Yusara Askari, Author at The Singapore Post

India, China agree not to turn ‘differences into disputes’: Chinese Foreign Ministry

11Jun

By Yusara AskariNo Comments

India, China agree not to turn ‘differences into disputes’: Chinese Foreign Ministry

Amid rising border tension between India and China along Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday said that both the countries want to maintain close communication on resolving the issue and that they don’t want to turn their differences into disputes.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that India and China want to defuse their simmering tension through “diplomatic and military channels”.The remarks comes days after the military-level talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders on Chushul-Moldo point along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.Taking to Twitter China’s ambassador to India Sun Weidong quoted the Foreign Ministry spokesperson as saying “border areas’ situation” were discussed during the meeting

Show no mercy: The tragedy in China’s Xinjiang

9Jun

By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Show no mercy: The tragedy in China’s Xinjiang

In 2012, media across the world speculated that Xi Jinping who hadn’t yet assumed the Chinese presidency would “be more tolerant of Muslim Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang.”Eight years on, Xinjiang, formally an autonomous region of China, is practically the largest internment camp in the world today. Its worsening condition is the direct consequence of Xi’s decisions.In 2014, after undertaking a brief tour of Xinjiang, Xi instructed the cadres of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to “show absolutely no mercy” to its Uighur Muslim population.The regime that now decries any allusion to the genesis of the coronavirus as bigoted then proceeded to describe Islam as a “virus”. And according to a party document, its prescription for the eradication of this pathogen was the swift “hospit

China pushing territorial claims under cover of coronavirus: US military commander

7Jun

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China pushing territorial claims under cover of coronavirus: US military commander

In yet another claim against China’s expansionist policy, the commander of U.S. Forces in Japan on Friday said that China is using coronavirus as a cover to push territorial claims in the South China Sea through a surge in naval activity meant to intimidate other countries that claim the waters.“There has been a surge of activity by China in the South China Sea with navy ships, coast guard vessels and a naval militia of fishing boats in harassing vessels in waters claimed by Beijing”, said Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider.“Through the course of the COVID crisis we saw a surge of maritime activity,” he said.He added that Beijing had also increased its activity in the East China Sea, where it has a territorial dispute with Japan.Meanwhile, China says its maritime activities in the area are

China targets land grabs, forced evictions in new law

6Jun

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China targets land grabs, forced evictions in new law

Farmers in China have faced forced evictions and illicit land grabs for decades often with little or no compensation in return as China raced to urbanize and settle social unrest in the country.Millions of hectares of rural land were taken away from farmers in the past three decades and given to developers. Rural migrants living in run-down inner-city areas have also been forcefully evicted in recent years as cities fight congestion."Land disputes trigger half of an estimated 100,000 social protests in China every year, making them the second leading cause for public unrest after labour disputes," Ni Yulan, a lawyer who advocates for property rights of low-income families in Beijing said.Ni has been jailed twice for her advocacy and is paralyzed from the waist down, a result she says of be...

China doesn’t want a new world order. It wants this one

6Jun

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China doesn’t want a new world order. It wants this one

Under fire for introducing and spreading Coronavirus across the world and reproached for their move to assert control over Hong Kong, China’s officials are in firefighting mode. Their approach has two parts. First, sell the China story - emphasizing its success in the fight against the coronavirus. Second, attack those who seek to tarnish the country’s image.President Xi Jinping has left this battle to his subordinates. With the world spinning into crisis, he has a bigger campaign to occupy him: taking over the international institutions, like the World Health Organization and the United Nations, that manage the world.Interestingly, the plan also bears a suitably benign title - “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.” First proposed by Jinping in 2013 and introduced at the United Nati

India demands immediate access to restore ‘vandalized’ Buddhist structures in Gilgit-Baltistan

5Jun

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India demands immediate access to restore ‘vandalized’ Buddhist structures in Gilgit-Baltistan

A week after images of vandalized Buddhist carvings surfaced on social media, India sought immediate access to the area in Pakistan occupied Gilgit-Baltistan where Buddhist archaeological sites have been destroyed for its expert team to restore vandalized structures.“We have conveyed our strong concern at reports of vandalism, defacement and destruction of invaluable Indian Buddhist heritage located in so called “Gilgit-Baltistan” area of the Indian territory under illegal and forcible occupation of Pakistan,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said on Wednesday.Srivastava said “egregious activities” of this nature which display contempt for the ancient civilizational and cultural heritage are “highly condemnable”."It is a matter of grave concern that the Buddhist sym

4Jun

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China misusing Confucius Institute to spread its propaganda, claims a petition

China is involved in suppressing the democratic movement in Hong Kong, conducting military exercises in South China Sea, suppressing freedom of press, carrying out military intrusion into Ladakh and Sikkim, and deploying military forces along the Indo-Tibetan border, said a petition calling for the closure of China’s Confucius Institute.On May 18, France-Tibet Occitanie and Association Initiative Citoyenne jointly submitted a petition to François Bayrou, Mayor of Pau, France calling for closure of the Confucius Institute (CI) which was inaugurated on October 28, 2019 by Lu Shaye, Chinese Ambassador to France.The petition states that Beijing has “wilfully concealed information on the CoVID-19 virus spread in Wuhan” and “put pressure on WHO to delay declaration of the pandemic situation” res

China’s new high-security compound in Pakistan may indicate naval plans

3Jun

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China’s new high-security compound in Pakistan may indicate naval plans

With recent satellite images of several new complexes at the western end of Pakistan’s coast, analysts are now more confident than ever of the long-expected Chinese naval base at Gwadar in Pakistan.One of the several complexes has been identified as a Chinese company involved in port development and has unusually high security. The base, to complement the one at Djibouti, would strengthen China’s foothold in the Indian Ocean.Located at the western end of Pakistan’s coast, Gwadar is expected to be a major port in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This will allow Chinese goods to shortcut through Pakistan, instead of sailing all the way around South Asia.China was first reported to be planning a naval base there in January 2018. While the plan has never been confirmed officially, it would be

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam accuses US of ‘double standards’ over protests

3Jun

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam accuses US of ‘double standards’ over protests

Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, has accused the United States of applying "double standards" in its response to violent protests and new national security laws planned for the territory as she warned Washington's plan to place trade restrictions on the financial hub would "only hurt themselves"."We have seen most clearly in recent weeks the double standards that are around," Lam, who was selected as city leader by a pro-Beijing committee, said on Tuesday."You know there are riots in the United States and we see how local governments reacted. And then in Hong Kong, when we had similar riots, we saw what position they adopted then," she added.Hong Kong has been rocked by months of huge and often violent protests over the past year, which riot police have stamped out with more t...

“Hong Kong’s ‘romantic fusion of East and West’ is evaporating”

1Jun

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“Hong Kong’s ‘romantic fusion of East and West’ is evaporating”

China's ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai on Sunday said that the central government has the ultimate responsibility for upholding national security in Hong Kong, and that a proposed legislation for the city "will protect law-abiding citizens"."Hong Kong was a romantic fusion of the East and the West. To our regret, such romance is evaporating," the envoy said adding that the violent actions of protesters against police, citizens and property there had crossed "a red line" for Beijing."Hong Kong is in disarray. China's national security is at risk. That is why the central government has chosen to act," he said.Separately, a newspaper in China wrote that the plans outlined by US President Donald Trump at the White House were a "gross interference" in Beijing's affairs and were "do...