Section: Radio Free Asia – RFA (USA)
Asian Risks Respond to Energy Shifts
The prolonged slump in world energy prices has produced a mix of benefits and looming risks for China, according to recent reports. The relative abundance of energy that followed the development of shale oil and gas in the United States has helped to ease energy security concerns in China and other Asian nations, according to studies published...
Cambodian Lawmaker Sentenced in Border Treaty Dispute
Exiled Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Sam Rainsy rallied to the defense of an opposition lawmaker sentenced to a seven-year prison term on Monday for posting a disputed copy of the border agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam on Facebook in 2015. On Monday the Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Senator Hong Sok Hour guilty of forging...
Cambodia Frees Hun Sen Bodyguards Who Beat Opposition Lawmakers
Three members of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s military bodyguard, convicted of the brutal beating of a pair of opposition lawmakers near the National Assembly last year, were freed Friday after serving only year in prison. While Chhay Sarith, Mao Hoeun and Sot Vanny were sentenced to four years in prison, three years of that was suspended in...
Uyghur Dissident Jailed by China Nominated For Human Rights Award
The European Parliament has named jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti as a finalist for a key human rights award in 2016, for “exceptional individuals and organisations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.”Tohti, a former professor at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, was sentenced to life in prison...
Russia’s Opening to China: A Reporter Looks Back
Nearly three decades ago, I traveled as a reporter with a delegation from the Soviet Union seeking trade and assistance from China. At the time, in January 1989, relations between the Soviet Union and China were improving after 30 years of hostility. This was roughly two years before the fall of the Soviet Union, and officials from the two sides...
Cambodia Threatens to Halt Pay for Lawmakers Boycotting Parliament
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is taking direct aim at the pocketbooks of opposition lawmakers as it appears to be opening a new front in the nation’s ongoing political battle. On Monday the National Assembly’s powerful 13-person standing committee ordered the First Commission on Economics, Finance, Banking and...
China Boosts Role in Russian Oil Sector
China is seeking unprecedented access to Russia’s energy sector with a demand for a management role in the state-owned oil company Rosneft. In an interview with Rossiya-24 television on May 30, the chairman of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), Wang Yilin, raised the prospect of buying a large block of Rosneft shares in the...
China-Russia Project Stalls as Energy Prices Plunge
Russia’s biggest energy deal with China faces delays as economic pressures mount in both countries, raising risks for the plan to link Siberian gas fields with China’s industrial northeast. On Dec. 29, Russia’s monopoly Gazprom said it had cancelled a tender for a major portion of its mammoth Power of Siberia pipeline project...
China Eyes Russia’s Central Asian Role as it Considers Energy Interests
China will be keeping a close eye on its energy interests in Central Asia as Russia reinforces the borders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) against external threats. Speaking at a summit in Kazakhstan on Oct. 16, President Vladimir Putin pushed CIS leaders to beef up their former- Soviet borders by joining a Russia-led security...
