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Asia in Review

No. 12, March/2020, 4

Brought to you by CPG

Dear Readers, 

Greetings on behalf of the CPG’s AiR team! In strange and difficult times, we all hope to provide you with some intellectual food and convey our best wishes for you and your loved ones. 

If you like, please let us know about your impression of our AiR, explore opportunities to contribute yourself, or tell us about your ideas of how to improve the format. 

We hope you stay resilient and will provide you with the next AiR on Tuesday next week!

Henning Glaser

Director, German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG)

Webpage: www.cpg-online.de, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPGTU

Main Sections

• Law and Politics in East Asia

• Law and Politics in South Asia

• Law and Politics in South East Asia

• International Relations, Geopolitics and Security in Asia

• Background Reading

Law and Politics in East Asia 

Chinese military’s leading role in fighting Covid-19

(dql) China last week started the first phase of a clinical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine, with 108 residents of Wuhan, aged between 18 and 60, to be tested in different groups and given different dosages until the end of the year. The Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) of the People’s Liberation Army was involved in the development of the vaccine, together with the Institute for Biotechnology and Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics Inc. [Asia Times]

In the efforts to control the coronavirus China’s military has been playing a crucial role since the highest level of medical emergency was declared in Hubei, the province in which the virus broke out, at the end of January. Since then, China’s Central Military Commission has gradually dispatched over 10,000 personnel into the area while giving the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) more power than local governments to oversee medical supplies, a sign of centralizing power to contain the crisis. [South China Morning Post] 

Due to the AMMS established in 1951 during the Korean War with its core mission to research nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, the PLA is also home to a high number of experienced epidemiologists and virologists leading China’s efforts to control Covid-19. [Business Insider] 

More religious freedom violations in China amid Covid-19 feared

(dql) The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in its latest report voices concerns of human rights advocates that the Chinese handling of Covid-19 aggravates ongoing infringements on religious freedom. With respect to Xinjiang and the situation of Uighurs and Muslims the report warns that the “combination of limited access to medical resources and large concentrations of elderly detainees could lead to a humanitarian disaster if the virus reaches any of those camps.”  [USCIRF]

For a critical account of latest developments in surveillance measures within the frame of the Chinese fight against Covid-19, including the assignment of “color code” ratings to each individual to express their level of contagion risk, see [CPO Magazine].

South Korea: Internal party tensions ahead of the general election

(dql/ef) Three weeks ahead of the legislative election in South Korea, the ‘proxy’ parties of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) [AiR No. 11, March/2020, 3] have approved their respective lists of candidates for the proportional representation vote. [Korea Herald]

In course of preparing these lists, both the DP and the UFP were confronted with internal disputes over the filling of the candidate list. While DP members expressed opposition to the pledge that DP’s proxy party Civil Together will reserve the first 10 spots on the list for minor party members and put the members of the DP lower down, UF’s satellite party Future Korea Party (FKP) saw a feud over who should be put on the top of the list as well as over the problem that only one person that the UFP had recruited from outside was included in a list. [Korea Times] [Yonhap]

South Korea’s ruling party announces ambitious climate policy manifesto

(ef) South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party announced a climate manifesto expressing its ambition to make the country adopt to a Green New Deal to achieve a zero-carbon society by 2050. The policies outlined in the manifesto include a carbon tax, a phase-out of domestic and overseas coal project financing, and large-scale investment in renewable energy.[Greenpeace] [Eco-Business]

South Korea: Churches facing legal action for violating Covid-19 rules

(dql) South Korea’s government has announced to take legal action against some Protestant churches for breaking guidelines on keeping distance and temperature checking during services. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun referred to an “emergency situation that amounts to a quasi-wartime situation. People should not regard the government's administrative orders as a bluff." 

The move comes after the government claims that social distancing has shown positive results with the lowest daily figure of new COVID-19 or novel coronavirus infection on Monday since the outbreak. [Yonhap] [Inquirer]

Law and Politics in South Asia 

India: Execution of four in 2012 bus gang rape case

(jk) Last week, India executed four prisoners convicted for the rape and murder of a woman on a bus in New Delhi in 2012. The case, in which six men were convicted - one has since died and another who was a minor at the time has been released - led to huge public protests across India and highlighted the high rates of violence against women in the country. As a response, India passed new laws against sexual violence, including the death penalty for rape under certain circumstances. [India Today]

The executions, carried out by hanging, were among the few cases of the death penalty in India that were executed in recent memory despite a legislative increase in capital punishment. The most recent execution before this one took place in 2015. 

India: Former Chief Justice accepts seat in Parliament 

(jk) A former Indian Chief Justice has accepted an offer of a seat in the country's Parliament under an arrangement that allows for MPs to be selected by the government as a specialist rather than elected.  [The Print]

The move has raised eyebrows not just with other former judges, who have for instance commented that the appointment destroys the idea of an impartial judicative separate from the executive power. It does not help that the former judge, who retired four months ago, has raised suspicions that he was making decisions supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party government which has now appointed him. [The Straits Times]

Indian ruling party MP demands to scrap “socialism’ from constitution 

(hg) An Upper House member of India’s Parliament for the governing Bharatiya Janata Party introduced a resolution urging the government to bring an amendment to drop the reference to “socialism” from the Preamble to the Constitution. [Hindustan Times]

The term ‘socialism’ was inserted in the Constitution only by the 42nd constitutional amendment act in 1976 during the Indira Gandhi-imposed Emergency, - one of the most important amendments in Indian constitutional history that also introduced the term ‘secularism’ in the preamble. Indian constitutional politics and development policies have been, however, shaped by notions of democratic socialism since independence. 

It will be interesting now to see if the debate about the constitutional reference to socialism will turn out to be a flash in the pan or develop into a more fundamental discourse. After all, the push to drop ‘socialism’ comes in a time in which not only ‘secularism’ is already fiercely debated but in which a generally weak Indian economy finds itself now ahead of a looming global economic crisis. Whether this will heat up the debate remains to be seen.

Nepal: Parliament to discuss legalization of Marijuana 

(jk) After filing a motion in parliament earlier this year calling for legalization of cannabis and a lawmaker proposing a bill earlier this month to legalize marijuana in Nepal, senior members of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (NCP) are stressing the potential economic benefits to the country from re-legalizing. The legislation that is currently under review in parliament, calls for scrapping the 1976 Narcotics Drugs Control Act and with that, allow production, sale, and consumption of cannabis. [Newsd] [Nikkei Asian Review]

Sri Lanka: Nominations close, polls postponed 

(jk) As widely expected in the last couple of weeks, Sri Lanka has now indefinitely postponed parliamentary elections that were scheduled for April 25 due to the spread of the coronavirus. Nominations for the parliamentary elections were closed just before the announcement by the election commission. [Groundviews]

Law and Politics in Southeast Asia 

Indonesia: Jakarta declares corona emergency

(ls) The governor of Jakarta has declared a state of emergency for the next two weeks in the Indonesian capital. The measures include closing cinemas and other public entertainment venues as well as urging people to work from home. Aside from Jakarta, the East Java region has also declared an emergency. The Indonesian measures fall short of tougher lockdowns imposed by fellow Southeast Asian countries. [Channel News Asia]

Malaysia: Army enforces country-wide corona travel ban

(ls) The Malaysian government has deployed the army to enforce two-week travel restrictions in the country. Troops joined police guarding roadblocks and carrying out patrols. The number of Covid-19 cases has risen sharply across Southeast Asia this month. [Reuters]

Philippines: Wide-reaching powers for President Duterte to fight Covid-19 outbreak

(ls) The upper and lower houses of the Philippines’ parliament have granted President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers to combat the coronavirus crisis. He was supposed to sign the fast-tracked law on Tuesday. The law will free up 275 billion pesos (US$5.3 billion) of this year’s national budget to be used for million low-income households, for testing and processing, personal protective equipment and to construct or lease temporary hospitals and housing. It authorizes Duterte to “direct the operation” of privately-owned hospitals, medical and health facilities, other establishments for specified purposes. A more sweeping section that would have given him powers to take over private firms such as public utilities and private banks was not included in the final version. The law will remain in effect for at least three months or until the state of calamity in the entire country is lifted. [South China Morning Post] [CNN Philippines]

Thailand: Government announces emergency starting on Thursday

(ls) The Thai government will declare an emergency and introduce new measures to combat the coronavirus disease on this week’s Thursday. However, the exact measures have not yet been clarified. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said in a TV announcement that new requirements to control the disease would be enforced. [Bangkok Post]

Thailand: Former Future Forward leaders form movement

(ls) After the dissolution of the Future Forward Party in February, the former party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and the party’s former Secretary-General Piyabutr Saengkanokkul have formally introduced the “Progressive Movement”, a citizen movement, and vowed to continue the pursuit of their political goals outside of parliament. Former Future Forward MPs have joined a new party, the Move Forward Party, earlier this month. [Bangkok Post]

Cambodia: Court affirms conviction of former CNRP member

(ls) A Cambodian appeals court has upheld an 18-month jail sentence for a member of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party for “insulting” posts he made on Facebook in early 2019 criticizing government policies. In more recent developments, authorities are reported to have arrested several people for posting COVID-19 related concerns on Facebook. [RFA]

International Relations, Geopolitics and Security in Asia

China-USA relations: War of words over coronavirus origin continues

(dql) Beijing and Washington continue to engage in a competition over the control of the narrative on the coronavirus origin. 

Following claims of the deputy spokesman of China’s Foreign Ministry according to which the virus might have been brought to China by US soldiers during their participation in the 2019 Military Games, held in October in Wuhan [No. 11, March/2020, 3], US President Trump dismissed these claims by saying: “China tried to say at one point … that it was caused by American soldiers. That can’t happen. It’s not going to happen, not as long as I am president. It comes from China.” At the same time, he blamed China for delayed communication with the US. He also continued to use the ‘Chinese virus’ to refer to the virus defying criticism that the term would spur racism. Rejecting this accusation, he insisted that the term was used by him to identify the place of origin. [CNBC 1] 

Beijing hit back and accused Washington of defaming the Chinese government, shifting responsibility and finding a scapegoat, and denounced claims that the virus originated in Wuhan as "immoral and irresponsible." [CNN]

In a latest development of the narrative spat, a remark of a leading Italian medical expert about people remembering a ‘strange pneumonia” in northern Italy back in December and November is circulating in Chinese media and taken as another ‘proof’ that the coronavirus did not originated in China and that opposing claims from the USA are part of the politicization of a scientific problem aimed to attack China. [Peking Gazette, Sina, in Chinese]

In the same way, the opaque ‘Event 201’ in New York on October 18, 2019, a multi-facetted rehearsal for a global pandemic caused by a deadly virus, sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the CIA, Bloomberg, John Hopkins Foundation and the UN, fuels the narrative in China on the USA as origin of the coronavirus. [Asia Times]

In this situation, Chinese President Xi Jinping has reached out to Europe to call for a united front to combat the coronavirus. In phone calls with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders of Germany, Spain and Serbia, Xi urged to exchange more information, scientific research, and experience in combating the disease. [South China Morning Post]

Meanwhile, concerns in the USA are rising that Covid-19-caused disruption of supply chains will negatively impact US drug supplies given that Indian pharmaceutical companies supply 40-50% of all U.S. generic drugs while India itself imports nearly 70% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients from China. [CNBC 2]

China expels US journalists

(dql) Amid already strained Sino-US relations over mutual accusations in the context of the coronavirus, China last week announced to expel journalists from three US media outlets including New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. The decision, effective immediately, will require US nationals working for these media outlets to return their press accreditation within 10 days, if their credentials expire before the end of 2020. [CNN]

The move is widely seen as retaliation against earlier moves of the Trump administration to impose restrictions on the work of Chinese state-run media outlets in the US. [AiR No. 9, March/2020, 1] [AiR No. 8, February/2020, 4]

On the future of the ‘Quad’ 

(jk) The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has released a policy brief and survey on the future of the re-emerged quadrilateral security dialogue between the United States, India, Australia and Japan widely seen as a China-containment strategy. While being open to a role for the Quad in coordinating regional economic and development assistance strategic elites of the Quad nations were mixed about proposals for a standing military task force and Quad secretariat. Anyway, the CSIS brief suggests that the Quad has returned to new prominence and makes four concrete policy proposals to take it further. [CSIS] At current, senior foreign ministry officials from the Quad nations meet bi-monthly, the grouping convenes at the ministerial level and forms the basis for a tabletop exercise.

Upgrade for Chinese warplane coatings

(dql) Chinese military aircraft are set to be painted with “low observable” coatings and standardized markings under new guidelines to increase protection against detection. For analysts this move aims to assist Chinese warplanes with operations near Taiwan and in the East and South China seas. [South China Morning Post]

North Korea: Trump writes to Kim Jong-un as further missile testing is conducted

(ef) According to the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, President Trump sent a letter to the North Korean leadership offering cooperation in the anti-pandemic work. The letter is viewed as an attempt to rekindle friendly relations which have dwindled after the 2019 summit in Vietnam. The letter came a day after a report of the third testing of short-range projectiles in the month of March. [Washington Post, AiR No. 9, March/2020, 1] It has been put forth that those launches could be interpreted as a protest against continuing UN sanctions. [The Korea Herald] 

Taiwan: Large-scale military exercises

(dql) Taiwan's Armed Forces held large-scale military exercises throughout the country on Tuesday, involving eight F-16 fighter jets from Hualien Air Base conducting simulated long-range intercept missions above Taiwan. According to the Ministry of National Defense, the exercises were primarily held to test the military's combat readiness against an all-out Chinese aerial invasion. [Taiwan News]

Taiwan-USA relations: Trump presented TAIPEI ACT for signing into law

(dql) The U.S. Congress presented the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019 to President Donald Trump for signing into law after its unanimous passage in both chambers of Congress earlier this month. The Act authorizes the U.S. State Department to consider "reducing its economic, security and diplomatic engagements with nations that take serious or significant actions to undermine Taiwan" and call on the U.S. government to provide Taiwan with support to gain participation in international organizations, either as a member or an observer, and to express support for Taiwan's international participation whenever it has discussions with China. [Focus Taiwan]

Bangladesh: First deep-water port project largely financed by Japan approved by government

(jk) The government in Dhaka approved last week the construction of the country’s first deep sea port in Matarbari which is near Cox’s Bazar. The port will likely cost more than US$2 billion and is largely funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The port is likely to be completed by December 2026.[BDNews]

As transpired in January, the government has seemingly dropped the idea of developing a deep sea port with Chinese money in location close by and seems now to focus on the project negotiated with JICA. [Dhaka Tribune] The Chinese side, as reported in January,  responded with a number of MoUs signed with Myanmar, including the Kyaukphyu special economic zone (SEZ) and deep-sea port in Rakhine State providing alternative access to the Bay of Bengal. [Asia in Review, No. 3, January/2020, 3]

India and France conduct joint patrols from Reunion Island

(jk) India and France have conducted joint patrols from Reunion Island for the first time in the two navy's history last month. India, according to the source, shows here its intent to "engage with friendly foreign partners in expanding its footprint in the Indian Ocean, focusing on the stretch between the East African coastline and the Malacca straits." [The Hindu] 

Modi’s SAARC mobilization against Covid-19 bears fruits 

(hg) After India’s Prime Minister Modi came up with the initiative to create a Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund in the framework of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka - all SAARC member states but Pakistan - have pledged financial support to the fund. Even if the amounts announced by the respective governments are not breathtaking, the development has some symbolic value for Indian attempts to join China’s public diplomacy efforts in wake of the Covid-19 crisis. Modi’s plan had been discussed previously in a video conference of SAARC leaders on March 15. [Livemint]

Meanwhile, China, in turn announced its willingness to provide assistance to SAARC countries such as especially India [Hindustan Times] but also the Maldives to fight the pandemic. [Avas]

China, Japan and South Korea ready to cooperate on Covid-19 

(ef) Last week, the Foreign Ministers of China, Japan and South Korea discussed cooperation on the coronavirus pandemic with a focus laid on the question of infected people arriving in their countries from overseas. [Reuters]

36th ASEAN summit in Vietnam postponed

(ps) The 36th ASEAN summit in Da Nang, Vietnam has been postponed until end of June, after Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc wrote to leaders of ASEAN countries. He said Vietnam has completed the organisational work for the summit, but postponement seems necessary in the context of COVID-19 spreading in the region and being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. [New Straits Times] [Vietnam Plus]

Cambodia: No new dams along the Mekong

(ls) Cambodia announced that it will not develop new hydropower dams on the Mekong River for the next 10 years. According to a government spokesperson, the country plans to develop coal, liquified natural gas and solar energy, and wants to also rely on energy imports from neighboring countries. Cambodia had previously announced plans for two dams. Laos, on the other hand, has opened two new dams on the mainstream Mekong in the past six months and is the only country in the Lower Mekong Basin planning more hydropower on the river. Local communities have warned that dams will harm fisheries and farming. [Straits Times]

Singapore and Australia sign new bilateral agreements

(ps) Singapore and Australia have signed a digital economy pact as well as ten agreements to boost bilateral cooperation in a time where both countries are suffering under the coronavirus outbreak. The Singaporean and Australian prime ministers witnessed the signing via video conferencing after a face-to-face meeting in Canberra got cancelled in consideration of the current situation. Both leaders said their digital economy pact aims to set a benchmark for international trade rules in a digital world. [Straits Times]

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