ASIA SUMMARY
August 16, 2023
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Pakistan, Taiwan, Turkmenistan
From FRIDAY to TUESDAY
- JAPAN (bad weather; transport). On Tuesday August 15, typhoon Lan made landfall in Wakayama prefecture (400 km southwest of Tokyo), bringing heavy rain and strong winds to central and western Japan. Several hundred flights were cancelled, and a quarter of a million people were ordered to seek shelter.
- PAKISTAN (terrorism). On August 13, insurgents from the Balochistan Liberation Army attacked a convoy carrying Chinese engineers working in the port of Gwadar (Balochistan); security forces repelled the attack (1 militant killed).
- CHINA (bad weather). On Friday 12 August, a mudslide in the city of Xi'an (Shaanxi province) following heavy rainfall left around twenty people dead or missing and caused significant material damage (infrastructure).
- INDIA (bad weather). On Sunday August 14, the authorities announced that some sixty people had lost their lives in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand States in devastating floods and landslides.
- CHINA / TAIWAN (diplomacy). On Aug. 13, Beijing condemned the "visit" to the USA of Taiwanese vice-president W. Lai (DPP candidate for the presidency in Jan. 2024), who was in New York for a transit stopover on his way to Paraguay.
- SOUTH KOREA (defense). On Monday August 14, Seoul and Washington announced details of their joint Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2023 summer military drills (August 21 to 31), much to the displeasure of Pyongyang (North Korea), which sees them as a "rehearsal for a nuclear conflict".
- NEW-ZEALAND (health; entry conditions). On Tuesday August 15, the New Zealand health authorities lifted the last remaining restrictions linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
TO BE MONITORED (in the next few days)
- SOUTH KOREA (security). On the morning of Wednesday August 16, a series of bomb threats (via e-mails suggesting that bombs had been planted) targeted various public buildings, including the city hall of Busan and Daegu, the Seoul National University, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office (Seoul), etc. No serious incidents have been reported to date.
- TURKMENISTAN (natural hazard). On Wednesday August 16, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake occurred some 30 km northeast of the coastal town of Turkmenbachy. So far, no casualties or major damage have been reported.
- BANGLADESH (public order). From August 16 to 19, the opposition party (BNP) will mobilize its supporters nationwide to demand the government's resignation and the release of the BNP chairwoman (and former Prime Minister) K. Zia.
- FIJI (security). Since Tuesday August 15, heightened security measures have been in place in the capital Suva (deployment of police forces; more checkpoints erected) in response to the worrying increase in criminal activity.
- JAPAN (heatwave). Scorching temperatures have been recorded over the past few days (39°C on Monday 14th in Niigata prefecture), and the authorities expect the heatwave to continue along the Sea of Japan coast until August 21.
- AFGHANISTAN (terrorism). On Tuesday August 15, in the town of Taloqan (Takhar province), as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan celebrates its 2nd anniversary, a bomb attack (not claimed) targeted a convoy of Taliban forces.
- INDONESIA (health; transport). Due to the high level of air pollution in Jakarta, the government announced on Monday August 14 that it would be forcing drivers to submit their vehicles to C02 emissions tests over the next few days.
OUTLOOK & RECOMMENDATIONS
- Natural hazards: individuals present in East Asia (JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA, CHINA), Southeast Asia, South Asia (INDIA, PAKISTAN) and Central Asia (TURKMENISTAN) will be paying close attention over the next few days to local bad weather (typhoon; rainfall; heatwave) and local natural hazards (floods; landslides; aftershocks of earthquakes) that could affect health, safety and travel, and will comply with instructions from local authorities.
- Public order: as public gatherings may affect travel and security in the coming days, or even degenerate into confrontations (with law enforcement agencies), people present in INDIA, INDONESIA, MALAYSIA, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, SOUTH KOREA or BANGLADESH will stay away from these mobilizations.
- With the security threat (terrorism, civil war, kidnapping) remaining at its highest, and Western governments suggesting to their citizens that they should not travel to these countries except for imperative reasons, travel to AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, BURMA, NORTH KOREA and PAPUA-NG remains inadvisable.
- Health: Those in Jakarta are advised to take note of the high level of air pollution, those in Dhaka of the ongoing dengue epidemic.
- In view of the volatile relations between Beijing and Taipei, in the South China Sea (Beijing/Manila) and the recurrent defiance of the North Korean regime, we cannot rule out the occurrence of events over the next few days that could have consequences for regional stability and the smooth running/relevance of travel in the Indo-Pacific region.
