Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Taiwan waives Covid quarantine fine for man who was kidnapped

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Authorities revoke £2,600 penalty after it emerges debt collectors had abducted him from self-isolation

A Taiwanese man penalised for breaching Covid quarantine regulations has had his fine revoked after it emerged he had been kidnapped by debt collectors.

The man, whose surname is Chen, returned from Hong Kong in late October and began his 14 days of mandatory home quarantine at a friend’s home in Nantou county. The next day, however, men identified as debt collectors arrived at the house and mistook Chen for his friend, who owed them money.

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Hong Kong migration agents report rush of inquiries for UK visas

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High level of interest in scheme launched on Sunday comes despite fears applications will be monitored

Migration agents in Hong Kong say they have had a rush of inquiries from people seeking to access the new visa scheme launched by the UK government on Sunday, despite fears their applications will be monitored.

Britain’s Home Office is expecting about 300,000 people to exercise a newly offered right to move to Britain and eventually seek citizenship in the next five years. The scheme was announced in July in response to the worsening security situation in Hong Kong, as the Chinese government tightens its control over the city with a draconian national security law.

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The free Hong Kong that made me an overnight popstar? That city has vanished

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It’s hard to believe just how quickly the vibrant city has changed since I first arrived in 2013 to perform a song at a protest. A blanket of fear covers it now

My first experience of Hong Kong was, I must admit, unusual. It was 2013, I was 30 years old, and I’d just flown 6,000 miles to perform a song at a huge protest.

I’d written the song six years earlier. It was called This Is My Dream, and it was a defiant song about not giving up. At the time, I was a struggling singer-songwriter living in the small English retirement town of Worthing; I posted the song on a website for unsigned musicians, and then mostly forgot about it.

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New Zealand climate commission proposals will need a revolution in policy | Robert McLachlan

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Changes called for will require rapid and sweeping regulation in all areas of society from transport to forestry

The New Zealand Climate Change Commission has released their first package of advice for public consultation. The advice covers the first three carbon budgets (out to 2035) and provides a detailed plan on how to achieve them.

As many aspects of the country’s climate policies have been criticised as weak – from the “split gas” approach in which not all gases need to reach net zero emissions by 2050, to an over-reliance on commercial forestry, to a past failure to cut emissions and future projections that miss targets – the commission’s first major report has been keenly anticipated on all sides.

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Jacinda Ardern faces Waitangi Day reckoning with Māori as progress stalls

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Three years after the prime minister asked Māori to hold her to account, many are disillusioned with her government

In an oft-repeated story New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has recalled how growing up in the small, largely Māori town of Murupara, she would see children going to school hungry, and with no shoes on their feet.

It was these scenes of entrenched inequality and poverty, often along racial lines, that drove a teenage Ardern into the Labour party, where she has dedicated herself to combating child poverty.

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Much of Western Australia goes into five-day lockdown after hotel guard tests positive to UK Covid variant

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Restrictions imposed in Perth, Peel and south-west, with schools suspended and residents only allowed to leave home for essential reasons

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Western Australia has imposed a five-day lockdown in metropolitan Perth, the Peel region and the state’s south-west region amid fears a hotel quarantine worker who has tested positive to Covid-19 has contracted the highly contagious UK variant.

South Australia and Victoria shut its borders to the affected areas late on Sunday evening, and in other states and territories, WA residents were told to immediately go into self-isolation, potentially creating chaos in Canberra where MPs had flown in for the resumption of parliament this week.

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Leave Hong Kong before it’s too late, say those who now call Britain home

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Former residents who have chosen to take their chances in the UK after Beijing’s clampdown speak out

Aragon starts work on Monday as an estate agent in London, focused on finding clients who want to move to Britain’s capital from his home city of Hong Kong, a move he made himself four months ago.

His job is one of the first created by a new visa scheme that opens today, giving millions of Hong Kong residents the right to move to Britain and eventually seek citizenship, in response to a Chinese government crackdown in the city.

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Britain launches new visa for millions of Hongkongers fleeing China’s crackdown

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Scheme allows Hong Kong residents with a BNO passport to live and work in the UK with a pathway to citizenship after five years

A new visa scheme offering millions of Hong Kong residents a pathway to British citizenship will go live on Sunday as the UK opens its doors to those wanting to escape China’s crackdown on dissent.

From Sunday afternoon, anyone with a British national overseas (BNO) passport and their dependents will be able to apply online for a visa allowing them to live and work in the UK. After five years they can then apply for citizenship.

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From lockdowns to pool parties: how Covid rules vary around the world

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Countries have adopted different rules on business activity, education, socialising and travel

Curfews and lockdowns Restrictions have largely been relaxed in most of Brazil’s 26 states, although several continue to limit opening hours for bars, restaurants and shops. A round-the-clock curfew was imposed this week in Brazil’s biggest state, Amazonas, after hospitals were overwhelmed.

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Japanese woman hid mother’s body in freezer for 10 years over fear of being evicted

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The 48-year-old reportedly told police she was worried she would be forced to move out of the flat she shared with her mother

A Japanese woman who said she hid her mother’s corpse in a freezer in her apartment for a decade told police she feared eviction if the death was discovered, according to reports.

Yumi Yoshino, 48, was held “on suspicion of abandoning and hiding a female body” found on Wednesday inside the freezer in a Tokyo apartment, police said.

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Coronavirus is an existential crisis that comes from an awareness of your own freedoms | Dr Sarb Johal

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Book extract: A lot of things will change as a result of this pandemic and it’s clear the recovery won’t be marked by a discrete event

In 1844, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote: “Whoever has learnt to be anxious in the right way, has learnt the ultimate.”

I’m no Kierkegaard, but I think he may have been on to something. The anxiety we may be experiencing in these coronavirus times might be something that feels different, deeper, and beyond perhaps your usual fear or anxiety about day-to-day troubles. This feels more existential.

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‘We had no paper, no pens, but we had our bodies’: the sacred and symbolic in Pasifika tattoos | Lagipoiva Cherelle

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The New Zealand foreign minister’s moko has become international news, but beyond an identifier, our tatau are a link to ancestors, a vessel for our cultures’ stories, and a tribute to those who have gone before

Shortly before my interview with six Europeans at a roundtable in Germany, I gently covered my hand tattoo with a skin-toned foundation.

I knew that without the proper context, they would stereotype me in the western sense and presume me either a criminal or at least uneducated or unprofessional. A perception of tattooing common on that side of the world.

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Hong Kong: China will no longer recognise British national overseas citizens

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Move comes after UK says people with status can move to Britain and eventually settle

China has announced it will no longer recognise the passports of British national overseas citizens just hours after the UK launched its scheme to give passport holders a path to residency as political freedoms decline in Hong Kong.

“From 31 January, China will no longer recognise the so-called BNO passport as a travel document and ID document, and reserves the right to take further actions,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, according to AFP.

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Australian military to continue patrolling South China Sea as Beijing warns Taiwan independence ‘means war’

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Australia ‘monitoring developments’ as Taiwan reports an increase in Chinese aircraft in its defence zone

Australian military ships and aircraft will continue to patrol the South China Sea amid warnings from China that a declaration of independence by Taiwan would “mean war”.

With Taiwan reporting an increase in Chinese military aircraft in its air defence zone, and with Beijing cautioning independence forces against “playing with fire”, the Australian government is closely monitoring developments in the region.

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Gay men caned 77 times in ‘medieval’ punishment in Indonesian province

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Men in Aceh province were detained by vigilantes before being caned in public

Two gay men in Indonesia’s Aceh province have been publicly caned 77 times each after they were reported to police by vigilantes who raided their apartment.

Human rights groups have condemned the spectacle, which was watched by dozens of people in the capital Banda Aceh, as brutal and medieval.

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WHO team exits Wuhan quarantine to start Covid fact-finding mission

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Mission is politically charged as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in outbreak response

An international team of World Health Organization experts has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan, to begin much-delayed fieldwork into the origins of the Sars-CoV-2 virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fact-finding mission has been beset by controversy after the WHO accused China of dragging its heels over arrangements. The team arrived more than a year after doctors in the city first raised the alarm about a mystery new illness spreading among their patients.

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US takes aim at China territorial claims as Biden vows to back Japan

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US president smooths over Trump-era complaints to deepen Japan security alliance as new secretary of state rejects Beijing’s South China Sea claims

Joe Biden has vowed to strengthen the US’s alliance with Japan to counter growing Chinese military activity in the volatile Asia-Pacific region, including a commitment to defend the Senkakus, a group of islands in the East China sea administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing.

The US president and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga agreed during a phone call that their countries’ security alliance was “the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

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Thai police arrest 89 foreigners for Covid breach at Koh Phangan party

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Citizens from US, Britain, Switzerland and Denmark face charges for attending event police say was illegal under emergency laws

Police have raided a party at a bar on a popular resort island in southern Thailand and arrested 89 foreigners for violating coronavirus regulations.

The Tuesday night raid on the Three Sixty Bar on Koh Phangan also netted 22 Thais, including one identified as the bar’s owner and another who sold drinks there, said police Col Suparerk Pankosol, superintendent of the provincial immigration office.

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All countries should pursue a Covid-19 elimination strategy: here are 16 reasons why | Michael Baker and Martin McKee

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Countries trying to eliminate the virus have been far more successful and economically better off than those that have tried to suppress it

The past year of Covid-19 has taught us that it is the behaviour of governments, more than the behaviour of the virus or individuals, that shapes countries’ experience of the crisis. Talking about pandemic waves has given the virus far too much agency: until quite recently the apparent waves of infection were driven by government action and inaction. It is only now with the emergence of more infectious variants that it might be appropriate to talk about a true second wave.

As governments draw up their battle plans for year two, we might expect them to base their strategies on the wealth of data about what works best. And the evidence to date suggests that countries pursuing elimination of Covid-19 are performing much better than those trying to suppress the virus. Aiming for zero-Covid is producing more positive results than trying to “live with the virus”.

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