Category Archives: Asia Pacific

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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‘Genetic fossil’: intact DNA from woman who lived 7,200 years ago discovered in Indonesia

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Skeleton of hunter-gatherer found in Leang Panninge cave sheds light on ancient human migration

Archaeologists have discovered ancient DNA in the remains of a woman who died 7,200 years ago in Indonesia, a find that challenges what was previously known about migration of early humans.

The remains, belonging to a teenager nicknamed Bessé, were discovered in the Leang Panninge cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Initial excavations were undertaken in 2015.

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Samoa’s former PM accuses Jacinda Ardern of plot to replace him with a woman

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Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi lost the recent election and was succeeded by the country’s first female leader, an outcome he is blaming on the New Zealand PM

The former prime minister of Samoa has accused Jacinda Ardern of being behind the recent political crisis in Samoa, suggesting she had wanted to install a female prime minister.

“I am starting to get suspicious maybe New Zealand is behind all of this,” said Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, during an interview with TV1 on Sunday night.

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Taiwan hits zero Covid cases for first time since outbreak in May

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Acceleration of vaccine rollout and test-and-trace improvements credited for turnaround

Taiwan has reported zero community cases of Covid-19 for the first time since its biggest outbreak began in May, killing more than 800 people.

“The local confirmed case today is zero, it was not easy,” the head of the Central Epidemic Command Centre, Chen Shih-chung, said on Wednesday.

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Hong Kong to scour old films for subversive themes under new censorship law

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Movies deemed a security threat can bring penalties of up to three years’ jail under stricter law that also covers previously approved titles

Hong Kong will scrutinise past films for national security breaches under a tough new censorship law in the latest blow to the city’s political and artistic freedoms.

Authorities announced in June that the financial hub’s censorship board would check any future films for content that breached the security law. But on Tuesday they unveiled a new, hardened censorship law that would also cover any titles that had previously been given a green light.

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New Zealand won’t ‘throw in towel’ on Covid-zero strategy despite rising infections

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Covid response minister says it would be a waste to stop aiming for elimination after plan was questioned by foreign media

New Zealand’s Covid response minister says the country will not “throw in the towel” with its elimination strategy, as cases continue to rise.

New Zealand announced 63 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 210 cases. It is the largest single-day jump since the outbreak began last week, and 12 people are hospitalised with the virus.

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New Zealand health chief slams ‘gutless’ racism against Pasifika people over Covid cluster

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Ashley Bloomfield urges everyone to be kind amid rise in online abuse after outbreak at Auckland church service that took place before lockdown

New Zealand’s director general of health has condemned “gutless” racism against Pacific communities, as the Covid-19 outbreak continues to grow.

Announcing case numbers on Wednesday, Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the ministry of health had seen racism being directed at Pacific New Zealanders, and that those racist remarks were “disappointing – and frankly, gutless”.

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New Zealand’s stance on ‘people’s vaccine’ for Covid undermines its principled reputation | Max Harris and Phoebe Carr

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Newly released documents show government backed a vaccine patent waiver only after the US changed its position

Many New Zealanders like to think of their government as a principled actor in international affairs. Discussions of New Zealand’s role in foreign policy in recent years often laud New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance in the 1980s. There is widespread pride in New Zealand’s “independent foreign policy”, including its decision not to go to war in Iraq in 2003.

But the story of New Zealand’s role in the world, historically and today, is much more complex than these cliches would suggest. Documents just released under the Official Information Act provide another example of a murkier world of New Zealand foreign policy decision-making.

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Kamala Harris Vietnam trip delayed after two US officials report Havana syndrome

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Press secretary says assessment of safety of vice-president was carried out and she continued her journey

US vice-president Kamala Harris’ trip from Singapore to Vietnam was delayed by several hours on Tuesday by an investigation into two possible cases of the so-called Havana syndrome in Hanoi, administration officials said.

The investigation was in its early stages and officials deemed it safe for Harris to make her scheduled stop in Vietnam, which is part of her trip across Asia meant to reassure allies about American foreign policy amid the tumultuous evacuation of US forces from Afghanistan.

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Uber rival Didi Chuxing suspends plans for UK and Europe launch

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Company won licences for Manchester and Sheffield but faces pressure from Chinese government

Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing has reportedly suspended plans to launch in the UK and Europe, as the ride-hailing company faces pressure from authorities in its home market.

The company’s plans to launch in the UK and Europe have been pushed back at least 12 months, and staff working on the launch have been told they face possible redundancy, the Daily Telegraph first reported.

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Philippines’ Duterte agrees to run as vice-president in 2022

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President’s ‘sacrifice’ paves way for leader to stay in power beyond June next year

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has agreed to be the ruling political party’s vice-presidential candidate in next year’s elections, laying the groundwork for the leader to stay in power beyond his term.

The PDP-Laban party made the announcement before a national assembly on 8 September, where it is also expected to endorse Duterte’s aide and incumbent senator, Christopher “Bong” Go, to be its presidential candidate in the 2022 poll.

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Kamala Harris accuses Beijing of ‘coercion’ and ‘intimidation’ in South China Sea

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In major speech delivered in Singapore, US vice president says America stands with its allies in the Indo Pacific in the face of threats from China

US vice president Kamala Harris has delivered a sharp rebuke to China for its incursions in the South China Sea, warning its actions there amount to “coercion” and “intimidation” and affirming that the US will support its allies in the region against Beijing’s advances.

“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said in a major foreign policy speech Tuesday in Singapore in which she laid out the Biden administration’s vision for the Indo-Pacific. “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.”

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New Zealand records another 41 Covid cases as it braces for biggest outbreak of pandemic

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Cluster has grown to 148 people, with experts saying it could grow to 1,000 and take four to six weeks to stamp out

New Zealand is bracing for its biggest coronavirus outbreak yet as cases rise, the locations of interest balloon to more than 400 sites, and the number of close contacts swells to more than 15,700 people.

On Tuesday, the country recorded 41 new positive cases, bringing the total number in its outbreak to 148 – the majority of whom are Samoan, and linked to a sub-cluster who assembled at the Assembly of God church in Mangere, Auckland before the lockdown.

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China reports zero local symptomatic Covid cases for first time since July

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Tough measures were deployed after the recent Delta variant outbreak

China’s health authority has reported no new locally transmitted symptomatic Covid cases for the first time since the Delta variant outbreak began in July.

While it is unclear whether the figure will remain at zero in the weeks to come, experts said it was yet another sign that Beijing’s “zero tolerance” approach was unlikely to be changed.

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New Zealand reports another 35 Covid cases as nationwide lockdown extended

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Jacinda Ardern said outbreak was not thought to have peaked and that country must ‘hold the course’

New Zealand’s nationwide lockdown is extending until at least the end of the week, as the country battles to contain an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19.

Auckland – the country’s largest city, where the majority of cases are – will remain in lockdown until the end of the month.

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‘Big questions’: New Zealand Covid minister raises doubts about elimination strategy

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Chris Hipkins said the Delta variant was ‘like nothing we’ve dealt with so far’

The arrival of the Delta strain in New Zealand has prompted the country’s Covid-19 response minister to question the efficacy of its ambitious elimination strategy – an approach that has been the backbone of the country’s pandemic response.

Chris Hipkins told current affairs programme Q+A on Sunday that Delta raised “big questions about the long-term future of our plans”.

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‘An artist in search of good material’: My time at an Auckland massage parlour | Megan Dunn

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In this extract from her new book, New Zealand writer Megan Dunn describes her time answering the phone at Belle de Jour

I got a job at Belle de Jour in 1998. I was 24 years old and had just graduated from art school. What did I need next? Life experience.

The neon sign hung in the window of the ranch slider. The massage parlour logo was of a vintage femme fatale: a raven-haired Betty Page-ish beauty with bright red lips who wore a cheetah V-neck and elbow-length black gloves and toked a cigarette in a cigarette holder. Like Lauren Bacall. One of those classic screen sirens, a quip at the ready. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Slim? You just put your lips together and…

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Labour says PPE contracts must not go to Xinjiang firms that use forced workers

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Exclusive: Emily Thornberry appeals to Sajid Javid to tackle issue of forced labour in Chinese province

Labour has written to the health secretary, Sajid Javid, urging him to ensure a new £5bn contract for NHS protective equipment including gowns and masks is not awarded to companies implicated in forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region.

Following up earlier concerns about medical gloves for the NHS being produced in Malaysia, where there have been consistent reports of forced labour in factories, Emily Thornberry called for an urgent response.

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