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Myanmar-based Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP) conducted a survey in July 2022 to gauge the perceptions of Myanmarese policy communities about the relationship with China at a time when the military Junta is becoming increasingly authoritarian and suppressive by using state power against its own people, especially democratic activists and protesters against the excesses of the military regime.

The focus of the survey on Myanmar-China relations becomes important for two reasons. First to gauge whether Myanmarese people who have concerns about policies believe that China would be instrumental in the restoration of peace and democracy in the country or make bonhomie with the military Junta for its larger strategic goals and economic benefits in the region. Second, to gauge their perception of the utility and effectiveness of China’s development model and projects like CMEC.

The views of Myanmar policy communities on Myanmar-China relations were compiled on 70 questions on eight sectors and vary on various scales. It is the biggest and most comprehensive survey of its kind to date. The survey conducted through Zoom and Google forms by the ISP included MPs from 47 political parties from Kachin, Shan (North), Mandalay Region, Magway Region and Rakhine State where the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor projects are being implemented. The participants in the survey also included business communities and famous personalities from various fields.

The survey conveyed a lot of negative sentiments about China and its moves in Myanmar. Around 55% of respondents said that they do not see China as a good neighbor while 40% of respondents opined that China is not a good neighbour. The people of Myanmar, as comes to a survey, doubt China’s capability to expedite the peace process in the country. Only 14% believed that China is capable of the same while 67% disapproved of China’s interference in Myanmar’s political process. 79% of the people perceived that China advocates dictatorship in the country.

According to the survey, the suspicion that China backed the military coup in February 2021 against Myanmar’s elected government runs deep among Burmese people who are resisting the dictatorship of the military Junta. 55% of Myanmarese view China as supporting Myanmar to become an authoritarian state.

China’s silence on the military takeover is widely perceived in the country as support for dictatorship. The Myanmar Junta recently executed four prisoners including Phyo Zeya Thaw and Kyan Min Yun who were popular resistant figures, known respectively for critical lyrics against military dictatorship and pro-democracy activists.

The respondents also noted China’s economic dominance and geopolitical dominance as major challenges. On a question that China’s main interest in relations with Myanmar was to acquire geopolitical dominance in the Indian Ocean, 46% of respondents gave their ascent.

Furthermore, 47% Myanmarese do not believe in China’s economic model and 87% are of the view that democracy with Chinese characteristics is not suitable for Myanmar. On a surprising note, 30% of respondents held that they do not trust China’s Covid vaccines.

China in the past has a track record of hobnobbing with authoritarian regimes without any concern for people. The China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), which aims to bind Myanmar and Chinese economies more closely with projects involving transportation, industry, finance and communication, was developed with the deposed, elected government but the coup has changed the paradigm. Astounding 83% of respondents think that CMEC will benefit only China and it will not have any positive effect on Myanmar.

China’s silence on framing and jailing Aung San Suu Kyi is also being seen as an act of betrayal as she had expedited Chinese projects in the country and showed a willingness to further cooperation. On 15th August, Myanmar Junta Court jailed Aung San Suu Kyi for six years on allegations of corruption, which the European Union (EU) denounced as unjust. China, on the other hand, never castigated Myanmar Junta’s continued brutality against civilians and political opponents. People of Myanmar, given China’s long record of bonhomie with the military regime, expected some kind of positive intervention, but Beijing was disappointed.

China has stepped up open support for the Myanmar junta because it believes it can no longer even afford to appear to take a neutral stance when another authoritarian regime is involved. Because it has decided it can most effectively protect its investments by trying to help the junta win the country’s civil war. China’s lack of support for Aung San Suu Kyi, while she is increasingly being sidelined, is detrimental to the cause of democracy. But China inherently believes that any democratic government in Myanmar would not be as sensitive to its strategic agenda.

Beijing is likely to maintain its tacit acceptance of the generals’ regime not only to protect its investments in Myanmar, but also to exploit its vulnerability to realize its strategic agenda. Although the people of Myanmar want democracy to be restored, neither the military Junta nor China was comfortable with this. A Japanese video journalist was detained in Myanmar while covering a brief pro-democracy march and charged with spreading false and alarming news. In the survey, very few people (15%) agreed that China wants democracy in Myanmar.

Afghanistan highlights the limits of China’s Belt and Road initiative as it is unable to generate change on the ground abroad despite being engaged with the Taliban.

Since the Taliban took control over Afghanistan, none of the countries openly came forward and supported other than China, Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and author of “Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire” wrote for Nikkei Asia.

Chinese institute has extended millions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan and even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing has been a leading voice in calling for Washington to release USD 7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank funds.

Yet all of this positive engagement has not advanced the goals Beijing actually wants to achieve.
Beijing hoped that the Taliban would hand over Uyghur fighters to curtail their activity within the country but sadly, it failed to do so. Indeed, the TTP appears to have offered training to Balochi separatists and other militants who are targeting Chinese interests in Pakistan. On top of that, the Taliban has confounded expectations by actively courting New Delhi.

To extract economic benefit, China sent its businessmen and traders into Afghanistan, but this is most likely simply the result of entrepreneurs sensing an opportunity amid the decline in violence since the Taliban ousted the previous U.S.-backed government, according to Nikkei Asia.

Growth in direct trade has been limited so far, and China’s big state-owned enterprises are treading carefully. The complete lack of infrastructure or managerial capability on the Afghan side limits their ambition, alongside concerns about what they might be getting themselves into.

Afghanistan used to be a place where China could run joint projects with India, the US, and others. Now instead, Afghanistan is increasingly seen through the light of great power competition as merely another place where Washington and its proxies might undermine Chinese interests.

The poor hand China has to play was most vividly articulated recently by the U.S. drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. To some degree, China had previously been able to count on Washington acting as a backstop for problems in Afghanistan, with U.S. forces even launching airstrikes on the Taliban’s Uyghur allies as a common enemy.

The US still has enemies in Afghanistan and, as was seen with the death of al-Zawahri, the capability to do something about them, even in Beijing’s backyard, while China lacks these same kinetic tools and capabilities to go after its adversaries, according to the author.

A decade from the birth of the BRI concept, Afghanistan highlights Beijing’s difficulty in using its development model as a foreign policy concept to be replicated around the world.

A decade ago, Peking University international studies professor Wang Jisi set the conceptual foundation for what would become the Belt and Road Initiative with an essay called “Marching Westwards.”

In it, Wang decried the excessive focus of Chinese foreign policy on Washington and the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting instead the opportunities and threats along China’s western land borders.

The prolonged Ukraine – Russia conflict is hurting the very fundamentals of poor countries, especially countries like Pakistan. An analysts in JP Morgan Chase & Co. warned recently that global oil prices could reach a ‘stratospheric’ levels if the US and European penalties prompt Russia to inflict retaliatory crude-output cuts. A daily cut of 3 million-barrel in supplies would push benchmark London crude prices to USD 190, while the worst-case scenario of 5 million could mean USD 380 a barrel, said the analyst. This would push Islamabad to a scenario much worse than the current crisis that Colombo is facing. Islamabad is currently experiencing worst energy crisis even when the oil prices are hovering above USD 100 a barrel. The crisis deepened further with the State-owned Pakistan LNG Ltd scrapping recently a purchase tender for July shipment citing high price.

Islamabad’s growing economic challenges are many. High inflation, sliding forex reserves, widening current account deficit and depreciating currency are the few to name. Cash-strapped Pakistan’s trade deficit has surged to an all-time high of USD 48.66 billion in the outgoing fiscal year, a significant increase of 57% over the previous year on the back of higher-than-expected imports, despite a ban on more than 800 non-essential luxury items in May by the Shehbaz Sharif government. The trade deficit is propelled by the highest-ever increase in oil prices and commodities in the international market due to the supply chain disruptions brought about by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The much hyped China – Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), instead of promoting economic growth in Pakistan has now become a big liability to the government. Sovereign counter guarantee to Chinese Independent Power Producers are eating up government’s revenue, though the asset created was lying idle besides the country facing continued power outages. The CPEC project’s implantation progresses has mostly remained tentative and stop start over the last 4 years though Pakistan is the largest recipient of Chinese grants and assistance across the world.

With soaring inflation rates in the month of June to over 20%, the highest in recent past, the implementation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended PRs. 50 oil price hike has further added fuel to it. In just 33 days, the petrol price increased from PRs. 149 to PRs. 249 per litre. In addition, the electricity and gas tariffs have also been jacked up but the country is reeling under power shortages. It is just unimaginable to foresee where the already northbound inflation would land in the coming days.

Meanwhile, essential imports are also denting on forex reserves. Pakistan’s imports of cooking oil spiked to USD 3.56 billion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2021-22, which was 44% higher from previous year. It was equivalent to 60% of the three-year IMF loan programme of USD 6 billion. The price of cooking oil shot up close to PRs. 550 per litre in the domestic market compared to PRs. 200 per litre in January 2019.

According to State Bank of Pakistan, “Pakistan’s reliance on imports of edible oil and oilseed meals to meet domestic demand has been increasing over the past two decades. Some 86% of domestic edible oil consumption in 2020 came from imports, up from 77% in 2000.”

The imports are growing rapidly with the increase in the size of population and per capita income in Pakistan, while the pilot projects initiated for growing palm and soybean plants in the country has failed to deliver satisfactory results, notes an analyst.

According to renowned Pakistan banker Yusaf Nazar, Islamabad had got more IMF bailout packages than any other country. This indicates that external sector has always been vulnerable since no government, civilian or military, has ever tried to address the fundamental problems in Pak economy. The growth figures provided by the government are often misleading. Further, the growth is led by consumption and imports. Any growth not led by exports, investments and savings is bound to unravel.

Islamabad has now come to a stage where its friends as well as international lenders are no more listening to same old stories of bailout. They realised that the country just wants to live on dole-outs. Further, the cycle of seeking financial bailout packages is also shrinking. For example, earlier if Pak sought bailout fund from its friendly countries at a duration of 5 - 10 years, now that period has shortened to just a few months.

The root causes remain inefficiencies and corruption in the system, besides structural weaknesses. The IMF also asked Pakistan to set up an anti-corruption task force to review all the existing laws that were aimed at curbing graft in the government departments. In the last 13 - 14 years, losses in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), such as energy distribution companies, Pakistan Railways and Pakistan Steel Mills, have added the dead weight to the system.

The perennial decline in the export-to-GDP ratio has exacerbated the pressure on the forex reserves. The wealthy households and the rich are comfortable with rent-seeking attitude and investing in highly lucrative real estate instead of economic activity that could be generating income and employment. The private sector in Pakistan is not creating enough jobs to absorb the labour pool, which is at the cusp of anger, immigration and criminal activities, point out critics.

The World Bank states in a recent report that Pakistan could be a victim of instability. Pakistan has been facing an average deficit of USD 16 - 21 billion dollars every year since the beginning of 21st century. Hence, per capita income, after adjusting with inflation, during this period has come down by 2%. The report also stated that national productivity capability has come down compared to past, highlighting structural deficiencies. In spite of current IMF bailout package, Islamabad faces much tougher road ahead, though mostly contributed by the external factors, but mainly due to the fact that the country was managed very badly over the last 70 years.

The United States is rallying its allies against forced labour as it begins implementing an import ban on goods from China's Xinjiang region, where it says Beijing is committing genocide of the Uyghur population.

US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) on 21 June began enforcing the Uighur Forced Labour Prevention Act, which US President Joe Biden signed into law in December.

As per new rules all goods from Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities established detention camps for Uighurs and other Muslim groups, are made with forced labour and barred from import unless it can be proven otherwise.

"We are rallying our allies and partners to make global supply chains free from the use of forced labour, to speak out against atrocities in Xinjiang, and to join us in calling on the government of the PRC to end atrocities and human rights abuses immediately," US State Secretary Antony Blinken said in a statement, referring to China by its formal name, the People's Republic of China.

"Together with our interagency partners, we will continue to engage companies to remind them of US legal obligations," he said.

Xinjiang has a booming industrial, mining, and agricultural sector. Everything from peppers and walnuts to electrical equipment and polysilicon, a key material for making solar panels, ships to the US from the region. It also accounts for 20 per cent of the world's cotton and 80 per cent of China's domestic production.

Britain's Sheffield Hallam University released a report in mid-June documenting the use of forced labour in Xinjiang to manufacture polyvinyl chloride, a core component in floor tiling.

Academics and media organisations have published reports detailing the systematic use of forced labour among Uighurs in what critics describe as internment camps. China, which initially denied the existence of such facilities, later said they were vocational training centres are designed to combat the rise of religious and separatist extremism in the region.

A sweeping crackdown in Xinjiang over the past few years has repressed cultural and religious practices and prompted allegations of forced sterilisation and arbitrary imprisonment conditions that some western governments say amount to genocide.
Rights groups have urged for years that companies and brands linked to shirts, trousers and other Xinjiang-made goods be held accountable for labour conditions in the region.

However, China denies the claims of forced labour as "big lie concocted by anti-China forces" and has warned of retaliatory measures. However, the ban intensifies pressure on Beijing as the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said earlier in Beijing that "with this so-called law, the United States is trying to create forced unemployment in Xinjiang and to push for the world to decouple with China".

While Chinese companies and retailers are bracing for chaos as US Customs begins to enforce a ban on imports Xinjiang region. These companies are scrambling to gauge how the new rules could affect their business and supply chains, with Asian clothing suppliers, international retail chains, US solar-panel makers and Chinese floor tile material makers among scores of groups that could see US-bound shipments seized.

The Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act entails that all US-bound imports traced to Xinjiang, from cotton and tomatoes to floor tile and solar panel materials, were made using forced labour and brands them as "high priority" for seizure.

More than 900 shipments from the region were seized in the last quarter of 2021 by US authorities under earlier trade restrictions. But trade and business groups said the new legislation's vague wording threatened to put the bulk of China's USD 500billion in annual shipments bound for the US at risk.

US customs said it would strictly enforce the rules, which threaten to aggravate already tense relations between Washington and Beijing. "If the act is implemented, it will severely disrupt normal co-operation between China and the US, and global industrial and production chains," said Zhao Lijian, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, the week before the ban. "If the US insists on doing this, China will take robust measures to uphold its own rights and interests as well as its dignity."

There are reports of detainees being moved out of Xinjiang to work in other parts of the country, while components produced in the region have been traced to US-bound exports shipped from elsewhere in China. The law could heap more pressure on pandemic-hit China's supply chains.

Following the inability of Pakistan to make payments to the Chinese power supplies, the country lies in the abyss of electricity outages which is disrupting life and business amid current unbearable heatwave.

They have shut down multiple plants because the Pakistani government has failed to pay dues to the tune of 300 billion rupees (USD 1.5 billion).

Ahmed Naeem Salik, a research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, said that the current power generation capacity in Pakistan is 41,000 megawatts, while consumption is around 28,000 MW.

“We have 13,000 MW of extra electricity capacity, but still there is a lot of load shedding,” he said, using industry lingo for supply interruptions. This, he said, “is mainly because we have to pay the loans [to Chinese companies] that we are unable to pay, and hence [Chinese] have stopped power production.”

Sharing his grievances on the ongoing unbearable heat wave amid the power outages, Waheed Ahmed, a taxi driver in Rawalpindi, said that the power goes out for 8 hours a day.

Another Pakistani, Mumtaz Baloch, who is a government employee, said the situation in the rural area of the southwestern province of Balochistan is even worse. Baloch said that the electricity there comes just six hours per day, as per Nikkei Asia.

“We are used to living without government-supplied electricity as our forefathers did in ancient times,” she said.

Speaking with Nikkie Asia, Umar Nadeem, the head of the advisory at Islamabad consulting company Tabadlab drew a relation between the power outages and the subsequent economic fallout.

He said that the power cuts will have a direct impact on economic activity and it will hit the lower-income citizens hardest, as they feel the pressure of 13 pc plus inflation.

“Disruptions in electricity supply and a corresponding drop in income levels will make coping with the rising costs even more difficult,” Nadeem said.

As part of a broader policy coordination amid increasing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia, Japan and the United States have held their first strategic dialogue on affairs of the region.

Senior officials from both countries met virtually after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden agreed during talks last week in Tokyo to boost ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Kyodo News reported.

The new dialogue focused on how the two allies can bring ASEAN member states closer to a US-led group of free and democratic countries, as China has apparently been striving to alter the status quo in the East and South China seas and other areas in the Indo-Pacific with force and coercion.

"Southeast Asia is key to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific," Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Hikariko Ono told a press conference after the virtual talks, as per Kyodo News.

South-East Asia suddenly became the power theatre of the East as the United States steps up to leave the rivalry with China behind in wooing the ASEAN.

ASEAN made no bones of the fact that it realises it is stuck between China and the US and wants concessions on its own terms as part of its strategy to be wooed by the big powers.

Joanne Lin, a lead researcher at the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore told CNBC, "ASEAN would probably like to see more US support towards its ASEAN-led mechanisms, as opposed to US-led minilateral groupings such as the Quad and Aukus."

However, China has been wooing ASEAN as well, "and not just with the trade and investment that are likely its most powerful levers of influence in Southeast Asia" because in the past one decade, "Beijing has steadily expanded its media influence in these countries in four key ways, as a means of shaping their views", according to Asian media reports.

Compared to the high-profile wooing campaigns of President Biden, China's attempts have been subtle and consistent over a period of time. The communist government has banked upon its extensive propaganda machinery to constantly target ASEAN nations with its specialised content.

For instance, Xinhua, China's official state media agency, has print bureaus in every Southeast Asian country. TV news channels CCTV-4 and the English-language CGTN also have bureaus in this region. China Radio International airs multilingual content in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar.

Amid a slew of draconian laws introduced by the Chinese in Hong Kong, an annual report on press freedoms across the globe published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) indicates that Hong Kong, once a bastion for free press, has plummeted in the rankings.

The dismal performance has been mainly attributed to the Chinese government's implementation of the National Security Law (NSL), which was enacted in June 2020 and has been wielded to prosecute and jail journalists, Vision Times reported.

According to the 2022 report, Hong Kong now ranks 148th out of 180 countries measured placing Hong Kong between the Philippines and Turkey, the report said.

The People's Republic of China ranked 175th and North Korea ranked the lowest at 180.
Last year, Hong Kong ranked 80th in the index meaning Hong Kong has plunged in the rankings considerably in one year.

Due to the NSL, "In 2021, two major independent news outlets, Apple Daily and Stand News were forcefully shut down while numerous smaller-scale media outlets ceased operations, citing legal risks," the RSF report reads.

"The Hong Kong government takes orders directly from Beijing and openly supports its attempts to impose censorship and spread propaganda," the authors of the report said, Vision Times quoted.

The organization cites public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), which was previously renowned for its fearless investigations, but has subsequently been placed under pro-government management which does not hesitate to censor the programs it disapproves of.

Despite Hong Kong's Basic Law enshrining "freedom of speech, of the press and of publication" the NSL serves as a pretext to silence independent voices in the name of the fight against "terrorism", "secession", "subversion", and "collusion with foreign forces".

Hong Kong was once a safe place for journalists to operate until 2014 when journalists who covered the Umbrella Movement were targeted by the police and pro-Beijing factions, Vision Times said.

However, most large-scale media outlets in China are state-owned and parrot pro-Beijing talking points, the publication added.

India and the United States (US) have charged Pakistan to take immediate, sustained, and irreversible actions to ensure that no territory under its control is used for terrorist attacks.

In a joint statement issued on the fourth India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III welcomed the convening of the 18th Meeting of the India-US Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and the 4th Session of the India-US Designations Dialogue in October 2021.

While expressing strong condemnation against the use of terrorist proxies and cross-border terrorism in all its forms, the ministers called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, and Pathankot attack, to be brought to justice.

They called for concerted action against all terrorist groups, including groups proscribed by the United Nations Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee, such as al-Qa'ida, Islamic State (Deash), Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb ul Mujahideen.

The two sides committed to the continued exchange of information about sanctions and designations against terror groups and individuals, countering violent radicalism, use of the Internet for terrorist purposes, and cross-border movement of terrorists.

They also emphasized the importance of upholding international standards on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism by all countries, consistent with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.

The ministers also reaffirmed their support for the early adoption of a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism.

Both sides also looked forward to the next India-US Counter Narcotics Working Group meeting in 2022 and enhancing cooperation through a bilateral Counter-Narcotics Framework to combat drug trafficking, illicit narcotics production, and precursor chemical supply chains.

Building upon the recent Senior Officials Meeting between the US Department of Homeland Security and India's Ministry of Home Affairs, both sides looked forward to reconvening a Ministerial meeting of the India-US Homeland Security Dialogue in 2022.

The US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was held on Monday in Washington.

In a statement, the Pentagon said defence and foreign ministers of the two countries forged new and deeper cooperation across the breadth of the US-India partnership, including defence, science and technology, trade, climate, public health, and people-to-people ties.

Tibetan diaspora in Austria has protested against China over the human rights violations and atrocities confronted by the spiritual and ethnic minorities together with Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Hongkongers.

A bunch of 50-60 Tibetan carrying flags and posters has criticized the Chinese Communist Party in entrance of the Chinese embassy of Vienna on Tibetan 63rd Uprising Day.

Demonstrators began a march from the Chinese embassy to the Stephansplatz and raised concern over the human rights violations by Beijing.

During the protest, additionally they raised the problem of a Tibetan named Choedon who was detained by Chinese authorities on February 13 for educating the Tibetan language to youngsters.

The diaspora additionally mourned for musician Tsewang Norbu who did self-immolation in Tibet and blamed the Chinese communist social gathering for it.

They additionally demand the human rights group and UN To safeguard the rights of Tibetan and look into the scenario in Tibet and stated that “Tibet is and will never be part of China.”

Meanwhile, on the finish of the programme, they enacted a task play the place CCP is doing atrocities to Tibetan and different spiritual minorities.

Tibetan Uprising Day is noticed yearly on March 10. Chinese forces ultimately crushed the rebellion and compelled the Dalai Lama into exile in India, the place he stays to this present day.

China has banned all key religious activities in and around Tibet’s capital Lhasa during celebrations marking the Tibetan New Year according to media reports.

During the Tibetan New Year celebrations, the minority community faced widespread obstruction and interference.

The HK Post reported that this sort of intimidation, alongside restrictions on festivities, is part of a broader strategy by the Chinese Communist Party to undermine Tibetan identity.

Authorities in Tibetan areas have restricted travel and public gatherings with punishments threatened for those violating the bans, the HK Post reported citing Tibetan sources.

The report added that Tibetans working in government jobs were required to report to work during the New Year so that they could not go back to their hometowns to celebrate.

“I wanted to celebrate Losar openly,” one Lhasa resident told Radio Free Asia (RFA). “But then due to harassment and restrictions put in place by the Chinese authorities, I don’t feel like celebrating at all.” It’s a pity, a person can’t even peacefully pray as per his will even on an auspicious day.

Last month, Lhasa’s Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau had announced a ban on the celebrations of Losar, citing COVID-19 concerns.

However, according to RFA, the Tibet Autonomous Region has been free from the COVID, and Chinese media has highlighted the record numbers of visitors to the region in several recent reports.

The report further added the order especially applied to different monasteries in and around Lhasa.

“The notice bars Tibetans from performing all the major religious activities that are usually observed ahead of and during the New Year,” Ngawang Woebar, a former political prisoner now living in Dharamsala, India, said.

Experts have raised concerns over the continued violation of human rights inside Tibet. They have highlighted the need for world democracies to join hands towards the cause of Tibet.

Criticizing the exploitative nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the experts asked the Western media to drop its indifferent attitude towards China’s acts in Tibet.

Amid military rivalry between Washington and Beijing in the South China Sea, the United States is demonstrating a growing appetite to challenge China's naval assertiveness in the area, according to media reports.

Asia Times reported that several Asia leaders had feared the US may pull back on its strong approach to China after Donald Trump was voted out of office, but the opposite has happened. After Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential elections, a degree of panic gripped a number of US allies in Asia.

Earlier this month, the USS Carl Vinson conducted five-day naval drills with the Essex Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) near the hotly disputed Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea, Asia Times reported on Wednesday.

The exercises kicked off two weeks earlier than last year, demonstrating a growing appetite in the Pentagon to challenge China's naval assertiveness in the area, it added.

Beijing has been disputing for decades the status of a number of territories in the South China Sea to which it lays claim, primarily the Paracel and Spratly islands, and the Scarborough Shoal.

China considers the Spratly archipelago to be its territory, despite the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling which said there was no legal basis for China's maritime claims.

On last Sunday, US aircraft carriers entered the SCS "to begin operations" amid heightened tensions arising between China and Taiwan.

The US Navy Carrier Strike Groups Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln will engage in operations aimed at strengthening maritime integrated-at-sea operations and combat readiness, according to a statement from the US Navy.

"Our ability to rapidly aggregate and work collectively alongside CSG 3, highlights the U.S. Navy's ability to deliver overwhelming maritime force, when called upon, to support a free and open Indo-Pacific region," Rear Admiral Dan Martin, commander of the strike group led by USS Carl Vinson, said in a statement.

Reiterating Washington's stand against China's "unlawful" maritime claims in the region, The acting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Fisheries, and Polar Affairs has said that China has not provided any legal basis for its claims in the South China Sea (SCS).

China's claim of a wide swathe of the South China Sea is inconsistent with the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, according to the US State Department.

India's gold consumption is expected to rise further in 2022 after jumping 79% last year as pent-up demand and an improvement in consumer confidence are seen boosting retail jewellery sales, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Friday.

Gold consumption in 2022 will likely be 800-850 tonnes versus 797.3 tonnes last year, the highest in six years, Somasundaram PR, regional chief executive officer of WGC's Indian operations, told Reuters.

Indian demand has averaged 769.7 tonnes over the last 10 years.

A rise in consumption by the world's second-biggest gold consumer would help global prices, but could widen India's trade deficit and put pressure on the ailing rupee.

"Muted wedding celebrations due to restrictions mean more savings and that money is flowing into gold," Somasundaram said.

Indian authorities imposed various restrictions on wedding celebrations due to the coronavirus outbreak and some people postponed weddings until 2022, he said.

Gold is an essential part of the bride's dowry in India and also a popular gift from family and guests at weddings.

In December quarter, gold consumption nearly doubled from a year ago to a record 343.9 tonnes as retail purchases were robust during the key Hindu festivals Dussehra and Diwali, the WGC said in a report published on Friday.

In 2021 weddings lifted demand in urban areas, while rural demand was supported by ample monsoon rainfall, which raised crop production, Somasundaram said.

There is greater acceptance at the current price level from Indian consumers, he said.

Local gold prices were trading around 48,000 rupees per 10 grams this week after hitting a record high of 56,191 rupees in August 2020.
Demand for coins and bars, known as investment demand, surged 43% in 2022 to 186.5 tonnes, the WGC said.

"We expect Indian investment demand to remain healthy as we head into 2022. It may receive support from higher inflation expectations and possible weakness in the rupee due to the widening trade deficit," it said.

On December 08, 2021, the South-South Human Rights Forum opened in Beijing. The focus of this year is putting people first and human rights governance globally. The Forum is was hosted by the Foreign Ministry and the State Council Information Officer.

In his congratulatory letter, President Xi Jinping said that China is willing to work with developing countries to carry forward common human rights values and contribute strength and wisdom to the development of international human rights. He further emphasized that the Communist Party of China (CCP) has always respected and protected human rights.

Ironically, China is not known to be a fertile ground for nurturing and protecting human rights. The latest example is the diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics by the US, to be held in Beijing, in light of atrocities committed against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. US athletes will be allowed to participate but no official representation will be sent.

The Uighurs are a Turkic ethnic group. They mostly live in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the largest region in China, and some live in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Uighurs are Sunni Muslims.

From the 1950s, there has been a large influx of the Han Chinese, an ethnic group in majority in China. It has been alleged that this mass migration was State-sponsored to supress the minority. There have been violent clashes between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese in which many Uighurs have died. 2009 saw the bloodiest clash with over 200 people dying.

Since 2017, China has initiated a heavy crackdown on Uighurs, alleging separatist and terrorist activities. Uighurs were placed under surveillance. Their movements are tracked through their mobile phones. More than 1 million Uighurs have been detained over the last few years in camps called “re-education” camps by the state. There have been incidents of rape, compulsory sterilization, forced abortion and torture. Reacting to reports of these atrocities, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said China was committing "genocide and crimes against humanity". Canada's foreign ministry said: "Mounting evidence points to systemic, state-led human rights violations by Chinese authorities."

The Chinese government ordered GulnarOmirzakh, a Chinese-born Kazakh and the wife of a currently detained vegetable trader, to get an IUD after she had her third child. In January 2018, 4 officials came to her house and gave her 3 days to pay a fine of $2,685 for having more than 2 children. If she didn’t, they warned her that she would end up in detention like her husband. “God bequeaths children on you. To prevent people from having children is wrong,” said Omirzakh, who tears up even now thinking back to that day. “They want to destroy us as a people.”

Uighurs religious practices are being suppressed. The Chinese government has banned men from keeping long beards, from women wearing veils and fasting during Ramadan. They were forced to eat pork, which is prohibited in Islam. Mosques have been destroyed and religious leaders were thrown in jail.

President Biden termed this as a “genocide” and stated that China’s actions against Uighur Muslims were acts against humanity. US has been joined by the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia in diplomatically boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics, and this list is expected to get longer.

The controversial National Security Law, which came into effect on June 01, 2020 in Hong Kong, drew sharp criticism for being in violation of human rights, including freedom of speech and expression, right to dissent, peaceful assembly and right to fair trial. The contents of the Law were known to only a handful of people before it was passed. The Law provides a very wide meaning of national security which gives sweeping powers to authorities to arrest and detain. Hundreds of protestors have been arrested and detained under the Law.

Around four activists have been convicted while 60 people have been charged and are in detention. The authorities formed under the law are beyond the jurisdiction of Hong Kong courts. Further, the authorities have the power to transfer cases to Beijing. The ground of “colluding or conspiring to collude with foreign forces” subjects an individual to be arrested even if he requests for asylum, calls for sanction from other countries, gives interviews to foreign media, etc.

Hong Kong was a colony of Britain after China’s defeat in the Opium Wars and was handover to China in 1997. One of the terms of the handover was that the democratic system will be protected. China’s actions, however, say otherwise.

China has very tight control over the press. Several journalists have been arrested and imprisoned for their coverage of the Covid-19 coverage from Wuhan, i.e., ground zero. Zhang Zhan is near death because of her hunger strike last year. In December 2020 she was sentenced to four years in prison after a series of posts on social media, criticizing the Chinese authorities on their handling of the pandemic and their harassment of the victims’ families.

China has vehemently opposed charges of human rights violations and instead has accused the US of politicizing human rights for their own interests. China has alleged that the boycott by the US is to divert attention from its own problems of rising Covid cases and deaths.

On December 9-10 2021, President Biden hosted the first two summits for democracy with an agenda to bring together leaders from governments, civil societies to bring democratic renewal and to tackle the threats faced by democracies nowadays.

At the summit around 100 countries prepared to convene virtually and China is busy trying to convince the world that it is also a democracy and it functions better than the US. China has always tried to convince its citizens that it is a real democracy even though the rest of the world believes otherwise.

In the wake of the same, China released a white paper titled “China: Democracy that works”. It stated that democracy is a common value of humanity and an idea that has always been cherished by the Communist Party of China it added that people in a democracy are regarded as the masters of the country and China’s whole process is based on result-oriented democracy and it is a model of socialist democracy that covers all the aspects of society.

The paper also stated that whether a country is democratic or not it should be judged by its people not by a handful of outsiders. Xu Lin, minister of the state council information office said that democracy is the right of the people of all countries and it is not a patent of few. They even criticised the US democracy that even though the country considers itself as a leader of democracy but in reality, they have suppressed the other countries with various social systems under the umbrella of democracy.

China may claim that it is a democratic country but it does not fulfil the requirements of democracy and it appears ironic when they make such statements and this question becomes important as to why Beijing is so invested in claiming its democracy even though the world knows it is not.

It is pertinent to note that democracy has become an important feature in the international arena since the second world war. That's why China took a step to state its justifications for being a democratic country.

The first justification made by China is its National Party Congress which is the Parliament in China and claims to establish the grassroots of democracy in the country but in reality, it is known that NPC doesn’t come up with the laws, the laws in China are discussed and passed by the standing committee of Politburo and NPC merely rubber stamps the law and that only becomes the law it has been argued by the experts that NPC doesn’t make laws like the other countries such as the UK or the US or any country where the laws are made with the proper parliamentary process.

The second justification provided by China is that there is a presence of village democracy in the country and elections in the villages though previously they have provided some relaxations regarding the voting rights for the individuals now the party has made sure that the person who gets elected to the role of party secretary for the village is usually who is liked by the party and no one who all are standing in the opposition can become the secretary. The second argument is that China allows the advisors to work within the Chinese Consultative Conference and herein the advisors can give their opinion for the formulation of policy and about how the country should run but it is known from the Chinese sources that the opinions of these advisors don’t matter and their opinions don’t shape up the policies of the country and these advisors are supposed to be a part of the united front system and their work is to influence the local community as to what the party wants, therefore, again they fail the test of democracy.

The third justification provided by them is that China has a significant number of villages where the elections do happen and for this reason, they should be considered as a democratic country but this has also changed significantly after Xi Jinping came into power as now they make sure whoever becomes the secretary should be liked by the party or should be someone who can work according to the party thus no opposition can come into power thus it cannot be said that the elections happen as they happen in democratic countries.

The last justification provided by them is that China has eight political parties but they are not part of the kind of democratic process as we have in Asia or elsewhere as these parties are just for a namesake where they are kept to make a kind of notion that China functions as a democratic country and the leaders of these parties are also not independent at all.
Numerous claims can be made by China where they can reiterate that they function as a democratic but in reality, they don’t and the whole world knows that. All the processes which may appear democratic in nature are being kept for the hidden agendas and for creating a kind of notion or appearance of a democratic country.

The opposition party in Pakistan has come hard on the Prime Minister, Imran Khan, over the upsurge in the value of the US Dollar against the local currency.

They also blamed the upsurge which has weakened the Rupee on the current economic policy of the government.

Terming the alarming upsurge of the value of the US dollar against the rupee a sign of “economic devastation”, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said significant fluctuations in the rupee-dollar parity are due to the “lack of a sound economic policy” in the country.

The local currency on Friday closed yet again above Rs175— near its all-time low against the US dollar.

According to a statement issued by the party, the PML-N president stated when the finance ministry refutes the statement of its adviser and “false data” is released, the “economy collapses like this”.

While a record-high trade deficit is a “dangerous sign of economic catastrophe in the country”, a historic high current account deficit is “evidence of economic misdirection”, he said.

Shehbaz further highlighted that public debt, inflation, current account deficit, rupee-dollar parity have all surpassed previous negative records.

“If a people-chosen government was in power, this would not have been the case,” he said.

Warning that the country has been pushed into an “economic abyss”, he said that “if nothing is done soon, recovery will become another impossible thing”.

The PML-N president said “doomsday-like” inflation would grip the country from December 1, as the dollar hike was “adding fuel to the fire of inflation”.

“Economic devastation” is like a “poison” for a nuclear-powered Pakistan, the PMLN president said, pleading the government to “open its eyes”.

He said that the economic catastrophe currently prevailing in the country will create such a situation where everybody will forget about other issues, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“Pakistan’s patriotic elements must think about the economic devastation the country is hurtling towards. Time is passing us by very quickly,” he added.

There’s going to be a considerable degree of discomfort among officials in Washington DC as the India-Russia summit takes off in New Delhi on 6 December. Worse still, the so far exclusive “Quad’ configuration of ‘2+2’. which is a twinned defence and foreign secretaries dialogue, is to be replicated with Russia. That should put a cat among the pigeons especially, since the Russian leader, like Santa Claus, will come bearing gifts – in this case, the redoubtable S-400 missiles. This is going to be an interesting summit in more ways than one.

The grumbling in Washington

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in 2014 beamed at Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that even a child in India knew that Russia was India’s best friend. Today, almost everyone knows about the S-400s, the air defence system that is causing Washington to threaten sanctions under CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act). This is a wide-ranging piece of legislation, inter alia warns of sanctions on any country that buys arms from Russia.

The harshness of this legislation arose in part due to  allegations that Russia had interfered in the 2016 US presidential elections, and the Solar Winds cyberattack among other things. Since then, anti-Russian legislation has been the rule in Congress, including such strange proposals as a Holding Russia Accountable for Malign Activities Act, 2021, which wants visas and assets blocked of those involved in the poisoning of prominent critic Alexei Navalny; and a CROOK Act (Countering Russian and Other Overseas Kleptocracy Act), which wants more of the same.
Most of these don’t pass muster, but do convey the sense of Congress. With some 100,000 Russian troops now massed on the Ukrainian border, this railing against Moscow is likely to get worse.

Key Republicans have written to President Joe Biden demanding that Ukrainians be armed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russia of a ‘serious mistake’, while NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) launched a massive military exercise with some 28,000 troops across Eastern Europe. Europe, however, is nervous of aggressive action, and Ukraine itself is far from being without fault. Yet, any showcasing friendship with Russia at this point will be viewed with hostility.

Most American officials are well aware of the Indian military’s dependence on Russia for military operations, particularly now with an aggressive China at the gates. A timely report from the Congressional Research Service pointed out that Russia provided nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of all Indian arms imports; that the Naval fleet is almost entirely of Russian origin, while the Army is dependent for spares, particularly for its Main Battle Tanks.

But military equipment is just one part of a wide-ranging relationship that includes joint production of the Brahmos missile, mass production of AK-203 rifles, and licensed production of Sukhoi-30s among others. Again, it’s not even just this. Think of the fact that India had to turn to Russia for a nuclear-powered submarine, which was repeatedly refused by the US, even though it then set up AUKUS, which provides the technology to Australia. Russia also delayed delivery of S-400 missiles to China during the Galwan crisis, though this was probably more due to the arrest of a leading scientist for spying for China. But in India, it was seen as a sign of solidarity.

India’s military dependence has certainly reduced in recent years. During the Galwan crisis, emergency purchases were from the US and Israel as well as Russia. The S-400 deal, however, will again tilt the balance. Military experts describe this as an ideal weapon for India, able to handle different ranges, from low-flying stealth aircraft or cruise missiles to some capability against incoming ballistic missiles. Its 400-km range capability means it can detect aircraft flying almost anywhere in Pakistan as well as provide a fait accompli on the Chinese border that effectively negates China’s own burgeoning air capability in terms of new airfields and its own missiles. This is the real stuff, and there is no way India can do without this, given the tense situation.

Yet the bilateral relationship is far from stable. On Afghanistan, Russia is leaning towards recognising the Taliban regime, which it refers to as the ‘interim Afghan government’, for reasons that include the Taliban’s fierce fight against the Islamic State of Khorasan that threatens Russia’s Central Asian ‘borders’ and a desire to exert its influence again in the region. It, therefore, abstained (together with China) on a US resolution imposing tough conditions on the Taliban. India was ignored in the rush of dialogues, with Pakistan getting far more attention. Russia even put out its own  version of the Delhi Declaration issued after the meeting of National Security Advisors, which was far less demanding of the Taliban.

Far more unsettling for Moscow is India’s inclusion in the Quad – the grouping that includes Japan, the US and Australia. Displeasure was evident at an April presser during Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit, when S. Jaishankar refused to endorse Lavrov’s comments on ‘counterproductive’ alliances. More recently at the RIC (Russia, India, China) virtual summit, Lavrov’s statement pointedly referred to cooperation in the ‘Asia Pacific’, a term preferred as more inclusive. Russian angst over increased India-US cooperation also hinges on lowering trade with India. This year, bilateral trade was at $1.8 billion as compared to the US, which is Delhi’s largest trading partner, with some $146 billion in bilateral trade in 2019.

Rooting out reservations  

The issue of a ‘2+2’ dialogue seems to have been done after Lavrov’s earlier visit in April, when the ground was being prepared for ‘deliverables’ for the summit, and affirmed in a call  between PM Modi and President Putin. That, together with Indian participation in Russian-led military exercises like ‘Zapad’ or even that of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in recent months, seems to be aimed at redressing  Russian fears of another ‘bloc’ being formed. Once the 2+2 format is launched, Delhi could invite Russia to multilateral exercises in the same ‘Quad spirit’, but involving  other navies in the region, on the lines of the recently held Goa Symposium by the Indian Navy.

There are fortunately opportune ways of increasing trade, together with a ‘strategic’ add-on. In 2019, India had promised a $1 billion credit line for the development of the Russian Far East. This seems to have only recently been energised with an ‘Energy Office’ opened in March, involving majors like Oil India Limited, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and others. Why India took so long to advance this is unclear given that South Korea, Japan and China are already heavily invested there.

The Far East project envisages a maritime corridor from Vladivostok to Chennai, which should traverse the Arctic. That gives India access to the Arctic area, which is seen as the next strategic area of competition, with China already calling itself a ‘Near Arctic State’ much to the annoyance of the Arctic states. Indian investment in much needed energy projects should help build up trade from the $1 billion it is now, to somewhere close to Russian trade with China which is at $40.207 billion. That’s a catch-up game that will be mutually beneficial.

Meanwhile, Washington has leeway to set CAATSA sanctions aside, as it did on the Germany–Russia pipeline Nord Stream 2 using technical interpretations to circumvent it. This was as much to placate Germany as a realisation that the project was nearly complete. The Biden administration has throttled back on antagonising Russia, an uphill task given the political mood. But the US needs to realise that an India that can push back against China – which no one yet has – is worth more to the US designs for Asia than a few missiles that have no presence in the maritime region which is the focus area of US-India cooperation.

And finally on Afghanistan, Moscow should heed Foreign Minister Jaishankar’s speech at the Primakov Institute where he seemed to hint that stability in Afghanistan required India, Russia and Iran to work together. In other words, if India has to pay the costs of antagonising the US, it had better be worth the price. Russia’s pursuit of Pakistan for ‘stability’ doesn’t seem to have gone very far anyway.

The houseboat business in Srinagar, which was facing several problems during the past few years, has been further affected by the discharge of sewage into the Dal Lake and the effects of the COVID pandemic.

Tourism is a major source of livelihood in Jammu and Kashmir and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit tourism, the houseboat owners were further affected.

But one positive thing is that tourists have started arriving now. The houseboat or Shikara owners are trying their best to provide good services so as to recover the earlier losses.

Another problem is that many houseboats were damaged due to floods and fire accidents. Some houseboats sank. At present only 928 houseboats are available in the two famous lakes, the Dal Lake and the Nigeen Lake. So the government recently announced a policy to preserve houseboats.

Shikara owner Mohamad Rafiq told ANI, “Owing to Covid, the situation had worsened, but now tourists are coming and we are also getting the houseboat repaired. The government has provided some help.”

On the issue of hygiene, Dr Bhagyashree, a tourist from Mumbai, said, “Hygiene is important on the boat. It has become even more important after the pandemic.”

Sewage of neighbouring areas is discharged into the lake which creates a further problem. Another houseboat owner Tariq Ahmad said, “1,200 boats were registered here. But slowly the condition started deteriorating in 1989. We are still suffering.”

The Lakes Conservation Management Authority (LCMA) which is the new name of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) manages affairs here despite the difficult situation.

In May 2014, the Chinese government initiated the "Strike Hard Campaign Targeting Violent Terrorism" against Uyghurs as well as other Turkic Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, China is perpetrating decimation and crimes against humanity and humankind. Such a strong US reaction is a cause of worry for the rest of the world.

There are roughly 12 million Uyghurs in China, most of whom live in the Xinjiang province in the northwestern region. Xinjiang, formally known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is home to over 12 million Uyghurs, the majority of whom are Muslims. The Uyghurs speak their language, which is akin to Turkish, and consider themselves to be culturally and ethnically comparable to other Central Asian nationalities. They account for fewer than half of the population of Xinjiang. In recent decades, there has been a huge migration of Han Chinese (China's ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, which the state is said to have coordinated to diminish the minority population there. The Uyghur population has been victims of a governmental campaign of widespread incarceration, monitoring, forced labour, and, according to some accounts, sterilisation, torture, and rape, since 2017. China has repeatedly denied all human rights violations in Xinjiang, claiming that its internment camps are vocational training centres aimed at combating extremism. Thus, China is a source of legitimate concern.

In recent years, China's crackdowns on Uyghurs have spread beyond its boundaries, with forceful techniques used to silence people or, in some circumstances, jail and mental rehabilitation after which they are returned to Xinjiang. According to the Uyghur Human Rights Project data released in June this year, at least 395 Uyghurs have been deported, prosecuted, or rendered missing since 1997. However, the total numbers are likely to be much higher given the Chinese State Policy of denials.

Since the 1990s, anti-Han and separatist sentiment have grown in Xinjiang, occasionally escalating into bloodshed. Around 200 people were killed in Xinjiang violence in 2009, for which the Chinese blamed the Uyghur separatists. China has been suspected of gunning down Muslim religious officials, outlawing religious rites in the region, and destroying mosques and tombs. There have been more crackdowns after President Xi Jinping issued a directive in 2017 stating that all religions in China should be Chinese in focus. According to activists, China is attempting to eliminate Uyghur culture, Xinjiang is now surrounded by a vast surveillance network. Police are also utilising mobile apps to track people's behaviour and reporting anything and everything that catches their eyes.

China has made significant investments and established close diplomatic relations with Central Asian states, like Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and other bordering countries, resulting in Uyghurs in those countries being targeted by local police and Chinese agents. Members of the ethnic community fear being moved there as part of a bargain for economic aid since they are considered as potential extremists by China. 

China recently welcomed a prominent Taliban envoy to Tianjin in July this year, where foreign minister Wang Yi stated that the delegation would play a significant role in the nation's peace, reunification, and reconstruction efforts. And the Taliban, in return, promised that no one would be able or allowed to use Afghan turf to attack China. The world watched as the Taliban; a group of radical extremists teamed up with China.

 It is pertinent to know that in Afghanistan, the Uyghur population is believed to be between 2,000 and 3,000 people. They came in intervals, with some arriving as early as the eighteenth century. Many are second-generation refugees who have little or no ties to China. Their parents were among a wave of Xinjiang exiles that fled to neighbouring Afghanistan, where they settled and started families. These families are now preparing to uproot their lives once more. Even though they are Afghan nationals, it makes them easy targets to follow, and if the Taliban decides to round them up, these Uyghurs could wind up as negotiating chips. Since the Taliban will be expecting large Chinese economic concessions and much-needed funding to run the current Afghan government, giving up the Uyghurs is a key pointer to them.

China is trying to re-write the history of Tibet by sinicizing Tibetan Buddhism, discouraging use of Tibetan language and erasing the Tibetan culture. It is also guarding Tibet with an iron curtain. It is not willing to permit citizens from any other country to visit Tibet and see the conditions for themselves in this great Buddhist region as China has more to conceal than reveal in Tibet. But reality is as much as China try to silence critics and hide its programmes against Tibetans, more and more it is being exposed of its horrendous human rights abuses in Tibet.

Recently, on Sept. 27, in a three-day conference at the Tso-Ngon Buddhist University in Xining , Qinghai, instructions were given for the use of Mandarin as common language in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. It was stated monks and nuns must learn and speak to each other in Mandarin instead of their native language as well as instructed to translate classrooms texts from Tibetan into Mandarin.

Conference was attended by more than 500 religious figures and students from Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist universities and other educational organizations, including more than 300 students from Tso-Ngon University. The campaign looks set to advance Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call to Sinicize religion across the country.However, as per the Dalai Lama Tibetan language is the best language to communicate the full meaning of Buddhist doctrines.

Reach of the Chinese govt. has also been extended into Tibetan people’s lives in exile, with a new order forcing parents in Tibet to recall their children from study in India. Parent are being threatened with grave consequences if they fail to comply.

Ngodup Tsering , representative of the Dalai Lama to North America, warned during a webinar of the Jamestown foundation think tank in the USA on March 10, 2021 that “ to me it looks like they(China) want to totally eliminate Tibetans as such”. Ngodup also stated that Tibetan Buddhism was China’s first war against religion and that recently many monasteries had been destroyed or downsized. He warned that China wanted only to “control and destroy” Tibetan Buddhism.

During the webinar, Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, explained, “Tibet has long been representative of some of the core strategies of Chinese ethinic policy, because Tibet has long posed particular problem that has come through the fact that the Tibetans have a high-profile political and spiritual representation outside of China; it has largely not been under Beijing’s control. Particular challenges come with that and its activities”.

China’s repression of free speech, religion, movement, association and assembly in Tibet was also explained by the US State Department’s Human rights report released on March 11, 2020, according to which, China disrupted traditional Tibetan living patterns and customs and accelerated the forced assimilation of Tibetans into mainstream Chinese society through weakening of Tibetan language education in public schools and religious education in monasteries. Even in areas officially designated as “autonomous”, Tibetans generally lacked the right to organize and play a meaningful role in the protection of their cultural heritage.

Recently, in August 2021, more than hundred Tibetans have been arrested by Chinese authorities in Kardze Prefecture, Sichuan province for promoting the use of Tibetan language. Arrested Tibetans are being denied proper food and clothing in detention, leaving many in an unhealthy condition. They are also being interrogated everyday and are being given political re-education sessions in the prison.

For the last six decades, China has carried out systematic annihilation of the cultural heritage of Tibet with the destruction of Tibetan Buddhism and religious traditions, language, cultural practices and traditional way of life. Social, economic, cultural and political policies relentlessly carried out in these areas have robbed Tibetans of their culture and language and damaged their traditional way of life.

 Condemning Chinese laws, recently Penpa Tsering the new leader of Tibetan government in exile slammed Beijing for destroying Tibet’s identity and also called on the US and other democratic forces to unite to counter Beijing. Penpa also explained that China is the only country spending most of its Money on repressive measures against the minorities.

Several Chinese entrepreneurs based in Pakistan expressed deep concerns related to their operations in Pakistan in a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan on September 14. 

The meeting was demanded by leaders of Chinese entrepreneurs aimed at addressing Chinese firms' concerns regarding policy support and security after recent terrorist attacks.

Coming in direct attack from a delegation of Chinese business leaders, Khan vowed to chair a monthly self-review meeting to address their concerns, acknowledging that the Pakistani government is distressed with the slow progress of CPEC in the wake of growing discontent among local Pakistanis against Chinese projects. 

Khan government fears that repercussions of concerns gripping Chinese investors may lead to negative impacts on CPEC development, which is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s BRI.

Chinese enterprises were fierce in their attack of difficulties in doing business in Pakistan and accused Pakistani Prime Minister of doing little to increase the confidence of Chinese enterprises.

Pushing Pakistan to give more liberal and independent exclusive business zones, the Chinese enterprises voiced their hopes that Pakistan could introduce an industrial park management committee - a common practice in China - to simplify approval processes.

Pakistani Prime Minister's Office Twitter account, informed that Chinese enterprises that attended the meeting included OPPO, Shanghai Challenge Textile Co, and Easy Prefabricated Homes Pvt, a subsidiary of Henan D.R. Construction Group Co.

The Chinese enterprises pressed Imran for over the board preferential policies such as some form of preferential tax treatment and land policies from the Pakistani government to support R&D and high-tech production. 

These demands are sensitive for Imran which has been accused of compromising on sovereignty issues in favour of Chinese-funded firms in the local industrial park that include land purchases and natural gas and power supplies. There is a growing debate in Pakistan on debt traps related to CPEC projects. 

Chinese authorities have put security situation of Chinese projects under spotlight in all bilateral discussions in the wake of recent attacks targeting Chinese personnel. 

Even special protection units have failed to stop these attacks which stem from various factors such as dissatisfaction among locals due to exploitation of resources, little stake of local population in projects, low compensations for land procurement and lower local employment.

There are increasing cases of clashes among Chinese managers and local Pakistani labour as more and more Chinese labor have swamped CPEC projects in Pakistan leading to loss of employment at basic level.

The cracks in the corridor are wide open and Imran Khan appears to be falling in the ditches of these cracks.

Reports of internecine tribal warfare breaking out surfaced as the Taliban who captured power in Afghanistan last month struggled to form a new government in Kabul.

The exercise was stalled, reliable sources, due to differences over making the government ‘inclusive’ as announced earlier by the movement’s co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who was expected to head the government. But many factions within the movement are opposed to inclusion of ethnic minorities, especially when the Tajiks are putting up a tough fight in the northern Panjshir Valley, the only area not under the Taliban’s sway.


Several Taliban fighters were reported to have been killed and captured in the ongoing fight.

Any government-formation after a military victory is always problematic, analysts say. Having shown their single-minded zeal to capture power through violence, the Taliban have floundered at forming their first government fighting as differences over personalities, tribal loyalties and proximity to Pakistan, where most of them had spent long years, appeared to frustrate efforts at reconciliation.

There was speculation that they were likely being “micro-managed” by principal benefactor and neighbour Pakistan grew after the much-publicized visit to Kabul of Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, Director General, ISI, of the Pakistan Army. Such visits are kept under tight security and silence. But the publicity seemed in keeping with the current exultant mood of Islamabad at having achieved a ‘victory’ of sorts in helping the Taliban win.

Gen. Hamidz did not help the situation by telling the media that he was in Kabul “to meet the ambassador”, and then making him talk to journalists.

The ISI chief’s presence in Islamabad has given rise to speculation that Islamabad is pressuring the Taliban to make Sirajuddin Haqqani, the current chief of the dreaded Haqqani Network that is the ISI’s favourite. Not formally a part of the Taliban, the Network is aligned to it and Sirajuddin is the deputy commander of the military wing.

Sirajuddin individually and his Network are proscribed by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. While Islamabad is said to be pushing for him, the Taliban and their sympathizers are arguing that having such a person to head the government would shut out all prospects of the new government being recognised and any economic help that Afghanistan sorely needs.

Reports of differences becoming intense and even violent emerged from well-placed sources in Kabul and in diplomatic circles in Islamabad and Qatar, the latter emerging as the principal hub for much of the negotiation the Taliban have been involved in for the past many months.

Mullah Baradar has his adversaries within the movement, one of the points being his being imprisoned in Pakistan for eight years between 2011 and 2019.  Sources said this could work both says, either of them making him a suspect in the eyes of the rival factions.

Baradar was then ‘punished’ by the Pakistani establishment for seeking to talk to then President Hamid Karzai. The rivals have ensured that neither Karzai, nor Abdullah Abdullah, the chief negotiator in the Ashraf Ghani Government, would be in the new government. Both are in Kabul, supposedly under house arrest.

There is little doubt that the international community, including China, Russia and Iran, as of now favourably disposed to the Taliban, is extremely wary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he hoped the new Taliban government would be ‘civilised’.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, visiting Pakistan, was told by Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Saturday that Islamabad will "assist" the Taliban to form an inclusive administration in neighbouring Afghanistan. Such 'assistance' goes against the Western thinking of governance.

The new Iranian President Ibrahmi Riasi, surprising everyone, on Sunday (September 5) asked for fresh elections in Afghanistan. Iran’s reservations about the security of millions of Shia among the Hazaras in Afghanistan is well-known. The forces resisting the new Kabul regime include a large number of Shias.  

Well-placed sources say any marginalization of Mullah Baradar would be tantamount to insulting one of the two co-founders of the movement. This could also weaken the position of Mullah Yaqub, son of the other founder and suopremo, Mullah Omar.

Young Yaqub had been supervising the military operations. Hisans,  position is sought to be undermined by the Haqqanis who, besides being from rival Pushtun tribes, claim to have done much of the yet-to-be concluded fighting in the North and that they were the first to enter Kabul on August 15.

Although the government-formation has been pushed by a week, analysts say a combination of tribal rivalries and proximity to Pakistan could make the exercise problematic.

In a goof-up, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that India has a population of 1 billion 300 crores, landing him into the perfect position to be trolled online.

Khan in a video, which has now gone viral on social media, was trying to draw an analogy with the world and test cricket.

On being asked about why his nation's sporting situation is bad, Imran Khan cited New Zealand's example (for low population), beating India (with a larger population) in the World Test Championship final.

He said, "New Zealand with a population of 40-50 lakh defeated India with a population of 1 billion and 300 crores in the World Test Championship final."

India's population is 136 crores according to the 2019 census data.

Imran Khan's video was posted on Twitter. It soon caught the attention of netizens, who were quick to troll Khan.

"Imran Khan needs to check facts and have wisdom before he speaks to the world Audience about Indian Population etc. His head is filled with Anti-Indian hatred only. Grow up to be a Gentleman soon," said one of the users.

"I am sure Khan Saheb would also not know how many zeroes are there in billion," a Twitter user said.

"Geography, history and now maths have all proven to be the PM's worst subjects. Maybe he did well in chemistry?" said another user.

"This is the same guy who said Japan and Germany shared a border. He can....., say anything," another user tweeted.

This is not the first time Khan has made such a strange claim. In 2019, at a joint press conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, Khan said, "The more trade you have with each other, your ties automatically become stronger.

Germany and Japan killed millions of their civilians until after the Second World War they decided that...on the border, on the border region of Germany and Japan, to have joint industries."

Instead of talking about Germany and France, who are neighbours he kept harping on the 'border' and the 'border region' these two countries share.

Japan and Germany both were allies in the Second World War but they are located at the far ends of the globe. Japan is an Asian Country while Germany is located in the European continent.

Minister of State Home affairs Nityanand Rai on Wednesday informed Rajya Sabha that in Jammu and Kashmir a total of 630 terrorists were killed in 400 encounters and 85 security personnel martyred from May 2018 to June 2021.

Replying to Congress MP Digvijay Singh, Rai said that Jammu and Kashmir has been affected by terrorist violence that is sponsored and supported from across the border.

"In 400 encounters, 85 security personnel martyred and 630 terrorists were killed from May 2018 to June 2021," he said in a written reply.

Minister of State Home, Rai further said that the government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism and has taken various measures.

He listed these measures to include strengthening of security apparatus, strict enforcement of the law against anti-national elements, intensified cordon and search operations to effectively deal with the challenges posed by the terrorist organisations.

"Security Forces also keep a close watch on persons who attempt to provide support to terrorists and initiate action against them," Rai added.

The Border Roads Organisation, which functions under the Union ministry of defence, has constructed the highest motorable road in India, smashing the previous record held by Bolivia.

The road is at the height of 19,300 feet and it passes through Umlingla Pass in Eastern Ladakh. It is a black-topped, 52-kilometre road which connects many important towns in the Chumar sector of Eastern Ladakh, the ministry said in a statement.

As the ministry said, the altitude of this road is higher than the base camps of Mount Everest as the South Base Camp in Nepal is situated at an altitude of 17,598 ft, while the North Base Camp in Tibet is at 16,900 feet. This road is much above the altitude of Siachen Glacier which is at 17,700 ft.

The road offers an alternative direct route connecting Chisumle and Demchok from Leh and will be of great significance to promote tourism in Ladakh.

"Infrastructure development in such harsh and tough terrain is extremely challenging. During the winter, the temperature dips to -40 degrees and the oxygen level at this altitude is almost 50 per cent less than at normal places. The BRO has achieved the feat due to the grit and resilience of its personnel who work in treacherous terrain and extreme weather conditions," the defence ministry said in its statement.

The project was underway since 2017 and now, four days ago, the blacktopping has been done, marking the completion of the project. The road is at a very strategic point as the villages that will be connected by the road are very close to the India-China border in the eastern sector. This road was constructed under Project Himank.

Chief Whip of the Senate,  Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has appealed to members of the APC in Abia state to imbibe the spirit of love, tolerance and sacrifice and work for the party unity ahead of 2023

 Kalu issued the statement on Thursday while addressing critical party affairs in his capacity as the Party Leader and Chairman of the  APC Caucus, Abia state. 

He commended the members for the critical role they have continued to play in deepening APC in the state. 

According to him ,  "the efforts of the  members and party leadership is the reason the party is waxing stronger but we have to do more . Our determination to bring in a new government in Abia and save  the state from collapse and shame is why we must imbibe the spirit of love, tolerance and sacrifice and work for the party unity ahead of time. 

"The massive increase in our membership strength is very exciting and encouraging.  However , we should not allow the influx of new members to inflate our ego . We should expect moles in the party because there are people that came to destroy and not to build . We must not allow them to have their way and that can be done by our collective efforts and unity". He said 


Ahead of the  party's ward , local and state Congress , Kalu urged members to desist from spreading falsehoods and using propaganda to pitch members against each other.  

He noted  that the  rumour mongers are mainly those hobnobbing with the PDP

and sowing discord in the party . He stressed that the party must put it's house together to defeat the ruling PDP in the state. 

The Chief  Whip also revealed that he has no personal candidate for any position adding that  democratic approach is what will strengthen the party after the Congress. 

He said,  "My candidate is the candidate everyone has chosen.  I do not have a personal candidate.  I want every member to understand the importance of strict democratic approach in the Congress. We can't have two ward chairmen or secretaries but one. We wish everybody  well in their endeavors to lead our party in different capacities starting from the ward level  to the state level" the former Governor said.

The Chinese leader Xi Jiang wants his country to be ‘loved’ universally; he thinks it is possible with soft diplomacy. Clearly, he subscribes to the view that the China story presented in a ‘positive’ way will help “expand the circle of friends”.

For this, China has to be ‘open and confident but also modest and humble’ in its communications with the outside world, as President Xi himself told the Communist apparatchiks. Both he and his egg-heads cannot overlook the reality thatChina’s image is inextricably linked to the treatment of its own Muslim minorities in Uighur province and the Buddhists in Tibet, besides its handling of the pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong.

Xi’s concern is no more than an admission that China has indeed an image problem globally. This is a surprise flowing from the mouth of the leader of the one-party state, who is known to be assertive, authoritative, and above all ruthless.

China’s circle of friends is narrow; no major world power other than Russia is ready to stand with it. It has no friend other than Pakistan in its immediate neighbourhood.

Yet, betting on China giving up its belligerent, expansionist polices is as hazardous as playing with the nuclear button.  Not very long ago, President Xi had given a call for Chinese domination of the world, overtaking the US role, economically and militarily.

Chinese diplomats will have a big role in President Xi Mission to refurbish the country’s unfriendly image.

Diplomats of China—and Pakistan-- have acquired infamy for using undiplomatic language.

The Pakistani diplomats’ vitriol, however, is directed usually at India and sometimes the US. But the Chinese diplomats do not hesitate to bad mouth all countries that question Beijing’s policies. It is not for nothing that they have earned the sobriquet of Wolf Warriors!

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian also falls in the same category, according to the Washington Post. He had perfected his art during a stint in Islamabad.  Many in China’s Foreign Ministry are aping Zhao’s undiplomatic style of diplomacy. An average of 10 percent of Foreign Ministry speeches were “combative and hostile” before 2012. That increased to more than a quarter in 2019 and 2020, says a recent survey.

Put simply, the conventional diplomatisque - delivering even hard messages couched in subdued tonesis alien to Bamboo capitalist’s diplomats.    

China’s image has taken a severe beating in recent times; it coincided with its deteriorating relations with the US.  The outbreak of coronavirus a year ago made it worse. The increasing perception is that the deadly virus came from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan.

Any first Chinese step at image makeover must begin from Wuhan with a transparent probe. It will mark the march towards a ‘credible, loveable and respectable’ country, President Xi wants China to become. 

China’s image problems are as much due to its neighbourhood policy, which has created enemies, asdue to its wallet diplomacy, which has trapped several countries including iron friend Pakistan in debt.  Roll back of these policies will bail the Dragon from President Xi predicament.  Neither is anywhere on the horizon with the Chinese scrip drowned in debt at home.

For the present, this much can be said: “Don’t Laugh: China Wants to be ‘Loved’ Universally”.

The military-backed government of Prime Minister Imran khan is bringing a law to establish an omnibus body to monitor all media platforms in Pakistan, including and digital platforms, television and cinema, triggering protests that are slowly gathering momentum across the country.

Media bodies of journalists and workers have been joined by lawyers’ bodies and human rights watchdogs, to oppose the proposed Pakistan Media Development Authority Ordinance that will, in effect, formal institutional framework to the government curb media freedom that is already under attack.   

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) have rejected the proposed Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA) Ordinance, 2021.

“The proposed law is draconian in scope and devastating in its impact on the constitutional principles and guarantees for freedom of expression, media freedoms, and the right to information as well as the profession of journalism,” they said in a joint statement on May 29.

The PFUJ is an umbrella organisation of all journalist unions, the HRCP is apex human rights organisation and PBC is the representative body of lawyers in the country.

The development comes amidst several incidents of threats and coercion of journalists, some of whom have been abducted and detained for questioning and others have suffered physical attacks by “unknown persons” -- the local term in Urdu is “namaloom afraad”, widely believed to be from various intelligence outfits.  Many have lost lives and little is one, while the government expresses shock and set up inquiry. The sleuths who attack and their organisations remain unnamed.

All the while, the political leadership of the day claims “complete media freedom.” Khan said that at a meeting in London and his words were repeated last week by his Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary.    

Shooting the messenger has been attempted with varying outcome by successive regimes in Pakistan, the Martial Law administrations in particular, at least since the Ayub Khan era requiring generations of media personnel to fight back, again with varying results.

But each of these struggles have caused miseries to individuals and families of mostly middle class who are poorly paid, save the few marquee names. Each attempt has added to political uncertainty, even instability and at least in one case, of General Pervez Musharraf, has contributed majorly to his ouster from power.

Dawn newspaper (May 30, 2021) called the proposed law “a declaration of war against journalists. It will, if enacted, erase all critical voices from print, electronic and digital platforms through a system of coercive censorship that will allow only a pliant media to survive. In other words, this naked attempt to control the narrative will eviscerate the very rationale for the fourth estate, which is to act as a check on excesses of power and function as a watchdog for the public interest.”

In the most recent cases, “unidentified persons” attacked journalist Asad Ali Tur in front of his house and the police did not act even though CCTV footage of the attack was available.

This triggered a protest meeting at which well-known TV presenter Hamid Mir spoke vehemently. The net thing that happened was the he was taken off air from his five days-a-week talk show on Geo TV. The management defended its action alleging that it had acted after Mir had made an objectionable speech.   

Writing in The Guardian London, Mir recalled that during his earlier protests a decade ago, he was supported by Mr Imran Khan who promised “complete freedom” if he came to power.

Mir wrote: “Now I have been taken off the air once again, but this time Khan is the prime minister. The ban came immediately after I spoke out at a protest for press freedom in Islamabad. Journalists, lawyers and civil society activists were there to show our solidarity with Asad Ali Toor, a journalist who was attacked last week inside his own home. Three men came in, tied him up, and beat him severely. The attackers, Toor said, identified themselves as being from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency.”

The attack on Toor was the latest in a long series of assaults on journalists in the Pakistani capital. In April, my former colleague Absar Alam was shot while walking in a park. In July 2020, Matiullah Jan was abducted for several hours. The government claims that Islamabad is the safest city in the country, but as the media watchdog Freedom Network Pakistan recently reported, it has become the most dangerous city for the country’s journalists.

 Mir further said: “The pattern is depressingly predictable. It is always critical and independent-minded journalists who are targeted. The attacks come after a series of threats. After the attack, the victim is accused of faking the incident to seek publicity or political asylum. Despite the evidence, the attackers are never caught. Instead, the victims are called traitors and even made to face new charges.”

The Khan Government last year faced serious political protests by opposition parties under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), till the combine fell out earlier this year. One of the issues that caused the differences was over explicit naming of the all-powerful military, even the Army chief. Ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had done that from his London exile addressing large rallies via the video.

Huna Yusuf, writing in Dawn (May 30, 2021) indicates that journalists could adopt a similar approach. “But we are at a tipping point. Senior journalists at protests last week indicated that it’s time to name the ‘known unknowns’ who harass and attack journalists. Let the press do what it does best, and hold them accountable.”

Pakistan ranks 145 out of 180 countries on media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

 

“The Pakistani media, which have a long tradition of being very lively, have become a priority target for the country’s ‘deep state’, a euphemism for the military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the main military intelligence agency, and the significant degree of control they exercise over the civilian executive,” says RSF of press freedom in Pakistan.

Unless the government retracts the move, which seems unlikely, the protests could gather momentum and pose a serious problem for the government that is already bustling a distressed economy and a rampaging Covid-19 pandemic.

Former Governor of Abia State and Chief Whip of the Senate, Dr. Orji Kalu has commiserated with members of The Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) over the passing of the Founder of the ministry, Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua.

Lamenting the demise of the renowned preacher and evangelist, he stressed that Pastor Joshua was popular beyond the shores of Nigeria, adding that the deceased will be greatly missed by his followers.

In his condolence message, the Senator prayed for eternal rest for the deceased, adding that, "I mourn the demise of Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua, Founder of The Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

"His death is shocking and painful.

"He was committed to spreading the gospel of God through his religious and philanthropic platforms.

"Pastor Joshua was simple, kind-hearted, generous and easy going.

"He played a key role in human capital development through philanthropy and counselling.

"His demise has no doubt, left a big vacuum in the Synagogue.

"However, the congregation should take solace in the fact that the late clergyman contributed immensely to the growth of the Synagogue church and the larger community by touching lives positively.

"The late Pastor Joshua will be remembered as a notable spiritual leader with passion for empowering the poor and vulnerable in the society."

While praying for the repose of the soul of the deceased, Kalu extended his condolences to the people and government of Ondo state over the sad loss.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is expected to restudy the "dominant theory" that the SARS-CoV-2 probably originated and spread across the world from China's Wuhan lab, according to reports.

According to CNN, previously overlooked Chinese data on extensive screening of animals for coronavirus around the time the pandemic erupted is among several areas identified for further study by WHO scientists investigating the origins of the virus, as per a source.

The records are contained in a nearly 200-page annexe posted alongside the WHO panel's March report that received little attention among global experts at the time.

"But the data may add weight to calls from China's critics for more transparency and to the WHO team's desire to return to the country for further studies," it said.

However, no date has been set for the team's return to China, but the source said any future visit to the country -- where the virus emerged in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, in late 2019 -- may involve "smaller groups supporting specific studies first." A larger group, similar to the 17 international experts that visited in January, might then follow up, the source added.

The WHO report's annex contains multiple data points providing an intriguing insight into China's evolving knowledge of the virus and the likely timing of its emergence.

It provides details of China's storage and destruction of positive Covid-19 samples from humans; a significant influenza outbreak that emerged in December 2019, at the same time as the virus; and the revelation that the first people known to have contracted the virus had contact with a total of 28 separate food and animal markets in December.

The WHO team investigating the origins of coronavirus visited the Hubei Center for animal disease control and prevention in Wuhan, on February 2, 2021, as per CNN.

Meanwhile, the former head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that circumstantial evidence of Covid-19 originating in a lab in China's Wuhan continues to grow as researchers are yet to prove that the virus jumped from an animal to humans, as per a report in The Hill newspaper.