Top Asian News 4:53 a.m. GMT

BEIJING (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump "speaks like a rookie," China's state-run media said Monday, describing his suggested use of America's position on Taiwan as a bargaining chip as "despicable." The nationalist tabloid Global Times published an editorial blasting Trump's strategy and saying China would have a strong response to any reconsideration of the "one China" policy. Since recognizing Beijing in 1979, Washington has maintained only unofficial ties with Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing considers its territory — a status quo that Trump has repeatedly threatened to upend since winning the November election. "In the past, Trump infuriated us, but now we find him risible," said the newspaper, which is published by the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece.

BANGKOK (AP) — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves: ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at the latest developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region. ___ BAD CHOICE OF WORDS? In comments that could raise the stakes in the South China Sea, Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state said the U.S.

KYEE KAN PYIN, Myanmar (AP) — Muslim villagers in western Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state said Sunday that they hope positive change will result from a U.N. envoy's visit to the region, where soldiers are accused of widespread abuses against minority Muslims, including murder, rape and the burning of thousands of homes. U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Yanghee Lee concluded a three-day visit Sunday to probe the situation in northern Rakhine, where an army crackdown has driven an estimated 65,000 Muslim ethnic Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh in the past three months. "We really hope that her visit brings a positive change for Rohingya and we hope to gain our human rights," a displaced Rohingya man living temporarily in Kyee Kan Pyin village said on condition of anonymity due to security reasons.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Police in the Swiss capital of Bern prevented a pro-Tibet protester from setting himself on fire Sunday on the sidelines of a demonstration against the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, officials said. Bern police say 32 people were stopped for refusing identity checks and other disruptions as part of their deployment to secure Xi's visit. On the sidelines of a demonstration around midday, security officials prevented a man who had doused himself with a flammable liquid from setting it on fire. Police spokesman Christoph Gnaegi said those taken in by police were later released. He said no disruptions were caused by peaceful protesters who took part in a morning protest, but that some people afterward had caused minor problems leading to the police action.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that he would announce soon whether he will run for South Korea's presidency, as he returned home and strongly hinted at his political ambitions before hundreds of cheering supporters. Ban's return will likely heat up local politics as he's considered the only major conservative contender in a possible early election to replace impeached President Park Geun-hye. In other images from the Asia-Pacific region last week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Vietnam during his last trip as the top U.S. diplomat. Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, toured the Mekong Delta region, where he fought almost 50 years ago.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he has ordered his troops to bomb extremists who flee with their captives in a bid to stop a wave of kidnappings at sea, calling the loss of civilian lives in such an attack "collateral damage." Duterte has previously stated that he had told his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts their forces can blast away as they pursue militants who abduct sailors in waters where the three countries converge and bring their kidnap victims to the southern Philippines. He said in a speech late Saturday that he had given the same orders to Filipino forces.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The waste from discarded electronic gadgets and electrical appliances has reached severe levels in East Asia, posing a growing threat to health and the environment unless safe disposal becomes the norm. China was the biggest culprit with its electronic waste more than doubling, according to a new study by the United Nations University. But nearly every country in the region had massive increases between 2010 and 2015, including those least equipped to deal with the growing mountain of discarded smartphones, computers, TVs, air conditioners and other goods. On average, electronic waste in the 12 countries in the study had increased by nearly two thirds in the five years, totaling 12.3 million tons in 2015 alone.

BOGOR, Indonesia (AP) — Japan and Indonesia on Sunday affirmed a deepening of economic and political ties during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is using a four-nation tour of Asia to underscore his government's role in countering China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. After meeting with Abe, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said the increase in Japanese investment in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, has been "very significant," doubling to $4.5 billion in January-September of last year. He said the meeting was "warm, open and productive," and that the countries agreed that their defense and foreign ministers would meet in Indonesia this year under a new forum they established in 2015 to increase maritime cooperation.

BERLIN (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross says a staff member who was abducted in northern Afghanistan last month has been released. The ICRC's head of delegation in Afghanistan, Monica Zanarelli, said Sunday that the man is "safe and sound" and is now with its team in Kunduz. The agency said it wouldn't comment on the identity of the abductors or their motives or give any details of the release. The ICRC staffer, whose nationality wasn't specified, was snatched on Dec. 19 in the northern province of Kunduz as he was traveling to Mazar-i-Sharif. According to the Red Cross, three other colleagues were left unharmed.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani official says a group of villagers attacked the convoy of a Qatari prince on a hunting trip, wounding four people. Yasir Khan, deputy commissioner of the Musakhel district, near the Afghan border, says the mob was led by a local landowner who objected to the hunting of the houbara bustard, a rare bird prized by Gulf Arab elites. Khan says nearly 30 villagers armed with guns sticks attacked the convoy on Sunday, forcing the royal to relocate to a safer area. He declined to identify the visiting prince.