Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Australia should resist the march of autocracy, but there will be consequences | Jonathan Pearlman

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The old world order is ending. The challenge for Australia is that the driving force behind the change is China, a country so crucial to our future in Asia

In June 1987, a group of world leaders met in Venice to plan global economic policy for the 21st century. The leaders represented seven of the eight wealthiest countries in the world; the Soviet Union was excluded.

Addressing the summit, US president Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an example of “how not to run a country”. But he was less hostile towards China, which was then the world’s ninth-largest economy, just ahead of Spain.

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US warns Beijing against using force in South China Sea

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State department concerned by new laws that authorise Chinese coastguard to use weapons against foreign ships

The United States has warned China against the use of force in disputed waters as it reaffirmed its view that Beijing’s assertive campaign in the South China Sea is illegal.

The state department voiced “concern” about new legislation enacted by China that authorises its coastguard to use weapons against foreign ships that Beijing considers to be unlawfully entering its waters.

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‘Marginalising our own brothers and sisters’: the disrespect Micronesia has been shown is a tragedy for the Pacific | Surangel Whipps Jr, President of Palau

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Micronesia had no choice to but to abandon the Pacific Islands Forum after being ‘thoroughly and publicly disregarded’, the President of Palau writes

What becomes of an organisation when it disregards one-third of its membership? What happens when “we” stops being inclusive?

As the eldest of four, I have always felt responsible for the safety, security, and well-being of my siblings. In my family, “I” has always been synonymous with “we”, the collective, being one inclusive family and ensuring no one is left out. This is what I understand to be the Palauan way; this is what I understand to be the Pacific Way.

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‘Joy and agony’: Christchurch earthquake survivors ten years on

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On 22 February, 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit, killing 185 people. Those left behind have spent a decade coming to terms with the tragedy

Some likened it to a tornado, or an oncoming train; others remember registering not much more than a rumble before the roof caved in. At 12.51pm on Tuesday, 22 February 2011, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch. In the devastation, 185 people died, and an entire city was scarred.

Ten years on, Christchurch remains forever changed. Though new layers to survivors’ trauma are still being revealed, in amongst them lies faith in other people, hope for the future – and astonishing resilience.

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Vaccine diplomacy: west falling behind in race for influence

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While the UK and US strive for herd immunity, Russia and China are leveraging their Covid jabs

“Today it is easier to get a nuclear weapon than to get a vaccine,” the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, declared in January. He was bragging. The Balkans country had just received its first shipment of almost 1m Covid-19 vaccine doses from Sinopharm, a state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company.

Since then, Serbia has augmented its stockpile with tens of thousands of shots of Russia’s Sputnik V, signed an agreement to build a bottling plant for the Russian vaccine and now boasts the fastest vaccination rate in continental Europe.

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China lashes out at Canada for signing declaration against arbitrary detention

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Statement made no mention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor but Canada has tried to build global support to secure their release

China has lashed out against Canada for signing a declaration denouncing the arbitrary detention of foreign citizens, describing the move as a “despicable and hypocritical act” as relations between the two countries remain tense.

Earlier this week, Canada and 57 other nations, including the US, UK, Australia, Germany and Sweden, jointly signed a declaration condemning the use of arbitrary detention for political purposes.

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Indigenous peoples face rise in rights abuses during pandemic, report finds

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Increasing land grabs endangering forest communities and wildlife as governments expand mining and agriculture to combat economic impact of Covid

Indigenous communities in some of the world’s most forested tropical countries have faced a wave of human rights abuses during the Covid-19 pandemic as governments prioritise extractive industries in economic recovery plans, according to a new report.

New mines, infrastructure projects and agricultural plantations in Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Indonesia and Peru are driving land grabs and violence against indigenous peoples as governments seek to revive economies hit by the pandemic, research by the NGO Forest Peoples Programme has found.

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Japan’s ruling party invites women to meetings – but won’t let them speak

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LDP’s attempt to demonstrate gender equality after Olympic sexism row backfires

It was a move designed to show that Japan’s ruling party was committed to gender equality after the sexism row that forced one of its former prime ministers, Yoshiro Mori, to resign as head of Tokyo’s Olympic organising committee.

The time had come to give female members of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) more prominence at key meetings, the party’s secretary general, Toshihiro Nikai, said this week, days after Mori had stepped down following his claim that meetings attended by “talkative women” tended to “drag on”.

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Tokyo 2020: Japan’s Olympics minister in line to lead committee

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Officials hope selection of Seiko Hashimoto will draw line under row over predecessor’s sexist remarks

Japan’s Olympics minister, Seiko Hashimoto, is in line to lead the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, just over five months before the delayed Games are due to open, according to media reports.

The committee, which is already battling public opposition to the Olympics because of the Covid-19 pandemic, was forced to search for a new president after its previous head, Yoshiro Mori, resigned last week after making derogatory remarks about women.

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Threat to Olympic torch relay as Japan starts vaccination rollout

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The Games are due to begin in July but Shimane prefecture says it might pull out of the prestigious pre-Games event

The head of a prefecture in Japan has said the area is considering pulling out of the Olympic torch relay, as the nation became the latest major economy to begin its vaccine rollout.

Tatsuya Maruyama, the governor of Shimane prefecture, said on Wednesday that it could withdraw from the key Olympic event and has called for the Tokyo 2020 Games to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Key pro-democracy figures go on trial over Hong Kong protests

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Veteran activist Lee Cheuk-yan accuses police and government of depriving Hongkongers of constitutional rights

A veteran champion of democracy in Hong Kong has described its legal system as an instrument of political suppression, after he and eight other high-profile figures went on trial in one of the biggest court cases linked to the protest movement that paralysed the city for more than a year.

“It’s the department of justice, the police department and the Hong Kong government who should be on trial because they have deprived us of our constitutional rights,” said Lee Cheuk-yan after the day’s proceedings. “This year is the year of the ox so we should be stubborn as an ox.”

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Sterling reaches $1.39 in best performance for three years

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FTSE 100 posts biggest daily gain for over a month as investors buoyed up by vaccine and US economy hopes

The pound has hit its highest level against the dollar for almost three years as global markets were buoyed up by hopes for a faster economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Sterling rose by 0.5% to hit a 33-month high against the dollar on Monday, trading above $1.39 on the global currency markets for the first time since 2018, while also rising to a nine-month high against the euro of almost €1.15.

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Libs Dems warn China over ‘international bullying’ after sanctions threat

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Chinese newspaper said countries that boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics over treatment of Uighurs would face retaliation

The Liberal Democrats have warned China against “international bullying” after a call by UK MPs for countries to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics was met by a warning of potential sanctions.

Last week, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, joined with the Labour MP and former Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant in demanding that the government and the British Olympic Association act over the mass repression of the Muslim Uighur population in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, which campaigners say constitutes genocide.

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Summer in Auckland felt like a fool’s paradise – we all knew it couldn’t last | Steve Braunias

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Reports of queues for inessential items have come in fast but we can still count ourselves lucky

The bananas were the first to go. “Look,” I said to my daughter. We stood and gazed at the supermarket shelves set aside for bananas. They’d been stripped bare less than an hour after the latest lockdown was announced. We sighed, and then went about stripping the shelves of nectarines. She asked, “Will six do?” I said, “No. Grab 10. You never know.”

Last night’s lockdown announcement took place at 7pm. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called an urgent press conference and emergency sirens wailed from mobile phones – they’d make a good ringtone – as New Zealanders were told to return to various states of lockdown. A family of three in South Auckland had tested positive for Covid-19. The city was put in lockdown level 3 at midnight, the rest of the country in the more relaxed level 2. It’s in place till Wednesday midnight and what happens after that is largely going to depend on whether more cases are tested positive in the community.

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New Zealand’s Auckland Covid outbreak is UK variant, says Ardern

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Some 1.6 million Kiwis face bans on non-essential movement until Wednesday under strict new lockdown as Australia suspends travel bubble

Aucklanders are waking up on Monday to a new lockdown, hoping the short and sharp three-day restrictions ordered by Jacinda Ardern arrest the spread of Covid-19.

The prime minister said genomic testing had shown that the three community cases were the UK variant of Covid-19.

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Tens of thousands protest in Myanmar nine days after coup – video

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Tens of thousands of people took part a ninth day of anti-coup demonstrations on Sunday. Students marched through the centre of Yangon, the country's biggest city, carrying placards demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since Myanmar’s military overthrew the elected government on 1 February

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Strong earthquake off Fukushima shakes Japan – video

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A 7.3-magnitude earthquake that shook Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures off the coast of Japan, injuring more than 100 people, was an aftershock of the devastating 2011 quake that caused the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the nation’s meteorological agency has said.

The Japanese prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, expressed his sympathy to all affected and injured, although no deaths have been reported

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New Zealand Covid outbreak: Ardern puts Auckland into three-day lockdown

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Three members of a South Auckland family have tested positive for Covid-19, prompting Jacinda Ardern to place the region into level 3 measures

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has placed Auckland in lockdown from midnight on Sunday, and increased restrictions across New Zealand after three local cases of coronavirus emerged in the region over the weekend.

Emphasising the past effectiveness of her “go hard and go early” approach to the virus, Ardern said on Sunday that Auckland would go into level 3 lockdown for the next three days until more was known about the source of the most recent cases.

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China hits back after US expresses ‘deep concerns’ over WHO Covid-19 report

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  • Biden administration requests data from early days of outbreak
  • China’s Washington embassy rejects accusations of interference

China has fired back at the US over allegations from the White House that Beijing withheld some information about the coronavirus outbreak from World Health Organization investigators.

The White House on Saturday called on China to make data from the earliest days of the Covid-19 outbreak available, saying it had “deep concerns” about the way the findings of the WHO’s Covid-19 report were communicated.

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Canons don’t only belong to dead white Englishmen. We have a Māori canon too | Alice Te Punga Somerville

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Literary canons have real-world effects – they steal limelight from everyone else. We can challenge them by drawing attention to how they work

I feel sheepish to admit how deeply affected I was when I encountered the research of Gauri Viswanathan, a professor in English at Columbia University in New York City. In Masks of Conquest: Literary study and British rule in India, she traces the history of English back to when it was first systematically taught as a secular discipline. I ask my students: where do you think English was first taught as a discipline? “England?” someone will always guess, realising it seems so obvious there must be a trick.

And yes, they’re right. It’s a trick.

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