Shanghai: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due in China on Wednesday, as the United States ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing.
The US diplomat will meet China's top brass on Friday in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates a new leader, and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices -- a vital issue for President Joe Biden in an election year.
But Blinken is also seeking to stabilise ties, with tensions between the world's two largest economies palpably easing since his last visit in June.
At the time, he was the highest-ranking US official to visit China in five years, and the trip was followed by a meeting between the countries' presidents in November.
At that summit in California, Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a US wish list including restoring contact between militaries and cracking down on precursor chemicals to fentanyl, the powerful painkiller behind an addiction epidemic in the United States.
Blinken will start his visit on Wednesday in Shanghai.
While in the city, he will meet students and business leaders in what an aide called a bid to highlight warm ties between the American and Chinese peoples.
The friendly side trip -- the first visit by a US secretary of state to the bustling metropolis since Hillary Clinton in 2010 -- would have been unthinkable until recently, with hawks on both sides previously speaking of a new Cold War between the two powers.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen similarly toured the manufacturing hub of Guangzhou before visiting Beijing earlier this month.
A senior US official previewing Blinken's trip said that the United States and China were at a "different place than we were a year ago, when the bilateral relationship was at an historic low point".
"We also believe, and we have also clearly demonstrated, that responsibly managing competition does not mean we will pull back from measures to protect US national interests," he said.
The Biden administration's eagerness to engage China stands in stark contrast to its efforts to isolate Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
After initially being pleased that Beijing has not directly supplied weapons to Russia, the United States in recent weeks has accused China of lavishing industrial material and technology on Moscow.
Washington has encouraged European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who recently visited Beijing, to stand firm on China not backing Russia, believing that it wants stable ties with the West as it focuses on addressing economic headwinds at home.
"If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can't on the other hand be fuelling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War," Blinken said Friday after Group of Seven talks in Capri, Italy.
The Biden administration has trumpeted the agreement with Xi on fentanyl as a success.
A State Department official said that since the November summit, China appears to have taken its first law enforcement measures on the matter since 2017.
Blinken will ask for further implementation, the official said.
"More regular PRC law enforcement action against PRC-based chemical companies and pill press manufacturers involved in illicit fentanyl supply chains would send a strong signal of China's commitment to address this issue," the official said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
One source of friction between the two countries is new legislation that cleared the US Congress on Tuesday -- and which Biden intends to sign -- requiring the wildly popular social media app TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, or be shut out of the American market.
Biden faces a rematch in November against former president Donald Trump, who has vowed a more confrontational approach against China.
Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said that China's leaders, eager to focus on their economy, were in a wait-and-see mode ahead of the US election.
"The Chinese understand that the Biden administration is unlikely to deliver any good news on trade because that simply does not support the election agenda," she said.
For Chinese leaders this year, "their priority is to keep the relationship stable".
"Until there is clarity on who the next administration will be, I don't think they see a better strategy," she said.
Blinken due in China seeking pressure but also stability
https://arab.news/v98ch
Blinken due in China seeking pressure but also stability
Germany faces uncertainty as Syrian doctors weigh returning home amid Assad’s fall
Germany became a leading destination for Syrian refugees over the past decade, and some politicians were quick to start talking about encouraging the return of at least some after rebels took Damascus earlier this month. Others noted that the exiles include many well-qualified people and said their departure would hurt Germany — particularly that of doctors and other medical staff.
“Whole areas in the health sector would fall away if all the Syrians who work here now were to leave our country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said last week. “For us it is important that we make the offer to the Syrians who are here, who have a job, who have integrated, who are crime-free, whose children go to school, to stay here and be there for our economy.”
Syrians have become a factor in a health sector that struggles to fill jobs, part of a wider problem Germany has with an aging population and a shortage of skilled labor.
The head of the German Hospital Federation, Gerald Gass, says Syrians now make up the largest single group of foreign doctors, accounting for 2 percent to 3 percent.
An estimated 5,000 Syrian doctors work in hospitals alone. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who puts the total number of Syrian doctors at over 6,000, says they are “indispensable” to health care.
Gass said the picture hospital operators are getting from Syrian doctors so far is “very varied.” Some — particularly those with many relatives still in Syria — are considering a quick return if the situation proves stable, while others feel at ease and well-integrated in Germany and want to stay. But “no looming mass movement toward Syria is recognizable” at present.
“It’s certainly not the case that patient care would collapse in Germany if all Syrian doctors returned now,” Gass said. “But of course we have the situation that these people often work in smaller groups at individual sites” — whose quick departure could force temporary local closures.
“We are well advised to treat these people respectfully,” Gass said. “And yes, hospital owners are giving thought to how they could fill these jobs.”
Many Syrian doctors have made Germany their home
Dr. Hiba Alnayef, an assistant pediatric doctor at a hospital in Nauen, just outside Berlin, said she has been asked in the last 10 days, “what if the Syrians all go back now?”
“I don’t know — some want to, but it’s very difficult and uncertain,” said Aleppo-born Alnayef, who has spent much of her life outside Syria and came to Germany from Spain in 2016. She said it’s something she thinks about, “but I have a homeland here too now.”
She said she and other Syrian doctors and pharmacists would like to build cooperation between Germany and Syria.
“The Germans need specialists, Syria needs support ... renovation, everything is destroyed now,” she said. “I think we can work well together to help both societies.”
Alnayef said the German health system would have “a big problem” if only part of its Syrian doctors decided to leave — “we are understaffed, we are burned out, we are doing the work of several doctors.” She said Germany has offered “a safe harbor,” but that discrimination and racism have been issues and integration is a challenge.
Dr. Ayham Darouich, 40, who came from Aleppo to Germany to study medicine in 2007 and has had his own general practice in Berlin since 2021, said that “as far as I have heard, none of my circle of friends wants to go back.”
“They have their family or their practices here, they have their society here,” Darouich said. German concerns that many might return are “a bit exaggerated, or unjustified.”
But he said Germany needs to do more to persuade medical professionals it trains to stay in the country, and that it could also do more to make itself attractive to foreigners needed to fill the gaps.
“We see that the nurses and medical professionals in hospitals earn relatively little in comparison with the US or Switzerland,” Darouich said, and poorly regulated working hours and understaffed hospitals are among factors that “drive people away.”
France’s Macron arrives in cyclone-hit Mayotte to assess devastation
- Officials have warned that the death toll from the most destructive cyclone in living memory could reach hundreds, possibly thousands
- Besides declaring ‘exceptional natural disaster measures,’ authorities have also imposed a nightly curfew to prevent looting
MAMOUDZOU: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday arrived in Mayotte to assess the devastation wrought by Cyclone Chido on the Indian Ocean archipelago, as rescuers raced to search for survivors and supply desperately needed aid.
His visit to the French overseas territory comes after Paris declared “exceptional natural disaster” measures for Mayotte late Wednesday night to enable faster and “more effective management of the crisis.”
Located near Madagascar off the coast of southeastern Africa, Mayotte is France’s poorest region.
Macron’s plane landed at 10:10 a.m. local time with some 20 doctors, nurses and civil security personnel on board, as well as four tons of food and sanitary supplies.
Officials have warned that the death toll from the most destructive cyclone in living memory on French territory could reach hundreds — possibly thousands — as rescuers race to clear debris and comb through flattened shantytowns to search for survivors.
“The tragedy of Mayotte is probably the worst natural disaster in the past several centuries of French history,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said.
Macron was expected to travel with a small delegation to minimize the use of law enforcement resources needed elsewhere on the archipelago.
After an “aerial reconnaissance of the disaster area,” Macron will go to the Mamoudzou hospital center, according to an itinerary released Wednesday, to “meet with the health care staff and the patients being treated.”
He will also visit a neighborhood razed by the storm, meet with Mayotte officials, and outline a reconstruction plan.
A preliminary toll from France’s interior ministry shows that 31 people have been confirmed killed, 45 seriously hurt, and more than 1,370 suffering lighter injuries.
But officials say the toll could rise exponentially.
Besides declaring “exceptional natural disaster measures,” authorities have also imposed a nightly curfew to prevent looting.
In response to widespread shortages, the government also issued a decree freezing the prices of consumer goods in the archipelago at their pre-cyclone levels.
Products affected include mineral water, food and beverages, batteries, as well as basic hygiene, everyday and construction products, and animal feed.
Cyclone Chido, which hit Mayotte on Saturday, was the latest in a string of storms worldwide fueled by climate change, according to meteorologists.
Experts say seasonal storms are being super-charged by warmer Indian Ocean waters, fueling faster, more destructive winds.
An estimated one-third of Mayotte’s population lives in shantytowns whose flimsy, sheet metal-roofed homes offered scant protection from the storm.
At Mamoudzou hospital center, windows were blown out and doors ripped off from hinges, but most of the medics had taken to sleeping at their battered workplace on Wednesday as Chido had swept their homes away.
“It’s chaos,” said medical and administrative assistant Anrifia Ali Hamadi.
“The roof is collapsing. We’re not very safe. Even I don’t feel safe here.”
But staff soldiered on despite the hospital being out of action, with electricians racing to restore a maternity ward, France’s largest with around 10,000 births a year.
“The Mamoudzou hospital suffered major damage,” said the hospital’s director Jean-Mathieu Defour. “Everything is still functioning, but in a degraded state.”
In the small commune of Pamandzi, sheet metal and destroyed wooden structures were strewn as far as the eye could see.
“It was like a steamroller that crushed everything,” said Nasrine, a Mayotte teacher who declined to give her full name.
With health services in tatters, and power and mobile phone services knocked out, French Overseas Minister Francois-Noel Buffet on Wednesday night declared “exceptional natural disaster” measures for Mayotte.
Under a new emergency system for overseas territories, the measures will hold for a month, and can be renewed every two months after that.
It will “enable the local and national authorities to react more quickly while streamlining certain administrative procedures,” Buffet said.
Much of Mayotte’s population is Muslim, whose religious tradition dictates that bodies be buried rapidly, so some may never be identified.
Assessing the toll is further complicated by irregular immigration to Mayotte, especially from the Comoros islands to the north, meaning much of the population is unregistered.
Mayotte officially has 320,000 inhabitants, but authorities estimate the actual figure is 100,000 to 200,000 higher when taking into account undocumented migrants.
French military planes have been shuttling between Mayotte and the island of La Reunion, another French overseas territory to the east that was spared by the cyclone.
A “civilian maritime bridge” was launched between both island groups, said Patrice Latron, the prefect in La Reunion.
As of Wednesday, more than 100 tons of food was to be distributed.
“We’re moving to a phase of massive support for Mayotte,” he said, adding that around 200 shipping containers with supplies and water would arrive by Sunday.
Kite-making picks up in India’s Gujarat as harvest festival nears
- People in Gujarat celebrate Uttarayan, a Hindu festival, in mid-January that marks the end of winter by flying kites
- At least 18 people died from injuries related to kite flying across Gujarat during this year’s Uttarayan festival
AHMEDABAD: Huddled over piles of colorful paper, Mohammad Yunus is one among thousands of workers in India’s western state of Gujarat who make kites by hand that are used during a major harvest festival.
People in Gujarat celebrate Uttarayan, a Hindu festival in mid-January that celebrates the end of winter by flying kites held by glass-coated or plastic strings.
“The kite may seem like a small item but it takes a long time to make it. Many people are involved in it and their livelihoods depend on it,” Yunus, a Muslim who comes to Gujarat from neighboring Rajasthan state to make kites during the peak season, told Reuters.
More than 130,000 people are involved in kite-making throughout Gujarat, according to government estimates, many of whom work from homes to make kites that cost as little as five rupees (6 US cents).
At the start of the two-day festival, people rent roofs and terraces from those who have access to them, and gather there to fly colorful kites that criss-cross each other in the sky.
Gujarat is a hub of the kite industry in the country, boasting a market worth 6.50 billion Indian rupees ($76.58 million), and the state accounts for about 65 percent of the total number of kites made in India.
While the kite flying season in the state is limited to almost just 2 or 3 days in January, the industry runs year-round providing employment to about 130,000 people in the state, according to government figures.
But these paper birds are also harmful and can be fatal, especially kites that have plastic strings, which can cause serious cuts to birds in the sky, killing and injuring thousands of them during the festival.
At least 18 people died from kite related injures across Gujarat during this year’s Uttarayan festival, including being cut by a string and getting electrocuted while trying to extricate a kite from an electric pole, local media reported.
Five suspected militants killed in Indian-administered Kashmir
- The disputed region is home to a 35-year insurgency in which tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and militants have been killed
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled the territory’s partial autonomy in 2019, bringing the region under its direct rule
SRINAGAR: Security forces in India-administered Kashmir on Thursday killed at least five suspected militants in ongoing clashes, the army said, the latest outbreak of violence in the disputed Muslim-majority Himalayan region.
Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their partition at the chaotic end of British rule in 1947, and both countries claim the territory in full.
“Five terrorists have been neutralized by the security forces in the ongoing operation,” the Indian army’s Chinar Corps said, adding that two soldiers had been wounded in the firefight.
Half a million Indian troops are deployed in the far northern region, battling a 35-year insurgency in which tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and militants have been killed, including at least 120 this year.
Separatist groups demand either independence or the region’s merger with Pakistan.
New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for arming militants and helping them launch attacks, an allegation Islamabad denies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled the territory’s partial autonomy in 2019, bringing the region under its direct rule.
The territory of about 12 million people has since been ruled by a New Delhi-appointed governor who oversees a local government that voters elected in October in opposition to Modi.
5 suspected militants killed in Kashmir fighting, Indian military says
- India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety
- Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989
SRINAGAR, India: Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed five suspected militants in a gunbattle on Thursday, the Indian military said.
Soldiers and police launched a joint operation after receiving a tip that rebels were hiding in a village in southern Kulgam district, the military said in a statement. The militants opened “indiscriminate and heavy volumes of fire” at the raiding troops, leading to a gunbattle, it said.
Five militants were killed in the fighting, the statement said, adding that two soldiers were also injured. Troops continued to search the area. There was no independent confirmation of the battle.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
