Asian News:

North Korea has ordered its farmers to begin planting crops, but many farms in the country have yet to be plowed due to a severe lack of adequate farming machinery, sources told RFA. During January’s Eighth Party Congress, the central government said that, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, North Korea had been too reliant on […]

Protests in Myanmar against the military coup that removed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government from power have grown in recent days despite official efforts to make organizing them difficult or even illegal. Here’s a look at who is organizing the protests and the obstacles they face: IS PROTESTING ALLOWED? It was a grey area for […]

Myanmar’s military has seized power after detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders. Troops are patrolling streets in major cities and communications are limited. The top army commander is now in charge and a one-year state of emergency has been declared, army TV announced. The move follows a landslide win by Ms […]

Vietnam has stepped up arrests and harsh gag orders on activists, independent journalists, bloggers and Facebook commenters who raise concerns or criticism of their government in 2020, rights groups said. One-party Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent has deteriorated sharply this year with a steady drumbeat of arrests in the run-up to the ruling Communist […]

Michael Nguyen, a U.S. citizen of Vietnamese ethnicity jailed in Vietnam since last year on charges of attempting to overthrow the government, has been released from prison and allowed to return to his home in California, family and media sources said on Monday. Nguyen had been serving a 12-year term, but was suddenly sent home […]

Thousands of protesters staged another anti-government rally in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Sunday to demand political reforms. Demonstrators want a revised constitution and are also calling for reform of the monarchy – a sensitive subject in Thailand. Under Thai law, anyone criticising the royal family faces long prison sentences. There have been almost daily […]

Several thousand anti-government protesters took to the streets in Thailand’s capital Saturday to demand amendments to the military-written constitution, new parliamentary elections and the end of repressive laws in the country. The protest, organized by the Liberation Youth group, was the largest since the government declared a state of emergency in March to deal with […]

At a congressional hearing today, Rep Chris Smith (R-NJ), author of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act said “the great people of Hong Kong had a sweeping, draconian, anti-democracy policy imposed upon them yesterday—the so-called National Security Law.” Smith said, “President Xi Jinping has today massively broken his government’s solemn promise embedded in […]

WASHINGTON – A wave of arrests and a one-month publishing ban on a news site over its investigations into environmental damage signal that Vietnam is suppressing criticism ahead of the country’s Party Congress, press freedom groups said. On June 12, authorities charged Le Huu Minh Tuan, from the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, with “opposing […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, June 15, 2020 CONTACT: whiaapi@doc.gov WASHINGTON, D.C. – On June 11th, the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders hosted their second virtual AAPI Business Town Hall. Chair of the Commission, Dr. Paul Hsu of Florida, provided opening remarks, in which he highlighted the many accomplishments of Asian American […]