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Kamis, 03 September 2020

China rails against 'discriminatory' India app ban - CNA

BEIJING: China on Thursday (Sep 3) decried a fresh ban by India on scores of Chinese apps - including the hit game PUBG - as a bitter border showdown seeped out into the tech sphere.

Internet giant Tencent is among the Chinese makers of 118 more apps be targeted in the latest Indian ban, which follows a rumbling territorial dispute along a disputed Himalayan frontier.

At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand combat during a battle in June.

India has hit back by pulling scores of Chinese apps from its massive domestic market, including video-sharing platform TikTok.

The latest salvo announced on Wednesday whipped in blockbuster shoot-'em-up game PUBG, and has angered Chinese authorities and dismayed Indian gamers.

"India has abused the concept of national security and adopted discriminatory restrictive measures against Chinese companies," Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng told an online press briefing on Thursday.

China firmly opposes the measure, he said, urging India to "correct its wrong practices".

READ: India secures its east after western Himalaya clashes with China

READ: India says Chinese troops carried out military movement in fresh border row

Beijing also implied India had imposed the ban in the face of pressure from the United States, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying warning on Thursday against "short-sighted" participation in US restrictions against Chinese technology.

Indian authorities say they are moving against the proliferation of Chinese tech because it promotes activities "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order".

China has also suffered casualties in the high-altitude Himayalan battleground but has not given figures as tensions have risen in recent months.

READ: Tibetan soldier's death near tense India-China border sheds light on covert unit

India has increasingly wielded economic weapons against its neighbour in their dispute, freezing Chinese companies out of contracts including for its 5G mobile phone infrastructure - on top of the app bans.

New Delhi has warned that relations risk permanent damage unless Beijing pulls its troops back to positions they held before May.

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2020-09-03 09:40:04Z
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China offers COVID-19 vaccine candidates to aviation industry workers - CNA

BEIJING: China has offered experimental coronavirus vaccines to aviation industry workers, according to a regulatory notice seen by Reuters, in a push to inoculate high-risk groups to prevent a possible resurgence as economies reopen.

China, which has four COVID-19 vaccines in the final stage of human trials, launched the emergency use vaccine programme in July, hoping to boost the immunity of groups such as border inspectors or medical industry workers.

Frontline workers at Chinese airlines, airports, China National Aviation Fuel Group and TravelSky Technology Limited will be provided a candidate vaccine on a voluntary basis, the notice from China's aviation regulator shows.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has asked these sectors and firms to compile a list of personal information of employees willing to take the vaccine, the notice adds.

READ: China will gradually resume direct international flights to Beijing

The vaccination is "in response to a possible second wave of infections erupting in the fall and winter, and to the huge pressure facing our work of preventing imported cases as western countries reopen despite the pandemic", according to the notice.

While the regulator did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, several staff members at Air China, China Southern Airlines and Juneyao Airlines confirmed they had received such a notice.

Juneyao said it had submitted a list of employees willing to take the vaccine. The other airlines did not immediately reply to requests for comments.

It is not clear yet which candidate vaccine will be given and how many people will be vaccinated.

READ: Emergency authorisation of COVID-19 vaccines needs great care: WHO

READ: Scientists see downsides to top COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, China

At least two experimental vaccines, one from Sinovac Biotech Ltd and the other from China National Biotec Group, have been approved for emergency use in China.

No vaccine has yet passed final, large-scale trials to prove it is effective enough to protect people from contracting the virus that has led to over 860,000 deaths globally.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-09-03 06:31:37Z
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Tibetan soldier's death near tense India-China border sheds light on covert unit - CNA

MUMBAI: The death of a Tibetan member of an Indian special forces unit in a mine blast near the site of a border flare-up with Chinese troops has offered a rare glimpse into a little-known group of elite, high-altitude warriors.

Tenzin Nyima, 53, was killed and another commando critically wounded in the blast near the shores of the Pangong Tso lake in the western Himalayas, three Indian government officials and two members of his family told Reuters.

Indian and Chinese forces came close to direct confrontation in the area over the weekend over competing territorial claims, their governments have said.

READ: India secures its east after western Himalaya clashes with China

Nyima was part of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), his family and three Indian government officials said.

The force recruits mostly from Tibetan refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom have made India their home since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising in 1959. Some are Indian citizens.

Few details are publicly known about the covert force set up soon after a war between India and China in 1962. Two officials estimated its strength at more than 3,500 men.

Amitabh Mathur, a former Indian government adviser on Tibetan affairs, said the SFF were "crack troops, especially in the context of mountain climbing and high-altitude warfare.

"If at all they (SFF) were deployed, I am not surprised. It makes sense to deploy them at high altitudes. They are terrific mountain climbers and commandos."

India's defence and home ministries did not respond to a request for comment on the SFF.

China has long considered the presence of a large number of Tibetans in India as a threat to its territorial integrity. They are led by Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing denounces as a dangerous separatist.

He says he only wants genuine autonomy for his remote Himalayan homeland.

READ: India says Chinese troops carried out military movement in fresh border row

READ: India accuses China of fresh 'provocative actions' at mountain border

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing on Wednesday (Sep 2) she did not know whether Tibetans were fighting for India, but urged caution.

"We are firmly opposed to any country, including India, supporting the secession activities of Tibetan pro-independence forces or providing them with any assistance or physical space," she said.

TIBETANS SEEK RECOGNITION

Within the Tibetan community, grieving has begun over Nyima's death, video footage taken by the family and shared with Reuters shows.

His body was kept in a coffin covered with Indian and Tibetan flags in a refugee colony in Choglamsar village of India's Ladakh region.

Two bereaved relatives and two neighbours of Nyima told Reuters that an Indian government official who delivered the coffin told them that Nyima died "while defending India".

The official requested that the family refrain from speaking about Nyima's 33-year service with the SFF, the relatives said, requesting anonymity as they feared the Indian government might act against them.

The defence ministry and home ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the relatives' account.

Photographs of the coffin and the Tibetan mourning rituals were circulated on WhatsApp groups run by Tibetan refugees in Leh, the main city in Ladakh, and in Dharamshala in northern India, the seat of the self-styled Tibetan government-in-exile.

Some wanted greater recognition for the Tibetans' service to India.

"We respect and love India for giving us shelter but it is time the nation acknowledges the crucial role played by our men in the SFF," Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar, a 34-year-old lawmaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told Reuters.

"If an Indian soldier dies, the country declares him as a martyr, government pays rich tribute. Why are Tibetan refugees not bestowed the same respect?" said Dolkar, whose uncle fought alongside Indian soldiers against Pakistan in 1999.

A senior Indian military official said the SFF had played a pivotal role in the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh as well as a near-war with Pakistan again in 1999 over the Kargil heights.

The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, said his "government does not comment on the SFF".

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2020-09-03 00:58:27Z
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Rabu, 02 September 2020

Japan's Suga to join leadership race, wants to avoid vacuum - CNA

TOKYO: Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga officially declared on Wednesday (Sep 2) he would run for leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a race he is widely tipped to win to become the next prime minister.

Speaking to a briefing, Suga said he wanted to run to avoid a political vacuum at a time when the world's third-largest economy grapples with the impact of the pandemic.

"I decided to run in the LDP leadership race after some deep thought on what I can do as a politician and a member of Abe's administration," Suga told a briefing.

The party's leader is set to take over as prime minister given the LDP's majority in the lower house of parliament.

READ: Commentary: Japan's longest serving PM has run out of time on unfinished business

He said he would "maintain and push forward" the "Abenomics" stimulus policies pursued by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe if he were to become the next premier.

Suga added he would maintain the kind of relationship the government has had with the Bank of Japan under Abe's administration.

Abe announced his decision to resign last week, citing poor health.

His main competitors for the top job are likely to be a former defence minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and ex-foreign minister Fumio Kishida, but Suga's position looks strong.

READ: Largest faction of Japan's ruling party backs Suga in leadership race: NHK

He has secured the backing of five of the LDP's seven factions, public broadcaster NHK and others reported.

The party decided on Tuesday to hold a slimmed-down election with just members of parliament and three votes from each of the 47 prefectures - an advantage for Suga. The election will be on Sep 14.

Many party chapters will poll rank-and-file members to decide how to allocate their three votes, but experts say this is unlikely to change the momentum growing for Suga if the members of the five factions back him.

But Ishiba is by far the most popular among the public and has been on a media blitz, appearing on several television programmes over the past few days.

"During Abenomics, stocks rose, the yen was weak and wrought unprecedented profits to companies - that's something to be grateful for," Ishiba said on Fuji TV on Wednesday when asked how he would improve the lives of low-income workers and the unemployed.

"But what do we do with the dark side of that? That's the most important question in the post-Abe era," he said.

READ: Japan's next premier to find COVID-19 pandemic eroding job market gains made by 'Abenomics'

Apart from inheriting an economy in the throes of its worst downturn since World War II, Abe's successor will have to try to ensure that next year's Olympics - already delayed for a year by the novel coronavirus - go ahead as planned.

In recent months, Abe had seen his support fall to one of the lowest levels since taking power in December 2012 because of growing discontent among voters with his handling of the coronavirus and scandals among LDP members.

"There are various criticisms of the Abe administration, and we must work on each issue, listening to the voices of the people earnestly so as not to lose public trust," Suga said at one of his twice-daily news conferences as top government spokesperson.

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2020-09-02 09:05:36Z
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India secures its east after western Himalaya clashes with China - CNA

GUWAHATI: India has moved troops to its eastern stretch of border with China since clashes erupted between the nuclear-armed rivals on the western part of their border in the Himalayas in June, a government official said on Wednesday (Sep 2).

The June clash in the Ladakh region, in the western part of their border, was the worst violence between the Asian giants in decades and there has been little sign of a reduction in tension, with more military action in the past week.

The movement of troops to the eastern district of Anjaw, in Arunachal Pradesh state, which China also claims, raises the prospect of a wider face-off though both government and military officials in India ruled out any imminent confrontation.

READ: India accuses China of fresh 'provocative actions' at mountain border

READ: India says Chinese troops carried out military movement in fresh border row

"The military presence has surely increased, but as far as incursions are concerned, there are no verified reports as such," said Ayushi Sudan, Anjaw's chief civil servant, adding that several Indian army battalions were stationed there.

"There has been an increase in troop deployment since the Galwan incident, and even prior to that we'd started," she told Reuters by telephone, referring to the June clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

Arunachal Pradesh, which China calls South Tibet, was at the centre of a full-scale border war between India and China in 1962, and security analysts have warned that it could become a flash-point again.

But an Indian military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Harsh Wardhan Pande, said there was no cause for concern and the troops arriving in the area were part of regular rotation.

"Basically, it's units changing. That's happening as it happens every time, nothing much," Pande told Reuters from near Guwahati, the largest city in northeastern India.

"As of now, there's nothing to worry about on that front."

READ: Indian defence minister hoping for resolution to border row with China

But Tapir Gao, a member of parliament from Arunachal, told Reuters that Chinese troops had been regularly crossing into Indian territory.

"It's a regular phenomenon, it's nothing new," he said, identifying the Walong and Chaglagam areas in Anjaw as the most vulnerable.

In the 1962 war, India says its outnumbered forces "blocked the thrust of the invading Chinese" in Walong, and the area of mountains, meadows and fast-flowing rivers is now a government focus for settlement and road-building.

"What we're trying to do is create more possibilities and opportunities for villagers," said Sudan, referring to plans for clusters of villages in the disputed area.

"It's a push to resettle people."

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2020-09-02 06:54:33Z
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Taiwan to change passport, island's name given more prominence - CNA

TAIPEI: Fed up with being confused for China amid the coronavirus pandemic and Beijing's stepped-up efforts to assert sovereignty, Taiwan said on Wednesday (Sep 2) it would redesign its passport to give greater prominence to the island's name.

Taiwan has complained during the outbreak that its nationals have encountered problems entering other countries, as Taiwanese passports have the words "Republic of China", its formal name, written in large English font at the top, with "Taiwan" printed at the bottom.

READ: Taiwan says China still lacks ability for full assault on island

READ: Amid heightened tensions, Taiwan tells China not to underestimate its resolve

The new passport, expected to come into circulation in January, removes the large English words "Republic of China", though the name in Chinese characters will remain, and enlarges the word "Taiwan" in English.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Wu unveils the new passport design in Taipei — Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu unveils the new passport design in Taipei, Taiwan, Sep 2, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Ann Wang)

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said new passports were needed to prevent their nationals being mistaken for Chinese citizens, especially with the stepped up entry checks many countries have begun since the pandemic began.

"Since the beginning of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak this year our people have kept hoping that we can give more prominence to Taiwan's visibility, avoiding people mistakenly thinking they are from China," Wu told reporters.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said it did not matter what "petty moves" Taiwan made, it could not change the fact that Taiwan was an inseparable part of China.

READ: Taiwan to raise defence spending as China details combat drills

READ: US increases support for Taiwan, says to counter rising China pressure

China claims democratic Taiwan as its sovereign territory, and says only it has the right to speak for the island internationally, a position it has pushed strongly during the pandemic, especially at the World Health Organization.

Taipei says this has confused countries and led them to impose the same restrictions on Taiwanese travellers as on Chinese, and has minimised Taiwan's own successful efforts to control the virus and far lower case number.

New Taiwan passport is displayed in Taipei — Members of the media take photos of paper cut outs of the old and new (right) Taiwan passport displayed in Taipei, Taiwan, Sep 2, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Ann Wang)

Taiwan has been debating for years who it is and what exactly its relationship should be with China - including the island's name. But the pandemic has shot the issue back into the spotlight.

The government is also considering a name change - or at least a full redesign - for Taiwan's largest carrier, China Airlines, again to avoid confusion with China.

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2020-09-02 06:41:08Z
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White House slams WHO over criticism of push for COVID-19 vaccine - CNA

WASHINGTON: The White House on Tuesday (Sep 1) pushed back on concerns expressed by the World Health Organization after a US health official said a coronavirus vaccine might be approved without completing full trials.

The Washington Post newspaper reported that the administration of President Donald Trump will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine because of the involvement of the WHO.

About 172 countries are engaging with the WHO's COVID-19 vaccine plan to ensure equitable access to vaccines, the organisation said recently.

READ: EU offers US$476 million to WHO-led COVID-19 vaccine initiative

READ: COVID-19 can wipe out healthcare progress in a short time: WHO survey

"The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organisations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

"This president will spare no expense to ensure that any new vaccine maintains our own FDA's gold standard for safety and efficacy, is thoroughly tested, and saves lives," he said.

The global effort to develop a vaccine against the virus, which has killed more than 851,000 people, has seen recent launches of late-stage trials, but work on treatments has also gone into overdrive.

There is no approved coronavirus vaccine, except one authorised in Russia before large-scale trials.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday that his agency was prepared to authorise a coronavirus vaccine before late-stage Phase Three clinical trials were complete, as long as officials are convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks.

READ: Emergency authorisation of COVID-19 vaccines needs great care: WHO

READ: Scientists see downsides to top COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, China

On Monday, WHO officials said rushing to make a vaccine widely available could pose risks.

"If you move too quickly to vaccinate ... millions of people, you may miss certain adverse effects," said Mike Ryan, the head of WHO's emergencies program.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the FDA's approach was "not something that you do very lightly". She said the WHO's preferred approach would be to have a full set of data which could be used for the pre-qualification of vaccines.

Trump has been critical of the WHO's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, accusing it of being too focused on China and issuing bad advice. In May, Trump announced the United States was cutting ties to the organisation.

Phase Three trials, in which randomised patients are treated with a drug or a placebo without participants or doctors knowing which group they were in, are considered the gold standard for clinical trials.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-09-02 01:58:13Z
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