Author: Wira Selamat

KOTA SAMARAHAN (Dec 6): The first Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) system line in the state is expected to be ready by the end of 2025, said Sarawak Transport Minister Datuk Seri Lee Kim Shin. He said this first route for ART which is a lidar (light detection and ranging) guided articulated bus system for urban passenger transport, will be called the Blue Line running from Rembus to Riveria over a distance of 27.6 kilometres (km) and it may start operation in early 2026. Speaking to reporters after inspecting the construction project here today, he said two other routes, the Red…

At the invitation of the Argentine government, President Xi Jinping’s Special Envoy and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Wu Weihua will go to Buenos Aires to attend the inauguration ceremony of Argentina’s new President Milley on December 10. ANSA: Italy has officially notified China of its withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative, and Italy joined the initiative in 2019. What is China’s comment? What does this decision mean from a Chinese perspective? What does this mean for China-Italy relations? Wang Wenbin: In the 10 years since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed, its results have…

The Philippines has concluded a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. witnessed the signing ceremony on Thursday in San Francisco. He said he hopes to see nuclear power become part of the country’s “energy mix” by 2032 and called the deal an achievement based on the US-Philippine alliance. Under the agreement, the Philippines will buy nuclear material, equipment and technology from US companies. The Southeast Asian nation faces chronic power shortages as its population keeps growing. It currently gets about 60 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power plants. Under the administration of former…

A Chinese J-11 pilot’s nighttime manoeuvre has sparked international concern. An alarming incident unfolded over the South China Sea as a Chinese J-11 pilot executed a perilous intercept of a US Air Force B-52, raising international tensions and highlighting growing concerns over airspace safety. The recent incident has raised alarms throughout international diplomatic circles, as the US Air Force B-52 conducted lawful operations over the South China Sea. The manoeuvre, which occurred on 24 October 2023, involved the Chinese pilot flying dangerously close to the US aircraft, violating established international air safety protocols. The encounter, which unfolded in international airspace, saw the…

BEIJING — China and the United States appear to be restarting dialogue between their militaries, despite continuing disputes over Beijing’s claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea. The U.S. confirmed on Thursday that it plans to send Cynthia Carras, principal director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, to represent the U.S. Defense Department at the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing this month. The international gathering hosted by the Chinese Defense Ministry aims to discuss security cooperation and raise China’s status as a global power and rival to the U.S. and its Asian allies, including Japan and South Korea. China froze military…

Early in the Biden administration, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed that the United States would only hold talks with China if they led to “tangible outcome” to resolve disputes between the strategic rivals. Tow-and-a-half years later, that approach appears to have changed. Since the start of the summer, the administration has embarked on a largely unreciprocated push to talk with Beijing, establishing working groups and sending three cabinet-level officials and its top climate envoy to Beijing. The strategy, intended in part to salvage a relationship that fell to a dangerous level this year when the US shot down…

It’s an ocean of conflict and ecological decline. Despite its vast size — 1.3 million square miles — the South China Sea has become a microcosm of the geopolitical tensions between East and West, where territorial struggles over abundant natural resources may one day lead to war and environmental collapse. While the threat of a devastating military conflict between China and the United States in the region still looms, the South China Sea has already experienced irreparable damage. Decades of over-harvesting have, for instance, had a disastrous impact on that sea’s once-flourishing fish. The tuna, mackerel, and shark populations have fallen to 50%…

The United States and China conducted a record $690 billion in combined trade last year. Protectionist policies will result in lower figures for 2023, but China will remain a top American trading partner. This intertwined trade relationship highlights that America has everything in the world to gain from smart, tough and effective competition with China — and everything to lose if relations deteriorate to the point of direct armed conflict. War with China is neither inevitable nor necessary, but actions and policies currently being pursued in both Beijing and Washington are mindlessly drifting towards a clash. There is yet time — and plenty…

FIFA and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are hoping to expand their existing partnership to cover climate change and gender equality in the future. The two organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Bangkok, in November 2019, where they committed to join forces to leverage football as a catalyst for social development and healthy lifestyles in the region, and are now looking to extend it beyond 2024. During the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Sports (SOMS-14), held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, FIFA Regional Director Asia & Oceania Sanjeevan Balasingam outlined the main achievements since 2019 and also…

China-bound investment plunged 40.3 percent from 2018 to last year, while investment in ASEAN markets grew 40.9 percent, the economics ministry said Taiwan’s investment in ASEAN markets in the first half of this year surpassed the volume bound for China, as local firms continued to shift manufacturing bases away from the world’s second-largest economy at clients’ urging to avoid US-China trade frictions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Approved investments in Southeast Asia reached US$2 billion in the first six months of this year, accounting for 18.1 percent and overtaking China as the No. 1 destination at 17.6 percent,…