Category Archives: Asia Pacific

No evidence Nora Quoirin was abducted from resort, Malaysian police say

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Senior police official Mohamad Mat Yusop says he believes London teenager climbed out of hotel window herself

Malaysian police have insisted there is no indication the London teenager Nora Quoirin was abducted from the resort in which she was staying with her family, on the first day of an inquest into her death.

Nora’s body was found unclothed beside a stream last August, more than a mile away from the holiday resort she was staying at, following a 10-day search operation. She had been sharing a room with her brother and sister, but when the family awoke one morning she had disappeared and a large window in the hotel room was open.

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Jacinda Ardern says 2020 has been ‘frankly terrible’ as Auckland lockdown extended

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Masks made mandatory on public transport across New Zealand as coronavirus cases continue to rise

New Zealand’s biggest city will remain in lockdown until midnight on Sunday, the extra four days necessitated by the rising number of Covid-19 cases, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said.

A total of 101 people have been infected by the outbreak in south Auckland, making it the largest cluster in New Zealand.

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‘Cultural rights are human rights too’: Kiribati gesture of welcome must be understood from the island’s perspective | Katerina Teaiwa and Marita Davies

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i-Kiribati writers say the media frenzy over the image of Tang Songgen walking on men’s backs diminishes local customs and culture

The image flew around the world, far ahead of any understanding of what it represented.

In the grainy picture, the Chinese ambassador to Kiribati was being welcomed onto the atoll island of Marakei. A row of young men lay face-down on the ground, their backs forming a path for the ambassador and his colleagues to walk across as they disembarked from a plane.

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How South Korea’s evangelical churches found themselves at the heart of the Covid crisis

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More than 700 cases have been linked to Sarang Jeil church, which says it’s being made a scapegoat for the the pandemic

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Four months ago, South Korea was basking in international praise for containing the coronavirus pandemic. But now it stands on the brink of a second serious outbreak, and much of the blame is again being directed at the country’s evangelical churches.

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Your data is not destined for China, assures TikTok’s UK boss

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The controversial app’s users are ignoring geopolitical battle over its digital security, says Richard Waterworth

TikTok’s UK chief has strenuously denied the video-sharing app, which Donald Trump has threatened to ban, shares data with China.

Richard Waterworth told the Observer that the UK and European arm of TikTok was growing quickly, despite the “turbulent” geopolitical battle in which the Chinese-born app has found itself.

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South Korea tightens social distancing rules as Covid cases rise

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Restrictions on large gatherings in place in Seoul and surrounding cities

South Korea has said it will roll out tougher social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of coronavirus nationwide as it deals with a new outbreak spreading from Seoul.

The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 315 new domestic infections as of midnight on Friday, the latest in a series of triple-digit increases in such cases.

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A bubble? The stellar growth of China’s e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo

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At $114bn, its market value is above HSBC – but questions remain about business model and if it will ever be profitable

It is a company that is just about to turn five years old but is valued more highly than the oil giant Shell, or HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world.

Pinduoduo is the latest behemoth produced by China’s tech machine, an online shopping site that specialises in extraordinary discounts on everything from tissues to Teslas. And its market value has more than doubled in recent months to $114bn (£87bn).

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China’s Cai Xia: former party insider who dared criticise Xi Jinping

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Prominent dissident explains how she came to doubt her fervent beliefs in party orthodoxy

In the mid-1990s, Cai Xia, a devout believer in Chinese communist doctrine, experienced her first moment of doubt.

She was a teacher at the central party school for training cadres when a friend called with some questions. Cai, an expert in Marxism and Chinese communist party theory, enthusiastically answered.

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Papua New Guinea bans Chinese mine staff ‘given experimental Covid-19 vaccine’

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Flight carrying workers from Chinese state-owned Ramu nickel mine cancelled by pandemic controller over concerns about vaccine trial

A planeload of Chinese mine workers have been barred from entering Papua New Guinea, over concerns they had been subjected to an unapproved Covid-19 vaccination trial before they left.

A flight from China carrying workers for the Chinese state-owned Ramu Nickel mine in Madang province was cancelled by PNG’s police commissioner and pandemic controller, David Manning, over concerns about the trial.

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Surge in passport sales delivers Vanuatu a record budget surplus

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Economy devastated by Covid shutdowns and a destructive cyclone, but citizenships-for-sale are keeping the country afloat

Surging demand for Vanuatu passports has driven an unexpected record surplus, funding Covid-19 bailout packages and cyclone recovery.

With nearly every other sector of its fragile economy reeling from the twin crises of pandemic lockdowns and April’s category five Cyclone Harold, Vanuatu nonetheless managed to turn a 3.8bn Vanuatu Vatu (US$33.3m) surplus in the first half of 2020.

Its controversial citizenship-for-sale programmes account for nearly all of that.

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China floods: Three Gorges dam gushes with water while streets are submerged – video

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Extreme floods have hit the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history, prompting officials to promise it could withstand the flows.

Several outlets of the dam have been opened to discharge water, the largest release since its construction. A breach would be embarrassing for China, which took 12 years to build the dam, displacing millions and submerging swaths of land.

Meanwhile, upstream from the dam, officials in the city of Chongqing, Sichuan province, evacuated almost 300,000 residents. Levels along the Yangtze nearby have reached heights not seen since 1981

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Anxiety grows as China’s Three Gorges dam hits highest level

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Officials seek to reassure public after world’s largest hydro-electric dam nears capacity amid heavy floods

Extreme floods have hit China’s Three Gorges dam, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history, prompting officials to assure the public it would not be breached.

Inflows to the world’s largest hydro-electric dam reached 75m litres of water a second, according to state media. By Thursday morning, 11 outlets of the dam had been opened to discharge 49.2m litres of water a second, the largest release since its construction.

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Celebrity cat called Mittens in the running to be New Zealander of the year

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Also making the cut are PM Jacinda Ardern and the director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield

A celebrity cat, a hardworking civil servant and the prime minister have all been nominated for this year’s New Zealander of the year award.

“In this extraordinary year, we know that everyone has a hero,” Miriama Kamo, the patron of the awards, said.

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Thailand arrests activist who called for reform of monarchy

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Warrants issued for five others who took part in students’ demonstration

Thai authorities have arrested one activist and issued warrants for five others who took part in a demonstration at which students called for reform of the country’s powerful monarchy.

At a rally attended by thousands last week, students risked lengthy jail sentences by reading a 10-point manifesto for reforming the monarchy, including a proposal to scrap strict laws that ban criticism of the king. Such comments were, until recently, highly unusual, and shocked many in the country.

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Hong Kong censorship fears as protest slogans removed from some textbooks

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References to ‘separation of power’ removed in some books, as well as illustrations of protesters holding placards

Hong Kong publishers have been told to remove references to the separation of powers and protest slogans from school textbooks, in a move decried as censorship by the authorities.

Six publishers voluntarily submitted eight textbooks to the education regulator for vetting and were asked to make revisions, reports in Hong Kong and mainland media said on Wednesday.

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‘Road sleeping’ epidemic hits Okinawa as warm weather meets heavy drinking

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Police in southern Japan reported more than 7,000 cases of ‘rojo-ne’ last year

Japan is largely tolerant of salarymen snoozing on trains after an evening out, but authorities on the southern island of Okinawa are taking a dim view of a worrying new trend in alcohol-fuelled somnolence.

Local police reported more than 7,000 cases of rojo-ne – literally sleeping on the road – last year, a phenomenon some attribute to Okinawa’s balmy weather and enthusiastic consumption of a fiery spirit that has been made on the island for hundreds of years.

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Tokyo Bay’s seaweed forests – and prized abalone that live in them – disappear

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Rise in sea temperatures caused by climate emergency is transforming marine environment and affecting local species

The waters off Kyonan were once home to dense forests of seaweed – the ideal habitat for the prized abalone and sardines that support the town’s economy.

Today, the seaweed beds are threadbare; in some places they have vanished altogether, to be replaced by coral that belongs in the tropics, not in this corner of Tokyo Bay. Marine life that depended on macro algae for survival is making way for fish usually found in waters much further south.

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‘Devastating impact’: south Auckland’s Pasifika bear brunt of new Covid-19 outbreak

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Pacific communities have been hit by New Zealand’s coronavirus resurgence – and the stigma of being at its centre

Most weekdays south Auckland’s Ōtara shopping centre is alive with the blur of brightly coloured lavalava and the cacophony of clashing music thumping out from car loudspeakers.

But this week, in the midst of New Zealand’s second lockdown, the atmosphere is subdued and strained.

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Photo of Chinese ambassador to Kiribati walking across backs of locals ‘misinterpreted’

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Image criticised as emblematic of China’s rising influence in Pacific, but i-Kiribati say practice is part of traditional welcoming ceremony

A photo reportedly showing the Chinese ambassador to Kiribati walking on peoples’ backs as part of an island welcoming ceremony has ignited debate about outsider interpretation of local custom, as well as geopolitical argument about China’s rising influence across the Pacific.

The Chinese ambassador Tang Songgen visited the island of Marakei earlier this month.

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China’s Xi Jinping facing widespread opposition in his own party, insider claims

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Exclusive: Cai Xia, who has been expelled from the elite Central Party School, says president’s ‘unchecked power’ has made China ‘the enemy of the world’

A former professor at China’s elite Central Party School has issued an unprecedented rebuke of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, accusing him of “killing a country” and claiming that many more want out of the ruling Chinese Communist party.

Cai Xia, a prominent professor who taught at the school for top officials, was expelled from the party on Monday after an audio recording of remarks she made that were critical of Xi was leaked online in June. The school said in a notice that Cai, a professor at the party school since 1992, had made comments that “damaged the country’s reputation” and were full of “serious political problems”.

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