The two sides exchanged views on the current situation along the LAC in the Western Sector in Eastern Ladakh…reports Asian Lite News
The 24th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held on Tuesday, an official statement said.
The Indian delegation was led by Additional Secretary, East Asia, from the Ministry of External Affairs, and the Director General of the Boundary and Oceanic Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs led the Chinese side.
The two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector of the India-China border. They recalled that since the last meeting of WMCC in November 2021, both sides have held the 14th and 15th meetings of the Senior Commanders in January and March 2022, respectively.
The two sides exchanged views on the current situation along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. They agreed that as instructed by the two Foreign Ministers, both sides should continue the discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues along the LAC at the earliest so as to create conditions for restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations.
In this context, they agreed to hold the next (16th) round of the Senior Commanders meeting at an early date to achieve the objective of complete disengagement from all friction points along the LAC in the western Sector in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements and protocols.
After the Galwan clash last year, several rounds of military and diplomatic talks have taken place to resolve the standoff. Disengagement at some border points did take place but by and large, there is an impasse on complete disengagement.
The Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi had also visited India in March 2022 and held discussions with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
The two sides exchanged views on the current situation along the LAC in the Western Sector in Eastern Ladakh.
As instructed by the two Foreign Ministers at WMCC on India-China Border Affairs, both sides should continue the discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues along the LAC at the earliest so as to create conditions for the restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations.
At each stop, Wang has signed bilateral deals but he is yet to take a single question from a Pacific journalist, who are instructed at the beginning of the press conferences that no questions will be permitted…reports Asian Lite News
Journalists covering Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s tour of the Pacific said they have been blocked from filming or accessing events, and that not a single question has been allowed to be asked to the top diplomat.
The allegations raise serious press freedom concerns and alarm about the ability of Pacific journalists to do their jobs, particularly as the relationship between the region and China becomes closer, the Guardian reported.
Wang is midway through a marathon trip visiting eight countries in 10 days. He has held bilateral meetings in the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa and Fiji to date, with trips to Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste to come.
At each stop, Wang has signed bilateral deals but he is yet to take a single question from a Pacific journalist, who are instructed at the beginning of the press conferences that no questions will be permitted, the Guardian reported.
Lice Movono, a Fijian journalist who has written for the Guardian, said she witnessed multiple attempts by Chinese officials to limit journalists’ ability to cover the event.
“From the very beginning there was a lot of secrecy, no transparency, no access given.”
Movono said that media who had been granted permission to cover the visit, including her, had their media passes revoked without explanation, and that she and her camera operator were ordered by police to leave the lobby of the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, where they were set to film the beginning of the meeting between Wang and Fijian Prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, on Monday, the Guardian reported.
On Sunday, as the media set up to film the arrival of Wang at the Pacific Islands Forum building for a meeting with its secretary general, Henry Puna, the ABC was blocked from filming, despite having been given permission to do so.
The Pacific Islands Forum intervened to allow the filming to continue, but Movono said that Chinese officials stood in front of the camera, trying to block the shot.
She added that the joint press conference from Wang and Bainimarama on Monday afternoon was managed by Chinese officials.
Personalization became supreme, with Chen justifying his policies as having Xi’s blessing. Such was his fervor that he frequently issued death threats in various speeches against any who resist the state….reports Asian Lite News
A cache of tens of thousands of leaked documents from the Chinese police and re-education camps have confirmed that the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – reaching right to Chairman Xi Jinping at the top – are totally complicit in the human rights atrocities occurring in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang.
The number of Uyghur inmates in Xinjiang’s notorious concentration camps – which China calls “vocational skills education and training centers” – peaked in 2018-19, and perhaps up to two million had suffered imprisonment by 2020.
The Chinese government admits that these camps “wash brains”, “cleanse hearts” and “remove evil”. Muslim internees are punished and brainwashed in these camps that dramatically filled up from 2017 onwards, many detained for no other reason than that Beijing claimed they were “untrustworthy persons”.
The so-called Xinjiang Police Files were “obtained” from Public Security Bureau computers in Konasheher and Tekes counties in Xinjiang. They contained a multiplicity of material such as police training PowerPoint presentations as well as sensitive files, photos and speech transcripts. The vast amount of material helped authenticate their veracity, for their level of detail could only have come from the Chinese government.
After arriving in Xinjiang from Tibet, Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo commenced a five-year work plan to subjugate the restive province. The plan had these phases: in year one (2017) “stabilize” the region; in year two (2018) “consolidate” those gains; in year three (2019) achieve “basic normalization” of the new conditions; and by the fifth year (2021) reach “comprehensive stability”.
What can be learnt from the Xinjiang Police Files?
Adrian Zenz, a German academic who is one of the world’s foremost researchers on Chinese actions in Xinjiang, said the material was “unprecedented”. He also ensured the documents were verified by peers and a consortium of 13 media outlets to verify their authenticity. Firstly, Zenz said, it included high-level speeches that implicated China’s top leadership and contained very blunt language.
For example, Chen Quanguo admitted in a leaked transcript of one speech on 18 June 2018, that his authorization to suppress the Uyghur populace came directly from Xi. “The general secretary sent me to Xinjiang; first, not in order to be an official; second, not in order to make a fortune; third, not in order to have nothing but an empty title. [Rather,] the general secretary sent me to Xinjiang in order to make a stable Xinjiang arise…”
Personalization became supreme, with Chen justifying his policies as having Xi’s blessing. Such was his fervor that he frequently issued death threats in various speeches against any who resist the state.
Then, in December 2021, the CCP appointed Ma Xingru as new party secretary in Xinjiang, replacing the Machiavellian Chen Quanguo. The fact that Chen was replaced by a technocrat suggests that his scheme had gone precisely according to plan – mission accomplished. This also accords with evidence that some overt forms of surveillance (for example, checkpoints on streets) have drawn down in Xinjiang in recent times.
In another transcript from a speech by Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi on 15 June 2018, after a five-day investigative visit to Xinjiang, Zhao offered support for international estimates that between one and two million people were incarcerated. His speech also showed that Xi himself was personally aware of the campaign, and that he issued instructions that enabled its expansion.
What else can be learned from the Xinjiang Police Files?
Secondly, according to Zenz, the world now has far more details concerning camp security instructions. As well as regular guards, camps possessed heavily armed strike units equipped with assault rifles. Their duties included armed patrols to “intimidate” detainees, to escort prisoners, to guard inmates during class hours (they carried shields, batons and handcuffs) and to suppress riots.
Guards in watchtowers possess sniper rifles and light machine guns, although only Han Chinese officers are allowed to carry firearms. Perhaps 150,000 police recruits from around China were sent to Xinjiang in 2018 to guard the mass influx of prisoners.
Chen’s February 2018 speech highlighted the need for “absolute security of vocational skills education and training centers and internment facilities”. Indeed, he was preoccupied with camp security, authorizing troops to shoot first and ask questions later if any camp were attacked externally. Chen also issued shoot-to-kill orders in case any prisoner tried to escape, a policy contrary to national police tactics. Chen brutally argued that when police made arrests, especially of those returning from other countries, they should “arrest them as soon as they see them” and “deal with them as with serious criminal offenders”. That includes handcuffing them, blindfold them and using ankle shackles if needed.
The party secretary said China was unlike the USSR because “we have the wise leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the backing of 1.3 billion of the people and millions of troops”. He boasted in a May 2017 speech that 100,000 members of the People’s Armed Police were actively hunting down and capturing suspects.
The intimidation and security measures were obviously effective. There are no eyewitness reports of anyone ever successfully escaping from these camps.
Thirdly, The Xinjiang Police Files included vivid photos of police drills and tactics at these camps, as well as more than 5,000 images of Uyghur suspects photographed at detention centers and police stations.
Of these photos, 2,884 were interned, the youngest of which was a 14-year-old girl named Rahile Omer. Her crime was being the daughter of a government official detained as part of Xinjiang’s “strike hard” campaign in 2017. In fact, 424 of these photos depicted minors.
Fourthly, sets of spreadsheets showed the vast scale of the internments. In 2017/18, for example, more than 12% of the entire Uyghur adult population in Konasheher county was imprisoned simultaneously. This rate was 64 times the national imprisonment rate for China.
Under Chen’s tutelage, Xinjiang became a “high-tech penal colony. Not only that, but China enacted the severest social engineering effort since the convoluted rule of Mao Zedong in the Cultural Revolution.
Chen observed there was a “bottom line” that cannot be crossed: detainees cannot be released, because “once they are let out, problems will immediately appear. He argued that they “must not be let out,” because “some may not necessarily have been transformed well even after three or five years. It is notable that in 2018/19, the government started sentencing prisoners to longer sentences.
There is yet another aspect to be learned from the release of this treasure trove of Xinjiang documents. Importantly, it goes some way to answering why Xi and the CCP became so ruthless in their suppression of Xinjiang and its Muslim inhabitants, treating a whole ethnic group like a gang of dangerous criminals.
It can be said that Xinjiang entered a “crisis mode”, one featuring increased centralization, personalization, militant mobilization rhetoric and impassioned demands, increased influence of disciplinary and security organs, and a greater role of ideology in decision-making. Exploring this, in an article published in the Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies in May 2022, Zenz offered this assessment: “Scholars have argued that political paranoia is a common feature of atrocity crimes. Here, it is suggested that the preemptive internment of large numbers of ordinary citizens can be explained as a devolution into political paranoia that promotes exaggerated threat perceptions.”
Central government figures have argued in classified speeches that if the Xinjiang situation were not handled properly, it would threaten the realization of China’s most important political goals in the 21st century. “This intimate link between Xinjiang policy and major national political goals, also extensively highlighted by Xi Jinping in his internal speeches from 2014, explains the highly personalized, ideologized, militarized and mobilizational nature of the region’s policy dynamics.”
Questions definitely do need to be asked as to why an antiterrorism crackdown degenerated into mass and arbitrary detention of so many innocent citizens that were punished like radical villains.
Zenz suggested that the escalation of Xinjiang’s de-extremification measures is partially explained by the state sincerely adopting a terror threat perception, but that this perception was then greatly and unjustifiably amplified. Furthermore, “The framing of entire ethnic groups as threats, and the attendant extreme preoccupations with security in the campaign’s execution, reflected a devolution into paranoia.”
Such paranoia can be rooted in reality – for terrorist acts were perpetrated by Uyghurs – but that threat became greatly exaggerated. Such lessons are easily observed in Nazi Germany, where political paranoia led to radical anti-Jewish measures that escalated even further after war broke out.
Zenz elaborated: “The paranoid-schizoid position uses projective identification and splitting to project the hated parts of the self out and onto the ‘Other’, while simultaneously idealizing the good within oneself. This psychological defense mechanism can explain how Xi Jinping, Chen Quanguo and other leaders came to frame Uyghurs as a pathological threat, while simultaneously portraying themselves as their kind benefactors.”
Xi initially delineated the “enemy” as those who act directly against the state. Zenz explained, “However, anyone who cannot be controlled is ‘untrustworthy’ because they could conceivably end up resisting the state in some form. This creates a devolutionary logic by which the ‘enemy’ is no longer just those who actually engage in violent resistance, but also persons who are potentially ‘untrustworthy’ because the state fails to ascertain their state of mind.”
China has convinced itself that permanent security is necessary – in other words, it must have invulnerability to threats – but such a state is truly unobtainable.
Nonetheless, in its hubris and paranoia, China has sought such a goal even if it ends up indiscriminately targeting entire ethnic groups. It irrationally believes the only way to do so is to put the “untrustworthy” in prisons, which are “trustworthy” places, even if the human rights and decency of millions are trampled upon. (ANI)
The Asian giant is offering to radically ramp up its activities in the South Pacific, directly challenging the influence of the United States and its allies in the strategically vital region…reports Asian Lite News
Ten Pacific island nations have rejected Beijing’s proposal for a regional security pact, media reported.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on an eight-nation tour to the Pacific region with visits to the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor from May 26 to June 4.
Prior to his visit, Beijing sent the drafts of the deal to 10 Pacific countries. Covering a range of issues, the documents appear to be a joint communique that Beijing wants the countries to adopt. They offer a detailed outline of how Beijing seeks to win friends and gain greater access to the island chains that have long played a strategic role in Asia’s geopolitical contests.
However, in a major setback, the talks in Fiji between Wang Yi and leaders from the small island nations failed to reach an agreement.
The Asian giant is offering to radically ramp up its activities in the South Pacific, directly challenging the influence of the United States and its allies in the strategically vital region, it was reported.
The proposed pact would see Beijing train Pacific island police, become involved in cybersecurity, expand political ties, conduct sensitive marine mapping and gain greater access to natural resources on land and in the water.
As an enticement, Beijing is offering millions of dollars in financial assistance, the prospect of a potentially lucrative China-Pacific islands free trade agreement and access to China’s vast market of 1.4 billion people.
However, the leaders of the Pacific nations have voiced deep misgivings about the offer.
In a recent letter to fellow leaders, David Panuelo, the President of the Federated States of Micronesia, warned the offer was “disingenuous” and would “ensure Chinese influence in government” and “economic control” of key industries.
A more soft-spoken public rebuke came after the talks, when leaders said they could not agree to Beijing’s proposed “Common Development Vision” due to a lack of regional consensus, it was reported.
“As always, we put consensus first,” co-host and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said after the meeting, indicating that broad accord would be needed before inking any “new regional agreements”.
Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia were said to be among those concerned about the proposals, along with Taiwan-recognising Palau, which was not invited, the report added.
Security risks for US
Even as China continues its attempt to expand its reach in the Pacific by negotiating the security deals with the Pacific Island Countries like Kiribati, the security risks for the US State of Hawaii, which is only 2000 miles from Kiribati, are running high especially as Hawaii’s Congressional delegation turns down USD 2 billion missile defence radar for the island after years of fighting in support of the project.
Amid China’s increasing dominance in the pacific islands, US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) wanted to get radar installed in Hawaii to protect the territory from ballistic missiles by the end of 2028.
The installation of a radar project to protect Hawaii was in accordance with the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act released last year, however, this project never saw the light of the day, reported Eurasian Times.
In a shocking action by Hawaii’s Congressional delegation, this nearly USD 2 billion project was turned down.
Congress backed away from this missile defence radar after years of fighting in support of the project — first on Oahu (an island in the Central Pacific which is part of the Hawaiian island chain), then on Kauai (another part of the Hawaiian archipelago), local media Honolulu Civil Beat reported.
The timing for shelving these plans for installing this crucial security system is not good as Chinese Foreign Minister is on a 10-day tour of Pacific island nations.
US Senator Mazie Hirono, who has pushed for the proposed Homeland Defense Radar – Hawaii has now refused to push the project, as per the media portal.
Pilots from some NATO member states have been reported to help train PLA Air Force pilots. They have been reported as having been recruited in South Africa. Some of these pilots may get shifted to the Indo-Pacific islands, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat
Very influential contacts in the Indo-Pacific region who favour partnership with India have revealed that PRC Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on a mission to fast-track CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s plan for controlling the Indo-Pacific states. Xi’s hugely expensive plan for converting the Eurasian landmass into a “hub and spoke” relationship of subservience to Beijing, otherwise known as the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), which includes the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, is proving to be less of a success than was planned when BRI was first unveiled.
Unlike his predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, micro-controller Xi has refused to give leeway to his Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, in economic policy, reserving key decisions for himself. This is despite the fact that Premier Li has an excellent past record in generating results, his only failure being the slowdown in the Chinese economy since Xi took charge in 2017, a situation for which he is not responsible. Despite this, the man responsible, Xi Jinping, is on track to get an unprecedented third 5-year term as CCP General Secretary in a few months’ time, while the Office of the General Secretary (OGS) has already been quietly interviewing candidates who can take Li’s place.
A ceremony is held to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 on a ship in a port of Weihai, east China’s Shandong Province, Aug. 27, 2014. (Xinhua_Zha Chunming_IANS) (lfj)
Their most important qualification needs to be unquestioning loyalty and obedience to “Xi Jinping Thought”, the approved title given to the ideas of the General Secretary on miscellaneous matters. Given the increased role of the PLA under Xi, to a level not seen since Lin Biao was Defence Minister under Chairman Mao, it is expected that the CCP leadership will acquiesce in Xi’s bid for a third term. Most of those who have been identified by the OGS as potential conscientious objectors to this plan are by now either in jail or in retirement, with more to follow during the coming three months.
As is the case with Pakistan, foreign policy is being determined by the OGS not through consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) but by the Central Military Commission, which has become more influential in the functioning of the central government in Beijing than the Communist Party machinery, which itself from Mao’s time has been more important in matters of policy than the formal government. As has long been the case in Pakistan, MoFA takes its cue from the military. It is the PLA, more specifically the PLA Navy (PLAN), that has drawn up Xi’s master plan for control of the Indo-Pacific through getting a chokehold over the island states that comprise Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia.
The PLAN blueprint being rolled out for assent during Wang Yi’s visit to ten Indo-Pacific island countries seeks to establish a China-Pacific Free Trade Association (CPFTA) that would pointedly exclude Australia and New Zealand. Ironically, China’s diplomatic asset is the resentment felt throughout the island nations at the bossy, superior, condescending approach of diplomats and officials from Australia and New Zealand, both of which are seen to treat the island countries almost in the manner of colonies. An example was the way in which the transit visit of Malaita province (in the Solomon Islands) premier Daniel Suidani was handled some months ago by the Scott Morrison government. Despite his status as the premier of by far the largest province of the Solomon Islands, Premier Suidani was refused normal diplomatic courtesies.
Enquiries for treatment available in Australia for a serious medical condition were met by a demand for payment of several tens of thousands of dollars as cost of treatment before that request could be even considered by Canberra. In contrast, President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan volunteered to provide treatment free of cost, especially given that Premier Suidani had opposed Solomon Islands Prime Minister Sogavare shifting diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing, a move deeply unpopular in the country. The Malaita premier was treated as the VIP he was, unlike what was done by the Scott Morrison government, who bent over backwards to please provincial premier Suidani’s political rival, Prime Minister Sogavare of the Solomon Islands.
Interestingly, it was well known to Canberra that Sogavare was bending over forwards, backwards and sideways to please Beijing. Despite this, he continued to be indulged in by the Scott Morrison government, until it finally was brought crashing back to reality when the Solomon Islands Prime Minister signed an agreement with the PRC, the same template that Wang Yi intends to universalise throughout the island states he is visiting. The agreement contains provisions designed to enable the Chinese side (read the PLA) to “provide security”, as well as “train and assist local police forces”. Scanners and other surveillance systems that are made and operated by China would be installed in ports and airports across the region. The PLAN plan provides for bi-annual meetings of the defence and internal security ministers of the island countries with their PRC counterparts, while lower-level meetings would regularly take place on a more frequent basis.
PRC satellite systems would be used across the region to “monitor meteorological trends”, besides of course (although unmentioned in the text) the activities commercial and military, especially of the members of NATO or the Quad or both (as the US is). A viceroy titled the Peoples Republic Envoy to the Pacific would be appointed to ensure compliance by the governments of the signatory states. Multiple PRC storage facilities would be set up at key locations “in order to store humanitarian assistance”. These would be the same kind of “humanitarian assistance” that NATO member states are providing at the cost of tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, namely weapons systems. These would, in common with the other facilities provided, be operated across the region by PRC nationals rather than locals.
Specific ports and cities have been located for the expansion or building of sea ports and airports, for humanitarian reasons found suitable by the PLA. Despite its substantial population of those of Indian ancestry, Fiji is on the way to becoming a part of Beijing’s sphere of influence. In General Secretary Xi’s PLA-centred diplomacy, the alliance between the CCP and the Wahhabi International has proved invaluable. Russian influence in the region is almost totally absent, although that may change as a consequence of the aftershocks generated by NATO’s steps during the post-February 24 phase of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Interestingly, pilots from some NATO member states have been reported to help train PLA Air Force pilots. These have been reported as having been recruited in South Africa. The Test Flight Academy of South Africa (TFASA) in particular has come under the scanner for being a possible gateway for pilots from some European NATO member-states of Europe to get recruited for service in the PRC at attractive salaries.
If such reports are confirmed, some of these pilots (many of whom are said to be veterans of the air forces of some NATO members) may get shifted to the Indo-Pacific islands, in order to better camouflage the effective control by the PLA of the facilities being listed under the Xi plan for development throughout the region. Vanuatu and Kiribati are being wooed to be the next in line to sign the CPFTA, now that the Solomon Islands is already on board. Australia has been very stingy in the giving of visas to the Pacific islanders who seek to transit from there to India, despite being a Quad partner. A way of resolving such a problem would be for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that regular flights be started between Fiji and India. Once such a link gets established, Pacific islanders could come to India via Fiji, which does not require a visa for them to enter the country in transit or otherwise. Honorary Consuls could be appointed in key island countries, including in Tonga and in the Solomon Islands, of course in Malaita province.
Leaving the Pacific island countries to Australia and New Zealand may not be an optimal choice, given both the influence of the Sino-Wahhabi lobby in both these countries as well as the low priority that they have given to the Pacific islands, treating them with scant respect and attention. The Pacific Island Forum is deeply unpopular in the region, as it is seen as a vehicle for Australia and New Zealand to exercise overlordship over the island countries. Now both face a competitor in the PRC, the success of which would have far-reaching implications for the Quad project of ensuring a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific free of control by an intending hegemon that has been working on overdrive even as Washington and Canberra in particular have largely been asleep at the wheel.
As many as 6,411 were sanctioned for engaging in formalities for formalities’ sake or bureaucratism practices, and 4,940 were punished for hedonism and extravagant conduct…reports Asian Lite News
China’s top anti-graft body punished 11,351 people in April for violating the country’s eight-point code on improving Party and government conduct.
The punished were involved in 7,441 cases, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the monthly statement by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission.
Among them, 7,603 received Party disciplinary or administrative penalties, said the statement.
As many as 6,411 were sanctioned for engaging in formalities for formalities’ sake or bureaucratism practices, and 4,940 were punished for hedonism and extravagant conduct, the Chinese media agency reported.
Back in 2012, the CPC released its eight-point rules on frugality to combat undesirable work practices.
Probe into children’s textbook
A nationwide probe into problematic press houses have been launched in China after illustrations in a national publisher’s textbooks sparked controversy for being “ugly”, “racist” and “pornographic,” state media reports said on Sunday.
Netizens on Chinese social media platform like Sina Weibo joined in a campaign to report teaching materials for minors after an inappropriate illustration was spotted in a book meant for kids aged from three to six.
Viral snapshots of kids’ textbooks showed some of the children depicted in strange poses, including a crooked mouth, tongue sticking out and squinting eyes, state media tabloid Global Times (GT) reported.
Some were depicted wearing clothes mimicking the US national flag, the report added.
On Saturday, the Chinese Education Ministry ordered an inspection of school textbooks and urged People’s Education Press to rectify issues flagged.
The order was issued after it was found that textbook illustrations not only differed from common aesthetics but also included sexual connotations, according to GT. The report added that many suspecting that the textbooks did not even undergo proper proofreading and review.
In the response to the criticism, the underfire publisher said they had reflected on public concern and are working to rectify the issues raised.
Zhu Wei, vice director of the Communication Law Research Center at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the GT, the trending topic over the textbook scandal reflected the increasing attention paid to talent cultivation.
According to Zhu, Textbook publishing must undergo strict management with high-level standards to make sure that they are suited to mainstream values and aesthetics. (ANI)
Japan scrambled military jets 1,004 times in the past year to March, the second-highest on record, according to the defence ministry….reports Asian Lite News
Chinese and Russian fighter jets carried out joint flights near Japan on Tuesday as leaders of the Quad bloc met in Tokyo, the Japanese defence minister said.
Nobuo Kishi said the government had expressed “grave concerns” to Russia and China over the flights, which took place while leaders from the United States, India, Australia and Japan held talks on regional security.
The planes did not breach territorial airspace, the defence ministry told AFP, and it is the fourth time since November that long-distance joint flights by Russia and China have been spotted near Japan.
“Two Chinese bombers joined two Russian bombers in the Sea of Japan and made a joint flight to the East China Sea,” Kishi told reporters.
“After that, a total of four aircraft, two presumed (new) Chinese bombers — which replaced the two Chinese bombers — and two Russian bombers, conducted a joint flight from the East China Sea to the Pacific Ocean.”
He said a Russian intelligence-gathering aircraft also flew off northern Hokkaido to the Noto Peninsula in central Japan on Tuesday, calling the moves especially “provocative” given the summit in Tokyo.
The Quad leaders on Tuesday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force”, although they avoided direct references to Russia or China in a joint statement.
Their statement referred to the war in Ukraine, however, and listed a range of activities that Beijing has regularly been accused of in the region.
Kishi said Japan had “communicated through diplomatic routes our grave concerns from the perspective of our country’s and the region’s security”.
“As the international community responds to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the fact that China took such action in collaboration with Russia, which is the aggressor, is cause for concern. It cannot be overlooked.”
Japan, which has volatile ties and border disputes with its neighbours China, Russia and South Korea, routinely sends jets to defend its air borders.
The country scrambled military jets 1,004 times in the past year to March, the second-highest on record, according to the defence ministry.
Most were to counter approaching Chinese aircraft, although many of the rest involved Russian aircraft.
Modi, Biden hold talks
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Joe Biden in Tokyo today shortly after holding the Quad Leaders’ Summit and said that India and US partnership is a partnership of trust in a true sense.
“We took part in a positive and useful Quad Summit today. India and US partnership in the true sense is a partnership of trust. Our common interests and values have strengthened this bond of trust between our two countries,” Prime Minister Modi said during the meeting with Biden.
The Prime Minister said that India and the US share similar views on Indo-Pacific.
“We share similar views on Indo-Pacific, at the bilateral level as well as with like-minded countries to work to protect our common concerns. Our discussions today will give speed to this positive momentum,” he said.
Speaking further, Prime Minister Modi said people-to-people ties and strong economic cooperation make India-US partnership unique. “Our trade and investment relations are also steadily on the rise but they are below our potential. I am confident that with the conclusion of the US Investment Incentive Agreement we will see concrete progress in investment between our two countries.”
The meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Biden marks a continuation of their regular dialogue having interacted most recently in virtual mode on April 11. The two leaders are expected to review the India-US Strategic Partnership and follow up on discussions held during PM’s bilateral meeting with President Biden in September 2021. They will also exchange views on regional and global developments of shared interest.
This meeting comes after the fourth interaction of Quad Leaders since their first virtual meeting in March 2021, in-person Summit in Washington D.C. in September 2021 and virtual meeting in March 2022.
The Quad Summit provided an opportunity for the Leaders to exchange views about developments in the Indo-Pacific region and contemporary global issues of mutual interest.
The Quad summit witnessed the launch of a new initiative for continuous collaboration in the maritime domain, space, climate change, health and cyber security.
Recruiting fair for Egypt-based Chinese held after two years
A recruiting fair for Egypt-based Chinese companies came back on Tuesday here in the Egyptian northeastern city after two years of suspension due to COVID-19, offering hundreds of positions for aspirational college students…reports Asian Lite News
At least 25 Chinese companies in Egypt took part in the job fair held by the Confucius Institute at the Suez Canal University and the Egyptian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, including those in the fields of architecture, communications, textiles, logistics and husbandry.
“I filled in many applications for recruitment and went on to have interviews with three Chinese companies,” said Mariam Roushdy, a 22-year-old senior at the Suez Canal University who majors in Chinese, told Xinhua.
“The fair saves efforts and time as we can meet many job providers in one place instead of traveling to several provinces. And this edition has various opportunities in fields of translation, engineering, and accounting,” said the would-be translator.
Hundreds of college students and graduates prepared with resumes clustered the fair, hoping to land an intern or full-time job, with the attendance of firms from across Egypt, including the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the New Administrative Capital, the Mediterranian city of New Alamein and the capital city Cairo.
Ma Chi, a regional deputy manager of Xian Electric Engineering Co., Ltd., a Chinese power equipment manufacturer, said his company expected to attract more young talents from the fair in Ismailia and “boost the Egyptian economy.”
Ma added the regional branch has finished constructing dozens of transformer substations in Egypt, where they have seen years of smooth operation with the help of local employees.
Omar Ibrahim, a local human resources manager at Chinese fiberglass giant Jushi, said a new production line his company was about to open in October needs hundreds of new workers
“Since its establishment in 2017, the job fair has been a communication platform between local graduates and the Chinese companies operating in Egypt,” said Hassan Ragab, head of the Confucius Institute at the Suez Canal University.
“The forum is a channel to connect the Chinese firms with talented and professional employees,” said Nasser Mandour, president of Suez Canal University.
Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang said he believes the Chinese firms will create “more job opportunities for Egyptians along with the growing economic cooperation between Egypt and China.”
The ambassador said he believes Chinese firms in Egypt are working to make China’s development an opportunity for Egypt to further develop.
In April last year, local chip output surged 29.4 per cent year on year to 28.6 billion units…reports Asian Lite News
China has suffered a major setback as its semiconductor output shrank 12.1 per cent to 25.9 billion units in April, its lowest since December 2020, the media reported on Monday.
Disrupted supply chains amid logistics issues have paralysed some of the country’s largest manufacturers.
“China’s monthly output of chips shrunk to its lowest level since 2020, as strict lockdowns in Shanghai and other cities disrupted production in downstream industries from cars to robotics,” reports South China Morning Post, quoting data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
According to the Shanghai Automobile Dealers Association, not a single vehicle was sold for the whole month of April while in the normal course, about 4,000 vehicles are sold daily in the city.
In April last year, local chip output surged 29.4 per cent year on year to 28.6 billion units.
China’s chip imports also fell in the first four months of this year.
Shanghai aims to reopen and allow normal life to resume from June 1.
It has cut off the community transmission of Covid-19 in 15 out of its 16 districts, according to a press conference on epidemic prevention and control held on Monday.
At present, the number of people living in “closed-off management areas” has dropped to no more than 1 million, and the epidemic has been effectively brought under control, reports Xinhua news agency.
Shanghai has planned its epidemic control work for the coming period, dividing it into three stages, said Zong Ming, Vice Mayor of Shanghai.
From June 1 to mid-late June, Shanghai will fully restore the normal order of production and life across the city with standard epidemic prevention and control measures, while strictly preventing any resurgence of the epidemic, according to Zong.
The Director of Confucius Instituteassured that the institute will not be closed, adding that Pakistani teachers are being asked to help in teaching Mandarin….reports Asian Lite News
Chinese instructors teaching at the Confucius Institute of the University of Karachi have left for their country, according to the director of the department.
Director Dr Nasir Uddin told Geo News on Sunday said that the teachers at the different Confucius Institutes in the country, not just the University of Karachi, have been called back by China.
The Director assured that the institute will not be closed, adding that Pakistani teachers are being asked to help in teaching Mandarin.
Nasir said that the institute was considering holding online classes and exams, adding that currently, at least 500 students are studying at the institute, Geo News reported.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi was jointly established by the latter and Sichuan Normal University in China in 2013.
The institute is a non-profit educational institution which aims to teach Mandarin, deepen international understanding of the language, and Chinese culture, and promote people-to-people exchanges between China and Pakistan.
However, the institute was recently in the news after four people, including three Chinese teachers, were killed while four others sustained injuries in a suicide explosion at its premises on April 26.
According to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), the attack was a suicide blast carried out by a burqa-clad woman.
The explosion occurred at 1:52pm outside the institute.
The deceased Chinese nationals have been identified as the director of the Confucius Institute Huang Guiping, Ding Mupeng, Chen Sai, and their Pakistani driver, Khalid.
A banned outfit had claimed the responsibility for the attack. The security agencies have launched an operation to apprehend those involved in the blast but so far no major success has been achieved.
