INDIA
Dragon fruit name changed
The government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat on Tuesday changed the name of dragon fruit, saying that the original name is associated with China. “The Gujarat government has decided ... the name ‘dragon fruit’ is not appropriate and is associated with China. The fruit’s shape is like a lotus, and hence we have given it a new Sanskrit name, kamalam. There is nothing political about it,” Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told reporters. The lotus, or kamal as it is called in Hindi, is the symbol of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
JAPAN
Dual citizenship rejected
The Tokyo District Court yesterday upheld a ban on dual citizenship, rejecting a suit that challenged the measure’s constitutionality and sought damages for those affected. Under current rules, Japanese who acquire another passport are asked to relinquish their Japanese citizenship, but in 2018, eight plaintiffs started legal proceedings against the rule. One of them, Hitoshi Nogawa, told reporters that it was a “painful experience” to give up his nationality. “I obtained Swiss nationality because my job requires it, but I’m emotionally attached to Japan and this is the foundation of my identity,” the Asahi Shimbun quoted him as saying.
UNITED STATES
China sanctions officials
China imposed sanctions on nearly 30 former officials of the administration of former president Donald Trump moments after they left office on Wednesday. In a statement released just minutes after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, Beijing slapped travel bans and business restrictions on Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; national security adviser, Robert O’Brien; UN ambassador, Kelly Craft; and health and human services secretary, Alex Azar. “Over the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the United States, out of their selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China, and showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people, have planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-US relations,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
WeChat users sue Tencent
WeChat users in California sued its parent company, Tencent, on Wednesday, saying that the mobile app is used for spying on and censoring users for the Chinese government. US-based nonprofit Citizen Power Initiatives for China filed the suit in Silicon Valley, joined by six California residents in urging a state court to order Tencent to change its ways and pay damages.
UNITED STATES
Twitter locks PRC account
Twitter has locked the official account for the Chinese embassy to the US after a post that defended Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang. The post, which said that Uighur women were no longer “baby-making machines,” was originally shared on Jan. 7, but was not removed by Twitter until more than 24 hours later. It has been replaced by a label saying: “This tweet is no longer available.” Twitter requires account owners to manually delete posts that breach its rules to regain access to their account. The account is still locked, a Twitter spokesman said, meaning that the embassy has not deleted the tweet.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
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