The Philippine president pardoned a US marine on Monday in a surprise move that will free him from imprisonment for the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino woman. Rodrigo Duterte said he had decided to pardon L/Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton because the marine was not treated fairly after opponents blocked his early release for good conduct in detention. The case had led to calls from some in the Philippines to end the US military presence in the country, a former US colony with which Washington has a mutual defence treaty
Continue reading...Category Archives: Asia Pacific
Disney remake of Mulan criticised for filming in Xinjiang
Film credits offer thanks to eight government entities in region where rights abuses are alleged
Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan, already the target of a boycott, has come under fire for filming in Xinjiang, the site of alleged widespread human rights abuses against Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.
The film, directed by Niki Caro, is an adaptation of Disney’s 1998 animation about Hua Mulan, a young woman who disguises herself as a man to fight in the imperial army in her father’s stead.
Continue reading...The problem with Mulan: why the live-action remake is a lightning rod for controversy
The remake of Disney’s hit animation has triggered pro-democracy and human rights protests in Hong Kong and around the world
It’s an understatement to say that a lot has happened since the trailer for Disney’s live-action Mulan was released last year, shortly after Hong Kong’s draconian national security law was passed without consultation or vote in June. The ongoing assault on democracy in Hong Kong has dominated international headlines, with the arrests of pro-democracy activists, newspaper editors and government legislators. With its original cinema release put on hold due to the coronavirus epidemic, Mulan is now emerging to a vastly different political landscape.
On the face of it, the new Mulan is a missed opportunity for Hollywood to explore Chinese history and identity, a confused and superficial statement about Chinese nationalism. A hodgepodge of Chinese historical mise-en-scène, wuxia-style choreography, cheap orientalism and stilted dialogue, it’s also become a lightning rod for pro-democracy and human rights protests around the world.
Continue reading...Philippines pardons US Marine for killing transgender woman
President’s move to free Joseph Scott Pemberton condemned as ‘shameless mockery of justice’
The Philippine president has pardoned a US Marine in a surprise move that will free him from imprisonment for the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino woman that sparked anger in the former American colony.
Teodoro Locsin Jr, the Philippine foreign secretary, tweeted that Rodrigo Duterte had “granted an absolute pardon” to L/Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton “to do justice”, but did not elaborate. Duterte was to deliver televised remarks on Monday night where he would discuss Pemberton’s case, a presidential spokesman, Harry Roque, said.
Continue reading...Hong Kong shocked by violent police arrest of 12-year-old girl
Child’s mother says her daughter was buying art supplies when she was tackled and pinned to the ground by police
Hong Kong police have been strongly criticised over the rough arrest of a 12-year-old girl whose family says was caught in a protest crowd while out buying art supplies.
Video widely shared across social media and in Hong Kong media showed the officers seeking to corral a group of people including the young girl, who ducked aside and tried to run away. An officer tackled her to the ground, while several others helped to pin her down.
Continue reading...Hong Kong police violently arrest 12-year-old girl – video
Hongkongers have been left shocked by the rough police arrest of a 12-year-old girl whose family says was corraled into a protest crowd while out buying art supplies.
It came amid the largest street protest seen in Hong Kong since 1 July, the first full day under the national security laws imposed by Beijing on the city, outlawing acts of sedition, secession, foreign collusion and terrorism
Continue reading...Portrait of a mentor: ‘granddaddy’ of National Art School campus finds himself the subject
Papua New Guinean student Lesley Wengembo has painted campus assistant Mal Nagobi for Australia’s famous Archibald prize
Alongside Malachi Nagobi, progress across the august grounds of the National Art School in Sydney is constantly – happily – impeded.
“Mal!” comes a voice, “hello Mal,” another. Every handful of steps, another person wants to stop to chat.
Continue reading...Almost 300 arrests as Hong Kong protesters oppose election delay
Police fire pepper pellets in one of largest gatherings since national security law imposed
On what was supposed to have been Hong Kong’s election day, hundreds of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets on Sunday, where they encountered a heavy presence from police, who fired pepper pellets and arrested almost 300 people.
It was one of the largest gatherings of protesters since China’s implementation of a sweeping set of anti-sedition laws that a coalition of United Nations expert groups has said risks breaching multiple international laws and human rights.
Continue reading...Countryside fit for a superpower? Inside China’s colossal rural revamp
Beneath the veneer of Xi Jinping’s ambitious agricultural plan farming communities remain marred by homelessness, poverty and unstable markets
The official pictures tell a delightful tale. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is seen touring fish farms, rice paddies and vineyards in Ningxia, ambling through lily fields in Shanxi, and inspecting mushroom- and fungus-growing operations in Shaanxi.
The carefully choreographed images aim to create a vision of his latest signature policy – rural revitalisation. Billions of dollars will be spent on revamping the countryside – increasing prosperity, improving its ecology, and integrating it with the development of China’s shining cities, which had largely left rural areas behind.
Continue reading...‘Chairman Xi’ seeks only to purge and subjugate. That is his weakness | Simon Tisdall
From Tibet to Taiwan, China’s leader is intent on wielding absolute power. Instead he is fanning the flames of dissent
It’s often said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely – but does it also induce leaders to act in foolhardy, headstrong and ultimately self-destructive ways? History, especially Chinese history, is full of examples of omnipotent rulers whose unchecked behaviour led to disaster. Xi Jinping, China’s comrade-emperor, is a modern-day case in point. Xi seems to think he can do no wrong. As a result, not much is going right.
Xi’s authoritarian, expansionist policies, pursued with increasing vehemence since he became communist party chief and president in 2012-13, have enveloped China in a ring of fire. Its borderlands are ablaze with conflict and confrontation from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet and the Himalayas in the north and west to Hong Kong, the South China Sea and Taiwan to the east. More than at any time since Mao’s 1949 revolution, China is also at odds with the wider world.
Continue reading...Want to build high-rise homes for 74,000 more people in Wellington? Build consensus first | Max Rashbrooke
Wellington’s plan to boost urban density has set off a predictable cycle of conflict and outrage – but there is a way out
It’s like a slow-moving nightmare, in which the same battle is fought over and over again, without resolution.
The city council in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, has announced plans to house an extra 74,000 people – plans that would require some low-rise inner-city villas to be replaced by dense modern apartments.
Continue reading...‘He’s been set up’: the American whose life may depend on US-China relations
Sentenced to death in China, American Mark Swidan hopes for a permanent reprieve but his fate may hinge on an easing of diplomatic tensions
When Chinese police raided the Guangzhou hotel room of Mark Swidan and arrested him on 13 November 2012, he was on the phone to his mother, Katherine. Swidan had been in China sourcing building materials for his business , Katherine says, and they were discussing booking his ticket home to Houston, Texas, for his wedding, when he said there was a knock at the door.
“I heard banging, then I didn’t hear anything after that,” she recalls.
Continue reading...North Korea officials to be punished after typhoon causes ‘dozens of casualties’
State newspaper reports leaders will punish ‘irresponsible’ city and provincial officials for failing to protect residents
North Korea has pledged harsh punishment for local officials it says failed to protect residents from a typhoon which caused a “serious incident” with dozens of casualties, the ruling party’s newspaper reported.
Typhoon Maysak brought heavy downpours across the country earlier this week, with footage showing a street inundated with water in the eastern port town of Wonsan, Kangwon province.
Continue reading...Australia has never been good at acknowledging its troops have been guilty of acts of inhumanity | Paul Daley
Australia’s telling of the Pacific war story is correctly replete with Japanese atrocities. But crimes against Japanese prisoners do not feature prominently
Seventy-five years after the end of the second world war in the Pacific, the human suffering of millions of combatants and civilians is easily overlooked in a binary focus on allied victory and Japanese surrender.
Three-quarters of a century later, Japanese humiliation still simmers in politics and among families of the surrendered or dead. On the other side, meanwhile, countless were the returned soldiers and their families who have long harboured seething hatred for the Japanese.
Continue reading...Uighur Muslim teacher tells of forced sterilisation in Xinjiang
Chinese government threatened woman when she resisted in move to suppress Muslim minority birth rates
A teacher coerced into giving classes in Xinjiang internment camps has described her forced sterilisation at the age of 50, under a government campaign to suppress birth rates of women from Muslim minorities.
Qelbinur Sidik said the crackdown swept up not just women likely to fall pregnant, but those well beyond normal childbearing ages. Messages she got from local authorities said women aged 19 to 59 were expected to have intrauterine devices (IUDs) fitted or undergo sterilisation.
Continue reading...Revealed: the final call home made by captain of cattle ship that sank off Japan
Dante Addug called his partner as water entered the Gulf Livestock 1 cargo ship but family has not heard from him since
The last time the captain of the Gulf Livestock 1 spoke to his partner, Typhoon Maysak was battering the ship and water was already flowing in. It was 8.30pm on Tuesday.
“He informed her that water had entered the ship. The last thing he said was he will go to the bridge to check the situation,” Maya Addug-Sanchez, the captain’s sister, told the Guardian. Addug’s family hasn’t heard from him since.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy boycott of Disney’s Mulan builds online via #milkteaalliance
Liu Yifei, who stars as Chinese heroine, has voiced support for Hong Kong police during suppression of protests
Calls to boycott Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan have been reignited ahead of its release on Friday, with Thai pro-democracy activists joining those vowing to shun the film.
Controversy over Mulan erupted last year, when its star, Liu Yifei, voiced support for police in Hong Kong, who have been accused of using excessive force against protesters.
Continue reading...Japan coastguard says second person found from capsized cattle ship has died
Rescuers search for more than 40 crew from ship carrying 6,000 cattle that went down en route from New Zealand to China
A second survivor from a cargo ship carrying 6,000 cattle that capsized off southwest Japan has died after being pulled from the water unconscious on Friday.
The Japanese coast guard said the man had been unresponsive when he was found about 120 km (75 miles) north-northwest of Amami Oshima island and transferred to a hospital.
Continue reading...Pacific nation of Palau invites US to build a military base to counter China
Move follows a visit by US defense secretary Mark Esper, who accused Beijing of ‘malign influence’ across the region
The western Pacific nation of Palau has urged the United States military to build bases on its territory – in the heart of a region where Washington is pushing back against growing Chinese influence.
US defense secretary Mark Esper visited the island nation last week as part of a Pacific tour, accusing Beijing of a “malign influence” and “ongoing destabilising activities” across the region.
Continue reading...James Shaw’s mea culpa on school funding exposed his lack of political nous | Claire Robinson
Green party leader came under fire from many quarters over the project, including supporters who asked how he could make such a mistake
When Green party leader, James Shaw, apologised for backing the use of public funds for a private school last week, he ventured down a well-trodden path of the political mea culpa to save his own skin before October’s election. While he’s not the first person to row back a policy in New Zealand politics, or during this Covid pandemic, whether he survives may have as much to do with how he manages the public’s perception of him as a leader, as it does with the nature of his mistake.
Continue reading...