6 PROUT TIMES REGIONAL JAN-MAR 2019 7 regional news SEAsia wary of China’s BRI, skeptical of US, survey shows Why a China invasion of Taiwan would fail Seventy percent of respondents to a survey conducted by the ISEAS- Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore believe that Southeast Asia should be cautious when negotiating with China on its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure project. The survey, which was quoted in a report by Reuters on January 6, drew on responses from 1,008 people in all ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean. The survey found the main concern is that regional nations may be trapped in unsustainable debt to China. That perception was strongest in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the survey showed. Nearly half of the respondents said that BRI would bring Asean “closer into China’s orbit”, one-third were of the impression that the project lacked transparency and 16% believed it would finally fail. At the same time the study showed that people in Asean countries are increasingly skeptical of America’s commitment to the region as a strategic partner, while China’s reach is growing both politically and economically. Seventy three percent of the respondents believe that China now holds the greatest economic influence in the region and has more clout politically and strategically than the United States. Six out of ten respondents felt that US influence has deteriorated from a year ago and two-thirds believed US engagement with Southeast Asia had declined. About a third said they had little or no confidence in the US as a strategic partner and guarantor of regional security. At the same time, fewer than one in ten saw China as a “benign and benevolent power”, with nearly half saying Beijing possessed “an intent to turn Southeast Asia into its sphere of influence.” Why not to other country? Not dead trap! No dead trap!this US the slogan to make poor country from progress. Since US is rich ,why don’t the US do some form to help poor country. Who do you like to listen???US -destroy or China is building. When President Xi Jinping called on January 2 for Taiwan’s ”reunification” with China, it was not the first time a Chinese leader threatened to use military might to force the island nation’s incorporation with the mainland. But when Xi told his military forces a few days later to make preparations for an all-out war, the call to arms was clearly different from previous threats made against the island Beijing views as a renegade province. Xi is emerging as modern China’s third communist strongman, and as with the previous two autocrats, national unity is a main prerogative. Mao Zedong, the founder of the Communist Partycreated People’s Republic, brutally brought Tibet under China’s central rule. Deng Xiaoping, the Party’s second strongman leader, oversaw the negotiated takeover of former British Hong Kong and Portuguese Macau. Xi evidently believes that one of the major tasks of his leadership is to annex Taiwan, which has been separated from the mainland since the 1949 communist victory in China’s civil war. “Xi increased invasion rhetoric after Taiwan’s 2016 election sweptout the pro-Beijing [Kuomintang Party] from the presidency and legislature, setting a deadline of 2020 for a final decision on whether to storm the beaches or return to the negotiating table,” Wendell Minnick, a Taiwan-based military analyst and author of several books on China’s armed forces, said. Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews a military display of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Li Gang/Xinhua Xi Jinping reviews a military display in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Li Gang/Xinhua Other China watchers believe that 2021, the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, will be a crucial year for Taiwan. Through recent intra-Party power plays and purges, Xi has ensured that he will remain in power when those nationalistic celebrations are held. In March 2018, China’s legislature re-approved the appointment of Xi as president, removing the two five-term limits to that post. Xi’s other two powerful positions — Communist party general secretary and chairman of the Party’s military commission — are not subject to term limits. He is also the chairman of the government’s parallel military commission, a central state organ, cementing his role as China’s paramount leader. China watchers still believe that war is the last option for Xi to get Taiwan to agree to a deal similar to that achieved for Hong Kong and “ A recent opinion poll showed that 80% of Taiwanese would reject any ”one country, two systems” model, and that 61% were satisfied with Tsai’s response to Xi. Moreover, 85% approved of Tsai’s conditions for any talks with Beijing, including a requirement that they communicate on a government-to-government basis. Macau, dubbed “one country, two systems”, whereby those territories enjoy a large degree of autonomy. But, in a January 2 speech, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said that most Taiwanese are “staunchly opposed to the concept” and that they would “never accept” governance under the formula suggested by Xi and the Communist Party leadership in Beijing. Philippines wins Miss Universe 2018 in Thailand Filipino-Australian Catriona Gray won the fourth Miss Universe crown for the Philippines Filipino-Australian Catriona Gray has won this year’s Miss Universe pageant, making it the Philippines’ fourth win in the history of the competition. On Monday morning in Thailand, Gray, 24, was crowned the new Miss Universe after competing against 93 other contestants for the title. Tamaryn Green of South Africa was first runner-up, followed by Sthefany Gutiérrez of Venezuela, CNN Philippines reported. Miss U 17 december 2018 Gray is the fourth Filipina to win the title, following Pia Wurtzbach, who won the title in 2015. Margie Moran won the crown in 1973 and Gloria Diaz was the first Filipina to win the Miss Universe pageant in 1969. The Filipina beauty queen is an advocate and volunteers at nongovernment organization Love Yourself PH, an NGO that advocates and promotes HIV- AIDS awareness and prevention. Gray 17 december 2018 Photo: InstagramGray was a model and singer with a Master Certification in Music Theory from Berklee College of Music in Boston in the US and has a Certificate in Outdoor Recreation and a black belt in Choi Kwang- Do. Before Miss Universe, Gray represented the Philippines in the Miss World pageant in 2016 in the United States, where she finished in fifth place. Stephanie del Valle from Puerto Rico won the pageant that year. How Vietnam lost and China won Cambodia Forty years ago today, some 100,000 Vietnamese soldiers accompanied by almost 20,000 Cambodian defectors marched into Phnom Penh to overthrow the radical Maoist Khmer Rouge regime. The invading forces found less than 100 survivors in the capital city. The Khmer Rouge, which came to power in 1975, had evacuated Phnom Penh, leaving buildings to decay and collapse. In the countryside, where almost all Cambodians were sent as part of the Khmer Rouge’s “Year Zero” revolution, it was a Hobbesian nightmare. After less than four years in power, an estimated quarter of all Cambodians perished under the genocidal regime. Only in November 2018 were two of the regime’s senior officials finally convicted of genocide, against the Cham and Vietnamese minorities. January 7 is marked in Cambodia as either “Liberation Day” or “Victory Day”, and was once described by a former leader as the country’s “second birthday,” the first being its independence from French colonial rule in 1953.