ASIA SUMMARY
August 21, 2023
Australia, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
WEEK-END
- BURMA (civil war). 25 junta soldiers were killed at the end of last week in fighting with the armed resistance in the Sagaing, Magwe and Tanintharyi regions and in the Kachin, Mon and Karen States.
- PAKISTAN (terrorism). On Saturday Aug. 19, in North Waziristan agency, near the border with Afghanistan, a dozen workers on an army construction site were killed in a bomb explosion.
- PAKISTAN (politics). On Saturday Aug. 19, the vice-president of former Prime Minister Khan's party (PTI) was arrested in Islamabad shortly after a press conference at which he criticized the authorities for delaying the elections.
- JAPAN (environment). On Sunday Aug. 20, Prime Minister F. Kishida declared that the government had not yet decided when to begin discharging treated water (1.3 million tons) from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. The operation could begin as early as this month, despite the reluctance from China and S. Korea.
- TAIWAN (defense). On Sunday Aug. 20, over the past 24 hours, Taipei had recorded the presence in Taiwanese airspace of 25 Chinese aircraft (Su-30 and J-11 fighters) taking part in air drills which began the previous day.
- CHINA (natural hazard). On Saturday Aug. 19, a magnitude 5 earthquake occurred in eastern Tibet (epicenter 85 km north-north-east of Nyingchi). Slight tremors were felt in eastern Tibet and southern Qinghai province.
- NORTH KOREA (defense). On Friday, Aug. 18, while US, Japanese and South Korean leaders were meeting at Camp David (Maryland), Pyongyang deplored the overflight of its EEZ by a US surveillance aircraft earlier in the week.
TO BE MONITORED (in the next few days)
- SOUTH KOREA(defense). On Monday Aug. 21, South Korea and the United States began their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) joint military exercise, which will run until Aug. 31.
- AUSTRALIA (public order). On Wednesday Aug. 23, in Brisbane, demonstrators will march towards Parliament House to ask the state government to explain the rise in crime.
- VIETNAM (heatwave). A heat wave (35-36°Celsius) will continue in some central/southern provinces (Quang Binh; Phu Yen) at least until Thursday Aug. 24.
- INDIA (public order). On Monday Aug. 21, in Ballari (Karnataka State), farmers demonstrate in front of the Karnataka Gramin Bank (KGB) headquarters to protest its high interest rates on agricultural loans.
- CAMBODIA (politics). On Monday Aug. 21, in Phnom Penh, the new parliament resulting from the July elections convened, paving the way for the official handover of power from Prime Minister Hun Sen to his eldest son Hun Manet.
- THAILAND (politics; public order). After some fifteen years in exile, populist former Prime Minister T. Shinawatra could return to the country tomorrow, Tuesday Aug. 22, at Bangkok's Don Muang airport, on the day when a parliamentary vote could appoint someone from his political party (Pheu Thai) to the post of future Prime Minister.
- CHINA (economy). On Monday Aug. 21, on the Beijing and Hong Kong stock exchanges, Chinese equities hit their lowest level for 9 months; investors, concerned by an unprecedented debt crisis in the real estate sector, are questioning Beijing's ability to revive a sluggish economy.
OUTLOOK & RECOMMENDATIONS
- Natural hazards: individuals present in East Asia (JAPAN, CHINA), Southeast Asia (VIETNAM) and South Asia will be alert to various local bad weather conditions (rainfall; flooding; heatwave), natural hazards (cf. earthquakes) that may impact safety and travel and will comply with instructions from local authorities.
- Public order: as public gatherings over the next few days could impact travel or even degenerate into confrontations (with security forces), people present in INDIA, CHINA, THAILAND, PAKISTAN, SOUTH KOREA or CAMBODIA will stay away from these demonstrations and other mobilizations.
- With the security threat (terrorism, civil war, kidnapping) remaining at its highest, and Western governments suggesting that their citizens refrain from traveling to these countries except for imperative reasons, travel to AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH, BURMA, NORTH KOREA and PAPUA-NG remains inadvisable.
- Finally, in view of the delicate relations between Beijing and Taipei, in the South China Sea (Beijing/Manila) and the defiance of the North Korean regime, we cannot rule out the occurrence of events in the Indo-Pacific over the next few days that could have consequences for regional stability and the smooth running/relevance of travel.
Author(s)
