Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Will Taiwan’s Olympic win over China herald the end of ‘Chinese Taipei’?

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Victory in Tokyo has reignited debate over a decades-old compromise with the island’s goliath neighbour

In the hours between Taiwan winning gold and silver in Olympic badminton on the weekend, local courts in Taipei were packed with enthusiastic young players. The nail-biting matches had lit a fire of sporting patriotism – not least because both were against China, Taiwan’s goliath neighbour, which claims Taiwan as a province it must retake.

The doubles win by Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin was Taiwan’s second gold medal, after Kuo Hsing-Chun won in weightlifting, and added to its biggest medal haul in Olympic history. Taiwan sits 18th in the table. China is first. Nevertheless, social media was awash with celebrations.

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Fiji’s emergency Covid-19 hotline fell silent during the rugby sevens final: we really needed this win | Sheldon Chanel

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The men’s gold and women’s bronze medals meant everything to Fiji, which has the highest per-capita Covid infection rate in the world

When the Fijian men’s sevens team beat New Zealand to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday, the entire nation celebrated.

The win could not have come at a better time. Fiji is in the grip of a deadly second outbreak of Covid-19, on top of a potential political crisis over controversial native land legislation.

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Jacinda Ardern apologises for New Zealand ‘dawn raids’ on Pasifika people in 1970s

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The raids on Pasifika migrants and their subsequent deportations separated families and devastated communities

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has issued a formal apology for historic racist policing of Pacific people and offered scholarships to Pacific students.

Hundreds of people packed Auckland town hall on Sunday to hear the apology for the “dawn raids” of the 1970s during which authorities hunted for visa overstayers.

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Home Office challenged over ‘sped-up’ removal of Vietnamese nationals

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Signs that detainees were victims of trafficking are being overlooked, say campaigners

Lawyers are challenging the Home Office policy of deporting people to Vietnam who could be victims of trafficking after the UK sent a second charter flight to the country within a matter of weeks.

The challenge follows concern from lawyers and charities that some victims of trafficking could be wrongly removed from the UK under a speedy processing system for migrants in detention known as “detained asylum casework”.

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Pop star Kris Wu detained on suspicion of rape

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Beijing police detain the ex-boy band member after social media allegations of date rape

Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu has been detained by Beijing police on suspicion of rape.

The 30-year-old former member of the Korean boyband EXO had previously been accused by a teenager of having sex with her while she was drunk. Wu denied the accusation.

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Tibet and China clash over next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama

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The spiritual leader has mused that he may return as a woman. But his succession has turned into a political battle

A couple of years ago, during a meeting of Tibetan leaders in Dharamshala in India, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was asked about his reincarnation. Addressing the room of monks, religious teachers and Tibetan politicians, the Dalai Lama asked them to look into his eyes. “Do you think it’s time now?” he asked.

It was a meeting that would end with the Tibetan leaders agreeing that the issue of reincarnation was one that would be decided only by the Dalai Lama himself. But China, which annexed Tibet in 1951 and has retained tight control over the region ever since, has other ideas. It insists that the choice of the next Dalai Lama lies only with China, and have even enshrined this right into Chinese law.

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Hong Kong man arrested for allegedly booing Chinese anthem while watching Olympics

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Man allegedly also waved colonial-era flags while watching fencer Edgar Cheung’s medal ceremony at a mall

Hong Kong police have arrested a man on suspicion of insulting the national anthem, after he allegedly booed the Chinese national anthem while watching an Olympic event at a mall.

The 40-year-old man was detained on Friday after allegedly waving colonial-era Hong Kong flags and booing, while urging others to join him in insulting the song, according to a police statement posted on Facebook.

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On China, Covid-19 and being the first woman in the job: Samoa’s first female PM– video

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Samoa's first female prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa in her first sit-down interview with foreign media since taking office this week says there was 'a lot of excitement' in the Pacific nation about her election among women and girls . She also opened up about Samoa's relationship with China, saying that while 'of course we know what's happening in the global context' with the US-China tensions Samoa needed to be 'very focused on how we navigate our way through international relations'.

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UK says it has no plans for South China Sea confrontation after Beijing warning

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Naval strike group is sailing through waters heavily contested between China and neighbouring countries

Britain has said it has no plans to stage a naval confrontation with China in the South China Sea and that it aims to send its carrier strike group in the most direct route across the contested body of water from Singapore to the Philippine Sea.

The cooling message emerged hours after China’s military and state media warned the UK against provocation as the group, led by Royal Navy aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, undertakes what had been expected to be a more assertive deployment.

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Thailand bans sharing of news that ‘causes public fear’ amid pandemic criticism

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Measures condemned by media and rights groups as attempt to shut down negative news reports

The Thai government has outlawed sharing news that “causes public fear”, even if such reports are true, as officials face mounting criticism over their handling of the pandemic.

On Thursday, the government tightened an emergency decree imposed more than a year ago that initially targeted false news. The latest constrictions forbid people from distributing “information causing public fear”, or from sharing “distorted information causing misunderstanding which affects national stability”.

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‘No place in modern New Zealand’: government signals conversion practices ban

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Proposed legislation would make it an offence to perform conversion practices on anyone aged under 18

New Zealand has introduced legislation to ban conversion practices, saying the practice is harmful and has “no place in modern New Zealand”.

Conversion therapy refers to the practice, often by religious groups, of trying to “cure” people of their sexuality, gender expression, or LGBTQI identity.

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China’s US ambassador pick shines light on debate over ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy

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Analysis: Xi Jinping wants his country to appear more lovable, but critics say Beijing’s efforts are too superficial

China’s appointment of a new ambassador to the US has shone a light on the ongoing debate among analysts about how Beijing communicates with its biggest competitor, the future of its “wolf warrior” diplomacy and how Xi Jinping’s call to “tell a good China story” might work in practice.

The debate over the “wolf warrior” style – under which, as the Chinese ambassador to Sweden said on Swedish public radio in 2019, “we treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we have shotguns” – comes amid a burst of positive publicity that delighted Beijing’s propaganda officials: the foreign coverage of the herd of 15 wandering Asian elephants in southern China that captured the country’s imagination and led Chinese vloggers to travel hundreds of miles to take selfies with them.

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Japan urges young people to get jabs and stay in amid Tokyo Covid surge

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Health experts say surge in cases amid Olympics could overload hospitals unless action taken

Health experts in Japan have warned that a recent surge in coronavirus cases in Tokyo, six days into the Olympics, could put hospitals under severe strain unless young people stop socialising at night and get vaccinated.

Tokyo reported 3,865 daily coronavirus cases on Thursday, up from 3,177 on Wednesday, as rising infections in the capital cast a shadow over the Olympics. Wednesday was the first time cases in Tokyo had exceeded 3,000 since the start of the pandemic.

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City of Nanjing isolated as China fights worst Covid outbreak in months

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Flights have reportedly been cancelled and checkpoints set up to verify travellers’ health status amid Delta

Health authorities in China have set up checkpoints and reportedly suspended flights in the eastern city of Nanjing in the country’s worst coronavirus emergency in months.

More than 170 people have been diagnosed with the Delta variant in the past 10 days. The main outbreak is centred on Nanjing, in Jiangsu province, but connected cases have reportedly been identified in Beijing and other provinces including Anhui, Liaoning, Sichuan and Guangdong.

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Chinese billionaire pig farmer jailed for ‘provoking trouble’

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Agricultural mogul Sun Dawu given 18-year sentence in case observers believe was politically motivated

Sun Dawu, a Chinese billionaire pig farmer and agricultural mogul, has been sentenced after weeks of hearings in secret to 18 years in prison and fined 3.11m yuan (£345,000) for a catalogue of crimes including “provoking trouble”, in a case observers believe was politically motivated.

The court in Gaobeidian, near Beijing, said Sun was guilty of crimes including “gathering a crowd to attack state organs”, “obstructing government administration” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a catch-all term often used against human rights figures and dissidents.

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Thailand puts Covid patients on sleeper trains home to ease crisis in Bangkok

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More than 100 patients have already been sent home as country faces its third and deadliest wave of coronavirus

Thailand has begun using sleeper trains to transport Covid patients out of Bangkok, where hospitals have been overwhelmed by a recent surge in cases.

The first train left the capital on Tuesday, transporting 137 patients who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms to their home towns in the north-east of the country.

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‘Please explain what OG means’: delight as Fiji politician discovers Twitter

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Pio Tikoduadua, president of the opposition National Federation Party, has won praise and followers with his faltering attempts to understand social media

A leading opposition MP from Fiji is delighting new social media followers with his wide-eyed discovery of Twitter, even as the country is experiencing heightened political tensions.

Pio Tikoduadua, who is the president of the National Federation Party, announced on Monday that while his Twitter account had been created a while ago, it had been run by his staff until now.

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Greenpeace criticises New Zealand Rugby deal with petrochemical company Ineos

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Ineos has been accused of using sports to ‘greenwash’ its reputation

New Zealand Rugby’s decision to sign a six-year deal with global petrochemical company Ineos has been criticised by Greenpeace, who said it fundamentally goes against the country’s “clean, green” values.

NZ Rugby announced the company will become the official performance partner for its seven teams from 2022. Ineos is a UK oil, gas and petrochemical conglomerate – the third largest company of its kind in the world. Its main shareholder is billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, and the company has lobbied to weaken green taxes and reduce restrictions on fracking.

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Morocco authorities arrest Uyghur activist at China’s request

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Supporters fear Yidiresi Aishan will be extradited and say arrest is politically driven

Moroccan authorities have arrested a Uyghur activist in exile because of a Chinese terrorism warrant distributed by Interpol, according to information from Moroccan police and a rights group that tracks people detained by China.

Activists fear Yidiresi Aishan will be extradited to China and say the arrest is politically driven as part of a broader Chinese campaign to hunt down perceived dissidents outside its borders.

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