Commentary: A year after Abeâs death, Japan is more geopolitically relevant than ever
TOKYO: It would be easy to assume that not much has changed since Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and de facto senior statesman, was assassinated in broad daylight one year ago.
But there’s an evolution underway, and Japan is moving closer to the nation Abe aspired to when he was gunned down on the campaign trail for upper house elections on Jul 8, 2022. The language of decline, of a country whose time has passed, is gone: From think tanks to hedge funds, Japan is on everyone’s lips. Tokyo is at the heart of Washington’s strategy to “de-risk” from China.
Money is flowing into the markets, led by Warren Buffett. And tourists are flocking back, with more Americans coming now than before the pandemic.
Abe aimed to build a Japan that could cast off the shackles of its wartime guilt and assume a position on the geopolitical stage befitting its economic might.
The former prime minister laid out not just how his nation should position itself against China, but created the model that now dominates Western thinking toward Beijing. He spearheaded the concept of the “free and open Indo-Pacific,” later adopted by the United States, outlining this coalition of like-minded nations as far back as 2007.
The current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has taken that ball and is running with it, with his plan to radically overhaul Japan’s military spending, a move that has vociferous US support. The country is taking steps to shore up its weakened defense industry and is looking to relax a long-standing ban on the export of weapons in a bid to add additional support for Ukraine.
Malaysia eyes secondary locations to attract Thais
The Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, also known as Tourism Malaysia, will promote secondary tourist destinations in the neighbouring country to attract Thai travellers.
Thanapat Tiyanont, Marketing Officer of Tourism Malaysia Bangkok Office, told the Bangkok Post that the top four Malaysian destinations among Thai travellers are Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Pahang and Malacca.
To promote secondary destinations, the agency will cooperate with related agencies to promote Kuching, known for its natural beauty; Mount Kinabalu on Borneo island; and Perak state, which borders Thailand’s Yala province, he said.
Perak is famous for its food, limestone caves and mountains, he said.
He said that during the first four months of the year, Malaysia welcomed about 500,000 Thais, adding its target of attracting 1 million Thai tourists before the end of the year will be achievable.
Mr Thanapat also said that there will be more direct flights connecting both countries.
At the end of last month, Malaysia’s MYAirline established direct flights from the capital Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok.
“Bangkok was chosen as MYAirline’s first international destination due to the increasing numbers of both business and leisure travellers to and from Malaysia,” CEO Rayner Teo Kheng Hock said.
According to a record of the Tourism and Sports Ministry, Thailand welcomed 1,696,358 Malaysian visitors from January to May, up from 76,420 visitors during the same period last year.
“We are confident that this trend will continue as trade and tourism between Malaysia and Thailand will further develop in the coming years,” Mr Rayner added.
Founded in January 2021, the airline offered its first domestic flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Langkawi in December last year. The service was later expanded to nine domestic destinations.
Police probe marriage scam claims
Women ‘tricked into Chinese wedlock’
UDON THANI: Provincial police are looking into whether the case of a woman who allegedly fell for a Chinese marriage scam should be considered as a human trafficking case.
Pol Maj Gen Pitsanu Unhaseree, commander of Udon Thani Provincial Police, on Friday said an officer was assigned to initially investigate claims that a 31-year-old woman, identified as Nuch, and three others were tricked into marrying Chinese men.
They were said to be persuaded by a matchmaker, identified as Da, to marry Chinese men for 100,000-baht dowries with a condition to become pregnant in the first six months.
However, the victims were said to have stayed in China as servants or even their father-in-laws’ second wives after the babies were delivered.
Nuch, who is from the province’s Nong Wua So district, first told the media on Thursday about the marriage scam. She said she and three other Thai women were able to leave China and arrive in Thailand last month due to her mother’s help.
She said she decided to tell her story because she wanted her case to be a lesson for other Thai women. Nuch said she married 32-year-old Chinese national Jin Wei Lian less than three days after their matchmaking before moving to China’s Hubei province.
She said she told the matchmaker before meeting her husband that she was unable to bear children, but the marriage went ahead regardless. She said she was kept in a house and was assaulted by her husband and her mother-in-law for not becoming pregnant.
She said she was assaulted for three years before she decided to flee to Thailand along with three other victims of the scam.
Pol Maj Gen Pitsanu said the case cannot yet be considered a human trafficking case yet as the marriage registration and contract were legally done.
“Investigators are now in the process of gathering more evidence and questioning all the victims and the matchmaker,” he said.
Pol Col Suraphong Charttisut, deputy commander of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, said both parties consented while the contract was made, therefore the case may not be classified as human trafficking.
The matchmaker’s actions may also not be considered human trafficking, he said, adding more details will need to be investigated.
Cordial tone in Yellenâs Beijing visit
China has called on the United States to take concrete actions to create a favorable environment for both sides to achieve mutual benefit.
Beijing hopes US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a dovish American official who began a four-day trip to China on Thursday, will take home to President Joe Biden a message: There will be no winners in trade wars and an economic “decoupling.”
Following China’s unveiling earlier this week of export controls of gallium and germanium, raw materials of semiconductors, Yellen met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday.
She told Li that the US seeks to have healthy economic competition, instead of a “winner-take-all” fight, with China, to benefit both countries over time. She also said that in certain circumstances the US would need to pursue targeted actions to protect its national security.
Yellen is the second high-ranking US official to visit China after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on June 19.
These talks were held against the backdrop of an intensifying chip war in which Japan and the Netherlands will restrict the exports of their chip-making raw materials and equipment to China on July 23 and September 1, respectively.
Media reports said last week that Washington will soon announce its plan to ban Nvidia from shipping its A800 and H800 artificial intelligence chips to China, and also restrict US funds from investing in China’s high-technology sectors later this month. To retaliate, China said Monday that it will require companies to apply for licenses to export gallium and germanium from August 1.
‘Seeing rainbow’
When Yellen arrived in Beijing on Thursday, she tweeted that she was going to “seek a healthy economic competition that benefits American workers and firms and to collaborate on global challenges.”
“We will take action to protect our national security when needed, and this trip presents an opportunity to communicate and avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding,” she said in the tweet.
Chinese officials and state media have so far used a more friendly tone to describe Yellen’s China trip than they did with Blinken’s.
“I am very happy to meet you in Beijing,” Li told Yellen at the beginning of their meeting on Friday. “Not only China and the United States, but also people in the whole world, are paying close attention to your visit to Beijing.”
“Yesterday, the moment you arrived at our airport and left the plane, we saw a rainbow,” he said. “I think it can apply to the US-China relationship too: after experiencing a round of winds and rains, we surely can see a rainbow.”
“I also often say to Chinese entrepreneurs that we always have to go through a difficult time,” he said. “When we say it’s bad this year, it can be worse next year. We must survive.”
He said Chinese enterprises must observe the world economy and look forward and cannot just look at the water under their feet on rainy days. He said this practice can also be applied in Sino-US relations.
Before a meeting with Li, Yellen had a “substantive conversation” with former Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and the outgoing governor of China’s central bank, Yi Gang, AFP reported. They discussed the global economic outlook and the respective economic outlooks for the US and China.
Equal relationship
On Friday, China’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement that Yellen’s visit to China is a concrete measure to implement the important consensus of last November’s Xi-Biden meeting. It said the trip will strengthen communication and exchanges in the financial area between the two countries.
“The essence of Sino-US economic relations is to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. There will be no winners in trade wars and ‘decoupling’,” said an unnamed spokesperson of the Finance Ministry. “We hope that the US will take concrete actions to create a favorable environment for the healthy development of economic and trade relations between the two countries.”
Su Xiaohui, deputy director of the Department of American Studies at China Institute of International Studies, remarks in a video released on Friday that Yellen’s China trip was decided by both the US and China, was not a result of an invitation from China, meaning that Beijing is not asking the US for help in anything.
Su says the fact that Yellen will stay longer in China than Blinken means that both the US and China want to discuss matters in detail.
She says Beijing is willing to receive American officials as it feels that Washington has been aware that suppressing and containing China will have a negative impact on the US. She says Washington knows clearly that American firms want to see stable Sino-US relations.
“From China’s perspective, Yellen’s trip does not mean that the US can make demands on China, or that it can unilaterally pressure China and force it to compromise,” she says. “Her trip should emphasize that the development of the relationship between the two countries must be equal and mutually beneficial.”
She says Beijing’s statement of “no winners in trade wars” may touch Yellen, who had once questioned the Trump administration’s tariffs placed on Chinese imports. She says the United States’s so-called “de-risking” or “decoupling” from China does not fulfil the spirit of achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.
Diversification
In May, G7 leaders met in Japan and agreed that their members should “de-risk” from China. Beijing said there is no difference between “de-risking” and “de-coupling” as both will lead to the departure of foreign firms from China.
Yellen preferred to describe the United States’s strategy as “diversification.”
She told representatives of some China-based US firms in a Friday meeting that a decoupling of the US and Chinese economies would be “virtually impossible.”
“We seek to diversify, not to decouple. A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilising for the global economy,” she said, adding that Washington was not seeking a “wholesale separation of our economies.”
Yellen said the US government is concerned by Beijing’s export controls on metals key to semiconductor manufacturing and is still evaluating the impact of these actions. She said the Chinese curbs reminded the US of the importance of building resilient and diversified supply chains.
“I also discussed concerns about barriers to market access, China’s use of non-market tools, and punitive actions against US firms,” she tweeted.
Luo Fuqiang, a military commentator, says in his latest vlog that he remains unconvinced that Washington will consider China’s interests and stop its suppression against China.
But he says US officials, who visit China, will continue to be received by higher-ranking Chinese officials as Beijing wants them to help send authoritative messages back to the US.
Some commentators say Beijing does not have high expectations for the outcome of Yellen’s trip as the US-China conflicts are related to the US Commerce Department and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, not the Treasury Department.
Read: China squeezes key metal supplies in chip war escalation
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
War refugees flood camps by border
Mae Hong Son caring for more than 5,000 people as fighting intensifies
More than 5,000 refugees from Myanmar are now taking shelter at refugee camps in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son to escape fighting between the Karenni Army (KA) and Myanmar junta forces.
Reports on Thursday said the KA had been hit by junta airstrikes in a border town opposite the province in northern Thailand. Casualties and deaths were reported.
Many local residents reportedly had to carry injured people across the border to receive medical treatment in Thailand while others had to flee for border forests.
A source from the KA said the Myanmar junta carried out 19 airstrikes, seriously injuring KA soldiers. At least seven Karenni troops were reportedly sent to Mae Hong Son Hospital.
On Friday, residents in Muang district of Mae Hong Son heard gunfire from the other side of the border. It was reported the junta forces were firing shots every seven minutes.
The number of Myanmar refugees fleeing to Mae Hong Son has reached 5,156 over the past few weeks. They are staying in four shelters where humanitarian aid is provided.
Chettha Mosikrat, the Mae Hong Son governor, said the number of refugees had not yet exceeded the capacity to provide temporary help. However, officials must document every arrival as well as initiate disease prevention during the rainy season.
Surachet Puinoi, the Mae Sariang district chief, said 30 refugees at the shelters in Sao Hin and Mae Khong sub-districts had malaria. Others have developed respiratory, gastrointestinal, muscle and bone diseases.
Mr Surachet said Thai officials have sprayed mosquito repellent in the shelters every week to prevent malaria.
The Mae Sariang district public health office has provided medical officers and ambulances in the event of an emergency.
There are also two field hospitals available, he said.
India’s federal police arrest three railway employees over deadly train crash: Source
MUMBAI: India’s federal police arrested three railway employees on Friday (Jul 7) in connection with a deadly train crash last month that killed 292 people, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. The arrests were made under Indian penal code sections related to culpable homicide, the source added,Continue Reading
TM announces upcoming changes in Group CEO and Chairman from Aug
Imri Mokhtar completes term, succeeded by Amar Huzaimi as Group CEO
Azlan Hashim finishes term, succeeded by Zainal Abidin Putih as Chairman
Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), has announced key changes in its leadership effective 1 Aug 2023. The change sees Amar Huzaimi Md Deris as the new Managing Director/Group CEO of TM, succeeding…Continue Reading
Phuket aims to become âsafest cityâ
Deputy governor and industry reps discuss ways to improve services and safety
PHUKET: An effort is under way to make Phuket the safest city in Southeast Asia following a number of incidents involving tourists.
Danai Sunantarod, deputy governor of the southern tourist province, expressed the aim at a meeting on Friday with representatives of tour and travel agencies.
Their discussion of security on the island highlighted several recent incidents that have been a cause for concern.
In May, a speedboat crashed into a channel marker in Chalong Bay, injuring 35 people, mostly Russian tourists. The boat driver was believed to have dozed off.
In February, Mr Danai said, a Chinese tourist was wounded in a knife attack by a travel agent after a disagreement over a refund for a day trip that the visitor missed. Tourists drowning in Phuket also raise questions about safety, he said.
“We have to learn from these incidents,” Mr Danai said. “We want to make our home safe for our visitors. We want to be the safest city in the region.”
He said the private and public sectors must cooperate to ensure the safety of tourists, while police officers must enforce the law.
“We will tighten safety measures because we don’t want to have scammers in Phuket,” he said, referring to the case involving the Chinese tourist.
“We also want tour operators to eliminate the dual pricing system because it makes our guests feel bad,” he said, referring to a system in which foreign visitors, including expatriates, are charged more than Thais for services. (Attractions that engage in the practice are listed on 2pricethailand.com)
Mr Danai said Phuket had become a famous destination due to its beautiful beaches, variety of food, unique culture and good hospitality. The province has received local and international recognition, including a Unesco Creative City of Gastronomy listing in 2015.
Phuket welcomed 5.6 million tourists last year, who brought in about 200 billion baht for the resort island, he said. About 60-70% of them were foreigners. More tourists will come this year to reach the province’s target of 10 million, he said.
Ratchadaporn Oin, head of the Tourism and Sports Ministry office in Phuket, said tour guides and operators have an important role to play in keeping tourists safe. They must know the rules so customers will know what can and cannot be done, she said.
For example, Ms Ratchadaporn said, guides must inform tourists not to touch marine life for pictures or feed fish while snorkelling or diving.
“We urge you to take good care of tourists to make them feel safe,” she said. “It will help boost the good image of the island.”
‘Anyone would let their guard down’: 62-year-old man loses more than S$40,000 in CPF savings to malware scam
After communicating back and forth on WhatsApp, Mr Ang told the scammer he wanted to give up buying the seafood and go to sleep as it was about 11pm.
“He said ‘No problem, the S$5 is in, I’ll definitely send you the goods. You can just pay for the seafood when it arrives,’” Mr Ang continued.
MULTIPLE TRANSFERS THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT
“After that, I thought I was very clever. I went into my phone settings to try and restrict the permissions for the app that was downloaded into my phone, and I thought everything would be fine.”
He also tried deleting the app, but did not succeed.
When he woke up at about 6am the next morning, he discovered multiple messages from DBS, indicating that a bunch of transfers had been made from his account throughout the night.
Each transfer was not more than S$5,000, and there were more than 10 transactions made via PayNow between 1.30am to 4.30am.
“I quickly called the bank to check if it’s true that a lot of money was transferred out of my account. I asked if there was still money in my account, and they said I still had about S$10,000 inside,” Mr Ang said in Mandarin.
“So I thought, actually I have around that amount in my account. So something was not quite right, since it didn’t seem like there was any money that got transferred out.”
He asked the bank to block his bank account, and they suggested he make a police report. He went to Bedok Police Station to do so on Jun 1.
The investigation officer later called him to ask for a more detailed statement from his bank and that was when Mr Ang found out that the scammer had transferred more than S$40,000 from his CPF account to his bank account, and then transferred it out.
“At that moment, I was very heartbroken. Why did the money just disappear without reason?” he added.
Unlike in other scams, the scammer did not ask for any passwords or essential login information, which is part of why Mr Ang did not think anything was amiss.
He also did not realise that the money had been transferred out from his CPF account because he could only see the notification about the transfer in the CPF app and his email.
“But if you don’t take note of this, I can’t be checking my CPF account or email every second of the day. I don’t think I go into my CPF app more than once a year.”
He also made the mistake of writing down his passwords and other login details in a note-taking app on his phone, he shared.
“Maybe that’s how they found my details,” he added, stressing that others should learn from his mistake.
“We all have a lot of passwords these days. If you use an easy password, you’re scared they’ll be able to guess it. But if you use a lot of passwords, you really can’t remember them all and have to check every time you use it,” he said with a chuckle.
Reflecting on his experience, Mr Ang cautioned older people: “What we learned last time can’t beat the scammers of today. They’ve developed a lot.
“The best defence is not touching these online things at all. You can look at it, but don’t get sucked in. We often think about other scams in the media, and after you hear about it a lot, you feel numb to it. But when you meet it, the way each scammer operates is different, so you might fall for it.”
ONLINE USERS CAN BE BETTER PROTECTED
He also hopes that social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as well as banks, can come up with more safety measures to deter scammers.
“On the bank’s side, the settings are very easy to change. I’ve tried it before. Once I decide to transfer the money, the money goes out,” he added.
“After the money goes out, the bank notifies you about the transfer. But at that point, the money has been transferred, so you can’t get it back. I hope the bank can consider this when putting safety measures in place.”
While additional confirmation or verification measures may be more troublesome, it could be safer for users, he added.
‘Anyone would let their guard down’: 62-year-old man loses over S$40,000 in CPF savings to malware scam
After communicating back and forth on WhatsApp, Mr Ang told the scammer he wanted to give up buying the seafood and go to sleep as it was about 11pm.
“He said ‘No problem, the S$5 is in, I’ll definitely send you the goods. You can just pay for the seafood when it arrives,’” Mr Ang continued.
MULTIPLE TRANSFERS THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT
“After that, I thought I was very clever. I went into my phone settings to try and restrict the permissions for the app that was downloaded into my phone, and I thought everything would be fine.”
He also tried deleting the app, but did not succeed.
When he woke up at about 6am the next morning, he discovered multiple messages from DBS, indicating that a bunch of transfers had been made from his account throughout the night.
Each transfer was not more than S$5,000, and there were more than 10 transactions made via PayNow between 1.30am and 4.30am.
“I quickly called the bank to check if it’s true that a lot of money was transferred out of my account. I asked if there was still money in my account, and they said I still had about S$10,000 inside,” Mr Ang said in Mandarin.
“So I thought, actually I have around that amount in my account. So something was not quite right, since it didn’t seem like there was any money that got transferred out.”
He asked the bank to block his bank account, and they suggested he make a police report. He went to Bedok Police Station to do so on Jun 1.
The investigation officer later called him to ask for a more detailed statement from his bank and that was when Mr Ang found out that the scammer had transferred more than S$40,000 from his CPF account to his bank account, and then transferred it out.
“At that moment, I was very heartbroken. Why did the money just disappear without reason?” he added.
Unlike in other scams, the scammer did not ask for any passwords or essential login information, which is part of why Mr Ang did not think anything was amiss.
He also did not realise that the money had been transferred out from his CPF account because he could only see the notification about the transfer in the CPF app and his email.
“But if you don’t take note of this, I can’t be checking my CPF account or email every second of the day. I don’t think I go into my CPF app more than once a year.”
He also made the mistake of writing down his passwords and other login details in a note-taking app on his phone, he shared.
“Maybe that’s how they found my details,” he added, stressing that others should learn from his mistake.
“We all have a lot of passwords these days. If you use an easy password, you’re scared they’ll be able to guess it. But if you use a lot of passwords, you really can’t remember them all and have to check every time you use it,” he said with a chuckle.
Reflecting on his experience, Mr Ang cautioned older people: “What we learned last time can’t beat the scammers of today. They’ve developed a lot.
“The best defence is not touching these online things at all. You can look at it, but don’t get sucked in. We often think about other scams in the media, and after you hear about it a lot, you feel numb to it. But when you meet it, the way each scammer operates is different, so you might fall for it.”
ONLINE USERS CAN BE BETTER PROTECTED
He also hopes that social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as well as banks, can come up with more safety measures to deter scammers.
“On the bank’s side, the settings are very easy to change. I’ve tried it before. Once I decide to transfer the money, the money goes out,” he added.
“After the money goes out, the bank notifies you about the transfer. But at that point, the money has been transferred, so you can’t get it back. I hope the bank can consider this when putting safety measures in place.”
While additional confirmation or verification measures may be more troublesome, it could be safer for users, he added.