MANILA – Chinese ships are no longer at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and Philippine boats can resume fishing, the Philippine defence minister said on Friday, calling the Chinese departure a”welcome development”.

Philippine fishermen could access the shoal unimpeded for the first time in four years, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, capping off a startling turnaround in ties since his country rattled China in 2013 by challenging its maritime claims at an international tribunal.

The departure of the Chinese coastguard comes after President Rodrigo Duterte’s high-profile visit to Beijing and follows his repeated requests for China to end its blockade of the shoal, a tranquil lagoon rich in fish stocks. “Since three days ago there are no longer Chinese ships, coastguard or navy, in the Scarborough area,” Lorenzana told reporters.

“If the Chinese ships have left then it means our fishermen can resume fishing in the area.” Though the Scarborough Shoal is comprised of only a few rocks poking above the sea some 124 nautical miles off the Philippine mainland, it is symbolic of the country’s efforts to assert its maritime sovereignty claims.

Lorenzana did not explain the circumstances of the Chinese vessels leaving the shoal, which was the centrepiece of a case Manila filed in 2013 at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.

Asked on Friday about the return of Philippine fishermen to the shoal, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made no mention of a coastguard withdrawal.

The two countries “were able to work together on issues regarding the South China Sea and appropriately resolve disputes,” Lu told a regular briefing.

The Hague court in July declared that despite the Scarborough Shoal being located within the Philippines’ 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, no one country had sovereign rights to it, so that all claimants may fish there.

PEACE OVERTURES

China has refused to recognise the case or the award, which also invalidated the nine-dash line on Chinese maps denoting its claims to most of the South China Sea.

China seized Scarborough Shoal – claimed by Beijing as Huangyan island and by Manila as Panatag – in 2012.

The previous administration’s pursuit of the case infuriated China, but it appears to have changed its stance since Duterte took office and started praising Beijing, often in the same sentences as his perplexing verbal attacks on longtime ally the United States.

Reuters exclusively reported on the eve of Duterte’s visit to China that Beijing would consider granting Philippine fishermen conditional access to the shoal.

An end to the standoff over the shoal is still a complex and potentially combustible issue for both countries.

Some Philippine commentators say Manila may object to any reference to its fishermen being “permitted” by China to return, while Beijing might be wary of appearing to be softening its position on what it calls “indisputable” sovereignty.

There was some confusion about the situation at sea, however, with a Philippine military spokesman earlier saying Chinese vessels were “still there”. Some fishermen familiar with the area said the same.

Duterte’s spokesman, Ernesto Abella, offered no comment on whether the two sides had reached agreement. “All I can say, at this stage, it has been observed there are no longer Chinese coastguard in the area,” he said.

China’s Lu hailed Duterte’s recent visit as a success and said both countries were able to discuss the South China Sea impasse. “It is completely possible that the bilateral relationship can recover,” Lu said. “I can tell you that the two sides are in communication.”

BEIJING – A senior Chinese corruption fighter on Friday blasted those who think the battle against graft is aimed at the ruling Communist Party’s political foes, saying the entire Chinese nation would be offended if corruption was not confronted.

There has been repeated speculation at home and abroad – and sources with ties to the leadership have told Reuters – that President Xi Jinping’s graft crackdown is as much about Xi taking down his enemies as it is about cleaning up the party.

Xi himself addressed this on a visit to the United States last year, saying China’s fight against entrenched corruption was not a “House of Cards”-style power struggle.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visits pau restaurant

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Speaking at a rare press conference, Wu Yuliang, a deputy party boss of the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, likened the fight to uprooting rotten trees when asked if the campaign was selective and aimed a political enemies.

“When uprooting rotten trees, of course you must start with the most rotten. If you say this is selective, then I think this is a kind of way of working,” Wu said, speaking after a four-day party meeting that further bolstered Xi’s power.

“But I think perhaps there is another meaning to this question you have raised,” he added. “In the past some people have attacked us for not opposing corruption, and now we have increased the ante in the corruption fight, they say it’s selective. In reality, this is a case of’though drunken, one’s real interest is not in wine'”, Wu said, using an expression meaning somebody has ulterior motives.

The party was devoted to the people and fighting graft was completely in the public interest, he added.

“If you don’t give offence to corrupt elements, then you will give offence to China’s 1.3 billion people.” Xi has warned that corruption threatens the Communist Party’s survival and his almost four-year anti-graft campaign has brought down scores of senior officials in the party, the government, the military and state-owned enterprises.

NAYPYITAW/YANGON – Myanmar said on Friday it will advise women in Yangon to avoid getting pregnant in the next six months to protect them from the Zika virus after the first case was confirmed in Myanmar’s largest city.

Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly – a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized – as well as other brain abnormalities. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light in Brazil, which has confirmed more than 1,900 cases of microcephaly.

“The Ministry of Health will issue a statement soon advising married women in Yangon to avoid having pregnancies in six months,” ministry director general Soe Lwin Nyein told reporters in the capital of Naypyitaw.

Fighting Zika: Which mosquito repellent to use

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The Straits Times, New Straits Times, Avon, Reuters, The Business Times, Ronnie Lim, Far East Flora

A pregnant foreign woman was diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus on Thursday, state media said.

Authorities said they would not allow the woman to leave her home in the next two weeks to prevent Zika from spreading. “We’re also helping her by giving her psychiatric treatment because she’s worried about her pregnancy,” Soe Lwin Nyein said, refusing to give any details about the woman.

The authorities would also take preventive measures in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s two largest cities. Yangon, the commercial hub of seven million, would be the priority because of a downtown mosquito infestation.

What is the Zika virus?

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Reuters, The Straits Times, The New Paper, NEA

COLOMBO – A Sri Lankan parliamentary panel Friday called for the criminal prosecution of former central bank chief Arjuna Mahendran who was removed three months ago over long-running allegations of insider trading.

A Singapore national of Sri Lankan origin, Mahendran was accused last year of leaking inside information to his son-in-law’s firm, allegedly allowing it to make millions of dollars in profits from central bank bond auctions.

The scandal came on the heels of a mounting debt crisis in Sri Lanka – the country secured a $1.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund in July.

A bipartisan oversight committee on Friday demanded legal action against Mahendran and his son-in-law.

“They should be prosecuted in a court and action taken to recover the losses incurred by the state due to their actions,” committee chairman Sunil Handunnetti told parliament.

President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Mahendran in July, bowing to public pressure, and asked the legislature to investigate the allegations against him.

An ad-hoc ruling party committee had cleared Mahendran of direct involvement last year, but civil society activists pressed for a thorough investigation resulting in the parliamentary panel launching an extensive probe.

Mahendran has consistently maintained his innocence.