Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Kiribati faces constitutional crisis after government suspends both high court justices

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Second judge suspended as legal challenge from first judge due to begin, escalating ongoing controversy over separation of powers

Kiribati is embroiled in a constitutional crisis after the government suspended its chief justice, leaving the judiciary in disarray as experts raise concerns about the rule of law. The move escalates an ongoing controversy over separation of powers in the Pacific nation, after Kiribati’s only other high court justice, Australian David Lambourne, was suspended in May.

On Thursday the chief justice, distinguished New Zealand judge William Hastings, was due to begin hearing a legal challenge brought by Lambourne. The suspended judge was seeking initial orders restoring his salary and facilitating his return to the country, ahead of a constitutional challenge to the suspension.

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Acting PM says Australia will stand up for national interest amid fading hopes of China reset

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Richard Marles signals change in tone with biggest trading partner but pledges to avoid Coalition’s ‘chest-beating’

Australia’s acting prime minister has declared the government won’t take any “backward step” in pursuing the national interest, after Chinese state media said hopes of a diplomatic reset were “diminishing by the day”.

Richard Marles, who is acting in the top job while Anthony Albanese is in Europe, told Guardian Australia the new government would avoid “chest-beating” about China but admitted there may be limits to what a change in tone could achieve.

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North Korea blames Covid-laden balloons sent from South for virus outbreak

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Experts sceptical of claim, as state media urge citizens to watch out for ‘alien things coming by wind’

North Korea has blamed its Covid-19 outbreak on balloons sent over its border with the South by groups of defectors, in an apparent attempt to shift the blame onto its neighbour.

After two years of insisting that it had not recorded a single case of the virus, the North admitted its first infections on 12 May, sparking fears of a public health disaster in the impoverished country.

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Earliest Pacific seafarers were matrilocal society, study suggests

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DNA analysis of 164 individuals from 2,800 to 300 years ago shows men would move to be with their wives

The world’s earliest seafarers who set out to colonise remote Pacific islands nearly 3,000 years ago were a matrilocal society with communities organised around the female lineage, analysis of ancient DNA suggests.

The research, based on genetic sequencing of 164 ancient individuals from 2,800 to 300 years ago, suggested that some of the earliest inhabitants of islands in Oceania had population structures in which women almost always remained in their communities after marriage, while men left their mother’s community to live with that of their wife. This pattern is strikingly different from that of patrilocal societies, which appeared to be the norm in ancient populations in Europe and Africa.

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Serious defects discovered in patrol boats Australia supplied to Pacific Islands

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Potentially serious faults in Guardian-class patrol boats may force some countries to pause use of vessels

Pacific island countries may halt the use of Australian-provided patrol boats after potentially serious defects were discovered, in a blow to a $2.1bn maritime security program.

The Australian government is now considering how to work with Pacific nations to close any gap in their maritime surveillance activities while the issues – including carbon monoxide entering part of the boat – are resolved.

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Hong Kong tightens security as Xi visits for 25th anniversary of handover

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China’s president makes first trip outside mainland since pandemic began as territory prepares to mark milestone

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has made his first trip outside the mainland since the Covid pandemic began, landing in Hong Kong and telling crowds the region had “risen from the ashes” after years of upheaval.

The leader, his wife, Peng Liyuan, and delegates, arrived by high-speed train at West Kowloon station before his scheduled attendance at the inauguration of the city’s new chief executive, and the 25th anniversary of the British return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule.

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Ferdinand Marcos Jr praises dictator father during swearing in as Philippines president

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Son says family has legacy of achievement as he completes clan’s return to power 36 years after father’s ousting

Ferdinand Marcos Jr has promised a government that will deliver for all Filipinos during his inauguration speech, even as he paid tribute to the legacy of his dictator father, whose rule was marked by widespread corruption and rights abuses.

Marcos Jr, who began his term as president of the Philippines on Thursday, said he would emulate his father. “I once knew a man who saw what little had been achieved since independence in a land of people with the greatest potential for achievement. And yet they were poor. But he got it done. Sometimes with the needed support, sometimes without. So will it be with his son. You will get no excuses from me,” he said.

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North Korean hackers thought to be behind $100m cryptocurrency heist

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If confirmed, last week’s attack would be the eighth this year – involving $1bn in stolen funds – that could be confidently attributed to North Korea

North Korean hackers are thought to be behind last week’s theft of as much as $100m in cryptocurrency from a US company, as the regime steps up attempts to secure funding for its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The assets were stolen on 23 June from Horizon Bridge, a service operated by the Harmony blockchain that allows assets to be transferred to other blockchains, three digital investigative firms have concluded.

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Hong Kong handover: timeline

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On 30 June 1997, Hong Kong was returned to China, ending over a century of British rule

1842: Hong Kong was ceded “in perpetuity” - for good - to Britain after China lost the first opium war. This is how the Manchester Guardian told its readers the news.

1860: Peace was short lived though. A second opium war, and another defeat for China, saw the British take the Kowloon peninsula.

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Nato leaders voice concern about threat China poses to world order for first time

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Beijing’s efforts to build up nuclear forces, hacking operations and increasingly close ties to Moscow are ‘serious challenges’, says Nato secretary general

China is not an adversary but it does represent serious challenges, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, said on Wednesday, as the alliance agreed for the first time to include threats posed by Beijing into a blueprint guiding its future strategy.

While Russia’s war against Ukraine has dominated discussions at the Nato summit, China earned a place among the western alliance’s most worrying security concerns.

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Human rights fears affecting China’s standing globally, Pew survey finds

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Negative views of China at highest level in years in many of the 19 countries that took part in survey

Concerns about China’s policies on human rights have led to negative views towards the world’s most populous nation, a Pew public opinion survey has found.

Negative views of China remain at or near historic highs in many of the 19 countries polled in this year’s survey, which spoke to people in North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The findings are largely consistent with Pew’s previous study in 2020, but with some countries now reporting even more unfavourable views of China.

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Nations must work together through ‘conflict and crisis’ to reduce climate change risks, Albanese tells OECD

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Prime minister will say food insecurity has become a significant challenge and Australia has a major role to play in meeting the challenge

Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese will declare the world must raise ambition to reduce the risks of runaway global heating and cooperate amid national policy differences even when “long shadows of conflict and crisis are threatening our shared security”.

The prime minister will use a speech to a special session of the council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris to launch a clarion call for international cooperation on climate policy, as well as practical measures to safeguard energy and food security, as the world grapples with disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

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Chinese invasion of Taiwan ‘would be catastrophic miscalculation’

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Trade should be directed at countries who can be trusted, says British foreign secretary Liz Truss

China would be making “a catastrophic miscalculation” if it invaded Taiwan, Liz Truss has said, telling the Nato summit that the UK and other countries should reconsider trading relationships with countries that used economic power in “coercive” ways.

In a sign of how far UK government attitudes towards China have shifted since the self-declared “golden decade” under David Cameron, the British foreign secretary said trade should be directed at countries that could be trusted.

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UK to lift import restrictions on food from Fukushima

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Remaining curbs on food imports imposed after 2011 nuclear disaster to be scrapped

Food from Fukushima will be freely available in the UK from Wednesday, weeks after Boris Johnson snacked on popcorn from the Japanese prefecture hit by a triple nuclear meltdown in March 2011.

Britain restricted Fukushima imports after the disaster, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, but has gradually lifted them, even as other countries limit or ban produce from the region.

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North Korea accuses US of building an ‘Asian Nato’ ahead of security talks

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Biden due to meet Japanese PM Kishida and South Korean leader Yoon for talks amid escalating missile tests by Pyongyang

North Korea has accused the US and its allies of launching a “sinister” attempt to form an “Asian Nato” to contain the regime, hours before Joe Biden and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts meet for security talks.

“The US is hellbent on the military cooperation with its stooges in disregard of the primary security demand and concern by Asia-Pacific countries,” North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA said, on Wednesday.

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Philippines orders news site Rappler to close as Nobel prize-winner Maria Ressa vows to fight on

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The ‘kill’ order, which seeks to revoke the company’s certificates of incorporation, was made in the final days of Rodrigo Duterte’s rule

The Philippine government is affirming a previous order to shut down the news website Rappler, according to its co-founder, the Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa.

Rappler, which has been praised for exposing abuses of power and growing authoritarianism under the outgoing Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has faced a series of legal charges over recent years.

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China insists Tonga loans come with ‘no political strings attached’

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Ambassador rejects ‘debt trap’ concerns, saying heavily indebted Pacific nation will not be forced to pay back loans

China’s ambassador to Tonga has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy in the Pacific, saying in his first press conference in two years that if the heavily indebted country cannot repay its loans, “we can talk and negotiate in a friendly, diplomatic manner”.

Cao Xiaolin told Tuesday’s gathering in Nuku’alofa – a rare opportunity for journalists to question Chinese officials – that preferential loans from China came with “no political strings attached” and that Beijing would never force countries to repay the loans.

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Spotlight back on abortion in New Zealand after US Roe v Wade ruling

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MPs spar over their stances, with opposition leader Christopher Luxon forced to manage the gulf between his personal views and National party policy

As the repeal of Roe v Wade rolls back women’s abortion rights in the US, New Zealand politicians are facing fresh scrutiny of their own anti-abortion stances.

New Zealanders broadly support abortion rights, with Ipsos polling indicating 77% of the population supports a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy in some or any circumstances. In 2020, the country formally decriminalised abortion, allowing terminations at up to 20 weeks.

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UK calls for extra vigilance on China ahead of Nato summit

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Boris Johnson and Liz Truss among those saying Ukraine war highlights potential Chinese threat to Taiwan

Boris Johnson and his ministers are going into the Nato summit with fresh warnings that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown the need for extra vigilance and caution over potential Chinese action against Taiwan.

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, who is joining the prime minister at the Nato gathering in Madrid, was most explicit, calling for faster action to help Taiwan with defensive weapons, a key requirement for Ukraine since the invasion.

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Three in four Australians believe US ties increase chance of war involvement in Asia, poll shows

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Lowy Institute’s foreign policy poll also finds 74% of respondents support democracy over any other form of government

More than three in four Australians believe the alliance with the United States makes it more likely Australia would be drawn into a war in Asia against the national interest, a new poll shows.

The Lowy Institute’s annual foreign policy poll suggests that Australians are increasingly worried about the rise of authoritarianism and global instability, while their preference for democracy has reached a record high.

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