication between the two nations’ foreign and industry ministers,” said Choi during a meeting to discuss economic issues.
Choi added he was concerned about the impact of tariffs on the South Korean economy after Trump said at his inauguration speech he planned to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.”
“A working-level delegation has already been dispatched to Washington, D.C., to assess the background and specific details of upcoming measures,” Choi said.
U.S. ally South Korea will also be keen to sound Trump out about his plans for North Korea after his unprecedented but ultimately unsuccessful effort to engage with its leader, Kim Jong Un, during his first term.
Other Asian leaders voiced geopolitical concerns, particularly after Chinese President Xi Jinping told Trump on Friday that the “Taiwan issue” – or Beijing’s belief that the island is an integral part of China to be reunited by force if necessary – was a “red line” not to be crossed.
“Taiwan eagerly looks forward to working hand in hand with the new administration and Congress to further strengthen Taiwan-U.S. relations on the existing foundation, jointly safeguarding democracy and freedom, and promoting global prosperity and development!” Taiwan President Lai Ching-te wrote on Facebook.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also talked of the need for an alliance with the U.S. in order to maintain peace in the region.
“I look forward to collaborating with you to reinforce the enduring Japan-US partnership and jointly pursue our shared goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Ishiba wrote on social media platform X.
Vietnam’s Communist Party general secretary, president and prime minister all sent their congratulations to Trump as the two nations mark 30 years of diplomatic ties, state media reported.
To Lam, Luong Cuong and Pham Minh Chinh “expressed their belief that with the leadership and support from Trump, Vietnam-U.S. relations will continue developing steadily based on the principle of respecting each other’s independence, sovereignty, and political regimes for regional and global peace, stability, cooperation, and sustainable development,” the Vietnam News Agency said.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
Why has Southeast Asia, hardly a pacifist region in previous centuries, been so peaceful since 1991?
The end of the Cold War; regional cooperation in the form of ASEAN; economic progress; a new birth of democracy and liberty — all are valid explanations.
Yet one simpler reason is that most of the more serious sovereignty disputes, largely a hangover of colonialism, had been fought by then.
Rival claims over Borneo between Indonesia and Malaysia ended after the “confrontation” of 1963-1966.
Tensions between Malaysia and the Philippines over Sabah — now part of Malaysia but which in previous centuries was administered by the Sultanate of Sulu, which the Philippines claims gives it authority — almost sparked a war when it formally joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963.
Manila broke off diplomatic relations and Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippine dictator, drew up plans to invade, although diplomatic relations later resumed without too many shots being fired.
What to do about Chinese-majority Singapore was settled when it was kicked out – or left, depending on whom one asks – of the Malaysian Federation in 1965.
On the mainland, the departure of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia in the late 1980s and then Vietnamese-China peace terms in 1991 allowed all governments in the region to get on with properly drawing borders that had been scribbled and traded by French colonialists.
Even though 1991 was the year of the barbaric Santa Cruz massacre in Timor-Leste’s Dili, it was obvious at the time that Indonesia’s annexation of the former Portuguese colony couldn’t persist.
Philippine President and Mrs. Ferdinand E. Marcos, center, meet with Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, left, and Sabah’s Chief Minister Harris Salleh, right, on August 9, 1977, in Labuan, Eastern Malaysia.(Tee/AP)
Although many of these territorial disputes were, at best, shelved rather than resolved, there was a spirit after 1991 that the more pressing concern of regional governments was making money, mutually if possible, rather than squabbling over scraps of land.
It helped that the rest of the world – particularly the United States and China – had more at stake in Southeast Asian peace after 1991 than in stirring sovereignty disputes to serve their own ends.
Worldwide irredentism
Alas, we’re now living in a new age of irredentism.
Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 on the premise that the Ukrainian nation doesn’t even exist and therefore should be re-annexed by Russia.
Beijing is risking World War Three in its pursuit of “reunifying” Taiwan.
Much of the Middle East warring today rests on 1st century claims of homelands.
South Korea and North Korea both have designs to incorporate the other half of the peninsula. Venezuela apparently wants to annex Guyana.
The latest fray in Southeast Asia is between Cambodia and Thailand over the island of Koh Kood/Koh Kut – although it’s actually about who controls a 27,000 sq.km area of the Gulf of Thailand that sits on natural gas reserves.
In early November, Thai Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai travelled to the island for a visit that served no purpose other than for Thailand to restate its ownership.
Conservative circles in Bangkok are stirring this trouble primarily to offend the coalition government now led by the Thaksin family, yet these things have a way of getting out of hand.
Children hold photos some of the pro-independence demonstrators killed by Indonesian troops in 1991, at the Santa Cruz cemetery, during a commemoration in Dili, East Timor, Nov. 12, 2010.(Jordao Henrique/AP)
A few weeks ago, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet appealed for calm.
“One side claims their land is lost; the other says it isn’t. Why should we bring fire unnecessarily into our home? Acting rashly could provoke unnecessary conflict,” he said.
No doubt he has his own memories of having been a general when Cambodia and Thailand’s militaries came to blows in 2008 over the Preah Vihear Temple, a dispute that dates back to the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 that swapped territory between Cambodia and Thailand, including Koh Kood/Koh Kut.
Sabah tensions
Yet, while Hun Manet’s own dictatorial ruling party has managed to quiet just about anyone capable of an independent thought, it cannot keep the Cambodian people silent whenever they get the whiff of something that smells like territorial sellout.
Intense public pressure this year led to Phnom Penh quitting the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area in September.
The decision was taken solely to appease those who claimed that the rather trivial economic scheme was a violation of Cambodian sovereignty by Vietnam, the Cambodian nationalist’s bete noire.
Now, the same voices are pressuring the Cambodian government to be tough on Bangkok. Phnom Penh cannot simply wash its hands of a lame economic agreement to appease critics this time around.
Tensions between Malaysia and the Philippines over Sabah are flaring again, as well.
In July 2020, the Philippines’ then-foreign minister, Teodoro Locsin Jr., tweeted in response to a U.S. government statement about sending aid to north Borneo: “Sabah is not in Malaysia if you want to have anything to do with the Philippines.”
Malaysia’s then-foreign minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, retorted: “This is an irresponsible statement that affects bilateral ties… Sabah is, and will always be, part of Malaysia.”
Tensions died down somewhat afterwards, yet Malaysia sent a protest note to the Philippines last month over two new maritime laws that Kuala Lumpur says encroaches upon the sovereignty of Sabah.
The leaders of both countries agreed this month not to discuss Sabah, which is perhaps better than them debating it, since Manila is aware that a 2011 Supreme Court ruling means the Philippines has not abandoned its claim and Malaysian political circles are increasingly touchy about sovereignty.
In 2022, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, perhaps more in a spirit of making himself a nuisance than making a genuine suggestion, told supporters that Singapore should be returned to the state of Johor, which ran the city’s affairs before its independence.
K Shanmugam, Singapore’s home affairs minister, warned Mahathir this is “not a game.”
“It is serious business,” he said. “If you get a leader in Malaysia like Dr. Mahathir, adventurous ideas may be attempted.”
The 99-year-old Mahathir probably won’t return to political office, but in January the Malaysian government set up a royal commission to study why, in 2018, Mahathir’s administration ended its review of an International Court of Justice ruling ten years earlier that awarded sovereignty of Pedra Branca island to Singapore.
On Dec. 5, the royal commission delivered a damning 217-page report that recommended a criminal investigation into Mahathir over his failure when premier to protect and defend Malaysia’s sovereignty.
Likely to stir up tensions with Singapore once again, the commission also ruled that “Malaysia has an arguable case” for claiming sovereignty over Pedra Branca.
Presumably, if Mahathir should be held criminally liable for not having asserted Malaysia’s claim in the past, as the commission argued, then Anwar Ibrahim, the current prime minister, now has a legal duty to reassert his country’s claims.
One might also add that this year has again seen tensions over who controls certain hamlets – mainly Naktuka – in Timor-Leste’s Oecusse enclave, which sits in the middle of West Timor, an Indonesian province.
Dili can be forgiven for nervousness after seeing Prabowo Subianto elected Indonesia’s president this year. Subianto was head of the Kopassus special forces that committed war crimes after Indonesia invaded and annexed Timor-Leste in 1975.
What seems to be driving all of this are the South China Sea disputes, which have forced every claimant government to think in terms of territorial competition.
China’s irredentist “nine-dash line” has naturally compelled governments in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and increasingly Indonesia to restate their opinions almost weekly on what territory they possess.
Amid this scramble to assert and reassert one’s territorial claims, it isn’t surprising that voices have grown louder about reclaiming other lost lands.
Such things tend to snowball.
David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes theWatching Europe In Southeast Asianewsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state is likely to send a jolt of excitement to beleaguered democrats and opposition forces in Southeast Asia’s authoritarian states.
Over the past five or so years, Rubio has co-authored almost every congressional bill on human rights in Southeast Asia.
He co-introduced the Cambodia Democracy and Human Rights Act in 2022, stating at the time that “the Hun Sen dictatorship destroyed democracy in Cambodia and allowed the nation to be exploited by the Chinese Communist Party.” He reintroduced the bill in 2023.
In 2020, Rubio appealed to the State Department to designate Vietnam a “country of particular concern” for abuse of religious freedom, noting that “the only way to realize the full potential of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship is to press them to take serious steps to improve the human rights situation in Vietnam.”
A year earlier, he co-introduced the Vietnam Human Rights Sanctions Act to the Senate, which, had it passed, would have pressured the White House to impose “sanctions and travel restrictions on Vietnamese nationals complicit in human rights abuses.”
He was critical of the Obama administration’s rush to renormalize ties with Myanmar’s semi-military government in the early 2010s, and unabashed in saying the Burmese military orchestrated a “genocide” against the Rohingya.
Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen walks past an honor guard in Phnom Penh on April 3, 2024.
In 2021, he was one of six senators to call on the Biden administration to impose much tougher sanctions on the military junta that took power in Myanmar through a coup in February that year.
In 2017, he tried to introduce legislation to restrict the export of defense articles to the Philippines in response to then-President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal and illegal war on drugs. The same year, he challenged U.S. Secretary of State Nominee Rex Tillerson to pressure Duterte about his “human rights violations.”
China-hawk
Rubio is principally known as a China-hawk, and he has been blacklisted by Beijing in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials for the genocide against the Uyghur ethnic minority and for the crackdown in Hong Kong.
He has co-sponsored numerous bills against the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights violations, including the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Reauthorization Act and numerous Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Reauthorization Acts.
Last year, he introduced the Deterring Chinese Preemptive Strikes Act to strengthen American air bases in the Indo-Pacific region. He was the arch-campaigner against TikTok and Huawei, and for the past decade has fought resolutely to bring attention against Beijing’s genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang region.
However, a blinkered China-hawk who perceives all foreign relations through the Beijing prism would not have sponsored resolutions condemning the Communist Party of Vietnam, which the “realists” in the Biden administration courting Hanoi treated as an ally beyond reproach.
Rubio’s actions indicate he knows that America cannot be indolent about the sins of its friends.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies at a Senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Jan. 31, 2024.
Perhaps he has tempered some of his views, but Rubio would appear to be instinctively interventionist and instinctively knows that America has a duty to not only promote global prosperity but also global liberty.
During Trump’s first term, Rubio co-sponsored legislation to make it harder for the U.S. to withdraw from NATO.
His more controversial comments about the Ukraine war – ”I’m not on Russia’s side, but unfortunately the reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement’ – can be read in multiple, not all isolationist, ways.
Promoting values
Even if the senator who has been outspoken on human rights has to temper his views while serving as the top U.S. diplomat, it will still be heartening to have a U.S. secretary of state who has spent as much time with Southeast Asian dissidents, exiles and opposition politicians as with government officials and chambers of commerce.
It will be positive to have an American foreign affairs chief who knows Cambodia is a “dictatorship,” who says Myanmar’s generals committed “genocide,” and who called out Duterte’s drug war for human rights violations.
At least since the Obama administration, there’s been a tendency to appoint senior Asia officials who spent considerable time in the region. This brought expertise, but it also brought a certain mindset from those who previously “had to get along with” the region’s tyrannical regimes.
Sen. Marco Rubio speaks to the media after a classified briefing for senators about the latest unknown objects shot down by the U.S. military, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Feb. 14, 2023.
If Trump was isolationist and transactional in his first term, there’s been a temptation by the Biden administration to single-mindedly focus on alliance building against China, without sufficient thought for the local inhabitants of those allies.
Indeed, it’s difficult to exaggerate not just how little the Biden administration did for human rights in Southeast Asia as his foreign policy pursued realpolitik goals.
Rubio’s record suggests he will remind U.S. leaders and diplomats why they are effectively fighting a new Cold War against China – it isn’t only about trade margins and tariffs and spheres of influence.
If he is able to temper Trump’s transactional instincts toward foreign leaders no matter how unsavory, Rubio is someone who could pursue a more muscular foreign policy against China without forgetting that key values are a factor in the rivalry.
David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes theWatching Europe In Southeast Asianewsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.
MANILA – A Southeast Asian defense alliance modeled after NATO and aimed at countering China may not be set up any time soon because the region’s nations would want to maintain good relations with the superpower, regional security analysts said.
The creation of more minilateral agreements, though, rather than multilateral ones like the 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, are not only likely but may be more effective, they added.
A minilateral agreement is an accord between a small group of nations that have come together to achieve mutual goals or tackle shared problems, according to international relations experts.
For instance, a good example is a minilateral agreement renewed last year by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia for joint patrols on their seas, said geopolitics expert Don McLain Gill.
“The most we can expect [in the form of a defense alliance] for now is an area- specific and time-dependent security cooperation between particular states in the region in a way that would also reflect individual varying sensitivities,” he told RFA affiliate BenarNews.
Another lecturer from the university concurred.
“I think that [creating] minilaterals is more plausible,” political science lecturer Sherwin Ona told BenarNews.
“I also think that armed enforcement has its limitations and has a tendency for escalation.”
Established in 1949, NATO commits its 32-member countries to each other’s defense in the event any are attacked. Aside from the United States, other NATO members include the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, and Canada.
(From left) U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken; Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. pose for the cameras after holding a meeting in Manila, July 30, 2024.
Conversation about a regional NATO, Asian or Southeast Asian, revived after now-Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba wrote a paper late September for think-tank Hudson Institute about his proposal for such a defense alliance.
“[T]he absence of a collective self-defense system like NATO in Asia means that wars are likely to break out because there is no obligation for mutual defense,” Ichiba wrote late September.
“Under these circumstances, the creation of an Asian version of NATO is essential to deter China by its Western allies,” added the then-candidate for prime minister added.
The proposal was rejected by the United States and India said it doesn’t share Ishiba’s vision.
Similar ideas have irritated Beijing, which sees itself as the main focus of these proposals, in the same way that Moscow has accused NATO of concentrating its defense efforts against Russia.
U.S. troops leave a hill on a beach in Laoag city, northern Philippines, during U.S.-Philippine exercises, May 6, 2024.
In Southeast Asia specifically as well, the idea of a NATO-like grouping has been talked about in response to some countries claiming harassment by Beijing’s vessels in the South China Sea, where they have overlapping claims.
Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, but its claims overlap those of Taiwan, which isn’t a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, all of which are.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. trod carefully when asked on Tuesday about a grouping similar to NATO consisting of the 10 members of ASEAN.
“I don’t think it is possible at this time because of the dichotomies and divergence between country interests,” Teodoro answered at the venue of a private conference in Manila.
Still, he acknowledged the need to boost multilateral security alliances.
Teodoro noted that Manila has a bilateral defense alliance with Washington since 1951, even before it became one of the Southeast Asian countries to set up the ASEAN in 1967.
Sherwin Ona, a political science lecturer at Manila’s De La Salle University, told BenarNews that ASEAN nations would stick to the bloc’s “non-interference policy.”
Besides, some Southeast Asian countries are very pro-Beijing because their economies are heavily dependent on China, indicated Ona.
“I agree [with Teodoro] about the beneficial relationship between countries that are pro-Beijing.”
Another reason Southeast Asian countries may be cool to the idea of an “Asian NATO” is because they have different security interests, noted a researcher at the New Delhi-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation.
“This is because most countries are convinced that a multilateral security architecture will only elevate regional insecurities, and make them subservient to great power contestations,” Abhishek Sharma wrote in the Deccan Herald.
‘Loose, flexible’ minilaterals
Minilaterals are “loose and flexible,” believes Gill.
“This is not NATO’s established collective security structure,” he said.
Minilaterals are “only as good as they last.”
Gill explained that if one country in a three-nation minilateral agreement felt it did not any longer share the same interest with the other two, “it can walk out anytime.”
Geopolitical analyst Julio Amador III believes a network of “minilateral ties” might be able to offset this shortcoming and would be more effective.
Additionally, he said there was a way ASEAN as a bloc could become “a formidable diplomatic counterweight.”
If the group’s members, particularly those that drift towards China, agree that there are some issues “that go beyond national interests, that there are issues that do matter to the collective interests of the group,” ASEAN could be powerful, Amador said.
However, De La Salle University’s Gill said that the character of Southeast Asian cooperation tended to be based mostly on mutual interest.
“An ASEAN version of NATO is unlikely going to happen given the nature of ASEAN,” he said.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Jason Gutierrez for BenarNews.
Veteran Japanese lawmaker Shigeru Ishiba, who supports the creation of an “Asia version of NATO”, was set on Friday to become prime minister after winning a closely fought contest to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Since the LDP holds a parliamentary majority, the next party leader will replace Fumio Kishida as prime minister. Kishida announced his intention to step down in August.
“We must believe in the people, speak the truth with courage and sincerity, and work together to make Japan a safe and secure country where everyone can live with a smile once again,” Ishiba said in a brief speech to lawmakers after the party vote.
The LDP chose Ishiba as Japan grapples with increasing security threats and risk of war in the region, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and China’s growing military assertiveness.
The 67-year-old Ishiba, who said changes in the security environment were the reason he announced his candidacy, has been strong on deterrence.
The former defense minister expressed his desire to create an “Asian version of NATO” and bring equality to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.
“Ukraine is not a member of NATO. It is not hard to imagine that this prompted President [Vladimir] Putin’s decision,” he said, stressing the need to build a collective security system in Asia, at a news conference on Sept. 10, referring to the Russian leader’s decision to send troops into Ukraine.
Shigeru Ishiba celebrates after he was elected as new head of Japan’s ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. (Hiro Komae/Pool via Reuters)
While Ishiba does not question the importance of the security alliance with the U.S., he has said Japan needs to play a greater role in the alliance and have a larger say in how American troops are deployed in Japan.
For instance, he wrote in his 2024 memoir that “Japan is still not a truly independent country” because of the “asymmetry” of its dependence on America for its security.
Ishiba also announced he would consider revising the SOFA, or Status of Forces Agreement, which sets the rules for U.S. military operations in Japan. The agreement was concluded when the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised in 1960 and has remained unchanged.
Ishiba said that as LDP president, and thus prime minister, he would seek to establish a base in the U.S. to train Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
He argued that SOFA should be at the same level as an agreement that would be established upon the creation of such an SDF base in the U.S.
“If we are going to revise SOFA, it has to be something that will strengthen the alliance and improve the regional security environment,” said Ishiba.
Ishiba is known as a strong backer of Taiwanese democracy while also calling for deeper engagement with China.
He wrote in his memoir that conflating the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan was driven by emotion, not a pragmatic assessment of Chinese threats and the impact on Japan.
The nail-biter party election consisted of two rounds. In the first round, the 368 LDP members in the legislature and 368 rank-and-file members cast ballots. In a second runoff round between the top two candidates, 415 votes were cast.
Ishiba came second, after economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, in the first round but he beat Takaichi in the runoff by 21 votes.
“I want to protect Japan, protect the people, protect the local regions, and want to be the LDP that follows the rules,” Ishiba said after the first vote.
He will be officially announced as prime minister at a special legislative session on Oct. 1.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.
The road to the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the North Korean team will go through three Middle Eastern countries and two former Soviet republics, the Asian Football Confederation decided in a drawing for the third round of qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur Thursday.
North Korea was drawn into Group A along with Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Kyrgyzstan. Though the team, known by supporters as the Chollima, have the lowest world ranking among the six teams, Group A offers a chance for qualification, with only Iran ranked among the world’s top 30 teams.
In drawing Group A, North Korea avoids an inter-Korean showdown, with South Korea heavily favored to dominate Group B, full of Middle Eastern minnows Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait. Group C, meanwhile, is the “Group of Death,” with powerhouses Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia drawn together, and Bahrain, China and Indonesia rounding out the group.
In the second round, North Korea finished second in its group behind Japan and ahead of Syria and Myanmar. They crushed Myanmar 6-1 in Yangon and 4-1 in a home match played in Vientiane, Laos. The campaign also featured a strong showing against 17th-ranked Japan in Tokyo, where they lost 1-0. But North Korea forfeited the home match because they refused to host.
North Korea fans in the stands before the match against Japan, March 21, 2024 in Tokyo. (Issei Kato/Reuters)
North Korea hasn’t hosted a home match since the last World Cup cycle, playing South Korea to a 0-0 draw in Pyongyang in 2019.
The third round will kick off on Sep. 5, with North Korea set to face Uzbekistan in Tashkent. Should the Chollima finish in second place or higher after playing each member of Group A home and away, the team would advance to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Finishing the group in third or fourth place would advance North Korea to a fourth round of qualifying, where six teams would vye for two more spots in 2026 or a berth in the inter-confederation playoffs.
Questions remain as to whether North Korea will host its own home matches or continue to coordinate them with third countries. Although the country has reopened its borders that had been shuttered since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, it may not be ready to welcome teams from other countries and their fans.
The Chollima are very popular among fans in their home country, but the team also has fans from outside its borders.
Should the team advance to the finals and play on U.S. soil, Paul Han, a North Korean escapee who lives in Indianapolis, would cheer for the North Korean players, he told RFA Korean.
“I cheer for North Korea especially when they play against South Korea, the United States, or Japan,” he said. “It’s a matter of the fate of those players, because they can be sent to a place where the sun and moon cannot be seen (if they lose).”
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Park Jaewoo for RFA Korean.
Global Voices interviews veteran author, journalist and educator David Robie who discussed the state of Pacific media, journalism education, and the role of the press in addressing decolonisation and the climate crisis.
INTERVIEW:By Mong Palatino in Manila
Professor David Robie is among this year’s New Zealand Order of Merit awardees and was on the King’s Birthday Honours list earlier this month for his “services to journalism and Asia-Pacific media education.”
His career in journalism has spanned five decades. He was the founding editor of the Pacific Journalism Review journal in 1994 and in 1996 he established the Pacific Media Watch, a media rights watchdog group.
He was head of the journalism department at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1993–1997 and at the University of the South Pacific from 1998–2002. While teaching at Auckland University of Technology, he founded the Pacific Media Centre in 2007.
In 2015, he was given the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) Asian Communication Award in Dubai. Global Voices interviewed him about the challenges faced by journalists in the Pacific and his career. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
MONG PALATINO (MP): What are the main challenges faced by the media in the region?
DAVID ROBIE (DR): Corruption, viability, and credibility — the corruption among politicians and influence on journalists, the viability of weak business models and small media enterprises, and weakening credibility. After many years of developing a reasonably independent Pacific media in many countries in the region with courageous and independent journalists in leadership roles, many media groups are becoming susceptible to growing geopolitical rivalry between powerful players in the region, particularly China, which is steadily increasing its influence on the region’s media — especially in Solomon Islands — not just in development aid.
However, the United States, Australia and France are also stepping up their Pacific media and journalism training influences in the region as part of “Indo-Pacific” strategies that are really all about countering Chinese influence.
Indonesia is also becoming an influence in the media in the region, for other reasons. Jakarta is in the middle of a massive “hearts and minds” strategy in the Pacific, mainly through the media and diplomacy, in an attempt to blunt the widespread “people’s” sentiment in support of West Papuan aspirations for self-determination and eventual independence.
MP: What should be prioritised in improving journalism education in the region?
DR: The university-based journalism schools, such as at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, are best placed to improve foundation journalism skills and education, and also to encourage life-long learning for journalists. More funding would be more beneficial channelled through the universities for more advanced courses, and not just through short-course industry training. I can say that because I have been through the mill both ways — 50 years as a journalist starting off in the “school of hard knocks” in many countries, including almost 30 years running journalism courses and pioneering several award-winning student journalist publications. However, it is important to retain media independence and not allow funding NGOs to dictate policies.
MP: How can Pacific journalists best fulfill their role in highlighting Pacific stories, especially the impact of the climate crisis?
DR: The best strategy is collaboration with international partners that have resources and expertise in climate crisis, such as the Earth Journalism Network to give a global stage for their issues and concerns. When I was still running the Pacific Media Centre, we had a high profile Pacific climate journalism Bearing Witness project where students made many successful multimedia reports and award-winning commentaries. An example is this one on YouTube: Banabans of Rabi: A Story of Survival
MP: What should the international community focus on when reporting about the Pacific?
DR: It is important for media to monitor the Indo-Pacific rivalries, but to also keep them in perspective — so-called ”security” is nowhere as important to Pacific countries as it is to its Western neighbours and China. It is important for the international community to keep an eye on the ball about what is important to the Pacific, which is ‘development’ and ‘climate crisis’ and why China has an edge in some countries at the moment.
Australia and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand have dropped the ball in recent years, and are tying to regain lost ground, but concentrating too much on “security”. Listen to the Pacific voices.
There should be more international reporting about the “hidden stories” of the Pacific such as the unresolved decolonisation issues — Kanaky New Caledonia, “French” Polynesia (Mā’ohi Nui), both from France; and West Papua from Indonesia. West Papua, in particular, is virtually ignored by Western media in spite of the ongoing serious human rights violations. This is unconscionable.
Mong Palatino is regional editor of Global Voices for Southeast Asia. An activist and former two-term member of the Philippine House of Representatives, he has been blogging since 2004 at mongster’s nest. @mongsterRepublished with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
New York, March 20, 2024—Bangladesh authorities must immediately drop all charges against journalist Md Shofiuzzaman Rana and investigate the harassment of five journalists in northern Lalmonirhat district, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
Rana was held in jail for a week after police arrested the journalist on March 5. Rana, who works for the Bangla-language newspaper Desh Rupantor, was arrested at a local government office in the northern Sherpur district after he filed a right to information (RTI) application regarding a government-run development program, according to newsreports, the local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, and Mustafa Mamun, acting editor of Desh Rupantor.
Later that day, an assistant land commissioner, who is also an executive magistrate, sentenced the journalist to six months in prison on charges of disobeying an order by a public servant and insulting the modesty of a woman. The action was taken through a mobile court, which is empowered to try offenses instantly.
Mohammad Ali Arafat, state minister for information and broadcasting, stated that the country’s information commission would investigate the incident and told CPJ that he would receive a copy of the commission’s investigative report on Monday, March 18.
Arafat did not immediately respond to CPJ’s subsequent requests for comment on the report’s findings. Mamun told CPJ that as of Wednesday, he had not received a copy of the report.
Separately, at around 12 p.m. on March 14, employees at an assistant land commissioner’s office in Lalmonirhat held Mahfuz Sazu, a correspondent for the broadcaster mytv and the newspaper The Daily Observer, after the journalist filmed a land dispute hearing allegedly conducted by an unauthorized official, according to newsreports, Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ.
Twenty minutes later, four members of the Lalmonirhat Press Club arrived to help Sazu and were also confined within the premises. After a district revenue commissioner arrived at the scene, the five journalists were released around 12:50 p.m.
“CPJ welcomes a government investigation into the retaliatory jailing of Bangladeshi journalist Md Shofiuzzaman Rana. Journalists should not face reprisal merely for seeking information,,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities should launch a transparent probe into the confinement of five correspondents in a government office in Lalmonirhat and ensure that journalists are not harassed with impunity.”
Rana’s arrest unfolded after an office assistant refused to provide the journalist with a receipt for his RTI application. Rana then called the Sherpur deputy commissioner, or district magistrate, to resolve the issue, Mamun told CPJ, citing Rana. The chief of the local government office arrived at the scene and shouted at Rana, saying, “You are a broker journalist” (an insult used to refer to a media member who makes money through one-sided stories).
Police then arrived at the scene, arrested the journalist, and seized his two mobile phones. Rana was held for one week in Sherpur District Jail and released on bail on March 12. A local magistrate court is scheduled to hear Rana’s appeal against the verdict on April 16.
Separately, Sazu told CPJ that after filming the land dispute hearing, he interviewed three people connected to the case in the corridor of the assistant land commissioner’s office when an official unsuccessfully attempted to confiscate his phone.
The official then called the assistant land commissioner. At the same time, the office staff escorted the three people he interviewed out of the building and locked the entrance, leaving the journalist confined within the premises, Sazu said.
Sazu told CPJ that the journalist’s four colleagues later entered the building with the assistance of a local ward councilor but were also locked inside the premises. The journalists were:
Mazharul Islam Bipu, a correspondent for the broadcaster Independent Television
SK Sahed, a correspondent for the newspaper Daily Kalbela
Neon Dulal, a correspondent for the broadcaster Asian TV
Liakat Ali, a correspondent for the newspaper Daily Nabochatona
The assistant land commissioner then arrived at the scene and shouted at the journalists, calling them “brokers” and threatening to send them to jail via a mobile court, Sazu said, adding that the journalists also heard him telling an unidentified individual on the phone that he would file legal cases against them.
Later that day, the divisional commissioner of Rangpur, which encompasses Lalmonirhat, issued an order transferring the assistant land commissioner to another locality. As of Wednesday, the order had not been executed, and no further legal or administrative action had been taken, Sazu told CPJ.
Arafat did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment on the incident in Lalmonirhat.
From today readers of rnz.co.nz will see a change to the home page, and a new initiative to tell the stories of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Asian community.
RNZ.co.nz has added a lineup of four sections which focus on the growing communities of Aotearoa and are placed right at the top of the home page.
Elevated links have been added to RNZ’s existing Te Ao Māori and Pacific sections.
RNZ has also launched two new sections for Chinese and Indian New Zealanders and added them at the top of the home page as well.
The sections are part of a new initiative to speak to and report on issues in the growing Asian communities of New Zealand.
The new Indian section features original stories in English by specialist reporters.
The Chinese section has stories in the simplified Chinese script. Original stories are there as well as translations of RNZ news stories of interest to the Chinese community.
NZ On Air survey
RNZ is starting with the simplified script and will then scope whether it is feasible and useful to translate using the traditional script as well.
The different approaches are a response to a NZ On Air survey which found the Indian and Chinese communities had different language needs and approaches to seeking out news.
This is one of RNZ’s first steps into daily translated news. Before the launch, RNZ put systems in place to make sure it is getting translations right. The stories are double, and triple checked.
RNZ is also asking for feedback to make sure it is getting it right on each story and will conduct regular independent audits to make sure our translations are on track. RNZ is keen for feedback.
The new Indian and Chinese sections are a result of a two-year collaboration with NZ On Air. The unit of reporters and translators is being funded for the first year through the Public Interest Journalism Fund; the second year will be funded by RNZ, with a right of renewal after that.
Stories from the Asian unit will also be made available to more than 40 media organisations across the country and the Pacific.
RNZ believes that it is vital that RNZ supplies news to many different communities within Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Asian population in New Zealand is growing fast, particularly in Auckland.
In 2018, Asian New Zealanders made up 15 percent of the New Zealand population. The two largest groups are the Chinese and Indian New Zealanders, with about 250,000 people each.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
Chinese authorities in the eastern city of Hangzhou have installed facial recognition cameras in the spyholes of hotels as part of a slew of tight security measures ahead of the 19th Asian Games in September.
“The door of each room in the hotel is equipped with a public security system networked cat’s eye [camera],” according to a notice displayed in a hotel lobby that was shared on Twitter.
The notice said that the number of occupants in the room must be the same as the number registered with their real name. Any visitors entering the room must also be registered with their real name. “If not, a warning will be issued,” it said.
“After a warning is issued, the personal details of the person who booked the room will be transmitted to the local police station,” the notice reads.
The Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium [back] and Tennis Center, which will host the Asian Games, are seen in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on June 29, 2023. Credit: Greg Baker/AFP
The notice also warns guests not to try covering up the peephole.
“Immediate measures will be taken in the event of any abnormal activity,” it says.
The Hangzhou Asian Games run from Sept. 23 through Oct. 8, while the Asian Paralympic Games run from Oct. 22-28, with real-name registration required to enter all events.
‘Cat’s eye’
An employee who answered the phone at Hangzhou’s Jindi Business Hotel said “cat’s eye” facial recognition systems have been installed in hotel room spyholes in that hotel, and in hotels across the city.
“That’s right, yes, they installed them ahead of the Games, and they are connected to the internet,” the staff member said. “It compares you with the ID card used to register, and will only let you in if they match.”
Asked if all hotels now have this system installed, she replied: “Yes, that’s right, it’s the same everywhere.”
A member of staff at Hangzhou’s Jun Ting Yilian Hotel said the hotel had been notified by police that all guests and visitors must register with their ID cards.
“The police station requires that we have any visitors to guest rooms register with their ID cards,” the staff member said.
“If they don’t register and the police station finds out, they will shut us down.”
The new high-tech security measures have appeared as local officials called in a July 6 security meeting for “dynamic investigation and management of hidden dangers” ahead of the Asian Games.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen on a screen during an exhibition about the upcoming Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, June 29, 2023. Credit: Ng Han Guan/AP
“[We must] carefully implement risk prevention and control measures … and make good use of digital and intelligent management methods,” Zhang Zhenfeng, who heads preparations for the portion of the Games being held in the coastal city of Wenzhou, told the meeting.
Zhang also called for planning for “extreme” scenarios and a focus on “key groups,” without elaborating, according to a report on the Hangzhou municipal government website.
A netizen surnamed Mao said the measures are overkill as the Games are unlikely to be targeted for attacks or sabotage.
“The fact that they are installing these kinds of cameras just exposes their own fears,” Mao said. “It’s an overreach of police power.”
Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping said such security measures aren’t normal.
“This sort of thing wouldn’t happen in a normal country,” Zhang said. “Usually when there is a big meeting or event, the people they go after are petitioners, but if they’re targeting everyone now, that’s not normal.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin.
China is planning a large six-nation military exercise later this year to boost engagement and build mutual confidence with Southeast Asian partners, the Chinese military has said.
The expanded Aman Youyi-2023 (Peace and Friendship -2023) drills, however, would “remain a far cry from the more established slate of engagements by the U.S.” in the region, said an analyst.
Military delegations from China, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam had an initial planning conference for Exercise Aman Youyi-2023 in Guangzhou last week, said the Southern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on microblogging site Weibo.
Delegates from the six countries “reached consensus” on several topics including the theme, date, location, preset background and approaches of the exercise, said the Command.
The announcement on Weibo didn’t come with a date but sources told RFA the exercise would be held this November.
This will be the first time Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia take part together in combined drills with China. The official media in Vietnam, which has territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, have not mentioned the event.
China’s Global Times quoted an analyst as saying that with more Southeast Asian members participating, “the Aman Youyi-2023 exercise will serve as a stabilizer for regional security.”
Zhuo Hua, an international affairs expert at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy of Beijing Foreign Studies University, said it proved that “more countries come to understand and agree with China’s views in cooperative, comprehensive and sustainable security.”
U.S.-China rivalry
Another analyst, Collin Koh from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said that “China has always wanted to have military engagements in Southeast Asia that are on par with those by the U.S.”
However, “it remains a relatively new player in the field of defense diplomacy,” Koh told RFA.
“The scale and depth of such engagements remain a far cry from the more established slate of engagements by the U.S.,” he added.
China and Laos have just completed a joint military exercise called Friendship Shield 2023 in Laos with a combined force of nearly 1,000 troops.
In March, Cambodia and China carried out exercise Golden Dragon 2023 in Cambodia’s Kampong Chhnang province.
Chinese and Lao troops wrapping up the Friendship Shield 2023 joint exercise in Laos, May 26, 2023. Credit: PLA’s Southern Theater Command
To compare, in April more than 17,600 members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. military took part in Balikatan 2023, an annual bilateral exercise between the two allies and the largest iteration of Balikatan to date.
A month earlier, a U.S.-led multinational exercise – Cobra Gold 2023 – was held in Thailand with more than 7,000 service members from seven full participating nations and more than 20 other nations attending as observers.
And next year, the world’s largest international maritime exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) will be held with even more thanthe 25,000 personnel in the 2022 RIMPAC.
“Southeast Asian countries engage in these exercises to demonstrate their willingness to engage China in the defense and security realm, but this also reflects the regional countries’ desire to exercise strategic autonomy,” Collin Koh said.
“I see Aman Youyi as more geopolitically symbolic for some Southeast Asian countries, even if the objective might differ from that of Beijing,” the Singapore-based military analyst said.
Strengthening bonds
The first Aman Youyi joint exercise was held in 2014 between Malaysian armed forces and the PLA but as a tabletop exercise.
With a theme of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, it was conducted “successfully” in the Paya Indah Wetlands in Selangor, Malaysia, two years later.
The bilateral drills expanded to include Thailand in 2018 but were disrupted by the COVID pandemic in the years after.
“Enhancing military cooperation with countries including those in Southeast Asia is an important aspect of China’s military diplomacy,” the Global Times quoted Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, as saying.
It is unclear how many military personnel from each country will take part in Aman Youyi-2023 and which drills will be conducted.
The recent Laos-China exercise Friendship Shield 2023 included “strikes on armed positions in mountainous and forest areas in order to boost joint operational capabilities in counterterrorism and the safeguarding of borders,” according to Chinese state media.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
Women now make up well over half of New Zealand’s journalism workforce, but they have serious concerns about their safety on the job, a new survey shows.
Women make up 58 percent of the profession but are seriously concerned about their safety at work due to public discrediting, threats, surveillance, physical attack, sexual harassment, and stalking.
Journalists reported threats, bullying, stalking and rape and death threats. One had a faux Facebook page set up in their name.
Sexual abuse included “public speculation or commentary about my body, mental health, sex like, marriage, which political commentators/etc I must have had sex with.”
Since the last survey in 2015, women have closed the pay gap and are now equally represented at all levels.
Pay across the board has increased in real terms since then, adjusted for inflation.
Māori journalists now a tenth
There has been a 20 percent increase in Māori journalists, who now make up a tenth of the workforce. But Pasifika and Asian communities remain under-represented.
For the first time, New Zealand journalists were asked about their attitudes to the Treaty of Waitangi; three quarters said it applied to all or most things they wrote.
Journalists are still committed to the traditional non-biased observer role of journalists, but now feel their most important role is to educate the public.
They are less influenced by commercial considerations than they were seven years ago, and more concerned to uphold journalism ethics.
Their political views are slightly left of centre, on average.
Massey University Associate Professor Dr James Hollings said the survey showed that employers needed to do more to keep their female employees safe.
“Journalists are under a lot of strain due to shrinking newsrooms and other pressures, but they’re doing a remarkable job of holding to their core values despite that.
‘Making great diversity efforts’
“It also shows that profession is making great efforts to adapt to become more equal and more diverse, although there’s some way to go in some areas.”
The survey is New Zealand’s contribution to the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS). It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.25 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent.
The first global survey, undertaken 2012-2016, mapped journalists in 66 countries and provided the first statistically robust picture of journalists worldwide ever undertaken.
This second global survey, which is still underway, will extend the coverage to up to 120 countries, mapping changes since 2016. The first global results will be available in 2024.
Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have repatriated dozens of Vietnamese migrant workers found working illegally at a factory in Yangjiang, with four Myanmar nationals awaiting repatriating, RFA has learned.
The 48 Vietnamese workers were sent home recently following their arrests on Jan. 20 during a raid on the Yangjiang Huaqiang Hardware Factory by local police, a police officer who answered the phone at the Baisha police station near the factory told RFA onThursday.
“This case is being handled by the Jiangcheng branch of the Yangjiang police department, and we assisted them by sending officers,” an officer surnamed Guan told RFA. “They are foreigners who aren’t allowed to work here … without a work visa, so they should be deported.”
Repeated calls to the Jiangcheng police station rang unananswered during office hours onThursday, as did calls to the factory.
While some Myanmar nationals managed to evade arrest during the raid, four — who hail from Sittwe county, Pauktaw township and Myauk U township — are now awaiting repatriation, sources told RFA.
According to family members, the arrested workers were identified as Maung Maung Chay (or Nay Myo Aung) of Kundaung Village, Ponnagyun Township, Min Thein Naing and Nga Soe Aung from Nga-wet-swei village, Pauktaw township, and Moun San Myint from Mrauk-U township, all in Rakhine state.
Myanmar sources in China said the workers had been smuggled into China by labor agents and employed illegally, Hla Hla Win, the wife of one of the arrested men, Min Thein Naing, said police once used to notify the factory of raids in advance, but hadn’t done so for the Jan. 20 raid.
“He was arrested by police on the morning of Jan. 20,” she told RFA. “I think they were working in cahoots with the factory owner because it was going to be closed down onJan 26.”
“The factory has two gates. Usually, when the police would come for an inspection, the guards at the gate would inform the supervisors. But there was no warning that day,” Hla Hla Win said.
“We think the owner worked with the police because he owed the workers two months of salary amounting to about three million kyat (around U.S.$1,700) each.”
Hla Hla Win, who also worked at the factory but managed to escape during the raid, said she now faces repaying two months’ worth of her husband’s salary to the agent who brought him to China.
Meanwhile, Khin Than Maung, the father of arrested worker Maung Maung Chay, from Rakhine’s Ponayun township, said he is worried about his son and daughter, Hla Hla Win.
“I don’t know what is happening to him, and because he is overseas, so I won’t hear about it,” he said. “When my son was in Myanmar I could at least ask how the was doing.”
“I’m worried he is in trouble, and I’m also very sad … how is he living right now?”
Myanmar nationals Maung Maung Chae (aka Nay Myo Aung) (L) and Min Thein Naing were arrested in China’s Guangdong province, Jan. 20, 2022. Credit: Maung Maung Chae/Min Thein Naing
Remittances support families
He said Maung Maung Chay had been working in China for the past four years to help out with the family’s financial difficulties, and the family had relied heavily on his remittances.
His wife Oo Khin Yin, mother of Maung Maung Chay and Hla Hla Win, said she wanted the two released as soon as possible.
“We have had no contact with them since that day,” she told RFA. “My daughter said she had has no contact with the two men and she didn’t know where they were being held.”
She added: “I just want them released as soon as possible. If the owner doesn’t want to pay, it’s okay. I just want my son released as soon as possible.”
Min Thein Naing’s sister, Daw Ma Win Nwe, said all family members were worried because they hadn’t been able to contact him.
“It makes me very worried that I haven’t been in contact with him,” she said. “Where are they now? How are they doing? All the brothers and sisters are worried.”
“Honestly speaking, their families depend on them,” she said. “The money they would send was enough for us to live on. Now that they are in trouble, their families are in trouble too.”
Hundreds of thousands of people from Myanmar work in China in any given year, crossing into the southwestern province of Yunnan by border checkpoints at Muse or Chin Shwe Haw, yet there is no formal agreement between China and Myanmar about how to handle this migrating workforce.
Ko Htay, head of the Humanitarian Aid Network for Migrant Workers based in Muse, Shan State on the Chinese border, said Myanmar nationals working in mainland China are suffering due to the lack of any agreement.
“You can just compare Thailand with China,” Ko Htay said. “On the Thai side, there is an MOU, a memorandum of understanding for workers.”
“According to their laws, the Chinese are not wrong [to arrest people]. If you cross the border and work illegally, you break the law. I would like to advise workers to travel there only after China and Myanmar sign a labor agreement,” he said.
Repeated calls to the Myanmar embassy in Beijing requesting comment had met with no response by the time of writing.
The Chinese embassy in Myanmar told RFA in an email dated Mar. 10 that it was unaware of the details of the arrests. It said China welcomes foreigners wishing to work in China, but will punish those who break the law.
No legal status
According to its website, Huaqiang Hardware Factory makes kitchen, bathroom, office and stationery products that are sold to more than a dozen countries and regions in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.
Zhang Shengqi, a businessman who is familiar with the situation in Myanmar said labor agents are currently recruiting young people between the ages of 25 and 35 to work in Chinese factories, mostly in Guangdong and Yunnan provinces.
“They have no work or income in Myanmar; they can only farm. They may have passports, and there is also a red book [pass], which is a pass for residents of Myanmar’s border areas to travel to and from China,” he said.
But he said working in China wasn’t easy.
“The wages are relatively low, because they have no legal status,” Zhang said.
China currently allows Myanmar nationals to work in the border towns of Dehong and Jinghong without a work permit, but not the rest of China.
“Once they leave that area to work elsewhere in China, they are considered illegal workers,” he said. “Now they will probably not be sent back to Myanmar if they are caught, but to [border regions of Yunnan] where they are let go.”
Article 80 of China’s Exit and Entry Administration Law says illegal foreign workers can be fined up to 150,000 yuan and deported. Zhang said employers face fines of up to 300,000 yuan for hiring illegal foreign workers.
Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Qiao Long and RFA’s Myanmar Service.
A summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) slated for the end of this month has been postponed, Cambodia’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Biden had invited leaders of the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc to Washington, D.C., for a summit on March 28-29. The U.S. sees the region as critical to its efforts to push back against China’s rising power in the South China Sea and across the Indo-Pacific region.
The summit “will be delayed because some ASEAN leaders can’t join the meeting as scheduled,” Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told the pro-government outlet Fresh News on Wednesday.
Cambodia is the current chair of ASEAN.
On Monday Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said at least three ASEAN leaders wanted to reschedule the meeting
“Some ASEAN leaders wanted the meeting to be held between March 26-27 but the U.S said it couldn’t accommodate 26-27, while three ASEAN leaders couldn’t join the 26-27,” Hun Sen said. He did not identify the countries.
There were no immediate comments on the summit from the White House or from Indonesia, which is the coordinator of the summit, and other members of ASEAN.
Washington, under the Biden administration, has been ratcheting up its engagement with Southeast Asia, where it has traditional treaty allies as well as other partners.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Indonesia and Malaysia in December, a trip that followed visits to the region by Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and State Department Counselor Derek Chollett.
Blinken had earlier laid out a “new, comprehensive Indo-Pacific Strategy,” that emphasized the U.S. view of ASEAN and Southeast Asia’s importance to the Indo-Pacific region.
Speaking last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner and to strengthen an empowered and unified ASEAN to address the challenges of our time.”
ASEAN has been grappling with a 13-month-old crisis in bloc member Myanmar, where a military junta is bombing and burning swathes of the country to quell resistance to the overthrow of the elected government in February 2021.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also posed a challenge to ASEAN unity, with the bloc as whole calling for a ceasefire without naming Russia or using the word “invasion” while members supported much a tougher U.N. General Assembly resolution against Moscow.
Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun, Written in English by Paul Eckert.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
A group of Tongan missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Papua New Guinea has gone into hiding in a church in Lae as unrest and violence erupted in the country yesterday.
The chaos came after days of mourning following the death on Friday of the nation’s longest serving Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.
Somare, 84, known as the “father of the nation,” died after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a key leader in wresting the Pacific nation’s independence from Australia.
Police faced a mob at what appears to be a road in front of the LDS church in Lae, a Facebook live video seen by Kaniva News showed.
Shootings were overheard as hundreds of people fled the scene before they stopped and attempted to reorganise themselves.
It was alleged the shootings came from police who were trying to disperse the mob.
The crowd were attempting to rob a nearby Chinese shop, it has been claimed.
Looting in Gordon
The lootings and chaos in Gordon as well as in Eastern Boroko in Poprt Moresby were also caught on camera and shared on Facebook.
Tongan president ‘Isileli Fatani of the LDS Mission in Lae, the second largest city in PNG, who was in a building few metres away from the scene, said the situation “was terrifying”.
Fakalotolahi pe ki he kau faifekau Tonga ‘i Lae, PNG lolotonga hono laiki ‘e he kakai ‘o e fonua’ e ngaahi pisinisi…
Fatani said he had just arrived at their accommodation after driving down the road seeing people looting shops and businesses and fighting in other parts of the country.
He was overheard telling one of the missionaries to lock the gate.
He said they were hiding inside the church property while he was livestreaming the incidents.
He was also overheard asking one of the PNG missionaries at the property whether it was safe for them to leave the church and move to town.
Motive behind the chaos Fatani claimed the motive behind the attacks was a reaction by the locals after the death of Somare.
“He was a prime minister they loved most,” Fatani said.
His video had racked up 1300 comments and 1400 shares within 10 hours after it was published to Facebook yesterday.
In a post on Facebook by the PNG government current affairs an administrator said the operations of the Asian businesses during a public holiday set in memory of Somare disappointed the locals.
“If all the PNG citizens can [whole]heartedly respect the great loss of our Founding Father Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare and the Prime Minister of the Day through NEC Declare Public Holiday today, which government law or order will these so called Asians be following or governed by?” the post read.
“I would suggest let there be a looting. Police must not deter any looting because these Asians must respect PNG law, respect our country’s Father’s mourning.
“Permitting looting will put a complete stop for any shop to operate.
“Let’s all respect our legendary father for the last time because he will never be seen again till we meet again in paradise.”
Agence France-Press reports that PNG security services called for calm as the incidents of rioting and looting followed the death of Sir Michael Somare.
Police Minister William Onglo warned officers would “step in to fully restore order” after disturbances in Port Moresby and the second city of Lae.
Several stores were reportedly ransacked during a national day of mourning for Sir Michael.
Kaniva Tonga reports are republished by Asia Pacific Report in partnership.
