Today’s News 12 April 2021 (Monday)

A. NAVY NEWS/COVID NEWS/PHOTOS Title Writer Newspaper Page 1 Ancajas keeps IBD crown B Pedralvez B Malaya A1 2 Covid death spike alarms PGH B Cariaso D Tribune A6

B. NATIONAL HEADLINES Title Writer Newspaper Page 3 MECQ for NCR+ until April 30 A Romero P Star 1 4 Restrictions eased in Metro, 4 provinces J Aning PDI A1

C. NATIONAL SECURITY Title Writer Newspaper Page 5 Lorenzana discussing WPS issue with US M Punongbayan P Star 4 defense chief 6 Lorenzana, Austin discuss Felipe Reef J Andrade PDI A4 situation in phone conversation 7 Sen. Pimentel calls for calm amid fresh V Terrazola M Bulletin 1 tensions in WPS 8 PH calls for restraint in maritime dispute B Tamayo M Times A2 9 Dagdag na US vessels sa West Phl Sea G Garcia Ngayon 7 asahan – Amb. Romualdez 10 Envoy: US ships darating sa South G Garcia PM 2 Sea 11 PH, US commence, ‘Balikatan’ exercises M Sadongdong M Bulletin 1 today 12 PH-US war drills resume Monday D Reyes M Times A2 13 ‘Balikatan’ resumes amid WPS tension J Roson D Tribune A3 14 Lorenzana pushes for return of PH-US M Sadongdong Tempo 3 ‘Balikatan’ exercises

D. INDO-PACIFIC Title Writer Newspaper Page As Balikatan opens, PHL-US sides R Acosta B Mirror A8 15 tackle mutual defense

E. AFP RELATED Title Writer Newspaper Page 16 Inoculated health workers contract COVID R Catindig P Star 9 Solon slams disorderly distribution of cash P Tonight 11 17 R Pacpaco aid

F. CPP-NPA-NDF-LCM Title Writer Newspaper Page 18 ‘Use intel, anti-Red funds for cash aid’ D Yap PDI A3 P Star 9 19 Slain activists’ kin seek dialogue with E Macairan Guevarra NPA leader in Iloilo charged for sexually T Yap M Bullein 7 20 abusing teen 21 NPA leader faces sex raps in Iloilo T Yap Tempo 3 22 Aurora rebel surrenders J Reyes D Tribune B15

G. MNLF/MILF/BIFF/ASG Title Writer Newspaper Page Abu Sayyaff declared persona non grata in M Bulletin 7 23 PNA Tawi-Tawi ASG man wanted for arson, abductions A Dalizon P Journal 13 24 captured in Sulu ASG bandit wanted for arson, KFR falls in A Dalizon P Tonight 7 25 Sulu

H. EDITORIAL-OPINION-COMMENTARY-SPECIAL Title Writer Newspaper Page 26 China’s aggression S De Guzman P Star 6 Mario Miclat: The light that dimmed and P Star 7 27 F Jose China 28 Bataan – A tale of two heroes I Bunye M Bulettin 4 29 They must take us for fools R Farolan PDI A7 Overcoming orchestrated conflicts in South M Times A4 30 D Steinbock China Sea M Times A1 31 AFP Chief in new ‘illegal structures’ at Union R Tiglao Banks 32 Serving with pride and distinction A Dalizon P Journal 4 33 Training PCG personnel P Tonight 4 Amerikano obligadong sumaklolo sa A Pedroche Ngayon 4 34 Pilipinas

I. ONLINE NEWS Title Link NATIONAL NEWS Locsin: PH owes its arbitration victory https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/locsin-ph-owes- 35 over China to PNoy its-arbitration-victory-over-china-to-pnoy/ to ease some tough COVID- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health- 19 restrictions from Monday coronavirus-philippines/philippines-to-ease- 36 some-tough-covid-19-restrictions-from- monday-idUSKB N2BY088 NCR Plus, 3 other areas now under https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1136404 37 MECQ until April 30 CIDG field offices told to arrest parties https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/11/cidg 38 marketing Ivermectin for human use -field-offices-told-to-arrest-parties-marketing- ivermectin-for-human-use/ Solon urges DepEd to prepare for https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/solon-urges- 39 prolonged distance learning until next deped-to-prepare-for-prolonged-distance- school year learning-until-next-school-year/ Holy month of Ramadan starts on April https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1417650/holy- 40 13, Islamic authorities declare month-of-ramadan-starts-on-april-13-islamic- authorities-declare NAVY NEWS PH should join freedom of navigation https://news.abs- patrols, form alliance vs China 9-dash cbn.com/news/04/11/21/philippines-freedom- 41 line: Carpio of-navigation-patrols-west-philippine-sea-form- alliance-vs-china-9-dash-line Chinese vessels still scattered in West https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/chinese- 42 PH Sea — AFP Chief vessels-still-scattered-in-west-ph-sea-afp- chief/ PH needs ‘real-time’ access to US https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/ph-needs-real- 43 intelligence data in WPS, says Locsin time-access-to-us-intelligence-data-in-wps- says-locsin/ Chasing of Filipino boat by Chinese https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/chasing-of- vessels in West PH Sea tantamount to filipino-boat-by-chinese-vessels-in-west-ph- 44 ‘territorial incursion’ — Del Rosario sea-tantamount-to-territorial-incursion-del- rosario/ Dagdag na pagpapatrolya sa West PH https://news.abs- Sea iniutos ng AFP chief cbn.com/video/news/04/11/21/dagdag-na- 45 pagpapatrolya-sa-west-ph-sea-iniutos-ng-afp- chief Media coverage at West Philippine Sea https://news.abs- complements military's surveillance cbn.com/news/04/11/21/media-coverage-at- 46 – Sobejana west-philippine-sea-complements-militarys- surveillance-sobejana Philippines joins global initiative tackling https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/04/12 47 marine litter scourge /2090494/philippines-joins-global-initiative- tackling-marine-litter-scourge AFP RELATED War games: Lorenzana to convince https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/war-games- 48 Duterte to revive military exercises lorenzana-to-convince-duterte-to-revive- between PH, US troops military-exercises-between-ph-us-troops/ Lorenzana, US defense chief discuss https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/04/11 49 VFA and West Philippine Sea /2090404/lorenzana-us-defense-chief-discuss- vfa-and-west-philippine-sea Anti-insurgency, intel funds should be https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/anti-insurgency- 50 realigned for Bayanihan 3 — Drilon intel-funds-should-be-realigned-for-bayanihan- 3-drilon/ Guevarra mulls meeting with families of https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/guevarra-mulls- 51 slain activists in South Luzon provinces meeting-with-families-of-slain-activists-in- south-luzon-provinces/ Aurora rebel surrenders https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2021/04/12/aur 52 ora-rebel-surrenders-2/ 10 Abu Sayyaf members surrender in https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/11/21/10- 53 Sulu – military abu-sayyaf-members-surrender-in-sulu-military NPA leader faces charges for sexually https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/npa-leader- 54 exploiting teen in Iloilo faces-charges-for-sexually-exploiting-teen-in- iloilo/ INDO PACIFIC NEWS PH raises WPS issue in Asean senior https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1136377 55 officials’ meet Suga-Biden statement to express https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021 56 concern about human rights in China /04/11/national/politics-diplomacy/suga-biden- us-japan-summit/ 'This is their blood': Civil rights lawyer https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-race- Crump fights for George Floyd's family georgefloyd-crump/this-is-their-blood-civil- 57 rights-lawyer-crump-fights-for-george-floyds- family-idUSKBN2BY0C1 Trump tells Republican donors he'll help https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- 58 win Congress in 2022 trump/trump-tells-republican-donors-hell-help- win-congress-in-2022-idUSKBN2BY00H Blinken says China 'didn't do what it https://www.businessinsider.com/blinken- 59 needed to do' in the early stages of the covid-19-origin-china-2021-4 pandemic Top U.S. diplomat criticizes China, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health- says 'need to get to the bottom' of coronavirus-blinken/top-u-s-diplomat-criticizes- 60 COVID-19 origin china-says-need-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-covid- 19-origin-idUSKBN2BY0OQ Biden backs , but some call for a https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/04/11 61 clearer warning to China /asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/us- taiwan-china-biden/ Blinken Warns China on Taiwan https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/202 Encroachment, Russia on Ukraine 1-04-11/blinken-warns-china-on-taiwan- 62 encroachment-russia-on- ukraine?srnd=premium-asia Blinken warns of China's 'increasingly https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- aggressive actions' against Taiwan taiwan/blinken-warns-of-chinas-increasingly- 63 aggressive-actions-against-taiwan- idUSKBN2BY0GO

US ramps up pressure on China with https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- new strategic competition policy news/us-ramps-up-pressure-on-china-new- 64 strategic-competition-policy-to-impact-tech- firms-101618107634070.html China-US tech war ‘in crucial decade’ https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/ 65 as developing nations pick sides article/3129030/china-us-tech-war-crucial- decade-developing-nations-pick-sides China launches hotline for netizens to https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china- report 'illegal' history comments cyberspace-history/china-launches-hotline-for- 66 netizens-to-report-illegal-history-comments- idUSKBN2BY08Z Xinhua: Eyes, ears and voice of China https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/de 67 fence/xinhua-eyes-ears-and-voice-of- china/articleshow/82020154.cms China asks Wolf Warriors to find https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/ 68 wisdom in Communist Party history article/3128974/beijing-asks-challenged-wolf- warriors-find-wisdom-chinas-past China Blasts Taiwan Over Efforts to https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/202 69 Help Ally Paraguay Get Vaccines 1-04-08/china-blasts-taiwan-over-its-efforts-to- help-ally-get-vaccines?srnd=premium-asia China, Russia undermine international https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar- response, EU's top diplomat politics-eu/china-russia-undermine- 70 says international-myanmar-response-eus-top- diplomat-says-idUSKBN2BY0CO China-backed Colombo port project https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- may create money-laundering haven news/chinabacked-colombo-port-project-may- 71 create-money-laundering-haven-report- 101618138642037.html Djibouti autonomy at risk due to China's https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- investment strategy news/djibouti-autonomy-at-risk-due-to-china-s- 72 investment-strategy-report- 101618133508534.html China's plans for Himalayan super dam https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2021/04/6 73 stoke fears in 81473/chinas-plans-himalayan-super-dam- stoke-fears-india India bans exports of anti-viral drug https://www.reuters.com/article/health- Remdesivir as COVID-19 cases surge coronavirus-india-remdesivir/india-bans- 74 exports-of-anti-viral-drug-remdesivir-as-covid- 19-cases-surge-idUSKBN2BY0EB India’s Concerns over Myanmar Drive https://www.voanews.com/south-central- 75 Policy asia/indias-concerns-over-myanmar-drive- policy-analysts-say Indonesian president orders Java https://www.reuters.com/article/indonesia- rescue efforts after quake kills 8 quake/indonesian-president-orders-java- 76 rescue-efforts-after-quake-kills-8- idUSKBN2BY0B5 Myanmar's post-coup civilian death toll https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2021/04/6 77 climbs past 700 81479/myanmars-post-coup-civilian-death-toll- climbs-past-700 Myanmar coup latest: Death toll in https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Myanmar- 78 Bago crackdown rises to 85 Coup/Myanmar-coup-latest-Death-toll-in-Bago- crackdown-rises-to-85 Myanmar’s Gen Z protesters defy https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast- 79 internet curbs with underground asia/article/3129123/myanmar-protesters-defy- newsletters juntas-internet-curbs-underground I still get nightmares’: Myanmar https://www.scmp.com/week- students traumatised after beatings in asia/politics/article/3129059/i-still-get- 80 jail nightmares-myanmar-student-protesters- traumatised Cheong Wa Dae denies report US https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021 81 requested join Quad /04/120_306968.html DPRK marks 9th anniversary of Kim https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04- 82 Jong Un's leadership 11/DPRK-marks-9th-anniversary-of-Kim-Jong- Un-s-leadership-Znl4AVkGf6/index.html Cat warriors take Taiwan’s freedom https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cat-warriors- 83 message to world take-taiwans-freedom-message-to-world- lx065qcl9 Tropical storm may form in coming https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202104110015 84 days; impact still unclear Accident happens at nuclear https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2021/04/ 85 facility, no casualties or pollution 11/accident-happens-at-iran-nuclear-facility- reported no-casualties-or-pollution.html DEFENSE NEWS Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/ J. Austin III Phone Call With Philippines Release/Article/2568085/readout-of-secretary- 86 Secretary of National Defense Delfin of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-phone-call-with- Lorenzana philippines/ PH-US Defense Pact: Locsin wants 'trip https://manilastandard.net/news/top- 87 over the wire' trigger proviso stories/351609/ph-us-defense-pact-locsin- wants-trip-over-the-wire-trigger-proviso.html PHL among countries listed as top https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/12/phl- 88 cyber-attackers’ origin among-countries-listed-as-top-cyber-attackers- origin/ As Balikatan opens, PHL-US sides https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/12/as- 89 tackle mutual defense balikatan-opens-phl-us-sides-tackle-mutual- defense/ Philippines, U.S. to begin 2-week joint https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines- military drill on Monday usa-southchinasea/philippines-u-s-to-begin-2- 90 week-joint-military-drill-on-monday- idUSKBN2BY07A

Philippines, US to start military drills https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast- 91 amid South China Sea tensions asia/article/3129132/philippines-us-start-two- week-joint-military-drills-amid US-Philippines officials discuss https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International- 92 concerns over China's ships relations/South-China-Sea/US-Philippines- officials-discuss-concerns-over-China-s-ships Philippines Aims To Acquire Additional https://www.asiapacificdefensejournal.com/202 93 Cyclone-Class Patrol Boats From US 1/04/philippines-aims-to-acquire- Navy additional.html More US ships arriving in South China https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/natio 94 Sea, says Amb. Romualdez n/783245/more-us-ships-arriving-in-south- china-sea-says-amb-romualdez/story/ Joe Biden's Defense Budget Is https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/joe- 95 Great...for Russia and China bidens-defense-budget-greatfor-russia-and- china-182414 Inside the US government's top-secret https://www.businessinsider.com/us- 96 bioweapons lab government-tests-deadly-chemical-warfare- agents-utah-2019-10 US intelligence report warns of https://www.cyberscoop.com/us-intelligence- 97 increased offensive cyber, report-warns-of-increased-offensive-cyber- disinformation around the world disinformation-around-the-world/ Antony Blinken Warns China Taiwan https://www.newsweek.com/antony-blinken- 98 Attack Would Be 'Serious Mistake' as warns-china-taiwan-attack-would-serious- Military Tensions Mount mistake-military-tensions-mount-1582710 US-China relations: military tensions https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/ 99 continue to rise over Taiwan article/3129036/us-china-relations-military- tensions-continue-rise-over-taiwan US navy sends China the message: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/ 100 ‘we’re watching you’ article/3129122/us-navy-warns-china-were- watching-you-destroyer-shadows US Navy sends message to China with https://www.businessinsider.com/us- 101 photo of destroyer shadowing Chinese messages-china-with-photo-of-destroyer- aircraft carrier shadowing-aircraft-carrier-2021-4 A Smaller, But Heavily Armed Naval https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/meet- 102 Destroyer ddg-next-smaller-heavily-armed-naval- destroyer-182355 Cutter deployments point to bigger role https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/04/cutt 103 in Western Pacific er-deployments-point-to-bigger-role-in- western-pacific/ Taiwanese Navy to christen new https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archi 104 domestically built ship the ‘Yushan’ on ves/2021/04/11/2003755483 Tuesday Launch ceremony for Taiwan-built https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202104110004 105 landing platform dock on tap China’s CCP Adviser Outlines Detailed https://myvalleynews.com/blog/2021/04/05/ccp 106 Plan to Defeat US, Including -adviser-outlines-detailed-plan-to-defeat-us- Manipulating Elections including-manipulating-elections/ Chinese military: India should cherish https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/de 'current positive trend' of de-escalation fence/chinese-military-says-indian-should- 107 in eastern Ladakh cherish-current-positive-trend-of-de-escalation- in-eastern-ladakh/articleshow/82014833.cms China’s Improved Type 093A https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/china% 108 Submarine E2%80%99s-improved-type-093a-submarine- stealthy-and-full-missiles-182336 China in mind as Japan government https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/04/chin 109 plans large-scale deployment of F-35B a-in-mind-as-japan-government-plans-large- fighters scale-deployment-of-f-35b-fighters/ South Korea soars into elite group with https://asiatimes.com/2021/04/kf-21-jet-fighter- 110 K-21 fighter puts-south-korea-in-elite-group/ Korean FA-50 competes with Pakistan- https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021 111 China developed jet in /04/205_306949.html US, South Korea suspect North Korea https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- is readying its ballistic missile news/us-south-korea-suspect-north-korea-is- 112 submarine readying-its-ballistic-missile-submarine- 101618140167907.html North Korea completes building new https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/N-Korea-at- 113 3,000-ton submarine crossroads/North-Korea-completes-building- new-3-000-ton-submarine-report North Korea's SLBM threat looms large https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021 114 /04/103_306962.html No breakthrough in India-China military https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/de dialogue on disengagement in eastern fence/no-breakthrough-in-india-china-military- 115 Ladakh dialogue-on-disengagement-in-eastern- ladakh/articleshow/82013729.cms UK, USA want Russia to de-escalate https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- 116 situation in Ukraine news/uk-usa-want-russia-to-de-escalate- situation-in-ukraine-101618160484247.html Russian troop movements and talk of https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/04/11 117 intervention cause jitters in Ukraine /world/ukraine-war-russia-troops/ Kremlin says not moving towards war https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2021/04/11/kre 118 with Ukraine mlin-says-not-moving-towards-war-with- ukraine/ Mossad may have carried cyber attack https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- against Iran's Natanz nuclear facility news/mossad-may-have-carried-cyber-attack- 119 against-iran-s-natanz-nuclear-facility- 101618158785300.html and South Pacific security https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-gulliver- 120 dilemma-australia-and-south-pacific-security/ Smaller drones don't let the US off the https://www.businessinsider.com/smaller- 121 hook for war crimes drones-dont-let-us-off-hook-for-war-crimes-

2021-4 Could Hypersonic Missiles Be a ‘Silver https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/could- 122 Bullet’ for Aircraft Carriers? hypersonic-missiles-be-%E2%80%98silver- bullet%E2%80%99-aircraft-carriers-182354 Building and Enabling Urban https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/building- Resistance Networks In Small and-enabling-urban-resistance-networks- 123 Countries - A Crucial Role For U.S. small-countries-crucial-role-us-special

Special Forces In Great Power Competition Satellite Internet Services Fostering https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/satellite- 124 – the Dictators’ Dilemma? internet-services-fostering-dictators-dilemma The High North: A Key Alliance Area for https://defense.info/featured-story/2021/04/the- 125 Defense and Security high-north-a-key-alliance-area-for-defense- and-security/ Would Russia Invade Ukraine And https://www.19fortyfive.com/2021/04/would- 126 China Invade Taiwan Simultaneously? russia-invade-ukraine-and-china-invade- taiwan-simultaneously/ COVID NEWS COVID-19 death rate in NCR now https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/4/11/Co 127 higher than from 6 months ago — OCTA vid-19-deaths-NCR-OCTA.html PH receives 500K more doses of https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1136401 128 procured Sinovac jabs FDA expects new applications for EUA https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/fda-expects- 129 this week new-applications-for-eua-this-week/ NCR’s hospital utilization to remain https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/ncrs-hospital- 130 high despite drop in COVID-19 utilization-to-remain-high-despite-drop-in- reproduction rate – expert covid-19-reproduction-rate-expert/ Demand for medical oxygen tanks https://news.abs- 131 going up cbn.com/news/multimedia/photo/04/11/21/dem and-for-medical-oxygen-tanks Pulse oximeter yes, oxygen tank https://news.abs- optional: What are COVID-19 home cbn.com/news/04/11/21/pulse-oximeter-yes- 132 care essentials? oxygen-tank-optional-what-are-covid-19-home- care-essentials Richer nations received 87% of https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/04/12 133 vaccines – WHO /2090526/richer-nations-received-87-vaccines- who South African variant can ‘break https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle- 134 through’ Pfizer vaccine, Israeli study east/article/3129069/coronavirus-south- says african-variant-can-break-through-pfizer China expects to produce 3 billion https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/arti 135 vaccine does by end of year cle/3129112/china-expects-produce-3-billion- doses-covid-19-vaccine-end-year Chinese vaccines' effectiveness low https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- news/chinese-vaccines-effectiveness-low- 136 should-consider-benefits-of-mrna-vaccines- officials-101618119895700.html Effectiveness of Chinese vaccines ‘not https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_p acific/china-vaccine-efficacy-not-high- 137 high’ and needs improvement, top health official says gao/2021/04/11/dafe3ab6-9a8f-11eb-8f0a- 3384cf4fb399_story.html South Korea to resume wider use of https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health- AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, coronavirus-southkorea/south-korea-to- 138 exclude people under 30 resume-wider-use-of-astrazeneca-coronavirus- vaccine-exclude-people-under-30- idUSKBN2BY04Z What you need to know about the https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health- coronavirus right now coronavirus-snapshot/what-you-need-to-know- 139 about-the-coronavirus-right-now- idUSKBN2BW0JW Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020- 140 Across the World coronavirus-cases-world- map/?srnd=coronavirus

J. OPINION/EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY Title Link 141 Time to stop the bully of the region https://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/op en-thoughts-by-orlando-oxales/351571/time-to- stop-the-bully-of-the-region.html 142 China’s aggression https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2021/04/12/2 090547/chinas-aggression 143 The bare minimum https://manilastandard.net/opinion/editorial/351 573/the-bare-minimum-20210412.html 144 How Duque is making a fool out of us https://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/na ked-thought-by-charlie-v-manalo/351569/how- duque-is-making-a-fool-out-of-us.html 145 Leaders of Russia and China tighten https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/ar their grips, grow closer chives/2021/04/11/2003755458 146 In a warring world economy split into US https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article vs China blocs, there can be no winners /3129035/warring-world-economy-split-us-vs- china-blocs-there-can-be-no 147 Why in US eyes, China’s maritime https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article ambition can only appear as a threat /3128950/why-us-eyes-chinas-maritime- ambition-can-only-appear-threat 148 Alliance https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2021/04/11/2 090261/milk-tea-alliance

149 Hybrid warfare, pandemic style https://dailytimes.com.pk/743301/hybrid- warfare-pandemic-style/ 150 Waive Covid-19 patents to help poor https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article nations now /3129125/waive-covid-19-patents-help-poor- nations- now?li_source=LI&li_medium=asia_section_to p_picks_for_you 151 WHO’s COVID-19 report fails litmus test https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2021/04/ on transparency 10/editorials/china-who-covid-19/ 152 Questions remain over US ties https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/ar chives/2021/04/11/2003755453 153 Beijing cannot halt Uighur policies https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/ar chives/2021/04/11/2003755455 154 Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article meaningless Western boycott would /3128978/beijing-winter-olympics-2022- only prove US weakness meaningless-western-boycott-would-only

Locsin: PH owes its arbitration victory over China to PNoy

Published April 11, 2021, 6:30 PM by Roy Mabasa The Philippines owes its victory over China in the arbitration case before the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague only to former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and his team, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Sunday.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (File photo via PNA) Locsin was referring to the July 12, 2016 Award handed down by the United Nations- backed arbitration court that invalidated China’s excessive nine-dash line claim in the South China Sea.

In a tweet, Locsin said the Arbitral ruling cemented the country’s jurisdiction over the reefs and waters in the West Philippine Sea.

“What cements the reefs and waters as ours is The Arbitral Award won by PNoy, Del Rosario et al. They had no allies; no support from other countries least of all Southeast Asia which tried to sabotage the Arbitral Award when they saw it coming. We owe it to PNoy et al only,” he said.

In particular, he was all praises to Paul Reichler, the “genius” German lawyer who represented and argued on behalf of the Philippine petition against China before the arbitration court.

“Paul Reichler, An Elegant Mind. He pared our claim down to the barest essential and we won without help from anyone out there, especially our neighbors and a West hungry for more renminbi. We didn’t need the world: we have Reichler. Thank you, sir. And that’s a Francis; a genius,” Locsin said in a separate tweet.

In the arbitration, Locsin noted Reichler’s sharp move when he narrowed down the Philippine petition to the features in the South China Sea.

“Exactly why we won. Our genius GERMAN lawyer said, bring up sovereignty, we lose, our thrown out for lack of jurisdiction; with typical German sharpness he said narrow the issues down to features in the abstract and we win an abstract victory which is a victory nonetheless,” he explained.

Known as the “giant slayer” in the international legal circles, Reichler rose to fame in 1984 when he represented the Nicaraguan government before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a historic case against the .

In the said case, Nicaragua accused the US of funding the ‘contras’ to topple the then-ruling Sandinista government. The ICJ ruled in favor of Nicaragua citing that the US violated, among other things, “the principle of non-use of force.”

The ICJ ordered the US to pay Nicaragua $370.2 million but the US refused to heed the ruling.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/locsin-ph-owes-its-arbitration-victory-over-china-to-pnoy/

Philippines to ease some tough COVID-19 restrictions from Monday

By Reuters Staff 2 MIN READ

MANILA (Reuters) - Strict COVID-19 lockdowns in the Philippines capital and four adjacent provinces will be eased from April 12, a spokesman for President said on Sunday.

Metro and the provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite will be placed under a less restrictive community quarantine status until April 30, spokesman Harry Roque told a virtual briefing.

Roque gave the briefing from hospital where he is being treated for COVID-19. He gave no details on which restrictions will be eased but said details would be released on Monday.

The Philippines is battling one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Asia, with hospitals in the capital overwhelmed amid record daily infections, while authorities face delays in delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.

On Sunday, the Department of Health recorded 11,681 new COVID-19 cases and 201 more deaths, bringing the country’s tallies to 864,868 confirmed infections and 14,945 fatalities.

New cases have surge in recent weeks, surpassing 15,000 on April 2, most of those in the congested capital.

Last week, Duterte cancelled a weekly televised address and a meeting with his coronavirus task force as some of his staff and security detail were found to be COVID-19 positive. Roque and Duterte’s defence minister, Delfin Lorenzana, also tested positive.

Roque said the government will work to increase the number of COVID- 19 beds in healthcare facilities and free up more room in hospitals.

Under the current quarantine classification for Manila and surrounding areas, non-essential movement is banned, along with mass gatherings and dining in restaurants, with longer-than-usual curfews also in place since March 29.

The reimposition of strict lockdowns has raised concerns the economy will take longer to recover from last year’s worst slump on record.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-philippines/philippines-to-ease-some-tough- covid-19-restrictions-from-monday-idUSKBN2BY088

NCR Plus, 3 other areas now under MECQ until April 30

By Azer Parrocha April 11, 2021, 4:49 pm

NEW CLASSIFICATION. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announces new quarantine classification in Metro Manila and other areas on Sunday (April 11, 2021). Roque said National Capital Region and four nearby provinces namely Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal as well as City of Santiago in Isabela, Quirino and Abra will be placed under less restrictive modified enhanced community quarantine from April 12 to 30, 2021. (Screenshot from RTVM)

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has placed NCR Plus (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal) under the less restrictive modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from April 12 to April 30, Malacañang said on Sunday.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte made this decision after more public and private hospitals committed to provide rooms and beds dedicated to Covid-19 patients.

Duterte last week urged the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to expedite the payment of claims of hospitals.

“Dahil sa direktiba ng Pangulo sa PhilHealth na magbayad sa mga ospital na mayroong mga unpaid Covid claims, marami sa ating mga private, national government, at LGU hospitals ay nag-commit na dadagdagan ang mga Covid-19 beds,lalo na ang mga ICU beds sa NCR Plus (Because of the President’s directive to PhilHealth to pay unpaid Covid-19 claims, more private, national government and local government unit hospitals have committed to provide additional Covid-19 beds, especially ICU beds in NCR Plus),” he said in a virtual presser.

PhilHealth earlier approved the application of a debit-credit payment method (DCPM) to facilitate the settlement of accounts payable to health care facilities (HCFs) during the state of public health emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Ito ang isa sa mga naging kritikal na basehan ng IATF para mag rekomenda sa ating Presidente na magluwag ng kaunti at gawing MECQ ang klasipikasyon sa NCR Plus (This is one of the critical bases of the IATF to recommend to the President to ease the quarantine classification in NCR Plus to MECQ),” he added.

Besides NCR (National Capital Region) Plus, also under MECQ are the City of Santiago in Isabela, Quirino province in Region 2, and Abra in the Cordillera Administrative Region. Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya (Region 2), Batangas (Region 4-A), Tacloban City (Region 8), Iligan City (Region 10), (Region 11), and Lanao del Sur (BARMM), and Quezon will be under general community quarantine (GCQ).

The rest of the Philippines will be under the least restrictive modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

ICU beds in NCR Plus

Roque said private and public hospitals in NCR Plus have committed to provide 164 ICU beds for critical Covid-19 patients and 1,157 Covid-19 regular beds for moderate and severe patients.

He said 74.34 percent of 1,395 ICU beds are still available; 46.04 percent of 6,367 ward beds are unoccupied; 59.56 percent of isolation beds are still available in NCR Plus.

Last Saturday, health authorities recorded 12,674 new Covid-19 cases pushing the tall to 853,209.

In a statement, Roque urged LGUs in the NCR Plus to set up their respective local telehealth triaging systems equipped with sufficient medical personnel available to provide immediate medical and patient referral advice.

Roque said there must be an adequate number of Covid-19 dedicated beds, complementary health human resources, and well-coordinated triage and referral systems in place at the LGUs, isolation and quarantine facilities, and health facilities.

He reminded LGUs in NCR Plus to prioritize the generation of demand for vaccination to those with highest risk for severe disease and death, particularly priority groups A2 and A3 (senior citizens and those with comorbidities) of the national deployment and vaccination plan for Covid-19.

Roque also directed the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Trade and Industry to ascertain the number of employees who may undertake alternative work arrangements and its impact on the maximum carrying capacity of the subject area.

Common curfew to remain

Roque said the common curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. will remain in place until mayors and governors have agreed on modified hours.

“While mayors and governors have not yet agreed on modified hours, it remains as is,” Roque said in a statement.

He said consultations are already ongoing and a decision may be made soon.

However, workers, cargo vehicles, and public transportation will not be restricted by the said curfew, he added.

According to amended omnibus guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) as of April 3, 2021, strict home quarantine shall be observed in all households under MECQ. Movement of persons shall be limited to accessing essential goods and services, and for work in permitted offices or establishments or such activities allowed.

Persons below 18 years old, those who are over 65 years old, those with immunodeficiency, comorbidity, or other health risks, and pregnant women shall be required to remain at home at all times except for obtaining essential goods and services or for work.

Under the IATF-EID guidelines, the following establishments, persons, or activities shall not be permitted to operate, work, or be undertaken during MECQ:

-- Entertainment venues with live performers such as karaoke bars, bars, clubs, concert halls, theaters, and cinemas;

-- Recreational venues such as internet cafes, billiard halls, amusement arcades, bowling alleys, and similar venues;

-- Amusement parks or theme parks, fairs/peryas, kid amusement industries such as playgrounds, playroom and kiddie rides;

-- Outdoor sports courts or venues for contact sports, scrimmages, games, or activities;

-- Indoor sports courts or venues, fitness studios, gyms, spas or other indoor leisure centers or facilities, and swimming pools; -- Casinos, horse racing, cockfighting and operation of cockpits, lottery and betting shops, and other gaming establishments except for the draws conducted by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office;

-- Indoor visitor or tourist attractions, libraries, archives, museums, galleries, and cultural shows and exhibits;

-- Outdoor tourist attractions;

-- Venues for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions;

-- Personal care services which include beauty salons, beauty parlors, medical esthetic clinics, cosmetic or derma clinics, make-up salons, nail spas, reflexology, aesthetics, wellness and holistic centers, and other similar establishments; acupuncture and electrocautery establishments, and massage therapy including sports therapy establishments. It also includes establishments providing tanning services, body piercings, tattooing and similar services. Home service for these activities is likewise not permitted; and

-- Indoor dine-in services of food preparation establishments such as commissaries, restaurants, and eateries. (PNA)

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1136404

CIDG field offices told to arrest parties marketing Ivermectin for human use

ByRene Acosta

April 11, 2021

THE Philippine National Police through the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) will arrest people who will use and market the unregulated drug Ivermectin, which has not been allowed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for human use, but is widely touted as a cure for Covid-19.

A PNP statement on Sunday, through its spokesman Brig. Gen. Ildebrandi Usana, said the CIDG has issued a directive to field offices around the country help the FDA in preventing the unregulated sale and distribution of Ivermectin.

While reports claimed that Ivermectin could be an effective anti-Covid-19 drug, its version for human use – apart from a cream for topical use for skin disease — has not been allowed yet by the FDA and therefore its use and distribution in the country is still illegal. Last week, the FDA allowed “compassionate use” to an unnamed hospital, meaning, the doctor administering such takes full responsibility for any effects.

CIDG director Major Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro said the operations against the use of Ivermectin was in response to President Duterte’s directive for the CIDG to take appropriate action against the unregulated use of the anti-parasitic drugs.

Meanwhile, the PNP recorded two more deaths from Covid-19, bringing to 42 the total number of its personnel who have died in the pandemic.

The two latest fatalities were a policeman and a non-uniformed personnel assigned at the Manila Police District and Camp Crame, respectively.

The PNP said that as of April 9, at least 16,975 of its personnel have been infected by Covid-19. Of the number, 14,477 have recovered while 2,456 are considered active cases.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/11/cidg-field-offices-told-to-arrest-parties-marketing- ivermectin-for-human-use/

Solon urges DepEd to prepare for prolonged distance learning until next school year

Published April 11, 2021, 12:17 PM by Hannah Torregoza The Department of Education (DepEd) should prepare for the prolonged implementation of distance learning as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) shots for children below 16 years old may not be available in the country until the summer of 2022.

Anakalusugan Party-List Rep. Mike Defensor (MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) AnaKalusugan Representative Michael Defensor said there was a high probability that the Philippines may not be able to implement extensive face-to-face classes in the school year of 2021-2022 since clinical trials on COVID-19 vaccines on younger children are just getting started abroad.

“Vaccine developers overseas are still trying to assess the safety of their shots on three age groups of children. They are also trying to ascertain the appropriate dosage for each age group,” Defensor said in a statement.

The vice chair of the House Committee on Welfare of Children also said that while some clinical trials on children aged 12 to 15 years old were already underway, trials on those aged five to 11 years old are just kicking off.

“Trials on children under five years old would be the last to be carried out,” he pointed out.

The lawmaker noted President Duterte, himself, has repeatedly disallowed the large-scale face-to-face classes in public and private elementary and high schools until a vaccine becomes available.

Defensor said the DepEd should identify those students who have previously dropped out, and encourage them to enroll next school year, while at the same time take the time to expand their delivery of online and modular learning schemes.

“We urge schools to improve and expand their delivery of online learning as well as modular and TV/radio-based instruction, with a view to prevent more dropouts and enrolling more students in the transition to the next school year,” he said. “In fact, with the help of officials, DepEd should identify those students who previously dropped out and then encourage them to enroll next school year,” he stressed.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far approved four vaccines for emergency use to prevent the spread of COVID0-19.

These include Pfizer’s which may be injected on individuals aged 16 years and older, and Sinovac which the FDA initially recommended for use in individuals aged 18 to 59 years old, but has now allowed senior citizens to be inoculated with the China-made vaccine.

The FDA has also approved Gamaleya’s COVID-19 vaccine which may be used in individuals aged 18 years and older.

FDA, however, suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which was previously approved for use in individuals aged 18 years and older after reports of blood clots in other countries’ vaccine program.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/solon-urges-deped-to-prepare-for-prolonged-distance-learning-until- next-school-year/

Holy month of Ramadan starts on April 13, Islamic authorities declare

Inquirer Mindanao / 09:24 PM April 11, 2021

COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao, Philippines Tuesday, April 13, is the official start of the holy month of Ramadan as declared by the Bangsamoro Darul Ifta, the — Islamic religious authority in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

of BARMM, I hereby announce that we will start fasting on this blessed month of Ramadan on Tuesday, “By virtue of the authority vested in me as Grand Mufti over social media platforms on Sunday evening. April 13,” Grand Mufti Abu Huraira Udasan said in an announcement carried live Teams of Muslim religious scholars and volunteers were deployed in various parts of the region to do moonsighting on Sunday evening.

The crescent moon that heralds Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, was not visible on Sunday night, prompting the declaration of the start of fasting on Tuesday.

The National Commission on Muslim also issued a similar declaration.

Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. During this month, Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, engaging in any sexual activity, and committing sinful acts from daybreak to dusk.

The provincial government of Lanao del Sur and the city government of Cotabato prepare for welcoming the holy month of Ramadan. have lifted the “No Movement Sunday” policy on April 11 to allow the people to

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1417650/holy-month-of-ramadan-starts-on-april-13-islamic-authorities- declare

PH should join freedom of navigation patrols, form alliance vs China 9-dash line: Carpio Gillan Ropero, ABS-CBN News Posted at Apr 11 2021 12:08 PM | Updated as of Apr 11 2021 12:28 PM

The US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. US 7th Fleet Navy photo MANILA - The Philippines must join freedom of navigation patrols to assert its rights in the West Philippine Sea and bring China again to an arbitral court over its recent aggressions, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said Sunday.

Chinese vessels who chased a Filipino boat carrying fishermen and an ABS-CBN News crew violated international law since the chase happened inside the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to Carpio.

"Violation pa rin 'yan kasi EEZ natin 'yan, there’s freedom of navigation. Kahit sino d'yan pwede magsail, hindi pwedeng hintuin, hindi puwedeng i-harass sa EEZ," he told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

(It's still a violation because that's our EEZ, there’s freedom of navigation. Anyone can sail, they should not be stopped or harassed in our EEZ.)

"'Yung mga freedom of navigation operations na 'yan, that is the strongest enforcement of arbitral ruling."

(Freedom of navigation operations are the strongest enforcement of arbitral ruling.)

Manila had an agreement to join the freedom of navigation patrols prior to President Rodrigo Duterte assuming office but he did not implement it due to fear of angering China, Carpio said.

"Dapat suportahan natin ito dahil every time dumadaan ang US, UK, France warships d'yan, they are asserting the ruling. Dapat sumama tayo sa kanila para makita ng Tsina na they are not in possession of the West Philippine Sea," he said.

(We should support this because every time US, UK, France warship sail though it, they are asserting the ruling. We should join them so China can see they are not in possession of the West Philippine Sea.)

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/11/21/philippines-freedom-of-navigation-patrols-west-philippine- sea-form-alliance-vs-china-9-dash-line

Chinese vessels still scattered in West PH Sea — AFP Chief

Published April 11, 2021, 3:39 PM by Martin Sadongdong Dozens of Chinese military and fishing vessels are still dispersed in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) even after the Philippine government had protested what it described as incursion in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a top military official disclosed on Sunday, April 11.

West Philippine Sea (PNA file photo) Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said at least 28 Chinese vessels were spotted by the military when it conducted a maritime patrol in the WPS at 8 p.m. Saturday.

He said six of them were identified as Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels, 20 were fishing vessels, and two were maritime militia-operated vessels.

The Chinese Coast Guard vessels were positioned in Pagasa Island (two ships), Ayungin Shoal (one), and Bajo de Masinloc (three). Meanwhile, the fishing vessels were monitored in Pagasa Island (two vessels), Ayungin Shoal (10), and Bajo de Masinloc (eight).

The Pagasa (Thitu) Island, Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Reef), and Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) are all located within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile EEZ.

Meanwhile, the AFP has yet to determine how many trawlers remained at the Julian Felipe Reef, which is also located in the WPS. Majority of the 220 vessels which massed near the reef on March 7 was found to have dispersed in other parts of the WPS and Kalayaan Island Group.

Last April 4, the Department of Foreign Affairs filed another diplomatic protest against China over the lingering presence of their vessels in the WPS.

This was the second diplomatic protest lodged by Manila against Beijing over the massing of Chinese vessels at the Julian Felipe Reef. It filed the first diplomatic protest on March 21.

To reciprocate the swarming of the Chinese vessels, Sobejana said the Philippine Navy sent two of its patrol ships in the WPS. These were augmented by two Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels and five Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessels.

“They [Chinese vessels] could be further reduced because we sent our Navy ships already and we also have help coming from the Coast Guard and BFAR. However, most of these augmentation forces were still refueling,” Sobejana stated. The AFP Chief admitted that the lack of oil refueling stations in the WPS poses a big challenge for the military in patrolling the country’s vast waters.

This is the reason why Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana proposed the construction of a refueling station — particularly in Pagasa Island in Kalayaan, Palawan — so that the military’s patrol ships will no longer have to travel as far back to Palawan mainland in case they run out of fuel.

“We need [a refueling station] to address the challenges in the logistics portion of our operations,” Sobejana said.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/chinese-vessels-still-scattered-in-west-ph-sea-afp-chief/

PH needs ‘real-time’ access to US intelligence data in WPS, says Locsin

Published April 11, 2021, 3:34 PM by Roy Mabasa Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday insisted that the Philippines needs to have “real-time” access to United States intelligence data regarding the actual situation in the West Philippine Sea and “will not settle for less”.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (File photo via PNA) Locsin made this comment several hours after the reported telephone conversation between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in which they discussed the current situation near the West Philippine Sea where hundreds of Chinese “militia vessels” were earlier moored at Julian Felipe Reef (Whitsun Reef), an area within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

“We need to know everything the US knows all the time at the same time. Period. Won’t settle for less,” the foreign secretary said in a tweet.

On Saturday (Sunday in Manila), Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Secretary Austin proposed to his Filipino counterpart several measures, among which, by “enhancing situational awareness of threats in the South China Sea.”

Locsin, however, said the Philippines had been seeking the sharing of real-time information with the United States through the Armed Forces.

“We’ve been asking for this but the AFP insists on demand(ing) real-time access/sharing of data as it is gathered and not first collected, parsed, shared on a need-to-know basis,” he said.

The Philippines has filed a series of diplomatic protests against China over the past few weeks following the incursion of more than 200 Chinese vessels in Julian Felipe Reef, a boomerang-shaped reef located 175 nautical miles from Bataraza, Palawan.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/ph-needs-real-time-access-to-us-intelligence-data-in-wps-says-locsin/

Chasing of Filipino boat by Chinese vessels in West PH Sea tantamount to ‘territorial incursion’ — Del Rosario

Published April 11, 2021, 9:11 AM by Roy Mabasa The chase of a Philippine civilian boat by China’s sea assets such as its coast guard and the Type 022 Houbei fast attack craft with two mounted missiles in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and later way into Palawan is tantamount to territorial incursion, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said on Friday.

Given this latest incident, Del Rosario reiterated his call for the sending of a “demarche” or a direct, purposeful, and pointed petition or protest against China.

The United Nations, according to the former DFA secretary, may be informed through the office of the UN secretary-general.

“Such UN notification will form part of official Ph communications, including those required under Article 51 of the UN Charter relating to individual and collective self- defense,” he explained.

Del Rosario also reiterated his earlier suggestion for the Philippines to revisit a joint patrol agreement of the WPS with the United States and the Philippines which had been approved by then-Deputy Secretary Anthony Blinken sometime in early 2016. Blinken is now the US State Secretary under the administration of US President Joe Biden.

“The agreement was not pursued by President Duterte as he was concerned that it would displease Beijing,” the former top Filipino diplomat said.

Meanwhile, Acting Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Elizabeth Buensuceso has raised the issue of the presence of Chinese militia vessels at the Julian Felipe Reef during the virtual ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) held on Tuesday, April 7.

“The continued deployment and lingering presence of a large swarm of maritime militia vessels within the Philippines’ maritime zones remains a serious concern and we reiterate that a conducive environment is crucial for the COC negotiations,” said Buensuceso.

The Philippines is currently the country coordinator for ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations.

Buensuceso pointed out that actions that intimidate, escalate tensions, and undermine mutual trust and confidence, violate sovereignty and sovereign rights, especially those that run counter to international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) impede the progress and momentum of the Code of Conduct (CoC) negotiations and threaten its success. The Philippi has lodged a series of diplomatic protests against Beijing for the continued incursion of a huge number of Chinese vessels in Julian Felipe Reef, an area located 175 nautical miles from Bataraza town in Palawan and way within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/chasing-of-filipino-boat-by-chinese-vessels-in-west-ph-sea-tantamount- to-territorial-incursion-del-rosario/

Dagdag na pagpapatrolya sa West PH Sea iniutos ng AFP chief

ABS-CBN News Posted at Apr 11 2021 07:54 PM Magpapadala ng mga karagdagang barko ang Armed Forces of the Philippines matapos madokumento ng ABS-CBN News ang pangha-harass ng mga barko ng China sa West Philippine Sea. Taliwas sa unang pahayag ng militar, hinimok ngayon ng hepe ng AFP ang mas madalas na media coverage sa lugar para makatulong sa pagmamanman at pagbabantay ng militar doon. Nagpa-Patrol, Michael Delizo. TV Patrol, Linggo, 11 Abril 2021

https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/04/11/21/dagdag-na-pagpapatrolya-sa-west-ph-sea-iniutos-ng- afp-chief

Media coverage at West Philippine Sea complements military's surveillance - Sobejana

Chiara Zambrano, ABS-CBN News Posted at Apr 11 2021 06:15 PM

A Chinese patrol craft tails a fishing vessel with an ABS-CBN News crew on board in the West Philippine Sea on April 8, 2021. Chiara Zambrano, ABS-CBN News MANILA - Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Cirilito Sobejana said Sunday journalists independently covering the situation in the West Philippine Sea help the military gain more awareness about the developments in the country's exclusive economic zone.

“With that experience of yours, we have really proven na may pangbu-bully, may threatening, mayroong chasing na nangyayari (that there's bullying, threats, and chasing that's happening),” Sobejana told ABS-CBN News in a phone interview.

“Certainly, nakakatulong [yung footage], kasi nakita natin mismo na nagkakaroon ng habulan (the footage helped because we saw there you were chased by Chinese ships).” ABS-CBN documented a Chinese Coast Guard vessel and two Chinese Navy missile attack craft chasing its Filipino flag-bearing boat as it attempted last week to enter Ayungin Shoal, where the news team had wanted to interview Filipino fisherfolk.

The shoal, known internationally as Second Thomas Shoal and Renai Ansha to the Chinese, is located within the Philippines' EEZ. Manila keeps military presence in the area through BRP Sierra Madre, which ran aground on the shoal in 1999.

Sobejana reiterated the stance of the Philippine military in the face of the new evidence.

“We do not tolerate such kinds of actions among the Chinese Navy, Coast Guard, or even yung kanilang mga militia (their militia),” he said. As a response, the military chief said he ordered the Philippine Navy to devote more assets to the West Philippine Sea, “more than what I had ordered initially.”

Sobejana had already ordered the shifting of more naval assets to the sea twice: the first, after China passed its Coast Guard Law permitting its ships to fire upon any foreign vessel deemed as a threat, and second, when a swarming of some 200 Chinese fishing vessels believed to be maritime militia was discovered at Julian Felipe Reef.

“We have to really deploy more naval assets in that area,” he said. On questions why there is no Philippine naval presence in the sea area where the chase occurred, he said, “Iyong lawak ng lugar (It's vast), we cannot occupy every quarter of the West Philippine Sea.”

“Kaya pinupursige natin yung modernization natin, na magkaroon pa tayo ng more naval assets para talagang ma-saturate natin yung kalawakan ng West Philippine Sea.” (Which is why we intensify our modernization, so we can have more naval assets to cover the West Philippine Sea.)

The Armed Forces of the Philippines for the past years has been making do with its limited naval and aerial assets, strategically scheduling flights and voyages in order to patrol the West Philippine Sea section by section.

Its two newly acquired frigates – the AFP’s most modern naval assets to date – have been earmarked for deployment to the West Philippine Sea following the completion of its acceptance tests.

With limited eyes at sea, Sobejana welcomes more media coverage of the West Philippine Sea in order to increase public awareness.

He has started this by opening up the aerial maritime patrols to the press.

“Ngayon, yung effort ng media (Now the media's effort) is complementing our surveillance, dahil we have to admit that we have our own limitations. So we should commend these people na nag-find out (who found out) what is really the situation in the West Philippine Sea," he said.

“Iyong mga footage [The footage of ABS-CBN] can be used in filing appropriate charges against China for their incursions.” Sobejana said the AFP will submit a report to the Department of National Defense, Department of Foreign Affairs, and the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea.

“We have to put it on record na nangyari yang habulan nung nandoon kayo sa (that you were chased in the) West Philippine Sea,” he said.

The AFP chief is also mulling what he calls “coordinated fishing” efforts, where Filipino fishermen can identify certain areas they want to fish, and Philippine authorities can accompany them there.

Sobejana said he will be summoning their Chinese military counterparts for a dialogue on what transpired in the Philippines' EEZ as soon as the outbreak of COVID-19 cases inside Camp Aguinaldo have been contained.

His message to the Filipino public: do not be afraid.

“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision. That’s why we really need to decide now,” he said. “We have to ensure that our sovereignty is upheld and the integrity of the territory is protected. Hindi namin pababayaan na basta-basta lamang papasukin ng China itong ating (We will not allow China to just enter our) exclusive economic zone.” China's sweeping claims over almost the entire South China Sea, of which the West Philippine Sea is a part, has been declared to have no legal basis by an international arbitration court.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/11/21/media-coverage-at-west-philippine-sea-complements- militarys-surveillance-sobejana

Philippines joins global initiative tackling marine litter scourge Pia Lee-Brago () - April 12, 2021 - 12:00am MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is taking part in the GloLitter Partnerships Project, a major United Nations-backed initiative to tackle marine litter scourge, clean up the oceans and decrease the use of plastics in industries.

The project will assist 30 developing countries, including the Philippines, in preventing and reducing marine litter from the maritime transport and fisheries sectors.

Partnering in this endeavor are the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The project was launched last Thursday with initial funding from the government of Norway through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.

The new project is in line with the global development goal on conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources.

It seeks to prevent and reduce plastic litter such as lost or discarded fishing gear and campaigns for decreased use of plastics and recycling in the fisheries and maritime transport industries.

The FAO and IMO intend to better protect the fragile marine environment, as well as lives and livelihoods, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 that is committed to prevent and reduce marine pollution and conserve and use the oceans sustainably.

Five regions will be represented in this global effort: Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific.

Ten countries have been confirmed as Lead Partnering Countries (LPCs) and another 20 countries have been selected as Partnering Countries (PCs) of the GloLitter Project.

LPCs will take lead roles in their respective regions to champion national actions which support the IMO Action Plan to address marine plastic litter from ships and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for the Marking of Fishing Gear. The LPCs and PCs will work together, via a twinning working arrangement, to build regional support for the project.

The 10 LPCs are Brazil, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, India, , Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria and Vanuatu.

The 20 PCs are Argentina, Cabo Verde, Colombia, Ecuador, Gambia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Solomon Islands, Sudan, Tanzania, , Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga and Vietnam.

They will also receive technical assistance and training as well as guidance documents and other tools to help enforce existing regulations.

The project will promote compliance with relevant international instruments, including the Voluntary Guidelines for the Marking of Fishing Gear and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, which contains regulations against discharging plastics into the sea.

“Plastic litter has a devastating impact on marine life and human health,” said Manuel Barange, FAO’s director of Fisheries and Aquaculture. “This initiative is an important step in tackling the issue and will help protect the ocean ecosystem as well as the livelihoods of those who depend on it.”

“Marine litter is a scourge on the oceans and on the planet,” said Jose Matheickal, head of the IMO’s Department for Partnerships and Projects. “I am delighted that we have more than 30 countries committed to this initiative and working with IMO and FAO to address this issue.”

Phl, UAE sign MOU Meanwhile, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the establishment of a joint consular committee to create a bilateral mechanism for the protection of the interest of their nationals by mutually providing timely and effective assistance on a whole range of consular matters.

The signatories on behalf of their respective governments were Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Hjayceelyn Quintana and UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Assistant Undersecretary for consular affairs Faisal Eissa Lutfi. “Excellent people-to-people relations are the bedrock of Phl-UAE bilateral relations and the MOU,” said Quintana, hailing the agreement as another milestone further strengthening Philippine-UAE cooperation.

The virtual inaugural joint consular committee meeting under the MOU was convened after the signing ceremony where the delegations of both countries discussed concrete ways to enhance the assistance given to their nationals in coordination with respective local authorities of each country. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/04/12/2090494/philippines-joins-global-initiative-tackling- marine-litter-scourge

War games: Lorenzana to convince Duterte to revive military exercises between PH, US troops

Published April 11, 2021, 2:16 PM by Martin Sadongdong After China’s series of actions to assert its claims over almost the entire South China Sea, the Department of National Defense (DND) is eyeing the revival of military war games between the Philippines and the United States armies.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (NTF Against COVID-19 / MANILA BULLETIN) In a statement released on Sunday, April 11, the DND, through its spokesman Undersecretary Arsenio Andolong, said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana will discuss the return of the Balikatan Exercises with President Duterte.

The statement was issued after Lorenzana held a telephone conference with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III on Sunday, April 11.

“The two defense chiefs discussed the situation in the West Philippine Sea and recent developments in regional security. Both are looking forward to the conduct of Exercise Balikatan which was cancelled last year,” Andolong said in a statement.

The Balikatan Exercises was stopped after Duterte cancelled the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a move which was backed by staunch Duterte allies in the government. It was done as Duterte was seen as shifting to a foreign policy favorable to China.

The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), signed in 1998 and ratified the following year, permits joint military training between American and Filipino soldiers in the Philippines. It also governs the conduct or behavior of US troops while they are in Philippine soil.

The VFA led to the establishment of the annual Balikatan exercises. Through this, American and Filipino soldiers joint military exercises that enhance their interoperability, strengthen partnerships, and improve disaster response and counterterrorism capabilities.

However, Duterte ordered the termination of VFA on February 12, 2020 following the revocation of the US travel visa of Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, a close ally, due to alleged human rights violation when he was still the chief of the Philippine National Police. The last iteration of Balikatan was supposed to take place in May 2020 but it had also been cancelled due to the threats posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

On June 1, 2020, Duterte ordered the suspension of the VFA termination due to “political and other developments in the region” which “shall start on an even date and shall continue for six months. After that, it can be extended by the Philippine government for another six months, until the tolling of the initial period in Note Verbale No. 20-0463 dated February 11, 2020 shall resume.

Duterte again suspended the termination of the VFA in January 2021.

According to Andolong, Austin reiterated the importance of the VFA as he expressed hope that it would be done again by the two allied countries.

“Secretary Lorenzana committed to discuss the matter with the President as the final approval lies with him,” Andolong noted.

The return of Balikatan is being pushed by Austin as China steps up its efforts to establish presence in the South China Sea by swarming reefs and building artificial islands in the West Philippine Sea.

On Saturday, China reportedly sent its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in the South China Sea.

This came as a US Navy battle group, the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, entered the South China Sea last April 4 to conduct routine operations and exercise freedom of navigation operations.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/war-games-lorenzana-to-convince-duterte-to-revive-military-exercises- between-ph-us-troops/

Lorenzana, US defense chief discuss VFA and West Philippine Sea (Philstar.com) - April 11, 2021 - 2:47pm MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana spoke with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III at a telephone conference Sunday to touch on issues in the West Philippine Sea, his spokesman said.

To recall, a report released by US-based Simularity found that hundreds of Chinese vessels have been "mooring, arriving and departing" in Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef in the West Philippine Sea since December of last year. Latest reports show that Chinese vessels remain anchored in Philippine waters.

"The two defense chiefs discussed the situation in the West Philippine Sea and recent developments in regional security. Both are looking forward to the conduct of Exercise Balikatan, which was canceled last year," defense department spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.

Balikatan, an annual exercise, is made possible by the Visiting Forces agreement, which President Rodrigo Duterte ordered terminated in February 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and developments in the region, the termination process has been suspended twice since.

Lorenzana, among other Cabinet secretaries and lawmakers, has already spoken out and demanded that Chinese ships vacate the area, though China's Embassy in Manila continues to claim that Juan Felipe Reef, where the ships were spotted, is part of its Nansha Islands.

President Rodrigo Duterte has said that he cannot do anything about China's presence in Philippine waters since doing so, he claimed, would mean going to war with the regional giant.

Aside from expressing hope for a peaceful resolution, the chief executive has not yet commented on the issue itself — even after an ABS-CBN news crew reported being chased by Chinese missile boats in the area.

An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that China's claim over a large part of the South China Sea — including the West Philippine Sea in the Philippine's Exclusive Economic Zone — has no basis in international law.

Beijing, which did not participate in the arbitration case filed by the Philippines in 2013, continues to reject the arbitral ruling. Earlier, Sen. Panfilo Lacson called for the establishment of strong diplomatic relations with other countries amid maritime tensions.

"The fact that we are a militarily weak country that cannot match China's military power should compel us to resort to establishing stronger alliances not only with other Asia-Pacific neighbors like Australia and Japan and the other ASEAN countries, but our long-standing western allies like the US and Europe," he said earlier in April.

"Only through a clear message that the presence of 'balance of power' in the West Philippine Sea can help us in this regard."

Visiting Forces Agreement "Secretary Austin reiterated the importance of the VFA and hopes that it would be continued. Secretary Lorenzana committed to discuss the matter with the president as the final approval lies with him," the DND also said.

The abrogation first came as a threat to the US government following the cancellation of Sen. Bato dela Rosa's visa.

I had a productive call with SND @del_lorenzana to discuss challenges in the South China Sea and the need for unity in ensuring security and stability in the region. #FreeandopenIndoPacific — Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) April 11, 2021 The exchange between the two defense chiefs also comes after Balikatan exercise was canceled last year amid international travel restrictions during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The annual exercise between the Philippines and the US also involves participation from Australia.

Moderna vaccines According to Andolong, Lorenzana also sought the assistance of the United States "to expedite the delivery of the Moderna vaccines the country has ordered."

Austin said that he would "look into the issue and bring it to the attention of the office concerned." This comes after the Philippine government represented by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. secured in March 20 million of the coronavirus vaccines developed by US-based biotech company Moderna.

— Franco Luna with a report from ONE News PH https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/04/11/2090404/lorenzana-us-defense-chief-discuss-vfa-and- west-philippine-sea

Anti-insurgency, intel funds should be realigned for Bayanihan 3 — Drilon

Published April 11, 2021, 4:48 PM by Hannah Torregoza Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Sunday said funds allocated for the government’s anti-insurgency and intelligence operations under the 2021 national budget should be realigned to fund the proposed Bayanihan 3.

Senator Franklin Drilon (Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO)

Drilon, in an interview over Radio DZBB, said these funds that take up this year’s budget are not that much needed.

“Ang gusto ko pong mangyari ay mabigyan ng sapat na ayuda yung naghihirap nating kababayan na naghihirap dahilan sa ipinapailan nating lockdown (What I want to happen is for our poor citizens who are having difficulties during this lockdown are given cash assistance),” Drilon said.

“Hindi ko na maintidihan kung bakit sinasabi nila na wala ng pera ang pamahalaan kaya wala ng dagdag na ayuda. Sa akin, hindi tama iyan. May pera basta ilagay lang natin sa tama (I can’t understand why they keep on saying the government has no more money that’s why it can’t give more assistance. To me, that’s not right. There is money as long as these are used in the proper manner),” he said.

“Marami sa budget ang hindi naman kailangan. Halimbawa, yung confidential and intelligence fund (P9.5 billion) at yung anti-insurgency fund (P19.5 billion). Iyan naman ay pwedeng gamitin (There are many items in the budget that we don’t need. For example, the confidential and intelligence fund at P9.5-billion, and the anti-insurgency fund at P19.5- billion. That can be used),” added the senator.

According to Drilon, these funds should be realigned under the proposed Bayanihan 3 to augment the resources needed by the government to provide financial assistance to those who lost jobs and their sources of livelihood.

Though the President currently has the powers to make budgetary realignments even without the passage of the law, the government’s fund is still insufficient. If passed into law Bayanihan 3 will not only help affected individuals, but also micro, small and medium enterprises adversely affected by the pandemic.

“Sa ngayon alam ko mahigit sa 400,000 mga small and medium enterprises na nagsara dahil dito, kailangan matulungan din yan. Kaya kailangan natin yung panibagong pondo sa Bayanihan 3 (Right now, I believe more than 400,000 SMEs were forced to close because of this, we need to help them too. That’s why we need to have new funds under Bayanihan 3), he added.

Drilon earlier urged Duterte to call for a special session so that lawmakers can pass the Bayanihan 3 bill pending both in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said he had no problem conducting a special session if needed, but said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should find other sources available.

House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and his allies, on the other hand, are pursuing the passage of the bill, which is now being studied by the House Committee on Economic Affairs and Social Services.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/anti-insurgency-intel-funds-should-be-realigned-for-bayanihan-3- drilon/

Guevarra mulls meeting with families of slain activists in South Luzon provinces

Published April 11, 2021, 1:40 PM by Jeffrey Damicog Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Sunday, April 11, said he may meet with some families of the nine activists who died last March 7 during the joint police and military operations in South Luzon provinces.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra (TOTO LOZANO / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) The deaths during the operations are now under investigation by the inter-agency committee on extra-judicial killings (EJKs) headed by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The mothers of two activists who died during the operations wrote a letter to Guevarra and sought a dialogue with him in his office.

“Depende sa prevailing community quarantine regime (it will depend on the prevailing community quarantine regime),” Guevarra said.

“We’re happy that the families of the victims have expressed trust in the AO 35 committee,” he said.

“We’ll surely coordinate with them during the investigation,” he assured.

The AO 35 committee is the inter-agency committee created by Administrative Order No. 35 in 2012 to investigate EJKs, enforced disappearances, and other grave violations of the right of life, liberty and security of persons.

Those who sent a letter to Guevarra were Imelda Evangelista and Rosenda Lemita, the mothers of couples Ariel and Anna Mariz, respectively.

“Nais naming ipahayag ang aming pagnanais na makipagdiyalogo at makipagpulong sa inyo hinggil sa imbestigasyon sa nangyari sa aming mga anak noong Marso 7. Kaming mga pamilya ay bukas na makipag-usap sa inyong tanggapan para sa interes ng hustisya sa karumal-dumal na pamamaslang sa aming mga anak (We would like to convey our desire to meet and hold a dialogue with you concerning the investigation on the deaths of our children last March 7. We, the families, are open to hold talks in your office for the interest of justice over their deaths),” they said in their letter. They lamented that the couple’s 10-year-old son even had to witness the killing of his parents inside their seaside hut in Barangay Calayo in Nasugbu, Batangas.

“Sa lahat ng mga kasong pinaslang ang kanilang target, idinadahilan ng mga pulis na nanlaban ang mga ito. Ngunit pinaninindigan naming hindi sila nanlaban at wala silang kapasidad na magmay-ari ng mga baril, bala, at pampapasabog na sinasabi ng mga pulis na nakita nila sa kanilang bahay (In all cases of killings, police claim that their targets fought back. But we firmly believe that the couple did not do so and they don’t have the capacity to own firearms, ammunition and explosives that police claimed were found inside their home),” the mothers said.

They also said that prior to March 7, the couple had been experiencing harassments due to their membership with the Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pagwawasak ng Kalikasan at Kalupaan, a community organization monitoring the impacts of eco-tourism projects in Batangas.

The expressed concern over their safety. “Para sa aming mga naiwan, hindi nilulubayan ng takot ang aming paghihinagpis. Hanggang sa ngayon, ramdam naming nasa bingit kami ng kapahamakan.(We who have been left behind continue to be afraid in the midst of our mourning. Until now, we still fear that we are at the brink of danger).”

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/guevarra-mulls-meeting-with-families-of-slain-activists-in-south-luzon- provinces/

Aurora rebel surrenders

Published 6 hours ago on April 12, 2021 02:30 AM By Jonas Reyes DIPACULAO, Aurora — Authorities here on Sunday reported that a former member of a communist terrorist group surrendered to authorities on Friday.

In a statement, Aurora Police Provincial Office director Police Col. Julio Lizardo said that elements of Dipaculao MPS — led by PCpt. Desiree Buluag — and the 2nd Maneuver Platoon and 2nd APMFC Barangay Calaocan Dipaculao, Aurora facilitated the voluntary surrender of the rebel identified as “Ka Edwin/Abel.”

Ka Abel is a former Political Guide of SYP3, 3rd platoon Guerilla Unit Verando Basilio command.

Authorities said that the former rebel will be endorsed to avail of government’s assistance program for returnees, the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program.

Central Luzon director PBGen Valeriano de Leon, meanwhile, stated that the efforts of RTF-ELCAC have been the contributory factors for the continuous surrender of more active and former members of communist groups.

https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2021/04/12/aurora-rebel-surrenders-2/

10 Abu Sayyaf members surrender in Sulu - military ABS-CBN News Posted at Apr 11 2021 07:45 PM

Photo courtesy of Joint Task Force Sulu MANILA - Ten Abu Sayyaf Group members surrendered to the military in Sulu on Saturday, the Joint Task Force Sulu said.

In a statement, the task force said among those who surrendered are 2 brothers who joined the group when they were still teenagers.

According to alias Salim and alias Jumli, they both joined in 2016 after they were convinced by a friend, and due to the promise of instant cash.

Now, the brothers earn a living in a bakery shop.

“I am happy to know that these young men are now supporting themselves with their hard- earned money in a bakery shop. I told them that there are also opportunities in the army which they politely declined as they would like to continue their passion in baking. Their dream is to have their own bakery," JTF-Sulu and 11th Infantry Division Commander Maj. Gen. William Gonzales said.

Those who surrendered also brought with them an M16 rifle, M1 Garand Rifle, Cal .30 and Cal .45 pistols.

Gonzales expressed hope that other members of the ASG would also surrender.

"I hope that other members, either they be active ASG or lie-low, would also come forward. Admit they were ones lost and free themselves of fear that they may be reported to government forces or they might be tracked down by their former comrades," he said.

"We will assure that these former members will be assisted accordingly for they all pledged to actively help deny the ASG from taking refuge at their municipality," he added.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/11/21/10-abu-sayyaf-members-surrender-in-sulu-military

NPA leader faces charges for sexually exploiting teen in Iloilo

Published April 11, 2021, 10:29 AM by Tara Yap ILOILO CITY — A high-ranking leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Iloilo is facing charges for allegedly sexually exploiting a former female teenage rebel.

Joven Ceralvo has been charged of violating Republic Act (RA) No. 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act) and and RA No. 7610 (Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act).

Ceralvo, who is said to be the commander of the Suyak Platoon-NPA Southern Front Committee, is accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl. The NPA rebels under Ceralvo’s command were temporarily camping in a mountainous barangay in Miag-ao when the incident happened.

The charges were filed before the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor’s Office after the 16-year-old girl surrendered to the Philippine Army’s 61st Infantry Battalion (61st IB) last month.

The girl known only as alias “Nene” told the military that other young female NPA rebels were also sexually abused and some even became pregnant.

The hierarchy of the 3rd Infantry Division (3rd ID) condemned the acts of Ceralvo and other male NPA rebels in Panay Island while lauding Nene for coming forward.

“I appreciate and admire the bravery of Nene in revealing her terrible experience and exposes the sad realities of joining the NPA organization. This revelation may damage her reputation as a woman, but it will serve as an eye-opener to all of the evil and inhumane acts of this NPA rebel,” said Major Gen. Eric Vinoya, 3rd ID commander.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/npa-leader-faces-charges-for-sexually-exploiting-teen-in-iloilo/

PH raises WPS issue in Asean senior

April 11, 2021, 11:22 am officials’ meet

ASEAN MEETING. Department of Foreign Affairs Acting Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and Asean Affairs Ambassador Elizabeth P. Buensuceso discusses the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea negotiations in a virtual Asean Senior Officials’ Meeting on April 7, 2021. She also called for equitable access to vaccines. (Photo courtesy of DFA)

MANILA – Acting Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations Elizabeth Buensuceso underscored the Philippines’ commitment towards progress in the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea negotiations between Asean Member States and China.

Buensuceso, also Asean Affairs and Philippine Asean SOM (Senior Officials’ Meeting) Leader, urged all parties to adhere to the rule of law and exercise self-restraint during the Asean held via videoconference on April 7.

The Philippines is the current country coordinator for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations- China Dialogue Relations.

“The continued deployment and lingering presence of a large swarm of maritime militia vessels within the Philippines’ maritime zones remains a serious concern and we reiterate that a conducive environment is crucial for the COC negotiations,” Buensuceso said in a news release on Saturday.

She also emphasized that actions that intimidate, escalate tensions, and undermine mutual trust and confidence, violate the sovereignty and sovereign rights, especially those that run counter to international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) impede the progress and momentum of the COC negotiations and threaten its success.

Buensuceso also called on Asean, composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, to raise its collective voice to push for equitable access to vaccines, especially in consideration of developing countries.

She stressed that the procurement of vaccines under the Covid-19 Asean Response Fund (CARF) is highly commendable under the current circumstances given its urgency.

However, Asean should expedite its collective vaccine procurement so as not to lag behind in efforts to achieve herd immunity in the region and to address reports of global shortage of vaccines. The meeting also discussed a wide range of issues and concerns, including updates on Brunei Darussalam’s chairmanship deliverables, Asean’s Covid-19 response, Asean Community Post- 2025 Vision, review of the implementation of the Asean Charter, sub-regional cooperation, cross- pillar coordination, external relations, and Asean candidatures. (PR)

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1136377

Suga-Biden statement to express concern about human rights in China

• • Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks to reporters after announcing that Tokyo, Kyoto and Okinawa will have pre-emergency status under a new anti-virus law during a government task force meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday, | POOL / REUTERS • KYODO, JIJI • SHARE • Apr 11, 2021 Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and President Joe Biden will express their deep concern about human rights violations in China in a joint statement to be released after a Japan-U.S. summit next week, Japanese government sources have said.

The summit, scheduled for Friday in Washington, comes as the Biden administration ramps up criticism of China’s treatment of the Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region and actions concerning . Suga has said those issues must be addressed based on basic human rights principles.

It would be rare for Japanese and U.S. leaders to single out human rights issues in China in a joint statement. Tokyo and Washington are now arranging the wording of the planned statement.

It is almost certain that China would express strong protest against such a statement as interference in its domestic affairs.

While the United States and Europe have imposed sanctions on China over the Uyghur issue, Japan remains cautious about following suit. Suga will likely brief Biden on Tokyo’s stance in the meeting.

They are also expected to agree on the importance of ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, where tensions are rising.

Suga has underscored the need for Japan and the United States to cooperate to maintain deterrence and create an environment where Taiwan and China can resolve their differences peacefully. As part of increased vigilance against China’s maritime assertiveness, the joint statement will also affirm the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea fall under the scope of a Japan-U.S. security treaty, according to the sources.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/04/11/national/politics-diplomacy/suga-biden-us-japan- summit/

'This is their blood': Civil rights lawyer Crump fights for George Floyd's family By Makini Brice 4 MIN READ

(Reuters) - As the world follows the often-emotional testimony in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd, members of Floyd’s family watch a live feed in a separate room in the courthouse.

Frequently by their side is civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who heads the family’s legal team.

Floyd and his brothers often slept in the same bed as children, with Floyd playing the role of protector, Crump says.

“For us, it’s a case. It’s a cause. It’s a hashtag,” Crump told Reuters. “For them ... it’s their family. This is their blood.”

Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, died after Chauvin, who is white, kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes. His death, captured on bystander video, sparked worldwide protests over racism and police brutality.

Chauvin, who faces up to 40 years in prison on murder and manslaughter charges, has pleaded not guilty.

The case is familiar terrain for Crump, who is frequently called upon to represent the families of slain African Americans in civil lawsuits, including Trayvon Martin, a teen shot dead in 2013 by a neighborhood watchman, and Breonna Taylor, who died during a botched police raid.

Crump, 51, who grew up in rural North Carolina and attended segregated schools for most of elementary school, sees his role as a civil rights advocate who keeps media attention on Black victims who otherwise might not receive “full justice” under the U.S. Constitution.

Grand juries rarely indict police officers for killing a suspect in the line of duty in the United States, particularly when the victim is Black, according to legal experts.

FILE PHOTO: Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump and members of the Floyd family walking outside the Hennepin County Government Center on the seventh day in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is facing murder charges in the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., April 6, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi

“What we’re doing is continuing to make the arguments in the court of public opinion,” said Crump. “The court of law is not very kind to marginalized minorities.”

With that in mind, Crump often resorts to civil litigation.

It was Crump who helped the Floyd family sue the city of Minneapolis, resulting in a $27 million settlement that he has called the largest pre- trial settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. history.

The settlement, coming two weeks before the trial opened, came under criticism for its potential influence on jurors being selected for the criminal trial, including from the judge who called it “unfortunate.” Crump dismissed the criticism, saying that white families frequently receive civil settlements before criminal “justice” in similar cases.

“It’s just Black people hardly ever get big civil settlements,” he said. “We see all the statistics tell us that our white brothers and sisters get more in civil verdicts and civil settlements than minorities in America, and that’s why we have to say ‘Black lives matter.’”

So far, Crump said he was pleased with the prosecution’s presentation in the Chauvin case and said several witnesses, including top police officers who described Chauvin’s use of force as excessive, delivered powerful testimonies.

He sharply criticized the defense’s attempt to blame Chauvin’s use of force on the crowd around him at the time of Floyd’s arrest, calling it “asinine.” The defense has argued that Floyd may have died of a drug overdose.

The defense is “becoming more and more desperate,” Crump said. “And I pray and believe that the jury will be able to see through that.”

The case against Chauvin could go to the jury for deliberation as early as next week. Even as the jurors continue to hear arguments, Crump is taking up the mantle for other cases.

On Thursday, Crump appeared at a news conference in Houston to announce a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Pamela Turner. Turner, a Black woman suffering from a mental illness, was shot by a police officer outside her apartment complex.

“We deserve better policing than this,” Crump said. Like many plaintiffs’ lawyers in the United States, Crump works on a contingency basis. Crump’s office did not respond to questions about the payment in the Floyd case, but plaintiffs’ attorneys frequently receive around a third of the settlement amount. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-race-georgefloyd-crump/this-is-their-blood-civil-rights-lawyer- crump-fights-for-george-floyds-family-idUSKBN2BY0C1

Trump tells Republican donors he'll help win Congress in 2022 By Steve Holland 4 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President vowed to help Republicans win seats in Congress in 2022 elections but lashed out at two top party figures, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Mike Pence, at a donor retreat on Saturday.

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges people as he gets in his SUV outside Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 9, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

At a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago Club for Republican National Committee donors in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump made clear he is still irked at his inability to hang on to the White House despite losing the Nov. 3 election to Democrat Joe Biden, who is now president.

McConnell drew Trump’s ire in the aftermath of the election for stating the obvious - that Biden had won the presidency - and the two remain at odds. Parting from the prepared text of his speech, Trump called the senator a “son of a bitch,” an attendee told Reuters.

Before leaving office, Trump had scolded Pence for not intervening to stop the congressional certification of the vote tally, an authority the vice president did not have.

The vote certification was the backdrop for the events on Jan. 6 when pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Departing again from his prepared text, Trump said he had spoken to Pence recently and told him he was still disappointed in him, the attendee said.

Representatives for McConnell and Pence did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In prepared remarks seen by Reuters, Trump sought to position himself as the Republican kingmaker, saying he wanted to talk “about the future of the Republican Party - and what we must do to set our candidates on a course to victory.”

“I stand before you this evening filled with confidence that in 2022, we are going to take back the House (of Representatives) and we are going to reclaim the Senate. And then in 2024, a Republican candidate is going to win the White House,” he said.

Trump has spent the 2-1/2 months since his chaotic exit from the White House considering requests from 2022 candidates for his endorsement and has been giving them his blessing based on whether they support him and his agenda or not.

He has said any talk of his own plans - the Constitution gives him the right to seek another four-year term - should wait until after the November 2022 elections. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump/trump-tells-republican-donors-hell-help-win-congress- in-2022-idUSKBN2BY00H

Blinken says China 'didn't do what it needed to do' in the early stages of the pandemic

Connor Perrett

10 hours ago

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on April 11, 2021. Meet The Press/NBC

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken said we need to 'get to the bottom' of COVID- 19's origin. • Blinken said China knows it didn't adequately respond to the early stages of the pandemic. • He said China should've allowed real-time access to international experts and been more transparent. • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday we need "to get to the bottom" of the origins of COVID-19 in China to prevent a similar pandemic from happening again in the future.

Blinken made the comments Sunday during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Meet the Press" moderator Chuk Todd asked Blinken whether he believed China knew the still unclear origin of COVID-19, noting a recent investigation by the World Health Organisation had been unable to determine the exact origin of the disease.

The WHO issued a 120-page report in March that listed potential scenarios for how the virus originated after it conducted a month-long investigation in China from January to February this year.

In their report, researchers said the most likely possibility was the novel coronavirus jumped from bats to humans through an intermediary animal host, as Insider's Aylin Woodward previously reported. But the WHO team was ultimately unable to determine which population of bats, or which intermediary species, carried the virus.

https://www.businessinsider.com/blinken-covid-19-origin-china-2021-4 Top U.S. diplomat criticizes China, says 'need to get to the bottom' of COVID-19 origin By Reuters Staff 3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China’s failure to provide access to global health experts made the COVID-19 pandemic worse than it had to be, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Sunday, and it was important to “get to the bottom” of the origin of the novel coronavirus.

The top U.S. diplomat’s sharp words underscored criticism from other members of the Biden administration over Beijing’s lack of transparency in the crucial early days of the pandemic.

China did not give access to international experts or share information in real time to provide true transparency, Blinken said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

As a result, the virus “got out of hand faster and with, I think, much more egregious results than it might otherwise,” Blinken said.

The World Health Organization director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on March 30 that data was withheld from WHO investigators who traveled to China to research the origins of the pandemic.

A WHO report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, released at the time 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.

Tedros said the issue required further investigation. The events highlight why there needs to be a stronger global health security system to ensure this doesn’t happen again, Blinken said. Reforms must include a commitment to transparency, information sharing and access for experts “and China has to play a part in that,” he said.

Blinken said it was important to reach a more conclusive accounting of how the pandemic began.

“We need to do that precisely so we fully understand what happened, in order to have the best shot possible preventing it from happening again,” he said. “That’s why we need to get to the bottom of this.”

When the WHO report was issued in March, the United States, the European Union and other Western countries called for China to give “full access” to independent experts to all data about the original outbreak in late 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-blinken/top-u-s-diplomat-criticizes-china-says- need-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-covid-19-origin-idUSKBN2BY0OQ

Biden backs Taiwan, but some call for a clearer warning to China

• • U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on Tuesday. The Biden administration is trying to calibrate a policy that protects democratic, technology-rich Taiwan without inciting a disastrous armed conflict. | AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES • BY MICHAEL CROWLEY • THE NEW YORK TIME • SHARE • Apr 11, 2021 WASHINGTON – If anything can tip the global power struggle between China and the United States into an actual military conflict, many experts and administration officials say, it is the fate of Taiwan. Beijing has increased its military harassment of what it considers a rogue territory, including menacing flights by 15 Chinese warplanes near its shores over recent days. In response, Biden administration officials are trying to calibrate a policy that protects the democratic, technology- rich island without inciting an armed conflict that would be disastrous for all.

Under a long-standing — and famously convoluted — policy derived from the United States’ “one China” stance that supports Taiwan without recognizing it as independent, the U.S. provides political and military support for Taiwan but does not explicitly promise to defend it from a Chinese attack.

As China’s power and ambition grow, however, and Beijing assesses Washington to be weakened and distracted, a debate is under way whether the United States should make a clearer commitment to the island’s defense, in part to reduce the risk of a miscalculation by China that could lead to unwanted war.

The debate reflects a core foreign policy challenge seizing the Biden administration as it devises its wider Asia strategy. At the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon, which is reviewing its military posture in Asia, officials are re-evaluating core tenets of American strategy for a new and more dangerous phase of competition with China.

U.S. officials warn that China is growing more capable of invading the island of nearly 24 million people, situated about 100 miles off the coast of , whose status has obsessed Beijing since Chinese nationalists retreated and formed a government there after the country’s 1949 communist revolution. Last month, the military commander for the Indo-Pacific region, Adm. Philip Davidson, described what he sees as a risk that China could try to reclaim Taiwan by force within the next six years.

The United States has long avoided saying how it would respond to such an attack. While Washington supports Taiwan with diplomatic contacts, arms sales, firm language and even occasional military maneuvers, there are no guarantees. No statement, doctrine or security agreement compels the United States to come to Taiwan’s rescue. A 1979 congressional law states only that “any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means” would be of “grave concern to the United States.”

The result is known as “strategic ambiguity,” a careful balance intended to avoid provoking Beijing or emboldening Taiwan into a formal declaration of independence that could lead to a Chinese invasion.

Biden administration officials, who are formulating their China policies, are giving special attention to Taiwan and trying to determine whether strategic ambiguity is sufficient to protect the increasingly vulnerable island from Beijing’s designs. But they also realize that Americans may look unfavorably at new, faraway military commitments after two decades of bloody and costly conflict in the Middle East.

That is why Davidson raised eyebrows last month when he acknowledged under questioning, in a departure from standard government messaging, that the policy “should be reconsidered,” adding, “I would look forward to the conversation.”

“I think there’s been a shift in peoples’ thinking,” said Richard Haass, a former director of policy planning at the State Department under President George W. Bush and now the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. “What you’ve seen over the last year is an acceleration of concern in the United States about Taiwan.” He described a sense that “this delicate situation that appeared to have been successfully managed or finessed for decades, suddenly people woke up to the possibility that that era has come to an end.”

Chinese President applauds at the closing session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 10. | REUTERS Haass helped prompt a conversation on the subject last year after publishing an essay in September in Foreign Affairs magazine that declared that strategic ambiguity had “run its course.”

“The time has come for the United States to introduce a policy of strategic clarity: one that makes explicit that the United States would respond to any Chinese use of force against Taiwan,” Haass wrote with his colleague David Sacks.

Haass and Sacks added that the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, may question the United States’ willingness to defend its alliances after four years under President Donald Trump, who railed against “endless wars” and openly questioned U.S. relationships and security commitments. While more hawkish-sounding, a clearer pledge would be safer, they argued.

“Such a policy would lower the chances of Chinese miscalculation, which is the likeliest catalyst for war in the Taiwan Strait,” Haass and Sacks wrote.

In recent months, the idea has been gaining traction, including on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has introduced a bill that would authorize the president to take military action to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack — making U.S. intentions ambiguous no more. When Haass testified last month before a House Foreign Relations Committee panel on Asia, he was peppered with questions about how to deter the Chinese threat to Taiwan.

In remarks in February at an event hosted by The Washington Post, Robert Gates, a former defense secretary and CIA director who served under presidents of both parties, including Bush and Barack Obama, called Taiwan the facet of U.S.-China relations that concerned him the most.

Gates said that it might be “time to abandon our longtime strategy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan.”

The notion gained another unlikely adherent when former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a longtime dove on military issues, argued in an opinion essay in The Hill newspaper last month that on human rights grounds, the United States must guarantee that a thriving Asian democracy be protected from “forcible absorption into an unashamedly brutal regime that exemplifies the denial of fundamental human rights.”

Frank cited China’s “imperviousness to any other consideration” than force as reason to “save 23 million Taiwanese from losing their basic human rights.”

Although of limited value in territorial terms, Taiwan in recent years has gained a greater strategic importance as one of the world’s leading producers of semiconductors — the high- tech equivalent of oil in the emerging supercomputing showdown between the United States and China, which faces microchip supply shortages.

Those factors combined have led the Biden administration to offer displays of support for Taiwan that some experts call surprisingly forceful.

When China sent dozens of warplanes over the Taiwan Strait days after Biden’s inauguration in January, the State Department released a statement declaring the United States’ “rock solid” commitment to the island. Biden raised the subject of Taiwan during his phone call in February with Xi, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan raised their concerns about the island during their meeting last month in Anchorage with two top Chinese officials. “I think people are bending over backward to say to China, ‘Do not miscalculate — we strongly support Taiwan,’” said Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Glaser said she had been surprised at the Biden team’s early approach toward Taiwan, which so far has maintained the Trump administration’s amplified political support for the island, a posture some critics called overly provocative. She noted that Blinken had recently urged Paraguay’s president in a phone call to maintain his country’s formal ties with Taiwan, despite pressure from Beijing, and that the U.S. ambassador to Palau, an archipelago state in the Western Pacific, recently joined a diplomatic delegation from that country to Taiwan.

“That is just really outside of normal diplomatic practice,” Glaser said. “I think that was quite unexpected.”

But Glaser does not support a more explicit U.S. commitment to Taiwan’s defense. Like many other analysts and U.S. officials, she fears that such a change in policy might provoke China.

“Maybe then Xi is backed into a corner. This could really cause China to make the decision to invade,” she warned.

Others worry that a concrete American security guarantee would embolden Taiwan’s leaders to formally declare independence — an act that, however symbolic it may seem given the island’s 70-plus years of autonomy, would cross a clear red line for Beijing.

“Taiwan independence means war,” a spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry, Wu Qian, said in January.

Some analysts say the Biden administration might manage to deter China without provoking it through more forceful warnings that stop short of an explicit promise to defend Taiwan. U.S. officials can also issue private warnings to Beijing that do not put Xi at risk of publicly losing face.

“We just need China to understand that we would come to Taiwan’s defense,” said Elbridge Colby, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development under Trump.

The United States has long provided military hardware to Taiwan, including billions of dollars in arms sales under the Trump administration that featured fighter jets and air-to-ground missiles allowing Taiwanese planes to strike China. Such equipment is meant to diminish Taiwan’s need for an American intervention should it come under attack.

But Colby and others say the United States must develop a more credible military deterrent in the Pacific region to match recent advances by China’s military.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, H.R. McMaster, a national security adviser for Trump, said the current ambiguity was sufficient. “The message to China ought to be, ‘Hey, you can assume that the United States won’t respond’ — but that was the assumption made in June of 1950, as well, when North Korea invaded South Korea,” McMaster said.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/04/11/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/us-taiwan- china-biden/

Blinken warns of China's 'increasingly aggressive actions' against Taiwan By Reuters Staff 3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the United States is concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the Western Pacific by force.

“What we’ve seen, and what is of real concern to us, is increasingly aggressive actions by the government in Beijing directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the Straits,” Blinken said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Beijing on Thursday blamed the United States for tensions after a U.S. warship sailed close to Taiwan.

The United States has a longstanding commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to ensure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and to sustain peace and security in the Western Pacific, Blinken said.

Asked if the United States would respond militarily to a Chinese action in Taiwan, Blinken declined to comment on a hypothetical.

“All I can tell you is we have a serious commitment to Taiwan being able to defend itself. We have a serious commitment to peace and security in the Western Pacific.

“We stand behind those commitments. And in that context, it would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to change that status quo by force.” Taiwan has complained over the last few months of repeated missions by China’s air force near the island, which China claims as its own.

The White House on Friday said it was keeping a close watch on increased Chinese military activities in the Taiwan Strait, and called Beijing’s actions potentially destabilizing.

Also on Friday, the U.S. State Department issued new guidelines that will enable U.S. officials to meet more freely with officials from Taiwan, a move that deepens relations with Taipei amid stepped-up Chinese military activity around the island.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the new guidelines had followed a congressionally mandated review and would “provide clarity throughout the Executive Branch on effective implementation of our ‘one China’ policy” - a reference to the longstanding U.S. policy under which Washington officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-taiwan/blinken-warns-of-chinas-increasingly-aggressive- actions-against-taiwan-idUSKBN2BY0GO

US ramps up pressure on China, new strategic competition policy to impact tech firms

• South China Morning Post reported that the section on science and technology in the 283-page bill, which US lawmakers plan to introduce next week, includes efforts to provide help for American companies to diversify their global supply chain ANI |

PUBLISHED ON APR 11, 2021 08:06 AM IST

The US Senate's new policy, the Strategic Competition Act of 2021, lays out a wide- ranging strategy that would have a "profound effect" on Chinese entities as the relationship between the two economic superpowers deteriorate.

"The legislation will have a profound effect on every Chinese technology firm," said Cameron Johnson, an adjunct faculty instructor at New York University and a partner at Shanghai-based Tidal Wave Solutions told South China Morning Post.

Johnson added: "This includes in terms of developing new technologies, global investment strategies, selling into US-allied countries, receiving support from the Chinese government, and how the country's technology market interacts and influences global governance and standards-setting."

South China Morning Post reported that the section on science and technology in the 283-page bill, which US lawmakers plan to introduce next week, includes efforts to provide help for American companies to diversify their global supply chain; total or partial acquisition of infrastructure like 5G mobile networks and undersea cables; negotiations for bilateral and plurilateral digital trade agreements; and building up cybersecurity capabilities.

The bill stated that China's drive to become a "manufacturing and technological superpower" and to promote "innovation with Chinese characteristics" has come at the expense of human rights and long-standing international rules of economic competition. The bill calls for sanctions against Chinese officials accused of "forced labour, forced sterilisation and other abuses in Xinjiang", where human rights groups cite United Nations reports and witness accounts that as many as 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are held in "re-education camps". Beijing has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting that the camps are vocational training facilities. According to SCMP, the legislation would also earmark US$10 million "to promote democracy in Hong Kong" and require the State Department to produce a report on "the extent to which the Government of China uses the status of Hong Kong to circumvent the laws and protections of the United States".

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-ramps-up-pressure-on-china-new-strategic- competition-policy-to-impact-tech-firms-101618107634070.html

China-US tech war ‘in crucial decade’ as developing nations pick sides

• Wider access to internet and urban growth could reshape global networks by 2030, Washington think tank says in report • With China and the US set to compete for the spoils, Beijing has begun building its ‘digital silk road’

China and the United States are poised to compete fiercely on communications and network technologies in the developing world, which will play a growing role in global networks in the next decade, experts say – and Belt and Road Initiative countries could be a main battleground.

More than half of the global population has limited or no internet access, but more of the developing world is expected to come online in the next decade.

That projected trend could reshape global networks, according to Washington think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Nine of the 10 new global megacities set to emerge by 2030 will be in Asia and Africa, and the two continents are forecast to account for 90 per cent of global population growth by 2050, it said.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3129030/china-us-tech-war-crucial-decade- developing-nations-pick-sides

China launches hotline for netizens to report 'illegal' history comments By Cate Cadell 3 MIN READ

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s cyber regulator has launched a hotline to report online comments that defame the ruling Communist Party and its history, vowing to crack down on “historical nihilists” ahead of the Party’s 100th anniversary in July.

The tip line allows people to report fellow netizens who “distort” the Party’s history, attack its leadership and policies, defame national heroes and “deny the excellence of advanced socialist culture” online, said a notice posted by an arm of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Friday.

“Some with ulterior motives ... have been spreading historical nihilistic misrepresentations online, maliciously distorting, denigrating and negating the history of the Party,” said the notice.

“We hope that the majority of Internet users will actively play their part in supervising society ... and enthusiastically report harmful information,” it said.

“Historical nihilism” is a phrase used in China to describe public doubt and scepticism over the ’s description of past events.

China’s internet is tightly censored and most foreign social media networks, search engines and news outlets are banned in the country. Internet authorities often increase censorship and online supervision ahead of major events including historical anniversaries, political meetings and sports events.

The notice did not specify what punishments would be dealt to people who are reported through the hotline, but netizens in China already face jail time and other legal punishments for posting content that is critical of the county’s leadership, policies and history.

Legal amendments released earlier this year stipulate that people who “insult, slander of infringe upon” the memory of China’s national heroes and martyrs face jail time of up to three years.

Last week, authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu detained a 19-year-old man after making “insulting” comments online about Japan’s 1937 occupation of Nanjing.

Chinese social media sites that fail to censor critical content also face financial sanctions as well as temporary suspensions of service under current law. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-cyberspace-history/china-launches-hotline-for-netizens-to- report-illegal-history-comments-idUSKBN2BY08Z

Beijing asks challenged Wolf Warriors to find wisdom in China’s past

• Foreign ministry has diplomats studying Communist Party history as it celebrates centenary • Wolf Warriors are digging in against criticism from the West but even some government insiders question the value of hard-line diplomacy

Chinese diplomats are being asked to strengthen their combative posture even though appears to have backfired in the West and even at home, but while China is justifying its powerful counteraction against “foreign smears”.According to the website of the Chinese foreign ministry, diplomats last month started studying Communist Party history in a national campaign overseen by President Xi Jinping for cadres to find “wisdom” from the party’s past, as it celebrates its 100th anniversary.

In a statement posted by the ministry last week, party secretary of the ministry Qi Yu said: “Through the study of party history, we should continuously improve the ability of the diplomatic team to deal with risks and challenges … enhance the ability to fight, and be brave and good at fighting.” https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3128974/beijing-asks-challenged-wolf-warriors- find-wisdom-chinas-past

China, Russia undermine international Myanmar response, EU's top diplomat says

By Kate Abnett 3 MIN READ

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union’s top diplomat said on Sunday Russia and China were hampering a united international response to Myanmar’s military coup and that the EU could offer more economic incentives if democracy returns to the country.

“It comes as no surprise that Russia and China are blocking the attempts of the U.N. Security Council, for example to impose an arms embargo,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a blog post.

“Geopolitical competition in Myanmar will make it very difficult to find common ground,” said Borrell, who speaks on behalf of the 27 EU member states. “But we have a duty to try.”

Security forces have killed more than 700 unarmed protesters, including 46 children, since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.

That included 82 people killed in the town of Bago, near Yangon, on Friday, which the AAPP called a “killing field”.

“The world watches in horror, as the army uses violence against its own people,” Borrell said.

China and Russia both have ties to Myanmar’s armed forces, as the first and second largest suppliers of weapons to the country, respectively. The U.N. Security Council last week called for the release of Suu Kyi and others detained by the military but stopped short of condemning the coup.

The EU is preparing fresh sanctions on individuals and companies owned by the Myanmar military. The bloc in March agreed a first set of sanctions on 11 individuals linked to the coup, including the commander-in-chief of the military.

While EU economic leverage in the country is relatively small, Borrell said the EU could offer to increase its economic ties with Myanmar if democracy is restored. That could include more trade and investments in sustainable development, he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-politics-eu/china-russia-undermine-international- myanmar-response-eus-top-diplomat-says-idUSKBN2BY0CO

US envoy warns China-backed Colombo Port project may create safe haven for money launderers

Sri Lanka has unveiled draft legislation for a Colombo Port City Commission which allows for sweeping tax breaks, tax-free salaries and to be an offshore financial centre.

ANI |

PUBLISHED ON APR 11, 2021 04:36 PM IST

US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Alaina Teplitz on Saturday warned Sri Lanka of unintended consequences of 'nefarious actors' who may try to misuse a China- backed Colombo Port City's easy business rules as a permissive money laundering haven amid concerns of tax leaks.

Sri Lanka has unveiled draft legislation for a Colombo Port City Commission which allows for sweeping tax breaks, tax-free salaries and to be an offshore financial centre, reported economynext.

"Any legislation relating to the port city has to be considered very carefully for its economic impact," Teplitz told reporters in Colombo in an online discussion. "And of course among those un-intended consequences could be creating a haven for money launderers and other sorts of nefarious actors to take advantage of what was perceived as a permissive business environment for activities that would actually be illegal."

The agency running the Port City would have extensive powers to exempt businesses from taxes of up to 40 years, though it is not a tax haven in the traditional sense, reported economynext.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/chinabacked-colombo-port-project-may-create-money- laundering-haven-report-101618138642037.html

Djibouti autonomy at risk due to China's investment strategy: Report

China brought Djibouti into its economic orbit through the Belt and Road Initiative but Djibouti now finds itself in a situation of such economic dependence that it "risks threatening its autonomy".

PUBLISHED ON APR 11, 2021 03:08 PM IST

The relationship between Djibouti and China is a case study on how Beijing is using its global infrastructure investment strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative, to aggrandise its economic influence and strengthen its position as the top investor in Africa.

The present scenario, however, illustrates the limitations of China's vast investment and loans project as it is drying up, reported France24.

In accepting vast inflows of Chinese capital and loans, Djibouti now finds itself in a situation of such economic dependence that it "risks threatening its autonomy", Sonia Le Gouriellec, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Catholic University of Lille, wrote in the Revue de Defense Nationale (National Defence Review).

Djibouti, a small African country located in the Horn of Africa, devoid of natural resources, has opened itself to international powers in order to profit from its strategic location at the entrance to the Red Sea.

Much of the international discourse about the country focuses on China bringing it into its economic orbit through the Belt and Road Initiative.

China might not have played a major role in Djibouti for as long as President Ismail Omar Guelleh, who is running for a fifth term, has held office, but it is expected to maintain its economic grip on the east African state after the election.

Beijing already had its sights set on Djibouti in the early 2000s - investing in the construction of schools and stadiums and renovating roads and official buildings, including the foreign ministry.

Chinese investment intensified after President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and inaugurated the Belt and Road Initiative the following year.

The three flagship achievements under Xi are the large multipurpose Doraleh port, the railway line between Djibouti and Ethiopia and the gas pipeline between the two countries. Djibouti also hosts the Chinese-built International Free Trade Zone, where businesses can operate without paying income tax, property tax, dividend taxes or VAT. In total, China has spent USD 14 billion (Euro 11.8 billion) on investments and loans for Djibouti between 2012 and 2020, reported France24.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/djibouti-autonomy-at-risk-due-to-china-s-investment- strategy-report-101618133508534.html

China's plans for Himalayan super dam stoke fears in India

By AFP - April 11, 2021 @ 2:35pm

This photo taken on March 28, 2021 shows the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Nyingchi city, in China's western Tibet Autonomous Region. - AFP pic

BEIJING: China is planning a mega dam in Tibet able to produce triple the electricity generated by the Three Gorges – the world's largest power station – stoking fears among environmentalists and in neighbouring India.

The structure will span the Brahmaputra River before the waterway leaves the Himalayas and flows into India, straddling the world's longest and deepest canyon at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres (4,900 feet).

The project in Tibet's Medog County is expected to dwarf the record-breaking Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in central China, and is billed as able to produce 300 billion kilowatts of electricity each year.

It is mentioned in China's strategic 14th Five-Year Plan, unveiled in March at an annual rubber-stamp congress of the country's top lawmakers.

But the plan was short on details, a timeframe or budget.

The river, known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, is also home to two other projects far upstream, while six others are in the pipeline or under construction.

The "super-dam" however is in a league of its own.

Last October, the Tibet local government signed a "strategic cooperation agreement" with PowerChina, a public construction company specialising in hydroelectric projects.

A month later the head of PowerChina, Yan Zhiyong, partially unveiled the project to the Communist Youth League, the youth wing of China's ruling party. Enthusiastic about "the world's richest region in terms of hydroelectric resources", Yan explained that the dam would draw its power from the huge drop of the river at this particular section.

Beijing may justify the massive project as an environmentally-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, but it risks provoking strong opposition from environmentalists in the same way as the Three Gorges Dam, built between 1994 and 2012.

The Three Gorges created a reservoir and displaced 1.4 million inhabitants upstream.

"Building a dam the size of the super-dam is likely a really bad idea for many reasons," said Brian Eyler, energy, water and sustainability program director at the Stimson Center, a US think tank.

Besides being known for seismic activity, the area also contains a unique biodiversity. The dam would block the migration of fish as well as sediment flow that enriches the soil during seasonal floods downstream, said Eyler.

There are both ecological and political risks, noted Tempa Gyaltsen Zamlha, an environmental policy specialist at the Tibet Policy Institute, a think tank linked to the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, India.

"We have a very rich Tibetan cultural heritage in those areas, and any dam construction would cause ecological destruction, submergence of parts of that region," he told AFP.

https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2021/04/681473/chinas-plans-himalayan-super-dam-stoke- fears-india

India bans Remdesivir exports as coronavirus rages on; rallies continue By Devjyot Ghoshal, Krishna N. Das 4 MIN READ

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India on Sunday banned the export of anti-viral drug Remdesivir and its active pharmaceutical ingredients as demand rocketed due to a record surge in COVID-19 infections, leading to a crippling shortages in many parts.

A police officer points at people in line at a railway station amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, April 11, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

Authorities have blamed the ferocious resurgence of the virus mainly on crowding and a reluctance to wear masks.

Still, religious gatherings have continued and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have themselves addressed election campaigns attended by tens of thousands of people, many without masks and hardly any following social distancing.

As new COVID-19 cases surged to 152,879 on Sunday, the sixth record rise in seven days, harried relatives of patients made a kilometre-long queue to buy Remdesivir outside a big hospital in the western state of Gujarat, witnesses said.

India, known as the pharmacy of the world, has already stalled major exports of coronavirus vaccines though its supply too has run short in some states of the country. In addition to the Remdesivir ban “till the situation improves”, the health ministry said that manufacturers had been asked to step up supplies.

Seven India-based companies have licensed the drug from Gilead Sciences, with an installed capacity of about 3.9 million units per month, for local use and exports to more than 100 countries.

The companies are: Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Hetero Labs, Jubilant Life Sciences, Biocon’s Syngene, Zydus Cadila Healthcare and the Indian unit of Mylan.

The World Health Organization in November issued a conditional recommendation against the use of Remdesivir in hospitalised patients, saying there was no evidence that the drug improved survival and other outcomes.

But many countries, including India, have continued its use.

India leads the world in the daily average number of new infections reported in more than two weeks, accounting for one in every six infections reported globally each day.

Deaths have also surged, with the health ministry reporting 839 fatalities on Sunday - the highest in more than five months - taking the total to 169,275.

India’s tally of more than 13.35 million cases is the third-highest globally, behind the United States and Brazil. India’s new infections have soared nearly 18-fold since hitting a multi-month low in early February. Some state governments have in recent days raised concerns over hoarding and black marketing of Remdesivir, which in some instances is being sold at over 10 times the maximum retail price.

“Pharmacists and stockists might be doing black marketing and that needs to be checked,” Rajesh Tope, health minister of India’s hardest- hit Maharashtra state, told reporters this week.

Maharashtra and many other states have also demanded more vaccine doses. India has administered more than 100 million doses since mid- January, the most after the United States and China, but much lower than many countries per capita.

The federal health ministry has asked Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, to improve COVID-19 testing and deploy more manpower.

“Rostering of health care workers, hiring of contractual health workers need to be expedited,” India’s health secretary said, flagging an acute shortage of healthcare workers in seven districts of Maharashtra.

Thousands of people thronged the banks of the holy Ganges River in Haridwar city on Sunday for prayers during the Kumbh Mela - where up to five million are expected on certain days.

Authorities have made it mandatory for all people entering the area to take COVID-19 tests. But many devotees on Sunday gathered by the river without masks, in densely-packed crowds. https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-india-remdesivir/india-bans-exports-of-anti-viral- drug-remdesivir-as-covid-19-cases-surge-idUSKBN2BY0EB

India's Concerns Over Myanmar Drive Policy, Analysts Say

By Anjana Pasricha

April 11, 2021 08:28 AM

FILE - A man with a head injury is carried by fellow demonstrators during an anti-coup protest in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 22, 2021.

NEW DELHI - fears of instabilityAnalysts in a countrysay India’s with concern a long thatcommon isolating border Myanmar’s are driving military, a desire bywhich New staged Delhi theto engage country’s the Februaryregime to 1 resolve coup, will the drivecrisis itthere. closer to China, and

The United States and other Western are imposing economic hich has mounted a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, resulting in hundreds of deaths since it oustedsanctions de tofacto put leader pressure Aung on San Myanmar’s Suu Kyi. military, w denounced the junta more strongly, but analysts say New Delhi believes sanctionsCritics have may questioned not be the why way India, to defuse the world’s the crisis. largest democracy, has not

Studies“From India’s Program perspective, at the Observer keeping Research a channel Foundation of communication in New Delhi. open with Myanmar’s military is very important,” said Harsh Pant, head of the Strategic tuation where China is the only country talking to them and

“We don’t want a si see another country in India’s neighborhood go into the Chinese orbit,” he said.

Myanmar nationals including those who said they are police and firemen and recently fled to India, flash the three-finger salute at an undisclosed location in India's northeastern state of Mizoram, near the border, March 15, 2021.

willIndia’s only deputy create permanent a vacuum whichrepresentative will be counterproductive. to the United Nations, K. Nagaraj Naidu, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Myanmar Friday that “lack of engagement fore support all initiatives to engage with” Myanmar and resolve issues peacefully without further bloodshed," even as he condemned the useHe said of violence. that “we there

After its initial cautious response, India has taken a stronger stance in recent days as the crisis in Myanmar has mounted, calling for an end to the violence and urging the military to release the hundreds of political prisoners now being held in Myanmar.

"We stand for the restoration of democracy in Myanmar," Arindam Bagchi, the External Affairs Ministry spokesman, told reporters in New Delhi this month. https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/indias-concerns-over-myanmar-drive-policy-analysts-say

Indonesian president orders Java rescue efforts after quake kills 8 By Reuters Staff 2 MIN READ

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Sunday ordered swift rescue and relief efforts after eight people died in an earthquake that hit off southern Java island.

Three others were badly injured in Saturday’s magnitude-5.9 quake and more than 1,180 buildings were damaged, most of them slightly, the disaster agency BNPB said. Some houses were flattened, images in Indonesian media showed.

Two shelters for the displaced have been set up in the town of Lumajang.

All of the casualties were reported in 15 districts and cities in East Java, the closest province to the epicentre of the quake, which struck in the Indian Ocean.

“I have ordered ... immediate emergency response to search and find victims under the rubble and to treat the wounded,” the president, known by his popular name Jokowi, said in broadcast remarks.

There were no reports of the quake disrupting production facilities, but the BNPB said 150 public facilities were damaged. Most industrial areas in East Java are located in the northern side of the island.

Jokowi noted that as Indonesia straddles the volcanic “Ring of Fire” in the Pacific, natural disasters such as earthquakes could happen anytime, adding that Indonesians should always be prepared. The Southeast Asian nation was struck last week by tropical cyclone Seroja, which triggered landslides and flash floods killing more than 170 people on islands in East Nusa Tenggara province.

A magnitude-6.2 quake that hit Sulawesi island in January killed more than 100 people.

https://www.reuters.com/article/indonesia-quake/indonesian-president-orders-java-rescue-efforts- after-quake-kills-8-idUSKBN2BY0B5

Myanmar's post-coup civilian death toll climbs past 700

By AFP - April 11, 2021 @ 3:09pm

A demonstrator (C) carrying a homemade weapon flashes the defiant three-finger salute during an anti-military coup protest in Mandalay, Myanmar. -EPA pic YANGON: A security guard was wounded in a bomb blast outside a military-owned bank in Myanmar's second-biggest city Sunday morning, as the civilian death toll from the junta's brutal crackdown on dissent topped more than 700 at the weekend.

The country has been in turmoil since the military removed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.

Myawaddy Bank's biggest branch in Mandalay was targeted on Sunday morning and a security guard was injured in the explosion, according to local media.

There was a heavy security presence in the area following the blast.

The bank is one of scores of military-controlled businesses that have faced boycott pressure since the coup, with many customers demanding to withdraw their savings.

There has been heavy bloodletting in recent days.

On Saturday a local monitoring group said security forces gunned down and killed 82 anti-coup protesters the previous day in the city of Bago, 65 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Yangon.

AFP-verified footage shot early Friday showed protesters hiding behind sandbag barricades wielding homemade rifles, as explosions were heard in the background.

The United Nations office in Myanmar tweeted late Saturday that it was following the bloodshed in Bago, where it said medical treatment had been denied to the injured.

Overall the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has verified 701 civilian deaths since the putsch. The junta has a far lower number: 248, according to a spokesman Friday.

Despite the bloodshed, protesters continued to rally in parts of the country.

University students and their professors marched through the streets of Mandalay and the city of Meiktila on Sunday morning, according to local media.

Some carried stems of Eugenia flowers – a symbol of victory.

In Yangon, protesters carried a banner that read: "We will get victory, we will win."

Protesters there, as well as in the city of Monywa, took to writing political messages on leaves including "we must win" and calling for UN intervention to prevent further bloodshed.

Across the country people have been urged to participate in a torchlight protest in their neighbourhoods after sunset on Sunday night.

Unrest also erupted Saturday in the northwestern town of Tamu, near the Indian border, where protesters fought back when soldiers tried to tear down makeshift barricades erected to block security forces.

Two civilians were killed when soldiers started randomly shooting, said a local, with protesters retaliating by throwing a bomb that exploded and overturned a military truck, killing more than a dozen soldiers.

"Some are in hiding – we are worried that our people will be hurt as a reprisal," the resident told AFP.

The mounting bloodshed has also angered some of Myanmar's 20 or so armed ethnic groups, who control swathes of territory mostly in border regions.

https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2021/04/681479/myanmars-post-coup-civilian-death-toll- climbs-past-700

Myanmar coup latest: Death toll in Bago crackdown rises to 85 Militias kill 14 police officers in Shan State; military tribunal sentences 19 to death

Security officers walk down the street during crackdown in Bago, Myanmar April 9. © Reuters

Nikkei staff writersMarch 31, 2021 20:58 JSTUpdated on April 11, 2021 23:57 JST

YANGON/BANGKOK -- Myanmar's military on Feb. 1 detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in the country's first coup since 1988, bringing an end to a decade of civilian rule.

The Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy had won a landslide in a general election in November. But the military has claimed the election was marred by fraud. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Myanmar-Coup/Myanmar-coup-latest-Death-toll-in-Bago-crackdown- rises-to-85

Myanmar protesters defy junta’s internet curbs with underground newsletters, as death toll crosses 700

• The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) group has verified 701 civilian deaths since the coup, with at least 80 killed on Friday alone • Myanmar has a long history of underground publications to circumvent junta suppression, with Gen Z activists secretly distributing a newsletter titled Molotov

Young Myanmar protesters are fighting the junta’s internet shutdown and information suppression by secretly distributing underground newsletters, as the reported death toll rose to at least 701 on Sunday.

For 56 days straight there have been internet outages in coup-hit Myanmar, according to monitoring group NetBlocks.

The country has been in turmoil since democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted in a February 1 coup, triggering a mass uprising that has resulted in a brutal security crackdown.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3129123/myanmar-protesters-defy-juntas- internet-curbs-underground

Cheong Wa Dae denies report US requested South Korea join Quad

South Korea's presidential office on Sunday denied as "incorrect" a Japanese report that the United States asked Seoul to join the U.S.-led Quad forum.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, a major Japanese daily, reported earlier in the day that U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had strongly requested Seoul join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue group, also known as Quad, during a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Suh Hoon early this month.

"(The newspaper's) citation is very inaccurate and the article itself does not reflect what was discussed between South Korea and the U.S.," a senior official at Cheong Wa Dae said.

The official stressed that "close" and "productive" discussions about their North Korea policies and cooperation among the allies took place at the bilateral meeting between South Korean and U.S. national security advisers and the three-way meeting with their Japanese counterpart at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Another Cheong Wa Dae official also dismissed the report, saying South Korea has never been asked to join the U.S.-forum also involving Japan, Australia and India.

During his visit to South Korea last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the Quad as "an informal grouping of like-minded countries" and said that the U.S. is already working closely with Seoul on deepening cooperation on many issues. (Yonhap)

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021/04/120_306968.html

DPRK marks 9th anniversary of Kim Jong Un's leadership, calls for 'Arduous March'

DPRK leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the sixth Conference of Cell Secretaries of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, DPRK, April 6, 2021. /CFP

Sunday marks the ninth anniversary since Kim Jong Un became the head of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The party's official newspaper called on the whole nation to "march together vigorously" under Kim's leadership in an editorial.

"We celebrate the ninth anniversary of the election of Comrade Kim Jong Un as the leader of our party and nation," the Rodong Sinmun said, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency.

"The entire nation should march together vigorously under the leadership of the general secretary with great pride deep in their hearts," the paper said.

It stressed that Kim has prioritized the interests of the people and hailed his efforts in containing the coronavirus.

Kim was elected first secretary of the WPK on April 11, 2012, nearly four months after the death of his father and former DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

Kim Jong Un was appointed as the first chairman of the National Defense Commission at the Supreme People's Assembly session two days later.

He was endorsed as the general secretary of the WPK at the eighth party congress in January.

Amid prolonged stalemate in talks between the DPRK and the United States on denuclearization and sanctions relief, Kim recently called on members of the ruling party to brace themselves for "obstacles and difficulties" ahead and improve the people's well-being.

"I made up my mind to ask the WPK organizations at all levels, including its Central Committee, and the cell secretaries of the entire party to wage another more difficult 'Arduous March' in order to relieve our people of the difficulty," Kim said at a conference of the party's grassroots leaders, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-11/DPRK-marks-9th-anniversary-of-Kim-Jong-Un-s-leadership- Znl4AVkGf6/index.html

Tropical storm may form in coming days; impact still unclear

04/11/2021 09:22 PM

Listen

Image courtesy of CWB. Taipei, April 11 (CNA) A tropical disturbance currently located in waters south of Guam could turn into a tropical storm in the next few days, but it remains unclear as of now whether it will affect Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Sunday.

The tropical disturbance is currently situated in waters south of Guam and moving in a northwestern direction, the CWB said.

The bureau did "not rule out the possibility" that the tropical system will develop into a tropical storm that would be called Surigae on Wednesday or Thursday, CWB forecaster Yeh Chih-chun ( 葉致均) told CNA.

Yeh expected, however, that it will only have a limited impact, if any, on the island of Taiwan.

The storm would not affect Taiwan if it turned northward early, Yeh said, and even if it came close to Taiwan, its strength would likely be moderated after encountering seasonal northeasterly winds.

As for the weather in the next two days, Yeh said it will remain stable across the island until Tuesday evening except for eastern Taiwan and mountainous areas in western Taiwan, where sporadic rain is expected. A cold front will pass through northern Taiwan on Tuesday evening, bringing rain and lower temperatures to the northern part of the island and rain to eastern Taiwan.

What rain there is will probably not improve the severe drought conditions in central and southern Taiwan, according to Yeh.

In the meantime, temperatures across Taiwan will rise in the next two days until the presence of colder air becomes more apparent in northern Taiwan on Wednesday.

Temperatures on Monday and Tuesday will reach as high as 29-32 degrees Celsius in western Taiwan and 27-28 degrees in eastern Taiwan.

Starting from Wednesday, the highs in Taipei are forecast to fall to 22-23 degrees, while the lows will hit 16-17 degrees, Yeh said.

Meanwhile, temperatures in other parts of Taiwan will be affected less, with the highs falling by about 2-3 degrees, the forecaster said.

https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202104110015

Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Phone Call With Philippines Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana

APRIL 10, 2021

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Philippines Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana on the phone today, to reaffirm their shared commitment to the U.S.-Philippines alliance.

Secretaries Austin and Lorenzana discussed the situation in the South China Sea, and the recent mas militia vessels at Whitsun Reef. Secretary Austin reiterated the U.S. commitment to maintainingsing of aPeople’s free and Republic open Indo-Pacific, of China maritime rooted in international law, including the U.N Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Secretary proposed several measures to deepen defense cooperation between the United States and the Philippines, including by enhancing situational awareness of threats in the South China Sea.

The two leaders also affirmed the value of the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement. They pledged to stay in close contact.

https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2568085/readout-of-secretary-of- defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-phone-call-with-philippines/

PH-US Defense Pact: Locsin wants 'trip over the wire' trigger proviso posted April 12, 2021 at 01:40 am by Joyce Pangco Panares and Rey E. Requejo

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. is pushing for an amendment to the country's Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States to include attacks against civilian passenger vessels as a “trigger” for military assistance as the two countries are scheduled to begin their joint military exercises today (Monday).

“This will be different from previous Balikatan exercises because of the pandemic. Some portions of the exercises will be virtual but we also have minimal physical contact. There will also be actual field training exercises but not as big as those done in the previous years,” said Armed Forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana. Sobejana said the joint military drills will last for two weeks and will 700 American and 1,100 Filipino soldiers.

On Sunday, US Defense chief Lloyd Austin III spoke over the phone with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and reaffirmed their "shared commitment to the US- Philippines alliance.”

"I had a productive call with SND (Secretary of National Defense) Lorenzana to discuss challenges in the South China Sea and the need for unity in ensuring security and stability in the region," Austin said in a tweet.

"The two leaders also affirmed the value of the US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement. They pledged to stay in close contact," read a separate statement from Austin's office.

Under the MDT signed by Manila and Washington in 1951, the two countries will come to each other's defense in case of “an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the parties, or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean, its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.” "Will work to expand the definition of trigger to include civilian passenger craft which is logical," Locsin said in a post on after two Chinese Navy attack crafts chased a Filipino civilian vessel with a news team on board in the West Philippine Sea.

"I’m not being sarcastic. Seriously, what if Filipinos on a pleasure craft, one of many yachts out there, crosses an invisible line drawn by China IN Philippine waters? What if they are fired upon or heaven forbid rammed—no, not that; those yachts cost millions of dollars," Locsin said in another Twitter post.

University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea director Jay Batongbacal responded to Locsin's tweet: "PH civilian ships in PH waters should not have to worry about unknowingly tripping some invisible wire that makes them targets of China's cannons and missiles.”

The DFA chief, however, said it is Beijing that "should worry more." "Trip over the wire it's WW3," Locsin said.

In a statement, Lorenzana's office said both US and the Philippines "are looking forward to the conduct of Exercise Balikatan, which was canceled last year."

Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said more US vessels are expected to arrive in the South China Sea following the entry of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group in the area on April 4 to conduct routine operations.

"US' freedom of navigation operations will continue. They've been increasing it in the past several months...precisely to protect the seaway there," he said in a television interview.

The US vessel arrived at the South China Sea days after the Philippines reported that over 200 Chinese fishing vessels, believed to be manned by Chinese maritime militia personnel, were moored in line formation near the Julian Felipe Reef.

For his part, retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio said the Philippines must join freedom of navigation patrols to assert its rights in the West Philippine Sea and bring China again to an arbitral court over its recent aggressions.

“It's still a violation because that's our EEZ (exclusive economic zone). There’s freedom of navigation. Anyone can sail, they should not be stopped or harassed in our EEZ,” he said in a radio interview.

“Freedom of navigation operations are the strongest enforcement of [the 2016] arbitral ruling,” he added, referring to the decision by a UN tribunal that ruled in favor of the Philippines and dismissed China's claims over most of the South China Sea as “excessive.” Also on Sunday, former Foreign Affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario denounced China for chasing away a Philippine civilian boat in the West Philippine Sea and later into Palawan, saying it is tantamount to a territorial incursion.

Rosario urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to pursue the issuance of a demarche or a petition or protest presented through diplomatic channel against China’s incursions of the country’s maritime territories in the West Philippine Sea.

The former DFA chief said the “demarche” against China should also be directed to the United Nations through the office of the UN secretary-general.

“Such UN notification will form part of official Ph communications, including those required under Article 51 of the UN Charter relating to individual and collective self- defense,” said Del Rosario, who was one of those who initiated the complaint of the Philippines against China’s massive nine-dash-line claims over the disputed South China Sea.

The former DFA secretary also prodded the government to revisit the joint patrol agreement of the West Philippine Sea with the United States and the Philippines, which had been approved by then-Deputy Secretary Anthony Blinken sometime in early 2016. Blinken is now the US State Secretary under the administration of US President Joe Biden.

“The agreement was not pursued by President Duterte as he was concerned that it would displease Beijing,” Del Rosario said.

Meanwhile, the DFA through acting Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Elizabeth Buensuceso said the Philippines brought out the issue of the presence of Chinese militia vessels at the Julian Felipe Reef before the virtual ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) on April 7.

“The continued deployment and lingering presence of a large swarm of maritime militia vessels within the Philippines’ maritime zones remains a serious concern and we reiterate that a conducive environment is crucial for the COC negotiations,” Buensuceso said.

The Philippines is currently the country coordinator for ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations.

Buensuceso said actions that intimidate, escalate tensions, and undermine mutual trust and confidence, violate sovereignty and sovereign rights, especially those that run counter to international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) impede the progress and momentum of the Code of Conduct negotiations and threaten their success.

The Philippines recently filed a series of diplomatic protests against Beijing for the continued incursion of a huge number of Chinese vessels in Julian Felipe Reef, an area located 175 nautical miles from Bataraza town in Palawan and way within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

https://manilastandard.net/news/top-stories/351609/ph-us-defense-pact-locsin-wants-trip-over-the- wire-trigger-proviso.html

PHL among countries listed as top cyber-attackers’ origin

By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

April 12, 2021

THE Philippines is among the places of origin in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region where cyber-attacks were mostly launched in the second half of last year, according to US-based data and analytics firm LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

In its cybercrime report for July to December 2020 titled “The New Cyber Landscape,” LexisNexis noted that top attackers in the said bloc came from the Philippines, India, Japan, Bangladesh and Malaysia.

The top cyber-attack destinations, meanwhile, were the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.

Human-initiated attacks reached 33 million, which LexisNexis said was a 42- percent year-on-year decline. Automated bot attack, meanwhile, slid by 2 percent to 142 million for the period.

Majority or 52 of the attacks were launched through desktops in the region. The remaining 48 percent—which shows a 15-percent plunge—came from mobile devices.

“The APAC region remains a large contributor to global bot attacks, with Japan, India and Australia all appearing on the list of top attack originators globally,” the report noted. “The volume of automated bot attacks coming from the APAC region is largely consistent [year-on-year].”

LexisNexis also highlighted that attack rates in the APAC region are higher compared to global averages. This, despite showing a decline in number of attacks in the region for the period.

The overall attack rate in APAC region stands at 2.3 percent, higher than the global average of 1.1 percent.

The region also registered a higher desktop attack rate at 2.8 percent, mobile attack rate at 3 percent and mobile app attack rate, compared to global averages of 1.6 percent, 2.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. The accelerated shift to digital has given cybercriminals new opportunities to launch their attacks, the company noted.

“Fraudsters also preyed on consumer anxiety, with pandemic-related scams that offered products and services that were either in demand, or in short supply,” the report said.

“Businesses will progressively need to prioritize not just a digital-first- but a mobile-first-strategy, to service consumers who either rarely use, or don’t have access to, a desktop device,” it added.

In the second half of 2020, the data and analytics company said that digital transactions reached 1.7 billion in the APAC region, showing 24-percent growth.

Most or 56 percent of these transactions were accomplished via mobile devices. Sixty percent were via mobile applications while the remaining 40 percent were completed through mobile browsers.

The other 44 percent of the total digital transactions for the period were facilitated via desktops.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/12/phl-among-countries-listed-as-top-cyber-attackers-origin/

As Balikatan opens, PHL-US sides tackle mutual defense

By Rene Acosta -April 12, 2021

THE Philippines and the United States will open their biggest joint military exercise on Monday (April 12) amid heightened tension in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), one of key discussion points between Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III on Sunday.

In a telephone conference, Lorenzana and Austin discussed the situation in the West Philippine Sea, according to Department of National Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong. Over 200 Chinese ships were seen massing in early March at the Julian Felipe Reef, and while dozens of boats left the reef, they were seen redeployed to other parts of the WPS.

The Chinese militia vessels at the reef have become a source of diplomatic and security discord for Manila and Beijing, with Lorenzana engaged in a word war with the Chinese Embassy and its spokesman in the Philippines.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has fired off two protests and said it will keep sending these while the boats remain.

Lorenzana and Austin also discussed security in the region as a whole and looked forward to the conduct of the US-Philippine military exercise, which begins Monday after it was cancelled last year.

“Secretary Austin reiterated the importance of the VFA [Visiting Forces Agreement] and hopes that it would be continued. Secretary Lorenzana committed to discuss the matter with the President as the final approval lies with him,” Andolong said, referring to the military agreement that expires in August 2021 unless renewed.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Cirilito Sobejana said 1,000 Filipino and 700 American soldiers will take part in the two-week exercise, which opens at Camp Aguinaldo and includes virtual and manual trainings, featuring different scenarios.

The biggest joint military training takes place as both countries are to meet under the Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board where vital defense and security issues and activities are on agenda. Sobejana said at least 28 Chinese ships—including Coast Guard and maritime militia—remained in the WPS as of Saturday evening, although the number does not include those that may still be moored at the Julian Felipe Reef.

Over the weekend, Lorenzana said, however, that at least 32 Chinese militia vessels remained berthed at the reef, down from the 38 in recent days.

Late last week, two Chinese gunboats chased a civilian boat bearing an ABS- CBN news team enroute to Ayungin Shoal to document Filipino fishermen in the area.

Sobejana said the military is maintaining its physical presence in the WPS through two Philippine Navy vessels and those from the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/04/12/as-balikatan-opens-phl-us-sides-tackle-mutual-defense/

Philippines, U.S. to begin 2-week joint military drill on Monday By Enrico Dela Cruz 3 MIN READ

MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine and U.S. soldiers will conduct a two-week joint military exercise from Monday, resuming the annual training event after last year’s cancellation due to the pandemic, the Philippine military chief said on Sunday.

The announcement came after the two countries’ defence secretaries held a phone call to discuss the drills, the situation in the South China Sea, and recent regional security developments.

Unlike previous exercises, however, this year’s “Balikatan” (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) drills to test the readiness of their militaries to respond to threats such natural disasters and militant extremist attacks, will be scaled down.

Only 1,700 troops -- 700 from the United States and 1,000 from the Philippines -- will participate, unlike previous exercises which involved as many as 7,600 soldiers, said Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana.

“There will be physical contact but it is minimal,” he said.

The Philippines has protested against the presence of the Chinese boats inside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone at Whitsun Reef in the strategic waterway, repeatedly asking China to move the vessels away.

Chinese diplomats, however, have said the fishing boats were just sheltering from rough seas and no militia were aboard.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In the phone call on Sunday between Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Austin also reiterated the importance of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the two countries, according to a statement issued by Lorenzana’s department.

Lorenzana committed to discussing the matter with President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte last year unilaterally cancelled the two-decade-old VFA in an angry response after an ally was denied a U.S. visa. The agreement provides the legal framework under which U.S. troops can operate on a rotational basis in the Philippines.

The VFA withdrawal period, however, has been twice extended, creating what Philippine officials say is a window for better terms to be agreed.

Relations between Washington and its former Asian colony have been complicated since 2016 when Duterte, who has criticised U.S. foreign policy while befriending China, rose to power.

Duterte has said Washington must pay more if it wants to maintain the VFA.

Lorenzana also sought the assistance of Austin in speeding up the delivery of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna that the Philippines has ordered.

Austin “would look into the issue and bring it to the attention of the office concerned”, the statement said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-usa-southchinasea/philippines-u-s-to-begin-2-week- joint-military-drill-on-monday-idUSKBN2BY07A

US-Philippines officials discuss concerns over China's ships

In this photo provided by the National Task Force-West Philippine Sea, Chinese vessels are moored at Whitsun Reef, South China Sea on March 27. © AP

April 11, 2021 13:07 JST

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday discussed with his Philippine counterpart China's recent positioning of "militia vessels" near the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Austin spoke by phone with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana while Austin was flying from Washington to Israel to begin an international trip.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Austin and Lorenzana discussed the situation in the South China Sea and the recent massing of Chinese vessels at Whitsun Reef, which has drawn criticism from Manila. https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/South-China-Sea/US-Philippines-officials-discuss- concerns-over-China-s-ships

Philippines aims to acquire additional Cyclone- class patrol boats from US Navy

APRIL 12, 2021

Cyclone-class patrol vessels of the US Navy. Photo c/o Wikipedia.

The Philippine Navy (PN) confirmed its plans to acquire additional Cyclone-class littoral patrol vessels that are being gradually decommissioned by the US Navy.

The PN's Flag Officer in Command Vice Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo confirmed that the service is interested in acquiring several Cyclone-class patrol vessels as a stop-gap measure to replace recently-decommissioned warships.

While the PN plans to get at least 5 decommissioned Cyclone-class patrol vessels, this will all be dependent on the PN's Joint Visual Inspection Team's evaluation on the ship's seaworthiness and efficiency.

Vice Admiral Bacordo has also confirmed that a manifestation of interest was already sent to the Joint US Military Assistance Group - Philippines (JUSMAG) and the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) for the potential acquisition of decommissioned Cyclone-class patrol vessels.

The PN currently operates a single Cyclone-class patrol vessel, the former USS Cyclone (PC-1) which was transferred by the US in 2004 and is now called the BRP Gen. Mariano Alvaraz (PS-38).

According to Philippine defense page MaxDefense Philippines, the actual target for acquisition is actually higher than 5 units depending on the ship's conformance to the PN's requirement. The acquisition is a logical move considering the PN's experience in operating one of the ships for more than 15 years.

The US Navy has recently retired three ships of the class, the USS Zephyr (PC-8), USS Shamal (PC-13), and USS Tornado (PC-14), all of which were last assigned in Florida.

Most of the ships are forward-deployed in Manama, Bahrain and conducting maritime patrols and security operations on the Persian Gulf. No confirmation has been made yet on decommissioning dates of the remaining ships of the class.

The Cyclone-class first entered service with the US Navy in 1993, and are 55 meters long and displaces at 330 tons. They are armed with two Mk. 38 25mm autocannons, two 12.7mm heavy machine guns, two 7.62mm machine guns, and two Mk. 19 40mm automatic grenade launchers.

The ships are also equipped with two Mk. 60 quadruple launchers for the BGM-176B Griffin short- range small surface-to-surface missile, and six FIM-92 Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missiles. But these missiles are not available in the Philippine Navy's BRP Gen. Mariano Alvarez as these were upgrades made by the US Navy only a few years ago.

https://www.asiapacificdefensejournal.com/2021/04/philippines-aims-to-acquire-additional.html

More US ships arriving in South China Sea, says Amb. Romualdez By ERWIN COLCOL, GMA News Published April 11, 2021 9:37am

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez expects more US vessels to arrive in South China Sea.

Romualdez made the remark on Sunday after the US Navy's Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG) entered the area on April 4 to conduct routine operations.

In a "Dobol B TV" interview, Romualdez said US vessels are being deployed in the disputed waters to uphold freedom of navigation.

"US' freedom of navigation operations ay tuluy-tuloy yan (will continue). They've been increasing it in the past several months ... precisely to protect the seaway there," he said.

"Freedom of navigation [means], any vessel can pass through there without any harassment or any stop from any country," he added.

It was the second time the TRCSG has entered the South China Sea during its 2021 deployment to US 7th Fleet area of operations, according to the US Navy.

The Department of National Defense (DND), for its part, said it acknowledged the right of other states to freedom of navigation.

DND spokesperson Undersecretary Arsenio Andolong noted that they allow such entry as long as they exercise restraint and avoid action that could lead to tension in the disputed area.

"We recognize the right of other States to freedom of navigation on the high seas so long as all parties exercise restraint and avoid actions that could provoke and exacerbate the already tense

situation in the region,” he said. The US vessel arrived at the South China Sea in the wake of the incident where around 220 Chinese fishing vessels, believed to be manned by Chinese maritime militia personnel, were sighted moored in line formation near the Julian Felipe Reef on March 7.

Julian Felipe Reef, called Niu'e Jiao by the Chinese, is a boomerang-shaped feature located 175 nautical miles of Bataraza, Palawan.

The Chinese Embassy said the reef is part of China's Nansha Islands or Spratlys in the South China Sea. The Philippines renamed parts of the South China Sea that fall within its EEZ and continental shelf as the West Philippine Sea to assert sovereignty.

Romualdez reiterated the US government's support to the Philippines in the event that the situation escalates in the South China Sea.

Also, he said that the US has assured the Philippines of its "concern" and that they are willing to help us if we ask for it, and if China's incursion worsens.

"In-assure tayo ng mga kaibigan natin dito na talagang concerned sila at sila ay handang tumulong sa atin kung humingi tayo ng tulong kung talagang mabigat na yung ginagawa ng [China]."

"I hope hindi natin [sila] kalaban pero sana huwag naman mangyari. itong mga Chinese vessels ay umalis na lang diyan sa ating teritoryo" (I hope China is not our foe and the situation does not escalate. I hope these Chinese vessels just leave our territory), he added.

Romualdez even said the US is ready to invoke its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines, if needed.

The MDT was signed by the Philippines and US in 1951 where both parties agreed that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on either the Philippines or the US would be dangerous and that they would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes. —LBG, GMA News https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/783245/more-us-ships-arriving-in-south-china-sea- says-amb-romualdez/story/

Inside the US government's top-secret bioweapons lab

Jade Tungul

6 hours

• Dugway Proving Ground tests and stores some of the deadliest chemical and biological agents on Earth. • The facility, which opened in 1942, covers about 800,000 acres — larger than the state of Rhode Island. • Past experiments include weaponized mosquitoes and fleas, as well as tests with deadly diseases such as anthrax. • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: In 1968, about 6,000 sheep died near this government facility. They were poisoned by a chemical weapon named VX.

The US hasn't been known to actively use VX in combat. In fact, it's begun destroying its stockpile of chemical munitions as part of a UN treaty. But it's just one of many strange and secretive experiments that happened within these walls. Experiments on sheep, mosquitoes, and even civilians.

About 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City is the US government's top-secret bioweapons lab. It's called the Dugway Proving Ground. The 77-year-old facility covers about 800,000 acres. That's just a little larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. And it tests some of the deadliest chemical, biological, radiological, and explosive hazards on Earth.

Less famous than Area 51, Dugway dates all the way back to 1942. Right in the middle of World War II.

Clip: The decisive battle of war has begun.

Narrator: The government needed a large area to test powerful weapons, eventually settling on this stretch of land in the Utah desert. Back then, the site was used to test everything from chemical sprays and flamethrowers to various antidotes and protective equipment, and even fire-bombing.

After World War II, Dugway mostly shut down. Until the Korean War began in 1950. That's when the proving ground turned into what it is today: a permanent military base. In Dugway's first few decades, the base worked mostly on offensive weaponry: biological and chemical munitions designed to directly attack enemies.

Clip: Sampling devices, positioned throughout the test area, yield valuable information to chemical core researchers.

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-government-tests-deadly-chemical-warfare-agents-utah-2019-10

US intelligence report warns of increased offensive cyber, disinformation around the world

Written by Shannon Vavra Apr 8, 2021 | CYBERSCOOP

Over the course of the next 20 years, nation-states will see a rise in targeted offensive cyber-operations and disinformation in an increasingly “volatile and confrontational” global security landscape, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment.

The U.S. intelligence community’s Global Trends report, issued on Thursday, notes many of theses offensive cyber-operations will likely target civilian and military infrastructure. Nation- states will likely increasingly favor tools that allow them to operate below the level of armed conflict in order to avoid the geopolitical and resource costs that come with violence and traditional warfare, the report adds. Countries also will leverage proxies such as hackers or military contractors to disrupt their adversaries, according to the assessment, which is issued by the National Intelligence Council, which reports to the Director of National Intelligence.

“Proxies and private companies can reduce the cost of training, equipping, and retaining specialized units and provide manpower for countries with declining populations,” the document states. “Some groups can more quickly achieve objectives with smaller footprints and asymmetric techniques.”

The assessment, issued every four years, touches on a variety of challenges the global security community expects to face over the next two decades, ranging from the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic to the effects of climate change.

Few of the cyber-related assessments will come as a surprise to either intelligence personnel or the cybersecurity community.

However, it crystallizes several cloak-and-dagger trends in the world of digital espionage, which cyber pros are now seeing play out on the world stage.

Nation-states are already relying on proxies or companies to conduct cyber-operations or misinformation on their behalf, for instance. The Russian government’s Internet Research Agency, the same troll farm that amplified manufactured narratives during the 2016 presidential elections, began outsourcing its operations to partners in Africa last year, according to the National Security Agency. Front companies also have shielded malicious activity from China, Iran and North Korea, according to U.S. authorities.

The assessment warns that diplomatic conversations about deterrence and red lines will gradually become more convoluted. The U.S. government is already facing the difficult reality of finding effective deterrence schemes, and last year the FBI introduced a strategy aimed at better dissuading foreign hackers. The National Intelligence Council’s prediction that disinformation is going to proliferate in the coming years is underway. Russian, Chinese and Iranian information operations have been working to reshape narratives about U.S. democracy amid the fallout of the storming of the Capitol, influence American voters and exploit political divisions in the U.S. — with both human and online conduits — according to the U.S. intelligence community.

Determining what is ground truth in the years ahead will become increasingly difficult, as “people are likely to gravitate to information silos of people who share similar views, reinforcing beliefs and understanding of the truth,” the report notes.

The report also warns of synthetic media or deepfake content, or manipulated videos, audio, images or text, and the effects they can have on collective understanding of truth.

The assessment predicts states will also likely jockey for power and influence, such as when setting norms, a battle that is already taking place at the United Nationswhere China, Russia, the U.S., and many other nations debate acceptable behavior in cyberspace.

“During the next two decades, the intensity of competition for global influence is likely to reach its highest level since the Cold War,” the report notes. “No single state is likely to be positioned to dominate across all regions or domains, and a broader range of actors will compete to advance their ideologies, goals, and interests.”

Global privacy paradigms also are on the verge of shifting, the report warns.

“Privacy and anonymity may effectively disappear by choice or government mandate, as all aspects of personal and professional lives are tracked by global networks,” the report states.

As more governments continue to gain control of surveillance capabilities, privacy will continue to erode, the report suggests.

“Authoritarian governments are likely to exploit increased data to monitor and even control their populations,” the assessment notes, going on to predict they “will exercise unprecedented surveillance capabilities to enforce laws and provide security while tracking and de-anonymizing citizens and potentially targeting individuals.”

Governments have already begun availing themselves of commercially available spying technology to target vulnerable individuals, according to researchers. Governments such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia and India are accused of using spywareto target dissidents, journalists and other vulnerable people.

https://www.cyberscoop.com/us-intelligence-report-warns-of-increased-offensive-cyber- disinformation-around-the-world/

US-China relations: military tensions continue to rise over Taiwan

• All three sides flex their military muscle in South China Sea, Taiwan Strait this week • Military commentator says presence of warplanes and warships in region now the norm

Warplanes from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and the United States gathered southwest of Taiwan at the same time this week as a US warship transited nearby, adding more tension to the region.

The encounter started on Wednesday morning when a US Air Force EP-3E spy plane conducted a two-hour surveillance flight in an area where the Taiwan Strait meets the

South China Sea. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force responded by scrambling jets to monitor the situation, while Taiwan dispatched patrol aircraft and put its air-defence missile crews on standby, Taiwanese media reported.

PLA aircraft have been flying over the region, which Taiwan regards as its air defence identification zone (ADIZ), on an almost daily basis in recent months, but the involvement of a US warplane was more unusual.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3129036/us-china-relations-military-tensions- continue-rise-over-taiwan

US navy warns China ‘we’re watching you’ as destroyer shadows Liaoning carrier group

• A photo of the captain of the USS Mustin taken while shadowing the PLA warships has been described as a form of ‘cognitive warfare’ • Both sides are building up their forces in the East and South China seas by sending carriers and escorts to the region

The United States military has engaged in a form of “cognitive warfare” following the latest encounter between its warships and the Chinese navy.

Both countries have deployed aircraft carrier strike groups to the East and South China seas, led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the Liaoning, respectively.

On Sunday, the US released a photo that showed one of its guided-missile destroyers, the USS Mustin, shadowing the Liaoning group - a move that analysts said was designed to send a clear message to the Chinese.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3129122/us-navy-warns-china-were-watching- you-destroyer-shadows

US Navy sends message to China with photo of destroyer shadowing Chinese aircraft carrier

South China Morning Post

9 hours ago

The Liaoning, China's first aircraft carrier, sails into Hong Kong for a port call, July 7, 2017. AP Photo/Kin Cheung

• A photo of US Navy destroyer USS Mustin shadowing Chinese warships has been described as a form of "cognitive warfare." • China and the US are both building up their forces in the East and South China seas by sending carriers and escorts to the region. • See more stories on Insider's business page.

The United States military has engaged in a form of "cognitive warfare" following the latest encounter between its warships and the Chinese navy.

Both countries have deployed aircraft carrier strike groups to the East and South China seas, led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the Liaoning, respectively.

On Sunday, the US released a photo that showed one of its guided-missile destroyers, the USS Mustin, shadowing the Liaoning group — a move that analysts said was designed to send a clear message to the Chinese.

The photo taken on Monday somewhere in the East China Sea showed the ship's captain, Cmdr. Robert J Briggs, and his deputy, Cmdr. Richard D Slye, watching the Liaoning, which was just a few thousand metres away.

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-messages-china-with-photo-of-destroyer-shadowing-aircraft- carrier-2021-4

Meet the DDG Next: A Smaller, But Heavily Armed Naval Destroyer?

Now the Navy is reportedly taking another look at the Arleigh Burke-class for guidance as it begins the development of a “next-generation destroyer.” by Peter Suciu Here's What You Need to Remember: According to the Navy’s 2020 thirty-year shipbuilding plan, the service would start to acquire new vessels beginning in 2025, but it could take a while to get such a ship designed, and it is unlikely the DDG Next would be able to meet the time constraints. The U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class of guided missile destroyers was developed during the Reagan era and first entered service when President George H. W. Bush was in office. It has had the longest production run of any post–World War II U.S. Navy surface combatant. To date sixty-eight out of a planned eighty-nine have entered service, and the with the decommissioning of the last Spruance-class destroyer in 2006, the Alreigh Burke-class was the sole active U.S. Navy destroyer until the Zumwalt-class was commissioned in 2016. Now the Navy is reportedly taking another look at the Arleigh Burke-class for guidance as it begins the development of a “next-generation destroyer.” Last week while speaking at the Defense One’s State of the Navy event, Adm. Michael Gilday said that the Navy’s future destroyer—dubbed DDG Next—would likely be smaller than the Zumwalt-class but would be more heavily armed with a larger missile magazine than the Arleigh Burke-class. “When you talk about large surface combatants, people in their mind’s eye, they’re thinking battleship,” Gilday was quoted of telling the virtual audience at the Defense One event. “That’s not where we’re going. We’re talking about a ship that’s going to be probably smaller than a Zumwalt, right? I don’t want to build a monstrosity,” Gilday added. “But I need deeper magazines on a manned ship, deeper than we have right now.” https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/meet-ddg-next-smaller-heavily-armed-naval-destroyer-182355

Cutter deployments point to bigger role in Western Pacific

The Coast Guard Cutter Kimball (WMSL 756) tranists past Dimond Head on Oahu, Hawaii, Aug. 16, 2019. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew West/Released)

APRIL 11, 2021 WILLIAM COLE - HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER

The Coast Guard’s five newest cutters in Honolulu—including two of the service’s most capable 418-foot vessels—continue to reach farther across the Pacific to combat illegal fishing and counter the growing influence of China.

Recent deployments of the national security cutter Kimball and the smaller fast-response cutter Joseph Gerczak are representative of growing national security responsibilities as greater Coast Guard integration with the Navy and Marine Corps is sought.

Honolulu has two of the big cutters the Coast Guard calls the “centerpiece ” of its fleet, as well as three 154-foot fast-response cutters.

The Kimball’s efforts included :—While patrolling approximately 3, 600 miles in the Philippine Sea, the Kimball in mid-February conducted its first-ever at-sea boarding as part of Operation Blue Pacific, a national security mission aimed at maintaining stability in the region.—Later that month the Kimball and Japan Coast Guard ship Akitsushima operated near the Ogasawara Islands of Japan with helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles practicing interdicting foreign vessels operating illegally in Japanese waters.—In early March, the Kimball, with two Marines aboard, sailed close to Iwo Jima and held a remembrance ceremony marking the 76th anniversary of the famous World War II battle.—While on patrol, the Kimball was briefly diverted to assist in a search and rescue case in the Federated States of Micronesia.—The Kimball stopped in Guam and worked with Palau, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Coast Guard said.

In December, the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard released a tri-service maritime strategy called “Advantage at Sea ” noting that, “Since the beginning of the 21st Century, our three services have watched with alarm the growing naval power of the People’s Republic of China and the increasingly aggressive behavior of the Russian Federation.”

China deploys a multilayered fleet that includes its navy, the China Coast Guard and the People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia, naval auxiliaries disguised as civilian vessels, the report states. Better coordinated U.S. naval forces would be “uniquely suited ” for operations in competition with China, with the U.S. Coast Guard’s mission profile making it the “preferred maritime security partner for many nations vulnerable to coercion.”

“Integrating its unique capabilities—law enforcement, fisheries protection, marine safety and maritime security—with Navy and Marine Corps capabilities expands the options we provide to joint force commanders, ” said the report, which is seen as acknowledging the importance of the Coast Guard in competition with China below the threshold of conflict.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/04/cutter-deployments-point-to-bigger-role-in-western- pacific/

Navy to christen new domestically built ship the ‘Yushan’ on Tuesday

o By Lo Tien-pin and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, staff writer

• The navy’s new 10,600-tonne warship is on Tuesday to be christened the ROCN Yushan (玉山), as the nation’s indigenous shipbuilding program reaches a milestone, sources said yesterday. • The vessel, previously referred to as the “new landing platform dock,” was at a shipyard with its name freshly painted on the hull with the number 1401, the Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday, citing an unnamed observer. • Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), a member of the legislature’s National Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, confirmed the report in a Facebook post. • The NT$4.635 billion (US$163 million) ship is designed to meet operational requirements for amphibious assault and personnel and materiel transport, as well as disaster prevention, relief and humanitarian aid, the Navy Command Headquarters said. • Built by CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船), the 153m-long, 23m-wide vessel can support a marine battalion of 673 soldiers with helicopters, amphibious assault vehicles, craft, and light and heavy utility vehicles. • The ship is armed with an OTO Melara 76mm gun, two Tien Chien-2N air-defense missile systems and two Phalanx close-in weapon systems. The superstructure is designed to reduce its radar signature and enclose its twin masts. • The ship can also be modified to be used as a field hospital. • It is expected to be put into operation next year, the navy said. • CSBC had met all relevant project milestones since the ship’s construction started in May 2019, Commander of the Navy Admiral Liu Chih-pin (劉志斌) said at an event marking the ship’s mast stepping on March 18. • The navy has full confidence that CSBC and the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology will continue their smooth cooperation to deliver the ship, he said. • The navy thanks President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for supporting its programs to build new ships and promoting national defense self-sufficiency, industry upgrades and economic growth, he said. • The Ministry of National Defense is to lay the indigenous submarine’s keel, deliver the Ta Chiang (塔江) missile corvette and three minelayers, and begin building a new patrol rescue vessel before the end of the year, it said in a legislative report dated March 15. • Additional reporting by CNA

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2021/04/11/2003755483

Launch ceremony for Taiwan-built landing platform dock on tap

04/11/2021 02:24 PM

The manufacturing site of CSBC Corp. in Kaohsiung. CNA file photo

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) Taiwan's Navy will hold a launch ceremony for the country's first indigenous landing platform dock (LPD) Tuesday, with the new vessel expected to enter into service next year to support amphibious operations and transport missions.

The ceremony, to be held in Kaohsiung, will be presided over by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), according to a media notice issued by the Presidential Office on Sunday.

According to local media reports, the amphibious transport dock, has been named "Yushan," Taiwan's highest peak also known as Jade Mountain.

A mast-stepping ceremony for the ship was held on March 18 and presided over by Navy Commander Admiral Liu Chih-pin (劉志斌) and Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文隆 ), chairman of CSBC, the builder of the new ship.

Such a ceremony is usually held close to the end of a ship's construction and involves the placing of coins underneath the mast of a ship for good luck.

According to the Navy, CSBC won the bid in April 2018 to build an LPD prototype at a cost of NT$4.6 billion (US$162 million).

The prototype is expected to be put into service in the first half of 2022, replacing the Navy's single amphibious transport dock that has been in service for 50 years, the ROCS Hsu Hai (formerly the USS Pensacola.)

The new ship will be used to support amphibious operations and transport missions, and it will serve as a hospital ship and vessel for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in peacetime.

The dock will be able to support various landing craft and the AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicle, as well as helicopters.

When completed, the 10,000-ton LDP will be 153 meters long, with a top speed of 21 knots and a range of up to 7,000 miles, or 12,964 kilometers. The design also requires the ship to be fitted with a 76mm gun and Phalanx close-in weapon systems.

The construction of the LDP is part of Taiwan's ongoing efforts to expand its indigenous defense capacity by building its own military aircraft, ships, and submarines, an initiative that started after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May 2016.

(By Chung Yu-chen and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202104110004

CCP Adviser Outlines Detailed Plan to Defeat US, Including Manipulating Elections By forest April 5, 2021

BY NICOLE HAO AND CATHY HE March 26, 2021 Updated: March 31, 2021 A leading Chinese professor—who is also an adviser to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—laid out a comprehensive plan for the communist regime to overtake the United States as the world’s superpower. The professor’s multi-pronged strategy involves a range of malign actions to subvert the United States while strengthening the Chinese regime. They include interfering in U.S. elections, controlling the American market, cultivating global enemies to challenge the United States, stealing U.S. technology, expanding Chinese territory, and influencing international organizations. Jin Canrong, a professor and associate dean of the School of International Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University of China. https://myvalleynews.com/blog/2021/04/05/ccp-adviser-outlines-detailed-plan-to-defeat-us-including- manipulating-elections/

India should cherish 'current positive trend' of de-escalation in eastern Ladakh, says Chinese military

Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/chinese-military-says-indian-should-cherish-current-positive- trend-of-de-escalation-in-eastern- ladakh/articleshow/82014833.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/chinese-military-says-indian-should-cherish-current-positive- trend-of-de-escalation-in-eastern-ladakh/articleshow/82014833.cms

China’s Improved Type 093A Submarine: Stealthy and Full of Missiles

China has a very large and modern navy now and the progressive updates to the Type 093 boat show how far Beijing has come. by Peter Suciu

Key point: The Type 093 was not a very good submarine, but the latest version is serious business. Here is how it could fight the U.S. Navy.

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is now the largest naval force in the world, and a lot of attention has been paid to its two aircraft carriers, while a third flattop is reportedly on the way. This is in addition to its naval expansion, which includes assault carriers, cruisers and destroyers.

This article first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.

However, the more significant threat from Beijing may not be the carriers or other surface vessels, or even its aircraft carrier “killer” missiles—but rather its Type 093A attack submarine.

The first iteration of the Type 093 dates all the way back to 2005, but it was not without problems—and it offered little improvement over its problem-plagued, noisy predecessor, the Type 091. However, the Type 093 has been steadily improved.

It now seems that with the enhancements the Type 093 is well on its way to being a world-class attack submarine.

According to submarine expert H I Sutton, writing for Naval News, the Type 093A Shang-II class is the most powerful attack submarine in China’s arsenal today. The roughly 7,000 ton nuclear-powered submarine is roughly the same size as the Royal Navy’s Astute-class, which puts it in between the French Navy Suffren-class and the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class.

While nuclear-powered submarines tend to be louder than their diesel-electric counterparts, the Type 093A reportedly uses some of its larger size for noise- reducing features including acoustic stealth. Improvements in reactor coolant pump design may have helped reduce the Shang-class’ acoustic signature.

Beijing hasn’t shared any specific details, but Chinese sources have reported that its teardrop hull with a wing-shaped cross-section provides both improved speed and stealth. A 2009 U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) report listed the Chinese Type 093 as being noisier than the Russian Navy’s Project 671RTM submarines, which entered service with the Soviet Navy in 1979. However, the Type 093A could be far quieter due to its altered hull form.

The Type 093A is also reported to be quite well armed, and is capable of carrying the YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missiles. It is a solid-fuelled rocket that can be launched from a buoyant launch canister. The missile lacks a solid booster and has an operational range of only about forty-two kilometers, but it is still a serious threat to enemy warships.

The submarine can also carry the YJ-82 anti-ship missile, rocket mines and torpedoes including the Yu-6 thermal torpedoes. The heavyweight thermal torpedo, which is essentially the Chinese counterpart of the American Mark 48 torpedo, is wire-guided and has active/passive acoustic-homing and wake-homing sensors.

The Type 093A Shang-II isn’t the world’s best attack submarine, but it should highlight the fact that Beijing continues to make progress on all fronts. Just as China’s PLAN is becoming a force to be reckoned with in terms of carriers, so too could be a serious submarine.fo ce. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/china’s-improved-type-093a-submarine-stealthy-and-full-missiles-182336

China in mind as Japan government plans large- scale deployment of F-35B fighters

Two F-35 Lightning II’s (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Ben Mota)

APRIL 11, 2021 ASIA NEWS NETWORK

The Japanese government plans to deploy F-35B stealth fighters at the Air Self-Defense Force’s Nyutabaru Base in Shintomi, Miyazaki Prefecture, according to sources, in the first-ever stationing of the fighters at an ASDF base.

Arrangements will be made with local governments around the base, with the aim of starting operations in 2024. The government hopes to strengthen its deterrent capability against China, with a plan to operate the F-35Bs together with the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kaga destroyer, which is scheduled to be upgraded to an aircraft carrier, according to the sources.

The cutting-edge F-35B fighter can take off over a short distance and make vertical landings. Even in remote islands where there are no SDF bases, the fighters can be deployed flexibly by making use of civilian airports.

A source close to the Defense Ministry said that as China continues to build up its military strength, the government has positioned the F-35B as a “decisive measure for the defense of remote islands.”

For the operation of the F-35Bs, the government is envisioning situations that include: training using the Kaga destroyer, which is based at the MSDF’s Kure Base in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture; joint training with other F-35Bs deployed at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture; and takeoff and landing training at an SDF base to be built on Mageshima island in Nishinoomote, Kagoshima Prefecture.

The Nyutabaru Base is located close to these bases and was judged to be the most suitable for deplying the F-35Bs.

The procurement cost is about ¥13 billion per aircraft. The government hopes to introduce 18 F- 35Bs by fiscal 2023, with the overall goal of deploying 42, according to its Medium Term Defense Program. The first step is to deploy 18 such fighters at the Nyutabaru Base to form a squadron. The remaining deployment sites will be considered in the future.

Closing the gap in air power with China is the motivation for the large-scale introduction of F- 35Bs. Regarding the latest fourth- and fifth-generation fighter jets, Japan has 309 such fighters, far behind China’s 1080 aircraft. China is making progress in deploying aircraft such as fifth-generation J-20 Chengdu stealth fighters, and Japan hopes to counter with the F-35Bs, which are also fifth-generation.

The government is planning to upgrade the Kaga’s deck to make it more heat-resistant, so that the F-35Bs can take off and land on it, and is considering carrying about 10 of the aircraft.

Deploying fighter jets at a land base would make them an easy target for China’s medium-range missiles, so the fighters are to use a mobile naval vessel as a base in case of contingencies, thereby reducing the risk of being attacked.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/04/china-in-mind-as-japan-government-plans-large-scale-deployment-of-f- 35b-fighters/

South Korea soars into elite group with KF-21 fighter

President Moon hails homegrown next-gen prototype as a 'new era of independent defence' by DAVE MAKICHUK April 11, 2021April 11, 2021

Hailed by President Moon Jae-in as “a historic milestone in the development of the (South Korean) aviation industry,” the nation unveiled its homegrown supersonic jet fighter on Friday, joining an exclusive club of military aviation giants, CNN reported.

Once operational, the KF-21 — which looks very much like the American F-35 — is expected to be armed with a range of air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, and possibly even air-launched cruise missiles.

The twin-engine fighters, envisioned as a stepping stone to develop better fighter aircraft and operate locally developed arms, will come in single- and two-seat versions, depending on the missions to which they are tasked.

The flashy unveiling at the production plant of Korea Aerospace Industries in Sacheon, sets the stage for an ambitious US$7.8 billion program that South Korea hopes will be a top export driver and jobs creator.

Moon said after ground and flight tests are completed, mass production of the KF-21 will begin with a goal of 40 jets deployed by 2028 and 120 by 2032 — an ambitious plan for a small country.

https://asiatimes.com/2021/04/kf-21-jet-fighter-puts-south-korea-in-elite-group/

Korean FA-50 competes with Pakistan-China developed jet in Malaysia By Kang Seung-woo

The FA-50, the nation's first domestically developed light attack aircraft, is competing against the Pakistani-Chinese jointly manufactured JF-17 fighter for the Malaysian Air Force's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) program, under which Kuala Lumpur seeks to purchase 18 jets to replace its aging MiG-29 fleet, according to sources, Sunday.

"Despite interest from a diverse group of manufacturers, the FA-50 and JF-17 are the finalists," the source said.

The FA-50 is a variant of the T-50 supersonic trainer jet, manufactured by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI).

Since its first deployment in October 2013, 60 FA-50s are operated by the Korean Air Force. In addition, the FA-50 has been exported to Iraq, the Philippines and Thailand.

Initially, France's Rafale, the multinational Eurofighter and the United States' F- 18 were put forward for the Malaysian program, but the project has been downsized to purchasing light attack aircraft due to budget issues, giving a fighting chance to India's Tejas, Italy's M346 and Russia's Y-130.

Should the KAI win the deal, it would be a huge compensation for its failed exports to Argentina.

Despite interest from Buenos Aires, the KAI, which uses several British-made parts in the FA-50, was unable to close a deal for the sale of eight aircraft due to an arms embargo imposed by the British government on the South American country.

However, the FA-50 is reportedly behind the JF-17 in the race as the latter possesses a better mid-range weapons capacity which is a requirement of the Malaysian Air Force.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021/04/205_306949.html

US, South Korea suspect North Korea is readying its ballistic missile submarine

A US think tank report said North Korea had moved a submersible missile test barge to a new position, likely hinting at an upcoming submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test.

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PUBLISHED ON APR 11, 2021 05:01 PM IST

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-south-korea-suspect-north-korea-is-readying-its-ballistic-missile- submarine-101618140167907.html

North Korea completes building new 3,000-ton submarine: report

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stands on the conning tower of a submarine during his inspection of the Korean People's Army (KPA) Naval Unit 167 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang June 16, 2014. © Reuters

April 11, 2021 16:12 JST SEOUL (Kyodo) -- South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe North Korea is ready to roll out a new 3,000-ton submarine, only waiting for the right timing, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday, citing sources.

It said the intelligence authorities have determined that the 3,000-ton submarine, unveiled in July 2019, can carry three submarine-launched ballistic missiles, or SLBMs.

"The authorities assess that North Korea is reviewing the right timing to roll out the submarine for a strategic effect, including maximizing pressure against the United States," a source was quoted as saying.

The source added that the North could reveal the submarine at a launching ceremony and actually roll out an SLBM such as the Pukguksong-3.

The assessment comes after a U.S. think tank said the North has moved a submersible missile test barge at its missile test site to a different position, possibly indicating an upcoming SLBM test.

On March 26, 38 North, a U.S. website monitoring North Korea, reported that commercial satellite imagery of the Sinpho South Shipyard on the North's east coast indicates that a floating dry dock, normally moored at a nearby pier, has recently been repositioned alongside the construction hall's submarine-launch quay.

It said the move could indicate that the North's new ballistic missile submarine "may be nearing completion or is ready to be rolled out and launched in the near future."

The new submarine is believed to be a modified Romeo-class based on North Korean media reporting of Kim Jong Un's site visit in July 2019 to the construction hall to inspect work on it. The submarine is said to be about 80 meters long and 7 meters wide.

According to Yonhap, North Korea is also believed to have been developing a larger- sized submarine that is expected to be equipped with new SLBMs.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/N-Korea-at-crossroads/North-Korea-completes-building-new-3-000-ton-submarine- report

North Korea's SLBM threat looms large By Jung Da-min

Speculation is mounting over North Korea's possible test launch of a ballistic missile from a newly manufactured submarine, according to local defense experts, Sunday, as suspicious activity has been detected at a shipyard that has facilities for testing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

The conjecture is further fueled by Pyongyang's preparations to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il-sung ― the current leader's grandfather ― Thursday as the country has often showcased its newly developed weapons around a public holiday in the past.

The speculation comes after satellite images from Washington-based think tanks Stimson Center's 38 North and the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Beyond Parallel showed North Korea has repositioned a submersible missile test barge, possibly indicating an upcoming SLBM test.

In addition, South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe that the construction of a 3,000-ton submarine which the North unveiled in July 2019 has been completed, based on various signals information including that related to movement at North Korea's Sinpo Shipyard.

Defense experts said Pyongyang could intentionally unveil the launch of the new submarine, not only to escalate regional tensions to gain an advantageous position in any denuclearization negotiations with Washington, but also as a message to strengthen solidarity among North Koreans.

Moon Sung-mook, a senior researcher at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said it was likely that the North Korea would publicly launch the submarine as it was already unveiled two years ago. He said putting the new submarine into action would show that North Korea has succeeded in strengthening its military capabilities, as it is believed to be able to carry three SLBMs.

"The development of SLBMs by North Korea could be a game changer in the regional security situation of the Korean Peninsula," Moon said, adding that North Korea's continuing to strengthen its submarine capabilities could ultimately lead to development of a nuclear-powered submarine.

"The fact that North Korea is developing larger-sized submarines mean that its capabilities are being strengthened and the next step would be loading a nuclear-propelled engine systems on such submarines," Moon said.

Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, said, "Rather than severing all existing ties with the United States and sending the whole negotiation process back to the starting point, North Korea would want to escalate tension to a certain level while not crossing any red line by firing medium or long range ballistic missiles."

"It is likely that North Korea will publicly launch its new submarine as this is an effective way to showcase its military capabilities without actually firing a missile," he added.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021/04/103_306962.html No breakthrough in India-China military dialogue on disengagement in eastern Ladakh

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Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/no-breakthrough-in-india-china-military-dialogue-on- disengagement-in-eastern- ladakh/articleshow/82013729.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/no-breakthrough-in-india-china-military-dialogue-on- disengagement-in-eastern-ladakh/articleshow/82013729.cms

UK, USA want Russia to de-escalate situation in Ukraine

UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he agrees with US secretary of state Blinken on de- escalating the situation in Ukraine.

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PUBLISHED ON APR 11, 2021 10:46 PM IST

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/uk-usa-want-russia-to-de-escalate-situation-in-ukraine- 101618160484247.html

Russian troop movements and talk of intervention cause jitters in Ukraine

• BY ANDREW E. KRAMER • THE NEW YORK TIMES

• Apr 11, 2021 MOSCOW – Armored personnel carriers bristling with weapons line a highway in southern Russia. Rows of tanks are parked beside major roads. Heavy artillery is transported by train.

Videos of military movements have flooded Russian social media for the past month, shared by users and documented by researchers.

And Western governments are trying to find out why. The movements appear to be the largest deployment of Russian land forces toward the border with Ukraine in seven years, according to the U.S. government.

Whether it is a test of how the Biden administration might respond, retaliation against Ukraine for curbing Russian influence in domestic politics in Kyiv, or preparation for actual cross-border military action has divided analysts of Russian policies.

Another possible motive has been found closer to home: The very public military buildup — trains bearing armored vehicles have been rolling into the border region in broad daylight — has shifted attention from the imprisonment and failing health of President Vladimir Putin’s chief political opponent, Alexei Navalny.

The Ukraine war, the only active conflict in Europe today, has been on a low simmer since 2015. Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army have faced off along a 250-mile front of trenches known as the line of contact, shelling and sniping at one another but not seeking major advances.

The fighting picked up last month, with nine Ukrainian soldiers killed since late March.

On Friday, the Kremlin appeared to escalate the situation again by laying out a justification for military intervention on humanitarian grounds, discussing the prospect of a new war in the region in some of the starkest, most open terms yet.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia would intervene to prevent ethnic cleansing of Russian speakers by the Ukrainian government, a risk he compared to the ethnic massacres of the 1990s Balkan wars, though there are no signs that such violence is imminent in Ukraine today.

“The situation on the contact line in Ukraine is extremely unstable,” Peskov said. “If military actions begin and a potential repetition of a humanitarian catastrophe similar to Srebrenica arises, not one country in the world will remain on the sidelines. All countries, including Russia, will take measures.”

The comment was the second in about a week by a senior Russian official citing the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995 as a touchstone for justifying humanitarian intervention in Ukraine today.

The bloody, hate-filled milieu of the 1990s Balkans is a poor analogy for the geopolitically driven conflict in eastern Ukraine.

In Bosnia in 1995, the United Nations had declared a safe zone in the city of Srebrenica but failed to prevent the Bosnian Serb army from entering and massacring more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The front line in Ukraine, in contrast, separates villages and towns comprising a similar mix of Ukrainian and Russian speakers, with no significant ethnic or sectarian differences.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits positions of armed forces near the front line with Russian-backed separatists in the country’s Donbass region on Friday. | UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / VIA REUTERS Peskov said the risk arose from “actions of the Ukrainian military” and rising Ukrainian nationalism.

On Thursday, Russia’s chief negotiator in the Ukrainian peace process, Dmitri Kozak, offered another potential justification for intervention: to protect people with dual Ukrainian and Russian citizenship. Since 2019, Russia has been granting citizenship to residents of the two separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics.

Russian officials have said Ukraine, not Russia, initiated the escalation. The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, on Friday blamed Ukraine for mustering forces near the contact line and said Kyiv “lives with an illusion of a possible forceful settlement” of the conflict.

As talk of war has become louder, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany called on Putin this week to demand that forces pull back from the border. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Thursday that the Biden administration is “increasingly concerned” by the movements.

“Russia now has more troops on the border with Ukraine than at any time since 2014,” Psaki said, and Ukrainian soldiers have been dying in skirmishes. “These are all deeply concerning signs.”

Before the tanks started rolling, Russia had been telegraphing a possible response to the Biden administration’s promise of a tougher line with Moscow. The Biden administration had said it would pursue cyberoperations and sanctions to retaliate for Russian cyberattacks and election meddling. Russia, some analysts say, is now essentially daring the United States to follow through while its tanks are on the Ukrainian border.

The U.S. threat of a cyberoperation against Russia in particular prompted Putin in January to hint at troubles ahead, according to Konstantin Eggert, an observer of Russian politics. “Such a game with no rules,” Eggert wrote, led Putin to warn in a speech given to the Davos Forum of an “increase in the risk of unilateral use of military force,” refraining from mentioning which country might be using that force.

The pace of military movements picked up in March, according to the Conflict Intelligence Team, a group of Russian military bloggers who analyzed images and videos posted online by Russians who watched the columns go by. Their report was published in the Insider, a Russian investigative news site.

A wide range of weaponry has been on public display. In March, for example, a train hauling Msta-C self-propelled howitzers rumbled over a bridge across the Kerch Strait separating Russia’s mainland from Crimea.

The Russian airwaves, too, have been chockablock with reports of a possible resumption of war in eastern Ukraine.

“Bad news from Ukraine,” commentator Dmitry Kiselyov said in opening his Sunday talk show this week on state Channel 1. “The talk in Ukraine is increasingly about war.”

Kiselyov mocked war jitters in Ukraine, where the government has been trying to portray a calm resolve; the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited the front Thursday.

The Russian state television report lingered on an incident in the Ukrainian Parliament this month when a lawmaker, Anna Kolesnik, after hearing a presentation from a military commander on the scale of Russia’s forces massed at her nation’s border, wrote a phone message to an acquaintance saying, “It’s time to split from this country.”

Kiselyov noted that in Ukraine, “the fear is inflating.”

Michael Kofman, a senior researcher at CNA, an analytical organization based in Arlington, Virginia, said the Russian buildup seems targeted more at shifting Ukraine’s stance in settlement talks than countering U.S. sanctions.

“Saber-rattling is an oversimplification,” he said. “It is coercive diplomacy with a purpose,” though for now that purpose is unstated and left open to interpretation by Ukraine and Western governments. “That is the situation we are in.”

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/04/11/world/ukraine-war-russia-troops/

Kremlin says not moving towards war with Ukraine

The Kremlin on Sunday said it was not moving towards war with Ukraine as Russia increased its military presence on the border with Ukraine’s eastern breakaway territories.

In recent weeks fighting has intensified between Ukraine’s army and pro-Russian separatists controlling two regions in the country’s east, raising concerns of major escalation in the long- running conflict.

“Of course, nobody is planning to move towards war and in general, nobody accepts the possibility of such a war,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a televised interview on Sunday.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman added that “nobody also accepts the possibility of civil war in Ukraine”.

Peskov insisted that Moscow is not involved in the conflict, adding, however, that Russia “will not remain indifferent” to the fate of Russian speakers who live in the conflict-torn region.

“Russia is making every possible effort to help resolve this conflict. And we will continue to explain this tirelessly,” Peskov said.

Ukraine has accused Russia of amassing thousands of military personnel on its northern and eastern borders as well as on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

The Kremlin has not denied the troop movements but insisted that Moscow does not intend to threaten anyone.

The White House this week said the number of Russian troops at the border with Ukraine was now greater than at any time since 2014, when the conflict erupted after Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Fighting subsided in 2020 as a ceasefire agreement took hold last July, but clashes have picked up again since the start of the year, with each side blaming the other.

On Thursday Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the eastern frontline, speaking with soldiers in the trenches.

According to the president, 26 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since January, compared to 50 in all of 2020. Since 2014, the conflict in Ukraine’s east has claimed more than 13,000 lives and displaced many others, while negotiations for a lasting peace deal have stalled.

https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2021/04/11/kremlin-says-not-moving-towards-war-with-ukraine/

Mossad may have carried cyber attack against Iran's Natanz nuclear facility: Report

Israel public radio cites intelligence sources saying Israel behind Iran nuclear site incident.

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PUBLISHED ON APR 11, 2021 10:09 PM IST https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/mossad-may-have-carried-cyber-attack-against-iran-s-natanz-nuclear- facility-101618158785300.html

The Gulliver dilemma: Australia and South Pacific security

12 Apr 2021|Graeme Dobell

in the region. Our shared history of endurance and mutual assistance during times of major ‘Asinternational one of many conflict, Pacific natural Island disaster,nations, Australiaclimate change is historically and pandemic and indelibly has forged linked strong to its links neighbours

betweenJoint Pacific Standing Island Committee neighbours on Foreign which go Affairs, beyond Defence statehood and Trade,and diplomacy.’ Inquiry into Australia’s defence relationships with Pacific island nations, March 2021

‘With limited government reach and resources, but strong subsistence and traditional communities, cultural integrity and traditional ways remain keyDevelopment to the Pacific Bulletin security agendPerspectivesa.’ on Pacific security: future currents Meg Keen, ‘Security through a Pacific lens’, , no. 82: ‘ Australia tiptoes around the South Pacific, just as Gulliver stepped carefully around’, February the fictional 2021 South Seas land of Lilliput.

When Jonathan Swift’s giant washed ashore, the six-inch-tall islanders couldn’t bind Gulliver, and their hundred arrows merely pricked his hand.

Here was a security predicament defined by differences in size, perspective and power.

The tiny Lilliputians couldn’t think of a way to kill Gulliver, so they made him useful. Likewise, Australia is too big for the South Pacific to ignore—and sometimes the giant gets it right, despite those big feet.

The government’s four-year-old Pacific ‘step-up’ means the Gulliver effect is getting lots of fresh thought.

Two meditations on Australia’s role in island security have just arrived, from federal parliament and the Australian National University.

Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, has released its report on defence relations with Pacific island nations. Three other committee reports will soon follow on strengthening relationships with the region, trade and investment with the islands, and the human rights of women and girls in the Pacific. These efforts build on a December 2020 report on the impact of the pandemic on foreign policy and April 2019 report on aid to the Indo- Pacific. Across the lake from parliament, at the ANU, a special issue of the Development Bulletin, titled ‘Perspectives on Pacific security: future currents’, produced by the Development Studies Network in collaboration the Australian Pacific Security College, marks the first year of the college’s existence (another product of the step-up).

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-gulliver-dilemma-australia-and-south-pacific-security/

Smaller drones don't let the US off the hook for war crimes

When it comes to armed drones, is smaller and more precise necessarily better?

The question came to my mind upon seeing the news that the US Air Force just successfully test-launched a new weaponizable drone, the ALTIUS-600, making it the smallest drone in operation. Even more remarkably, this tiny aircraft was launched from the second-smallest-drone, the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, while the Valkyrie was in flight.

There is nothing objectionable about the development of mini-drones. One could even argue they would be improvements, in humanitarian terms, over the use of the much larger Reaper to deliver 500-pound bombs in allegedly "precise" strikes that instead often sweep up scores of civilians and destroy the property their surviving family members rely on for their livelihoods.

But the US military's obsession with minimalism — from fewer boots on the ground to lower-payload munitions — also minimalizes public engagement with the wider ethics of armed violence.

The emphasis on size, mobility and precision is the product of a highly limited and limiting view rife in American political discourse: that the key ethical and legal problem presented by armed drones is collateral damage. This narrative — reflected in public opinion surveys, Hollywood films and political discourse — circumscribes debate.

As Sarah Kreps, a Cornell professor and WPR contributor, notes in her book with John Kaag, the question of collateral damage is but a subset of a subset of a subset of the wider international law on the killing of human beings by governments.

At the overarching level, that law applies to governments in peacetime, not in war. The basic legal rule, enshrined in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is clear: "No arbitrary deprivation of the right to life."

Due process is required for state-sanctioned executions; guilt must be proven, not assumed. And even the death penalty for criminals convicted of the worst genuine offenses is increasingly frowned upon and must be carried out using humane means. The only exceptions to this prohibition on the use of deadly force are in cases of imminent harm to others where no other options for preventing that harm are available.

Of course, in times of war, things shift, and the law of war applies. The default proscription against killing is lifted, but only under strict conditions, reflecting the fact that war is considered an aberration, a small subset of the variety of circumstances in which states might direct lethal force against individuals. Among the conditions that must be met, a state of war must apply. Those doing the violence must be members of the state's armed forces; civilian CIA pilots would be unlawful combatants. The targets must be military objectives, not civilians. And the harm and suffering caused even to legitimate military targets must be minimized to what is necessary to weaken the enemy and not involve inhumane methods or disproportionate or indiscriminate collateral harm.

Here and only here do the rules of collateral damage apply, with the central question being, How much harm to bystanders and infrastructure is acceptable given the necessity of hitting a particular legitimate military target with a particular military means deployed by a particular military actor in a particular military context?

In short, the collateral damage question is embedded within the rules governing who may be targeted, which are in turn embedded within the rules governing who may do the targeting, which are subordinate to the bigger question of whether a situation falls within the scope of war law at all, rather than peacetime human rights rules.

Yet, popular attention so often focuses on this tiny subset of the rules governing collateral damage, eliding these higher-level issues.

Suppose a drone were not only perfectly precise and relatively humane, but also carried a firearm rather than explosives or sword blades. Suppose it killed quickly, rather than burning its victims alive or hacking them death, as a new Hellfire missile is designed to do in the name of limiting collateral damage. And suppose the identity of the target could be determined without fail, using biometrics before a bullet was fired.

The accuracy of such an attack does not resolve the question of whether a kill decision is correct in the first place. These targeting decisions often rely on human intelligence — reports from locals — to determine who is allegedly a mortal danger to US interests.

But in insurgencies and civil wars, reports from local sources are just as often used to settle old scores as to provide accurate intelligence, as the research of Stathis Kalyvas, a professor at Yale, has long showed.

At times, in fact, the US has often relied not on specific kill orders of specific individuals, but rather on "signature strikes" — a best estimate of who is likely to match the profile of a suspected militant in a particular context — to determine whether to launch a strike that often targets whole groups.

As the NGOs Article 36 and Reaching Critical Will have documented, signature strikes have been carried out based on criteria as arbitrary as the sex and age of the victims, with nearly any military-age male in a frontier region vulnerable to lethal strike. These combinations of false stereotypes, faulty intelligence, mnemonic shortcuts and sheer hubris have killed scores of civilian teenage boys, not by accident, not by precision weapons failure, but by design.

These civilian men and boys directly targeted by the US include 16-year-old Tariq Aziz, a soccer player, amateur photographer and anti-drone activist. Aziz died in late October 2011 in Waziristan, Pakistan, when a CIA-fired Hellfire missile burned him and his 12- year-old cousin Waheed Khan beyond recognition as he drove to give his aunt a ride home from a wedding.

Even in a precise strike carried out far from other villages, with no collateral damage, the killings of these boys would have been not only tragic, but criminal. In a real war, we would have called this a case of civilian targeting — a war crime. In peacetime — a more accurate view of the state of relations between the US and Pakistan — we would simply call this murder.

That the Pakistani government approved or perhaps even requested the strike doesn't make it legitimate. It merely makes both governments complicit in political murder.

All these important legal concerns are lost in a view of weaponized drones and targeted killings that sees the main issues as those of precision, human intelligence, accuracy and the reduction of collateral damage to "bystander" civilians, as if the civilians we are directly targeting merit no outrage on their own.

Reducing collateral damage is important in real wars, but that is not the only or even the primary concern with the use of ever-smaller lethal technology to wage ever-more subtle forms of peacetime political violence.

Terrorism is a crime. States are obligated to capture criminal suspects, put them on trial, allow them to defend themselves and free them if they are found innocent. Drones enable the opposite, as do special operations teams with kill orders.

But drones do something else as well: They provide a veneer of precision and bloodlessness that directs our attention to efforts at collateral damage control, obfuscating the reality of what is and has always been a campaign of extrajudicial execution sweeping up civilians whether by accident or by design.

Arguably, that has been the point. In November, the Center for Civilians in Conflict published a report entitled "Exceptions to the Rules," tracking 20 years of US drone policy.

It concludes, "A policy that allows the use of covert, lethal force under the laws of armed conflict outside of the context of an armed conflict undermines the protection of internationally recognized human rights and international law."

It added that any reform agenda must not make the mistake of focusing too narrowly on any single abuse, which "risks missing the emergence of a more problematic phenomenon, the gradual accumulation of legal loopholes."

As a result of this ethical devolution, not limited to but certainly epitomized by drone politics, our understanding not only of political-legal reality, but also of political-legal possibility, becomes smaller and more insignificant. Leaders of the free world would be wise to reverse course and return to fundamental principles. One reason to be heartened is the fact that President Joe Biden's review of the use of US drones outside of active battlefields is really a review of America's targeted killing program.

Another is the fact that the US military might prefer to be kept in reserve for conventional wars, rather than thrust into counterterror and counterinsurgency missions for which it is ill-suited.

To be clear: Weaponized drones themselves are also not the problem. Drones are only a platform, and what matters in international law terms is how platforms are used. But if there is a reason to focus on drones, it is because of the way in which, as Gregoire Chamayou shows us, our conceptual understanding of drones as a particular technology has also impacted our ability to even notice what is wrong with their use in international law terms.

Focusing on technology relaxes our legal and ethical horizon and narrows our parameters of debate, and this needs to change. Smaller and simpler is not always better. Less is not always more.

https://www.businessinsider.com/smaller-drones-dont-let-us-off-hook-for-war-crimes-2021-4

Could Hypersonic Missiles Be a ‘Silver Bullet’ for Aircraft Carriers?

Experts fear that the missiles could be impossible to defend against and could reshape warfare. by Peter Suciu

Here's What You Need to Remember: Hitting the specific location of a carrier at such distance, even with a hypersonic weapon, wouldn't be the easiest thing to pull off. Current ballistic missiles that can achieve hypersonic speed follow a predictable flight path, but a concern is that these missiles could be able maneuver in unexpected ways.

Aircraft carriers have always faced seriously deadly threats. In the past, it was submarines, which long posed the most danger to carriers. Modern anti-submarine warfare (ASW) has given the advantage back to the carrier strike groups, which can better screen and protect the capital ship. While unmanned submarines could present a new problem, the greatest danger could come from hypersonic missiles.

The Russian Kinzhal is the world's first hypersonic aviation missile system, and if the claims are to be believed it has a range of 3,000 kilometers when launched from an aircraft such as the Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire supersonic bomber. Even if those ranges are exaggerated the platform still presents a very serious threat to U.S. warships, notably aircraft carriers.

Because of the speed at which hypersonic missiles travel the force is so significant that these can inflict damage by sheer "kinetic" impact without needing explosives. Experts fear that the missiles could be impossible to defend against and could reshape warfare. This is why some have suggested that the U.S. military invests in the technology rather than massive warships – in part because the weapons could quite easily destroy those warships.

The Japanese military is already exploring ways to develop and deploy hypersonic weapons with a special warhead that could penetrate the decks of an aircraft carrier – and it is abundantly clear that Chinese carriers could pose a serious risk to the waters around the Japanese home islands. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/could-hypersonic-missiles-be-‘silver-bullet’-aircraft-carriers- 182354

Building and Enabling Urban Resistance Networks In Small Countries - A Crucial Role For U.S. Special Forces In Great Power Competition

By Dr. Sandor Fabian

During the last couple decades U.S. Special Forceshave become champions of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. However, with the recent changes of the global strategic landscape and the increasingly multipolar world they are required once again to adapt to emerging challenges. While as many practitioners and scholars already argued the U.S. Special Forces must maintain all their hard- earned irregular warfare skills, they must also find new niche capabilities to effectively support the activities of the rest of the U.S. government during the competition. This article argues that one such capability is building urban resistance networks within allied and partner nations pre-conflict and enabling such networks during war.

The 2018 U.S. National Security Strategyand the NATO 2030 strategic concept documentcemented what we have known since the Russian annexation of Crimeain 2014 and the recent Chinese activities in the South China Sea, the primacy of counterterrorism is a thing of the past and the world has returned to the era of great power competition. While many argue that this competition is not a new Cold War, others suggest that its characteristics are extremely similarsince all sides` activities focus on securing influence, shaping conditions, deterring the other side, and building a more lethal force in case of armed conflict occurs. Another factor frequently cited by proponents of the era of new Cold War is the fact that the likelihood of armed confrontation between the competitorsare extremely low and just like during the Cold War while we see some activities occurring directly against each otherand on the soil of the competitors the majority of the competition and potential conflicts are (will be) done by proxies and occur within the territories of allied and partner states. This latter fact makes small countries` defense capabilities a priority for U.S. national security and a key factor regarding the potential outcome of the great power competition.

The U.S. military has started preparing for such competition and approaching this challenge through the recently developed “deter and defeat” strategic framework. This concept focuses on building a ready and lethal force to deter and if needed, defeat any military aggression either at home or around the globe. This is the general strategic framework that U.S. Special Forces must find ways to make themselves relevant and effective. Some argue that simply maintaining their competency in irregular warfare skills and sustaining their operations against non-state actorsare themselves already crucial contributions since they allow the rest of the U.S. military to focus on the other elements of the great power competition. Others propose that U. S. Special Forces have much more to offer. They can gather critical information, impose costs on competitors, manage crisis response, conduct strategic raids, help to improve the capabilities of foreign militaries and develop and lead resistance networks in small countries in case of a foreign invasion and occupation. Let us explore this last task.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/building-and-enabling-urban-resistance-networks-small- countries-crucial-role-us-special

Satellite Internet Services – Fostering the Dictators’ Dilemma?

By Michael Schwille and Scott Fisher

Constellations of low-altitude, low-latency satellites providing broadband internet access to wide swathes of the earth are an impending challenge to the information dominance enjoyed by the world’s authoritarian states. Whether Amazon’s proposed Project Kuiper, Elon Musk’s Starlink(already functional in some areas of North America), or the United Kingdom funded OneWeb, the ability to provide relatively low cost internet access outside of government control is both a challenge for authoritarian states and an opportunity for democracies.

In Russia, the Duma is already considering a lawto criminalize access to such satellite services. China is not only planning to launch a competing service, it has Starlink’s Musk concerned about having his satellites “blown up.” North Korea, which bans its citizens from accessing the internetand (in)famously attacks leaflets with machine guns, shells loudspeakers with artillery, and punishes citizens for accessing Chinese cellphone towers, has yet to comment publicly on such services. Given this history though, Pyongyang’s reaction is unlikely to be very positive.

What are low-altitude, low-latency satellites and why are authoritarian states so concerned? The problem (for authoritarians) and promise (for democracies) are the services’ ability to provide broadband internet access almost anywhere on earth, with nothing new required on the ground aside from a small terminal. Because these satellites orbit at several hundred kilometers (low Earth orbit), versus 35,000km for telecommunication satellites in geostationary orbit, their terminals can be smaller, portable, and easier to conceal, smuggle, and infiltrate. With one of these terminals, users can cheaply and quickly bypass national controls on the internet and information access, plus place phone (e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol, Skype or Zoom) calls outside of government-controlled systems. It is this freedom of information access and communication that has Russia and China so concerned, and that provides an opportunity for democratic states to rebalance their current information disadvantage.

In what some scholars have termed democracy’s dilemma, nations that rely on relatively free and open information flows are vulnerable to having that openness turned against them by adversaries. Think Russian influence on Brexit, the 2016 U.S. electionsand the Covid infodemic. What these new satellite systems offer is an opportunity to reinvigorate the dictator’s dilemma– the fear authoritarian leaders have of non-regime narratives reaching their people, or their people communicating outside of government-approved channels.

Just how powerful is this fear? Moscow reacts more negativelyto criticisms and threats to its information control than it does to (far more expensive) NATO exercises. For years, Russian state media have even coordinated to deflect these criticisms of Russia’s censorship onto countries with which Moscow is in conflict, successively targeting Georgia, the U.S. and Ukraine. China’s rulers have a similar view, more fearful of “American ideals of freedom, democracy and human rights infecting the people of China and Hong Kong,” than they are of U.S. military or economic challenges. This is not a new concern for Beijing; the term Great Firewall of China was discussed in a Wired article back in 1997. Beijing’s controls have expanded since, with hundreds of thousands of censors and billions of dollars spent on informational and societal control, including the uniquely intrusive social credit systems.

North Korea is an even clearer example, with years of North Korea specialists (see Lankov, Baek, Cha, Myers, and others) highlighting Pyongyang’s reliance on domestic information control to keep the Kim family in power. Impressive control, but a weakness masquerading as a strength.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/satellite-internet-services-fostering-dictators-dilemma

The High North: A Key Alliance Area for Defense and Security

04/11/2021

By Robbin Laird

A recent article by Matthew Holroyd highlighted the expansion of Russian military activity in the Arctic. “Russia is boosting its military efforts in the Arctic Circle in an effort to expand its presence in the polar region. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently hailed the country’s military performance during drills and weapons testing in the Arctic.

“The region is reported to hold up to one-quarter of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas and Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, and Norway have all tried to assert jurisdiction over northern areas. The dramatic decrease of sea ice has opened new opportunities for tapping into resources, as well as opening key shipping lanes from Asia to Europe.”

After a long period of being the “reluctant Arctic power,” the United States under the Trump Administration refocused attention on the region. One manifestation of this was standing up the Second Fleet, which had been sunsetted by the previous Administration. As the CNO who stood up the new Second Fleet, Admiral Richardson, put it: “A new 2nd Fleet increases our strategic flexibility to respond — from the Eastern Seaboard to the Barents Sea. Second Fleet will approach the North Atlantic as one continuous operational space, and conduct expeditionary fleet operations where and when needed.”

C2F as an American fleet has reshaped how U.S. forces are engaged in the region, and with the strong leadership of the Nordic allies, who have never missed the point of how the Russians are enhancing their presence and engagement in the High North, there is a renewed allied collaboration to shape presence and engagement in the region.

In the book authored by Laird with Delaporte, a significant part of the analysis on the reworking of European direct defense focuses on the impact of this Nordic dynamic on reworking how collaboration of the “coalition of the willing” or the “relevant nations” working together with key NATO partners is reshaping European defense.

As we put it in that book: “Europe and its defense are not one narrative but several. The Russians face an increasingly unified Nordic Northern Flank with enhanced UK focus on the region, backed by reach into North America.

“The central part of Europe is a mosaic of former Warsaw Pact states with varying degrees of concern about the Russian challenge, backed by a German French alliance with the nuclear-armed France in this key area. “And the southern zone of Europe in which Greece, Turkey, Spain, and Italy have about as much solidarity today as they have had historically, which means that aggregation management is crucial to deal with any alliance-wide challenges.”

And the Nordic Northern flank and the redesign of direct defense is highlighted in that book as follows: “A key part of shaping a new approach to direct defense in Europe is winning the fourth battle of the Atlantic. (which rests on dealing with) a key aspect of the Russian challenge, which is crucial for the Nordics, namely, the need to hold the Russian Kola bastion at risk.

https://defense.info/featured-story/2021/04/the-high-north-a-key-alliance-area-for-defense-and- security/

Would Russia Invade Ukraine and China Invade Taiwan Simultaneously?

By Daniel Davis

The top objective of U.S. foreign policy – and the primary purpose of our Armed Forces – is to keep America and our citizens safe. Anything that needlessly increases the risk to our safety should be avoided and all that contributes to it firmly reinforced. The absolute worst-case scenario for U.S. security would be to fight a two-front war with both China and Russia.

Since World War II such a possibility has been so remote as to warrant little serious consideration. Recent events, however, have pushed the potential into the realm of the possible. Great care must be taken to lower tensions before events spiral beyond our control, as we are faced with the nightmare scenario of squaring off against Moscow and Beijing simultaneously.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2021/04/would-russia-invade-ukraine-and-china-invade-taiwan- simultaneously/

COVID-19 death rate in NCR now higher than from 6 months ago — OCTA

By CNN Philippines Staff Published Apr 11, 2021 8:23:30 PM

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Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to PrintShare to EmailShare to More Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 11) — There is a higher percentage of people dying due to COVID-19 compared to six months ago, the independent OCTA Research group said.

In a report released on Sunday, OCTA noted the capital region’s case fatality rate — or the percentage of those who died due to COVID-19 out of all infected — has climbed to 2.02% as of April 11, from the 1.8% recorded in October last year.

“Currently, there are 100,250 active cases in the NCR. Based on the current CFR, 2,091 of these cases will result in mortality, with 1,020 deaths for ages 64 and below,” it said.

The country’s daily death toll breached the 200-mark five times over the past week alone. On Friday, the Philippines recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic with 401 more fatalities confirmed. Nationwide, nearly 15,000 people have lost their lives to the virus since the local outbreak started, with the case fatality rate standing at 1.73%.

OCTA also said figures from last week indicated more minors and people aged 65 and above in NCR are getting infected with COVID-19. Its April 4 data showed a one-week growth rate of 28% in the number of new cases among the 0 to 17 age group, and a 35% rise among those 65 years old and above.

The group pointed out, however, that the average daily tally of new infections in the area has decreased to 4,676 over the past week — a 15% decline compared to the week before.

The current reproduction rate of the virus, or the number of people infected by a single patient, in the capital region has also dropped to 1.24, OCTA said. This is in comparison to the 1.43 seen during the March 31 to April 6 period, and the 1.88 recorded before the two-week long strict lockdown was imposed over the Greater Manila area.

Even so, OCTA clarified it is premature to say cases in NCR are now on a downward trend.

The region, along with nearby provinces Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, will ease to a modified enhanced community quarantine from April 12 until April 30, the Palace announced Sunday. Also included in the list of MECQ areas are Santiago City in Isabela, and the provinces of Quirino and Abra.

The Health department has so far tallied nearly 865,000 COVID-19 cases nationwide, of which close to 15,000 resulted in deaths and some 703,000 have been tagged as recoveries.

https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/4/11/Covid-19-deaths-NCR-OCTA.html

PH receives 500K more doses of procured Sinovac jabs

By Lade Jean Kabagani April 11, 2021, 8:15 pm

JUST ARRIVED. Sinovac vaccines are offloaded from a Philippine Airlines flight that flew in from Beijing on Sunday afternoon (April 11, 2021). Galvez said the country will receive 1.5 million doses this month and 2 million doses in May from Sinovac Biotech. (PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiler)

MANILA – The country’s national vaccination program is certain to keep going after 500,000 more doses of Sinovac vaccines arrived on Sunday afternoon from Beijing.

Officials, led by National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief implementer Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., witnessed the arrival at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 via a Philippine Airlines commercial flight.

Galvez said the new delivery is part of the 25 million doses of CoronaVac vaccines secured by the government from Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech.

"It's very important because we are racing against time and we want also to inoculate our people immediately because of the rising Covid-19 cases," he said in an interview.

Galvez praised the drugmaker Sinovac for the continuous delivery of Covid-19 vaccines.

"We are very thankful to Sinovac for honoring its commitment to us. As of now, we have donations from China and we already received around 1.5 million doses of our procurement of 25 million," he said.

The Philippines initially received 1 million doses of the procured supplies on March 29. A total of 1.5 million doses will arrive on April 22 and 29 and another 2 million in May.

The vaccines were transported and stored at the MetroPac cold storage facility in Marikina City.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1136401

FDA expects new applications for EUA this week

Published April 11, 2021, 7:47 PM by Leslie Ann Aquino

American drugmaker Moderna is expected to file for emergency use authorization (EUA) this week.

“We heard that Moderna may apply this week. They are just collating their documents,” FDA Director-General Eric Domingo said in a radio interview Sunday, April 11.

Last month, the FDA granted an EUA to the Sputnik V vaccine of Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute.

Gamaleya became the fourth drugmaker to be granted an EUA for their COVID-19 vaccine after Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac.

Those with pending applications are Bharat Biotech and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

The FDA official, meantime, is not ruling out the possibility of the Department of Health (DOH) applying an EUA on behalf of Sinopharm.

“The government, the DOH, may apply being an implementer of the vaccination program,” said Domingo.

“But even if it is the DOH applying, they still have to submit proof and documents showing the safety, efficacy, and quality of the product,” he added.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/fda-expects-new-applications-for-eua-this-week/

NCR’s hospital utilization to remain high despite drop in COVID-19 reproduction rate – expert

Published April 11, 2021, 1:24 PM by Jhon Aldrin Casinas

Hospital utilization in the National Capital Region (NCR) will remain high despite the drop in the reproduction number of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the metropolis, a member of an independent research group said Sunday, April 11.

In an interview over radio DZBB, OCTA Research fellow Dr. Butch Ong said the reproduction rate of COVID-19 in Metro Manila has decreased to 1.23 from the 1.88 following the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

“Yung reproduction number natin talaga ngayon, bagkus ay bumababa, mataas pa din ang mga hospital utilization (Our reproduction number right now, although it is decreasing, hospital utilization is still high,” Ong said.

Despite the improvement in the reproduction number, he noted that the average stay of a COVID-19 patient in the hospital is between two to three weeks.

He explained that if a COVID-19 patient was confined to a hospital on April 1, just a few days after the start of the ECQ in the National Capital Region (NCR)-plus, the patient is estimated to be discharged over 20 days later.

“Ibig sabihin nito, kahit na ibaba natin ang ECQ ngayon, marami pa ring pasyente dun sa ospital at yung ating healthcare facility ay baka ma-strain na (This means that even if we downgrade the ECQ now, there are still many patients in the hospital and our healthcare facility may be strained),” he added.

The health expert lamented that healthcare workers may no longer be able to cope with the increasing number of patients seeking for medical attention.

“We must flatten the curve so that the hospitals and the doctors can take care of the patients coming in,” Ong said.

Hospitals have been overwhelmed by the high number of patients following the surge in COVID-19 cases recently.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/11/ncrs-hospital-utilization-to-remain-high-despite-drop-in-covid-19- reproduction-rate-expert/

Demand for medical oxygen tanks going up

Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

Posted at Apr 11 2021 07:21 PM

Buyers check available medical oxygen tanks on sale in a supply store in Manila on Sunday. Demand for medical oxygen in the country went up due to rising COVID-19 cases and over- capacity of hospitals, particularly in the National Capital Region and adjacent provinces.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/multimedia/photo/04/11/21/demand-for-medical-oxygen-tanks

Pulse oximeter yes, oxygen tank optional: What are COVID-19 home care essentials?

ABS-CBN News

Posted at Apr 11 2021 10:43 AM | Updated as of Apr 11 2021 11:15 AM

MANILA - What are the essential medical equipment for home care in the time of COVID-19?

According to Philippine General Hospital spokesperson Jonas del Rosario, the essential medical equipment for monitoring COVID-19 at home are a thermometer, blood pressure monitor or gauge, and pulse oximeter, which measures a person's oxygen level.

"Ang normal [oxygen level] po kasi ay 95 percent and above. Sa amin pong algorithm, 'pag ang oxygen niyo ay less than 92 percent kailangan niyo na pong pumuntang emergency room o magpaadmit na po," he told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

(The normal oxygen level is 95 percent and above. In our algorithm, if your oxygen is less than 92 percent, you need to go to the emergency room or be admitted in a hospital.)

On the other hand, he said an oxygen tank is optional for COVID-19 home care since these are expensive. He said he has received reports that some villages have standby oxygen tanks just in case residents need it.

"Kung kaya mo bumili, opo (If you can afford it, yes)," he said.

Sales of oxygen tanks have increased as Filipinos said they fear not getting admitted into hospitals if they contract coronavirus. The Department of Health urged the public to use the device with medical supervision and warned that hospitals' supply may be depleted.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/11/21/pulse-oximeter-yes-oxygen-tank-optional-what-are-covid- 19-home-care-essentials

Richer nations received 87% of vaccines – WHO

Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star ) - April 12, 2021 - 12:00am MANILA, Philippines — Although more than 700 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, the vast majority of COVID-19 vaccines administered has gone to wealthy nations, according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO reported that rich countries have received more than 87 percent and low-income countries just 0.2 percent of the vaccines.

“There remains a shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines,” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said over the weekend.

“On average in high-income countries, almost one in four people has received a vaccine. In low-income countries, it’s one in more than 500. Let me repeat that: one in four versus one in 500,” Tedros added.

COVAX, the global solidarity initiative, has also experienced a shortage of vaccines. While the mechanism has distributed some 38 million doses, it was expected to deliver nearly 100 million by the end of March.

“The problem is not getting vaccines out of COVAX; the problem is getting them in,” Tedros said.

“We understand that some countries and companies plan to do their own bilateral vaccine donations, bypassing COVAX for their own political or commercial reasons. These bilateral arrangements run the risk of fanning the flames of vaccine inequity,” he added.

COVAX partners – including Gavi, the vaccine alliance – are working on several options to scale up production to meet the goal of delivering two billion doses by the end of the year.

Gavi chief executive officer Seth Berkley highlighted the need for continued solidarity.

“What we are now beginning to see are supply constraints, not just of vaccines, but also of the goods that go into making vaccines,” Berkley said. He added that COVAX is in discussions with several high-income countries to get them to share surplus vaccine doses.

COVAX is also developing cost-sharing mechanisms so that low-income countries can buy additional doses through the facility, funded by multilateral development banks.

Financing is also needed as demand for vaccines has risen with the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, according to Berkley.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said despite all that had been achieved in just a month and a half, “this is no time to celebrate; it is time to accelerate.”

“With variants emerging all over the world, we need to speed up global rollout,” UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said.

“To do this, we need governments, along with other partners, to take necessary steps to increase supply, including by simplifying barriers to intellectual property rights, eliminating direct and indirect measures that restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines and donating excess vaccine doses as quickly as possible,” Fore added.

The Philippines is among 102 COVAX Facility participants that have received a combined total of 38,392,540 doses of COVAX-delivered vaccines.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/04/12/2090526/richer-nations-received-87-vaccines-who

South African variant can ‘break through’ Pfizer vaccine, Israeli study says

• Among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant’s prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated – 5.4 per cent versus 0.7 per cent • This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain

A woman receives a coronavirus vaccination in Herzliya, Israel. Photo: Reuters

The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can “break through” Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is low and the research has not been peer reviewed.

The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for Covid- 19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.

The South African variant, B. 1.351, was found to make up about 1 per cent of all the Covid-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest health care provider, Clalit.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3129069/coronavirus-south-african-variant- can-break-through-pfizer

China expects to produce 3 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year

• An official from the National Health Commission says the country will be ‘fully capable of meeting our own demand’ within months • China aims to inoculate 40 per cent of its population by the end of June, but is scrambling to produce enough vaccines

Published: 7:22pm, 11 Apr, 2021

Updated: 6:50am, 12 Apr, 2021

China is ramping up its vaccine production. Photo: Reuters

China’s coronavirus vaccine production is expected to hit 3 billion doses by the end of the year, according to the country’s health agency.

National Health Commission official Zheng Zhongwei made the prediction – which is in line with previous estimates by other health experts – at a conference in Sichuan province on Saturday.

“In the second half of this year, will be are fully capable of meeting our own demand,” said Zheng, who also heads the national Covid-19 vaccinetask force.

The government has set a goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of its 1.4 billion population by the end of June, but faces an uphill struggle to meet the target, in part because of a lack of supplies.

However, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are rapidly expanding their production lines to manufacture

Covid-19 vaccinesto meet domestic demand.

One drug company, Sinovac, will double its capacity from 1 billion doses in February to 2 billion after completing a third production line this month, according to company announcements.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3129112/china-expects-produce-3-billion-doses- covid-19-vaccine-end-year

Chinese vaccines' effectiveness low, should consider benefits of mRNA vaccines: Officials

• Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, “Everyone should consider the benefits mRNA vaccines can bring for humanity,” he added.

READ FULL STORY PUBLISHED ON APR 11, 2021 11:35 AM IST https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/chinese-vaccines-effectiveness-low-should-consider- benefits-of-mrna-vaccines-officials-101618119895700.html

Effectiveness of Chinese vaccines ‘not high’ and needs improvement, top health official says

Head of Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Gao Fu said on April 10 that available vaccines in China “don’t have very high rates of protection.” (Reuters) By Gerry Shih

April 11, 2021 10:43 p.m. CST

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention conceded that the efficacy of Chinese coronavirus vaccines is "not high" and that they may require improvements, marking a rare admission from a government that has staked its international credibility on its doses.

The comments on Saturday from George Gao come after the government has already distributed hundreds of millions of doses to other countries, even though the rollout has been dogged by questions over why Chinese pharmaceutical firms have not released detailed clinical trial data about the vaccines’ efficacy.

China has struck deals to supply many of its allies and economic partners in the developing world and boasted that world leaders — including in Indonesia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates — have taken the shots.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-vaccine-efficacy-not-high- gao/2021/04/11/dafe3ab6-9a8f-11eb-8f0a-3384cf4fb399_story.html

South Korea to resume wider use of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, exclude people under 30

By Josh Smith

3 Min Read

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean authorities said on Sunday they will move ahead with a coronavirus vaccination drive this week, after deciding to continue using AstraZeneca PLC’s vaccine for all eligible people 30 years old or over.

FILE PHOTO: South Korean senior citizens receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Seoul, South Korea April 1, 2021. Chung Sung-Jun/Pool via REUTERS

South Korea on Wednesday suspended providing the AstraZeneca shot to people under 60 as Europe reviewed cases of blood clotting in adults.

People under 30 will still be excluded from the vaccinations resuming on Monday because the benefits of the shot do not outweigh the risks for that age group, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a statement.

Three vaccinated people in South Korea are reported to have developed blood clots, with one case determined to be correlated to the vaccine, Choi Eun-hwa, chair of the Korea Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices, told a briefing.

That case was a type of blood clot considered less serious than the type being examined by European authorities, she said.

For most people, the risks of coronavirus are far worse than the rare possibility of side effects from the vaccines, Choi said, adding that the best way to end the pandemic was to vaccinate everyone who can receive it.

But she said, “the benefits are not as great for those under 30 years old, so we will not recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for them.”

The AstraZeneca shot’s benefit-to-risk ratio rises the older people get as the risk of serious harm due to vaccination falls and ICU admissions prevented by vaccination rise sharply, according to the University of Cambridge’s Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication.

The drugmaker has said its studies have found no higher risk of clots because of its vaccine, millions of doses of which have been administered worldwide. The World Health Organization has said the benefits outweigh the risks. Global controversy over the efficacy and side-effects of some COVID-19 vaccines has caused some delays in South Korea’s vaccination campaign, which kicked off in late February with the goal of reaching herd immunity in November.

The second-quarter vaccination programme includes special disability school teachers and vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities and the homeless, the KDCA said.

Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Kim Coghill and William Mallard

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea/south-korea-to-resume-wider-use- of-astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine-exclude-people-under-30-idUSKBN2BY04Z

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

By Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

Australia doubles Pfizer order as Astra clotting worries upend rollout

Australia has doubled its order of the Pfizer Inc COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as it raced to overhaul its inoculation plan over concerns about the risks of blood clots with the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine.

Until late Thursday, Australia based its vaccination programme largely on an AstraZeneca shot, with an order for 50 million doses - enough for the required two shots for its entire 25 million population - to be made domestically by biopharma CSL Ltd. But it has now joined a host of countries in restricting use of the vaccine due to clotting concerns.

Green, amber or red: UK to classify travel destinations

Britain will confirm in early May whether it will allow international travel to resume from May 17 and which countries will fall into the red, amber or green categories in a new traffic light system based on COVID-19 risks.

Factors in assessing the categories will include the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated, rate of infection, prevalence of variants of concern and the country’s access to reliable genomic sequencing.

S.Korea, Japan to tighten curbs

Japan aims to place Tokyo under a new, month-long “quasi-emergency” state to combat surging COVID-19 cases, a minister said on Friday, less than a month after the capital and host of the Summer Olympics lifted a broader state of emergency.

Meanwhile, South Korea will reimpose a ban on nightclubs, karaoke bars and other nightly entertainment facilities from Monday for three weeks, authorities said on Friday, after the number of new coronavirus cases surged, fanning fears over a potential fourth wave of outbreaks.

French health body to say mRNA vaccine should be used as second dose after AstraZeneca

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-snapshot/what-you-need-to-know-about-the- coronavirus-right-now-idUSKBN2BW0JW

Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak Across the World

Updated: Tracking Covid-19 • Vaccine Tracker • Global Cases • U.S. Cases • U.S. Regions Sources: OECD for number of hospital beds (2016 for the U.S., 2017 for other countries), government agencies and the COVID Tracking Project via Our World in Data for testing data (various recent dates) (reported in the past 45 days) and the U.S. Census Bureau for population figures (2019).

The world is bracing for a new wave of Covid-19 infections, as the coronavirus pandemic has infected more than people and killed more than globally since late January 2020. Efforts many countries took to stamp out the pneumonia-like illness led to entire nations enforcing lockdowns, widespread halts of international travel, mass layoffs and battered financial markets. Recent attempts to revive social life and financial activities have resulted in another surge in cases and hospitalizations, though new drugs and improved care may help more people who get seriously ill survive.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-coronavirus-cases-world-map/?srnd=coronavirus

Time to stop the bully of the region

posted April 12, 2021 at 12:40 am by Orlando Oxales The bully of Southeast Asia is on the offensive again. As our people struggle with the new virulence of this virus that came from Wuhan, China, our national security and sovereignty is being violated by a masqueraded flotilla of purportedly militia laden Chinese vessels in yet another blatant swarming incursion into our exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). The latest incident is the chasing down of one of our civilian vessels carrying a Filipino television news broadcaster. The news reported two People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels pursuing the retreating civilian vessel deep into Philippine territorial waters off the coast of Palawan. Video footage showed the harassment became dangerously close. Two Houbei-class missile boats was said to have speeded into the scene after the coast guard vessel turned away. The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of National Defense has ordered an investigation for appropriate action. The strong statements of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana calling the incursion of over 200 Chinese vessels “a clear provocative action of militarizing the area” and reiterating demands for the Chinese to immediately withdraw this swarm of suspected militia boats is a welcome pivot in the treatment of these recurring incursions in the WPS. The Philippine Navy has deployed sovereignty patrols to increase presence in our territorial waters.

“We call on the Chinese to stop this incursion and immediately recall these boats violating our maritime rights and encroaching into our sovereign territory. We are committed to uphold our sovereign rights over the WPS,” Secretary Lorenzana said. Lorenzana hit the nail on the head when he stated that the presence of China’s vessels shows Beijing’s intent to occupy more areas and that China has “done this before” like in Scarborough Shoal.

DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin then followed Secretary Lorenzana’s verbal salvos with diplomatic protests and his own style of colored repartee with Chinese counterparts. A raging verbal shoot-out between the Philippines and China is now creating international alarm that now has our military ally the United States and Japan voicing out warnings to China to back off and stop the encroachment maneuvers, now threatening the peace and stability in one of the most important sea lanes of global maritime trade. Earlier in February, the US reaffirmed its commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement when the Philippines expressed serious concern on the new Chinese law which authorizes its Coast Guard to fire on vessels in maritime waters in their baseless and imaginary claim to almost the whole of the South China Sea (SCS). This claim has been declared without basis by the arbitral ruling legally establishing our sovereign rights in the EEZ and WPS under international law. The US has beefed up its military presence in the SCS in response to what geopolitical experts call as a new wave of “Gray Zone Operations”, a strategy that the Chinese have successfully deployed by swarming a targeted area with a large fleet of optically civilian-looking vessels to box out other countries and thwart the enforcement of diplomatic or legal channels to stop their island- grabbing operations. Former DFA Secretary Ambassador Albert del Rosario is now being proven right on his repeated calls to the leadership of this administration to assert our country’s victory on the Hague arbitral ruling which nullifies China’s bogus dash line annexation of the South China Sea. His sage advice was to forge alliances with many like-minded countries to uphold the rule of law and stand against Beijing, instead of kowtowing to Chinese bully tactics. This would have been a powerful and yet peaceful deterrent to the creeping invasion which has militarized so many islands within our own territories. The latest geospatial images provided by Simularity Inc. clearly exposed the dubious excuse of the Chinese that the more than 200 strong fleet spotted in Julian Reef since December were just moored together to seek refuge because of rough weather. The images clearly show their suspicious, non-fishing formation. More alarming images revealed the extent of well-developed facilities in militarized islands inside our EEZ. The clamor is growing for our government to reverse its appeasement posture and to stand up to China’s expansionist ambitions which has resulted in the wanton destructive exploitation of our exclusive maritime resources. This has also violated our sovereignty. We must engage our strong allies against this threat to our national security. As citizens, it is our right to demand decisive action from the leadership of this administration. https://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/open-thoughts-by-orlando-oxales/351571/time-to-stop- the-bully-of-the-region.html

China’s aggression

AS A MATTER OF FACT - Sara Soliven De Guzman (The Philippine Star) - April 12, 2021 - 12:00am Our people should realize that China is not playing games with us. Filipinos need to look at the bigger picture. It’s not only about China’s presence in our exclusive economic zones. It’s more about China claiming supremacy over the Western Pacific region.

The days of United States’ maritime supremacy over the West Pacific Sea is now being challenged by China’s claim over the region. The Chinese military ships we see all around are a show of force to the Western world. They want to control the region and, as we all know, eventually reign as the supreme power of the world. The big question is, will the United States, a global power, allow China to gain ground and domination?

Last week’s visit to the West Philippine Sea by a television reporter was a dangerous attempt. Our Philippine Navy should warn Filipino citizens not to play around. The West Philippine Sea, a portion of the South China Sea, is not a playing field, especially at this time.

The navy exercises happening there is a matter that must be handled by the state and not its citizens. The problem is that we do not see our government seriously taking action to the encroachment or unauthorized visits of the Chinese vessels. The behavior of the Chinese in our waters is intriguing, questionable and brings so much concern to our citizens. But our President seems to be calmly accepting China’s actions.

China has strategically positioned their fighter jets, aircraft carriers, anti- submarine aircraft, military ships, etc. – not to mention their precision-guided munitions, orbital sensors and agile cyber capabilities – near the islands of Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. In fact, when Chinese vessels entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, Taiwan’s air force warned the Chinese right away. By the way, the same has happened in the past when Chinese vessels intruded the coastlines and waters of Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.

The USS John S. McCain was seen in the Taiwan Strait last week. According to the US Navy, they were conducting a routine transit of the Taiwan Strait but China cried foul, denouncing the US as “endangering the peace and stability” in the area.

Taiwan is a small country but she will not allow herself to be bullied by China. Taiwan knows what she wants. The Taiwanese are united in their stand towards China. Unlike our country, we are divided and so it makes it easier for China to invade us. Taiwan’s Foreign Minister in a recent press conference firmly said: “We are willing to defend ourselves without any questions and we will fight the war if we need to fight the war. And if we need to defend ourselves to the very last day we will defend ourselves to the very last day.” Sigh! What about us?

After our Foreign Secretary and Defense Secretary showed strong stands against China’s sending light fighter aircraft to fly (aside from patrol boats) over hundreds of Chinese vessels believed to be maritime militia within our exclusive economic zone (EEZ), our President softened our position, directing his men to peacefully resolve the dispute.

So, how can we be taken seriously when clearly we are lost? We are weakened because we don’t know what we want. On one side we accept all the gifts from a friend supposedly a foe. On the other hand, we are angered by her intrusions or unwelcomed presence inside our territory. Yes, we have a Jekyll and Hyde syndrome.

Duterte has placed himself in a dilemma. Will he continue to nurture his relations with China? Does he really think China sees him as a best friend? Does China really care? China will do everything to get her way, even if it means donating a shipload of COVID-19 vaccines, giving huge loans left and right, etc. But don’t forget that there is always an exchange for all these advancements. After receiving the Sinovac donation, can you easily tell China to back off? Get your act together guys!

China has its own geopolitical agenda to conquer the world – politically and through military supremacy. We know how strong China is now economically. In the recent decade, China has clearly regained its strength. Whether the world agrees with her or not, she is powerful. If we want her to stop gaining ground in our territory, we must know how to act toward her. The problem is that our current President has a different approach many Filipinos detest.

Bottom line: China wants the US forces out of the South China Sea and its neighboring seas as it is one of the world’s important economic routes, where major trading-cargo ships (containing 80 percent of energy and almost 40 percent of trade imports) pass, where marine life is rich (12 percent of the global fish catch comes from here), including abundant oil reserves (holding around 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil).

In the article, South China Sea: What’s China’s plan for its ‘Great Wall of Sand’? by Alexander Neill, a military analyst and director of a strategic advisory consultancy in Singapore for BBC, he writes: “What is China’s South China Sea goal? Beijing views the South China Sea as a crucial part of its maritime territory, not only serving as a bastion for its seaborne nuclear deterrent based on Hainan island but also as a gateway for the Maritime Silk Road, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The South China Sea is critical, for example, for the future success of China’s Greater Bay Area economic development plan, into which Hong Kong is incorporated.”

He continues: “China’s plan for populating the South China Sea was launched in 2012 when ‘Sansha City,’ the administrative center for all Chinese-claimed features in the South China Sea on Woody Island in the Paracels, was upgraded from county to prefecture-level status... In April 2018, 200-ton commemorative megaliths, erected on each of the three biggest island bases in the Spratly Islands, were unveiled amid some secrecy. Quarried from Taishan stone and shipped to the Spratly islands, the monuments resonate with President Xi Jinping’s China Dream of national rejuvenation.

“Mount Taishan is viewed as the most sacred of China’s mountains, a symbol of unbroken Chinese civilization for thousands of years. All of this shows China has moved into a second phase of a calculated plan to make this great strategic waterway of South East Asia an irreversibly Chinese one... Alongside the US Naval maneuvers, Mr. Pompeo’s announcement formally stating that China’s claims across the region are ‘completely unlawful’ begs the question of what the US is prepared to do next... The US could very rapidly reduce China’s new Nansha district to concrete and coral rubble – but this would entail a war for which neither the US nor China has an appetite.”

At this point it would be wise for us to take heed of General Sun Tzu’s wisdom. He was a Chinese philosopher, military strategist and writer of The Art of War: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2021/04/12/2090547/chinas-aggression The bare minimum posted April 12, 2021 at 12:50 am In the past few days, we were regaled with photos of the President jogging, swinging a golf club, and mounting a motorcycle in the cover of dark, supposedly on the grounds of Malacañang. Perhaps Senator felt he needed to do better than that photo of himself working in an office with President Rodrigo Duterte across from him, which he had also circulated a few days before. As proof of life, a newspaper was conveniently placed on the table between them. Unfortunately, social media users have played with these images, photoshopping this or that personality or even characters in a movie, showing how easy it was to insert people in a scenario with the help of technology. Mr. Duterte has been conspicuously absent from the public view in the past two weeks. Thus, if the intention of the Mr. Go is to assure Filipinos that the President is, contrary to nasty rumors, alive, then he has likely succeeded. Then again, it’s reprehensible for anybody to wish illness or death on others. It is a good thing that the man elected into office by 16 million voters in 2016 is around. Managing an emergency political transition at this time would only compound our woes. Filipinos, however, need their leaders to be more than just alive. More than one year into the COVID-19 crisis, we are seeing record highs in the number of new cases. Hospitals are overwhelmed and patients are dying waiting for their turn to be accommodated in emergency rooms. Testing and contact tracing have been limited all this time. The resurgence has also caused new restrictions on business and mobility, and the effects are much too palpable, even when NCR Plus returns to modified enhanced community quarantine today after two weeks of strict lockdown. People are losing jobs and are desperate for ‘ayuda.’ And then we are told the funds are running dry. Even the ongoing administration of vaccines to priority groups has been slow. The sight of Mr. Duterte up and about is a small consolation given all that we are facing right now. The disease is hitting closer to home, entire families instead of just individuals are getting infected, and there are no clear prospects for economic recovery. Millions do not know where their next meal would come from. What we need are not photos or proofs of life. Instead, Filipinos need some assurance that their national government, acting through their local government and elected representatives, are working in unison toward specific objectives, measurable targets and coordinated action. More than images of midnight jogs, we need notifications on how we can get vaccinated, where to get help if somebody in the family, especially the breadwinner, falls ill, or what steps to take and which facilities to go to in the event we feel symptoms of the disease. These would be more than enough proof that the people we voted to lead us are doing their jobs. We don’t really care if they walk or jog, or mount a horse or a motorbike—or even a jet ski, as long as they do the work. https://manilastandard.net/opinion/editorial/351573/the-bare-minimum-20210412.html

How Duque is making a fool out of us posted April 12, 2021 at 12:20 am by Charlie V. Manalo The past few days, the group chats of which I am a member have been flooded with debates on the ivermectin issue. While the pros outnumber those who oppose the controversial drug, the antis still would not give in even if they could not come up with any categorical answers to two major concerns I have raised – the alleged conflict of interest of ivermectin oppositor, Dr. Edsel Salvana, and the Department of Health’s seeming bias in favor of a very expensive (or highly-overpriced) drug, Remdesivir, which the agency appears to be endorsing for treatment for COVID-19 patients. No one among those opposing ivermectin in our chat groups would confirm nor deny that Salvana, a member of the National Health Institute – University of the Philippines which was commissioned by the DoH to conduct a study on Ivermectin and which rejected the drug, is supposedly a member of the Speaker’s Bureau of several giant pharmaceuticals, including Merck, the original manufacturer of ivermectin, the patent of which has long expired.

As we all know, Merck is now pushing for an anti-COVID-19 drug, Molnupiravir. It’s a simple one plus one here. If Salvana is indeed a spokesman for Merck and given Merck’s current status, how could we expect a fair and honest assessment from Salvana regarding ivermectin? On the second issue. The World Health Organization has recommended against the use of Remdesivir for treatment of COVID-19 patients. And yet, the DoH, led by Secretary Francisco Duque, seems to be insisting on its use.

What’s the catch? According to reports, Remdesivir only costs around P589 in India, but is being dispensed to patients in the Philippines at a staggering cost of P15,000 to P28,000 per vial, given twice a day for 10 days, or for a low of P300,000 to a high of P560,000 per patient, chargeable to PhilHealth. And who heads PhilHealth? You guessed right. Duque sits as the chair of the said government-owned and controlled corporation.

A few days ago, Anakalusugan Rep. Michael Defensor and 1-Pacman Rep. Eric Pineda bared they were seeking a congressional probe regarding the DoH and the Food and Drug Administration’s refusal to allow the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 (Although a couple of days back, FDA granted a compassionate permit to a hospital for its use, which is still much short of the emergency use authorization people are clamoring, just like what it granted to Remdesivir). So, while they are at it, maybe Defensor and Pineda could take a look why Duque has allowed the use of Remdesivir, even going against the recommendation of the WHO. Who are the importers of Remdesivir, who dictate its price, and why does Duque seem to be pushing it?

And then again, maybe they could include in their investigation, Duque’s amazing, if not magical report on the number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Around July last year, Deputy Majority Leader, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo questioned the complicated manner by which the DoH presents its figures concerning the number of COVID-19 cases. Back then, Arroyo noted that that the DOH website, it clearly stated that the total active COVID-19 cases in the country as of July 21, stands at 70,764, the active cases at 45,646 as there have been 23,81 recoveries and 1,837 deaths to date. However, Arroyo said that if you will let the computer cursor hover above the entry for positivity rate which stands at 8.6 percent, a figure stating there are already 94,919 positive individuals will appear, or a difference of 24,155 cases. And I have personally checked on that to validate Arroyo’s claim. And it was clearly stated then, positive individuals and not positive tests. Having been exposed, the DoH had since changed its presentation. But this time, the effort to fool us is more glaring. In its daily update, the DoH claims that as of April 10, 2021, there are 190,245 active cases of which 98.9 percent are mild and asymptomatic and 0.04 percent are critical; 0.05 percent severe; and 0.26 percent are moderate. Thus, at the most, only 0.35 percent of the 190,245 cases will require hospitalization. Or if the moderate case won’t need to be hospitalized, then that leaves us only with 0.09 percent needing hospital treatment. Also, it states that only 86 percent of the 700 ICU beds in the National Capital Region are in use; 69 percent of the 3,800 isolation beds in NCR are in use; 58 percent of the 2,200 ward beds are in use; and, 59 percent of the 800 ventilators are in use.

Now, I won’t claim to be a mathematical genius as I have given up on cracking Fermat’s Last Theorem a long time ago, but I am certainly not as dumb as the lady government official who said that 40 times 4 is 1,600.

So, let’s now make the computation. 0.04 percent of 190,245 cases is only about 76 patients. 0.05 percent is equivalent to about 95 patients. And 0.26 percent runs to about 494. Thus assuming all those, which is about 665 patients, would be needing hospitalization, even the 700 ICU beds would be more than enough. So, why are the hospitals rejecting patients saying they have now been overwhelmed by the number of cases? A former journalist, Lailee Parreno, died isolating himself inside his SUV after being rejected by hospitals who claimed they were filled more than their capacity. Even the number of cases is confusing. According to the DoH, we have 12,674 new cases based on reports culled from April 9 testing which yielded the following results: Of the 40,868 tested, 20.7 percent came out positive. Well, Mr. Duque, 20.7 percent of 40,868 is only 8,459. Where in the world are you getting your figures? Congressmen Defensor and Pineda, please help us unravel the truth regarding the real score on this pandemic. Please compel Duque to explain his apparent preference for the expensive (or highly- overpriced Remdesivir), and the way he is misleading the people on his magical COVID numbers. He has been fooling us for the longest time. https://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/naked-thought-by-charlie-v-manalo/351569/how-duque- is-making-a-fool-out-of-us.html

Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips, grow closer

They are not leaders for life — not technically, at least. In political reality, the powerful tenures of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and, as of this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin are looking as if they will extend much deeper into the 21st century — even as the two superpowers whose destinies they steer gather more clout with each passing year.

What is more, as they consolidate political control at home, sometimes with harsh measures, they are working together more substantively than ever in a growing challenge to the West and the world’s other superpower, the US, which elects its leader every four years.

This week, Putin signed a law allowing him to potentially hold on to power until 2036. The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power for more than two decades — longer than any other Kremlin leader since Joseph Stalin — pushed through a constitutional vote last year allowing him to run again in 2024, when his six-year term ends. He has overseen a systematic crackdown on dissent.

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2021/04/11/2003755458

In a warring world economy split into US vs China blocs, there can be no winners

• As the divide into two ecosystems of economic and trade activities deepens, business costs increase, efficiency falls – and everyone in the global economy loses

Anthony Rowley

US President Joe Biden at his first formal news conference at the White House on March 25. His administration is cementing the foundations of the great divide. Photo: Reuters

It was alarming to hear a recent conversation between experts from the United States and China discussing the risk of unconstrained rivalry between the two nations leading to catastrophe. Yet that rivalry is fast becoming more entrenched – a development as dangerous as it is ominous.

This is obviously true on the security front (notably in East Asia) but what is less obvious is what is happening on the economic front, where a decoupling of systems is creating a net negative situation for the world’s two leading economies and, ultimately, the rest of the world. One of the speakers in the dialogue organised by the Centre for China and Globalisation was Harvard professor Graham Allison, whose belief that the US and China are being drawn into a

Thucydides trap, whereby a rising power is destined to collide with an established one, has gained wide currency.

The issue, according the centre’s president Wang Huiyao, is whether the world’s two largest economies can escape the fate of military conflict.

It may be that the prospect of mutually assured destruction will deter conflict (as was the case with the US and the former Soviet Union) but, aside from the risk of fatal accidents during a policy of brinkmanship, the sheer waste of energy and resources involved is inexcusable.

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129035/warring-world-economy-split-us-vs-china- blocs-there-can-be-no

Why in US eyes, China’s maritime ambition can only appear as a threat

• America’s own journey to power colours its perception of Chinese intention. What to Beijing is a defensive response to historical lessons is seen as a threat to US naval supremacy • More understanding on both sides can help prevent Published: 1:00am, 12 Apr, 2021

Updated: 1:00am, 12 Apr, 2021

Illustration: Craig Stephens

The Ides fell on March 19 this year; diplomatic etiquette was abandoned at the Anchorage meeting as a result of clashing assumptions between the two largest economies in the world. In the immediate aftermath, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Europe to rally the allies while Chinese Foreign Minister started his six-nation Middle East visit. They were at each other’s heels, and there is a sequence of naval exercisesmaking waves. Game on.

For most Americans, post-war prosperity and security depended on their country’s unique leadership as the dominant military power and the beacon of democracy. The United States is the world’s security guarantor, its dispute arbiter and deterrent force. America’s social fabric was based on this strategic identity, through which Americans saw their country shape the world.

From the Chinese perspective, however, American-led Western powers control the international order in ways that weaken or threaten lesser powers, especially in the developing nations, thus diminishing the stability and prosperity of the world.

These competing assumptions, if not moderated through mutual accommodation, can morph into full-scale economic, and potentially military, warfare, undermining the shared goals of peace and prosperity. These differences in culture and societal structures have long been emphasised as major causes of antagonism between China and the US.

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3128950/why-us-eyes-chinas-maritime-ambition- can-only-appear-threat

Milk Tea Alliance

BREAKTHROUGH - Elfren S. Cruz (The Philippine Star) - April 11, 2021 - 12:00am There are so many critical events in Asia today that have global implications. The countries and territories involved are geographically diverse – Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Myanmar and in the Uyghur homeland in Western China. There are diverse issues, but the one common denominator is the involvement of China in one form or another.

The Philippines is the victim of incursions by Chinese maritime vessels in the Juan Felipe Reef, which is well within Philippine territory. Filipino fishermen have been driven away and have lost their livelihood. Chinese embassy officials have had different claims about their vessels in the area.

First, these were supposed to be fishing boats that were seeking shelter from a storm. However, Defense Secretary Lorenzana, in a tweet, said: “I am no fool. The weather has been good so far, so they have no other reason to stay there… These vessels should be on their way out. Umalis kayo diyan (Get out of there).”

Then the Chinese officials claim that this area was traditional fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen. However, Juan Felipe Reef is 374 kilometers from the southern tip of Palawan and is well within the country’s 370 km exclusive economic zone. Photos also showed that the maritime vessels included gunboats and maritime militia vessels.

In another recent story, a civilian vessel with some news people seeking to cover the incident was met by Chinese missile boats and was told to go back.

China has already occupied several territories, including Mabini Reef and Hughes Reef. The Philippines has not occupied any reefs presumably for fear of antagonizing Chinese authorities. In contrast, Vietnam has built structures on Sin Cowe Island, Roxas Reef and Landsdowne Reef – all in the West Philippine Sea in defiance of Chinese threats.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin has also filed diplomatic protests. These protests are not conclusive about the stand of the Philippines because Malacañang has not issued any statement on the Philippine protests. Chinese authorities are also saying that Juan Felipe Reef is part of Nansha Island and should be called Niu’e Jiao. This is part of its sweeping claims that China owns almost the entire South Sea, including the West Philippine Sea.

Meanwhile, tensions between China and Taiwan have become more intense in recent weeks. There have been increased activities near Taiwan being conducted by Beijing. A group of 15 Chinese aircraft, including 12 fighters, were flying in the area between the Philippines and Taiwan. Taiwan sent up its own fighter jets to intercept and warn the Chinese away. Naval exercises were being conducted by Chinese vessels in the seas facing the eastern shores of Taiwan.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu recently said: “We are willing to defend ourselves without any questions and we will fight the war. And if we need to defend ourselves to the very last day, we will defend ourselves to the very last day.”

It should be noted that Taiwan has a democratically elected government while China is an authoritarian government with Xi Jin Ping intending to be ruler for life.

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2021/04/11/2090261/milk-tea-alliance

Hybrid warfare, pandemic style

Ikram Sehgal

APRIL 9, 2021 The Corona pandemic that the world is struggling with for the second year now has brought home to us some important lessons about ourselves. The first thing to realize might be that in a thoroughly interconnected world not only people, goods and ideas travel but so do viruses using people and goods to hitchhike around the world. In the beginning many of us thought that this new challenge will change our world and our behaviour for the better, make us more companionable, more conscious of health, environmental issues and allow us to understand that we are depending on each other for the better or the worse. But over a year later we have to realize that this is really a pipedream. The pandemic has made countries scramble for cover mainly each for themselves. Signs of selfishness and re-occurring nationalism that had been visible before corona had hit strengthened instead of weakening. US President Trump had declared ‘America first’ and acted accordingly.

However when the pandemic hit Trump and his administration, though they acted belatedly they made sure scientists and pharmaceutical companies of the US got together in the rush to develop a vaccine in the shortest possible time. This is was quite an effort given the strong competition from and between companies like Pfizer and Merck in the market. Even though it is not fashionable to give any credit to Trump it was his administration that laid the foundation for an edge in the vaccine development by bringing multiple vaccines into the market and – even more important- quickly concluding the contracts that allowed the US government to snap up more vaccine supplies than any other country and possible many times more than they will need for their own population.

The EU was unable to handle the UK Brexit demands and never once even asked itself if the Brits might have a point when they criticized the EU statutes and policies. When corona hit Europe it turned out that the EU was all but paralysed, unable to act or even to be on the same page in most questions regarding how to handle the pandemic. Immersed in their little power plays and stuck in bureaucracy they delayed concluding contracts to secure vaccines for the European population, this is the main reason why Europe is behind in its vaccination efforts and has to cope with a rising number of infections. The second largest investor into vaccine research after the US Germany, for instance got punished for waiting for the EU to order vaccines and is behind in its vaccination efforts mainly because of the absence of enough doses. Schools are off because teachers are not inoculated and so are kindergartens. Many of the countries have suffered badly, mainly Italy and Spain.

https://dailytimes.com.pk/743301/hybrid-warfare-pandemic-style/

Waive Covid-19 patents to help poor nations now

• Slow rate of vaccination in low-income countries using patented doses as insisted by rich countries means the world won’t achieve herd immunity for 4.6 years, new study says

Alex Lo

Delaying or denying the delivery of Covid-19 vaccinesto poor countries may end up causing millions to die needlessly while prolonging the global pandemic. At the current rate, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates it will take 4.6 years to gain worldwide herd immunity.

“Vaccine nationalism perpetuates the long history of powerful countries securing vaccines and therapeutics at the expense of less-wealthy countries; it is short-sighted, ineffective and deadly,” a separate opinion piece in the same journal has argued.

An international programme called Covax Facility to distribute more doses to low-income countries has been off to a woefully slow start. That’s because rich countries such as the United States have squeezed dry the global vaccine supply, having ordered doses multiple times their current populations. Canada now has enough to vaccinate its entire population five times over.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a former United Nations assistant secretary general for economic development, has compared rich countries blocking efforts to produce generic vaccines to “genocide”.

“Refusal to temporarily suspend several World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property (IP) provisions to enable much faster and broader progress in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic should be grounds for International Criminal Court prosecution for genocide,” he wrote recently on Inter Press Service, a news agency.

“As Covid-19 infections and deaths continue to rise alarmingly, rich countries are falling out among themselves, fighting for access to vaccine supplies, as IP profits take precedence over lives and livelihoods.” https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129125/waive-covid-19-patents-help-poor-nations- now?li_source=LI&li_medium=asia_section_top_picks_for_you%29

WHO’s COVID-19 report fails litmus test on transparency

• | CARTOONARTS INTERNATIONAL • Apr 10, 2021 The joint investigation by researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and China offers insight — not answers — into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak that has transformed the world. While its details are helpful, study participants and informed observers continue to focus on the many unknowns that persist after release of the report last week. Politics and science have battled for supremacy — and it looks like politics prevailed.

Questions have swirled around the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world last year. While virtually all evidence pointed to China as the source of the outbreak, precisely when the disease appeared and where it came from are bitterly contested. The WHO-China report places the start of the outbreak in the second half of 2019, somewhat earlier than thought; the world was first alerted to the existence of the novel coronavirus in January 2020 as the city of Wuhan grappled with a strange and virulent disease.

The report offers four theories on the origins of COVID-19 and concluded that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario. Direct spread from bats to human was likely; spread to humans from the packaging of “cold-chain” food products, a theory popular in China, was possible; a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a hypothesis advanced by critics of Beijing made especially forcefully by Trump administration officials, is “extremely unlikely.”

While the Chinese government applauded the report, others were much more critical. Dismissal of the “lab leak theory” generated considerable pushback, with supporters of the hypothesis charging the research team’s visit to the Wuhan laboratory was stage managed and did not provide meaningful access to data.

In a joint statement released almost simultaneously with the WHO-China report, 14 countries, Japan among them, expressed “shared concerns” that the study “was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken more bluntly complained that “We’ve got real concerns about the methodology and the process that went into that report, including the fact that the government in Beijing apparently helped to write it.”

The signatories of the joint statement called for “a renewed commitment by WHO and all Member States to access, transparency, and timeliness” and “a robust, comprehensive, and expert-led mechanism” to investigate disease outbreaks “that is conducted with full and open collaboration among all stakeholders and in accordance with the principles of transparency, respect for privacy, and scientific and research integrity.” Joining the criticism was Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, who came under fire last year for being too accommodating toward Beijing. He agreed that “all hypotheses remain on the table” and called for “further investigation of the laboratory leak theory.”

China rejects all criticism. A foreign ministry spokesperson asserted that the report “ruled out” the lab leak hypothesis. A Chinese scientist on the investigating team explained that the WHO team got the same data as did Chinese officials, and any restrictions were the product of Chinese laws about privacy and national security.

Those rebuttals are undercut by indisputable Chinese government efforts to cover up the outbreak when it first appeared in Wuhan in December 2019 and January 2020. There is ample reporting of Chinese government attempts to subsequently control all research on the origins of the disease. Doubts about China’s commitment to a full and complete understanding of what transpired are justified.

Getting answers to these unanswered questions will be difficult enough without Beijing’s attempts to manage, if not obstruct, any investigation. Scientists point out that even after 40 years, they still do not know which species of bat serves as the natural reservoir for Ebola.

Answers are essential. More than a year after the disease first appeared in humans, efforts must focus on prevention rather than merely detecting and responding to the coronavirus. Scientists cannot prevent future outbreaks if they cannot figure out where COVID-19 came from and establish the routes the virus traveled as it journeyed from animals to humans. One focus should be the individuals who worked in and the animals traded at Wuhan markets. Another is finding out which animal(s) provided the critical stepping stone from bats to humans. Both are among the recommendations of the WHO-China report for additional studies.

Even without accepting the theory that the virus leaked from a lab (a “lab accident”) or the more damning assertion that it was manufactured there (a “lab construct”), more attention must be paid to these facilities. China has had safety breaches in the past, but other countries, including the U.S., have had troubling incidents as well. While there are two international standards for medical laboratories that conduct this type of work, remarkably, there is no single international dedicated standard for biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories, like the one in Wuhan. Instead, governments rely on the WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual for guidance. This is inexcusable.

Finally, it is clear that the WHO plays a vital role in responding to pandemic diseases and outbreaks are going to become more frequent. Given this role, all governments must remain engaged with the WHO to ensure that its work is impartial, objective, accurate and reliable.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2021/04/10/editorials/china-who-covid-19/

Questions remain over US ties

• Taiwan-US relations are said to be entering a new stage after Washington on Friday released new diplomatic guidelines, but some sensitive issues still require delicate negotiations. • In its announcement, the US Department of State said the new guidelines “liberalize guidance on contacts with Taiwan” and show that the nation is a vibrant democracy, and important security and economic partner. However, the department also reiterated the US’ “one China” policy and used the word “unofficial” twice to describe the relations. • While the US has repeatedly said that its commitment to Taiwan is “rock solid,” Washington is taking steps to bring bilateral relations back into a rules-based order by setting limits to the ecstatic, risky developments under the previous US administration. • After then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Jan. 9 announced the cancelation of previous guidelines shortly before leaving office, Taiwan’s diplomats were excited to see the realization of what they had for decades strived to achieve. • Overseas representative offices posted on social media photographs of meetings with their US counterparts in a third country, while Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim ( 蕭美琴) posted photographs showing meetings with US officials on their premises. • Pompeo’s lifting of limits was thrilling, but also brought about more anxiety. • Over the past three months, Taiwanese lawmakers and commentators have been asking whether diplomats could start raising the national flag on official premises in the US without provoking Washington, as occurred in 2015, and whether the president, vice president, premier, vice premier and ministers of defense and foreign affairs could visit Washington. • The questions remain, as the new guidelines were not publicized, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the questions were not covered in the document. • Judging from the ministry’s news release yesterday, which said that the new guidelines reflect the closeness of bilateral interactions in the past few years and aim to relax untimely restrictions, it might be inferred that the measures were not so much a breakthrough as a formalization of what has already happened. Nonetheless, the warming of diplomatic ties, although unofficial, might pave the way for tackling other sticking points before the relations can be further formalized. • First and foremost, the possibility of resuming trade talks remains unclear. The Office of the US Trade Representative in a report last week expressed concerns about Taiwan’s maximum residue limits for ractopamine in imported US pork, which it said “inaccurately implies that there is a food safety concern with US pork and pork products” and discourages Taiwanese manufacturers from purchasing them. • While the government has risked its domestic political interests to lift the restrictions on US pork and beef products, restarting talks for a bilateral trade agreement still seems far away. • Meanwhile, although encouraged by the US, Taiwan’s attempts to boost its defense capabilities are still subject to regulations of advanced research and development items. For example, the Ministry of National Defense had to obtain the US’ approval for “red zone” military technologies used in its indigenous submarine development project. • Taiwan has also been hoping to produce its own rockets to launch satellites into space, but pertinent plans were either canceled or restricted, allegedly due to the US’ concerns, given that techniques for making rockets are similar to those for missiles. • As the National Space Organization is to mark its 30th anniversary later this year and a rocket scientist is to become its new director-general, it is intriguing how far the nation’s rocket development might proceed under the reorganized Taiwan-US relations.

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2021/04/11/2003755453

Beijing cannot halt Uighur policies

o By Patrik Meyer • Interrupting the assimilation of Xinjiang’s Uighur population would result in an unmanageable national security threat to China. • Numerous governments and civil society organizations around the world have accused China of massive human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and labeled Beijing’s inhumane and aggressive social re-engineering efforts in the region as “cultural genocide.” • Extensive evidence shows that China’s forceful ethnic assimilation policies in Xinjiang are aimed at replacing Uighur ethnic and religious identity with a so-called scientific communist dogma and Han Chinese culture. The total assimilation of Uighurs into the larger “Chinese family” is also Beijing’s official, central purpose of its ethnic policies in the region. • Consequently, numerous Western actors are escalating their political, economic and diplomatic pressure on Beijing to coerce it into stopping the program. • In the US, last year’s Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act condemns gross human rights violations of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, and calls for an “end to arbitrary detention, torture, and harassment of these communities inside and outside China.” • During his presidential campaign, US President Joe Biden referred to the crackdown on Uighurs as “genocide,” and in the past few months imposed numerous political and economic sanctions on Beijing. • The UK has imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, and British lawmakers are discussing a genocide trade bill that, if passed, would seriously restrict trade with China. • Political parties in northern Europe are asking to end the EU’s free trade talks with China. • The list of measures goes on. • A consequence of the growing public outcry against Beijing’s assimilation policies in Xinjiang is the probable partial boycott of next year’s Beijing Winter Olympic Games. • After all, how could a country send its athletes to an event organized by a genocidal regime? Numerous representatives of Western governments have added their support for the boycott. • Canadian lawmakers have called for the relocation of the Olympics over the Chinese government’s reported abuses of Uighurs. • Australia has discussed the possibility of boycotting the Games, and Australian athletes were urged to support the boycott. • US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg also discussed the possibility of boycotting the Games. • British Secretary of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab said that a boycott of the Olympics was possible due to China’s mistreatment of Uighurs. • In September last year, more than 160 human rights organizations called on the International Olympic Committee to withdraw the Games from Beijing. • Again, the list of calls for the Beijing Olympics to be boycotted goes on. • Maybe more damaging than the possibility of the Games being partially boycotted is the growing economic cost that China is paying for not halting its assimilationist policies in Xinjiang. • Large Chinese conglomerates have been targeted directly for having production facilities in Xinjiang or using Uighur “slave labor.” Biden’s trade agenda is strongly shaped by issues related to Uighur forced labor. • Xinjiang’s massive cotton industry, representing 20 percent of global cotton production, is undermined by direct sanctions, and India, China’s regional competitor, is reaping the benefits. • Also, the until recently booming Chinese solar industry is seeing its sales plummet in Western countries. • Numerous global companies, such as Nike, H&M, Hugo Boss, Volkswagen and Burberry (to mention just a few), are under scrutiny and have been asked to prove that they are not sourcing labor or materials from Xinjiang. • Nike is experiencing mounting public pressure and has been shamed because some of its products are allegedly tainted by Uighur “slave labor.” • Despite the mounting Western political pressure, the substantial damage to China’s international standing and the massive economic cost that the assimilationist policies in Xinjiang entail, Beijing has neither recognized that its harsh policies are resulting in massive human rights abuses nor has it signaled that it is willing to reverse or halt them. • Assuming that Beijing is committing massive human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the following question needs to be addressed: Can Beijing stop its harsh assimilationist policies there? • The short answer is no. • Beijing cannot interrupt the forced assimilation of the Uighur population in Xinjiang because doing so would result in an unmanageable national security threat to China. • Despite the complexity of the situation, the core reason is relatively obvious: Uighurs’ despair and hatred toward China and its Han representatives. • This hatred is fanned by the ruthlessness of the assimilationist policies. • For instance, to ensure that all Uighurs renounce their ethnic identity and adopt the Chinese one, millions of them are for long periods held at re-education camps, which some have called “concentration camps.” • There, aggressive brainwashing, physical torment and humiliation are allegedly used to replace their religious beliefs and Uighur culture with communist dogmas and Han Chinese culture. Those who resist are punished harshly. • To prove that they have been successfully re-educated, Uighurs are asked whether they have memorized Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) policies, sing Chinese nationalist songs, eat pork, drink alcohol, and refrain from using the Uighur language, pray and fast. • Obviously, these Uighurs feel extremely humiliated and desperate, and it can be expected that they want to seek revenge against their Han tormentors. • Outside the camps, Uighurs are also suffering under the assimilation policies. • As a consequence of the massive detention of adults and family separation policies, tens of thousands of young children lose contact with their parents and are sent to orphanages, where they are brought up in a Han Chinese cultural environment. • Also, Uighur families are forced to accept thousands of Han Chinese officials to live in their homes as uninvited guests. These officials supervise and “guide” the families on how to reject Muslim values and Uighur traditions to become good Chinese citizens. • There are numerous accounts of Uighur women being coerced into marrying Han Chinese men. • The list of documented human rights abuses committed in Xinjiang goes on. • Obviously, Uighurs hate this situation and would do anything to hurt their Han abusers. • Given that the large majority of the more than 11 million Uighurs worldwide are going through this aggressive, humiliating, painful and devastating assimilation program, it can be assumed that at this stage, nearly 100 percent of adult Uighurs hate Han Chinese. • More importantly, most of them can be expected to be eager to hurt China if they were given a chance. • Hence, if the assimilation process is halted and Uighurs are allowed to enjoy basic freedoms again, many of them would use those freedoms to seek revenge and harm China in any way they could. • These millions of revenge-seeking Uighurs would pose a real national security threat to China, which Beijing might not be able to counter in any reasonable way. • The implications of this situation put Western governments and organizations in a difficult position. Consequently, they would have to stop demanding from Beijing to halt its brutal “genocidal” policies and limit their demands to asking for a softening of the assimilationist policies. Obviously, this is not a position that any Western actor could take openly. • Yes, there is massive evidence that Uighurs are put through an intensive and harsh assimilation program that aims to replace most of their ethnic identity with a homogenous Han Chinese one. • Still, the West should understand that no degree of political and diplomatic pressure, and no level of economic cost inflicted on China would coerce Beijing into halting the assimilation of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. • Halting them would result in millions of extremely angry, revenge-seeking Uighurs trying to hurt China, resulting in an unmanageable national security threat.

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2021/04/11/2003755455

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: meaningless Western boycott would only prove US weakness

• Like many other steps the US government and its allies have taken against China in recent months, such an action would be self-defeating • Attempts to humiliate Beijing on the world stage will only backfire and expose America’s loneliness and inability to sway its allies

Published: 3:30am, 12 Apr, 2021

Updated: 3:30am, 12 Apr, 2021

A worker stands at the base of the under-construction ski jumping venue for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games in Zhangjiakou, 200km northwest of Beijing, on March 17. Photo: AFP

With less than 10 months to go before the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, some in Washington are calling for the Biden administration to lead an international boycott of the Games in protest against China’s policies in Xinjiang province. If the US did decide to boycott the Games, it would be unlikely to go it alone but would do so jointly with like-minded countries. But, just like many other steps the US government has taken against Chinain recent months, such actions would be self-defeating in more ways than one.

First, Washington could struggle to amass enough partners to make a meaningful impact on the Games. Its most likely partners are Canada, Britain and Australia, with the last two hardly being winter sports superpowers.

Washington’s allies in Asia are less likely to go along with any boycott. With the exception of Japan and South Korea, most Asian countries have little interest in winter sports, but they do have a strong interest in summer sports.

The problem for them is that the upcoming Asian Games will take place in September 2022 in Hangzhou. Those games are critically important for athletes who wish to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3128978/beijing-winter-olympics-2022-meaningless- western-boycott-would-only