Asia

Chinese officials warned on Monday that Vice President Mike Pence could destabilize the South China Sea by appearing at this week’s meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. China warned the U.S. and other “outside powers” to refrain from disrupting China’s plans to draft a code of conduct for the South China Sea.China’s state-run Global Times muttered about Pence stirring up trouble at the ASEAN summit when it kicks off on Tuesday: “The South China Sea situation has been stable, but since US Vice President Mike Pence is expected to attend the summit, the topic might be put forward,” Li Kaisheng, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday. China and the ASEAN countries have come to a consensus on the South China Sea issue, which is to control hostilities over the divergence and adhere to the Code of Conduct in the South … [Read more...] about China Bristles at Mike Pence Visit to Southeast Asia Summit

Like many people in this age of weaponized migration, I’m increasingly wary of asylum claims. But if anyone deserved rescuing by the benign and civilized West from a foreign hellhole it’s Asia Bibi – the woman who has been held in solitary confinement in a Pakistani prison for nine years under sentence of death on trumped up blasphemy charges.Her crime? Being a Christian in a country swarming with Islamists. If she stays she faces almost certain death. Two of the politicians who bravely defended her – Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti – have already been assassinated, while her lawyer Saif Mulook has fled to the Netherlands. But where can she go? The obvious place would be the country with the strongest cultural and historical ties to the Indian subcontinent, the one that included what’s now known as Pakistan as part of its Empire for more than two centuries. Unfortunately, the British government appears to have wussed out. Theresa May … [Read more...] about Delingpole: Trump Should Offer Asylum to Asia Bibi

Islamists reportedly attacked travelers in Pakistan who identified themselves as Christians in the wake of the decision by the Supreme Court to rescind the 2010 death sentence against Asia Bibi for alleged blasphemy, CNN reported on Sunday. Breitbart News has long reported that Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law is disproportionally used target religious minorities, particularly Christians.Human rights groups have determined that Muslims often use the law to settle personal disputes and vendettas. Peter Jacob, the executive director for the Center for Social Justice in Lahore, told CNN that half of the individuals accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are non-Muslims, adding that his organization registered cases in which anti-Bibi rioters asked travelers to divulge their religion, and if they revealed they were Christian, “They were taken out of their cars and beaten up.” “The mental and psychological scars” inflicted on the Christian community will endure … [Read more...] about Report: Unable to Reach Asia Bibi, Pakistan’s Islamists Attacking Random Christians