Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Malaysian foreign minister says concerns remain about Aukus pact after meeting with Penny Wong

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Saifuddin Abdullah points to risk of regional arms race but pledges increased trade and cooperation on cybersecurity with Australia

Malaysia’s foreign minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, has said that his country’s concerns about the Aukus nuclear submarine pact remain unchanged, after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday with his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong.

Saifuddin told reporters he communicated Malaysia’s ongoing concern about the security deal between Australia, the UK and the US during a “very candid” discussion with Wong on her first visit to the Malaysian capital as Australia’s foreign minister.

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‘The Punisher’: Rodrigo Duterte’s violent reign as Philippines president to end

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Analysis: Duterte’s popularity remains undented among people in poorer areas despite attacks on human rights, rule of law and media

Six years ago, the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, known as “the Punisher” because of his merciless approach to crime, was on the brink of taking national power in the Philippines. He promised to move power away from Manila elites, tackle poverty, corruption, and drugs. “When I become president,” Rodrigo Duterte told one rally, “I will order the police to find those people [involved in drugs] and kill them. The funeral parlours will be packed.”

The latter prediction was, at least, correct. When Duterte steps down on 30 June, having reached the end of his term limit, he will leave behind a country in which human rights, the media and rule of law have been weakened, say analysts.

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Weather tracker: Japan swelters as ‘heat dome’ pushes up temperatures

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Trapped warm air and high pressure result in country recording temperature of 40C for first time in the month of June

There were scorching conditions across Japan over the weekend, with the 40C threshold breached for the first time in the month of June. A temperature of 40.2°C was recorded on Saturday in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, north-east of Tokyo,which beat the previous June record of 39.8°C set in 2011. Several heatstroke alerts were in place across the region with people rushed to hospital for heat-related illnesses, with many older and young people succumbing to heat exhaustion.

High pressure to the east of Japan over the Pacific induced a south to south-westerly airflow that brought warm air up from the equatorial region, which fuelled the high temperatures. High pressure over a number of days contributed to creating a “heat dome”, trapping the warmer air and helping temperatures rise day on day.

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Alarm in Beijing after announcement zero-Covid policy may last five years

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Communist party official posts notice saying mass mandatory testing and travel curbs will continue

Authorities in Beijing have sparked confusion and alarm after announcing the strict zero-Covid policy could be in place for the next five years, including mass mandatory testing and travel restrictions.

The notice, published on Monday afternoon, was attributed to Cai Qi, the Beijing secretary of the Chinese Communist party. The original text said: “In the next five years, Beijing will unremittingly grasp the normalisation of epidemic prevention and control.”

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Japanese told to turn off lights to save energy amid Tokyo heatwave

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Extreme temperatures forecast for capital this week after premature end to rainy season

Japan’s government has warned tens of millions of people in the Tokyo region to save energy or face power cuts, as the capital battles record June temperatures after a premature end to the rainy season.

Temperatures of 35C (95 degrees Fahrenheit) were forecast in the city throughout the day, with similarly extreme weather expected for the rest of the week, according to the Japanese meteorological agency.

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‘Things aren’t going back’: Australia braces for step-up in China’s Pacific push

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Despite initial relief over island nations’ rejection of security and economic pact, senior government figure says reprieve could be only temporary

The Australian government is bracing for China to step up its push to expand influence in the Pacific, with a senior figure privately conceding Canberra has a lot of work to do to regain lost trust and strengthen regional unity.

Despite initial relief at a decision by Pacific island countries to defer a sweeping 10-country security and economic pact proposed by China, the Australian government now believes this may be only a temporary reprieve.

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Shanghai reports no new Covid cases for first time since March

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Latest outbreak in city of 25 million subsides after months of lockdowns and other restrictions

China has reported no new Covid-19 infections in Shanghai for the first time since March, as the country’s latest outbreak subsides after months of lockdowns and other restrictions.

China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, stamping out all infections with a combination of targeted lockdowns, mass testing and long quarantine periods.

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Xi Jinping to visit Hong Kong on 25th anniversary of British handover

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Trip will be president’s first known visit outside mainland China since January 2020 after Covid outbreak

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will visit Hong Kong for the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover to mainland China, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.

The trip will be Xi’s first known visit outside mainland China since January 2020 after the Covid-19 outbreak. He will also attend the inaugural ceremony of the sixth-term government of Hong Kong, Xinhua said.

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Mystery deepens as owners say Hong Kong floating restaurant has not sunk

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Loss-making business still afloat but rescue work extremely difficult due to depth of water, say owners

Hong Kong’s distinctive Jumbo Floating Restaurant, established in 1976 by the smuggler turned gambling impresario Stanley Ho Hung-sun, led a storied life. The 80 metre-long restaurant, designed like a Chinese imperial palace, featured as a backdrop to films by Jackie Chan and Steven Soderbergh and hosted guests including Queen Elizabeth II and Tom Cruise before closing in 2020 as the city reeled from the Covid pandemic.

It seems that in death it has not lost the power to grab headlines. Hongkongers bade the restaurant farewell last week as it was towed out of Aberdeen harbour. Its owner, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises (ARE), did not disclose its destination, but Hong Kong’s marine department later said it was due to be taken to a shipyard in Cambodia.

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Foetus fronts legal challenge over emissions in South Korea

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Lawyers representing 20-week-old foetus allege state is breaching rights of future generations

A 20-week-old foetus is fronting a legal challenge in South Korea that argues the state is breaching the rights of future generations by not doing enough to cut national emissions.

Parents and lawyers representing the foetus, as well as 61 babies and children under 11, claim national carbon targets do not go far enough to stop runaway climate change and that this is unconstitutional.

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Chinese premier calls for more coal production as electricity demand soars

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Records for electricity usage broken in Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu in early summer heatwaves

China’s premier has called for increased production of coal to stave off mass blackouts, as early summer heatwaves have prompted record electricity usage.

On Friday authorities again issued high temperature warnings for about a dozen provinces across the central and northern provinces, after consecutive days in the high 30s.

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Two killed after Chinese electric car falls from third floor of company’s offices

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Nio criticised over statement that said accident at Shanghai HQ was ‘not caused by the vehicle’

A leading Chinese electric car company has said two people were killed when one of its vehicles fell from the third floor of its Shanghai headquarters.

Nio, a homegrown brand sometimes seen as a potential rival to Tesla, said the incident happened at about 5.20pm on Wednesday. One of the victims was its employee, and the other from a partner company. They were both inside the vehicle when it fell.

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China ambassador tells Australian protesters ‘no such thing as absolute freedom’

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Xiao Qian says there is no reason for China and Australia to be enemies as his address is interrupted by protests

China’s ambassador to Australia has declared there is “no such thing as absolute freedom” as he defended his country’s human rights record during a speech in Sydney.

Facing repeated interruptions from protesters, Xiao Qian said on Friday there was no reason the two countries should be enemies but they should respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity – phrasing that indicates Australia should moderate its comments about Taiwan and Hong Kong.

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Japanese city worker loses USB containing personal details of every resident

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Contractor said he lost the device – storing names, addresses, dates of birth and tax details of 460,000 people – after an alcohol-fuelled night out

A city in Japan has been forced to apologise after a contractor admitted he had lost a USB memory stick containing the personal data of almost half a million residents after an alcohol-fuelled night out.

Officials in Amagasaki, western Japan, said the man – an unnamed employee of a private contractor hired to oversee Covid-19 relief payments to local households – had taken the flash drive from the city’s offices to transfer the data at a call centre in nearby Osaka.

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‘Considerable strain’: how Australian officials saw the China rift

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Officials kept in ‘regular contact’ with Chinese embassy even as Morrison government ministers frozen out, FoI documents shows

Australian officials stayed in “regular contact” with the Chinese embassy in Canberra to “explain our decisions” even when Australian ministers were subjected to a two-year diplomatic freeze, newly released documents show.

The former Morrison government had been “willing to engage with China in dialogue at any time”, according to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade briefing notes, which also described the relationship as being under “considerable strain”.

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Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul prepare for Mediterranean tsunami

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Risk of significant tsunami within next 30 years is nearly 100%, Unesco says, as it urges coastal cities to become ‘tsunami-ready’

A tsunami could soon hit major cities on or near the Mediterranean Sea including Marseille, Alexandria and Istanbul, with a nearly 100% chance of a wave reaching more than a metre high in the next 30 years, according to Unesco.

The risk of a tsunami in Mediterranean coastal communities is predicted to soar as sea levels rise. While communities in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, where most tsunamis occur, were often aware of the dangers, it was underestimated in other coastal regions, including the Mediterranean, Unesco said.

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Chinese city stripped of ‘civilised’ title after attack on female diners

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Tangshan loses national honorary status as police officials investigated over incident that shocked China

The northern Chinese city of Tangshan has been stripped of a national honorary title as the fallout from the assault of four women at a restaurant earlier this month continues.

The civilisation office of the Communist party of China’s central committee announced on Wednesday it had decided to remove Tangshan from the list of “national civilised cities” – the highest recognition for a Chinese city.

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Hong Kong plunges lower in global human rights index

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Region now on par with Saudi Arabia in some indicators – and coming closer to converging with China

Hong Kong has plunged further in a human rights ranking report, bringing it on a par with Saudi Arabia in some indicators, and closer to converging with China as the Communist party government deepens its control on the region.

The rankings report by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) also highlighted a deepening divide in China between high scores in quality of life indicators and some of the world’s lowest for civil and political rights. But the organisation found rights to basic essentials were often stripped from people for political reasons.

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China floods force tens of thousands to evacuate with more rainfall expected

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Parts of China see worst flooding in decades as 500,000 homes damaged, roads collapsed and some houses swept away

Major flooding has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in southern China, with more rain expected.

The manufacturing hub of Guangdong suspended classes, office work and public transport amid rising waters and the threat of landslides. In the neighbouring province of Jiangxi, almost 500,000 people have seen damage to their homes and their lives uprooted.

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Taiwan scrambles jets to warn away Chinese planes in its air zone as tensions simmer

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Intruders included 17 fighters, six H-6 bombers and aerial refuelling aircraft, in largest Chinese incursion since May

Taiwan scrambled jets to warn away 29 Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone, including bombers that flew to the south of the island and into the Pacific, in the latest uptick in tensions and largest incursion since late May.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for the past two years or so of repeated missions by the Chinese air force near the democratically governed island, often in the south-western part of its air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas islands.

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