Category Archives: Asia Pacific

China warns US of ‘all necessary measures’ to protect Huawei

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Foreign minister suggests recent actions against Chinese firms are ‘deliberate political suppression’

China’s foreign minister has said Beijing will “take all necessary measures” to defend the rights and interests of Chinese companies such as Huawei, which is locked in an escalating legal dispute with the US.

Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, said in response to a question about the company suing the US: “It is not difficult to see that the recent actions against specific Chinese enterprises and individuals are not just judicial cases, but deliberate political suppression.

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North Korea must give up all nuclear weapons before any sanctions relief, says US

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US position hardens after Hanoi summit collapse, warning that any launches at missile sites would violate Kim Jong-un’s promise

The US is demanding North Korea destroys all its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons before receiving any sanctions relief, as positions harden on both sides in the aftermath of last week’s failed Hanoi summit.

The US clarified its demands after satellite images showed the North Koreans had completely rebuilt a space launch site they had partially dismantled after the first summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in June last year.

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West Papua: up to 15 dead as rebels and Indonesian soldiers clash

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Deaths reported on both sides in firefight during work on trans-Papua highway

As many as 15 people are believed to have been killed in a firefight between Indonesian soldiers and Papuan independence fighters, adding to more than two dozen deaths in the simmering conflict since November.

Indonesia’s military said three of its soldiers, and seven to 10 independence fighters, died on Thursday when a force of 50 to 70 rebels carrying firearms as well as spears and arrows attacked a group of 25 soldiers in a battle lasting several hours.

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North Korean film on Kim and Trump glosses over summit’s failure

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Documentary about last week’s Hanoi meeting offers benign portrayal of US president

It fell short of Donald Trump’s claim that he and Kim Jong-un had “fallen in love”, but a new North Korean documentary suggests the leaders’ relationship is strong enough to survive last week’s doomed summit in Vietnam.

In keeping with the rest of the regime’s post-talks coverage, the film makes no mention of the summit’s premature end, the countries’ irreconcilable differences over sanctions or their conflicting accounts of why the US president and the North Korean leader parted without an agreement.

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Thailand court bans party that nominated princess for PM

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Thai Raksa Chart party was closely aligned with Thaksin Shinawatra, the ex-premier who lost power in 2006

An opposition political party that attempted to nominate a member of the royal family as prime minister in Thailand’s upcoming election has been dissolved with immediate effect and its executives given a 10-year ban from politics.

In a ruling announced on Thursday afternoon, Thailand’s constitutional court declared that Thai Raksa Chart, a political party formed only in October last year, had violated the constitution by putting forward Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, the older sister of the king, to be its chosen candidate for prime minister.

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‘Police didn’t help me’: Europe ignoring abuse of trafficked Vietnamese children

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Young people taken to UK are exploited in transit through Europe as governments ‘pass the buck’ on protection

Thousands of children trafficked from Vietnam to the UK are being abused and exploited in transit through Europe because governments are “passing the buck” on their protection, research has found.

Victims are typically trafficked through eight countries before arriving in the UK, and at each point are vulnerable to labour and sexual exploitation. Yet governments routinely view Vietnamese children as the responsibility of other states, according to a report published on Thursday by Anti-Slavery International, the Pacific Links Foundation and Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK (Ecpat UK).

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Huawei sues US over government ban on its products

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Chinese company files lawsuit claiming restriction is unlawful, harms consumers and violates constitution

Huawei is suing the US over a government ban on its products, raising the stakes in a protracted diplomatic incident between China, the US and Canada, where a senior Huawei executive is facing extradition.

In a statement on Thursday, the Chinese telecoms equipment and smartphone manufacturer said it had filed a lawsuit in the US district court in Plano, Texas, home to the company’s US headquarters, calling for the ban on US government agencies buying Huawei equipment or services to be overturned.

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Trump ‘very disappointed’ if North Korea rebuilding rocket site

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US president claims it is too early to tell if Kim Jong-un is reconstructing Sohae facility

Donald Trump has said he will be “very disappointed” in the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, if reports about a rocket launch site being rebuilt prove to be true.

Two US thinktanks and South Korea’s Yonhap news agency have reported that work was under way to restore part of the Sohae satellite launching station even as Trump met Kim in Hanoi last week for their second summit.

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MH370 search: glimmer of hope remains with Malaysia open to fresh hunt

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Transport minister’s comments give families glimmer of hope five years after flight’s disappearance

Five years after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Malaysian government has said it is open to renewing the search for the missing plane.

Two large-scale searches, covering a total of 200,000 sq km, have so far failed to find MH370 since it disappeared on 8 March 2014, with 239 people on board.

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‘A real source of hope’: social media opens Thailand’s junta to criticism

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Social platforms wield increasing power in Thai politics, where traditional media remain under the iron grip of the military

Just over a week ago, Thailand’s army chief began trending on Twitter.

It started with an order, made by General Apirat Kongsompong that 160 radio stations across the country must play the 1970s anti-communist propaganda song, Nuk Paen Din (Scum of the Earth) which glorifies the might of the armed forces, on a daily basis.

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MH370: five years of theories about one of aviation’s greatest mysteries

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Years after the plane disappeared with 239 people on board, experts are still unsure where it crashed or why

On 8 March 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing and never landed.

Since then, the most expensive underwater search in history has failed to find it, and authorities are no closer to figuring out why, 40 minutes into what should have been a six hour flight, MH370 diverted and flew towards the southern Indian Ocean with 239 people on board.

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Renaming the Cook Islands could be a vital step towards true independence | Nalini Mohabir

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It’s a self-governing country with Polynesian heritage and a great seafaring history. So why is it named after British explorer?

Fifty-four years after independence, the Cook Islands, is considering a name change. Named after Captain Cook, the Pacific islands, located between New Zealand and Hawaii, comprise 15 Polynesian islands, each with their own pre-colonial names and histories and complicated dynamics in the present. They are not the colonial fantasies of remote island adventures or tropical sexualities, and more than tourist destinations.

If you thought decolonisation in the Pacific was a mid-20th-century moment that ended with political independence, you would be wrong. Decolonisation is a continuing undoing of the legacies of colonialism. It involves re-examining names and categories, but it is not always about going back to the past to claim some authentic identity. Hence, Danny Mataroa, chair of the Cook Islands name change committee, has suggested a name that encompasses Christian faith (which arrived after colonialism) and Māori heritage (which predates colonialism).

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‘A race against time’: urban explorers record vanishing Hong Kong

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From Bruce Lee’s mansion to Bauhaus-style Central Market, HK Urbex are documenting the fast-changing city’s fading heritage

“We just had to hop the fence. It was kind of easy,” says Ghost, co-founder of HK Urbex, as he explains how the urban explorer group gained access to the former mansion of late martial arts superstar Bruce Lee.

Wearing masks to protect their identities, the group circled the abandoned home in Hong Kong’s upscale Kowloon Tong neighbourhood three times to make sure the coast was clear. As one member stood out front to keep watch, another leapt over the back fence. Twenty minutes later they were out again – another successful urban mission accomplished.

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North Korea rebuilds part of launch site it promised the US it would dismantle

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US national security adviser John Bolton warns US may ramp up sanctions if nuclear weapons program is not scrapped

North Korea has begun rebuilding a rocket launch site that had been partially dismantled as a goodwill gesture after the first summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in June last year.

Satellite images show the reconstruction work was carried out shortly before their failed second summit in Hanoi last week, and their publication on Tuesday evening contributed to fears that the peace effort was in jeopardy.

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UK firms cut staff; Greek debt auction success; Carney on Brexit – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as China sets its lowest growth target in almost three decades

Mark Carney is then asked about activist investor Edward Bramson, who has used a $1.4bn loan from Bank of America to buy his stake in Barclays (and agitate for a board seat),

Q: Would that loan affect his ability to meet the City’s ‘fit and proper person’s test’?

Earlier in the hearing, Mark Carney suggested that that City has underestimated future interest rate hikes.

The governor pointed out that Bank of England’s most recent economic forecasts - based on market expectations of borrowing costs - showed inflation above the BoE’s target over its three-year forecast period

“In other words, the path of interest rates is not firm enough, it’s not quite high enough for us to be fulfilling our mandate, which sends a broad signal in terms of the stance of policy.”

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‘Two sessions’: Beijing locked down for China’s greatest political spectacle

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Activists rounded up and dissent stifled as Xi Jinping faces public scrutiny over trade, Xinjiang and Huawei at annual meeting

China’s largest political event of the year, a meeting of legislative delegates and political advisers known as the “two sessions”, gets under way this week and comes at a time when Chinese leader Xi Jinping faces one of the most challenging periods since coming to power.

Thousands of delegates will descend on the Great Hall of the People in Beijing while authorities go into overdrive to prevent any semblance of dissent during the two weeks of meetings of the 3,000-strong National People’s Congress (NPC) , and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body.

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Huawei: Meng Wanzhou sues Canadian government over arrest

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Chinese CFO claims she was detained and interrogated before being told she was under arrest

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese technology company Huawei, is suing the Canadian government, its border agency and the national police force over her high-profile detention. Meng claims they detained, searched and interrogated her before telling her she was under arrest.

Lawyers for Meng said on Sunday they had filed a notice of civil claim in the British Columbia supreme court. Canada arrested Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, at the request of the US on 1 December at Vancouver airport. US prosecutors will accuse her of misleading banks about the company’s business dealings in Iran.

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Chris Grayling’s terrible cost to the nation | Brief letters

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Chris Grayling | Otto Warmbier | Michele Hanson | Words for toilet | A Beatles Brexit

The likely cost of £2.7bn to the taxpayer due to Chris Grayling’s incompetence will ring hollow to the parents of disabled pupils in Leicestershire and across the country, who have been informed that their council can no longer provide transport to special schools and colleges post-16 due to lack of funds. The implications for these families, who already face substantial additional burdens of care due to cuts in respite and other services, may place another group in the foodbank queue.
Kate Warner
Claybrooke Parva, Leicestershire

• If Donald Trump genuinely believes that Kim Jong-un did not know of the brutal treatment of Otto Warmbier which led to his death (Report, 2 March), has he asked Kim to investigate the matter? And if not, why not?
Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords

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Can China recover from its disastrous one-child policy?

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Families are now being urged to have at least two children, but it may be too late to convince parents to embrace the change

For Xu Meiru, 38, the thought of having a second child is exhausting. Her days typically begin at 5am, don’t end until 11pm, and are filled with shuttling her nine-year-old son to school, helping him with his homework, preparing meals and running an online clothing business.

“It’s hard to find time even to sleep for a few minutes in a chair,” she says, sitting in a McDonald’s while her son plays a game on a phone, the detritus of a Happy Meal in front of him.

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The medevac bill is law: what does that mean for ailing offshore refugees?

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A diversion to Christmas Island, a change of law on Nauru and other complications may hinder the ability to provide care

When the medevac bill – which on Friday became law – passed parliament, it was intended to create a streamlined process to get sick refugees and asylum seekers into the medical care they needed in Australia, because it wasn’t available on Manus Island or Nauru.

The government expressed concerns the bill could lead to weakened borders and national security. Amendments to the bill gave the minister 72 hours to assess a transfer referral which, if he or she refused, would be sent to an independent medical panel. The panel could override a minister’s refusal on health grounds but the minister has the final veto if there are security issues surrounding the patient.

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