Data wallets allow individuals to securely manage, share, maintain personal data
Will lead to data ecosystems, and economy where personal data is willingly traded
“I just can’t stand that they are paid so much money, for being so crappy.” Unapologetic, Professor Irene Ng (seated right, with her team) is talking about companies engaged in…Continue Reading
“Our generation has no expectations,” says 24-year-old Yin.
The medical student, who only wanted to share her last name, has a licence to practise, and is pursuing a graduate degree, hoping to get a job at a big hospital. But she is not sure it will help. Degrees, once highly valued in a competitive Chinese job market, have lost their sheen as graduates have outpaced jobs.
“Now, a graduate degree is worth what an undergraduate degree was some time ago. In the future, PhDs will be as good as a graduate degree is now,” Ms Yin says.
The disillusionment is echoing through young people in China, where a fifth of those between the ages of 16 and 24 are jobless, according to official figures released in May. And it’s finding expression in viral memes inspired by a famous short story from more than a century ago. The tale of Kong Yiji, a failed scholar who lived in poverty, has now become a code word for discontent among millions of graduates confronting a bleak future.
These memes – or Kong Yiji literature as they are known in Chinese – run into the hundreds, and can be found on nearly every social media platform in the country. They range from comments, drawing on literary metaphors, to whole rewrites of the tale. The latter have taken the form of an animated video and even a rap song – the last was a step too far for Beijing, which scrubbed it from the internet.
Ms Yin finds the state’s reaction to the memes hypocritical.
In one commentary, state broadcaster CCTV said students should “take off the long gown”, referring to a crucial element of the story, perhaps its most abiding detail. The “long gown” worn by Kong is what divides the rich and the learned from the uneducated poor who wear “short jackets”. So CCTV’s advice, it appears, was that students should swallow their pride, discard the long gown, and find whatever jobs they can.
“They said our future would be bright and beautiful, but now we have discovered that our dreams have been shattered,” Ms Yin says, adding that until now, young Chinese had always been told that the years spent studying and chasing degrees would pay off.
For her and so many others, the similarities with Kong are striking although his story takes place in what is widely believed to be late 19th Century Qing-ruled China. Kong, we are told, failed the “keju”, a gruelling imperial exam to enter the prestigious bureaucracy. Without what was then the only channel for social mobility, Kong is forever cast to the side. His story has endured as a scathing criticism of the system – and is now resonating with yet another generation of Chinese, jobless and frustrated by an exam culture that is just as exacting.
The Kong-inspired memes first appeared on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter earlier this year.
“I thought education was a stepping-stone. But I have gradually realised that it’s a pedestal from which I can’t come down, and long-gowned Kong Yiji couldn’t take off,” one Weibo user said.
They blew up in mid-March when CCTV published their take, blaming Kong’s tragic life on his failure to adapt, and find whatever job was available. And yet it insisted that “the Kong Yiji-era has gone, and ambitious young people will never again be stuck in the long gown”.
Angry young people reacted with a flurry of posts and comments, pointing to what they saw as wrong and unjust: the mismatch among education and jobs, the lack of a safety net for the unemployed, and the shrinking options for social mobility. Some likened the CCTV response to “gaslighting”.
“If a single university student cannot find a job, perhaps he is to blame. But unemployment among undergraduates is so high. Can we blame them all for not taking off Kong Yiji’s long gown?” asked a user on the Quora-like platform Zhihu.
She was among several people who spoke of the many years Chinese students spend studying – time, they now felt, they had been cheated of, and if they gave up their dream, what was even the point of it all?
“People live like ascetics for 10 years or more to educate themselves well,” wrote another Zhihu user. “They don’t do much for fun and rarely interact with the other sex. Their families spend a lot of money, buying houses in good school districts or sending their children abroad to study.”
“A low salary is not the scariest thing. The lack of social welfare protection and opportunities to acquire new skills is,” he added.
Their comments repeatedly expose the gaping holes in China’s safety net – of its urban workers have unemployment benefits. They also reflect dawning gloom over not just their future, but their country’s.
In the words of one user: “Can someone from a humble background achieve great success? I am afraid it is rather difficult now… Wealthy people are not even in the same lane as us.”
For decades, an unspoken social contract has assured power for the party in exchange for prosperity. But now China’s economy is faltering after decades of breakneck economic growth. And young Chinese who grew up watching their parents succeed are struck by how much seems to have changed.
“When I was a child, my dad found a career and worked hard. He was confident in his future and looked forward to it,” says 25-year-old Wang Yuxi. Her own excitement at making it to graduate school has now turned to disappointment. How would she describe her prospects? “Whatever”.
“Our parents staunchly believed a good job equals success,” Ms Yin says. “Now, we have found that they experienced a period with opportunities. We no longer have those opportunities.”
China is expecting a record 11.5 million graduates this year. Already some 60% of 100-odd leading companies have reportedly said they will be hiring fewer graduates. The government is well-aware of the challenge: the growing “anxiety, disappointment and confusion of university students” may affect the economic confidence of society, an official report said back in November 2022.
While the frustration and disappointment was already visible on social media last year, Kong Yiji has lent it a fresh poignancy.
The story was written in 1919 by Lu Xun, a Chinese literary giant often compared to Dickens and Orwell. Lu’s biting critiques of feudalism and oppression are familiar enough for them to turn into viral, even subversive memes – and yet safe enough from the censure of the Party.
How do you silence the work of a man the Party has canonised? Leader Mao Zedong called him the country’s “top sage”.
Students might complain of his difficult style, but he still “remains in the recess of the mind”, ready to strike a chord when the time right, says Eileen Cheng, a Chinese literature professor at Pomona College in the US.
“Lu was a radically independent spirit… an outspoken critic of government brutality and [he] opposed the suppression of individual voices.”
The Party, scholars say, manages Lu’s legacy by arguing that his criticism was directed at a bygone China because he had died well before the People’s Republic was founded in 1949.
But now after years of reading him as part of Communist lore, students are finally “questioning Lu Xun’s canonical status” and using his texts in subversive ways, says Professor Sebastian Veg of the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris.
As the space for dissent in China shrinks, the legendary Lu Xun it appears, is finally breaking through.
Illustration by Davies Surya
The completion of Highway 12 — a 793-km transport corridor linking Tak in the North with Mukdahan in the Northeast — will provide immense business opportunities as the emerging economic driver in the region, according to local transport and tourism industry leaders.
Businesses are upbeat and more confident of growth after the government recently announced the completion of the final phase of Highway 12, a 115.6-km section between Kalasin and Mukdahan in the Northeast, according to government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha expects the road upgrade to not only ease the transport of goods and people but also bring economic benefits to residents of Kalasin and Mukdahan, said Mr Anucha.
As the road also forms a part of the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC), the transport and tourism sectors foresee a boom in logistics, as well as trade and tourism in the region.
Trade and transport route
Chanin Songmek, president of Tak’s chamber of commerce, said Highway 12 holds immense significance as part of the EWEC, a route which links four mainland Southeast Asian countries, from Myanmar in the West to Vietnam in the East.
“It will boost cross-border cargo transport from Tak to Mukdahan and Laos and Vietnam and ease the shipping of goods along the north-south route through Myanmar,” he said.
Highway 12 begins at the Second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Tak’s Mae Sot district and ends at Mukdahan’s Khamcha-i district, where it connects to Laos at the province’s Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge. It links the two border provinces via Sukhothai, Phitsanulok, Phetchabun, Chaiyaphum, Khon Kaen and Kalasin.
Mr Chanin predicts quicker transport time and lower freight damage due to fewer road accidents after the section of Highway 12 from Tak’s Muang district to the border was upgraded from two lanes to four lanes.
The value of cross-border trade in Tak rose to 140-billion-baht last year, he said.
“A special economic zone (SEZ) in Mae Sot is under development. The complete Highway 12 will boost its potential and make the SEZ even more attractive as an investment destination,” he said.
Now that a number of special economic development zones have opened in Mae Sot, the Treasury Department and the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand are inviting companies to invest in the border economic area, which is also a duty-free zone, he said.
The highway will also strengthen efforts to attract entrepreneurial investment. Since the highway was completed the value of exports has increased markedly, he said.
Mr Chanin said Thailand is already a gateway to the region and the road network is the foundation of development. Highway 12 will offer business opportunities for hoteliers, food shops and fuel stations.
“It will inject vitality into the economy along the entire route, not to mention huge increases in revenue from import-export tariffs,” he said.
Mr Chanin said the complete highway is expected to boost regional tourism and especially tourism in Tak’s five border districts following an overhaul of immigration services.
Mr Chanin also expects the highway will encourage mobility in the region and see more talent gravitate towards Thailand’s industrial sector.
A report from the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council said the highway will also benefit the SEZ in Mukdahan. There are 868 new businesses in the province’s SEZ with a value of 1.6 billion baht.
The Finance Ministry said the East-West Economic Corridor will boost transborder trade by at least 50%.
Road-boosted economy
In the tourism sector, not only will Highway 12 promote tourism in Thailand and neighbouring countries, but it will also be an opportunity to generate income for the provinces that the road passes through.
Chamnan Srisawat, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT), said Highway 12 will promote the convenience of travelling between provinces and boost the domestic tourism industry in the process.
“Like the Malaysian Expressway that connects Thailand’s Sadao border to Singapore or the expressway that links northern and southern Vietnam, cities through which these roads pass receive great economic benefits. Highway 12 will result in the same thing,” Mr Chamnan said.
“Thailand should not be the only passageway. We should build rest areas that have full facilities like toilets and restaurants every 50-100 kilometres along the highway to take tourists and create marketplaces for local people.
“Meanwhile, the government should create tourism campaigns or build landmarks to invite tourists to travel,” he said.
Chaiyapruek Thongkham, chairman of the domestic tourism association, said the upgrade of Kalasin-Mukdahan section has improved mobility and reduced logistic costs.
“It took two days to move goods from Mae Sot to Mukdahan. The road upgrade cuts transport time by half,” he said.
However, he said the route is mainly used for logistics and freight and does not attract visitors. Tourists opt for other routes that take them to Chiang Rai, Nong Khai or Udon Thani where they can visit Laos.
“The government should make road travel more convenient. Or even better, it should consider building a rail system linking with Laos,” he said.
Regional connectivity
According to Sarawut Songsiwilai, director-general of the Department of Highways, Highway 12 is part of a cooperation initiated several decades ago to connect Asean countries.
“Each country reviewed their existing transport networks to determine where they could create the link. It could be north-south or east-west directions. When we looked at our own, we saw Highway 12,” he said.
Highway 12, the main route for transport from Tak’s Mae Sot district to Mukdahan, originally had two lanes. On Jan 10, 1995, the cabinet agreed to upgrade the entire route to four lanes, and six lanes in some sections.
It was not until late 2007 that the route was officially called Highway 12, he said.
However, Mr Sarawut said the upgrade of a section of Highway 12, which is 81km long in Nam Nao national park in Phetchabun, is still under review. The department is still studying an alternative route as recommended by the National Environment Board, he said.
According to Mr Sarawut, the road upgrade cost about 28 billion baht and is expected to generate an Economic Internal Rate of Return (EIRR) of no less than 12% — as fixed by the Office of the National Economics and Social Development Council.
Sutharee Wannasiri knew the poultry company had violated labour laws. She went on Twitter in 2017 to share a video containing an interview with an employee who said he had to work day and night with no day off.
The poultry company hit back, suing Sutharee for defamation and libel. Although a court found her not guilty in 2020, the company wasn’t done.
While the case was still pending, her colleague at their human rights organisation spoke up for Sutharee on Twitter and Facebook. She, too, ended up being sued for defamation and libel. Now the colleague, Puttanee Kangkun, is facing a maximum of 42 years in prison as she awaits a ruling.
The cases exemplify what often happens in Thailand when companies and government officials are unhappy with public criticism. A criminal defamation charge follows in which critics are accused of spreading falsehoods, and defendants find themselves mired in lengthy legal battles and facing the threat of a prison sentence.
Powerful figures who know they can use the courts to intimidate, harass and punish critics have taken advantage of what the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights has called “judicial harassment” in Thailand.
Although the poultry company, Thammakaset, has been found guilty of labour abuses, it has continued to take its critics to court: first, people who talked about the labour abuses, and later, those who complained about the measures the company was taking to silence those people.
Since 2016, Thammakaset has filed 39 lawsuits, mostly criminal defamation cases, against 23 individuals: migrant workers, human rights defenders and journalists. It has lost all except one, which was later overturned on appeal.
Three are still pending.
In addition to Puttanee, Thammakaset is also suing Angkhana Neelapaijit, 67, a former National Human Rights Commissioner, and Thanaporn Saleephol, 29, a press officer for the European Union in Thailand.
All three women took to social media to criticise the lawsuits filed by Thammakaset. All three are accused of defamation and libel; they are being tried together. (Story continues below)
Puttanee Kangkun shows a post on Twitter that caused Thammakaset to accuse her of defamation. (Lauren DeCicca/The New York Times)
Thailand stands out
Many countries in Southeast Asia have criminal defamation laws, but Thailand stands out. Citizens “are just much more aggressive” in using the law to “drag people into judicial processes that are slow and expensive”, according to Phil Robertson, the deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
In addition to the criminal defamation law, there is the Computer Crimes Act, which makes it a crime to upload “false” information that can “cause damage to the public”. As well, the lese-majeste law, intended to protect the monarchy from criticism, allows ordinary citizens to file complaints for violations.
A UK-based rights watchdog, Article 19, cited statistics provided by Thai judicial authorities showing that public prosecutors and private parties have filed more than 25,000 criminal defamation cases since 2015.
“The business and political elites see this as very effective because the courts are risk-averse; they accept almost any case that is, on its face, nonsensical,” Robertson said.
Faced with calls to address the rampant misuse of the courts, the government amended its Criminal Procedure Code in 2018 to make it easier to dismiss cases against defendants who can argue they are acting in the public interest. But lawyers say little has changed.
Sor Rattanamanee Polkla, the lawyer representing Puttanee, Angkhana and Thanaporn, said she filed a petition to get the cases thrown out under this provision, but the court denied her request.
Thammakaset’s complaint against the three women centres on the 2017 video shared by Sutharee, which was made by Fortify Rights. Puttanee works for the organisation; Sutharee and Thanaporn both used to.
In their Twitter and Facebook posts, Puttanee, Angkhana and Thanaporn expressed solidarity with the activists who were persecuted by Thammakaset. Their posts linked to a Fortify Rights news release and a joint statement with other human rights organisations that ultimately linked to the video.
Thammakaset has cited the video, which includes an interview with a worker describing working long hours and having his passport withheld, in its complaint.
In 2016, the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare concluded that Thammakaset had failed to pay minimum and overtime wages or to provide adequate leave to workers. In 2019, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court order for the company to pay 1.7 million baht to a group of 14 employees who had filed the labour complaint.
During a hearing for the three women in March of this year, Chanchai Pheamphon, the owner of Thammakaset, told the judge that he had already “paid his dues” to the workers, yet the online criticism continued to hurt his business and his reputation.
He said his children had asked him whether the family’s money had come “from human trafficking, from selling slaves.”
“How should a father feel when his children asks him this?” Chanchai said, his voice rising. “I have to use my rights to fight. But using my rights is seen as threatening, using the law to silence them.”
Chanchai told the court that no one wanted to do business with him anymore. But in March, two rights groups published an investigation showing that after Thammakaset cancelled its poultry farm certifications in 2016, a new poultry company called Srabua was established by a man who shared the same address as Chanchai.
Chanchai denied any knowledge of Srabua.
Asked by a New York Times reporter if he planned to file more lawsuits against critics of the company, Chanchai said, “You’re a reporter for a big news agency. If someone says you’re a drug dealer, will you fight back?” (Story continues below)
Puttanee Kangkun, Angkhana Neelapaijit and Thanaporn Saleephol, who are all being sued for defamation by Thammakaset, with their lawyers outside the South Bangkok Criminal Court on May 24. (Lauren DeCicca/The New York Times)
Costly process
Decriminalising defamation cases could have saved Thai taxpayers $3.45 million between 2016 are 2018, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Defendants in civil suits can also expect to pay large sums of money out of pocket.
During the March hearing, Puttanee, 52, brought a backpack stuffed with clothes to court. Commuting from her home to the court takes two hours each way, so each time she attends a hearing, she books a hotel at her company’s expense.
She said she expects the case to last four years if Thammakaset decides to bring its argument all the way to the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, Puttanee counts herself lucky: She is in a community that has rallied around her, and her lawyer works pro bono.
“But I still treat this as intimidation,” she said.
During the hearing, Chanchai detailed how Puttanee’s Twitter posts had defamed his company. His account took five hours; Puttanee nodded off during his testimony.
Angkhana, the former human rights commissioner, is well known in Thailand because of her husband, Somchai Neelapaijit, a human rights lawyer who vanished in 2004 and whose fate remains unknown.
She said the current lawsuit has taken a toll on her mental health.
“It is repeated trauma when somebody attacks you when you didn’t do anything wrong,” said Angkhana. “This is the real aim of the company — to make you feel powerless.”
Thanaporn said there was irony in becoming a victim of the very process she was denouncing, simply by sharing support for her fellow activists online.
“The fact that I can be sued for this speaks for itself,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times
It should not be surprising that the elected presidency was conceived, and is best understood, as an institution with eligibility restricted to a select group.
In response to a parliamentary question in May, Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing stated that there were 50 public service positions that fulfil the public sector service requirement to run in the next presidential election. These include the positions of minister, chief justice, Speaker of Parliament, attorney-general, chairman of the Public Service Commission, auditor-general, accountant-general or permanent secretary.
For potential presidential candidates looking to qualify under the private sector service requirements, there were more than 1,200 companies with average shareholders’ equity at or exceeding S$500 million (US$372 million).
This, of course, does not tell us how many of these eligible individuals will have the gumption to run in a bid for the highest office in Singapore.
It does not help that in a well-governed country, many may not find compelling reasons to step forward and serve. Moreover, the president and his or her family are not exempted from public glare and scrutiny and so sacrificing that comfortable privacy may be a deterrent to seeking elected office.
Singapore’s current and past elected presidents had entered office with impressive credentials and brought their personalities to bear on the office. In that regard, the office of Singapore’s head of state has moulded into a symbol of national unity and a crucial governance guardrail.
Having a capable and wise person to represent our country internationally and to safeguard the vast national reserves is not a job anyone can do. Instead of being a promoter and protector of good governance, the presidency can expedite the road to ruin.
In my view, there can never be an overqualified president.
Eugene K B Tan is associate professor of law at the Singapore Management University and a former Nominated Member of Parliament.
In May, the Arizona Department of Water Resources imposed restrictions on the construction of new housing in the Phoenix area, citing a lack of groundwater. The decision aims to slow population growth in one of the fastest-growing regions in the US and underlines the dwindling water resources in the country’s drought-stricken southwest.
As water levels in the Colorado River have declined, the states dependent on it (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming) are increasingly at odds over how to distribute the declining supply.
The US is not alone in contentious domestic debate over water supplies. Australian states have constantly quarreled over water rights across the Murray-Darling Basin. Disruptions to water supply or perceived misuse can cause immediate social unrest, and Iran and France have seen violent protests regarding water recently.
Constant and affordable access to fresh water is recognized as a basic human right by the United Nations. And in addition to providing a foundation for life, fresh water is crucial for industry and manufacturing, energy production, agriculture, sanitation, and other essential societal functions.
But around the world, its availability is threatened. Desertification, climate change, man-made water diversion, dam building, pollution, and overuse have seen rivers, lakes and aquifers dry up. Since 2000, the world has added almost 2 billion people, putting further strain on global water infrastructure and supplies.
Poor water management and infrastructure also play a major role in water scarcity around the world. In Iraq, up to 14.5% of the country’s water is lost to evaporation and two-thirds of its treated water is lost because of leaks and poor infrastructure. Up to 25-30% of South Africa’s water is lost to leaks, while even in many industrialized countries, up to 15-20% of water supply is lost.
Inequality can also exacerbate water stress. Amid Cape Town’s water shortages in recent years, 14% of the population has been found to be responsible for more than half of the freshwater use in the city. Across Africa, one in three people already faces water scarcity, where “the availability of natural hygienic water falls below 1,000 cubic meters per person per year.”
On top of government control of water supply and infrastructure, multinational companies such as Nestlé SA, PepsiCo Inc, the Coca-Cola Company, and the Wonderful Company LLC play a huge role in the global water industry.
In 2013, former Nestlé chief executive officer Peter Brabeck-Letmathe was forced to backtrack after a 2005 interview resurfaced where he stated it was “extreme” that water was considered a human right.
However, water privatization has increased significantly over the last few decades. In 2020, Wall Street allowed water to begin trading as a commodity, and now, “farmers, hedge funds and municipalities alike are now able to hedge against – or bet on – future water availability in California.”
Monetization has even seen Fiji, the world’s fourth-largest water exporter in 2021, face water supply shortages over the last few years.
Tap water remains drinkable only in certain countries, but fears of contamination can occur rapidly and incite alarm.
After thousands of liters of a synthetic latex product spilled into the Delaware River in March, Philadelphia authorities shut down a nearby water treatment plant. While it was ultimately deemed that tap water was still safe to drink, government warnings and alarm on social media led to panic-buying of water.
Contamination can also lead to longer-term damage to public faith in water infrastructure. After heightened levels of lead were found in Flint, Michigan’s drinking water in 2014 (together with the tepid government response), the local population remained hesitant to resume drinking it even after it had been declared safe.
Water security also has a major impact on relations between countries. The US and Mexico have historically competed over water rights to both the Colorado River and the Rio Grande. Strong population growth on both sides of the border in recent decades, coupled with drought, has exacerbated bilateral tensions.
In 2020, tension over Mexico’s inability to meet its annual water-delivery obligations to the US from the Rio Grande, laid out in the 1944 Water Treaty, saw farmers in northern Mexico take over La Boquilla Dam, weeks before the deadline. While the crisis was eventually resolved, the fundamental issue of strained water flows remains ongoing.
Iraq has meanwhile increasingly accused Iran of withholding water from tributaries that feed into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, with Iran accusing Iraq of failing to use water responsibly. Iraq and Syria have also disputed Turkey’s construction of dams and irrigation systems that have hindered the traditional flows of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Relations among Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have similarly deteriorated since construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) began in 2011. The project has aggravated regional fears over Nile River water shortages, and though outright conflict has so far been avoided, it has inflamed concern over supply in Sudan, which saw deadly clashes over water shortages this year.
China has been labeled an “upstream superpower” because several major rivers begin in that country. The construction of dams and hydropower plants on the Mekong River has caused friction with Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, while Kazakhstan and China have often disagreed over water rights regarding the Ili River.
Fears have also arisen that India and China, the world’s two most populous countries, could come into conflict over the Brahmaputra River and Indus River. But India and downstream Pakistan have their own disputes over rights in the Indus River basin that have raised regional concern.
Other countries have weaponized water as part of a wider conflict. Ukraine and Russia have both used water to harass each other since the first round of unrest between them began in 2014. Ukraine almost immediately cut off Crimea from water supply from the North Crimean Canal, shrinking the peninsula’s arable land from 130,000 hectares in 2013 to just 14,000 in 2017.
Russia reopened the canal after the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022. Additionally, Russian forces have since been accused of withholding water to some Ukrainian regions, deliberately flooding others, and targeting Ukraine’s water infrastructure. Both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of blowing up the Kakhovka Dam and hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper River on June 5, which flooded downstream communities.
Islamic State (ISIS) was instrumental in causing water shortages during its rise across Syria and Iraq a decade ago, by polluting and cutting off water supplies and flooding regions. The Taliban also repeatedly attacked water infrastructure in Afghanistan throughout the US-led occupation of the country.
Long-standing disputes between the Taliban and Iran over access to the Helmand River also resulted in deadly clashes at their mutual border this year. And in recent years, cyberattacks have increasingly targeted the vulnerable water infrastructure of the US.
Fortunately, the future of water stress may be less dire than feared. Global population growth has slowed significantly over the last few decades and the population is expected to peak by the end of the century. Furthermore, regions experiencing water stresses are typically not high-population growth areas.
The global community is also taking renewed steps to address global water security, with the UN holding in March its first summit on water since 1977.
And even countries with long-standing disputes have recognized the importance of maintaining water supplies.
The 60-year-old Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan has largely held despite persistent tensions between them. China has initiated cooperation with downstream states on transportation and water flows, including the Lancang-Mekong River Dialogue and Cooperation forum to share data and prepare for shortages and flooding.
There have also been recent breakthroughs regarding the GERD. Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel-Fattah Burhan, recently came out in support of the dam, noting it could help regulate flooding. Greater cooperation between Ethiopia and Egypt could see less water evaporate from Egypt’s Aswan High Dam if it can be stored in the GERD during warmer months.
And though seawater desalination remains expensive and energy-intensive, it is becoming more efficient and widespread. In Saudi Arabia, 50% of the country’s water needs are met by desalination, while Egypt plans to open dozens of new desalination plants in the coming years. Currently, 70% of the world’s desalination plants are in the Middle East.
Domestic US initiatives are also promising. California’s Orange County recycles almost all of its waste water back to the nearby aquifer through the world’s largest water reclamation plant, which opened in 2008. Arizona, California, and Nevada also agreed in May to reduce water intake by 10% over the next three years, and Arizona’s decision to suspend housing construction may mark the beginning of more restraint over domestic water consumption.
Ongoing domestic and international cooperation will nonetheless be required to resolve water disputes and create sustainable water-management practices. Preventing the use of water as geopolitical leverage or a tool of war, coupled with effective management of climate change and pollution, will be integral to avoiding wars over water in the future.
This article was produced by Globetrotter, which provided it to Asia Times.
Midland Realty is adopting ChatGPT for analysis of market statistics and client data to predict trends and provide personal recommendations; automation of business procedures; writing letters; analysing sales brochures; preparing sales proposals; video production; providing question-answering chatbots. The agency has organised 25 AI courses with over 2,000 attendees as ofContinue Reading
11 industries being targeted for upgrade
Thailand aims to produce around 800,000 skilled workers next year in targeted industries, including intelligent electronics, next-generation automobiles and healthcare.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon chaired a meeting of the national workers’ skill development committee at the Five Provinces Bordering Forest Preservation Foundation on Friday to discuss incentives to develop more skilled workers.
The meeting agreed to draft a skilled worker development plan which will be executed by provincial organisations to create 12.5 million skilled workers by 2027.
Provincial governors have been assigned to draft development plans to create more skilled labour in 11 targeted industries.
Four of the 11 industries have finalised their desired number of workers: 24,500 people in next-generation automotive services, 713,432 in digital services, 357,300 in processed food, and 298,100 for Thailand’s medical hub.
Provinces will be offering students in local schools and colleges the chance to join skills training and worker development programmes based on local demand. Gen Prawit said prisoners would also be included in the training.
Skills development training at the provincial level will lessen the chances of workers wanting to migrate to cities and will also improve the lives of local people, he said.
Gen Prawit said the public and private sectors must collaborate to create more skilled labour to meet the demands of growing industries.
He added that the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and the Department of Skill Development should join hands to foster new jobbers.
Meanwhile, Job Expo Thailand 2023, which started on Thursday and ends on Saturday, saw large numbers of job-seekers. It is being held at Event Halls 100-102, Bitec Bang Na, organised by the Ministry of Labour and private companies.
The expo offers job opportunities for new graduates, senior citizens and people with disabilities. With over 29,000 positions in the private sector and 81,000 offered by recruitment companies, people can seek jobs in real estate, communications, manufacturing, finance, insurance, sales, construction, health and academia.
Nawaporn Rod-iam, 23, said she is a finance graduate working at a private company who is looking for a new job with higher pay that will also allow her to gain more skills.
The China and the United States governments are getting closer to resuming high-level dialogue as media reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing within several weeks, or as soon as next week.
CNN reported on Tuesday that Blinken will travel to China in the coming weeks. Politico reported on Thursday that his trip may occur next week.
Beijing has so far refused to comment on Blinken’s itinerary. It said the US and China should maintain dialogue but Washington must show sincerity and stop “saying one thing but doing another.”
Some Chinese commentators said it shouldn’t be surprising if Blinken visits Beijing, given that there have been several rounds of talks between US and Chinese officials over the past month. But they said Beijing will have limited expectations for meetings with US officials.
If confirmed, Blinken’s trip will mark the highest-level visit of a US official to China since then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the country in 2018. It will show an easing of Sino-US political tensions, which have been heightened by the Chinese balloon incident in late January.
Due to rising hopesof a bilateral thaw between the world’s two largest economies, the Dow Jones index has increased 258 points, or 0.8%, to 33,833.61 on Wednesday and Thursday. The Shanghai Composite index has also surged by 31 points, or 1%, to 3,231.41 on Thursday and Friday.
On Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry called on all US diplomats to implement Blinken’s promise that Washington will not require other countries to choose sides between the US and China.
“We hope US diplomatic missions around the world will truly treat other countries’ development of relations with China with an open and inclusive attitude, stop suppressing Chinese companies including Huawei Technologies everywhere, stop coercing allies to restrict chip exports to China, stop luring other countries to give up their cooperation with China and stop spreading false information such as ‘China’s debt trap’,” Wang Wenbin, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a regular media briefing on Friday.
To describe the Sino-US relations, Wang used a quote from the first US president, George Washington, who said, “A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.”
“We care about what the US says, but we care even more about what actions it takes,” he said.
Prior to this, Wang said on Wednesday that China and the US should maintain necessary communication but the responsibility for the current challenges facing China-US relations does not lie with China.
“The US needs to respect China’s core interests and major concerns, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, stop harming China’s interests, and stop calling for communication on the one hand and making provocations on the other,” he said.
On Thursday, Blinken told the media during his visit to Saudi Arabia that the US is not asking anyone to choose between Washington and Beijing. He said Washington is only trying to demonstrate to other countries the benefits of having a partnership with the US.
Last December, China and Saudi Arabia signed a series of strategy deals, including one involving Huawei, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Riyadh. On March 10, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after years of tensions. Chinese media said Beijing had contributed to the talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
On May 20, G7 leaders said in a joint statement that they have a common interest in preventing a narrow set of technological advances from being used by some countries to enhance their military and intelligence capabilities to undermine international peace and security.
They said G7 countries are not decoupling with China but they also recognize that economic resilience requires “de-risking and diversifying.”
On Tuesday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a network of seven individuals and six entities in Iran, China and Hong Kong in connection with Iran’s ballistic missile program.
“As a Chinese saying goes, ‘Good faith makes good things happen.’ Dialogue should be based on mutual respect and aim for real results,” Xie Feng, China’s Ambassador to the US, told the American business community during an event of the US-China Business Council on Wednesday.
“It surely is not the right way to seek dialogue and cooperation while putting the other on the sanction list,” he said. “Dialogue conducted only for its own sake will not work either. Saying one thing but doing another could only bring unintended results.”
“For high-level interactions, whole-process management is essential – fostering a good atmosphere in advance, accumulating outcomes in the process, and delivering on them afterwards,” he said.
He added that to many Chinese people, the word “de-risking” may be just another name for “decoupling.” He said the US should not use national security as an excuse for protectionism.
Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the US is trying to test China’s reaction to Blinken’s potential visit through media hype and is trying to shape its own image as a promoter for communication.
He said the series of actions recently taken by the US reflects Washington’s duplicity and self-contradiction.
In April, media reported that US President Joe Biden would sign an executive order to restrict US companies and private equity and venture capital funds from investing in China’s microchips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and clean energy projects and firms. But there has been no update so far.
On May 8, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing. On May 11, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and US National security adviser Jake Sullivan met in Vienna. On May 25, China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in Washington, DC. The three meetings were described by both sides as candid and constructive.
“Proven by the three meetings, the tensions between the US and China have eased over the past one month,” a Guangdong-based commentator writes in an article published on Friday. “If US officials have to visit China, there is no harm for Chinese officials to meet them.”
“But when Blinken visits China, the Chinese government should issue an official warning to the Biden administration that if it continues to cross China’s red line over Taiwan issues and take extraordinary actions, the responsibility of shaking the Sino-US relations or causing military conflicts in the Western Pacific region will lie with the US,” the commentator says.
He says the Biden administration has not cancelled the extra tariffs and sanctions imposed on China but hopes that China will continue to buy US food, natural gas, airplanes and semiconductors, instead of purchasing goods from Brazil, Russia and France. He says Beijing must tell Americans that China will not purchase goods from countries that hurt its interest.
He adds that Blinken should answer why the Russian-Ukrainian conflicts have shown signs of spillover, which is bad news for Europe. He says problems will be resolved only if the US is willing to work with China.
Read: US-China trade talks end in more chip war salvos
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As Russia’s progress in Ukraine has stalled, with enormous losses in material and people, the frustrated head of the Wagner mercenary force Yevgeny Prigozhin has called for Russia to shift to a total war economy:
The Kremlin must declare a new wave of mobilization to call up more fighters and declare martial law and force ‘everyone possible’ into the country’s ammunition production efforts. We must stop building new roads and infrastructure facilities and work only for the war.
His words echo similar sentiments expressed by the head of Russia’s state broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan – an influential supporter of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – who said recently:
Our guys are risking their lives and blood every day. We’re sitting here at home. If our industry is not keeping up, let’s all get a grip! Ask anyone. Aren’t we all ready to come help for two hours after work?
Already facing Western sanctions since its annexation of Crimea and occupation of territory in Ukraine’s eastern provinces in 2014, Russia has had to adapt to life under an increasingly harsh series of economic punishments.
And, while Putin had apparently planned for a relatively short “special military operation”, this conflict has become a protracted and expensive war of attrition.
The Economist has estimated Russian military spending at 5 trillion rubles (US$60.5 billion) a year, or 3% of its GDP, a figure the magazine describes as “a puny amount” compared to its spending in the second world war. Other estimates are higher – the German Council on Foreign Relations (GDAP) estimates US$90 billion, or more like 5% of GDP.
But the international sanctions have hit the economy hard. They have affected access to international markets and the ability to access foreign currency and products. And the rate at which the Russian military is getting through equipment and ammunition is putting a strain on the country’s defense industry.
So the Kremlin faces a choice: massively increasing its war efforts to achieve a decisive breakthrough, or continuing its war of attrition. The latter would aim to outlast Ukraine in the hope that international support may waver in the face of a global cost of living crisis.
Russia has lost substantial amounts of arms and ammunition.
In March 2023, UK armed forces minister James Heappey estimated that Russia had lost 1,900 main battle tanks, 3,300 other armored combat vehicles, 73 crewed, fixed-wing aircraft, several hundred uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) of all types, 78 helicopters, 550 tube artillery systems, 190 rocket artillery systems and eight naval vessels.
Russia has to contend with several important military-industrial challenges. For one, its high-technology precision-guided weapons require access to foreign technology.
This is now unavailable – or restricted to sanctions-busting deals which can only supply a fraction of what is needed. Most of the high-tech electronic components used by the Russian military are manufactured by US companies.
So it has to substitute these with lower-grade domestic components, which is probably why the Russian military is using its high-tech weaponry sparingly. But the artillery shells on which it has been relying are running short.
US think tank the Center for Security and International Studies has reported US intelligence estimates that since February 2022, export controls have degraded Russia’s ability to replace more than 6,000 pieces of military equipment.
Sanctions have also forced key defense industrial facilities to halt production and caused shortages of critical components for tanks and aircraft, among other materiel.
There are clear signs of increasing efforts to address the shortages.
According to a report in the Economist, Dmitri Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, has recently announced plans for the production of 1,500 modern tanks in 2023. Russian news agency Tass reported recently Medvedev also plans to oversee a ramping up of mass production of drones.
The government is reported to be providing substantial loans to arms manufacturers and even issuing orders to banks to do the same. Official statistics indicate that the production of “finished metal goods” in January and February was 20% higher compared to the previous year.
The GDAP reported in February: “As of January 2023, several Russian arms plants were working in three shifts, six or seven days a week, and offering competitive salaries. Hence, they can increase production of those weapon systems that Russia is still able to manufacture despite the sanctions.”
So it appears the Kremlin is playing a delicate balancing act of redirecting significant resources to the military and related industries while trying to minimize the disruption of the general economy, which would risk losing the support of large sections of the population.
The International Monetary Fund has projected Russia’s economy to grow by 0.7% this year (which would trump the UK’s projected growth of 0.4%). This will largely be underpinned by export revenues for hydrocarbons as well as arms sales to various client countries happy to ignore Western sanctions.
Meanwhile diversifying import sources has kept stores stocked. However, Russian public opinion pollster Romir has reported that while most people aren’t worried about the absence of sanctioned goods, about half complained that the quality of substituted goods had deteriorated.
So ordinary Russians – those who haven’t lost loved ones on the battlefield or to exile – remain relatively sanguine about everyday life. But a longer, more intense conflict, requiring a shift to a total war economy, could be a different matter altogether.
Christoph Bluth is Professor of International Relations and Security, University of Bradford
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.