Asia-Pacific

Photo: Chinese Emergency Medical Teams at Wuhan. Credit: World Health Organization.

COVID-19: The Trump Administration's Attack on China and the WHO Is Unfounded

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad*

This article was produced in partnership by Indian Punchline and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute where it first appeared. This is the first part of a two-part series. The second is available here.

‎KOLKATA‎, India (IDN) – On April 14, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump addressed a news conference at the White House, where he said that his administration would “halt [all] funding” for the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO, founded in 1948, is the principal United Nations agency tasked with the improvement of the health of the world; it is also widely acknowledged as an agency that is best suited to deal with health emergencies.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 27 April 2020

Photo: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (left) and Australian PM Scott Morrison (right) who is spearheading an international enquiry into China's lack of transparency and the WHO's mistakes in regard to COVID-19. A collage of pictures from Wikimedia Commons and Spotlght Nepal.

COVID-19: This Is No Time to Start A Coronavirus Blame Game

Viewpoint by John McCarthy *

MELBOURNE (IDN) – Australia's decision to spearhead an international enquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic — read China's lack of transparency and the WHO's mistakes — is a nice hoary bellow from the domestic political ramparts, but it is a policy mistake.

The Australian opposition's support for the decision does not bathe the policy in divine light. It merely doubles the weight of the mistake.

Whichever country had decided to initiate such a policy, it would have been a bad idea.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 26 April 2020

Photo: A new mosques in Eastern Sri Lanka. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne, INPS | IDN

One Year on, Easter Bombing in Sri Lanka Continues to Puzzle

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 39th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.

SYDNEY (IDN) – A 22-year-old Sri Lankan law graduate became the first Islamic suicide terrorist a year ago in the predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka. He detonated an explosive-filled rucksack amid a crowd of Easter Sunday worshipers at a Catholic Church in the seaside town of Negombo, close to the country's international airport.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 26 April 2020

Photo: The 9th (Extraordinary) OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting was held via webinar, on Thursday, 09 April 2020, under the Chairmanship of Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy. Credit: Saudi Arabia Press Agency.

Why the OPEC+ Deal Is a Many-Splendoured Thing

Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar

The writer is a former Indian diplomat. This article was produced in partnership by Indian Punchline and Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute where it first appeared.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – A perfect deal is where all protagonists get something out of it. All oil-producing countries stand to gain if the oil price rebounds. In bare-bones, the OPEC+ group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia finalized, in a nail-biting photo finish on April 12, an agreement to steeply cut oil production by a combined 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for May and June to rebalance the supply and demand in the world market and nudge the prices to go up amid the coronavirus pandemic.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 April 2020

Photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, who was in Beijing for the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, at the Great Hall of the People on April 24, 2019. Credit: Xinhua/Ding Lin.

The Chinese Experience in Fighting COVID-19 and the Imperative of a Global Coalition – Part 2

Viewpoint by Teshome Toga Chanaka

This is the second of a two-part article by Teshome Toga Chanaka, currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia to China. Click here for Part 1. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the government and IDN, the flagship of non-profit International Press Syndicate.

BEIJING (IDN) – Can the Chinese experience be replicated elsewhere? No two social, economic, political and cultural settings are identical.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 April 2020

Photo: China opened Wuhan early April after 76-day lockdown. Credit: Anadolu Agency.

The Chinese Experience in Fighting COVID-19 and the Imperative of a Global Coalition – Part 1

Viewpoint by Teshome Toga Chanaka

This is the first of a two-part article by Teshome Toga Chanaka, currently Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia to China. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the government and IDN, the flagship of non-profit International Press Syndicate.

BEIJING (IDN) – The outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was significant in the calendar of Chinese as it coincided with the beginning of the new Chinese spring festival, with an estimated movement of over 60 million Chinese throughout the country.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 19 April 2020

Photo: Hu Wei (4th R), charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy, attends a ceremony with Sri Lankan Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi (4th left front) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 1, 2020. China has handed over its first donation of humanitarian aid and medical supplies to Sri Lanka to strengthen the solidarity between the two countries as Sri Lanka fights the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Xinhua/Tang Lu

COVID-19 : An Unprecedented Crisis and Also an Exceptional Opportunity

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary.

Henry Kissinger, in one of his infrequent statements said, "When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, many countries' institutions will be perceived as having failed. Whether this judgment is objectively fair is irrelevant. The reality is the world will never be the same after the coronavirus. To argue now about the past only makes it harder to do what has to be done". Countries must adjust and adapt and also move with the times. Responding proactively to the challenge of COVID-19 is key.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; OPINION; 18 April 2020

Photo: Collage of images from the Internet.

COVID-19: USA, France and China Crave African Support to Overcome the Pandemic

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The U.S. and France are treading unexpected paths to besiege COVID-19 with African assistance. Striking a different note, the Nigerians have strong reservations about a team of Chinese specialists invited to support them in combating the pandemic in the West African country.

While the desperate USAID relief agency has been seeking personal protective equipment (PPE) from poor countries to safeguard much needed supplies in the U.S., and a French doctor wants to test drugs on Africans. But the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) is bashing the government for inviting an 18-man team of Chinese specialists in helping to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria.

: Global Information Network; COVID-19; 07 April 2020

Image credit: Australia TV's 60-minute programme.

COVID-19: Sinophobia Threatening to Endanger Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne*

SYDNEY (IDN) – With the spread of COVID-19 to Europe and the US a bout of Sinophobia seems to have infected the western media. On March 29, Australia's 60-minute program – that is well known for sensational reporting – broadcast a program that portrayed China as the villain of the COVID-19 pandemonium, and just stopped short of calling for war against China.

This reminded me of the propaganda that the Anglo-American media broadcast around the world about alleged 'weapons of mass destruction' that Saddam Hussein had, that led to the attack and invasion of Iraq in 2003.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; COVID-19; 04 April 2020

Photo: President Duterte and US President Donald Trump discuss matters during a bilateral meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on November 13, 2017. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

The Philippines Moving to Active Middle Power Diplomacy

Viewpoint by Aileen S P Baviera*

Professor Aileen Baveira died of COVID-19 in Manila on 21 March 2020.

MANILA (IDN) — The Philippines was first a colony and then a formal treaty ally of the United States for so long that many Filipinos tend to take the existence of reciprocal defence obligations for granted. For the most part, the Philippines has always supported US security objectives when asked — whether during the Pacific War, the Korean War, the Cold War, the conflicts in Indochina or the 'Global War on Terror'.