BRASIL E CHINA HISPANO AMERICA,JAPÃO,CARIBE,FILIPINAS,INDONÉSIA,MALÁSIA,INDOCHINA,TAIWAN: Asia Times weekly newsletter

Duterte fatally misplays Philippines vaccine diplomacy

While the United States and United Kingdom start to roll out mass Covid-19 vaccination campaigns, developing countries like the Philippines are scrambling to access affordable and reliable vaccines for their at-risk populations.

The United Arab Emirates became the first country to approve the Chinese-made vaccine Sinovac for mass inoculation this month, while other major developing countries such as Indonesia have already received more than a million doses of China-made vaccines.

A growing number of Arab and Latin American nations are expected to become among the first recipients of Chinese-made vaccines, with Chinese company Sinopharm preparing to deliver 500 million doses worldwide in the near future.

HK boarding house infections spark new contact hunt

By JEFF PAO

Two foreign domestic workers who stayed at a boarding house at Fung Nin Building in Tai Po over the past weekend were found to be infected with the coronavirus on Sunday. They were identified as the No.7595 and No.7605 patients in Hong Kong, according to the Center for Health Protection. Their employers were living in Hung Hom and Tai Po. Health officials were tracing the sources of the virus in the boarding house and checking how many people had stayed or visited the facility.

AT tells Le Figaro why China is winning the tech war

By LAURE MANDEVILLE AND DAVID P GOLDMAN

Le Figaro journalist Laure Mandeville recently interviewed Asia Times Business Editor David P. Goldman. The interview ran here in French. An English version is published below with permission:

Laure Mandeville: After the constitution with China’s strong support of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP – a zone that includes many close allies of the US, such as Japan, Australia and South Korea – you framed the situation of the US vis-à-vis China as a “Tsushima moment” for the United States.

China’s quantum computer a step, not a leap

By JONATHAN TENNENBAUM

On December 3, Science magazine published a scientific paper by Chinese scientists on the results of experiments with a prototype quantum computer. It was widely reported in the media that the Chinese system needed only 200 seconds to carry out a computation that would take over two billion years using the fastest supercomputer existing today. The experiments were designed and carried out by a top-level research group led by Pan Jianwei and Lu Chaoyang of the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, China.

Trade wars to become currency wars in 2021

By WILLIAM PESEK

On the way out the door, the tough-on-Asia Donald Trump administration finally netted a cagey and elusive rival: Vietnam. After four years of rage tweeting about an “undervalued” Chinese yuan that’s “killing us,” Trump’s Treasury Department opted to put the Vietnamese dong on its dreaded currency manipulators list instead. Xi Jinping’s China had a last-minute reprieve in a new US Treasury report.

Iran the big winner of US withdrawal from Afghanistan

By KOUROSH ZIABARI

As the sun sets on America’s costly 18-year war in Afghanistan, neighboring Iran is poised to gain an upper hand as foreign troops chart their withdrawal from the war-ravaged country. That is despite Tehran’s vehement vocal objections to a nascent peace deal between the US and Islamic fundamentalist Taliban group aimed at ending a war that by some estimates has cost American taxpayers nearly US$2 trillion.

Hints Hun Sen starting to look away from China

By DAVID HUTT

When Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced this week that his country will order its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines from the United Nations-backed COVAX facility, it was notable that Cambodia’s first inoculations were not coming from China. “Cambodia is not a dustbin.. and not a place for a vaccine trial,” Hun Sen said in blunt terms during a marathon speech on December 15, adding that he will only trust and accept vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Nowhere to go but up for the Thai baht

By PETER JANSSEN

A US Treasury Department report issued on Thursday tagged Thailand along with nine other mostly Asian countries as a possible currency manipulator, notably at a time when the Bank of Thailand (BOT) is struggling and largely failing to keep the baht competitive against rival currencies. On Thursday, the baht fell below 30 to the US dollar for the first time this year, an appreciation that worries Thai exporters who are already suffering from the global economic slowdown in demand caused by the pandemic and an already strong currency compared to regional rivals such as China and Vietnam.