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Rabu, 31 Maret 2021

Xinjiang link prompts concern over Australian Olympic uniforms - CNA

SYDNEY: Australian Olympians became embroiled in the global row over Chinese forced-labour cotton on Wednesday (Mar 31) as the country revealed its uniforms for the upcoming Tokyo Games.

The Australian Olympic Committee faced criticism as it rolled out Asics-branded sportswear, with the company facing questions over its use of cotton from the Xinjiang region.

"We've been assured that none of the cotton for the Australian Olympic team comes from that region," said Ian Chesterman, Australian Olympic Committee vice president.

"I think athletes at the moment need to focus on what their job is, which is to get out there and compete for Australia," he said during a press conference.

READ: China warns companies against politicising actions regarding Xinjiang

Commentary: China's boycott of H&M, Nike and other big brands is really bizarre

At least 1 million Uyghurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups are believed to have been held in camps in Xinjiang, in China's north-west.

Human rights groups, independent media and foreign governments have found evidence that the local authorities have carried out mass detention, forced labour, political indoctrination, torture and forcible sterilisation.

The United States has described the situation as genocide and banned all cotton from Xinjiang. Australia's parliament is considering a similar move.

Several major fashion brands recently announced they would no longer use cotton from Xinjiang - for fear it has been produced by forced labour.

But Asics was one of several firms - hoping to safeguard access to China's vast marketplace - that initially responded to the allegations by vowing to "continue to purchase and support Xinjiang cotton".

"DISGUSTING AND SHAMEFUL"

Nathan Ruser, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, was among the critics describing Australia's use of Asics sportswear as "disgusting and shameful".

An Asics spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday that the initial company statement on Chinese social media was "unauthorised" and did not represent "our official corporate position on this matter".

"We are fully committed to working closely with business partners to ensure human rights are respected and environmental standards are met at all times," the spokesperson said.

READ: UN in talks with China for unrestricted Xinjiang visit

READ: Washington condemns China's 'baseless sanctions' against US officials over Xinjiang

The Chinese government has denied carrying out rights abuses but companies that have voiced concerns have been punished.

Swedish fashion retailer H&M disappeared from Chinese shopping apps and has been targeted for boycott.

Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times on Tuesday said Asics had become "the latest target of a boycott by Chinese customers" and was facing "catastrophic losses" after backtracking on its initial statement.

China is one of the world's largest suppliers of cotton, making up around one-fifth of the global total.

Almost 90 per cent of China's cotton comes is believed to come from Xinjiang.

"I don't think any Australian athlete wants to wear a uniform produced by a company that is sourcing cotton from Xinjiang," Elaine Pearson, Australia director for Human Rights Watch, told AFP.

"This is a test case for companies like Asics about how committed they are to upholding human rights principles," she said.

"They should do their due diligence and be transparent in reporting about their supply chain."

"The Chinese government is showing its true colours by pressuring companies to be complicit in abuses rather than working to end violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims," Pearson added.

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2021-03-31 03:50:14Z
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Selasa, 30 Maret 2021

White House announces new measures to counter anti-Asian violence - CNA

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration on Tuesday (Mar 30) announced a set of measures responding to rising anti-Asian violence, including deploying US$49.5 million from COVID-19 relief funds for US community programs that help victims.

White House officials said in a statement that the Department of Justice is also focusing on a rising number of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.

"We can’t be silent in the face of rising violence against Asian Americans," Biden wrote on Twitter. "These attacks are wrong, un-American, and must stop."

The measures come after a shooting in Atlanta earlier this month left eight people dead, six of them Asian-American women.

The shooting stoked fears among those in the Asian-American Pacific Islander community, which has reported a spike in hate crimes since March 2020 when then-President Donald Trump began referring to the novel coronavirus as the "China virus".

READ: Video shows elderly Asian-American woman assaulted on New York street

Biden's new steps include US$49.5 million of pandemic relief funds for "community based, culturally specific services and programs for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault" as well as a new task force dedicated to countering xenophobia against Asians in healthcare.

The Justice Department is also planning new efforts to enforce hate crime laws and report data on racial crimes, the statement said.

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2021-03-30 21:14:46Z
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Data withheld from WHO team probing COVID-19 origins in China: Tedros - CNA

GENEVA: Data was withheld from World Health Organization investigators who travelled to China to research the origins of the coronavirus epidemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday (Mar 30).

The United States, the European Union and other Western countries immediately called for China to give "full access" to independent experts to all data about the original outbreak in late 2019.

In its final report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, a WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that a lab leak was "extremely unlikely" as a cause.

One of the team’s investigators has already said China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to the WHO-led team, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the global pandemic began.

"In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data," Tedros said. "I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing."

READ: Leaders of 23 countries back pandemic treaty idea for future emergencies

The inability of the WHO mission to conclude yet where or how the virus began spreading in people means that tensions will continue over how the pandemic started - and whether China has helped efforts to find out or, as the United States has alleged, hindered them.

"The international expert study on the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples," Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Korea, Slovenia, Britain, the United States and the European Union said in a joint statement.

"NOT EXTENSIVE ENOUGH"

Although the team concluded that a leak from a Wuhan laboratory was the least likely hypothesis for the virus that causes COVID-19, Tedros said the issue required further investigation, potentially with more missions to China.

"I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough," he told member states in remarks released by the WHO. "Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions."

READ: Coronavirus likely jumped to humans from bats through 'missing link' animal: WHO report

The WHO team's leader, Peter Ben Embarek, told a press briefing it was "perfectly possible" the virus had been circulating in November or October 2019 around Wuhan, and so potentially spreading abroad earlier than documented so far.

"We got access to quite a lot of data in many different areas, but of course there were areas where we had difficulties getting down to the raw data and there are many good reasons for that," he said, citing privacy laws and other restrictions.

Second phase studies were required, Ben Embarek added.

He said the team had felt political pressure, including from outside China, but that he had never been pressed to remove anything from its final report.

Dominic Dwyer, an Australian expert on the mission, said he was satisfied there was "no obvious evidence" of a problem at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The European Union called the study "an important first step" but renewed criticisms that the origin study had begun too late, that experts had been kept out of China for too long, and that access to data and early samples had fallen short.

In a statement, Walter Stevens, EU ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, called for further study with "timely access to relevant locations and to all relevant human, animal and environmental data available".

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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2021-03-30 17:57:47Z
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Data withheld from WHO team probing Covid-19 origins in China: Tedros - The Straits Times

GENEVA (REUTERS) - Data was withheld from World Health Organisation (WHO) investigators who travelled to China to research the origins of the coronavirus epidemic, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday (March 30).

He made the comments to the agency’s member states as a WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan, China, in January and February released its final report to the public.

China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team, one of the team’s investigators has already said, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the global pandemic began.

“In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data,” Tedros said.

“I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing.”

The conclusions that the virus origins remains incomplete likely means that tensions over how the pandemic started – and whether China has helped or hinder efforts to find out, as the United States has alleged – will continue.

Although the team concluded a leak from a Wuhan-area laboratory was the least likely hypothesis for the virus that causes Covid-19, Tedros said, the matter requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions back to China.

“I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough,” Tedros said.

“Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions.”

The WHO team’s leader, Peter Ben Embarek, told a separate virtual press briefing on Tuesday that it was “perfectly possible” Covid-19 cases were circulating in November or October 2019 around Wuhan, potentially leading to the disease spreading abroad earlier than documented so far.

He said the team felt political pressure, including from outside China, but that he never was pressed to remove anything from its final report.

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2021-03-30 14:36:02Z
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China's top legislative body passes sweeping Hong Kong electoral reforms - South China Morning Post

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2021-03-30 13:05:24Z
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With Suez Canal crisis ended, it's time to add up the damages - The Straits Times

ISMAILIA, EGYPT (BLOOMBERG) - The immediate crisis of the Suez Canal blockage may have ended, but the battle over damages from the waterway's longest closure in almost half a century is just beginning.

The long-term cost of the canal's estimated US$10 billion (S$13.5 billion) a day closure will likely be small, given that global merchandise trade amounts to US$18 trillion a year.

Yet with cargoes delayed for weeks if not months, the blockage could unleash a flood of claims by everyone affected, from the shipping lines to manufacturers and oil producers.

"The legal issues are so enormous," said Ms Alexis Cahalan, a partner at Norton White in Sydney, which specialises in transport law.

"If you can imagine the variety of cargoes that are there - everything from oil, grain, consumer goods like refrigerators to perishable goods - that is where the enormity of the claims may not be known for a time."

The Ever Given was successfully pried from the sand on Monday (March 29), and traffic has resumed through the canal.

But the blockage, which began last Tuesday, was the canal's longest closure since it was shut for eight years following the 1967 Six-Day War and offered a reminder of the fragility of global trade infrastructure and threats to supply lines already stretched by the pandemic.

The Egyptian authorities were desperate to get traffic flowing again through the waterway that's a conduit for about 12 per cent of world trade and around one million barrels of oil a day.

Leth Agencies, one of the top providers of Suez Canal crossing services, said 37 ships exited from Great Bitter Lake by 3.30am local time and 76 are scheduled to go on Tuesday.

South Korea's shipping giant HMM said the HMM Gdansk, one of the world's largest container vessels and which can carry 24,000 20ft boxes, was scheduled to transit through the waterway on Tuesday after being held up since last week.

It may take as long as four days to return the canal to normal, Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie said at a Monday evening press conference.

That assessment may be optimistic, and it could take weeks for the situation to be fully resolved, according to Mr Arthur Richier, senior freight analyst at energy market intelligence firm Vortexa.

Freight rates for the affected shipping routes are already rising due to lower availability of tankers as some stay stuck and some are taking the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.

"Coordinating the logistics of who gets to go through first and how that's going to be sorted out, I think the Egyptians have quite a job on their hands," Mr John Wobensmith, chief executive officer of Genco Shipping and Trading, said on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

To prevent future disruptions and help accommodate higher volumes of shipping traffic, the authorities could consider widening the Suez Canal, he said.

The canal's blockage will reduce global reinsurers' earnings, which have already been hit by winter storms in the US and flooding in Australia, as well as the pandemic, according to Fitch Ratings.

Prices for marine reinsurance will rise further as a consequence, it said. Fitch estimates losses may amount to hundreds of millions of euros.

In a potential merry-go-round of legal action, owners of the goods on board the Ever Given and other ships could seek compensation for delays from their insurers, if they have one.

Those insurers for cargo on board can in turn file claims against Ever Given's owners, who will then look to their insurers for protection.

Taiwan's Evergreen Line, which chartered the Ever Given, says Japan's Shoei Kisen Kaisha - the ship's owner - is responsible for any losses. Shoei Kisen has taken some responsibility, but says charterers need to deal with the cargo owners.

Evergreen is being represented by Ince Gordon Dadds as legal adviser, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they aren't authorised to speak to the media. London-based Ince Gordon Dadds and Evergreen declined to comment.

Taiwan's Evergreen Line, which chartered the Ever Given, says Japan's Shoei Kisen Kaisha - the ship's owner - is responsible for any losses. PHOTO: AFP/SUEZ CANAL AUTHORITY

An official at Shoei Kisen said the company hasn't received any compensation claim from various parties yet.

The firm doesn't have an estimate on the amount of potential claims and is still examining what it is responsible for.

The ship's hull is insured through three Japanese companies.

Responsibility for the giant ship's grounding will be determined after an investigation, the Suez Canal's Mr Rabie said, adding that the authority isn't at fault and that the ship's captain - and not the pilot - was responsible for the vessel.

Inspections of potential damage are continuing to the Ever Given, which has been moved north to the Great Bitter Lake.

Those checks will determine whether the vessel can resume its scheduled service, and what happens to the cargo onboard, Evergreen said in a statement.

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2021-03-30 09:06:32Z
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Rubbish piles up on Yangon streets as Myanmar protesters launch 'garbage strike' - CNA

YANGON: Rubbish piled up on the streets of Myanmar's main city on Tuesday (Mar 30) after activists launched a "garbage strike" to oppose military rule as the toll of pro-democracy protesters killed by the security forces since a Feb 1 coup rose to more than 500.

Out of 14 civilians killed on Monday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said at least eight were in the South Dagon district of the biggest city, Yangon.

Security forces in the area fired a heavier calibre weapon than usual on Monday towards protesters crouching behind a barricade of sand bags, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear what weapon it was but it was believed to be some type of grenade launcher.

State television said security forces used "riot weapons" to disperse a crowd of "violent terrorist people" who were destroying a pavement and one man was wounded.

READ: Myanmar crackdown death toll passes 500

People protest in Launglon, Myanmar — People protest against the military coup in Launglon township, Myanmar on Mar 30, 2021 (Photo: Reuters/Dawei Watch)

A South Dagon resident said on Tuesday security forces had been cracking down in the area overnight, raising concern of more casualties.

"There was shooting all night," said the resident who declined to be identified.

Residents found a badly burned body on a street in the morning, the resident said, adding it was not known what had happened to the person and the military took the body away.

Police and a junta spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment.

Thousands of protesters came out in several other towns across the country, according to media and photos on social media. There were no immediate reports of violence.

READ: US suspends all trade engagement with Myanmar until elected government returns

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Myanmar's generals to stop the killings and repression of demonstrations.

A civil disobedience campaign of strikes against military rule has paralysed large parts of the economy and in a new tactic, protesters sought to step up the campaign by asking residents to leave garbage at main road intersections.

"This garbage strike is a strike to oppose the junta," read a poster on social media. "Everyone can join."

Pictures posted on social media showed piles of rubbish building up in Yangon.

The campaign comes in defiance of calls issued via loudspeakers in some neighbourhoods of Yangon on Monday urging residents to dispose of garbage properly.

"UNACCEPTABLE"

At least 510 civilians had been killed in nearly two months of opposition to the ouster of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and the return of military rule after a decade of tentative steps towards democracy, according to a tally by the AAPP advocacy group.

The total killed on Saturday, the bloodiest day of the protests, had risen to 141, its figures showed.

One of the main groups behind the protests, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities, called on Monday in an open letter for ethnic minority forces to help those standing up to the "unfair oppression" of the military.

READ: Toddler survives Myanmar airstrike that killed father

Combination photo Yangon, Myanmar — This combination photo of screengrabs from a UGC video provided to AFPTV from an anonymous source and taken on Mar 29, 2021 shows protesters hiding behind a makeshift barricade before it exploded (top) and running away from the same barricade after it exploded during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon's South Dagon township.

In a sign that the call may be gaining more traction, three groups - the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Arakan Army (AA) and Ta'ang National Liberation Army - called in a joint statement on Tuesday for the military to stop killing protesters and resolve political issues.

If not, they said they would cooperate with all ethnic groups "who are joining Myanmar's spring revolution" to defend themselves.

"This kind of brutal killing of innocent civilians is unacceptable," AA spokesman Khine Thu Kha told Reuters in an audio message.

Insurgents from different ethnic groups have battled the central government for decades for greater autonomy. Though many groups have agreed to ceasefires, fighting has flared in recent days between the army and forces in both the east and north.

READ: France denounces 'blind and deadly' violence in Myanmar

Protesters gathering while demonstrating — This photo taken and received from an anonymous source via Facebook on Mar 29, 2021 shows protesters gathering while demonstrating against the military coup in Yangon's South Dagon township. (Photo: AFP/Facebook/Handout)

Heavy clashes erupted on the weekend near the Thai border between the army and fighters from Myanmar's oldest ethnic minority force, the Karen National Union (KNU), which has also denounced the coup.

About 3,000 villagers fled to Thailand when military jets bombed a KNU area.

Thailand has denied accounts by activist groups that refugees were being forced back. Its foreign ministry said there was no policy of turning away refugees fleeing conflict and they would be accepted on humanitarian grounds.

More than a dozen people were allowed to cross into Thailand on Tuesday for medical treatment at a border village, Reuters witnesses said.

Myanmar's military has for decades justified its grip on power by saying it is the only institution capable of preserving national unity. It seized power saying that November elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the election commission.

But foreign criticism and Western sanctions have failed to sway the generals and Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention at an undisclosed location and many other figures in her party are also in custody.

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2021-03-30 08:15:16Z
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