Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Australia will ‘watch every move’ of Chinese warships detected off east coast

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Ships’ presence off east coast follows incident in South China Sea in which a Chinese fighter jet released flares in front of Australian military plane

Australia will “watch every move” of three Chinese warships which have been detected off the country’s east coast, the defence minister has said.

Three People’s Liberation Army-Navy vessels – the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class cruiser Zunyi and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu – were detected off north-east Queensland last week and have been surveilled since as they have sailed south. The Financial Times reported the ships were about 150 nautical miles off the coast of Sydney.

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Martial law was Yoon Suk Yeol’s answer to ‘legislative dictatorship’, insurrection trial hears

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Lawyers for impeached South Korean president who caused chaos argue that court has no jurisdiction to put him on trial for ‘act of governance’

Lawyers for Yoon Suk Yeol have told a court in Seoul that the impeached president declared martial law in late 2024 to prevent the country becoming a “legislative dictatorship” controlled by his political opponents.

The claim came as Yoon became the first South Korean president to stand trial in a criminal case, brought over his short-lived declaration of martial law in early December.

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Three resort workers die in suspected gas poisoning near hot spring in Japan

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Hydrogen sulphide gives Takayu Onsen its unmistakable sulphurous smell but can be dangerous if inhaled in high enough concentrations

Three people have died in north-east Japan in an accident that authorities suspect is linked to the inhalation of deadly gas found in the country’s famed hot spring resorts.

Japanese media said the three men, who all worked at a nearby hotel, were found in a mountainous area near the city of Fukushima on Tuesday. They were discovered in an area of Takayu Onsen (hot spring) where high concentrations of hydrogen sulphide, a toxic byproduct of volcanic hot springs, have been recorded.

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Cook Islands releases terms of deal with China amid protests about lack of transparency

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Agreement includes sections on deep-sea mining and education, document shows, as opposition accuses PM of risking relationship with New Zealand

A strategic partnership deal between China and the Cook Islands spans areas from deep-sea mining to education scholarships but excludes security ties, a document released by the Pacific island nation’s government showed.

Western nations that traditionally held sway in the region have become increasingly concerned about China’s push for influence in the Pacific, after Beijing signed defence, trade and financial deals with countries in the region over the past three years.

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Xi Jinping tells Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Chinese tech chiefs to ‘show their talent’

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Analysts say address to symposium suggests crackdown on sector may be ending in effort to tackle economic slump

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has told businesses to “show their talent” at a meeting of Chinese industry leaders including the Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, as he attempts to halt an economic slump in the world’s second-largest economy.

Xi met Ma, who was at the centre of a crackdown on the tech industry in recent years, as well as the bosses of the electric carmaker BYD, the battery manufacturer CATL, Tencent, Xiaomi, and the founder of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei

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UK marketplace sellers face ‘second Brexit’ hit from Trump’s US import rules

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End of ‘de minimis’ policy for Chinese goods also expected to hit bigger fashion retailers such as Asos and Boohoo

Many UK-based independent sellers on marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon could suffer a significant hit to US sales from planned changes to import rules under Donald Trump, with experts comparing the impact to a second Brexit.

The new rules, which mean all parcels originating or made in China and being sold into the US must pay import duty – of as much as 15% on fashion items – and an additional 10% tariff, are also expected to impact bigger online clothing retailers such as Asos and Boohoo.

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Singapore opposition leader, found guilty of lying to parliament, could face electoral ban

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Pritam Singh’s conviction is a blow to the city state’s struggling political opposition, which is seeking to challenge the entrenched ruling party in upcoming elections

Singapore’s opposition leader has been convicted of lying to parliament while helping a fellow party member to cover up a false witness account, in a case that could disqualify him from running in upcoming national elections.

Pritam Singh, 48, secretary-general of the Workers’ Party, was found guilty on Monday on two counts of lying to a parliamentary committee that was investigating a fellow MP.

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Cook Islands PM defends signing of wide-ranging deal with China

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Mark Brown says Beijing deal that covers trade, investment, oceans, infrastructure and transport complements ties with New Zealand

The Cook Islands says it has signed a deal to expand relations with China, stressing that the accord does not impinge on ties with former colonial power New Zealand.

Prime minister Mark Brown said he signed an “action plan for the comprehensive strategic partnership” with Chinese premier Li Qiang in the northern city of Harbin during a five-day state visit to China last week.

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New Zealand’s ‘Everyone must go!’ tourism campaign ridiculed as emigration hits record high

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Tagline has quickly become the subject of derision, with some critics likening it to a clearance sale slogan

A New Zealand tourism campaign targeting Australian visitors has been ridiculed for sounding like a clearance sale slogan and for being tone-deaf amid widespread public service job cuts and record numbers of New Zealanders moving overseas.

The government launched its “Everyone must go!” campaign on Sunday, in a bid to encourage Australian holiday-makers to visit New Zealand. The NZD$500,000 campaign will run on radios and social media in Australia between February and March.

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Convicted murderer among three members of NZYQ cohort to be resettled in Nauru under deal struck by Labor

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Three non-citizens with criminal histories taken into immigration detention in preparation for removal from Australia, home affairs minister says

Three members of the NZYQ cohort of non-citizens, including a convicted murderer, will be resettled in Nauru after the Albanese government struck a deal with the tiny Pacific nation for an undisclosed sum.

The trio were placed into immigration detention in preparation for their removal from Australia after being granted 30-year resettlement visas by Nauru on Saturday, the home affairs minster, Tony Burke, announced on Sunday.

The NZYQ cohort includes non-citizens released into the community in Australia as a result of a landmark 2023 high court decision, where the court ruled in favour of “NZYQ”, a stateless Rohingya man, who faced the prospect of detention for life because no country had agreed to resettle him, due to a criminal conviction for raping a 10-year-old in Australia.

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US deports 119 immigrants of varying nationalities to Panama

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People from Afghanistan, Iran, China and other countries flown out as Trump’s deportation effort intensifies

The US has sent undocumented immigrants from several Asian countries whose governments have refused to accept them to Panama, in a move signalling an intensification of the Trump administration’s deportation effort.

A military plane carrying 119 immigrants from countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Pakistan flew from California to Panama City on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first of three migrants flights to the country.

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Japan releases 200,000 tonnes of emergency rice stockpile as prices soar

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Agriculture minister says rising prices have ‘had a significant impact on people’s lives’ amid record heat, surges in demand and distribution problems

Japan is to flood the market with almost a quarter of a million tonnes of stockpiled rice in an unprecedented attempt to arrest soaring prices caused by record summer heat, panic buying and distribution problems.

The government will release up to 210,000 tonnes of rice, the agriculture minister, Taku Eto, said on Friday, as consumers battled a surge in prices of more than 50% in recent months.

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Sweet romance: Japanese boys start buying into gift giving on Valentine’s Day

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Women are traditionally expected to buy chocolates for male colleagues on Valentine’s Day but teenage boys are shunning the one-sided custom

It has been several years since Japanese women first signalled their contempt for the long tradition of showering male colleagues with chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Now the country’s young people are slaying another sacred cow associated with Friday’s orgy of commercialised romance: one-sided gift giving.

Traditionally, women are expected to buy gift-wrapped chocolates for the men in their working lives, usually senior colleagues and others to whom they feel indebted – a tradition called giri choco, literally “obligation chocolates”.

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Nissan and Honda end $60bn merger talks

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Both Japanese carmakers say they will continue to cooperate on electric vehicle technology

Japan’s Nissan and Honda have said that their boards have voted to end talks over a merger that would have created a $60bn (£48bn) auto group, but added that both companies would continue to cooperate in electric vehicles.

A merger would have spawned the world’s fourth-biggest carmaker by vehicle sales after Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai.

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Australia condemns ‘unsafe’ airspace encounter and rejects Chinese allegations RAAF plane ‘deliberately intruded’

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Australian defence department says it is monitoring three Chinese ships in the Coral Sea

Australia has rejected Chinese allegations an Australian airforce plane “deliberately intruded into China’s airspace” and undermined its national security, saying the actions of a Chinese navy fighter pilot who released flares near the Australian aircraft were “wrong … and very very dangerous”.

Australia’s defence department accused the Chinese navy of an “unsafe and unprofessional” incident by allegedly dropping flares dangerously close to an Australian patrol flight on what it described as routine operations in the South China Sea on Tuesday.

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Philippines storm survivors join climate protest outside Shell HQ in London

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Greenpeace protest draws attention to worsening typhoons and demands accountability from major polluters

For two days and two nights, Ronalyn Carbonel and her four children clung to the roof of their home as a huge storm raged around them. With the wind battering her village of Rizal, about 10 miles east of Manila in the Philippines, and water swirling through the rooms below them, they had no choice but to wait, hoping that someone would come to rescue them and hundreds of their neighbours.

“We did not have shelter, we did not have food … we just had to wait for the government for two days,” Carbonel said. “It is not easy, no electricity, no light, we just wait for the sun to rise. The children were scared, we had never experienced anything like this.”

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China tops list of countries trying to silence exiled dissidents over past decade, study shows

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Russia, Turkey and Egypt also among worst perpetrators of transnational repression around the globe

A quarter of the world’s countries have engaged in transnational repression – targeting political exiles abroad to silence dissent – in the past decade, new research reveals.

The Washington DC-based non-profit organisation Freedom House has documented 1,219 incidents carried out by 48 governments across 103 countries, from 2014 to 2024.

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Solomon Islands landowners seek compensation over catastrophic oil spill

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Claim over the 2019 Rennell Island disaster, which saw more than 300 tonnes of fuel leak into the water, filed in the Solomons High court

The companies allegedly responsible for the one of the worst environmental disasters in Solomon Islands’ history are being sued over the catastrophic oil spill that caused harm to an ecologically sensitive island.

The claim over the 2019 Rennell Island disaster was filed in the Solomons high court last week, just days before the statute of limitations expired.

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Top Republican condemns Elon Musk for ‘supplication’ to China in new book

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Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’

In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.

It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.

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Asian stock markets mixed after Trump tariffs announcement while gold reaches record high

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Analysts say measures so far have been less than feared but traders still cautious as uncertainty about US policy ‘has basically exploded’

Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday as traders kept a nervous eye on Donald Trump’s next moves after he signed off on 25% tariffs for steel and aluminium imports, having warned of more measures to come.

The president has lived up to his campaign pledges to resume his hardball trade diplomacy to extract concessions on a range of issues, including commerce, immigration and drug trafficking.

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