Politics

Bloomberg China is instituting a mass labour system in Tibet similar to the one in neighboring Xinjiang, the Jamestown Foundation said, despite intensifying global scrutiny of Beijing’s policies toward ethnic minorities. Tibet has since last year introduced policies promoting “the systematic, centralised, and large-scale training and transfer of ‘rural surplus labourers’” to other parts of Tibet and other regions, the ...

Bloomberg China is ratcheting up the risk of military confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing seeks to deter Taipei from continuing to deepen ties with the US and other like-minded democracies. People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft repeatedly breached the median line between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland last week, in the latest of a series of military exercises in ...

Bloomberg The Philippines’ top diplomat said the country would not follow China’s stance of keeping Western powers — including the US — out of the disputed South China Sea. The South China Sea Code of Conduct that Southeast Asian nations are crafting with Beijing won’t lead to western countries’ exclusion from the waters, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on ...

Bloomberg Mali’s transition committee appointed retired army Colonel Bah N’Daw as the nation’s interim leader, a month after seizing power in a military coup. Junta leader Assimi Goita will assume the role of vice president, the National Committee for the Salvation of the People said in a statement on its Facebook page on Monday. N’Daw, a former defense minister, will ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s plans to name a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this week offer Joe Biden the chance to galvanise newly energized Democrats, while providing the president a fresh battle in a culture war he’s waged for four years. Early reaction to Ginsburg’s death suggests Biden stands to gain more politically from the sudden vacancy, as ...

Bloomberg Thai authorities removed a plaque proclaiming Thailand “belongs to the people, not the monarchy” a day after protesters installed it during a rally that drew tens of thousands of people seeking greater democracy. The Fine Arts Department and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration removed the plaque, and the cultural heritage agency also filed a complaint against the protesters for breaking ...

Bloomberg Myanmar locked down most of Yangon province, home to its largest city, for two weeks to contain a record surge in coronavirus infections ahead of the general elections scheduled for November. The strict stay-at-home order from Monday bars more than one member of a family venturing out for shopping and curbs travel from Yangon township to other cities except ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s anti-government protesters, emboldened by their biggest demonstration since the 2014 military coup on September 19, called for a general strike next month as the movement challenges long-held taboos including questioning the monarchy’s powers. Organisers of the rally handed a list of demands to a representative of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s Privy Council on Sunday, and installed a plaque on ...

Bloomberg Hundreds of people rallied in the Belarus capital, challenging the authorities’ increasing threats against protesters with children, while police detained more than 200 women at a weekly march against President Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year rule. A crowd gathered outside a shelter for endangered children, demanding a first-grader be reunited with his mother, Alena Lazarchyk. He was taken there when she ...

Bloomberg Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s (RBG) death has pulled the US Supreme Court deep into the nation’s bitter political wars, threatening lasting damage to the reputation of a governmental branch that has struggled to remain above the partisan fray. President Donald Trump and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell are vowing to fill the seat despite the impending election. Outraged Democrats ...