VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The White House on Friday called on the government of Bangladesh to fully investigate reports of violence against journalists and human rights activists ahead of a major political protest, and urged all parties to refrain from violence.

Local media in Bangladesh this week reported police killed one person and wounded more than 60 people on Wednesday in Dhaka when they fired upon activists and members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country's largest opposition party.

The Voice of America, meanwhile, reported that thousands of BNP members had been arrested over the past month ahead of a protest planned by the party in Dhaka on Saturday that activists say could attract 1 million people.

The United States is concerned about the reports and is monitoring developments in Bangladesh "very, very closely," national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby said the United States was continuing to call for the right of Bangladesh citizens to engage in peaceful protests without fear, intimidation, harassment or violence.

"We call on all parties in Bangladesh to respect the rule of law, to refrain from violence. We want to see them refrain from harassment, intimidation, and we call on the government to ensure that no party or candidate threatens, incites or conducts violence against any other party," he said.

Kirby said Washington was also urging government authorities in Bangladesh to "fully investigate reports of violence in a thorough, transparent and impartial manner."

The protest comes ahead of national elections planned in Bangladesh next year. (Reuters)

Taiwan may take China to the World Trade Organization after the country effectively banned the import of more Taiwanese food and drink products, Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Saturday as Beijing accused Taipei of "political manipulation".

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for the past two years of Chinese import bans on various agricultural and aquatic goods, including pineapples and grouper fish, saying it is part of a Chinese pressure campaign.

The latest bans cover more fishery products, chief among them squid, as well as some beers and liquors, which China has said is due to the Taiwanese companies not properly completing relevant paperwork.

Speaking to reporters, Su said China was using administrative means to "interfere" in normal trade which is not in line with WTO norms.

The government will do its best to communicate with relevant Chinese departments on the issue, he added.

"If there is any non-compliance with the relevant WTO norms, we will also follow the relevant channels to file a complaint."

Taiwan and China are both WTO members.

In a statement late on Friday, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the problem was an administrative one in that the affected companies were not properly registered and this was a "normal food safety supervision measure".

It said it hoped that Taiwanese companies will provide the information that meets government requirements as soon as possible.

"At the same time, we are telling the relevant departments on the island to immediately stop any political manipulation and not to do anything stupid that harms companies on the island."

Agriculture is not a major part of Taiwan's semiconductor-oriented economy but the farming and fishing community is largely based in parts of the island that traditionally support the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, especially in southern Taiwan. (Reuters)

 When ex-Chinese leader Hu Jintao was escorted from the stage in October at the Communist Party Congress, a powerful behind-the-scenes figure took a brief turn in the spotlight as China-watchers pored over video to try to figure out what happened.

Wang Huning, one of just two top officials reappointed to join President Xi Jinping on the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, has carved an unusual career path as the party's top theoretician.

While he typically operates in the background, Wang played a key role in the Hu drama when another top official, Li Zhanshu, briefly moved to assist the 79-year-old former president, who appeared to be confused.

Wang, watching intently, stopped Li, discreetly tugging his jacket - a small but seemingly significant act in an episode that has yet to be fully explained but was widely viewed as the symbolic end of any remnants of a pre-Xi political era. 

An irony is that Wang, 67, served both Hu and his predecessor Jiang Zemin before becoming one of Xi's closest advisors as his chief ideologue, a trajectory unique in an era when every other member of the Standing Committee is seen to be a Xi career loyalist.

“He made almost every trip, I believe, with Jiang Zemin, no matter where he went. And the same was true with Hu Jintao and then with Xi Jinping,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert who served as a senior official for Asia in the Clinton administration between 1998-2000 and has met Wang several times.

“He clearly has a facility for relating to personalities at the highest levels of power and building a relationship of trust. It’s quite remarkable.”

In his first five-year term on the Standing Committee, Wang ran the party's secretariat, an organ responsible for day-to-day affairs.

In Xi's third leadership term, Wang is on track to be in charge of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body.

However, Wang's power transcends specific roles, analysts say.

Over three decades, Wang has established himself as the party's top theoretician, according to analysts, influencing policy concepts and slogans used to push China's interests and legitimising party rule in an era when Xi has bolstered its role across all aspects of Chinese society.

Ideas such as "Chinese-style modernisation", and "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" - positioned as Xi's governing philosophy - have been associated by analysts with Wang.

"He is a political beautician, very good at using cosmetics to dress up political policies and slogans, including foreign policy," said Willy Lam, a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation in Washington.

"All the major slogans, from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, seem to have come from Wang Huning," Lam said.

'AMERICA VS. AMERICA'

Where most Standing Committee members have experience such as running a major city or province, Wang is an academic. He taught political theory, among other subjects, at Shanghai's elite Fudan University from 1981 to 1995 before moving to Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in central Beijing, where he has been ever since.

From 2002 to 2020, Wang headed the Central Policy Research Office, a party institution responsible for drafting major documents on ideology and theories, as well as providing guidance on policy matters. His tenure was unusually long in a bureaucracy where officials rotate through different roles.

At the same time he rose in the party hierarchy, from the Central Committee to the Politburo, and in 2017, to the top governing body in China, the Politburo Standing Committee.

According to Ming Xia, a political science professor at City University of New York (CUNY), Wang has avoided factional struggles or the accumulation of wealth that has been the downfall of many Chinese officials.

During his first Standing Committee term, Wang was the only member to speak at high-level discussions held after publication of the second, third and fourth volumes of "The Governance of China", a collection of Xi speeches and writings that is ubiquitous in China's bookstores.

Wang became well-known in China for his 1991 book, "America vs. America". Based on a six-month stay that included visits to 30 cities, Wang sought to understand the secret to U.S. success, in hopes of helping China to become a strong nation.

While the book praises some aspects of the United States, it is also criticises excessive individualism, money in politics and the state of race relations.

"The United States today faces challenges from Japan, in large part because American institutions, culture and values oppose the United States itself," Wang wrote of a time when Japan was the top U.S. economic rival.

WANG'S PERSONALITY

CUNY's Xia, who as a Fudan undergraduate took a class in Western political theory taught by Wang before becoming his colleague there in the late 1980s, described him as a workaholic, introvert and insomniac.

During 1989's pro-democracy student protests, Wang told Xia not to stand with the students, a warning Xia did not heed.

"Back (in Fudan), Wang Huning was clearly a supporter of neo-authoritarianism," said Xia.

Two years later, when Xia left for the United States, Wang warned him about his future home.

"I've been there. That country is a machine operating at a high speed, you need to get used to the machine the moment you step foot or you will be crushed into chicken powder," Xia said Wang told him at the time.

During formal meetings between Clinton and Jiang, former political adviser Lieberthal said he had sought to engage with Wang as the principals walked out of the room, but that Wang was standoffish despite the two having met during his six-month stay in the United States.

“He was known at the time as someone who would never talk to Americans. I assumed that was him trying to protect himself by not directly associating with Americans – certainly not in that company.”

One person who attended a meeting with Wang when he was director of China’s Central Policy Research Office said he came across as scholarly but with a temper, recalling how Wang had upbraided a staffer for several minutes for not having brought his preference of pens.

“I don’t think he suffers fools, I’ll say that,” the person said. (Reuters)

Beijing's COVID-19 gloom deepened on Sunday with many shops and other businesses closed, and an expert warned of many thousands of new coronavirus cases as anger over China's previous COVID policies gave way to worry about coping with infection.

China dropped most of its strict COVID curbs on Wednesday after unprecedented protests against them last month, but cities that were already battling with their most severe outbreaks, like Beijing, saw a sharp decrease in economic activity after rules such as regular testing were scrapped.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many businesses have been forced to close as infected workers quarantine at home while many other people are deciding not to go out because of the higher risk of infection.

Zhong Nanshan, a prominent Chinese epidemiologist, told state media that the Omicron strain of the virus prevalent in China was highly transmissible and one infected person could spread it to as many as 18 others.

"We can see that hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of people are infected in several major cities," Zhong said.

With regular COVID testing of Beijing residents scrapped and reserved only for groups such as health workers, official tallies for new cases have plunged.

Health authorities reported 1,661 new infections for Beijing Saturday, down 42% from 3,974 on Dec. 6, a day before national policies were dramatically relaxed.

But evidence suggests there are many more cases in the city of nearly 22 million people where everyone seems to know someone who has caught COVID.

"In my company, the number of people who are COVID-negative is close to zero," said one woman who works for a tourism and events firm in Beijing who asked to be identified as just Nancy.

"We realise this can't be avoided - everyone will just have to work from home," she said.

'HIGHER RISK'

Sunday is a normal business day for shops in Beijing and it is usually bustling, particularly in spots like the historic Shichahai neighbourhood packed with boutiques and cafes.

But few people were out and about on Sunday and malls in Chaoyang, Beijing's most populous district, were practically deserted with many salons, restaurants and retailers shut.

Economists widely expect China's road to economic health to be uneven as shocks such as labour crunches due to workers calling in sick delay a full-fledged recovery for some time yet.

"The transition out of zero-COVID will eventually allow consumer spending patterns to return to normal, but a higher risk of infection will keep in-person spending depressed for months after re-opening," Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics, said in a note.

China's economy may grow 1.6% in the first quarter of 2023 from a year earlier, and 4.9% in the second, according to Capital Economics.

Epidemiologist Zhong also said it would be some months before a return to normal.

"My opinion is in the first half of next year, after March," he said.

While China has removed most of its domestic COVID curbs, its international borders are still largely closed to foreigners, including tourists.

Inbound travellers are subjected to five days of quarantine at centralised government facilities and three additional days of self-monitoring at home.

But there are even hints that that rule could change.

Staff at the main international airport in Chengdu city, asked if quarantine rules were being eased, said that as of Saturday whether or not one needed to do the three days of home quarantine would depend on a person's neighbourhood authorities. (Reuters)