Wednesday: China's new public relations strategy

Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, "Game of Thrones" View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Wednesday, October 17, 2018 [NYTimes.com »]( ADVERTISEMENT Asia Edition [Your Wednesday Briefing]( By ALISHA HARIDASANI GUPTA Good morning. China explains its detention camps, Saudi Arabia looks to shift its narrative, Indonesia surveys its shortcomings. Here’s what you need to know: Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images • China defends its Muslim detention camps. China offered its [most detailed explanation]( yet of its campaign to detain and indoctrinate Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang Province. The chairman of Xinjiang’s government, Shohrat Zakir, said the camps were “humane” and provided “vocational education and training” to weed out “terrorism and religious extremism.” He appeared to acknowledge for the first time that people were being held against their will. He added that the program targeted people suspected of wrongdoing. That is disputed by former inmates, who claim that even individuals with no connection to extremism have been taken in and subjected to harsh brainwashing. The statements confirmed a shift in China’s public relations strategy, from silence in the face of international criticism to an unapologetic defense. _____ Pool photo by Leah Millis • Saudi Arabia looks to shift the narrative too. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with King Salman and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, pictured above, to discuss the disappearance of the journalist [Jamal Khashoggi](. Beneath the pleasantries, they were working to ease a diplomatic crisis. The U.S. seems to be leaving room for a new version of events, with Mr. Trump suggesting that perhaps “rogue killers” had been involved. But a source familiar with Saudi plans told us that the Kingdom was likely to admit Mr. Khashoggi died at its consulate in Istanbul — during an interrogation gone awry. That could put Mr. Trump in an awkward situation. He doesn’t want the case to affect arms sales. And while the U.S. is [far less dependent on Saudi oil]( than in the past, the crisis comes as we’re hearing the White House is planning to sanction Iran, and [needs the Saudis to keep pumping oil]( to pull that off. _____ Adam Dean for The New York Times • Indonesia’s tsunami disaster: both natural and man-made. The earthquake and tsunami that struck the island of Sulawesi were unavoidable. But the scale of the destruction might not have been. The city of Palu sits in one of the most tectonically active parts of Earth, hard-wiring regular earthquakes into its constitution. Experts had long warned that what happened last month — an earthquake, followed by a tsunami and liquefaction — was very likely. But officials there were still [caught unprepared]( Nonreinforced buildings were erected on soft ground that collapsed in on itself, the tsunami warning system was crippled by budget cuts and the city’s leadership all but disappeared in the immediate aftermath. “We failed the people of Palu,” said the city’s former mayor. _____ Benita Kolovos/EPA, via Shutterstock • What does Kensington Palace have to do with Australia? A day into their 16-day tour of Australia, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have been portrayed as the new, young face of royalty. But their trip is also seen as an attempt to charm skeptics in the crowds, to smooth Australia’s [complicated relationship]( with the royal family. Australia is a Commonwealth country and Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state. As in Britain, her role is mostly ceremonial. But a group of Australians has been advocating for complete independence and an end to ties with the monarchy; a recent poll showed 48 percent of Australians supported this plan. _____  Business Al Drago/The New York Times • U.S. business leaders have had to decide whether to pull out of Saudi Arabia’s investor conference without strong guidance from Washington. Their dilemma demonstrates a curious change, our columnist writes: America’s moral compass is now [being set by the C-suite](. Above, Jamie Dimon, C.E.O. of JPMorgan Chase, who quit the conference. • Infosys, the Indian technology outsourcing company, has thrived at home and abroad by using an army of Indian engineers. But under the Trump administration’s immigration policies, it may be forced to [overhaul its corporate culture and business practices](. • In memoriam: [Paul Allen]( Microsoft’s co-founder who helped revolutionize personal computing and later became a driving force behind Seattle’s cultural transformation, died of complications from cancer. He was 65. • U.S. stocks [were up](. Here’s a snapshot of [global markets](. Hong Kong’s stock exchange is closed. In the News Yonhap, via Reuters • North and South Korea started discussions about disarming the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles their border. It would become a neutral zone where military and tourists could move freely across the demarcation line. Above, officials from both countries. [[The New York Times]( • Two Myanmar fighter jets crashed, killing both pilots and an 11-year-old girl on the ground, drawing attention to the military’s troubled safety record. [[The New York Times]( • “Brexit Preppers”: A growing band of people in Britain are stocking up on supplies, from toilet paper to couscous, preparing for the worst in March, when the country is scheduled to withdraw from the E.U. [[The New York Times]( • Hong Kong’s railway, famous for its reliability, suffered a six-hour signal failure so “unprecedented” that the maintenance handbook didn’t even have a solution, the operating company said. [[The South China Morning Post]( • Two male penguins at Sydney’s Sea Life Aquarium are fostering an egg given to them by staff who noticed they had built a nest together and suspected the pair was more than just friends. [[Reuters]( • In Opinion: A rabbi in Los Angeles wrote an ode to Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese man who saved an estimated 6,000 Jews, defying the Japanese government. [[The New York Times]( Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life. Linda Xiao for The New York Times • Recipe of the day: [Roasted cauliflower with feta, almonds and olive]( will improve practically any meal. • The time to buy holiday travel tickets is [now](. • Gear to help babies [sleep better]( Noteworthy Alessandra Sanguinetti/Magnum Photos • “Game of Thrones” is, by many measures, the most popular TV show on earth. And the novels it’s based on have sold more than 85 million copies. But just as impressive is how [George R.R. Martin]( its almighty creator, has transformed a genre — and how fans engage with it. “I do think a society needs heroes,” he told The Times. • 24 hours in America: Our reporters and photographers fanned out across the country to tell [stories of daily life]( and its unannounced moments of joy, struggle and hope — from a mechanic railing against the metric system at 10:02 a.m. to a successful heart transplant at 11:02 p.m. • Neil deGrasse Tyson, a scientist who seems to have achieved pop star-level fame, explains the surprising cross-pollination between [astrophysics and the military](. “We don’t build bombs,” he tells The Times. But, he added, “we’re an accessory to war.” Back Story Barton Silverman/The New York Times “The poet and warrior,” Pauli Murray once wrote, “grapple in my brain.” The warrior side of that equation is largely responsible for the recent surge of interest in Murray (1910-85), an African-American civil rights activist and lawyer who fought for racial justice and women’s equality. Murray, above, also came to think of herself as a man, which makes her story even more resonant today. [T]( [biographies]( of Murray have been published since 2016. But Murray was also a poet, and today is Black Poetry Day, observed by many schools and libraries in the U.S. Orphaned young and raised by an aunt in Durham, N.C., Murray grew up reading [Paul Laurence Dunbar]( one of the first famous African-American poets. Later, as a student at Hunter College in New York, she befriended [Langston Hughes]( [Countee Cullen]( and other key figures of the Harlem Renaissance. [Her own poems]( collected in the 1970 volume “Dark Testament” (recently reissued, with an introduction by Elizabeth Alexander), grapple with her family’s and her nation’s complicated legacy of oppression. They also unabashedly imagine a country that lives up to its ideals. “I sing of a new American / Separate from all others,” she writes in [“Prophecy.”]( It concludes: “I seek only discovery / Of the illimitable heights and depths of my own being.” Gregory Cowles wrote today’s Back Story. _____ This briefing was prepared for the Asian morning. You can also [sign up]( to get the briefing in the Australian, European or American morning. [Sign up here]( to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights. Browse our full range of Times newsletters [here](. What would you like to see here? Contact us at [asiabriefing@nytimes.com](mailto:asiabriefing@nytimes.com?subject=Briefing%20Feedback%20(Asia)). LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. 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