00:00Indonesia's president cancels China trip and TikTok suspends live video as deadly protests
00:05continue. Indonesian President Prabowo Sabianto on Saturday, 30, canceled a planned trip to China
00:11as days of protests spread further outside the capital Jakarta, with several regional
00:16parliament buildings set ablaze. Prabowo had been due to attend a Victory Day parade in China
00:21on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II following Japan's
00:26formal surrender. The protests, the first major test for Prabowo's nearly-year-old government,
00:31began in Jakarta this week over lawmakers pay and worsened after a police vehicle hit and killed
00:36a motorcycle rider. The president wants to continue monitoring the situation in Indonesia
00:40directly and seek the best solutions, presidential spokesperson Presidio Hadi said in a video
00:46statement on Saturday. Therefore, the president apologizes to the Chinese government that he
00:51could not attend the invitation. Another consideration in cancelling the trip was a United
00:57Nations General Assembly session in September, Presidio said. In the light of the protest,
01:02short video app TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, said on Saturday it had suspended its
01:07live feature in Indonesia for a few days. Jakarta had this week summoned representatives of social
01:12media platforms, including meta-platforms Inc. and TikTok, and told them to boost content moderation
01:18because disinformation had spread online. The government says that such disinformation has
01:23spurred protests against it. Regional Parliament Fires
01:27Earlier on Saturday, protesters caused fires at regional parliament buildings in three provinces,
01:32West Noosa-Tangara, Pekalongan City in Central Java and Syarbon City in West Java,
01:38local media reported. Local media Dedic.com said protesters had looted parliamentary office
01:43equipment in Syarbon and police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Pekalongan and West
01:48Noosa-Tangara. Three people were killed on Friday in an arson attack on a parliament building in
01:53Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia's Disaster Management Agency said.
01:59State news agency in Thera said the victims had been trapped in the burning building,
02:03and the Disaster Management Agency said two people were injured after jumping out of the building to
02:07escape the fire. Local media outlet MetroTVNews.com reported one further death from a fire at the
02:14Makassar Parliamentary Building. This could not be independently confirmed. Protests also occurred
02:20on the holiday island of Bali, where tear gas was used against protesters. Local media also reported
02:26that a crowd had looted the Jakarta home of Ahmad Saroni, a lawmaker from the political party Nasdem,
02:31and taken items including household furniture. Saroni has faced accusations of responding insensitively,
02:37to people calling for parliament to be dissolved amid anger over lawmakers' allowances.
02:42Saroni has labeled such critics the stupidest people in the world.
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