Get jab, go travel? China’s coastal law Media watch MCI (P) 043/04/2021 April 2021 CAN THE QUAD CONTAIN CHINA? WE BRING YOU SINGAPORE AND THE WORLD UP TO DATE News | Live blog | Mobile pushes | WhatsApp | SMS IN THE KNOW Web specials | Newsletters | Microsites | Special Features ON THE WATCH Videos | FB live | Live streams IN THE LOOP Facebook | Twitter | Instagram To subscribeIN THEto theKNOW free newsletters, Web specials | Newsletters | Microsites go to str.sg/newslettersSpecial Features All newsletters connect you to stories on our straitstimes.com website. Data Digest India and Philippines variants emerge amid list of new strains AS GOVERNMENTS SCRAMBLE TO CONTAIN THE PANDEMIC England (N501Y) and was a more infectious mutated strain. It was through vaccine rollouts, a new issue has surfaced: emerging virus quickly followed by a South African mutation (E484K), another in strains in the Philippines and India. Most recently identified in the Melbourne (S477N) and Brazil (P.1). Philippines as P.3, the strain has the same lineage as the infectious Many of these are now spreading rapidly in Asia. India - which Brazilian variant (P.1). More than 90 cases of the virus type have been tops Asia in the number of Covid-19 cases - has already detected reported and was first identified in a Filipino who travelled to Japan. about 240 new cases of the Brazil, Britain and South Africa strains Meanwhile, India on March 24 reported an unnamed new “double of the coronavirus amongst more than 11 million cases. Scientists mutant variant” after genome sequencing and analysis of samples say the more recent mutations have taken D614G as a base and then from the Maharashtra state found mutations in the virus that do changed in different ways, further down the road. not match previously catalogued “variants of concern”, said the A new variant can result from mutations at more than one part Ministry of Health. Double mutations may escape immunity from of the virus - in other words, changes at multiple locations. Here is vaccines and lead to increased infectivity, it added. a closer look at the more dominant global virus strains. The first variant virus strain appeared last December in southern – Dominique Nelson Covid-19 variants Mutations are natural and to be expected in any virus. Several variants of Sars-CoV-2 have been detected. CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS OF HIGH INTEREST BRITISH VARIANT: SOUTH AFRICAN BRAZILIAN PHILIPPINE VOC 202012/01, 2 VARIANT: VARIANT: 4 VARIANT 1 also known as B.1.1.7 501Y.V2, also 3 P.1, also P.3 known as B.1.351 known as B.1.1.128 Earliest detection Reported to the World Health Philippines (March 13) Organisation (WHO): Reported to WHO: Dec 14 Dec 18 Reported to WHO: • The strain was first identified in a Jan 10 Filipino who travelled to Japan. This Earliest detection: Earliest detection: so-called Philippine variant has the Traced to Kent in south-east South Africa (last October) Earliest detection: same lineage as the Brazilian strain. England (last September) Japan (Jan 2) • Started in South Africa’s Eastern • Over 90 cases of the strain are • Responsible for more than 50 per Cape and Western Cape, before • Found in two adults and two being monitored in the Philippines. cent of cases in south-east England largely replacing other variants in children who arrived in Japan from • Health officials said it is not yet a in the October to December period. the country. Brazil. “variant of concern”, though it • Now detected in 70 countries and • Now detected in 31 countries and • Now detected in eight countries, manifests mutations that show it territories, including the US, India territories, including Canada, China including the US, Britain and Japan. may be more transmissible than the and Russia. and Australia. original version of the coronavirus. Spike protein Ace2 receptor MAIN CONCERNS INDIA VARIANT All three variants (Unnamed as of Transmissibility 5 have changes in Sars-CoV-2 Sars- British and South African March 25) a receptor-binding CoV-2 variants appear to be domain on the spike significantly more infectious. Earliest detection: protein called N501Y India, March 24 Severity of illness New studies on British variant • The new “double mutant variant” of the coronavirus was found from Changes on the submitted to Britain’s Nervtag* samples in Maharashtra, India. The Ace2 receptor spike protein suggest there could be a link to country’s Sars-CoV-2 Consortium on Sars-CoV-2 can potentially increased risk of death. Genomics found an increase in the infects cells affect how Vaccine efficacy fraction of samples with the E484Q after attaching easily a virus There is currently not enough and L452R mutations. to the Ace2 can infect a cell evidence to know if any of the • The mutations have been found in receptor of Covid-19 vaccines are affected. Host cell about 15 to 20 per cent of samples the host NOTE: *New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group and do not match any previously catalogued variants of concerns. Sources: CDC.GOV, SCIENCEMEDIACENTRE.ORG, CIDRAP.UMN.EDU, WHO.INT, SCIENCENEWS.ORG, BIRMINGHAM UNI TURNKEY LAB, NERVTAG, IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON, RAPPLER STRAITS TIMES GRAPHICS 1 Warren Fernandez Editor-in-Chief, The Straits Times & SPH’s English, Malay and Tamil Media (EMTM) Group Shefali Rekhi Asian Insider Editor Lee Hup Kheng Production & Design Editor Asia Watch Eugene Leow AI Video Supervising Editor Get jab, go travel? Dominic Nathan Managing Editor (EMTM) 19 ADVERTISING Maureen Wee Head of Advertising Sales [email protected] Helen Lee Head of Advertising, Product Development and Innovation [email protected] EDITORIAL DESK Choo Kiong Assistant Foreign Editor Ronald Kow Sub-editor, The Straits Times Dominique Nelson Journalist, The Straits Times DESIGN Marlone Rubio Executive Artist Anil Kumar Visual Journalist PHOTO: AFP Gareth Chung Senior Executive Artist CIRCULATION Cover Story Opinion Eric Ng China-US reset off to chilly The Quad – that dreaded moment Head, Circulation Marketing start, rocky road ahead looms closer for Asean Tommy Ong 4 10 Senior Manager (Circulation) Summit underscores Biden administration’s focus on Asia REACH OUT TO US: Regional Affair Circulation & subscription: Louis Koh Quad grouping viewed in China’s coastguard law could jolt Senior Executive Japan as a means to neutralise 12 region into action, experts say [email protected] China’s influence WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK Border row with China alters AND VIEWS Letters can be sent to New Delhi’s strategic East Asia Watch [email protected] calculations A sea change in Hong Kong’s local politics Published by 15 The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Definition of Hong Kong ‘patriot’ Printed by comes under scrutiny Times Printers Private Limited All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or Spotlight in part without written Asian Americans speak out permission from the publisher. 18 amid surge in hate crimes COVER ILLUSTRATION: CHNG CHOON HIONG 2 AsianInsider April 2021 Power Play contents Mekong – a struggle over water, power and 23 mainland SEA’s future ST PHOTO: RONAN O’CONNELL Media Watch Business Trends The battle between Virtual influencers gain ground 28 big tech and big media 43 in retail scene Country Reports Pulling Myanmar from the brink People in the news 31 will be a fraught effort I started with nothing, says 45 man who shook art world Political crisis pushes Myanmar economy towards cliff edge Letter from Beijing PKR seeks to call the shots in Malaysia’s opposition but allies China goes hard on ‘soft boys’ resist as Anwar looks to Umno 48 tie-up Lifestyle Special Report Asian faces of luxe labels 37 Getting ready for Spacs 50 Business Watch Big Picture 40 China has a chip on its shoulder 52 Shining light on the past 3 The Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi (second Cover Story from left), speaking with their US counterparts at the opening session of US-China talks in China-US reset off to chilly Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18. PHOTO: AFP start, rocky road ahead BENJAMIN KANG LIM THE FIRST FACE-OFF BETWEEN CHINESE AND While the beginning of the Global Affairs US diplomats since President Joe Biden took office ended in Alaska and the atmosphere was like the reset was far from ideal, it is a Correspondent weather there: chilly, at least in the beginning. relief the world’s two biggest It was a given that the two-day talks would be tough. There was no way bilateral relations would be economies are talking to each reset overnight after four excruciating years under Mr Donald Trump, who plunged ties to a nadir since other – which is better than normalisation in 1979. not talking at all. On the eve of what China billed a “strategic [email protected] dialogue”, Washington slapped financial sanctions on the city’s freedoms. The Trump administration had 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials for undermining earlier barred the same officials from travelling to the United States and frozen their assets there. China’s top diplomats flew more than 20 hours to Anchorage for the two-day meeting, that ended on March 19, instead of speaking by phone or virtually. No one expected any major breakthroughs. “Going to Alaska was a show of our sincerity. But we did not feel or see mutual sincerity or respect on the first day,” a Communist Party insider told The Straits Times. Playing to their respective domestic audiences, Chinese and American envoys traded barbs and faulted the other side during the first round, keen not to be perceived at home as politically weak. But the big surprise was: what had initially been scheduled to be a brief photo op turned into an hour-long debate, played out on camera for the whole world to see.