News Report: Bangladesh Protests Myanmar Airspace Violations as Tensions Mount Over Rohingya

WASHINGTON — Bangladesh is protesting a violation of its airspace by helicopters and drones from Myanmar, as tensions between the two countries escalate over a massive influx of Rohingya Muslim refugees into Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's foreign ministry summoned the charge d'affaires of Myanmar's embassy in Dhaka and warned the airspace violations could lead to “unwarranted consequences.”

This is the third time in three weeks that Bangladesh has summoned Myanmar's envoy as the refugee crisis of the Rohingya grows.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday that the number of Rohingya refugees who have fled across the border to Bangladesh has climbed to 391,000.

Rohingya refugees say Myanmar's military and members of the Buddhist majority have attacked their villages in northern Rakhine state, forcing them to flee. There are reports of villages being burned to the ground and the military deliberately targeting civilians, but access to the region is limited, so the reports can't be independently verified.

News Story: Taiwan war games simulate China invasion

Taiwan forces simulated an invasion by China Thursday as part of live-fire war games against a backdrop of rising tensions with Beijing.

The annual drills are Taiwan's biggest military exercise and mocked up a scenario in which Chinese troops launched an amphibious assault.

They took place on the outlying Penghu Islands, which sit in the strait that separates Taiwan from China.

The defence ministry has warned of a rising military threat from China, which still sees self-ruling Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary.

Taiwan's military is boosting its firepower to counteract the risk, including launching its first ever home-grown submarine project and building a new generation of jet trainers.

President Tsai Ing-wen presided over the drills and emphasised the importance of building up Taiwan's indigenous defence industry.

"When Taiwan shows its determination to take the road of defensive autonomy, it is putting on a display to the world of our determination to protect our home and land," she said at a military base in Penghu after overseeing the exercise.

Read the full story at SinoDaily

News Story: Chinese delegation repeats one-China principle as prerequisite for Taiwan's WHA attendance

GENEVA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese delegation to the 70th World Health Assembly (WHA) on Sunday reiterated that the one-China principle is the prerequisite for the participation of China's Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO)'s annual conference.

During a press conference held one day ahead of the WHA opening, it also refuted the existence of an "epidemic prevention gap" claimed by Taiwan.

In answering Taiwan-related questions, Li Bin, head of the Chinese delegation and minister of national health and family planning commission, said that it is the Taiwan authorities led now by the local Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that has set the barrier to Taiwan's WHA attendance. She reaffirmed the cross-Straits "1992 consensus" centered on the one-China principle as the prerequisite for Taiwan's participation.

The DPP "refused to recognize that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one China. By so doing, it undermined the political basis of the cross-Straits relations, and brought the cross-Straits contact and communication mechanism to a standstill," Li said.

As a result, she noted, the political basis of Taiwan's participation in the annual conference of the global health body has ceased to exist.

According to her, from 2009 to 2016, the central government of China made special arrangements for Taiwan to attend the WHA as an observer in the name of "Chinese Taipei" in accordance with the "1992 consensus" reached between Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

However, since it won the local election in Taiwan last year, the DPP's stand has made it "impossible to carry out any cross-Straits consultations for the special arrangements anymore," said Li.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Barred from WHO meet, Taiwan urges global 'pressure' on China

By Nina LARSON

Taiwan voiced deep disappointment Sunday at its exclusion from a major World Health Organization meeting, and urged international pressure on rival China to ensure it has access in future.

The WHO's main annual meeting, the World Health Assembly (WHA), kicks off in Geneva on Monday, but for the first time in eight years, Taiwan will not be granted access.

"We feel very, very disappointed," Taiwanese Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told AFP in Geneva on Sunday.

Self-governing Taiwan, which China sees as a renegade province awaiting reunification, has been invited to attend the WHO's main annual meeting as an observer every year since 2009, but this year it did not receive an invitation.

Relations with China have become increasingly frosty since Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen took power almost a year ago and China has sought to block the island from a string of international events.

"Each year since 2009, a cross-strait understanding has been the foundation for a special arrangement for Chinese Taipei to participate as an observer in the World Health Assembly," WHO's head of governing bodies and external relations, Timothy Armstrong, told reporters earlier this month.

"Unfortunately this year, no such cross-strait understanding exists, so there is no basis for the invitation."

As a result, Chen will not even be able to access the UN's European headquarters in Geneva, where the WHA will take place through May 31.

Taiwanese media have also been refused access to cover the event.

Read the full story at SinoDaily

News Story: DPP administration bears full responsibility for Taiwan's absence from WHA - spokesperson

BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The current administration of Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), should bear full responsibility for the island's absence from the World Health Assembly (WHA) this year, a spokesperson from the Chinese mainland said Monday.

"The DPP administration refuses to recognize the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle. This created an obstacle for Taiwan's participation in the WHA," said An Fengshan, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

An urged the DPP administration to reflect on the reasons why Taiwan will be absent from this year's WHA, saying any attempt to pass the buck or shift the focus will not succeed.

Taiwan had been participating in the WHA since 2009 as an observer as "Chinese Taipei."

This special arrangement was made through cross-Strait consultations against the backdrop of peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and on the political foundation that both sides of the Taiwan Strait adhere to the 1992 Consensus, An said.

The DPP administration, however, has not recognized the 1992 Consensus and its core connotation that both sides belong to the same China, damaging the political foundation for cross-Strait relations and leading to the suspension of cross-Strait communication mechanisms, he added.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: EU summons Filipino envoy to explain Duterte tirade

President Rodrigo Duterte

By Jim Gomez

MANILA, Philippines — The European Union on Monday summoned a Philippine envoy to explain an expletive-laden tirade by President Rodrigo Duterte, who threatened to hang EU officials for opposing his efforts to re-impose the death penalty.

The EU's external action service, the equivalent of a foreign office, said it hauled Charge d'Affaires Alan Deniega in to its Brussels headquarters to provide "an explanation for the recent, unacceptable comments of President Duterte."

The move highlights growing European exasperation with the president. Earlier, the EU denied his allegations that it proposed solving the Philippines' drug problem by creating treatment clinics where illegal drugs such as methamphetamine or cocaine would be dispensed.

The EU Delegation to the Philippines issued a statement saying it has not "suggested, discussed, proposed or considered the use of any substitution drugs when treating addiction to methamphetamine ... or any other drug addiction in the Philippines." It did not mention Duterte by name.

Duterte, who has lashed out at the EU repeatedly for raising human rights concerns over his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, said in a speech Friday the EU had proposed a "health-based solution" to the drug problem that involved dispensing methampetamine, locally known as shabu, cocaine or heroin.

He branded the supposed EU proposal a "government-sponsored idiotic exercise."

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: China, WHO to build "healthy" Silk Road

GENEVA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- China and the World Health Organization (WHO) pledged here Wednesday to step up health cooperation under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

A memorandum of understanding in this regard was signed between the two sides at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, witnessed by visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

"China welcomes the WHO's active participation in the construction of the Belt and Road, and of a 'healthy' Silk Road," Xi said during a meeting with Chan.

Chan echoed Xi's remarks, saying that the WHO is willing to enhance cooperation with China under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, amid efforts to improve the public health in countries along the Belt and Road.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Xi in 2013, refers to the building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.

Read the full story at Xinhua