China asean military cooperation

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-US summit next week, Japanese government sources said Saturday. 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 Hong Kong. Suga has said those issues must be addressed based on basic human rights principles. It would be rare for Japanese and US 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 ... » Learn More about Biden-Suga statement to express concern about human rights in China

SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun arrived in Iran on Sunday (April 11) to help try to restore a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and free up US$7 billion (S$9.4 billion) in Iranian funds trapped in South Korea, Seoul officials said. Mr Chung is the first South Korean prime minister to visit Iran in 44 years amid icy relations between the two countries due to Iran's military cooperation with North Korea. Tension rose after Iran seized a South Korean ship and its sailors in the Strait of Hormuz in January, accusing them of polluting the waters, and demanded that Seoul release US$7 billion in assets frozen in South Korean banks under US sanctions. Mr Chung's trip comes days after Iran released the tanker and its captain, the last member of its 20-strong crew, with South Korea vowing to help secure the release of the funds. Iran and world powers held talks last week aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal that former US president ... » Learn More about South Korean PM arrives in Iran to help try to revive nuclear deal

IT must now be said. The skeptics and Sinovac naysayers have been right all along. The Chinese vaccines against Covid-19 — be they Sinovac or Sinopharm — have low effectiveness rate and can reasonably be refused by prospective vaccinees on the grounds of efficacy and safety. According to The Associated Press, China’s top disease control official has admitted to the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines. Gao Fu, the director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccines is low, and the government is considering mixing them to get a boost. Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates,” he said at a conference in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Saturday. The official admission seems incongruous with the current primacy of President Xi Jinping as Chinese leader. Mr. Xi has been unbending and unyielding on his policy decisions even when they turn out to be duds as with his missteps in claiming all of the ... » Learn More about From the horse’s mouth: Chinese vaccines have low effectiveness