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The Mainichi
4 days ago
- Business
- The Mainichi
US-Japan: Reimagining an alliance for a fractured world
The following is a contribution to the Mainichi Shimbun from Michael Schiffer, who served as assistant administrator of the Bureau for Asia at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was dismantled by the Donald Trump administration. In his contribution, Schiffer discusses the future of the Japan-U.S. alliance. -- In the first six months of the second Trump administration, the U.S.-Japan alliance has been rocked by renewed uncertainty. Although the July 22 tariff agreement has relieved some of the immediate pressure, the negotiations were contentious and drawn-out, with the White House's threats to impose fresh tariffs on Japanese automobiles and agriculture, coupled with demands that Tokyo increase its host-nation support for U.S. forces and step up its security commitments in the region -- demands that may have contributed to the "postponement" of a planned 2+2 meeting earlier this month -- reviving painful memories of the trade wars and alliance strains of the 1980s. Trump's public questioning of whether the United States will live up to its alliance commitments, alongside his erratic posture on Ukraine and unilateral cuts to foreign assistance programs -- including those supporting Indo-Pacific infrastructure and governance -- have further shaken confidence in the reliability of American leadership. At a time when the foundational pillars of the post-war world are cracking under the combined weight of technological upheaval, environmental crisis, demographic transformation, and a new era of great-power rivalry, these moves have undermined the sense of strategic stability that has long defined an alliance that has served as the cornerstone for peace, security and prosperity for Tokyo and Washington alike. In the face of these structural changes, alliance managers must move beyond the conceptual mainstream, and seek to imagine a new world rather than continue to act as custodians of a fading order, attempting to solve 21st-century problems with 20th-century blueprints and defending the sanctity of an alliance built for a world that no longer exists. And yet, Japan remains one of America's most capable, trusted, and forward-looking allies. With its advanced economy, technological prowess, and increasingly assertive defense policy, Japan is uniquely positioned to work with the United States on the basis of shared interests and shared values to navigate the strategic challenges of a more contested Indo-Pacific -- and the generational challenge of a more assertive and aggressive China, with its own vision for what the regional and global order should look like. Neither the U.S. or Japan are likely to be successful in this undertaking alone, and even less so if Washington and Tokyo are working at cross-purposes. Doing so will also require more than a reaffirmation of old commitments. The rapidly changing global geostrategic and geoeconomic landscapes demand a fundamental reimagining of the alliance -- across economic, technological, diplomatic, and military domains. The rise of a more assertive China -- militarizing the South and East China Seas, threatening Taiwan, weaponizing economic coercion, and seeking to shape global norms to its advantage -- has made clear that alliances anchored in Cold War-era assumptions about roles, missions and capabilities are no longer sufficient. Tokyo recognizes this: Japan has undertaken a historic defense build-up, doubled its defense budget, and committed to acquiring counterstrike capabilities, signaling a Japan that is ready to be not just a junior partner, but a co-equal shaper of regional stability. The United States must meet this moment with strategic imagination, not just a narrowly construed "America First" transnationalism. That means moving beyond instrumental debates over cost-sharing to deepen integration across defense planning, technological innovation, and economic resilience. The U.S.-Japan alliance faces a precarious security landscape, one demanding immediate and decisive action. From China's assertive military expansion and "gray zone" tactics in the East and South China Seas, particularly around the Senkaku Islands and Taiwan, to North Korea's relentless pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, the Indo-Pacific is increasingly volatile, all part and parcel of an international system that is rapidly evolving from X to Y. Given the scope and scale of these challenges, we cannot afford complacency. It is imperative that Washington and Tokyo accelerate our joint development of next-generation defense technologies -- AI-enabled command systems, autonomous platforms, cyber defense -- and fast-tracking the co-development and deployment of advanced technologies, strengthening integrated air and missile defense systems, and ensuring seamless interoperability of our forces across all domains. This will help the alliance to deter aggression and operate effectively in an era defined by multi-domain conflict. The time to act is now, not only to safeguard our shared security interests but to uphold regional stability and to set the rules for the evolving international order against growing authoritarian challenges. Economically, the alliance must focus on shaping the rules of the road for the 21st century. With the Trans-Pacific Partnership long abandoned, the U.S. and Japan should spearhead digital trade agreements, investment screening regimes, and supply chain partnerships that insulate both economies from coercive pressures. Initiatives like the U.S.-Japan Economic Policy Consultative Committee (EPCC) should be scaled up into a formal economic dialogue akin to the 2+2 defense framework, driving coordination on geoeconomic strategy. While headlines may be dominated by tariffs and calls for economic rebalancing, it's crucial to recognize these discussions as echoes of a bygone era. While there are valid arguments for rebalancing, obsessing over trade deficits and protectionist measures risks diverting our focus from the true challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. The global economic landscape has fundamentally shifted, and our attention must pivot from the battles of the past to the imperative of co-leading the future. This means looking beyond traditional trade in goods to foster deeper collaboration and shared investments in areas like the governance of emerging technologies, resilient supply chains, and the green economy, ensuring our alliance is not just economically balanced but future-proofed. Finally, Japan and the United States should jointly invest in regional capacity-building -- from infrastructure finance to maritime domain awareness to climate resilience. This means reconsidering cuts to foreign assistance and treating development as a strategic instrument. Japan's extensive development networks and America's innovation ecosystem can be combined to offer a robust alternative to China's Belt and Road. To meet the test of this moment, the U.S.-Japan alliance must become more than a security arrangement. It must be a platform for shared strategy, innovation, and governance in the Indo-Pacific. The future of the U.S.-Japan alliance hinges on our willingness to confront the present with clear eyes and bold action. This isn't a moment for nostalgia; it's a demand for strategic reimagining. We must move beyond outdated notions of stability and influence to rebuild an alliance fit for a fragmented and fast-moving world. This means prioritizing investment beyond military modernization to include the governance of emerging technologies. It requires us to fully integrate climate adaptation and economic competitiveness as core pillars of national security. And critically, it compels us to evolve the institutions and coalitions -- both formal and informal -- that are essential for managing geopolitical volatility and for competing effectively with the PRC. The past six months have been challenging for Tokyo and Washington. But we have an opportunity to seize the moment to forge an alliance that is not just resilient, but truly transformative for the 21st century. Profile: Michael Schiffer has served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, senior advisor and counselor on the Democratic Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and assistant administrator of the USAID Bureau for Asia. His areas of expertise include U.S. foreign and defense policy, and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
Boston Globe
30-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump's USAID cuts hobble earthquake response in Myanmar
But a three-person USAID assessment team is not expected to arrive until Wednesday, people with knowledge of the deployment efforts said. The overall US response has been slower than under normal circumstances, people who have worked on earlier disaster relief efforts as well as on aid to Myanmar said. Chinese search-and-rescue teams, complete with dogs trained to sniff out trapped people, are already on the ground in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city and one of the places most deeply affected by the quake. China has pledged $14 million for Myanmar quake relief, sending 126 rescue workers and six dogs, along with medical kits, drones, and earthquake detectors. Advertisement 'Being charitable and being seen as charitable serves American foreign policy,' said Michael Schiffer, the assistant administrator of the USAID bureau for Asia from 2022 until earlier this year. 'If we don't show up and China shows up, that sends a pretty strong message.' On Sunday, the US Embassy in Myanmar announced on its website that the United States would provide up to $2 million in aid, dispersed through humanitarian groups based in Myanmar. But many of the systems needed to funnel US aid to Myanmar have been shattered. On Friday, as some employees in Washington in USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance were preparing a response to the earthquake, they received agency-wide layoff emails. Career diplomats working for USAID and other employees had been bracing for layoffs for weeks; Trump political appointees in Washington had already fired most of the contractors working for the agency. Advertisement The employees who received layoff notices were told they should go home that afternoon. Some had been coordinating with aid missions in Bangkok and Manila, the Philippines, which handle disaster response in Asia. Two of the employees in Washington had expected to move this winter to Yangon, in Myanmar, and to Bangkok to work as humanitarian assistance advisers out of the US missions there. But those positions were cut. Had they not been, the two employees would have been on the ground to organize urgent responses to the earthquake. After the disaster hit Friday, the US Embassy in Yangon sent a cable to USAID headquarters in Washington to start the process of evaluating aid needs and getting help out the door. And the next day, a Trump administration political appointee in USAID, Tim Meisburger, held a call with officials from national security agencies to discuss a plan. But Meisburger said that although there would be a response, no one should expect the agency's capabilities to be what they were in the past, said a person with direct knowledge of the call. A USAID spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. The agency typically has access to food and emergency supplies in warehouses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Subang Jaya, Malaysia. But the big question now is how quickly, after being almost fully dismantled, it can get goods from those places into Myanmar. The goods include medical kits that can each serve the health care needs of 30,000 people for over three months. Apart from career diplomats, the ranks of the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance have included crisis specialist contractors who live around the world and can deploy quickly in what are called Disaster Assistance Response Teams. Many of those contractors have been fired, and the infrastructure to support them in Washington and other offices — people who can book flights and manage payments, for instance — was crippled by cuts over the past two months. Advertisement The agency would also usually put certified search-and-rescue teams in Virginia and Southern California on alert for possible deployment to the disaster zone, but transportation contracts for those teams have been cut, said one former aid agency employee. At a news conference in Jamaica last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would continue foreign aid work, though in drastically reduced form. He said the aim was to provide aid 'that is strategically aligned with our foreign policy priorities and the priorities of our host countries and our nation states that we're partners with.' On Friday, Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, said that crisis teams stood ready to deploy to Myanmar. The United States' ability to provide lifesaving aid has been hampered not just by budget cuts but by obstacles in Myanmar itself. Since grabbing power in 2021, Myanmar's military junta has closed off the country from Western influences. Myanmar is now embroiled in civil war, with a loose coalition of opposition forces having wrested control of more than half of the country's territory. The United States and other Western nations have responded to the junta's brutal human rights record with sanctions, and the military chief who orchestrated the coup, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has railed against the West, thanking China and Russia for ideological and economic support. Nevertheless, in the hours after the earthquake struck, Min Aung Hlaing said he welcomed outside disaster relief aid — and not just from countries with friendly relations with the military regime. Advertisement Myanmar experts say they are concerned that some of the aid that goes through the junta could be diverted to the armed forces. The Myanmar military is underfunded and short on morale as it fights resistance forces on many fronts. This article originally appeared in
New York Times
30-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's U.S.A.I.D. Cuts Hobble Earthquake Response in Myanmar
China, Russia and India have dispatched emergency teams and supplies to earthquake-ravaged Myanmar. So have Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. The United States, the richest country in the world and once its most generous provider of foreign aid, has sent nothing. Even as President Trump was dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, he said that American help was on its way to Myanmar, where a 7.7-magnitude earthquake ripped through the country's heavily populated center on Friday. More than 1,700 people were killed, according to Myanmar's military government, with the death toll expected to climb steeply as more bodies are uncovered in the rubble and rescue teams reach remote villages. But a three-person U.S.A.I.D. assessment team is not expected to arrive until Wednesday, people with knowledge of the deployment efforts said. The overall American response has been slower than under normal circumstances, people who have worked on earlier disaster relief efforts as well as on aid to Myanmar said. Chinese search-and-rescue teams, complete with dogs trained to sniff out trapped people, are already on the ground in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city and one of the places most deeply affected by the quake. China has pledged $14 million for Myanmar quake relief, sending 126 rescue workers and six dogs, along with medical kits, drones and earthquake detectors. 'Being charitable and being seen as charitable serves American foreign policy,' said Michael Schiffer, the assistant administrator of the U.S.A.I.D. bureau for Asia from 2022 until earlier this year. 'If we don't show up and China shows up, that sends a pretty strong message.' On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar announced on its website that the United States would provide up to $2 million in aid, dispersed through humanitarian groups based in Myanmar. But many of the systems needed to funnel American aid to Myanmar have been shattered. On Friday, as some employees in Washington in U.S.A.I.D.'s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance were preparing a response to the earthquake, they received agencywide layoff emails. Career diplomats working for U.S.A.I.D. and other employees had been bracing for layoffs for weeks; Trump political appointees in Washington had already fired most of the contractors working for the agency. The employees who received layoff notices were told they should go home that afternoon. Some had been coordinating with aid missions in Bangkok and Manila, which handle disaster response in Asia. Two of the employees in Washington had expected to move this winter to Yangon, in Myanmar, and to Bangkok to work as humanitarian assistance advisers out of the U.S. missions there. But those positions were cut. Had they not been, the two employees would have been on the ground to organize urgent responses to the earthquake. After the disaster hit on Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Yangon sent a cable to U.S.A.I.D. headquarters in Washington to start the process of evaluating aid needs and getting help out the door. And the next day, a Trump administration political appointee in U.S.A.I.D., Tim Meisburger, held a call with officials from national security agencies to discuss a plan. But Mr. Meisburger said that although there would be a response, no one should expect the agency's capabilities to be what they were in the past, said a person with direct knowledge of the call. A U.S.A.I.D. spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. The agency typically has access to food and emergency supplies in warehouses in Dubai and Subang Jaya, Malaysia. But the big question now is how quickly, after being almost fully dismantled, it can get goods from those places into Myanmar. The goods include medical kits that can each serve the health care needs of 30,000 people for over three months. Apart from career diplomats, the ranks of the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance have included crisis specialist contractors who live around the globe and can deploy quickly in what are called Disaster Assistance Response Teams. Many of those contractors have been fired, and the infrastructure to support them in Washington and other offices — people who can book flights and manage payments, for instance — was crippled by cuts over the last two months. The agency would also usually put certified search-and-rescue teams in Virginia and Southern California on alert for possible deployment to the disaster zone, but transportation contracts for those teams have been cut, said one former aid agency employee. U.S.A.I.D.'s annual allocations for Myanmar were about $320 million last year. About $170 million of that was for humanitarian work, and the rest was for development initiatives, like democracy building and health. Only a few million dollars' worth of projects remain operational, though some of those programs, like one for maternal and child health, have not received funding despite being told the initiatives are not being closed down. Before the cuts, the annual costs of total U.S. foreign aid were less than 1 percent of the federal budget. At a news conference in Jamaica last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would continue foreign aid work, though in drastically reduced form. He said the aim was to provide aid 'that is strategically aligned with our foreign policy priorities and the priorities of our host countries and our nation states that we're partners with.' On Friday, Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said that crisis teams stood ready to deploy to Myanmar. The United States' ability to provide lifesaving aid has been hampered not just by budgets cuts but by obstacles in Myanmar itself. Since grabbing power in 2021, Myanmar's military junta has closed off the country from Western influences. Myanmar is now embroiled in civil war, with a loose coalition of opposition forces having wrested control of more than half of the country's territory. The United States and other Western nations have responded to the junta's brutal human rights record with sanctions, and the military chief who orchestrated the coup, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has railed against the West, thanking China and Russia for ideological and economic support. Nevertheless, in the hours after the earthquake struck, General Min Aung Hlaing said he welcomed outside disaster relief aid — and not just from countries with friendly relations with the military regime. Myanmar experts say they are concerned that some of the aid that goes through the junta could be diverted to the armed forces. The Myanmar military is underfunded and short on morale as it fights resistance forces on many fronts. In Mandalay, residents said they were upset to see soldiers lounging around the sites of collapsed buildings. Some played video games on their phones, while locals used their hands to pry bricks from the rubble. Still, Chinese and Russian search-and-rescue teams, outfitted in orange and blue uniforms, were digging through the wreckage in Mandalay on Sunday, and a Belgian squad was making its way north. A good chunk of U.S.A.I.D. funding had been dedicated to areas of the country not under junta control. American assistance has gone to health care and schooling for internally displaced people. It has supported local administrations that are trying to form mini-governments in conflict areas. And it has tried to provide emergency relief to civilians battered by junta airstrikes. In the region of Sagaing, a stronghold of resistance against the junta, Myanmar military jets carried out two rounds of airstrikes on Nwel Khwe village hours after the earthquake destroyed buildings there, adding more terror to residents' lives. 'It's as if Min Aung Hlaing wants to make sure we die, if not from the earthquake, then from his attacks,' said one villager, Ko Aung Kyaw. But Mr. Aung Kyaw said he did not expect foreigners, American or otherwise, to be able to alleviate the situation. Sagaing has suffered for four years, and its people have died by the thousands in fighting the junta. Foreign aid, he said, would most likely end up benefiting the military regime, not those who most need it. 'In the end, we have only ourselves,' he said. 'We've been resisting for four years now, and it's clear that we'll have to find our own way forward, no matter what.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's halt to foreign aid rattles humanitarian groups across Asia and their US partners
Conflict tracking in Myanmar. Investigations of Chinese human trafficking. Refugee healthcare in Thailand. Strengthening independent media in Mongolia. Environmental conservation in Tibet. These are just a few of the Asia-focused programmes operating with US government funds that risk permanent closure after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week suspending all foreign aid, pending review. Activists and aid workers across Asia and their American partners are reeling, describing the situation as "chaotic" and "nightmarish" as US officials notify groups they must obey a "stop-work" order. Uncertain about future funding, some groups have already put their employees on unpaid leave. Many more workers expect to be furloughed in the coming weeks, if not laid off. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Of the US$68 billion of foreign aid approved by Congress and committed in the 2023 fiscal year, about US$6 billion was allocated to East, South and Central Asia. In 2023, the last year for which data is fully available, top recipient countries included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and the Philippines, with funding supporting everything from democracy promotion to potentially life-saving treatment and shelter. For some countries - including China - US grants can have an outsize impact in areas deemed sensitive by local governments. Some of the more sensitive projects in China focused on the rule of law and human rights development. Military assistance to Taiwan and the Philippines, in the form of grants and loans for equipment, services, and training, has also been halted. In 2023, the US extended US$135 million in credit to Taiwan and US$40 million to the Philippines under a State Department programme called "foreign military financing". Former officials and non-profit leaders called the suspension unprecedented, going far beyond typical aid reassessments in previous US administrations, and warned that despite the shutdown's temporary nature, many programmes would be hard to bring back; some could disappear altogether. "There is no such thing as a temporary pause," said Michael Schiffer, a former assistant administrator of the Asia bureau of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). "When an NGO, a small business or an American company that receives US government funding to implement US foreign assistance is told to stop work, even for 90 days, that means people are fired, expertise is lost, and programmes are shut down with no guarantee they'll start back up, even if they survive the review," he said. The impact could be particularly significant for certain sectors. "The freeze, if it persists, could dramatically reshape Chinese civil society, both inside and outside China, for years to come," said Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Centre for Asian Law at Georgetown University, who previously oversaw grant-making for Chinese civil society. For those supporting the executive order, the elimination of certain initiatives appeared to be the goal. Former US representative Ron Paul, a reported adviser to Elon Musk - the tech mogul running the "Department of Government Efficiency" - has pushed vocally for the elimination of foreign aid. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that US officials had told some aid groups that programmes promoting climate resilience, diversity and women's reproductive rights were all but certain to not survive the review. The executive order, issued on the first day of Trump's second term, described the US foreign aid bureaucracy and aid network as "not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values". "They serve to destabilise world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries," the order said. Trump's order proposed a 90-day review of foreign assistance programmes to determine whether they should be maintained, modified or eliminated. A separate order, issued the same day, directed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to adopt an "America-first foreign policy". A directive from Rubio, released on Friday, ordered the suspension of all new funding commitments through the US State Department and USAID; it also issued stop-work orders for existing aid programmes. Rubio's directive provides some exceptions, including military aid to Egypt and Israel, as well as emergency food assistance. On Tuesday, Rubio approved an additional waiver for "life-saving humanitarian assistance" and said that groups could apply for other humanitarian exemptions. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the suspension on Friday of all new funding commitments through the US State Department and USAID, with some exceptions. Photo: AFP alt=US Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the suspension on Friday of all new funding commitments through the US State Department and USAID, with some exceptions. Photo: AFP> This came as news broke of refugee health services operated by the International Rescue Committee being suspended along the Thailand-Myanmar border. Still, vast swathes of aid are not exempt. In the US, affected organisations - many working directly with partners in Asia - have been advised against publicly discussing the impact of the shutdown as they try to devise a strategy to engage the Trump administration. Smaller non-profit groups are expected to bear the brunt of the impact. Aue Mon, a programme director at the Thailand-based Human Rights Foundation of Monland, said that the pause was already affecting efforts to document conflicts in southeastern Myanmar. "To cope in the short term, we're leaning on a small reserve from non-US sources to sustain our core operations," he said, adding that the group has already scaled back some activities and might soon face "difficult decisions" about staffing. In light of the funding suspension, China Labor Watch, a New York-based group founded in 2000 to expose labour abuses in Chinese factories and build worker solidarity, has put two staff members on unpaid leave and shifted others to hourly pay. According to its founder Li Qiang, the disruption damages the credibility of the US as a reliable partner. "Even if the US increases funding for China-related initiatives in the future, the trust and partnerships lost due to this sudden disruption will significantly limit the effectiveness of those efforts," he said. There is some bipartisan recognition of the potential harm of rolling back foreign aid. Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are pushing for the resumption of aid, as well as the return of other programmes like refugee resettlement also halted by Trump during his first days in office. "These actions undermine America's credibility and put US diplomats, American implementers, and vulnerable people around the world at risk," Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the committee's senior Democrat, wrote in a Monday letter signed by 21 other Democrats. And at a hearing on January 22, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, noted that getting rid of foreign aid - which makes up less than 1 per cent of the US government budget - would not balance the budget. "I think soft power is a critical component of defending America and our values," he said. "If you don't get involved in the world and you don't have programmes in Africa where China is trying to buy the whole continent, we're making a mistake." "Soft power is a critical component of defending America and our values," US Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said. Photo: EPA-EFE alt="Soft power is a critical component of defending America and our values," US Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said. Photo: EPA-EFE> On Monday, the Trump administration put dozens of top career officials at the USAID on administrative leave. Separately, it issued a memo suspending all grants and loans disbursed by the federal government. That order, which was temporarily halted by a federal judge on Tuesday and rescinded by the White House on Wednesday, wrought alarm within the aid community as it could have further affected Asia-focused programmes. Some analysts noted that the suspension of foreign aid was equivalent to "handing a gift" to countries like China seeking to exert their reach abroad through influence campaigns and development financing. "Foreign assistance, though charitable, isn't charity," Schiffer said. "It's a strategic investment that safeguards America's most important interests while reflecting its highest values." Like other critics, Schiffer argued that the programmes could be reviewed without imposing an almost universal stop-work order. Others contended it was too soon to say that the aid suspension would ultimately give China a strategic advantage. "I don't think it necessarily has the effect of ceding ground to China," said Yun Sun, the director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington. The suspension, she noted, was aimed at "better tailoring the aid projects to meet US national interests". This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
