CHINA
Palestinian leader visits
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday began a visit to China that comes as Beijing is seeking a larger role in Middle East politics and competing for energy resources. In announcing the visit, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Beijing was willing to help broker relations between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government that have deteriorated to the lowest level in recent years. The ministry did not say who Abbas would meet in Beijing or give other details of his four-day visit. Increased fighting over the past year between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank has resulted in the deadliest period of violence between the sides in years. The visit also comes after China hosted talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia that resulted in the two restoring diplomatic relations. That development was seen as representing a diplomatic victory for China as Gulf Arab states perceive the US slowly withdrawing from the region, but it remains to be seen how far the reconciliation efforts between Iran and Saudi Arabia would progress. The rivalry dates to the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran’s Western-backed monarchy, and the two nations have backed rival armed groups and political factions across the region. State broadcaster China Central Television quoted Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) as saying that “China supports the resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel as soon as possible on the basis of the ‘two-state solution,’ and is willing to play an active role in this regard.”
SOUTH KOREA
Yoon pans Chinese envoy
President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday said that he was doubtful whether China’s ambassador had an attitude of mutual respect after the envoy warned Seoul against making “wrong bets” in the Sino-US rivalry, Yonhap News Agency reported. Yoon made the comment during a Cabinet meeting, Yonhap reported, citing multiple people who attended the session. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week summoned Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming (邢海明) after he blamed South Korea for worsening bilateral ties due to US influence and urged the nation to stop “decoupling” from China. “Looking at Ambassador Xing’s attitude, it’s doubtful if he has an attitude of mutual respect or promotion of friendship as a diplomat,” Yoon was quoted by Yonhap as telling the meeting. “Our people are displeased with his inappropriate behavior.” When asked about the situation, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) on Friday last week said that the challenges in China-South Korea relations were “not caused by China.”
CAMBODIA
Election law to be amended
Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered that an election law be amended to penalize anyone who boycotts next month’s poll, which critics have said would be a sham because of the prime minister’s moves to stamp out all opposition. The revision is likely to be approved in the coming days by the rubber-stamp parliament and would bar those who do not cast votes from becoming candidates in future elections, the latest move by the long-serving leader to stifle dissent. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party is to run virtually unopposed next month, after the election commission disqualified the sole opposition Candlelight Party from running, citing improper paperwork. “Those who wish to stand for election must be responsible as good citizens of the nation in a democratic society, starting from the consistent exercise of the right to vote,” Hun Sen, 70, said on social media.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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