HONG KONG
PLA may now dock at pier
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is today to be automatically handed control of the Victoria Harbour pier under a 1994 British and Chinese agreement. The move would mean that PLA ships could berth in the harbor. The PLA already has a garrison in the territory, but its troops generally keep a low profile. Hong Kongers yesterday evening planned to demonstrate against handing over the 3,000m2 plot.
CAMBODIA
Fixer jailed over film
A court on Wednesday jailed a fixer and translator for two years for his role in making a documentary about sex trafficking, which the government said contained “fake news.” Rath Rott Mony, 48, was arrested in Thailand and sent back to Cambodia last year as he attempted to travel to the Netherlands with his family after helping produce the documentary for Russia Today. My Mother Sold Me included an account of a girl who was sold into sex work, prompting authorities to question those involved. Authorities have said that the girl and her mother were paid US$200 to lie, damaging the nation’s reputation. Judge Koy Sao ordered Mony to pay US$17,500 compensation to two of the mothers, who appeared in the film.
MALAYSIA
Drug policy reform floated
The government has proposed removing criminal penalties for possession and use of drugs in small amounts. Minister of Health Dzulkefly Ahmad announced that the government was set to introduce the “significant game-changer policy” of decriminalizing drugs. The move is a crucial step “toward achieving a rational drug policy that puts science and public health before punishment,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “An addict shall be treated as a patient, whose addiction is a disease we would like to cure.” The policy is in the early stages and the minister did not give further details. Earlier this week, Minister of Home Affairs Muhyiddin Yassin said that most of the 70,000 prisoners in Malaysia are drug addicts.
JAPAN
Leprosy payments ordered
A court yesterday ordered the government to pay compensation to the families of leprosy patients who suffered discrimination and mistreatment because of government policies that violated their constitutional rights. Until 1996, a law forced people diagnosed with leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, to live in isolated sanatoriums, despite the fact that the illness has been curable for decades. More than 500 relatives of former patients sued the government this year, demanding damages of ¥5.5 million (US$51,101) each and an apology in newspapers for the suffering. A court in Kumamoto found in favor of the families, awarding a total of ¥370 million.
‘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