Asia
'China and the United States should be partners rather than rivals': Xi Jinping
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said China and the United States should be partners rather than rivals and help each other succeed rather than hurt each other and engage in vicious competition.
Xi Jinping said this during the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
"Over the past 45 years, the relationship has gone through winds and rains, and it has a number of important inspirations to offer: China and the United States should be partners rather than rivals; help each other succeed rather than hurt each other; seek common ground and reserve differences, rather than engage in vicious competition; and honor words with actions, rather than say one thing but do the opposite," he said.
Noting that this year marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, he proposed mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation to be the three overarching principles. They are both lessons learned from the past and a guide for the future.
Saying that transformation not seen in a century is unfolding in a profound way, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent, the president said it is the shared desire of both the two peoples and the international community to see China and the U.S. strengthen dialogue, manage differences and advance cooperation.
"I’ve said many times before that the planet is big enough to accommodate the common development and respective prosperity of China and the U.S. China is happy to see a confident, open, prosperous and thriving United States," he also said.
He hoped the U.S can also look at China’s development in a positive light. This is a fundamental issue that must be addressed, just like the first button of a shirt that must be put right, in order for the China-U.S. relationship to truly stabilize, improve and move forward.
Mentioning his meeting with President Biden in San Francisco last year, Chinese President said they had launched the San Francisco vision that is future-oriented and m followed upon their common understandings, maintained communication in various areas, and made some good progress in the last couple of months,
"There are still issues to be addressed which require further efforts. Your visit this time was agreed upon between President Biden and I in our phone call several weeks ago. I hope you will find it productive," he said.
Secretary Blinken conveyed President Biden’s greetings to President Xi. He noted that since President Biden and President Xi met in San Francisco, the U.S. and China have made good progress in their cooperation in such areas as bilateral interactions, counter-narcotics, artificial intelligence and people-to-people exchanges.
The multiplicity and complexity of the challenges the world faces require the U.S. and China working together. The Americans from all walks of life that he met during the visit all expressed the hope to see U.S.-China relations improve. The U.S. does not seek a new Cold War, does not seek to change China’s system, does not seek to suppress China’s development, does not seek to revitalize its alliances against China, and has no intention to have a conflict with China.
The U.S. adheres to the One-China policy. It hopes to maintain communication with the Chinese side, follow through on what the two presidents agreed in San Francisco, seek more cooperation, avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations, responsibly manage differences, and achieve stable development of U.S.-China relations.
President Xi asked Secretary Blinken to convey his regards to President Biden. Wang Yi participated in the meeting.
Fire burns a restaurant and hotel in eastern India, killing 6 and injuring 20
A major fire that engulfed a restaurant and hotel in eastern India on Thursday killed at least six people and injured 20, a local fire officer said.
The fire began when a cooking gas cylinder exploded while diners were eating in the restaurant, and it soon spread into an adjacent hotel in Patna, the capital of Bihar state, said Satya Prakash, the officer.
At least 40 people were rescued from the two buildings by firefighters who doused the blaze using more than a dozen fire engines, Prakash said.
The hotel is in a congested area next to Patna's railroad station. Several vehicles parked at the hotel were gutted, Prakash said.
He said some guests in the hotel jumped from their room windows and were injured. Other details were not immediately available.
Fires are common in India, where builders and residents often flout building laws and safety codes.
In 2019, a fire caused by an electrical short circuit engulfed a building in the Indian capital and killed 43 people. In 2022, a fire in a four-story commercial building in New Delhi killed at least 27.
TikTok may be banned in the US. Here’s what happened when India did it
The hugely popular Chinese app TikTok may be forced out of the U.S., where a measure to outlaw the video-sharing app has won congressional approval and is on its way to President Biden for his signature.
In India, the app was banned nearly four years ago. Here's what happened:
WHY DID INDIA BAN TIKTOK?
In June 2020, TikTok users in India bid goodbye to the app, which is operated by Chinese internet firm ByteDance. New Delhi had suddenly banned the popular app, alongside dozens other Chinese apps, following a military clash along the India-China border. Twenty Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed, and ties between the two Asian giants plunged to a new low.
The government cited privacy concerns and said that Chinese apps pose a threat to India’s sovereignty and security.
The move mostly drew widespread support in India, where protesters had been calling for a boycott of Chinese goods since the deadly confrontation in the remote Karakoram mountain border region.
“There was a clamour leading up to this, and the popular narrative was how can we allow Chinese companies to do business in India when we’re in the middle of a military standoff,” said Nikhil Pahwa, a digital policy expert and founder of tech website MediaNama.
Just months before the ban, India had also restricted investment from Chinese companies, Pahwa added. “TikTok wasn’t a one-off case. Today, India has banned over 500 Chinese apps to date.”
HOW DID USERS AND CREATORS REACT?
At the time, India had about 200 million TikTok users, the most outside of China. And the company also employed thousands of Indians.
TikTok users and content creators, however, needed a place to go — and the ban provided a multi-billion dollar opportunity to snatch up a big market. Within months, Google rolled out YouTube Shorts and Instagram pushed out its Reels feature. Both mimicked the short-form video creation that TikTok had excelled at.
“And they ended up capturing most of the market that TikTok had vacated,” said Pahwa.
In India, TikTok content was hyperlocal, which made it quite unique. It opened a window into the lives of small-town India, with videos coming from tier 2 and 3 cities that showed people doing tricks while laying down bricks, for example.
But for the most part, content creators and users in the four years since the ban have moved on to other platforms.
Winnie Sangma misses posting videos on TikTok and earning a bit of money. But after the ban, he migrated to Instagram and now has 15,000 followers. The process, for the most part, has been relatively painless.
“I have built up followers on Instagram too, and I am making money from it, but the experience isn’t like how it used to be on TikTok,” he said.
Rajib Dutta, a frequent scroller on TikTok, also switched to Instagram after the ban. “It wasn’t really a big deal,” he said.
HOW IS INDIA'S BAN DIFFERENT FROM THE U.S.
The legislation to outlaw the app has won congressional approval and now awaits a signature from Biden.
The measure gives ByteDance, the app’s parent company, nine months to sell it, and three more if a sale is underway. If this doesn’t happen, TikTok will be banned. It would take at least a year before a ban goes into effect, but with likely court challenges, it could stretch longer.
In India, the ban in 2020 was swift. TikTok and other companies were given time to respond to questions on privacy and security, and by January 2021, it became a permanent ban.
But the situation in the U.S. is different, said Pahwa. “In India, TikTok decided not to go to court, but the U.S. is a bigger revenue market for them. Also, the First Amendment in America is fairly strong, so it’s not going to be as easy for the U.S. to do this as it was for India,” he said, in reference to free speech rights in the U.S. Constitution.
As Chinese apps proliferate across the world, Pahwa says countries need to assess their dependency on China and develop a way to reduce it as the apps can pose a national security risk.
The app is also banned in Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan and restricted in many countries in Europe.
“Chinese intelligence law and its cybersecurity law can allow Chinese apps to work in the interest of their own security. That creates a situation of distrust and it becomes a national security risk for others,” said Pahwa.
“There should be different rules for democratic countries and for authoritarian regimes where companies can act as an extension of the state,” he added.
Iran's Raisi says West doesn't monopolize knowledge, technology
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said his country has proven the West doesn’t have a monopoly on technology while inaugurating a hydropower and irrigation project in Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Raisi is the first Iranian leader to visit Sri Lanka since former President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad visited the country in 2008.
“The Western countries tried to convince all others that knowledge and technology is exclusive to those countries,” Raisi said, addressing Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe and other top officials. He added that the “idea” was rooted in “colonialism and arrogance” and that Iran was now able to share its knowledge with others, currently having projects in 20 countries.
The Uma Oya project, in the central Badulla district, was constructed with Iranian technical assistance. Valued at $514 million, it was started in 2010 by Iran’s FARAB engineering group and Iran initially provided $50 million. But in 2013, funding could not be continued because of international sanctions against Iran. The Sri Lankan government then decided to complete the project with its own funds using the same Iranian contractor.
The project was scheduled for completion in 2015 but was delayed by international sanctions against Iran, technical issues and the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said in a statement ahead of Raisi’s visit.
The project will add 290 GWh of electricity annually to the national grid and irrigate 4,500 hectares (11,100 acres) of new land and 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of existing agricultural land.
“Our enemies did not want Iran to develop and progress ... so the will and determination of the Iranian people were realized and our enemies were disappointed,” Raisi said.
Raisi and Wickremesinghe are to witness the signing of five memoranda of understanding and are scheduled to issue a joint statement.
Raisi arrived in Sri Lanka from Pakistan, where the two countries agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation.
The Indian Ocean island nation declared bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83 billion in debt — more than half of it to foreign creditors. Wickremesinghe's government secured an IMF four-year bailout package to rescue the country from its worst economic crisis.
Despite improving economic indicators, Wickremesinghe — who came to power in 2022 — faces public backlash over heavy taxes and the high cost of living.
2 Malaysian military helicopters collide and crash while training, killing all 10 crew
Two Malaysian military helicopters collided midair and crashed during a training session on Tuesday, killing all 10 people on board and injuring a swimmer in a pool, authorities said.
The helicopters were rehearsing at a naval base in northern Perak state for the navy’s 90th anniversary celebration when the accident occurred, the navy said in a brief statement. “All victims were confirmed dead on site,” it said.
A video circulating on social media purported to be of the incident shows several helicopters flying low in a formation. One of the helicopters veers sideways and clips the rotor of another helicopter, causing both to plunge and crash. A local police officer, who declined to be named because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the footage is genuine.
The two choppers were mangled beyond recognition. Rescue workers sifted through the debris to find the bodies. The victims included three women and seven men aged between 26 and 41, authorities said.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the nation mourned over the “heart and soul-wrenching tragedy.” He said the navy will immediately carry out an investigation to find the cause of the incident.
Seven of the dead crew members were aboard an AW139 maritime operations helicopter, the navy said. That aircraft is produced by AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of the Italian defense contractor Leonardo. The other three were on a Fennec lightweight helicopter, manufactured by European multinational defense conglomerate Airbus.
Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that the anniversary celebration this Saturday will be cancelled and replaced with Friday prayers for the victims.
Khaled said the two helicopters were among seven rehearsing when the collision occurred. One crashed into an empty sports field, while another plunged into a nearby swimming pool. A swimmer sustained injuries after he was hit by debris from the plane, he added.
Modi accused of hate speech for calling Muslims 'infiltrators' at election rally
India's main opposition party is accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of hate speech after he called Muslims “infiltrators" and used some of his most incendiary rhetoric to date about the minority faith in an election rally days after the country began its weekslong general election.
At the rally on Sunday in the western state of Rajasthan, Modi said that when the Congress party was in government, “they said Muslims have the first right over the country’s resources.” If it returns to power, the party “will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” he said as the crowd applauded.
“They will distribute it among infiltrators,” he continued, saying, “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators?”
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a spokesperson for Congress, called the prime minister’s remarks “deeply, deeply objectionable” and said the party on Monday had sought action from the Election Commission of India, which oversees the six-week voting period, which began Friday.
The remarks sparked fierce criticism for peddling anti-Muslim tropes, and for breaking election rules which bar candidates from engaging in any activity that aggravates religious tensions. The Election Commission of India’s model code of conduct forbids candidates to “appeal to caste or communal feelings” to secure votes.
Pakistani province issues a flood alert and warns of a heavy loss of life from glacial melting
Asaduddin Owaidi, a Muslim lawmaker and president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen party, said on Sunday: “Modi today called Muslims infiltrators and people with many children. Since 2002 till this day, the only Modi guarantee has been to abuse Muslims and get votes.”
Critics of Modi — an avowed Hindu nationalist — say India’s tradition of diversity and secularism has come under attack since his party won power in 2014 and returned for a second term in 2019. They accuse Modi’s BJP of fostering religious intolerance and sometimes even violence. The party denies the accusation and say their policies benefit all Indians.
But rights groups say that attacks against minorities has become more brazen under Modi. Scores of Muslims have been lynched by Hindu mobs over allegations of eating beef or smuggling cows, an animal considered holy to Hindus. Muslim businesses have been boycotted, their homes and businesses have been bulldozed and places of worship set on fire. Some open calls have been made for their genocide.
Modi’s remarks on Sunday were based on a 2006 statement by then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress party. Singh said that India’s lower-castes, tribes, women and, “in particular the Muslim minority” were empowered to share in the country’s development equally.
“They must have the first claim on resources,” Singh had said. A day later, his office clarified that Singh was referring to all of the disadvantaged groups.
Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party are expected to win, according to most surveys. The results come out on June 4.
The Congress party’s president, Mallikarjun Kharge, described Modi’s comments as “hate speech.” “In the history of India, no prime minister has lowered the dignity of his post as much as Modi has,” Kharge wrote on social media platform X.
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In its petition to the election commission, the party said that Modi and the BJP have repeatedly used religion, religious symbols and sentiments in their election campaign with impunity. “These actions have been further bolstered by the commission’s inaction in penalising the prime minister and the BJP for their blatant violations of electoral laws,” it said.
The commission’s code of conduct is not legally binding on its own, but it can issue notices and suspend campaigners for a certain amount of time over violations.
“We decline comment,” a spokesperson for the commission told the Press Trust of India news agency on Monday.
In his speech, Modi also referred to a Hindu nationalist myth that Muslims were overtaking the Hindu population by having more children. Hindus comprise 80% of India's 1.4 billion population, while the country's 200 million Muslims make up 14%. Official data shows that fertility rates among Muslims have dropped the fastest among religious groups in recent decades, from 4.4 in 1992-93 to 2.3 between 2019-21, just a bit higher than Hindus at 1.94.
Modi’s BJP has previously referred to Muslims as infiltrators and cast them as illegal migrants who crossed into India from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Several states run by the BJP have also made laws that restrict interfaith marriage, citing the myth of “love jihad,” an unproven conspiracy theory used by Hindu hard-line groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage.
Through it all, Modi has maintained a conspicuous silence, which critics say has emboldened some of his most extreme supporters and enabled more hate speech against Muslims.
A cluster of earthquakes shakes Taiwan after a strong quake killed 13 earlier this month
A cluster of earthquakes struck the island republic of Taiwan early Tuesday, the strongest having a magnitude of 6.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no reports of casualties in the quakes, although there were further damages to two multi-story buildings that had been evacuated following a magnitude 7.4 quake that hit the island earlier this month, killing 13 people and injuring over 1,000. That earthquake was centered along the coast of the rural and mountainous Hualien County.
It was the strongest earthquake in the past 25 years in Taiwan and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks. The quakes Tuesday's are considered the latest of those.
According to the USGS, Tuesday's quake of 6.1 magnitude had its epicenter 28 kilometers (17.5 miles) south of the city of Hualien, at a dept of 10.7 kilometers. The half-dozen other quakes ranged from magnitude 4.5 to magnitude 6, all near Hualien. Taiwan's own earthquake monitoring center put the magnitudes of the initial quake at 6.3. Such small discrepancies are common between monitoring stations.
Voting begins for Maldives Parliament, watched by India and China vying for control of Indian Ocean
The largest among them were two earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 and 6.3 that occurred at 2:26 a.m. and 2:32 a.m. Tuesday, respectively, according to the Taiwan center. Numerous of the scores of aftershocks could be felt on the upper floors of a apartment buildings in the capital Taipei, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) across steep mountains to the northwest.
The Full Hotel in downtown Hualien partially collapsed during the quakes and was left leaning at a severe angle, However, it had been undergoing renovations and was unoccupied at the time. The nearby Tong Shuai Building was also empty, having been marked for demolition after being heavily damaged in the April 3 quake.
Schools and offices in Hualien and the surrounding county were ordered closed on Tuesday as hundreds of aftershocks continued to strike on land and just off the coast in the Pacific Ocean, the vast majority below magnitude 3. Authorities advised anyone whose home had been damaged in the last quake to move out until the aftershocks subsided, and some decided to wait in their cars.
Rock slides closed a section of road in the rugged Taroko Gorge, where several hikers lost their lives in the April 3 quake. Although train service from Taipei to Hualien was suspended, the disruption to traffic was minimal and the road, provincial highway 8, was expected to be cleared by Wednesday. Cracks opened on some walkways and bridges and some tiles fell from exterior walls, but damage was only slight.
Taiwan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes yet their toll on the high-tech island’s 23 million residents has been relatively contained thanks to its excellent earthquake preparedness, experts say. The island also has strict construction standards and widespread public education campaigns about earthquakes.
In 1999, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Taiwan killed 2,400 people.
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Taiwan lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean from South America to Japan, Indonesia and New Zealand, along with most of the world’s earthquakes occur. Quakes, often with their epicenters in the Pacific, are a near-daily occurrence on the island, where they are often referred to as “the movement of the earth cattle.”
Taiwan's Cabinet has set aside more than $20 billion Taiwan Dollars ($614.9 million) for relief and reconstruction following the April 3 quake.
Race car in Sri Lanka veers off track killing 7 people and injuring 20, officials say
A race car veered off the track during a competition in Sri Lanka on Sunday and rammed into a crowd of spectators and race officials, killing seven people and injuring 20 others, officials said.
Thousands of spectators looked on as the mishap took place during a race in the town of Diyatalawa in the tea-growing central hills, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of the capital Colombo.
It wasn't immediately clear what caused the mishap.
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Police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said one of the cars veered off the track and crashed into spectators and officials of the event. Seven people, including four officials, were killed and another 20 were being treated at a hospital, said Thalduwa. He said three of the injured were in critical condition.
Thalduwa said police have launched an investigation into the accident, which was the 17th out of 24 events scheduled. The race was suspended after the accident.
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About 45,000 spectators had gathered at the race circuit at a Sri Lankan military academy. The event was organized by the Sri Lankan army and Sri Lanka Automobile Sports.
Voting begins for Maldives Parliament, watched by India and China vying for control of Indian Ocean
Maldivians voted in parliamentary elections Sunday, in a ballot crucial for President Mohamed Muizzu, whose policies are keenly watched by India and China as they vie for influence in the archipelago nation.
Both countries are seeking a foothold in the Maldives, which has a strategic location in the Indian Ocean.
Muizzu's election as president last year sharpened the rivalry between India and China, with the new leader taking a pro-China stand and acting to remove Indian troops stationed on one of the country's islets.
Securing a majority in Parliament will be tough for Muizzu because some of his allies have fallen out and more parties entered the race.
Six political parties and independent groups are fielding 368 candidates for 93 seats in Parliament. That is six more seats than the previous Parliament following adjustments for population growth.
About 284,000 people were eligible to vote and tentative results were expected to be announced late Sunday.
Pakistani province issues a flood alert and warns of a heavy loss of life from glacial melting
Muizzu's election campaign theme for president was “India out,” accusing his predecessor of compromising national sovereignty by giving India too much influence.
At least 75 Indian military personnel were stationed in the Maldives and their known activities were operating two aircraft donated by India and assisting in the rescue of people stranded or faced with calamities at sea. Muizzu has taken steps to have civilians take over those activities.
Relations strained further when Indian social media activists started a boycott campaign of Maldives tourism. That was in retaliation for three Maldivian deputy ministers making derogatory statements about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the idea of promoting tourism in Lakshadweep, India's own string of islands similar to the Maldives.
According to recent Maldives government statistics, the number of Indian tourists has fallen, dropping that country from being the top source of foreign visitors to No. 6.
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Muizzu visited China earlier this year and negotiated an increase in the number of tourists and inbound flights from China.
In 2013, Maldives joined China's “Belt and Road” initiative meant to build ports and highways to expand trade — and China’s influence — across Asia, Africa and Europe.
Pakistani province issues a flood alert and warns of a heavy loss of life from glacial melting
A Pakistani province has issued a flood alert because of glacial melting and warned of a heavy loss of life if safety measures aren't undertaken, officials said Saturday.
Pakistan has witnessed days of extreme weather, killing scores of people and destroying property and farmland. Experts say the country is experiencing heavier rains than normal in April because of climate change.
In the mountainous northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has been hit particularly hard by the deluges, authorities issued a flood alert because of the melting of glaciers in several districts.
They said the flood could worsen and that people should move to safer locations ahead of any danger.
“If timely safety measures are not taken, there is a possibility of heavy loss of life and property due to the expected flood situation,” said Muhammad Qaiser Khan, from the local disaster management authority.
Latest figures from the province said that 59 people, including 33 children, have died in the past five days because of rain-related incidents.
At least 2,875 houses and 26 schools have either collapsed or been damaged.
The southwest province of Baluchistan has also been battered by rainfall. It said it had limited resources to deal with the current situation, but if the rains continued, it would look to the central government for help.
In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point inundated a third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods also caused $30 billion in damage.
Pakistan's monsoon season starts in June.