Top Asian News 2:07 a.m. GMT

China criticizes US for ship’s passage through Taiwan Strait, weeks before new leader takes office

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s military criticized a U.S. destroyer’s passage through the Taiwan Strait, which occurred less than two weeks before the island’s new president takes office and while Washington and Beijing are making uneven efforts to restore regular military exchanges. Navy Senior Capt. Li Xi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command, accused the U.S. of having “publicly hyped” the passage of the USS Halsey on Wednesday. In a statement, Li said the command, which oversees operations around the strait, “organized naval and air forces to monitor” the ship’s transit and handle matters ”in accordance with laws and regulations.”

Rape, terror and death at sea: How a boat carrying Rohingya children, women and men capsized

MEULABOH, Indonesia (AP) — The boat glided across waters that were dark and still, under a night sky that was cloudless and calm. But on board, the 12-year-old girl quaked with fear. The captain and crew who she says had tortured her and three other women and girls were not finished. And the punishment for disobedience, the men warned, would be death. It was the third night that the girl and around 140 other ethnic Rohingya refugees had been trapped on the wooden fishing boat, floating off the coast of Indonesia. These children, women and men had fled Bangladesh and their homeland of Myanmar in a bid to escape violence and terror, only to face the same horrors with a crew that seemed to delight in their dread.

Protest song ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ now banned in city after appeals court overturns ruling

HONG KONG (AP) — An appeals court on Wednesday granted the Hong Kong government’s request to ban a popular protest song, overturning an earlier ruling and deepening concerns over the erosion of freedoms in the once-freewheeling global financial hub. “Glory to Hong Kong” was often sung by demonstrators during huge anti-government protests in 2019. The song was later mistakenly played as the city’s anthem at international sporting events, instead of China’s “March of the Volunteers,” in mix-ups that upset city officials. It was the first time a song has been banned in the city since Britain handed the territory back to Chinese rule in 1997.

Ippei Mizuhara, ex-interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani, will plead guilty in betting case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has agreed to plead guilty to bank and tax fraud in a sports betting case in which prosecutors allege he stole nearly $17 million from the Japanese baseball player to pay off debts, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The scandal surrounding Ippei Mizuhara shocked baseball fans from the U.S. to Japan when the news broke in March. Mizuhara will plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return, the U.S. Justice Department announced. The bank fraud charge carries a maximum of 30 years in federal prison, and the false tax return charge carries a sentence of up to three years in federal prison.

China and EU-candidate Serbia sign an agreement to build a ‘shared future’

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — China and European Union candidate Serbia signed an agreement on Wednesday to build a “shared future,” making the Balkan country the first in Europe to agree on such a document with Beijing. After meeting in Belgrade, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced they would “deepen and elevate the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Serbia,” and “build a new era of a community with a shared future between China and Serbia.” Xi launched the term “community for shared future” over 10 years ago. While it may not denote a specific initiative, experts believe it has an underlying significance as another term for an alliance.

Chinese warships have been docked in Cambodia for 5 months, but government says it’s not permanent

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s Defense Ministry insisted Wednesday that the months-long presence of two Chinese warships in a strategically important naval base that is being newly expanded with funding from Beijing does not constitute a permanent deployment of the Chinese military in the country. Questions had arisen after the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported last month that two Chinese corvettes that docked at the Ream Naval Base’s new pier in December had maintained a nearly permanent presence there since. Current satellite images, analyzed by The Associated Press, confirm that the two ships remained there on Wednesday, more than five months since they initially appeared.

China’s Xi arrives in Hungary for talks on expanding Chinese investments

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Hungary late Wednesday, the final stop on his five-day European tour, where he’s expected to finalize a number of agreements with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that will deepen China’s economic footprint in the region. Xi is set to spend two nights in the Hungarian capital Budapest where he will meet with Orbán and Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok. Talks will center on future Chinese investments in the Central European country, which has courted deep economic ties with Beijing even as mainstream European leaders have pursued more protectionist policies to limit its reach on the continent.

US and Philippine forces sink a ship during largescale drills in the disputed South China Sea

LAOAG, Philippines (AP) — U.S. and Philippine forces, backed by an Australian air force surveillance aircraft, unleashed a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes Wednesday and sank a mock enemy ship as part of largescale war drills in and near the disputed South China Sea that have antagonized Beijing. Military officials and diplomats from several countries watched the display of firepower from a hilltop along a sandy coast in Laoag City in Ilocos Norte, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s northern home province. More than 16,000 military personnel from the United States and the Philippines, along with a few hundred Australian troops and military observers from 14 countries, were participating in annual combat-readiness drills called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder.

The North Korean official whose propaganda helped build the Kim dynasty dies at 94

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Ki Nam, a North Korean propaganda chief who helped build personality cults around the country’s three dynastic leaders, has died at 94, the North’s state media said. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the country’s current leader, Kim Jong Un, visited the body of Kim Ki Nam at a funeral hall in the capital, Pyongyang, early Wednesday and expressed condolences to family members. The agency said Kim Jong Un will lead the state funeral committee for Kim Ki Nam, who will be buried on Thursday. KCNA said Kim Ki Nam, a former secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party’s central committee, “devoted his all to the sacred struggle for defending and strengthening the ideological purity of our revolution and firmly guaranteeing the steady victory of the socialist cause.” The agency said he died Tuesday after being treated for age-related illnesses and multiple organ dysfunctions for the past year.

Thailand’s prime minister wants to outlaw cannabis, 2 years after it was decriminalized

BANGKOK (AP) — The prime minister of Thailand, the first country in Asia to legalize cannabis two years ago, said Wednesday that he wants to outlaw the drug again amid concerns that the lack of regulation had made it available to children and increased crimes. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin wrote on the social media platform X that he asked the Health Ministry to amend its list of narcotics to again include cannabis, and issue new rules to allow its use for medical purposes only. Srettha also ordered local authorities to suppress criminal activities linked to the illegal drug trade and demanded to see progress within 90 days.