Category Archives: Asia Pacific

China urges nations to ‘actively guide’ Taliban government

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US should work with international community to help Afghanistan run government functions, Wang Yi says

China’s top diplomat has urged the international community to engage with Afghanistan’s new Taliban government and “guide it actively”, in a phone call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Wang Yi, Chinese state councillor and foreign minister, also said that Washington should work with the international community to help the new regime run governmental functions normally, according to a statement. He added that the US’s “hasty withdrawal” could allow terrorist groups to “regroup and come back stronger”.

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International talks aim for consensus on Taliban government

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Western G7 powers are meeting Turkey, Qatar and Nato in Doha to discuss how Kabul airport could be reopened

Talks are due in Doha and New York to try to reach an international consensus on the conditions for recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. There are signs of tensions between superpowers after Russia called on the US to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month.

“If our western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves,” said the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov.

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Even as New Zealand battles Covid, trust in government bucks global trend

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With a nationwide lockdown and some of the world’s strictest restrictions, Jacinda Ardern is counting on her people’s goodwill again

In locked-down New Zealand, life orbits around the 1pm briefing. As the home-bound nation digests its lunch, the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield – frequently alongside prime minister Jacinda Ardern – takes the stage behind a socially distanced podium and updates the country.

In the midst of a Covid outbreak, those briefings occur almost every weekday. They are so clockwork-regular, so predictable in their essential structure, that certain sentences became memes: “Kia ora koutou katoa. There are X cases of Covid-19 in the community,” each begins. After the last outbreak, media outlet The Spinoff spliced together Bloomfield saying it 44 times.

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Children return to school in Jakarta as Indonesia eases Covid restrictions

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After 18 months of remote learning, some students will re-enter classrooms as the capital sees a fall in coronavirus infections

After almost 18 months, children in Jakarta will begin to re-enter classrooms on Monday, as Indonesia, which faces on of the worst Covid outbreaks globally, eases restrictions in some areas.

Indonesia began gradually loosening its lockdown measures last week, allowing restaurants and places of worship to open their doorsat 25% capacity, and malls to operate at 50% capacity. The relaxed rules were introduced across several regions in Java and Bali , including greater Jakarta, greater Bandung and greater Surabaya.

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Pasifika are on the frontline in New Zealand’s Covid battle – and are copping racist abuse for it | Fa’anana Efeso Collins

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Public indifference to abuse of the Pasifika community is especially concerning – we all need to show compassion in this crisis

The past week in lockdown has been tumultuous for many in my community. I was on my way to pick up my daughter from school when media outlets began reporting that New Zealand was headed for a possible level 4 lockdown, suggesting the Delta variant had breached our borders and there was a probable case in the community. By the time I arrived at the school, notifications were filling my messenger feed with supermarkets packed to the brim as the rush for toilet paper began. New Zealand went into full lockdown that night in its fight against Covid-19.

Within a matter of hours, news emerged that a person from the North Shore of Auckland had tested positive followed by people who had attended a large church gathering in south Auckland. Church plays a pivotal role in the Pacific community. It serves as a hub to express our faith, language and culture, where we reconnect with friends and family. It grounds us and allows us to recharge before we head back into a society that is different to what we knew in our home islands dotted around the Pacific.

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Recovery in global trade hit by Covid outbreaks in east Asia

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Decline in exports from Taiwan combines with port closures in China and Japan to hinder growth

A recovery in global trade during the summer is beginning to wane, according to some early warning signs pointing to the negative effects of widespread Covid-19 outbreaks in the manufacturing centres of east Asia.

A dramatic decline in exports from Taiwan, which makes many of the computer chips used in cars and mobile phones, has combined with temporary port closures and lockdowns in Australia, China and Japan to cut the level of global trade.

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New Zealand Covid update: 83 new cases, with all but one in Auckland

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The nation’s Delta outbreak continues to grow, with Auckland likely to remain in lockdown for at least another fortnight

Jacinda Ardern says she won’t hesitate to impose tougher restrictions to contain New Zealand’s growing Covid-19 outbreak, as the country reported 83 cases on Sunday – a new daily high for this outbreak.

All but one of the new cases were found in Auckland, with the other in Wellington.

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Chinese university appears to ask for lists of LGBTQ+ students for ‘investigation’

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Survey by Shanghai University that asked colleges to research the political stance and ‘state of mind’ of members of LGBTQ+ communities has sparked alarm

A well-known Chinese university appears to have asked its colleges to make lists of their LGBTQ+ students and report on their “state of mind”, according to a purported internal directive published online on both Chinese and foreign social media platforms.

Shanghai University has not confirmed the request or responded to queries about its intention, but it has sparked alarm among young Chinese people, coming after a crackdown on campus groups and organisations supporting LGBTQ+ and feminist communities.

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‘A neat trick’: critics aim to shift Aotearoa debate, but historical fidelity no longer matters

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The early European explorers understood the power of naming and so do Māori today

New Zealand is, in its own imagination, a progressive utopia. The first country in the world where women won the right to vote, the first country in the world to introduce workplace arbitration, the Anglosphere’s chief critic of nuclear weapons, and the former British colony with “the fairest treaty ever made by Europeans with a native race”.

Related: New Zealand Māori may have been first to discover Antarctica, study suggests

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Bill and tag’s excellent adventure: A year in the life of one southern right whale

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A satellite tag which unexpectedly kept working for a year has followed one whale’s 15,000km journey across three oceans

A loud bang shatters the winter calm of Port Ross, in New Zealand’s remote Auckland Islands, and the small inflatable boat is rocked by the swirl of a 40-ton whale being swallowed up by the cold, dark water.

When it resurfaces, the team of scientists are happy to see their US$3,200 satellite tag securely fixed to his side. The whale, whom they have nicknamed “Bill”, slips away into the ocean, the tag transmitting his movements. A few days later, researchers watch as he starts heading west towards Australia.

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New Thai temple sparks controversy over claims it imitates Angkor Wat

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Cambodia to send inspectors to see if site is too similar to 12th-century complex that is a national symbol

A temple complex being constructed in the north-east of Thailand has become mired in controversy, after it was claimed the design was an attempt to replicate Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument.

The Cambodian government reportedly plans to send archaeologists and temple architects to inspect whether the site is too similar to Angkor Wat, the national symbol depicted on the country’s flag.

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‘We weren’t able to bring everyone’: Jacinda Ardern ends New Zealand flights from Afghanistan

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Prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced New Zealand was ending further flights into Kabul, due to the continuing threat of terrorist attacks. The announcement followed an attack at the airport on Thursday that killed least 60 Afghans and 13 US soldiers.

Ardern said she did not know how many visa holders from Afghanistan remained in the country, nor how many of those registered on SafeTravel managed to get out, but said New Zealand had not given up on trying to bring visa-holders home

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China bans celebrity rankings in bid to ‘rectify chaos in the fan community’

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Authorities increase regulation of fame and fan culture that they say will tackle online bullying and protect children

Chinese authorities have banned online lists ranking celebrities by popularity, as regulators continue a drive to “clean up” fame and fandom culture.

According to regulations published in state media, all existing lists that rank Chinese stars must also be removed from the internet.

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‘We were punch bags’: North Korean prison beatings form of torture, says UN

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Reports of forced labour and severe punishments for detainees add to growing evidence of abuses worsening during the pandemic

Detainees in North Korea are forced into gruelling manual labour and beaten so severely it may be a form of torture, the UN has said, as it warned that Covid-19 had exacerbated human rights concerns in the notoriously oppressive country.

In a report to be presented at the UN general assembly in September, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said fresh accounts given to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) had added to “a growing body of information confirming consistent patterns of human rights violations”.

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New Zealand Covid update: national lockdown extended after 70 new cases

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Auckland and the neighbouring region of Northland are likely to stay in level 4 lockdown for another two weeks

New Zealand will remain in a full lockdown until midnight on Tuesday, with regions south of Auckland moving to level 3 after then, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has announced.

The update came after 70 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the community, bringing the total number in New Zealand’s outbreak to 347.

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New Zealand police break up one-person anti-lockdown protest in Auckland

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An Instagram account had called on people to get involved in the Queen Street demonstration

A one-person anti-lockdown protest in central Auckland has been shut down, after the police were alerted to discussions of a potential gathering on social media.

New Zealand police said officers were on Queen Street on Friday after hearing a protest was being planned, but only one person arrived with the intention of protesting, Newshub reported.

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Kamala Harris’s south-east Asia trip reveals limits of US strategy

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Analysis: With little sign of big ideas or ambitious proposals, some analysts say vice-president’s trip reflects how little the administration is investing in the region

In October 2013, as the former US president Barack Obama had to cancel his four-nation tour of south-east Asia due to the congressional impasse at home, China’s president Xi Jinping, instead, made the news headlines across the region.

On that trip to Indonesia, Xi proposed to set up an Asian infrastructure investment bank to support the region’s “connectivity”. He and his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also announced $32bn of trade and investment deals. Then in Malaysia, Xi and the prime minister, Najib Razak, vowed to strengthen military ties and triple bilateral trade to $160bn by 2017.

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South Korea designates arriving Afghans as ‘persons of special merit’

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Seoul skirts fraught issue of refugees as it ‘fulfils moral responsibility’ and welcomes 391 newcomers

South Korea has welcomed the arrival of Afghans who supported its operations before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, designating them as “persons of special merit” instead of refugees in an apparent effort to defuse anti-migrant sentiment.

A military aircraft landed at Incheon airport west of Seoul in the afternoon, transporting 378 Afghans who had worked for South Korea’s embassy and other facilities in Afghanistan and their family members. A further 13 will arrive on a separate flight.

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Hong Kong police investigate organisers of Tiananmen Square vigil

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Longstanding group accused of being ‘agent of foreign forces’ and is asked for information about its membership

Hong Kong’s national security police are investigating the organisers of a vigil commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre for alleged foreign collusion offences.

Chow Hang-tung, the vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said authorities had written to core members of the longstanding group demanding information related to their foreign links within 14 days.

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