Britain boots 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning

March 14, 2018

LONDON (AP) — Relations between Britain and Russia plunged Wednesday to a chilly level not seen since the Cold War as Prime Minister Theresa May expelled 23 diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action against Kremlin meddling after the poisoning of a former spy.

Russia said it would respond soon to what it called Britain's "crude" and "hostile" actions. While May pledged to disrupt Russian espionage and "hostile state activity," she gave few details about how hard Britain would hit Russian politicians and oligarchs where it really hurts — in their wallets.

"Expelling diplomats is a kind of a standard response," said Natasha Kuhrt, a Russia expert at King's College London. "I'm not sure it's going to make Moscow stand up and think." May told the House of Commons that 23 Russians diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers have a week to leave Britain.

"This will be the single biggest expulsion for over 30 years," May said, adding that it would "fundamentally degrade Russian intelligence capability in the U.K. for years to come." May spoke after Moscow ignored a midnight deadline to explain how the nerve agent Novichok, developed by the Soviet Union, was used against Sergei Skripal, an ex-Russian agent convicted of spying for Britain, and his daughter Yulia. They remain in critical condition in a hospital in Salisbury, southwestern England, after being found unconscious March 4.

May said "there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter." She announced a range of economic and diplomatic measures, including the suspension of high-level contacts with Russia. An invitation for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to visit Britain has been canceled, and British ministers and royals won't attend the soccer World Cup in Russia this summer.

May also said Britain would clamp down on murky Russian money and strengthen its powers to impose sanctions on abusers of human rights, though she gave few details. "We will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of U.K. nationals or residents," May said, promising to use all legal powers against criminals and corrupt elites, and to "increase checks on private flights, customs and freight."

"There is no place for these people — or their money — in our country," she said. May said some of the measures "cannot be shared publicly for reasons of national security." The Russian Embassy in London said the expulsion of diplomats was "totally unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted." Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko called Britain's actions were "a provocation."

Russia did not immediately announce retaliatory measures, but its Foreign Ministry said "our response will not be long in coming." It said Britain's "hostile measures" were "an unprecedentedly crude provocation."

Britain called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York at which U.K. and Russian diplomats traded accusations, with Britain blaming the Russian state for the attack and Russia vehemently denying responsibility.

Some Russia experts said the measures announced by May were unlikely to make Russian President Vladimir Putin's government change its behavior. She didn't expel Russia's ambassador or announce sanctions against any individuals or companies.

Critics of the British government have long claimed that the U.K. is reluctant to act against Russia because London's property market and financial sector are magnets for billions in Russian money. "There does not seem to be any real appetite so far to investigate the ill-gotten gains of the Russian elite that have been laundered through London," said John Lough, an associate fellow in the Eurasia program at the Chatham House think-tank. "It is not clear to me that London's response will hit the Kremlin where it hurts."

Moscow has denied responsibility for Skripal's poisoning. It refused to comply with Britain's demand for an explanation, saying the U.K. must first provide samples of the poison collected by investigators.

Some in Russia have suggested that the nerve agent could have come from another former Soviet country. Lawmaker Vladimir Gutenev, a member of Russia's state commission for chemical disarmament, said Russia had scrapped its stockpile of Novichok.

"It is hard to say what may be happening in neighboring countries," he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Britain is seeking support from allies in the European Union and NATO in response to the use of an illegal chemical weapon on British soil. May's office said President Donald Trump told the prime minister the U.S. was "with the U.K. all the way."

But Britain faces an uphill battle in rallying international backing for any new measures against Moscow. European Council President Donald Tusk said he would put the attack on the agenda at an EU summit meeting next week.

The U.N. Security Council — of which Russia is a veto-wielding member — was due to meet later Wednesday at Britain's request to discuss the investigation. At U.N. headquarters, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was not in a position to attribute responsibility for the attack, but "he strongly condemns the use of any nerve agent or chemical weapons and hopes that the incident will be thoroughly investigated."

NATO promised to help investigate what it called "the first offensive use of a nerve agent" in Europe or North America since the military alliance was founded in 1949. But it's unclear what, if anything, NATO can do to put more pressure on Russia. Relations between the old Cold War foes are already poor and short of military action the alliance has little leverage.

May said Russia's use of a chemical weapon was "an affront to the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. And it is an affront to the rules-based system on which we and our international partners depend."

"We will work with our allies and partners to confront such actions wherever they threaten our security, at home and abroad," she said.

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and Jim Heintz in Moscow, Lorne Cook and Raf Casert in Brussels, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, contributed to this report.

Scores arrested in Belarus opposition protest in Minsk

March 25, 2018

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Scores of protesters were arrested Sunday in the capital of Belarus as supporters of the country's repressed opposition tried to hold a march. The attempted demonstration in Minsk was meant to commemorate Belarus' 1918 proclamation of independence from Russia. The Belorussian People's Republic lasted until 1919.

The anniversary is traditionally a day for opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian government to try to rally. Journalists at the scene counted at least 70 people taken away by police. The human rights group Vyasna said five of its observers were among those arrested.

One of Belarus' most prominent opposition figures, Nikolai Statkevich, was arrested outside his home as he headed to the gathering, his wife Marina Adamovich told The Associated Press. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, she said.

Lukashenko, in office since 1994, sharply restricts opposition activities and independent news media. Although the march was banned, authorities allowed thousands to gather in a park to mark the independence proclamation's 100th anniversary.

"Today it's well visible that Lukashenko is the Soviet past and we are the future," said a participant, 20-year-old student Mikhail Yaromchik. But in the evening, police began detentions on the fringe of that gathering. A journalist for U.S. government-funded Radio Svoboda, Galina Abakunchik, said by telephone that she had been detained along with dozens of other people.

Lockheed Martin delivers first of 3 radars to Latvian military

by Sam Howard
Washington (UPI)
Mar 11, 2018

Lockheed Martin has delivered the first of three radars to Latvia, the company said Monday, calling it "a major step forward in strengthening [the country's] national defense."

The TPS-77 Multi-Role Radar, purchased for an undisclosed cost in a 2015 contract, recently completed an on-site acceptance test and will increase the Latvian air force's capacity for low-level flight surveillance and identification, Lockheed Martin said. The company said it has worked with the NATO country on its radar systems for the last 16 years.

The radar, which can be easily transported and mounted on a truck, can toggle between multiple missions at once by automatically adjusting during each 360-degree scan.

Lockheed Martin added that the TPS-77 MRR uses less power than its predecessors, increasing its lifespan and reliability while decreasing fuel costs.

"Acquisition of the TPS-77 MRR is a huge investment in the strengthening of combat capabilities of the National Armed Forces, enabling the Latvian army to address current security challenges with appropriate response tools. Surveillance, especially low-level flight surveillance and identification is a vital part of Latvian airspace surveillance capabilities," Latvia's Minister for Defense Raimonds Bergmanis said in a statement. "New MRR technology is compatible with other types of radars used by other countries."

Lockheed Martin has previously delivered three older-generation TPS-77 radars that remain operational in Latvia today, the company said.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Lockheed_Martin_delivers_first_of_3_radars_to_Latvian_military_999.html.

Bolton's appointment comes at sensitive time for China ties

March 23, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — Foreign policy hard-liner John Bolton's appointment as U.S. national security adviser comes at a particularly sensitive time for relations with Beijing following President Donald Trump's approval of harsh new tariffs on China and a law encouraging closer relations with Taiwan.

Bolton has taken a tough position on both issues, saying Beijing needed to be called out on what he characterized as systematic cheating on global trade while enjoying the benefits of an open U.S. market.

He has also urged a rethink of U.S. restrictions of contacts with Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China considers its own territory. On those and other issues, Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador under President George W. Bush, is seen as heralding a rightward shift in Trump's foreign policy and an embrace of more hard-line policies.

His appointment also raised questions over policy toward North Korea following Trump's acceptance of an offer for direct talks, possibly before May. In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he was "a bit surprised" by Bolton's appointment, but said he didn't anticipate any major changes in U.S. policy on North Korea.

"During my recent visit to the U.S., members of the Trump administration seem to fully share consensus on policies. So I believe there is no major change to their stance," Kono said. Bolton's approach to North Korea appears to be everything China has warned against, including supporting the possibility of a pre-emptive military strike and dismissing direct negotiations that Beijing says are vital to jump-starting the denuclearization process.

Like Trump, Bolton has also been highly critical of the U.S trade deficit with China, which Washington says hit a record of $375.2 billion last year. In an interview Thursday with Fox Business News, Bolton accused China of stealing U.S. intellectual property and pursuing "mercantilist policies in what is supposed to be a free-trade environment."

"I don't buy it. I am a free trader, but I don't think that means just getting pounded into the ground when another country doesn't abide by the commitments it's made," Bolton said. Bolton said China cheats by providing subsidies to exports and discriminating against foreign entities, including through the legal system, while enjoying the benefits of WTO membership. Chinese government subsidies allow Americans to buy goods cheaper to the detriment of the Chinese worker, he said.

"The reality is, China just doesn't have the same concern for its citizen's welfare that we do in this country," Bolton said. "And even beyond that, there's simply no excuse for the stealing of intellectual property, forced technology transfers it's sometimes called."

Speaking to the Washington Free Beacon newspaper in February 2017, Bolton criticized America's "One-China" policy, under which it does not recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and called for increased arms sales to the island.

"The One-China policy is inherently ambiguous," Bolton said. "China thinks it means one thing, we think it means another." Bolton's appointment was loudly cheered by one of the administration's chief China hawks, trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro, author of the book "Death by China: Confronting the Dragon — a Global Call to Action."

"I've gotten to know him over the years, and he'll be a great replacement. So what we are seeing here is a president who has great judge of talent," Navarro told CNN on Thursday. Though Trump ultimately follows his own instincts, Bolton "will have a sort of influence on Trump's foreign diplomacy because they share a similar view on matters such as ideology, threats to U.S. national security and values," said Yu Wanli, professor at the Peking University's School of International Relations in Beijing.

"Trump now has a faithful implementer of his policies," Yu said. "Bolton will surely contribute to the tension in China-U.S. relations."

Trump pushes for new 'space force'

Washington (AFP)
March 13, 2018

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants the US military to create a new "space force," adding to the Pentagon's current ground, navy and air forces.

Trump told troops at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station near San Diego that the new group would be able to encapsulate the "tremendous amount" of work the military and government are doing in space-related defense.

"My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air and sea," Trump said.

"We may even have a space force... We have the air force, we'll have the space force, we'll have the army, the navy.

"Maybe we'll have to do that. That could happen," he said.

Since taking office, Trump has frequently touted his support for the US military and placed high-ranking generals in top White House and cabinet posts.

Last year some legislators pushed a bill in Congress that included a provision to establish a new branch of the military dubbed the Space Corps.

But the military itself has resisted, saying it does not need to create another force and its attendant bureaucracy.

"At a time when we are trying to integrate the department's joint warfighting functions, I do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congressman Michael Turner in a letter last July.

It would be "premature to add additional organizational and administrative tail to the department at a time I am trying to reduce overhead," he added.

The idea was finally dropped from the Pentagon's funding bill by the end of last year, but it retains some support in Congress, where advocates say the US is facing significant strategic vulnerabilities in the face of Russian and Chinese pushes into space warfare.

Republican Representative Mike Rogers told a February 28 conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that a separate space corps could be carved out from the air force within "three to five years".

He said China and Russia have become "near peers" to the US in space capabilities, and the US is not pushing hard enough to stay ahead.

"That's unacceptable that we have allowed that to happen, particularly in a day and age when it is essential to have those space capabilities to fight and win wars," he said.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Trump_pushes_for_new_space_force_999.html.

Ex-South Africa leader's corruption case adjourns until June

April 06, 2018

DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — Former South African president Jacob Zuma sat in the dock of a packed courtroom on Friday to face corruption charges in a long-running case that fueled the public anger that finally forced him from power.

Zuma, 75, appeared relaxed during the brief hearing during which the case was adjourned until June 8. He later emerged from the courthouse in the coastal city of Durban to address a large crowd of supporters, many sporting regalia of the ruling African National Congress party.

The charges are politically motivated, Zuma said. The ruling party leadership had instructed Zuma to resign in February after a leadership crisis that destabilized the ANC, which was already weakened by other scandals during Zuma's presidency.

At the hearing, Judge Themba Sishi said Zuma was free "on warning." Zuma supporters gathered near the courthouse to declare that the former leader is not guilty of fraud, racketeering and money laundering. Durban is in Zuma's home province of KwaZulu-Natal.

"Hands off Zuma," they chanted. The corruption charges were recently reinstated after being thrown out nearly a decade ago and relate to an arms deal in the 1990s, when Zuma was deputy president. Zuma, who resigned Feb. 14, says he has not done anything wrong.

He was replaced as president by his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, who has promised a robust campaign against corruption and also seeks to rebuild a ruling party whose moral stature has diminished since it took power at the end of white minority rule in 1994.

S Africa to give state burial to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

April 02, 2018

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist in her own right whose reputation was sullied by scandal, has died. She was 81. Madikizela-Mandela will be honored by a state funeral on April 14, preceded by an official memorial service on April 11, said President Cyril Ramaphosa after visiting her home in Johannesburg's Soweto township Monday evening.

Ramaphosa described Madikizela-Mandela in a televised tribute as a "champion of justice and equality" and a "voice for the voiceless." The woman many South Africans have described as the "Mother of the Nation" and a champion of the black majority, died "surrounded by her family and loved ones," according to a statement released by Madikizela-Mandela's family.

Madikizela-Mandela was the second of Mandela's three wives, married to him from 1958 to 1996. Mandela, who died in 2013, was imprisoned throughout most of their marriage, and Madikizela-Mandela's own activism against white minority rule led to her being jailed for months and placed under house arrest for years.

"She kept the memory of her imprisoned husband Nelson Mandela alive during his years on Robben Island and helped give the struggle for justice in South Africa one of its most recognizable faces," the family said.

However, Madikizela-Mandela's political activism was marred by her conviction in 1991 for kidnapping and assault, for which she was fined. She faced these allegations again during the 1997 hearings before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that investigated apartheid-era crimes.

As a parliamentarian after South Africa's first all-race elections, she was convicted of fraud. Still, Madikizela-Mandela remained a venerated figure in the ruling African National Congress, which has led South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

She continued to tell the party "exactly what is wrong and what is right at any time," said senior ANC leader Gwede Mantashe. The ANC, which was the main movement against apartheid, had lost popularity in recent years in part because of scandals linked to former President Jacob Zuma, who resigned in February.

Nobel laureate and former archbishop Desmond Tutu, a periodic critic of the ruling party, noted her passing by describing Madikizela-Mandela as "a defining symbol" of the fight against apartheid. "She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, bannings and banishment," Tutu said. "Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Madikizela-Mandela "a leading figure at the forefront of the fight against apartheid in South Africa," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Guterres said "she was a strong and fearless voice in the struggle for equal rights and will be remembered as a symbol of resistance," Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Madikizela-Mandela had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year, according to her family. She had back surgery a year ago. After hearing of her death, some people gathered Monday evening outside Madikizela-Mandela's home in the Soweto area of Johannesburg to sing tributes. She had attended Easter services in Soweto over the long weekend.

The family said it will release details of her memorial and funeral services when they are finalized. Madikizela-Mandela's story was told in biographies and novels as well the Hollywood movie "Winnie," starring Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson.

The young Winnie grew up in what is now Eastern Cape province and came to Johannesburg as the city's first black female social worker. Her research into the high infant mortality rate in a black township, which she linked to poverty caused by racism, first sparked her interest in politics.

In 1957, she met Nelson Mandela, an up-and-coming lawyer and anti-apartheid activist 18 years her senior, and they married a year later. The first five turbulent years of their marriage saw Mandela going underground to build the armed struggle against apartheid, and finally to prison in 1963, while his wife gave birth to two daughters.

Madikizela-Mandela always was aware of the danger of being in the shadow of her husband's all-encompassing personality. Even before they were separated by Nelson Mandela's long stay in prison, she had become politicized, being jailed for two weeks while pregnant for participating in a women's protest of apartheid restrictions on blacks.

The apartheid police later harassed her, sometimes dragging her from bed at night without giving her a chance to make arrangements for her daughters. In 1977, she was banished to a remote town, Brandfort, where neighbors were forbidden to speak to her. She was banned from meeting with more than one person at a time.

The woman who returned to Johannesburg in 1985 was much harder, more ruthless and bellicose, branded by the cruelty of apartheid and determined vengeance. In her book "100 Years of Struggle: Mandela's ANC," Heidi Holland suggested that Madikizela-Mandela was "perhaps driven half-mad by security police harassment." In an infamous 1986 speech she threatened "no more peaceful protests."

Instead, she endorsed the "necklacing" method of killing suspected informers and police with fuel-doused tires put around the neck and set alight. "Together hand-in-hand, with our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country," she said.

Madikizela-Mandela complained bitterly on a North American tour after she was forced to testify to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997 that the commission never asked her about the treatment she suffered over 18 months in solitary confinement.

The Mandela marriage that survived decades of prison bars dissolved with a formal separation in 1992, two years after Nelson Mandela was released. "Their personal relationship broke down," said George Bizos, a human rights lawyer who represented Nelson Mandela at the 1960s Rivonia trial that led to his long imprisonment.

"Nelson Mandela called two other senior members of the ANC after his release and he actually said, 'I love her, we have differences, I don't want to discuss them, please respect her,'" Bizos said. "And he shed tears to say that we have decided to separate. He loved her to the end."

The couple divorced in 1996, two years after Mandela became president in South Africa's first all-race elections, with Mandela accusing his wife of infidelity. As the mother of two of Mandela's children, Madikizela-Mandela and her ex-husband appeared to rebuild a friendship in his final years.

After Mandela's death, however, she became involved in disputes over his inheritance.

AP writer Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations in New York.

Polls open in Sierra Leone's runoff presidential vote

March 31, 2018

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Polls opened Saturday morning in Sierra Leone's runoff presidential election, which had been delayed by a few days after a court challenge of the first round. Voting appeared to be peaceful in the West African nation and the turnout was lower than in the first round on March 7. Security was tight and many streets were quiet for the holiday weekend.

The winner of the runoff will be tasked with helping Sierra Leone continue to rebuild after the devastating 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic as well as a deadly mudslide in August that claimed some 1,000 lives in the capital, Freetown.

The runoff vote had been set for Tuesday but was delayed after a ruling party member filed a court challenge alleging irregularities in the first round and a temporary injunction was issued, stalling preparations. The high court lifted the injunction early this week and the election commission asked for a few more days to prepare.

The opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party, which took 43.3 percent to the ruling All Peoples Congress party's 42.7 in the first round, has not held the presidency since 2007. The opposition called the court challenge a delaying tactic and its candidate Julius Maada Bio, a former military leader, accused President Ernest Bai Koroma and the ruling party of "pushing us to the point of chaos in the country."

Koroma has served two terms and is barred by the constitution from running again. Bio, who is making his second bid for the presidency after losing in 2012, stands to pick up votes from the 14 candidates eliminated in the first round.

The election is the fourth since Sierra Leone's brutal civil war ended in 2002, and the previous vote in 2012 was largely peaceful.

Kenyan opposition figure says he was drugged and deported

March 29, 2018

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan opposition politician alleged he was drugged and deported to Dubai early Thursday after his attempt to enter Kenya led to him being detained in an airport toilet for more than a day.

Miguna Miguna, targeted in a Kenyan government crackdown amid lingering election tensions, was deported even after a court ordered authorities to release him, lawyer Cliff Ombeta said. Police at the airport roughed up lawyers and forced them to leave when they tried to serve the court order, said another lawyer, James Orengo.

Miguna said in a Facebook post that authorities broke into the airport toilet where he had been held and forcibly injected him with a substance and he passed out. He said he regained consciousness when the Emirates flight arrived in Dubai.

"I will and must return to Kenya as a Kenyan citizen by birth as various courts have ordered," he wrote. There was no immediate response from Kenyan authorities, though Kenya's immigration department retweeted a post calling on the public to ignore a rumor that Miguna had been sedated or drugged.

The deportation ended the Nairobi airport drama in which Miguna posted from what he called "Toilet at Terminal 2," saying he had been detained in the "filthy" facilities at the country's main airport with food or access to lawyers.

Hours before he was deported, a High Court judge declared Kenya's interior minister, national police chief and permanent secretary for immigration in contempt of court for disregarding an order to immediately release Miguna, said another lawyer, Nelson Havi.

Justice George Odunga ordered the officials to show up in court Thursday morning or be jailed. When they failed to appear, the judge fined $2,000 each for contempt of court. He did not order them jailed because even "if they can't obey the orders of this court with such impunity" he doubted that junior officials would act on warrants to arrest them.

Miguna had been deported to Canada last month in a crackdown on politicians who attended the mock inauguration of opposition leader Raila Odinga to protest President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election. A court later ordered that Miguna's Kenyan passport be restored and that he be allowed to return.

However, when Miguna arrived on Monday at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, plainclothes officers tried to hustle him onto an outbound plane, witnesses said. That failed when he protested. Miguna later posted statements on social media saying he had been "detained inside a tiny and filthy toilet" in one of the terminals. "I have not eaten. I have not taken a shower. I have not been given access to my lawyers, family members and physicians."

Miguna could not appear in court as ordered because his entry into the country was still being processed, a lawyer representing Kenya's attorney general, Japheth Mutinda, told the court on Wednesday. The airport confrontation came two weeks after a surprise meeting between opposition leader Odinga and Kenya's president as they announced a new initiative to heal this East African nation after months of sometimes deadly election turmoil.

Odinga had argued that Kenyatta lacked legitimacy because his initial Aug. 8 re-election victory was nullified by the Supreme Court over "irregularities and illegalities." The repeat election had a low turnout as Odinga boycotted it, citing a lack of electoral reforms.

Miguna was at Odinga's side when he took an oath as the "people's president" at the mock inauguration. The government responded by arresting opposition politicians.

Ex-S. Korean leader Park gets 24-year prison term

April 06, 2018

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was formally convicted of an array of corruption charges and sentenced to 24 years in prison on Friday, a year after she was driven from office and arrested over a scandal that saw months of massive street rallies calling for her ouster.

The conviction, which she can appeal, is the latest indignity for South Korea's first female president, who grew up in the presidential palace as the daughter of a former dictator and even served as first lady after her mother's assassination. The harshness of the sentence is likely to deepen divisions in a country still wrestling with the aftermath of the most serious political turmoil in years.

Once seen as the darling of South Korean conservatives, Park earned the nickname "Queen of Elections" for her record leading her party to victory in tight races, culminating in her own election as president in 2012. Yet that was all undone by the scandal involving a close confidant and bribery, extortion and other allegations.

Park, 66, maintains she's a victim of "political revenge" and has been refusing to attend court sessions since October. She didn't attend Friday's verdict, citing a sickness that wasn't specified publicly.

In a nationally televised verdict, the Seoul Central District Court convicted Park of bribery, extortion, abuse of power and other charges. "It's inevitable that the defendant should be held strictly responsible for her crimes, if only to prevent the unfortunate event of a president abusing the power granted by the people and throwing state affairs into chaos form happening again," chief judge Kim Se-yun said.

Kim said Park has shown no remorse for her wrongdoing and continued to pass responsibility to others with "unconvincing excuses." Along with the prison sentence, Kim said Park was also fined 18 billion won ($16.8 million).

Both Park and prosecutors — who had demanded a 30-year sentence — have one week to appeal. The court convicted Park of colluding with longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil to pressure 18 business groups to donate a total of 77.4 billion won ($72.3 million) for the launch of two foundations controlled by Choi.

The two women were also convicted of taking bribes from some of those companies, including more than 7 billion won ($6.5 million) alone from Samsung. Prosecutors previously alleged that Samsung's bribe was aimed at getting government support for a smooth company leadership transition, but the court said there was not enough evidence to prove that Samsung sought such favor from the government.

The court said Park colluded with senior government officials to blacklist artists critical of her government to deny them state assistance programs. Park was also convicted of passing on presidential documents with sensitive information to Choi via one of her presidential aides.

The scandal has already led to the arrests, indictments and convictions of dozens of high-profile government officials and business leaders. Choi is serving a 20-year prison term; Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong was initially sentenced to five years in prison before his sentence was suspended on appeal; and Lotte chairman Shin Dong-bin was given 2½ years in prison.

Park has a small group of fierce supporters — most of them middle aged and older — who regularly stage rallies calling for her release and after the verdict was broadcast, thousands of them marched near the Seoul court to protest the ruling. They waved South Korean and U.S. flags and held signs that read, among other things, "Stop murderous political revenge!"

"Release (President Park) immediately!" the marchers chanted as they walked between thick lines of police officers. There were no immediate reports of major clashes or injuries. The gatherings of Park's supporters have been much smaller than the earlier ones calling for her ouster, which began in October 2016, eventually drawing millions every Saturday to a Seoul plaza and elsewhere around the country. She was impeached by lawmakers that December and removed from office by a Constitutional Court ruling in March 2017.

The protests show how deeply South Koreans are split along ideological and generational lines, the result of decades-long tension with rival North Korea and the lingering fallout from the conservative military dictatorships that ran the country until the late 1980s.

Park is the daughter of deeply divisive dictator Park Chung-hee, who is revered by supporters as a hero who spearheaded South Korea's rapid economic rise in the 1960-70s. But he's also remembered for imprisoning and torturing dissidents.

During her father's 18-year rule, Park Geun-hye served as first lady after her mother was killed in an assassination attempt targeting her father in 1974. She left the presidential mansion in 1979 after her father was gunned down by his own intelligence chief during a late-night drinking party.

After years of seclusion, Park returned to politics by winning a parliamentary seat in the late 1990s, during a burst of nostalgia for her father after South Korea's economy was devastated by a foreign exchange crisis.

In 2012, she won the presidential election by defeating her liberal rival and current President Moon Jae-in, riding a wave of support by conservatives who wanted to see her repeat her father's charismatic economic revival.

Park's friendships with Choi, 61, began in the mid-1970s when Choi's late father served as Park's mentor after her mother's assassination. Park once described Choi as someone who helped her when she had difficulties. But her relations with the Choi family have long haunted her political career.

Media reports say that Choi's father was a cult leader and allegedly used his ties with Park to take bribes from government officials and businessmen. Park has previously insisted that she only got help from Choi on public relations and to edit some presidential speeches.

Park's four years in office were marred by rising animosity with rival North Korea over its advancing nuclear program, a 2014 ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people, mostly teenagers on a school trip, and criticism that she curbed free speech and didn't manage things transparently.

In a presidential by-election triggered by Park's early exit, Moon won an easy victory against wounded conservatives. Park's saga is only the latest addition to a long line scandals involving the country's leaders.

Her conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, who governed from 2008-2013, was arrested and jailed last month over a separate corruption scandal. Lee's liberal successor Roh Moo-hyun jumped to his death in 2009 amid a corruption investigation of his family.

Park Chung-hee's successors, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, both ex-army generals, spent time in jail for bribery, treason, munity and other charges after leaving office. Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, both former opposition leaders who fought against the dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun, left office in disgrace after their sons and close associates were arrested or embroiled in scandals.

Associated Press writer Youkyung Lee contributed to this report.

'Citizen scientists' track radiation seven years after Fukushima

Koriyama, Japan (AFP)
March 11, 2018

Beneath the elegant curves of the roof on the Seirinji Buddhist temple in Japan's Fukushima region hangs an unlikely adornment: a Geiger counter collecting real-time radiation readings.

The machine is sending data to Safecast, an NGO born after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster that says it has now built the world's largest radiation dataset, thanks to the efforts of citizen scientists like Seirinji's priest Sadamaru Okano.

Like many Japanese, Okano lost faith in the government after the nuclear meltdown seven years ago.

"The government didn't tell us the truth, they didn't tell us the true measures," he told AFP, seated inside the 150-year-old temple.

Okano was in a better position than most to doubt the government line, having developed an amateur interest in nuclear technology two decades earlier after learning about the Chernobyl disaster.

To the bemusement of friends and family, he started measuring local radiation levels in 2007, so when the disaster happened, he had baseline data.

"The readings were so high... 50 times higher than natural radiation," he said of the post-disaster data.

"I was amazed... the news was telling us there was nothing, the administration was telling us there was nothing to worry about."

That dearth of trustworthy information was the genesis of Safecast, said co-founder Pieter Franken, who was in Tokyo with his family when the disaster hit.

Franken and several friends had the idea of gathering data by attaching Geiger counters to cars and driving around.

"Like how Google does Street View, we could do something for radiation in the same way," he said.

"The only problem was that the system to do that didn't exist and the only way to solve that problem was to go and build it ourselves. So that's what we did."

- Making informed choices -

Within a week, the group had a prototype and began getting readings that suggested the 20 kilometer (12 mile) exclusion zone declared around the Fukushima plant had no basis in the data, Franken said.

"Evacuees were sent from areas with lower radiation to areas with higher radiation" in some cases, he said.

The zone was eventually redrawn, but for many local residents it was too late to restore trust in the government.

Okano evacuated his mother, wife and son while he stayed with his flock.

But a year later, based on his own readings and after decontamination efforts, he brought them back.

He learned about Safecast's efforts and in 2013 installed one of their static counters on his temple, in part to help reassure worshipers.

"I told them: we are measuring the radiation on a daily basis... so if you access the (Safecast) website you can choose (if you think) it's safe or not."

Forty kilometers away, in the town of Koriyama, Norio Watanabe was supervising patiently as his giggling teenage pupils attempted to build basic versions of Safecast's Geiger counter.

Dressed in blazers and tartan skirts, the girls pored over instructions on where to place diodes and wires.

Watanabe has been a Safecast volunteer since 2011, and has a mobile Geiger counter in his car.

In the days after the disaster evacuees flocked to Koriyama, which was outside the evacuation zone, and he assumed his town was safe.

"But after I started to do the measurements, I realized there was a high level of risk here as well," he said.

- 'You can't ignore it' -

He sent his children away, but stayed behind to look after his mother, a decision he believes may have contributed to his 2015 diagnosis with thyroid cancer.

"As a scientist, I think the chance that it was caused by the Fukushima accident might be 50-50, but in my heart, I think it was likely the cause," he said.

His thyroid was removed and he is now healthy, but Watanabe worries about his students, who he fears "will carry risk with them for the rest of their lives."

"If there are no people like me who continue to monitor the levels, it will be forgotten."

Safecast now has around 3,000 devices worldwide and data from 90 countries. Its counters come as a kit that volunteers can buy through third parties and assemble at home.

Because volunteers choose where they want to measure at random and often overlap, "they validate unknowingly each other's measurements," said Franken, and anomalies or exceptions are checked by Safecast staff.

The NGO is now expanding into measuring air pollution, initially mostly in the US city of Los Angeles during a test phase.

Its radiation data is all open source, and has been used to study everything from the effects of fallout on wildlife to how people move around cities, said Franken.

He says Safecast's data mostly corroborates official measurements, but provides readings that are more relevant to people's lives.

"Our volunteers decide to measure where their schools are, where their workplaces are, where their houses are."

And he believes Safecast has helped push Japan's government to realize that "transparency and being open are very important to create trust."

"The power of citizen science means that you can't stop it and also that you can't ignore it."

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Citizen_scientists_track_radiation_seven_years_after_Fukushima_999.html.

Kim, Xi portray strong ties after N. Korean leader's visit

March 28, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — With smiles and firm handshakes, North Korea and China used a surprise summit this week to show that despite recent tensions, Pyongyang still has a powerful backer and Beijing will not be sidelined in discussions about the fate of its unpredictable neighbor.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's secretive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing appear aimed at improving both countries' positions ahead of Kim's anticipated meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.

A key objective for Beijing is to reassert its relevance to these talks from which it has been excluded. China has appeared increasingly shut out as its relations with the North deteriorated and Pyongyang reached out to Seoul and Washington.

"Kim Jong Un's visit shows that China is not marginalized, but playing a leading role. This saves China a lot of face," said Pang Zhongying, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing. Official reports from both countries on Wednesday depicted in effusive terms warm ties between the two leaders in an effort to downplay recent tensions over Kim's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

In these reports, "Kim reaffirms the traditional friendship between the two countries as if nothing had ever happened, when the relationship had plummeted to unprecedented lows," said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ties in recent months have frayed as China supported tougher U.N. sanctions on North Korea and suspended coal and iron ore imports. Pyongyang last year seemingly sought to humiliate Beijing by timing some of its missile tests for major global summits in China.

Kim made the unofficial visit to China at Xi's invitation, China's official Xinhua News Agency said, in his first trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011. Xinhua said the trip ran from Sunday to Wednesday but appeared to include travel time from Pyongyang on the special armored train that Kim traveled in, which secretly arrived in Beijing on Monday and left Tuesday afternoon.

Rumors of the presence of Kim began circulating on Monday night, with the spotting of Kim's special train, Chinese security teams and official delegations at the border city of Dandong and various points in Beijing.

Although China sought to keep Kim's visit secret, and Wednesday described it as "unofficial," it accorded him full honors due to a head of state, including a formal welcoming ceremony and troop review at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan also hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, Xinhua said. They also watched an art performance together, the news agency said. "We speak highly of this visit," Xi told Kim, according to Xinhua.

For China, the visit also projects to the Chinese public that Xi is firmly in charge of steering Beijing's relations with North Korea in a way that favors China's interests. "Here is Xi Jinping saying, 'Don't worry, everything is going to be great,'" Glaser said.

Analysts say Kim would have felt a need to consult with his country's traditional ally ahead of summits with Moon and Trump. His famously reclusive father, Kim Jong Il, made his first visit to China as North Korean leader in May 2000, reportedly to consult with Chinese leadership ahead of Kim's summit with the former South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung.

China would also not want Kim's first foreign meeting to be with someone other than Xi. "This is China asserting its regional hegemony and influence, saying: 'Hey, you talk to me first,'" said Michael Kovrig, senior advisor for northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group.

In footage aired by China's state broadcaster China Central Television, Kim appeared reserved and collected as he sat at a long table across from Xi. Kim wore horn-rimmed glasses and was shown jotting down notes and speaking in a calm manner. In contrast, while meeting with South Korean envoys earlier this month, Kim was shown by his state media frequently smiling, bursting into laughter, proposing toasts and waving at departing limousines.

Kim was described by Xinhua as saying that his country wants "reconciliation and cooperation" with South Korea, with which it is technically still at war. He also said North Korea is willing to hold a summit with the United States, according to Xinhua.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency published Kim's personal letter to Xi dated on Wednesday, where he said he was satisfied that the leaders confirmed their "unified opinions" on mutual issues.

"For the North Koreans, it is in their best interests to enter any meetings with Moon or Trump having shored up and repaired to a certain extent their relations with Beijing," said Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.

Kim also called for more meetings with Xi and other Chinese officials and asked Xi to visit North Korea at a time convenient for him, to which Xi "gladly accepted," KCNA said. The North's diplomatic outreach this year follows a tenser 2017 when it conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date and tested three intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland.

The developments are being interpreted as the North being desperate to break out of isolation and improve its economy after being squeezed by heavy sanctions. "At least one of the things that Kim would want out of these meetings is a way forward to begin to ease those sanctions and support from China in that effort," Glaser said.

China remains North Korea's only major ally and chief provider of energy, aid and trade that keep the country's broken economy afloat. In addition to the trip being his first abroad as leader, his talk with Xi was his first meeting with a foreign head of state. Kim's father, late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, had visited China several times during his rule, lastly in May 2011, months before his death that December.

"It's most proper that my first overseas trip would be the capital of the People's Republic of China," said Kim Jong Un, according to KCNA. "It's also one of my noble duties to value the North Korea-China friendship as I do my own life."

Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. Associated Press writers Foster Klug in Seoul, and Christopher Bodeen and researcher Shanshan Wang in Beijing contributed to this report.

China names former missile force commander defense minister

March 19, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — China on Monday appointed a former missile force commander as its new defense minister amid lingering concerns over the goals of its rapid military modernization. Lt. Gen. Wei Fenghe's naming as the international face of China's military was among a series of appointments by the ceremonial legislature on the penultimate day of its annual session.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi was reappointed as China's top diplomat and also promoted to state counselor, while Zhao Kezhi was confirmed as minister of public security in charge of the police. Chen Wenqing, a former top official in the ruling Communist Party's graft-busting agency, remains minister of state security responsible for espionage and counterintelligence.

China has increasingly been deploying its intelligence agencies overseas to track down those accused of high-level corruption, along with other perceived regime opponents and critics who have moved abroad.

As defense minister, Wei is outranked by President Xi Jinping, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, and two vice chairmen, but will be the main interface between China's 2 million-member armed forces and the rest of the world's militaries.

China's increased its military budget by 8.1 percent this year to about $173 billion, making it again the world's second-largest behind the U.S. Wei was named head of the 2nd Artillery in 2012, then remained head of the missile command after it was renamed the Rocket Force in 2016 amid a reorganization of military units.

The head of the U.S. Strategic Command considers China's ballistic missile program the world's "most active and diverse." It includes a range of short- and intermediate-range missile aimed at Taiwan, as well as road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the U.S. and its allies.

Most of China's growing conventional and nuclear warhead-tipped missiles are of the type prohibited by the U.S.-Russian Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. That has led to calls in both Moscow and Washington for a reassessment of the treaty to deal with a potential threat from China and others.

China's Cabinet is headed by Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader of the ruling Communist Party, who was reappointed to a second five-year term by the legislature on Sunday. The vote came a day after party leader Xi Jinping was reappointed China's president with no limits on how many terms he can serve.

The legislature also approved the appointment of Yang Xiaodu as director for the National Supervisory Commission, created from a merger of the party's internal anti-graft watchdog with one that oversees civil servants. It will have the power to detain suspects for up to six months without seeking court approval.

A marathon anti-corruption campaign led by Xi has snared thousands of government officials and managers of state companies. Xi has been steadily tightening central control over the government and state industry while also stepping up efforts to crush dissent.

On Saturday, a key Xi ally, Wang Qishan, was appointed to the previously ceremonial post of vice president.

Xi reappointed as China's president with no term limits

March 17, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — Xi Jinping was reappointed Saturday as China's president with no limit on the number of terms he can serve. The National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp legislature, also appointed close Xi ally Wang Qishan to the formerly ceremonial post of vice president.

At the Great Hall of the People, Xi, Wang and other officials took turns stepping to the lectern to place their left hands on the constitution and raise their right fists as they delivered an oath swearing loyalty to the constitution, the motherland and the people.

Xi, 64, is considered the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong and last Sunday was given the right to continue in office indefinitely after the legislature scrapped term limits for the president and vice president.

Chinese officials defended the move saying it would bring the presidency in-line with Xi's other two main positons of head of the ruling Communist Party and commander of the armed forces. Critics say the move overturning a push to institutionalize China's ruling practices dating from 1982 will likely lead to increased political repression and possible infighting among party factions seeking to promote their own candidates within the closed system.

Xi took office as president in 2013 and hasn't said how many additional five-year terms he intends to serve. State media has said the removal of term limits will not alter conditions for retirement or create a president in perpetuity, but has offered no details.

Xi is expected to expand his yearslong campaign against corruption within the party to include all state employees through the creation of a new National Supervisory Commission, while continuing to pursue a muscular foreign policy and policies to upgrade the slowing economy.

Economic growth and social stability have allowed Xi to amend the constitution and carry out other moves that once seemed highly contentious, said Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London.

"Really no one is going to shout and moan too much" because growth and stability are considered so important, Brown said Friday in a talk to foreign media in Beijing.

Prison time for China anthem insults in new Hong Kong law

March 16, 2018

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities on Friday unveiled planned legislation requiring students to be taught China's national anthem and punishing anyone who insults it with up to three years in prison.

The legislation also calls for anyone who is present when "March of The Volunteers" is played to "stand and deport themselves respectfully." The anthem has become a political flashpoint in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city where soccer fans have repeatedly booed it at matches, drawing warnings and fines from organizers.

Hong Kong's government is acting after Beijing last year enacted a new National Anthem Law and amended China's criminal code so that anyone disrespecting the anthem can be imprisoned. China's legislature also added it to Hong Kong's Basic Law constitution, requiring the city to introduce local legislation.

The proposed law adds to concerns that Beijing is eroding civil liberties in Hong Kong despite promises to maintain them following its 1997 handover from Britain. Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers worry the law will be used to undermine free speech in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system.

Under the new law, anyone who "publicly and willfully alters the lyrics or the score of the national anthem," performs or sings it in "a distorted or derogatory manner," or insults it in "any other manner" would be fined up to 50,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $6,400) and imprisoned for up to three years.

The proposal also calls for primary and secondary schools to teach pupils the anthem as well as "to observe the etiquette" when it is sung or played. The proposal will be discussed on March 23 in Hong Kong's legislature.

US-backed culture centers under pressure in China

By Ben Dooley
Beijing (AFP)
March 13, 2018

The interrogation of the American cultural center staffer lasted an hour and a half. The Chinese police got straight to the point: where did it get its funding? How did it vet speakers? And most importantly, what was its connection to the US government?

It was an extreme case, but not unusual.

The US State Department documented over 150 examples of Chinese interference in American public diplomacy efforts between January 2016 and April 2017, carried out in the name of countering "hostile foreign forces" -- alleged saboteurs plotting to overthrow the Communist Party's rule.

The pressure has disrupted numerous cultural initiatives from salsa concerts and movie nights to visiting scholar programs, even as China scoffs at growing concerns about the political influence of its own "Confucius Institutes", which have mushroomed around the world in recent years.

The Chinese interference has perhaps been felt most acutely at the American Centers for Cultural Exchange (ACCs), a network of US government-funded language and cultural facilities hosted on college campuses in China.

The US State Department has provided American universities and NGOs with grants to operate 29 such centers in conjunction with Chinese partners, such as universities.

But 10 of the partnerships have "dissolved due to pressure from Chinese government authorities, with some never moving beyond signing an agreement", the State Department's Office of the Inspector General wrote in a December report that concluded the difficulties may make it necessary to "suspend" new funding for the program.

Today only around 10 centers remain active.

But even those have chosen to keep a low profile due to concerns about unwelcome attention from Chinese authorities, according to interviews with more than half a dozen people with knowledge of the program.

After the police interrogation of the staffer -- a US citizen -- the ACC in southern China changed its name and was subsequently required to refuse American government funds, according to documents provided to Washington as part of the grant reporting process.

Such a move leaves an ACC dependent solely on money from its Chinese or American educational hosts.

"The US has raised its concern with restrictions on its public diplomacy activities, including the ACCs, with the relevant Chinese authorities frequently in recent years," State Department spokesman Michael Cavey told AFP.

Although Beijing has repeatedly agreed to address the issue, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions, Chinese pressure on the ACCs has only increased.

- 'A lightning rod' -

ACCs are typically small classrooms filled with American books and movies, designed as welcoming spaces to host conversation classes or lectures by visiting professors.

Programming has focused on English language education, lectures on US society, and cultural activities such as musical performances or movie nights, largely avoiding topics that the Chinese government might consider sensitive.

They were established in 2010 as a way "to help address the overall level of misunderstanding of US society and culture" in China, according to the State Department.

But they were also a direct response to China's rapidly expanding network of Confucius Institutes, government-run language centers that provide partner universities around the world with funds and often faculty to teach Chinese language and culture.

China has set up the centers at more than 100 universities across the US, including internationally renowned institutions like Columbia and Stanford.

But as the Chinese program expanded, "intransigence" in Beijing left Washington "unable to reciprocate", the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in a 2011 report on the ACCs.

That year, the State Department issued 10 grants of up to $100,000 to open centers, many of which also received an additional $50,000 a year to cover salaries, programming and facility maintenance.

While Washington provided funds for the program, it took a largely hands-off approach to its activities.

The Confucius Institutes "stay in their lane. Everything is scripted", said one ACC administrator. But "with us, it was just, let's let the cats out of the bag and see where they go."

Nevertheless China sees the centers as a "mouthpiece of the State Department", said another administrator. "The connection is clearly a lightning rod."

- 'Hostile foreign forces' -

It is not clear why some ACCs have closed while others remain open.

But all have come under varying degrees of political pressure.

The remaining ACCs no longer update their once-active websites, sometimes at the request of their Chinese partners, who are concerned about negative attention from authorities.

Attendance at the program's 2017 annual conference in the northeastern city of Shenyang was about half the previous year's, according to faculty.

China's education ministry instructed some Chinese participants not to attend, said sources familiar with the matter.

China's ministry of education told AFP it has "consistently supported" cooperation and exchange between Chinese and American universities.

ACCs should "conform to the educational requirements and comprehensive plans of the Chinese institutes of higher education," it added.

While Beijing's fears over "hostile foreign forces" infiltrating its educational system have compelled Chinese universities to restrict their students' exposure to "Western" culture and ideas, Confucius Institutes have largely flourished in the US.

But in recent months, several prominent US politicians including senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have called for the Chinese centers to be shut down.

They cited concerns that Beijing's control over hiring, programming and course content has discouraged students and faculty from discussing topics considered sensitive by the Communist Party, such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown or Tibet policy.

China's nationalistic state-controlled tabloid the Global Times has in turn accused the US of being on a "witch hunt" against the Confucius Institutes.

"To call for them to be driven out of the country is a sign of extreme xenophobia," it wrote in a recent editorial.

Source: Sino Daily.
Link: http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/US-backed_culture_centres_under_pressure_in_China_999.html.

China to merge regulators, create new ministries in biggest overhaul in years

MARCH 13, 2018

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is merging its banking and insurance regulators, giving new powers to policymaking bodies such as the central bank and creating new ministries in the biggest government shake-up in years.

The revamp is a cornerstone of President Xi Jinping’s agenda to put the leadership of the ruling Communist Party squarely at the heart of policy with Xi himself at the core of the party.

The economy and the party have become ever more intertwined since a party congress in October when Xi consolidated his grip on power, with party control deemed necessary to help push through reforms. On Sunday, presidential term limits were removed from the state constitution.

“Deepening the reform of the party and state institutions is an inevitable requirement for strengthening the long-term governance of the party,” Liu He, Xi’s top economic adviser and confidante, wrote in a commentary in the official People’s Daily.

“Strengthening the party’s overall leadership is the core issue,” he said.

The commentary suggested the party will have greater influence and say in the government, or the State Council, which is headed by Premier Li Keqiang, some analysts say.

The long-awaited move to tighten oversight of China’s $42 trillion banking and insurance sectors comes as authorities seek more clout to crack down on riskier lending practices and reduce high corporate debt levels.

“The biggest news is still about the merger of the financial regulators. The central bank will be in charge of the macro supervision side, while the merged regulators will be responsible for the more concrete part of things,” said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank.

China will also form a national markets supervision management bureau, according to a parliament document released on Tuesday.

The bureau will take on the pricing supervision and anti-monopoly law enforcement role from the state economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Commerce and State Council.

The heads of the new merged regulator, ministries and departments will be announced before the close of the annual session of parliament on March 20.

Many Xi allies are expected to get top appointments including the chair of the National People’s Congress, or parliament, and National Supervisory Commission.

PBOC’S POWERS

China is among the global economies seen as most vulnerable to a banking crisis, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said at the weekend, though Beijing has maintained that debt risks are under control.

Speculation that Beijing was considering creating a super financial regulator had been rife since the Chinese stock market crash of 2015, blamed in part on poor inter-agency coordination.

The merger of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) is aimed at resolving existing problems such as unclear responsibilities and cross-regulation, according to the parliament document.

CBRC, currently headed by Guo Shuqing, was carved out of the central bank in 2003, while CIRC was created in 1998.

The new merged entity will report directly to the State Council.

The function of making important laws and regulations of the CBRC and CIRC will be transferred to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) as the central bank takes on a bigger role.

China’s financial system has become increasingly tough to regulate as it grows rapidly in size and complexity, emerging as one of the world’s largest with financial assets at nearly 470 percent of gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Companies registered as banks or insurers have started dabbling in other areas of finance with many offering complex hybrid products and making non-traditional investments.

Many brokerages also structure wealth management products as a channel for hidden bank lending, in addition to the more traditional business of facilitating share trades and investment banking services.

The securities regulator - the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) - will remain a separate entity.

“There is a valid argument to separate regulation of equity markets from that of the banking system. You don’t want your monetary authority obsessed with supporting equity markets, because that can lead to bad macro policy,” said Andrew Polk, co-founding partner at research firm Trivium/China.

‘HEART-WRENCHING’

The government will create seven new ministries: natural resources; ecological environment; emergency management; agriculture and rural affairs; culture and tourism; veterans affairs; and the National Health Commission.

Within the departments being restructured, some officials are concerned about the loss of some functions while others welcome the opportunity to gain new powers, people familiar with the situation said.

“Everyone seems to regard these departments as their own interests - giving up a piece of yourself is very heart-wrenching but it’s a pleasure to take a piece of someone else,” said an official at a ministry, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“Reforms are difficult.”

The National Council for Social Security Fund led by former finance minister Lou Jiwei will be managed by the finance ministry, instead of the State Council.

The agriculture ministry, which will undergo its first major change in its role and oversight since 2013, will come under a new ministry that will also be in charge of rural development.

“Amidst the reshuffle, the NDRC appears to have many of its powers stripped away. This is potentially a nod towards the Party wrestling power away from the government,” said Jonas Short, an analyst with Everbright Sun Hung Kai.

Aside from losing its anti-trust investigation and punishment powers, NDRC will also forfeit its rural planning authority and oversight of China’s carbon emissions.

The proposed changes were discussed in parliament on Tuesday, and are expected to be formally approved on Saturday.

Reporting by Shu Zhang, Muyu Xu, Judy Hua and Vincent Lee Additional reporting by Matthew Miller, Yawen Chen and Stella Qiu in BEIJING and John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI; Writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Richard Pullin, Sam Holmes and Kim Coghill

Source: Reuters.
Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament/china-to-merge-regulators-create-new-ministries-in-biggest-overhaul-in-years-idUSKCN1GP003.

Blow for Hong Kong democrats in key elections

Hong Kong (AFP)
March 12, 2018

Hong Kong's democracy camp failed to claw back all their lost seats Monday in controversial by-elections as the city's pro-Beijing establishment further cements its grip.

The result is the latest blow to the democratic movement as China ups pressure on the semi-autonomous city to fall into line after unprecedented challenges including mass rallies calling for reform and the emergence of an independence movement.

Sunday's vote was triggered after Beijing forced the disqualification of six rebel lawmakers who had swept to victory in citywide elections in 2016.

Four of the six vacant seats were contested in the tense by-elections which saw China loyalists hurl insults at young democracy activists near a polling station.

After the count ended Monday morning the democracy camp had only managed to take back two of the four seats.

Analysts said the disappointing performance reflected the inability of the democrats to present an effective united platform to residents as well as apathy among voters -- turnout was less than 50 percent, lower than previous recent elections.

"This is a terribly depressing day for the democratic development of Hong Kong," political analyst Willy Lam told AFP.

"Beijing will be very happy they have vanquished the spirit of Hong Kong people," added Lam, who said some voters had simply given up the fight.

The result also reflected the difficulty in the democratic camp which covers a wide spectrum, from pro-independence activists to more centrist politicians.

- No veto -

The democrats now hold a total of 26 seats in the 70-strong partially elected legislature.

That means they have bolstered their ability to block some important bills, which require two-thirds to pass.

However they will continue to be outgunned on the majority of bills which require a lower threshold as they failed to regain the veto power they lost due to the disqualifications.

Activists accused Hong Kong's pro-Beijing government of political screening after it barred young pro-democracy leader Agnes Chow from standing in the by-elections because her party advocates self-determination for Hong Kong.

Chinese authorities are incensed at the emergence of activists advocating independence and also views calls for self-determination as part of a dangerous splittist push.

The vote came on the day the Chinese Communist Party decided to give President Xi Jinping a mandate to rule for life, intensifying fears that Hong Kong's freedoms will come increasingly under threat.

Chow's replacement, Au Nok-hin, held on to the Hong Kong Island seat.

However he described his feelings as "half half" because they camp had not regained all four.

Pro-establishment candidate Vincent Cheng said the election had "been a fight under adverse circumstances" after narrowly beating democrat Edward Yiu -- one of the legislators ousted from office after winning a seat in 2016.

The six lawmakers barred from office included former protest leaders and independence activists.

All were removed from their posts for inserting protests into their oaths of office after an intervention by Beijing.

The legislature is fundamentally weighted towards Beijing as only half the 70 seats are elected.

The rest are selected by traditionally pro-establishment interest groups.

It is the latest blow for the democrats who have come under increasing pressure after the failure of 2014's mass Umbrella Movement to win political reform.

Some leading activists have been jailed on protest-related charges and democracy campaigners fear the space for open political debate is seriously under threat.

Source: Sino Daily.
Link: http://www.sinodaily.com/reports/Blow_for_Hong_Kong_democrats_in_key_elections_999.html.

China's Xi Jinping gets expanded mandate, may rule for life

March 12, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — Xi Jinping, already China's most powerful leader in more than a generation, received a vastly expanded mandate as lawmakers Sunday abolished presidential term limits that had been in place for more than 35 years and wrote his political philosophy into the country's constitution.

In one swift vote, the rubber-stamp legislature opened up the possibility of Xi being president for life, returning China to the one-man-rule system that prevailed during the era of Mao Zedong and the emperors who preceded him.

The package of constitutional amendments passed the nearly 3,000-member National People's Congress almost unanimously, with just two opposing votes and three abstentions. The vote further underscored the total domination of Chinese politics by the 64-year-old Xi, who is simultaneously the head of state, leader of the ruling Communist Party and commander of the 1 million-member armed forces.

The move upends a system enacted by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to prevent a return to the bloody excesses of a lifelong dictatorship typified by Mao's chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.

"This marks the biggest regression in China's legal system since the reform and opening-up era of the 1980s," said Zhang Lifan, an independent Beijing-based political commentator. "I'm afraid that this will all be written into our history in the future," Zhang said.

The change is widely seen as the culmination of Xi's efforts since being appointed leader of the party in 2012 to concentrate power in his own hands and defy norms of collective leadership practiced over the past two decades. Xi has appointed himself to head bodies that oversee national security, finance, economic reform and other major initiatives, effectively sidelining the Communist Party's No. 2 figure, Premier Li Keqiang.

In addition to scrapping the limitation that presidents can serve only two consecutive terms, the amendments also inserted Xi's personal political philosophy into the preamble of the constitution, along with phrasing that emphasizes the party's leadership.

"It is rare nowadays to see a country with a constitution that emphasizes the constitutional position of any one political party," Zhang said. The legislature's hand-picked delegates began voting in the midafternoon, with Xi leading the seven members of the party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in casting their ballots on a stage inside a cavernous hall. He placed his orange ballot paper in a red box bearing the official seal of state.

Rank-and-file deputies then rose to vote on the floor of the hall as jaunty instrumental music played. The process ended in 10 minutes, and delegates returned to their seats while the votes were counted.

Shortly after 3:50 p.m., the results were read over the public-address system and flashed briefly on a screen in the hall. "The constitutional amendment item has passed," the announcer declared to polite applause.

Xi showed little emotion and remained seated to listen to a report on the work of the congress delivered by its outgoing chairman. The slide toward one-man rule under Xi has fueled concern that Beijing is eroding efforts to guard against the excesses of autocratic leadership.

The head of the legislature's legal affairs committee, Shen Chunyao, dismissed those worries as "speculation that is ungrounded and without basis." Shen told reporters that the party's 90-year history has led to a system of orderly succession to "maintain the vitality and long-term stability of the party and the people."

"We believe in the future that we will continue with this path and discover an even brighter future," Shen said. In a sign of the issue's sensitivity, government censors have aggressively scrubbed social media of expressions ranging from "I disagree" to "Xi Zedong." A number of prominent Chinese figures have publicly protested the move, despite the risk of retaliation.

Officials have said the elimination of presidential term limits is aimed only at bringing the office of the president in line with Xi's other positions atop the Communist Party and the Central Military Commission, which do not impose term limits.

While some scholars questioned the wisdom of the move, others said they saw value in sending the message that Xi would be setting policy for many years to come. "In fact, the more Xi Jinping's position is consolidated and the longer his governing time is to last, the more secure it is for the continuity of the policies," said Liu Jiangyong, a professor at Renmin University's School of International Relations.

The move has crushed faint hopes for political reforms among China's embattled liberal scholars and activists, who now fear even greater repression. China allows no political opposition in any form and has relentlessly persecuted independent groups seeking greater civic participation. Leading Chinese officials have repeatedly rejected any chance of adopting Western-style separation of powers or multiparty democracy.

Nevertheless, Xi's confident, populist leadership style and tough attitude toward corruption have won him significant popular support. Zhao Minglin, 32, a vice president of a Beijing investment firm, said it would be easier for Xi to carry out his ambitious vision of raising living standards if more power were concentrated in his hands.

"I will definitely support this constitutional amendment and this government. This is a powerful and strong government," Zhao said. He added, however, that he was concerned that the public discourse lacked a space for dissenting voices.

Associated Press researchers Fu Ting and Shanshan Wang contributed to this report.

China's Xi joins Russia, Zimbabwe in global autocrat club

March 12, 2018

BEIJING (AP) — Recent history offers sobering lessons to China's Communist Party following its decision to allow President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely. For millennia, one-man rule for life was standard under kings and emperors. But from Zimbabwe to Iraq to North Korea, modern autocrats often blunder into economic stagnation, political dysfunction and war.

"There is a tendency for erratic and sometimes unwise policy choices," said Erica Frantz, a Michigan State University political scientist who studies dictatorships, in an email. Those include "more belligerent foreign policy" and greater likelihood of war.

On paper, deleting term limits on Xi's ceremonial post as president from China's constitution is a modest change compared with the vast powers he has amassed since becoming ruling party leader in 2012.

But the decision crystallized fears Beijing was discarding shared leadership developed since the 1980s. That system is meant to guard against the excesses of autocratic rule by requiring ruling party figures to give up power on schedule.

Some societies such as Singapore and Botswana are prosperous and stable under governing parties that stay in power for decades while avoiding the excesses of one-man rule. Chinese officials echo arguments offered by other governments that staying in power will enable Xi to carry out long-term plans. But while some analysts say that might help in the short term, in the long run other economies with autocratic leaders have fallen behind.

"It is likely that over time the quality of his choices will deteriorate," Frantz said. Some other prominent experience with one-man rule:

RUSSIA

FOREIGN BELLIGERENCE

Buoyed by an oil boom, President Vladimir Putin's rule since 2000 has been marked by complaints about corruption and human rights abuse, tension with the West over Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and accusations of meddling in U.S. elections.

The economy grew during Putin's first years in power as Russia passed Saudi Arabia to become the No. 1 oil producer, but was battered by the 2008 global crisis. More recently, falling oil prices and sanctions imposed over Crimea have caused economic activity to shrink.

Human rights groups accuse Putin of ordering assassinations of political opponents and stifling criticism.

Abroad, Moscow supported separatists who took control of eastern Ukraine in 2014 in violence that has killed more than 10,000 people. Russian troops seized Crimea, part of Ukraine since 1954.

Putin sent soldiers to Syria the following year to support President Bashar Assad's government against rebels.

U.S. Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President Donald Trump's ties to Russia and has charged Russian operatives with using fake social media accounts and targeted messaging to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

American intelligence agencies expressed "high confidence" that Putin ordered an "influence campaign" including social media postings to harm candidate Hillary Clinton in the election. Putin has consistently denied any Kremlin involvement in the interference.

NORTH KOREA

ONE-MAN RULE

Under the Marxist model, dynastic succession isn't supposed to happen. But Kim Il Sung, who ruled for 46 years until his death in 1994, jettisoned that thinking and groomed his son, Kim Jong Il, to lead.

The hereditary dictatorship, now in its third generation under grandson Kim Jong Un, has proven resilient, lasting 70 years in direct conflict with the United States. The regime is possibly stronger than ever and is on the verge of having a viable nuclear weapon.

That grip on power has come at significant cost to the nation. Basic human rights such as the freedom of speech, of travel and of religion are suppressed and the health of the economy is subjected to the needs of the military and the regime elite.

Kim has tried to emulate his grandfather in appearance and style. But he has struggled with the classic authoritarian dilemma: His regime and economic policies must adapt to survive, but allowing change could open the door to his own downfall.

ZIMBABWE

PROMISE TO STAGNATION

In the early days following the end of white minority rule in 1980, President Robert Mugabe stressed education and industries flourished.

As the years went by, the economy collapsed and Zimbabwe was reduced to being one of the world's poorest countries. Mugabe was accused of clinging to power through violence, intimidation and election fraud.

Mugabe, 94, was forced to resign late last year after the military staged a takeover, lawmakers from the ruling party and opposition started impeachment proceedings and the public staged massive demonstrations against him.

Mugabe, who blamed the West for many of Zimbabwe's problems, was replaced as president by a former confidant who promises change. Zimbabwe's post-Mugabe path will become clearer after elections that are due to be held this year.

CONGO

FLEDGLING AUTOCRAT

President Joseph Kabila took power after the 2001 assassination of his father. He won elections in 2006 and 2011 despite opposition claims the votes were not free and fair. His official mandate was to end December 2016 but the government has failed to organize elections.

Critics accuse Kabila of delaying the vote to stay in office, especially after a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic church to hold elections by the end of 2017 fell apart. Congo's government now says the vote will be in December, though tensions over the delays have led to deadly clashes in the streets between security forces and demonstrators.

Hundreds of opposition members have been arrested, prompting international condemnation. Kabila has said there is "no political uncertainty" and Congo is on track to hold elections despite the delays.

Associated Press writers Eric Talmadge, Christopher Torchia and Krista Larson contributed to this report.

Vietnam gives harsh jail terms to 6 for advocating democracy

April 06, 2018

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Six human rights activists were sentenced to harsh prison terms in Vietnam after being convicted of attempting to overthrow the government by advocating a multiparty democracy. Prominent human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai received the most severe penalty of 15 years in prison and five years of house arrest at the one-day trial Thursday, said his lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng. The others received sentences from seven to 12 years.

They were charged with affiliating with a group called Brotherhood for Democracy, whose purpose was to change the leadership of the Communist Party and build a multiparty system. "The sentences are too harsh to the defendants," Mieng said. "They fought for human rights, they fought for the rights of multi-party system ... which are recognized achievements of mankind, but the court sees it as serious (threat) to the regime."

Five of the defendants including Dai maintained they were innocent because what they did was right, Mieng said. One defendant confessed to the crime and got the most lenient sentence, he added. "The purpose of the group is to change the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, build a multi-party system," the official Vietnam News Agency quoted the verdict as saying. "The defendants' act is not fight for democracy, but acts that aim at overthrowing the people's administration."

"The defendants' act is especially serious because it directly impacts the survival of the people's administration," it said. Prosecutors identified Dai as the mastermind of the group who recruited members and sought financing from foreign organizations and individuals, which totaled more than $80,000, VNA reported earlier.

Dai and four others had previously been jailed for violating national security laws, and Dai's license to practice law was revoked. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States was deeply troubled by the harsh sentences under a "vague charge" and called for the release of all "prisoners of conscience" immediately.

"Individuals have the right to the fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, both online and offline," she said in a statement. "The United States is deeply concerned by the Vietnamese government's efforts to restrict these rights, through a disturbing trend of increased arrests, convictions, and harsh sentences of peaceful activists."

Speaking to reporters at a regular briefing Thursday, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said there are no "prisoners of conscience" in Vietnam and no one has been arrested for freedom of expression.

"In Vietnam, like other countries in the world, all acts that violate the laws are seriously dealt with in accordance with law," she said. Amnesty International says 97 people are serving jail sentences for violating national security laws in Vietnam, while Human Rights Watch counts 119.