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In today's bulletin: China's top diplomat warns the Biden administration against crossing its 'red line'; Myanmar bets big on China; WHO's Covid-19 probe team makes headway in Wuhan; Pentagon signs another deal with Australia's Lynas to process rare earth; and more.

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China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi warns Biden not to cross China's 'red line'

China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi warned America not to cross the country's "red line" in a message that reflected the tensions that still prevail in the world's most important relationship.

Yang, a former foreign minister who is part of the Communist Party's 25-member Politburo, was addressing the New York based National Committee on US-China Relations.

Yang urged the US to stop "harassing Chinese students, restricting Chinese media outlets, shutting down Confucius Institutes and suppressing Chinese companies" and said Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang affairs were a "red line that must not be crossed."

Reports said his address was Beijing's most high-profile message to America after President Joe Biden's inauguration. It follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken's remarks that the US should give "haven" to people fleeing political repression in Hong Kong. Blinken has previously said that China's policies toward its Muslim minority in Xinjiang amounted to genocide.

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Calls for Suu Kyi's release; Is Myanmar banking on China's help?

Myanmar's generals were in firm control a day after their lightning coup on Monday as calls went up for the release of National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ousted President Win Myint, and several others.

The United States threatened to re-impose sanctions on Myanmar's generals but China's reaction evoked surprise. While Beijing's reaction to the coup was muted, Chinese state media referred to the takeover as a "major Cabinet reshuffle". The nationalist Global Times referred to the episode as "an adjustment to the country's dysfunctional power structure".

The turn of events has led some experts to reflect on the changing influence of the United States and China in the region. Japan's Defence Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, meanwhile, urged the world's democracies to keep communication channels with Myanmar's generals open to ensure Yangon doesn't slide into the arms of China.

Read more

Military gives up 'cohabitation' with civilian government

Myanmar military takeover threatens country's development: World Bank

WHO's Covid-19 visits animal health facility in Wuhan

The World Health Organisation's Covid-19 probe team has been making much progress during their visit to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus infections outbreak, but it wasn't still clear if they would have answers to questions about the origin of the virus.

The independent team has visited key hospitals, the regional disease control centre and the city's Huanan seafood market, where the first cluster of infections was believed to have originated late in 2019.

The WHO team is due to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology later this week. While some believe that the virus originated in China's disturbed ecosystems, others believe it could have leaked from the Institute.

Pentagon's deal with Australia's Lynas for rare earths quest to reduce China's monopoly

America's Defence department awarded a US$30.4 million contract to Australia's Lynas Rare Earths Ltd to build a facility in Texas that would process specialised minerals that are used to make missiles, electronics, wind turbines and other goods.

This is the second contract awarded to Lynas as America tries to increase its own supply of rare earth metals. The world's largest producer of rare earth minerals is China and Beijing has threatened to stop rare earth mineral exports to the US.

Cash-strapped Pyongyang's cyber thefts against the South

North Korea is suspected to have launched an average of 1.5 million cyber attacks per day in 2020 against the South Korean public sector, such as financial and infrastructure systems, and many were attempts to steal money, reports said.

There's also been a substantial increase in the number of attacks, sources said. Public sector cyber attacks numbered an average of 410,000 per day in 2016, but the figure increased about fourfold to 1.62 million in 2020.

In other news

Japan could restart Go To Travel push in March: Japan could look to reinstate its domestic travel incentive programme in March, a senior ruling party official said, raising hopes for the revival of domestic tourism. The campaign was postponed in December after a surge of Covid-19 infections, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga only backing down amid public and expert criticism of the scheme.

Tesla apologises to China's state grid: Tesla has publicly apologised to State Grid of China after a video showed one of the carmaker's staff purportedly telling a customer that an overload in the national grid damaged their electric vehicle. The power company denied the allegations and maintained that their "power grid has been operating at a stable voltage, and no abnormality has been detected."

Sriwijaya Air plane parts sent to US, UK for checks: Indonesia's air accident investigator has sent five components of the crashed Sriwijaya Air jet to the United States and Britain for examination, including the autothrottle that controls engine power automatically. The accident on Jan 9 left all 62 people on board dead.

Thanks for reading today's newsletter. We will be back tomorrow.

Shefali

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