Asia
Myanmar's worst violence since the military takeover is intensifying the crisis, the UN says
Myanmar's escalating conflict and worst violence since the military takeover in 2021 are having a devastating impact on human rights, fundamental freedoms and basic needs of millions of people — as well as “alarming spillover effects” in the region, U.N. officials said Thursday.
Assistant Secretary-General for political affairs Khaled Khiari told the U.N. Security Council that “the civilian toll keeps rising” amid reports of indiscriminate bombing by Myanmar's armed forces and artillery shelling by various parties.
The nationwide armed conflict in Myanma r began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.
Thousands of young people fled to jungles and mountains in remote border areas as a result of the military’s suppression and made common cause with ethnic guerrilla forces battle-hardened by decades of combat with the army in pursuit of autonomy.
Despite its great advantage in armaments and manpower, the military has been unable to quell the resistance movement. Over the past five months, the army has been routed in northern Shan state, is conceding swaths of territory in Rakhine state in the west, and is under growing attack elsewhere.
Myanmar’s main pro-democracy resistance group said Thursday its armed wing launched drone attacks on the airport and a military headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw, but the ruling military said it destroyed the drones as they attacked. It wasn’t possible to independently verify most details of the incident, but the military’s acknowledgement that it had taken place in one of the country’s most heavily guarded locations will be seen by many as the latest indication that it is losing the initiative.
Khiari did not mention the attack but said the National Unity Consultative Council — formed after the 2021 military takeover to promote a return to democracy and comprising ethnic, political, civil society and resistance groups — convened its Second People’s Assembly on Thursday “to further define their common vision for the future of Myanmar.”
He singled out the fighting between the Arakan Army and the military in Rakhine State, Myanmar’s poorest, which he said “has reached an unprecedented level of violence.”
“The Arakan Army has reportedly gained territorial control over most of central Rakhine and seeks to expand to northern Rakhine” where many minority Rohingya Muslims still live, he said.
The Buddhist Rakhine are the majority ethnic group in Rakhine, which is also known by its older name of Arakan, and have long sought autonomy. They have set up their own well-trained and well-armed force called the Arakan Army.
Members of the Rohingya minority have long been persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. About 740,000 fled from Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh when the military in August 2017 launched a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in response to attacks in Rakhine by a guerrilla group claiming to represent the Rohingya.
Khiari urged all parties in Rakhine to support the Rohingya, who are caught in the middle of the conflict and continue to experience “significant restrictions” on their freedom of movement as well as denial of citizenship and disproportionate vulnerability to abduction or forced recruitment.
The crisis continues to spill over the borders and added that conflicts in key border areas have weakened security, Khiari said. The breakdown in the rule of law has enabled illicit economies to thrive, with criminal networks preying on vulnerable people with no livelihoods.
“Myanmar has become a global epicenter of methamphetamine and opium production, along with a rapid expansion of global cyber-scam operations, particularly in border areas,” he said. “What began as a regional crime threat in Southeast Asia is now a rampant human trafficking and illicit trade crisis with global implications.”
Senior U.N. humanitarian official Lisa Doughten said the ongoing escalation has left 12.9 million people — nearly 25% of Myanmar’s population — without enough food, stressing that children and pregnant women face malnutrition.
“Across Myanmar, the humanitarian community estimates that some 18.6 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2024 — a nineteen-fold increase since February 2021,” she said.
Doughten said the health system is also in turmoil, with medicines running out. She appealed for urgent funding to assist millions in need, saying the 2023 appeal for $887 million was only 44% funded, causing 1.1 million people to be cut off from aid.
Both Khiari and Doughten echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for a unified international response to the escalating conflict, and for neighboring countries especially to use their influence to open humanitarian channels, end the violence, and seek a political solution.
Khiari said Guterres intends to appoint a new U.N. special envoy for Myanmar soon to engage with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and other key parties toward those goals.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council, however, that “the Myanmar military refuses to engage meaningfully with international efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the crisis.”
But she stressed, “We will not allow Myanmar to become a forgotten crisis.”
Calling Myanmar “our longstanding friend and close partner,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia objected to the meeting, saying the country doesn’t threaten international peace and security.
He accused Western nations of supporting armed opposition groups and destabilizing Rakhine and camps for the displaced “for the advancement of their own geopolitical concerns in the region.”
Rescuers search for people out of contact in Taiwan after strong earthquake
Rescuers searched Thursday for dozens of people still out of contact a day after Taiwan's strongest earthquake in a quarter century damaged buildings, caused multiple rockslides and killed nine people.
In the eastern coastal city of Hualien near the epicenter, workers used an excavator to stabilize the base of the damaged Uranus Building with construction materials, as some officers took samples of its exterior and chickens browsed amid potted plants on its slanted roof.
Mayor Hsu Chen-wei previously said 48 residential buildings had been damaged, some of which were tilting at precarious angles with their ground floors crushed.
Some Hualien residents were still staying in tents, but much of the island’s day-to-day life was returning to normal. Some local rail service to Hualien resumed, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. restarted most operations, the Central News Agency reported.
Hendri Sutrisno, a 30-year-old professor at Hualien Dong Hwa University, spent Wednesday night in a tent with his wife and baby, fearing aftershocks.
“We ran out of the apartment and waited for four to five hours before we went up again to grab some important stuff such as our wallet. And then we’re staying here ever since to assess the situation,” he said.
Taiwan's strongest earthquake in nearly 25 years damages buildings, leaving 7 dead
Others also said they didn't dare to go home because the walls of their apartments were cracked and they lived on higher floors. Taiwanese Primer Chen Chien-jen visited some earthquake evacuees in the morning at a temporary shelter.
More than 1,050 people were injured in the quake that struck Wednesday morning. Of the nine dead, at least four were killed inside Taroko National Park, a tourist attraction famous for its scenes of canyons and cliffs in Hualien County, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the island's capital Taipei. One was found dead in the Uranus Building.
About 130 people were either still trapped or out of contact Thursday, the National Fire Agency said.
About two dozen tourists and other people were stranded in the park, while the health and welfare ministry said 64 workers were unable to leave a quarry. The quarry workers were reported Wednesday to be safe but unable to leave due to blocked and damaged roads. Six workers from another quarry were airlifted out.
Several people, including six university students, were also reported to be trapped. Around 30 people, mostly employees at the hotel earlier reported to be in the national park, were out of contact with authorities.
For hours after the quake, local television showed neighbors and rescue workers lifting residents through windows and onto the street from damaged buildings where the shaking had jammed doors shut. It wasn’t clear Thursday morning if any people were still trapped in buildings.
The quake and its aftershocks caused landslides and damaged roads, bridges and tunnels. The national legislature and sections of Taipei's main airport suffered minor damage.
The quake was the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years. Local authorities measured the initial quake's strength as 7.2 magnitude, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.4.
Huang Shiao-en was in his apartment when the quake struck. “At first the building was swinging side to side, and then it shook up and down,” Huang said.
The Central Weather Administration has recorded more than 300 aftershocks from Wednesday morning into Thursday.
Taiwan is regularly jolted by earthquakes and its population is well-prepared for them. It also has stringent construction requirements to ensure buildings are quake-resistant.
Heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan kill 8 people, mostly children, and injure 12
The economic losses caused by the quake are still unclear. The self-ruled island is the leading manufacturer of the world’s most sophisticated computer chips and other high-technology items that are sensitive to seismic events.
Hualien was last struck by a deadly quake in 2018, which killed 17 people and brought down a historic hotel. Taiwan’s worst recent quake struck on Sept. 21, 1999, a magnitude 7.7 temblor that caused 2,400 deaths, injuring around 100,000 and destroying thousands of buildings.
Taiwan's strongest earthquake in nearly 25 years damages buildings, leaving 7 dead
Taiwan's strongest earthquake in a quarter century rocked the island during the morning rush hour Wednesday, damaging buildings and highways and leaving seven people dead.
In the capital, Taipei, tiles fell from older buildings as the earthquake shook the city, and schools evacuated their students to sports fields, equipping them with yellow safety helmets. Some children covered themselves with textbooks to guard against falling objects as aftershocks continued. Afterward, a five-story building in Hualien County, near the offshore epicenter, was left leaning at a 45-degree angle, with its first floor collapsed.
Taiwan's national fire agency said seven people died in the quake, which struck just before 8 a.m. The local United Daily News reported three hikers died in rockslides in Taroko National Park and a van driver died in the same area after boulders hit the vehicle.
Heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan kill 8 people, mostly children, and injure 12
Government statistics showed 736 people were injured and 77 stranded. The quake and aftershocks also caused 24 landslides and damage to 35 roads, bridges and tunnels.
Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency said the quake was 7.2 magnitude while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.4. It struck about 18 kilometers (11.1 miles) south-southwest of Hualien and was about 35 kilometers (21 miles) deep. Multiple aftershocks followed, and the USGS said one of the subsequent quakes was 6.5 magnitude and 11.8 kilometers (7 miles) deep. Shallower quakes tend to cause more surface damage. The earthquake triggered a tsunami warning that was later lifted.
Authorities said they had expected a relatively mild quake of magnitude 4 and accordingly did not send out alerts. Still, the earthquake was strong enough to scare people who are used to such shaking.
“Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and I’ve grown accustomed to them. But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake,” said Hsien-hsuen Keng, a resident who lives in a fifth-floor apartment in Taipei. ”I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before.”
Television images showed neighbors and rescue workers lifting residents, including a toddler, through windows and onto the street. All appeared mobile, in shock but without serious injuries. Doors had been fused shut by the pressure of the tilt.
The national legislature, a converted school built before World War II, and sections of the main airport in Taoyuan, just south of Taipei, also saw minor damage.
Traffic along the east coast was at a virtual standstill after the earthquake, with landslides and falling debris hitting tunnels and highways in the mountainous region. Train service was suspended across the island of 23 million people, as was subway service in the capital, Taipei, where a newly constructed above-ground line partially separated.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami wave of 30 centimeters (about 1 foot) was detected on the coast of Yonaguni island about 15 minutes after the quake struck. Smaller waves were measured in Ishigaki and Miyako islands.
The earthquake was felt in Shanghai and several provinces along China’s southeastern coast, according to Chinese media. China and Taiwan are about 160 kilometers (100 miles) apart. China issued no tsunami warnings for the Chinese mainland and all such alerts in the region had been lifted by Wednesday afternoon.
Migrant workers who helped build modern China have scant or no pensions, and can't retire
The initial panic after the earthquake quickly faded on the island, which is regularly rocked by temblors and prepares for them with drills at schools and notices issued via public media and mobile phone.
By noon, the metro station in the busy northern Taipei suburb of Beitou was again buzzing with people commuting to jobs and seniors arriving to visit the hot springs or travel the mountain paths at the base of an extinct volcano.
Stephen Gao, a seismologist and professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, said Taiwan’s earthquake preparedness is among the most advanced in the world, featuring strict building codes, a world-class seismological network, and widespread public education campaigns on earthquake safety.
Hualien was last struck by a deadly quake in 2018 that collapsed a historic hotel and other buildings. Taiwan's worst quake in recent years struck on Sept. 21, 1999, with a magnitude of 7.7, causing 2,400 deaths, injuring around 100,000 and destroying thousands of buildings.
Taiwan lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur.
The economic fallout from the quake has yet to be calculated, but Taiwan is the leading manufacturer of the world's most sophisticated computer chips and other high-technology items that are highly sensitive to seismic events. Parts of the electricity grid were also shut down, possibly leading to disruptions in the supply chain and financial losses.
Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC, which supplies semiconductors to companies such as Apple, said it evacuated employees from some of its factories in Hsinchu, southwest of Taipei. Hsinchu authorities said water and electricity supplies for all the factories in the city’s science park were functioning as normal.
The Taiwan stock exchange opened as usual on Wednesday, with the index wavering between losses and gains.
Thousands attend a rally in India's capital to challenge Prime Minister Modi ahead of elections
Thousands of people on Sunday attended a rally by an alliance of India's opposition parties that criticized the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of stifling opponents and undermining democratic institutions ahead of a national election next month.
The “Save Democracy” rally was the first major public demonstration by the opposition bloc INDIA against the arrest of New Delhi’s top elected official and opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal on March 21.
Kejriwal was arrested by the federal Enforcement Directorate, which is controlled by Modi’s government, on charges that his party and state ministers had accepted 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in bribes from liquor contractors nearly two years ago. The Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man’s Party, denied the accusations and has said Kejriwal would remain as New Delhi’s chief minister while the court decides on the next step.
Heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan kill 8 people, mostly children, and injure 12
“This battle is to safeguard the nation, democracy, constitution, future of the nation, youth, farmers and women. This battle is for justice and truth,” Deepender Singh Hooda, a lawmaker of the opposition Congress party, told reporters at the rally.
Kejriwal's arrest is seen as a setback for the opposition bloc that is the main challenger to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, in the elections to be held over six weeks starting April 19.
Opposition leaders have criticized Kejriwal's arrest as undemocratic and accused the BJP of using the federal agency to undermine them, pointing to a series of arrests and corruption investigations against key opposition figures.
Migrant workers who helped build modern China have scant or no pensions, and can't retire
The BJP denies targeting the opposition and says law enforcement agencies act independently.
“Narendra Modi wants to strangle democracy and take away the option from the people to choose the government of their choice,” opposition leader Rahul Gandhi from the Congress party, who took part in Sunday’s rally, wrote on X.
Heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan kill 8 people, mostly children, and injure 12
Heavy rains killed eight people, mostly children, and injured 12 in Pakistan’s northwest, an official said Saturday.
Downpours in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province caused rooms to collapse, crushing the people inside, according to Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the local disaster management authority.
Shahzad said that three of the dead were siblings aged between 3 and 7 years old, from the same family. The casualties occurred in the past 24 hours, he added.
Pakistan has this year experienced a delay in winter rains, which started in February instead of November. Monsoon and winter rains cause damage in Pakistan every year.
Earlier this month, around 30 people died in rain-related incidents in the northwest.
Across the border in Afghanistan, heavy rainfall on March 29 and 30 destroyed more than 1,500 acres of agricultural land, causing severe damage to hundreds of homes and critical infrastructure like bridges and roads in seven provinces, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Saturday.
The provinces most affected are northern Faryab, eastern Nangarhar, and central Daikundi.
It’s the third time that the northern region has experienced flooding in less than a month, with seven people killed and 384 families affected by heavy rains, the U.N. agency said.
Lemei: A Chinese village setting an example fighting poverty
Lemei village which located in the southeast of Datian Town of Dongfang city in Hainan province is a surprising success in eradicating poverty.
Foreign journalists from 25 countries including Bangladesh visited Lemei on Saturday to gain some insights into the anti-poverty work this village did.
Relying on a small orchid, Lemei village not only achieved poverty alleviation comprehensively, but also led the villagers to live a rich and better life. Now it focuses on the shortcomings of industrial development and actively takes measures to solve some problems to further develop and expand the collective economy of the village.
First secretary of Lemei Village accredited by Hainan University Liu Debing briefed the visiting journalists and guided them on the visit.
Liu Debing said Lemei used to be a deeply impoverished village inhabited by the Li ethnic group. In recent years, the village has closely relied on the targeted resource advantages of Hainan Unversity, and adhered to the principle of rural revitalization as the starting point, with the orchid industry as the carrier to promote the development and growth of the village collective economy.
Mentioining that the income of the poverty-stricken people in 2023 wasmore than seven-fold what it was in 2015, Liu said:
"Lemei has succesefullly "transformed" from a poor village to a moderately prosperous village, and has been selected as a 'Typical case of a national village'. The village also ever won the title of the 'National Rural Guvernance Demonstration Village', 'Provincial Rural Revitalization Demonstration Village', and 'Hainan Health Village'."
The collective income of Lemei village is over 2 million yuan each year, he added, for a total population of just 558 people in 118 households.
The village took many measures to develop the orchid industry by introducing government poverty alleviation funds in 2018, and has gradually developed and grown substantially with the continuous technical help of Hainan University for many years.
"We register Lemei Village trademark, and make efforts to create "Leei" series of agricultural products. The preject has been operating for more than 6 years, and about 16,650 square meters of orchid greenhouses have been built, and about 600,000 trees of autumn Dendrobium have been planted," he said.
At the same time, the village made efforts to transform idle sheep sheds in classrooms, restaurants, and houses that can be used to inherit the traditional skills of Li brocade and Li pottery. Efforts have been made to help the surrounding villages to raise funds to build 17 home-stay buildings, create diversified industries such as research and training center, network live broadcasting for Li brocade and Li pottery, and rural home-stay catering industry so as to broaden the ways for the villagers to increase their income.
The professor informed that they have cultivated a strong cadre team, pooled the villager’s wisdom and attracted the local talents.
"In the midst of the change of the village cadres in 2021 in the Village, a group of qualified, energetic and enterprising people with the mind of running business and the ability of helping all to get richer were absorbed into the cadre team. The average age of the cadres is 32 years old and the cadres education level has been significantly improved. Village cadres have become more adept at leading rural development and serving rural people," he said.
Sharing the journey, he said efforts have been made to cultivate local talents through on-site practice, special training and other ways in order to provide strong support for comprehensively promoting rural revitalization to accurately improve the theoretical level and working ability of the cadre team.
He highlighted that they also shaped rural civilization carrying forward national characteristics, and boosting rural cultural confidence.
"To revitalize rural areas, we need not only to help villagers to get richer but also to help them enrich their minds," he said.
Relying on the advantages of Orchid Industrial Park, Lemei Village founded the "Village revitalization Lecture Hall", established the concept of "entering the door is the classroom, going out is the scene" and also organized various kinds of learning including special training, learning combined with practice with the purpose of helping villagers learn deeply, learn with their hearts and learn the practical skills.
Relying on the resources of skill-inheriting base of Li brocade and Li pottery in the Village, they invited the weaver and the pottery-making woman to the base to demonstrate their skills on the site, and organized the school youth and local people to participate in the production of Li brocade and Li pottery so as to promote the intangible cultural heritage and raise the awareness and identity of the ordinary people in terms of natiothey culture.
Establishing the concept of green development improved the appearancs of the village. Lemei has gradually completed the renovation of dilapidated houses, the promotion of the toilet revolution and the construction of beautiful villages, and the infrastructure has been continuously improved from muddy, dark roads to a beautiful countryside in order to respond to the problem of the low vegetation greening rate.
Villagers are encouraged to plant beautiful and practical plants such as sunflowers in front of and behind their houses to make the village environment green and beautiful. Thus the village appearance greening beautification, and lighting level were further improved, the professor continued saying.
He said the village has explored the implementation of the "points system plus differentiated dividenda" work in accordance with the principle of "more work and more gains, less work and less gains".
"In 2024, the Orchid Industrial Park will be upgraded and renovated, and the supporting service facilities such as a new tourist reception service center, a guest house and a tourist leisure plaza, a pet park, and a fishing center will be expanded," he expressed his hope.
It has the land ares of about 5 million square meters, mainly planted with orchids, pepper, okra, mango, betel palm, bananas and other crops.
Migrant workers who helped build modern China have scant or no pensions, and can't retire
At 53, Guan Junling is too old to get hired at factories anymore. But for migrant workers like her, not working is not an option.
For decades, they have come from farming villages to find work in the cities. Toiling in sweatshops and building apartment complexes they could never afford to live in, they played a vital role in China's transformation into an economic powerhouse.
As they grow older, the first generation of migrant workers is struggling to find jobs in a slowing economy. Many are financially strapped, so they have to keep looking.
"There is no such thing as a 'retirement' or 'pensions' for rural people. You can only rely on yourself and work," Guan said. "When can you stop working? It's really not until you have to lie in bed and you can't do anything."
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She now relies on housecleaning gigs, working long days to squirrel away a little money in case of a health emergency. Migrant workers can get subsidized health care in their hometowns, but they have little or no coverage elsewhere. If Guan needs to go to hospital in Beijing, she has to pay out of pocket.
As China's population ages, so are its migrant workers. About 85 million were over 50 in 2022, the latest year for which data is available, accounting for 29% of all migrant workers and up from 15% a decade earlier. With limited or no pensions and health insurance, they need to keep working.
About 75% said they would work beyond the age of 60 in a questionnaire distributed to 2,500 first-generation migrant workers between 2018 to 2022, according to Qiu Fengxian, a scholar on rural sociology who described her research in a talk last year. The first-generation refers to those born in the 1970s or earlier.
Older workers are being hit by a double whammy. Jobs have dried up in construction due to a downturn in the real estate market and in factories because of automation and the slowing economy. Age discrimination is common, so jobs tend to go to younger people.
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"For young people, of course, you can still find a job, positions are available, though the wage is not high enough," said Zhang Chenggang of Beijing's Capital University of Economics and Business, where he directs a center researching new forms of employment.
"But for older migrant workers, there simply are no positions," said Zhang, who conducted field studies at four labor markets across China late last year. "Now, the problem is that no matter how low the wage is, as long as someone pays, you will take the job."
Some job recruiters contacted by AP said older workers don't work well or have underlying illnesses. Others declined to answer and hung up.
Many are turning to temporary work. Zhang Zixing was looking for gigs on a cold winter day late last year at a sprawling outdoor labor market on the outskirts of Beijing.
He said he was fired from a job delivering packages because of his age about three years ago, when he reached 55. In December, he was earning 260 yuan (about $35) a day installing cables at construction sites.
Zhang Quanshou, a village official in Henan province and a delegate to China's National People's Congress, said some older migrant workers are just looking for work near their hometowns, while others still head to larger cities.
"Some older migrant workers are finding temporary jobs, so it is important to build the temporary job market and provide a better platform for such services," Zhang, the Communist Party secretary of the village, said in an emailed response to questions during a recent annual meeting of the Congress.
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Guan, who comes from a rice-farming region in the north, worked on a clothing factory assembly line until she was laid off when she was in her 40s. She then worked various jobs in different cities, winding up in Beijing in 2018.
She works seven days a week, partly because she's afraid labor agencies won't call again if she turns an offer down.
Over February's Lunar New Year holiday, when migrant workers traditionally go home to visit their families, she stayed in Beijing as a caretaker for an elderly woman, because the woman needed help and she needed the money.
"People either want someone who's educated or young, and I don't meet either of those requirements," said Guan, who dropped out after middle school because her parents had only enough money to educate their son. "But then I think, regardless of how other people look at me, I have to survive."
Guan worries jobs will be even harder to find when she reaches 55. The retirement age for women in China is 50 or 55, depending on the company and type of work. For men, it is 60.
Lu Guoquan, a trade union official, has proposed relaxing age limits for jobs, judging workers by their physical condition instead of their age and making it easier for older people to find work through labor markets and online platforms.
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"A large number of farmers have entered cities, making an important contribution to the modernization of our country," said his proposal, made to an advisory body during the recent national congress and seen by the AP.
As workers grow older, "they are gradually becoming a relatively vulnerable group in the labor market and face a number of thresholds and problems in continuing to work," it said.
Lu, director of the general office of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, declined an interview request.
Duan Shuangzhu has spent 25 years collecting trash in one Beijing neighborhood after giving up a life of raising sheep and cows in north China's Shanxi province when he was in his 40s. He gets up at 3:30 a.m. seven days a week to make his rounds. For that, he earns 3,300 yuan ($460) a month and has a basement room to live in.
Duan's wife stayed on the farm, where she looks after their grandchildren. Duan has managed to save money for himself, his children and his grandchildren, but never paid into a pension system, directing what little he earns to his family.
That fits the pattern Qiu found in her research, which she published in a book last year. Older migrant workers moved to the cities to improve the lives of their children and other relatives, not themselves, she found. Most have limited or no savings, and few have climbed the economic ladder. They hoped their children would, but most ended up as migrant workers, too.
Most migrant workers' earnings were spent on their children's marriages, homes and education, Qiu said in her talk. "Basically, they did not begin working for themselves and planning for their own late years until the age of 55."
Duan, at 68, has no plans to quit.
"As long as I can work every day, it's enough to survive," he said, standing next to a set of community rubbish bins, color-coded for recycling. "I didn't grow up in a wealthy family — just filling my stomach each day is enough for me."
Japanese authorities raid a factory making health supplements linked to 5 deaths
Japanese government health officials raided a factory Saturday producing health supplements that they say have killed at least five people and hospitalized more than 100 others.
About a dozen people wearing dark suits solemnly walked into the Osaka plant of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. in the raid shown widely on Japanese TV news, including public broadcaster NHK.
The company says little is known about the exact cause of the sicknesses, which include kidney failure. An investigation into the products is underway in cooperation with government health authorities.
The supplements all used “benikoji,” a kind of red mold. Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals’ pink pills called Benikoji Choleste Help were billed as helping lower cholesterol levels.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, based in the western Japanese city of Osaka, said about a million packages were sold over the past three fiscal years. It also sold benikoji to other manufacturers, and some products have been exported. The supplements could be bought at drug stores without a prescription from a doctor.
Reports of health problems surfaced in 2023, although benikoji has been used in various products for years.
Company president Akihiro Kobayashi has apologized for not having acted sooner. The recall came March 22, two months after the company had received official medical reports about the problem.
On Friday, the company said five people had died and 114 people were being treated in hospitals after taking the products. Japan's health ministry says the supplements are responsible for the deaths and illnesses, and warned that the number of those affected could grow.
Some analysts blame the recent deregulation initiatives, which simplified and sped up approval for health products to spur economic growth. But deaths from a mass-produced item is rare in Japan, as government checks over consumer products are relatively stringent.
The government has ordered a review of the approval system in response to the supplement-related illnesses. A report is due in May.
In Indonesia, deforestation is intensifying disasters from severe weather and climate change
Roads turned to murky brown rivers, homes were swept away by strong currents and bodies were pulled from mud during deadly flash floods and landslides after torrential rains hit West Sumatra in early March, marking one of the latest deadly natural disasters in Indonesia.
Government officials blamed the floods on heavy rainfall, but environmental groups have cited the disaster as the latest example of deforestation and environmental degradation intensifying the effects of severe weather across Indonesia.
“This disaster occurred not only because of extreme weather factors, but because of the ecological crisis,” Indonesian environmental rights group Indonesian Forum for the Environment wrote in a statement. “If the environment continues to be ignored, then we will continue to reap ecological disasters.”
A vast tropical archipelago stretching across the equator, Indonesia is home to the world's third-largest rainforest, with a variety of endangered wildlife and plants, including orangutans, elephants, giant and blooming forest flowers. Some live nowhere else.
For generations the forests have also provided livelihoods, food, and medicine while playing a central role in cultural practices for millions of Indigenous residents in Indonesia.
Since 1950, more than 74 million hectares (285,715 square miles) of Indonesian rainforest — an area twice the size of Germany — have been logged, burned or degraded for development of palm oil, paper and rubber plantations, mining and other commodities according to Global Forest Watch.
Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil, one of the largest exporters of coal and a top producer of pulp for paper. It also exports oil and gas, rubber, tin and other resources. And it also has the world’s largest reserves of nickel — a critical material for electric vehicles, solar panels and other goods needed for the green energy transition.
Indonesia has consistently ranked as one of the largest global emitters of plant-warming greenhouse gases, with its emissions stemming from the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and peatland fires, according to the Global Carbon Project.
It’s also highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, including extreme events such as floods and droughts, long-term changes from sea level rise, shifts in rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures, according to the World Bank. In recent decades the country has already seen the effects of climate change: More intense rains, landslides and floods during rainy season, and more fires during a longer dry season.
But forests can help play a vital role in reducing the impact of some extreme weather events, said Aida Greenbury, a sustainability expert focusing on Indonesia.
Flooding can be slowed by trees and vegetation soaking up rainwater and reducing erosion. In dry season, forests release moisture that helps mitigate the effects of droughts, including fires.
But when forests diminish, those benefits do as well.
A 2017 study reported that forest conversion and deforestation expose bare soil to rainfall, causing soil erosion. Frequent harvesting activities — such as done on palm oil plantations — and the removal of ground vegetation leads to further soil compaction, causing rain to run off the surface instead of entering groundwater reservoirs. Downstream erosion also increases sediment in rivers, making rivers shallower and increasing flood risks, according to the research.
After the deadly floods in Sumatra in early March, West Sumatra Gov. Mahyeldi Ansharullah said there were strong indications of illegal logging around locations affected by floods and landslides. That, coupled with extreme rainfall, inadequate drainage systems and improper housing development contributed to the disaster, he said.
Experts and environmental activists have pointed to deforestation worsening disasters in other regions of Indonesia as well: In 2021 environmental activists partially blamed deadly floods in Kalimantan on environmental degradation caused by large-scale mining and palm oil operations. In Papua, deforestation was partially blamed for floods and landslides that killed over a hundred people in 2019.
There have been some signs of progress: In 2018 Indonesian President Joko Widodo put a three-year freeze on new permits for palm oil plantations. And the rate of deforestation slowed between 2021-2022, according to government data.
But experts warn that it’s unlikely deforestation in Indonesia will stop anytime soon as the government continues to move forward with new mining and infrastructure projects such as new nickel smelters and cement factories.
“A lot of land use and land-based investment permits have already been given to businesses, and a lot of these areas are already prone to disasters,” said Arie Rompas, an Indonesia-based forestry expert at Greenpeace.
President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who is scheduled to take office in October, has promised to continue Widodo’s policy of development, include large-scale food estates, mining and other infrastructure development that are all linked to deforestation.
Environmental watchdogs also warn that environmental protections in Indonesia are weakening, including the passing of the controversial Omnibus Law, which eliminated an article of the Forestry Law regarding the minimum area of forest that must be maintained at development projects.
“The removal of that article makes us very worried (about deforestation) for the years to come,” said Rompas.
While experts and activists recognize that development is essential for Indonesia’s economy to continue to go, they argue that it should be done in a way that considers the environment and incorporates better land planning.
“We can’t continue down the same path we’ve been on,” said sustainability expert Greenbury. “We need to make sure that the soil, the land in the forest doesn’t become extinct.”
Hainan to have world's best free trade port by 2035: Chinese academic
Hainan, China’s largest economic special zone is going to be the next best free trade port hub in the world by 2035, said Professor of Law School of Hainan University and Deputy Director of Hainan South China Sea Policy and Law Research Center Zhang Liangfu.
He said this in a programme 'Introduction to Hainan Free Trade Port' at the Sanya city of Hainan province where 31 journalists from 25 countries including staff correspondent of United News of Bangladesh from Bangladesh attended. The professor also answered the questions of the journalists.
He said the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to build Hainan Island into a free trade pilot zone, supporting Hainan’s gradual exploration and steady advancement of the construction of a Chinese-style free trade port, and establishing a policy and institutional system for free trade ports in stages and steps in April 2018.
Saying that the free trade port is hailed as the most advanced form of openness in the world today, he said the construction of a free trade port in Hainan represents China’s strategic choice to explore and promote a higher level of opening up, demonstrating China’s unwavering determination and confidence in advancing opening up.
He informed that the initial establishment of a policy and institutional system for free trade ports focused on trade liberalization and investment facilitation will be finalized by 2025.
"The institutional system and operational model of the free trade port will be more mature by 2035," he also said.