Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Sept 2 (Reuters) - China will implement an audit agreement with the United States announced last week and will strengthen communication with foreign investors, a senior Chinese securities regulatory official said on Friday.

Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), also told a forum that China would expand mutual access between mainland and Hong Kong, and would support the city's role as a global listing venue.

TAIPEI, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The shooting down of a drone off the Chinese coast that buzzed a Taiwanese-controlled island was the most "appropriate" thing to do after repeated warnings, and China should exercise restraint, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Friday.

For the first time, Taiwan's military shot down an unidentified civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet near China's Xiamen city on Thursday, after the government vowed tough measures against a rise in intrusions. 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An initial set of Chinese-made train cars for Indonesia’s first high-speed railway arrived in Jakarta’s port on Friday.

The 142.3-kilometer (88.4-mile) railway worth $5.5 billion is being constructed by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China, a joint venture between an Indonesian consortium of four state-owned companies and China Railway International Co. Ltd. The joint venture says the trains will be the fastest in Southeast Asia.

BEIJING (AP) — Hours after yet another assessment by outside observers that China’s crackdown in its far-west Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stepped up to a podium to go on the offensive.

“The so-called assessment you mentioned is orchestrated and produced by the U.S. and some Western forces,” and is a “a political tool” meant to contain China, he said.

BEIJING, Sep 1 (APP): China will continue to offer assistance to Pakistan and the China’s International Department Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) has established a Joint Working Group (JWP) with Pakistani side on implementing follow up cooperation with regard to emergency disaster relief, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.

VIENTIANE, Sept 1 (NNN-KPL) – Personnel from the Lao and Cambodian armies will continue their cooperation in border security, as well as, humanitarian assistance, especially during natural disasters.

Cooperation between the two countries in these fields was discussed when Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and Commander of the Royal Cambodian Army, Hun Manet, and senior army staff visited Laos from Monday to Wednesday.

TOKYO, Sept 1 (NNN-NHK) – Japan’s government departments submitted yesterday, their general-account budget requests, for fiscal 2023, totaling over 110 trillion yen (790 billion U.S. dollars), with defence spending hitting a record high.

JAKARTA, Sept 1 (NNN-ANTARA) – Eleven people were killed and 19 others injured, many of them children, in a traffic accident, in the Bekasi town of Indonesia’s West Java province, yesterday, officials said.

Jakarta police traffic director, Senior Commissioner Latif Usman, said that, the incident took place on a street near an elementary school.

TAIPEI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - China has been simulating attacks on U.S. Navy ships and is aiming to prevent foreign forces from coming to Taiwan's aid in the event of a war, Taiwan's defence ministry said in a strongly worded report raising the alarm on Beijing's military designs.

Tensions between Taiwan and China have soared following a visit to Taipei last month by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which infuriated Beijing, which viewed it as an interference in its affairs.

TAIPEI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Taiwan looks forward to producing "democracy chips" with the United States, President Tsai Ing-wen told the visiting governor of the U.S. state of Arizona, Doug Ducey, on Thursday, the latest in a string of senior officials from the county to visit.

Taiwan has been keen to show the United States, its most important international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, that it is a reliable friend as a global chip crunch impacts auto production and consumer electronics.