China

Widespread distrust of the Prayut government is aggravating Sinovac hesitancy in the country, says an analyst. BANGKOK: Thailand is suffering through the third – and the most serious – wave of COVID-19 infections that has surged since early April. As of May 27, the total infections since Apr 1 topped 112,354, with 785 related deaths. The more virulent variants first identified in India and South Africa have been detected, prompting the Prayut Chan-o-cha government to speed up the vaccine rollout. AstraZeneca and Sinovac are the two vaccines currently in use. The government has secured about 117,000 imported AstraZeneca shots, with another 61 million shots in local production. The first batch of these – about 1.7 million doses – will be distributed by June. Up to 6 million Sinovac d...

CASCAIS, Portugal: The maiden voyage of a new British aircraft carrier will seek to show allies that post-Brexit Britain is ready to defend Western interests and eager to see China respect international rules, the vessel's commander said. HMS Queen Elizabeth took part in NATO exercises in the Mediterranean this week, ahead of the eight-month voyage that will cross through the South China Sea in a signal to Beijing that sea lanes must remain open. The carrier is "a hugely powerful statement," Commodore Steve Moorhouse, the ship's commanding officer and captain told Reuters on deck off the Portuguese coast as F-35B fighter jets took off around him. "It shows that we are a global navy and wanting to be back out there," he said. "The aim for us is that this deployment will be part of a...

New bank loans in China likely fell in May, a Reuters poll showed, as the central bank gradually scales back pandemic-driven stimulus to reduce debt and financial risks as the economy shows solid signs of recovery. BEIJING: New bank loans in China likely fell in May, a Reuters poll showed, as the central bank gradually scales back pandemic-driven stimulus to reduce debt and financial risks as the economy shows solid signs of recovery. Chinese banks are estimated to have issued 1.41 trillion yuan (US$220.54 billion) in net new yuan loans last month, down from 1.47 trillion yuan in April, according to the median estimate in the survey of 29 economists. That would be lower than 1.48 trillion yuan issued the same month a year earlier, when policymaking was firmly in emergency mode to cu...

YANGON: A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced 28 people to 20 years in jail with hard labour for arson attacks on two factories, state media reported, after a string of mainly Chinese-financed factories were torched during unrest in Yangon in March. The army-run Myawady news portal said the offenders had targeted a shoe plant and a garment factory in the industrial Hlaing Tharyar suburb of Myanmar's biggest city. Martial law was imposed in the suburb after the blazes, with dozens killed or wounded when security forces opened fire on anti-military protesters, media and an activist group said. The Chinese embassy in Myanmar said at the time that many Chinese staff were injured and trapped in the arson attacks and called on Myanmar to protect Chinese property and citizens. A t...

HONG KONG: Beijing has broken its legal obligations by undermining Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and used a national security law to "drastically curtail freedoms" in the global financial hub, according to a report by Britain on its former colony. In a foreword in the six-monthly report covering July to December 2020, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the city in June last year was being used to stifle political opposition. There had been "clear breaches" of the 1984 Joint Declaration, signed by then Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that guaranteed wide-ranging freedoms for Hong Kong, Raab said. The report criticised Beijing's overhaul of Hong Kong's electoral system, prosecuti...