US raises concerns with China about actions against US companies - CNA

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo raised concerns about Chinese actions against U.S. firms operating in China with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao during a meeting on Thursday in Washington, according to a U.S. readout.

"The two had candid and substantive discussions on issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship, including the overall environment in both countries for trade and investment and areas for potential cooperation," the commerce department said in a statement.

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2023-05-26 00:07:43Z
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China rejects claim it is spying on Western critical infrastructure - CNA

Although Chinese spies have long been active online against the United States and its allies, Volt Typhoon has raised particular concerns because of its focus on critical infrastructure, including communications links that tie the United States to the Pacific, analysts say.

The group's focus on stealthiness is also drawing attention.

Cybersecurity company Secureworks, which said it has responded to at least three Volt Typhoon hacks, described the group as working consistently to cover its tracks.

The company also backed Western assessments of the group's origins, saying that the hacker group, which it nicknamed "Bronze Silhouette", likely operates on behalf of Beijing.

Secureworks - an arm of Dell Technologies' - said that Chinese spies were upping their game in response to "likely increased pressure from (Chinese) leadership to avoid public scrutiny of its cyberespionage activity".

It was not immediately clear how many organisations were affected by the espionage, but the US National Security Agency (NSA) said it was working with partners including Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK, as well as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify breaches.

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2023-05-25 10:00:32Z
CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS9jaGluYS1yZWplY3RzLWNsYWltLWl0LXNweWluZy13ZXN0ZXJuLWNyaXRpY2FsLWluZnJhc3RydWN0dXJlLTM1MTQ1OTbSAQA

'Her legs are weak and she can't walk far': Wang Yuqing takes wheelchair-bound mother on trip to South Korea - AsiaOne

She taught him about the world as he grew up, now Wang Yuqing is returning the favour by showing the world to his mother.

In Instagram posts beginning on May 3, the veteran actor shared pictures of himself and the 86-year-old on a trip to South Korea.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CsMHlkIyRN7/[/embed]

Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, Yuqing, 62, shared his reasons for taking the elderly lady on vacation: "Over the past few years, I have taken my mother halfway around the world, including to Switzerland, Hawaii, Las Vegas and China.

"Mum loves watching Korean dramas and is exceptionally familiar with the protagonists of each series. One day, she said to me that she's never been to South Korea before!"

He took the hint and didn't disappoint — he brought his mother, sister and girlfriend on a six-day trip to South Korea.

Recalling his experience in Seoul, Yuqing said: "Her legs are weak and she can't walk far. When she arrived in Seoul, she was wheelchair-bound."

To travel with as much convenience as possible, Yuqing hired a private vehicle to ferry them for the full duration of their stay, costing him $1,000 in total.

"The driver was surprisingly able to speak Mandarin, which is rare, and he could talk to my mother. She even joked that the driver looked like JJ Lin," he added, saying that the man's services were well worth the cost.

[[nid:609478]]

Yuqing also told Shin Min that as they travelled and visited tourist destinations, his mother was able to recognise locations featured in K-dramas.

The quartet also visited famous cafes and went shopping quite a bit, he said.

From his Instagram posts, it can be seen that Yuqing also had Chuncheon city and Nami island on his itinerary.

"But the temperature in South Korea is quite low and would hit eight to nine degrees Celsius in the night. When we went to Gyeongbokgung during the day, it was 11 or 12 degrees.

"To prevent mum from getting a cold, I would wrap her up like a dumpling — thankfully, she's still very healthy so everything went well."

Not urging him to get married

Yuqing's girlfriend Norah Zhang was also on the trip and got along well with his mother.

"She knows how to joke with my mum," he said of Norah, 52. "After a few days of getting along with each other, we grew closer."

The octogenarian also seems content to leave her son to his own devices.

"She never urges me to get married," he told the Chinese daily.

ALSO READ: Love's in the air? Wang Yuqing and Chen Liping channel inner Chin Han and Lin Ching-hsia in new local drama

khooyihang@asiaone.com

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2023-05-25 02:29:00Z
CBMigwFodHRwczovL3d3dy5hc2lhb25lLmNvbS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L2hlci1sZWdzLWFyZS13ZWFrLWNhbnQtd2Fsay1mYXItd2FuZy15dXFpbmctdGFrZXMtd2hlZWxjaGFpci1ib3VuZC1tb3RoZXItaG9saWRheS1zb3V0aC1rb3JlYdIBAA

Vietnam jails noodle vendor who parodied Salt Bae - CNA

HANOI: A Vietnam court has jailed a noodle seller who went viral for impersonating Salt Bae, after the celebrity chef served a gold-leaf steak to a powerful official, his lawyer said.

In 2021, Peter Lam Bui posted a parody video impersonating Salt Bae - Turkish chef Nusret Gokce who parlayed his meme stardom into high-end eateries - by sprinkling herbs on noodle soup, and calling himself "Green Onion Bae".

But that video came after a clip of a high-ranking Vietnamese official in London tucking into a steak at Gokce's Knightsbridge venue went viral in Vietnam.

Lam was in trouble within days of uploading his video and filmed a police visit to his home in the central city of Danang.

On Thursday, the 39-year-old former activist was convicted of spreading anti-state propaganda by a court in Danang, lawyer Le Dinh Viet told AFP.

"They charged the defendant based on posts and video clips Lam had on his accounts on social media platforms," Viet said.

There was nothing about the Salt Bae clip, he added.

Lam denied the charges and said he had only "expressed his personal viewpoint and exercised his right to freedom of speech".

He was sentenced to five-and-a-half-years' jail on Thursday (May 25). 

Lam's parody video came after To Lam, Vietnam's minister of public security - whose agency monitors dissent and surveils activists - was filmed eating at Gokce's luxury Nusr-Et Steakhouse in London.

The restaurant serves up steaks wrapped in edible 24-carat gold leaf, reportedly costing more than US$1,000, and the video sparked anger over the decadence on display while Vietnam struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the same trip to London, To Lam also visited the grave of Karl Marx, the ideological father of communism.

Vietnam has strict curbs on freedom of expression and the government moves swiftly to stamp out dissent and arrest critics, especially those who find an audience online. Independent media is banned.

To Lam, a member of the country's 16-strong politburo, has been public security minister since 2016 and has taken a hard line on human rights movements in the communist nation.

In April, Vietnam imprisoned Nguyen Lan Thang, a prominent journalist who documented protests and human rights violations, for six years.

A year earlier, high-profile dissident journalist Pham Doan Trang was given nine years behind bars.

They were all jailed on the same anti-state charge.

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2023-05-25 08:43:34Z
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De-risking, taken too far, will lead to fragmented and decoupled world economy: Lawrence Wong - The Straits Times

TOKYO – The calls to “de-risk” – rather than “decouple” – from China could just as well lead to a more fragmented and decoupled world economy, warned Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Thursday.

“It is hard to see how de-risking, at its current ambition and scale, can be strictly confined to just a few strategic areas without affecting broader economic interactions,” said Mr Wong.

“If de-risking is taken too far, it would prompt reactions and unintended consequences. Over time, we will end up with a more fragmented and decoupled global economy.”

Addressing business leaders, academics and the media at the annual Nikkei forum Future of Asia, Mr Wong took on the latest language that had emerged at the recently concluded Group of Seven (G-7) summit of advanced economies in Hiroshima last week.

Leaders introduced the term “de-risking” in their communique for the first time, seeking to paint this in a more positive and less aggressive light than their previous term du jour – “decoupling”.

The G-7 statement said: “Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development.”

It added: “We are not decoupling or turning inwards. At the same time, we recognise that economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying.”

The G-7 leaders said that de-risking is different from decoupling, and that the former means reducing “excessive dependencies” in critical supply chains, such as by not over-relying on any country for the supply of materials or as a market.

China has lashed out against their statement, viewing it as a euphemism for containment.

In his speech, Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister, acknowledged that it is understandable why countries and companies seek to de-risk or diversify. “No one wants to be overly reliant on a single supplier for raw materials, key components, or technology,” he noted.

But he observed how geopolitical lines are clearly starting to be drawn.

There are signs of global foreign direct investment flows “becoming more concentrated among countries that are geopolitically aligned”, he said. This marks a significant change from the last three decades of globalisation, when investors allocated capital based on business considerations, and firms established footprints all over the world and linked up in global supply chains.

“Where we used to talk about trade as win-win, zero-sum competition is now becoming normalised across multiple domains, from trade and investment to finance and critical technologies such as semiconductors,” Mr Wong said. 

“A fragmented global economy will split the world into competing regional blocs,” he added. “There will be less trade, less investments, and less diffusion of ideas – crucial ingredients which have helped our economies to advance.”

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2023-05-25 03:45:44Z
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Ron DeSantis jumps into White House race but Twitter launch marred by glitches - CNA

WASHINGTON: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suffered a chaotic start to his 2024 presidential election race on Wednesday (May 24) when glitches marred an online forum hosted by Twitter owner Elon Musk that was meant to showcase DeSantis' fitness for the job.

The Twitter broadcast of the hour-long interview, which had been intended as the formal launch for the DeSantis campaign, lost sound for extended stretches and thousands of users were either unable to join or were dropped.

It was an inauspicious start for a campaign predicated on the governor's executive competence.

"We must end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years," DeSantis said in the event with Musk once the problems were largely resolved. The hashtag #DeSaster was trending on Twitter.

DeSantis' entrance in the Republican contest sets up a showdown with his one-time ally, former president Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

The Florida governor framed himself as a get-it-done executive who stood up to the federal government over COVID-19 policies and who has put an indelibly conservative stamp on his home state.

He defended his efforts in Florida to prohibit the teaching of concepts such as gender identity and systemic racism as protecting young children and pushing back against progressive ideology.

With a rising national profile and what are expected to be deep financial resources, DeSantis, 44, immediately became Trump's biggest rival for the Republican nomination.

"Government is not about entertainment, not about building a brand," DeSantis said, taking a veiled swipe at Trump. Notably, he never mentioned Trump by name during the event.

Trump, 76, didn't hesitate to mock DeSantis on his social media platform, Truth Social, over the stumbling start to his campaign.

"My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!)" Trump posted, "Yours does not."

Musk conceded there had been "technical issues because of the sheer scale" of the event, but added that "it's just really great for the people to hear directly from presidential candidates". At one point, the Twitter event drew more than 600,000 listeners. By its conclusion, there were fewer than 300,000. DeSantis' campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin said on Twitter that enthusiasm for DeSantis had "literally busted up the internet".

The campaign raised US$1 million in an hour, Griffin said.

TRUMP AHEAD IN POLLS

Polls show Trump with more than a 2-to-1 edge over the Florida governor, who has long been considered a Republican rising star and the herald of a new generation of leaders in the party. Trump, who announced in November, also has a head start in organizing his campaign in key early-voting states.

DeSantis’ central argument for his candidacy likely will be that he is the only Republican who can defeat Biden.

"Our president, while he lacks vigour, flounders in the face of our nation's challenges and he takes cues from the woke mob," DeSantis said.

Mainstream Republicans will be watching DeSantis carefully to see if he can recover from his missteps on foreign policy, such as his initial reluctance to express support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

In the weeks leading up to his presidential bid, DeSantis toured the country, visiting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire that will hold early nominating contests. He has boasted of his record as Florida’s governor, including his battles with the federal government over pandemic policies.

DeSantis and his advisers were determined to wait to enter the race until the Florida Legislature could hand him a series of policy victories – and lawmakers have done just that.

He signed measures that severely restricted abortions in the state, made it easier for residents to carry concealed weapons, expanded a voucher program to allow students to attend private schools and eliminated funding for diversity programs at public universities, among other things.

DeSantis remains in a pitched battle with Walt Disney over the company’s criticism of laws prohibiting the teaching of gender identity concepts in public schools. The company has filed a federal lawsuit accusing DeSantis of weaponising state government to punish its operations.

Other declared Republican candidates include Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the United Nations, and Tim Scott, a US senator from South Carolina.

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2023-05-25 01:25:56Z
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Ron DeSantis jumps into White House race but Twitter launch marred by glitches - CNA

WASHINGTON: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Wednesday (May 24) he would seek the 2024 Republican nomination for president, but an audio interview on Twitter meant to showcase his entry into the race instead drew attention for technical snafus.

DeSantis made his announcement in a video ahead of joining Twitter CEO Elon Musk on the platform. The broadcast of the interview, which had been intended to be the formal launch for the DeSantis campaign, at times lost sound and some users were either unable to join or were dropped. It was an inauspicious start for a campaign predicated on the governor's executive competence.

"We need the courage to lead and the strength to win," DeSantis said. "I'm Ron DeSantis, and I'm running for president to lead our great American comeback."

The Florida governor's entrance in the Republican contest set up a showdown with his one-time ally, former President Donald Trump, that will shake up the race for the White House.

With a rising national profile and what are expected to be deep financial resources, DeSantis, 44, immediately becomes Trump's biggest rival for the Republican nomination.

But polls show Trump with more than a 2-to-1 edge over the Florida governor, who has long been considered a Republican rising star and the herald of a new generation of leaders in the party. Trump, who announced in November, has also had a head start in organizing his campaign in key early-voting states.

"We must end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years," DeSantis said in the event with Musk once it resumed following a lengthy interruption. The hashtag #DeSaster was trending on Twitter.

Supporters and donors will be keenly watching to see if DeSantis now takes the fight to Trump, who has been relentlessly attacking him with little reaction, much to the frustration of some DeSantis allies who wanted him to respond more forcefully.

"Government is not about entertainment, not about building a brand," DeSantis said, taking a veiled swipe at Trump.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter with 140 million Twitter followers, said earlier that his presence at Wednesday's event would not constitute an endorsement but would reflect his desire to make the service more of a town square.

DeSantis on Wednesday was also expected to convene a meeting of his top donors at a Miami hotel, where they will immediately launch his fundraising efforts.

DeSantis’ central argument for his candidacy likely will be that he is the only Republican who can defeat Democratic President Joe Biden, the winner over Trump in the 2020 election.

"Our president, while he lacks vigour, flounders in the face of our nation's challenges and he takes cues from the woke mob," DeSantis said.

MAINSTREAM REPUBLICANS

Mainstream Republicans will be watching DeSantis carefully to see if he can recover from his missteps on foreign policy, such as his initial reluctance to express support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

In the weeks leading up to his presidential bid, DeSantis has toured the country, visiting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire that will hold early nominating contests. He has boasted of his record as Florida’s governor, including his battles with the federal government over pandemic policies.

DeSantis and his advisers were determined to wait to enter the race until the Florida Legislature could hand him a series of policy victories – and lawmakers have done just that.

He signed measures that severely restricted abortions in the state, made it easier for residents to carry concealed weapons, expanded a voucher program to allow students to attend private schools and eliminated funding for diversity programs at public universities, among other things.

DeSantis remains in a pitched battle with Walt Disney over the company’s criticism of laws prohibiting the teaching of gender identity concepts in public schools. The company has filed a federal lawsuit accusing DeSantis of weaponizing state government to punish its operations.

Other declared Republican candidates include Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the United Nations, and Tim Scott, a US senator from South Carolina.

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2023-05-24 22:34:00Z
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