16/04/2025

WEDNESDAY | APR 16, 2025

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Chinese president pays respects to Ho Chi Minh

SINGAPORE TO HOLD NATIONAL ELECTION ON MAY 3 SINGAPORE: A government gazette said Singapore’s parliament was dissolved yesterday ahead of a general election to be held on May 3. The vote will be the first electoral test for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who took over from long-time premier Lee Hsien Loong as leader of the People’s Action Party in May last year. “The world is becoming more uncertain, unsettled and even unstable. At this critical juncture, Singaporeans should decide on the team to lead our nation and chart our way forward together,” said Wong. – Reuters 700 HELD FOR DRUG OFFENCES IN BRUNEI LAST YEAR BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: A total of 777 individuals were arrested in Brunei in 2024 for drug-related offences compared with 711 individuals in 2023, Brunei’s Narcotic Control Bureau statistics revealed, reported Xinhua. Over 40kg of methamphetamine was confiscated in 2024. Other drugs confiscated were Erimin-5, ecstasy, ganja and ketamine. Unemployed people were the largest group of those arrested, with 393 in 2024, followed by 186 private sector employees, 166 self-employed individuals, 25 public servants and seven students. – Bernama-Xinhua GUIDE ON AI GOVERNANCE, ETHICS DEVELOPED BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Brunei has developed a guide on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance and Ethics to shape a digitally inclusive future, reported Xinhua. Brunei’s Authority for Infocommunication Technology said principles within the guide align with regional standards, such as the Southeast Asian Guide on AI Governance and Ethics. It is also providing opportunities to enable responsible inter-operability of AI systems regionally, as well as enhancing credibility of organisations and improving consumer confidence in the use of AI systems and tools. The guideline provides advice on practices and safeguards to be considered by organisations that design, develop, deploy or use AI technologies in Brunei, it said. – Bernama-Xinhua

BR I E F S

HANOI: China President Xi Jinping paid tribute to Vietnam’s late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh yesterday on his last day in Hanoi. Xi is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia, with Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to US President Donald Trump as leaders confront US tariffs. On Monday, Xi called on China and Vietnam to “oppose unilateral bullying and uphold the stability of the global free trade system”, according to Beijing’s state media. Hours later, Trump told reporters at the White House that their meeting was aimed at hurting the United States. “I do not blame China. I do not blame Vietnam. I see they are meeting today and that is wonderful. That is a lovely meeting, like trying to figure out ‘how do we screw the United States’.” China and Vietnam signed 45 cooperation agreements on Monday, including on supply chains, artificial intelligence, joint maritime patrols and railway development. During a meeting with Vietnam’s top leader To Lam on Monday, Xi said their countries are “standing at the turning point of history and should move forward with joint hands”. Lam said they “reached many important and comprehensive common perceptions”, according to the Vietnam News Agency. o Visit aims to ‘hurt’ United States: Trump

Xi participating in a wreath-laying ceremony yesterday at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum during his visit to Vietnam. – REUTERSPIC

protectionism will lead nowhere” in an article published on Monday in Vietnam’s major state-run Nhan Dan newspaper. China and Vietnam, both ruled by communist parties, share a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status. Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach, striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States. The two countries have close economic ties but Hanoi shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea. – AFP

imposed a 46% levy on Vietnamese goods as part of a global tariff blitz. Although the US tariffs on Vietnam and most other countries have been paused, China still faces enormous levies and is seeking to tighten regional trade ties and offset their impact during Xi’s first overseas trip of the year. Xi earlier urged Vietnam and China to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and an open and cooperative international environment”. He reiterated that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and

On the final day of his visit, Xi laid a red wreath emblazoned with his name and the words “Long live Vietnam’s great leader President Ho Chi Minh” at the late leader’s mausoleum in central Hanoi. He is also due to attend the launch of the Vietnam-China Railway Cooperation, which will help manage a US$8 billion (RM35 billion) rail project to link Vietnam’s largest northern port city to the border with China. Xi’s trip comes almost two weeks after the United States, which was the biggest export market for Vietnam in the first three months of the year,

Cambodian genocide denial law could be abused: Critics PHNOM PENH: Survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal regime have welcomed a beefed-up Cambodian law that forbids denying the movement’s atrocities but rights advocates and academics have warned that it could stifle legitimate dissent. calendar to “Year Zero” on April 17, 1975 and emptied cities in a bid to create a pure agrarian society free of class, politics or capital. About a quarter of the population died of disease, starvation, overwork or by execution in the disastrous social engineering experiment accountability”, said Arizona State University associate professor Sophal Ear. “In practice, it could be another tool to silence dissent.“ Political analyst Ou Virak called the law a “mistake” and said: “A population that is afraid to have discussions will be even more afraid to ask questions.” opposition to his leadership as support for those he replaced. One form of genocide denial downplays Vietnam’s role in ousting the Khmer Rouge while another stems from the fact that some “people still cannot believe that Khmers could have killed other Khmers”, said Adriana Escobar Rodriguez of the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

memorably chronicled by the 1984 Oscar-winning movie “The Killing Fields”. Some activists said former prime minister Hun Sen is using the law to burnish his legacy and stifle opposition to his son and successor Hun Manet. The government is trying to “reinforce state narratives rather than genuinely encourage historical

Enacted last month ahead of this week’s 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge seizing the capital Phnom Penh, the law threatens hefty jail sentences and fines for anyone who denies the genocide that killed around two million people between 1975 and 1979. The hardline Maoist group led by “Brother Number One”Pol Pot reset the

Hun Sen, 72, was a commander under Pol Pot before he fled to Vietnam in 1977, joining other Cambodian defectors to lead the Vietnamese army assault that drove the Khmer Rouge out of Phnom Penh. In the more than 30 years that Hun Sen ruled Cambodia, critics say he stifled dissent, equating

Hun Sen has defended the stricter law, comparing it to similar legislation against Holocaust denial in Europe. The 2013 law it replaced stemmed from a case involving one of Hun Sen’s main opponents that took place just before national elections. – AFP

China accuses US ‘spies’ of cyberattacks during Winter Games BEIJING: Chinese security officials yesterday said they have implicated three US “secret agents” in cyberattacks during February’s Asian Winter Games in the northeastern city of Harbin. District police released a It named the individuals as “Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson”, working in the NSA Office of Tailored Access Operations, an intelligence gathering unit on cyberwarfare. the capital of Heilongjiang province, held from Feb 7 to 14. agents

any individual that could provide clues about the three suspects and “cooperate with public security organs in arresting” them. They vowed to “seriously crack down on cyberattacks and the theft of state secrets against China by foreign forces”. Those found guilty of espionage could face life in prison or execution under Chinese law. – AFP

of Chinese companies, including Huawei, which has faced US sanctions since 2019 over national security concerns. State news agency Xinhua reported that teams “uncovered evidence” implicating the University of California and Virginia Tech in the “coordinated campaign” on the Asian Winter Games. Officials said they would reward targeting

Attacks targeted the event’s information release and entry-exit management systems, as well as card payments and local infrastructure between Jan 26 and Feb 14, it said. Two-thirds of those attacks came from the United States, it said. The statement accused the NSA

China’s computer virus watchdog said it recorded more than 270,000 foreign cyberattacks this month on information systems related to the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin,

statement on Weibo accusing three US National Security Agency (NSA) agents of attacks on “key information infrastructure”.