TAIPEI (REUTERS) - Twenty more Chinese air force planes entered Taiwan’s air defence zone on Saturday (Oct 2), a day after Beijing marked the founding of the People’s Republic of China with the largest ever incursion by the Chinese air force into the island’s air defence zone, the Defence Ministry in Taipei said.
The latest show of force followed an incursion by 38 Chinese aircraft on Friday, the largest reported to date.
Taiwan had sharply criticised China on Saturday (Oct 2) after the intrusion on Friday. The self-ruled island has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China's air force, often in the south-western part of its air defence zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.
Taiwanese fighter jets were scrambled when the 38 Chinese aircraft in two waves on Friday, the Taiwan Defence Ministry said. It said Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.
"China has been wantonly engaged in military aggression, damaging regional peace," Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters on Saturday morning.
The first wave of incursions comprised 18 J-16 and four Su-30 fighter jets plus two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers and an anti-submarine aircraft, while the second had 10 J-16s, 2 H-6s and an early warning aircraft, the ministry said.
The first batch of Chinese aircraft all flew in an area close to the Pratas Islands, with the two bombers flying closest to the atoll, according to a map issued by the ministry.
The second group flew down into the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, a key waterway that links the Pacific with the disputed South China Sea.
China has yet to comment.
It has previously said such flights were to protect the country's sovereignty and aimed at "collusion" between Taiwan and the United States, the island's most important international backer.
The previous largest incursion happened in June, involving 28 Chinese air force aircraft.
SINGAPORE - From Nov 1, long-term pass holders will have to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter Singapore, in a move to let in necessary workers and students while minimising public health risk.
This applies to work pass holders and their dependants, as well as those entering under the Student's Pass Holder Lane.
However, long-term pass holders below 18 years old at the point of entry will be exempted from this requirement.
Those between 12 and 18 years old, however, will have to complete the full vaccination regimen within two months after they arrive in Singapore.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced the new requirement on Saturday, amid updates to Singapore's border measures.
From Wednesday (Oct 6), 11.59pm, prevailing border measures for incoming travellers will be determined based on the individual's recent travel history in the past 14 days, instead of 21 days.
In addition, the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) period for certain travellers will be shortened from 14 days to 10 days, in line with the quarantine period for Covid-19 patients locally, which accounts for the shorter incubation period of the Delta variant, said MOH.
This means that travellers with who have been to Category III and IV countries or regions within 14 days of arriving in Singapore will be able serve 10 days of SHN at dedicated facilities.
Those who visited Category III countries or regions and who are fully vaccinated may apply to serve their SHN at their place of residence or other suitable accommodation such as hotels or serviced apartments.
Unvaccinated travellers will still have to serve their SHN at dedicated facilities.
The changes may affect some travellers who have already made arrangements for SHN and refund details will be worked out and communicated separately, MOH said.
For travellers entering Singapore under the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority's Familial Ties Lane, priority will be given to those who are fully vaccinated.
Pass holders who are medically ineligible for vaccination may appeal for exemption from the vaccination requirement before applying for entry approval. This must be supported by a doctor's memo.
A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after he or she has received the full regimen of PfizerBioNTech/Comirnaty, Moderna or other World Health Organization emergency use vaccines.
Pass holders approved for entry into Singapore must be able to produce the documents to prove their full vaccination status if requested by airlines, ferry operators or at the checkpoint upon arrival.
Those who are unable to produce the necessary documentation will be denied boarding or entry unless prior exemptions have been granted. All pass holders will also be subjected to the prevailing immigration entry requirements and health protocols in Singapore, MOH said.
In light of the changing Covid-19 situation around the world, several countries will also be placed in Category II from Oct 6, 11.59pm. They are the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
Travellers who have been to Category II countries are required to serve a seven-day SHN either at their place of residence or other suitable accommodation.
Meanwhile, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cyprus, Fiji, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Slovakia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States will be placed in Category III, effective Oct 6, 11.59pm.
Full details of border measures are available at this website.
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan sharply criticised China on Saturday after Beijing marked the founding of the People's Republic of China with the largest ever incursion by the Chinese air force into the island's air defence zone.
Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China's air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.
Taiwanese fighters scrambled against 38 Chinese aircraft in two waves on Friday, the Taiwan Defence Ministry said. It said Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.
"China has been wantonly engaged in military aggression, damaging regional peace," Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters on Saturday morning.
The first wave of incursions comprised 18 J-16 and four Su-30 fighter jets plus two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers and an anti-submarine aircraft, while the second had 10 J-16s, 2 H-6s and an early warning aircraft, the ministry said.
The first batch of Chinese aircraft all flew in an area close to the Pratas Islands, with the two bombers flying closest to the atoll, according to a map issued by the ministry.
The second group flew down into the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, a key waterway that links the Pacific with the disputed South China Sea.
China has yet to comment. It has previously said such flights were to protect the country's sovereignty and aimed at "collusion" between Taiwan and the United States, the island's most important international backer.
The previous largest incursion happened in June, involving 28 Chinese air force aircraft.
China's latest mission came less than a day after its government launched a attack on Taiwan's foreign minister, evoking the words of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong to denounce him as a "shrilling" fly for his efforts to promote Taiwan internationally.
China has stepped up military and political pressure to try and force Taiwan to accept Chinese sovereignty.
Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedom and democracy.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jane Wardell and William Mallard)
Phuket got the ball rolling in July with its sandbox scheme and now other tourist spots are joining in.
The Straits Times' correspondents report on the region's plans to safely revive tourism and woo holidaymakers back.
Regional tourism goes for a test run
Thailand took a gamble in July by opening the resort island of Phuket to vaccinated foreign tourists while the region was reeling from a resurgence of Covid-19 infections. It paid off.
As at Wednesday, the quarantine-free vacation programme had attracted 38,289 international arrivals, out of which only 0.3 per cent tested positive for the virus.
The scheme generated 1.63 billion baht (S$65.7 million) in revenue from July to August.
While that may be a drop in the bucket compared with the 470 billion baht earned in 2019 before the pandemic, the "Phuket Sandbox" is spawning similar schemes elsewhere as lockdown-weary economies try to find safe ways to restart their tourism industries.
Goa banks on Covid-19 vaccinations to help it restart tourism
The pink flag flutters atop a fisherman's boat in the late afternoon breeze blowing in from the Arabian Sea at Arambol. "Pray For Us", it reads, adorned with beatific images of the Virgin Mary.
It is also a plea that is on innkeeper Inacio Daniel D'Souza's T-shirt.
As Goa cautiously reopens to domestic tourism in time for the peak season beginning this month, the 65-year-old Roman Catholic, like many others heavily dependent on tourism, is desperate for the arrival of overseas visitors, for whom entry has been banned in India since March last year, when the Covid-19 pandemic set in.
This forced Mr D'Souza to shut his eight-room guest house in Arambol, which relied on foreign tourists.
With little income since then and mounting loans, prayers have kept him going.
"I will say 'Thank you, God' if the government lets in foreign tourists," he said, seated under a constellation of statues of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary on his lavender living room wall.
Teething problems in Langkawi but tourists determined to have a good time
When the Langkawi travel bubble was first announced on Sept 2, I joked with friends and family who lived in Selangor that while we could not cross districts to meet each other even though I lived in nearby Kuala Lumpur, we could book a flight to Langkawi, more than 400 kilometres away, and catch up there instead.
A week later, inter-district movement was allowed in the Klang Valley, and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob promised inter-state travel will resume once 90 per cent of Malaysian adults are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
But this rests on the success of the Langkawi pilot programme.
There is enough public apprehension for both the state governments in Melaka and Pahang - home to popular spots such as Genting Highlands and Tioman island - to decline an offer to open up similar travel bubbles on Friday.
SINGAPORE - A terrorist attack targeting the ethnic Chinese and triggering intercommunal unrest in Singapore, serving as a pretext for China's intervention. Beijing's use of Malaysian-based intermediaries to conduct disinformation operations against Singapore, to exploit the city-state's closeness with its neighbour.
These are examples of how Singapore's structural vulnerabilities could be targeted and exploited by China, a French think-tank said in a report released last week.
The study by the Institute for Strategic Research at France's Military College, or Irsem, also observed that Singapore has been able to resist and defend against Chinese influence "skilfully", with the counter-narrative of a single national identity.
"Singapore, which has an ambivalent relationship with China, a mixture of both closeness and distrust, has several characteristics that make it a particularly vulnerable target and, at the same time, particularly resilient to Chinese influence," it said.
The 646-page document, titled "Chinese influence operations: A Machiavellian moment", describes in French how China is ramping up attempts to infiltrate and coerce states around the world through a mix of overt and covert means.
The Chinese embassy in France on Sept 22 responded by slamming the report as a "stigmatisation operation" against China.
Authored by Chinese politics and foreign affairs experts Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer, the Irsem report contains case studies on Taiwan, Sweden, Canada and Singapore.
The chapter on Singapore noted that its primary vulnerability was the very nature of its multiethnic and intercommunal society - both an asset and a lever that could easily be used by an ill-intentioned third party.
Irsem said the main narratives conveyed by Beijing's influence operations include how Singapore:
- Is a Chinese country that is part of and should be loyal to "Greater China"
- Is a small state that cannot afford to be arrogant and alienate the Chinese giant
- Lacks a strong leader since the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong underestimating the importance of ties with Beijing
- Is too close to the United States, which is the past while China is the future and it is in Singapore's interest to align with Beijing; and
- Should not get involved in the South China Sea debate.
The widespread use of English and Chinese here also makes Singapore all the more penetrable by external actors, said the report.
"Its dependence on imports for all essential goods; its strained relationship with Malaysia - itself vulnerable to radical Islam and more or less aligned with Beijing - are other vulnerabilities likely to be exploited," added Irsem, citing known precedents of Malaysian Chinese groups producing disinformation content against Taiwan.
The report pointed to the role of Chinese clan associations here in preserving Chinese identity and kinship, a phenomenon previously flagged by other think-tanks.
It estimated at least 20,000 Chinese naturalised as citizens each year, excluding permanent residents, and described this flow as a way of maintaining a Chinese majority for a community with the lowest birth rate.
"These Chinese newcomers, who maintain their networks in mainland China, are an additional vector of influence," said Irsem.
Younger Singaporeans, meanwhile, are primarily influenced by Beijing through its economic and professional opportunities: the report pointed to chambers of commerce and business associations offering scholarships to study in China, and the presence of a Confucius Institute at Nanyang Technological University.
These institutes teach Chinese language and culture at several locations around the world and have been accused by the US of promoting propaganda.
Irsem also said China could rely on influential "spokespersons" in Singapore.
Singaporean Dickson Yeo was detained in January for being a paid China spy. PHOTO: DICKSON YEO/FACEBOOK
Irsem pointed out that the Terrex saga had led to online disinformation and influence campaigns pressuring Singaporeans and pushing the narrative that Singapore must "stay in its place".
The think-tank also suggested that a 2018 hacking of Ministry of Health data was a response to the Huang case, with the aim of finding compromising information about PM Lee.
These episodes have "contributed to the growing awareness of the Singaporean authorities and public opinion of the vulnerability of the city-state to Chinese influence or even interference", said the report. "Since then, the issue has increasingly been raised publicly."
It added that the subject of Chinese influence remains highly sensitive but is well-documented, and with accumulating cases and increasingly frequent and detailed analysis, has become easier to address.
Irsem noted that Singapore had been dealing with Chinese influence since the 1950s and 1960s, when it faced the communist threat.
Today, even though the majority of Singapore's population is ethnically Chinese, "the fact is that they feel overwhelmingly Singaporean", said the report.
"Despite Beijing's efforts, there is very little cultural penetration," Irsem added. "Chinese influence on the Chinese-speaking media is relatively limited because of Singapore's control over all media."
The report's authors said Singapore's Government was aware of its vulnerabilities and the threats to national unity, and regularly takes action against these.
"Singapore is one of the world's most advanced and well-informed states in the field of countering information manipulation. Its officials travel extensively, eager to learn from foreign experiences," they added. "Singapore... can be considered as one of the best prepared states in terms of the fight against information manipulation, and even hybrid threats in general."
The Irsem publication is the latest of several reports highlighting Singapore as a natural target for Chinese influence. In June, experts told The Straits Times that such operations would have been amplified lately, including through propaganda campaigns against US-made Covid-19 vaccines and in favour of China's Sinovac.
SINGAPORE - Eight Singaporeans aged between 66 and 96 have died from complications linked to Covid-19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Friday (Oct 1).
They comprise seven Singaporean men and one Singaporean woman, four of whom were unvaccinated. Two were partially vaccinated, and two were inoculated against the virus.
All of them had various underlying medication conditions, said MOH.
It was the 12th straight day that deaths from Covid-19 were reported, taking Singapore's coronavirus death toll to 103.
There were 2,909 new Covid-19 infections reported on Friday, including 2,079 new infections in the community, 818 new cases in migrant worker dormitories and 12 imported cases.
The local cases included 556 seniors who are above age 60.
The total number of cases in Singapore now stands at 99,430.
MOH on Friday listed 10 active clusters that were under close monitoring.
These include eight migrant worker dormitories, Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, and Woodlands Care Home.
New cases were reported for all 10 clusters.
The largest one was Blue Stars Dormitory off Pioneer Road North, which had 21 new cases, bringing the total to 442.
MOH said the new cases have already been quarantined.
Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre had one new case, bringing the total to 165, while Woodlands Care Home had three new cases, bringing the total to 31.
All 12 imported cases had already been placed on stay-home notice or were isolated upon arrival in Singapore.
Seven were detected upon arrival in Singapore, and five developed the illness during stay-home notice or isolation.
As at Friday, 1,356 cases are warded in hospital - four cases fewer than on Thursday.
Of these, 222 needed oxygen supplementation, and 34 are in the intensive care unit.
Of those who have fallen very ill, 214 are seniors above 60, MOH said.
Nearly 4.5 million people, or 82 per cent of the population, are fully vaccinated, and 85 per cent has received at least one dose.
MOH said about 500,000 eligible seniors have been invited to receive their booster doses, and nearly 237,000 people have received their shots.
