Manila: An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 jolted Batangas province on the main Philippine island of Luzon on Sunday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The institute said the quake, which occurred at 5:50 am, hit at a depth of 132 km, about 21-km northwest of Calatagan town. The tremor was also felt in Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan and Oriental Mindoro, Xinhua news agency reported. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The institute added that the tectonic quake will trigger aftershocks and can cause damage. The Philippines has frequent seismic activity due to its location along the Pacific "Ring of Fire".—IANS

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 jolted Batangas province on the main Philippine island of Luzon on Sunday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake jolts Philippines

Southeast Asia

Delhi (The Hawk): India has been unanimously elected as the new Chair of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) for 2022-2024 at the recently held meeting of the Executive board and General Assembly at Manila, Philippines on May 7, 2022. Commission on Elections, Manila was the current chair of AAEA. The new member in the Executive Board now includes Russia, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Taiwan and Philippines.The Election Commission of India 3-member delegation headed by Deputy Election Commissioner Shri Nitesh Vyas, along with CEO Manipur Shri Rajesh Agrawl and CEO Rajasthan Shri Praveen Gupta, attended the Executive Board meeting at Manila and presented the work plan for 2022-23 as also futuristic activities for 2023-24 to the Executive Board. A presentation on ‘Gender Issues in Elections’ was also given, highlighting various concerted and targeted interventions by India to break socio-political barriers in electoral and political processes for inclusive and participative elections.The mission of the Association of Asian Election Authorities is to provide a non-partisan forum in the Asian region for sharing experiences and best practices among election authorities to discuss and act upon ways to promote open and transparent elections with the objective of supporting good governance and democracy.Officials from many AAEA member countries have been regularly attending International Training Programmes conducted by India International Institute for Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) from time to time. Since 2019, more than 250 officials from AAEA member countries have attended these programmes. IIIDEM also conducts customised capacity development training programs for specific AAEA member countries. 50 officials of Bangladesh Election Commission were trained during 2021-22.Delegates from AAEA have also been regularly participating in the International Election Visitors Programme organised by Election Commission of India. 62 officials from 12 AAEA members participated in the 3rd International Virtual Election Visitors Programme (IEVP) hosted by ECI during Assembly Elections in 2022. AAEA is also an Associate Member of the 118 member Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB).Establishment and Membership of AAEAIn pursuance of the resolution passed by participants of the Symposium on Asian Elections in the Twenty First Century held from January 26-29, 1997 in Manila, Philippines, the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) was established in 1998.&nbsp;Currently 20 Asian EMBs are members of AAEA.&nbsp;ECI is a founder member EMB of the AAEA and also served on the Executive Board of the AAEA as the Vice Chair during 2011-13 and Chair during 2014-16.&nbsp;

India has been unanimously elected as the new Chair of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) for 2022-2024 at the recently held meeting of the Executive board and General Assembly at Manila, Philippines on May 7, 2022. 

India elected as Chair of the Association of Asian Election Authorities

Taipei: Taiwan on Friday reported that 18 Chinese military aircraft entered its air defence identification zone (ADIZ).According to the Ministry of National Defence, the planes included six J-11 fighter jets, six J-16 fighter jets, two Xi'an H-6 bombers, two KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft, one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, and one Shaanxi Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft, reported&nbsp;Taiwan News.The Y-8 ASW and the two H-6 bombers flew along the southwest and the southeast corners of Taiwan's ADIZ, while the other aircraft entered from the southwest, where most of the incursions have occurred since the military started publishing them in September 2020.As usual, Taiwan's Air Force sent aircraft, issued radio warnings and deployed air defence missile systems to track the Chinese planes, reported&nbsp;Taiwan News.The highest number of intrusions on a single day in 2022 so far occurred on January 23, when the military spotted 39 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft.Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the United States, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing.China has threatened that 'Taiwan's independence' means war—ANI

Taiwan on Friday reported that 18 Chinese military aircraft entered its air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

18 Chinese jets intrude Taiwan's air zone

Beijing: Originally called 'One Belt, One Road', China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), designed to boost its image and influence with at least 49 countries to date, is faltering and the strategy may be doomed in the aftermath of Russia-Ukraine war.The barriers and delays created by sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine have accelerated the collapse of China's Belt and Road Initiative global strategy.The BRI is an internationally planned infrastructure development project for China and the emerging economies that trade with or border China. It is a move designed to recapture the ancient Silk Road and expand China's influence. The BRI is the most ambitious economic development and infrastructure project the world has ever seen. But critics say the BRI projects present dangers to participating countries, such as debt traps.Before the sanctions, China used Russia as a convenient transit point for the shipment of BRI equipment and supplies into Europe. China routed its cargo into St. Petersburg, Russia via the China-Europe Railway, then shipped it across the Baltic Sea into central Europe. The sanctions forced China to detour its cargo around Russia and enter Europe via slower land routes across Belarus, Poland, and other countries. China's BRI strategy was first introduced in 2013 by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The strategy is in two parts - on land via the Silk Road Economic Belt which runs through Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe to Western Europe; and on water via the 'Maritime Silk Road', which runs through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, westward through Southeast Asia to South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.War-torn Ukraine, at the junction of the Eurasian continent, is an important gateway into Europe from Asia and an important source of energy, food, and military technology for China. Other countries along the BRI delivery route, including Belarus, Poland, and Romania, have also felt the strain caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. Belarus, for example, has been subjected to several collateral sanctions for its decision to side with Russia. A Chinese media outlet on March 31 described how the sanctions against Russia and Belarus were forcing trains to route around these countries as well as Ukraine. As a result, shipments into Europe are being delayed while trains returning to China are often empty. It is unknown how long this disruption will last. China's participating BRI companies have noted that cargo and transportation delays are not the only problems they face. In addition, the sanctions and resulting turmoil have created logistical hardships, rising labour costs, and difficulties in settling trade agreements since Russian banks are no longer a part of SWIFT, the bloodline of the global financial system.Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, a key hub of the BRI's maritime route, citizens are protesting due to the worst economy since 1948. This small island country depends on trade with Russia and Ukraine for its tourism and tea industries. But the war between these countries is contributing to Sri Lanka's failing economy, and the country's economic crisis has further shifted to a political crisis. However, Sri Lanka's failed economy didn't begin with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It began when China directly used its BRI strategy to ensnare Sri Lanka into a debt trap that has since become a political nightmare.According to World Bank data, Sri Lanka has USD 35 billion in total debt of which USD 6 billion is owed to China for loans to fund BRI projects managed by Chinese companies. These projects include infrastructures such as ports, airports, and railroads. To help contain its debt with China, Sri Lanka agreed in 2017 to lease its Hambantota Port in the Indian Ocean to China for 99 years at the price of USD 1.1 billion. The lease was extended another 99 years in 2021. Within this year, Sri Lanka is obligated to repay USD 6.9 billion of its foreign debt. But this is unlikely since its foreign reserves total only USD 2.3 billion. To address this deficit, Sri Lanka asked China last January to restructure its debt. However, China is yet to respond.Whereas Indonesia is feeling the heat as it became the first country to participate in China's water-based 'Maritime Silk Road' initiative.Indonesia is pressured to comply with China's growing influence in Southeast Asia and expansion in the South China Sea. According to a survey released on April 5 by Australia's Lowy Institute, Indonesians are wary of Chinese investments. Nearly half the respondents felt that within the next 10 years, the Chinese communist regime would become the most threatening country. Sixty per cent of Indonesians favoured cooperating with other countries to contain the CCP's influence. The BRI juggernaut is designed to integrate China into various spheres of influence along its borders and emerging economies. Like China's state capitalism, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gives cheap equity and debt to companies, Beijing engages in debt-trap diplomacy. While one can say that the sole ambition of China's BRI is to gain world control or block Western economies from continued dominance, it is nearly clear that China is buying political influence in many of the world's emerging economies but success has eluded its efforts. —ANI

 Originally called 'One Belt, One Road', China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), designed to boost its image and influence with at least 49 countries to date, is faltering and the strategy may be doomed in the aftermath of Russia-Ukraine war.  The barriers and delays created by sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine have accelerated the collapse of China's Belt and Road Initiative global strategy.

China's Bid For World Domination Collapsing With Faltering BRI

 Originally called 'One Belt, One Road', China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), designed to boost its image and influence with at least 49 countries to date, is faltering and the strategy may be doomed in the aftermath of Russia-Ukraine war.
The barriers and delays created by sanctions imposed on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine have accelerated the collapse of China's Belt and Road Initiative global strategy.





New Delhi: Since Tibet's occupation, China has disrupted the natural flow of rivers by the pursuit of a series of ill-conceived environmental and developmental policies such as the Great Leap Forward and South-North Water Diversion project etc.This has led to a dam-building spree on the Tibetan plateau with disastrous impacts on Asia's major rivers. China is now home to over 30,000 dams, more than the total number of dams in the rest of the world put together, Global Order reported.Since the Asian continent is already water stressed, it is likely that south and south-east Asia could become the flash point for water wars in the future. In such a circumstance, China's hydro hegemony based on the control of the Tibetan plateau could spell economic and ecological, not to mention humanitarian, disasters in the region.Due to these mega dams, many countries especially those in the downstream regions have now started to express serious concerns over the geo-political implications of China's unnatural appetite for dams. Although China has couched its dam building projects as clean energy initiatives, its downstream neighbours fear that China could use water as a political weapon to pressure them into submission and compliance on boundary, trade, and political disputes.India, China's southern neighbour and regional rival, is particularly concerned about China's recent plans to build a mega dam on the Brahmaputra. This super dam that China is planning in Metok County (historically Tibet's Pema Koe region) is expected to be much larger than the Three Gorges Dam - the world's current largest power station. With the completion of this mega dam, China would wield enormous leverage over India and Bangladesh's water economy and ecology, raising fears that this mega dam could cause mega problems for everyone involved.The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that the Brahmaputra basin which includes the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh is already the site of ongoing territorial disputes between India and China, arousing not just environmental but also serious security concerns in India, the report said.China now enjoys an asymmetric power over its neighbours. This not only hinders the development of a rules-based regional order in Asia, but also gives China a lot of geopolitical power through the hydro-hegemony that it has established by occupying Tibet.In such an environmental, economic, and security context, what is happening on the Tibetan plateau is of critical importance to the rest of the world especially Asia. Taking cognisance of the critical matter, the exile Tibetan Parliament passed an official resolution during its third session last month on the situation of Tibet's environment.It resolved to highlight China's damming of Asian rivers and apprise world leaders including India's diplomatic and political leadership on the significance of Tibet's environment. As the headwater source of Asia's major rivers, the Tibetan plateau is key to the economic, ecological and geopolitical security in Asia.However, the potential impact of the Tibetan plateau's environment is still surprisingly unfamiliar to many, perhaps due to the fact that the remoteness, high altitude and harsh weather conditions make research on the Tibetan plateau challenging. China is clearly aware of this fact and is exploiting this challenge to establish its hydro-hegemony and skew the regional power balance in its favour. —IANS

Since Tibet's occupation, China has disrupted the natural flow of rivers by the pursuit of a series of ill-conceived environmental and developmental policies such as the Great Leap Forward and South-North Water Diversion project etc.

China's Hydro-Hegemony Based On Tibetan Plateau's Control Could Spell Disaster