Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations while it works on new processes for docking of military vessels
The Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations requesting to send in naval ships while it works on new processes for military vessels entering port.
The announcement from the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, comes after it was revealed the US had been issued with a notice of the moratorium.
Continue reading...Island country’s president says Taiwan could take ‘strong countermeasures’ if necessary
Taiwan fired warning shots at a Chinese drone that buzzed an offshore islet shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen said she had ordered Taiwan’s military to take “strong countermeasures” against what she termed Chinese provocations.
It was the first time warning shots have been fired in such an incident amid a period of heightened tension between China and Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory. Taiwan strongly disputes China’s sovereignty claims.
Continue reading...Xi Jinping expected to be given third term and be anointed as country’s most powerful leader in decades
China’s ruling Communist party will begin its 20th congress on 16 October, state media has reported, a meeting at which President Xi Jinping is expected to be anointed as the country’s most powerful leader in decades.
The congress in Beijing comes as Xi faces significant political headwinds, including an ailing economy, deteriorating relations with the US and a strict zero-Covid policy that has accelerated China’s inward turn from the world.
Continue reading...Anti-racism video by Marama Davidson featured chocolate labelled in te reo Māori, breaching rules against product promotion
A New Zealand minister has had to revise her anti-racism social media posts featuring a popular brand of chocolate, after the prime minister requested their removal because it breached cabinet rules about product promotion.
Green party MP Marama Davidson posted a video of herself to Instagram on Monday holding five blocks of Whittakers creamy milk chocolate, which have recently been rebranded with the Māori translation Miraka Kirīmi in honour of the upcoming Māori language week – te wiki o te reo Māori. She also posted photographs on Twitter and Facebook.
Continue reading...Weather agencies warn of flooding as analyst warns a winter energy crunch is ‘highly likely’
Rain across central China this week is expected to relieve the country’s worst heatwave on record, but weather agencies are now warning of potential floods, while analysts say the energy crisis exacerbated by the months-long drought is not over.
Almost half of China has been affected by the latest heatwave, the hottest since record-keeping began in 1961. Hundreds of temperature records have been broken, and the heat has exacerbated the effects of low rainfall, drying up rivers and reservoirs across the country.
Continue reading...Incident in Tangshan sparked outrage over gender-based violence when video went viral
Chinese authorities said they had charged 28 people and were investigating 15 officials including police for corruption more than two months after a shocking incident in which a group of men assaulted four women at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, north-east China.
The men carried out the assault after the women rejected their apparent sexual advances on 10 June. CCTV footage circulated online showed a man placing his hand on a woman’s back as she shared a meal with two companions. After the woman pushed him away, the man struck her before others dragged her outside and dealt a barrage of blows as she lay on the ground. Another woman was knocked to the floor.
Continue reading...Foreign affairs minister met PNG leaders on Monday in Port Moresby and will continue to Timor-Leste on Wednesday
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says Australian aid in the Pacific comes with “no strings attached”, in a veiled reference to China’s expanding power in the region.
Visiting Port Moresby on Monday, Wong said Australia wanted the “closest possible relationship” with Papua New Guinea and would work with, and listen to, its government and people.
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Continue reading...Sir Joseph Hotung’s gift is ‘one of the most generous ever received’ by museum
An outstanding collection of Chinese porcelain and jades has been left to the British Museum in “one of the most significant bequests” of its history.
The artworks come from the collections of Sir Joseph Hotung, a businessman, philanthropist and art collector, who died last year.
Continue reading...China’s military says it is monitoring the US ships, maintaining a high alert and ready to defeat any provocations
The US Navy said two warships were sailing through international waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, in the first such operation since heightened tensions with China over the Taiwan visit of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
The guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville were conducting a “routine Taiwan Strait transit”, the US 7th fleet said in a statement.
Continue reading...With the global economy also at a crossroads, Beijing’s leadership faces a perilous test of nerve on its lending crackdown and zero-Covid strategy
China has reached a point of no return in its battle to contain what could be the biggest property crash the world has ever seen, experts believe, creating a perilous moment for the country’s Communist leadership and the global economy.
As western countries stand on the edge of a potentially ruinous recession in the coming year, China is also facing a slump thanks to “total collapse” of confidence among ordinary people in the once-buoyant housing market, the continued ravages of Beijing’s draconian zero-Covid strategy and an extreme heatwave that is affecting the supply of power and food.
Continue reading...Surveys reveal that up to 12% of the country supports unification with China, including five of its citizens in a Taipei restaurant
At a Cantonese restaurant in Taipei, Harry Chen and four old friends are shouting at each other over a Lazy Susan, stopping occasionally to toast each other with Canadian whisky or translate their argument into English.
All are retired men in their 70s – the sons of Chinese nationalist soldiers – and were born or grew up in Taiwan during its brutal decades of martial law.
Continue reading...Chongqing authorities criticised for move as area faces heatwave, wildfires, severe drought and power outages
Residents of the south-western Chinese city of Chongqing have been queueing on the streets to be tested for Covid, despite extreme temperatures that have soared past 40C (104F) this week.
Photos posted on Chinese social media also showed health workers testing residents while wearing full hazmat suits in the heatwave. Other images showed that the tests were being carried out while bushfires raged in the background, prompting descriptions of the situation as “apocalyptic”.
Continue reading...Honiara did not respond to request for coast guard vessel to refuel amid tensions over security pact with China
A United States coast guard vessel was unable to enter Solomon Islands for a routine port call because its government did not respond to a request to refuel and provision, a US official said.
The Solomons government did not immediately answer a Reuters request for comment. It has had a tense relationship with the US and its allies since striking a security pact with China in May.
Continue reading...Kiribati’s court of appeal said government’s latest bid to deport high court justice David Lambourne on national security grounds was ‘far-fetched’
Kiribati’s constitutional crisis is no closer to resolution, with the country’s court of appeal criticising the government for its conduct towards suspended high court judge David Lambourne, an Australian citizen.
In an extraordinary judgment on Friday, the appeals court – consisting of three retired New Zealand judges – upheld an earlier decision that had found efforts to undermine Lambourne’s tenure unconstitutional. Lambourne is a longtime resident of Kiribati and formerly the nation’s solicitor general. His wife, Tessie Lambourne, is the opposition leader.
Continue reading...Ren Zhengfei writes in leaked memo that ‘chill will be felt by everyone’ and company must focus on survival
The founder of Huawei has delivered a stark warning for the tech company’s future, sparking alarm with the frankness of his assessment and what it signals for smaller businesses amid China’s economic troubles and a global downturn.
In a leaked internal memo, Ren Zhengfei told Huawei staff “the chill will be felt by everyone” and the company must focus on profit over cashflow and expansion if it is to survive the next three years, indicating further job cuts and divestments.
Continue reading...Itaru Nakamura says fresh start needed after assassination ‘to ensure this never happens again’
Japan’s most senior police officer has said he will resign to take responsibility for security lapses leading up to the fatal shooting last month of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Itaru Nakamura said on Thursday that he intended to step down as head of the national police agency to give the organisation a “fresh start”, weeks after Abe was gunned down while making an election campaign speech.
Continue reading...Tributes paid to Dominic Abelen, the first New Zealander to die in the conflict, who was on leave without pay from the defence force
A New Zealand soldier who was on leave without pay from his country’s army when he was killed in Ukraine has become the latest foreign fighter and first New Zealander to die in the war.
Friends of Cpl Dominic Abelen, 30, told the Guardian he had enlisted with Ukraine’s international legion, joining thousands of soldiers who have travelled to the conflict from around the world in the months since Ukraine’s government called for volunteers.
Continue reading...Move designed to secure energy supplies would mark a dramatic shift in Japan’s policy stance held since 2011 reactor meltdown
Japan is considering building next-generation nuclear reactors and restarting idled plants in a major policy shift, 11 years after the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant rocked the country’s dependence on atomic energy.
The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said he had directed a government panel to look into how “next-generation nuclear reactors equipped with new safety mechanisms” could be used to help Japan achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. His “green transformation” council is expected to report back by the end of the year, he said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...PM office says journalists cannot operate in the Pacific as they do in other countries, accusing Australia’s ABC of ‘racial profiling’ in China coverage
The Solomon Islands government has reportedly threatened to ban foreign journalists from entering the Pacific nation if they are not “respectful” or if they engage in “racial profiling” in stories about the country’s ties with China.
The office of the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that overseas journalists needed to understand they could not operate in the Pacific the same way they did in other countries, the ABC has reported.
Continue reading...Beijing threatens ‘forceful measures’ if Canada ‘interferes’ as MPs plan trade delegation to Taipei later this year
China warned it will take “forceful measures” if Canada “interferes” in Taiwan, a week after it emerged that a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians was planning to visit the island later this year to explore trade opportunities.
China claims Taiwan as its territory under its “one-China principle” and objects to foreign politicians visiting the island. Democratically governed Taiwan rejects China’s claims.
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