HONG KONG: An opposition activist was arrested in Hong Kong on Sunday (Sep 6) by a new police squad for "uttering seditious words", hours before a rally against a controversial security law.
The arrest of Tam Tak-chi, vice president of radical democratic party People Power, is the latest detention of a high profile democracy supporter in the financial hub and came on the morning Hongkongers had been due to vote in a general election, delayed because of the coronavirus.
An unauthorised protest in opposition to a new law that gives authorities sweeping powers - as well as the poll's postponement and a Beijing-backed COVID-19 testing programme - had more than 10,000 online subscribers.
Tam, a former radio presenter known "Fast Beat", was arrested at his home in north east Hong Kong by police officers from the national security squad, although he was not detained under the new law, police said.
"The gentleman we arrested this morning was arrested for uttering seditious words under the Crimes Ordinance's section ten," senior superintendent Li Kwai-wah said, referring to legislation enacted in the British colonial era to clamp down anti-government expressions.
According to Li, Tam was held for using words that "brought into hatred and contempt of the government and raised discontent and disaffection among Hong Kong people" in speeches made across Hong Kong this summer.
Li said the national security police was leading the arrest because at the initial stage of investigation the force suspected Tam of committing "incitement to secession" in article 21 of the national security law.
"But after collection of evidence and consulting the Department of Justice, we decided that it is more suitable to use the Crimes Ordinance," Li said.
Since the national security law was passed in Beijing and implemented in Hong Kong on Jun 30, 21 people, including pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai and prominent activist Agnes Chow, have been arrested for allegations of "incitement to secession", "collusion with foreign forces" and "terrorism acts".
Hong Kong's administration insists the law has not impinged on the rights to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed to the territory when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Yet certain opinions and expressions in previously free-wheeling Hong Kong have become illegal, and activists have spoken of a deep chilling effect that has seen books yanked from libraries and publishers rush to amend their titles.
BEIJING: About 90 per cent of Sinovac Biotech employees and their families have taken an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chinese firm under the country’s emergency use program, its chief executive said on Sunday (Sep 6).
The extent of inoculations under the emergency program, which China launched in July but has released few details about, points to how actively it is using experimental vaccines in the hopes of protecting essential workers against a potential COVID-19 resurgence, even as trials are still underway.
The program is intended for specific groups, including medical staffers and those who work at food markets and in the transportation and service sectors.
Sinovac, whose CoronaVac is in Phase 3 clinical trials and has been included in the emergency scheme, offered the candidate vaccine to approximately 2,000 to 3,000 employees and their families on a voluntary basis, CEO Yin Weidong told Reuters.
“As a vaccine developer and manufacturer, a new outbreak could directly impact our vaccine production,” Yin said on the sidelines of an international trade fair in Beijing, explaining why his company was included in the emergency program.
Data gathered from the program could offer evidence of the vaccine’s safety, but such data, which is not part of the registered clinical trial protocols, will not be used as main materials that regulators review in judging whether to approve the vaccine for commercial use, Yin said.
He said those who chose to be inoculated, including his wife and parents, had been informed of the potential side effects prior to taking the shot, and that its vaccine completing only early and mid-stage trials.
Yin, who also took the shot, said doctors asked about their health conditions before the vaccination, and the occurrence rate of adverse reaction among those vaccinated has been “very low”.
Side effects after taking CoronaVac include fatigue, fever and pain, with mostly mild symptoms, according to results of a mid-stage trial sponsored by Sinovac, involving 600 participants and published last month ahead of peer review.
No vaccine has passed final, large-scale trials to prove it is effective and safe enough to protect people against the virus that has led to over 870,000 deaths globally.
RAUB, PAHANG - At foothills deep in the interior of Malaysia's Pahang state, a bitter tussle is pitting a large group of unlicensed farmers and a new company owned by Pahang royalty over the country's famous Musang King durians.
The 1,000 or so farmers are mostly ethnic Chinese who have been planting durian trees in Raub, a two-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, for the past four to five decades by clearing government-owned forest land.
The farmers, whose ancestors named the Musang King durian that is widely regarded as Malaysia's most loved durian variant, have said that the state had repeatedly rejected their attempts to independently legitimise their farms over the past 20 years.
The Pahang state government in March decided to grant the rights of the land currently occupied by the farmers to a private entity and a state-owned vehicle instead, and these two firms, in a joint venture, are offering a legalisation scheme the terms of which, the farmers say, are heavily weighed against them.
The legalisation scheme is led by Royal Pahang Durian Produce (RPD) and the Pahang Agriculture Development Authority (PKPP).
The RPD-PKPP joint venture was given land rights for 2,168ha in Raub for durian cultivation on a big scale - and around half of the granted land is occupied by the farmers.
A key RPD proposal is a promise to buy Musang King durians at a fixed price of RM30 (S$9.85) per kilo from the farmers. It claims this provides a good profit margin as the cost for planting durians is only RM8 a kilo.
The firm said in a statement last Tuesday (Sept 1) that the scheme is a "win-win" proposal for both sides, as the farmers will now be allowed to legally grow their durian trees while RPD buys the king of fruits from them at a fixed price.
"Based on independent verification, cost of production of about RM8/kg will therefore assure the farmers an expected margin of more than 200 per cent," RPD said.
The hills beyond Sungai Klau where the Musang King durians are planted at high altitude. ST PHOTO: RAM ANAND
The farmers also have to pay RM6,000 a year for every one acre - or 0.4ha - of durian planted land, before the legalisation scheme starts in 2021.
RPD's biggest shareholders are the Pahang royal family, with Tengku Puteri Iman Afzan, daughter of Pahang ruler and Malaysia's current King Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin, being listed as its chair.
The durian farmers are vehemently against the scheme, as they would have to sell durians at a fixed price to RPD-PKPP, as opposed to the current fluctuating market price which they say befits the inconsistent produce rates of a durian tree. They say the cost price estimated also does not take into account the years it takes for a durian tree to mature.
The farmers have formed the Save Musang King Alliance (Samka) to defend what they see as their rights over the farmed land.
Samka chairman Chang Yee Chin, who has organised the farmers' protests and led the battle into the courts, said the farmers had engaged with RPD multiple times and are unable to accept the terms of the legalisation scheme.
He contends that the scheme pushes most of the liabilities on to the farmers, limits their profit and sets unrealistic expectations on produce volume.
"A durian tree's produce only lasts three weeks, and they expect the three weeks' effort to cover the cost of the whole year's effort," Mr Chang told The Straits Times.
The farmers have obtained an injunction against the joint venture moving in on their farms after the land office asked the farmers to vacate their farms by Aug 24. The farms are located at the foothill village of Sungai Klau, about 30km into the heart of a vast agricultural plain in Malaysia's third biggest state.
The case is set to be heard in court on Oct 28.
However, Malay political organisations in Kuala Lumpur have introduced a racial undertone to the battle, as most of the farmers are ethnic Chinese.
Parti Islam SeMalaysia has called the farmers "intruders" and urged action be taken against them, while rallying support for the state government's stance.
Putra, another Malay political party, has urged the authorities to investigate elements of corruption in the case, and even called for the repossessed farms to be gazetted as Malay reserve land and given to army veterans.
But the story of this village in Sungai Klau is one that involves both Malay and Chinese settlers, and the farmers are shunning attempts to turn a legal battle into a racial one. As part of its efforts to eradicate the communist presence in these hills in the 1970s, the Pahang state government through its agricultural arm offered a home and a piece of land to 200 Malay and Chinese families to resettle there.
While the home grants and some of the land grants were issued, many of the settlers have waited for decades to get the land titles promised to them.
Farming in these hills developed soon after: Settlers planted rice, cocoa, papaya, banana, and other variants of durian, without much success.
In the 1990s, they discovered the Musang King variant, which can sell today for as much as RM55 a kilo.
This area now accounts for 60 per cent of all Musang King exports from Malaysia. Demand is high in China, where the fruit can fetch up to RM400 a kg. In the first half of 2020 alone, Chinese imports of Malaysian durians were valued at US$40 million (S$54.5 million).
Malaysia's top durian export destination is currently Singapore.
Going by RPD's estimates, the lands currently in dispute can produce up to 11,000 tonnes of durian during a good harvest year. With no state support, the farmers had carved out their own roads up the hills, as the Musang King thrives at an altitude above 350m.
While a large majority of the farmers are Chinese, there are also 500 Malays from over 100 families that work these lands.
"This is not a racial issue. The farmers all work together and we don't have a race issue with each other. Why turn this into one?" Malay farmer Mohamad Nizam told ST.
Fellow farmer Khairul Zairi asked: "The people don't know there are Malays involved here too. The state land office is not blind, we have been planting here for decades. Why did they not give (the permit) to us? We have the proof of all our applications."
WUHAN: China is recasting Wuhan as a heroic coronavirus victim and trying to throw doubt on the pandemic's origin story as it aims to seize the narrative at a time of growing global distrust of Beijing.
The PR blitz plays out daily in comments by Chinese officials and lavish state media coverage of a "reborn" Wuhan that trumpets China's epidemic-control efforts and economic recovery while the United States struggles.
The drive peaked in the past week as Chinese primary schools welcomed back students with considerable fanfare and Wuhan hosted executives from dozens of multinationals, from Panasonic to Dow and Nokia, on a highly choreographed tour of the central Chinese city.
Chinese primary schools have welcomed back students with much fanfare recently, including in Wuhan AFP/Hector RETAMAL
"There are few places in the world today where you don't need a mask and can gather," a Chinese official, Lin Songtian, told the executives, implying that Wuhan was one of those places.
"This testifies to Wuhan's triumph over the virus and that (the city) is back in business."
No local coronavirus transmission has been reported for months in Wuhan, where many activities have resumed AFP/Hector RETAMAL
Lost in this retelling, however, is that a wet market in Wuhan is widely believed to be ground zero for the pandemic.
China's foreign minister suggested on Aug 28 during a European outreach trip that the virus might not have emerged in China.
The drive indicates China recognises COVID-19's damage to its brand and wants to leverage its relatively successful recovery to counter growing international challenges, analysts said.
China faces foreign bitterness over the virus and an initial cover-up attempt by Wuhan officials, plus criticism of Beijing's tightening grip on Hong Kong and generally more aggressive international posture.
"Beijing wants the narrative to be: We handled it, we can help you handle it and (hopefully) we're the first to have a vaccine that works," said Kelsey Broderick, Asia analyst with Eurasia Group.
"That's really the only way China can come out ahead of the idea that a wet market in Wuhan started this crisis."
"ABSOLUTELY SAFE"
The fumbling US pandemic response provides a clear opening, said Yun Jiang, director of Australian National University's China Policy Centre.
"The fact that the US is not only not doing enough, but actually doing things that go against American interests, is a big help to China," she said.
The three-day Wuhan tour also included foreign media outlets and ended Saturday.
It featured primary-school students performing traditional Chinese opera and ballet, a renovated food market presented as a model of sanitation, and a Yangtze riverfront cruise underneath a skyline ablaze with towering light displays referencing the virus recovery.
The city of 11 million - which suffered more than 80 per cent of China's 4,634 Covid-19 deaths - has come a long way since the pandemic's grim early days, when a suffocating weeks-long lockdown rendered it a ghost town.
No new local transmissions have been reported in months, traffic jams are back, shoppers cram malls, and al fresco diners gobble up the city's signature spicy crayfish dish.
Face masks sag from the neck or are abandoned altogether.
The growing confidence was displayed at a Wuhan pool party attended by thousands of mask-less people last month that prompted overseas accusations of recklessness after images of the event went viral.
"What risks can there be?" asked Wuhan factory worker Xie Ailiang while speaking to AFP.
"I think now Wuhan should be absolutely safe."
Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, suffered more than 80 percent of China's Covid-19 deaths AFP/Hector RETAMAL
"WINTER IS COMING"
But not everyone is taking a victory lap.
Many Wuhan citizens express persistent concern over an uneven recovery and fear of new outbreaks.
"The economy has really declined. The benefit of even coming to work is questionable," said Yi Xinhua, 51, who sells tofu from her stall at a Wuhan wet market.
Blocks of tofu were neatly arranged by shape and size, but there few buyers - Yi says her sales are only half of the pre-pandemic level.
It's a common complaint in Wuhan, blamed by many business owners on lingering fear of going out in public and the widely expressed belief that millions who fled the city early in the pandemic have still not returned.
Wuhan employers complain online that the exodus has also reduced the local labour pool.
And memories of a subsequent virus cluster in May, which triggered a citywide effort to test millions, remain fresh.
"Everyone is afraid the epidemic will return, you know? The summer is over, and winter is coming," said Yi.
Despite the big recovery, some in Wuhan have expressed fear of new outbreaks and an uneven recovery AFP/Hector RETAMAL
"We've recovered a bit. But if the virus comes back, we'll be hit again."
HONG KONG: At the Koon Chun Sauce Factory workers are scrambling to cover hundreds of thousands of bottles with new "Made in China" labels as the popular Hong Kong brand falls victim to spiralling diplomatic tensions.
Founded nearly a century ago, the family-owned factory has survived a world war, multiple economic crises and the slow withering of Hong Kong's manufacturing base as companies looked for cheaper labour in mainland China.
It remains one of the financial hub's most enduring brands, churning out culinary staples such as soy, hoisin and oyster sauces found in Chinese restaurants and kitchens around the world.
But from November it can no longer place the words "Made in Hong Kong" on any products exported to the United States - part of Washington's response to Beijing imposing a tough new security law on the restless city.
The new rules, announced by US Customs in July, came just two days before a Koon Chun shipment of 1,300 boxes was about to set sail for Atlanta.
The factory suddenly had to re-label the entire shipment and all other cargo the firm planned to ship to the US this summer.
"It was a mission impossible," Daniel Chan told AFP from the factory his great-grandfather founded in 1928.
Products made in Hong Kong are having to be relabelled as 'Made in China' if they are bound for the US AFP/Anthony WALLACE
China blanketed Hong Kong in a new security law to stamp out huge and often violent pro-democracy protests that convulsed the city last year.
Both Beijing and local authorities said it would have no impact on businesses and would restore stability.
IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION
But economic consequences have rippled through the recession-hit hub as authorities use the new powers to pursue political opponents.
Rattled tech firms have declined to share data with local police while some companies and universities are struggling to attract international talent.
Banks have found themselves caught in an impossible situation.
The US has sanctioned key Chinese and Hong Kong officials in response to the law. But that same security law also forbids companies from complying with any foreign sanctions regime.
Another victim has been the "Made in Hong Kong" brand, a label that companies can place on products made exclusively in the city.
Donald Trump has turned increasingly hawkish towards China as he seeks re-election, and the crackdown on democracy supporters in Hong Kong has given him fresh ammunition.
This summer his administration declared Hong Kong no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify special trading status. Instead it would be treated like any other Chinese city.
Chan, who studied at Harvard in the US, said he expected the political landscape would shift in Hong Kong. But he never thought it would come so fast.
"I envisioned something closer to 2047, when Hong Kong is officially without One Country Two Systems," Chan said, referring to the China promise to let Hong Kong keep key liberties and autonomy for 50 years after the 1997 handover from Britain.
The past few weeks have been a blur of activity at the sauce factory as its 90 employees try to adjust to the new reality.
POLITICAL FIASCO
On top of the stop-gap stickers, new labels are being drawn up for US exports - the large "Made in Hong Kong" lettering replaced with a much smaller "Made in China" declaration.
Much time has been spent rearranging storage for now-delayed cargo shipments.
Companies were given a reprieve when Hong Kong's commerce minister Edward Yau said Washington had postponed the label rule until early November, after the presidential election.
"This buys us a little bit of time," Chan said.
But he described it as "a short-term solution to this whole politically inspired fiasco".
Yau has slammed the labelling change and threatened to take the US to the World Trade Organization.
He also stressed that Hong Kong-made shipments to the US were worth just HK$3.7 billion (US$480 million) in 2019, less than 0.1 per cent of the city's gross exports.
Cargo made in Hong Kong for the US market has been held up by new rules from Washington AFP/Anthony WALLACE
But that is little consolation for Chan who says around half his products go to the US, where the brand is especially popular with the large Chinese diaspora in North America.
"I would say we are the only company which is only based in Hong Kong and still doing this kind of mass production and shipping it to US," he said.
Looking ahead, Chan fears more international markets may follow America.
"In 20 years, 30 years from now, people will only have 'Made in China' and forget about Hong Kong," Chan said. "That's very sad."
MELBOURNE: Australian officials on Sunday (Sep 6) extended a strict virus lockdown of the country's second-biggest city by two weeks, saying new cases had not dropped enough to prevent another spike.
Melbourne residents were due to exit a harsh six-week lockdown next weekend but face continued restrictions for months to come, with Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews saying the current lockdown would remain in place until Sep 28.
"If we open up too fast then we have a very high likelihood that we are not really opening up at all - we are just beginning a third wave," he told a press conference.
"And we will be back in and out of restrictions, coming in and out of lockdown, before the end of the year."
Just 63 new cases and five deaths were recorded in Victoria on Sunday, after peaking above 700 at the height of the outbreak, but health officials are taking a cautious approach.
Hopes of a return to normality this month have been dashed, with an overnight curfew, restrictions on visitors to homes and a limit on travelling more than 5km set to remain in place until at least Oct 26.
Announcing the roadmap for the easing of restrictions, Andrews said that rushing to experience a "brief period of sunshine" would likely lead to the virus again spiralling out of control.
The toughest rules will be eased in Melbourne from September 13, with an overnight curfew beginning an hour later at 9:00 pm, daily exercise increased to two hours and small "social bubbles" created for people living alone.
Under the government's plan, childcare centres will reopen and up to five people will be able to gather outdoors from the end of September -- but only if cases fall below an average of 50 per day.
Rules for people living in regional and rural Victoria will be relaxed more quickly, due to small numbers of active cases in those areas.
The announcement comes a day after more than a dozen anti-lockdown protesters were arrested in Melbourne during clashes with police.
Hundreds attended the illegal gathering organised online by conspiracy theorists, labelling the government's response to the pandemic overblown or an outright "scam".
Australia has been relatively successful in containing the virus, with the country recording just over 26,000 cases and 753 deaths in a population of 25 million.
The vast majority were reported in Melbourne over the past two months, while other regions have rolled back restrictions after largely bringing the virus under control.
