SRI LANKA
No Commonwealth censure
The nation’s human rights record was glaringly absent from a communique issued by Commonwealth leaders on Sunday at the end of a fractious summit dominated by allegations of war crimes during the bloody climax of the island’s 26-year civil war. The normally sedate two-yearly meeting of mostly former British colonies ran into controversy this year before it had even begun after some members objected to it being hosted by a government accused of shelling civilians just four years ago. Sparks flew at the summit when British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened to push for an international inquiry into the allegations of large-scale civilian deaths during the army’s final victory over the Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009. About 300,000 civilians were trapped on a narrow beach during the onslaught and a British panel has estimated that 40,000 non-combatants died. It concluded that, while both sides committed atrocities, army shelling killed most victims.
CHINA
Police detain churchgoers
Relatives of a Christian pastor yesterday said that police have detained the religious leader and about 20 churchgoers in a crackdown on a state-backed church involved in a local land dispute. Pastor Zhang Shaojie (張少傑) was taken away from his church in Henan Province’s Puyang city on Saturday by police who provided no identification or basis for the detention, Zhang’s wife, daughter and son-in-law said. Sun Zhulei, Zhang’s son-in-law, said police have also taken away about 20 others since Wednesday last week, including Zhang’s two sisters. The crackdown is unusual for a state-approved church. The government allows worship only in such churches, while unregistered congregations tend to be subject to harassment. However, Zhang and other church leaders have been involved in a land dispute with local authorities in which city officials have tried to seize back land that had been earlier allocated to the church for its expansion, Zhang’s daughter, Zhang Yunyun, said.
CHINA
Graft crackdown nets 17,000
Nearly 17,000 people have been punished for flouting the Chinese Communist Party’s “frugality” guidelines, state media said yesterday, in the latest sign of efforts to clamp down on corruption. A total of 16,699 people have been punished for violating the rules announced in December last year, Xinhua news agency said, citing the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Their offenses including violating a “ban on government building projects, excessive spending on receptions, use of government vehicles for private purposes, unnecessary trips in China and abroad using public money, as well as excessively large wedding banquets,” Xinhua said, citing the commission’s notice.
CHINA
Farmland transferral tested
An eastern region is experimenting with letting farmers mortgage or transfer control of their publicly owned land, in what could help spread prosperity to the impoverished countryside and become one of the nation’s most pivotal rural land reforms in 35 years. There is no private land ownership in the country, with all urban land under state ownership and rural land under collective ownership overseen by village officials. That would not change in Anhui Province, where the latest experiment is under way. However, farmers would be given more flexibility in how their allotted plots are used and more opportunities to profit from the nation’s booming real-estate market.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese