Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines has demanded that China withdraw its ships and fishing vessels from the vicinity of a Philippine-occupied island in the South China Sea, where the Chinese military has asserted its sovereignty and vowed to “unswervingly safeguard” the disputed territory.

The exchange of protests by the Asian neighbors over the island, internationally called Thitu, is the latest flareup in a long simmering territorial feud in the strategic waterway that has escalated in the last two months.

BEIJING (AP) — The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou shut down a neighborhood and ordered its residents to stay home Saturday for door-to-door coronavirus testing following an upsurge in infections that has rattled authorities.

Guangzhou, a business and industrial center of 15 million people north of Hong Hong, has reported 20 new infections over the past week. The number is small compared with India’s thousands of daily cases but alarmed Chinese authorities who believed they had the disease under control.

BEIJING, May 28 (APP): President and Vice Chairman of China Export and Credit Insurance Corp (SINOSURE), Cai Xiliang said on Friday that trade and investment ties between Pakistan and China had grown rapidly with the advent of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which had ushered a new era of development, prosperity and regional connectivity as the flagship of President Xi Jinping’s visionary Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

28 May 2021; MEMO: The Philippines has suspended the deployment of workers to Saudi Arabia after it received reports that their employers and recruiters were making them pay for COVID-19 testing, quarantine and insurance upon arrival in the kingdom, Reuters reports.

Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello said in a 27 May order that his department will issue an official statement on resumption of deployment "after this matter has been clarified accordingly".

(Reuters) --- China's trial of Australian blogger Yang Hengjun on unspecified espionage charges has ended and the Beijing court deferred its verdict, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Friday in what she called a "closed and opaque process".

Yang wore goggles, a face mask and full pandemic suit that obscured his expression as he addressed the court hearing on Thursday, his friends have told Reuters.

He wrote pages of defence material that was presented to the court, and also briefly spoke, Reuters was told.

BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes arms sales to Taiwan by any country and military ties with the island in any form, in light of the fact that the Taiwan question is China's internal affair, a military spokesperson said on Thursday.

Tan Kefei, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a plan of the U.S. Department of Defense to sell weapons to Taiwan, which he said "sent very wrong signals" to separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence."

BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday urged the United States to immediately work with the World Health Organization (WHO) on COVID-19 origin tracing in a science-based way like China did.

Since the United States has repeatedly asked China to be part of a comprehensive, transparent and evidence-based international investigation, the United States should likewise fully respond to the concerns of the international community, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan extended a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas for 20 more days on Friday, with infections still not slowing as it prepares to host the Olympics in just over 50 days.

Cases remain high and medical systems in Osaka, the hardest-hit area in western Japan, are still overburdened, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in announcing the decision.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong media tycoon and outspoken pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was sentenced to more jail time Friday over his role in an anti-government protest in 2019, as authorities step up a crackdown on dissent in the city.

Lai and nine others were charged with incitement to take part in an unauthorized assembly when they walked down a road with thousands of residents on Oct. 1, 2019, to protest against dwindling political freedoms in Hong Kong. All 10 pleaded guilty to organizing an unauthorized assembly.

BEIJING, May 27 (APP): China has always attached great importance to Pakistan’s demand for vaccines to help fight Covid-19 pandemic and carried out close cooperation with that country, Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Thursday.

“Chinese vaccines manufacturers have cooperated with Pakistan in the development and production of vaccines from very beginning and will continue to export vaccines to Pakistan,” he said in a statement issued here.