Ahead of Friday’s ruling, schools, embassies, major corporations, tourist sites and museums near the courthouse announced they would be closed.

Lee Ho-young, acting chief of the Korean National Police Agency, has said the ongoing situation has become “more grave than ever”, citing “threats to the safety of key figures” and possibility of violent and illegal incidents.

Yoon plunged democratic South Korea into political turmoil when he declared martial law on Dec 3, suspending civilian rule and sending soldiers to parliament.

The suspended president still commands the backing of extreme supporters – who include controversial religious figures and YouTubers – who have staged protests for weeks in the run-up to the verdict.

Pro-Yoon rallies turned violent in January when extremist supporters, angered by the court’s approval of Yoon’s formal arrest warrant, stormed a Seoul courthouse, injuring at least 50 police officers and vandalising the building by smashing windows and doors.

Since the martial law bid, South Korea has effectively been “a leaderless state” and “unable to effectively stem the tide of violence”, Vladimir Tikhonov, Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, told AFP.

Police said its forces will also be deployed to the National Assembly, media companies and the headquarters of both ruling and opposition parties.

In Seoul, more than 14,000 riot police will be deployed, and are currently closely monitoring around 20 YouTubers for possible violations and illegal actions, police said.

At least six of the Constitutional Court’s eight justices must vote to remove Yoon. Otherwise, he will be reinstated.

More than 1 billion parcels from China entered the US in 2023, with Shein and Temu likely accounting for a combined 30 per cent of that volume, according to a report by the US congressional committee on China. 

Around 1.36 billion Chinese shipments entered the country in 2024, US Customs and Border Protection data showed. 

Analysts say the move will be especially disruptive for smaller sellers operating through Chinese e-commerce platforms, which target US shoppers and consumers directly – a business model relying on ultra-fast, low-cost shipping to undercut US retailers. 

Under the new rules, such products face not only tariffs but also customs delays, compliance hurdles, and higher logistics costs.

“It will definitely slow the (parcel screening) process and exporters will probably see their packages being stopped at the border for investigation for a very long time,” said Guo. “This would be a bigger headache which they previously did not really have to bother with.”

Chinese companies already seeing “razor-thin” profit margins would have little room to absorb additional costs, according to EIU’s Su, who adds that the new tariffs will “ultimately likely be passed on to US consumers partially after part of the cost is absorbed by US retailers”.  

Over the years, some Chinese manufacturers have been rerouting shipments through Southeast Asian countries to circumvent US tariffs – leveraging free trade agreements and integrated production chains across countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia.

However, that escape route will likely no longer be a “cost-effective alternative” as nations in the region also face hefty US tariffs now hitting both ends of this supply chain. 

“Rerouting Chinese exports may fail in countries like Vietnam, where exports were previously rerouted in part, and are (now) also being hit hard,” said Josef Gregory Mahoney, professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University.

Chinese firms will likely pivot to new markets, in the months ahead, Mahoney added.  

KUALA LUMPUR: The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended as it is “not the season”, Malaysia’s transport minister said, more than a decade after the plane went missing.

“They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday (Apr 3) by his aide.

“Right now, it’s not the season,” Loke said in the recording, which was made during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on Mar 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.

Loke’s comments come a little over a month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the Indian Ocean.

An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 sq km in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.

Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.

“Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate,” Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s government said on Thursday (Apr 3) that US tariffs levied on the island were unreasonable and it would discuss them with Washington, partly blaming US tech curbs on China in President Donald Trump’s first term for driving the trade imbalance.

Trump on Wednesday announced across the board import tariffs, with much higher duties for dozens of trading partners, including Taiwan which runs a large trade surplus with the United States and will have a 32 per cent duty placed on its products.

The US tariffs, however, do not apply to semiconductors, a major Taiwan export.

Taiwan’s cabinet said in a statement that it regretted the “unreasonable” US tariffs and it would seek clarification and continue talks with Washington to ensure Taiwan’s interests were protected.

How the US has calculated the tariffs was unclear and did not reflect the complementary trade structure between the two sides, the cabinet said.

Taiwan’s exports to and trade surplus with the US have increased because of US demand for semiconductors, and artificial intelligence-related products, as well as Trump’s first-term tariffs and controls on China, it added.

This resulted in “the shift of Taiwan’s supply chain back to Taiwan and an increase in US demand for Taiwan’s information and communications products, reflecting the huge contribution of Taiwan to the US economy and national security”, the cabinet said.

During Trump’s first term in office from 2017 to 2021, he placed some Chinese companies on trade blacklists that curbed their access to crucial US hardware and software, benefiting US ally Taiwan as orders shifted to Taiwanese firms.

Taiwanese government officials have repeatedly said trade with the US has been skewed by an insatiable demand for Taiwanese technology products, such as advanced semiconductors – a sector dominated by the island, home to major chipmaker TSMC.

TSMC last month announced a new US$100 billion investment in the US.

The company declined to comment on the tariffs, saying it was in its quiet period ahead of its first-quarter earnings on Apr 17.

SINGAPORE: Aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea, global scam operations and the new United States leadership are the top three geopolitical concerns of Southeast Asian governments this year, according to thought leaders in the region polled by a Singapore research institute.

With President Donald Trump inaugurated for a second term on Jan 20, new US leadership shot up on the list of geopolitical concerns in the 2025 edition of The State of Southeast Asia survey by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute released on Thursday (Apr 3).

Cited by 46.9 per cent of respondents, it saw a surge from last year when the 2024 US presidential election took 8th spot among 10 options, with only 18.8 per cent considering it to be among the top concerns of their country’s government. 

The survey was conducted both online and offline between Jan 3 and Feb 15, with just under half the responses garnered before Trump took office, and the remainder after. There were “no discernible differences” in results recorded in the two periods, said ISEAS.

Since he took office, Trump has focused on countries with large trade imbalances with the US. The US Department of Commerce’s 2024 data shows Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia are among them.

Sweeping tariffs are also due to come into effect on Thursday (Apr 3), with  a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the US and higher duties on dozens of other countries.

Trump has also suggested Asian countries should pay for US security commitments. 

The US leadership concern was particularly prominent among Singaporeans, with over 70 per cent of them citing it as a preoccupation, ISEAS found. 

Its researchers noted Singapore would be impacted by any changes in US political, economic and defence policies because it is one of the US’ closest partners in the region.

“One of the biggest issues to have grabbed attention since the advent of Trump 2.0 are the allegations of export control violations of Nvidia chips in Singapore that enabled the development of China’s AI model DeepSeek,” the survey’s authors added.

MANDALAY: The head of the Myanmar junta is expected to travel to Bangkok on Thursday (Apr 3) for a regional summit, six days after the country ruled by his armed forces was pummelled by a devastating earthquake.

Min Aung Hlaing will join a BIMSTEC gathering – the seven littoral nations of the Bay of Bengal – where he will raise the response to Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake that has killed nearly 3,000 people.

Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake, but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications – as well as the country’s rumbling civil war – have hampered efforts.

Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Following reports of sporadic clashes even after the recent earthquake, the junta on Wednesday joined its opponents in calling a temporary halt to hostilities to allow relief to be delivered.

AFP journalists saw hectic scenes on Wednesday in the city of Sagaing – less than 15 kilometres from the epicentre – as hundreds of desperate people lined up for the distribution of emergency supplies.

Destruction in the city is widespread, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) reporting that one in three houses have collapsed.

Nearly a week after the quake, locals have complained of a lack of help.

“We have a well for drinking water, but we have no fuel for the water pump,” Aye Thikar told AFP.

“We also don’t know how long we will be without electricity,” she said.

The 63-year-old nun has been helping distribute relief funds to those left without basic amenities by Friday’s quake.

But many people are still in need of mosquito nets and blankets, forced to sleep outside by the tremors that either destroyed their homes or severely damaged them.

“People passing by on the road have generously donated water and food to us. We rely solely on their kindness,” she said.

BEIJING: After a 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook Myanmar on Friday (Mar 28), killing more than 2,800 people, international rescuers rushed into the devastated Southeast Asian country.

The most ubiquitous among them have been Chinese relief workers, whose blue and orange uniforms appear across videos circulating on social media.

The posts are often accompanied with expressions of gratitude toward Beijing, whose first responders – as well as their Indian and Russian colleagues – have pulled dazed survivors and bodies out from the rubble of hotels, schools, and monasteries.

The reaction marks a change in the negative reception China often receives on Myanmar’s social media because of its support for the unpopular military junta.

America’s chief geopolitical rival has so far pledged to deliver ¥100 million (US$13.76 million) worth of supplies. The first batch of aid, including tents, blankets and first aid kits arrived in Yangon on Monday, Beijing has said.

The United States, which was until recently the world’s top humanitarian donor, has offered a relatively modest US$2 million. Washington also said it would send a three-member assessment team, though their arrival has been delayed by problems obtaining visas from the military regime.

In past years, when tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters struck around the world, the US had regularly and rapidly deployed skilled rescue workers to save lives.

The American absence shows how President Donald Trump’s moves to slash the size of the US government has hobbled its ability to act during disasters, three current and former US officials told Reuters.

With Trump’s blessing, billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has enacted huge funding cuts and contractor terminations across the federal bureaucracy in the name of targeting wasteful spending.

Trump has also moved to fire nearly all US Agency for International Development staff, who oversee Washington’s disaster response efforts overseas.

A functional USAID would have activated urban search-and-rescue teams that were capable of being deployed to Myanmar in 48 hours, said Marcia Wong, formerly a top humanitarian official at USAID.

But most of the people who would have coordinated the response have been let go, while third-party partners have lost contracts, she said.

“We have created a vacuum which can allow other actors to step in,” Wong said.

Former US ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel told Reuters that while it was unlikely the junta would have allowed big US military teams to enter, Washington could still have “responded more quickly and robustly” were it not for the cuts.

The State Department, which administers the remaining USAID programs, did not immediately return a request for comment. The junta and China’s foreign ministry also did not respond to questions.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the cuts targeted programs that “did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed)” US interests. His spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters on Monday that disaster relief experts were monitoring the situation.

BATAM’S RISE

The island began to take off only in 1990 when, along with its sister island Bintan, it became part of the Singapore-Johor-Riau (SIJORI) campaign. This tripartite initiative courted international investment by leveraging its territories’ comparative advantage and good connectivity.  

Beyond international promotion, investment in Batam was catalysed by the repeal of restrictive legislation, particularly regarding equity thresholds and the ownership of industrial estates by private sector operators. Subsequently, a cohort of Japanese, European, and American electrical and electronics firms set up operations, largely managed by affiliates based in Singapore.

The Asian financial crisis of 1997 put paid to the SIJORI campaign as policymakers scrambled to contain the fallout. Nonetheless, much of the manufacturing operations that came in the 1990s stayed in the various SIJORI territories, demonstrating the economic potential of such cross-border networks.

Batam and Bintan’s economic fortunes received a further boost in 2002 when the Integrated Sourcing Initiative in the US-Singapore free trade agreement allowed electronics and medical device components procured from the islands to be included in Singapore’s customs area for shipment to the US. In 2009, all of Batam, along with parts of Bintan, were made free trade zones (FTZ), allowing duty-free imports and exports.

Over the subsequent two decades, Batam focused on its niche as an export-oriented production hub – much like Johor to its north. However, the island’s attraction began to fade as significant industrial relations crises hit it.

This led to an exodus of many of the island’s electrical and electronics producers. The impact was offset by increased investment in the shipbuilding and repair sectors. This surge, in turn, subsided due to overcapacity and obstacles to selling on the local market due to Batam’s FTZ status.

Following a collapse in tourism due to COVID-19, Batam’s economy has been on the mend. From -2.5 per cent growth in 2020, the island’s economy bounced back to 4.8 per cent in 2021 and oscillated between 6.5 and 7 per cent between 2022 and 2024. Batam has reeled in investments from solar panel, power generation and semiconductor producers. Its crowning achievement is Apple’s pledge to invest US$1 billion to manufacture AirTags on the island.

Fledgling service sectors such as animation and film, as well as data centres, have further diversified its economy. These green shoots and other target sectors will hopefully be boosted by SEZs targeting the digital economy, health, and aeronautical maintenance, repair and operation sectors. Some of these sectors are also sought after by the Johor-Singapore SEZ.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (Apr 2) that he would impose a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the US and higher duties on dozens of other countries, including some of Washington’s biggest trading partners.

Chinese imports will be hit with a 34 per cent tariff, on top of the 20 per cent levy that he previously imposed on the country. Close US allies were not spared, including the European Union, which faces a 20 per cent tariff.

Trading partners are expected to respond with countermeasures of their own. Follow our live blog for the latest reactions and analysis. 

When China implemented its one-child policy in 1980, it not only raised the barriers to marriage but also made divorce easier, further exacerbating the crisis. The divorce rate soared from 0.3 per 1,000 people in 1980 to 3.4 in 2019.

Hence, in 2021, China implemented a new civil code, following the example of the United Kingdom and France, to require a 30-day cooling-off period for divorce. But while this reduced the divorce rate to two per 1,000 people, it had rebounded to 2.6 by 2023 – much higher than Japan’s rate (1.5).

FIRST BIRTH AT OLDER AGE

The reproductive window for Chinese men and women is very short. A woman typically has 12 per cent of her eggs left by age 30, and only 3 per cent by 40.

The risk of miscarriage increases from 10 per cent for women under 30 to 20 per cent at 35, between 33 per cent and 40 per cent at 40, and between 57 per cent and 80 per cent at 45. The chance of conceiving a child with Down syndrome increases with the mother’s age, rising from one in 2,000 at age 20 to one in 350 at age 35, and up to one in 30 at age 45.

As the age of marriage is postponed, interest in raising children also declines.

That is why about two-thirds of babies worldwide are born to women aged 30 and under. In 2021, the mean age of mothers at first birth was 27 in the United States, 27 in Mexico, and only 21 in India.

By comparison, the mean age at first birth for Chinese women has risen from 25 in 2000 to 28 in 2020, with an accelerating increase in recent years. In Shanghai, it increased from 30 in 2019 to 32 in 2024.

Worse, the overall infertility rate in China has increased from between 1 per cent and 2 per cent in the 1970s to 18 per cent in 2020. More and more people are becoming infertile after marriage or after having their first child.