Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Calls for UK response after protester attacked at Chinese consulate

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Foreign secretary urged to take action after Hong Kong demonstrator punched and kicked in Manchester

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is facing demands to act against the Chinese government as police confirmed that a man was assaulted after being dragged into the grounds of the country’s consulate in Manchester.

Labour and senior Tories have called for the Chinese ambassador to explain what happened after footage appeared to show a pro-democracy demonstrator being beaten and kicked by several men. Police said the assailants had emerged from the consular building.

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BTS members to do military service in South Korea

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Announcement ends long debate over whether K-pop group should get exemption

The seven members of BTS – one of the world’s biggest bands – will perform military service in their native South Korea, their agency has said, ending a long national debate over whether they should receive an exemption.

While many fans of the K-pop sensations were hoping the band members would be given special consideration due to their contribution to the South Korean economy and international prestige, the artists will each serve almost two years in the military.

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Siev X: man denies involvement in 2001 people-smuggling operation that ended in significant deaths

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Maythem Kamil Radhi pleads not guilty facilitating the proposed entry of non-citizens into Australia

More than 20 years after the asylum seeker boat known as the Siev X sank, causing a “significant number” of deaths, a man has denied involvement in an alleged people-smuggling operation in an Australian court.

Appearing in the Brisbane supreme court on Monday, Maythem Kamil Radhi pleaded not guilty to facilitating the proposed entry of at least five non-citizens into Australia between 1 July and 19 October 2001.

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Japan’s PM orders Unification church investigation as scandal engulfs party

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Move marks a reversal for Fumio Kishida who was reluctant to scrutinise Moonies’ connections with his own lawmakers

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has ordered an investigation into the Unification church as he attempts to revive his political fortunes amid a scandal linking his party to the religious group.

Kishida had initially been reluctant to increase scrutiny of the church – whose members are colloquially known as Moonies – but on Monday his education minister, Keiko Nagaoka, said the probe would begin “immediately”. Depending on the outcome, the church could lose its tax-exempt status, media reports said.

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New Zealand MP says Rocket Lab launches could betray country’s anti-nuclear stance

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The commercial space company rejects criticism of satellite launches for the US military

A New Zealand commercial space company, Rocket Lab, has faced new opposition to its activities on behalf of foreign militaries, with one New Zealand Green MP saying its actions could fly in the face of the country’s anti-nuclear stance.

The American-New Zealand company, founded by Peter Beck in 2006, provides rockets to deliver payloads into orbit from its launch site on the Māhia Peninsula, in New Zealand’s north. A third of Rocket Lab’s activities have been on behalf of defence and national security agencies. These include launching US and Australian spy satellites, the controversial “Gunsmoke J” satellite, and most recently Nasa’s capstone spacecraft.

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Xi Jinping’s vision for China’s next five years: key takeaways from his speech

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President puts China’s expansionist foreign policy and control at home at heart of his plans in address to Communist party summit

China’s president, Xi Jinping, walked into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday to open the Communist party summit and lay out his vision for the next five years. He is expected to be formally returned to power this week, and over 104 minutes his speech gave a foretaste of what is in store for the next half decade.

There were no bombshells. His address paid tribute to the party’s achievements under his rule in the last decade and pledged more of the same. Aggression abroad and control at home remain the heart of those plans.

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China bans fruity vapes – but not their export to the UK

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Popular disposable brand will still be able to sell products in Britain, despite being accused of flouting advertising regulations

China has banned the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on the industry. The new rules mean vapes that have flavourings other than tobacco – such as those that taste fruity or sweet – cannot be sold on the domestic market.

But they can still be manufactured in China to be shipped around the world, including to the UK, where Chinese-made brands such as Elfbar, known for its range of flavoured disposable vapes, are popular.

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Xi Jinping opens Chinese Communist party congress with vow to take over Taiwan

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President supports peaceful reunification but will ‘never promise to renounce use of force’ as speech launches event likely to grant him third five-year term

Xi Jinping celebrated China’s crushing of Hong Kong’s autonomy and warned Taiwan that the “wheels of history” are turning towards Beijing taking control of the island democracy in his speech opening the Communist party congress.

The most important gathering in the five-year Chinese political cycle is expected to hand Xi another five-year term running China, cementing his position as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

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Chinese congress expected to cement power of Xi Jinping

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Constitutional changes likely to enshrine leader as ‘core’ of ruling Communist party

The highest level meeting of China’s ruling Communist party this week is likely to include constitutional changes to further cement the power of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, party officials have confirmed.

Xi is expected to regain his position as leader of the CCP and its military commission at the week-long conference, setting the stage for retaining the presidency next year, after abolishing term limits in 2018.

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‘We all saw it’: anti-Xi Jinping protest electrifies Chinese internet

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Scramble to censor posts about Sitong bridge incident in Beijing where defiant banners were hung and a fire lit in lead-up to Communist party congress

Chinese authorities have strictly censored discussion of a rare protest in Beijing on Thursday that saw large banners unfurled on a flyover calling for boycotts and the removal of Xi Jinping, just days before China’s most important event of its five-year political cycle.

Photos and videos of the protest on the Sitong bridge emerged on social media on Thursday afternoon, also showing plumes of smoke billowing from the bridge over a major thoroughfare in the Haidian district of the capital.

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New Zealand pulls funding for school Shakespeare festival, citing ‘canon of imperialism’

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Secondary school competition ‘did not demonstrate the relevance to the contemporary art context of Aotearoa’

New Zealand’s arts council has pulled funding for a Shakespeare festival that has been running in secondary schools for roughly three decades, after questioning its relevance to the country and because it focuses on “a canon of imperialism”.

Every year, the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand runs the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare festival – a secondary school competition where students perform excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays.

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Dissidents in China detained and harassed as Beijing prepares for party congress

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Government critics and activists intimidated by police ahead of Sunday’s Communist party meeting, where Xi Jinping is expected to gain third term

Chinese authorities have stepped up surveillance and harassment of government critics as part of a crackdown on dissent ahead of the Communist party’s upcoming 20th congress, its key political gathering.

Since mid-September, numerous activists and petitioners seeking to lobby the government have been detained or put under house arrest across China, while many human rights lawyers have been intimidated, harassed and followed by agents. They say authorities, wary that their criticisms of the government could lead to social discontent and threaten the regime, are pulling out all the stops to silence them ahead of the twice-in-decade event, set to start on Sunday.

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North Korea fires missile and flies warplanes near border, says Seoul

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Latest in spate of ballistic missile launches further raises animosities between the two countries

North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters and flew warplanes near the border with South Korea, the South’s military said, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said the launch happened early on Friday local time but gave no further details including how far the weapon flew.

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‘Now is the time’: Richard Marles has met NRL to push for Papua New Guinea team

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On visit to Port Moresby, defence minister says ‘it would be so meaningful’ for PNG to become National Rugby League’s 18th team

Australia’s deputy prime minister has held talks with National Rugby League officials to push the case for a Papua New Guinea team, declaring “now is the time” to expand the competition.

Richard Marles, visiting PNG in his capacity as defence minister, said on Thursday that he had “personally spoken with the NRL a number of times about this”.

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Anti-CCP protest and lockdown fears fuel China tensions before congress

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Images show banners emblazoned with protest messages hanging from overpass on major road in Beijing

A rare protest against the Communist party in Beijing and fears over renewed Covid restrictions across Shanghai are stoking political tensions just days before President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third term in power in a key meeting on Sunday.

On Thursday, at least half a dozen photos and videos emerged on social media, showing two banners emblazoned with protest messages hanging from an overpass of a major thoroughfare in the north-west corner of the Chinese capital. The photos show plumes of smoke billowing from the bridge.

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North Korea says it tested cruise missiles able to carry ‘tactical nukes’

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Kim Jong-un says tests are a warning to Pyongyang’s enemies and its nuclear combat forces were at ‘full preparedness for actual war’

Kim Jong-un supervised the launch of two long-range cruise missiles, North Korean state media said, adding that the weapons were equipped to carry tactical nukes and had already been deployed to some army units.

Pyongyang has conducted a blitz of ballistic missile tests recently, which it described as tactical nuclear drills that simulated taking out airports and military facilities across South Korea.

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Former New Zealand PM John Key says he would have voted for Trump and Bolsonaro

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Influential National party figure said he had never voted ‘anything other than right’, but that some on the right were ‘getting pretty crazy’

Former New Zealand prime minister Sir John Key has suggested he would have voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 US election, and far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s 2022 elections, had he been eligible to do so.

Key, who served three terms as prime minister from 2008 to 2016, revealed his preferences in a quick-fire round of 20 questions that featured at the end of a new online series called Both Sides Now, hosted by members of the Labour and National youth wings.

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Taiwan opens borders to tourists as restrictions eased after 2.5 years

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Entry rules to island lifted to allow unfettered access, while mainland China remains one of the few places keeping borders closed

Taiwan lifted all its Covid-19 entry restrictions on Thursday, allowing tourists unfettered access the self-ruled island after more than 2.5 years of border controls.

Hong Kong and Taiwan, together with mainland China, required most visitors to complete a mandatory quarantine period throughout the pandemic, even as most countries reopened their borders to tourists.

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Graphic film of Bali bombings at Kuta memorial ‘ripped our hearts apart’, son of terror victim says

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Australian government says it will formally register concern over gruesome film shown to hundreds at ceremony in Indonesia

A graphic, gruesome film screened at Kuta’s ground zero monument marking the 20th anniversary of the Bali bombings has upset and angered some friends and relatives of the dead.

The Australian government said on Thursday it would formally register its concerns with Indonesian authorities over the event.

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US will soon need to deter two major nuclear powers for first time, White House says

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New national security strategy warns of Russia as more immediate threat and China as long-term competitor

Within a decade, the US will need to deter two major nuclear weapons powers for the first time, the Biden administration has warned, pointing to the Russian arsenal that is increasingly being brandished by Moscow and an expanding Chinese stockpile.

The president’s new national security strategy (NSS) depicts China as the most capable long-term competitor, but Russia as the more immediate, disruptive threat, pointing to its nuclear posturing over Ukraine. It warns that threat could grow as Russian forces continue to suffer defeats on the battlefield.

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