Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Samoa is experiencing a bloodless coup. The Pacific’s most stable democracy is in trouble | Fiona Ey

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The government’s actions after last month’s elections call democracy into question and set a dangerous precedent for developing nations

Samoa has long been touted as a beacon of democracy and political stability in the Pacific, a region troubled by military coups and civil strife. The prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, is the world’s second longest serving prime minister, having held the office for more than 22 years.

But the latest election in the country, held last month, saw the most serious challenge to Malielegaoi’s ruling Human Rights Protection party (HRPP), and has left the country without a clear result. In the weeks since, the government has used every method available to it – and some that arguably are not – to hold on to power. What the government is doing is effectively a bloodless coup.

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News Corp exclusive on Chinese ‘bioweapons’ based on discredited 2015 book of conspiracy theories

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Report in the Australian newspaper promoting Sharri Markson’s book on origins of Covid criticised as misleading and alarmist by China analysts

The Australian’s exclusive about a “chilling” document produced by Chinese military scientists is based on a discredited 2015 book containing conspiracy theories about biological warfare which is freely available on the internet.

Written by the paper’s investigations writer, Sharri Markson, the report last Saturday said Chinese military scientists “discussed the weaponisation of Sars coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic” and predicted a third world war would be fought with biological weapons.

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Asia is home to 99 of world’s 100 most vulnerable cities

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Indonesia’s capital Jakarta – plagued by pollution, flooding and heatwaves – tops risk assessment ranking

Of the 100 cities worldwide most vulnerable to environmental hazards all but one are in Asia, and 80% are in India or China, according to a risk assessment.

More than 400 large cities with a total population of 1.5 billion are at “high” or “extreme” risk due to a mix of life-shortening pollution, dwindling water supplies, deadly heatwaves, natural disasters and climate change, the report found.

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Chinese county bans birthday parties for public servants

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Housewarmings banned and limits imposed on weddings and funerals in anti-corruption drive

Authorities in a Chinese county have banned public servants and Communist party members from having birthday parties, housewarmings and other banquet celebrations.

Authorities in Funing county, in Yunnan province, also put caps on weddings and funerals, limiting guest numbers and food budgets. The measures, seemingly targeted at potential corruption, include bans on using official vehicles for business or collecting gifts and cash that are “obviously higher [value] than normal reciprocity”.

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Thousands of Cambodians go hungry in strict lockdown zones

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Rights groups say government and UN inaction has left people lacking food and medicine for weeks

Tens of thousands of Cambodians are going hungry under the country’s strict lockdown as Covid cases continue to rise amid criticism from human rights groups that the government and the UN are being too slow to act.

The south-east Asian country had recorded one of the world’s smallest coronavirus caseloads, but infections have climbed from about 500 in late February to 20,695 this week, with 136 deaths.

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China’s feminists protest against wave of online abuse with ‘internet violence museum’

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A growing nationalistic fervour is fuelling a torrent of vitriol against anyone speaking out against the state, especially women’s rights activists

Late last month, an “unknown hill in the Chinese desert” was blanketed in scores of large red and white banners, flapping vitriol in the breeze. “I hope you die, bitch,” said one. “Little bitch, screw the feminists,” said others.

They were all actual messages sent to women, a direct act of harassment anonymised by social media. They were sent during weeks of intense debate about the treatment of women on platforms such as Weibo, sparked by the abuse of Xiao Meili who posted video of a man who threw hot liquid at her after she asked him to stop smoking.

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The Swordsman review – thrilling fight scenes in spectacular Korean action drama

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An intricate tapestry of 17th-century political intrigue and family feuding is bolstered by fabulous costumes as Chinese invaders are dealt with

The Swordsman, a pacy, crisply choreographed South Korean action film set in the 17th century handicaps itself by opting for such a bland, generic title. It’s like naming a Hollywood action movie The Gunman or The Cop. Debutant writer-director Choi Jae-Hoon could have been a little more specific about the protagonist Tae-yul (played by boy-band-beautiful star and sometime rapper Jang Hyuk) by calling it The Blind Swordsman, given the character’s vision impairment. But then that title has already been used several times. Also, Tae-yul is not quite blind yet, although the threat to his vision and his need to access an expensive medicine hang over the plot throughout.

As it happens, the intricate tapestry of action, family drama, political intrigue and period spectacle is anything but generic. Unfolding during a period when ruling dynasties in China and Korea were in major flux, the story springboards off the fall of the Joseon dynasty’s 15th king; a disgrace in combat sends Tae-yul, one of the finest swordsmen in the country, into exile with his baby daughter.

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Māori party co-leader ejected from New Zealand parliament after performing haka – video

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An Indigenous New Zealand lawmaker was thrown out of parliament for performing a Māori haka in protest against what he said were racist arguments.

Rawiri Waititi told lawmakers in the chamber that he was forced to listen to a 'constant barrage of insults' directed towards Indigenous people. The speaker, Trevor Mallard, told Waititi to sit down, but instead he performed the haka, a traditional dance or challenge accompanied by a chant.

'Order. The member will now leave the chamber,' Mallard told Waititi, which he did along with his co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer

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The Lady in the Portrait review – painterly pageantry in a Chinese royal court

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Fan Bingbing stars as an emperor’s wife having her portrait painted in this artful yet inert period drama

This French-Chinese co-production about an earlier French-Chinese collaboration offers handsome pageantry amid its lavish recreation of 18th-century imperial court life, but it isn’t quite enough to compensate for a puttering narrative motor. Longtime Apichatpong Weerasethakul producer Charles de Meaux has turned director with a far eastern equivalent of Girl With a Pearl Earring – another decorous, ever so slightly sleepy matinee sit.

The film’s subject is Jean-Denis Attiret (played by Melvil Poupaud), a real-life French Jesuit missionary who spent half of his 60-odd years employed as the Chinese court painter. His trickiest commission, recalled here, came from the emperor’s bored wife (Fan Bingbing), thirsting to preserve an image that might turn her indifferent husband’s head.

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Why China and east Asia’s ageing population threatens global Covid recovery

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Analysis: Beijing’s census data confirms trend reflected across a region that is looked to as engine of post-pandemic growth

For many years China watchers have been concerned that its ageing population will slow economic growth, causing social as well as political problems. So today’s census data may be an alarm bell for leaders in Beijing.

But it is not just China that is witnessing this trajectory. Most countries in east Asia, even without fertility control policies such as China’s one-child or two-child policies, share the same predicament: how to continue economic growth while encouraging people to have more children?

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The Hut Group strikes complex joint venture deal with SoftBank

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Deal values ‘yet to be formed’ technology division of THG at $6.3bn

The Hut Group (THG), the online retailer empire run by billionaire Matthew Moulding, has struck a complex joint venture deal with Japanese investment giant SoftBank that values a “yet to be formed” technology division of THG at $6.3bn (£4.5bn).

The deal, announced on Monday, values THG Ingenuity, which Moulding described as a “social media influencer platform” used to promote products, at about the same amount that the whole company floated at last year.

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China tourist left clinging to 100m-high bridge after glass panels smash

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Man rescued after sudden gusts shattered panels on bridge in Longjing city

A man was left stranded on a glass-bottomed suspension bridge in north-eastern China after sudden gale-force winds shattered the transparent panels around him.

The man was on the 100-metre-high bridge at Piyan Mountain in Longjing city, when it was hit by sudden strong weather, the local tourism department said.

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New Zealand stabbing: four injured in attack at Dunedin supermarket

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Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said there was no evidence the attack at a Countdown store was an incident of domestic terrorism

Four people have been injured, three critically, after a stabbing attack at a supermarket in the New Zealand city of Dunedin.

Police said a suspect had been arrested and taken into custody after the incident at a Countdown supermarket on Monday afternoon. Two supermarket staff members were among those injured.

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Anger as Chinese safari park kept leopard breakout from the public for nearly a week

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Three leopards from Hangzhou Safari Park were spotted by villagers on 1 May, but the park only reported the missing leopards on Saturday

A search for the last of three leopards that escaped from a safari park in eastern China was ongoing, authorities said Monday, as the park came under fire for concealing the breakout for nearly a week.

The three leopards from the Hangzhou Safari Park were spotted by villagers as early as 1 May, according to the state-owned Global Times newspaper. However, the safari park only reported the missing leopards and alerted the public on Saturday.

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‘Irresponsible’: Nasa chides China as rocket debris lands in Indian Ocean

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US agency accuses Beijing of failing to meet expected standards regarding its space debris

Remnants of China’s biggest rocket have landed in the Indian Ocean, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit and drawing US criticism over a lack of transparency.

The coordinates given by Chinese state media, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), put the point of impact west of the Maldives archipelago.

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Everyone deserves a decent, secure life. It’s time New Zealand talked about rent controls | Chloe Swarbrick

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Under the government’s current plans it will be half a century before house prices return to affordability

One-third of New Zealanders rent. In my electorate and home, Auckland Central, the centre of the largest city in the country, it’s even more: 54%.

For a really long time, the conversation around housing was one of avocados and flat whites. Renters, we were told, were in a temporary moment of their life. They were, the story went, on a path to homeownership, if only they could reign in their spending on fancy cafe food.

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Refugees and the Armenian genocide: human rights this fortnight in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China

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‘We’re seen as dogs’: death of Tongan LGBTQ+ activist sparks calls for reform

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After the alleged murder of Polikalepo Kefu, Pacific LGBTQI groups are calling for change, including revoking sodomy laws

The large hall of the basilica in the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa, hasn’t seen many crowds since Covid restrictions were introduced a year ago.

But on Thursday night, people from across all parts of society packed every inch of available space in the venue, clad mostly in black and the traditional woven ta’ovala dress.

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North Korea says propaganda leaflets sent from South could carry coronavirus

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State-run media in North warn people about a ‘strange object flying in the wind’ as South Korean police raid office of leaflet distributor

North Korea has warned its citizens against reading propaganda leaflets sent via balloon over the border with the South, saying they could be carrying coronavirus.

The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper urged people to stay away from the leaflets, according to news agency Yonhap, saying: “Even when we come across a strange object flying in the wind, we must consider them as a possible route of transmission of the malicious virus rather than a natural phenomenon.” It advised people to “think and move” according to Covid-19 guidelines.

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New Zealand man threatened with prosecution over penis pothole drawings

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Geoff Upson says he has drawn about 100 penises around potholes in a bid to force his local council to fix them

A New Zealand man who began drawing very large penises around the potholes in his home city of Auckland in 2018 in the hopes of attracting the attention of his local council has been threatened with police action.

In a video, road safety campaigner Geoff Upson made after the most recent addition to his oeuvre, saying: “I’m about sick of calling Auckland transport.”

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